555 research outputs found
Assessing the influence of the Merzbacher Lake outburst floods on discharge using the hydrological model SWIM in the Aksu headwaters, Kyrgyzstan/NW China
Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) often have a significant impact on downstream users. Including their effects in hydrological models, identifying past occurrences and assessing their potential impacts are challenges for hydrologists working in mountainous catchments. The regularly outbursting Merzbacher Lake is located in the headwaters of the Aksu River, the most important source of water discharge to the Tarim River, northwest China. Modelling its water resources and the evaluation of potential climate change impacts on river discharge are indispensable for projecting future water availability for the intensively cultivated river oases downstream of the Merzbacher Lake and along the Tarim River. The semi-distributed hydrological model SWIM was calibrated to the outlet station Xiehela on the Kumarik River, by discharge the largest tributary to the Aksu River. The glacial lake outburst floods add to the difficulties of modelling this high-mountain, heavily glaciated catchment with poor data coverage and quality. The aims of the study are to investigate the glacier lake outburst floods using a modelling tool. Results include a two-step model calibration of the Kumarik catchment, an approach for the identification of the outburst floods using the measured gauge data and the modelling results and estimations of the outburst flood volumes. Results show that a catchment model can inform GLOF investigations by providing ânormalâ (i.e. without the outburst floods) catchment discharge. The comparison of the simulated and observed discharge proves the occurrence of GLOFs and highlights the influences of the GLOFs on the downstream water balance. © 2013 The Authors. Hydrological Processes Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Observation of a temperature dependent electrical resistance minimum above the magnetic ordering temperature in GdPdSi
Results on electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance, magnetic Results on
electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance, magnetic susceptibility, heat
capacity and Gd Mossbauer measurements on a Gd-based intermetallic compound,
GdPdSi are reported. A finding of interest is that the resistivity
unexpectedly shows a well-defined minimum at about 45 K, well above the long
range magnetic ordering temperature (21 K), a feature which gets suppressed by
the application of a magnetic field. This observation in a Gd alloy presents an
interesting scenario. On the basis of our results, we propose electron
localization induced by s-f (or d-f) exchange interaction prior to long range
magnetic order as a mechanism for the electrical resistance minimum.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Hippokampale VolumenverÀnderung und COMT-Val-108/158-Met-Polymorphismus bei Patienten mit akuter unipolarer Depression
In dieser Studie wurden hippokampale Volumina von 47 Patienten mit akuter unipolarer Depression und 47 gematchten Normalprobanden morphometrisch bestimmt. Blutproben aller Studienteilnehmer wurden fĂŒr den COMT-Val-108/158-Met-Polymorphismus typisiert und ein möglicher Zusammenhang zwischen akuter unipolarer Depression, COMT-Genotyp und hippokampalem Volumen untersucht. Es konnten keine signifikanten Unterschiede im hippokampalen Volumen zwischen depressiven Patienten und Kontrollprobanden gefunden werden. Trotz der doppelt so hohen PrĂ€valenz der Val/Val-Allelkombination bei Patienten im Gegensatz zu Gesunden konnte kein signifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen den drei verschiedenen COMT-Genotypen und hippokampalem Volumen beobachtet werden. Da es trotz groĂer methodischer Sorgfalt nicht zur Feststellung signifikanter Unterschiede zwischen beiden Studienpopulationen kam, verlangt es zukĂŒnftig nach Longitudinalstudien mit groĂer Studienzahl sowie familienbasierten Untersuchungen
Density of Phonon States in Superconducting FeSe as a Function of Temperature and Pressure
The temperature and pressure dependence of the partial density of phonon
states of iron atoms in superconducting Fe1.01Se was studied by 57Fe nuclear
inelastic scattering (NIS). The high energy resolution allows for a detailed
observation of spectral properties. A sharpening of the optical phonon modes
and shift of all spectral features towards higher energies by ~4% with
decreasing temperature from 296 K to 10 K was found. However, no detectable
change at the tetragonal - orthorhombic phase transition around 100 K was
observed. Application of a pressure of 6.7 GPa, connected with an increase of
the superconducting temperature from 8 K to 34 K, results in an increase of the
optical phonon mode energies at 296 K by ~12%, and an even more pronounced
increase for the lowest-lying transversal acoustic mode. Despite these strong
pressure-induced modifications of the phonon-DOS we conclude that the
