3,934 research outputs found
A comparison between detailed and configuration-averaged collisional-radiative codes applied to non-local thermal equilibrium plasma
A collisional-radiative model describing nonlocal-thermodynamic-equilibrium
plasmas is developed. It is based on the HULLAC (Hebrew University Lawrence
Livermore Atomic Code) suite for the transitions rates, in the zero-temperature
radiation field hypothesis. Two variants of the model are presented: the first
one is configuration averaged, while the second one is a detailed level
version. Comparisons are made between them in the case of a carbon plasma; they
show that the configuration-averaged code gives correct results for an
electronic temperature Te=10 eV (or higher) but fails at lower temperatures
such as Te=1 eV. The validity of the configuration-averaged approximation is
discussed: the intuitive criterion requiring that the average
configuration-energy dispersion must be less than the electron thermal energy
turns out to be a necessary but far from sufficient condition. Another
condition based on the resolution of a modified rate-equation system is
proposed. Its efficiency is emphasized in the case of low-temperature plasmas.
Finally, it is shown that near-threshold autoionization cascade processes may
induce a severe failure of the configuration-average formalism.Comment: 9
Ăvaluation de la capacitĂ© de rĂ©tention des mĂ©taux dissous d'un marais artificiel en utilisant le pĂ©riphyton et le gastĂ©ropode Helisoma trivolvis
Le but de cette Ă©tude est de dĂ©terminer si le pĂ©riphyton et le gastĂ©ropode pulmonĂ© Helisoma trivolvis peuvent ĂȘtre utilisĂ©s pour Ă©valuer la capacitĂ© de rĂ©tention des mĂ©taux dissous d'un marais construit. Cette Ă©tude a Ă©tĂ© menĂ©e dans un marais de la rĂ©gion d'Ottawa-Carleton (Ontario, Canada), qui a Ă©tĂ© construit en 1995 afin d'amĂ©liorer la qualitĂ© des eaux de ruissellement provenant d'un bassin versant Ă usage rĂ©sidentiel et agricole. Au cours du mois de septembre 1999, des Ă©chantillons d'eau ont Ă©tĂ© prĂ©levĂ©s, des escargots (H. trivolvis) ont Ă©tĂ© recoltĂ©s et un substrat artificiel a Ă©tĂ© utilisĂ© pour faire croĂźtre du pĂ©riphyton, Ă l'entrĂ©e et Ă la sortie d'eau du marais. En moyenne, les calculs de balance de masse indiquaient une rĂ©tention des formes dissoutes du Cu, Mn, Ni et Zn dans le marais. Cependant, les tendances observĂ©es pour les concentrations de mĂ©taux dissous et pour les concentrations dans les organismes diffĂ©raient pour certains mĂ©taux. Les concentrations de Cd et Ni dans les tissus de H. trivolvis et le pĂ©riphyton Ă©taient significativement plus Ă©levĂ©es Ă l'entrĂ©e qu'Ă la sortie. Cependant, les concentrations de Cr et Al dans les organismes n'Ă©taient pas significativement diffĂ©rentes entre l'entrĂ©e et la sortie alors que celle de Mn Ă©tait significativement plus Ă©levĂ©e Ă la sortie du marais. Pour tous les mĂ©taux sauf le Cd et le Zn, les concentrations dans le pĂ©riphyton Ă©taient en moyenne plus elevĂ©es que celles dans les escargots. Le pĂ©riphyton peut donc fournir une mesure plus conservatrice de la contamination du milieu pas les mĂ©taux. Cette Ă©tude montre l'importance de considĂ©rer, non-seulement les mesures chimiques, mais aussi les mesures biologiques, dans l'Ă©valuation de l'efficacitĂ© d'un ouvrage de contrĂŽle de pollution.Urban and agricultural development has had a significant impact on the water quality of rivers and lakes around the world. In the last few decades, constructed wetlands have been designed as wastewater treatment systems to prevent water quality deterioration in natural receiving waters. Constructed wetlands are built because they are considered sinks for many pollutants thereby protecting the water quality of downstream ecosystems. The treatment performance of these wetlands is generally assessed using mass balance calculations. However, the retention of metals by constructed wetlands is highly variable and the factors involved are still poorly understood. If wetlands are sinks for metals, the metal content of organisms should be lower downstream than upstream. In this context, organisms can be useful to assess the retention or transformation of metals by wetlands.The objective of this study was to determine whether periphyton and the gastropod Helisoma trivolvis could be used to evaluate the retention of dissolved metals in a constructed wetland. H. trivolvis is a freshwater pulmonate snail widespread in ponds across North America. It feeds mostly on periphyton and is more or less sedentary. Snails have been used as biomonitors because several species are metal tolerant. However, compared to snails, periphytic microorganisms may track more closely dissolved metal concentrations as they take up metals principally from the water column.This study was conducted at the Monahan Pond in Kanata, Ontario (Canada). This wetland was built in 1995 to treat run-off from an agricultural and residential watershed. Water chemistry samples, snails and periphyton grown on artificial substrata were collected at both the inlet and the outlet of the wetland in the fall of 1999. Tissue