412 research outputs found
The synthesis of trans-diaquobis(ethylenediamine) iridium(III)
The work reported here is part of an effort to develop a new method for studying the kinetics of transition metal substitution reactions. In the past, reactions have been studied at high, constant ionic strength following from the assumption that this maintains constant values of the activity coefficients. This assumption has been shown to be invalid. In the novel approach, no substitutionally inert salt is added to maintain a constant ionic strength necessitating the calculation of activity coefficients and the inclusion of them in all kinetic expressions. In order to establish the validity of the novel approach, a course of study was initiated. The results of the studies of two reactions are reported. The reaction of aquopentaamminerhodium(III) with chloride proceeds via an interchange mechanism as determined from the results of batch kinetic, potentiometric ion-pairing, and spectrophotometric ion-pairing experiments. The novel method yielded values which compare well with those given by the traditional approach but allows resolution of the parameters instead of the composite constants yielded by the traditional approach. The reaction of trans-diaquobis(ethylenediamine)rhodium(III) with chloride proceeds via the dissociative mechanism. The values of the kinetic parameters obtained agree well with those from traditional experiments. In this reaction, resolution of the parameters was not possible due to the complexity of the system but the novel approach outperformed the traditional method. The attempted synthesis of trans-diaquobis(ethylenediamine)iridium(III) is also discussed
Regions, Race, Rail and Rubber: An Analysis of How Transportation Planning Decisions Contributed to Regional Segregation, 1922 - 1973
Detroit’s history of systemic racial inequity has significantly contributed to the uneven development patterns of the entire metropolitan region that persist to this day. The process of central city decline, deindustrialization, and suburban migration in the post-war period compounded existing discrimination in housing and employment for Black residents, effectively trapping them in the city and preventing them from accessing suburban amenities. This dissertation evaluates the role that public transportation planning played in reinforcing racial segregation by restricting transit options to suburban areas, effectually limiting physical mobility of residents. My research demonstrates that the City of Detroit Department of Street Railways (DSR) had knowledge of suburban growth trends, sufficient budget revenues, legal jurisdiction, and the physical resources to provide service to suburban areas, but voluntarily limited suburban transit options. The failure to provide suburban service meant that the DSR could not capitalize on regional growth trends and could not recover from lost ridership numbers as Detroit depopulated through white flight and decentralization. This study analyzes key transportation planning decisions made by City of Detroit officials between 1922 and 1973 using qualitative, primary-source, archival records such as letters, meeting minutes, reports, survey documents, and maps. These sources have not been comprehensively researched or peer-reviewed to date, and my research contributes to a literature gap in the history of public transportation planning in the City of Detroit. Findings are determined using interpretive analysis to understand the role that transportation planning has played in reinforcing racial segregation between city and suburb in post-war Detroit.PHDUrban and Regional PlanningUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169618/1/robpfaff_1.pd
Observation of Schumann Resonances in the Earth's Ionosphere
The surface of the Earth and the lower edge of the ionosphere define a cavity in which electromagnetic waves propagate. When the cavity is excited by broadband electromagnetic sources, e.g., lightning, a resonant state can develop provided the average equatorial circumference is approximately equal to an integral number of wavelengths of the electromagnetic waves. This phenomenon, known as Schumann resonance, corresponds to electromagnetic oscillations of the surface-ionosphere cavity, and has been used extensively to investigate atmospheric electricity. Using measurements from the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite, we report, for the first time, Schumann resonance signatures detected well beyond the upper boundary of the cavity. These results offer new means for investigating atmospheric electricity, tropospheric-ionospheric coupling mechanisms related to lightning activity, and wave propagation in the ionosphere. The detection of Schumann resonances in the ionosphere calls for revisions to the existing models of extremely low frequency wave propagation in the surface-ionosphere cavity. Additionally, these measurements suggest new remote sensing capabilities for investigating atmospheric electricity at other planets
DC and Structured Electric Fields Observed on the C/NOFS Satellite and Their Association with Longitude, Plasma Density, and Solar Activity
