An Easy-to-Construct Automated Winkler Titration System

The instrument described in this report is an updated version of the high precision, automated Winkler titration system described by Friederich et al.(1984). The original instrument was based on the work of Bryan et al. (1976) who developed a colorimetric endpoint detector and on the work of Williams and Jenkinson (1982) who produced an automated system that used this detector. The goals of our updated version of the device described by Friederich et al. (1984) were as follows: 1) Move control of the system to the MS-DOS environment because HP-85 computers are no longer in production and because more user-friendly programs could be written using the IBM XT or AT computers that control the new device. 2) Use more "off the shelf" components and reduce the parts count in the new system so that it could be easily constructed and maintained. This report describes how to construct and use the new automated Winkler titration device. It also includes information on the chemistry of the Winkler titration, and detailed instructions on how to prepare reagents, collect samples, standardize and perform the titrations (Appendix I: Codispoti, L.A. 1991 On the determination of dissolved oxygen in sea water, 15pp.). A disk containing the program needed to operate the new device is also included. (pdf contains 33 pages

Biological observations in the marginal ice zone of the East Greenland Sea

The distribution of nutrients, phytoplankton and zooplankton was investigated during summer, 1983 in the marginal ice zone of the East Greenland Sea. Nutrient levels, especially inorganic nitrogen, were extremely low, and probably limited the growth of phytoplankton during this period. An ammonium maximum at the base of the euphotic zone, generally around 50 m, was found repeatedly and appeared to be controlled by active nitrogen regeneration and decreased ammonium uptake at low light levels. Chlorophyll a levels were elevated at the ice-edge, but were even higher in an area influenced by an eddy. Species of zooplankton were accurate indicators of the origin of the two major water masses in this area, and zooplanktonic biomass was similar to other polar regions. Calculations of their impact on phytoplankton distributions indicated that grazing losses resulting from ingestion by large copepads may have been small. The dynamics associated with mesoscale eddies appear to be important in introducing new nitrogen into the euphotic zone and structuring the distribution of plant biomass at the ice-edge of the East Greenland Sea

The Potential for Using Little Diomede Island as a Platform for Observing Environmental Conditions in Bering Strait

The Pacific waters that enter the Arctic via the Bering Strait exert a major influence on the Arctic Ocean’s stratification, ice cover, and ecosystem. We demonstrate the potential of a shore-based laboratory to monitor the water masses that flow predominantly northward past Little Diomede Island in the center of the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean. We determined near-surface water column salinity, inorganic nutrient concentrations, natural fluorescence associated with chlorophyll, and the oxygen isotope composition of seawater, both in summer during the open-water period and in late winter under ice-covered conditions, by pumping ashore water from shallow depths near the island. Additional surveys were undertaken within 5 km of the island to assess the influence of local sources of nutrients. Water mass variability was much greater during the open-water period than under ice-covered conditions, presumably because the relatively immobile ice cover attenuates wind forcing and the decrease in run-off reduces cross-shelf gradients. The mean oxygen isotope composition of the summer (?18O = -1.11‰) and late winter (?18O = -0.98) collections, however, was close to that which has been established for Bering Sea waters in the Pacific-dominated upper halocline of the Arctic Ocean (-1.1‰) particularly considering the higher seasonal flow of runoff in the summer. A comparison with data from shipboard sampling at various locations across the Bering Strait indicates that the oxygen isotope composition of near-surface water sampled at Diomede varies in response to wind-forcing. If the least saline (< 30.5) water near the Alaska coast is excluded, the ?18O values of Diomede and shipboard samples cannot be distinguished statistically. This similarity suggests that the water sampled from the island also reasonably represents the ?18O value of Bering Sea waters that contribute to the upper halocline of the Arctic Ocean. Effects of benthic recycling, human activity, and seabird nesting on nutrient concentrations appeared to be concentrated within ~200 m of the island. Our results are discussed in the practical context of availability of electricity, interested local residents, and a geotechnical study indicating that it is feasible to construct and operate a more permanent undersea water intake system to improve environmental observation capabilities in the Bering Strait region.Les eaux du Pacifique qui entrent dans l’Arctique par le détroit de Béring ont une influence majeure sur la stratification, le couvert de glace et l’écosystème de l’océan Arctique. Dans ce rapport nous présentons des données qui démontrent le potentiel d’un laboratoire basé à terre dans le but de surveiller les masses d’eau qui circulent principalement vers le nord au-delà de l’île Little Diomede au centre du détroit de Béring jusqu’à l’océan Arctique. Nous avons déterminé la salinité de la colonne d’eau près de la surface, la concentration des nutriments inorganiques, la fluorescence naturelle associée avec la chlorophylle, ainsi que la composition en isotope d’oxygène de l’eau de mer. Ces données ont été recueillies pendant la période estivale en eaux ouvertes et à la fin de l’hiver sous des conditions de couvert de glace en pompant à terre l’eau provenant d’aires peu profondes près de l’île. Des études supplémentaires ont été entreprises à moins de 5 km de l’île afin d’évaluer l’influence des sources locales de nutriments. La variabilité des masses d’eaux était plus grande pendant la période sans couvert de glace que pendant les conditions de couvert de glace. Ceci était vraisemblablement dû à l’atténuation de la force exercée par le vent sous le couvert de glace relativement immobile et à une réduction des gradients à travers le plateau provenant d’une réduction du ruissellement. La composition moyenne en isotope d’oxygène des collections de l’été (?18O = -1.11‰) et de fin d’hiver (?18O = -0.98‰) étaient cependant près de celle qui a été établie pour les eaux de la mer de Béring dans l’halocline supérieure de l’océan Arctique dominée par les eaux du Pacifique (?18O = -1.1‰), particulièrement compte tenu du flux saisonnier de ruissellement plus élevé pendant l’été. Une comparaison avec des données recueillies par bateau à plusieurs locations à travers le détroit de Béring indique que la composition en isotope d’oxygène près de la surface des eaux mesurée à Diomede varie en réponse à la force du vent. Lorsque l’eau moins saline (< 30.5) près de la côte de l’Alaska est exclue, les valeurs ?18O de Diomede et des échantillons recueillis par bateau ne peuvent être distingués statistiquement. Cette similarité suggère que l’eau échantillonnée à partir de l’île représente aussi raisonnablement les valeurs ?18O des eaux de la mer de Béring qui contribuent à l’halocline supérieure de l’océan Arctique. Les conséquences du recyclage benthique, des activités anthropogéniques et de la nidification des oiseaux de mer sur les concentrations de nutriments semblent être concentrées à moins de ~200m de l’île. Nos résultats sont interprétés dans le contexte pratique de la disponibilité de l’électricité, de l’intérêt des résidents locaux et d’une étude géotechnique qui indique qu’un système permanent de prise d’eau sous-marin peut être construit et opéré afin d’améliorer les capacités d’observation environnementale dans la région du détroit de Béring