samples were digested with concentrated nitric acid and metal analyses were done by ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry). During the experiment several chemical parameters differed between the inlet and the outlet. Alkalinity was significantly higher at the inflow and all major cation concentrations were higher at the inflow. The temperature was on average 3 ÂșC higher at the outlet. Mass balance calculations showed that the wetland was a sink for most dissolved metals. Snails and periphyton tissue metal concentrations were higher at the inflow than at the outlet for Cd and Ni. However, no significant differences were observed between inflow and outlet tissue concentrations for Cr and Al, whereas Mn was actually significantly higher at the outlet. As a result, the metal content of the organisms did not consistently reflect the dissolved metal concentrations in water. For all metals except Cd and Zn, periphyton concentrations were on average higher than snail metal concentrations. Periphyton analyses can provide a more conservative measure of metal contamination and, when artificial substrates are used, correspond to defined and known periods of exposure.This study demonstrates that constructed wetlands may lead to increased metal content of downstream organisms even if these wetlands appear to be overall sinks for dissolved metals based on mass balance calculations. It also shows the need to consider not only metal concentrations, but also biological data when assessing the performance of pollution control facilities
EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVE FILTER MEDIA FOR THE ROTARY MICROFILTER
The Savannah River Site is currently developing and testing several processes to treat high level radioactive liquid waste. Each of these processes has a solid-liquid separation process that limits its throughput. Savannah River National Laboratory researchers identified and tested the rotary microfilter as a technology to increase solid-liquid separation throughput. The authors believe the rotary microfilter throughput can be improved by using a better filter membrane. Previous testing showed that asymmetric filters composed of a ceramic membrane on top of a stainless steel support produced higher filter flux than 100% stainless steel symmetric filters in crossflow filter tests. Savannah River National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working together to develop asymmetric ceramic ? stainless steel composite filters and asymmetric 100% stainless steel filters to improve the throughput of the rotary microfilter. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory Inorganic Membrane Group fabricated samples of alternative filter membranes. In addition, Savannah River National Laboratory obtained samples of filter membranes from Pall, Porvair, and SpinTek. They tested these samples in a static test cell with feed slurries containing monosodium titanate and simulated sludge
Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide (PACAP) Signaling in The Prefrontal Cortex Modulates Cued Fear Learning, But Not Spatial Working Memory, in Female Rats
A genetic polymorphism within the gene encoding the pituitary adenylate cyclase- activating polypeptide (PACAP) receptor type I (PAC1R) has recently been associated with hyper-reactivity to threat-related cues in women, but not men, with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PACAP is a highly conserved peptide, whose role in mediating adaptive physiological stress responses is well established. Far less is understood about the contribution of PACAP signaling in emotional learning and memory, particularly the encoding of fear to discrete cues. Moreover, a neurobiological substrate that may account for the observed link between PAC1R and PTSD in women, but not men, has yet to be identified. Sex differences in PACAP signaling during emotional learning could provide novel targets for the treatment of PTSD. Here we investigated the contribution of PAC1R signaling within the prefrontal cortex to the acquisition of cued fear in female and male rats. We used a variant of fear conditioning called trace fear conditioning, which requires sustained attention to fear cues and depends on working-memory like neuronal activity within the prefrontal cortex. We found that cued fear learning, but not spatial working memory, was impaired by administration of a PAC1R antagonist directly into the prelimbic area of the prefrontal cortex. This effect was specific to females. We also found that levels of mRNA for the PAC1R receptor in the prelimbic cortex were greater in females compared with males, and were highest during and immediately following the proestrus stage of the estrous cycle. Together, these results demonstrate a sex-specific role of PAC1R signaling in learning about threat-related cues
Mott Transition, Compressibility Divergence and P-T Phase Diagram of Layered Organic Superconductors: An Ultrasonic Investigation
The phase diagram of the organic superconductor
-(BEDT-TTF)Cu[N(CN)Cl has been investigated by ultrasonic
