Portable electrophoresis apparatus using minimum electrolyte

An electrophoresis unit for use in conducting electrophoretic analysis of specimens is described. The unit includes a sealable container in which a substrate mounted specimen is suspended in an electrolytic vapor. A heating unit is employed to heat a supply of electrolyte to produce the vapor. The substrate is suspended within the container by being attached between a pair of clips which also serve as electrodes to which a direct current power source may be connected

The dominant X-ray wind in massive star binaries

We investigate which shocked wind is responsible for the majority of the X-ray emission in colliding wind binaries, an issue where there is some confusion in the literature, and which we show is more complicated than has been assumed. We find that where both winds rapidly cool (typically close binaries), the ratio of the wind speeds is often more important than the momentum ratio, because it controls the energy flux ratio, and the faster wind is generally the dominant emitter. When both winds are largely adiabatic (typically long-period binaries), the slower and denser wind will cool faster and the stronger wind generally dominates the X-ray luminosity.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted by A&A Letter

An investigation into the vertical axis control power requirements for landing VTOL type aircraft onboard nonaviation ships in various sea states

The problem of determining the vertical axis control requirements for landing a VTOL aircraft on a moving ship deck in various sea states is examined. Both a fixed-base piloted simulation and a nonpiloted simulation were used to determine the landing performance as influenced by thrust-to-weight ratio, vertical damping, and engine lags. The piloted simulation was run using a fixed-based simulator at Ames Research center. Simplified versions of an existing AV-8A Harrier model and an existing head-up display format were used. The ship model used was that of a DD963 class destroyer. Simplified linear models of the pilot, aircraft, ship motion, and ship air-wake turbulence were developed for the nonpiloted simulation. A unique aspect of the nonpiloted simulation was the development of a model of the piloting strategy used for shipboard landing. This model was refined during the piloted simulation until it provided a reasonably good representation of observed pilot behavior

Higher education academic salaries in the UK

It is widely believed that higher education academic salaries are too low, and that this may lead to a ‘brain drain’ and also lower quality in higher education, as universities fail to attract the ‘brightest and the best’. We compare the salaries of Higher Education teaching professionals in the UK with those of other comparable professionals. We compare academic salaries to a range of occupational groupings that one might view as similar, in terms of unobserved characteristics, to academics. We conclude that HE teaching professionals earn lower earnings than most public sector graduates and do particularly poorly compared to most other comparable professionals. In particular, academic earnings compare poorly to those in the legal professions, consultant physicians and dental practitioners (across both the public and private sectors). On the other hand, some public sector workers do worse than HE academics, e.g. FE teachers

Strange Hadron Spectroscopy with a Secondary KL Beam at GlueX

We propose to create a secondary beam of neutral kaons in Hall D at Jefferson Lab to be used with the GlueX experimental setup for strange hadron spectroscopy. A flux on the order of 3 x 10^4 KL/s will allow a broad range of measurements to be made by improving the statistics of previous data obtained on hydrogen targets by three orders of magnitude. Use of a deuteron target will provide first measurements on the neutron which is {\it terra incognita}. The experiment will measure both differential cross sections and self-analyzed polarizations of the produced {\Lambda}, {\Sigma}, {\Xi}, and {\Omega} hyperons using the GlueX detector at the Jefferson Lab Hall D. The measurements will span c.m. cos{\theta} from -0.95 to 0.95 in the c.m. range above W = 1490 MeV and up to 3500 MeV. These new GlueX data will greatly constrain partial-wave analyses and reduce model-dependent uncertainties in the extraction of strange resonance properties (including pole positions), and provide a new benchmark for comparisons with QCD-inspired models and lattice QCD calculations. The proposed facility will also have an impact in the strange meson sector by providing measurements of the final-state K{\pi} system from threshold up to 2 GeV invariant mass to establish and improve on the pole positions and widths of all K*(K{\pi}) P-wave states as well as for the S-wave scalar meson {\kappa}(800).Comment: 97 pages, 63 figures, Proposal for JLab PAC45, PR12-17-001; v3 missed citation in Sec 9 (pg 22

Optimal Prandtl number for heat transfer in rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection

Numerical data for the heat transfer as a function of the Prandtl (Pr) and Rossby (Ro) numbers in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection are presented for Rayleigh number Ra = 10^8. When Ro is fixed the heat transfer enhancement with respect to the non-rotating value shows a maximum as function of Pr. This maximum is due to the reduced efficiency of Ekman pumping when Pr becomes too small or too large. When Pr becomes small, i.e. for large thermal diffusivity, the heat that is carried by the vertical vortices spreads out in the middle of the cell, and Ekman pumping thus becomes less efficient. For higher Pr the thermal boundary layers (BLs) are thinner than the kinetic BLs and therefore the Ekman vortices do not reach the thermal BL. This means that the fluid that is sucked into the vertical vortices is colder than for lower Pr which limits the efficiency of the upwards heat transfer.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Heat transport and flow structure in rotating Rayleigh-B\'enard convection

Here we summarize the results from our direct numerical simulations (DNS) and experimental measurements on rotating Rayleigh-B\'enard (RB) convection. Our experiments and simulations are performed in cylindrical samples with an aspect ratio \Gamma varying from 1/2 to 2. Here \Gamma=D/L, where D and L are the diameter and height of the sample, respectively. When the rotation rate is increased, while a fixed temperature difference between the hot bottom and cold top plate is maintained, a sharp increase in the heat transfer is observed before the heat transfer drops drastically at stronger rotation rates. Here we focus on the question of how the heat transfer enhancement with respect to the non-rotating case depends on the Rayleigh number Ra, the Prandtl number Pr, and the rotation rate, indicated by the Rossby number Ro. Special attention will be given to the influence of the aspect ratio on the rotation rate that is required to get heat transport enhancement. In addition, we will discuss the relation between the heat transfer and the large scale flow structures that are formed in the different regimes of rotating RB convection and how the different regimes can be identified in experiments and simulations.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

A concurrent precursor inflow method for Large Eddy Simulations and applications to finite length wind farms

In order to enable simulations of developing wind turbine array boundary layers with highly realistic inflow conditions a concurrent precursor method for Large Eddy Simulations is proposed. In this method we consider two domains simultaneously, i.e. in one domain a turbulent Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) without wind turbines is simulated in order to generate the turbulent inflow conditions for a second domain in which the wind turbines are placed. The benefit of this approach is that a) it avoids the need for large databases in which the turbulent inflow conditions are stored and the correspondingly slow I/O operations and b) we are sure that the simulations are not negatively affected by statically swept fixed inflow fields or synthetic fields lacking the proper ABL coherent structures. Sample applications are presented, in which, in agreement with field data a strong decrease of the power output of downstream wind-turbines with respect to the first row of wind-turbines is observed for perfectly aligned inflow.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Radial boundary layer structure and Nusselt number in Rayleigh-Benard convection

Results from direct numerical simulations for three dimensional Rayleigh-Benard convection in a cylindrical cell of aspect ratio 1/2 and Pr=0.7 are presented. They span five decades of Ra from $2\times 10^6$ to $2 \times10^{11}$. Good numerical resolution with grid spacing $\sim$ Kolmogorov scale turns out to be crucial to accurately calculate the Nusselt number, which is in good agreement with the experimental data by Niemela et al., Nature, 404, 837 (2000). In underresolved simulations the hot (cold) plumes travel further from the bottom (top) plate than in the fully resolved case, because the thermal dissipation close to the sidewall (where the grid cells are largest) is insufficient. We compared the fully resolved thermal boundary layer profile with the Prandtl-Blasius profile. We find that the boundary layer profile is closer to the Prandtl Blasius profile at the cylinder axis than close to the sidewall, due to rising plumes in that region.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Submm-bright QSOs at z~2: signposts of co-evolution at high z

We have assembled a sample of 5 X-ray and submm-luminous z~2 QSOs which are therefore both growing their central black holes through accretion and forming stars copiously at a critical epoch. Hence, they are good laboratories to investigate the co-evolution of star formation and AGN. We have performed a preliminary analysis of the AGN and SF contributions to their UV-to-FIR SEDs, fitting them with simple direct (disk), reprocessed (torus) and star formation components. All three are required by the data and hence we confirm that these objects are undergoing strong star formation in their host galaxies at rates 500-2000 Msun/y. Estimates of their covering factors are between about 30 and 90%. In the future, we will assess the dependence of these results on the particular models used for the components and relate their observed properties to the intrinsice of the central engine and the SF material, as well as their relevance for AGN-galaxy coevolution.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contributed talk to "Nuclei of Seyfert galaxies and QSOs - Central engine & conditions of star formation" November 6-8, 2012. MPIfR, Bonn, Germany. Po