Effective Geothermal Utilisation close to the surface by the TT-Geothermal Radial Drilling (GRD-)Method

In the late 1970-Years, Tracto-Technik developped a very effective radial-shaped percussion system for a geothermal heating, the ECOtherm-System, which was very well accepted by customers. Nowadays, a radial-shaped drilling system, operating some decameters below the surface, was developped by Tracto-Technik, which offers the chance of a very effective drilling for the use of geothermal energy. The main advantage of this development is the reduction of drilling costs by new constructions and new handling possibilities. Drilling processes like the rod connecting or the drill-hole enlargement were solved in other ways as usual, by very time-shortening and effective ways, which are presented in the paper. The new TT-Geothermal radial drilling methods need only a very small but highly effective drilling unit, which reduces the operational drilling cost in a enormous way. All operational drilling steps are reduced to less than a half time as usual. By these GRD-methods, the use of surface-close geothermal energy is simplified and less expansive

Einfluss unterschiedlicher Behandlungsparameter der non-ablativen fraktionierten Photothermolyse auf die Sebumexkretionsrate humaner Talgdrüsen

Die Behandlung humaner Gesichtshaut mittels non-ablativer Fraktionierter Photothermolyse führt zu einer Reduktion der Sebumexkretion. Wir führten daher eine randomisierte, einfach verblindete "Split-Face"-Studie durch, um den Effekt von unterschiedlichen Laser-Behandlungsparametern auf die Sebumexkretion zu untersuchen. 25 Probanden mit Seborrhoe erhielten jeweils drei Laserbehandlungen des gesamten Gesichts. Die Talgsekretion wurde mit Sebutapes® vor der ersten Behandlung und nach 1, 3 und 6 Monaten gemessen. Zudem wurde die subjektive Probandeneinschätzung erhoben. Die Behandlung führte zu einer signifikanten Reduktion der Sekretion in allen Testarealen (p<0,05). Im Vergleich der beiden Gesichtshälften zeigt sich kein signifikanter Seitenunterschied. Eine direkte Schädigung der Gll. Sebaceae als alleiniger Wirkmechanismus erscheint unwahrscheinlich. Andere, der Lasertherapie assoziierte Prozesse, sollten in Betracht gezogen werden

The alpine Swiss-French airborne gravity survey

In February 1998, a regional-scale, airborne gravity survey was carried out over the French Occidental Alps within the framework of the GéoFrance 3-D research program.The survey consisted of 18 NS and 16 EW oriented lines with a spacing of 10 and 20 km respectively, covering the whole of the Western French Alps (total area: 50 000 km2; total distance of lines flown: 10 000 km). The equipment was mounted in a medium-size aircraft (DeHavilland Twin Otter) flowing at a constant altitude of 5100 m a.s.l, and at a mean ground speed of about 280 km h−1. Gravity was measured using a LaCoste & Romberg relative, air/sea gravimeter (type SA) mounted on a laser gyro stabilized platform. Data from 5 GPS antennae located on fuselage and wings and 7 ground-based GPS reference stations were used to determine position and aircraft induced accelerations.The gravimeter passband was derived by comparing the vertical accelerations provided by the gravimeter with those estimated from the GPS positions. This comparison showed that the gravimeter is not sensitive to very short wavelength aircraft accelerations, and therefore a simplified formulation for computing airborne gravity measurements was developed. The intermediate and short wavelength, non-gravitational accelerations were eliminated by means of digital, exponential low-pass filters (cut-off wavelength: 16 km). An important issue in airborne gravimetry is the reliability of the airborne gravity surveys when compared to ground surveys. In our studied area, the differences between the airborne-acquired Bouguer anomaly and the ground upward-continued Bouguer anomaly of the Alps shows a good agreement: the rms of these differences is equal to 7.68 mGal for a spatial resolution of 8 km. However, in some areas with rugged topography, the amplitudes of those differences have a striking correlation with the topography. We then argue that the choice of an appropriate density (reduction by a factor of 10 per cent) for computing the ground topographic corrections over the highest mountains, results in significantly reducing the differences between airborne and ground upward-continued Bouguer anomalies, which shows that some of the misfit stems from errors in the ground dat

Chloroflexi Dominate the Deep-Sea Golf Ball Sponges Craniella zetlandica and Craniella infrequens Throughout Different Life Stages

Deep-sea sponge grounds are underexplored ecosystems that provide numerous goods and services to the functioning of the deep-sea. This study assessed the prokaryotic diversity in embryos, recruits, and adults of Craniella zetlandica and Craniella infrequens, common and abundant representatives of deep-sea sponge grounds in the North Atlantic. Our results reveal that symbiont transmission in the two Craniella sponge species likely occurs vertically, as highly similar microbial consortia have been identified in adults, embryos, and recruits. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy revealed high abundances of sponge-associated microorganisms, among which Chloroflexi (SAR202) were identified as common representatives by amplicon sequencing and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Equal diversity metrices, a similar overall prokaryotic community composition and a distinct dominance of the phylum Chloroflexi within all life stages are the key findings of our analyses. Information such as presented here provide understanding on the recruitment of deep-sea sponge holobionts which is needed to develop integrated management tools of such vulnerable marine ecosystems

Oxygen dynamics and transport in the Mediterranean sponge Aplysina aerophoba

The Mediterranean sponge Aplysina aerophoba kept in aquaria or cultivation tanks can stop pumping for several hours or even days. To investigate changes in the chemical microenvironments, we measured oxygen profiles over the surface and into the tissue of pumping and non-pumping A. aerophoba specimens with Clark-type oxygen microelectrodes (tip diameters 18–30 μm). Total oxygen consumption rates of whole sponges were measured in closed chambers. These rates were used to back-calculate the oxygen distribution in a finite-element model. Combining direct measurements with calculations of diffusive flux and modeling revealed that the tissue of non-pumping sponges turns anoxic within 15 min, with the exception of a 1 mm surface layer where oxygen intrudes due to molecular diffusion over the sponge surface. Molecular diffusion is the only transport mechanism for oxygen into non-pumping sponges, which allows total oxygen consumption rates of 6–12 μmol cm−3 sponge day−1. Sponges of different sizes had similar diffusional uptake rates, which is explained by their similar surface/volume ratios. In pumping sponges, oxygen consumption rates were between 22 and 37 μmol cm−3 sponge day−1, and the entire tissue was oxygenated. Combining different approaches of direct oxygen measurement in living sponges with a dynamic model, we can show that tissue anoxia is a direct function of the pumping behavior. The sponge-microbe system of A. aerophoba thus has the possibility to switch actively between aerobic and anaerobic metabolism by stopping the water flow for more than 15 min. These periods of anoxia will greatly influence physiological variety and activity of the sponge microbes. Detailed knowledge about the varying chemical microenvironments in sponges will help to develop protocols to cultivate sponge-associated microbial lineages and improve our understanding of the sponge-microbe-syste

Towards Solving QCD in Light-Cone Quantization -- On the Spectrum of the Transverse Zero Modes for SU(2)

The formalism for a non-abelian pure gauge theory in (2+1) dimensions has recently been derived within Discretized Light-Cone Quantization, restricting to the lowest {\it transverse} momentum gluons. It is argued why this model can be a paradigm for full QCD. The physical vacuum becomes non-trivial even in light-cone quantization. The approach is brought here to tractable form by suppressing by hand both the dynamical gauge and the constraint zero mode, and by performing a Tamm-Dancoff type Fock-space truncation. Within that model the Hamiltonian is diagonalized numerically, yielding mass spectra and wavefunctions of the glue-ball states. We find that only color singlets have a stable and discrete bound state spectrum. The connection with confinement is discussed. The structure function of the gluons has a shape like $[{x(1-x)}] ^{1\over 3}$. The existence of the continuum limit is verified by deriving a coupled set of integral equations.Comment: 1 Latex file & 9 Postscript files; tarred, compressed and uuencode