Set-up effects of piles in sand tested in the centrifuge

The bearing capacity of piles increases over time. Research has shown that this is caused by an increase in shaft friction combined with a constant or only slightly increasing base capacity. Although there are some ideas on the mechanisms that play a role there is no quantitative model to describe this mechanism. From the literature the shaft friction seems to increase linearly with the logarithm of time. For piles in the field this is proven by load tests performed between 1 until approximately 1000 days after installation. Literature indicates that set-up as a function of time is also present minutes and hours after installation. This allows investigating the set-up mechanisms under controlled conditions in a centrifuge. Therefore two test series have been performed to investigate the set-up for a single pile and a pile group. This paper presents the relevant literature and describes the position of the tests in the on-going research program on piles in The Netherlands. Furthermore, the results will be described and discussed. Time dependency in bearing capacity in sand can be observed in the centrifuge tests, although it is not certain whether some of the increase has not been caused by other mechanisms. It appears that the testing conditions as well as the effects of installation of neighboring piles are of great importance on the time effects

The cholesterol-raising diterpenes from coffee beans increase serum lipid transfer protein activity levels in humans

Cafestol and kahweol–diterpenes present in unfiltered coffee— strongly raise serum VLDL and LDL cholesterol and slightly reduce HDL cholesterol in humans. The mechanism of action is unknown. We determined whether the coffee diterpenes may affect lipoprotein metabolism via effects on lipid transfer proteins and lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase in a randomized, double-blind cross-over study with 10 healthy male volunteers. Either cafestol (61–64 mg/day) or a mixture of cafestol (60 mg/day) and kahweol (48–54 mg/day) was given for 28 days. Serum activity levels of cholesterylester transfer protein, phospholipid transfer protein and lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase were measured using exogenous substrate assays. Relative to baseline values, cafestol raised the mean (±S.D.) activity of cholesterylester transfer protein by 18±12% and of phospholipid transfer protein by 21±14% (both P<0.001). Relative to cafestol alone, kahweol had no significant additional effects. Lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase activity was reduced by 11±12% by cafestol plus kahweol (P=0.02). It is concluded that the effects of coffee diterpenes on plasma lipoproteins may be connected with changes in serum activity levels of lipid transfer proteins

Vervolg middelenonderzoek tegen taxuskever : eindrapportage

Larven van taxuskevers vormen een belangrijke plaag in boomkwekerijgewassen, door hun vraat aan verschillende gewassen. Volwassen kevers veroorzaken geen grote problemen, behalve in gewassen met een grote sierwaarde. Het is nodig om zowel de larven als de volwassen kevers te bestrijden, om deze plaag te kunnen beheersen

Recent experiments on a small-angle/wide-angle X-ray scattering beam line at the ESRF

Recent results using a new combined small-angle/wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS) beam line at the European Synchrotron Radiation Source (ESRF) will be presented. This beam line is specifically designed to be able to handle complicated sample environments required to perform time-resolved experiments mimicking processing conditions used in material science. Besides the attention that has been given to the interfacing of these sample environments to the beam line data acquisition system also the developments in detector technology will be discussed. The influence that a high count rate and low noise WAXS detector can have on the accuracy of experimental results in polymer crystallisation will be shown. It is shown that it is feasible to detect crystalline volume fractions as low as 10(-3)-10(-4) in polymeric systems

Submicron active-passive integration for InP-based membranes on silicon

The high vertical index contrast and the small thickness of thin InP-based membrane structures bonded with BCB on Silicon allow the realization of very small devices. To make photonic integrated circuits with both passive and active components in these membranes, active-passive integration on a small scale is essential. In this paper we will present our results on sub-micrometer active areas for membrane applications

Spatio-temporal mapping of daily photosynthesis in drought conditions using remote sensing observations and in-situ measurements:abstract

Reliable spatio-temporal information about the photosynthesis and its dependence on environmental factors, is crucial for vegetation productivity monitoring, water resources management, and detection of climate change effects.. In this study, we investigated the relationship between time series of Landsat (TM5 and ETM7) optical data, soil moisture measurements and canopy daily photosynthesis of annual C3 grasses at a Fluxnet site (US-Var) during a prolonged drought episode from January to August 2004. By using the ‘Soil -Canopy Observation of Photosynthesis and Energy fluxes’ (SCOPE) model, time series maps of photosynthesis were simulated via Landsat retrieved vegetation properties maps [notably Leaf Area Index (LAI), leaf chlorophyll content (Cab), leaf water content (Cw), leaf dry matter content (Cdm), the leaf inclination distribution function (LIDF) and the senescent material content (Cs)], locally measured weather data and in-situ soil moisture data. The generated maps of photosynthesis simulated by the SCOPE model were validated at a Fluxnet site (US-Var). The comparison between daily photosynthesis simulations and measurements shows that considerable drought effects on photosynthesis are ‘visible’ in the Landsat optical bands. However, the most accurate photosynthesis maps are obtained when soil moisture information is added as an extra source of input data to the SCOPE simulations. The results from this study indicate that the combined use of optical remote sensing observations and in-situ measured soil moisture data has a great potential to capture the drought effects on the grass canopy photosynthesis

Overview of the EU FP7-project HISTORIC

HISTORIC aims to develop and test complex photonic integrated circuits containing a relatively large number of digital photonic elements for use in e.g. all-optical packet switching. These photonic digital units are all-optical flip-flops based on ultra compact laser diodes, such as microdisk lasers and photonic crystal lasers. These lasers are fabricated making use of the heterogeneous integration of InP membranes on top of silicon on insulator (SOI) passive optical circuits. The very small dimensions of the lasers are, at least for some approaches, possible because of the high index contrast of the InP membranes and by making use of the extreme accuracy of CMOS processing. All-optical flip-flops based on heterogeneously integrated microdisk lasers with diameter of 7.5 mu m have already been demonstrated. They operate with a CW power consumption of a few mW and can switch in 60ps with switching energies as low as 1.8 fJ. Their operation as all-optical gate has also been demonstrated. Work is also on-going to fabricate heterogeneously integrated photonic crystal lasers and all-optical flip-flops based on such lasers. A lot of attention is given to the electrical pumping of the membrane InP-based photonic crystal lasers and to the coupling to SOI wire waveguides. Optically pumped photonic crystal lasers coupled to SOI wires have been demonstrated already. The all-optical flip-flops and gates will be combined into more complex photonic integrated circuits, implementing all-optical shift registers, D flip-flops, and other all-optical switching building blocks. The possibility to integrate a large number of photonic digital units together, but also to integrate them with compact passive optical routers such as AWGs, opens new perspectives for the design of integrated optical processors or optical buffers. The project therefore also focuses on designing new architectures for such optical processing or buffer chips