Arctic ocean shelf-basin interaction: An active continental shelf CO2 pump and its impact on the degree of calcium carbonate solubility

The Arctic Ocean has wide shelf areas with extensive biological activity including a high primary productivity and an active microbial loop within the surface sediment. This in combination with brine production during sea ice formation result in the decay products exiting from the shelf into the deep basin typically at a depth of about 150 m and over a wide salinity range centered around S not, vert, similar33. We present data from the Beringia cruise in 2005 along a section in the Canada Basin from the continental margin north of Alaska towards the north and from the International Siberian Shelf Study in 2008 (ISSS-08) to illustrate the impact of these processes. The water rich in decay products, nutrients and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), exits the shelf not only from the Chukchi Sea, as has been shown earlier, but also from the East Siberian Sea. The excess of DIC found in the Canada Basin in a depth range of about 50–250 m amounts to 90±40 g C m−2. If this excess is integrated over the whole Canadian Basin the excess equals 320±140×1012 g C. The high DIC concentration layer also has low pH and consequently a low degree of calcium carbonate saturation, with minimum aragonite values of 60% saturation and calcite values just below saturation. The mean age of the waters in the top 300 m was calculated using the transit time distribution method. By applying a future exponential increase of atmospheric CO2 the invasion of anthropogenic carbon into these waters will result in an under-saturated surface water with respect to aragonite by the year 2050, even without any freshening caused by melting sea ice or increased river discharge

Characterization of a Be(p,xn) neutron source for fission yields measurements

We report on measurements performed at The Svedberg Laboratory (TSL) to characterize a proton-neutron converter for independent fission yield studies at the IGISOL-JYFLTRAP facility (Jyv\"askyl\"a, Finland). A 30 MeV proton beam impinged on a 5 mm water-cooled Beryllium target. Two independent experimental techniques have been used to measure the neutron spectrum: a Time of Flight (TOF) system used to estimate the high-energy contribution, and a Bonner Sphere Spectrometer able to provide precise results from thermal energies up to 20 MeV. An overlap between the energy regions covered by the two systems will permit a cross-check of the results from the different techniques. In this paper, the measurement and analysis techniques will be presented together with some preliminary results.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, also submitted as proceedings of the International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology 201

The human gut microbiota and glucose metabolism: a scoping review of key bacteria and the potential role of SCFAs

The gut microbiota plays a fundamental role in human nutrition and metabolism and may have direct implications for type 2 diabetes and associated preconditions. An improved understanding of relations between human gut microbiota and glucose metabolism could lead to novel opportunities for type 2 diabetes prevention, but human observational studies reporting on such findings have not been extensively reviewed. Here, we review the literature on associations between gut microbiota and markers and stages of glucose dysregulation and insulin resistance in healthy adults and in adults with metabolic disease and risk factors. We present the current evidence for identified key bacteria and their potential roles in glucose metabolism independent of overweight, obesity, and metabolic drugs. We provide support for SCFAs mediating such effects and discuss the role of diet, as well as metabolites derived from diet and gut microbiota interactions. From 5983 initially identified PubMed records, 45 original studies were eligible and reviewed. alpha Diversity and 45 bacterial taxa were associated with selected outcomes. Six taxa were most frequently associated with glucose metabolism: Akkermansia muciniphila, Bifidobacterium longum, Clostridium leptum group, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and Faecalibacterium (inversely associated) and Dorea (directly associated). For Dorea and A. muciniphila, associations were independent of metabolic drugs and body measures. For A. muciniphila and F. prausnitzii, limited evidence supported SCFA mediation of potential effects on glucose metabolism. We conclude that observational studies applying metagenomics sequencing to identify species-level relations are warranted, as are studies accounting for confounding factors and investigating SCFA and postprandial glucose metabolism. Such advances in the field will, together with mechanistic and prospective studies and investigations into diet-gut microbiota interactions, have the potential to bring critical insight into roles of gut microbiota and microbial metabolites in human glucose metabolism and to contribute toward the development of novel prevention strategies for type 2 diabetes, including precision nutrition

Towards a novel framework of barriers and drivers for digital transformation in industrial supply chains

© 2019 PICMET. Businesses across all sectors are facing the complexity of an increasingly digital economy. Digital transformation offers vast opportunities to businesses and entire supply chains. While many investments are targeted at the organization level, the supply chain perspective can lead to even greater impacts on business performance. However, as supply chains involve interconnections between multiple actors, comprehensive digitalization initiatives at this level are very complex. Several strategic factors affect decision-making around digital investments. For this reason, a framework that categorizes all these factors is needed in order to help managers build digitalization strategies for their supply chains. In this paper, based on a review of existing literature, we give indications for a framework encompassing barriers to and drivers for digital transformation in the context of industrial supply chains. Our framework preliminarily allocates these factors by using two dimensions. The first one classifies them using several categories: financial, knowledge and skills, regulatory, technological, market, organizational, and cultural. The second dimension classifies determinants at the level on which actions can be made, i.e. market, supply chain, or organization. The framework can support organizations to exploit the opportunities provided by digitalization of supply chains and will help managers understand the complexity involved

Acceleration of diffusion in ethylammonium nitrate ionic liquid confined between parallel glass plates

© the Owner Societies 2017. Diffusion of EAN confined between polar glass plates separated by a few micrometers is higher by a factor of ca. 2 as compared to bulk values. Formation of a new phase, different to the bulk, was suggested

Dual sightline measurements of MeV range deuterons with neutron and gamma-ray spectroscopy at JET

Observations made in a JET experiment aimed at accelerating deuterons to the MeV range by third harmonic radio-frequency (RF) heating coupled into a deuterium beam are reported. Measurements are based on a set of advanced neutron and gamma-ray spectrometers that, for the first time, observe the plasma simultaneously along vertical and oblique lines of sight. Parameters of the fast ion energy distribution, such as the high energy cut-off of the deuteron distribution function and the RF coupling constant, are determined from data within a uniform analysis framework for neutron and gamma-ray spectroscopy based on a one-dimensional model and by a consistency check among the individual measurement techniques. A systematic difference is seen between the two lines of sight and is interpreted to originate from the sensitivity of the oblique detectors to the pitch-angle structure of the distribution around the resonance, which is not correctly portrayed within the adopted one dimensional model. A framework to calculate neutron and gamma-ray emission from a spatially resolved, two-dimensional deuteron distribution specified by energy/pitch is thus developed and used for a first comparison with predictions from ab initio models of RF heating at multiple harmonics. The results presented in this paper are of relevance for the development of advanced diagnostic techniques for MeV range ions in high performance fusion plasmas, with applications to the experimental validation of RF heating codes and, more generally, to studies of the energy distribution of ions in the MeV range in high performance deuterium and deuterium-tritium plasmas.This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.Postprint (author's final draft