Up-regulation of sucrose metabolizing enzymes in Oncidium goldiana grown under elevated carbon dioxide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chang Run Li; Sun, W.Q.; Choy Sin Hew [National Univ. of Singapore. dept. of Biological Sciences (Singapore)

2001-07-01

Experiments were conducted in controlled growth chambers to evaluate how increase in CO{sub 2} concentration affected sucrose metabolizing enzymes, especially sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS; EC 2.4.1.14) and sucrose synthase (SS; EC 2.4.1.13), as well as carbon metabolism and partitioning in a tropical epiphytic orchid species (Oncidium goldiana). Response of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco; EC 4.1.1.39) to elevated CO{sub 2} was determined along with dry mass production, photosynthesis rate, chlorophyll content, total nitrogen and total soluble protein content. After 60 days of growth, there was a 80% and 150% increase in dry mass production in plants grown at 750 and 1100 {mu} l{sup -}1 CO{sub 2}, respectively, compared with those grown at ambient CO{sub 2} (about 370 {mu} l{sup -}1). A similar increase in photosynthesis rate was detected throughout the growth period when measured under growth CO{sub 2} conditions. Concomitantly, there was a decline in leaf Rubisco activity in plants in elevated CO{sub 2} after 10 days of growth. Over the growth period, leaf SPS and SS activities were up-regulated by an average of 20% and 40% for plants grown at 750 and 1100 {mu} l{sup -}1 CO{sub 2}, respectively. Leaf sucrose content and starch content were significantly higher throughout the growth period in plants grown at elevated CO{sub 2} than those at ambient CO{sub 2}. The partitioning of photosynthetically fixed carbon between sucrose and starch appeared to be unaffected by the 750 {mu} l{sup -}1 CO{sub 2} treatment, but it was favored into starch under the 1100 {mu} l{sup -}1 CO{sub 2} condition. The activities of SPS and SS in leaf extracts were closely associated with photosynthetic rates and with partitioning of carbon between starch and sucrose in leaves. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that the up-regulation of leaf SPS and SS might be an acclimation response to optimize the utilization and export of organic carbon with the

Microstructure and partitioning behavior characteristics in low carbon steels treated by hot-rolling direct quenching and dynamical partitioning processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Yun-jie; Li, Xiao-lei; Yuan, Guo; Kang, Jian; Chen, Dong; Wang, Guo-dong

2016-01-01

In this work, a new process and composition design are proposed for “quenching and partitioning” or Q&P treatment. Three low carbon steels were treated by hot-rolling direct quenching and dynamical partitioning processes (DQ&P). The effects of proeutectoid ferrite and carbon concentration on microstructure evolution and mechanical properties were investigated. The present work obtained DQ&P prototype steels with good mechanical properties and established a new notion on compositions for Q&P processing. Microstructures were characterized by means of electro probe microanalyzer (EPMA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), especially the morphology and size of retained austenite. Mechanical properties were measured by uniaxial tensile tests. The results indicated that introducing proeutectoid ferrite can increase the volume fraction of retained austenite and thus improve mechanical properties. TEM observation showed that retained austenite included the film-like inter-lath austenite and blocky austenite located in martensite/ferrite interfaces or surrounded by ferrites. It was interesting that when the carbon concentration is as low as ~ 0.078%, the film-like inter-lath untransformed austenite cannot be stabilized to room temperature and almost all of them transformed into twin martensite. The blocky retained austenite strengthened the interfaces and transformed into twin martensite during the tensile deformation process. The PSEs of specimens all exceeded 20 GPa.%. - Highlights: •This study focused on a new process: Q&P process applying dynamical partitioning. •Ferrite can increase the volume fraction of retained austenite. •The film-like austenite and the blocky austenite were observed. •The low carbon steels treated by new process reached PSEs higher than 20 GPa.%.

Bainitic transformation during the two-step quenching and partitioning process in a medium carbon steel containing silicon

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, H.Y.; Lu, X.W. [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Wu, X.C.; Min, Y.A. [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Jin, X.J., E-mail: jin@sjtu.edu.cn [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)

2010-09-15

Research highlights: In this paper, SEM and TEM were used to characterize microstructure of Q and P steels with different partitioning time at 300 deg. C. The interesting phenomena were discovered and discussed: 1.Lower bainite (bainitic ferrite plus {epsilon}-carbide) rather than carbide-free bainite was observed during partitioning process. 2.The mechanical properties of Q and P steels can be tailored and adjusted through balance volume fraction of retained austenite and lower bainite during partitioning process. 3.The final amount of austenite was influenced by the transformation kinetics of lower bainite during partitioning process. According to the analysis, it can be concluded that associated with carbon partitioning from martensite to austenite, lower bainite transformation inevitably occurred. More importantly, lower bainite transformation seriously affected the mechanical properties of Q and P steels and final amount of austenite. - Abstract: A study of 40SiMnNiCr steel subjected to a two-step quenching and partitioning process (Q and P) is presented. The result suggests that strength variation of Q and P steels during the two-step Q and P process was a cumulative effect of increase of retained austenite fraction, decrease of carbon supersaturation of virgin martensite, and particularly much of lower bainite formation. A trade-off between high strength and good ductility of two-step Q and P steels can be tailored and adjusted by controlling lower bainite fraction. The final amount of austenite was influenced by the transformation kinetics of lower bainite during the partitioning process.

Bainitic transformation during the two-step quenching and partitioning process in a medium carbon steel containing silicon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, H.Y.; Lu, X.W.; Wu, X.C.; Min, Y.A.; Jin, X.J.

2010-01-01

Research highlights: In this paper, SEM and TEM were used to characterize microstructure of Q and P steels with different partitioning time at 300 deg. C. The interesting phenomena were discovered and discussed: 1.Lower bainite (bainitic ferrite plus ε-carbide) rather than carbide-free bainite was observed during partitioning process. 2.The mechanical properties of Q and P steels can be tailored and adjusted through balance volume fraction of retained austenite and lower bainite during partitioning process. 3.The final amount of austenite was influenced by the transformation kinetics of lower bainite during partitioning process. According to the analysis, it can be concluded that associated with carbon partitioning from martensite to austenite, lower bainite transformation inevitably occurred. More importantly, lower bainite transformation seriously affected the mechanical properties of Q and P steels and final amount of austenite. - Abstract: A study of 40SiMnNiCr steel subjected to a two-step quenching and partitioning process (Q and P) is presented. The result suggests that strength variation of Q and P steels during the two-step Q and P process was a cumulative effect of increase of retained austenite fraction, decrease of carbon supersaturation of virgin martensite, and particularly much of lower bainite formation. A trade-off between high strength and good ductility of two-step Q and P steels can be tailored and adjusted by controlling lower bainite fraction. The final amount of austenite was influenced by the transformation kinetics of lower bainite during the partitioning process.

A linear solvation energy relationship model of organic chemical partitioning to dissolved organic carbon.

Science.gov (United States)

Kipka, Undine; Di Toro, Dominic M

2011-09-01

Predicting the association of contaminants with both particulate and dissolved organic matter is critical in determining the fate and bioavailability of chemicals in environmental risk assessment. To date, the association of a contaminant to particulate organic matter is considered in many multimedia transport models, but the effect of dissolved organic matter is typically ignored due to a lack of either reliable models or experimental data. The partition coefficient to dissolved organic carbon (K(DOC)) may be used to estimate the fraction of a contaminant that is associated with dissolved organic matter. Models relating K(DOC) to the octanol-water partition coefficient (K(OW)) have not been successful for many types of dissolved organic carbon in the environment. Instead, linear solvation energy relationships are proposed to model the association of chemicals with dissolved organic matter. However, more chemically diverse K(DOC) data are needed to produce a more robust model. For humic acid dissolved organic carbon, the linear solvation energy relationship predicts log K(DOC) with a root mean square error of 0.43. Copyright © 2011 SETAC.

Carbon-nitrogen interactions and biomass partitioning of Carex rostrata grown at three levels of nitrogen supply

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saarinen, T [Helsinki Univ. (Finland). Dept. of Ecology and Systematics

1997-12-31

Biomass and production of vascular plants constitutes a major source of carbon input in peatlands. As rates of decomposition vary considerably with depth, the vertical distribution of biomass may substantially affect accumulation of carbon in peatlands. Therefore, allocation patterns between shoot and roots are particularly important when considering carbon balance of peatland ecosystems. The stimulatory effect of increasing atmospheric concentration of CO{sub 2} or photosynthesis may increase availability of carbon to most C3 plants. Availability of nitrogen may also alter both due to increased atmospheric deposition and changer in mineralisation rates associated with climate change. Most root-shoot partitioning models predict that allocation of biomass is dependent of the availability and uptake of carbon and nitrogen. A decrease in supply of carbon would favour allocation to shoots and a decrease in supply of nitrogen would increase allocation to roots. At a cellular level, non structural carbohydrates and free amino acids are thought to represent the biochemically available fraction of carbon and nitrogen, respectively. The aim of this work is study the long-term growth responses of Carex rostrata to changes in the availability of nitrogen. Special attention is paid to soluble sugars ant free amino acids, which may control partitioning of biomass. (10 refs.)

Carbon-nitrogen interactions and biomass partitioning of Carex rostrata grown at three levels of nitrogen supply

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saarinen, T. [Helsinki Univ. (Finland). Dept. of Ecology and Systematics

1996-12-31

Biomass and production of vascular plants constitutes a major source of carbon input in peatlands. As rates of decomposition vary considerably with depth, the vertical distribution of biomass may substantially affect accumulation of carbon in peatlands. Therefore, allocation patterns between shoot and roots are particularly important when considering carbon balance of peatland ecosystems. The stimulatory effect of increasing atmospheric concentration of CO{sub 2} or photosynthesis may increase availability of carbon to most C3 plants. Availability of nitrogen may also alter both due to increased atmospheric deposition and changer in mineralisation rates associated with climate change. Most root-shoot partitioning models predict that allocation of biomass is dependent of the availability and uptake of carbon and nitrogen. A decrease in supply of carbon would favour allocation to shoots and a decrease in supply of nitrogen would increase allocation to roots. At a cellular level, non structural carbohydrates and free amino acids are thought to represent the biochemically available fraction of carbon and nitrogen, respectively. The aim of this work is study the long-term growth responses of Carex rostrata to changes in the availability of nitrogen. Special attention is paid to soluble sugars ant free amino acids, which may control partitioning of biomass. (10 refs.)

Partitioning Carbon Dioxide Emission and Assessing Dissolved Organic Carbon Leaching of a Drained Peatland Cultivated with Pineapple at Saratok, Malaysia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liza Nuriati Lim Kim Choo

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Pineapples (Ananas comosus (L. Merr. cultivation on drained peats could affect the release of carbon dioxide (CO2 into the atmosphere and also the leaching of dissolved organic carbon (DOC. Carbon dioxide emission needs to be partitioned before deciding on whether cultivated peat is net sink or net source of carbon. Partitioning of CO2 emission into root respiration, microbial respiration, and oxidative peat decomposition was achieved using a lysimeter experiment with three treatments: peat soil cultivated with pineapple, bare peat soil, and bare peat soil fumigated with chloroform. Drainage water leached from cultivated peat and bare peat soil was also analyzed for DOC. On a yearly basis, CO2 emissions were higher under bare peat (218.8 t CO2 ha/yr than under bare peat treated with chloroform (205 t CO2 ha/yr, and they were the lowest (179.6 t CO2 ha/yr under cultivated peat. Decreasing CO2 emissions under pineapple were attributed to the positive effects of photosynthesis and soil autotrophic activities. An average 235.7 mg/L loss of DOC under bare peat suggests rapid decline of peat organic carbon through heterotrophic respiration and peat decomposition. Soil CO2 emission depended on moderate temperature fluctuations, but it was not affected by soil moisture.

Assessing the combined influence of TOC and black carbon in soil–air partitioning of PBDEs and DPs from the Indus River Basin, Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, Usman; Mahmood, Adeel; Syed, Jabir Hussain; Li, Jun; Zhang, Gan; Katsoyiannis, Athanasios; Jones, Kevin C.; Malik, Riffat Naseem

2015-01-01

Levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and dechlorane plus (DPs) were investigated in the Indus River Basin from Pakistan. Concentrations of ∑PBDEs and ∑DPs were ranged between 0.05 and 2.38 and 0.002–0.53 ng g −1 in the surface soils while 1.43–22.1 and 0.19–7.59 pg m −3 in the passive air samples, respectively. Black carbon (f BC ) and total organic carbon (f TOC ) fractions were also measured and ranged between 0.73 and 1.75 and 0.04–0.2%, respectively. The statistical analysis revealed strong influence of f BC than f TOC on the distribution of PBDEs and DPs in the Indus River Basin soils. BDE's congener profile suggested the input of penta–bromodiphenylether (DE-71) commercial formulation in the study area. Soil–air partitioning of PBDEs were investigated by employing octanol-air partition coefficients (K OA ) and black carbon-air partition coefficients (K BC−A ). The results of both models suggested the combined influence of total organic carbon (absorption) and black carbon (adsorption) in the studied area. - Highlights: • Model based calculations of black carbon-air partition coefficients for PBDEs. • Soil and air levels of PBDEs and DPs reported first time for ecologically important sites of the Indus River Basin, Pakistan. • Both, f BC and f TOC showed combined influence on soil–air partitioning of PBDEs in the Indus River Basin, Pakistan. - BC and TOC showed combined influence on soil–air partitioning of POPs i-e., PBDEs in the Indus River Basin, Pakistan

Comparison of modeling approaches for carbon partitioning: Impact on estimates of global net primary production and equilibrium biomass of woody vegetation from MODIS GPP

Science.gov (United States)

Takeshi Ise; Creighton M. Litton; Christian P. Giardina; Akihiko Ito

2010-01-01

Partitioning of gross primary production (GPP) to aboveground versus belowground, to growth versus respiration, and to short versus long�]lived tissues exerts a strong influence on ecosystem structure and function, with potentially large implications for the global carbon budget. A recent meta-analysis of forest ecosystems suggests that carbon partitioning...

Towards an understanding of the molecular regulation of carbon allocation in diatoms: the interaction of energy and carbon allocation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, Heiko; Jakob, Torsten; Fanesi, Andrea; Wilhelm, Christian

2017-09-05

In microalgae, the photosynthesis-driven CO 2 assimilation delivers cell building blocks that are used in different biosynthetic pathways. Little is known about how the cell regulates the subsequent carbon allocation to, for example, cell growth or for storage. However, knowledge about these regulatory mechanisms is of high biotechnological and ecological importance. In diatoms, the situation becomes even more complex because, as a consequence of their secondary endosymbiotic origin, the compartmentation of the pathways for the primary metabolic routes is different from green algae. Therefore, the mechanisms to manipulate the carbon allocation pattern cannot be adopted from the green lineage. This review describes the general pathways of cellular energy distribution from light absorption towards the final allocation of carbon into macromolecules and summarizes the current knowledge of diatom-specific allocation patterns. We further describe the (limited) knowledge of regulatory mechanisms of carbon partitioning between lipids, carbohydrates and proteins in diatoms. We present solutions to overcome the problems that hinder the identification of regulatory elements of carbon metabolism.This article is part of the themed issue 'The peculiar carbon metabolism in diatoms'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Radio-metabolite analysis of carbon-11 biochemical partitioning to non-structural carbohydrates for integrated metabolism and transport studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Babst, Benjamin A; Karve, Abhijit A; Judt, Tatjana

2013-06-01

Metabolism and phloem transport of carbohydrates are interactive processes, yet each is often studied in isolation from the other. Carbon-11 ((11)C) has been successfully used to study transport and allocation processes dynamically over time. There is a need for techniques to determine metabolic partitioning of newly fixed carbon that are compatible with existing non-invasive (11)C-based methodologies for the study of phloem transport. In this report, we present methods using (11)C-labeled CO2 to trace carbon partitioning to the major non-structural carbohydrates in leaves-sucrose, glucose, fructose and starch. High-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) was adapted to provide multisample throughput, raising the possibility of measuring different tissues of the same individual plant, or for screening multiple plants. An additional advantage of HPTLC was that phosphor plate imaging of radioactivity had a much higher sensitivity and broader range of sensitivity than radio-HPLC detection, allowing measurement of (11)C partitioning to starch, which was previously not possible. Because of the high specific activity of (11)C and high sensitivity of detection, our method may have additional applications in the study of rapid metabolic responses to environmental changes that occur on a time scale of minutes. The use of this method in tandem with other (11)C assays for transport dynamics and whole-plant partitioning makes a powerful combination of tools to study carbohydrate metabolism and whole-plant transport as integrated processes.

GENOME-ENABLED DISCOVERY OF CARBON SEQUESTRATION GENES IN POPLAR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

DAVIS J M

2007-10-11

Plants utilize carbon by partitioning the reduced carbon obtained through photosynthesis into different compartments and into different chemistries within a cell and subsequently allocating such carbon to sink tissues throughout the plant. Since the phytohormones auxin and cytokinin are known to influence sink strength in tissues such as roots (Skoog & Miller 1957, Nordstrom et al. 2004), we hypothesized that altering the expression of genes that regulate auxin-mediated (e.g., AUX/IAA or ARF transcription factors) or cytokinin-mediated (e.g., RR transcription factors) control of root growth and development would impact carbon allocation and partitioning belowground (Fig. 1 - Renewal Proposal). Specifically, the ARF, AUX/IAA and RR transcription factor gene families mediate the effects of the growth regulators auxin and cytokinin on cell expansion, cell division and differentiation into root primordia. Invertases (IVR), whose transcript abundance is enhanced by both auxin and cytokinin, are critical components of carbon movement and therefore of carbon allocation. Thus, we initiated comparative genomic studies to identify the AUX/IAA, ARF, RR and IVR gene families in the Populus genome that could impact carbon allocation and partitioning. Bioinformatics searches using Arabidopsis gene sequences as queries identified regions with high degrees of sequence similarities in the Populus genome. These Populus sequences formed the basis of our transgenic experiments. Transgenic modification of gene expression involving members of these gene families was hypothesized to have profound effects on carbon allocation and partitioning.

Microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of low-carbon steel treated by a two-step quenching and partitioning process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yan, Shu [The State Key Laboratory of Rolling & Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Liu, Xianghua, E-mail: liuxh@mail.neu.edu.cn [The State Key Laboratory of Rolling & Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Research Academy, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Liu, Wayne J [Research Academy, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Lan, Huifang; Wu, Hongyan [The State Key Laboratory of Rolling & Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China)

2015-07-29

The quenching and partitioning (Q&P) process is studied in Ti-bearing low-carbon steel. Detailed characterization of the microstructural evolution is performed by means of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicate that the investigated steel subjected to the Q&P process forms a multiphase microstructure of primarily lath martensite, with small amounts of plate-type martensite and retained austenite. The distribution and morphology of the retained austenite are observed; moreover the relationship between the phase fraction of the retained austenite, its carbon concentration, and the partitioning conditions is established. Carbides preferentially precipitate within the plate-type martensite at first, and gradually form in the martensitic laths over time during the partitioning step. Additionally, titanium precipitations contribute to both the refinement of prior austenite grains and the improvement of strength by precipitation strengthening. The results of mechanical properties testing indicate that the samples partitioned at 400 °C exhibit a superior combination of strength and elongation, with products of the two properties ranging between 19.6 and 20.9 GPa%. Based on analysis of work hardening behavior it is determined that the higher ductility is closely related to the higher phase fraction and/or stability of retained austenite.

Organic Carbon/Water and Dissolved Organic Carbon/Water Partitioning of Cyclic Volatile Methylsiloxanes: Measurements and Polyparameter Linear Free Energy Relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Panagopoulos, Dimitri; Jahnke, Annika; Kierkegaard, Amelie; MacLeod, Matthew

2015-10-20

The sorption of cyclic volatile methyl siloxanes (cVMS) to organic matter has a strong influence on their fate in the aquatic environment. We report new measurements of the partition ratios between freshwater sediment organic carbon and water (KOC) and between Aldrich humic acid dissolved organic carbon and water (KDOC) for three cVMS, and for three polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that were used as reference chemicals. Our measurements were made using a purge-and-trap method that employs benchmark chemicals to calibrate mass transfer at the air/water interface in a fugacity-based multimedia model. The measured log KOC of octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), and dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6) were 5.06, 6.12, and 7.07, and log KDOC were 5.05, 6.13, and 6.79. To our knowledge, our measurements for KOC of D6 and KDOC of D4 and D6 are the first reported. Polyparameter linear free energy relationships (PP-LFERs) derived from training sets of empirical data that did not include cVMS generally did not predict our measured partition ratios of cVMS accurately (root-mean-squared-error (RMSE) for logKOC 0.76 and for logKDOC 0.73). We constructed new PP-LFERs that accurately describe partition ratios for the cVMS as well as for other chemicals by including our new measurements in the existing training sets (logKOC RMSEcVMS: 0.09, logKDOC RMSEcVMS: 0.12). The PP-LFERs we have developed here should be further evaluated and perhaps recalibrated when experimental data for other siloxanes become available.

CO2 enrichment and carbon partitioning to phenolics: do plant responses accord better with the protein competition or the growth-differentiation balance models?

Science.gov (United States)

W.J. Mattson; R. Julkunen-Tiitto; D.A. Herms

2005-01-01

Rising levels of atmospheric CO2 can alter plant growth and partitioning to secondary metabolites. The protein competition model (PCM) and the extended growth/differentiation balance model (GDBe) are similar but alternative models that address ontogenetic and environmental effects on whole-plant carbon partitioning to the...

Ammonium uranyl carbonate (AUC) based process of simultaneous partitioning and reconversion for uranium and plutonium in fast breeder reactors (FBRs) fuel reprocessing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Govindan, P.; Palamalai, A.; Vijayan, K.S.; Subba Rao, R.V.; Venkataraman, M.; Natarajan, R.