Observations of DC electric fields and associated E x B plasma drifts gathered by the Vector Electric Field Investigation (VEFI) on the Air Force Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite are presented. We show statistical averages of the vector fields and resulting E x B plasma flows for the first three years of operations as a function of season, longitude, local time, and Fl 0.7 conditions. Magnetic field data from the VEFI science magnetometer are used to compute the plasma flows. Although typically displaying eastward and outward-directed fields during the day and westward and downward-directed fields at night, the data from DC electric field detector often reveal variations from this pattern that depend on longitude, solar activity, and plasma density. Clear "wave-4" tidal effects in both electric field components have been detected and will be presented. Zonal plasma drifts show a marked variation with solar activity and may be used as a proxy for neutral winds at night. Evidence for pre-reversal enhancements in the meridional drifts that depend on solar activity is present for some longitudes, and are corroborated by clear evidence in the plasma density data that the spacecraft journeyed below the F-peak during evenings when the rise in the ionosphere is most pronounced. In addition to DC electric fields, the data reveal considerable electric field structures at large scales (approx 100's of km) that are usually confined to the nightside. Although such electric field structures are typically associated with plasma density depletions and structures, what is surprising is the number of cases in which large amplitude, structured DC electric fields are observed without a significant plasma density counterpart structure, including their appearance at times when the ambient plasma density appears relatively quiescent. We investigate the mapping of structured electric fields along magnetic field lines from distant locations and consider tropospheric thunderstorm sources to explain some of the observations. The dependence of the structuring on season and solar activity will be reported and discussed
VLF and HF Plasma Waves Associated with Spread-F Plasma Depletions Observed on the C/NOFS Satellite
The C/NOFS spacecraft frequently encounters structured plasma depletions associated with equatorial spread-F along its trajectory that varies between 401 km perigee and 867 km apogee in the low latitude ionosphere. We report two classes of plasma waves detected with the Vector Electric Field Investigation (VEFI) that appear when the plasma frequency is less than the electron gyro frequency, as is common in spread-F depletions where the plasma number density typically decreases below 10(exp 4)/cu cm. In these conditions, both broadband VLF waves with a clear cutoff at the lower hybrid frequency and broadband HF waves with a clear cutoff at the plasma frequency are observed. We interpret these waves as "hiss-type" emissions possibly associated with the flow of suprathermal electrons within the inter-hemispherical magnetic flux tubes. We also report evidence of enhanced wave "transients" sometimes embedded in the broader band emissions that are associated with lightning sferics detected within the depleted plasma regions that appear in both the VLF and HF data. Theoretical implications of these observations are discussed
A Review of Low Frequency Electromagnetic Wave Phenomena Related to Tropospheric-Ionospheric Coupling Mechanisms
Investigation of coupling mechanisms between the troposphere and the ionosphere requires a multidisciplinary approach involving several branches of atmospheric sciences, from meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and fulminology to aeronomy, plasma physics, and space weather. In this work, we review low frequency electromagnetic wave propagation in the Earth-ionosphere cavity from a troposphere-ionosphere coupling perspective. We discuss electromagnetic wave generation, propagation, and resonance phenomena, considering atmospheric, ionospheric and magnetospheric sources, from lightning and transient luminous events at low altitude to Alfven waves and particle precipitation related to solar and magnetospheric processes. We review in situ ionospheric processes as well as surface and space weather phenomena that drive troposphere-ionosphere dynamics. Effects of aerosols, water vapor distribution, thermodynamic parameters, and cloud charge separation and electrification processes on atmospheric electricity and electromagnetic waves are reviewed. We also briefly revisit ionospheric irregularities such as spread-F and explosive spread-F, sporadic-E, traveling ionospheric disturbances, Trimpi effect, and hiss and plasma turbulence. Regarding the role of the lower boundary of the cavity, we review transient surface phenomena, including seismic activity, earthquakes, volcanic processes and dust electrification. The role of surface and atmospheric gravity waves in ionospheric dynamics is also briefly addressed. We summarize analytical and numerical tools and techniques to model low frequency electromagnetic wave propagation and solving inverse problems and summarize in a final section a few challenging subjects that are important for a better understanding of tropospheric-ionospheric coupling mechanisms
