484 research outputs found
Stochastic Viability of Second Generation Biofuel Chains: Micro-economic Spatial Modeling in France
Within an overall project to assess the ability of the agricultural sector to contribute to bioenergy production, we set out here to examine the economic and technological viability of a bioenergy facility in an uncertain economic context, using the stochastic viability approach. We consider two viability constraints: the facility demand for lignocellulosic feedstock has to be satisfied each year and the associated supply cost has to be lower than de profitability threshold of the facility. We assess the viability probability of various supplying strategies consisting in contracting a given share of the feedstock demand with perennial dedicated crops at the initial time and then in making up each year with annual dedicated crops or wood. The demand constraints and agricultural prices scenarios over the time horizon are introduced in an agricultural and forest biomass supply model, which in turns determines the supply cost per MWh and computes the viability probabilities of the various contract strategies. A sensibility analysis to agricultural prices at initial time is performed. Results show that when they are around or under the median (of the 1993–2007 prices), the strategy consisting in contracting 100% of the feedstock supply with perennial dedicated crops is the best one.Biofuel, Biomass production, Spatial economics, Stochastic viability, Monte Carlo simulation, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,
Fragmentation of small carbon clusters, a review
An overview of the works devoted to fragmentation of small carbon clusters is given in a first part. Fragmentation of swift neutral and (multi) charged carbon clusters studied with the AGAT spectrometer is presented and discussed in a second part
Electromechanical, Thermal Properties And Radiation Hardness Tests Of Piezoelectric Actuators At Low Temperature
IPN Orsay participates, in the frame of the CARE project activities supported by EU, to the development of a fast cold tuning system for SRF cavities. The main task of IPN is the full characterization of piezoelectric actuators at low temperature T, and the study of their behaviour when subjected to fast neutrons radiation at T=4.2 K. In order to compare the performance of various industrial piezoelectric actuators, a new apparatus was developed and successfully used for measuring their electromechanical and thermal properties for T in the range 1.8 K-300 K. Different parameters were investigated as function of T: piezoelectric constant, dielectric and thermal properties including heating ΔT due to dielectric losses vs. modulating voltage Vmod and frequency f. We observed a decrease of the maximum displacement ΔX of the actuators tested from ΔX ~40μm @ 300K down to 1.8μm-3.5 μm @ 1.8K, depending on both material and fabrication process of the piezostacks. Besides, both material and fabrication process have a strong influence on the shape of the characteristics ΔX vs. T dependence. Finally a dedicated facility located at CERI institute (Orléans, France) for radiation hardness tests of actuators with fast neutrons at T=4.2 K was developed and the first beam tests results are summarized
Ultimate performance of Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors in the tunneling regime
Thanks to their wavelength diversity and to their excellent uniformity,
Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIP) emerge as potential candidates for
astronomical or defense applications in the very long wavelength infrared
(VLWIR) spectral domain. However, these applications deal with very low
backgrounds and are very stringent on dark current requirements. In this paper,
we present the full electro-optical characterization of a 15 micrometer QWIP,
with emphasis on the dark current measurements. Data exhibit striking features,
such as a plateau regime in the IV curves at low temperature (4 to 25 K). We
show that present theories fail to describe this phenomenon and establish the
need for a fully microscopic approach
Two spectroscopically confirmed galaxy structures at z=0.61 and 0.74 in the CFHTLS Deep~3 field
Adami et al. (2010) have detected several cluster candidates at z>0.5 as part
of a systematic search for clusters in the Canada France Hawaii Telescope
Legacy Survey, based on photometric redshifts. We focus here on two of them,
located in the D3 field: D3-6 and D3-43. We have obtained spectroscopy with
Gemini/GMOS and measured redshifts for 23 and 14 galaxies in the two
structures. These redshifts were combined with those available in the
literature. A dynamical and a weak lensing analysis were also performed,
together with the study of X-ray Chandra archive data. Cluster D3-6 is found to
be a single structure of 8 spectroscopically confirmed members at an average
redshift z=0.607, with a velocity dispersion of 423 km/s. It appears to be a
relatively low mass cluster. D3-43-S3 has 46 spectroscopically confirmed
members at an average redshift z=0.739. It can be decomposed into two main
substructures, having a velocity dispersion of about 600 and 350 km/s. An
explanation to the fact that D3-43-S3 is detected through weak lensing (only
marginally, at the ~3sigma level) but not in X-rays could be that the two
substructures are just beginning to merge more or less along the line of sight.
