Short-Run Economic Impacts of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita)

Sturm; Erdölförderung; Offshore-Industrie; Makroökonomischer Einfluss; USA

Brazing tungsten for high-temperature nuclear service in hydrogen

Brazing tungsten for high temperature reactor service in hydroge

The Photochemical Decomposition of Nitric Oxide by Absorption in the (0,0) and (1,0) γ Bands

The abnormally large pressure broadening observed in the γ bands of NO was interpreted by Wulf as indicating a pressure-induced predissociation of the upper electronic state (A^2 Σ)

The Infrared Spectrum and the Structure of Gaseous Nitrous Acid

An investigation of the infrared spectrum of nitrous acid has shown that in the gaseous state this substance exists in two tautomeric species which are believed to be trans- and cis-forms. The cis-form is of higher energy by about 506 calories mole–1. A complete vibrational analysis is given and the OH in plane bending frequencies are found to be 1260 cm–1 and ~1292 cm–1, and the out of plane frequencies 543 cm–1 and 637 cm–1 for the trans- and cis-molecules, respectively. From the rotational constants the O[Single Bond]N[Single Bond]O angle is estimated to be 118° for the trans-form and 114° for the cis-form, from which conclusions are drawn regarding the electronic structure of the molecule. The standard entropy of nitrous acid at 25° is calculated

The InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) for TMT: Reflective ruled diffraction grating performance testing and discussion

We present the efficiency of near-infrared reflective ruled diffraction gratings designed for the InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS). IRIS is a first light, integral field spectrograph and imager for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and narrow field infrared adaptive optics system (NFIRAOS). We present our experimental setup and analysis of the efficiency of selected reflective diffraction gratings. These measurements are used as a comparison sample against selected candidate Volume Phase Holographic (VPH) gratings (see Chen et al., this conference). We investigate the efficiencies of five ruled gratings designed for IRIS from two separate vendors. Three of the gratings accept a bandpass of 1.19-1.37 {\mu}m (J band) with ideal spectral resolutions of R=4000 and R=8000, groove densities of 249 and 516 lines/mm, and blaze angles of 9.86 and 20.54 degrees, respectively. The other two gratings accept a bandpass of 1.51-1.82 {\mu}m (H Band) with an ideal spectral resolution of R=4000, groove density of 141 lines/mm, and blaze angle of 9.86{\deg}. We measure the efficiencies off blaze angle for all gratings and the efficiencies between the polarization transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) states. The peak reflective efficiencies are 98.90 +/- 3.36% (TM) and 84.99 +/- 2.74% (TM) for the H-band R=4000 and J-band R=4000 respectively. The peak reflective efficiency for the J-band R=8000 grating is 78.78 +/- 2.54% (TE). We find that these ruled gratings do not exhibit a wide dependency on incident angle within +/-3{\deg}. Our best-manufactured gratings were found to exhibit a dependency on the polarization state of the incident beam with a ~10-20% deviation, consistent with the theoretical efficiency predictions.Comment: Proceedings of the SPIE, 9147-34

Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle

This work was funded by UK NERC grants to M.G.R. and A.J.M. an NERC studentship to D.J.P. the University of Georgia and a US NSF grant to A.J.M. and M.G.R.Parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is complex and, unusually, the sex and number of parents that can be present is flexible. Such flexibility is expected to involve specialized behaviour by the two sexes under biparental conditions. Here, we show that offspring fare equally well regardless of the sex or number of parents present. Comparing transcriptomes, we find a largely overlapping set of differentially expressed genes in both uniparental and biparental females and in uniparental males including vitellogenin, associated with reproduction, and takeout, influencing sex-specific mating and feeding behaviour. Gene expression in biparental males is similar to that in non-caring states. Thus, being ‘biparental’ in N. vespilloides describes the family social organization rather than the number of directly parenting individuals. There was no specialization; instead, in biparental families, direct male parental care appears to be limited with female behaviour unchanged. This should lead to strong sexual conflict.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Combined liver-kidney transplantation and the effect of preformed lymphocytotoxic antibodies

Thirty-eight sequentially placed liver and kidney allografts were evaluated with respect to patient and graft survival, and the influence of preformed lymphocytotoxic antibodies was analysed. The results suggest that the survival rate of combined liver and kidney transplantation is similar to the survival rate of liver transplantation alone. Sequentially placed kidney allografts may be protected from hyperacute rejection in the presence of donor specific lymphocytotoxic antibodies, but not in all instances. Both patient and kidney allograft survival was lower in positive crossmatch patients (33% and 17% respectively) than in negative crossmatch patients (78% and 75%). High levels of panel reactive antibodies (>10%) also appeared to have a deleterious effect on survival, although the majority of the patients who failed also had a positive crossmatch. Although preformed lymphocytotoxic antibodies are not an absolute contraindication to combined liver-kidney transplantation, they do appear to have a deleterious effect on long-term graft survival. However, more correlation with clinical parameters is needed. © 1994