503 research outputs found
lnfluence of grape variety, climate and soil on grape composition and on the composition and quality of table wines
The influence of grape variety, soil type, climatic area and year of vintage on grape composition and wine quality was studied over a six-year period with three grape varieties in a eo-operative investigation. The wines were made under carefully controlled conditions to eliminate, as far as possible, any effect of winemaking technique. All viticultural and oenological treatments were replicated so that the data could be analysed statistically. When grapes from different viticultural areas were made into table wines, the quality of the wines was most closely related to grape variety, followed by climatic area and least of all by soil type.Reproducible differences in grape and wine composition were found for the grape varieties studied. For fhe same sugar content Riesling grapes and wine contained more acidity and a higher tartaric acid/malic acid ratio than Clare Riesling grapes and wine. They also contained less nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Shiraz grapes were relatively high in malic acid.The year of vintage strongly influenced the tartaric acid/malic acid ratio, particularly for Riesling and Clare Riesling, and also certain other constituents. Certain years could be designated as either high or low malic acid years for a particular grape variety.The soil type influenced the amounts of certain of the constituents of grapes and wine, but had no significant effects on the wine quality. Wines from the same varieties grown on two widely different soils in the same area could not be differentiated in replicated taste tests. The soil depth, drainage and waterholding capacity appeared to be more important than composition per se.Wines made from irrigated vineyards in the warm River Murray viticultural region, contained similar amounts of tartaric and malic acids, but were higher in pH, than wines made from the same grape varieties in the cooler non-irrigated Barossa Valley. Wines from irrigated grapes were generally of somewhat lower quality than those made from grapes of the same variety grown without irrigation in a cooler area. The time of harvesting irrigated grapes appeared to be critical to achieve the necessary balance between sugar, acid and flavour. Shiraz grapes grown under irrigation contained considerably less colour than grapes of the same variety grown without irrigation.Aroma was correlated with flavour in assessing wine quality, but numerical values ascribed to these parameters did not correlate generally with the wine constituents measured. A positive correlation existed between high tasting scores and high Ball/acid ratio
SURFATM-NH3: a model combining the surface energy balance and bi-directional exchanges of ammonia applied at the field scale
A new biophysical model SURFATM-NH3, simulating the ammonia (NH<sub>3</sub>) exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere is presented. SURFATM-NH3 consists of two coupled models: (i) an energy budget model and (ii) a pollutant exchange model, which distinguish the soil and plant exchange processes. The model describes the exchanges in terms of adsorption to leaf cuticles and bi-directional transport through leaf stomata and soil. The results of the model are compared with the flux measurements over grassland during the GRAMINAE Integrated Experiment at Braunschweig, Germany. The dataset of GRAMINAE allows the model to be tested in various meteorological and agronomic conditions: prior to cutting, after cutting and then after the application of mineral fertilizer. The whole comparison shows close agreement between model and measurements for energy budget and ammonia fluxes. The major controls on the ground and plant emission potential are the physicochemical parameters for liquid-gas exchanges which are integrated in the compensation points for live leaves, litter and the soil surface. Modelled fluxes are highly sensitive to soil and plant surface temperatures, highlighting the importance of accurate estimates of these terms. The model suggests that the net flux depends not only on the foliar (stomatal) compensation point but also that of leaf litter. SURFATM-NH3 represents a comprehensive approach to studying pollutant exchanges and its link with plant and soil functioning. It also provides a simplified generalised approach (SVAT model) applicable for atmospheric transport models
Distinct oscillatory dynamics underlie different components of hierarchical cognitive control
Action Contro
Integrating Abstraction Techniques for Formal Verification of Analog Designs
The verification of analog designs is a challenging and exhaustive task that requires deep understanding of physical
behaviours. In this paper, we propose a qualitative based predicate abstraction method for the verification of a class
of non-linear analog circuits. In the proposed method, system equations are automatically extracted from a circuit
diagram by means of a bond graph. Verification is applied based on combining techniques from constraint solving and
computer algebra along with symbolic model checking. Our methodology has the advantage of avoiding exhaustive
simulation normally encountered in the verification of analog designs. To this end, we have used Dymola, Hsolver,
SMV and Mathematica to implement the verification flow. We illustrate the methodology on several analog examples
including Colpitts and tunnel diode oscillators
Standardizing Type Ia Supernova Absolute Magnitudes Using Gaussian Process Data Regression
We present a novel class of models for Type Ia supernova time-evolving
spectral energy distributions (SED) and absolute magnitudes: they are each
modeled as stochastic functions described by Gaussian processes. The values of
the SED and absolute magnitudes are defined through well-defined regression
prescriptions, so that data directly inform the models. As a proof of concept,
we implement a model for synthetic photometry built from the spectrophotometric
time series from the Nearby Supernova Factory. Absolute magnitudes at peak
brightness are calibrated to 0.13 mag in the -band and to as low as 0.09 mag
in the blueshifted -band, where the dispersion includes
contributions from measurement uncertainties and peculiar velocities. The
methodology can be applied to spectrophotometric time series of supernovae that
span a range of redshifts to simultaneously standardize supernovae together
with fitting cosmological parameters.Comment: 47 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication by Astrophysical
Journa
Host Galaxy Properties and Hubble Residuals of Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory
We examine the relationship between Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia) Hubble
residuals and the properties of their host galaxies using a sample of 115 SNe
Ia from the Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory). We use host galaxy stellar
masses and specific star-formation rates fitted from photometry for all hosts,
as well as gas-phase metallicities for a subset of 69 star-forming (non-AGN)
hosts, to show that the SN Ia Hubble residuals correlate with each of these
host properties. With these data we find new evidence for a correlation between
SN Ia intrinsic color and host metallicity. When we combine our data with those
of other published SN Ia surveys, we find the difference between mean SN Ia
brightnesses in low and high mass hosts is 0.077 +- 0.014 mag. When viewed in
narrow (0.2 dex) bins of host stellar mass, the data reveal apparent plateaus
of Hubble residuals at high and low host masses with a rapid transition over a
short mass range (9.8 <= log(M_*/M_Sun) <= 10.4). Although metallicity has been
a favored interpretation for the origin of the Hubble residual trend with host
mass, we illustrate how dust in star-forming galaxies and mean SN Ia progenitor
age both evolve along the galaxy mass sequence, thereby presenting equally
viable explanations for some or all of the observed SN Ia host bias.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Type Ia Supernova Hubble Residuals and Host-Galaxy Properties
Kim et al. (2013) [K13] introduced a new methodology for determining
peak-brightness absolute magnitudes of type Ia supernovae from multi-band light
curves. We examine the relation between their parameterization of light curves
and Hubble residuals, based on photometry synthesized from the Nearby Supernova
Factory spectrophotometric time series, with global host-galaxy properties. The
K13 Hubble residual step with host mass is mag for a supernova
subsample with data coverage corresponding to the K13 training; at , the step is not significant and lower than previous measurements.
Relaxing the data coverage requirement the Hubble residual step with host mass
is mag for the larger sample; a calculation using the modes of
the distributions, less sensitive to outliers, yields a step of 0.019 mag. The
analysis of this article uses K13 inferred luminosities, as distinguished from
previous works that use magnitude corrections as a function of SALT2 color and
stretch parameters: Steps at significance are found in SALT2 Hubble
residuals in samples split by the values of their K13 and
light-curve parameters. affects the light-curve width and color around
peak (similar to the and stretch parameters), and
affects colors, the near-UV light-curve width, and the light-curve decline 20
to 30 days after peak brightness. The novel light-curve analysis, increased
parameter set, and magnitude corrections of K13 may be capturing features of
SN~Ia diversity arising from progenitor stellar evolution.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by Astrophysical Journa
Evidence of Environmental Dependencies of Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory indicated by Local H{\alpha}
(Abridged) We study the host galaxy regions in close proximity to Type Ia
supernovae (SNe Ia) to analyze relations between the properties of SN Ia events
and environments most similar to where their progenitors formed. We focus on
local H\alpha\ emission as an indicator of young environments. The Nearby
Supernova Factory has obtained flux-calibrated spectral timeseries for SNe Ia
using integral field spectroscopy, allowing the simultaneous measurement of the
SN and its immediate vicinity. For 89 SNe Ia we measure H\alpha\ emission
tracing ongoing star formation within a 1 kpc radius around each SN. This
constitutes the first direct study of the local environment for a large sample
of SNe Ia also having accurate luminosity, color and stretch measurements. We
find that SNe Ia with local H\alpha\ emission are redder by 0.036+/-0.017 mag,
and that the previously-noted correlation between stretch and host mass is
entirely driven by the SNe Ia coming from passive regions. Most importantly,
the mean standardized brightness for SNe Ia with local H\alpha\ emission is
0.094+/-0.031 mag fainter than for those without. This offset arises from a
bimodal structure in the Hubble residuals, that also explains the
previously-known host-mass bias. We combine this bimodality with the cosmic
star-formation rate to predict changes with redshift in the mean SN Ia
brightness and the host-mass bias. This change is confirmed using high-redshift
SNe Ia from the literature. These environmental dependences point to remaining
systematic errors in SNe Ia standardization. The observed brightness offset is
predicted to cause a significant bias in measurements of the dark energy
equation of state. Recognition of these effects offers new opportunities to
improve SNe Ia as cosmological probes - e.g. SNe Ia having local H\alpha\
emission are more homogeneous, having a brightness dispersion of 0.105+/-0.012
mag.Comment: accepted for publication in Section 3. Cosmology of A&A (The official
date of acceptance is 30/08/2013
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