2013-01-01

Ammonium uranyl carbonate (AUC) based process of simultaneous partitioning and reconversion for uranium and plutonium is developed for the recovery of uranium and plutonium present in spent fuel of fast breeder reactors (FBRs). Effect of pH on the solubility of carbonates of uranium and plutonium in ammonium carbonate medium is studied. Effect of mole ratios of uranium and plutonium as a function of uranium and plutonium concentration at pH 8.0-8.5 for effective separation of uranium and plutonium to each other is studied. Feasibility of reconversion of plutonium in carbonate medium is also studied. The studies indicate that uranium is selectively precipitated as AUC at pH 8.0-8.5 by adding ammonium carbonate solution leaving plutonium in the filtrate. Plutonium in the filtrate after acidified with concentrated nitric acid could also be precipitated as carbonate at pH 6.5-7.0 by adding ammonium carbonate solution. A flow sheet is proposed and evaluated for partitioning and reconversion of uranium and plutonium simultaneously in the FBR fuel reprocessing. (author)

Ecosystem carbon partitioning: aboveground net primary productivity correlates with the root carbon input in different land use types of Southern Alps

Science.gov (United States)

Rodeghiero, Mirco; Martinez, Cristina; Gianelle, Damiano; Camin, Federica; Zanotelli, Damiano; Magnani, Federico

2013-04-01

Terrestrial plant carbon partitioning to above- and below-ground compartments can be better understood by integrating studies on biomass allocation and estimates of root carbon input based on the use of stable isotopes. These experiments are essential to model ecosystem's metabolism and predict the effects of global change on carbon cycling. Using in-growth soil cores in conjunction with the 13C natural abundance method we quantified net plant-derived root carbon input into the soil, which has been pointed out as the main unaccounted NPP (net primary productivity) component. Four land use types located in the Trentino Region (northern Italy) and representing a range of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) values (155-868 gC m-2 y-1) were investigated: conifer forest, apple orchard, vineyard and grassland. Cores, filled with soil of a known C4 isotopic signature were inserted at 18 sampling points for each site and left in place for twelve months. After extraction, cores were analysed for %C and d13C, which were used to calculate the proportion of new plant-derived root C input by applying a mass balance equation. The GPP (gross primary productivity) of each ecosystem was determined by the eddy covariance technique whereas ANPP was quantified with a repeated inventory approach. We found a strong and significant relationship (R2 = 0.93; p=0.03) between ANPP and the fraction of GPP transferred to the soil as root C input across the investigated sites. This percentage varied between 10 and 25% of GPP with the grassland having the lowest value and the apple orchard the highest. Mechanistic ecosystem carbon balance models could benefit from this general relationship since ANPP is routinely and easily measured at many sites. This result also suggests that by quantifying site-specific ANPP, root carbon input can be reliably estimated, as opposed to using arbitrary root/shoot ratios which may under- or over-estimate C partitioning.

Physiological responses by juvenile Egregia menziesii (Phaeophyta) to simulated effects of wave action: Carbon and nitrogen uptake and carbon partitioning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kraemer, G.P.

1990-01-01

Although biomechanical and morphological adaptations to different wave energy regimes are well known, the physiological mechanisms behind, and the trigger(s) eliciting these responses, are not. Egregia menziesii (Turn.) Aresch. juveniles (5-10 cm) were incubated for 4 hr in chambers containing 14 C-labeled bicarbonate, under combinations of two levels of nutrient concentration and two levels of tensile force. Whole tissue and cell wall material (=cellulose + alginates) were examined for 14 C incorporation. Tensile force elicited greater incorporation into whole tissue and directed more carbon into the cell wall compartment. Ambient nutrient levels and tissue age both had inverse effects on carbon partitioning into cell wall material. Tensile force also reduced nitrate uptake rates by about 50%

Water deficit stress-induced changes in carbon and nitrogen partitioning in Chenopodium quinoa Willd.

Science.gov (United States)

Bascuñán-Godoy, Luisa; Reguera, Maria; Abdel-Tawab, Yasser M; Blumwald, Eduardo

2016-03-01

Water deficit stress followed by re-watering during grain filling resulted in the induction of the ornithine pathway and in changes in Quinoa grain quality. The genetic diversity of Chenopodium quinoa Willd. (Quinoa) is accompanied by an outstanding environmental adaptability and high nutritional properties of the grains. However, little is known about the biochemical and physiological mechanisms associated with the abiotic stress tolerance of Quinoa. Here, we characterized carbon and nitrogen metabolic changes in Quinoa leaves and grains in response to water deficit stress analyzing their impact on the grain quality of two lowland ecotypes (Faro and BO78). Differences in the stress recovery response were found between genotypes including changes in the activity of nitrogen assimilation-associated enzymes that resulted in differences in grain quality. Both genotypes showed a common strategy to overcome water stress including the stress-induced synthesis of reactive oxygen species scavengers and osmolytes. Particularly, water deficit stress induced the stimulation of the ornithine and raffinose pathways. Our results would suggest that the regulation of C- and N partitioning in Quinoa during grain filling could be used for the improvement of the grain quality without altering grain yields.

Effect of Austempering Time on the Microstructure and Carbon Partitioning of Ultrahigh Strength Steel 56NiCrMoV7

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Quanshun Luo

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Ultrahigh strength steel 56NiCrMoV7 was austempered at 270 °C for different durations in order to investigate the microstructure evolution, carbon partitioning behaviour and hardness property. Detailed microstructure has been characterised using optical microscopy and field emission gun scanning electron microscopy. A newly developed X-ray diffraction method has been employed to dissolve the bainitic/martensitic ferrite phase as two sub-phases of different tetragonal ratios, which provides quantitative analyses of the carbon partitioning between the resultant ferrites and the retained austenite. The results show that, a short-term austempering treatment was in the incubation period of the bainite transformation, which resulted in maximum hardness being equivalent to the oil-quenching treatment. The associated microstructure comprises fine carbide-free martensitic and bainitic ferrites of supersaturated carbon contents as well as carbon-rich retained austenite. In particular, the short-term austempering treatment helped prevent the formation of lengthy martensitic laths as those being found in the microstructure of oil-quenched sample. When the austempering time was increased from 20 to 80 min, progressive decrease of the hardness was associated with the evolution of the microstructure, including progressive coarsening of bainitic ferrite, carbide precipitating inside high-carbon bainitic ferrite and its subsequent decarbonisation.

Regulation of carbon partitioning into carotenes by MPTA, a substituted tertiary amine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Madhavan, S.; Rosenfield, C.L.; Benedict, C.R.

1986-04-01

In mature citrus fruits, synthesis and turnover of carotenes appears to be low. Treatment of lemon pieces with the substituted tertiary amine, 2-(4-methylphenoxyl)triethylamine, MPTA, induces the synthesis of carotenes. Exposure of tissue slices (lemon flavedo) to MPTA for 72 hrs results in the production of 29.6 ..mu..g gfrwt/sup -1/ lycopene whereas control slices showed only trace amounts of lycopene. An identical incorporation of /sup 14/C-glucose into sugars, amino acids and organic acids, in both treated and control tissue slices indicates the non-disturbance of fruit respiration by MPTA treatment. Incorporation of /sup 14/C-glucose into carotenes is negligible in mature citrus fruits, but in MPTA treated tissue slices there is a pronounced incorporation of /sup 14/C-glucose into carotenes. MPTA treatment induces the synthesis of carotene enzymes, thus effecting an increased partitioning of glucose into the MVA pathway for carotene synthesis.

Regulation of carbon partitioning into carotenes by MPTA, a substituted tertiary amine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Madhavan, S.; Rosenfield, C.L.; Benedict, C.R.

1986-01-01

In mature citrus fruits, synthesis and turnover of carotenes appears to be low. Treatment of lemon pieces with the substituted tertiary amine, 2-(4-methylphenoxyl)triethylamine, MPTA, induces the synthesis of carotenes. Exposure of tissue slices (lemon flavedo) to MPTA for 72 hrs results in the production of 29.6 μg gfrwt -1 lycopene whereas control slices showed only trace amounts of lycopene. An identical incorporation of 14 C-glucose into sugars, amino acids and organic acids, in both treated and control tissue slices indicates the non-disturbance of fruit respiration by MPTA treatment. Incorporation of 14 C-glucose into carotenes is negligible in mature citrus fruits, but in MPTA treated tissue slices there is a pronounced incorporation of 14 C-glucose into carotenes. MPTA treatment induces the synthesis of carotene enzymes, thus effecting an increased partitioning of glucose into the MVA pathway for carotene synthesis

How drought severity constrains GPP and its partitioning among carbon pools in a Quercus ilex coppice?

Science.gov (United States)

Rambal, S.; Lempereur, M.; Limousin, J. M.; Martin-StPaul, N. K.; Ourcival, J. M.; Rodríguez-Calcerrada, J.

2014-06-01

The partitioning of photosynthates toward biomass compartments has a crucial role in the carbon sink function of forests. Few studies have examined how carbon is allocated toward plant compartments in drought prone forests. We analyzed the fate of GPP in relation to yearly water deficit in an old evergreen Mediterranean Quercus ilex coppice severely affected by water limitations. Gross and net carbon fluxes between the ecosystem and the atmosphere were measured with an eddy-covariance flux tower running continuously since 2001. Discrete measurements of litterfall, stem growth and fAPAR allowed us to derive annual productions of leaves, wood, flowers and acorns and an isometric relationship between stem and belowground biomass has been used to estimate perennial belowground growth. By combining eddy-covariance fluxes with annual productions we managed to close a C budget and derive values of autotrophic and heterotrophic respirations, NPP and carbon use efficiency (CUE, the ratio between NPP and GPP). Average values of yearly NEP, GPP and Reco were 282, 1259 and 977 g C m-2. The corresponding ANPP components were 142.5, 26.4 and 69.6 g C m-2 for leaves, reproductive effort (flowers and fruits) and stems. Gross and net carbon exchange between the ecosystem and the atmosphere were affected by annual water deficit. Partitioning to the different plant compartments was also impacted by drought, with a hierarchy of responses going from the most affected, the stem growth, to the least affected, the leaf production. The average CUE was 0.40, which is well in the range for Mediterranean-type forest ecosystems. CUE tended to decrease more slightly in response to drought than GPP and NPP, probably due to drought-acclimation of autotrophic respiration. Overall, our results provide a baseline for modeling the inter-annual variations of carbon fluxes and allocation in this widespread Mediterranean ecosystem and highlight the value of maintaining continuous experimental

Nitrate Activation of Cytosolic Protein Kinases Diverts Photosynthetic Carbon from Sucrose to Amino Acid Biosynthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Champigny, Marie-Louise; Foyer, Christine

1992-01-01

The regulation of carbon partitioning between carbohydrates (principally sucrose) and amino acids has been only poorly characterized in higher plants. The hypothesis that the pathway of sucrose and amino acid biosynthesis compete for carbon skeletons and energy is widely accepted. In this review, we suggest a mechanism involving the regulation of cytosolic protein kinases whereby the flow of carbon is regulated at the level of partitioning between the pathways of carbohydrate and nitrogen metabolism via the covalent modulation of component enzymes. The addition of nitrate to wheat seedlings (Triticum aestivum) grown in the absence of exogenous nitrogen has a dramatic, if transient, impact on sucrose formation and on the activities of sucrose phosphate synthase (which is inactivated) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (which is activated). The activities of these two enzymes are modulated by protein phosphorylation in response to the addition of nitrate, but they respond in an inverse fashion. Sucrose phosphate synthase in inactivated and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase is activated. Nitrate functions as a signal metabolite activating the cytosolic protein kinase, thereby modulating the activities of at least two of the key enzymes in assimilate partitioning and redirecting the flow of carbon away from sucrose biosynthesis toward amino acid synthesis. PMID:16653003

Implications of Carbon Regulation for Green Power Markets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bird, Lori [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Holt, Ed [Ed Holt & Associates Inc., Harpeswell, ME (United States); Carroll, Ghita [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2007-04-01

This paper examines the potential effects that emerging mandatory carbon markets have for voluntary markets for renewable energy, or green power markets. In an era of carbon regulation, green power markets will continue to play an important role because many consumers may be interested in supporting renewable energy development beyond what is supported through mandates or other types of policy support. The paper examines the extent to which GHG benefits motivate consumers to make voluntary renewable energy purchases and summarizes key issues emerging as a result of these overlapping markets, such as the implications of carbon regulation for renewable energy marketing claims, the demand for and price of renewable energy certificates (RECs), and the use of RECs in multiple markets (disaggregation of attributes). It describes carbon regulation programs under development in the Northeast and California, and how these might affect renewable energy markets in these regions, as well as the potential interaction between voluntary renewable energy markets and voluntary carbon markets, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). It also briefly summarizes the experience in the European Union, where carbon is already regulated. Finally, the paper presents policy options for policymakers and regulators to consider in designing carbon policies to enable carbon markets and voluntary renewable energy markets to work together.

On the choice of the driving temperature for eddy-covariance carbon dioxide flux partitioning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Lasslop

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Networks that merge and harmonise eddy-covariance measurements from many different parts of the world have become an important observational resource for ecosystem science. Empirical algorithms have been developed which combine direct observations of the net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide with simple empirical models to disentangle photosynthetic (GPP and respiratory fluxes (R_eco. The increasing use of these estimates for the analysis of climate sensitivities, model evaluation and calibration demands a thorough understanding of assumptions in the analysis process and the resulting uncertainties of the partitioned fluxes. The semi-empirical models used in flux partitioning algorithms require temperature observations as input, but as respiration takes place in many parts of an ecosystem, it is unclear which temperature input – air, surface, bole, or soil at a specific depth – should be used. This choice is a source of uncertainty and potential biases. In this study, we analysed the correlation between different temperature observations and nighttime NEE (which equals nighttime respiration across FLUXNET sites to understand the potential of the different temperature observations as input for the flux partitioning model. We found that the differences in the correlation between different temperature data streams and nighttime NEE are small and depend on the selection of sites. We investigated the effects of the choice of the temperature data by running two flux partitioning algorithms with air and soil temperature. We found the time lag (phase shift between air and soil temperatures explains the differences in the GPP and R_eco estimates when using either air or soil temperatures for flux partitioning. The impact of the source of temperature data on other derived ecosystem parameters was estimated, and the strongest impact was found for the temperature sensitivity. Overall, this study suggests that the

Partitioning CO2 fluxes with isotopologue measurements and modeling to understand mechanisms of forest carbon sequestration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saleska, Scott [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Davidson, Eric [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Finzi, Adrien [Boston Univ., MA (United States); Wehr, Richdard [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Moorcroft, Paul [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)

2016-01-28

1. Objectives This project combines automated in situ observations of the isotopologues of CO2 with root observations, novel experimental manipulations of belowground processes, and isotope-enabled ecosystem modeling to investigate mechanisms of below- vs. aboveground carbon sequestration at the Harvard Forest Environmental Measurements Site (EMS). The proposed objectives, which have now been largely accomplished, include: A. Partitioning of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) into photosynthesis and respiration using long-term continuous observations of the isotopic composition of NEE, and analysis of their dynamics ; B. Investigation of the influence of vegetation phenology on the timing and magnitude of carbon allocated belowground using measurements of root growth and indices of belowground autotrophic vs. heterotrophic respiration (via trenched plots and isotope measurements); C. Testing whether plant allocation of carbon belowground stimulates the microbial decomposition of soil organic matter, using in situ rhizosphere simulation experiments wherein realistic quantities of artificial isotopically-labeled exudates are released into the soil; and D. Synthesis and interpretation of the above data using the Ecosystem Demography Model 2 (ED2). 2. Highlights Accomplishments: • Our isotopic eddy flux record has completed its 5th full year and has been used to independently estimate ecosystem-scale respiration and photosynthesis. • Soil surface chamber isotopic flux measurements were carried out during three growing seasons, in conjunction with a trenching manipulation. Key findings to date (listed by objective): A. Partitioning of Net Ecosystem Exchange: 1. Ecosystem respiration is lower during the day than at night—the first robust evidence of the inhibition of leaf respiration by light (the “Kok effect”) at the ecosystem scale. 2. Because it neglects the Kok effect, the standard NEE partitioning approach overestimates ecosystem photosynthesis (by ~25%) and

Effects of shading and ethephon on carbon assimilates distribution partitioning in fruit limb of greenhouse-grown 'Dajiubao' peach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kong Yun; Wang Shaohui; Yao Yuncong; Ma Chengwei

2007-01-01

The distribution of carbon assimilates and the relative sink strength were studied by 14 C labeling in one-year-old fruiting limbs of greenhouse-grown 'Dajiubao' peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch), under 60% shading and 600 mg/L Ethephon treatment. After 10d shading treatment prior to pulsing of 14 CO 2 percent of assimilates translocation into fruit decreased significantly from fed shoot during fruit-ripening stage, but this partitioning patterns was not observed during stone-hardening stage, although less carbon allocated to seed within fruit components (mesocarp, endocarp and seed). The relative sink strength of each organ nearly followed the same variation trend as carbon assimilates distribution under shading treatment. Application of Ethephon to the surface of fruits under shading conditions promoted more carbon into fruits during fruit-ripening stage, with increasing their relative skink strength. (authors)

Interfacial thermodynamics and electrochemistry of protein partitioning in two-phase systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fraaije, J.G.E.M.

1987-01-01

The subject of this thesis is protein partition between an aqueous salt solution and a surface or an apolair liquid and the concomitant co-partition of small ions. The extent of co-partitioning determines the charge regulation in the protein partitioning process.

Chapters 2 and 3

The Inter-Annual Variability Analysis of Carbon Exchange in Low Artic Fen Uncovers The Climate Sensitivity And The Uncertainties Around Net Ecosystem Exchange Partitioning

Science.gov (United States)

Blanco, E. L.; Lund, M.; Williams, M. D.; Christensen, T. R.; Tamstorf, M. P.

2015-12-01

An improvement in our process-based understanding of CO2 exchanges in the Arctic, and their climate sensitivity, is critical for examining the role of tundra ecosystems in changing climates. Arctic organic carbon storage has seen increased attention in recent years due to large potential for carbon releases following thaw. Our knowledge about the exact scale and sensitivity for a phase-change of these C stocks are, however, limited. Minor variations in Gross Primary Production (GPP) and Ecosystem Respiration (Reco) driven by changes in the climate can lead to either C sink or C source states, which likely will impact the overall C cycle of the ecosystem. Eddy covariance data is usually used to partition Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) into GPP and Reco achieved by flux separation algorithms. However, different partitioning approaches lead to different estimates. as well as undefined uncertainties. The main objectives of this study are to use model-data fusion approaches to (1) determine the inter-annual variability in C source/sink strength for an Arctic fen, and attribute such variations to GPP vs Reco, (2) investigate the climate sensitivity of these processes and (3) explore the uncertainties in NEE partitioning. The intention is to elaborate on the information gathered in an existing catchment area under an extensive cross-disciplinary ecological monitoring program in low Arctic West Greenland, established under the auspices of the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM) program. The use of such a thorough long-term (7 years) dataset applied to the exploration in inter-annual variability of carbon exchange, related driving factors and NEE partition uncertainties provides a novel input into our understanding about land-atmosphere CO2 exchange.

The Mechanism of High Ductility for Novel High-Carbon Quenching-Partitioning-Tempering Martensitic Steel

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Shengwei; Liu, Yu; Hao, Qingguo; Wang, Ying; Chen, Nailu; Zuo, Xunwei; Rong, Yonghua

2015-09-01

In this article, a novel quenching-partitioning-tempering (Q-P-T) process was applied to treat Fe-0.6C-1.5Mn-1.5Si-0.6Cr-0.05Nb hot-rolled high-carbon steel and the microstructures including retained austenite fraction and the average dislocation densities in both martensite and retained austenite were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. The Q-P-T steel exhibits high strength (1950 MPa) and elongation (12.4 pct). Comparing with the steel treated by traditional quenching and tempering (Q&T) process, the mechanism of high ductility for high-carbon Q-P-T steel is revealed as follows. Much more retained austenite existing in Q-P-T steel than in Q&T one remarkably enhances the ductility by the following two effects: the dislocation absorption by retained austenite effect and the transformation-induced plasticity effect. Besides, lower dislocation density in martensite matrix produced by Q-P-T process plays an important role in the improvement of ductility. However, some thin plates of twin-type martensite embedded in dislocation-type martensite matrix in high-carbon Q-P-T steel affect the further improvement of ductility.

