1,924 research outputs found
Effect of salt concentrations on the growth of heat-stressed and unstressed escherichia coli
The effect sodium chloride (NaCl) and potassium chloride (KCl) concentration on the growth of Escherichia coli cells cultivated at 37 and 44°C was studied in an effort to understand the importance of the salts and glucose in medium to the growth of E. coli. A turbidimetric method was used to measure the growth of E. coli after a 24 hours incubation period. The turbidimetric method used gave a high correlation (R2 = 0.9606) with the traditional surface colony count method. Four sets of salt concentrations, 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% (w/v), were employed throughout this study. Absence of NaCl in the medium was found to slightly decrease the growth of E. coli at 37°C. E. coli grew optimally at 0.5% (w/v) NaCl concentration. Addition of 0.5% KCl was found to have less beneficial effect on the growth of E. coli at 37°C compared to cells grown in medium with 0.5% NaCl. Increase in the concentrations of both salts above 0.5% decreased growth at 37°C. The extent to which growth was suppressed was directly proportional to the concentration of salts. At zero concentration of both salts, growth of E. coli was very low at 44°C. Increase in the concentrations of both NaCl and KCl from 0.5% to 1.5% resulted in growth enhancement. Glucose affected significantly the growth of E. coli at 37°C. Addition of 140 mM (w/ v) of glucose to the medium increased the growth of E. coli at 37°C to a greater extent than was obtained by salt addition. However, the addition of the same concentration of glucose was found to have only a very slight effect on growth at 44°C
Transport of Sellafield-derived C-14 from the Irish Sea through the North Channel
Since the early 1950s, the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Northwest England has released radio-carbon into the Irish Sea in a mainly inorganic form as part of its authorized liquid effluent discharge. In contrast to the trend in which the activities of most radionuclides in the Sellafield liquid effluent have decreased substantially, C-14 discharges have increased since 1994-95. This has largely been due to a policy change favoring marine discharges over atmospheric discharges. C-14 is radiologically important due to its long half life, mobility in the environment, and propensity for entering the food chain. Current models for radionuclide dispersal in the Irish Sea are based on a reversible equilibrium distribution coefficient (k(d)), an approach which has been shown to be inadequate for C-14. Development of predictive models for the fate of Sellafield-derived C-14 requires a thorough understanding of the biogeochemical fluxes between different carbon reservoirs and the processes controlling the net flux of C-14 out of the Irish Sea, through he North Channel. In this study., both an empirical and a halving time approach indicate that close to 100% of the C-14 that is discharged from Sellafield is dispersed beyond the Irish Sea on a time-scale of months in the form of DIC, with little transfer to the PIC, POC, and DOC fractions, indicating that the "dilute and disperse" mechanism is operating satisfactorily. This is consistent with previous research that indicated little transfer of C-14 to Irish Sea sediments, While significant C-14 enhancements have been observed in the biota of the Irish Sea, this observation is not necessarily in conflict with either of the above as the total biomass has to be taken into account in any calculations of C-14 retention within the Irish Sea
Sources of anthropogenic C-14 to the North Sea
The Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant on the northwest coast of England is the largest source of anthropogenic radiocarbon to the UK coastal environment. In a mid-1990s study of C-14 distribution around the UK coast, the pattern of dilution with increasing distance from Sellafield appeared to be perturbed by anomalously high C-14 activities in marine biota in the coastal environment of northeast England. This present study was undertaken during 1998 and 1999 to determine whether this C-14 enhancement was due to Sellafield or the nuclear power plants on the east coast. Seawater, seaweed (Fucus sp.), and mussel (Mytilus edulis) samples that were collected from the vicinity of the Torness and Hartlepool advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) nuclear power stations were all enhanced above the contemporary regional background activity derived from natural production and atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. We used previously published dilution factors and transfer times for Tc-99 between Sellafield and various points on the UK coast to determine likely Sellafield- derived C-14 contributions to the activities at the nuclear power plant sites. The results suggest that the activities observed at Torness, which are only marginally enhanced above the natural background activity, are possibly due to discharges from Sellafield; however, the significant C-14 enhancements at Hartlepool are not Sellafield-derived. Furthermore, since both reactors have the same fundamental design, the low activities at the Torness AGR imply that the activities at Hartlepool are not from the AGR, suggesting that there is an input of C-14 to the marine environment in the vicinity of Hartlepool which is probably non-nuclear-power related. However, there is no other authorized site in the area that could account for the observed C-14 enrichments; therefore, further research is required to ascertain the source of this C-14
Landau Expansion for the Kugel-Khomskii Hamiltonian
The Kugel-Khomskii (KK) Hamiltonian for the titanates describes spin and
orbital superexchange interactions between ions in an ideal perovskite
structure in which the three orbitals are degenerate in energy and
electron hopping is constrained by cubic site symmetry. In this paper we
implement a variational approach to mean-field theory in which each site, ,
has its own single-site density matrix \rhov(i), where , the
number of allowed single-particle states, is 6 (3 orbital times 2 spin states).
