177 research outputs found
Making SPIFFI SPIFFIER: Upgrade of the SPIFFI instrument for use in ERIS and performance analysis from re-commissioning
SPIFFI is an AO-fed integral field spectrograph operating as part of SINFONI
on the VLT, which will be upgraded and reused as SPIFFIER in the new VLT
instrument ERIS. In January 2016, we used new technology developments to
perform an early upgrade to optical subsystems in the SPIFFI instrument so
ongoing scientific programs can make use of enhanced performance before ERIS
arrives in 2020. We report on the upgraded components and the performance of
SPIFFI after the upgrade, including gains in throughput and spatial and
spectral resolution. We show results from re-commissioning, highlighting the
potential for scientific programs to use the capabilities of the upgraded
SPIFFI. Finally, we discuss the additional upgrades for SPIFFIER which will be
implemented before it is integrated into ERIS.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Proceedings from SPIE Astronomical Telescopes
and Instrumentation 201
Balancing family with a successful career in neuroscience.
After years of hard work as a student and postdoc, stressful negotiations and restless nights of agony regarding your academic future, you managed to secure a Principal Investigator (PI) position and establish your own laboratory. And just when you thought you could relax a bit and enjoy some time with your family, or start a family, you find yourself facing massive levels of responsibility added to your research, that demand most of your time and energy. The challenge to balance a successful career with a happy family life is not a trivial one.The FENSâKavli Network of Excellence is supported by FENS, the Kavli Foundation, Alzheimer's Research UK, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and Roche. P.P. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (StG 311435 dEMORY). J.G. is supported by the European Research Council (StG 678832 REMOTE MEMORY TRACES), an MQ fellow award, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the National Competence Center for Research in Switzerland SYNAPSY, the SYNAPSIS Foundation, the BĂ©atrice EdererâWeber Stiftung, the Alzheimer's Association as well as by an Independent Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. I.H.âO. is supported by the ERC Consolidator Grant CoG 681577 PSYCHOCELL. D.B. is supported by the Wellcome Trust. G.L.âB. is supported by the European Research Council, ERCâ2014âCoG 647012 and the Spanish MINECO BFU2012â34298 grant
Simulating future salinity dynamics in a coastal marshland under different climate scenarios
Salinization is a wellâknown problem in agricultural areas worldwide. In the last 20â30 yr, rising salinity in the upper, unconfined aquifer has been observed in the Freepsumer Meer, a grassland near the German North Sea coast. For investigating longâterm development of salinity and water balance during 1961â2099, the oneâdimensional SoilâWaterâAtmosphereâPlant (SWAP) model was set up and calibrated for a soil column in the area. The model setup involves a deep aquifer as the source of salt through upward seepage. In the vertical salt transport equation, dispersion and advection are included. Six different regional outputs of statistical downscaling methods were used as climate scenarios. These comprise different rates of increasing surface temperature and different trends in seasonal rainfall. The simulation results exhibit opposing salinity trends for topsoil and deeper layers. Although projections of some scenarios entail decreasing salinities near the surface, most of them project a rise in subsoil salinity, with the strongest trends of up to +0.9 mg cmâ3 100 yrâ1 at â65 cm. The results suggest that topsoil salinity trends in the study area are affected by the magnitude of winter rainfall trends, whereas high subsoil salinities correspond to low winter rainfall and high summer temperature. How these projected trends affect the vegetation and thereby future land use will depend on the future management of groundwater levels in the area
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