393 research outputs found
Green barks of trees from drought deciduous forests (“Bosque Seco”) in Northern Peru / Southern Ecuador do not perform CAM
Acoustic analysis of starting jets in an anechoic chamber: implications for volcano monitoring
Explosive volcanic eruptions are associated with a plethora of geophysical signals. Among them, acoustic signals provide ample information about eruptive dynamics and are widely used for monitoring purposes. However, a mechanistic correlation of monitoring signals, underlying source processes and reasons for short-term variations is incomplete. Scaled laboratory experiments can mimic a wide range of explosive volcanic eruption conditions. Here, starting (non-steady) compressible gas jets are created using a shock tube in an anechoic chamber and their acoustic signature is recorded with a microphone array. Noise sources are mapped in time and frequency using wavelet analysis and their dependence from pressure ratio, non-dimensional mass supply and exit-to-throat area ratio is deciphered. We observed that the pressure ratio controls the establishment of supersonic conditions and their duration, and influences the interaction between shock, shear layer, and vortex ring. The non-dimensional mass supply affects the duration of the discharge, the maximum velocity of the flow, and the existence of a trailing jet. Lower values of exit-to-throat area ratio induce a faster decay of the acoustic fingerprint of the jet flow. The simplistic experiments presented here, and their acoustic analysis will serve as an essential starting point to infer source conditions prior to and during impulsive volcanic eruptions
EAC-1A: A novel large-volume lunar regolith simulant
The European Astronaut Centre (EAC) is currently constructing the European Lunar Exploration Laboratory (LUNA), a large training and operations facility to be located adjacent to EAC at the DLR (German Aerospace Centre) campus in Cologne, Germany. With an estimated representative lunar testbed area of approximately 660 m(2), a large volume of lunar regolith simulant material is needed for this purpose. In this study, a basanitic sandy silt from a quarry located in the Siebengebirge Volcanic Field is evaluated as a large-volume source of material. The focus of this project has been to conduct a physical and chemical characterisation of the fine-grained material to be used in LUNA;the European Astronaut Centre lunar regolith simulant 1 (EAC-1A). The physical characterisation tests undertaken include sphericity, density measurements, cohesion and static angle of repose, with mineralogical investigations via petrographical analysis with optical microscope and SEM, XRF, XRD and DSC measurements. The results of the EAC-1A tests are compared to published data on existing widely used lunar regolith simulants, namely JSC-1A, JSC-2A, NU-LHT-3M, DNA and FJS-1
Whirling Hexagons and Defect Chaos in Hexagonal Non-Boussinesq Convection
We study hexagon patterns in non-Boussinesq convection of a thin rotating
layer of water. For realistic parameters and boundary conditions we identify
various linear instabilities of the pattern. We focus on the dynamics arising
from an oscillatory side-band instability that leads to a spatially disordered
chaotic state characterized by oscillating (whirling) hexagons. Using
triangulation we obtain the distribution functions for the number of pentagonal
and heptagonal convection cells. In contrast to the results found for defect
chaos in the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation and in inclined-layer convection,
the distribution functions can show deviations from a squared Poisson
distribution that suggest non-trivial correlations between the defects.Comment: 4 mpg-movies are available at
http://www.esam.northwestern.edu/~riecke/lit/lit.html submitted to New J.
Physic
Nonlinear Pulses in Dispersion-Managed Fiber-Optic Systems in Presence of High Losses
A dispersion managed fiber-optic system can support dynamically stable pulses - DM-solitons and two branches of stable pairs of coupled DM-solitons – lower and upper bisolitons. Using semi-analytical model, we have found the dependency of the shape of these pulses on the level of losses and other parameters of the system and have verified the validity of our findings both numerically and experimentally. The obtained data can be used to define whether a dispersion-managed fiber-optic system can be considered as the one with constant dispersion
Quasiperiodic waves at the onset of zero Prandtl number convection with rotation
We show the possibility of quasiperiodic waves at the onset of thermal
convection in a thin horizontal layer of slowly rotating zero-Prandtl number
Boussinesq fluid confined between stress-free conducting boundaries. Two
independent frequencies emerge due to an interaction between a stationary
instability and a self-tuned wavy instability in presence of coriolis force, if
Taylor number is raised above a critical value. Constructing a dynamical system
for the hydrodynamical problem, the competition between the interacting
instabilities is analyzed. The forward bifurcation from the conductive state is
self-tuned.Comment: 9 pages of text (LaTex), 5 figures (Jpeg format
Theoretical analysis of the electronic structure of the stable and metastable c(2x2) phases of Na on Al(001): Comparison with angle-resolved ultra-violet photoemission spectra
Using Kohn-Sham wave functions and their energy levels obtained by
density-functional-theory total-energy calculations, the electronic structure
of the two c(2x2) phases of Na on Al(001) are analysed; namely, the metastable
hollow-site structure formed when adsorption takes place at low temperature,
and the stable substitutional structure appearing when the substrate is heated
thereafter above ca. 180K or when adsorption takes place at room temperature
from the beginning. The experimentally obtained two-dimensional band structures
of the surface states or resonances are well reproduced by the calculations.
With the help of charge density maps it is found that in both phases, two
pronounced bands appear as the result of a characteristic coupling between the
valence-state band of a free c(2x2)-Na monolayer and the
surface-state/resonance band of the Al surfaces; that is, the clean (001)
surface for the metastable phase and the unstable, reconstructed "vacancy"
structure for the stable phase. The higher-lying band, being Na-derived,
remains metallic for the unstable phase, whereas it lies completely above the
Fermi level for the stable phase, leading to the formation of a
surface-state/resonance band-structure resembling the bulk band-structure of an
ionic crystal.Comment: 11 pages, 11 postscript figures, published in Phys. Rev. B 57, 15251
(1998). Other related publications can be found at
http://www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm
Comparative transcriptomics of hepatic differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells and adult human liver tissue
Water, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and dust production from distant comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1
peer reviewedContext. 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 is a distant Centaur/comet, showing persistent CO-driven activity and frequent outbursts. Aims: We aim to better characterize its gas and dust activity from multiwavelength observations performed during outbursting and quiescent states. Methods: We used the HIFI, PACS and SPIRE instruments of the Herschel space observatory on several dates in 2010, 2011, and 2013 to observe the H2O 557 GHz and NH3 573 GHz lines and to image the dust coma in the far-infrared. Observations with the IRAM 30 m telescope were undertaken in 2007, 2010, 2011, and 2021 to monitor the CO production rate through the 230 GHz line, and to search for HCN at 89 GHz. The 70 and 160 µm PACS images were used to measure the thermal flux from the nucleus and the dust coma. Modeling was performed to constrain the size of the sublimating icy grains and to derive the dust production rate. Results: HCN is detected for the first time in comet 29P (at 5σ in the line area). H2O is detected as well, but not NH3. H2O and HCN line shapes differ strongly from the CO line shape, indicating that these two species are released from icy grains. CO production rates are in the range (2.9-5.6) × 10E28 s−1 (1400-2600 kg s−1). A correlation between the CO production rate and coma brightness is observed, as is a correlation between CO and H2O production. The correlation obtained between the excess of CO production and excess of dust brightness with respect to the quiescent state is similar to that established for the continuous activity of comet Hale-Bopp. The measured Q(H2O)/Q(CO) and Q(HCN)/Q(CO) production rate ratios are 10.0 ± 1.5 % and 0.12 ± 0.03 %, respectively, averaging the April-May 2010 measurements (Q(H2O) = (4.1 ± 0.6) × 10E27 s−1, Q(HCN) = (4.8 ± 1.1) × 10E25 s−1). We derive three independent and similar values of the effective radius of the nucleus, ~31 ± 3 km, suggesting an approximately spherical shape. The inferred dust mass-loss rates during quiescent phases are in the range 30-120 kg s−1, indicating a dust-to-gas mass ratio <0.1 during quiescent activity. We conclude that strong local heterogeneities exist on the surface of 29P, with quenched dust activity from most of the surface, but not in outbursting regions. Conclusions: The volatile composition of the atmosphere of 29P strongly differs from that of comets observed within 3 au from the Sun. The observed correlation between CO, H2O and dust activity may provide important constraints for the outburst-triggering mechanism
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