Study of the general mechanism of stress corrosion of aluminum alloys and development of techniques for its detection Quarterly report, 1 Dec. 1967 - 29 Feb. 1968

Stress corrosion of aluminum alloys and techniques for its detectio

Study of the general mechanism of stress corrosion of aluminum alloys and development of techniques for its detection Annual summary report, 2 Jun. 1967 - 1 Jun. 1968

Stress corrosion cracking of high strength aluminum alloys investigated by electrochemical, mechanical, and electron microscopic technique

Controlling Silver Nanoparticle Size and Morphology with Photostimulated Synthesis

Photo-induced synthesis and control over the size and shape of colloidal silver nanoparticles is investigated in contrast to photo-stimulated aggregation of small nanoparticles into large fractal-type structures. The feasibility of light-driven nanoengineering which enables manipulation of the sizes and shapes of the isolated nanoparticles is studied by varying the amount and type of the stabilizing agent and the type of optical irradiation.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 11 image

Holocene earthquake-triggered mass-wasting events recorded in the sediments of Lake Puyehue (South-Central Chile)

Despite South-Central Chile’s high seismicity and the occurrence of earth’s largest instrumentally recorded earthquake (AD 1960; Mw: 9.5), paleoseismic data is still scarce for this region. In this study, very high-resolution reflection seismic profiles (3.5 kHz) in Lake Puyehue (41°S) were utilized to trace giant seismic events back into time. The seismic profiles show repeated occurrences of multiple mass-wasting deposits (slumps, debris flows, homogenites) occurring at a same seismic-stratigraphic horizon, indicating that they are coeval and caused by a single mass-wasting event of basin-wide importance. An age-depth model, based on 9 AMS radiocarbon datings and varve-counting on an 11 m-long sediment core, has been used to develop a “seismic chronostratigraphy”. It allows dating of the mass-wasting events by interpolation between dated seismic horizons to the distal parts of the mass-wasting deposits. The mass-wasting events are assumed to be earthquake-triggered because:The recentmost mass-wasting events correlate with the devastating historical earthquakes of AD 1575 and AD 1960.Synchronicity of multiple slope failures (mass-wasting events) requires a strong regional trigger, such as an earthquake. Consequently, local slope oversteepening at delta fronts or local fluid expulsion could not initiate such widespread events.South-Central Chile has been historically subjected to several strong (M > 8) subduction earthquakes and subduction processes have been constantly active since Mesozoic times.Multiple slope failures occur at water depths > 70 m, which rules out shallow instability triggers, such as storm wave action and lake-level fluctuations.This study reveals nine paleoseismic events during the Holocene with a mean recurrence rate of about 1000 yr, but with an overall relatively aperiodic occurrence (ranging between 400-2000 yrs.). The most prominent event took place around 1660 cal. yr. BP, evidenced by at least 29 simultaneous mass-movements and a homogenite deposit. Quantitative comparison of mass-wasting events related to the historical earthquakes of AD 1960 and AD 1575 showed significant differences (respectively 17 and 4 observed mass-wasting deposits) although these earthquakes are assumed to have had a comparable strength. This can be attributed to a lowered sedimentation rate on the potentially unstable slopes in the period 3000 cal. yr. BP – 500 cal. yr. BP, which would have made lacustrine earthquake recording less likely in AD 1575. The absence of mass-wasting deposits associated with other historical earthquakes (e.g.: AD 1737 (Ms: 7.5) and AD 1837 (Ms: 8)) indicates that only mega-earthquakes (Mw >8.5) within a range of about 300 km are recorded in the sedimentary sequence of Lake Puyehue.Reflection seismic profiles also show vertical fluidisation structures with large-scale sediment injections, which disturb the upper sedimentary sequences. The top of these fluidisation structures and diverse deformation levels could be spatially linked to seismically induced mass-wasting deposits and consequently indicate an additional method for lacustrine paleo-earthquake tracing.Several reconaissance seismic surveys on other glacigenic lakes in the Chilean Lake District also show promising paleoseismic records, which will offer the opportunity to correlate lacustrine records to reveal South-Central Chile’s paleoseismic history in detail and the earthquake registration capacities of its glacigenic lakes

Sequential Grazing Systems for Beef Cattle Production

Pasture productivity in Iowa is often limited by low productivity of cool-season grasses during summer. This uneven seasonal distribution of for age production could be improved by including species in pasture systems that perform better under higher temperatures. Warm-season grasses produce most of their growth during summer when cool-season grasses are semi -dormant. By using cool-season and warm-season pastures in a sequential system it should be possible to improve seasonal productivity. The overall objective of this project i s to evaluate the productivity of sequential grazing system s for beef cattle production in Southern Iowa. Specific objectives are to: 1) evaluate the impact of legumes on the productivity of cool-season pastures grazed in the spring and fall, 2) evaluate warm-season grasses f or summer grazing, and 3) determine the effects of pasture sequence on the productivity of season-long grazing systems

A Shift Symmetry in the Higgs Sector: Experimental Hints and Stringy Realizations

We interpret reported hints of a Standard Model Higgs boson at ~ 125 GeV in terms of high-scale supersymmetry breaking with a shift symmetry in the Higgs sector. More specifically, the Higgs mass range suggested by recent LHC data extrapolates, within the (non-supersymmetric) Standard Model, to a vanishing quartic Higgs coupling at a UV scale between 10^6 and 10^18 GeV. Such a small value of lambda can be understood in terms of models with high-scale SUSY breaking if the Kahler potential possesses a shift symmetry, i.e., if it depends on H_u and H_d only in the combination (H_u+\bar{H}_d). This symmetry is known to arise rather naturally in certain heterotic compactifications. We suggest that such a structure of the Higgs Kahler potential is common in a wider class of string constructions, including intersecting D7- and D6-brane models and their extensions to F-theory or M-theory. The latest LHC data may thus be interpreted as hinting to a particular class of compactifications which possess this shift symmetry.Comment: v2: References added. v3: References added, published versio

Sequential Grazing of Cool- and Warm-Season Pastures

Pasture productivity in Iowa often is limited by low productivity of cool-season grasses during summer. This uneven seasonal distribution of forage production could be improved by including species in pasture systems that perform better under higher temperatures. Warm-season grasses produce most of their growth during summer when cool-season grasses are semi-dormant. By using cool-season and warm-season pastures in a sequential system, it should be possible to improve seasonal productivity

Latitudinal and Longitudinal Adaptation of Switchgrass Populations

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a warmseason native grass, used for livestock feed, bioenergy, soil and wildlife conservation, and prairie restoration in a large portion of the USA. The objective of this research was to quantify the relative importance of latitude and longitude for adaptation and agronomic performance of a diverse group of switchgrass populations. Six populations, chosen to represent remnant prairie populations on two north–south transects, were evaluated for agronomic traits at 12 locations ranging from 36 to 47°N latitude and 88 to 101°W longitude. Although the population × location interactions accounted for only 10 to 31% of the variance among population means, many significant changes in ranking and adaptive responses were observed. Ground cover was greater for northern-origin populations evaluated in hardiness zones 3 and 4 and for southern-origin populations evaluated in hardiness zones 5 and 6. There were no adaptive responses related to longitude (ecoregion). Switchgrass populations for use in biomass production, conservation, or restoration should not be moved more than one hardiness zone north or south from their origin, but some can be moved east or west of their original ecoregion, if results from field tests support broad longitudinal adaptation