Large Format Multifunction 2-Terabyte Optical Disk Storage System

The Kodak Digital Science OD System 2000E automated disk library (ADL) base module and write-once drive are being developed as the next generation commercial product to the currently available System 2000 ADL. Under government sponsorship with the Air Force's Rome Laboratory, Kodak is developing magneto-optic (M-O) subsystems compatible with the Kodak Digital Science ODW25 drive architecture, which will result in a multifunction (MF) drive capable of reading and writing 25 gigabyte (GB) WORM media and 15 GB erasable media. In an OD system 2000 E ADL configuration with 4 MF drives and 100 total disks with a 50% ration of WORM and M-O media, 2.0 terabytes (TB) of versatile near line mass storage is available

The impacts of climate change on the winter water cycle of the western Himalaya

Some 180 million people depend on the Indus River as a key water resource, fed largely by precipitation falling over the western Himalaya. However, the projected response of western Himalayan precipitation to climate change is currently not well constrained: CMIP5 GCMs project a reduced frequency and vorticity of synoptic-scale systems impacting the area, but such systems would exist in a considerably moister atmosphere. In this study, a convection-permitting (4 km horizontal resolution) setup of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to examine 40 cases of these synoptic-scale systems, known as western disturbances (WDs), as they interact with the western Himalaya. In addition to a present-day control run, three experiments are performed by perturbing the boundary and initial conditions to reflect pre-industrial, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 background climates respectively. It is found that in spite of the weakening intensity of WDs, net precipitation associated with them in future climate scenarios increases significantly; conversely there is no net change in precipitation between the pre-industrial and control experiments despite a significant conversion of snowfall in the pre-industrial experiment to rainfall in the control experiment, consistent with the changes seen in historical observations. This shift from snowfall to rainfall has profound consequences on water resource management in the Indus Valley, where irrigation is dependent on spring meltwater. Flux decomposition shows that the increase in future precipitation follows directly from the projected moistening of the tropical atmosphere (which increases the moisture flux incident on the western Himalaya by 28%) overpowering the weakened dynamics (which decreases it by 20%). Changes to extreme rainfall events are also examined: it is found that such events may increase significantly in frequency in both future scenarios examined. Two-hour maxima rainfall events that currently occur in 1-in-8 WDs are projected to increase tenfold in frequency in the RCP8.5 scenario; more prolonged (one-week maxima) events are projected to increase fiftyfold

X-ray absorption spectroscopic study of rare earth-manganese intermetallic compounds

Chemical shifts of the K-absorption edge of Mn and the L3-absorption edges of rare earths (R = Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Lu) in RMn2 intermetallic compounds are measured and the effective charges on the Mn and R ions are estimated. Extended X-ray absorption edge fine structures (EXAFS) associated with the absorption edges are investigated and R-Mn and Mn-Mn bond lengths in R-Mn2 compounds are determined. The results are interpreted in the light of the available data on these intermetallic compounds

X-ray absorption spectroscopic study of mixed valence systems EuCu<SUB>2</SUB>Si<SUB>2</SUB>, YbCu<SUB>2</SUB>Si<SUB>2</SUB> and Sm<SUB>4</SUB>Bi<SUB>3</SUB>

X-ray absorption spectroscopy technique is employed to determine the valence of the rare earth ions in EuCu2Si2, YbCu2Si2 and Sm4Bi3. In each case, two absorption peaks corresponding to two different valence states of respective rare earth ions have been observed. Low temperature (77 K) study of EuCu2Si2 indicates distinct change in the relative intensities of the absorption peaks compared to those registered at room temperature (300 K). It is inferred from the change in the relative intensities that the population of Eu2+ in EuCu2Si2 decreases at liquid nitrogen temperature compared to Eu3+. Conclusions drawn from these results agree well with those reported by others using different experimental techniques. In Sm4Bi3, Sm2+ and Sm3+ are found to occur in the ratio of 3:1