How and Why Mars Lost its Water

The topic of this paper is to investigate how and why Mars lost its water. It is important to study the loss of water on Mars because it can give us a better understanding of how Mars once looked, if life were possible, and how it could have changed so drastically to what it is now. The paper aims to address which factors led to Mars losing its water and how long ago this happened. Using our data, we will predict how quickly Mars’ core cooled, when its magnetic field weakened, and when the water was lost. We learned that solar energy attributed to the planet’s atmospheric loss after the magnetic field around Mars weakened

Cone calorimeter tests on FR treated Norway spruce, Comparison of different fire retardant products for timber structures

Fire retardants are effective in reducing different reaction to fire parameters of wood such as the ignitability, the heat release, the burning rate and the flame spread. This paper discusses the different mechanisms of fire retardant products as pressure impregnated wood, non-intumescence surface coatings and intumescence coatings on Norway spruce (Picea abies). The tests were performed by using the cone calorimeter test. The comparison of the investigated products will describe the mechanisms of action to reduce combustion by using the heat release rate of 25 kW/m² and 50 kW/m² and the standard IS0 834 test curve. As result information on the ignition time, the heat release rate, the mass loss and the temperature profile over the material thickness will be presented in this paper

Performance of evacuated flat plate solar thermal collectors

Heat losses from a flat panel solar collector can be significantly reduced by lowering the internal pressure to <0.5 Pa. Compared with conventional collectors, the resulting increase in efficiency is predicted to give a significant gain in annual heat output in the context of a temperate climate with low median irradiance. Two experimental collectors were built and tested to investigate theoretical aspects of evacuated flat plates and develop appropriate technological solutions. One had a metal tray to the rear, the other used two sheets of glass. An array of pillars supports the glass against atmospheric pressure. The experimental procedure was designed to minimise measurement uncertainty. Testing under a solar simulator, with and without a vacuum, showed a sudden drop in heat loss as the pressure was reduced below 0.5 Pa. When evacuated the heat loss coefficient fell from 7.43 to 3.65 W/m2 K and the efficiency at a nominal test condition of ΔT = 60 °C, G = 1000 W/m2 increased from 36% to 56%. Heat losses from absorber to glass were within 9% of the predicted level. This demonstrates that the heat loss mechanism is well understood

Retention of mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-mask and mouth-to-face shield ventilation

Background: Retention of mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-mask and mouth-to-face shield ventilation techniques is poorly understood.Methods: A prospective randomised clinical trial was undertaken in January 2004 in 70 candidates randomly assigned to training in mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-mask or mouth-to-face shield ventilation. Each candidate was trained for 10 min, after which tidal volume, respiratory rate, minute volume, peak airway pressure and the presence or absence of stomach inflation were measured. 58 subjects were reassessed 1 year later and study parameters were recorded again. Data were analysed with ANOVA, \textgreekq2 and McNemar tests.Results: Tidal volume, minute volume, peak airway pressure, ventilation rate and stomach inflation rate increased significantly at reassessment with all ventilation techniques compared with the initial assessment. However, at reassessment, mean (SD) tidal volume (960 (446) vs 1008 (366) vs 1402 (302) ml; p<0.05), minute volume (12 (5) vs 13 (7) vs 18 (3) l/min; p<0.05), peak airway pressure (14 (8) vs 17 (13) vs 25 (8) cm H2O; p<0.05) and stomach inflation rate (63% vs 58% vs 100%; p<0.05) were significantly lower with mouth-to-mask and mouth-to-face shield ventilation than with mouth-to-mouth ventilation. The ventilation rate at reassessment did not differ significantly between the ventilation techniques.Conclusions: One year after a single episode of ventilation training, lay persons tended to hyperventilate; however, the degree of hyperventilation and resulting stomach inflation were lower when a mouth-to-mask or a face shield device was employed. Regular training is therefore required to retain ventilation skills; retention of skills may be better with ventilation devices

MSRE-HTPrimer: a high-throughput and genome-wide primer design pipeline optimized for epigenetic research

