Measuring the Creep Behaviour of Corrugated Board by Cascade and Individual Test Rig

In this paper static and quasi-static test are conducted to determine the creep behaviour of corrugated board. This study shows a possible way to take the real loads occurring in container shipping into account. The aim of the measurements is to develop a new test option, which is in keeping with the loads occurring. Two test rigs have been developed and constructed for this purpose. These make it possible to measure the creep of corrugated board extremely precisely over a longer period in the aspect of climate chamber size and relative humidity (RH) distribution in the chamber. To increase the accuracy of measurement the analysis also covers those external and internal factors, which can influence the measurement of creep rates. The results show that these influences the accuracy of creep rate measurements to a significant extent, and considerable measuring errors can occur if these are disregarded. The final aim of this study in the future is to present a climate-dependent creep behaviour model for corrugated board using speed-dependent and relatively shorter tests by cascade and individual test rigs

Generic and Layered Framework Components for the Control of a Large Scale Data Acquisition System

The complexity of today's experiments in High Energy Physics results in a large amount of readout channels which can count up to a million and above. The experiments in general consist of various subsystems which themselves comprise a large amount of detectors requiring sophisticated DAQ and readout electronics. We report here on the structured software layers to control such a data acquisition system for the case of LHCb which is one of the four experiments for LHC. Additional focus is given on the protocols in use as well as the required hardware. An abstraction layer was implemented to allow access on the different and distinct hardware types in a coherent and generic manner. The hierarchical structure which allows propagating commands down to the subsystems is explained. Via finite state machines an expert system with auto-recovery abilities can be modeled

Structure and Stability of an Amorphous Metal

Using molecular dynamics simulations, with a realistic many-body embedded-atom potential, and a novel method to characterize local order, we study the structure of pure nickel during the rapid quench of the liquid and in the resulting glass. In contrast with previous simulations with pair potentials, we find more crystalline order and fewer icosahedra for slower quenching rates, resulting in a glass less stable against crystallization. It is shown that there is not a specific amorphous structure, only the arrest of the transition from liquid to crystal, resulting in small crystalline clusters immersed in an amorphous matrix with the same structure of the liquid.Comment: 4 pages, 4 ps figs., to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Subcellular compartmentation of glutathione in dicotyledonous plants

This study describes the subcellular distribution of glutathione in roots and leaves of different plant species (Arabidopsis, Cucurbita, and Nicotiana). Glutathione is an important antioxidant and redox buffer which is involved in many metabolic processes including plant defense. Thus information on the subcellular distribution in these model plants especially during stress situations provides a deeper insight into compartment specific defense reactions and reflects the occurrence of compartment specific oxidative stress. With immunogold cytochemistry and computer-supported transmission electron microscopy glutathione could be localized in highest contents in mitochondria, followed by nuclei, peroxisomes, the cytosol, and plastids. Within chloroplasts and mitochondria, glutathione was restricted to the stroma and matrix, respectively, and did not occur in the lumen of cristae and thylakoids. Glutathione was also found at the membrane and in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum. It was also associated with the trans and cis side of dictyosomes. None or only very little glutathione was detected in vacuoles and the apoplast of mesophyll and root cells. Additionally, glutathione was found in all cell compartments of phloem vessels, vascular parenchyma cells (including vacuoles) but was absent in xylem vessels. The specificity of this method was supported by the reduction of glutathione labeling in all cell compartments (up to 98%) of the glutathione-deficient Arabidopsis thaliana rml1 mutant. Additionally, we found a similar distribution of glutathione in samples after conventional fixation and rapid microwave-supported fixation. Thus, indicating that a redistribution of glutathione does not occur during sample preparation. Summing up, this study gives a detailed insight into the subcellular distribution of glutathione in plants and presents solid evidence for the accuracy and specificity of the applied method

Performance of Long Ladders for the LHCb Silicon Tracker

The LHCb Silicon Tracker uses detector ladders with readout strips with an effective length of up to 36,cm. Kapton interconnect cables of up to 54,cm in length are employed in between silicon sensors and front-end readout hybrids. Fast front-end readout electronics with a shaping time of around 25,ns are employed to avoid pile-up of events from consecutive LHC bunch crossings. An extensive measurement program as well as simulations have been carried out to study the expected noise performance of these detectors. Presented at the 14th International Workshop on Vertex Detectors, Chuzenji Lake, Nikko, Japan, November 7-11, 2005 Proceedings submitted for publication in Nucl. Instr. and Meth.

Radiation Monitoring System for the LHCb Inner Tracker

The performance requirements and the design of the Radiation Monitoring System (RMS) for the LHCb Inner Tracker are presented. Details of the Metal Foil Detector technology employed for the RMS are described, along with results from tests of RMS prototypes

Mesure de flux de sève dans les peuplements forestiers : méthodes et incertitudes

International audienc

Spatially explicit assessment of carbon stocks of a managed forest area in eastern Germany

The Kyoto-protocol permits the accounting of changes in forest carbon stocks due to forestry. Therefore, forest owners are interested in a reproducible quantification of carbon stocks at the level of forest management units and the impact of management to these stocks or their changes. We calculated the carbon stocks in tree biomass and the organic layer including their uncertainties for several forest management units (Tharandt forest, Eastern Germany, 5,500 ha) spatially explicit at the scale of individual stands by using standard forest data sources. Additionally, soil carbon stocks along a catena were quantified. Finally, carbon stocks of spruce and beech dominated stands were compared and effects of thinning intensity and site conditions were assessed. We combined forest inventory and data of site conditions by using the spatial unions of the shapes (i.e., polygons) in the stand map and the site map. Area weighted means of carbon (C) stocks reached 10.0 kg/m2 in tree biomass, 3.0 kg/m2 in the organic layer and 7.3 kg/m2 in mineral soil. Spatially explicit error propagation yielded a precision of the relative error of carbon stocks at the total studied area of 1% for tree biomass, 45% for the organic layer, and 20% for mineral soil. Mature beech dominated stands at the Tharandt forest had higher tree biomass carbon stocks (13.4 kg/m2) and lower organic layer carbon stocks (1.8 kg/m2) compared to stands dominated by spruce (11.6, 3.0 kg/m2). The difference of tree biomass stocks was mainly due to differences in thinning intensity. The additional effect of site conditions on tree carbon stocks was very small. We conclude that the spatially explicit combination of stand scale inventory data with data on site conditions is suited to quantify carbon stocks in tree biomass and organic layer at operational scale