Partitioning of One-Carbon Units in Folate and Methionine Metabolism Is Essential for Neural Tube Closure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kit-Yi Leung

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Summary: Abnormal folate one-carbon metabolism (FOCM is implicated in neural tube defects (NTDs, severe malformations of the nervous system. MTHFR mediates unidirectional transfer of methyl groups from the folate cycle to the methionine cycle and, therefore, represents a key nexus in partitioning one-carbon units between FOCM functional outputs. Methionine cycle inhibitors prevent neural tube closure in mouse embryos. Similarly, the inability to use glycine as a one-carbon donor to the folate cycle causes NTDs in glycine decarboxylase (Gldc-deficient embryos. However, analysis of Mthfr-null mouse embryos shows that neither S-adenosylmethionine abundance nor neural tube closure depend on one-carbon units derived from embryonic or maternal folate cycles. Mthfr deletion or methionine treatment prevents NTDs in Gldc-null embryos by retention of one-carbon units within the folate cycle. Overall, neural tube closure depends on the activity of both the methionine and folate cycles, but transfer of one-carbon units between the cycles is not necessary. : Leung at al. find that embryonic neural tube closure depends both on the supply of one-carbon units to the folate cycle from glycine cleavage and on the methionine cycle. In contrast, transfer of one-carbon units from the folate cycle to the methionine cycle by MTHFR is dispensable. Keywords: one-carbon metabolism, folic acid, neural tube defects, spina bifida, glycine cleavage system, non-ketotic hyperglycinemia, eye, Mthfr, Gldc

Determination of the partition coefficient between dissolved organic carbon and seawater using differential equilibrium kinetics.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Du Yung; Kwon, Jung-Hwan

2018-05-04

Because the freely dissolved fraction of highly hydrophobic organic chemicals is bioavailable, knowing the partition coefficient between dissolved organic carbon and water (K DOCw ) is crucial to estimate the freely dissolved fraction from the total concentration. A kinetic method was developed to obtain K DOCw that required a shorter experimental time than equilibrium methods. The equilibrium partition coefficients of four polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (2,4,4'-trichlorobiphenyl (PCB 28), 2,2',3,5'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB 44), 2,2',4,5,5'-pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB 101), and 2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB 153)) between dissolved organic carbon and seawater (K DOCsw ) were determined using seawater samples from the Korean coast. The log K DOCsw values of PCB 28 were measured by equilibrating PCB 28, the least hydrophobic congener, with seawater samples, and the values ranged from 6.60 to 7.20. For the more hydrophobic PCBs (PCB 44, PCB 101, and PCB 153), kinetic experiments were conducted to determine the sorption rate constants (k 2 ) and their log K DOCsw values were obtained by comparing their k 2 with that of PCB 28. The calculated log K DOCsw values were 6.57-7.35 for PCB 44, 6.23-7.44 for PCB 101, and 6.35-7.73 for PCB 153. The validity of the proposed method was further confirmed using three less hydrophobic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. This kinetic method shortened the experimental time to obtain the K DOCsw values of the more hydrophobic PCBs, which did not reach phase equilibrium. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Glycosylation-mediated phenylpropanoid partitioning in Populus tremuloides cell cultures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Babst Benjamin A

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Phenylpropanoid-derived phenolic glycosides (PGs and condensed tannins (CTs comprise large, multi-purpose non-structural carbon sinks in Populus. A negative correlation between PG and CT concentrations has been observed in several studies. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the relationship is not known. Results Populus cell cultures produce CTs but not PGs under normal conditions. Feeding salicyl alcohol resulted in accumulation of salicins, the simplest PG, in the cells, but not higher-order PGs. Salicin accrual reflected the stimulation of a glycosylation response which altered a number of metabolic activities. We utilized this suspension cell feeding system as a model for analyzing the possible role of glycosylation in regulating the metabolic competition between PG formation, CT synthesis and growth. Cells accumulated salicins in a dose-dependent manner following salicyl alcohol feeding. Higher feeding levels led to a decrease in cellular CT concentrations (at 5 or 10 mM, and a negative effect on cell growth (at 10 mM. The competition between salicin and CT formation was reciprocal, and depended on the metabolic status of the cells. We analyzed gene expression changes between controls and cells fed with 5 mM salicyl alcohol for 48 hr, a time point when salicin accumulation was near maximum and CT synthesis was reduced, with no effect on growth. Several stress-responsive genes were up-regulated, suggestive of a general stress response in the fed cells. Salicyl alcohol feeding also induced expression of genes associated with sucrose catabolism, glycolysis and the Krebs cycle. Transcript levels of phenylalanine ammonia lyase and most of the flavonoid pathway genes were reduced, consistent with down-regulated CT synthesis. Conclusions Exogenous salicyl alcohol was readily glycosylated in Populus cell cultures, a process that altered sugar utilization and phenolic partitioning in the cells. Using this system, we

CRP-Mediated Carbon Catabolite Regulation of Yersinia pestis Biofilm Formation Is Enhanced by the Carbon Storage Regulator Protein, CsrA.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephan P Willias

Full Text Available The natural transmission of Yersinia pestis is reliant upon biofilm blockage of the flea vector. However, the environmentally-responsive adaptive regulators which facilitate Y. pestis biofilm production in accordance with the flea midgut milieu are not well understood. We seek to establish the impact of available carbon source metabolism and storage upon Y. pestis biofilm production. Our findings demonstrate that Y. pestis biofilm production is subject to carbon catabolite regulation in which the presence of glucose impairs biofilm production; whereas, the sole metabolism of alternate carbon sources promotes robust biofilm formation. This observation is facilitated by the cAMP receptor protein, CRP. In accordance with a stark growth defect, deletion of crp in both CO92 and KIM6+ Y. pestis strains significantly impaired biofilm production when solely utilizing alternate carbon sources. Media supplementation with cAMP, a small-molecule activator of CRP, did not significantly alter Y. pestis biofilm production. Furthermore, CRP did not alter mRNA abundance of previously-characterized hms biofilm synthesis and regulation factors. Therefore, our findings indicate CRP does not confer a direct stimulatory effect, but may indirectly promote Y. pestis biofilm production by facilitating the alternate carbon source expression profile. Additionally, we assessed the impact of the carbon storage regulator protein, CsrA, upon Y. pestis biofilm production. Contrary to what has been described for E. coli, Y. pestis biofilm formation was found to be enhanced by CsrA. Regardless of media composition and available carbon source, deletion of csrA significantly impaired Y. pestis biofilm production. CsrA was found to promote Y. pestis biofilm production independent of glycogen regulation. Loss of csrA did not significantly alter relative hmsH, hmsP, or hmsT mRNA abundance. However, deletion of hmsP in the csrA-deficient mutant enabled excessive biofilm production

Organic Matter Quality and Partitioning of Polychlorinated Biphenyls

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Brannon, James

1997-01-01

...). Equilibrium partitioning of neutral organic chemicals between the organic carbon fraction of bedded sediments and the interstitial water of the sediments provides the theoretical basis for the most...

Coupling carbon allocation with leaf and root phenology predicts tree-grass partitioning along a savanna rainfall gradient

Science.gov (United States)

Haverd, V.; Smith, B.; Raupach, M.; Briggs, P.; Nieradzik, L.; Beringer, J.; Hutley, L.; Trudinger, C. M.; Cleverly, J.

2016-02-01

The relative complexity of the mechanisms underlying savanna ecosystem dynamics, in comparison to other biomes such as temperate and tropical forests, challenges the representation of such dynamics in ecosystem and Earth system models. A realistic representation of processes governing carbon allocation and phenology for the two defining elements of savanna vegetation (namely trees and grasses) may be a key to understanding variations in tree-grass partitioning in time and space across the savanna biome worldwide. Here we present a new approach for modelling coupled phenology and carbon allocation, applied to competing tree and grass plant functional types. The approach accounts for a temporal shift between assimilation and growth, mediated by a labile carbohydrate store. This is combined with a method to maximize long-term net primary production (NPP) by optimally partitioning plant growth between fine roots and (leaves + stem). The computational efficiency of the analytic method used here allows it to be uniquely and readily applied at regional scale, as required, for example, within the framework of a global biogeochemical model.We demonstrate the approach by encoding it in a new simple carbon-water cycle model that we call HAVANA (Hydrology and Vegetation-dynamics Algorithm for Northern Australia), coupled to the existing POP (Population Orders Physiology) model for tree demography and disturbance-mediated heterogeneity. HAVANA-POP is calibrated using monthly remotely sensed fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR) and eddy-covariance-based estimates of carbon and water fluxes at five tower sites along the North Australian Tropical Transect (NATT), which is characterized by large gradients in rainfall and wildfire disturbance. The calibrated model replicates observed gradients of fPAR, tree leaf area index, basal area, and foliage projective cover along the NATT. The model behaviour emerges from complex feedbacks between the plant

Hanford soil partitioning and vapor extraction study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yonge, D.; Hossain, A.; Cameron, R.; Ford, H.; Storey, C.

1996-07-01

This report describes the testing and results of laboratory experiments conducted to assist the carbon tetrachloride soil vapor extraction project operating in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. Vapor-phase adsorption and desorption testing was performed using carbon tetrachloride and Hanford Site soils to estimate vapor-soil partitioning and reasonably achievable carbon tetrachloride soil concentrations during active vapor extractions efforts at the 200 West Area. (CCl 4 is used in Pu recovery from aqueous streams.)

The partitioning of uranium and neptunium onto hydrothermally altered concrete

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao, P.; Allen, P.G.; Sylwester, E.R.; Viani, B.E.

2000-01-01

Partition coefficients (K d ) of U(VI) and Np(V) on untreated and hydrothermally altered concrete were measured in 0.01 M NaCl and 0.01 M NaHCO 3 solutions as functions of concentration of the radionuclides, pH, and time. The partition coefficients for both U(VI) and Np(V) on hydrothermally altered concrete are significantly lower than those on untreated concrete. The partition of both U(VI) and Np(V) are pH dependent, although the pH dependence does not appear to reflect precipitation of U and Np-bearing phases. Both sorption and precipitation are likely processes controlling partitioning of U to concrete; sorption is the most likely process controlling the partitioning of Np to concrete. The presence of 0.01 M carbonate species in solution decreases K d of U(VI) for both hydrothermally altered and untreated concrete from ≥ 10 4 mL/g to ∝ 400 to 1000 mL/g indicating a significant impact on U(VI) sorption. In contrast, the presence of carbonate only reduced the K d of Np(V) by one order of magnitude or less. X-ray absorption spectroscopy analysis of U/concrete mixtures at different pHs and times indicate that uranyl ions are partitioned as monomeric species on untreated concrete, but oligomeric species on hydrothermally altered concrete. Similar analysis of Np/concrete mixtures shows that about half of the partitioned Np(V) is reduced to Np(IV) over a period of 6 months. (orig.)

Partitioning CO₂ fluxes with isotopologue measurements and modeling to understand mechanisms of forest carbon sequestration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saleska, Scott [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Davidson, Eric [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Finzi, Adrien [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Wehr, Richard [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Moorcroft, Paul [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)

2016-01-28

1. Objectives This project combines automated in situ observations of the isotopologues of CO₂ with root observations, novel experimental manipulations of belowground processes, and isotope-enabled ecosystem modeling to investigate mechanisms of below- vs. aboveground carbon sequestration at the Harvard Forest Environmental Measurements Site (EMS). The proposed objectives, which have now been largely accomplished, include: A. Partitioning of net ecosystem CO₂ exchange (NEE) into photosynthesis and respiration using long-term continuous observations of the isotopic composition of NEE, and analysis of their dynamics ; B. Investigation of the influence of vegetation phenology on the timing and magnitude of carbon allocated belowground using measurements of root growth and indices of belowground autotrophic vs. heterotrophic respiration (via trenched plots and isotope measurements); C. Testing whether plant allocation of carbon belowground stimulates the microbial decomposition of soil organic matter, using in situ rhizosphere simulation experiments wherein realistic quantities of artificial isotopically-labeled exudates are released into the soil; and D. Synthesis and interpretation of the above data using the Ecosystem Demography Model 2 (ED2). 2. Highlights Accomplishments: • Our isotopic eddy flux record has completed its 5th full year and has been used to independently estimate ecosystem-scale respiration and photosynthesis. • Soil surface chamber isotopic flux measurements were carried out during three growing seasons, in conjunction with a trenching manipulation. Key findings to date (listed by objective): A. Partitioning of Net Ecosystem Exchange: 1. Ecosystem respiration is lower during the day than at night—the first robust evidence of the inhibition of leaf respiration by light (the “Kok effect”) at the ecosystem scale. 2. Because it neglects the Kok effect, the standard NEE partitioning approach overestimates ecosystem

Strong binding of apolar hydrophobic organic contaminants by dissolved black carbon released from biochar: A mechanism of pseudomicelle partition and environmental implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Heyun; Wei, Chenhui; Qu, Xiaolei; Li, Hui; Zhu, Dongqiang

2018-01-01

Dissolved black carbon (DBC), the soluble fraction of black carbon (BC), is an important constituent of dissolved organic matter pool. However, little is known about the binding interactions between hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) and DBC and their significance in the fate process. This study determined the binding ability of DBC released from rice-derived BC for a series of apolar HOCs, including four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and four chlorinated benzenes, using batch sorption and solubility enhancement techniques. Bulk BC and a dissolved soil humic acid (DSHA) were included as benchmark sorbents. The organic carbon-normalized sorption coefficient of phenanthrene to DBC was slightly lower than bulk BC, but was over ten folds higher than DSHA. Consistently, DBC was more effective than DSHA in enhancing the apparent water solubility of the tested HOCs, and the enhancement positively correlated with solute n-octanol-water partition coefficient, indicating the predominance of hydrophobic partition. The much higher binding ability of DBC relative to DSHA was mainly attributed to its higher tendency to form pseudomicellar structures as supported by the fluorescence quenching and the pH-edge data. Our findings suggest that DBC might play a significant role in the environmental fate and transport of HOCs as both sorbent and carrier. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How drought severity constrains gross primary production(GPP) and its partitioning among carbon pools in a Quercus ilex coppice?

Science.gov (United States)

Rambal, S.; Lempereur, M.; Limousin, J. M.; Martin-StPaul, N. K.; Ourcival, J. M.; Rodríguez-Calcerrada, J.

2014-12-01

The partitioning of photosynthates toward biomass compartments plays a crucial role in the carbon (C) sink function of forests. Few studies have examined how carbon is allocated toward plant compartments in drought-prone forests. We analyzed the fate of gross primary production (GPP) in relation to yearly water deficit in an old evergreen Mediterranean Quercus ilex coppice severely affected by water limitations. Carbon fluxes between the ecosystem and the atmosphere were measured with an eddy covariance flux tower running continuously since 2001. Discrete measurements of litterfall, stem growth and fAPAR allowed us to derive annual productions of leaves, wood, flowers and acorns, and an isometric relationship between stem and belowground biomass has been used to estimate perennial belowground growth. By combining eddy covariance fluxes with annual net primary productions (NPP), we managed to close a C budget and derive values of autotrophic, heterotrophic respirations and carbon-use efficiency (CUE; the ratio between NPP and GPP). Average values of yearly net ecosystem production (NEP), GPP and Reco were 282, 1259 and 977 g C m-2. The corresponding aboveground net primary production (ANPP) components were 142.5, 26.4 and 69.6 g C m-2 for leaves, reproductive effort (flowers and fruits) and stems, respectively. NEP, GPP and Reco were affected by annual water deficit. Partitioning to the different plant compartments was also impacted by drought, with a hierarchy of responses going from the most affected - the stem growth - to the least affected - the leaf production. The average CUE was 0.40, which is well in the range for Mediterranean-type forest ecosystems. CUE tended to decrease less drastically in response to drought than GPP and NPP did, probably due to drought acclimation of autotrophic respiration. Overall, our results provide a baseline for modeling the inter-annual variations of carbon fluxes and allocation in this widespread Mediterranean ecosystem, and

Geochemical partitioning of lead in biogenic carbonate sediments in a coral reef depositional environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horta-Puga, Guillermo

2017-01-01

The fate of trace elements in reef depositional environments has not been extensively investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the partitioning of Pb in sediments of the Veracruz Reef System, and its relation to local environmental sources. Lead was determined in four geochemical fractions: exchangeable (3.8 ± 0.4 μg g −1 ), carbonate (57.0 ± 13.6 μg g −1 ), organic matter (2.0 ± 0.9 μg g −1 ), and mineral (17.5 ± 5.4 μg g −1 ). For the mineral fraction, lead concentrations were higher in those reefs influenced by river discharge or by long-distance transport of terrigenous sediments. The bioavailable concentration of lead (range: 21.9–85.6 μg g −1 ) indicates that the Veracruz Reef System is a moderately polluted area. As expected, the carbonate fraction contained the highest proportion of Pb (70%), and because the reef framework is largely made up of by biogenic carbonate sediments, hence, it is therefore the most important repository of Pb in coral reef depositional environments. - Highlights: • Lead concentrations were determined in four geochemical fractions of reef sediments. • The carbonate fraction accounted for > 70% of the content of Pb in reef sediments. • Terrigenous sediments are the main source of Pb associated to the mineral fraction. • The Veracruz Reef System is considered a moderately polluted area. • Sediments are the main repositories of lead in coral reef depositional environments.

Dry matter yield and Carbon partitioning in the aboveground part of switchgrass ( panicum virgatum l.) germplasm

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Butkutė, B.; Lemežien ė, N.; Cesevičienė, J.; Liaudanskienė, I., E-mail: brone@lzi.lt [Institute of Agriculture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Akademija, Kėdainiai distr. (Lithuania)

2013-07-01

Carbon (C) accumulated in biomass can be converted into usable forms of energy like methane, bioethanol or solid fuel. Understanding the partitioning of aboveground biomass and C plays an important role in optimizing its pre-treatment technologies. Our objectives were to determine dry matter yield (DMY) and C partitioning in switch grass germplasm. Plants were sampled at heading (HS) and seed filling (SFS) stages. The biomass of the SFS-sampled plants was separated into leaves (blades+sheaths), stems, and panicles. C content was determined by dry combustion. C yield per plant (CY) at HS ranged from 25.9 to 171 g (37.3 g on average for plants in the first harvest year, and 147 for those in the second harvest year), at SFS CY varied within a range of 79.8 ‒ 295g and averaged 119 and 252g depending on the year of growth. DMY was a weighted factor for such results. At SFS, DMY of stems accounted on average for 46.3%, leaves for 40.5%, and panicles for 13.2% of the aboveground biomass of whole plant with respective C concentrations of 462, 439 and 459 g kg -1 DM. (author)

Above Ground Biomass-carbon Partitioning, Storage and Sequestration in a Rehabilitated Forest, Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kueh, J.H.R.; Majid, N.M.A.; Seca, G.; Ahmed, O.H.

2013-01-01

Forest degradation and deforestation are some of the major global concerns as it can reduce forest carbon storage and sequestration capacity. Forest rehabilitation on degraded forest areas has the potential to improve carbon stock, hence mitigate greenhouse gases emission. However, the carbon storage and sequestration potential in a rehabilitated tropical forest remains unclear due to the lack of information. This paper reports an initiative to estimate biomass-carbon partitioning, storage and sequestration in a rehabilitated forest. The study site was at the UPM-Mitsubishi Corporation Forest Rehabilitation Project, UPM Bintulu Sarawak Campus, Bintulu, Sarawak. A plot of 20 x 20 m 2 was established each in site 1991 (Plot 1991), 1999 (Plot 1999) and 2008 (Plot 2008). An adjacent natural regenerating secondary forest plot (Plot NF) was also established for comparison purposes. The results showed that the contribution of tree component biomass/ carbon to total biomass/ carbon was in the order of main stem > branch > leaf. As most of the trees were concentrated in diameter size class = 10 cm for younger rehabilitated forests, the total above ground biomass/ carbon was from this class. These observations suggest that the forests are in the early successional stage. The total above ground biomass obtained for the rehabilitated forest ranged from 4.3 to 4,192.3 kg compared to natural regenerating secondary forest of 3,942.3 kg while total above ground carbon ranged from 1.9 to 1,927.9 kg and 1,820.4 kg, respectively. The mean total above ground biomass accumulated ranged from 1.3 x 10 -2 to 20.5 kg/ 0.04 ha and mean total carbon storage ranged from 5.9 x 10 -3 to 9.4 kg/ 0.04 ha. The total CO 2 sequestrated in rehabilitated forest ranged from 6.9 to 7,069.1 kg CO 2 / 0.04 ha. After 19 years, the rehabilitated forest had total above ground biomass and carbon storage comparable to the natural regeneration secondary forest. The forest rehabilitated activities have the

Sustainable Trade Credit and Replenishment Policies under the Cap-And-Trade and Carbon Tax Regulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juanjuan Qin

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The paper considers the sustainable trade credit and inventory policies with demand related to credit period and the environmental sensitivity of consumers under the carbon cap-and-trade and carbon tax regulations. First, the decision models are constructed under three cases: without regulation, carbon cap-and-trade regulation, and carbon tax regulation. The optimal solutions of the retailer in the three cases are then discussed under the exogenous and endogenous credit periods. Finally, numerical analysis is conducted to obtain conclusions. The retailer shortens the trade credit period as the environmental sensitivity of the consumer is enhanced. The cap has no effects on the credit period decisions under the carbon cap-and-trade regulation. Carbon trade price and carbon tax have negative effects on the credit period. The retailer under carbon cap-and-trade regulation is more motivated to obey regulations than that under carbon tax regulation when carbon trade price equals carbon tax. Carbon regulations have better effects on carbon emission reduction than with exogenous credit term when the retailer has the power to decide with regards credit policies.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in industrial and municipal effluents: Concentrations, congener profiles, and partitioning onto particulates and organic carbon

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Balasubramani, Aparna, E-mail: aparna.27889@gmail.com; Howell, Nathan L., E-mail: nlhowell@central.uh.edu; Rifai, Hanadi S., E-mail: rifai@uh.edu

2014-03-01

Wastewater effluent samples were collected in the summer of 2009 from 16 different locations which included municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants and petrochemical industrial outfalls in the Houston area. The effluent samples were analyzed for all 209 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) congeners using high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS) using the USEPA method 1668A. The total PCBs (∑ 209) concentration in the dissolved medium ranged from 1.01 to 8.12 ng/L and ranged from 2.03 to 31.2 ng/L in the suspended medium. Lighter PCB congeners exhibited highest concentrations in the dissolved phase whereas, in the suspended phase, heavier PCBs exhibited the highest concentrations. The PCB homolog concentrations were dominated by monochlorobiphenyls through hexachlorobiphenyls, with dichlorobiphenyls exhibiting the highest concentration amongst them at most of the effluent outfalls, in the suspended phase. Both total suspended solids (TSS) and various organic carbon fractions played an important role in the distribution of the suspended fractions of PCBs in the effluents. The log K{sub oc} values determined in the effluents suggest that effluent PCB loads might have more risk and impact than what standard partitioning models predict. - Highlights: • 209 PCB congeners were measured in 16 different municipal and industrial effluents. • PCB congener differences were elucidated for the various effluent types. • In addition to log K{sub ow}, organic carbon and TSS affect partitioning of PCBs. • High concentrations of homolog 2 maybe due to biotransformation of PCBs.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in industrial and municipal effluents: Concentrations, congener profiles, and partitioning onto particulates and organic carbon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balasubramani, Aparna; Howell, Nathan L.; Rifai, Hanadi S.

2014-01-01

Wastewater effluent samples were collected in the summer of 2009 from 16 different locations which included municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants and petrochemical industrial outfalls in the Houston area. The effluent samples were analyzed for all 209 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) congeners using high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS) using the USEPA method 1668A. The total PCBs (∑ 209) concentration in the dissolved medium ranged from 1.01 to 8.12 ng/L and ranged from 2.03 to 31.2 ng/L in the suspended medium. Lighter PCB congeners exhibited highest concentrations in the dissolved phase whereas, in the suspended phase, heavier PCBs exhibited the highest concentrations. The PCB homolog concentrations were dominated by monochlorobiphenyls through hexachlorobiphenyls, with dichlorobiphenyls exhibiting the highest concentration amongst them at most of the effluent outfalls, in the suspended phase. Both total suspended solids (TSS) and various organic carbon fractions played an important role in the distribution of the suspended fractions of PCBs in the effluents. The log K oc values determined in the effluents suggest that effluent PCB loads might have more risk and impact than what standard partitioning models predict. - Highlights: • 209 PCB congeners were measured in 16 different municipal and industrial effluents. • PCB congener differences were elucidated for the various effluent types. • In addition to log K ow , organic carbon and TSS affect partitioning of PCBs. • High concentrations of homolog 2 maybe due to biotransformation of PCBs

New features on the environmental regulation of metabolism revealed by modeling the cellular proteomic adaptations induced by light, carbon and inorganic nitrogen in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stéphanie Gérin

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Microalgae are currently emerging to be very promising organisms for the production of biofuels and high-added value compounds. Understanding the influence of environmental alterations on their metabolism is a crucial issue. Light, carbon and nitrogen availability have been reported to induce important metabolic adaptations. So far, the influence of these variables has essentially been studied while varying only one or two environmental factors at the same time. The goal of the present work was to model the cellular proteomic adaptations of the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii upon the simultaneous changes of light intensity, carbon concentrations (CO2 and acetate and inorganic nitrogen concentrations (nitrate and ammonium in the culture medium. Statistical design of experiments (DOE enabled to define 32 culture conditions to be tested experimentally. Relative protein abundance was quantified by two dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE. Additional assays for respiration, photosynthesis, and lipid and pigment concentrations were also carried out. A hierarchical clustering survey enabled to partition biological variables (proteins + assays into eight co-regulated clusters. In most cases, the biological variables partitioned in the same cluster had already been reported to participate to common biological functions (acetate assimilation, bioenergetic processes, light harvesting, Calvin cycle and protein metabolism. The environmental regulation within each cluster was further characterized by a series of multivariate methods including principal component analysis and multiple linear regressions. This metadata analysis enabled to highlight the existence of a clear regulatory pattern for every cluster and to mathematically simulate the effects of light, carbon and nitrogen. The influence of these environmental variables on cellular metabolism is described in details and thoroughly discussed. This work provides an overview

Microstructure-Property Correlation in Low-Si Steel Processed Through Quenching and Nonisothermal Partitioning

Science.gov (United States)

Bansal, Gaurav K.; Rajinikanth, V.; Ghosh, Chiradeep; Srivastava, V. C.; Kundu, S.; Ghosh Chowdhury, S.

2018-05-01

In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to stabilize austenite by carbon partitioning through quenching and nonisothermal partitioning (Q&P) technique. This will eliminate the need for additional heat-treatment facility to perform isothermal partitioning or tempering process. The presence of retained austenite in the microstructure helps in increasing the toughness, which in turn is expected to improve the abrasion resistance of steels. The carbon partitioning from different quench temperatures has been performed on two different alloys, with low-Si content (0.5 wt pct), in a salt bath furnace atmosphere, the cooling profile of which closely resembles the industrially produced hot-rolled coil cooling. The results show that the stabilization of retained austenite is possible and gives rise to increased work hardening, better impact toughness and abrasive wear loss comparable to that of a fully martensitic microstructure. In contrast, tempered martensite exhibits better wear properties at the expense of impact toughness.

The effect of activated carbon on partitioning, desorption, and biouptake of native polychlorinated biphenyls in four freshwater sediments.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xueli; Ghosh, Upal

2008-11-01

The present study evaluated the effect of activated carbon amendment in four freshwater sediments from the Great Lakes (North America) areas of concern with a wide range of sediment geochemical characteristics (0.83-5.1% total organic carbon) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations (0.33-84.7 microg/g). The work focused on understanding the impact of activated carbon amendment on PCB aqueous partitioning, PCB desorption characteristics, and PCB biouptake in a freshwater oligochaete (Lumbriculus variegatus). The results showed that PCB aqueous equilibrium concentrations, rapid desorption fractions, and biouptake by the oligochaete were reduced after activated carbon amendment. Addition of activated carbon at a dose of 0.5-fold native organic carbon reduced PCB bioaccumulation by 42% for Niagara River sediment, 85% for Grasse River sediment, 74% for Milwaukee River sediment 1, and 70% for Milwaukee River sediment 2. A linear relationship was observed between log biota-sediment accumulation factor and the first 6-h desorption fractions for each PCB homologue for treated and untreated sediments. Water-lipid bioconcentration factors for PCB congeners were largely conserved after amendment with activated carbon. Our present results suggest that at steady state, changes in the aqueous PCB concentrations can be used to predict changes in PCB bioaccumulation in deposit-feeding organisms. Thus, use of advanced pore-water measurement techniques, such as solid-phase extraction passive samplers, may be suitable for long-term monitoring of treatment performance.

Coding Partitions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio Burderi

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Motivated by the study of decipherability conditions for codes weaker than Unique Decipherability (UD, we introduce the notion of coding partition. Such a notion generalizes that of UD code and, for codes that are not UD, allows to recover the ``unique decipherability" at the level of the classes of the partition. By tacking into account the natural order between the partitions, we define the characteristic partition of a code X as the finest coding partition of X. This leads to introduce the canonical decomposition of a code in at most one unambiguouscomponent and other (if any totally ambiguouscomponents. In the case the code is finite, we give an algorithm for computing its canonical partition. This, in particular, allows to decide whether a given partition of a finite code X is a coding partition. This last problem is then approached in the case the code is a rational set. We prove its decidability under the hypothesis that the partition contains a finite number of classes and each class is a rational set. Moreover we conjecture that the canonical partition satisfies such a hypothesis. Finally we consider also some relationships between coding partitions and varieties of codes.

Separation of very hydrophobic analytes by micellar electrokinetic chromatography IV. Modeling of the effective electrophoretic mobility from carbon number equivalents and octanol-water partition coefficients.

Science.gov (United States)

Huhn, Carolin; Pyell, Ute

2008-07-11

It is investigated whether those relationships derived within an optimization scheme developed previously to optimize separations in micellar electrokinetic chromatography can be used to model effective electrophoretic mobilities of analytes strongly differing in their properties (polarity and type of interaction with the pseudostationary phase). The modeling is based on two parameter sets: (i) carbon number equivalents or octanol-water partition coefficients as analyte descriptors and (ii) four coefficients describing properties of the separation electrolyte (based on retention data for a homologous series of alkyl phenyl ketones used as reference analytes). The applicability of the proposed model is validated comparing experimental and calculated effective electrophoretic mobilities. The results demonstrate that the model can effectively be used to predict effective electrophoretic mobilities of neutral analytes from the determined carbon number equivalents or from octanol-water partition coefficients provided that the solvation parameters of the analytes of interest are similar to those of the reference analytes.

Partitioning CO₂ fluxes with isotopologue measurements and modeling to understand mechanisms of forest carbon sequestration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davidson, Eric A. [Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States); Saleska, Scott [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Savage, Kathleen [Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States); Finzi, Adrien [Boston Univ., MA (United States); Moorcroft, Paul [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Wehr, Richard [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)

2016-02-18

1. Project Summary and Objectives This project combines automated in situ observations of the isotopologues of CO₂ with root observations, novel experimental manipulations of belowground processes, and isotope-enabled ecosystem modeling to investigate mechanisms of below- vs. aboveground carbon sequestration at the Harvard Forest Environmental Measurements Site (EMS). The proposed objectives, which have now been largely accomplished, include: A. Partitioning of net ecosystem CO₂ exchange (NEE) into photosynthesis and respiration using long-term continuous observations of the isotopic composition of NEE, and analysis of their dynamics ; B. Investigation of the influence of vegetation phenology on the timing and magnitude of carbon allocated belowground using measurements of root growth and indices of belowground autotrophic vs. heterotrophic respiration (via trenched plots and isotope measurements); C. Testing whether plant allocation of carbon belowground stimulates the microbial decomposition of soil organic matter, using in situ rhizosphere simulation experiments wherein realistic quantities of artificial isotopically-labeled exudates are released into the soil; and D. Synthesis and interpretation of the above data using the Ecosystem Demography Model 2 (ED2).

Partitioning CO₂ fluxes with isotopologue measurements and modeling to understand mechanisms of forest carbon sequestration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saleska, Scott [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States). Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Davidson, Eric [Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States); Finzi, Adrien [Boston Univ., MA (United States). Dept. of Biology; Wehr, Richard [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Moorcroft, Paul [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

2016-01-28

This project combines automated in situ observations of the isotopologues of CO₂ with root observations, novel experimental manipulations of below ground processes, and isotope-enabled ecosystem modeling to investigate mechanisms of below- vs. above ground carbon sequestration at the Harvard Forest Environmental Measurements Site (EMS). The proposed objectives, which have now been largely accomplished, include: (A) Partitioning of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) into photosynthesis and respiration using long-term continuous observations of the isotopic composition of NEE, and analysis of their dynamics; (B) Investigation of the influence of vegetation phenology on the timing and magnitude of carbon allocated below ground using measurements of root growth and indices of below ground autotrophic vs. heterotrophic respiration (via trenched plots andisotope measurements); (C) Testing whether plant allocation of carbon below ground stimulates the microbial decomposition of soil organic matter, using in situ rhizosphere simulation experiments wherein realistic quantities of artificial isotopically-labeled exudates are released into the soil; and (D) Synthesis and interpretation of the above data using the Ecosystem Demography Model 2 (ED2).

The Effects of SO2 on N2-Fixation, Carbon Partitioning, and Yield Components in Snapbean, Phaseolus Vulgaris L.

OpenAIRE

Griffith, Stephen M.

1983-01-01

The primary air pollutant sulfur dioxide has been shown to affect plant biochemistry and physiology, although very little is known about its effects on N2-fixation in legumes. This study was designed to determine if N2-fixation, carbon partitioning , and productivity are affected under short term low level, so2 exposures. Greenhouse grown snapbeans (P has eo lus vulgaris L. cv. Ear l iwax), 29 days from planting, were exposed to 0.0, 0.4, and 0.8 parts per million sulfur dioxide for 4 hour...

Assessing the potential for isotopic partitioning of soil respiration at research sites in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Risk, D.; Kellman, L.; Black, M. [Saint Francis Xavier Univ., Antigonish, NS (Canada). Environmental Sciences Research Centre

2005-07-01

The stable isotope ratios of carbon and oxygen in different tree species were studied with respect to different tissues, at different points within the tree, through soil profiles and in carbon dioxide respired from laboratory incubations. Although isotopic methods of partitioning autotrophic and heterotrophic soil respiration have been used with some success, stable isotopic methods are complicated by the fact that carbon isotope fractionations are small in natural systems, and radiocarbon techniques are time and equipment intensive. Studies that use isotopic analysis opportunistically, such as in C3/C4 transitional systems, have proven to be the most successful. Previously unexploited opportunities have the potential to be used for stable isotope-based partitioning in natural systems if the autotrophic/heterotrophic process distribution in the profile is well understand and if there is good process resolution and concurrent analyses using physical partitioning methods such as trenches. This study explored the different paths of opportunity in terms of background isotopic characterization that is being carried out for an existing network of carbon flux research sites in eastern Nova Scotia and in western Newfoundland. The new continuous flow-isotope ratio mass spectrometer (CF-IRMS) at the Environmental Earth Sciences Laboratory at St. Francis Xavier University was used for the isotopic analyses. The isotopic information will be evaluated for potential partitioning opportunities, considering the combination of approaches that will give the best chances of success. Isotopic partitioning trials will take place at suitable sites.

Modeling water and hydrogen networks with partitioning regeneration units

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W.M. Shehata

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Strict environment regulations in chemical and refinery industries lead to minimize resource consumption by designing utility networks within industrial process plants. The present study proposed a superstructure based optimization model for the synthesis of water and hydrogen networks with partitioning regenerators without mixing the regenerated sources. This method determines the number of partitioning regenerators needed for the regeneration of the sources. The number of the regenerators is based on the number of sources required to be treated for recovery. Each source is regenerated in an individual partitioning regenerator. Multiple regeneration systems can be employed to achieve minimum flowrate and costs. The formulation is linear in the regenerator balance equations. The optimized model is applied for two systems, partitioning regeneration systems of the fixed outlet impurity concentration and partitioning regeneration systems of the fixed impurity load removal ratio (RR for water and hydrogen networks. Several case studies from the literature are solved to illustrate the ease and applicability of the proposed method.

Stable oxygen isotope and flux partitioning demonstrates understory of an oak savanna contributes up to half of ecosystem carbon and water exchange

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maren eDubbert

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Semi-arid ecosystems contribute about 40% to global net primary production (GPP even though water is a major factor limiting carbon uptake. Evapotranspiration (ET accounts for up to 95% of the water loss and in addition, vegetation can also mitigate drought effects by altering soil water distribution. Hence, partitioning of carbon and water fluxes between the soil and vegetation components is crucial to gain mechanistic understanding of vegetation effects on carbon and water cycling. However, the possible impact of herbaceous vegetation in savanna type ecosystems is often overlooked. Therefore, we aimed at quantifying understory vegetation effects on the water balance and productivity of a Mediterranean oak savanna. ET and net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE were partitioned based on flux and stable oxygen isotope measurements and also rain infiltration was estimated.The understory vegetation contributed importantly to total ecosystem ET and GPP with a maximum of 43% and 51%, respectively. It reached water-use efficiencies (WUE; ratio of carbon gain by water loss similar to cork-oak trees. The understory vegetation inhibited soil evaporation (E and, although E was large during wet periods, it did not diminish WUE during water-limited times. The understory strongly increased soil water infiltration, specifically following major rain events. At the same time, the understory itself was vulnerable to drought, which led to an earlier senescence of the understory growing under trees as compared to open areas, due to competition for water. Thus, beneficial understory effects are dominant and contribute to the resilience of this ecosystem. At the same time the vulnerability of the understory to drought suggests that future climate change scenarios for the Mediterranean basin threaten understory development. This in turn will very likely diminish beneficial understory effects like infiltration and ground water recharge and therefore ecosystem resilience to

Estimation of the soil-water partition coefficient normalized to organic carbon for ionizable organic chemicals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Franco, Antonio; Trapp, Stefan

2008-01-01

The sorption of organic electrolytes to soil was investigated. A dataset consisting of 164 electrolytes, composed of 93 acids, 65 bases, and six amphoters, was collected from literature and databases. The partition coefficient log KOW of the neutral molecule and the dissociation constant pKa were...... calculated by the software ACD/Labs®. The Henderson-Hasselbalch equation was applied to calculate dissociation. Regressions were developed to predict separately for the neutral and the ionic molecule species the distribution coefficient (Kd) normalized to organic carbon (KOC) from log KOW and pKa. The log...... KOC of strong acids (pKa correlated to these parameters. The regressions derived for weak acids and bases (undissociated at environmental pH) were similar. The highest sorption was found for strong bases (pKa > 7.5), probably due to electrical interactions. Nonetheless, their log KOC...

Tracking the fingerprints and combined TOC–black carbon mediated soil–air partitioning of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) in the Indus River Basin of Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, Usman; Sánchez-García, Laura; Rehman, Muhammad Yasir Abdur; Syed, Jabir Hussain; Mahmood, Adeel; Li, Jun; Zhang, Gan; Jones, Kevin C.; Malik, Riffat Naseem

2016-01-01

This study reports the first investigation of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) in air and soil samples from ecologically important sites of the Indus River Basin, Pakistan. The concentrations of ∑ 39 -PCNs in air and soil were found in a range between 1–1588 pg m −3 and 0.02–23 ng g −1 while the mean TEQ values were calculated to be 5.4E −04  pg TEQ m −3 and 1.6E +01  pg TEQ g −1 , respectively. Spatially, air and soil PCN concentrations were found to be high at Rahim Yar Khan (agricultural region). Lower-medium chlorinated PCNs (sum of tri-, tetra- and penta-CNs) predominated in both air and soil, altogether constituting 87 and 86% of total PCNs in the two environmental matrices, respectively. According to the data, soil–air partitioning of PCNs was interpreted to be similarly controlled by the combined effect of black carbon and organic matter in the Indus River Basin, with no preferential implication of the recalcitrant organic form. - Highlights: • First investigation of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) in air and soil samples from the Indus River Basin. • Combustion activities were the major PCN sources in the region along with minor contributions of Halowax technical mixtures and impurities in PCBs technical mixtures. • TOC and BC showed combined influence on soil–air partitioning of PCNs in the Indus River Basin. - Combined total organic carbon–black carbon (TOC–BC) mediated soil–air partitioning was observed in ecologically significant sites of the Indus River Basin, Pakistan.

Endogenous circadian regulation of carbon dioxide exchange in terrestrial ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

Victor Resco de Dios; Michael L. Goulden; Kiona Ogle; Andrew D. Richardson; David Y. Hollinger; Eric A. Davidson; Josu G. Alday; Greg A. Barron-Gafford; Arnaud Carrara; Andrew S. Kowalski; Walt C. Oechel; Borja R. Reverter; Russell L. Scott; Ruth K. Varner; Ruben Diaz-Sierra; Jose M. Moreno

2012-01-01

It is often assumed that daytime patterns of ecosystem carbon assimilation are mostly driven by direct physiological responses to exogenous environmental cues. Under limited environmental variability, little variation in carbon assimilation should thus be expected unless endogenous plant controls on carbon assimilation, which regulate photosynthesis in time, are active...

Partitioning of biocides between water and inorganic phases of render

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Urbanczyk, Michal; Bollmann, Ulla E.; Bester, Kai

The use of biocides as additives for building materials has gained importance in recent years. These biocides are, e.g., applied to renders and paints to prevent them from microbial spoilage. However, these biocides can leach out into the environment. In order to better understand this leaching...... compared. The partitioning constants for calcium carbonate varied between 0.1 (isoproturon) and 1.1 (iodocarb) and 84.6 (dichlorooctylisothiazolinone), respectively. The results for barite, kaolinite and mica were in a similar range and usually the compounds with high partitioning constants for one mineral...

The partitioning of litter carbon during litter decomposition under different rainfall patterns: a laboratory study

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, X.; Szlavecz, K. A.; Langley, J. A.; Pitz, S.; Chang, C. H.

2017-12-01

. Including the rainfall pattern as a parameter to the partitioning of litter carbon could help better project soil carbon cycling in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Kinetics of Solute Partitioning During Intercritical Annealing of a Medium-Mn Steel

Science.gov (United States)

Kamoutsi, H.; Gioti, E.; Haidemenopoulos, Gregory N.; Cai, Z.; Ding, H.

2015-11-01

The evolution of austenite fraction and solute partitioning (Mn, Al, and C) during intercritical annealing was calculated for a medium-Mn steel containing 11 pct Mn. Austenite growth takes place in three stages. The first stage is growth under non-partitioning local equilibrium (NPLE) controlled by carbon diffusion in ferrite. The second stage is growth under partitioning local equilibrium (PLE) controlled by diffusion of Mn in ferrite. The third stage is shrinkage of austenite under PLE controlled by diffusion of Mn in austenite. During PLE growth, the austenite is progressively enriched in Mn. Compositional spikes evolve early during NPLE growth and broaden with annealing temperature and time.

Partitioning of fluoranthene between free and bound forms in stormwater runoff and other urban discharges using passive dosing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Birch, Heidi; Mayer, Philipp; Lützhøft, Hans-Christian Holten

2012-01-01

to dissolved organic carbon was lower than partitioning to particulate organic carbon. Partitioning of fluoranthene to particulate organic matter in the 19 stormwater samples yielded a log KPOM of 5.18. The presented results can be used in stormwater quality modeling and assessment of efficiency of stormwater......Partitioning of fluoranthene in stormwater runoff and other urban discharges was measured by a new analytical method based on passive dosing. Samples were collected at the inlet (n = 11) and outlet (n = 8) from a stormwater retention pond in Albertslund (Denmark), and for comparison samples were...... of the different stormwater samples for carrying fluoranthene was 2–23 relative to pure water and decreasing during rain events. The enhanced capacity of stormwater showed a different relationship with suspended solid concentrations than the other types of urban discharges. Partitioning of fluoranthene...

Unique Path Partitions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bessenrodt, Christine; Olsson, Jørn Børling; Sellers, James A.

2013-01-01

We give a complete classification of the unique path partitions and study congruence properties of the function which enumerates such partitions.......We give a complete classification of the unique path partitions and study congruence properties of the function which enumerates such partitions....

Effects of gamma radiation on stem diameter growth, carbon gain and biomass partitioning in Helianthus annuus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thiede, M.E.; Link, S.O.; Fellows, R.J.; Beedlow, P.A.

1995-01-01

To determine the effects of gamma radiation on stem diameter growth, carbon gain, and biomass partitioning, 19-day-old dwarf sunflower plants (Helianthus annuus, variety NK894) were given variable doses (0–40 Gy) from a 60Co gamma source. Exposure of plants to gamma radiation caused a significant reduction in stem growth and root biomass. Doses as low as 5 Gy resulted in a significant increase in leaf density, suggesting that very low doses of radiation could induce morphological growth changes. Carbohydrate analysis of plants exposed to 40 Gy demonstrated significantly more starch content in leaves and significantly less in stems 18 days after exposure compared with control plants. In contrast, the carbohydrate content of the roots of plants exposed to 40 Gy was not significantly different from non-irradiated plants 18 days after exposure. (author)

Resource partitioning by evergreen and deciduous species in a tropical dry forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Álvarez-Yépiz, Juan C; Búrquez, Alberto; Martínez-Yrízar, Angelina; Teece, Mark; Yépez, Enrico A; Dovciak, Martin

2017-02-01

Niche differentiation can lead to coexistence of plant species by partitioning limiting resources. Light partitioning promotes niche differentiation in tropical humid forests, but it is unclear how niche partitioning occurs in tropical dry forests where both light and soil resources can be limiting. We studied the adult niche of four dominant evergreen (cycad, palm) and drought-deciduous (legume, oak) species co-occurring along environmental gradients. We analyzed light intensity and soil fertility effects on key functional traits related to plant carbon and water economy, how these traits determine species' functional strategies, and how these strategies relate to relative species abundance and spatial patterns. Light intensity was negatively associated with a key trait linked to plant water economy (leaf δ 13 C, a proxy for long-term water-use efficiency-WUE), while soil fertility was negatively associated with a key trait for plant carbon economy (LNC, leaf nitrogen content). Evergreens were highly sclerophyllous and displayed an efficient water economy but poor carbon economy, in agreement with a conservative resource-use strategy (i.e., high WUE but low LNC, photosynthetic rates and stature). Conversely, deciduous species, with an efficient carbon economy but poor water economy, exhibited an exploitative resource-use strategy (i.e., high LNC, photosynthetic rates and stature, but low WUE). Evergreen and deciduous species segregated spatially, particularly at fine-scales, as expected for species with different resource-use strategies. The efficient water economy of evergreens was related to their higher relative abundance, suggesting a functional advantage against drought-deciduous species in water-limited environments within seasonally dry tropical forests.

Partitioning of naphthalene, methylnaphthalenes and biphenyl between wastewater treatment sludges and water

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Southworth, G.R.; Keller, J.L.

1984-01-01

Partition coefficients (K/sub p/) describing the partitioning of naphthalene, methylnaphthalenes and biphenyl between organic-rich wastes and water were determined using 14 C-tracer techniques as well as high performance liquid chromatographic analysis of the wastes and their aqueous extracts. Results of the two procedures were in good agreement. The concentrations of the specific organics in the wastes were not good predictors of concentrations in aqueous extracts, since K/sub p/ varied among the materials tested. Predictions of k/sub p/ based on organic carbon content of the sludges were well below observed values. Oil content of the wastes and oil-water partition coefficients appeared to be important factors in determining K/sub p/. 11 references, 5 tables

Desorption, partitioning, and dechlorination characteristics of PCBs in sediments in interaction with reactive activated carbon.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Hyeok; Lawal, Wasiu; Al-Abed, Souhail R

2015-04-28

Sediment (WHS) in Waukegan Harbor, Illinois, heavily contaminated and aged with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), was treated with reactive activated carbon (RAC) impregnated with palladized iron nanoparticles. Lab test proceeded in a direct mixing configuration of RAC and WHS. A compartment configuration, where RAC was physically separated from WHS, was also designed to trace the sequential transport and fate of PCBs, including desorption, adsorption, dechlorination, and re-partitioning. PCBs, once desorbed from WHS, were immediately sequestrated to RAC and subject to dechlorination. Direct mixing of WHS with RAC was one-order of magnitude more effective for dechlorination than compartment configuration. Compared to their desorption-followed by-adsorption route, direct physical contact of RAC with PCBs bound to WHS exhibited negligible contribution to the availability of PCBs for dechlorination reaction. Addition of RAC even in compartment configuration facilitated PCBs desorption from WHS. However, slow desorption of PCBs limited overall performance, resulting in a five-order of magnitude lower dechlorination yield when compared with treatment of purely aqueous PCBs. The low dechlorination yield reflected real world complexities in treating 3.19% organic carbon-containing WHS aged with PCBs for 40 years. These observations were further supported when compared with results on clean Cesar Creek sediment spiked with 2-chlorinated biphenyls. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of biochar on isoproturon partitioning and bioaccessibility in soil.

