Flexural fatigue behavior of rocking bioreactor films

The fields of biopharmaceutical processing and cell therapy are adopting single-use, closed systems throughout their workflows to enhance sterility, minimize waste wash effluent and enable manufacturing flexibility compared to traditional stainless steel bioreactors. One of the key single-use technologies in use is the rocking bioreactor, comprising a polymer film bag (outfitted with ports and sensors) mounted to a tray capable of mixing the contents of the bag and a control system (controlling temperature, agitation, and potentially media perfusion). One of the challenges encountered in rocking bioreactor bags is the fact that upon inflation/filling with media, the originally flat bioreactor bags often develop folds and dimples due to their inflated geometry. These deformations tend to be inconsequential at small volumes and low agitation rates/times, but can lead to flex fatigue failures such as whitening, delamination and through-cracking under more extreme conditions. In practice, these failures are dependent on a number of factors including bag material and volume, mounting geometry, rocking angle and rate, and the duration of culture, making a systematic study of the material properties controlling this behavior difficult and time-consuming. Several flex fatigue testing systems exist in the literature, including Gelbo and Sonntag-Universal, but none of these effectively model the unique geometry and stresses of the rocking bioreactor geometry. To this end, we have developed accelerated test methods to analyze the flexural fatigue behavior of multilayer rocking bioreactor films. These methods enable quality control testing of film lots, and have the potential to compare different film compositions with a rapid and reproducible test, thereby facilitating development of new films. Our test method models the local geometry surrounding the fold/dimple in a rocking bioreactor in a small sample of film, and cycles the sample to accelerate flexural fatigue at the dimple site. Initial results indicate the ability to accelerate film failure from tens of days on a rocking bioreactor platform (using a full bioreactor bag) to tens of hours using less than ten square inches of film. We will discuss the effects of various experimental parameters on film failure, optimization of test procedures and correlation with rocking bioreactor testing in the field

Deposition of mercury in forests across a montane elevation gradient: Elevational and seasonal patterns in methylmercury inputs and production

Global mercury contamination largely results from direct primary atmospheric and secondary legacy emissions, which can be deposited to ecosystems, converted to methylmercury, and bioaccumulated along food chains. We examined organic horizon soil samples collected across an elevational gradient on Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack region of New York State, USA to determine spatial patterns in methylmercury concentrations across a forested montane landscape. We found that soil methylmercury concentrations were highest in the midelevation coniferous zone (0.39 ± 0.07 ng/g) compared to the higher elevation alpine zone (0.28 ± 0.04 ng/g) and particularly the lower elevation deciduous zone (0.17 ± 0.02 ng/g), while the percent of total mercury as methylmercury in soils decreased with elevation. We also found a seasonal pattern in soil methylmercury concentrations, with peak methylmercury values occurring in July. Given elevational patterns in temperature and bioavailable total mercury (derived from mineralization of soil organic matter), soil methylmercury concentrations appear to be driven by soil processing of ionic Hg, as opposed to atmospheric deposition of methylmercury. These methylmercury results are consistent with spatial patterns of mercury concentrations in songbird species observed from other studies, suggesting that future declines in mercury emissions could be important for reducing exposure of mercury to montane avian species.Key PointsTotal mercury and methylmercury concentrations and fluxes are examined across an elevational gradient on an Adirondack, New York mountainMethylmercury concentrations across the elevational gradient are greatest in midelevation coniferous zonesSoil methylmercury concentrations are driven by the internal processing of mercury, rather than external inputs of methylmercuryPlain Language SummaryOnce mercury is emitted into the atmosphere by anthropogenic sources, it can be deposited onto the Earth’s surface. This mercury can then be converted to its toxic form of methylmercury by microbes in the soil and can accumulate in birds, altering physiology, behavior, and reproduction. We examined soils from Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack region of New York State, USA to determine patterns in the production of methylmercury. We found that methylmercury in soils was highest in the mid‐elevation coniferous forests of the mountain and that the concentration appeared to be driven by soil microbes rather than direct deposition of mercury from the atmosphere. The finding of peak methylmercury at mid‐elevations was consistent with previous studies showing peak bird mercury concentrations at the same elevation. Thus, reductions in methylmercury concentrations in these forests is important to reducing bird mercury concentrations.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138300/1/jgrg20832_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138300/2/jgrg20832-sup-0001-2016JG003721-SI.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138300/3/jgrg20832.pd

The clustering of Galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey : including covariance matrix errors

JP acknowledges support from the UK Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) through the consolidated grant ST/K0090X/1 and from the European Research Council through the ‘Starting Independent Research’ grant 202686, MDEPUGS. AGS acknowledges support from the Trans-regional Collaborative Research Centre TR33 ‘The Dark Universe’ of the German Research Foundation (DFG).We present improved methodology for including covariance matrices in the error budget of Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) galaxy clustering measurements, revisiting Data Release 9 (DR9) analyses, and describing a method that is used in DR10/11 analyses presented in companion papers. The precise analysis method adopted is becoming increasingly important, due to the precision that BOSS can now reach: even using as many as 600 mock catalogues to estimate covariance of two-point clustering measurements can still lead to an increase in the errors of ∼20 per cent, depending on how the cosmological parameters of interest are measured. In this paper, we extend previous work on this contribution to the error budget, deriving formulae for errors measured by integrating over the likelihood, and to the distribution of recovered best-fitting parameters fitting the simulations also used to estimate the covariance matrix. Both are situations that previous analyses of BOSS have considered. We apply the formulae derived to baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and redshift-space distortion (RSD) measurements from BOSS in our companion papers. To further aid these analyses, we consider the optimum number of bins to use for two-point measurements using the monopole power spectrum or correlation function for BAO, and the monopole and quadrupole moments of the correlation function for anisotropic-BAO and RSD measurements.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: measuring structure growth using passive galaxies

We explore the benefits of using a passively evolving population of galaxies to measure the evolution of the rate of structure growth between z=0.25 and z=0.65 by combining data from the SDSS-I/II and SDSS-III surveys. The large-scale linear bias of a population of dynamically passive galaxies, which we select from both surveys, is easily modeled. Knowing the bias evolution breaks degeneracies inherent to other methodologies, and decreases the uncertainty in measurements of the rate of structure growth and the normalization of the galaxy power-spectrum by up to a factor of two. If we translate our measurements into a constraint on sigma_8(z=0) assuming a concordance cosmological model and General Relativity (GR), we find that using a bias model improves our uncertainty by a factor of nearly 1.5. Our results are consistent with a flat Lambda Cold Dark Matter model and with GR.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (clarifications added, results and conclusions unchanged

The clustering of galaxies at z~0.5 in the SDSS-III Data Release 9 BOSS-CMASS sample: a test for the LCDM cosmology

We present results on the clustering of 282,068 galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) sample of massive galaxies with redshifts 0.4<z<0.7 which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III project. Our results cover a large range of scales from ~0.5 to ~90 Mpc/h. We compare these estimates with the expectations of the flat LCDM cosmological model with parameters compatible with WMAP7 data. We use the MultiDark cosmological simulation together with a simple halo abundance matching technique, to estimate galaxy correlation functions, power spectra, abundance of subhaloes and galaxy biases. We find that the LCDM model gives a reasonable description to the observed correlation functions at z~0.5, which is a remarkably good agreement considering that the model, once matched to the observed abundance of BOSS galaxies, does not have any free parameters. However, we find a deviation (>~10%) in the correlation functions for scales less than ~1 Mpc/h and ~10-40 Mpc/h. A more realistic abundance matching model and better statistics from upcoming observations are needed to clarify the situation. We also estimate that about 12% of the "galaxies" in the abundance-matched sample are satellites inhabiting central haloes with mass M>~1e14 M_sun/h. Using the MultiDark simulation we also study the real space halo bias b(r) of the matched catalogue finding that b=2.00+/-0.07 at large scales, consistent with the one obtained using the measured BOSS projected correlation function. Furthermore, the linear large-scale bias depends on the number density n of the abundance-matched sample as b=-0.048-(0.594+/-0.02)*log(n/(h/Mpc)^3). Extrapolating these results to BAO scales we measure a scale-dependent damping of the acoustic signal produced by non-linear evolution that leads to ~2-4% dips at ~3 sigma level for wavenumbers k>~0.1 h/Mpc in the linear large-scale bias.Comment: Replaced to match published version. Typos corrected; 25 pages, 17 figures, 9 tables. To appear in MNRAS. Correlation functions (projected and redshift-space) and correlation matrices of CMASS presented in Appendix B. Correlation and covariance data for the combined CMASS sample can be downloaded from http://www.sdss3.org/science/boss_publications.ph

Asymptotic generators of fermionic charges and boundary conditions preserving supersymmetry

