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Radium concentration factors and their use in health and environmental risk assessment
Radium is known to be taken up by aquatic animals, and tends to accumulate in bone, shell and exoskeleton. The most common approach to estimating the uptake of a radionuclide by aquatic animals for use in health and environmental risk assessments is the concentration factor method. The concentration factor method relates the concentration of a contaminant in an organism to the concentration in the surrounding water. Site specific data are not usually available, and generic, default values are often used in risk assessment studies. This paper describes the concentration factor method, summarizes some of the variables which may influence the concentration factor for radium, reviews reported concentration factors measured in marine environments and presents concentration factors derived from data collected in a study in coastal Louisiana. The use of generic default values for the concentration factor is also discussed
The Impact of Atmospheric Fluctuations on Degree-scale Imaging of the Cosmic Microwave Background
Fluctuations in the brightness of the Earth's atmosphere originating from
water vapor are an important source of noise for ground-based instruments
attempting to measure anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background. This paper
presents a model for the atmospheric fluctuations and derives simple
expressions to predict the contribution of the atmosphere to experimental
measurements. Data from the South Pole and from the Atacama Desert in Chile,
two of the driest places on Earth, are used to assess the level of fluctuations
at each site.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, appears in The Astrophysical Journa
Polarization revival of a Bloch oscillating wave packet in conjunction with resonant Zener tunneling
We investigate the dynamics of a Bloch-oscillating wave packet in the presence of strong coupling to delocalized above barrier states (Zener tunneling), using time-resolved intraband polarization-sensitive measurements. At a threshold electric field, the resonance of localized and delocalized states causes a quantum beating which is observed as a revival in the intraband polarization. Our numerical simulation visualizes the spatial wave packet decomposition and reformation. The wave packet moves on a ps time scale over a distance of more than 100 nm and sequentially undergoes Bloch oscillations in the below- and above-barrier bands
Field-induced delocalization and Zener breakdown in semiconductor superlattices
We investigate the energy spectrum and the electron dynamics of a band in a semiconductor superlattice as a function of the electric field. Linear optical spectroscopy shows that, for high fields, the well-known localization of the Bloch states is followed by a field-induced delocalization, associated with Zener breakdown. Using time-resolved measurements, we observe Bloch oscillations in a regime where they are damped by Zener breakdown
Measurements of Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at 0.5 Degree Angular Scales Near the Star Gamma Ursae Minoris
We present results from a four frequency observation of a 6 x 0.6 degree
strip of the sky centered near the star Gamma Ursae Minoris during the fourth
flight of the Millimeter-wave Anisotropy eXperiment (MAX). The observation was
made with a 1.4 degree peak-to-peak sinusoidal chop in all bands. The FWHM beam
sizes were 0.55 +/- 0.05 degrees at 3.5 cm-1 and 0.75 +/-0.05 degrees at 6, 9,
and 14 cm-1. During this observation significant correlated structure was
observed at 3.5, 6 and 9 cm-1 with amplitudes similar to those observed in the
GUM region during the second and third flights of MAX. The frequency spectrum
is consistent with CMB and inconsistent with thermal emission from interstellar
dust. The extrapolated amplitudes of synchrotron and free-free emission are too
small to account for the amplitude of the observed structure. If all of the
structure is attributed to CMB anisotropy with a Gaussian autocorrelation
function and a coherence angle of 25', then the most probable values of
DeltaT/TCMB in the 3.5, 6, and 9 cm-1 bands are 4.3 (+2.7, -1.6) x 10-5, 2.8
(+4.3, -1.1) x 10-5, and 3.5 (+3.0, -1.6) x 10-5 (95% confidence upper and
lower limits), respectively.Comment: 16 pages, postscrip
Measurements of Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at Degree Angular Scales Near the Stars Sigma Hercules and Iota Draconis
We present results from two four-frequency observations centered near the
stars Sigma Hercules and Iota Draconis during the fourth flight of the
Millimeter-wave Anisotropy eXperiment (MAX). The observations were made of 6 x
0.6-degree strips of the sky with 1.4-degree peak to peak sinusoidal chop in
all bands. The FWHM beam sizes were 0.55+/-0.05 degrees at 3.5 cm-1 and a
0.75+/-0.05 degrees at 6, 9, and 14 cm-1. Significant correlated structures
were observed at 3.5, 6 and 9 cm-1. The spectra of these signals are
inconsistent with thermal emission from known interstellar dust populations.
The extrapolated amplitudes of synchrotron and free-free emission are too small
to account for the amplitude of the observed structures. If the observed
structures are attributed to CMB anisotropy with a Gaussian autocorrelation
function and a coherence angle of 25', then the most probable values are
DT/TCMB = (3.1 +1.7-1.3) x 10^-5 for the Sigma Hercules scan, and DT/TCMB =
(3.3 +/- 1.1) x 10^-5 for the Iota Draconis scan (95% confidence upper and
lower limits). Finally a comparison of all six MAX scans is presented.Comment: 13 pages, postscript file, 2 figure
Structure-guided engineering of Lactococcus lactis alcohol dehydrogenase LlAdhA for improved conversion of isobutyraldehyde to isobutanol
We have determined the X-ray crystal structures of the NADH-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase LlAdhA from Lactococcus lactis and its laboratory-evolved variant LlAdhA^(RE1) at 1.9 Å and 2.5 Å resolution, respectively. LlAdhA^(RE1), which contains three amino acid mutations (Y50F, I212T, and L264V), was engineered to increase the microbial production of isobutanol (2-methylpropan-1-ol) from isobutyraldehyde (2-methylpropanal). Structural comparison of LlAdhA and LlAdhA^(RE1) indicates that the enhanced activity on isobutyraldehyde stems from increases in the protein's active site size, hydrophobicity, and substrate access. Further structure-guided mutagenesis generated a quadruple mutant (Y50F/N110S/I212T/L264V), whose K_M for isobutyraldehyde is ∼17-fold lower and catalytic efficiency (k_(cat)/K_M) is ∼160-fold higher than wild-type LlAdhA. Combining detailed structural information and directed evolution, we have achieved significant improvements in non-native alcohol dehydrogenase activity that will facilitate the production of next-generation fuels such as isobutanol from renewable resources
Design, development and verification of the 30 and 44 GHz front-end modules for the Planck Low Frequency Instrument
We give a description of the design, construction and testing of the 30 and
44 GHz Front End Modules (FEMs) for the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) of the
Planck mission to be launched in 2009. The scientific requirements of the
mission determine the performance parameters to be met by the FEMs, including
their linear polarization characteristics.
The FEM design is that of a differential pseudo-correlation radiometer in
which the signal from the sky is compared with a 4-K blackbody load. The Low
Noise Amplifier (LNA) at the heart of the FEM is based on indium phosphide High
Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs). The radiometer incorporates a novel
phase-switch design which gives excellent amplitude and phase match across the
band.
The noise temperature requirements are met within the measurement errors at
the two frequencies. For the most sensitive LNAs, the noise temperature at the
band centre is 3 and 5 times the quantum limit at 30 and 44 GHz respectively.
For some of the FEMs, the noise temperature is still falling as the ambient
temperature is reduced to 20 K. Stability tests of the FEMs, including a
measurement of the 1/f knee frequency, also meet mission requirements.
The 30 and 44 GHz FEMs have met or bettered the mission requirements in all
critical aspects. The most sensitive LNAs have reached new limits of noise
temperature for HEMTs at their band centres. The FEMs have well-defined linear
polarization characteristcs.Comment: 39 pages, 33 figures (33 EPS files), 12 tables. Planck LFI technical
papers published by JINST:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/1748-022
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