Science.gov (United States)

Reid, B J; Pickering, F L; Freddo, A; Whelan, M J; Coulon, F

2013-10-01

The influence of biochar (5%) on the loss, partitioning and bioaccessibility of (14)C-isoproturon ((14)C-IPU) was evaluated. Results indicated that biochar had a dramatic effect upon (14)C-IPU partitioning: (14)C-IPU extractability (0.01 M CaCl2) in biochar-amended treatments was reduced to <2% while, (14)C-IPU extractability in biochar free treatments decreased with ageing from 90% to 40%. A partitioning model was constructed to derive an effective partition coefficient for biochar:water (KBW of 7.82 × 10(4) L kg(-1)). This was two orders of magnitude greater than the apparent Kfoc value of the soil organic carbon:water (631 L kg(-1)). (14)C-radiorespirometry assays indicated high competence of microorganisms to mineralise (14)C-IPU in the absence of biochar (40.3 ± 0.9%). Where biochar was present (14)C-IPU mineralisation never exceeded 2%. These results indicate reduced herbicide bioaccessibility. Increasing IPU application to ×10 its recommended dose was ineffective at redressing IPU sequestration and its low bioaccessibility. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Behavior of a CMnSiAl TRIP Steel Subjected to Partial Austenitization Along with Quenching and Partitioning Treatment

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, H.; Chao, Q.; Cai, M. H.; Pavlina, E. J.; Rolfe, B.; Hodgson, P. D.; Beladi, H.

2018-02-01

The present study investigated the microstructure evolution and mechanical behavior in a low carbon CMnSiAl transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steel, which was subjected to a partial austenitization at 1183 K (910 °C) followed by one-step quenching and partitioning (Q&P) treatment at different isothermal holding temperatures of [533 K to 593 K (260 °C to 320 °C)]. This thermal treatment led to the formation of a multi-phase microstructure consisting of ferrite, tempered martensite, bainitic ferrite, fresh martensite, and retained austenite, offering a superior work-hardening behavior compared with the dual-phase microstructure (i.e., ferrite and martensite) formed after partial austenitization followed by water quenching. The carbon enrichment in retained austenite was related to not only the carbon partitioning during the isothermal holding process, but also the carbon enrichment during the partial austenitization and rapid cooling processes, which has broadened our knowledge of carbon partitioning mechanism in conventional Q&P process.

Desorption, partitioning, and dechlorination characteristics of PCBs in sediments in interaction with reactive activated carbon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Hyeok; Lawal, Wasiu; Al-Abed, Souhail R.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Problematic aged real PCBs-contaminated sediment (WHS) was examined. • Performance of reactive activated carbon (RAC) impregnated with Pd–ZVI was tested. • Fate and transport of PCBs bound to WHS in the presence of RAC was fully traced. • Direct mixing configuration was compared with compartment configuration. • Results reflected real world complexities associated with slow desorption of PCBs. - Abstract: Sediment (WHS) in Waukegan Harbor, Illinois, heavily contaminated and aged with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), was treated with reactive activated carbon (RAC) impregnated with palladized iron nanoparticles. Lab test proceeded in a direct mixing configuration of RAC and WHS. A compartment configuration, where RAC was physically separated from WHS, was also designed to trace the sequential transport and fate of PCBs, including desorption, adsorption, dechlorination, and re-partitioning. PCBs, once desorbed from WHS, were immediately sequestrated to RAC and subject to dechlorination. Direct mixing of WHS with RAC was one-order of magnitude more effective for dechlorination than compartment configuration. Compared to their desorption-followed by-adsorption route, direct physical contact of RAC with PCBs bound to WHS exhibited negligible contribution to the availability of PCBs for dechlorination reaction. Addition of RAC even in compartment configuration facilitated PCBs desorption from WHS. However, slow desorption of PCBs limited overall performance, resulting in a five-order of magnitude lower dechlorination yield when compared with treatment of purely aqueous PCBs. The low dechlorination yield reflected real world complexities in treating 3.19% organic carbon-containing WHS aged with PCBs for 40 years. These observations were further supported when compared with results on clean Cesar Creek sediment spiked with 2-chlorinated biphenyls

Desorption, partitioning, and dechlorination characteristics of PCBs in sediments in interaction with reactive activated carbon

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, Hyeok, E-mail: hchoi@uta.edu [Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington, 416 Yates Street, Arlington, TX 76019-0308 (United States); Environmental and Earth Sciences Program, The University of Texas at Arlington, 500 Yates Street, Arlington, TX 76019-0049 (United States); Lawal, Wasiu [Environmental and Earth Sciences Program, The University of Texas at Arlington, 500 Yates Street, Arlington, TX 76019-0049 (United States); Al-Abed, Souhail R. [National Risk Management Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45268 (United States)

2015-04-28

Highlights: • Problematic aged real PCBs-contaminated sediment (WHS) was examined. • Performance of reactive activated carbon (RAC) impregnated with Pd–ZVI was tested. • Fate and transport of PCBs bound to WHS in the presence of RAC was fully traced. • Direct mixing configuration was compared with compartment configuration. • Results reflected real world complexities associated with slow desorption of PCBs. - Abstract: Sediment (WHS) in Waukegan Harbor, Illinois, heavily contaminated and aged with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), was treated with reactive activated carbon (RAC) impregnated with palladized iron nanoparticles. Lab test proceeded in a direct mixing configuration of RAC and WHS. A compartment configuration, where RAC was physically separated from WHS, was also designed to trace the sequential transport and fate of PCBs, including desorption, adsorption, dechlorination, and re-partitioning. PCBs, once desorbed from WHS, were immediately sequestrated to RAC and subject to dechlorination. Direct mixing of WHS with RAC was one-order of magnitude more effective for dechlorination than compartment configuration. Compared to their desorption-followed by-adsorption route, direct physical contact of RAC with PCBs bound to WHS exhibited negligible contribution to the availability of PCBs for dechlorination reaction. Addition of RAC even in compartment configuration facilitated PCBs desorption from WHS. However, slow desorption of PCBs limited overall performance, resulting in a five-order of magnitude lower dechlorination yield when compared with treatment of purely aqueous PCBs. The low dechlorination yield reflected real world complexities in treating 3.19% organic carbon-containing WHS aged with PCBs for 40 years. These observations were further supported when compared with results on clean Cesar Creek sediment spiked with 2-chlorinated biphenyls.

Effects of Elevated Carbon Dioxide on Photosynthesis and Carbon Partitioning: A Perspective on Root Sugar Sensing and Hormonal Crosstalk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Thompson

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Plant responses to atmospheric carbon dioxide will be of great concern in the future, as carbon dioxide concentrations ([CO2] are predicted to continue to rise. Elevated [CO2] causes increased photosynthesis in plants, which leads to greater production of carbohydrates and biomass. Which organ the extra carbohydrates are allocated to varies between species, but also within species. These carbohydrates are a major energy source for plant growth, but they also act as signaling molecules and have a range of uses beyond being a source of carbon and energy. Currently, there is a lack of information on how the sugar sensing and signaling pathways of plants are affected by the higher content of carbohydrates produced under elevated [CO2]. Particularly, the sugar signaling pathways of roots are not well understood, along with how they are affected by elevated [CO2]. At elevated [CO2], some plants allocate greater amounts of sugars to roots where they are likely to act on gene regulation and therefore modify nutrient uptake and transport. Glucose and sucrose also promote root growth, an effect similar to what occurs under elevated [CO2]. Sugars also crosstalk with hormones to regulate root growth, but also affect hormone biosynthesis. This review provides an update on the role of sugars as signaling molecules in plant roots and thus explores the currently known functions that may be affected by elevated [CO2].

Template-free fabrication and morphology regulation of Ag@carbon composite structure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Wenyan, E-mail: zhangwenyan8531@gmail.com [College of Material Engineering, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing (China); Hao, Lingyun; Lin, Qin [College of Material Engineering, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing (China); Lu, Chunhua; Xu, Zhongzi [College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Technology University, Nanjing (China); Chen, Xiaoyu [College of Material Engineering, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing (China)

2014-12-15

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • A simple and low-cost method to prepare Ag@C composite material. • AgNO{sub 3} plays an important role in tuning size and functional groups of products. • HTC reaction time is also a key factor for regulating the Ag@C structure. - Abstract: Ag–carbon composite materials were prepared without any template by hydrothermal carbonization of solvable starch. The composite materials are composed of Ag cores and carbonaceous shell to form a core–shell (Ag@carbon) structure. During the hydrothermal carbonization process, the aromatization and carbonization of solvable starch endowed the Ag@carbon composite structure with abundant aromatic, hydroxyl and carbonyl groups. The AgNO{sub 3} concentration and HTC reaction time are two important factors for regulating the size, morphology and functional groups of the composite material. With the increasing of AgNO{sub 3} concentration, morphologies of the composite material turned from spheres to wires.

Hypothalamic AgRP-neurons control peripheral substrate utilization and nutrient partitioning

Science.gov (United States)

Joly-Amado, Aurélie; Denis, Raphaël G P; Castel, Julien; Lacombe, Amélie; Cansell, Céline; Rouch, Claude; Kassis, Nadim; Dairou, Julien; Cani, Patrice D; Ventura-Clapier, Renée; Prola, Alexandre; Flamment, Melissa; Foufelle, Fabienne; Magnan, Christophe; Luquet, Serge

2012-01-01

Obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and dyslipidemia result from metabolic alterations including the defective conversion, storage and utilization of nutrients, but the central mechanisms that regulate this process of nutrient partitioning remain elusive. As positive regulators of feeding behaviour, agouti-related protein (AgRP) producing neurons are indispensible for the hypothalamic integration of energy balance. Here, we demonstrate a role for AgRP-neurons in the control of nutrient partitioning. We report that ablation of AgRP-neurons leads to a change in autonomic output onto liver, muscle and pancreas affecting the relative balance between lipids and carbohydrates metabolism. As a consequence, mice lacking AgRP-neurons become obese and hyperinsulinemic on regular chow but display reduced body weight gain and paradoxical improvement in glucose tolerance on high-fat diet. These results provide a direct demonstration of a role for AgRP-neurons in the coordination of efferent organ activity and nutrient partitioning, providing a mechanistic link between obesity and obesity-related disorders. PMID:22990237

On structure-property relationship in nanostructured bainitic steel subjected to the quenching and partitioning process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Luo, Ping [Material Science & Engineering Research Center, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); Gao, Guhui, E-mail: gaogh@bjtu.edu.cn [Material Science & Engineering Research Center, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); Zhang, Han [Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 40237 Düsseldorf (Germany); Tan, Zhunli [Material Science & Engineering Research Center, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); Misra, R.DK. [Laboratory for Excellence in Advanced Steel Research, Department of Metallurgical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso, TX 79968-0520 (United States); Bai, Bingzhe [Material Science & Engineering Research Center, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); Tsinghua University, Key Laboratory of Advanced Material, School of Material Science and Engineering, Beijing 100084 (China)

2016-04-20

We elucidate here the mechanistic contribution of the application of quenching and partitioning (Q&P) concept to a high carbon Mn-Si-Cr steel in obtaining a multiphase microstructure comprising of martensite/austenite and nanostructured bainite (bainitic ferrite and nanometer-sized film-like retained austenite) that exhibited tensile strength of 1923 MPa and total elongation of 18.3%. The excellent mechanical properties are attributed to the enhanced refinement of blocky austenite islands obtained by the Q&P process. The austenite was stabilized by both carbon partitioning from martensite and bainite transformation. Compared with conventional heat treatment to produce nanostructured bainite, the total time is significantly reduced without degradation of mechanical properties.

Future carbon regulations and current investments in alternative coal-fired power plant technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sekar, Ram C.; Parsons, John E.; Herzog, Howard J.; Jacoby, Henry D.

2007-01-01

We analyze how uncertain future US carbon regulations shape the current choice of the type of power plant to build. Our focus is on two coal-fired technologies, pulverized coal (PC) and integrated coal gasification combined cycle technology (IGCC). The PC technology is cheapest-assuming there is no need to control carbon emissions. The IGCC technology may be cheaper if carbon must be captured. Since power plants last many years and future regulations are uncertain, a US electric utility faces a standard decision under uncertainty. A company will confront the range of possible outcomes, assigning its best estimate of the probability of each scenario, averaging the results and determining the power plant technology with the lowest possible cost inclusive of expected future carbon related costs, whether those costs be in the form of emissions charges paid or capital expenditures for retrofitting to capture carbon. If the company assigns high probability to no regulation or to less stringent regulation of carbon, then it makes sense for it to build the PC plant. But if it assigns sufficient probability to scenarios with more stringent regulation, then the IGCC technology is warranted. We provide some useful benchmarks for possible future regulation and show how these relate back to the relative costs of the two technologies and the optimal technology choice. Few of the policy proposals widely referenced in the public discussion warrant the choice of the IGCC technology. Instead, the PC technology remains the least costly. However, recent carbon prices in the European Emissions Trading System are higher than these benchmarks. If it is any guide to possible future penalties for emissions in the US, then current investment in the IGCC technology is warranted. Of course, other factors need to be factored into the decision as well

Regulation of Carbon Flow by Nitrogen and Light in the Red Alga, Gelidium coulteri.

Science.gov (United States)

Macler, B A

1986-09-01

The red alga Gelidium coulteri Harv. photosynthetically fixed [(14)C] bicarbonate at high rates under defined conditions in unialgal laboratory culture. The fixation rate and flow of photosynthate into various end products were dependent on the nitrogen status of the tissue. Plants fed luxury levels of nitrogen (approximately 340 micromolar) showed fixation rates several-fold higher than those seen for plants starved for nitrogen. The addition of NO(3) (-) or NH(4) (+) to such starved plants further inhibited fixation over at least the first several hours after addition. The majority of (14)C after incubations of 30 minutes to 8 hours was found in the compounds floridoside, agar and floridean starch. In addition, amino acids and intermediate compounds of the reductive pentose phosphate pathway, glycolytic pathway and tricarboxylic acid cycle were detected. Nitrogen affected the partitioning of labeled carbon into these compounds. Plants under luxury nitrogen conditions had higher floridoside levels and markedly lower amounts of agar and starch than found in plants limited for nitrogen. Amino acid, phycobiliprotein and chlorophyll levels were also significantly higher in nitrogen-enriched plants. Addition of NO(3) (-) to starved plants led to an increase in floridoside, tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates and amino acids within 1 hour and inhibited carbon flow into agar and starch. Carbon fixation in the dark was only 1 to 7% of that seen in the light. Dark fixation of [(14)C]bicarbonate yielded label primarily in tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates, amino acids and polysaccharides. Nitrogen stimulated amino acid synthesis at the expense of agar and starch. Floridoside was only a minor component in the dark. Pulse-chase experiments, designed to show carbon turnover, indicated a 2-fold increase in labeling of agar over 96 hours of chase in the light. No increases were seen in the dark. Low molecular weight pools, including floridoside, decreased 2- to 5-fold

Analysis of carbon emission regulations in supply chains with volatile demand.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-07-01

This study analyzes an inventory control problem of a company in stochastic demand environment under carbon emissions : regulations. In particular, a continuous review inventory model with multiple suppliers is investigated under carbon taxing and ca...

Autophagy induction under carbon starvation conditions is negatively regulated by carbon catabolite repression.

Science.gov (United States)

Adachi, Atsuhiro; Koizumi, Michiko; Ohsumi, Yoshinori

2017-12-01

Autophagy is a conserved process in which cytoplasmic components are sequestered for degradation in the vacuole/lysosomes in eukaryotic cells. Autophagy is induced under a variety of starvation conditions, such as the depletion of nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, zinc, and others. However, apart from nitrogen starvation, it remains unclear how these stimuli induce autophagy. In yeast, for example, it remains contentious whether autophagy is induced under carbon starvation conditions, with reports variously suggesting both induction and lack of induction upon depletion of carbon. We therefore undertook an analysis to account for these inconsistencies, concluding that autophagy is induced in response to abrupt carbon starvation when cells are grown with glycerol but not glucose as the carbon source. We found that autophagy under these conditions is mediated by nonselective degradation that is highly dependent on the autophagosome-associated scaffold proteins Atg11 and Atg17. We also found that the extent of carbon starvation-induced autophagy is positively correlated with cells' oxygen consumption rate, drawing a link between autophagy induction and respiratory metabolism. Further biochemical analyses indicated that maintenance of intracellular ATP levels is also required for carbon starvation-induced autophagy and that autophagy plays an important role in cell viability during prolonged carbon starvation. Our findings suggest that carbon starvation-induced autophagy is negatively regulated by carbon catabolite repression. © 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Development of partitioning method: confirmation of behavior of technetium in 4-Group Partitioning Process by a small scale experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morita, Yasuji; Yamaguchi, Isoo; Fujiwara, Takeshi; Kubota, Masumitsu; Mizoguchi, Kenichi

1998-08-01

The separation behavior of Tc in the whole of 4-Group Partitioning Process was examined by a flask-scale experiment using simulated high-level liquid waste containing a macro amount of Tc, in order to confirm the reproducibility of the results obtained in previous studies on the Tc behavior at each step of the process. The 4-Group Partitioning Process consists of pre-treatment step, extraction step with diisodecylphosphoric acid (DIDPA), adsorption step with active carbon or precipitation step by denitration for the separation of Tc and platinum group metals (PGM), and adsorption step with inorganic ion exchangers. The present study deals with the behavior of Tc and other elements at all the above steps and additional step for Tc dissolution from the precipitate formed by the denitration. At the pre-treatment step, the ratio of Tc precipitated was very low (about 0.2%) at both operations of heating-denitration and colloid removal. Tc was not extracted with DIDPA and was contained quantitatively in the raffinate from the extraction step. Batch adsorption with active carbon directly from the raffinate showed that distribution coefficient of Tc was more than 100ml/g, which is high enough for the separation. It also revealed much effect of coexisting Mo on the Tc adsorption. At the precipitation step by denitration, 98.2% of Tc were precipitated. At the Tc dissolution from the precipitate with H 2 O 2 , 84.2% of Tc were selectively dissolved in a single operation. Tc was not adsorbed with inorganic ion exchangers. From these results, composition of Tc product from the partitioning process was estimated. The weight ratio of Tc in the Tc product can be increased to about 50% at least. Main contaminating elements are Cr, Ni, Sr, Ba, Mo and Pd. Process optimization to decrease their contamination should be performed in a next study. (J.P.N.)

Partitioning of organic production in marine plankton communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Conan, P.; Søndergaard, Morten; Kragh, T.

2007-01-01

We investigated the partitioning of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus between particulate and dissolved production using 11-m(3) marine mesocosms (bags) in a Norwegian fjord with a salinity of 28.3, a chlorophyll concentration of 0.6 mu g L-1, an even biomass among five algal groups, and nitrogen...... between 17 and 58 in the P-replete bags. The C: P ratio of new DOM in the +Si bags was about 300 at all dosing regimes. Consequently, the range in N: P ratios was also large, with values from below 1 to about 30. Carbon-rich DOM in oceans and coastal waters is not necessarily a function of a slow...

High-pressure (vapour + liquid) equilibria for ternary systems composed by {(E)-2-hexenal or hexanal + carbon dioxide + water}: Partition coefficient measurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bejarano, Arturo; López, Pablo I.; Valle, José M. del; Fuente, Juan C. de la

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A new apparatus based on a static–analytic method was assembled in this work. • This work reports high-pressure VLE data of (E)-2-hexenal or hexanal + CO 2 + water. • Data includes (CO 2 + water) partition coefficients of (E)-2-hexenal and hexanal. • High separation factors from water (∼10 4 ) were found especially for (E)-2-hexenal. • The data were obtained at T = (313, 323, and 333) K and pressures from (8 to 19) MPa. - Abstract: A new apparatus based on a static–analytic method assembled in this work was utilised to perform high-pressure (vapour + liquid) equilibria measurements of aqueous ternary systems. This work includes values of isothermal partition coefficients between CO 2 and water of two apple aroma constituents, (E)-2-hexenal and hexanal. Additionally, this work reports new experimental (vapour + liquid) equilibria measurements for the ternary systems (CO 2 + (E)-2-hexenal + water) and (CO 2 + hexanal + water), at fixed liquid phase composition (600 mg · kg −1 ), at temperatures of (313, 323 and 333) K and at pressures from (8 to 19) MPa. Vapour liquid interphase was checked and monitored visually for all the systems studied in this work. No liquid immiscibility was observed at the composition, temperatures and pressures studied. In order to suggest reasonable operation conditions for fractionation of aromas with dense carbon dioxide, partition coefficients of the aroma compounds between CO 2 and water along with their separation factors from water were calculated. Partition coefficients of (E)-2-hexenal between CO 2 and water were in the range of (6 to 91) and where found to be near six times higher than those of hexanal (9 to 17). Very high separation factors from water were observed (∼10 4 ) especially for (E)-2-hexenal. The highest separation factor, for both compounds, was found at a temperature of 313 K and pressures from (12 to 14) MPa

QSAR models for predicting octanol/water and organic carbon/water partition coefficients of polychlorinated biphenyls.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, S; Gao, S; Gan, Y; Zhang, Y; Ruan, X; Wang, Y; Yang, L; Shi, J

2016-04-01

Quantitative structure-property relationship modelling can be a valuable alternative method to replace or reduce experimental testing. In particular, some endpoints such as octanol-water (KOW) and organic carbon-water (KOC) partition coefficients of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are easier to predict and various models have been already developed. In this paper, two different methods, which are multiple linear regression based on the descriptors generated using Dragon software and hologram quantitative structure-activity relationships, were employed to predict suspended particulate matter (SPM) derived log KOC and generator column, shake flask and slow stirring method derived log KOW values of 209 PCBs. The predictive ability of the derived models was validated using a test set. The performances of all these models were compared with EPI Suite™ software. The results indicated that the proposed models were robust and satisfactory, and could provide feasible and promising tools for the rapid assessment of the SPM derived log KOC and generator column, shake flask and slow stirring method derived log KOW values of PCBs.

