Hydrological influences on long-term gas flow trends at locations in the Vogtland/NW Bohemian seismic region (German-Czech border)

One of the typical methods for the identification of seismo-hydrological effects is to monitor changes in the free gas flow throughout springs or mofettes. For several years, the gas flow regime of mineral springs at Bad Brambach (Germany) and mofettes in the Nature Park Soos (Czech Republic) and its dependence on hydro-/meteorological parameters have been studied. The mineral spring ‘Wettinquelle’, Bad Brambach, is a well-known seismo- hydrologically sensitive location for swarmquakes at a special epicentral area of NW Bohemia. Since 2000, a slight upward trend in the gas flow of three Bad Brambach mineral springs has been observed, which became stronger after the ‘Eisenquelle’ spring capture reconstruction (winter 2003/2004). Similar behaviour could be detected at a mofette in Soos. The results correspond to a 3He/4He mantle ratio increase in gases at mofettes in the Cheb Basin (CZ) traced by other authors for more than 12 years, and could give hints for a higher degassing activity of the magma body below that area. Common and special properties in the degassing regimes of the Bad Brambach and Soos locations are discussed. It is demonstrated that the long-term gas flow trend was interrupted in 2003 because of very low groundwater levels. This effect was amplified by the artificial groundwater lowering during the ‘Eisenquelle’ spring capture reconstruction

Protection Measures against Product Piracy and Application by the Use of AM

Presently the implications Additive Manufacturing (AM) on intellectual properties are discussed in public. Here AM is often mentioned as a driver for product piracy as it allows to produce and to copy objects with any geometries. Imitators need a lot of information to copy an object accurately. As reverse engineering has been identified as the most important information source for product imitators, AM can also help to reduce the threat of product piracy when correctly applied in the product development. Due to the layer wise production process that allows the manufacturing of very complex shapes and geometries, the reverse-engineering process can be complicated by far. By this, quite contrary to the public opinion, AM can increase the needed effort of imitators and strongly reduce the economic efficiency of product piracy. This paper will show different protection measures and a methodological approach of how to apply these measures to a product. Beside the protective effect some measures allow a traceability of parts over the product’s lifecycle and thus support the quality management of AM processes and additively produced parts.Mechanical Engineerin

Anomalous fluid emission of a deep borehole in a seismically active area of Northern Apennines (Italy)

The Miano borehole, 1047 m deep, is located close to the river Parma in the Northern Apennines, Italy. A measuring station has been installed to observe the discharge of fluids continuously since November 2004. The upwelling fluid of this artesian well is a mixture of thermal water and CH4 as main components. In non-seismogenic areas, a relatively constant fluid emission would be expected, perhaps overlaid with long term variations from that kind of deep reservoir over time. However, the continuous record of the fluid emission, in particular the water discharge, the gas flow rate and the water temperature, show periods of stable values interrupted by anomalous periods of fluctuations in the recorded parameters. The anomalous variations of these parameters are of low amplitude in comparison to the total values but significant in their long-term trend. Meteorological effects due to rain and barometric pressure were not detected in recorded data probably due to reservoir depth and relatively high reservoir overpressure. Influences due to the ambient temperature after the discharge were evaluated by statistical analysis. Our results suggest that recorded changes in fluid emission parameters can be interpreted as a mixing process of different fluid components at depth by variations in pore pressure as a result of seismogenic stress variation. Local seismicity was analyzed in comparison to the fluid physico-chemical data. The analysis supports the idea that an influence on fluid transport conditions due to geodynamic processes exists. Water temperature data show frequent anomalies probably connected with possible precursory phenomena of local seismic events

Full counting statistics of strongly non-Ohmic transport through single molecules

We study analytically the full counting statistics of charge transport through single molecules, strongly coupled to a weakly damped vibrational mode. The specifics of transport in this regime - a hierarchical sequence of avalanches of transferred charges, interrupted by "quiet" periods - make the counting statistics strongly non-Gaussian. We support our findings for the counting statistics as well as for the frequency-dependent noise power by numerical simulations, finding excellent agreement.Comment: 4+ pages, 2 figures; minor changes, version published in Phys. Rev. Let

Probing the mechanical unzipping of DNA

A study of the micromechanical unzipping of DNA in the framework of the Peyrard-Bishop-Dauxois model is presented. We introduce a Monte Carlo technique that allows accurate determination of the dependence of the unzipping forces on unzipping speed and temperature. Our findings agree quantitatively with experimental results for homogeneous DNA, and for $\lambda$-phage DNA we reproduce the recently obtained experimental force-temperature phase diagram. Finally, we argue that there may be fundamental differences between {\em in vivo} and {\em in vitro} DNA unzipping

Serum (1 → 3)-β-d-glucan measurement as an early indicator of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia and evaluation of its prognostic value

AbstractPneumocystis jirovecii (carinii) pneumonia (PJP) is a major cause of disease in immunocompromised individuals. However, until recently no reliable and specific serological parameters for the diagnosis of PJP have been available. (1 → 3)-β-d-Glucan (BG) is a cell wall component of P. jirovecii and of various other fungi. Data from the past few years have pointed to serum measurement of BG as a promising new tool for the diagnosis of PJP. We therefore conducted a retrospective study on 50 patients with PJP and 50 immunocompromised control patients to evaluate the diagnostic performance of serum BG measurement. Our results show an excellent diagnostic performance with a sensitivity of 98.0% and a specificity of 94%. While the positive predictive value was only 64.7%, the negative predictive value was 99.8% and therefore a negative BG result almost rules out PJP. BG levels were already strongly elevated in an average of 5 days and up to 21 days before microbiological diagnosis demonstrating that the diagnosis could have been confirmed earlier. BG levels at diagnosis and maximum BG levels during follow-up did not correlate with the outcome of patients or with the P. jirovecii burden in the lung as detected by Real-Time PCR. Therefore, absolute BG levels seem to be of no prognostic value. Altogether, BG is a reliable parameter for the diagnosis of PJP and could be used as a preliminary test for patients at risk before a bronchoalveolar lavage is performed

The precursor effects in the mineral spring 'Radonquelle', Bad Brambach prior to the January 14-19, 1997 earthquake swarm near Novy Kostel (NW Bohemia)

The main result of the 7 years’ continuous radon recording at the mineral spring “Radonquelle”, Bad Brambach was the identification of a “sensitive” epicentral area 12 km E of the measuring site (Heinicke et al., 1995a, b; Koch and Heinicke, 1996). The derived model conception is based upon a fluidal connection (water, mantle-originated gases) between the hypocenters and the observed spring, and a spreading of seismotectonically induced pressure pulse within the fluidal system. From January 6 to January 20, 1997 a radon anomaly with a maximum on January 12 was recorded at the “Radonquelle”. About 55 hours after that maximum an earthquake swarm with more than 100 single events occurred. The epicenter was located again within the above-mentioned sensitive region near Novy Kostel (Czech Republic). An increased gas flow in the spring capture was proved to be responsible for the generation of that anomaly, and confirmed the significance of the pressure pulse model

Coherent photon bremsstrahlung and dynamics of heavy-ion collisions: comparison of different models

Differential spectra of coherent photon bremsstrahlung in relativistic heavy ion collisions are calculated within various schematic models of the projectile-target stopping. Two versions of the degradation length model, based on a phenomenological deceleration law, are considered. The simple shock wave model is studied analytically. The predictions of these models agree in the soft photon limit, where the spectrum is determined only by the final velocity distribution of charged particles. The results of these models in the case of central Au+Au collisions at various bombarding energies are compared with the predictions of the microscopic transport model UrQMD. It is shown that at the AGS energy the coherent photon bremsstrahlung exceeds the photon yield from $\pi^0$-decays at photon energies \omega\loo 50 MeV.Comment: 23 pages RevTeX, 9 eps Figure

Anomalous fluid emission of a deep borehole in a seismically active area of Northern Apennines (Italy)

The Miano borehole of 1047 m depth is located close to the river Parma in the Northern Apennines, Italy. A measuring station is installed to observe the discharge of fluids continuously since November 2004. The upwelling fluid of this artesian well is a mixture of thermal water and methane as main components. In non-seismogenic areas, we would expect a relative constant fluid emission perhaps overlaid with long term variations from that kind of deep reservoirs during the time. However, the continuously record of the fluid emission, in particular the water discharge, the gas flow rate and the water temperature, show periods of stable values interrupted by anomalous periods of fluctuations in the recorded parameters. The anomalous variations of these parameters are of low amplitude in comparison to the total values but significant in their long-term trend. Meteorological influences of rain and barometric pressure were not detected in recorded data probably due to reservoir depth and relatively high reservoir overpressure. Influences due to the ambient temperature after the discharge were evaluated by statistical analysis. We consider that recorded changes in fluid emission parameters can be interpreted as a mixing process of different fluid components in depth by variations in pore pressure as result of seismogenic stress variation. Local seismicity was analyzed in comparison to fluid’s physico-chemical data. The analysis supports the idea of an influence to fluid transport conditions due to geodynamic processes exist. Water temperature data show frequent anomalies probably connected with possible precursory phenomena of local seismic events

Künstliche Inokulation von Gerstenpflanzen mit dem Flugbranderreger (Ustilago nuda) und Infektionsverlauf auf dem Fruchtknoten

ZusammenfassungZiel der Arbeit war die Prüfung künstlicher Inokulationsverfahren von Gerstenpflanzen mit dem Flugbranderreger (Ustilago nuda) und das Erlangen von Erkenntnissen zum genauen Infektionsverlauf auf dem Fruchtknoten. Diese Versuche sollten die Basis sein, um zukünftig hoch befallenes Saatgut in ausreichender Menge herstellen zu können, was für Folgeexperimente von großer Wichtigkeit wäre. Hierzu wurden drei Inokulationsmethoden – Inokulation mit der Spritze, Vakuuminfiltration und Besprühen mit Sporensuspension – hinsichtlich der erhaltenen Befallsraten und ihrem Einfluss auf die Keimfähigkeit miteinander verglichen. Weiterhin wurde untersucht, ob die Position des inokulierten Blütchens an der Ähre einen Einfluss auf den späteren Befall des daraus hervorgehenden Korns hat. Zu diesem Zweck wurden die Ähren zunächst per Spritze inokuliert und anschließend beim Ernten in jeweils drei Teile zerlegt und gesondert über einen Embryotest ausgewertet. Als aussichtsreichste Inokulationsmethode kristallisierte sich die Inokulation mit der Spritze heraus. Ein Einfluss der Ährenregion auf den späteren Befall konnte nicht nachgewiesen werden. Des Weiteren wurden mikroskopische Untersuchungen durchgeführt, die zu einem besseren Verständnis des Infektionsverlaufes auf dem Fruchtknoten führen sollten. Hierfür wurde ein lactophenolbasierendes Autoklavieranfärbeverfahren verwendet. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass eine Infektion des Fruchtknotens nicht zwingend über die Narbe stattfinden muss, und dass der Pilz bei einer erfolgreichen Infektion die obersten Zellschichten der Fruchtknotenwand intrazellulär mit einer Infektionshyphe penetriert.Stichwörter: Brandkrankheiten, Flugbrandbefall, BlüteninokulationAbstract The aim of this study was the examination of artificial inoculation techniques of barley with the pathogen (Ustilago nuda) and to obtain detailed new findings on the mode of infection on the ovary. These tests were designed to be the base to produce a sufficient amount of highly infected seeds, which would be of great importance for further experiments. Three inoculation techniques - by injection, vacuum infiltration or spraying with spore suspension - were compared with respect to the resulting infection rates and their influence on the germination rate. Moreover, it was evaluated, if the position of the inoculated floret on the ear has any influence on subsequent infection of the developing grain. Therefore the ears were inoculated by injection and, after harvesting, divided in three parts and separately evaluated with an embryo test. The most promising inoculation technique turned out to be inoculation by injection. An influence of the ear area on subsequent infection was not detected. In addition, microscopic analyses were carried out, which should provide a better understanding of the mode of infection on the ovary. A lactophenolbased autoclave staining technique was applied. The analysis showed that an infection of the ovary does not necessarily originate from the stigma, and that in case of an effective infection the fungus penetrates the uppermost cell layers of the ovary intracellularly with an infection hypha.Keywords: smuts, loose smut, flower inoculatio