Transparent soil microcosms for live-cell imaging and non-destructive stable isotope probing of soil microorganisms

Microscale processes are critically important to soil ecology and biogeochemistry yet are difficult to study due to soil\u27s opacity and complexity. To advance the study of soil processes, we constructed transparent soil microcosms that enable the visualization of microbes via fluorescence microscopy and the non-destructive measurement of microbial activity and carbon uptake in situ via Raman microspectroscopy. We assessed the polymer Nafion and the crystal cryolite as optically transparent soil substrates. We demonstrated that both substrates enable the growth, maintenance, and visualization of microbial cells in three dimensions over time, and are compatible with stable isotope probing using Raman. We applied this system to ascertain that after a dry-down/rewetting cycle, bacteria on and near dead fungal hyphae were more metabolically active than those far from hyphae. These data underscore the impact fungi have facilitating bacterial survival in fluctuating conditions and how these microcosms can yield insights into microscale microbial activities

Comparison of complexity indicators for assessing general process structures

Rad se bavi usporedbom različitih pokazatelja pri procjeni složenosti odabranih općih struktura procesa. Glavni cilj istraživanja je ispitivanje sposobnosti tih pokazatelja u otkrivanju očekivanih razlika u strukturnoj složenosti među promatranim općim strukturama procesa. Rezultati ovog teorijskog istraživanja pokazuju da svi predloženi pokazatelji mogu biti učinkovito upotrijebljeni pri analizi strukturne složenosti općih struktura procesa.This paper focuses on the comparison of different complexity indicators for complexity assessment of selected general process structures. The main objective in this study is to test their ability to uncover assumed differences in structural complexity among observed general process structures. The obtained results of this theoretical study show that all proposed indicators can be effectively used for analyzing structural complexity of general process structures

SPIRE Point Source Catalog Explanatory Supplement

The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) was launched as one of the scientific instruments on board of the space observatory Herschel. The SPIRE photometer opened up an entirely new window in the Submillimeter domain for large scale mapping, that up to then was very difficult to observe. There are already several catalogs that were produced by individual Herschel science projects. Yet, we estimate that the objects of only a fraction of these maps will ever be systematically extracted and published by the science teams that originally proposed the observations. The SPIRE instrument performed its standard photometric observations in an optically very stable configuration, only moving the telescope across the sky, with variations in its configuration parameters limited to scan speed and sampling rate. This and the scarcity of features in the data that require special processing steps made this dataset very attractive for producing an expert reduced catalog of point sources that is being described in this document. The Catalog was extracted from a total of 6878 unmodified SPIRE scan map observations. The photometry was obtained by a systematic and homogeneous source extraction procedure, followed by a rigorous quality check that emphasized reliability over completeness. Having to exclude regions affected by strong Galactic emission, that pushed the limits of the four source extraction methods that were used, this catalog is aimed primarily at the extragalactic community. The result can serve as a pathfinder for ALMA and other Submillimeter and Far-Infrared facilities. 1,693,718 sources are included in the final catalog, splitting into 950688, 524734, 218296 objects for the 250\mu m, 350\mu m, and 500\mu m bands, respectively. The catalog comes with well characterized environments, reliability, completeness, and accuracies, that single programs typically cannot provide

Improving the Efficiency of Pyrolysis and Increasing the Quality of Gas Production through Optimization of Prototype Systems

Publisher's version (útgefin grein).Pyrolysis is a thermochemical process that consists of the degradation of organic polymers and biomass minerals in lignocellulose materials. At low pyrolysis temperature (300-400 degrees C), primarily carbon is produced during the reaction time. Rapid pyrolysis takes place at temperatures between 500 and 650 degrees C. If the temperature is higher than 700 degrees C, the final product is methane, also known as biogas. The pyrolysis generator can be combined with a small power plant (CHP), which is a promising technology because the unit can be installed directly near the biomass production, and electricity can be fed de-centrally to the public utility network, while there are several possibilities for using waste heat in local systems. Carbonaceous ash can be utilized well in the agricultural field, because, in areas with intensive farming, the soil suffers from carbon and mineral deficiencies, and the phenomenon of material defect can be reduced by a proper level of implementation. This study describes the technical content of the biochar pilot project, and then, through a detailed presentation of the experimental results, we interpret the new scientific results. Our aim is to improve the quality of the produced gas by increasing the efficiency of the pyrolysis generator. In order for the pyrolysis unit to operate continuously, with proper efficiency and good gas quality, it is necessary to optimize the operation process. Our review reveals that the use of vibration may be advantageous during pyrolysis, which affects the mass of the pyrolysis carbon in a plane. Accordingly, the application of vibration to the input section of the funnel might enhance the quality of the gas, as well. The study concludes that more accurate dimensioning of the main parts of the gas reactor and a more convenient design of the oxidation and reduction zones enhance the good-quality gas output.The Hungarian Ministry of National Economy, grant number GINOP 2.1.7-152016-01604. The Climate Change Research Centre and Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration at Szent Istvan University supported the preparation of the manuscript."Peer Reviewed

Development of a GEM-TPC prototype

The use of GEM foils for the amplification stage of a TPC instead of a con- ventional MWPC allows one to bypass the necessity of gating, as the backdrift is suppressed thanks to the asymmetric field configuration. This way, a novel continuously running TPC, which represents one option for the PANDA central tracker, can be realized. A medium sized prototype with a diameter of 300 mm and a length of 600 mm will be tested inside the FOPI spectrometer at GSI using a carbon or lithium beam at intermediate energies (E = 1-3AGeV). This detector test under realistic experimental conditions should allow us to verify the spatial resolution for single tracks and the reconstruction capability for displaced vertexes. A series of physics measurement implying pion beams is scheduled with the FOPI spectrometer together with the GEM-TPC as well.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings for 11th ICATTP conference in como (italy

Parameters and Predictions for the Long-Period Transiting Planet HD 17156b

We report high-cadence time-series photometry of the recently-discovered transiting exoplanet system HD 17156, spanning the time of transit on UT 2007 October 1, from three separate observatories. We present a joint analysis of our photometry, previously published radial velocity measurements, and times of transit center for 3 additional events. Adopting the spectroscopically-determined values and uncertainties for the stellar mass and radius, we estimate a planet radius of Rp = 1.01 +/- 0.09 RJup and an inclination of i = 86.5 +1.1 -0.7 degrees. We find a time of transit center of Tc = 2454374.8338 +/- 0.0020 HJD and an orbital period of P = 21.21691 +/- 0.00071 days, and note that the 4 transits reported to date show no sign of timing variations that would indicate the presence of a third body in the system. Our results do not preclude the existence of a secondary eclipse, but imply there is only a 9.2% chance for this to be present, and an even lower probability (6.9%) that the secondary eclipse would be a non-grazing event. Due to its eccentric orbit and long period, HD 17156b is a fascinating object for the study of the dynamics of exoplanet atmospheres. To aid such future studies, we present theoretical light curves for the variable infrared emission from the visible hemisphere of the planet throughout its orbit.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, emulateapj format. v2: accepted for publication in ApJ, minor changes. Changed to emulateapj to save the rainforest