Preliminary experimental results of gas recycling subsystems except carbon dioxide concentration

Oxygen concentration and separation is an essential factor for air recycling in a controlled ecological life support system (CELSS). Furthermore, if the value of the plant assimilatory quotient is not coincident with that of the animal respiratory quotient, the recovery of oxygen from the concentrated CO2 through chemical methods will become necessary to balance the gas contents in a CELSS. Therefore, oxygen concentration and separation equipment using Salcomine and O2 recovery equipment, such as Sabatier and Bosch reactors, were experimentally developed and tested

Normal metal - insulator - superconductor interferometer

Hybrid normal metal - insulator - superconductor microstructures suitable for studying an interference of electrons were fabricated. The structures consist of a superconducting loop connected to a normal metal electrode through a tunnel barrier . An optical interferometer with a beam splitter can be considered as a classical analogue for this system. All measurements were performed at temperatures well below 1 K. The interference can be observed as periodic oscillations of the tunnel current (voltage) through the junction at fixed bias voltage (current) as a function of a perpendicular magnetic field. The magnitude of the oscillations depends on the bias point. It reaches a maximum at energy $eV$ which is close to the superconducting gap and decreases with an increase of temperature. Surprisingly, the period of the oscillations in units of magnetic flux $\Delta \Phi$ is equal neither to $h/e$ nor to $h/2e$, but significantly exceeds these values for larger loop circumferences. The origin of the phenomena is not clear.Comment: 11 pages and 8 figure

Pengukuran Efisiensi Perbankan Syariah Berbasis Manajemen Risiko

Efficiency was very important to note because it reflected the performance of a bank. This research aimed todetermine the level of efficiency of Islamic banking in Indonesia using risk management approach during theperiod 2005 to 2009. The samples in this research were commercial Islamic banks and sharia business unit.Commercial Islamic banks consisted of Bank Syariah Mandiri, Bank Syariah Mega, and Bank Muamalat.While the Sharia Business Unit consisted of Bank Permata and Bank Niaga. This research used Data EnvelopmentAnalysis (DEA) to obtain the level of efficiency of each bank which was being investigated. Inputvariables used in this study were the input variable of risk such as operational risk, liquidity risk, andfinancing risk. While the output used was the total financing, and revenue sharing. The results showed thatlevels of efficiency in this research period, Bank Syariah Mandiri and Bank Muamalat always had an efficientcondition. This was because the number of customers of the two banks were large and both of them had arelatively large branch network

Tropical fishes dominate temperate reef fish communities within western Japan

Climate change is resulting in rapid poleward shifts in the geographical distribution of tropical and subtropical fish species. We can expect that such range shifts are likely to be limited by species-specific resource requirements, with temperate rocky reefs potentially lacking a range of settlement substrates or specific dietary components important in structuring the settlement and success of tropical and subtropical fish species. We examined the importance of resource use in structuring the distribution patterns of range shifting tropical and subtropical fishes, comparing this with resident temperate fish species within western Japan (Tosa Bay); the abundance, diversity, size class, functional structure and latitudinal range of reef fishes utilizing both coral reef and adjacent rocky reef habitat were quantified over a 2 year period (2008-2010). This region has undergone rapid poleward expansion of reef-building corals in response to increasing coastal water temperatures, and forms one of the global hotspots for rapid coastal changes. Despite the temperate latitude surveyed (33°N, 133°E) the fish assemblage was both numerically, and in terms of richness, dominated by tropical fishes. Such tropical faunal dominance was apparent within both coral, and rocky reef habitats. The size structure of the assemblage suggested that a relatively large number of tropical species are overwintering within both coral and rocky habitats, with a subset of these species being potentially reproductively active. The relatively high abundance and richness of tropical species with obligate associations with live coral resources (i.e., obligate corallivores) shows that this region holds the most well developed temperate-located tropical fish fauna globally. We argue that future tropicalisation of the fish fauna in western Japan, associated with increasing coral habitat development and reported increasing shifts in coastal water temperatures, may have considerable positive economic impacts to the local tourism industry and bring qualitative changes to both local and regional fisheries resources. © 2013 Nakamura et al

Microfabrication and Application of Series-Connected PZT Elements

AbstractThis paper presents series-connected PZT elements that yield high output voltage, and also shows complete establishment in the fabrication process. Series-connected PZT elements are realized by connecting the upper electrode of a PZT element with the lower electrode of another PZT element. Sputtered PZT thin-film has perovskite crystalline structure and piezoelectric coefficients up to 40 pC/N. To avoid troublesome wet etching, the PZT films, the electrodes, and insulation layers are dry-etched. The all dry-etching process performs multilayer wiring of the electrodes. Evaluations for the PZT elements validates that the output voltage is the sum output voltage of each single element

A systematical veto by all monitor signals in a gravitational-wave detector

We present the current state of veto studies in TAMA300 by monitor signals of the interferometer and its environment. In GW data analysis, fake GW events may bury real GW events or worse upper limits on the event rate. Thus, fake-event rejection is an important issue. In general, we can reject these fake events by the monitor signals, since these fake events are induced due to detector instabilities. However, using all monitor signals for the fake-event rejection would increase the accidental rejection probability and dead time without improving veto efficiency, since all monitor signals do not have correlations to the detector instabilities. Here, we analyze coincidences between the main and selected monitor signals with the optimal parameters for the fake-event rejection. Then, coincident events are rejected as the fake events. For the signal selection and parameter optimization, we systematically investigate the correlations with the detector instabilities. As a result, we achieved 30–99% veto efficiency using ten selected monitor signals with the 3.2% accidental rejection probability and 0.2% dead time

Microfabrication and Application of Series-Connected PZT Elements

AbstractThis paper presents series-connected PZT elements that yield high output voltage, and also shows complete establishment in the fabrication process. Series-connected PZT elements are realized by connecting the upper electrode of a PZT element with the lower electrode of another PZT element. Sputtered PZT thin-film has perovskite crystalline structure and piezoelectric coefficients up to 40 pC/N. To avoid troublesome wet etching, the PZT films, the electrodes, and insulation layers are dry-etched. The all dry-etching process performs multilayer wiring of the electrodes. Evaluations for the PZT elements validates that the output voltage is the sum output voltage of each single element

Diversité des espèces cultivées et contraintes à la production en agriculture maraîchère au Togo

Cette étude vise à faire le point sur la diversité des espèces cultivées en agriculture maraîchère, leur distribution suivant les organes produits, la disponibilité des légumes ainsi que les contraintes qui entravent cette agriculture. Elle se fonde sur des enquêtes menées sous forme de "focus groups" auprès des maraîchers du pays. Les données recueillies et traitées ont révélé 43 espèces maraîchères qui se répartissent en 30 genres et 17 familles. Les légumes feuilles sont les plus fréquents quoique l’on puisse constater une prédominance de production de la carotte (Daucus carotta L.). Bien que Brassica oleracea var. capitata L. et Lactuca sativa L. soient cultivées dans tout le pays, elles semblent néanmoins être spécifiques des régions sèches de la Kara et des Savanes qui alimentent la capitale Lomé, en saison sèche (novembre à mars). Cette agriculture est soumise à des contraintes mais, celle qui semble avoir le plus d’impact est liée au foncier. En agissant sur celui-ci, on peut faire évoluer l’agriculture maraîchère au Togo vers des futurs prometteurs.Mots clés : Diversité, espèces cultivées, contraintes, agriculture maraîchère, Tog