A Stellar Model-fitting Pipeline for Solar-like Oscillations

Over the past two decades, helioseismology has revolutionized our understanding of the interior structure and dynamics of the Sun. Asteroseismology will soon place this knowledge into a broader context by providing structural data for hundreds of Sun-like stars. Solar-like oscillations have already been detected from the ground in several stars, and NASA's Kepler mission is poised to unleash a flood of stellar pulsation data. Deriving reliable asteroseismic information from these observations demands a significant improvement in our analysis methods. We report the initial results of our efforts to develop an objective stellar model-fitting pipeline for asteroseismic data. The cornerstone of our automated approach is an optimization method using a parallel genetic algorithm. We describe the details of the pipeline and we present the initial application to Sun-as-a-star data, yielding an optimal model that accurately reproduces the known solar properties.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figs, Stellar Pulsation: Challenges for Theory and Observation (proceedings to be published by AIP

Respiratory

The purpose of this sequence is to teach the aspects of basic science related to the respiratory system, building on the anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry taught in year 1. Clinical examples of applied basic science are based on common lung diseases including: pneumonia, emphysema, asthma, cancer, trauma, ARDS, and respiratory diseases of the newborn.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/120538/1/medical_m2_curriculum_respiratory-March10.zi

Instantaneous Capture and Mineralization of Flue Gas Carbon Dioxide: Pilot Scale Study

Multiple CO2 capture and storage (CCS) processes are required to address anthropogenic CO2 problems. However, a method which can directly capture and mineralize CO2 at a point source, under actual field conditions, has advantages and could help offset the cost associated with the conventional CCS technologies. The mineral carbonation (MC), a process of converting CO2 into stable minerals (mineralization), has been studied extensively to store CO2. However, most of the MC studies have been largely investigated at laboratory scale. Objectives of this research were to develop a pilot scale AMC (accelerated mineral carbonation) process and test the effects of flue gas moisture content on carbonation of fly ash particles. A pilot scale AMC process consisting of a moisture reducing drum (MRD), a heater/humidifier, and a fluidized-bed reactor (FBR) was developed and tested by reacting flue gas with fly ash particles at one of the largest coal-fired power plants (2120 MW) in the USA. The experiments were conducted over a period of 2 hr at ~ 300 SCFM flow-rates, at a controlled pressure (115.1 kPa), and under different flue gas moisture contents (2-16%). The flue gas CO2 and SO2 concentrations were monitored before and during the experiments by an industrial grade gas analyzer. Fly ash samples were collected from the reactor sample port from 0-120 minutes and analyzed for total inorganic carbon (C), sulfur (S), and mercury (Hg). From C, S, and Hg concentrations, %calcium carbonate (CaCO3), %sulfate (SO42-), and %mercury carbonate (HgCO3) were calculated, respectively. Results suggested significant mineralization of flue gas CO2, SO2, and Hg within 10-15 minutes of reaction. Among different moisture conditions, ~16% showed highest conversion of flue gas CO2 and SO2 to %CaCO3 and %SO42- in fly ash samples. For example, an increase of almost 4% in CaCO3 content of fly ash was observed. Overall, the AMC process is cost-effective with minimum carbon footprint and can be retrofitted to coal fired power plants (existing and/or new) as a post-combustion unit to minimize flue gas CO2, SO2, and Hg emissions into the atmosphere. Used in conjunction with capture and geologic sequestration, the AMC process has the potential to reduce overall cost associated with CO2 separation/compression/transportation/pore space/brine water treatment. It could also help protect sensitive amines and carbon filters used in flue gas CO2 capture and separation process and extend their life

Some Lake Level Control Alternatives for the Great Salt Lake

Fluctuations of the level of the Great Salt Lake cause large changes in both surface area and shoreline. Developments adjacent to the lake have been damaged by both high and low lake levels; and unless measures are implemented to regulate lake level fluctuations or otherwise to protect these developments, damages will continue. Various possible managment alternatives for mitigating potential damages from lake level fluctuations need to be examined and evaluated. In this study, three possible techniques are examined for reducing damages from fluctuating water levels at the lake, namely: 1. Consumptively using an increased proportion of the inflowing fresh waters on irrigated crop lands during periods of high lake inflow. 2. Protecting important properties and facilities around the lake through the construction of a system of dikes. 3. Removing lake water through pumping into the West Dester for evaporation. The above three alternatives are evaluated only for economic feasibility, with physical, legal, and institutional constraints being neglected. The philosophy behind this approach was that if economic feasibility could be demonstrated, other investigations could follow. With reference to the first alternative, the additional irrigation is assumed to occur within the Bear River Basin. The Bear River, which contributes approximately 56 percent of the total inflow to the Great Salt Lake, drains the only tributary basin which contains significant areas of irrigable but not yet irrigated lands. A reconnaissance level economic analysis of each of the above management alternatives is presented. Bapital and annual costs are estimated and compared with estimates of the flood control venefits generated. The overall feasibility, the optimum design, and the optimum time of construction are thus determined for each alternative. From the results of the study, it is concluded that irrigation in the Bear River Basin, except perhaps as part of a multiple purpose project, and the West Desert pumping alternatives are not economically feasible. Particular configurations of the dike alternatives are economically attracive if construction is commenced when lake levels rise to elevations exceeding 4202 feet

Stress Tensor from the Trace Anomaly in Reissner-Nordstrom Spacetimes

The effective action associated with the trace anomaly provides a general algorithm for approximating the expectation value of the stress tensor of conformal matter fields in arbitrary curved spacetimes. In static, spherically symmetric spacetimes, the algorithm involves solving a fourth order linear differential equation in the radial coordinate r for the two scalar auxiliary fields appearing in the anomaly action, and its corresponding stress tensor. By appropriate choice of the homogeneous solutions of the auxiliary field equations, we show that it is possible to obtain finite stress tensors on all Reissner-Nordstrom event horizons, including the extreme Q=M case. We compare these finite results to previous analytic approximation methods, which yield invariably an infinite stress-energy on charged black hole horizons, as well as with detailed numerical calculations that indicate the contrary. The approximation scheme based on the auxiliary field effective action reproduces all physically allowed behaviors of the quantum stress tensor, in a variety of quantum states, for fields of any spin, in the vicinity of the entire family (0 le Q le M) of RN horizons.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figure

Self-similar correlation function in brain resting-state fMRI

Adaptive behavior, cognition and emotion are the result of a bewildering variety of brain spatiotemporal activity patterns. An important problem in neuroscience is to understand the mechanism by which the human brain's 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses manage to produce this large repertoire of cortical configurations in a flexible manner. In addition, it is recognized that temporal correlations across such configurations cannot be arbitrary, but they need to meet two conflicting demands: while diverse cortical areas should remain functionally segregated from each other, they must still perform as a collective, i.e., they are functionally integrated. Here, we investigate these large-scale dynamical properties by inspecting the character of the spatiotemporal correlations of brain resting-state activity. In physical systems, these correlations in space and time are captured by measuring the correlation coefficient between a signal recorded at two different points in space at two different times. We show that this two-point correlation function extracted from resting-state fMRI data exhibits self-similarity in space and time. In space, self-similarity is revealed by considering three successive spatial coarse-graining steps while in time it is revealed by the 1/f frequency behavior of the power spectrum. The uncovered dynamical self-similarity implies that the brain is spontaneously at a continuously changing (in space and time) intermediate state between two extremes, one of excessive cortical integration and the other of complete segregation. This dynamical property may be seen as an important marker of brain well-being both in health and disease.Comment: 14 pages 13 figures; published online before print September 2

Cotton Fertilizer Tests in the El Paso Area, 1943-51.

14 p

Mono- and dimeric complexes of an asymmetric heterotopic P,CNHC,pyr ligand

An asymmetric heterotopic ligand (S-NMeCP) containing a central bicyclic, expanded-ring NHC with one pyridyl and one phosphine exo-substituent has been synthesised and its coordination chemistry with selected late transition metals investigated. The amidinium precursor [S-NMeCHP]PF6 shows variable coordination modes with Ag(I), Cu(I) and Au(I) depending on the L:M ratio. The reaction of two mols of [S-NMeCHP]PF6 with [Cu(MeCN)4]BF4, AgBF4 or Au(THT)Cl gives the bis-ligand complexes [Cu(κ-P-NMeCHP)2(CH3CN)2]BF4·(PF6)2, 1, and [M(κ-P-NMeCHP)2]X·(PF6)2 (3: M = Ag, X = BF4; 6: M = Au, X = Cl) respectively. The 1:1 reaction of [S-NMeCHP]PF6 with AgOTf gave the head-to-tail dimer H,T-[Ag2(μ-N,P-NMeCHP)2(μ-OTf)2](PF6)2, 2, whereas the analogous reaction with Au(THT)Cl gave monomeric [Au(κ-P-NMeCHP)Cl]PF6, 5. Complex 2 was converted to H,T-[Ag2(μ-C,P-NMeCP)2](PF6)2, 4, upon addition of base, while 6 gave [Au(κ-C-NMeCP)2]Cl, 8, when treated likewise. Reaction of [S-NMeCHP]PF6 with Ni(1,5-COD)2 gave the oxidative addition/insertion product [Ni(κ3-N,C,P-NMeCP)(η3-C8H13)]PF6, 9, which converted to [Ni(κ3-N,C,P-NMeCP)Cl]PF6, 10, upon exposure of a CHCl3 solution to air. Complex 10 showed conformational isomerism that was also present in [Rh(κ3-N,C,P-NMeCP)(CO)]PF6, 14, prepared from the precursor complex [Rh(κ-P-NMeCHP)(acac)(CO)]PF6, 13, upon heating in C6H5Cl. [Pt(κ3-N,C,P-NMeCP)(Cl)]PF6, 12, derived from trans-[Pt(κ-P-NMeCHP)2(Cl)2](PF6)2, 11, was isolated as a single conformer