6,587 research outputs found
Assessing the Value of Time Travel Savings – A Feasibility Study on Humberside.
It is expected that the opening of the Humber Bridge
will cause major changes to travel patterns around Humberside;
given the level of tolls as currently stated, many travellers
will face decisions involving a trade-off between travel time,
money outlay on tolls or fares and money outlay on private
vehicle running costs; this either in the context of
destination choice, mode choice or route choice.
This report sets out the conclusions of a preliminary
study of the feasibility of inferring values of travel time
savings from observations made on the outcomes of these
decisions. Methods based on aggregate data of destination
choice are found t o be inefficient; a disaggregate mode
choice study i s recommended, subject to caveats on sample size
Color-Induced Displacement double stars in SDSS
We report the first successful application of the astrometric color-induced
displacement technique (CID, the displacement of the photocenter between
different bandpasses due to a varying contribution of differently colored
components to the total light), originally proposed by Wielen (1996) for
discovering unresolved binary stars. Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Data Release 1 with 2.5 million stars brighter than 21m in the u and g bands,
we select 419 candidate binary stars with CID greater than 0.5 arcsec. The SDSS
colors of the majority of these candidates are consistent with binary systems
including a white dwarf and any main sequence star with spectral type later
than ~K7. The astrometric CID method discussed here is complementary to the
photometric selection of binary stars in SDSS discussed by Smolcic et al.
(2004), but there is considerable overlap (15%) between the two samples of
selected candidates. This overlap testifies both to the physical soundness of
both methods, as well as to the astrometric and photometric quality of SDSS
data.Comment: submitted to A&A, 13 pages, 6 figure
Opportunities and Challenges in a Changing Beef Industry: Results of a Statewide Needs Assessment in Iowa
The U.S. beef industry is poised for growth following increased contraction over the past decade that has resulted in the lowest cattle inventory in over 60 years. However, sustainable, long term growth of the industry is dependent upon early identification of issues that may inhibit profitability. A series of seven listening sessions conducted across Iowa in November and December of 2013 by the Iowa Beef Center identified land access, farm transition, production efficiency, marketing, genetics, data management, feedstuffs, and animal health as “mega-issues” facing producers. Specific issues under each of these overarching categories will guide future extension programming efforts within the Iowa Beef Center
Synthesis and Utilisation of Hybrid Metal-Carbonic Anhydrase Enzyme Carrier System for Soil Biocementation
Biocementation is an emerging nature-inspired method of producing eco-friendly cement for soil stabilization. This paper used the bovine-derived carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzyme to catalyse the bioprecipitation of CaCO3 in a fine-grained soil and thus to biocement the soil. To increase the efficiency of the CA, an innovative copper–carbonic anhydrase (CA) hybrid was fabricated. This study is a proof-of-concept of the potential application of these enzyme carriers for soil bioce-mentation. The hybrid carriers are aimed to enhance the stability, recovery and reusability of the enzyme used in the biocementation process. The results showed that the fabricated copper phosphate-based inorganic hybrid was stable throughout the duration of the tests (2 months) and under a wide range of pH and temperatures. Its enzymatic activity was enhanced compared to the free CA enzyme and it was proved suitable for soil biocementation. This was further confirmed by the SEM analysis. Additionally, the treated soil with the formulated hybrid carrier showed im-proved unconfined compressive strength, especially when the carriers were implemented into the soil by mixing. The material analysis by Raman spectroscopy confirmed calcium carbonate as the primary precipitate, consistent with soil biocementation. Overall, this innovative method of de-livery of enzymes with enhanced stability and activity shows promise that, upon further devel-opment, it can be successfully used to increase the efficiency and sustainability of the biocemen-tation process
The Effect of Crystallization on the Pulsations of White Dwarf Stars
We consider the pulsational properties of white dwarf star models with
temperatures appropriate for the ZZ Ceti instability strip and with masses
large enough that they should be substantially crystallized. Our work is
motivated by the existence of a potentially crystallized DAV, BPM 37093, and
the expectation that digital surveys in progress will yield many more such
massive pulsators.
A crystallized core makes possible a new class of oscillations, the torsional
modes, although we expect these modes to couple at most weakly to any motions
in the fluid and therefore to remain unobservable. The p-modes should be
affected at the level of a few percent in period, but are unlikely to be
present with observable amplitudes in crystallizing white dwarfs any more than
they are in the other ZZ Ceti's. Most relevant to the observed light variations
in white dwarfs are the g-modes. We find that the kinetic energy of these modes
is effectively excluded from the crystallized cores of our models. As
increasing crystallization pushes these modes farther out from the center, the
mean period spacing between radial overtones increases substantially with the
crystallized mass fraction. In addition, the degree and structure of mode
trapping is affected. The fact that some periods are strongly affected by
changes in the crystallized mass fraction while others are not suggests that we
may be able to disentangle the effects of crystallization from those due to
different surface layer masses.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, accepted on 1999 July 2 for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
Constraining Large Scale Structure Theories with the Cosmic Background Radiation
We review the relevant 10+ parameters associated with inflation and matter
content; the relation between LSS and primary and secondary CMB anisotropy
probes; COBE constraints on energy injection; current anisotropy band-powers
which strongly support the gravitational instability theory and suggest the
universe could not have reionized too early. We use Bayesian analysis methods
to determine what current CMB and CMB+LSS data imply for inflation-based
Gaussian fluctuations in tilted CDM, hCDM and oCDM model
sequences with age 11-15 Gyr, consisting of mixtures of baryons, cold (and
possibly hot) dark matter, vacuum energy, and curvature energy in open
cosmologies. For example, we find the slope of the initial spectrum is within
about 5% of the (preferred) scale invariant form when just the CMB data is
used, and for CDM when LSS data is combined with CMB; with both, a
nonzero value of is strongly preferred ( for a 13
Gyr sequence, similar to the value from SNIa). The CDM sequence prefers
, but is overall much less likely than the flat
sequence with CMB+LSS. We also review the rosy forecasts
of angular power spectra and parameter estimates from future balloon and
satellite experiments when foreground and systematic effects are ignored.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX, 5 figures, 2 tables, uses rspublic.sty To appear in
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A, 1998.
"Discussion Meeting on Large Scale Structure in the Universe," Royal Society,
London, March 1998. Text and colour figures also available at
ftp://ftp.cita.utoronto.ca/bond/roysoc9
Deep ROSAT Surveys & the contribution of AGNs to the soft X-ray background
The ROSAT Deep Surveys in the Lockman Hole have revealed that AGNs are the main contributors (~75%) to the soft X-ray background in the 1–2 keV band. Using new optical/infrared and radio observations we have obtained a nearly complete identification (93%) of the 91 X-ray sources down to a limiting flux of 1.2·10^(–15) erg cm^(–2) s^(–1) in the 0.5–2.0 keV band. We present the optical colors and the emission line properties of our AGNs in comparison with other X-ray selected AGN samples. Furthermore we discuss the fraction of red AGNs found in the ROSAT Deep Surveys. From the ROSAT Deep Surveys we see no evidence for a new class of X-ray bright galaxies, which significantly contributes to the soft X-ray background
Combined Reconstruction and Registration of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis
Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has the potential to en-
hance breast cancer detection by reducing the confounding e ect of su-
perimposed tissue associated with conventional mammography. In addi-
tion the increased volumetric information should enable temporal datasets
to be more accurately compared, a task that radiologists routinely apply
to conventional mammograms to detect the changes associated with ma-
lignancy. In this paper we address the problem of comparing DBT data
by combining reconstruction of a pair of temporal volumes with their reg-
istration. Using a simple test object, and DBT simulations from in vivo
breast compressions imaged using MRI, we demonstrate that this com-
bined reconstruction and registration approach produces improvements
in both the reconstructed volumes and the estimated transformation pa-
rameters when compared to performing the tasks sequentially
Biocementation mediated by native Carbonic Anhydrase-producing microbes.
This study investigated the feasibility of biocementing a fine-grained foundation soil from the East Anglia railway network via the carbonic anhydrase (CA) pathway. This pathway is a promising way of improving the mechanical properties of soils by biocementation while sequestering CO2 during the process. To achieve the aim of this research, forty CA-producing bacterial isolates from soil layers below a railway embankment in East Anglia, UK, were screened and selected using a qualitative CA activity assay. Three of these bacteria expressed high and stable CA enzyme activity and were further characterised by their morphological, molecular, and enzyme profile characteristics. Bioaugmentation was then employed to biocement the soil from the site using the native CA-producing bacteria isolated from the soil. The unconfined compressive strength and calcite content of the treated soil were determined. Preliminary results showed a substantial increase in soil unconfined compressive strength upon biocementation treatment. Although further geotechnical testing is the subject of future work, the unconfined compressive strength and calcite content results obtained so far proved biocementation of the fine-grained soil and showed promise that the CA biocementation route can be further developed as a successful and environmentally friendly soil stabilization technique, with the added advantage of sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere or using captured waste CO2, during the biocementation process
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