Solar sensor having coarse and fine sensing with matched preirradiated cells and method of selecting cells Patent

Solar sensor with coarse and fine sensing elements for matching preirradiated cells on degradation rate

The Stellar UV Background at z<1.5 and the Baryon Density of Photoionized Gas

We use new studies of the cosmic evolution of star-forming galaxies to estimate the production rate of ionizing photons from hot, massive stars at low and intermediate redshifts. The luminosity function of blue galaxies in the Canada-France Redshift Survey shows appreciable evolution in the redshift interval z=0-1.3, and generates a background intensity at 1 ryd of J_L~ 1.3 x 10^{-21} f_{esc} ergs cm^{-2} s^{-1} Hz^{-1} sr^{-1} at z~0.5, where f_esc is the unknown fraction of stellar Lyman-continuum photons which can escape into the intergalactic space, and we have assumed that the absorption is picket fence-type. We argue that recent upper limits on the H-alpha surface brightness of nearby intergalactic clouds constrain this fraction to be <~ 20%. The background ionizing flux from galaxies can exceed the QSO contribution at z~ 0.5 if f_{esc}>~ 6%. We show that, in the general framework of a diffuse background dominated by QSOs and/or star-forming galaxies, the cosmological baryon density associated with photoionized, optically thin gas decreases rapidly with cosmic time. The results of a recent Hubble Space Telescope survey of OVI absorption lines in QSO spectra suggest that most of this evolution may be due to the bulk heating and collisional ionization of the intergalactic medium by supernova events in young galaxy halos.Comment: 6 pages, Latex file, 2 figures, mn.sty, MNRAS in pres

A topological version of Hilbert's Nullstellensatz

We prove that the space of radical ideals of a ring $R$, endowed with the hull-kernel topology, is a spectral space, and that it is canonically homeomorphic to the space of the nonempty Zariski closed subspaces of Spec$(R)$, endowed with a Zariski-like topology.Comment: J. Algebra (to appear

Topological properties of semigroup primes of a commutative ring

A semigroup prime of a commutative ring $R$ is a prime ideal of the semigroup $(R,\cdot)$. One of the purposes of this paper is to study, from a topological point of view, the space \scal(R) of prime semigroups of $R$. We show that, under a natural topology introduced by B. Olberding in 2010, \scal(R) is a spectral space (after Hochster), spectral extension of \Spec(R), and that the assignment R\mapsto\scal(R) induces a contravariant functor. We then relate -- in the case $R$ is an integral domain -- the topology on \scal(R) with the Zariski topology on the set of overrings of $R$. Furthermore, we investigate the relationship between \scal(R) and the space $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{X}}(R)$ consisting of all nonempty inverse-closed subspaces of \spec(R), which has been introduced and studied in C.A. Finocchiaro, M. Fontana and D. Spirito, "The space of inverse-closed subsets of a spectral space is spectral" (submitted). In this context, we show that \scal( R) is a spectral retract of $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{X}}(R)$ and we characterize when \scal( R) is canonically homeomorphic to $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{X}}(R)$, both in general and when \spec(R) is a Noetherian space. In particular, we obtain that, when $R$ is a B\'ezout domain, \scal( R) is canonically homeomorphic both to $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{X}}(R)$ and to the space \overr(R) of the overrings of $R$ (endowed with the Zariski topology). Finally, we compare the space $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{X}}(R)$ with the space \scal(R(T)) of semigroup primes of the Nagata ring $R(T)$, providing a canonical spectral embedding \xcal(R)\hookrightarrow\scal(R(T)) which makes \xcal(R) a spectral retract of \scal(R(T)).Comment: 21 page

Clustering at high redshift

The addition of deep near infrared images to the database provided by the HDF-S WFPC2 is essential to monitor the SEDs of the objects on a wide baseline and address a number of key issues including the total stellar content of baryonic mass, the effects of dust extinction, the dependence of morphology on the rest frame wavelength, the photometric redshifts, the detection and nature of extremely red objects (EROs). For these reasons deep near infrared images were obtained with the ISAAC instrument at the ESO VLT in the Js, H and Ks bands reaching, respectively, 23.5, 22.0, 22.0 limiting Vega-magnitude. A multi-color (F300, F450, F606, F814, Js, H, Ks) photometric catalog of the HDF-S has been produced. Photometric redshifts have been generated both fitting templates to the observed SEDs and with neural network techniques. Spectroscopic observations of the 9 candidates with I_AB <24.25 have confirmed all of them to be galaxies with 2<z<3.5. The photometric redshifts for all the galaxies brighter than I_AB< 27.5 have been used to study the evolution of galaxy clustering in the interval 0<z<4.5.Comment: 2 pages Latex, To appear in the proceedings of "The mass of galaxies at low and high redshift", Venice, Oct 24-26, 2001,eds. R. Bender and A. Renzini (ESO Astrophysics Symposia, Springer-Verlag

Macro policies and the food sector in Bangladesh

Trade liberalization in the early 1990s in Bangladesh has enabled the private sector to respond with market-stabilizing inflows of rice and wheat following major production shortfalls. At the same time, easing of restrictions on foreign investment, combined with substantial depreciation of the Taka, have enabled exports of the labor-intensive ready-made garment industry to expand significantly. Moreover, recently discovered natural gas resources might be exploited, creating new revenues for the country. A proper assessment of the impact of such policies and economic developments on the poor requires a comprehensive framework to analyze interactions between different sectors, and linkages between macro and micro levels. In this paper we develop a computable general equilibrium model (CGE) with special treatment of the rice and wheat sectors, and we use it to simulate the impact of (i) a decline in rice production due to floods, (ii) a cut in food aid of wheat, and (iii) increased revenues from the exploitation of natural gas resources. The results suggest that most households benefit from more liberalized rice and wheat trade, particularly after rice production shocks. Impacts of a decline in wheat food aid are relatively modest, as food aid imports are not large enough to have major macroeconomic effects. The simulations of natural gas export revenues suggest that the extent of disincentives to agriculture will depend on whether or not the resulting real exchange rate appreciation is sufficient to lower the import parity price of rice enough so that domestic prices are affected. Finally, all three simulations show that the effects of economic shocks on women's labor and female headed poor households can differ significantly from the effects on men's labor and other households.Bangladesh ,Food production ,trade liberalization ,Female labor ,TMD ,

Poly(hydroxyalkanoate) production by Cupriavidus necator from fatty waste can be enhanced by phaZ1 inactivation

PHA production from waste oils or fats requires microorganisms that should be both excellent PHA producers and equipped with enzymatic activities allowing hydrolysation of triglycerides. Unfortunately, microbes with the combination of substrate-utilization and PHA production are not currently available, and the strategies to be adopted are the use of costly commercial enzymes, or genetic modification of microorganisms exhibiting high PHA product yields. In the present work, after a general investigation on the ability of Cupriavidus necator to grow on a number of fatty substrates, the possibility to enhance PHA production by limiting intracellular depolymerisation, was investigated. By knocking out the related phaZ1 gene, the construction of C. necator recombinant strains impaired in depolymerase (PhaZ1) activity was achieved. The polymer yield of the recombinant strain was finally compared to that of the parental C. necator DSM 545