Challenges in Measuring External Currents Driven by the Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Interaction
In studying the Earth's geomagnetism, it has always been a challenge to separate magnetic fields from external currents originating from the ionosphere and magnetosphere. While the internal magnetic field changes very slowly in time scales of years and more, the ionospheric and magnetospheric current systems driven by the solar wind -magnetosphere interaction are very dynamic. They are intimately controlled by the ionospheric electrodynamics and ionospheremagnetosphere coupling. Single spacecraft observations are not able to separate their spatial and temporal variations, and thus to accurately describe their configurations. To characterize and understand the external currents, satellite observations require both good spatial and temporal resolutions. This paper reviews our observations of the external currents from two recent LEO satellite missions: Space Technology 5 (ST-5), NASA's first three-satellite constellation mission in LEO polar orbit, and Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS), an equatorial satellite developed by US Air Force Research Laboratory. We present recommendations for future geomagnetism missions based on these observations
Electric Field and Plasma Density Observations of Irregularities and Plasma Instabilities in the Low Latitude Ionosphere Gathered by the C/NOFS Satellite
The Vector Electric Field Investigation (VEFI) on the C/NOFS equatorial satellite provides a unique data set which includes detailed measurements of irregularities associated with the equatorial ionosphere and in particular with spread-F depletions. We present vector AC electric field observations gathered on C/NOFS that address a variety of key questions regarding how plasma irregularities, from meter to kilometer scales, are created and evolve. The talk focuses on occasions where the ionosphere F-peak has been elevated above the C/NOFS satellite perigee of 400 km as solar activity has increased. In particular, during the equinox periods of 2011, the satellite consistently journeyed below the F-peak whenever the orbit was in the region of the South Atlantic anomaly after sunset. During these passes, data from the electric field and plasma density probes on the satellite have revealed two types of instabilities which had not previously been observed in the C/NOFS data set: The first is evidence for 400-500km-scale bottomside "undulations" that appear in the density and electric field data. In one case, these large scale waves are associated with a strong shear in the zonal E x B flow, as evidenced by variations in the meridional (outward) electric fields observed above and below the F-peak. These undulations are devoid of smaller scale structures in the early evening, yet appear at later local times along the same orbit associated with fully-developed spread-F with smaller scale structures. This suggests that they may be precursor waves for spread-F, driven by a collisional shear instability, following ideas advanced previously by researchers using data from the Jicamarca radar. A second result is the appearance of km-scale irregularities that are a common feature in the electric field and plasma density data that also appear when the satellite is near or below the F-peak at night. The vector electric field instrument on C/NOFS clearly shows that the electric field component of these waves is strongest in the zonal direction. These waves are strongly correlated with simultaneous observations of plasma density oscillations and appear both with, and without, evidence of larger-scale spread-F depletions. These km-scale, quasi-coherent waves strongly resemble the bottomside, sinusoidal irregularities reported in the Atmosphere Explorer satellite data set by Valladares et al. and are believed to cause scintillations of VHF radiowaves. We interpret these new observations in terms of fundamental plasma instabilities associated with the unstable, nighttime equatorial ionosphere
Evaluation of alternative surfactants as stabilizers for therapeutical protein formulations
Surfactants are potent stabilizers of proteins, preventing protein unfolding and aggregation presumably by competitive adsorption to interfaces. Due to limited data on e.g. performance and safety, only three surfactants are routinely found within marketed formulations of parenteral protein products: polysorbate 20 (PS20), polysorbate 80 (PS80), or poloxamer 188 (Px188).
These molecules are well-established and safe for parenteral administration but possess liabilities such as degradation of the surfactant itself and/or chemical inhomogeneity (PS) or show decreased stabilizing effects at silicone oil-water interfaces (Px188). Thus, there is a need to evaluate alternative surfactants to expand the toolbox for product development and to ensure optimal drug product stability and quality.
In our studies, potential alternative surfactants were evaluated and compared to PS20 and Px188 (e.g. during real-time and stress stability studies using a model mAb). Data from these efforts will be presented
- …