pronounced increase of Tc in Fe1.01Se with pressure cannot be described in the
framework of classical electron-phonon coupling. This result suggests the
importance of spin fluctuations to the observed superconductivity
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Assessing the influence of the Merzbacher Lake outburst floods on discharge using the hydrological model SWIM in the Aksu headwaters, Kyrgyzstan/NW China
Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) often have a significant impact on downstream users. Including their effects in hydrological models, identifying past occurrences and assessing their potential impacts are challenges for hydrologists working in mountainous catchments. The regularly outbursting Merzbacher Lake is located in the headwaters of the Aksu River, the most important source of water discharge to the Tarim River, northwest China. Modelling its water resources and the evaluation of potential climate change impacts on river discharge are indispensable for projecting future water availability for the intensively cultivated river oases downstream of the Merzbacher Lake and along the Tarim River. The semi-distributed hydrological model SWIM was calibrated to the outlet station Xiehela on the Kumarik River, by discharge the largest tributary to the Aksu River. The glacial lake outburst floods add to the difficulties of modelling this high-mountain, heavily glaciated catchment with poor data coverage and quality. The aims of the study are to investigate the glacier lake outburst floods using a modelling tool. Results include a two-step model calibration of the Kumarik catchment, an approach for the identification of the outburst floods using the measured gauge data and the modelling results and estimations of the outburst flood volumes. Results show that a catchment model can inform GLOF investigations by providing 'normal' (i.e. without the outburst floods) catchment discharge. The comparison of the simulated and observed discharge proves the occurrence of GLOFs and highlights the influences of the GLOFs on the downstream water balance
Palaeomagnetic time and space constraints of the Early Cretaceous Rhenodanubian Flysch zone (Eastern Alps)
© The Authors 2017. The Rhenodanubian Flysch zone (RDF) is a Lower Cretaceous-lower Palaeocene turbidite succession extending for ~500 km from the Danube at Vienna to the Rhine Valley (Eastern Alps). It consists of calcareous and siliciclastic turbidite systems deposited in a trench abyssal plain. The age of deposition has been estimated through micropalaeontologic dating. However, palaeomagnetic studies constraining the age and the palaeolatitude of deposition of the RDF are still missing. Here, we present palaeomagnetic data from the Early Cretaceous Tristel and Rehbreingraben Formations of the RDF from two localities in the Bavarian Alps (Rehbrein Creek and Lainbach Valley, southern Germany), and from the stratigraphic equivalent of the Falknis Nappe (Liechtenstein). The quality of the palaeomagnetic signal has been assessed by either fold test (FT) or reversal test (RT). Sediments from the Falknis Nappe are characterized by a pervasive syntectonic magnetic overprint as tested by negative FT, and are thus excluded from the study. The sediments of the Rehbreingraben Formation at Rehbrein Creek, with positive RT, straddle magnetic polarity Chron M0r and the younger M'-1r' reverse event, with an age of ~127-123 Ma (late Barremian-early Aptian). At Lainbach Valley, no polarity reversals have been observed, but a positive FT gives confidence on the reliability of the data. The primary palaeomagnetic directions, after correction for inclination shallowing, allow to precisely constrain the depositional palaeolatitude of the Tristel and Rehbreingraben Formations around ~28°N. In a palaeogeographic reconstruction of the Alpine Tethys at the Barremian/Aptian boundary, the RDF is located on the western margin of the Briançonnais terrain, which was separated from the European continent by the narrow Valais Ocean
Unoccupied Band Structure of NbSe2 by Very-Low-Energy Electron Diffraction: Experiment and Theory
A combined experimental and theoretical study of very-low-energy electron
diffraction at the (0001) surface of 2H-NbSe2 is presented. Electron
transmission spectra have been measured for energies up to 50 eV above the
Fermi level with k|| varying along the GammaK line of the Brillouin zone. Ab
initio calculations of the spectra have been performed with the extended linear
augmented plane wave k-p method. The experimental spectra are interpreted in
terms of three-dimensional one-electron band structure. Special attention is
paid to the quasi-particle lifetimes: by comparing the broadening of the
spectral structures in the experimental and calculated spectra the energy
dependence of the optical potential Vi is determined. A sharp increase of Vi at
20 eV is detected, which is associated with a plasmon peak in the
Im(-1/epsilon) function. Furthermore, the electron energy loss spectrum and the