Linkages among runoff, dissolved organic carbon, and the stable oxygen isotope composition of seawater and other water mass indicators in the Arctic Ocean

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 110 (2005): G02013, doi:10.1029/2005JG000031.Concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and δ18O values have been determined following sampling of runoff from a number of major arctic rivers, including the Ob, Yenisey, Lena, Kolyma, Mackenzie and Yukon in 2003-2004. These data are considered in conjunction with marine data for DOC, δ18O values, nutrients, salinity, and fluorometric indicators of DOC that were obtained as part of the Shelf-Basin Interactions program at the continental shelf-basin boundary of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. These marine data indicate that the freshwater component is most likely derived from regional sources, such as the Mackenzie, the Bering Strait inflow and possibly eastern Siberian rivers, including the Kolyma, or the Lena but not rivers further west in the Eurasian arctic. Contributions of freshwater from melted sea ice to marine surface waters appeared to be insignificant over annual cycles compared to runoff, although on a seasonal basis, freshwater from melted sea ice was locally dominant following a major sea-ice retreat into the Canada Basin in 2002. DOC concentrations were correlated with the runoff fraction, with an apparent meteoric water DOC concentration of 174 ± 1 μM (standard error). This concentration is lower than the flow-weighted concentrations measured at river mouths of the five largest Arctic rivers (358 to 917 μM), indicating that removal of terrigenous DOC during transport through estuaries, shelves and in the deep basin. DOC data indicate that flow-weighted concentrations in the two largest North American arctic rivers, the Yukon (625μM) and the Mackenzie (382 μM), are lower than in the three largest Eurasian arctic rivers, the Ob (825 μM), the Yenesey (858 μM) and the Lena (917 μM). A fluorometric indicator of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) that has provided estimates of terrigenous DOC concentrations in the Eurasian Arctic was not correlated with DOC concentrations in the Amerasian marine waters studied, except below the upper Arctic Ocean halocline. Nutrient distributions and concentrations as well as derived nutrient ratios suggest the CDOM fluorometer may be responding to the release of chromophoric materials from continental shelf sediments. Shipboard incubation experiments with undisturbed sediment cores indicate that continental shelf sediments on the Bering and Chukchi Sea shelves are likely to be a net source of DOC to the Arctic Ocean.The PARTNERS and SBI projects have been supported by the Office of Polar Programs of the U.S. National Science Foundation

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia