The role of high- and low-temperature ocean crust alteration for the marine calcium budget

Calcium (Ca) is a key element for the understanding of the chemical evolution of the ocean and for the global climate on long geological time scales. This is because Ca is interacting with the carbon cycle and is a major constituent of continental weathering. Beside continental runoff, mid-ocean ridges are of quantitative importance for the marine Ca elemental and isotope budget. Variations of hydrothermal circulation of seawater through oceanic crust have been recognized to play a significant role for the oceanic Ca mass and isotope balance. Hydrothermal activity leads to a chemical alteration of the circulating seawater at low- and high temperatures during water-rock interaction, the formation of Ca-bearing minerals, and during phase separation. Within the framework of the subproject 'CARLA' in the 'Special Priority Program SPP 1144' Ca isotope ratios (d44/40Ca) in hydrothermal fluids sampled from the Logatchev hydrothermal field (15°N/45°W) and the Ascension area (4 11°S) have been investigated in detail in order to further constrain the global Ca cycling

Box Models of Volatile Cycles over the Entire Phanerozoic

Three stand-alone geochemical box models have been developed to simulate globally coupled biogeochemical cycles. These models reflect the evolution of the participating biotic and abiotic constituents in marine and terrestrial environments, including the lower atmosphere. The single models focus on the calculation of: 1) the chemical evolution of seawater, 2) the atmospheric methane concentration, and 3) the concentration of oxygen in surface and deep ocean water over the entire Phanerozoic (570 Ma). The models are driven by geological and evolutionary forcings and are controlled by proxy data. Internal feedback is provided by model outputs serving as input to other model components. The Phanerozoic biogeochemical evolution of seawater (dissolved inorganic carbon, alkalinity, nutrients, and oxygen), its isotope sulfur and carbon composition, as well as the atmospheric partial pressures of oxygen (pO2), carbon dioxide (pCO2), and methane (pCH4) are calculated by standard runs of the individual models

North Atlantic multidecadal to centennial variability in a model and a marine proxy dataset

Variability on decadal and longer timescales is of great interest in climate research due to it’s socio-economic impacts, potential for predictability and masking of anthroprogenic global warming. Observational evidence of multidecadal variability in the North Atlantic exists in the sea surface temperature (SST), often referred to as the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV), and also in the atmosphere, for example seen in sea level pressure variations associated with the North Atlantic Os- cillation (NAO). Observational oceanic data on these timescales is mainly restricted to the surface, does not extend past the last 145 years and becomes quite sparsely sampled in the higher latitudes in the earlier years. Hence, to increase our understanding of climate variability on these timescales it is essential to turn to both proxy and model data. The first part of this thesis focuses on an annually-resolved proxy record (1818- 1967) of Mg/Ca variations from a North Pacific/ Bering Sea coralline alga. Not only does the algal Mg/Ca have a very strong connection to the local winter SST and a lagged relation to the Aleutian Low it also it has a correlation of -0.87 with the winter NAO and 0.60 with the AMV index on decadal timescales. The link can explain the coherence of decadal North Pacific and AMV, as suggested by earlier studies using climate models and in the limited observational data. The second part of the thesis focuses on the ocean general circulation model, NEMO to better understand AMV. For this purpose the model was forced only with the atmospheric patterns associated with the NAO, both from the observed NAO index and from a 2000 year long white NAO index. Focusing on key ocean circulation patterns, we show that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circula- tion (AMOC) and sub-polar gyre (SPG) strength have a red noise response but no dominant timescale, providing no evidence for a oscillatory ocean-only mode of variability. The time derivative of both the AMOC at 30◦N and SPG strength show a strong, almost linear relation to the NAO for timescales longer than 86 and 15 years, respectively. The different response characteristics are confirmed by constructing simple statistical models that show AMOC and SPG variability can be reconstructed by integrating the NAO index by the previous 53 and 10 winters, respectively. Alternatively, the AMOC and the SPG strength can be reconstructed with auto-regressive (AR) models of order seven and five, respectively. A closer look at the ocean model response of the 2000 year long ocean model integration shows three distinct timescales of variability. The first, an interannual timescale with variability shorter than 15 years, can be mainly related to Ekman dynamics. Secondly, the multidecadal timescale, 15-65 years, is mainly concentrated in the SPG and is controlled by temperature variability. Finally, the centennial timescales, with variability longer than 65 years, can be attributed to the ocean being in a series of quasi-equilibrium with the forcing. The statistical models presented in this thesis to reconstruct the AMOC and SPG strength on multidecadal and longer timescales can be useful for prediction and model inter-comparision

