Controlled ecological life support system - biological problems

The general processes and controls associated with two distinct experimental paradigms are examined. Specific areas for research related to biotic production (food production) and biotic decomposition (waste management) are explored. The workshop discussions were directed toward Elemental cycles and the biological factors that affect the transformations of nutrients into food, of food material into waste, and of waste into nutrients were discussed. To focus on biological issues, the discussion assumed that (1) food production would be by biological means (thus excluding chemical synthesis), (2) energy would not be a limiting factor, and (3) engineering capacity for composition and leak rate would be adequate

Service Performance Indicators for Infrastructure Investment

Infrastructure systems serving modern economies are highly complex, highly interconnected, and often highly interactive. The result is increased complexity in investment decision-making, and increased challenges in prioritising that investment. However, this prioritisation is vital to developing a long-term, sound, robust and achievable pipeline of national infrastructure. One key to effective, objective and prudent investment prioritisation is understanding the real performance of infrastructure. Many metrics are employed to this end, and many are imposed by governments or regulators, but often these metrics relate only to inputs or outputs in a production process. Whilst these metrics may be useful for delivery agencies, they largely fail to address the real expectations or requirements of infrastructure users — quality of service, safety, reliability, and resilience. What is required is a set of metrics which address not outputs but outcomes — that is, how well does the infrastructure network meet service needs? This paper reports on a study undertaken at a national level, to identify service needs across a range of infrastructure sectors, to assess service performance metrics in use, and to show how they or other suitable metrics can be used to prioritise investment decisions across sectors and jurisdictions

Tests on Full-scale Roofing Systems

This report details an experimental investigation on three full-scale, cold-formed steel roofing systems. The test programme included both uniformly and variably distributed loadings representative of drifting snow. Comparisons between the performance of each roof subject to these distributions are made and recommendations for the design of roofs loaded with variably distributed loads are presented. Finally observations on the tests to failure are discussed

Infall near clusters of galaxies: comparing gas and dark matter velocity profiles

We consider the dynamics in and near galaxy clusters. Gas, dark matter and galaxies are presently falling into the clusters between approximately 1 and 5 virial radii. At very large distances, beyond 10 virial radii, all matter is following the Hubble flow, and inside the virial radius the matter particles have on average zero radial velocity. The cosmological parameters are imprinted on the infall profile of the gas, however, no method exists, which allows a measurement of it. We consider the results of two cosmological simulations (using the numerical codes RAMSES and Gadget) and find that the gas and dark matter radial velocities are very similar. We derive the relevant dynamical equations, in particular the generalized hydrostatic equilibrium equation, including both the expansion of the Universe and the cosmological background. This generalized gas equation is the main new contribution of this paper. We combine these generalized equations with the results of the numerical simulations to estimate the contribution to the measured cluster masses from the radial velocity: inside the virial radius it is negligible, and inside two virial radii the effect is below 40%, in agreement the earlier analyses for DM. We point out how the infall velocity in principle may be observable, by measuring the gas properties to distance of about two virial radii, however, this is practically not possible today.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in MNRA

Search For A Permanent Electric Dipole Moment Using Atomic Indium

We propose indium (In) as a possible candidate for observing the permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) arising from the violations of parity (P) and time-reversal (T) symmetries. This atom has been laser cooled and therefore the measurement of its EDM has the potential of improving on the current best EDM limit for a paramagnetic atom which comes from thallium. We report the results of our calculations of the EDM enhancement factor due to the electron EDM and the ratio of the atomic EDM to the electron-nucleus scalar-pseudoscalar (S-PS) interaction coupling constant in In in the framework of the relativistic coupled cluster theory. It might be possible to get new limits for the electron EDM and the S-PS CP violating coupling constant by combining the results of our calculations with the measured value of the EDM of In when it is available. These limits could have important implications for the standard model (SM) of particle physics.Comment: 5 pages, 1 fig, Rapid Communicatio

Geometric criticality between plaquette phases in integer-spin kagome XXZ antiferromagnets

The phase diagram of the uniaxially anisotropic $s=1$ antiferromagnet on the kagom\'e lattice includes a critical line exactly described by the classical three-color model. This line is distinct from the standard geometric classical criticality that appears in the classical limit ($s \to \infty$) of the 2D XY model; the $s=1$ geometric T=0 critical line separates two unconventional plaquette-ordered phases that survive to nonzero temperature. The experimentally important correlations at finite temperature and the nature of the transitions into these ordered phases are obtained using the mapping to the three-color model and a combination of perturbation theory and a variational ansatz for the ordered phases. The ordered phases show sixfold symmetry breaking and are similar to phases proposed for the honeycomb lattice dimer model and $s=1/2$ $XXZ$ model. The same mapping and phase transition can be realized also for integer spins $s \geq 2$ but then require strong on-site anisotropy in the Hamiltonian.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Scaling treatment of the random field Ising model

Analytic phenomenological scaling is carried out for the random field Ising model in general dimensions using a bar geometry. Domain wall configurations and their decorated profiles and associated wandering and other exponents $(\zeta,\gamma,\delta,\mu)$ are obtained by free energy minimization. Scaling between different bar widths provides the renormalization group (RG) transformation. Its consequences are (1) criticality at $h=T=0$ in $d \leq 2$ with correlation length $\xi(h,T)$ diverging like $\xi(h,0) \propto h^{-2/(2-d)}$ for $d<2$ and $\xi(h,0) \propto \exp[1/(c_1\gamma h^{\gamma})]$ for $d=2$, where $c_1$ is a decoration constant; (2) criticality in $d = 2+\epsilon$ dimensions at $T=0$, $h^{\ast}= (\epsilon/2c_1)^{1/\gamma}$, where $\xi \propto [(s-s^{\ast})/s]^{-2\epsilon/\gamma}$, $s \equiv h^{\gamma}$. Finite temperature generalizations are outlined. Numerical transfer matrix calculations and results from a ground state algorithm adapted for strips in $d=2$ confirm the ingredients which provide the RG description.Comment: RevTex v3.0, 5 pages, plus 4 figures uuencode