Resilient bearing supports are gas controlled

Self-acting, partial-arc, pivoted-pad bearings in which the bearing-to-journal applied load is pneumatically controlled are used in the operation of a radial flow gas generator where shaft speeds are on the order of 38,500 rpm

A hybrid Brayton engine concept

A first generation open cycle Brayton engine concept for use in full scale solar module testing was defined. The concept extended to include solar/fossil hybrid capability. The combustion system defined for hybrid operation consists of a wide range combustor liner, a single airblast atomizer, an ignitor and a high-voltage ignition unit. Wide range combustor operation would be achieved through combining pilot and primary zones. The hybrid control mode and the solar only control mode are both based on the concept of maintaining constant turbine inlet temperature and varying the engine speed for part-power operation. In addition, the hybrid control concept will allow the operator to set a minimum thermal power input to the engine by setting a corresponding minimum engine speed. When the solar thermal power input falls below this minimum, fossil fuel would be utilized to augment the solar thermal power input

Fungal phoenix rising from the ashes?

During May 2010, sporocarps of what appeared to be an Armillaria sp. were found in large clumps in historic Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens on the foot of Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa. These sporocarps could be physically linked to the roots of unidentified dead trees and Protea spp. The aim of this study was to identify the Armillaria sp. found fruiting in Kirstenbosch. To achieve this goal isolates were made from the mycelium under the bark of dead roots linked to sporocarps. The ITS and IGS-1 regions were sequenced and compared to sequences of Armillaria spp. available on GenBank. Cladograms were generated using ITS sequences to determine the phylogenetic relationship of the isolates with other Armillaria spp. Sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analyses showed that the isolates represented A. mellea. They were also identical to isolates of this species previously discovered in the Company Gardens in South Africa and introduced from Europe apparently by the early Dutch Settlers. Armillaria mellea is alien and apparently invasive in Cape Town, fruits profusely and has the potential to spread to sensitive native forests on the foothills of the City

\u3cem\u3eLeptographium pyrinum\u3c/em\u3e is a Mycangial Fungus of \u3cem\u3eDendroctonus adjunctus\u3c/em\u3e

Several species of Dendroctonus (Coleop- tera: Scolytidae) have cuticular invaginations, or my- cangia, in the integument which are specialized for carrying specific symbiotic fungi. The mycangium of Dendroctonus adjunctus, located under a callus that surrounds the prothorax, has been recognized but the mycangial fungus has not yet been identified. Fungi from mycangia of Dendroctonus adjunctus were isolated and compared with Leptographium pyrinum and Ophiostoma adjuncti, two species of fungi known to be present in trees colonized by Dendroctonus ad- junctus. Fungi isolated from Dendroctonus adjunctus mycangia were determined to be morphologically and genetically identical to Leptographium pyrinu

\u3cem\u3eOphiostoma clavigerum\u3c/em\u3e is the Mycangial Fungus of the Jeffrey Pine Beetle, \u3cem\u3eDendroctonus jeffreyi\u3c/em\u3e

Dendroctonus jeffreyi and D. ponderosae are sibling species of bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolyti- dae) with few morphological and molecular genetic differences. The two species are believed to have di- verged relatively recently. Dendroctonus jeffreyi colo- nizes only Pinus jeffreyi, while D. ponderosae colonizes up to thirteen Pinus spp., but not P. jeffreyi. Adult beetles of both D. jeffreyi and D. ponderosae carry sym- biotic fungi in mycangia located on the maxillary car- dines. Dendroctonus ponderosae was known to carry two fungi, Ophiostoma clavigerum and 0. montium, in its mycangia. However, it was not known which fungi might be carried by D. jeffreyi. Fungi were isolated from the mycangia of over 900 D. jeffreyi collected from a large portion of its geographic range. Using morphology, isozyme phenotypes, and growth rates at different temperatures, all isolates from D. jeffreyi mycangia were determined to be 0. clavigerum; 0. montium was never isolated from D. jeffreyi mycangi

Modeling and investigative studies of Jovian low frequency emissions

Jovian decametric (DAM) and hectometric (HOM) emissions were first observed over the entire spectrum by the Voyager 1 and 2 flybys of the planet. They display unusual arc-like structures on frequency-versus-time spectrograms. Software for the modeling of the Jovian plasma and magnetic field environment was performed. In addition, an extensive library of programs was developed for the retrieval of Voyager Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) data in both the high and low frequency bands from new noise-free, recalibrated data tapes. This software allows the option of retrieving data sorted with respect to particular sub-Io longitudes. This has proven to be invaluable in the analyses of the data. Graphics routines were also developed to display the data on color spectrograms

Acoustic Integrity Codes: Secure Device Pairing Using Short-Range Acoustic Communication