Modelling the Effect of Process Parameters on the Wet Extrusion and Spheronisation of High-Loaded Nicotinamide Pellets Using a Quality by Design Approach

Open access articleThe aim of the present study was to develop an alternative process to spray granulation in order to prepare high loaded spherical nicotinamide (NAM) pellets by wet extrusion and spheronisation. Therefore, a quality by design approach was implemented to model the effect of the process parameters of the extrusion-spheronisation process on the roundness, roughness and useable yield of the obtained pellets. The obtained results were compared to spray granulated NAM particles regarding their characteristics and their release profile in vitro after the application of an ileocolon targeted shellac coating. The wet extrusion-spheronisation process was able to form highly loaded NAM pellets (80%) with a spherical shape and a high useable yield of about 90%. However, the water content range was rather narrow between 24.7% and 21.3%. The design of experiments (DoE), showed that the spheronisation conditions speed, time and load had a greater impact on the quality attributes of the pellets than the extrusion conditions screw design, screw speed and solid feed rate (hopper speed). The best results were obtained using a low load (15 g) combined with a high rotation speed (900 m/min) and a low time (3–3.5 min). In comparison to spray granulated NAM pellets, the extruded NAM pellets resulted in a higher roughness and a higher useable yield (63% vs. 92%). Finally, the coating and dissolution test showed that the extruded and spheronised pellets are also suitable for a protective coating with an ileocolonic release profile. Due to its lower specific surface area, the required shellac concentration could be reduced while maintaining the release profil

On the Structure of General Mean-Variance Hedging Strategies

We provide a new characterization of mean-variance hedging strategies in a general semimartingale market. The key point is the introduction of a new probability measure $P^{\star}$ which turns the dynamic asset allocation problem into a myopic one. The minimal martingale measure relative to $P^{\star}$ coincides with the variance-optimal martingale measure relative to the original probability measure $P$.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009117906000000872 in the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Coordinated multi-wavelength observations of Sgr A*

We report on recent near-infrared (NIR) and X-ray observations of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the electromagnetic manifestation of the ~4x10^6 solar masses super-massive black hole (SMBH) at the Galactic Center. The goal of these coordinated multi-wavelength observations is to investigate the variable emission from Sgr A* in order to obtain a better understanding of the underlying physical processes in the accretion flow/outflow. The observations have been carried out using the NACO adaptive optics (AO) instrument at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (July 2005, May 2007) and the ACIS-I instrument aboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory (July 2005). We report on a polarized NIR flare synchronous to a 8x1033 erg/s X-ray flare in July 2005, and a further flare in May 2007 that shows the highest sub-flare to flare contrast observed until now. The observations can be interpreted in the framework of a model involving a temporary disk with a short jet. In the disk component flux density variations can be explained due to hot spots on relativistic orbits around the central SMBH. The variations of the sub-structures of the May 2007 flare are interpreted as a variation of the hot spot structure due to differential rotation within the disk.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, contribution for the conference "The Universe under the Microscope" (AHAR 2008), to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series by Institute of Physics Publishin

Quantification of methane fluxes and authigenic carbonate formation at cold seeps along the continental margin offshore Costa Rica: A numerical modeling approach