Carbonic anhydrase 5 regulates acid-base homeostasis in zebrafish.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruben Postel

Full Text Available The regulation of the acid-base balance in cells is essential for proper cellular homeostasis. Disturbed acid-base balance directly affects cellular physiology, which often results in various pathological conditions. In every living organism, the protein family of carbonic anhydrases regulate a broad variety of homeostatic processes. Here we describe the identification, mapping and cloning of a zebrafish carbonic anhydrase 5 (ca5 mutation, collapse of fins (cof, which causes initially a collapse of the medial fins followed by necrosis and rapid degeneration of the embryo. These phenotypical characteristics can be mimicked in wild-type embryos by acetazolamide treatment, suggesting that CA5 activity in zebrafish is essential for a proper development. In addition we show that CA5 regulates acid-base balance during embryonic development, since lowering the pH can compensate for the loss of CA5 activity. Identification of selective modulators of CA5 activity could have a major impact on the development of new therapeutics involved in the treatment of a variety of disorders.

Analysis of Carbon Emission Reduction in a Dual-Channel Supply Chain with Cap-And-Trade Regulation and Low-Carbon Preference

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoyan Wang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the reduction of carbon emissions driven by cap-and-trade regulation and consumers’ low-carbon preference in a dual-channel supply chain. Under the low-carbon environment, we also discuss the pricing strategies and the profits for the supply chain members using the Stackelberg game model in two cases. In the first (second case where the initial proportion of consumers who prefer the online direct channel (traditional retail channel is “larger”, the direct sale price of low-carbon products could be set higher than (equal to the wholesale price. And it is shown that in both cases, tighter cap-and-trade regulation and higher low-carbon preference stimulate the manufacturer to cut carbon emissions in its production process. However, improving consumers’ low-carbon preference is more acceptable to the supply chain members. It always benefits the manufacturer and the retailer. In comparison, the firm’s profit increases with carbon price only when the clean production level is relatively high. Our findings can provide useful managerial insights for policy-makers and firms in the development of low-carbon sustainability.

Heavy metal partitioning of suspended particulate matter-water and sediment-water in the Yangtze Estuary.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Chenghong; Guo, Xiaoyu; Yin, Su; Tian, Chenhao; Li, Yangyang; Shen, Zhenyao

2017-10-01

The partitioning of ten heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb, and Zn) between the water, suspended particulate matter (SPM), and sediments in seven channel sections during three hydrologic seasons in the Yangtze Estuary was comprehensively investigated. Special attention was paid to the role of tides, influential factors (concentrations of SPM and dissolved organic carbon, and particle size), and heavy metal speciation. The SPM-water and sediment-water partition coefficients (K p ) of the heavy metals exhibited similar changes along the channel sections, though the former were larger throughout the estuary. Because of the higher salinity, the K p values of most of the metals were higher in the north branch than in the south branch. The K p values of Cd, Co, and As generally decreased from the wet season to the dry season. Both the diagonal line method and paired samples t-test showed that no specific phase transfer of heavy metals existed during the flood and ebb tides, but the sediment-water K p was more concentrated for the diagonal line method, owing to the relatively smaller tidal influences on the sediment. The partition coefficients (especially the K p for SPM-water) had negative correlations with the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) but positive correlations were noted with the particle size for most of the heavy metals in sediment. Two types of significant correlations were observed between K p and metal speciation (i.e., exchangeable, carbonate, reducible, organic, and residual fractions), which can be used to identify the dominant phase-partition mechanisms (e.g., adsorption or desorption) of heavy metals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fluxpart: Open source software for partitioning carbon dioxide and water vapor fluxes

Science.gov (United States)

The eddy covariance method is regularly used for measuring gas fluxes over agricultural fields and natural ecosystems. For many applications, it is desirable to partition the measured fluxes into constitutive components: the water vapor flux into transpiration and direct evaporation components, and ...

The carbon-nitrogen balance of the nodule and its regulation under elevated carbon dioxide concentration.

Science.gov (United States)

Libault, Marc

2014-01-01

Legumes have developed a unique way to interact with bacteria: in addition to preventing infection from pathogenic bacteria like any other plant, legumes also developed a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with one gender of soil bacteria: rhizobium. This interaction leads to the development of a new root organ, the nodule, where the differentiated bacteria fix for the plant the atmospheric dinitrogen (atmN2). In exchange, the symbiont will benefit from a permanent source of carbon compounds, products of the photosynthesis. The substantial amounts of fixed carbon dioxide dedicated to the symbiont imposed to the plant a tight regulation of the nodulation process to balance carbon and nitrogen incomes and outcomes. Climate change including the increase of the concentration of the atmospheric carbon dioxide is going to modify the rates of plant photosynthesis, the balance between nitrogen and carbon, and, as a consequence, the regulatory mechanisms of the nodulation process. This review focuses on the regulatory mechanisms controlling carbon/nitrogen balances in the context of legume nodulation and discusses how the change in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration could affect nodulation efficiency.

Coral Carbonic Anhydrases: Regulation by Ocean Acidification.

Science.gov (United States)

Zoccola, Didier; Innocenti, Alessio; Bertucci, Anthony; Tambutté, Eric; Supuran, Claudiu T; Tambutté, Sylvie

2016-06-03

Global change is a major threat to the oceans, as it implies temperature increase and acidification. Ocean acidification (OA) involving decreasing pH and changes in seawater carbonate chemistry challenges the capacity of corals to form their skeletons. Despite the large number of studies that have investigated how rates of calcification respond to ocean acidification scenarios, comparatively few studies tackle how ocean acidification impacts the physiological mechanisms that drive calcification itself. The aim of our paper was to determine how the carbonic anhydrases, which play a major role in calcification, are potentially regulated by ocean acidification. For this we measured the effect of pH on enzyme activity of two carbonic anhydrase isoforms that have been previously characterized in the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata. In addition we looked at gene expression of these enzymes in vivo. For both isoforms, our results show (1) a change in gene expression under OA (2) an effect of OA and temperature on carbonic anhydrase activity. We suggest that temperature increase could counterbalance the effect of OA on enzyme activity. Finally we point out that caution must, thus, be taken when interpreting transcriptomic data on carbonic anhydrases in ocean acidification and temperature stress experiments, as the effect of these stressors on the physiological function of CA will depend both on gene expression and enzyme activity.

Coral Carbonic Anhydrases: Regulation by Ocean Acidification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Didier Zoccola

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Global change is a major threat to the oceans, as it implies temperature increase and acidification. Ocean acidification (OA involving decreasing pH and changes in seawater carbonate chemistry challenges the capacity of corals to form their skeletons. Despite the large number of studies that have investigated how rates of calcification respond to ocean acidification scenarios, comparatively few studies tackle how ocean acidification impacts the physiological mechanisms that drive calcification itself. The aim of our paper was to determine how the carbonic anhydrases, which play a major role in calcification, are potentially regulated by ocean acidification. For this we measured the effect of pH on enzyme activity of two carbonic anhydrase isoforms that have been previously characterized in the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata. In addition we looked at gene expression of these enzymes in vivo. For both isoforms, our results show (1 a change in gene expression under OA (2 an effect of OA and temperature on carbonic anhydrase activity. We suggest that temperature increase could counterbalance the effect of OA on enzyme activity. Finally we point out that caution must, thus, be taken when interpreting transcriptomic data on carbonic anhydrases in ocean acidification and temperature stress experiments, as the effect of these stressors on the physiological function of CA will depend both on gene expression and enzyme activity.

Chloroquine uptake, altered partitioning and the basis of drug resistance: evidence for chloride-dependent ionic regulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Martiney, J A; Ferrer, A S; Cerami, A; Dzekunov, S; Roepe, P

1999-01-01

The biochemical mechanism of chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum remains unknown. We postulated that chloroquine-resistant strains could alter ion fluxes that then indirectly control drug accumulation within the parasite by affecting pH and/or membrane potential ('altered partitioning mechanism'). Two principal intracellular pH-regulating systems in many cell types are the amiloride-sensitive Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE), and the sodium-independent, stilbene-sensitive Cl-/HCO3- antiporter (AE). We report that under physiological conditions (balanced CO2 and HCO3-) chloroquine uptake and susceptibility are not altered by amiloride analogues. We also do not detect a significant difference in NHE activity between chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant strains via single cell photometry methods. AE activity is dependent on the intracellular and extracellular concentrations of Cl- and HCO3- ions. Chloroquine-resistant strains differentially respond to experimental modifications in chloride-dependent homeostasis, including growth, cytoplasmic pH and pH regulation. Chloroquine susceptibility is altered by stilbene DIDS only on chloroquine-resistant strains. Our results suggest that a Cl(-)-dependent system (perhaps AE) has a significant effect on the uptake of chloroquine by the infected erythrocyte, and that alterations of this biophysical parameter may be part of the mechanism of chloroquine resistance in P. falciparum.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of a Ti-microalloyed low-carbon stainless steel treated by quenching-partitioning-tempering process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xie, S.T., E-mail: xst-2007@163.com [State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Liu, Z.Y. [State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Wang, Z. [Research Institute, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd., Shanghai 201900 (China); Wang, G.D. [State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China)

2016-06-15

Quenching-partitioning-tempering (Q-P-T) process was used to treat a Ti-microalloyed low-carbon stainless steel after cold rolling. In addition to martensite, ferrite and retained austenite, TiN, coarse TiC, fine TiC, (Fe,Cr){sub 3}C and ultra-fine TiC precipitates were formed after the Q-P-T treatment. Based on field emission-scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations, thermodynamic, crystallographic and statistical analyses were used to reveal the precipitation behaviors of these particles. The effects of partitioning-tempering (P-T) temperature and time on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Q-P-T treated specimens were specially studied. The coarsening and spheroidization of (Fe,Cr){sub 3}C particles during P-T stage were obviously retarded by large Cr addition. The retained austenite was obtained significantly with appropriate P-T parameters. The precipitation of ultra-fine TiC particles in the martensite during the P-T stage at 500 °C induced a secondary hardening. - Highlights: • Some fine TiC with 30–70 nm precipitated in austenite during partial austenization. • A part of fine TiC had K-S OR with martensite after Q-P-T treatment. • A part of fine TiC had a OR specially deviating from K-S OR with martensite. • Coarsening and spheroidization of (Fe,Cr){sub 3}C were retarded during P-T stage. • Ultra-fine TiC with < 10 nm precipitated in martensite during P-T stage at 500 °C.

Tuning Liposome Membrane Permeability by Competitive Peptide Dimerization and Partitioning-Folding Interactions Regulated by Proteolytic Activity

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Seng Koon; Sandén, Camilla; Selegård, Robert; Liedberg, Bo; Aili, Daniel

2016-02-01

Membrane active peptides are of large interest for development of drug delivery vehicles and therapeutics for treatment of multiple drug resistant infections. Lack of specificity can be detrimental and finding routes to tune specificity and activity of membrane active peptides is vital for improving their therapeutic efficacy and minimize harmful side effects. We describe a de novo designed membrane active peptide that partition into lipid membranes only when specifically and covalently anchored to the membrane, resulting in pore-formation. Dimerization with a complementary peptide efficiently inhibits formation of pores. The effect can be regulated by proteolytic digestion of the inhibitory peptide by the matrix metalloproteinase MMP-7, an enzyme upregulated in many malignant tumors. This system thus provides a precise and specific route for tuning the permeability of lipid membranes and a novel strategy for development of recognition based membrane active peptides and indirect enzymatically controlled release of liposomal cargo.

Influence of biochar on isoproturon partitioning and bioaccessibility in soil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reid, B.J.; Pickering, F.L.; Freddo, A.; Whelan, M.J.; Coulon, F.

2013-01-01

The influence of biochar (5%) on the loss, partitioning and bioaccessibility of 14 C-isoproturon ( 14 C-IPU) was evaluated. Results indicated that biochar had a dramatic effect upon 14 C-IPU partitioning: 14 C-IPU extractability (0.01 M CaCl 2 ) in biochar-amended treatments was reduced to 14 C-IPU extractability in biochar free treatments decreased with ageing from 90% to 40%. A partitioning model was constructed to derive an effective partition coefficient for biochar:water (K BW of 7.82 × 10 4 L kg −1 ). This was two orders of magnitude greater than the apparent K foc value of the soil organic carbon:water (631 L kg −1 ). 14 C-radiorespirometry assays indicated high competence of microorganisms to mineralise 14 C-IPU in the absence of biochar (40.3 ± 0.9%). Where biochar was present 14 C-IPU mineralisation never exceeded 2%. These results indicate reduced herbicide bioaccessibility. Increasing IPU application to ×10 its recommended dose was ineffective at redressing IPU sequestration and its low bioaccessibility. Highlights: •Biochar had a dramatic effect on IPU partitioning. •IPU extractability was reduced to BW ) was 7.82 × 10 4 L kg −1 . •K BW was 124 times greater than the apparent K foc value of the control. •Biochar precluded microbial bioaccessibility – no catabolic response was observed. -- Biochar dramatically reduced 14 C-IPU extractability ( BW being ×123 greater than the apparent K foc . Correspondingly, microbial bioaccessibility of IPU was negligible

Cold and semi-hot tests of 4-group partitioning process at NUCEF

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Morita, Yasuji; Yamaguchi, Isoo; Fujiwara, Takeshi [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment; Mizoguchi, Kenichi [Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan); Kubota, Masumitsu [Research Organization for Information Science and Technology, Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan)

2000-06-01

The 4-Group Partitioning Process was tested in the Partitioning Test Facility installed in a hot cell at NUCEF (Nuclear Fuel Cycle Safety Engineering Research Facility) using simulated high-level liquid waste (HLLW) or the simulated HLLW added with a small amount of real HLLW and Tc. Behavior of each element was examined in a series of the following separation steps: pretreatment for HLLW to prepare the feed solution to extraction step, extraction with diisodecylphosphoric acid for the separation of transuranium elements, precipitation by denitration and adsorption step with active carbon for the separation of Tc and platinum group metals, and adsorption with inorganic ion exchangers for the separation of Sr and Cs. It was confined that each element behaved as expected. More than 99.99% of Am were extracted with DIDPA and 99.92% of Am were back-extracted with 4 M nitric acid. In the precipitation step by denitration, ratio of Tc precipitated was 96.2%. The present tests confined the expected performance of each equipment in the Partitioning Test Facility for the separation of elements and gave useful data for the comparison of element behavior with a result of a partitioning test using real HLLW. (author)

Safety-Critical Partitioned Software Architecture: A Partitioned Software Architecture for Robotic

Science.gov (United States)

Horvath, Greg; Chung, Seung H.; Cilloniz-Bicchi, Ferner

2011-01-01

The flight software on virtually every mission currently managed by JPL has several major flaws that make it vulnerable to potentially fatal software defects. Many of these problems can be addressed by recently developed partitioned operating systems (OS). JPL has avoided adopting a partitioned operating system on its flight missions, primarily because doing so would require significant changes in flight software design, and the risks associated with changes of that magnitude cannot be accepted by an active flight project. The choice of a partitioned OS can have a dramatic effect on the overall system and software architecture, allowing for realization of benefits far beyond the concerns typically associated with the choice of OS. Specifically, we believe that a partitioned operating system, when coupled with an appropriate architecture, can provide a strong infrastructure for developing systems for which reusability, modifiability, testability, and reliability are essential qualities. By adopting a partitioned OS, projects can gain benefits throughout the entire development lifecycle, from requirements and design, all the way to implementation, testing, and operations.

Polymers as reference partitioning phase: polymer calibration for an analytically operational approach to quantify multimedia phase partitioning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gilbert, Dorothea; Witt, Gesine; Smedes, Foppe

2016-01-01

Polymers are increasingly applied for the enrichment of hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) from various types of samples and media in many analytical partitioning-based measuring techniques. We propose using polymers as a reference partitioning phase and introduce polymer-polymer partitioning......-air) and multimedia partition coefficients (lipid-water, air-water) were calculated by applying the new concept of a polymer as reference partitioning phase and by using polymer-polymer partition coefficients as conversion factors. The present study encourages the use of polymer-polymer partition coefficients...

Regulation of Carbon Flow by Nitrogen and Light in the Red Alga, Gelidium coulteri1

Science.gov (United States)

Macler, Bruce A.

1986-01-01

The red alga Gelidium coulteri Harv. photosynthetically fixed [14C] bicarbonate at high rates under defined conditions in unialgal laboratory culture. The fixation rate and flow of photosynthate into various end products were dependent on the nitrogen status of the tissue. Plants fed luxury levels of nitrogen (approximately 340 micromolar) showed fixation rates several-fold higher than those seen for plants starved for nitrogen. The addition of NO3− or NH4+ to such starved plants further inhibited fixation over at least the first several hours after addition. The majority of 14C after incubations of 30 minutes to 8 hours was found in the compounds floridoside, agar and floridean starch. In addition, amino acids and intermediate compounds of the reductive pentose phosphate pathway, glycolytic pathway and tricarboxylic acid cycle were detected. Nitrogen affected the partitioning of labeled carbon into these compounds. Plants under luxury nitrogen conditions had higher floridoside levels and markedly lower amounts of agar and starch than found in plants limited for nitrogen. Amino acid, phycobiliprotein and chlorophyll levels were also significantly higher in nitrogen-enriched plants. Addition of NO3− to starved plants led to an increase in floridoside, tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates and amino acids within 1 hour and inhibited carbon flow into agar and starch. Carbon fixation in the dark was only 1 to 7% of that seen in the light. Dark fixation of [14C]bicarbonate yielded label primarily in tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates, amino acids and polysaccharides. Nitrogen stimulated amino acid synthesis at the expense of agar and starch. Floridoside was only a minor component in the dark. Pulse-chase experiments, designed to show carbon turnover, indicated a 2-fold increase in labeling of agar over 96 hours of chase in the light. No increases were seen in the dark. Low molecular weight pools, including floridoside, decreased 2- to 5-fold over this period

Organic carbon, and major and trace element dynamic and fate in a large river subjected to poorly-regulated urban and industrial pressures (Sebou River, Morocco)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hayzoun, H. [Université de Toulon, PROTEE, EA 3819, 83957 La Garde (France); LIMOM, Faculté des Sciences Dhar El Mehraz, Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Dhar El Mehraz B.P. 1796 Atlas, Fès 30000 (Morocco); Garnier, C., E-mail: cgarnier@univ-tln.fr [Université de Toulon, PROTEE, EA 3819, 83957 La Garde (France); Durrieu, G.; Lenoble, V.; Le Poupon, C. [Université de Toulon, PROTEE, EA 3819, 83957 La Garde (France); Angeletti, B. [Centre Européen de Recherche et d' Enseignement de Géosciences de l' Environnement UMR 6635 CNRS — Aix-Marseille Université, FR ECCOREV, Europôle Méditerranéen de l' Arbois, 13545 Aix-en-Provence (France); Ouammou, A. [LIMOM, Faculté des Sciences Dhar El Mehraz, Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Dhar El Mehraz B.P. 1796 Atlas, Fès 30000 (Morocco); Mounier, S. [Université de Toulon, PROTEE, EA 3819, 83957 La Garde (France)

2015-01-01

An annual-basis study of the impacts of the anthropogenic inputs from Fez urban area on the water geochemistry of the Sebou and Fez Rivers was conducted mostly focusing on base flow conditions, in addition to the sampling of industrial wastewater characteristic of the various pressures in the studied environment. The measured trace metals dissolved/particulate partitioning was compared to the ones predicted using the WHAM-VII chemical speciation code. The Sebou River, upstream from Fez city, showed a weakly polluted status. Contrarily, high levels of major ions, organic carbon and trace metals were encountered in the Fez River and the Sebou River downstream the Fez inputs, due to the discharge of urban and industrial untreated and hugely polluted wastewaters. Trace metals were especially enriched in particles with levels even exceeding those recorded in surface sediments. The first group of elements (Al, Fe, Mn, Ti, U and V) showed strong inter-relationships, impoverishment in Fez particles/sediments and stable partition coefficient (Kd), linked to their lithogenic origin from Sebou watershed erosion. Conversely, most of the studied trace metals/metalloids, originated from anthropogenic sources, underwent significant changes of Kd and behaved non-conservatively in the Sebou/Fez water mixing. Dissolved/particulate partitioning was correctly assessed by WHAM-VII modeling for Cu, Pb and Zn, depicting significant differences in chemical speciation in the Fez River when compared to that in the Sebou River. The results of this study demonstrated that a lack of compliance in environmental regulations certainly explained this poor status. - Highlights: • Pristine status of the Sebou River, Morrocco's main river, upstream Fez (1 M inhabitants) • The Fez River collecting Fez's urban/industrial wastewaters is heavily polluted. • The Fez discharge into the Sebou induces an increase of contaminant levels. • Change in partitioning and chemical speciation of

Organic carbon, and major and trace element dynamic and fate in a large river subjected to poorly-regulated urban and industrial pressures (Sebou River, Morocco)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hayzoun, H.; Garnier, C.; Durrieu, G.; Lenoble, V.; Le Poupon, C.; Angeletti, B.; Ouammou, A.; Mounier, S.

2015-01-01

An annual-basis study of the impacts of the anthropogenic inputs from Fez urban area on the water geochemistry of the Sebou and Fez Rivers was conducted mostly focusing on base flow conditions, in addition to the sampling of industrial wastewater characteristic of the various pressures in the studied environment. The measured trace metals dissolved/particulate partitioning was compared to the ones predicted using the WHAM-VII chemical speciation code. The Sebou River, upstream from Fez city, showed a weakly polluted status. Contrarily, high levels of major ions, organic carbon and trace metals were encountered in the Fez River and the Sebou River downstream the Fez inputs, due to the discharge of urban and industrial untreated and hugely polluted wastewaters. Trace metals were especially enriched in particles with levels even exceeding those recorded in surface sediments. The first group of elements (Al, Fe, Mn, Ti, U and V) showed strong inter-relationships, impoverishment in Fez particles/sediments and stable partition coefficient (Kd), linked to their lithogenic origin from Sebou watershed erosion. Conversely, most of the studied trace metals/metalloids, originated from anthropogenic sources, underwent significant changes of Kd and behaved non-conservatively in the Sebou/Fez water mixing. Dissolved/particulate partitioning was correctly assessed by WHAM-VII modeling for Cu, Pb and Zn, depicting significant differences in chemical speciation in the Fez River when compared to that in the Sebou River. The results of this study demonstrated that a lack of compliance in environmental regulations certainly explained this poor status. - Highlights: • Pristine status of the Sebou River, Morrocco's main river, upstream Fez (1 M inhabitants) • The Fez River collecting Fez's urban/industrial wastewaters is heavily polluted. • The Fez discharge into the Sebou induces an increase of contaminant levels. • Change in partitioning and chemical speciation of

A Natural Light/Dark Cycle Regulation of Carbon-Nitrogen Metabolism and Gene Expression in Rice Shoots.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Haixing; Liang, Zhijun; Ding, Guangda; Shi, Lei; Xu, Fangsen; Cai, Hongmei

2016-01-01

Light and temperature are two particularly important environmental cues for plant survival. Carbon and nitrogen are two essential macronutrients required for plant growth and development, and cellular carbon and nitrogen metabolism must be tightly coordinated. In order to understand how the natural light/dark cycle regulates carbon and nitrogen metabolism in rice plants, we analyzed the photosynthesis, key carbon-nitrogen metabolites, and enzyme activities, and differentially expressed genes and miRNAs involved in the carbon and nitrogen metabolic pathway in rice shoots at the following times: 2:00, 6:00, 10:00, 14:00, 18:00, and 22:00. Our results indicated that more CO2 was fixed into carbohydrates by a high net photosynthetic rate, respiratory rate, and stomatal conductance in the daytime. Although high levels of the nitrate reductase activity, free ammonium and carbohydrates were exhibited in the daytime, the protein synthesis was not significantly facilitated by the light and temperature. In mRNA sequencing, the carbon and nitrogen metabolism-related differentially expressed genes were obtained, which could be divided into eight groups: photosynthesis, TCA cycle, sugar transport, sugar metabolism, nitrogen transport, nitrogen reduction, amino acid metabolism, and nitrogen regulation. Additionally, a total of 78,306 alternative splicing events have been identified, which primarily belong to alternative 5' donor sites, alternative 3' acceptor sites, intron retention, and exon skipping. In sRNA sequencing, four carbon and nitrogen metabolism-related miRNAs (osa-miR1440b, osa-miR2876-5p, osa-miR1877 and osa-miR5799) were determined to be regulated by natural light/dark cycle. The expression level analysis showed that the four carbon and nitrogen metabolism-related miRNAs negatively regulated their target genes. These results may provide a good strategy to study how natural light/dark cycle regulates carbon and nitrogen metabolism to ensure plant growth and

A natural light/dark cycle regulation of carbon-nitrogen metabolism and gene expression in rice shoots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haixing Li

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Light and temperature are two particularly important environmental cues for plant survival. Carbon and nitrogen are two essential macronutrients required for plant growth and development, and cellular carbon and nitrogen metabolism must be tightly coordinated. In order to understand how the natural light/dark cycle regulates carbon and nitrogen metabolism in rice plants, we analyzed the photosynthesis, key carbon-nitrogen metabolites and enzyme activities, and differentially expressed genes and miRNAs involved in the carbon and nitrogen metabolic pathway in rice shoots at the following times: 2:00, 6:00, 10:00, 14:00, 18:00 and 22:00. Our results indicated that more CO2 was fixed into carbohydrates by a high net photosynthetic rate, respiratory rate and stomatal conductance in the daytime. Although high levels of the nitrate reductase activity, free ammonium and carbohydrates were exhibited in the daytime, the protein synthesis was not significantly facilitated by the light and temperature. In mRNA sequencing, the carbon and nitrogen metabolism-related differentially expressed genes were obtained, which could be divided into eight groups: photosynthesis, TCA cycle, sugar transport, sugar metabolism, nitrogen transport, nitrogen reduction, amino acid metabolism and nitrogen regulation. Additionally, a total of 78,306 alternative splicing events have been identified, which primarily belong to alternative 5' donor sites, alternative 3' acceptor sites, intron retention and exon skipping. In sRNA sequencing, four carbon and nitrogen metabolism-related miRNAs (osa-miR1440b, osa-miR2876-5p, osa-miR1877 and osa-miR5799 were determined to be regulated by natural light/dark cycle. The expression level analysis showed that the four carbon and nitrogen metabolism-related miRNAs negatively regulated their target genes. These results may provide a good strategy to study how natural light/dark cycle regulates carbon and nitrogen metabolism to ensure plant

Mercury partition in the interface between a contaminated lagoon and the ocean: The role of particulate load and composition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pato, P.; Otero, M.; Valega, M.; Lopes, C.B.; Pereira, M.E.; Duarte, A.C.

2010-01-01

After having estimated the patterns of flow to the ocean and found some seasonal and tidal differences, mainly with regard to the relative importance of dissolved and particulate fractions, mercury partitioning at the interface between a contaminated lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean was investigated during four tidal cycles in contrasting season and tidal regimes. Mercury was found to be located predominantely in the particulate fraction throughout the year, contributing to its retention within the system. Seasonal conditions, variations in marine and fluvial signals and processes affecting bed sediment resuspension influenced the character and concentration of suspended particulate matter in the water column. Variation in the nature, levels and partitioning of organic carbon in the particulate fraction affected levels of particulate mercury as well as mercury partitioning. These results highlight the dominant role of suspended particulate matter in the distribution of anthropogenic mercury and reinforce the importance of competitive behavior related to organic carbon in mercury scavenging.

Polyacrylate–water partitioning of biocidal compounds: Enhancing the understanding of biocide partitioning between render and water

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bollmann, Ulla E.; Ou, Yi; Mayer, Philipp

2014-01-01

-N-octylisothiazolinone). The correlation of the polyacrylate-water partition constants with the octanol-water partition constants is significant, but the polyacrylate-water partition constants were predominantly below octanol-water partition constants (Kow). The comparison with render-water distribution constants showed that estimating...

Salt Stress and Ethylene Antagonistically Regulate Nucleocytoplasmic Partitioning of COP1 to Control Seed Germination.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Yanwen; Wang, Juan; Shi, Hui; Gu, Juntao; Dong, Jingao; Deng, Xing Wang; Huang, Rongfeng

2016-04-01

Seed germination, a critical stage initiating the life cycle of a plant, is severely affected by salt stress. However, the underlying mechanism of salt inhibition of seed germination (SSG) is unclear. Here, we report that the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENESIS1 (COP1) counteracts SSG Genetic assays provide evidence that SSG in loss of function of the COP1 mutant was stronger than this in the wild type. A GUS-COP1 fusion was constitutively localized to the nucleus in radicle cells. Salt treatment caused COP1 to be retained in the cytosol, but the addition of ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate had the reverse effect on the translocation of COP1 to the nucleus, revealing that ethylene and salt exert opposite regulatory effects on the localization of COP1 in germinating seeds. However, loss of function of the ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE3 (EIN3) mutant impaired the ethylene-mediated rescue of the salt restriction of COP1 to the nucleus. Further research showed that the interaction between COP1 and LONG HYPOCOTYL5 (HY5) had a role in SSG Correspondingly, SSG in loss of function of HY5 was suppressed. Biochemical detection showed that salt promoted the stabilization of HY5, whereas ethylene restricted its accumulation. Furthermore, salt treatment stimulated and ethylene suppressed transcription of ABA INSENSITIVE5 (ABI5), which was directly transcriptionally regulated by HY5. Together, our results reveal that salt stress and ethylene antagonistically regulate nucleocytoplasmic partitioning of COP1, thereby controlling Arabidopsis seed germination via the COP1-mediated down-regulation of HY5 and ABI5. These findings enhance our understanding of the stress response and have great potential for application in agricultural production. © 2016 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.

Manganese partitioning in low carbon manganese steel during annealing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lis, J.; Lis, A.; Kolan, C.

2008-01-01

For 6Mn16 steel experimental soft annealing at 625 deg. C for periods from 1 h to 60 h and modeling with Thermo-Calc were performed to estimate the partitioning of alloying elements, in particular Mn, between ferrite, cementite and austenite. Using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray analysis it was established that the increase of Mn concentration in carbides to a level 7%-11.2% caused a local decrease of the Ac 1 temperature and led to the presence of austenite around the carbides. Thus, after cooling, small bainite-martensite or bainite-martensite-retained austenite (BM-A) islands were observed. A dispersion of carbides and a coarsening process were observed. The measured amount of Mn in the carbides was in good agreement with theoretical predictions

Partitioning inter annual variability in net ecosystem exchange between climatic variability and functional change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hui, D.; Luo, Y.; Katul, G.

2003-01-01

Inter annual variability in net ecosystem exchange of carbon is investigated using a homogeneity-of-slopes model to identify the function change contributing to inter annual variability, net ecosystem carbon exchange, and night-time ecosystem respiration. Results of employing this statistical approach to a data set collected at the Duke Forest AmeriFlux site from August 1997 to December 2001 are discussed. The results demonstrate that it is feasible to partition the variation in ecosystem carbon fluxes into direct effects of seasonal and inter annual climatic variability and functional change. 51 refs., 4 tabs., 5 figs

The complex formation-partition and partition-association models of solvent extraction of ions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siekierski, S.

1976-01-01

Two models of the extraction process have been proposed. In the first model it is assumed that the partitioning neutral species is at first formed in the aqueous phase and then transferred into the organic phase. The second model is based on the assumption that equivalent amounts of cations are at first transferred from the aqueous into the organic phase and then associated to form a neutral molecule. The role of the solubility parameter in extraction and the relation between the solubility of liquid organic substances in water and the partition of complexes have been discussed. The extraction of simple complexes and complexes with organic ligands has been discussed using the first model. Partition coefficients have been calculated theoretically and compared with experimental values in some very simple cases. The extraction of ion pairs has been discussed using the partition-association model and the concept of single-ion partition coefficients. (author)

Carbon partitioning among leaves, fruits, and seeds during development of Phaseolus vulgaris L

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geiger, D.R.; Shieh, Wenjang; Saluke, R.M.

1989-01-01

Development of vegetative and floral buds was found to be a key factor in establishing the way carbon is distributed among growing leaves and fruits in Phaseolus vulgaris L. plants. Leaves emerged principally during a period 14 to 32 days after planting while flowers were produced during a 10- to 12-day period near the end of leaf emergence. Timing of anthesis established the sigmoidal time course for dry weight accumulated by the composite of all fruits on the plant. During the first 12 days following anthesis, fruit growth mainly consisted of elongation and dry weight accumulation by the pod wall. Thereafter, seed dry weight increased for about 1 week, decreased markedly for several days, and then increased again over the next 2 weeks. Accumulation of imported carbon in individual seeds, measured by steady-state labeling, confirmed the time course for dry weight accumulation observed during seed development. Seed respiration rate initially increased rapidly along with dry weight and then remained nearly steady until seed maturation. A number of developmental events described in the literature coincided with the different phases of diauxic growth. The results demonstrated the feasibility of relating current rates of carbon import in individual seeds measured with tracer 14 C to the rates of conversion of imported sucrose and use of the products for specific developmental processes. The resulting data are useful for evaluating the roles of conversion and utilization of imported sucrose in regulating import by developing seeds

COMPUTING VERTICES OF INTEGER PARTITION POLYTOPES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. S. Vroublevski

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper describes a method of generating vertices of the polytopes of integer partitions that was used by the authors to calculate all vertices and support vertices of the partition polytopes for all n ≤ 105 and all knapsack partitions of n ≤ 165. The method avoids generating all partitions of n. The vertices are determined with the help of sufficient and necessary conditions; in the hard cases, the well-known program Polymake is used. Some computational aspects are exposed in more detail. These are the algorithm for checking the criterion that characterizes partitions that are convex combinations of two other partitions; the way of using two combinatorial operations that transform the known vertices to the new ones; and employing the Polymake to recognize a limited number (for small n of partitions that need three or more other partitions for being convexly expressed. We discuss the computational results on the numbers of vertices and support vertices of the partition polytopes and some appealing problems these results give rise to.

Cross validation of two partitioning-based sampling approaches in mesocosms containing PCB contaminated field sediment, biota, and activated carbon amendment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørgaard Schmidt, Stine; Wang, Alice P.; Gidley, Philip T

2017-01-01

with multiple thicknesses of silicone and in situ pre-equilibrium sampling with low density polyethylene (LDPE) loaded with performance reference compounds were applied independently to measure polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in mesocosms with (1) New Bedford Harbor sediment (MA, USA), (2) sediment and biota......, and (3) activated carbon amended sediment and biota. The aim was to cross validate the two different sampling approaches. Around 100 PCB congeners were quantified in the two sampling polymers, and the results confirmed the good precision of both methods and were in overall good agreement with recently...... published silicone to LDPE partition ratios. Further, the methods yielded Cfree in good agreement for all three experiments. The average ratio between Cfree determined by the two methods was factor 1.4±0.3 (range: 0.6-2.0), and the results thus cross-validated the two sampling approaches. For future...

Photoperiodic control of soybean 14C-assimilate partitioning during the seed filling period

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morandi, E.N.

1986-01-01

Photoperiod not only controls the timing of flowering, but also affects later stages of seed development. To study its effect on assimilate partitioning, soybean plants were kept in short days (SD) or night interrupted (NI) during seed filling. The source-sink ratio was fixed to one leaflet-one pod per node. The node was girdle-isolated and its leaflet was pulse labelled with 14 CO 2 . SD plants partitioned more 14 C into seeds, while NI plants showed higher proportions in the petiole, stem and carpel. Seed growth rate and final seed dry weight were increased by 40% in SD. The sugar/starch ratio was increased in cotyledons and decreased in leaves of SD plants. In contrast, NI plants showed more 14 C incorporation into proteins. No changes were detected in carbon exchange ratio, dark respiration and total node dry weight. Thus, photoperiodic induced changes in carbohydrate and protein partitioning occurred without changes in the overall assimilatory process

Diurnal and Seasonal Variations of Eddy-Covariance Carbon Dioxide Fluxes Above an Urban Wetland, Partitioned by Vegetation Cover

Science.gov (United States)

Schafer, K. V.; Duman, T.

2017-12-01

The New Jersey Meadowlands are an urban brackish marsh with a long history of human activity causing disturbances and alterations. Carbon emissions were measured from two sites in the Meadowlands, a natural site and a restored site, using eddy-covariance (EC) from 2014 to 2016. At each site, the EC towers were placed at the interface of two vegetation covers, allowing capturing this aspect of the wetland's heterogeneity. Using footprint modeling and light response curves we were able to partition measured fluxes between vegetation cover types and compare CO2 fluxes from patches of invasive versus native wetland vegetation communities. We show that further separating the data into seasonal and diurnal fluxes reveals patterns in CO2 fluxes that allow determining the nature of each vegetation cover as a source or sink for CO2. Our results also show that CO2 emissions from the restored wetland are significantly higher than the natural wetland. Areas of invasive Phragmites australis at the natural site had the lowest CO2 release rates during winter. These were consistently lower in magnitude than summer daytime uptake, therefore making this part of the wetland a CO2 sink. Areas planted with native Spartina alterniflora at the restored site had the largest uptake during daytime, therefore seemingly justifying restoration activities. However, they also had the highest emission rates during summer nighttime, and therefore the daily summer net uptake was not the highest compared with other vegetation covers. Furthermore, emissions from the restored site during winter were larger compared to the natural site, indicating that restoration activities might have led to a significant increase of carbon release from the wetland. Thus, during the study period the restored wetland acted as a carbon source.

Systems assessment of transcriptional regulation on central carbon metabolism by Cra and CRP.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Donghyuk; Seo, Sang Woo; Gao, Ye; Nam, Hojung; Guzman, Gabriela I; Cho, Byung-Kwan; Palsson, Bernhard O

2018-04-06

Two major transcriptional regulators of carbon metabolism in bacteria are Cra and CRP. CRP is considered to be the main mediator of catabolite repression. Unlike for CRP, in vivo DNA binding information of Cra is scarce. Here we generate and integrate ChIP-exo and RNA-seq data to identify 39 binding sites for Cra and 97 regulon genes that are regulated by Cra in Escherichia coli. An integrated metabolic-regulatory network was formed by including experimentally-derived regulatory information and a genome-scale metabolic network reconstruction. Applying analysis methods of systems biology to this integrated network showed that Cra enables optimal bacterial growth on poor carbon sources by redirecting and repressing glycolysis flux, by activating the glyoxylate shunt pathway, and by activating the respiratory pathway. In these regulatory mechanisms, the overriding regulatory activity of Cra over CRP is fundamental. Thus, elucidation of interacting transcriptional regulation of core carbon metabolism in bacteria by two key transcription factors was possible by combining genome-wide experimental measurement and simulation with a genome-scale metabolic model.

Strategic partitioning of emission allowances under the EU Emission Trading Scheme

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boehringer, Christoph [Univ. of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, and Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) (Germany); Rosendahl, Knut Einar [Statistics Norway, Research Department, Pob. 8131 Dep., N-0033 Oslo (Norway)

2009-08-15

The EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) is breaking new ground in the experience with emission trading regimes across multiple jurisdictions. Since the EU ETS covers only some industries, it implies a hybrid emission control scheme where EU member states must apply complementary domestic emissions regulation for the non-trading sectors of their economies in order to comply with their national emission reduction targets. The EU ETS thus opens up for strategic partitioning of national emissions budgets by the member states between trading and non-trading sectors. In this paper we examine the potential effects of such strategic behavior on compliance cost and emissions prices. We show that concerns on efficiency losses from strategic partitioning are misplaced. In turn, our analysis implicitly indicates significant political economy forces behind EU climate policy, as both cost-effective and strategically motivated partitioning of national emission budgets are far off from the actual break-down between trading and non-trading sectors. (author)

Space-partition method for the variance-based sensitivity analysis: Optimal partition scheme and comparative study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhai, Qingqing; Yang, Jun; Zhao, Yu

2014-01-01

Variance-based sensitivity analysis has been widely studied and asserted itself among practitioners. Monte Carlo simulation methods are well developed in the calculation of variance-based sensitivity indices but they do not make full use of each model run. Recently, several works mentioned a scatter-plot partitioning method to estimate the variance-based sensitivity indices from given data, where a single bunch of samples is sufficient to estimate all the sensitivity indices. This paper focuses on the space-partition method in the estimation of variance-based sensitivity indices, and its convergence and other performances are investigated. Since the method heavily depends on the partition scheme, the influence of the partition scheme is discussed and the optimal partition scheme is proposed based on the minimized estimator's variance. A decomposition and integration procedure is proposed to improve the estimation quality for higher order sensitivity indices. The proposed space-partition method is compared with the more traditional method and test cases show that it outperforms the traditional one

On the choice of the driving temperature for eddy-covariance carbon dioxide flux partitioning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lasslop, G.; Migliavacca, M.; Bohrer, G.

2012-01-01

be used. This choice is a source of uncertainty and potential biases.In this study, we analysed the correlation between different temperature observations and nighttime NEE (which equals nighttime respiration) across FLUXNET sites to understand the potential of the different temperature observations...... as input for the flux partitioning model. We found that the differences in the correlation between different temperature data streams and nighttime NEE are small and depend on the selection of sites. We investigated the effects of the choice of the temperature data by running two flux partitioning...... parameters was estimated, and the strongest impact was found for the temperature sensitivity. Overall, this study suggests that the choice between soil or air temperature must be made on site-by-site basis by analysing the correlation between temperature and nighttime NEE. We recommend using an ensemble...

Evaluation of salt tolerance in ectoine-transgenic tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum) in terms of photosynthesis, osmotic adjustment, and carbon partitioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Moghaieb, Reda E A; Nakamura, Akiko; Saneoka, Hirofumi; Fujita, Kounosuke

2011-01-01

Ectoine is a common compatible solute in halophilic bacteria. Its biosynthesis originates from L-aspartate β-semialdehyde and requires three enzymes: L-2, 4-diaminobutyric acid aminotransferase (gene: ect B), L-2,4-diaminobutyric acid acetyl transferase (gene: ect A) and L-ectoine synthase (gene: ect C). Genetically engineered tomato plants expressing the three H. elongata genes (ectA, ectB, and ectC) generated showed no phenotypic abnormality. Expression of the ectoine biosynthetic genes was detected in the T3 transgenic plants by Northern blot analysis. The ectoine accumulating T3 plants were evaluated for salt tolerance by examining their photosynthestic activity, osmotic adjustment and carbon partitioning. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) detected the accumulation of ectoine. The concentration of ectoine increased with increasing salinity. The transgenic lines showed higher activities of peroxidase, while the malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration was decreased under salinity stress condition. In addition, preservation of higher rates of photosynthesis and turgor values as compared to control was evident. Within a week of ( 13) CO 2 feeding, salt application led to increases in the partitioning of ( 13) C into roots at the expense of ( 13) C in the other plant parts. These results suggest that under saline conditions ectoine synthesis is promoted in the roots of transgenic plants, leading to an acceleration of sink activity for photosynthate in the roots. Subsequently, root function such as water uptake is improved, compared with wild-type plants. In this way, the photosynthetic rate is increased through enhancement of cell membrane stability in oxidative conditions under salt stress.

The prediction of blood-tissue partitions, water-skin partitions and skin permeation for agrochemicals.

Science.gov (United States)

Abraham, Michael H; Gola, Joelle M R; Ibrahim, Adam; Acree, William E; Liu, Xiangli

2014-07-01

There is considerable interest in the blood-tissue distribution of agrochemicals, and a number of researchers have developed experimental methods for in vitro distribution. These methods involve the determination of saline-blood and saline-tissue partitions; not only are they indirect, but they do not yield the required in vivo distribution. The authors set out equations for gas-tissue and blood-tissue distribution, for partition from water into skin and for permeation from water through human skin. Together with Abraham descriptors for the agrochemicals, these equations can be used to predict values for all of these processes. The present predictions compare favourably with experimental in vivo blood-tissue distribution where available. The predictions require no more than simple arithmetic. The present method represents a much easier and much more economic way of estimating blood-tissue partitions than the method that uses saline-blood and saline-tissue partitions. It has the added advantages of yielding the required in vivo partitions and being easily extended to the prediction of partition of agrochemicals from water into skin and permeation from water through skin. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry.

Partitioning in P-T concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Peilu; Qi Zhanshun; Zhu Zhixuan

2000-01-01

Comparison of dry- and water-method for partitioning fission products and minor actinides from the spent fuels, and description of advance of dry-method were done. Partitioning process, some typical concept and some results of dry-method were described. The problems fond in dry-method up to now were pointed out. The partitioning study program was suggested

Solute partitioning between 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate ionic liquid and supercritical CO2

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Planeta, Josef; Karásek, Pavel; Roth, Michal

2012-01-01

Roč. 57, č. 4 (2012), s. 1064-1071 ISSN 0021-9568 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP206/11/0138 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40310501 Keywords : ionic liquid * supercritical carbon dioxide * solute partitioning Subject RIV: BJ - Thermodynamics Impact factor: 2.004, year: 2012

Transcriptional regulation of respiration in yeast metabolizing differently repressive carbon substrates

OpenAIRE

Fendt, Sarah-Maria; Sauer, Uwe

2010-01-01

Abstract Background Depending on the carbon source, Saccharomyces cerevisiae displays various degrees of respiration. These range from complete respiration as in the case of ethanol, to almost complete fermentation, and thus very low degrees of respiration on glucose. While many key regulators are known for these extreme cases, we focus here on regulators that are relevant at intermediate levels of respiration. Results We address this question by linking the functional degree of respiration t...