reflectivity of NbSe2 are calculated ab initio and compared with optical
experiments. The obtained information on the dispersions and lifetimes of the
unoccupied states is important for photoemission studies of the 3D band
structure of the valence band.Comment: 17 pages, 11 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
The relevance of outsourcing and leagile strategies in performance optimization of an integrated process planning and scheduling
Over the past few years growing global competition has forced the manufacturing industries to upgrade their old production strategies with the modern day approaches. As a result, recent interest has been developed towards finding an appropriate policy that could enable them to compete with others, and facilitate them to emerge as a market winner. Keeping in mind the abovementioned facts, in this paper the authors have proposed an integrated process planning and scheduling model inheriting the salient features of outsourcing, and leagile principles to compete in the existing market scenario. The paper also proposes a model based on leagile principles, where the integrated planning management has been practiced. In the present work a scheduling problem has been considered and overall minimization of makespan has been aimed. The paper shows the relevance of both the strategies in performance enhancement of the industries, in terms of their reduced makespan. The authors have also proposed a new hybrid Enhanced Swift Converging Simulated Annealing (ESCSA) algorithm, to solve the complex real-time scheduling problems. The proposed algorithm inherits the prominent features of the Genetic Algorithm (GA), Simulated Annealing (SA), and the Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC). The ESCSA algorithm reduces the makespan significantly in less computational time and number of iterations. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been shown by comparing the results with GA, SA, Tabu, and hybrid Tabu-SA optimization methods
Analysis of changes in climate and river discharge with focus on seasonal runoff predictability in the Aksu River Basin
The River Aksu is the principal tributary to the River Tarim, providing about three quarters of its discharge. It originates in Kyrgyzstan and flows into the arid areas of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, where an extensive irrigated agriculture has been developed in the river oases. The aim of the present contribution is to review the current trends in temperature, precipitation, and river discharge and links between these variables. The temperature in the region and the river discharge have been rising. Changes were studied using multiple trend analyses with different start and end years. Correlations between daily temperature and discharge are high and statistically significant for two headwater subcatchments of the Aksu for most of the time. However, there are episodes in late summer or beginning of autumn when correlations between temperature and discharge for the Xiehela station are absent. This can only be explained by Glacial Lake Outburst Floods from the Lake Merzbacher that are not routinely monitored. On an annual time scale, changes in summer discharge in the highly glacierized Xiehela subcatchment are dominated by changes in temperature. In contrast, in the subcatchment Shaliguilanke, variations in summer streamflow are more strongly influenced by variations in precipitation. A comparison of links between climatic variables and streamflow at different temporal scales is offered. Perspectives for seasonal forecasting are examined
A spoonful of Lâfucoseâan efficient therapy for GFUSâCDG, a new glycosylation disorder
Abstract Congenital disorders of glycosylation are a genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous family of diseases affecting the coâ and posttranslational modification of proteins. Using exome sequencing, we detected biallelic variants in GFUS (NM_003313.4) c.[632G>A];[659C>T] (p.[Gly211Glu];[Ser220Leu]) in a patient presenting with global developmental delay, mild coarse facial features and faltering growth. GFUS encodes GDPâLâfucose synthase, the terminal enzyme in de novo synthesis of GDPâLâfucose, required for fucosylation of Nâ and Oâglycans. We found reduced GFUS protein and decreased GDPâLâfucose levels leading to a general hypofucosylation determined in patient's glycoproteins in serum, leukocytes, thrombocytes and fibroblasts. Complementation of patient fibroblasts with wildâtype GFUS cDNA restored fucosylation. Making use of the GDPâLâfucose salvage pathway, oral fucose supplementation normalized fucosylation of proteins within 4Â weeks as measured in serum and leukocytes. During the followâup of 19Â months, a moderate improvement of growth was seen, as well as a clear improvement of cognitive skills as measured by the Kaufmann ABC and the Nijmegen Pediatric CDG Rating Scale. In conclusion, GFUSâCDG is a new glycosylation disorder for which oral Lâfucose supplementation is promising
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