We use a covariant phase space formalism to give a general prescription for defining Hamiltonian generators of bosonic and fermionic symmetries in diffeomorphism invariant theories, such as supergravities. A simple and general criterion is derived for a choice of boundary condition to lead to conserved generators of the symmetries on the phase space. In particular, this provides a criterion for the preservation of supersymmetries. For bosonic symmetries corresponding to diffeomorphisms, our prescription coincides with the method of Wald et al. We then illustrate these methods in the case of certain supergravity theories in $d=4$. In minimal AdS supergravity, the boundary conditions such that the supercharges exist as Hamiltonian generators of supersymmetry transformations are unique within the usual framework in which the boundary metric is fixed. In extended ${\mathcal N}=4$ AdS supergravity, or more generally in the presence of chiral matter superfields, we find that there exist many boundary conditions preserving ${\mathcal N}=1$ supersymmetry for which corresponding generators exist. These choices are shown to correspond to a choice of certain arbitrary boundary ``superpotentials,'' for suitably defined ``boundary superfields.'' We also derive corresponding formulae for the conserved bosonic charges, such as energy, in those theories, and we argue that energy is always positive, for any supersymmetry-preserving boundary conditions. We finally comment on the relevance and interpretation of our results within the AdS-CFT correspondence.Comment: 45 pages, Latex, no figures, v2: extended discussion of positive energy theorem and explicit form of fermionic generators, references adde

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey : cosmological implications of the full shape of the clustering wedges in the data release 10 and 11 galaxy samples

We explore the cosmological implications of the angle-averaged correlation function, ξ(s), and the clustering wedges, ξ⊥(s) and ξ∥(s), of the LOWZ and CMASS galaxy samples from Data Releases 10 and 11 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. Our results show no significant evidence for a deviation from the standard Λ cold dark matter model. The combination of the information from our clustering measurements with recent data from the cosmic microwave background is sufficient to constrain the curvature of the Universe to Ωk = 0.0010 ± 0.0029, the total neutrino mass to ∑mν < 0.23 eV (95 per cent confidence level), the effective number of relativistic species to Neff = 3.31 ± 0.27 and the dark energy equation of state to wDE = −1.051 ± 0.076. These limits are further improved by adding information from Type Ia supernovae and baryon acoustic oscillations from other samples. In particular, this data set combination is completely consistent with a time-independent dark energy equation of state, in which case we find wDE = −1.024 ± 0.052. We explore the constraints on the growth rate of cosmic structures assuming f(z) = Ωm(z)γ and obtain γ = 0.69 ± 0.15, consistent with the predictions of general relativity of γ = 0.55.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Observation of Stratospheric Ozone Depletion associated with Delta II Rocket Emissions

Ozone, chlorine monoxide, methane, and submicron particulate concentrations were measured in the stratospheric plume wake of a Delta II rocket powered by a combination of solid (NH4ClO4/Al) and liquid (LOX/kerosene) propulsion systems. We apply a simple kinetics model describing the main features of gas-phase chlorine reactions in solid propellant exhaust plumes to derive the abundance of total reactive chlorine in the plume and estimate the associated cumulative ozone loss. Measured ozone loss during two plume encounters (12 and 39 minutes after launch) exceeded the estimate by about a factor of about two. Insofar as only the most significant gas-phase chlorine reactions are included in the calculation, these results suggest that additional plume wake chemical processes or emissions other than reactive chlorine from the Delta II propulsion system affect ozone levels in the plume

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey : measuring DA and H at z = 0.57 from the baryon acoustic peak in the Data Release 9 spectroscopic Galaxy sample

We present measurements of the angular diameter distance to and Hubble parameter at z = 0.57 from the measurement of the baryon acoustic peak in the correlation of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. Our analysis is based on a sample from Data Release 9 of 264 283 galaxies over 3275 square degrees in the redshift range 0.43 < z < 0.70. We use two different methods to provide robust measurement of the acoustic peak position across and along the line of sight in order to measure the cosmological distance scale. We find DA(0.57) = 1408 ± 45 Mpc and H(0.57) = 92.9 ± 7.8 km s−1 Mpc−1 for our fiducial value of the sound horizon. These results from the anisotropic fitting are fully consistent with the analysis of the spherically averaged acoustic peak position presented in Anderson et al. Our distance measurements are a close match to the predictions of the standard cosmological model featuring a cosmological constant and zero spatial curvature.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe