Tracing the German Centennial Flood in the Stream of Tweets: First Lessons Learned

Social microblogging services such as Twitter result in massive streams of georeferenced messages and geolocated status updates. This real-time source of information is invaluable for many application areas, in particular for disaster detection and response scenarios. Consequently, a considerable number of works has dealt with issues of their acquisition, analysis and visualization. Most of these works not only assume an appropriate percentage of georeferenced messages that allows for detecting relevant events for a specific region and time frame, but also that these geolocations are reasonably correct in representing places and times of the underlying spatio-temporal situation. In this paper, we review these two key assumption based on the results of applying a visual analytics approach to a dataset of georeferenced Tweets from Germany over eight months witnessing several large-scale flooding situations throughout the country. Our results con rm the potential of Twitter as a distributed 'social sensor' but at the same time highlight some caveats in interpreting immediate results. To overcome these limits we explore incorporating evidence from other data sources including further social media and mobile phone network metrics to detect, confirm and refine events with respect to location and time. We summarize the lessons learned from our initial analysis by proposing recommendations and outline possible future work directions

Analysis of local Al-doped back surface fields for high efficiency screen-printed solar cells

AbstractIn this paper, we investigate the surface recombination of local screen-printed aluminum contacts applied to rear passivated solar cells. We measure the surface recombination velocity by microwave-detected photoconductance decay measurements on test wafers with various contact geometries and compare two different aluminum pastes. The aluminum paste which is optimized for local contacts shows a deep and uniform local back surface field that results in Smet=600cm/s on 1.5Ωcm p-type silicon. In contrast, a standard Al paste for full-area metallization shows a non-uniform back surface field and a Smet of 2000cm/s on the same material. We achieve an area-averaged rear surface recombination velocity Srear=(65±20) cm/s for line contacts with a pitch of 2mm. The application of the optimized paste to screen-printed solar cells with dielectric surface passivation results in efficiencies of up to 19.2% with a Voc=655mV and a Jsc=38.4mA/cm2 on 125×125 mm2 p-type Cz silicon wafers. The internal quantum efficiency analysis reveals Srear=(70±30) cm/s which is in agreement with our lifetime results. Applying fine line screen-printing, efficiencies up to 19.4% are demonstrated

Impact of 3-Cyanopropionic Acid Methyl Ester on the Electrochemical Performance of ZnMn₂O₄ as Negative Electrode for Li-Ion Batteries

Due to their high theoretical capacity, transition metal oxide compounds are promising electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries. However, one drawback is associated with relevant capacity fluctuations during cycling, widely observed in the literature. Such strong capacity variation can result in practical problems when positive and negative electrode materials have to be matched in a full cell. Herein, the study of ZnMn2O4 (ZMO) in a nonconventional electrolyte based on 3-cyanopropionic acid methyl ester (CPAME) solvent and LiPF6 salt is reported for the first time. Although ZMO in LiPF6/CPAME electrolyte displays a dramatic capacity decay during the first cycles, it shows promising cycling ability and a suppressed capacity fluctuation when vinylene carbonate (VC) is used as an additive to the CPAME-based electrolyte. To understand the nature of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), the electrochemical study is correlated to ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)

The unrestricted Skyrme-tensor time-dependent Hartree-Fock and its application to the nuclear response from spherical to triaxial nuclei

The nuclear time-dependent Hartree-Fock model formulated in the three-dimensional space,based on the full Skyrme energy density functional and complemented with the tensor force,is presented for the first time. Full self-consistency is achieved by the model. The application to the isovector giant dipole resonance is discussed in the linear limit, ranging from spherical nuclei (16O, 120Sn) to systems displaying axial or triaxial deformation (24Mg, 28Si, 178Os, 190W, 238U). Particular attention is paid to the spin-dependent terms from the central sector of the functional, recently included together with the tensor. They turn out to be capable of producing a qualitative change on the strength distribution in this channel. The effect on the deformation properties is also discussed. The quantitative effects on the linear response are small and, overall, the giant dipole energy remains unaffected. Calculations are compared to predictions from the (quasi)-particle random phase approximation and experimental data where available, finding good agreement

Dataset of electrophysiological patch-clamp recordings of the effect of the compounds deltamethrin, ATx-II and β4-peptide on human cardiac Nav1.5 sodium channel gating properties.

This article describes the effect of the pyrethroid insecticide deltamethrin on the cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.5. Two concentrations of deltamethrin were used and the effects were compared with those of the sea anemone toxin ATx-II and β4-peptide, which is the C-terminus of the Nav channel β-subunit. Activation, fast inactivation, deactivation, persistent currents and resurgent currents of Nav1.5 channels were assessed in the presence of these compounds. The data display not only the effect of separately applied compounds on Nav1.5 channels but also investigates how combinations of these substances affect Nav1.5 channel gating properties. The dataset presented in this article is related to the research article "Mechanism underlying hooked resurgent-like tail currents induced by an insecticide in human cardiac Nav1.5″ (Sarah Thull, Cristian Neacsu, Andrias O. O'Reilly, Stefanie Bothe, Ralf Hausmann, Tobias Huth, Jannis Meents, Angelika Lampert, doi: 10.1016/j.taap.2020.11501), that investigates the effect of the pyrethroid insecticide deltamethrin on Nav channel gating properties and explains the mechanism underlying hooked, resurgent-like tail currents induced by deltamethrin in Nav1.5 channels

Multiphonon Giant Resonances

A new class of giant resonances in nuclei is discussed, i.e., giant resonances built on other giant resonances. These resonances are observed with very large cross sections in relativistic heavy ion collisions. A great experimental and theoretical effort is underway to understand the reaction mechanism which leads to the excitation of these states in nuclei, as well as the better microscopic understanding of their properties, e.g., strength, energy centroids, widths, and anharmonicities.Comment: Postscript file with text and 11 embedded figure

Caffeinium bis­ulfate monohydrate

In the title compound (systematic name: 1,3,7-trimethyl-2,6-dioxo-7H-purin-9-ium hydrogen sulfate monohydrate), C8H11N4O2 +·HSO4 −·H2O, the crystal packing is stabilized through N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

Diverse syntrophic partnerships from deep-sea methane vents revealed by direct cell capture and metagenomics

Microorganisms play a fundamental role in the cycling of nutrients and energy on our planet. A common strategy for many microorganisms mediating biogeochemical cycles in anoxic environments is syntrophy, frequently necessitating close spatial proximity between microbial partners. We are only now beginning to fully appreciate the diversity and pervasiveness of microbial partnerships in nature, the majority of which cannot be replicated in the laboratory. One notable example of such cooperation is the interspecies association between anaerobic methane oxidizing archaea (ANME) and sulfate-reducing bacteria. These consortia are globally distributed in the environment and provide a significant sink for methane by substantially reducing the export of this potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The interdependence of these currently uncultured microbes renders them difficult to study, and our knowledge of their physiological capabilities in nature is limited. Here, we have developed a method to capture select microorganisms directly from the environment, using combined fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunomagnetic cell capture. We used this method to purify syntrophic anaerobic methane oxidizing ANME-2c archaea and physically associated microorganisms directly from deep-sea marine sediment. Metagenomics, PCR, and microscopy of these purified consortia revealed unexpected diversity of associated bacteria, including Betaproteobacteria and a second sulfate-reducing Deltaproteobacterial partner. The detection of nitrogenase genes within the metagenome and subsequent demonstration of 15N2 incorporation in the biomass of these methane-oxidizing consortia suggest a possible role in new nitrogen inputs by these syntrophic assemblages