In this work, we report measurements on the muon content (E
th
> 230 MeV) of extensive air showers (EAS) induced by cosmic rays with primary energy from 10 PeV up to 1 EeV performed with the ...KASCADE-Grande experiment. The measurements are confronted with SIBYLL 2.3. The results are focused on the dependence of the total muon number and the lateral density distribution of muons in EAS on the zenith angle and the total number of charged particles in the shower. We also present updated results of a detailed study of the attenuation length of shower muons, which reveal a deviation between the measured data and the predictions of the post-LHC hadronic interaction models SIBYLL 2.3, QGSJET-II-04 and EPOS-LHC.
We present the results of an analysis of the large-scale anisotropy of cosmic rays in the PeV range. The Rayleigh formalism is applied to the right ascension distribution of extensive air showers ...measured by the KASCADE (Karlsruhe Shower Core and Array Detector) experiment. The data set contains about 10 super(8) extensive air showers in the energy range 0.7-6 PeV. No hints of anisotropy are visible in the right ascension distributions in this energy range. This accounts for all showers, as well as for subsets containing showers induced by predominantly light or heavy primary particles, respectively. Upper flux limits for Rayleigh amplitudes are determined to be between 10 super(-3) at a primary energy of 0.7 PeV and 10 super(-2) at 6 PeV.
The reconstruction of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) observed by particle detectors at the ground is based on the characteristics of observables like the lateral particle density and the arrival times. ...The lateral densities, inferred for different EAS components from detector data, are usually parameterised by applying various lateral distribution functions (LDFs). The LDFs are used in turn for evaluating quantities like the total number of particles or the density at particular radial distances. Typical expressions for LDFs anticipate azimuthal symmetry of the density around the shower axis. The deviations of the lateral particle density from this assumption arising from various reasons are smoothed out in the case of compact arrays like KASCADE, but not in the case of arrays like Grande, which only sample a smaller part of the azimuthal variation.
KASCADE-Grande, an extension of the former KASCADE experiment, is a multi-component Extensive Air Shower (EAS) experiment located at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Campus North), Germany. The lateral distributions of charged particles are deduced from the basic information provided by the Grande scintillators – the energy deposits – first in the observation plane, then in the intrinsic shower plane. In all steps azimuthal dependences should be taken into account. As the energy deposit in the scintillators is dependent on the angles of incidence of the particles, azimuthal dependences are already involved in the first step: the conversion from the energy deposits to the charged particle density. This is done by using the Lateral Energy Correction Function (LECF) that evaluates the mean energy deposited by a charged particle taking into account the contribution of other particles (e.g. photons) to the energy deposit. By using a very fast procedure for the evaluation of the energy deposited by various particles we prepared realistic LECFs depending on the angle of incidence of the shower and on the radial and azimuthal coordinates of the location of the detector. Mapping the lateral density from the observation plane onto the intrinsic shower plane does not remove the azimuthal dependences arising from geometric and attenuation effects, in particular for inclined showers. Realistic procedures for applying correction factors are developed. Specific examples of the bias due to neglecting the azimuthal asymmetries in the conversion from the energy deposit in the Grande detectors to the lateral density of charged particles in the intrinsic shower plane are given.
Freshwater availability has been recognized as a global issue, and its consistent quantification not only in individual river basins but also at the global scale is required to support the ...sustainable use of water. The WaterGAP Global Hydrology Model WGHM, which is a submodel of the global water use and availability model WaterGAP 2, computes surface runoff, groundwater recharge and river discharge at a spatial resolution of 0.5°. WGHM is based on the best global data sets currently available, and simulates the reduction of river discharge by human water consumption. In order to obtain a reliable estimate of water availability, it is tuned against observed discharge at 724 gauging stations, which represent 50% of the global land area and 70% of the actively discharging area. For 50% of these stations, the tuning of one model parameter was sufficient to achieve that simulated and observed long-term average discharges agree within 1%. For the rest, however, additional corrections had to be applied to the simulated runoff and discharge values. WGHM not only computes the long-term average water resources of a country or a drainage basin but also water availability indicators that take into account the interannual and seasonal variability of runoff and discharge. The reliability of the modeling results is assessed by comparing observed and simulated discharges at the tuning stations and at selected other stations. The comparison shows that WGHM is able to calculate reliable and meaningful indicators of water availability at a high spatial resolution. In particular, the 90% reliable monthly discharge is simulated well. Therefore, WGHM is suited for application in global assessments related to water security, food security and freshwater ecosystems.
The Fourth Assessment Report of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) critically assessed thousands of recent publications on different aspects of climate change ...impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities. The multi-disciplinary and multi-national authorship of the report, and a large pool of experts involved in a three-stage review process, ensured that a wide variety of available information, opinions and hypotheses was assessed. It also enabled the prioritisation of the findings with respect to their importance, likelihood and confidence. This paper, prepared by lead authors of the freshwater chapter in the recent IPCC Report summarises the key findings concerning projections of climate change impacts on freshwater resources and their management, adaptation and vulnerabilities.
Anthropogenic climate change does not only affect water resources but also water demand. Future water and food security will depend, among other factors, on the impact of climate change on water ...demand for irrigation.
Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) often experience relapses despite regular treatment with pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. Further, long waiting lists and more demand than treatment ...capacity characterize ambulatory settings. Mindfulness-based interventions proved to be effective in relapse prevention in MDD. Next, mindfulness-based interventions in the form of free mobile applications can be an effective augmentation of the treatment as usual and can fill a gap in ambulatory care.
Given this background, the aim of this randomized controlled study is to assess the effectiveness of additional MBI via a mobile app on the symptom severity and stress levels, compared to treatment as usual.
A total of 140 individuals with MDD will be randomly allocated to the intervention or control condition. The intervention consists of the daily use of the mindfulness mobile application Headspace for thirty days (up to 10 minutes a day). The control condition will be treatment as usual. At baseline and four weeks later, the following key outcome dimensions will be assessed: self-rated (Beck Depression Inventory) and experts' rated symptoms of MDD (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale); secondary outcome variables will be blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate and changes in tobacco and alcohol consumption and medication as a proxy of perceived stress.
This study was funded in February 2021 and approved by the institutional review board on April 15, 2021, and it started in May 2021. As of December 2021, we enrolled 30 participants. The findings are expected to be published in spring 2023.
We hypothesize that compared to the control conditions, individuals with MDD of the mobile app-condition will have both lower self- and experts' rated symptoms of MDD and more favorable stress-related levels. While the risk for medical events is low, the immediate benefit for participants could be a decrease in symptom severity and reduction of the stress level.
Clinical Trials.gov NCT05060393; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05060393.
DERR1-10.2196/33423.
Lateral distributions for electrons and muons in extensive air showers measured with the array of the KASCADE experiment are compared to results of simulations based on the high-energy hadronic ...interaction models QGSJet and SIBYLL. It is shown, that the muon distributions are well described by both models. Deviations are found for the electromagnetic component, where both models predict a steeper lateral shape than observed in the data. For both models the observed lateral shapes of the electron component indicate a transition from a light to a more heavy composition of the cosmic ray spectrum above the knee.
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