Background: Methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes—polymerase chain reaction (MSRE-PCR) has been used in epigenetic research to identify genome-wide and gene-specific DNA methylation. Currently, epigenome-wide discovery studies provide many candidate regions for which the MSREqPCR approach can be very effective to confirm the findings. MSREqPCR provides high multiplexing capabilities also when starting with limited amount of DNA-like cfDNA to validate many targets in a time- and cost-effective manner. Multiplex design is challenging and cumbersome to define specific primers in an effective manner, and no suitable software tools are freely available for high-throughput primer design in a time-effective manner and to automatically annotate the resulting primers with known SNPs, CpG, repeats, and RefSeq genes. Therefore a robust, powerful, high-throughput, optimized, and methylation-specific primer design tool with great accuracy will be very useful.Results: We have developed a novel pipeline, called MSRE-HTPrimer, to design MSRE-PCR and genomic PCR primers pairs in a very efficient manner and with high success rate. First, our pipeline designs all possible PCR primer pairs and oligos, followed by filtering for SNPs loci and repeat regions. Next, each primer pair is annotated with the number of cut sites in primers and amplicons, upstream and downstream genes, and CpG islands loci. Finally, MSRE-HTPrimer selects resulting primer pairs for all target sequences based on a custom quality matrix defined by the user. MSRE-HTPrimer produces a table for all resulting primer pairs as well as a custom track in GTF file format for each target sequence to visualize it in UCSC genome browser.Conclusions: MSRE-HTPrimer, based on Primer3, is a high-throughput pipeline and has no limitation on the number and size of target sequences for primer design and provides full flexibility to customize it for specific requirements. It is a standalone web-based pipeline, which is fully configured within a virtual machine and thus can be readily used without any configuration. We have experimentally validated primer pairs designed by our pipeline and shown a very high success rate of primer pairs: out of 190 primer pairs, 71 % could be successfully validated. The MSRE-HTPrimer software is freely available from http://sourceforge.net/p/msrehtprimer/wiki/Virtual_Machine/ as a virtual machine

Der Virtuelle Campus der FH JOANNEUM und die berufsbegleitende Lehre

Der Beitrag beschreibt die Entwicklung, Umsetzung und Evaluierung von eLearning an den Studiengängen der FH JOANNEUM im Rahmen des Projekts Virtueller Campus. Auf die Beschreibung der FH JOANNEUM und seiner (berufsbegleitenden) Studiengänge folgt die Darstellung des eLearning Kompetenzzentrums „ZML - Innovative Lernszenarien“ und der Entwicklung des Virtuellen Campus. Ausgehend von den Bedürfnissen der Lehrenden und Studierenden an berufsbegleitenden Studiengängen werden die Maßnahmen und Erfahrungen aus der Einführung und Unterstützung von eLearning an zwei berufsbegleitenden Studiengängen vorgestellt. Abschließend wird ein Ausblick in die Zukunft des Virtuellen Campus versucht.  06.01.2010 | Irmgard Schinnerl-Beikircher, Maria Jandl & Jutta Pauschenwein (Graz

Insights from in\ua0vivo micro-CT analysis: testing the hydraulic vulnerability segmentation in Acer pseudoplatanus and Fagus sylvatica seedlings

The seedling stage is the most susceptible one during a tree\u2032s life. Water relations may be crucial for seedlings due to their small roots, limited water buffers and the effects of drought on water transport. Despite obvious relevance, studies on seedling xylem hydraulics are scarce as respective methodical approaches are limited. Micro\u2010CT scans of intact Acer pseudoplatanus and Fagus sylvatica seedlings dehydrated to different water potentials (\u3a8) allowed the simultaneous observation of gas\u2010filled versus water\u2010filled conduits and the calculation of percentage loss of conductivity (PLC) in stems, roots and leaves (petioles or main veins). Additionally, anatomical analyses were performed and stem PLC measured with hydraulic techniques. In A. pseudoplatanus, petioles showed a higher \u3a8 at 50% PLC (\u3a850 121.13MPa) than stems ( 122.51 MPa) and roots ( 121.78 MPa). The main leaf veins of F. sylvatica had similar \u3a850 values ( 122.26 MPa) to stems ( 122.74 MPa) and roots ( 122.75 MPa). In both species, no difference between root and stems was observed. Hydraulic measurements on stems closely matched the micro\u2010CT based PLC calculations. Micro\u2010CT analyses indicated a species\u2010specific hydraulic architecture. Vulnerability segmentation, enabling a disconnection of the hydraulic pathway upon drought, was observed in A. pseudoplatanus but not in the especially shade\u2010tolerant F. sylvatica. Hydraulic patterns could partly be related to xylem anatomical traits

Autoantibodies as diagnostic markers and potential drivers of inflammation in ulcerative colitis

