Opaline Microfossils in Some Michigan Soils

Author Institution: Department of Agronomy, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinoi

The occurrence of yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) at Espiritu Santo Seamount in the Gulf of Mexico) at Espiritu Santo Seamount in the Gulf of Mexico

Pelagic fishes are not evenly dispersed in the oceans, but aggregate at distinct locations in this vast and open environment. Nomadic species such as mackerels, tunas, and sharks form assemblages at seamounts (Klimley and Butler, 1988; Fontenau, 1991). Fishermen have recognized this behavior and have placed moorings with surface buoys in deep waters to provide artificial landmarks, around which fish concentrate and are more easily captured. These fish aggregating devices (termed FADs) are common in the tropical oceans (see review, Holland, 1996). In a sense, it may only be the larger size that separates a seamount from a man-made FAD

Corrosion Studies in Fuel Element Reprocessing Environments Containing Nitric Acid

Nitric acid is universally used in aqueous fuel element reprocessing plants; however, in the processing scheme being developed by the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program, some of the equipment will be exposed to nitric acid under conditions not previously encountered in fuel element reprocessing plants. A previous report presented corrosion data obtained in hyperazeotropic nitric acid and in concentrated magnesium nitrate solutions used in its preparation. The results presented in this report are concerned with the following: (1) corrosion of titanium in nitric acid; (2) corrosion of nickel-base alloys in a nitric acid-hydrofluoric acid solution; (3) the formation of Cr(VI), which enhances corrosion, in nitric acid solutions; and (4) corrosion of mechanical pipe connectors in nitric acid. The results show that the corrosion rate of titanium increased with the refreshment rate of boiling nitric acid, but the effect diminished rapidly as the temperature decreased. The addition of iodic acid inhibited attack. Also, up to 200 ppM of fluoride in 70% HNO/sub 3/ had no major effect on the corrosion of either titanium or tantalum. In boiling 8 M HNO/sub 3/-0.05 M HF, Inconel 671 was more resistant than Inconel 690, but both alloys experienced end-grain attack. In the case of Inconel 671, heat treatment was very important; annealed and quenched material was much more resistant than furnace-cooled material.The rate of oxidation of Cr(III) to Cr(VI) increased significantly as the nitric acid concentration increased, and certain forms of ruthenium in the solution seemed to accelerate the rate of formation. Mechanical connectors of T-304L stainless steel experienced end-grain attack on the exposed pipe ends, and seal rings of both stainless steel and a titanium alloy (6% Al-4% V) underwent heavy attack in boiling 8 M HNO/sub 3/

Light-weighting of automotive and aerospace transport

The automotive and aerospace industries are keen to reduce their environmental impact and so have looked to move to lightweight materials. This creates issues in terms of joining, using and disposing of dissimilar materials. Oxford Brookes has therefore worked with national and multi-national companies in the adhesive, materials, automotive and aerospace industries to try to solve these problems. This has resulted in high quality research publications, innovative test equipment, improved numerical methods, novel designs, design guidelines, manufacturing procedures, British Standards, patents, commercial products and further funding. The impact of the work has global safety, environmental and economic benefits with multi-national aerospace and automotive companies implementing the results in current developments

Solitary coherent structures in viscoelastic shear flow: computation and mechanism

Starting from stationary bifurcations in Couette-Dean flow, we compute nontrivial stationary solutions in inertialess viscoelastic circular Couette flow. These solutions are strongly localized vortex pairs, exist at arbitrarily large wavelengths, and show hysteresis in the Weissenberg number, similar to experimentally observed ``diwhirl'' patterns. Based on the computed velocity and stress fields, we elucidate a heuristic, fully nonlinear mechanism for these flows. We propose that these localized, fully nonlinear structures comprise fundamental building blocks for complex spatiotemporal dynamics in the flow of elastic liquids.Comment: 5 pages text and 4 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Resolving Sirius-like binaries with the Hubble Space Telescope

We have imaged seventeen recently discovered Sirius-like binary systems with HST/WFPC2 and resolved the white dwarf secondary in eight cases. Most of the implied orbital periods are of order several hundred years, but in three cases (56 Per, Zeta Cygni and REJ1925-566) the periods are short enough that it may be possible to detect orbital motion within a few years. It will then be possible to derive dynamically determined masses for the white dwarfs, and potentially these stars could be used as stringent tests of the mass-radius relation and initial-final mass relation.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the 12th European Workshop on White Dwarfs, eds. H. Shipman and J. Provenca

Decreased Expression Of apM1 in Omental and Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue of Humans With Type 2 Diabetes

We have screened a subtracted cDNA library in order to identify differentially expressed genes in omental adipose tissue of human patients with Type 2 diabetes. One clone (#1738) showed a marked reduction in omental adipose tissue from patients with Type 2 diabetes. Sequencing and BLAST analysis revealed clone #1738 was the adipocyte-specific secreted protein gene apM1 (synonyms ACRP30, AdipoQ, GBP28). Consistent with the murine orthologue, apM1 mRNA was expressed in cultured human adipocytes and not in preadipocytes. Using RT-PCR we confirmed that apM1 mRNA levels were significantly reduced in omental adipose tissue of obese patients with Type 2 diabetes compared with lean and obese normoglycemic subjects. Although less pronounced, apM1 mRNA levels were reduced in subcutaneous adipose tissue of Type 2 diabetic patients. Whereas the biological function of apM1 is presently unknown, the tissue specific expression, structural similarities to TNFα and the dysregulated expression observed in obese Type 2 diabetic patients suggest that this factor may play a role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes