Calculation of radiation induced swelling of uranium mononitride using the digital computer program CYGRO 2

Fuel volume swelling and clad diametral creep strains were calculated for five fuel pins, clad with either T-111 (Ta-8W-2.4Hf) or PWC-11 (Nb-1Zr-0.1C). The fuel pins were irradiated to burnups between 2.7 and 4.6%. Clad temperatures were between 1750 and 2400 F (1228 and 1589 K). The maximum percentage difference between calculated and experimentally measured values of volumetric fuel swelling is 60%

A Comparison of Predation Rates on Real and Artificial Nests of Grassland Birds

I compared rates of predation between real and artificial nests of grassland birds in order to test the impact of nest type, nest position, and egg size on predation rates. I distributed wicker avicultural baskets and realistic grass nests baited with a clay egg and either northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) or house sparrow (Passer domesticus) eggs in four Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands in east-central Illinois. Nest success averaged 86.5% for 12 days of exposure for artificial nests. For real nests, nest success was markedly lower; averaging 39% over the entire nesting cycle and 59% during approximately 12 days of incubation. Wicker nests were depredated more often than realistic grass artificial nests (18% versus 8%), and nests baited with house sparrow eggs were depredated more often than nests baited with quail eggs (22% versus 9%). Elevated and ground nests were depredated at the same rate. No edge effects were detected for real or artificial nests at road, rowcrop, or wooded edges. Patterns of nest predation on wicker nests were markedly different from depredation patterns on real nests over time and among fields. In contrast, patterns of nest predation on realistic grass artificial nests corresponded much more closely with predation rates of real nests over time and among fields. I suggest that future artificial nest studies use nests and eggs that mimic as closely as possible the real nests and eggs of target species. Use of unrealistic artificial nests and eggs, at least in grasslands, may result in patterns of predation that do not accurately reflect the variation in predation rates over time and locations for real nests

Cold water aquifer storage

A working prototype system is described in which water is pumped from an aquifer at 70 F in the winter time, chilled to a temperature of less than 50 F, injected into a ground-water aquifer, stored for a period of several months, pumped back to the surface in the summer time. A total of 8.1 million gallons of chilled water at an average temperature of 48 F were injected. This was followed by a storage period of 100 days. The recovery cycle was completed a year later with a total of 8.1 million gallons recovered. Approximately 20 percent of the chill energy was recovered

Innovative composite steel-timber floors with prefabricated modular components

An innovative steel-timber composite floor for use in multi-storey residential buildings is presented. The research demonstrates the potential of these steel-timber composite systems in terms of bearing capacity, stiffness and method of construction. Such engineered solutions should prove to be sustainable since they combine recyclable materials in the most effective way. The floors consist of prefabricated ultralight modular components, with a Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) slab, joined together and to the main structural system using only bolts and screws. Two novel floor solutions are presented, along with the results of experimental tests on the flexural behavior of their modular components. Bending tests have been performed considering two different methods of loading and constraints. Each prefabricated modular component uses a special arrangement of steel-timber connections to join a CLT panel to two customized cold-formed steel beams. Specifically, the first proposed composite system is assembled using mechanical connectors whereas the second involves the use of epoxy-based resin. In the paper, a FEM model is provided in order to extend this study to other steel-timber composite floor solutions. In addition, the paper contains the design model to be used in dimensioning the developed systems according to the state of the art of composite structures

The local motivic DT/PT correspondence

We show that the Quot scheme $Q_L^n = \textrm{Quot}_{\mathbb A^3}(\mathscr I_L,n)$ parameterising length $n$ quotients of the ideal sheaf of a line in $\mathbb{A}^3$ is a global critical locus, and calculate the resulting motivic partition function (varying $n$), in the ring of relative motives over the configuration space of points in $\mathbb{A}^3$. As in the work of Behrend-Bryan-Szendr\H{o}i this enables us to define a virtual motive for the Quot scheme of $n$ points of the ideal sheaf $\mathscr I_C\subset \mathscr O_Y$, where $C\subset Y$ is a smooth curve embedded in a smooth 3-fold $Y$, and we compute the associated motivic partition function. The result fits into a motivic wall-crossing type formula, refining the relation between Behrend's virtual Euler characteristic of $\textrm{Quot}_Y(\mathscr I_C,n)$ and of the symmetric product $\textrm{Sym}^nC$. Our "relative" analysis leads to results and conjectures regarding the pushforward of the sheaf of vanishing cycles along the Hilbert-Chow map $Q_L^n \rightarrow \textrm{Sym}^n(\mathbb{A}^3)$, and connections with cohomological Hall algebra representations

Genome sequence of a novel alloherpesvirus isolated from glass catfish (Kryptopterus bicirrhis)

The 149,343-bp genome of silurid herpesvirus 1, which was isolated in Thailand from glass catfish, was sequenced. The genome was most closely related to that of ictalurid herpesvirus 2, which infects black bullhead catfish. To our knowledge, this was the first silurid catfish alloherpesvirus genome to be sequenced