velocity measurements under helium gas pressure. Different phase transitions
were identified trough several elastic anomalies characterized from isobaric
and isothermal sweeps. Our data reveal two crossover lines that end on the
critical point terminating the first-order Mott transition line. When the
critical point is approached along these lines, we observe a dramatic softening
of the velocity which is consistent with a diverging compressibility of the
electronic degrees of freedom.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Investigating the roles of phonological and semantic memory in sentence recall
The mechanisms underlying short-term sentence recall have been the subject of recent investigations. While both semantic and phonological information have been found to play a role in sentence recall, this has been established using different paradigms in previous research. As a result, it is not clear whether the contributions of semantic and phonological information are equivalent subject only to specific experimental conditions. The present study used a common paradigm with equally plausible lures to systematically compare the roles of semantic and phonological information in short-term sentence recall. The lure intrusion paradigm was used with three different lures that were all equally plausible in the context of the sentence: semantic, onset, and rhyme. Further, no contextual cues were provided in the sentence to bias the participant. The findings indicate that there were significantly more semantic and onset intrusions compared to rhyme intrusions. This is interpreted in light of models incorporating lexical information during sentence production
Divergence of the Chaotic Layer Width and Strong Acceleration of the Spatial Chaotic Transport in Periodic Systems Driven by an Adiabatic ac Force
We show for the first time that a {\it weak} perturbation in a Hamiltonian
system may lead to an arbitrarily {\it wide} chaotic layer and {\it fast}
chaotic transport. This {\it generic} effect occurs in any spatially periodic
Hamiltonian system subject to a sufficiently slow ac force. We explain it and
develop an explicit theory for the layer width, verified in simulations.
Chaotic spatial transport as well as applications to the diffusion of particles
on surfaces, threshold devices and others are discussed.Comment: 4 pages including 3 EPS figures, this is an improved version of the
paper (accepted to PRL, 2005
Search for Sub-TeV Gamma Rays Coincident with BATSE Gamma Ray Bursts
Project GRAND is a 100m x 100m air shower array of proportional wire chambers
(PWCs). There are 64 stations each with eight 1.29 m^2 PWC planes arranged in
four orthogonal pairs placed vertically above one another to geometrically
measure the angles of charged secondaries. A steel plate above the bottom pair
of PWCs differentiates muons (which pass undeflected through the steel) from
non-penetrating particles. FLUKA Monte Carlo studies show that a TeV gamma ray
striking the atmosphere at normal incidence produces 0.23 muons which reach
ground level where their angles and identities are measured. Thus,
paradoxically, secondary muons are used as a signature for gamma ray primaries.
The data are examined for possible angular and time coincidences with eight
gamma ray bursts (GRBs) detected by BATSE. Seven of the GRBs were selected
because of their good acceptance by GRAND and high BATSE Fluence. The eighth
GRB was added due to its possible coincident detection by Milagrito. For each
of the eight candidate GRBs, the number of excess counts during the BATSE T90
time interval and within plus or minus five degrees of BATSE's direction was
obtained. The highest statistical significance reported in this paper (2.7
sigma) is for the event that was predicted to be the most likely to be observed
(GRB 971110).Comment: To be presented at the XXVIII International Cosmic Ray Conference,
Tsukuba, Japa
Quantum Hall resistance standards from graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition on silicon carbide
Replacing GaAs by graphene to realize more practical quantum Hall resistance
standards (QHRS), accurate to within in relative value, but operating
at lower magnetic fields than 10 T, is an ongoing goal in metrology. To date,
the required accuracy has been reported, only few times, in graphene grown on
SiC by sublimation of Si, under higher magnetic fields. Here, we report on a
device made of graphene grown by chemical vapour deposition on SiC which
demonstrates such accuracies of the Hall resistance from 10 T up to 19 T at 1.4
K. This is explained by a quantum Hall effect with low dissipation, resulting
from strongly localized bulk states at the magnetic length scale, over a wide
magnetic field range. Our results show that graphene-based QHRS can replace
their GaAs counterparts by operating in as-convenient cryomagnetic conditions,
but over an extended magnetic field range. They rely on a promising hybrid and
scalable growth method and a fabrication process achieving low-electron density
devices.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
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