Delivering knowledge in the field: A telecommunications service provision and maintenance case

This paper proposes a novel approach to providing knowledge management services in a business process wherein field engineers are the main process actors, providing and maintaining telecommunications services. Cooperating multi-agents play a central role for the provision of knowledge management services by integrating heterogeneous systems to collect related knowledge for the execution of mobile tasks. The proposed system is expected to increase both the performance of the mobile workforce and customer satisfaction by supporting and encouraging knowledge sharing

Results of Millikan Library Forced Vibration Testing

This report documents an investigation into the dynamic properties of Millikan Library under forced excitation. On July 10, 2002, we performed frequency sweeps from 1 Hz to 9.7 Hz in both the East-West (E-W) and North-South (N-S) directions using a roof level vibration generator. Natural frequencies were identified at 1.14 Hz (E-W fundamental mode), 1.67 Hz (N-S fundamental mode), 2.38 Hz (Torsional fundamental mode), 4.93 Hz (1st E-Wovertone), 6.57 Hz (1st Torsional overtone), 7.22 Hz (1st N-S overtone), and at 7.83 Hz (2nd E-Wovertone). The damping was estimated at 2.28% for the fundamental E-W mode and 2.39% for the N-S fundamental mode. On August 28, 2002, a modal analysis of each natural frequency was performed using the dense instrumentation network located in the building. For both the E-W and N-S fundamental modes, we observe a nearly linear increase in displacement with height, except at the ground floor which appears to act as a hinge. We observed little basement movement for the E-W mode, while in the N-S mode 30% of the roof displacement was due to basement rocking and translation. Both the E-W and N-S fundamental modes are best modeled by the first mode of a theoretical bending beam. The higher modes are more complex and not well represented by a simple structural system

Personality Profiles of Iditasport Ultra-marathon Participants

Each February, competitors convene in Big Lake, Alaska, to participate in the “Iditasport Human Powered Ultra-Marathon”. Who would attempt this challenging race? Personality might be one factor predicting participation. Iditasport represents a unique athletic event with a distinctive social and psychological climate that might be reflected in the personalities of the participants in many ways. This study was designed to identify the personality profile of Iditasport athletes when compared to normative populations and to explore differences between athletes competing in different race divisions

Son of Quisling Speaks

Poem by Jan H. de Groot, translated by Case J. Boot from Modern Koren

Holland

Poem by Jan H. de Groot, translated by Case J. Boot from Modern Koren

Execution Wetering Park (Amsterdam, March 2, 1945, 9:15-9:35 a.m.)

Poem by Jan H. de Groot, translated by Case J. Boot from Modern Koren

Deep-biosphere methane production stimulated by geofluids in the Nankai accretionary complex

Microbial life inhabiting subseafloor sediments plays an important role in Earth’s carbon cycle. However, the impact of geodynamic processes on the distributions and carbon-cycling activities of subseafloor life remains poorly constrained. We explore a submarine mud volcano of the Nankai accretionary complex by drilling down to 200 m below the summit. Stable isotopic compositions of water and carbon compounds, including clumped methane isotopologues, suggest that ~90% of methane is microbially produced at 16° to 30°C and 300 to 900 m below seafloor, corresponding to the basin bottom, where fluids in the accretionary prism are supplied via megasplay faults. Radiotracer experiments showed that relatively small microbial populations in deep mud volcano sediments (10^2 to 10^3 cells cm^(−3)) include highly active hydrogenotrophic methanogens and acetogens. Our findings indicate that subduction-associated fluid migration has stimulated microbial activity in the mud reservoir and that mud volcanoes may contribute more substantially to the methane budget than previously estimated

Characterization of microbial associations with methanotrophic archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria through statistical comparison of nested Magneto-FISH enrichments

Methane seep systems along continental margins host diverse and dynamic microbial assemblages, sustained in large part through the microbially mediated process of sulfate-coupled Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane (AOM). This methanotrophic metabolism has been linked to consortia of anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea (ANME) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). These two groups are the focus of numerous studies; however, less is known about the wide diversity of other seep associated microorganisms. We selected a hierarchical set of FISH probes targeting a range of Deltaproteobacteria diversity. Using the Magneto-FISH enrichment technique, we then magnetically captured CARD-FISH hybridized cells and their physically associated microorganisms from a methane seep sediment incubation. DNA from nested Magneto-FISH experiments was analyzed using Illumina tag 16S rRNA gene sequencing (iTag). Enrichment success and potential bias with iTag was evaluated in the context of full-length 16S rRNA gene clone libraries, CARD-FISH, functional gene clone libraries, and iTag mock communities. We determined commonly used Earth Microbiome Project (EMP) iTAG primers introduced bias in some common methane seep microbial taxa that reduced the ability to directly compare OTU relative abundances within a sample, but comparison of relative abundances between samples (in nearly all cases) and whole community-based analyses were robust. The iTag dataset was subjected to statistical co-occurrence measures of the most abundant OTUs to determine which taxa in this dataset were most correlated across all samples. Many non-canonical microbial partnerships were statistically significant in our co-occurrence network analysis, most of which were not recovered with conventional clone library sequencing, demonstrating the utility of combining Magneto-FISH and iTag sequencing methods for hypothesis generation of associations within complex microbial communities. Network analysis pointed to many co-occurrences containing putatively heterotrophic, candidate phyla such as OD1, Atribacteria, MBG-B, and Hyd24-12 and the potential for complex sulfur cycling involving Epsilon-, Delta-, and Gammaproteobacteria in methane seep ecosystems