Secure Device Pairing (SDP) relies on an out-of-band channel to authenticate devices. This requires a common hardware interface, which limits the use of existing SDP systems. We propose to use short-range acoustic communication for the initial pairing. Audio hardware is commonly available on existing off-the-shelf devices and can be accessed from user space without requiring firmware or hardware modifications. We improve upon previous approaches by designing Acoustic Integrity Codes (AICs): a modulation scheme that provides message authentication on the acoustic physical layer. We analyze their security and demonstrate that we can defend against signal cancellation attacks by designing signals with low autocorrelation. Our system can detect overshadowing attacks using a ternary decision function with a threshold. In our evaluation of this SDP scheme's security and robustness, we achieve a bit error ratio below 0.1% for a net bit rate of 100 bps with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 14 dB. Using our open-source proof-of-concept implementation on Android smartphones, we demonstrate pairing between different smartphone models.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures. Published at ACM WiSec 2020 (13th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks). Updated reference

Incorporating the stable carbon isotope 13C in the ocean biogeochemical component of the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model

Direct comparison between paleo oceanic δ13C records and model results facilitates assessing simulated distributions and properties of water masses in the past. To accomplish this, we include a new representation of the stable carbon isotope 13C into the HAMburg Ocean Carbon Cycle model (HAMOCC), the ocean biogeochemical component of the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM). 13C is explicitly resolved for all existing oceanic carbon pools. We account for fractionation during air-sea gas exchange and for biological fractionation εp associated with photosynthetic carbon fixation during phytoplankton growth. We examine two εp parameterisations of different complexity: εpPopp varies with surface dissolved CO2 concentration (Popp et al., 1989), while εpLaws additionally depends on local phytoplankton growth rates (Laws et al., 1995). When compared to observations of δ13C in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), both parameterisations yield similar performance. However, with regard to δ13C in particulate organic carbon εpPopp shows a considerably improved performance than εpLaws, because the latter results in a too strong preference for 12C. The model also well reproduces the oceanic 13C Suess effect, i.e. the intrusion of the isotopically light anthropogenic CO2 into the ocean, based on comparison to other existing 13C models and to observation-based oceanic carbon uptake estimates over the industrial period. We further apply the approach of Eide et al. (2017a), who derived the first global oceanic 13C Suess effect estimate based on observations, to our model data that has ample spatial and temporal coverage. With this we are able to analyse in detail the underestimation of 13C Suess effect by this approach as it has been noted by Eide et al. (2017a). Based on our model we find underestimations of 13C Suess effect at 200 m by 0.24 ‰ in the Indian Ocean, 0.21 ‰ in the North Pacific, 0.26 ‰ in the South Pacific, 0.1 ‰ in the North Atlantic and 0.14 ‰ in the South Atlantic. We attribute the major sources of the underestimation to two assumptions in Eide et al. (2017a)'s approach: a spatially-constant preformed component of δ13CDIC in year 1940 and neglecting 13C Suess effect in CFC-12 free water

Monitoring spatial and temporal variations of surface albedo on Saint Sorlin Glacier (French Alps) using terrestrial photography

Accurate knowledge of temperate glacier mass balance is essential to understand the relationship between glacier and climate. Defined as the reflected fraction of incident radiation over the whole solar spectrum, the surface broadband albedo is one of the most important variable in a glacier's mass balance. This study presents a new method to retrieve the albedo of frozen surfaces from terrestrial photography at visible and near infrared wavelengths. This method accounts for the anisotropic reflectance of snow and ice surfaces and uses a radiative transfer model for narrow-to-broadband conversion. The accuracy of the method was assessed using concomitant measurements of albedo during the summers 2008 and 2009 on Saint Sorlin Glacier (Grandes Rousses, France). These albedo measurements are performed at two locations on the glacier, one in the ablation area and the other in the accumulation zone, with a net radiometer Kipp and Zonen CNR1. The main sources of uncertainty are associated with the presence of high clouds and the georeferencing of the photographs

Bark beetle population dynamics in the Anthropocene: Challenges and solutions

Tree-killing bark beetles are the most economically important insects in conifer forests worldwide. However, despite N200 years of research, the drivers of population eruptions and crashes are still not fully understood and the existing knowledge is thus insufficient to face the challenges posed by the Anthropocene. We critically analyze potential biotic and abiotic drivers of population dynamics of an exemplary species, the European spruce bark beetle (ESBB) (Ips typographus) and present a multivariate approach that integrates the many drivers governing this bark beetle system. We call for hypothesis-driven, large-scale collaborative research efforts to improve our understanding of the population dynamics of this and other bark beetle pests. Our approach can serve as a blueprint for tackling other eruptive forest insects