AN ALTERNATIVE SPECIFICATION FOR MODELING GROUNDWATER DYNAMICS

This research extends previous work with dynamic models to manage groundwater quality by using the consumptive nitrate use rate instead of the nitrate application rate. The analysis indicates that misspecification results in overestimation of economic benefits, and supra-optimum nitrogen fertilizer application rates and groundwater nitrate stocks at a steady state.     

Photophysics of the acid and base forms of rhodamine B

Fluorescence lifetime measurements of rhodamine B in ethanol solution have confirmed the presence of two distinct species dependent on acidity. Rotational diffusion times of these species are identical and we propose that they are the acid and base forms of the dye. Species having identical spectra to these forms have also been obtained in concentration dependent studies and we believe that here, too, the equilibrium is acid—base rather than monomer—dimer as had been suggested.     

Determination of the total nitrogen content of hard, semihard, and processed cheese by the Kjeldahl method: collaborative study

The objective of this collaborative study was to determine interlaboratory performance statistics for a modified and optimized version of AOAC Method 920.123 for the determination of the total nitrogen content of hard, semihard, and processed cheese by Kjeldahl analysis. Details included addressing the issues of material homogeneity, test portion size (1 g), quantitative transfer (weighing on to filter paper), ensuring system suitability (nitrogen recoveries), and using AOAC Method 991.20 as the basis for nitrogen analysis. Fifteen laboratories tested 18 pairs of blind duplicate cheese materials with a crude protein content between 18 and 36%. Materials represented hard, semihard, and processed commercial cheeses with a wide range of composition. Statistical performance parameters expressed as crude protein (nitrogen x 6.38), g/100 g, with invalid and outlier data removed were mean = 26.461, repeatability standard deviation (Sr) 0.111, reproducibility standard deviation (S(R)) = 0.153, repeatability relative standard deviation (RSDr) = 0.42%, reproducibility relative standard deviation (RSDR) = 0.58%, repeatability (r) = 0.312, and reproducibility (R) = 0.428. The interlaboratory study results were acceptable and comparable to those for the milk Kjeldahl nitrogen method on a relative nitrogen basis. The Study Directors recommend that this modified method for the determination of total nitrogen in hard, semihard, and processed cheese by Kjeldahl analysis be adopted First Action as an improved method to replace Method 920.123.     

Parameter dependence and outcome dependence in dynamical models for state vector reduction

We apply the distinction between parameter independence and outcome independence to the linear and nonlinear models of a recent nonrelativistic theory of continuous state vector reduction. We show that in the nonlinear model there is a set of realizations of the stochastic process that drives the state vector reduction for which parameter independence is violated for parallel spin components in the EPR-Bohm setup. Such a set has an appreciable probability of occurrence ( 1/2). On the other hand, the linear model exhibits only extremely small parameter dependence effects. We investigate some specific features of the models and we recall that, as has been pointed out recently, if one wants to be able to speak of definite outcomes (or equivalently of possessed objective elements of reality) at finite times, one has to slightly change the criteria for their attribution to physical systems. The concluding section is devoted to a detailed discussion of the difficulties which one meets when one tries to take, as a starting point for the formulation of a relativistic theory, a nonrelativistic scheme which exhibits parameter dependence. Here we derive a theorem which identifies the precise sense in which the occurrence of parameter dependence forbids a genuinely relativistic generalization. Finally we show how the appreciable parameter dependence of the nonlinear model gives rise to problems with relativity, while the extremely weak parameter dependence of the linear model does not give rise to any difficulty, provided one takes into account the appropriate criteria for the attribution of definite outcomes.Work supported in part by the Trieste Section of the INFN.