To date, no comprehensive analysis of autoantibodies in sera of patients with ulcerative colitis has been conducted. To analyze the spectrum of autoantibodies and to elucidate their role serum-IgG from UC patients (n = 49) and non-UC donors (n = 23) were screened by using a human protein microarray. Screening yielded a remarkable number of 697 differentially-reactive at the nominal 0.01 significance level (FDR<0.1) of the univariate test between the UC and the non-UC group. CD99 emerged as a biomarker to discriminate between both groups (p = 1e-04, AUC = 0.8). In addition, cytokines, chemokines and growth factors were analyzed by Olink's Proseek (R) Multiplex Inflammation-I 96x96 immuno-qPCR assay and 31 genes were significant at the nominal 0.05 level of the univariate test to discriminate between UC and non-UC donors. MCP-3, HGF and CXCL-9 were identified as the most significant markers to discriminate between UC patients with clinically active and inactive disease. Levels of CXCL10 (cor = 0.3;p = 0.02), CCL25 (cor = 0.25;p = 0.04) and CCL28 (cor = 0.3;p = 0.02) correlated positively with levels of anti CD99. To assess whether autoantibodies are detectable prior to diagnosis with UC, sera from nine donors at two different time points (T-early, median 21 months and T-late, median 6 months) were analyzed. 1201 features were identified with higher reactivity in samples at time points closer to clinical UC presentation. In vitro, additional challenge of peripheral mononuclear cells with CD99 did not activate CD4+ T cells but induced the secretion of IL-10 (-CD99: 20.21 +/- 20.25;+CD99: 130.20 +/- 89.55;mean +/- sd;p = 0.015). To examine the effect of CD99 in vivo, inflammation and autoantibody levels were examined in NOD/ScidIL2R gamma(null) mice reconstituted with PBMC from UC donors (NSG-UC). Additional challenge with CD99 aggravated disease symptoms and pathological phenotype as indicated by the elevated clinical score (-CD99: 1.85 +/- 1.94;+CD99: 4.25 +/- 1.48) and histological score (-CD99: 2.16 +/- 0.83;+CD99: 3.15 +/- 1.16, p = 0.01). Furthermore, levels of anti-CD99 antibodies increased (Control: 398 +/- 323;mean MFI +/- sd;Ethanol + PBS: 358 +/- 316;Ethanol + CD99: 1363 +/- 1336;Control versu

Interaksi Sosial Kukerta UNRI dengan Masyarakat Desa dalam Melestarikan Budaya Lokal “Pacu Jalur” di Desa Pulau Lancang, Kecamatan Benai, Kabupaten Kuantan Singingi

Penelitian ini dilakukan di Desa Pulau Lancang, Kecamatan Benai, Kabupaten Kuantan Singingi dengan tujuan mengetahui aktivitas serta mendeskripsikan interaksi masyarakat desa dalam mempertahankan budaya lokal di Desa Pulau Lancang, Kecamatan Benai, Kabupaten Kuantan Singingi. Untuk mendapatkan data menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif deskriptif, dengan pengumpulan data menggunakan teknik wawancara yang mendalam, observasi langsung, dan dokumentasi. Hasil analisis menunjukkan terdapat interaksi dalam masyarakat desa dalam mempertahankan budaya lokal “pacu jalur” di Desa Pulau Lancang, Kecamatan Benai, Kuantan Singingi

Fabrication analysis of flat vacuum enclosures for solar collectors sealed with Cerasolzer 217

Vacuum flat plate (VFP) solar thermal collectors exhibit excellent optical and thermal characteristics due to a combination of wide surface area and high vacuum thermal insulation offering a high performance and architecturally versatile collector with a variety of applications for industrial process heat and building integration. A vacuum flat plate solar collector consists of a solar absorber in a flat vacuum enclosure comprising glass or glass and metal covers sealed around the periphery with an array of support pillars to maintain the separation of the enclosure under atmospheric pressure. The edge seal must be both mechanically strong and hermetic to ensure the durability of the internal vacuum over collector lifetime. This presents several challenges for the fabrication of flat vacuum enclosures. In this study a novel sealing technique is presented using a tin-based alloy, Cerasolzer 217, to create the vacuum seal between two glass panes and an edge separating spacer. The sealing process is undertaken at temperatures ≤250 °C allowing the use of thermally tempered glass panes. The mechanical strength of the edge seal was investigated using a tensometer. It was demonstrated that the bond between glass and edge spacer was sufficiently strong to withstand induced stresses in the edge seal region. The edge seal was leak tested using a conventional Helium mass spectrometer leak detector and was shown to possess leak rates low enough to maintain an adequate vacuum pressure to supress conductive and convective heat transfer in the collector. A finite element method (FEM) is developed and validated against the experimental results and employed to predict the stresses in different regions of the enclosure. It was found that the mechanical strength limits of the seal and glass are higher than the stresses in the edge seal region and on the glass surface, respectively