Automated monitoring of recovered water quality

Laboratory prototype water quality monitoring system provides automatic system for online monitoring of chemical, physical, and bacteriological properties of recovered water and for signaling malfunction in water recovery system. Monitor incorporates whenever possible commercially available sensors suitably modified

Lunar rocks as meteoroid detectors

About 5000 microcraters on seven lunar rocks recovered during the Apollo 12 mission have been systematically studied using a stereomicroscope. Based on comparisons with laboratory cratering experiments, at least 95 percent of all millimeter sized craters observed were formed by impacts in which the impact velocity exceeded 10 km/s. The dynamics of particle motion near the moon and the distribution of microcraters on the rocks require an extralunar origin for these impacting particles. The microcrater population on at least one side of all rocks studied was in equilibrium for millimeter sized craters; i.e., statistically, craters a few millimeters in diameter and smaller were being removed by the superposition of new craters at the same rate new craters were being formed. The population of craters on such a surface is directly related to the total population of particles impacting that surface. Crater size distribution data together with an experimentally determined relationship between the crater size and the physical parameters of the impacting particle, yield the mass distribution of interplanetary dust at 1 AU

Polymorphism of the tumor necrosis factor beta gene in systemic lupus erythematosus

We investigated the Nco I restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the tumor necrosis factor beta (TNFB) gene in 173 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 192 unrelated healthy controls, and eleven panel families, all of German origin. The phenotype frequency of the TNFB*I allele was significantly increased in patients compared to controls (63.6% vs 47.1%, RR = 1.96, p <0.002). The results of a two-point haplotype statistical analysis between TNFB and HLA alleles show that there is linkage disequilibrium between TNFB*I and HLA-A1, Cw7, B8, DR3, DQ2, and C4A DE. The frequency of TNFB*I was compared in SLE patients and controls in the presence or absence of each of these alleles. TNFB*I is increased in patients over controls only in the presence of the mentioned alleles. Therefore, the whole haplotypeA1, Cw7, B8, TNFB* I, C4A DE, DR3, DQ2 is increased in patients and it cannot be determined which of the genes carried by this haplotype is responsible for the susceptibility to SLE. In addition, two-locus associations were analyzed in 192 unrelated healthy controls for TNFB and class I alleles typed by serology, and for TNFB and class II alleles typed by polymerase chain reaction/oligonucleotide probes. We found positive linkage disequilibrium between TNFB*I and the following alleles: HLA-A24, HLA-B8, DRBI*0301, DRBI*ll04, DRBI*1302, DQAI*0501, DQBI*0201, DQBI*0604, and DPBI*OIO1. TNFB*2 is associated with HLA-B7, DRBI*1501, and DQB I *0602

Local bifurcations in differential equations with state-dependent delay

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AIP Publishing via the DOI in this record.A common task when analysing dynamical systems is the determination of normal forms near local bifurcations of equilibria. As most of these normal forms have been classified and analysed, finding which particular class of normal form one encounters in a numerical bifurcation study guides follow-up computations. This paper builds on normal form algorithms for equilibria of delay differential equations with constant delay that were developed and implemented in DDE-Biftool recently. We show how one can extend these methods to delay-differential equations with state-dependent delay (sd-DDEs). Since higher degrees of regularity of local center manifolds are still open for sd-DDEs, we give an independent (still only partial) argument which phenomena from the truncated normal must persist in the full sd-DDE. In particular, we show that all invariant manifolds with a sufficient degree of normal hyperbolicity predicted by the normal form exist also in the full sd-DDEJ.S. gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the EPSRC via grants EP/N023544/1 and EP/N014391/1. J.S. has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement number 643073

Hybridization of electron subbands in a double quantum well at quantizing magnetic field

We employ magnetocapacitance and far-infrared spectroscopy techniques to study the spectrum of the double-layer electron system in a parabolic quantum well with a narrow tunnel barrier in the centre. For gate-bias-controlled asymmetric electron density distributions in this soft two-subband system we observe both individual subband gaps and double layer gaps at integer filling factor $\nu$. The bilayer gaps are shown to be either trivial common for two subbands or caused by hybridization of electron subbands in magnetic field. We describe the observed hybrid gaps at $\nu=1$ and $\nu=2$ within a simple model for the modified bilayer spectrum.Comment: REVTeX, 24 pages, 9 figures included. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Beurteilung der Lungengesundheit von Schweinen aus verschiedenen ökologischen Haltungssystemen mittels BAL und Lungenhistologie

Im vorliegenden Forschungsvorhaben wurde die Lungengesundheit von Schweinen in Abhängigkeit von verschiedenen Haltungs- und Managementbedingungen beschrieben. Die Untersuchung erfolgte an Mastschweinen verschiedener Herkünfte (konventionell – ökologischer Tiefstreustall – Stall nach EU-Öko-VO – Freilandhaltung) und an Tieren unterschiedlichen Alters. In der konventionellen Schweinemast handelte es sich hierbei um Ferkel, Läufer und Mastschweine derselben Herkunft, in der ökologischen Schweinemast um Läufer, Mastschweine und XXL-Schweine von jeweils zwei Beständen. Letztere Untersuchung diente vor allem der Abbildung möglicher Effekte von Unterschieden im betrieblichen und Hygienemanagement auf die Tiergesundheit in den beiden ökologischen Beständen. Der Gesundheitszustand der Tiere mit Betonung des Lungenbefundes wurde über Schlachtkörperuntersuchungen, bronchoalveoläre Lavage (BAL) und histologische Untersuchung makroskopisch auffälliger Lungenbefunde erfasst. Allgemein wurde festgestellt, dass die Tiere im Zeitverlauf und in Abhängigkeit von den Haltungsbedingungen Zeichen einer zunehmenden entzündlichen Veränderung im Bereich der Atemwege zeigten (BAL: prozentuale Reduktion der Makrophagen bei gleichzeitigem relativen Anstieg der Lymphozyten). Die histologische Untersuchung wies auf ein unterschiedlich ausgeprägtes v.a. viral bedingtes infektiöses Geschehen hin, das möglicherweise durch eine in unterschiedlichem Ausmaß bestehende irritative Schädigung der Atemwege gefördert wurde. Sowohl bei Untersuchung der Mastschweine als auch bei Probenahme bei unterschiedlich alten Tieren wurde deutlich, dass den Managementfaktoren (Entwurmung, Impfstatus, Hygiene) eine bedeutende Rolle im Hinblick auf den Gesundheitszustand zukommt. Im negativen Fall führte dieser Effekt dazu, dass die Anzahl auffälliger Befunde trotz vergleichsweiser guter Stallluftqualität (sehr) hoch war. Neben baulich-technischen Faktoren kommt folglich dem Management eine sehr große Bedeutung zu