We also show that D3-6 and D3-43-S3 have similar global galaxy luminosity
functions, stellar mass functions, and star formation rate (SFR) distributions.
The only differences are that D3-6 exhibits a lack of faint early type
galaxies, a deficit of extremely high stellar mass galaxies compared to
D3-43-S3, and an excess of very high SFR galaxies. This study shows the power
of techniques based on photometric redshifts to detect low to moderately
massive structures, even at z~0.75.Comment: Accepted in A&A, final version, shortened abstrac
Charge and current-sensitive preamplifiers for pulse shape discrimination techniques with silicon detectors
New charge and current-sensitive preamplifiers coupled to silicon detectors
and devoted to studies in nuclear structure and dynamics have been developed
and tested. For the first time shapes of current pulses from light charged
particles and carbon ions are presented. Capabilities for pulse shape
discrimination techniques are demonstrated.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, to be published in Nucl. Inst. Meth.
Cotransplantation of Cord Blood Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Culture-Expanded and GM-CSF-/SCF-Transfected Mesenchymal Stem Cells in SCID Mice
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are multipotent in nature and believed to facilitate the engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) when transplanted simultaneously in animal studies and even in human trials. In this study, we transfected culture-expanded MSC with granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and stem cell factor (SCF) cytokine genes and then cotransplanted with mononuclear cells (MNC) to further promote HSC engraftment. MNC were harvested from cord blood and seeded in long-term culture for ex vivo MSC expansion. A total of 1×107 MNC plus MSC/µL were introduced to the tail vein of nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency mice. After 6-8 weeks later, homing and engraftment of human cells were determined by flow cytometry and fluorescence in situ hybridization studies. The total nucleated cell count and the engraftment of CD45+/CD34+ cells and XX or XY positive human cells were significantly increased in cotransplanted mice and even higher with the cytokine gene-transfected MSC (GM-CSF>SCF, p<0.05) than in transplantation of MNC alone. These results suggest that MSC transfected with hematopoietic growth factor genes are capable of enhancing the hematopoietic engraftment. Delivering genes involved in homing and cell adhesions, CXCR4 or VLA, would further increase the efficiency of stem cell transplantation in the future
Double Starbursts Triggered by Mergers in Hierarchical Clustering Scenarios
We use cosmological SPH simulations to study the effects of mergers in the
star formation history of galactic objects in hierarchical clustering
scenarios. We find that during some merger events, gaseous discs can experience
two starbursts: the first one during the orbital decay phase, due to gas
inflows driven as the satellite approaches, and the second one, when the two
baryonic clumps collide. A trend for these first induced starbursts to be more
efficient at transforming the gas into stars is also found. We detect that
systems which do not experience early gas inflows have well-formed stellar
bulges and more concentrated potential wells, which seem to be responsible for
preventing further gas inward transport triggered by tidal forces. Our results
constitute the first proof that bulges can form as the product of collapse,
collisions and secular evolution in a cosmological framework, and they are
consistent with a rejuvenation of the stellar population in bulges at
intermediate z with, at least, 50% of the stars (in SCDM) being formed at high
z. (Abridged)Comment: 17 pages, 6 postscript figures. Accepted MNRA
Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set
We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s
using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays
in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at
production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton
collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment
at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity.
We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the
B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2,
-1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in
agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model
value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by
other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012
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