The variational free energy from this 35 parameter density matrix is shown to
exhibit the unusual symmetries noted previously which lead to a
wavevector-dependent susceptibility for spins in orbitals which is
dispersionless in the -direction. Thus, for the cubic KK model
itself, mean-field theory does not provide wavevector `selection', in agreement
with rigorous symmetry arguments. We consider the effect of including various
perturbations. When spin-orbit interactions are introduced, the susceptibility
has dispersion in all directions in -space, but the resulting
antiferromagnetic mean-field state is degenerate with respect to global
rotation of the staggered spin, implying that the spin-wave spectrum is
gapless. This possibly surprising conclusion is also consistent with rigorous
symmetry arguments. When next-nearest-neighbor hopping is included, staggered
moments of all orbitals appear, but the sum of these moments is zero, yielding
an exotic state with long-range order without long-range spin order. The effect
of a Hund's rule coupling of sufficient strength is to produce a state with
orbital order.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B (2003
Evaluation of milk yield losses associated with Salmonella antibodies in bulk-tank milk in bovine dairy herds
The effect of Salmonella on milk production is not well established in cattle. The objective of this study was to investigate whether introduction of Salmonella into dairy cattle herds was associated with reduced milk yield and the duration of any effect. Longitudinal data from 2005 through 2009 were used, with data from 12 months before until 18 months after the estimated date of infection. Twenty-eight case herds were selected based on an increase in the level of Salmonella specific antibodies in bulk-tank milk from < 10 corrected optic density percentage (ODC%) to ≥ 70 ODC% between two consecutive 3-monthly measurements in the Danish Salmonella surveillance program. All selected case herds were conventional Danish Holstein herds. Control herds (n = 40) were selected randomly from Danish Holstein herds with Salmonella antibody levels consistently < 10
ODC%. A date of herd infection was randomly allocated to the control herds. Hierarchical mixed effect models with the outcome test day energy corrected milk yield (ECM)/cow were used to investigate the daily milk yield before and after the estimated herd infection date for cows in parity 1, 2 and 3+. Control herds were used to evaluate whether the effects in the case herds could be reproduced in herds without Salmonella infection. Herd size, days in milk, somatic cell count, season, and year were included in the models. The key results were that first parity cow yield was reduced by a mean of 1.4 kg (95% CI: 0.5 to 2.3) ECM/cow per day from seven to 15 months after the estimated herd infection date, compared with first parity cows in the same herds in the 12 months before the estimated herd infection date. Yield for parity 3+ was reduced by a mean of 3.0 kg (95% CI: 1.3 to 4.8) ECM/cow per day from seven to 15 months after herd infection compared with parity 3+ cows in the 12 months before the estimated herd infection. There were minor differences in yield in second parity cows before and after herd infection, and no difference between cows in control herds before and after the simulated infection date. There was a significant drop in milk yield in affected herds and the reduction was detectable several months after the increase in bulk-tank milk Salmonella antibodies. It took more than a year for milk yield to return to pre- infection levels
Phoretic Motion of Spheroidal Particles Due To Self-Generated Solute Gradients
We study theoretically the phoretic motion of a spheroidal particle, which
generates solute gradients in the surrounding unbounded solvent via chemical
reactions active on its surface in a cap-like region centered at one of the
poles of the particle. We derive, within the constraints of the mapping to
classical diffusio-phoresis, an analytical expression for the phoretic velocity
of such an object. This allows us to analyze in detail the dependence of the
velocity on the aspect ratio of the polar and the equatorial diameters of the
particle and on the fraction of the particle surface contributing to the
chemical reaction. The particular cases of a sphere and of an approximation for
a needle-like particle, which are the most common shapes employed in
experimental realizations of such self-propelled objects, are obtained from the
general solution in the limits that the aspect ratio approaches one or becomes
very large, respectively.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, to appear in European Physical Journal
Bayhead deltas and shorelines: Insights from modern and ancient examples