Measurement of Electron Trapping in the CESR Storage Ring

The buildup of low-energy electrons has been shown to affect the performance of a wide variety of particle accelerators. Of particular concern is the persistence of the cloud between beam bunch passages, which can impose limitations on the stability of operation at high beam current. We have obtained measurements of long-lived electron clouds trapped in the field of a quadrupole magnet in a positron storage ring, with lifetimes much longer than the revolution period. Based on modeling, we estimate that about 7% of the electrons in the cloud generated by a 20-bunch train of 5.3 GeV positrons with 16-ns spacing and $1.3x10^{11}$ population survive longer than 2.3 $\mu$s in a quadrupole field of gradient 7.4 T/m. We have observed a non-monotonic dependence of the trapping effect on the bunch spacing. The effect of a witness bunch on the measured signal provides direct evidence for the existence of trapped electrons. The witness bunch is also observed to clear the cloud, demonstrating its effectiveness as a mitigation technique.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures, 28 citation

Research core drilling in the Manson impact structure, Iowa

The Manson impact structure (MIS) has a diameter of 35 km and is the largest confirmed impact structure in the United States. The MIS has yielded a Ar-40/Ar-39 age of 65.7 Ma on microcline from its central peak, an age that is indistinguishable from the age of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. In the summer of 1991 the Iowa Geological Survey Bureau and U.S. Geological Survey initiated a research core drilling project on the MIS. The first core was beneath 55 m of glacial drift. The core penetrated a 6-m layered sequence of shale and siltstone and 42 m of Cretaceous shale-dominated sedimentary clast breccia. Below this breccia, the core encountered two crystalline rock clast breccia units. The upper unit is 53 m thick, with a glassy matrix displaying various degrees of devitrification. The upper half of this unit is dominated by the glassy matrix, with shock-deformed mineral grains (especially quartz) the most common clast. The glassy-matrix unit grades downward into the basal unit in the core, a crystalline rock breccia with a sandy matrix, the matrix dominated by igneous and metamorphic rock fragments or disaggregated grains from those rocks. The unit is about 45 m thick, and grains display abundant shock deformation features. Preliminary interpretations suggest that the crystalline rock breccias are the transient crater floor, lifted up with the central peak. The sedimentary clast breccia probably represents a postimpact debris flow from the crater rim, and the uppermost layered unit probably represents a large block associated with the flow. The second core (M-2) was drilled near the center of the crater moat in an area where an early crater model suggested the presence of postimpact lake sediments. The core encountered 39 m of sedimentary clast breccia, similar to that in the M-1 core. Beneath the breccia, 120 m of poorly consolidated, mildly deformed, and sheared siltstone, shale, and sandstone was encountered. The basal unit in the core was another sequence of sedimentary clast breccia. The two sedimentary clast units, like the lithologically similar unit in the M-1 core, probably formed as debris flows from the crater rim. The middle, nonbrecciated interval is probably a large, intact block of Upper Cretaceous strata transported from the crater rim with the debris flow. Alternatively, the sequence may represent the elusive postimpact lake sequence

VLT Diffraction Limited Imaging and Spectroscopy in the NIR: Weighing the black hole in Centaurus A with NACO

We present high spatial resolution near-infrared spectra and images of the nucleus of Centaurus A (NGC 5128) obtained with NAOS-CONICA at the VLT. The adaptive optics corrected data have a spatial resolution of 0.06" (FWHM) in K- and 0.11" in H-band, four times higher than previous studies. The observed gas motions suggest a kinematically hot disk which is orbiting a central object and is oriented nearly perpendicular to the nuclear jet. We model the central rotation and velocity dispersion curves of the [FeII] gas orbiting in the combined potential of the stellar mass and the (dominant) black hole. Our physically most plausible model, a dynamically hot and geometrically thin gas disk, yields a black hole mass of M_bh = (6.1 +0.6/-0.8) 10^7 M_sun. As the physical state of the gas is not well understood, we also consider two limiting cases: first a cold disk model, which completely neglects the velocity dispersion; it yields an M_bh estimate that is almost two times lower. The other extreme case is to model a spherical gas distribution in hydrostatic equilibrium through Jeans equation. Compared to the hot disk model the best-fit black hole mass increases by a factor of 1.5. This wide mass range spanned by the limiting cases shows how important the gas physics is even for high resolution data. Our overall best-fitting black hole mass is a factor of 2-4 lower than previous measurements. With our revised M_bh estimate, Cen A's offset from the M_bh-sigma relation is significantly reduced; it falls above this relation by a factor of ~2, which is close to the intrinsic scatter of this relation. (Abridged)Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, including minor changes following the referee report; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa