An interdisciplinary cruise dedicated to understanding ocean eddies upstream of the Prince Edward Islands

A DETAILED HYDROGRAPHIC AND BIOLOGical survey was carried out in the region of the South-West Indian Ridge during April 2004. Altimetry and hydrographic data have identified this region as an area of high flow variability. Hydrographic data revealed that here the Subantarctic Polar Front (SAF) and Antarctic Polar Front (APF) converge toform a highly intense frontal system. Water masses identified during the survey showed a distinct separation in properties between the northwestern and southeastern corners. In the north-west, water masses were distinctly Subantarctic (>8.5°C, salinity >34.2), suggesting that the SAF lay extremely far to the south. In the southeast corner water masses were typical of the Antarctic zone, showing a distinct subsurface temperature minimum of <2.5°C. Total integrated chl-a concentration during the survey ranged from 4.15 to 22.81mgchl-am–2,with the highest concentrations recorded at stations occupied in the frontal region. These data suggest that the region of the South-West Indian Ridge represents not only an area of elevated biological activity but also acts as a strong biogeographic barrier to the spatial distribution of zooplankton

A chemiluminescence and fluorescence spectroscopy study: An investigation of photocrosslinking processes in polymer systems

Chemiluminescence emission is shown to be a valuable method for the analysis and monitoring of the photochemical transformation process in BZMA-co-S copolymers. BZMA-co-S copolymer films are synthesized and irradiated at λ > 400 nm, in order to induce the phototransformation of benzyl (BZ) to benzoyl peroxide (BP) pendant groups, resulting in thermal decomposition and crosslinking. The chemiluminescence emission increases with irradiation time, and is shown to be related to the benzoyl peroxide moieties generated during irradiation. The increase in chemiluminescence intensity is interrupted at longer periods of irradiation, when the concentration of these species tends to a nearly constant value. In this case, others factors are considered to influence the chemiluminescence emission, for example the increasing crosslinking on irradiated samples, which would restrict the mobility of radicals to recombine due to crosslinking of the network. A good correlation between fluorescence, FTIR and CL measurements during photochemical formation and thermal decomposition of peroxides is found. In this work, an intramolecular excimer forming fluorescent probe, DiPyM, is also used to analyse the crosslinking process. The results obtained contribute significantly to the development of chemiluminescence as a highly sensitive methodology for assessing the photocrosslinking of a polymeric material in the early stages of the process and is due to its sensitivity in comparison to that of fluorescence analysis. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer Reviewe

Characteristics of thermal cycling in a magnesium alloy

Acoustic emission (AE) and dilatometry were used to monitor the internal thermal stresses and the related structural changes and matrix plastic deformation induced in a magnesium-based composite during thermal cycling. It is shown that the AE response and the residual strain after cycling depend significantly on the upper temperature of cycling. The results are explained in a quantitative analysis using a model that correlates the internal thermal stresses with the change in temperature