Site Description for the University of Nebraska's Sandhills Agricultural Laboratory

The Sandhills Agricultural Laboratory is operated by the University of Nebraska. The laboratory is located in the south-central part of the Nebraska Sandhills near Tryon, Nebraska (41 deg. 37' N; 100 deg. 50' W). The laboratory is surrounded on the west and south by native rangeland vegetation, on the south by a large field of corn irrigated by a center pivot, and on the east by wheat stubble. This site is appropriate for moisture stress studies since rainfall is almost always inadequate to meet evaporative demands of agricultural crops during most of the growing season and the sandy soils (Valentine fine sand) at the site do not store large quantities of water. Various levels of water stress are achieved through irrigation from solid set sprinklers

Heating and cooling system

A heating and cooling apparatus capable of cyclic heating and cooling of a test specimen undergoing fatigue testing is discussed. Cryogenic fluid is passed through a block clamped to the speciment to cool the block and the specimen. Heating cartridges penetrate the block to heat the block and the specimen to very hot temperaures. Control apparatus is provided to alternatively activate the cooling and heating modes to effect cyclic heating and cooling between very hot and very cold temperatures. The block is constructed of minimal mass to facilitate the rapid temperature changes

Study of methods for the improvement of bacterial transport media

A series of 500 transport media recipes was tested for ability to hold pure cultures of Streptococcus equisimilus, Corynebacterium equi, Neisseria perflava, and Haemophilus parainfluenzae for 21 days. Stuart Medium Base with 0.4% agar was used as the control medium for this and the other experiments in the investigation. At the end of the holding period inoculated transport media were quantitatively assayed, and the control media were assayed immediately after inoculation. Three vials of each medium were inoculated with an organism, and each vial's medium was diluted and spread on duplicate plates. Assay media for this experiment included Brain Heart Infusion,(BHIA) Tryptic Soy Agar, and BHIA with 1% Isovitalex enrichment

Vibrational intensity distributions for continuum photoionization of oxygen

Results from measurements of vibrational intensity distributions for continuum photoionization of O2 are reported. Measurements were made using the 584 and 304 A He lines. The photoionization cross section of O2 shows a substantial dip in magnitude over a 20 A band centered about 590 A; thus the possibility exists that a 584 A photoelectron spectrum of O2 includes an autoionized contribution and the vibrational intensity distributions may not correspond to those of continuum ionization. Oxygen photoionization cross section shows no structure around 304 A and purley continuum ionization is expected

On the ionization potential of molecular oxygen

The ionization potential of O2 was measured by the technique of high resolution photoelectron spectroscopy taking into account the influence of rotational structure on the shape of the vibrational bands. A value of 12.071 + or - .001 eV (1027.1 + or - 0.1 A) was found for the ionization potential. A lowering of the ionization potential caused by a branch-head when delta N = -2 gave an appearance potential for ionization of 12.068 + or - .001 eV (1027.4 + or - 0.1 A)

Vibrational intensity distributions in the photoelectron spectrum of hydrogen

The intensity distribution over the H2(+) vibrational levels up to a quantum number of 15 was measured for H2 photoelectron spectra at a photon wavelength of 584 A. The data show reasonable agreement with recent calculations only in the quantum number of 0 through 8. The higher levels are populated significantly lower than predicted by theory

Photoionization branching ratios and vibrational intensity distribution for N2, CO; and CO2 between 53 and 75 nm

The probability of radiation producing ions in specific electronic and vibrational levels was documented. For example, when a narrow band-pass of solar ionizing photons is incident on an atmospheric species it is now possible to describe, accurately, how the radiant energy is shared among the various electronic states of the ions produced. The molecules studied were N2, CO, and CO2. These molecules were photoionized by radiation between 53 and 75 nm. The effects of autoionization are discussed and continuum vibrational intensities are tabulated and compared with theoretical Franck-Condon factors where available. The branching ratios and partial cross sections for ionization into various electronic states are tabulated

Collecting efficiency of a cylindrical mirror electron energy analyzer with preretarding lens

The electron collecting efficiency of a cylindrical mirror energy analyzer incorporating retardation of the electrons prior to analysis has been determined over the range 0 to 30 eV by two methods. The first method requires the use of a vacuum ultraviolet monochromator to produce monoenergetic electrons of different energies; the second method involves measuring the energy-brightness relationship of the retarding optics and should be applicable to any deflection analyzer with pre-retarding optics. The results of the two methods are compared and the limitations of the latter method are discussed