The Separation of the Two Types of Iodine Molecule and the Photochemical Reaction of Gaseous Iodine with Hexene

Soon after Dennison had deduced from the specific-heat curve that ordinary hydrogen gas consists of a mixture of two types of molecule, the so called ortho and para hydrogen, a similar state of affairs in the case of iodine gas was demonstrated by direct experiment by R. W. Wood and F. W. Loomis (1). In brief, these experimenters found that the iodine bands observed in fluorescence stimulated by white light differ from those in the fluorescence excited by the green mercury line λ 5461, which happens to coincide with one of the iodine absorption lines. Half of the lines are missing in the latter case, only those being present which are due to transitions in which the rotational quantum number of the upper state is an even integer. In other words, in the fluorescence spectrum excited by λ 5461 only those lines appear which are due to what we may provisionally call the "ortho" type of iodine molecule. It is evident than that by irradiating iodine gas with the green mercury line it is possible to selectively activate molecules of the "ortho" type. Furthermore, as shown by these experiments, a molecule of the "ortho" type has an average life time in this form longer than the time it remains in the activated condition before emitting radiation. It occurred to one of us that these facts might be made use of in effecting a separation of the two molecular types. If some substance is added to the iodine gas with which only the activated molecules will react, one should be able to get rid of them, leaving only the other type of molecule which does not absorb the mercury line

A Predictive Algorithm For Wetlands In Deep Time Paleoclimate Models

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas produced in wetland environments via microbial action in anaerobic conditions. If the location and extent of wetlands are unknown, such as for the Earth many millions of years in the past, a model of wetland fraction is required in order to calculate methane emissions and thus help reduce uncertainty in the understanding of past warm greenhouse climates. Here we present an algorithm for predicting inundated wetland fraction for use in calculating wetland methane emission fluxes in deep time paleoclimate simulations. The algorithm determines, for each grid cell in a given paleoclimate simulation, the wetland fraction predicted by a nearest neighbours search of modern day data in a space described by a set of environmental, climate and vegetation variables. To explore this approach, we first test it for a modern day climate with variables obtained from observations and then for an Eocene climate with variables derived from a fully coupled global climate model (HadCM3BL-M2.2). Two independent dynamic vegetation models were used to provide two sets of equivalent vegetation variables which yielded two different wetland predictions. As a first test the method, using both vegetation models, satisfactorily reproduces modern data wetland fraction at a course grid resolution, similar to those used in paleoclimate simulations. We then applied the method to an early Eocene climate, testing its outputs against the locations of Eocene coal deposits. We predict global mean monthly wetland fraction area for the early Eocene of 8 to 10 × 106km2 with corresponding total annual methane flux of 656 to 909 Tg, depending on which of two different dynamic global vegetation models are used to model wetland fraction and methane emission rates. Both values are significantly higher than estimates for the modern-day of 4 × 106km2 and around 190Tg (Poulter et. al. 2017, Melton et. al., 2013

The Visco-Elastic Behavior of a Highly Plasticized Nitrocellulose in Compression under Constant Load

The behavior of a highly plasticized nitrocellulose in compression under constant load has been investigated over a rather wide range of load and temperature. The load dependence appears to require the assumption of non‐Newtonian viscosity. Though the observations are not quantitatively accounted for by the Tobolsky‐Eyring model, the load and temperature dependence of the rate of compression appear to have some relation to the predictions of these authors

SUSY Ward identities for multi-gluon helicity amplitudes with massive quarks

We use supersymmetric Ward identities to relate multi-gluon helicity amplitudes involving a pair of massive quarks to amplitudes with massive scalars. This allows to use the recent results for scalar amplitudes with an arbitrary number of gluons obtained by on-shell recursion relations to obtain scattering amplitudes involving top quarks.Comment: 22 pages, references adde

Immediate effects of microclimate modification enhance native shrub encroachment

Shrubs have become more dense and expanded beyond their range all over the world for a variety of reasons including increased temperatures, overgrazing, and alteration of historical fire regime. Native shrubs have been encroaching on Virginia barrier island grasslands for over half a century for unknown reasons. Species composition, soil nutrients, leaf area index (LAI), and ground and air temperature were recorded across the shrub to grass transition and at free-standing shrubs in a coastal grassland in order to determine the effect of shrub encroachment on plant community and microclimate. Species richness was significantly lower inside shrub thickets. Soil water content, organic matter, nitrogen (N), carbon (C), and LAI were higher in shrub thickets and free-standing shrubs compared to grasslands. Summer and fall maximum temperatures were lower and more moderate where shrubs were present. Fall and winter minimum temperatures were highest inside shrub thickets. Native shrubs impact microclimate and species composition immediately upon encroachment. These shrubs lower overall species composition, increase soil nutrients and moisture, moderate summer temperature, and increase winter temperature, which has consequences on a larger scale. As barrier islands are critical for protecting marsh and mainland habitats, understanding this mechanism for shrub expansion is important to predict future encroachment of shrubs and displacement of grassland habitat

Application of the dimensionless Aggressiveness number in abrasive processes

The chip thickness is often used to characterize abrasive processes, particularly grinding. Unfortunately, because of the seemingly random nature of the geometrically undefined cutting points and difficulty in estimating the cutting-point density, chip thickness is notoriously difficult to quantify. Recently, the dimensionless Aggressiveness number has gained popularity because it circumvents the need to quantify the wheel topography and is applicable to any geometry in abrasive contact. This paper shows how the concept of dimensionless Aggressiveness number applies to the most common abrasive geometries and how it can be used to achieve practical results in a variety of applications

Antitrust Challenge to Non-Profit Certification Organizations: Conflicts of Interest and a Practical Rule of Reason Approach to Certification Programs As Industry-Wide Builders of Competition and Efficiency

The paramount antitrust challenge for nonprofit product certification programs is to demonstrate aggressively that such programs strengthen the competitive market system on an industry-wide basis. This affirmative challenge is, however, limited by another urgent antitrust challenge still closer to the courtroom door. This challenge, requiring advance organizational and litigation planning, is to avoid or defeat a possible plaintiff\u27s claim of antitrust abuses by a certification organization whose decision-making participants may be caught in alleged conflicts of interest. These two challenges must be met for certification programs to survive and progress. The only way successfully to meet these antitrust challenges is to make product performance certification programs synonymous with industry-wide competition and productivity and with systems of safeguards against conflicts of interest. Further, this must be proved to the judge and jury. This Commentary will discuss two critical questions that flow from an analytical approach to these two challenges: First, whether a coherent basis exists for viewing nonprofit certification programs as structural elements in the marketplace hierarchy that advance urgent antitrust goals, including increased competition and productivity; and second, whether a distinct duty to safeguard certification organizations against conflicts of interest would, if met, demonstrate that a certification organization under antitrust scrutiny in court should be found to be without conspiratorial intent