The expulsion of liquids, gases and fluids at continental margins covers a wide range of processes including not only mud volcanism, mud diapirism and gas flares, but also continuously seeping methane-rich fluids leading to cold vent sites and even outbursts of over-pressured gases. Seepage of fluids frequently leads to precipitation of authigenic carbonates that modify sedimentary processes along the margin, and finally, the fluids constitute the energy source for a number of diverse and complex ecosystems. During the last two decades, researchers gained significant knowledge about the impact of fluid seepage on local ecosystems and the biogeochemical processes that result in carbonate formation via the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM). However, all the knowledge was gained in different areas and geological settings of the world ocean but left a regional gap in our knowledge about seeps at the continental margin offshore Costa Rica. Those processes including authigenic carbonate precipitation, quantification of the impact of fluid seepage and methane budgets are documented in the present thesis. Chapter II presents comprehensive results from five cold seep structures at the Costa Rican continental margin addressing the relationship between fluid advection, dissolved calcium concentrations in upward migrating fluids, and authigenic calcium carbonate precipitation. A numerical transport-reaction model was used to determine rates of AOM, CaCO3 precipitation, and benthic fluxes of solutes. Production of carbonate alkalinity and formation of authigenic carbonates is most intense at intermediate flow rates (3-40 cm a-1) and reduced under low and high flux conditions (0.1 and 200 cm a-1). Systematic model runs showed that high Ca concentrations in ascending fluids enhance the rate of authigenic carbonate production at moderate flow rates leading to an almost quantitative fixation of deeply derived Ca in authigenic carbonates. Hence, CaCO3 precipitation is not only controlled by Ca diffusing into the sediment from bottom water, but also by the Ca concentration in ascending fluids. Based on average precipitation rates deduced from the systematic model runs the global Ca-fixation at cold seeps (~2·1010 mol Ca a-1) suggesting that cold seeps are most likely not of key importance with respect to Ca cycling in the ocean. Chapter 3 comprises the quantitative estimates of dissolved methane discharge from wellstudied mud mounds (Mound 11 and Mound 12) at the submarine section of the Costa Rica fore-arc combining geochemical and geoacoustic data. The study is supported by 75 kHz sidescan sonar data, pore-water analysis and visual sea-floor observations by remotely operated vehicle (ROV). A numerical transport reaction model was applied to determine dissolved methane fluxes considering AOM and upward fluid flow. Model results reveal that a significant portion of methane from greater depth is discharged into the bottom water only at high fluid flow velocities that are not sufficiently moderate to allow for AOM. The overall amount of dissolved methane released from the entire mud mounds into the water column was moderate with a discharge of 0.36·106 mol a-1 at Mound 11 whereas it was calculated as 0.58·106 mol a-1 at Mound 12. Compared to other active cold seeps (mainly mud volcanoes), mud mounds at the submarine section of the Costa Rica fore arc do not represent a pathway for significant methane discharge from the seafloor. Sea floor methane emissions from bacterial mat sites of a submarine slide at the Costa Rica continental margin are presented in Chapter IV. The estimates of methane fluxes into the water column are based on (i) detailed mapping in order to determine the abundance of seeps, and thus the spatial validity of the flux measurements; and (ii) application of numerical model to estimate the amount of methane that is transported into the bottom water. Model results illustrate that the majority of the studied seeps transport rather limited amount of methane into the water column due to medium to low advection rates (average 10 cm a-1 ) allowing high methane consumption by AOM (average 45%) and limiting the methane discharge into the water column. Depth-integrated AOM rates (56-1538 μmol CH4 cm-2 a-1) are comparable with the values reported at other very active vents sites, suggesting that the Quepos Slide should be regarded as one of the most active sites at the seafloor. The overall amount of dissolved methane released from the entire bacterial mat sites into the water column is determined as 0.56·106 mol a-1. This conservative estimate, relying on rather accurate determinations of sea floor methane fluxes out of bacterial mats emphasizes the importance of submarine slides as sites of natural methane seepage

Energy spectrum of strongly correlated particles in quantum dots

The ground state and the excitation spectrum of strongly correlated electrons in quantum dots are investigated. An analytical solution is constructed by exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian in terms of the $N$-particle eigenmodes.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Journal of Physics: Conf. Serie

SDSS White Dwarf mass distribution at low effective temperatures

The DA white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, as analyzed in the papers for Data Releases 1 and 4, show an increase in surface gravity towards lower effective temperatures below 11500 K. We study the various possible explanations of this effect, from a real increase of the masses to uncertainties or deficiencies of the atmospheric models. No definite answer is found but the tentative conclusion is that it is most likely the current description of convection in the framework of the mixing-length approximation, which leads to this effect.Comment: to appear in the proceedings of the 16th European Workshop on White Dwarfs, Barcelona, 200

A Robust AFPTAS for Online Bin Packing with Polynomial Migration

In this paper we develop general LP and ILP techniques to find an approximate solution with improved objective value close to an existing solution. The task of improving an approximate solution is closely related to a classical theorem of Cook et al. in the sensitivity analysis for LPs and ILPs. This result is often applied in designing robust algorithms for online problems. We apply our new techniques to the online bin packing problem, where it is allowed to reassign a certain number of items, measured by the migration factor. The migration factor is defined by the total size of reassigned items divided by the size of the arriving item. We obtain a robust asymptotic fully polynomial time approximation scheme (AFPTAS) for the online bin packing problem with migration factor bounded by a polynomial in $\frac{1}{\epsilon}$. This answers an open question stated by Epstein and Levin in the affirmative. As a byproduct we prove an approximate variant of the sensitivity theorem by Cook at el. for linear programs