18,294 research outputs found
Mg/Ca ratios in freshwater microbial carbonates: Thermodynamic, kinetic and vital effects
The ratio of magnesium to calcium (Mg/Ca) in carbonate minerals in an abiotic setting is conventionally assumed to be predominantly controlled by (Mg/Ca)solution and a temperature dependant partition coefficient. This temperature dependence suggests that both marine (e.g. foraminiferal calcite and corals) and freshwater (e.g. speleothems and surface freshwater deposits, “tufas”) carbonate deposits may be important archives of palaeotemperature data. However, there is considerable uncertainty in all these settings. In surface freshwater deposits this uncertainty is focussed on the influence of microbial biofilms. Biogenic or “vital” effects may arise from microbial metabolic activity and/or the presence of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). This study addresses this key question for the first time, via a series of unique through-flow microcosm and agitated flask experiments where freshwater calcite was precipitated under controlled conditions. These experiments reveal there is no strong relationship between (Mg/Ca)calcite and temperature, so the assumption of thermodynamic fractionation is not viable. However, there is a pronounced influence on (Mg/Ca)calcite from precipitation rate, so that rapidly forming precipitates develop with very low magnesium content indicating kinetic control on fractionation. Calcite precipitation rate in these experiments (where the solution is only moderately supersaturated) is controlled by biofilm growth rate, but occurs even when light is excluded indicating that photosynthetic influences are not critical. Our results thus suggest the apparent kinetic fractionation arises from the electrochemical activity of EPS molecules, and are therefore likely to occur wherever these molecules occur, including stromatolites, soil and lake carbonates and (via colloidal EPS) speleothems
Hybrid receiver study
The results are presented of a 4 month study to design a hybrid analog/digital receiver for outer planet mission probe communication links. The scope of this study includes functional design of the receiver; comparisons between analog and digital processing; hardware tradeoffs for key components including frequency generators, A/D converters, and digital processors; development and simulation of the processing algorithms for acquisition, tracking, and demodulation; and detailed design of the receiver in order to determine its size, weight, power, reliability, and radiation hardness. In addition, an evaluation was made of the receiver's capabilities to perform accurate measurement of signal strength and frequency for radio science missions
Experimental design for drifting buoy Lagrangian test
A test of instrumentation fabricated to measure the performance of a free drifting buoy as a (Lagrangian) current meter is described. Specifically it is proposed to distinguish between the trajectory of a drogued buoy and the trajectory of the water at the level of the drogue by measuring the flow relative to the drogue
The Effects of High Liquid Water Content on Thunderstorm Charging
Charge transfer to a riming graupel target during interactions with ice crystals has been investigated in the laboratory. When liquid water contents sufficiently high to cause wet growth are achieved, the charge transfer falls to values which are insignificant to thunderstorm electrification. The implications of this null result to a recent analysis of thunderstorm-charging processes by Wiliams et al. (1991) are discussed
The Finite Size Error in Many-body Simulations with long-Ranged Interactions
We discuss the origin of the finite size error of the energy in many-body
simulation of systems of charged particles and we propose a correction based on
the random phase approximation at long wave lengths. The correction comes from
contributions mainly determined by the organized collective oscillations of the
interacting system. Finite size corrections, both on kinetic and potential
energy, can be calculated within a single simulation. Results are presented for
the electron gas and silicon.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL; corrected typo
Bayes-X: a Bayesian inference tool for the analysis of X-ray observations of galaxy clusters
We present the first public release of our Bayesian inference tool, Bayes-X,
for the analysis of X-ray observations of galaxy clusters. We illustrate the
use of Bayes-X by analysing a set of four simulated clusters at z=0.2-0.9 as
they would be observed by a Chandra-like X-ray observatory. In both the
simulations and the analysis pipeline we assume that the dark matter density
follows a spherically-symmetric Navarro, Frenk and White (NFW) profile and that
the gas pressure is described by a generalised NFW (GNFW) profile. We then
perform four sets of analyses. By numerically exploring the joint probability
distribution of the cluster parameters given simulated Chandra-like data, we
show that the model and analysis technique can robustly return the simulated
cluster input quantities, constrain the cluster physical parameters and reveal
the degeneracies among the model parameters and cluster physical parameters. We
then analyse Chandra data on the nearby cluster, A262, and derive the cluster
physical profiles. To illustrate the performance of the Bayesian model
selection, we also carried out analyses assuming an Einasto profile for the
matter density and calculated the Bayes factor. The results of the model
selection analyses for the simulated data favour the NFW model as expected.
However, we find that the Einasto profile is preferred in the analysis of A262.
The Bayes-X software, which is implemented in Fortran 90, is available at
http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/facilities/software/bayesx/.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure
Nicole: suicide and terminal illness
Journal ArticleThe terminally ill person who plans suicide poses a clinical dilemma in suicidology. Issues of rational suicide are complicated. Although experts (Battin, 1991; Hoff, 1989; Motto, 1972; Pretzel, 1984; Saunders & Valente, 1988) recognize rational suicide, the prevailing paradigm of suicide prevention rests on an assumption that suicide is an irrational response to a temporary crisis. This bias may interfere with serious responses to terminally ill patients who plan suicide. The purpose of this case is to invite dialogue and thoughtful debate about responses to people who contemplate suicide because of terminal illness
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