3,720 research outputs found
Extreme accumulation of nucleotides in simulated hydrothermal pore systems
We simulate molecular transport in elongated hydrothermal pore systems influenced by a thermal gradient. We find extreme accumulation of molecules in a wide variety of plugged pores. The mechanism is able to provide highly concentrated single nucleotides, suitable for operations of an RNA world at the origin of life. It is driven solely by the thermal gradient across a pore. On the one hand, the fluid is shuttled by thermal convection along the pore, whereas on the other hand, the molecules drift across the pore, driven by thermodiffusion. As a result, millimeter-sized pores accumulate even single nucleotides more than 108-fold into micrometer-sized regions. The enhanced concentration of molecules is found in the bulk water near the closed bottom end of the pore. Because the accumulation depends exponentially on the pore length and temperature difference, it is considerably robust with respect to changes in the cleft geometry and the molecular dimensions. Whereas thin pores can concentrate only long polynucleotides, thicker pores accumulate short and long polynucleotides equally well and allow various molecular compositions. This setting also provides a temperature oscillation, shown previously to exponentially replicate DNA in the protein-assisted PCR. Our results indicate that, for life to evolve, complicated active membrane transport is not required for the initial steps. We find that interlinked mineral pores in a thermal gradient provide a compelling high-concentration starting point for the molecular evolution of life
The effect of N fertilizer placement, formulation, timing, and rate on the agronomic performance in wheat
Non-Peer ReviewedIncreasing the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer uptake by crops improves the agronomic, economic, and environmental value of fertilizer N. Band placement of urea below the soil surface increased recovery of N in plants in both conventional and no-tillage systems. The latter systems require all fertilizers be applied before or during the seeding operation. In order to avoid seedling damage caused by fertilizer, side banding and mid-row banding opener systems have been developed to separate the seed and fertilizer. The objective of this study was to compare the agronomic performance in wheat between side banding and mid-row banding N fertilization and estimate effects of fertilizer formulation, timing and rate in an Orthic Brown Chernozem. A three-year experiment (2000-2002) was conducted near Swift Current in the Brown Soil Zone (Swinton silt loam, Orthic Brown Chernozem) of southern Saskatchewan. Seventeen treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design in four replications with plot size of 3 m Ă— 9.2 m. A Canada Western Red Spring wheat, AC Barrie, was seeded on a no-tillage management. Results showed that the environment had a major impact on the grain yield and biomass production. In general, the difference in agronomic performance between side banding and mid-row banding treatments was small
An Empirical Study of Finding Approximate Equilibria in Bimatrix Games
While there have been a number of studies about the efficacy of methods to
find exact Nash equilibria in bimatrix games, there has been little empirical
work on finding approximate Nash equilibria. Here we provide such a study that
compares a number of approximation methods and exact methods. In particular, we
explore the trade-off between the quality of approximate equilibrium and the
required running time to find one. We found that the existing library GAMUT,
which has been the de facto standard that has been used to test exact methods,
is insufficient as a test bed for approximation methods since many of its games
have pure equilibria or other easy-to-find good approximate equilibria. We
extend the breadth and depth of our study by including new interesting families
of bimatrix games, and studying bimatrix games upto size .
Finally, we provide new close-to-worst-case examples for the best-performing
algorithms for finding approximate Nash equilibria
Eclipsing high-mass binaries I. Light curves and system parameters for CPD-518946, PISMIS24-1 and HD319702
We present first results of a comprehensive photometric O-star survey
performed with a robotic twin refractor at the Universit\"atssternwarte Bochum
located near Cerro Armazones in Chile. For three high-mass stars, namely
Pismis24-1, CPD-518946 and HD319702, we determined the period through the
Lafler-Kinman algorithm and model the light curves within the framework of the
Roche geometry. For Pismis24-1, a previously known eclipsing binary, we provide
first light curves and determined a photometric period of 2.36 days together
with an orbital inclination of 61.8 degrees. The best-fitting model solution to
the light curves suggest a detached configuration. With a primary temperature
of T1 = 42520K we obtain the temperature of the secondary component as T2 =
41500K. CPD-518946 is another known eclipsing binary for which we present a
revised photometric period of 1.96 days with an orbital inclination of 58.4
degrees. The system has likely a semi-detached configuration and a mass ratio q
= M1/M2 = 2.8. If we adopt a primary temperature of T1 = 34550K we obtain T2 =
21500K for the secondary component. HD319702 is a newly discovered eclipsing
binary member of the young open cluster NGC6334. The system shows well-defined
eclipses favouring a detached configuration with a period of 2.0 days and an
orbital inclination of 67.5 degrees. Combining our photometric result with the
primary spectral type O8 III(f) (T1 = 34000K) we derive a temperature of T2 =
25200K for the secondary component.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
What happens to the soil organic matter if I till long-term no-till?
Non-Peer ReviewedThe long-term practice of no-till (low-disturbance direct seeding) is an effective method to increase the soil organic matter (SOM) content of the soil. If that increased soil organic matter is traded as an offset for greenhouse-gas emissions, then we need to know what happens to SOM if, for whatever reason, the soil is tilled. The results in southwestern Saskatchewan indicated that if the land is cropped, there is evidence of large losses of SOM from single tillage on long-term (13-yr) no-till on sandy loam soil but little loss of SOM on a loam and clay soil from single tillage of long-term (23-yr and 13-yr) no-till. However, if the land was summerfallowed, there were large losses of SOM. As the pioneers discovered when they broke the land, we also found that the faster the SOM is decreased, the greater the release of nutrients, especially nitrogen (N), from SOM. Through this release of N, summerfallow on long-term continuously cropped notill increased the release of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O)
Deep far infrared ISOPHOT survey in "Selected Area 57", I. Observations and source counts
We present here the results of a deep survey in a 0.4 sq.deg. blank field in
Selected Area 57 conducted with the ISOPHOT instrument aboard ESAs Infrared
Space Observatory (ISO) at both 60 um and 90 um. The resulting sky maps have a
spatial resolution of 15 x 23 sq.arcsec. per pixel which is much higher than
the 90 x 90 sq.arcsec. pixels of the IRAS All Sky Survey. We describe the main
instrumental effects encountered in our data, outline our data reduction and
analysis scheme and present astrometry and photometry of the detected point
sources. With a formal signal to noise ratio of 6.75 we have source detection
limits of 90 mJy at 60 um and 50 mJy at 90 um. To these limits we find
cumulated number densities of 5+-3.5 per sq.deg. at 60 um and 14.8+-5.0 per
sq.deg.at 90 um. These number densities of sources are found to be lower than
previously reported results from ISO but the data do not allow us to
discriminate between no-evolution scenarios and various evolutionary models.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
Dust reverberation-mapping of the Seyfert 1 galaxy WPVS48
Using robotic telescopes of the Universitatssternwarte Bochum near Cerro
Armazones in Chile, we monitored the z=0.0377 Seyfert 1 galaxy WPVS48 (2MASX
J09594263-3112581) in the optical (B and R) and near-infrared (NIR, J and Ks)
with a cadence of two days. The light curves show unprecedented variability
details. The NIR variation features of WPVS48 are consistent with the
corresponding optical variations, but the features appear sharper in the NIR
than in the optical, suggesting that the optical photons undergo multiple
scatterings. The J and Ks emission, tracing the hot (1600 K) dust echo, lags
the B and R variations by on average 64 +/- 4 days and 71 +/- 5 days,
respectively (restframe). WPVS48 lies on the known tau-M_V relationship.
However, the observed lag is about three times shorter than expected from the
dust sublimation radius r_sub inferred from the optical-UV luminosity, and
explanations for this common discrepancy are searched for. The sharp NIR echos
argue for a face-on torus geometry and allow us to put forward two potential
scenarios: 1) as previously proposed, in the equatorial plane of the accretion
disk the inner region of the torus is flattened and may come closer to the
accretion disk. 2) The dust torus with inner radius r_sub is geometrically and
optically thick, so that the observer only sees the facing rim of the torus
wall, which lies closer to the observer than the torus equatorial plane and
therefore leads to an observed foreshortened lag. Both scenarios are able to
explain the factor three discrepancy between tau and r_sub. Longer-wavelength
dust reverberation data might enable one to distinguish between the scenarios.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Published in Astronomy and Astrophysic
The Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect at 1 and 2 mm towards ROSAT Clusters
An observing campaign was devoted to the search for the Sunyaev-Zeldovich
(S-Z) effect towards X-ray ROSAT Clusters in the millimetric spectral domain. A
double channel (1.2 and 2 {\it mm}) photometer was installed at the focus of
the 15m Swedish ESO Submillimeter Telescope (SEST) in Chile in september 1994
and 1995 and observations of the targets S1077, A2744, S295 and RXJ0658-5557
were gathered. Detections were found for A2744 at 1 {\it mm} and in both
channels (at 1.2 and 2 {\it mm}) towards RXJ0658-5557. For the first time there
is evidence for the S-Z enhancement and both the latter and the decrement were
detected on the same source. We discuss astrophysical and systematic effects
which could give origin to these signals.Comment: 6 pg Latex file (style file included) including 1 ps figure, XVIth
Moriond Astrophysics Meeting "The Anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave
Background", Les Arcs, Savoie-France, March 16-23 199
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