Experimental investigation of solar heating of bridge decks

The addition of monomers or the inclusion of wax within highway bridge decks are two methods being used to prevent salt penetration during winter deicing. Both of these methods require the addition of heat until the upper two inches of bridge deck reaches from 160-190 F. This study investigated the potential for using solar energy as a means of providing the required heat. The bridge was modeled analytically and the time varying temperature distribution was determined for both a flat plate type cover collector and focusing collector scheme did show promise for providing the required heat. Both models suffered from lack of accurate thermal properties data for the concrete. Experimental studies were conducted on a simulated bridge deck using flat plate covers and Northrup focusing Fresnel Lens collectors. Neither scheme was able to provide the desired temperatures. A major difficulty encountered was the design of an appropriate heat exchanger to transfer the collected energy from the heat transfer flud to the bridge deck. Several different designs were tested, but none of the methods used would provide the desired bridge deck temperatures for the collector area used. The collectors did not perform up to their expectations.4-77 to 6-79N

Diving into the vertical dimension of elasmobranch movement ecology

Knowledge of the three-dimensional movement patterns of elasmobranchs is vital to understand their ecological roles and exposure to anthropogenic pressures. To date, comparative studies among species at global scales have mostly focused on horizontal movements. Our study addresses the knowledge gap of vertical movements by compiling the first global synthesis of vertical habitat use by elasmobranchs from data obtained by deployment of 989 biotelemetry tags on 38 elasmobranch species. Elasmobranchs displayed high intra- and interspecific variability in vertical movement patterns. Substantial vertical overlap was observed for many epipelagic elasmobranchs, indicating an increased likelihood to display spatial overlap, biologically interact, and share similar risk to anthropogenic threats that vary on a vertical gradient. We highlight the critical next steps toward incorporating vertical movement into global management and monitoring strategies for elasmobranchs, emphasizing the need to address geographic and taxonomic biases in deployments and to concurrently consider both horizontal and vertical movements

Chemical and physical characterization of the isolated protostellar source CB68: FAUST IV

Interstellar matter and star formatio

Molecular characterization of Fusarium globosum strains from South African maize and Japanese wheat

The fungus Fusarium globosum was first isolated from maize in South Africa and subsequently from wheat in Japan. Here, multiple analyses revealed that, despite morphological similarities, South African maize and Japanese wheat isolates of the fungus exhibit multiple differences. An amplified fragment length polymorphism-based similarity index for the two groups of isolates was only 45%. Most maize isolates produced relatively high levels of fumonisins, whereas wheat isolates produced little or no fumonisins. The fumonisin biosynthetic gene FUM1 was detected in maize isolates by Southern blot analysis but not in the wheat isolates. In addition, most of the maize isolates produced sclerotia, and all of them produced large orange to dark purple sporodochia in carrot agar culture, whereas wheat isolates did not produce either structure. In contrast, individual isolates from both maize and wheat carried markers for both mating type idiomorphs, which indicates that the fungus may be homothallic. However, a sexual stage of F. globosum was not formed under standard self-fertilization conditions developed for other homothallic species of Fusarium. The inability to produce the sexual stage is consistent with the high similarity of 87–100% and GST index of 1.72 for the maize isolates, which suggests that these isolates are undergoing asexual but not sexual reproduction. Together, the results suggest that the South African maize and Japanese wheat isolates of F. globosum are distinct populations and could be different species