Seasonal changes in microbial dissolved organic sulfur transformations in coastal waters

The marine trace gas dimethylsulfide (DMS) is the single most important biogenic source of atmospheric sulfur, accounting for up to 80% of global biogenic sulfur emissions. Approximately 300 million tons of DMS are produced annually, but the majority is degraded by microbes in seawater. The DMS precursor dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and oxidation product dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) are also important organic sulfur reservoirs. However, the marine sinks of dissolved DMSO remain unknown. We used a novel combination of stable and radiotracers to determine seasonal changes in multiple dissolved organic sulfur transformation rates to ascertain whether microbial uptake of dissolved DMSO was a significant loss pathway. Surface concentrations of DMS ranged from 0.5 to 17.0 nM with biological consumption rates between 2.4 and 40.8 nM·d−1. DMS produced from the reduction of DMSO was not a significant process. Surface concentrations of total DMSO ranged from 2.3 to 102 nM with biological consumption of dissolved DMSO between 2.9 and 111 nM·d−1. Comparisons between 14C2-DMSO assimilation and dissimilation rates suggest that the majority of dissolved DMSO was respired (>94%). Radiotracer microbial consumption rates suggest that dissimilation of dissolved DMSO to CO2 can be a significant loss pathway in coastal waters, illustrating the significance of bacteria in controlling organic sulfur seawater concentrations

Cultural Effects On Customer Satisfaction With Service Encounters

The conceptual model presented in this paper illustrates the relationship that we propose exist between several aspects of culture and customer satisfaction with a service encounter. Specifically, the model proposes that (1) the effectiveness of the service script used during a service encounter is directly related to customer satisfaction with the encounter, (2) cultural differences between the customer and the service employee have an impact on the effectiveness of the service script, and (3) the extent to which the customer identifies with his/her culture moderate the effects that cultural differences have on service script effectiveness. Implications for future research are provided, as are recommendations for managing the relationship

Sertraline and Phenytoin Drug Interaction in a Geriatric Patient

This report presents the case of a 78-year-old man residing in a nursing home who presented with a 2-month history of increasing lethargy and confusion. These symptoms coincided with the initiation of sertraline in the patient. Among other medications, he was also taking phenytoin. The medical team concluded that the cause of the patient’s lethargy and confusion was a drug interaction between sertraline and phenytoin. Phenytoin was held, while the sertraline was slowly tapered to discontinuation. The patient’s symptoms resolved soon thereafter. Future research is needed to better guide clinicians in appropriate selection, dosing, and monitoring of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors with concomitant phenytoin use.Key words: phenytoin, sertraline, SSRIs, drug interactio

Noncommutative geometry and motives: the thermodynamics of endomotives

We combine aspects of the theory of motives in algebraic geometry with noncommutative geometry and the classification of factors to obtain a cohomological interpretation of the spectral realization of zeros of $L$-functions. The analogue in characteristic zero of the action of the Frobenius on l-adic cohomology is the action of the scaling group on the cyclic homology of the cokernel (in a suitable category of motives) of a restriction map of noncommutative spaces. The latter is obtained through the thermodynamics of the quantum statistical system associated to an endomotive (a noncommutative generalization of Artin motives). Semigroups of endomorphisms of algebraic varieties give rise canonically to such endomotives, with an action of the absolute Galois group. The semigroup of endomorphisms of the multiplicative group yields the Bost-Connes system, from which one obtains, through the above procedure, the desired cohomological interpretation of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function. In the last section we also give a Lefschetz formula for the archimedean local L-factors of arithmetic varieties.Comment: 52 pages, amslatex, 1 eps figure, v2: final version to appea

The Phoenix Deep Survey: X-ray properties of faint radio sources

In this paper we use a 50ks XMM-Newton pointing overlapping with the Phoenix Deep Survey, a homogeneous radio survey reaching muJy sensitivities, to explore the X-ray properties and the evolution of star-forming galaxies. UV, optical and NIR photometry is available and is used to estimate photometric redshifts and spectral types for radio sources brighter than R=21.5mag (total of 82). Sources with R<21.5mag and spiral galaxy SEDs (34) are grouped into two redshift bins with a median of z=0.240 and 0.455 respectively. Stacking analysis for both the 0.5-2 and 2-8keV bands is performed on these subsamples. A high confidence level signal (>3.5sigma) is detected in the 0.5-2keV band corresponding to a mean flux of ~3e-16cgs for both subsamples. This flux translates to mean luminosities of ~5e40 and 1.5e41cgs for the z=0.240 and 0.455 subsamples respectively. Only a marginally significant signal (2.6sigma) is detected in the 2-8keV band for the z=0.455 subsample. We argue that the stacked signal above is dominated by star-formation. The mean L_X/L_B ratio and the mean L_X of the two subsamples are found to be higher than optically selected spirals and similar to starbursts. We also find that the mean L_X and L_1.4 of the faint radio sources studied here are consistent with the L_X-L_1.4 correlation of local star-forming galaxies. Moreover, the X-ray emissivity of sub-mJy sources to z~0.3 is found to be elevated compared to local HII galaxies. The observed increase is consistent with L_X evolution of the form (1+z)^3. Assuming that our sample is indeed dominated by starbursts this is direct evidence for evolution of such systems at X-ray wavelengths. Using an empirical L_X to SFR conversion we estimate a global SFR density at z~0.3 of \~0.029M_o/yr/Mpc in agreement with previous studies.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Microprogram scheme for automatic recovery from computer error

Microprogram scheme enables computer to recover from failure in one of its two central processing units during time duration of instruction in which failure occurs. Microprogram advantages include - /1/ built-in interpretive capability, /2/ selection of processing interrupts by priority, and /3/ economical use of bootstrap sequence

The Phoenix Deep Survey: spectroscopic catalog

The Phoenix Deep Survey is a multi-wavelength survey based on deep 1.4 GHz radio imaging, reaching well into the sub-100 microJy level. One of the aims of this survey is to characterize the sub-mJy radio population, exploring its nature and evolution. In this paper we present the catalog and results of the spectroscopic observations aimed at characterizing the optically ``bright'' (R<~ 21.5 mag) counterparts of faint radio sources. Out of 371 sources with redshift determination, 21% have absorption lines only, 11% show AGN signatures, 32% are star-forming galaxies, 34% show narrow emission lines that do not allow detailed spectral classification (due to poor signal-to-noise ratio and/or lack of diagnostic emission lines) and the remaining 2% are identified with stars. For the star-forming galaxies with a Balmer decrement measurement we find a median extinction of A(Ha)=1.9 mag, higher than that of optically selected samples. This is a result of the radio selection, which is not biased against dusty systems. Using the available spectroscopic information, we estimate the radio luminosity function of star-forming galaxies in two independent redshift bins at z~0.1 and 0.3 respectively. We find direct evidence for strong luminosity evolution of these systems consistent with L(1.4 GHz) ~ (1+z)^(2.7).Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures. References added, and minor changes to reflect published versio