Bayhead deltas are important components of the rock record as well as modern estuaries, hosting important hydrocarbon reservoirs and many coastal cities, ports and large expanses of wetlands. Despite their significance, few studies have summarized their occurrence and sedimentary characteristics. In this paper we review the stratigraphic, sedimentary, and geomorphic characteristics of 68 modern and ancient bayhead deltas. Bayhead deltas are found in incised valleys, structural basins, fjords, interdistributary bays of larger open-ocean deltas, and other backbarrier environments. Except for within fjords, they generally prograde into shallower and more brackish waters than their open-ocean equivalents. As a result, 80% of modern, 68% of Quaternary, and 67% of ancient bayhead deltas have clinoform thicknesses of 10 m or less with 73% of modern bayhead deltas having clinoform thicknesses of 5 m or less. Additionally, 89% of modern, 81% of Quaternary, and 77% of ancient bayhead deltas examined are fluvial dominated. We distinguish true bayhead deltas from their genetically similar bayhead shorelines, which are not constructional features but sites of enhanced marsh or estuarine sedimentation near river mouths with inadequate rates of sediment delivery to form distributary channels and prograde into the estuary or lagoon. We also distinguish confined bayhead deltas found in incised valleys, structural basins, and fjords from unconfined bayhead deltas found as incipient lobes of larger delta complexes and other back-barrier lagoons. The architecture of confined bayhead deltas is largely influenced by the limited accommodation brought about by the walls of the flooded valleys in which they are located. As such, confined bayhead-delta ontogeny is controlled by many autogenic interactions within these valley walls. Both confined and unconfined bayhead deltas are sensitive to sea-level rise, climate-controlled changes in sediment flux, and tectonics. Their relatively small size, connection with the terrestrial system, and protected nature make them the ideal depositional system to record Earth history including sea-level and climate changes
Anomalous Normal-State Properties of High-T Superconductors -- Intrinsic Properties of Strongly Correlated Electron Systems?
A systematic study of optical and transport properties of the Hubbard model,
based on Metzner and Vollhardt's dynamical mean-field approximation, is
reviewed. This model shows interesting anomalous properties that are, in our
opinion, ubiquitous to single-band strongly correlated systems (for all spatial
dimensions greater than one), and also compare qualitatively with many
anomalous transport features of the high-T cuprates. This anomalous
behavior of the normal-state properties is traced to a ``collective single-band
Kondo effect,'' in which a quasiparticle resonance forms at the Fermi level as
the temperature is lowered, ultimately yielding a strongly renormalized Fermi
liquid at zero temperature.Comment: 27 pages, latex, 13 figures, Invited for publication in Advances in
Physic
Hidden Symmetries and their Consequences in Cubic Perovskites
The five-band Hubbard model for a band with one electron per site is a
model which has very interesting properties when the relevant ions are located
at sites with high (e. g. cubic) symmetry. In that case, if the crystal field
splitting is large one may consider excitations confined to the lowest
threefold degenerate orbital states. When the electron hopping matrix
element () is much smaller than the on-site Coulomb interaction energy
(), the Hubbard model can be mapped onto the well-known effective
Hamiltonian (at order ) derived by Kugel and Khomskii (KK). Recently
we have shown that the KK Hamiltonian does not support long range spin order at
any nonzero temperature due to several novel hidden symmetries that it
possesses. Here we extend our theory to show that these symmetries also apply
to the underlying three-band Hubbard model. Using these symmetries we develop a
rigorous Mermin-Wagner construction, which shows that the three-band Hubbard
model does not support spontaneous long-range spin order at any nonzero
temperature and at any order in -- despite the three-dimensional lattice
structure. Introduction of spin-orbit coupling does allow spin ordering, but
even then the excitation spectrum is gapless due to a subtle continuous
symmetry. Finally we showed that these hidden symmetries dramatically simplify
the numerical exact diagonalization studies of finite clusters.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, 520 KB, submitted Phys. Rev.
Surface spin-flop and discommensuration transitions in antiferromagnets
Phase diagrams as a function of anisotropy and magnetic field are
obtained for discommensurations and surface states for an antiferromagnet in
which is parallel to the easy axis, by modeling it using the ground states
of a one-dimensional chain of classical XY spins. A surface spin-flop phase
exists for all , but the interval in over which it is stable becomes
extremely small as goes to zero. First-order transitions, separating
different surface states and ending in critical points, exist inside the
surface spin-flop region. They accumulate at a field (depending on )
significantly less than the value for a bulk spin-flop transition. For
there is no surface spin-flop phase in the strict sense;
instead, the surface restructures by, in effect, producing a discommensuration
infinitely far away in the bulk. The results are used to explain in detail the
phase transitions occurring in systems consisting of a finite, even number of
layers.Comment: Revtex 17 pages, 15 figure
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