19,964 research outputs found
Ammonia emissions from deciduous forest after leaf fall
The understanding of biochemical feedback mechanisms in the climate system is lacking knowledge in relation to bi-directional ammonia (NH3) exchange between natural ecosystems and the atmosphere. We therefore study the atmospheric NH3 fluxes during a 25-day period during autumn 2010 (21 October to 15 November) for the Danish beech forest Lille Bøgeskov to address the hypothesis that NH3 emissions occur from deciduous forests in relation to leaf fall. This is accomplished by using observations of vegetation status, NH3 fluxes and model calculations. Vegetation status was observed using plant area index (PAI) and leaf area index (LAI). NH3 fluxes were measured using the relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) method. The REA-based NH3 concentrations were compared to NH3 denuder measurements. Model calculations of the atmospheric NH3 concentration were obtained with the Danish Ammonia MOdelling System (DAMOS). The relative contribution from the forest components to the atmospheric NH3 flux was assessed using a simple two-layer bi-directional canopy compensation point model. A total of 57.7% of the fluxes measured showed emission and 19.5% showed deposition. A clear tendency of the flux going from deposition of −0.25 ± 0.30 μg NH3-N m−2 s−1 to emission of up to 0.67 ± 0.28 μg NH3-N m−2 s−1 throughout the measurement period was found. In the leaf fall period (23 October to 8 November), an increase in the atmospheric NH3 concentrations was related to the increasing forest NH3 flux. Following leaf fall, the magnitude and temporal structure of the measured NH3 emission fluxes could be adequately reproduced with the bi-directional resistance model; it suggested the forest ground layer (soil and litter) to be the main contributing component to the NH3 emissions. The modelled concentration from DAMOS fits well the measured concentrations before leaf fall, but during and after leaf fall, the modelled concentrations are too low. The results indicate that the missing contribution to atmospheric NH3 concentration from vegetative surfaces related to leaf fall are of a relatively large magnitude. We therefore conclude that emissions from deciduous forests are important to include in model calculations of atmospheric NH3 for forest ecosystems. Finally, diurnal variations in the measured NH3 concentrations were related to meteorological conditions, forest phenology and the spatial distribution of local anthropogenic NH3 sources. This suggests that an accurate description of ammonia fluxes over forest ecosystems requires a dynamic description of atmospheric and vegetation processes
Fish schooling as a basis for vertical axis wind turbine farm design
Most wind farms consist of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) due to the
high power coefficient (mechanical power output divided by the power of the
free-stream air through the turbine cross-sectional area) of an isolated
turbine. However when in close proximity to neighbouring turbines, HAWTs suffer
from a reduced power coefficient. In contrast, previous research on vertical
axis wind turbines (VAWTs) suggests that closely-spaced VAWTs may experience
only small decreases (or even increases) in an individual turbine's power
coefficient when placed in close proximity to neighbours, thus yielding much
higher power outputs for a given area of land. A potential flow model of
inter-VAWT interactions is developed to investigate the effect of changes in
VAWT spatial arrangement on the array performance coefficient, which compares
the expected average power coefficient of turbines in an array to a
spatially-isolated turbine. A geometric arrangement based on the configuration
of shed vortices in the wake of schooling fish is shown to significantly
increase the array performance coefficient based upon an array of 16x16 wind
turbines. Results suggest increases in power output of over one order of
magnitude for a given area of land as compared to HAWTs.Comment: Submitted for publication in BioInspiration and Biomimetics. Note:
The technology described in this paper is protected under both US and
international pending patents filed by the California Institute of Technolog
Staging superstructures in high- Sr/O co-doped LaSrCuO
We present high energy X-ray diffraction studies on the structural phases of
an optimal high- superconductor LaSrCuO tailored by
co-hole-doping. This is specifically done by varying the content of two very
different chemical species, Sr and O, respectively, in order to study the
influence of each. A superstructure known as staging is observed in all
samples, with the staging number increasing for higher Sr dopings . We
find that the staging phases emerge abruptly with temperature, and can be
described as a second order phase transition with transition temperatures
slightly depending on the Sr doping. The Sr appears to correlate the
interstitial oxygen in a way that stabilises the reproducibility of the staging
phase both in terms of staging period and volume fraction in a specific sample.
The structural details as investigated in this letter appear to have no direct
bearing on the electronic phase separation previously observed in the same
samples. This provides new evidence that the electronic phase separation is
determined by the overall hole concentration rather than specific Sr/O content
and concommittant structural details.Comment: 8 pages, incl. 4 figure
Vortex vs spinning string: Iordanskii force and gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect
We discuss the transverse force acting on the spinning cosmic string, moving
in the background matter. It comes from the gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect
and corresponds to the Iordanskii force acting on the vortex in superfluids,
when the vortex moves with respect to the normal component of the liquid.Comment: Latex file, 9 pages, no figures, references are added, version
submitted to JETP Let
Bayesian optimisation approach to quantify the effect of input parameter uncertainty on predictions of numerical physics simulations
An understanding of how input parameter uncertainty in the numerical
simulation of physical models leads to simulation output uncertainty is a
challenging task. Common methods for quantifying output uncertainty, such as
performing a grid or random search over the model input space, are
computationally intractable for a large number of input parameters, represented
by a high-dimensional input space. It is therefore generally unclear as to
whether a numerical simulation can reproduce a particular outcome (e.g. a set
of experimental results) with a plausible set of model input parameters. Here,
we present a method for efficiently searching the input space using Bayesian
Optimisation to minimise the difference between the simulation output and a set
of experimental results. Our method allows explicit evaluation of the
probability that the simulation can reproduce the measured experimental results
in the region of input space defined by the uncertainty in each input
parameter. We apply this method to the simulation of charge-carrier dynamics in
the perovskite semiconductor methyl-ammonium lead iodide MAPbI that has
attracted attention as a light harvesting material in solar cells. From our
analysis we conclude that the formation of large polarons, quasiparticles
created by the coupling of excess electrons or holes with ionic vibrations,
cannot explain the experimentally observed temperature dependence of electron
mobility
Application of B-splines to determining eigen-spectrum of Feshbach molecules
The B-spline basis set method is applied to determining the rovibrational
eigen-spectrum of diatomic molecules. A particular attention is paid to a
challenging numerical task of an accurate and efficient description of the
vibrational levels near the dissociation limit (halo-state and Feshbach
molecules). Advantages of using B-splines are highlighted by comparing the
performance of the method with that of the commonly-used discrete variable
representation (DVR) approach. Several model cases, including the Morse
potential and realistic potentials with 1/R^3 and 1/R^6 long-range dependence
of the internuclear separation are studied. We find that the B-spline method is
superior to the DVR approach and it is robust enough to properly describe the
Feshbach molecules. The developed numerical method is applied to studying the
universal relation of the energy of the last bound state to the scattering
length. We numerically illustrate the validity of the quantum-defect-theoretic
formulation of such a relation for a 1/R^6 potential.Comment: submitted to can j phys: Walter Johnson symposu
High Resolution Imaging of the Mitral Valve in the Natural State with 7 Tesla MRI
Imaging techniques of the mitral valve have improved tremendously during the last decade, but challenges persist. The delicate changes in annulus shape and papillary muscle position throughout the cardiac cycle have significant impact on the stress distribution in the leaflets and chords, thus preservation of anatomically accurate positioning is critical. The aim of this study was to develop an in vitro method and apparatus for obtaining high-resolution 3D MRI images of porcine mitral valves in both the diastolic and systolic configurations with physiologically appropriate annular shape, papillary muscle positions and orientations, specific to the heart from which the valve was harvested. Positioning and mounting was achieved through novel, customized mounting hardware consisting of papillary muscle and annulus holders with geometries determined via pre-mortem ultrasonic intra-valve measurements. A semi-automatic process was developed and employed to tailor Computer Aided Design models of the holders used to mount the valve. All valve mounting hardware was 3D printed using a stereolithographic printer, and the material of all fasteners used were brass for MRI compatibility. The mounted valves were placed within a clear acrylic case, capable of holding a zero-pressure and pressurized liquid bath of a MRI-compatible fluid. Obtaining images from the valve submerged in liquid fluid mimics the natural environment surrounding the valve, avoiding artefacts due to tissue surface tension mismatch and gravitational impact on tissue shape when not neutrally buoyant. Fluid pressure was supplied by reservoirs held at differing elevations and monitored and controlled to within ±1mmHg to ensure that the valves remained steady. The valves were scanned in a 7 Tesla MRI system providing a voxel resolution of at least 80μm. The systematic approach produced 3D datasets of high quality which, when combined with physiologically accurate positioning by the apparatus, can serve as an important input for validated computational models
Bayesian optimization approach to quantify the effect of input parameter uncertainty on predictions of numerical physics simulations
Collective Particle Flow through Random Media
A simple model for the nonlinear collective transport of interacting
particles in a random medium with strong disorder is introduced and analyzed. A
finite threshold for the driving force divides the behavior into two regimes
characterized by the presence or absence of a steady-state particle current.
Below this threshold, transient motion is found in response to an increase in
the force, while above threshold the flow approaches a steady state with motion
only on a network of channels which is sparse near threshold. Some of the
critical behavior near threshold is analyzed via mean field theory, and
analytic results on the statistics of the moving phase are derived. Many of the
results should apply, at least qualitatively, to the motion of magnetic bubble
arrays and to the driven motion of vortices in thin film superconductors when
the randomness is strong enough to destroy the tendencies to lattice order even
on short length scales. Various history dependent phenomena are also discussed.Comment: 63 preprint pages plus 6 figures. Submitted to Phys Rev
The Central Regions of M31 in the 3 - 5 micron Wavelength Region
Images obtained with NIRI on the Gemini North telescope are used to
investigate the photometric properties of the central regions of M31 in the 3 -
5 micron wavelength range. The light distribution in the central arcsecond
differs from what is seen in the near-infrared in the sense that the difference
in peak brigh tness between P1 and P2 is larger in M' than in K'; no obvious
signature of P3 is dete cted in M'. These results can be explained if there is
a source of emission that contributes ~ 20% of the peak M' light of P1 and has
an effective temperature of no more than a few hundred K that is located
between P1 and P2. Based on the red K-M' color of this source, it is suggested
that the emission originates in a circumstellar dust shell surrounding a single
bright AGB star. A similar bright source that is ~ 8 arcsec from the center of
the galaxy is also detected in M'. Finally, the (L', K-L') color-magnitude
diagram of unblended stars shows a domin ant AGB population with photometric
characteristics that are similar to those of the most luminous M giants in the
Galactic bulge.Comment: To appear in the Astronomical Journa
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