Impact of Environmental Regulation and Technical Progress on Industrial Carbon Productivity: An Approach Based on Proxy Measure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huan Zhang

2016-08-01

Full Text Available This research aims to study the main influencing factors of China’s industrial carbon productivity by incorporating environmental regulation and technical progress into an econometric model. The paper focuses on data from 35 of China’s industrial sectors and covers the period from 2006 to 2014, in order to examine the impact of environmental regulation and technical progress on carbon productivity. Methods applied include panel fixed effect model, panel random effect model and two stage least squares with instrumental variables (IV-2SLS. The effect of environmental regulation and technical progress has industrial heterogeneity. The paper subdivides industrial sectors into capital and technology intensive, resource intensive and labor intensive sectors according to factor intensiveness. The estimation results of the subgroups have uncovered that for capital and technology intensive and resource intensive sectors, environmental regulation has a more significant impact than technical progress; while for labor intensive sectors, innovation more significantly influences carbon productivity. In addition, foreign direct investment (FDI and industrialization level facilitate improving carbon productivity for the full sample. By contrast, industrial structure inhibits the overall industrial carbon productivity. The industry-specific results indicate that for capital and technology intensive sectors, optimizing of the industrial structure can improve carbon productivity; for resource intensive sectors, FDI and energy consumption structure should be emphasized more; for labor intensive sectors, industrialization levels help enhance carbon productivity. Finally the industrial sector-specific policy suggestions are proposed.

Tax regulating carbon market in Brazil: barriers and perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marques, Fernando; Magalhaes, Gerusa; Parente, Virginia

2010-01-01

The world is moving towards a low carbon economy to fight global warming caused by increases in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The carbon market beckons as a promising opportunity for Brazil through Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, which result in Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). Although Brazil is responsible for about 8% of all CDM projects in the world, there is still no specific tax regulation for CERs, thus hindering the development of carbon market in Brazil. It is essential that Brazil have a consistent internal framework which guarantees to potential investors a minimum security on the legal and fiscal operations of CERs. There are government institutions, considering the current law and that, given the number of bills being processed in Congress, are not definitive. Such bills have different understandings for the legal classification of CERs and the related tax treatment. This article supports an urgent need for a regulatory tax system for CERs, proposing a tax exemption on transactions involving CERs in order to encourage the effective development of carbon markets in Brazil in the context of the currently international legal system in which Kyoto Protocol is based. (author)

Effect of localized nitrogen availability to soybean half-root systems on photosynthate partitioning to roots and nodules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singleton, P.W.; van Kessel, C.

1987-01-01

Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr. cv Davis) was grown in a split-root growth system designed to maintain control of the root atmosphere. Two experiments were conducted to examine how 80% Ar:20%, O 2 (Ar:O 2 ) and air (Air) atmospheres affected N assimilation (NH 4 NO 3 and N 2 fixation) and the partitioning of photosynthate to roots and nodules. Application of NH 4 NO 3 to nonnodulated half-root systems enhanced root growth and root respiration at the site of application. A second experiment applied Ar:O 2 or air to the two sides of nodulated soybean half-root systems for 11 days in the following combinations: (a) Air to both sides (Air/Air); (b) Air to one side, Ar:O 2 to the other (Air/Ar:O 2 ), and (c) Ar:O 2 to both sides (Ar:O 2 /Ar:O 2 ). Results indicated that dry matter and current photosynthate ( 14 C) were selectively partitioned to nodules and roots where N 2 was available. Both root and nodule growth on the Air side of Air/Ar:O 2 plants was significantly greater than the Ar:O 2 side. The relative partitioning of carbon and current photosynthate between roots and nodules on a half-root system was also affected by N 2 availability. The Ar:O 2 sides partitioned relatively more current photosynthate to roots (57%) than nodules (43%), while N 2 -fixing root systems partitioned 36 and 64% of the carbon to roots and nodules, respectively. The Ar:O 2 atmosphere decreased root and nodule respiration by 80% and nitrogenase activity by 85% compared to half-root systems in Air while specific nitrogenase activity in Ar:O 2 was 50% of nodules supplied Air. Results indicated that nitrogen assimilation, whether from N 2 fixation or inorganic sources, had a localized effect on root development

A flow-through aqueous standard generation system for thin film microextraction investigations of UV filters and biocides partitioning to different environmental compartments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmadi, Fardin; Sparham, Chris; Pawliszyn, Janusz

2017-01-01

In this paper problems associated with preparation of aqueous standard of highly hydrophobic compounds such as partial precipitation, being lost on the surfaces, low solubility in water and limited sample volume for accurate determination of their distribution coefficients are addressed. The following work presents two approaches that utilize blade thin film microextraction (TFME) to investigate partitioning of UV filters and biocides to humic acid (dissolved organic carbon) and sediment. A steady-state concentration of target analytes in water was generated using a flow-through aqueous standard generation (ASG) system. Dialysis membranes, a polytetrafluoroethylene permeation tube, and a frit porous (0.5 μm) coated by epoxy glue were basic elements used for preparation of the ASG system. In the currently presented study, negligible depletion TFME using hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) and octadecyl silica-based (C18) sorbents was employed towards the attainment of free concentration values of target analytes in the studied matrices. Thin film geometry provided a large volume of extraction phase, which improved the sensitivity of the method towards highly matrix-bound analytes. Extractions were performed in the equilibrium regime so as to prevent matrix effects and with aims to reach maximum method sensitivity for all analytes under study. Partitioning of analytes on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was investigated in ASG to facilitate large sample volume conditions. Binding percentages and DOC distribution coefficients (Log K DOC ) ranged from 20 to 98% and 3.71–6.72, respectively. Furthermore, sediment-water partition coefficients (K d ), organic-carbon normalized partition coefficients (Log K OC ), and DOC distribution coefficients (Log K DOC ) were investigated in slurry sediment, and ranged from 33 to 2860, 3.31–5.24 and 4.52–5.75 Lkg -1 , respectively. The obtained results demonstrated that investigations utilizing ASG and TFME can yield reliable

Partitioning planning studies: Preliminary evaluation of metal and radionuclide partitioning the high-temperature thermal treatment systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liekhus, K.; Grandy, J.; Chambers, A.

1997-03-01

A preliminary study of toxic metals and radionuclide partitioning during high-temperature processing of mixed waste has been conducted during Fiscal Year 1996 within the Environmental Management Technology Evaluation Project. The study included: (a) identification of relevant partitioning mechanisms that cause feed material to be distributed between the solid, molten, and gas phases within a thermal treatment system; (b) evaluations of existing test data from applicable demonstration test programs as a means to identify and understand elemental and species partitioning; and, (c) evaluation of theoretical or empirical partitioning models for use in predicting elemental or species partitioning in a thermal treatment system. This preliminary study was conducted to identify the need for and the viability of developing the tools capable of describing and predicting toxic metals and radionuclide partitioning in the most applicable mixed waste thermal treatment processes. This document presents the results and recommendations resulting from this study that may serve as an impetus for developing and implementing these predictive tools

Partitioning planning studies: Preliminary evaluation of metal and radionuclide partitioning the high-temperature thermal treatment systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liekhus, K.; Grandy, J.; Chambers, A. [and others

1997-03-01

A preliminary study of toxic metals and radionuclide partitioning during high-temperature processing of mixed waste has been conducted during Fiscal Year 1996 within the Environmental Management Technology Evaluation Project. The study included: (a) identification of relevant partitioning mechanisms that cause feed material to be distributed between the solid, molten, and gas phases within a thermal treatment system; (b) evaluations of existing test data from applicable demonstration test programs as a means to identify and understand elemental and species partitioning; and, (c) evaluation of theoretical or empirical partitioning models for use in predicting elemental or species partitioning in a thermal treatment system. This preliminary study was conducted to identify the need for and the viability of developing the tools capable of describing and predicting toxic metals and radionuclide partitioning in the most applicable mixed waste thermal treatment processes. This document presents the results and recommendations resulting from this study that may serve as an impetus for developing and implementing these predictive tools.

Rising Mean Annual Temperature Increases Carbon Flux and Alters Partitioning, but Does Not Change Ecosystem Carbon Storage in Hawaiian Tropical Montane Wet Forest

Science.gov (United States)

Litton, C. M.; Giardina, C. P.; Selmants, P.

2014-12-01

Terrestrial ecosystem carbon (C) storage exceeds that in the atmosphere by a factor of four, and represents a dynamic balance among C input, allocation, and loss. This balance is likely being altered by climate change, but the response of terrestrial C cycling to warming remains poorly quantified, particularly in tropical forests which play a disproportionately large role in the global C cycle. Over the past five years, we have quantified above- and belowground C pools and fluxes in nine permanent plots spanning a 5.2°C mean annual temperature (MAT) gradient (13-18.2°C) in Hawaiian tropical montane wet forest. This elevation gradient is unique in that substrate type and age, soil type, soil water balance, canopy vegetation, and disturbance history are constant, allowing us to isolate the impact of long-term, whole ecosystem warming on C input, allocation, loss and storage. Across the gradient, soil respiration, litterfall, litter decomposition, total belowground C flux, aboveground net primary productivity, and estimates of gross primary production (GPP) all increase linearly and positively with MAT. Carbon partitioning is dynamic, shifting from below- to aboveground with warming, likely in response to a warming-induced increase in the cycling and availability of soil nutrients. In contrast to observed patterns in C flux, live biomass C, soil C, and total ecosystem C pools remained remarkably constant with MAT. There was also no difference in soil bacterial taxon richness, phylogenetic diversity, or community composition with MAT. Taken together these results indicate that in tropical montane wet forests, increased temperatures in the absence of water limitation or disturbance will accelerate C cycling, will not alter ecosystem C storage, and will shift the products of photosynthesis from below- to aboveground. These results agree with an increasing number of studies, and collectively provide a unique insight into anticipated warming-induced changes in tropical

Modeling the formation, decay, and partitioning of semivolatile nitro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nitronaphthalenes) in the atmosphere

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Feilberg, A.; Kamens, R.M.; Strommen, M.R.

1999-01-01

A nitronaphthalene kinetics mechanism has been implemented and added to the photochemical smog mechanism, Carbon Bond-4. This mechanism was used to simulate the formation, decay, and partitioning of 1- and 2-nitronaphthalene and compare it to outdoor smog chamber data. The results suggest that th...

An integrative genetic study of rice metabolism, growth and stochastic variation reveals potential C/N partitioning loci

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Baohua; Zhang, Yuanyuan; Mohammadi, Seyed Abolghasem

2016-01-01

metabolites suggesting that they may influence carbon and nitrogen partitioning, with one locus co-localizing with SUSIBA2 (WRKY78). Comparing QTLs for metabolomic and a variety of growth related traits identified few overlaps. Interestingly, the rice population displayed fewer loci controlling stochastic...

The Euler–Riemann gases, and partition identities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chair, Noureddine

2013-01-01

The Euler theorem in partition theory and its generalization are derived from a non-interacting quantum field theory in which each bosonic mode with a given frequency is equivalent to a sum of bosonic mode whose frequency is twice (s-times) as much, and a fermionic (parafermionic) mode with the same frequency. Explicit formulas for the graded parafermionic partition functions are obtained, and the inverse of the graded partition function (IGPPF), turns out to be bosonic (fermionic) partition function depending on the parity of the order s of the parafermions. It is also shown that these partition functions are generating functions of partitions of integers with restrictions, the Euler generating function is identified with the inverse of the graded parafermionic partition function of order 2. As a result we obtain new sequences of partitions of integers with given restrictions. If the parity of the order s is even, then mixing a system of parafermions with a system whose partition function is (IGPPF), results in a system of fermions and bosons. On the other hand, if the parity of s is odd, then, the system we obtain is still a mixture of fermions and bosons but the corresponding Fock space of states is truncated. It turns out that these partition functions are given in terms of the Jacobi theta function θ 4 , and generate sequences in partition theory. Our partition functions coincide with the overpartitions of Corteel and Lovejoy, and jagged partitions in conformal field theory. Also, the partition functions obtained are related to the Ramond characters of the superconformal minimal models, and in the counting of the Moore–Read edge spectra that appear in the fractional quantum Hall effect. The different partition functions for the Riemann gas that are the counter parts of the Euler gas are obtained by a simple change of variables. In particular the counter part of the Jacobi theta function is (ζ(2t))/(ζ(t) 2 ) . Finally, we propose two formulas which brings

Hawk: A Runtime System for Partitioned Objects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ben Hassen, S.; Bal, H.E.; Tanenbaum, A.S.

1997-01-01

Hawk is a language-independent runtime system for writing data-parallel programs using partitioned objects. A partitioned object is a multidimensional array of elements that can be partitioned and distributed by the programmer. The Hawk runtime system uses the user-defined partitioning of objects

Comparative transcriptome and metabolite analysis of oil palm and date palm mesocarp that differ dramatically in carbon partitioning

Science.gov (United States)

Bourgis, Fabienne; Kilaru, Aruna; Cao, Xia; Ngando-Ebongue, Georges-Frank; Drira, Noureddine; Ohlrogge, John B.; Arondel, Vincent

2011-01-01

Oil palm can accumulate up to 90% oil in its mesocarp, the highest level observed in the plant kingdom. In contrast, the closely related date palm accumulates almost exclusively sugars. To gain insight into the mechanisms that lead to such an extreme difference in carbon partitioning, the transcriptome and metabolite content of oil palm and date palm were compared during mesocarp development. Compared with date palm, the high oil content in oil palm was associated with much higher transcript levels for all fatty acid synthesis enzymes, specific plastid transporters, and key enzymes of plastidial carbon metabolism, including phosphofructokinase, pyruvate kinase, and pyruvate dehydrogenase. Transcripts representing an ortholog of the WRI1 transcription factor were 57-fold higher in oil palm relative to date palm and displayed a temporal pattern similar to its target genes. Unexpectedly, despite more than a 100-fold difference in flux to lipids, most enzymes of triacylglycerol assembly were expressed at similar levels in oil palm and date palm. Similarly, transcript levels for all but one cytosolic enzyme of glycolysis were comparable in both species. Together, these data point to synthesis of fatty acids and supply of pyruvate in the plastid, rather than acyl assembly into triacylglycerol, as a major control over the storage of oil in the mesocarp of oil palm. In addition to greatly increasing molecular resources devoted to oil palm and date palm, the combination of temporal and comparative studies illustrates how deep sequencing can provide insights into gene expression patterns of two species that lack genome sequence information. PMID:21709233

Partitioning of Nanoparticles into Organic Phases and Model Cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Posner, J.D.; Westerhoff, P.; Hou, W-C.

2011-08-25

dissolved substances" or "more like colloids" as the division between behaviors of macromolecules versus colloids remains ill-defined. Below we detail our work on two broadly defined objectives: (i) Partitioning of ENP into octanol, lipid bilayer, and water, and (ii) disruption of lipid bilayers by ENPs. We have found that the partitioning of NP reaches pseudo-equilibrium distributions between water and organic phases. The equilibrium partitioning most strongly depends on the particle surface charge, which leads us to the conclusion that electrostatic interactions are critical to understanding the fate of NP in the environment. We also show that the kinetic rate at which particle partition is a function of their size (small particles partition faster by number) as can be predicted from simple DLVO models. We have found that particle number density is the most effective dosimetry to present our results and provide quantitative comparison across experiments and experimental platforms. Cumulatively, our work shows that lipid bilayers are a more effective organic phase than octanol because of the definable surface area and ease of interpretation of the results. Our early comparison of NP partitioning between water and lipids suggest that this measurement can be predictive of bioaccumulation in aquatic organisms. We have shown that nanoparticle disrupt lipid bilayer membranes and detail how NP-bilayer interaction leads to the malfunction of lipid bilayers in regulating the fluxes of ionic charges and molecules. Our results show that the disruption of the lipid membranes is similar to that of toxin melittin, except single particles can disrupt a bilayer. We show that only a single particle is required to disrupt a 150 nm DOPC liposome. The equilibrium leakage of membranes is a function of the particle number density and particle surface charge, consistent with results from our partitioning experiments. Our disruption experiments with varying surface functionality show that

[On the partition of acupuncture academic schools].

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Pengyan; Luo, Xi; Xia, Youbing

2016-05-01

Nowadays extensive attention has been paid on the research of acupuncture academic schools, however, a widely accepted method of partition of acupuncture academic schools is still in need. In this paper, the methods of partition of acupuncture academic schools in the history have been arranged, and three typical methods of"partition of five schools" "partition of eighteen schools" and "two-stage based partition" are summarized. After adeep analysis on the disadvantages and advantages of these three methods, a new method of partition of acupuncture academic schools that is called "three-stage based partition" is proposed. In this method, after the overall acupuncture academic schools are divided into an ancient stage, a modern stage and a contemporary stage, each schoolis divided into its sub-school category. It is believed that this method of partition can remedy the weaknesses ofcurrent methods, but also explore a new model of inheritance and development under a different aspect through thedifferentiation and interaction of acupuncture academic schools at three stages.

Analysis of load balance in hybrid partitioning | Talib | Botswana ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In information retrieval systems, there are three types of index partitioning schemes - term partitioning, document partitioning, and hybrid partitioning. The hybrid-partitioning scheme combines both term and document partitioning schemes. Term partitioning provides high concurrency, which means that queries can be ...

Metformin regulates global DNA methylation via mitochondrial one-carbon metabolism.

Science.gov (United States)

Cuyàs, E; Fernández-Arroyo, S; Verdura, S; García, R Á-F; Stursa, J; Werner, L; Blanco-González, E; Montes-Bayón, M; Joven, J; Viollet, B; Neuzil, J; Menendez, J A

2018-02-15

The anti-diabetic biguanide metformin may exert health-promoting effects via metabolic regulation of the epigenome. Here we show that metformin promotes global DNA methylation in non-cancerous, cancer-prone and metastatic cancer cells by decreasing S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH), a strong feedback inhibitor of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)-dependent DNA methyltransferases, while promoting the accumulation of SAM, the universal methyl donor for cellular methylation. Using metformin and a mitochondria/complex I (mCI)-targeted analog of metformin (norMitoMet) in experimental pairs of wild-type and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-, serine hydroxymethyltransferase 2 (SHMT2)- and mCI-null cells, we provide evidence that metformin increases the SAM:SAH ratio-related methylation capacity by targeting the coupling between serine mitochondrial one-carbon flux and CI activity. By increasing the contribution of one-carbon units to the SAM from folate stores while decreasing SAH in response to AMPK-sensed energetic crisis, metformin can operate as a metabolo-epigenetic regulator capable of reprogramming one of the key conduits linking cellular metabolism to the DNA methylation machinery.

Abiotic partitioning of clothianidin under simulated rice field conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Mulligan, Rebecca A; Parikh, Sanjai J; Tjeerdema, Ronald S

2015-10-01

Clothianidin is registered for pre- and post-flood application in Californian rice fields for control of the rice seed midge, Cricotopus sylvestris, and the rice water weevil, Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus. The objective was to characterize air-water and soil-water partitioning of clothianidin under simulated Californian rice field conditions. Clothianidin was confirmed to be non-volatile (from water) via the gas purge method, as no loss from the aqueous phase was observed at 22 and 37 °C; an upper-limit KH value was calculated at 2.9 × 10(-11) Pa m(3) mol(-1) (20 °C). Soil-water partitioning was determined by the batch equilibrium method using four soils collected from rice fields in the Sacramento Valley, and sorption affinity (Kd ), sorbent capacity, desorption and organic-carbon-normalized distribution (Koc ) were determined. Values for pH, cation exchange capacity and organic matter content ranged from 4.5 to 6.6, from 5.9 to 37.9 and from 1.25 to 1.97% respectively. The log Koc values (22 and 37 °C) ranged from 2.6 to 2.7, while sorption capacity was low at 22 °C and decreased further at 37 °C. Hysteresis was observed in soils at both temperatures, suggesting that bound residues do not readily desorb. Soil-water and air-water partitioning will not significantly reduce offsite transport of clothianidin from flooded rice fields via drainage. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.

Partitioning and source diagnostics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in rivers in Tianjin, China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi, Z.; Tao, S.; Pan, B.; Liu, W.X.; Shen, W.R.

2007-01-01

Water, suspended particulate matter (SPM), and sediment samples were collected from ten rivers in Tianjin and analyzed for 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon (POC) in SPM and total organic carbon (TOC) in sediment. The behavior and fate of PAHs influenced by these parameters were examined. Generally, organic carbon was the primary factor controlling the behavior of the 16 PAH species. Partitioning of PAHs between SPM and water phase was studied, and K OC for some PAH species were found to be significantly higher than the predicted values. The source of PAHs contamination was diagnosed by using PAH isomer ratios. Coal combustion was identified to be a long-term and prevailing contamination source for sediment, while sewage/wastewater source could reasonably explain a short-term PAHs contamination of SPM. - Distribution of PAHs among water, suspended solids and sediment was under strong influence of naturally occurring organic carbon

Ultrahigh Ductility, High-Carbon Martensitic Steel

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Shengwei; Liu, Yu; Hao, Qingguo; Zuo, Xunwei; Rong, Yonghua; Chen, Nailu

2016-10-01

Based on the proposed design idea of the anti-transformation-induced plasticity effect, both the additions of the Nb element and pretreatment of the normalization process as a novel quenching-partitioning-tempering (Q-P-T) were designed for Fe-0.63C-1.52Mn-1.49Si-0.62Cr-0.036Nb hot-rolled steel. This high-carbon Q-P-T martensitic steel exhibits a tensile strength of 1890 MPa and elongation of 29 pct accompanied by the excellent product of tensile and elongation of 55 GPa pct. The origin of ultrahigh ductility for high-carbon Q-P-T martensitic steel is revealed from two aspects: one is the softening of martensitic matrix due to both the depletion of carbon in the matensitic matrix during the Q-P-T process by partitioning of carbon from supersaturated martensite to retained austenite and the reduction of the dislocation density in a martensitic matrix by dislocation absorption by retained austenite effect during deformation, which significantly enhances the deformation ability of martensitic matrix; another is the high mechanical stability of considerable carbon-enriched retained austenite, which effectively reduces the formation of brittle twin-type martensite. This work verifies the correctness of the design idea of the anti-TRIP effect and makes the third-generation advanced high-strength steels extend to the field of high-carbon steels from low- and medium-carbon steels.

Development of a partitioning method for the management of high-level liquid waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kubota, M.; Dojiri, S.; Yamaguchi, I.; Morita, Y.; Yamagishi, I.; Kobayashi, T.; Tani, S.

1989-01-01

Fundamental studies especially focused on the separation of neptunium and technetium have been carried out to construct the advanced partitioning process of fractioning elements in a high-level liquid waste into four groups: transuranium elements, technetium-noble metals, strontium-cesium, and other elements. For the separation of neptunium by solvent extraction, DIDPA proved excellent for extracting Np(V), and its extraction rate was accelerated by hydrogen peroxide. Np(V) was found to be also separated quantitatively as precipitate with oxalic acid. For the separation of technetium, the denitration with formic acid was effective in precipitating it along with noble metals, and the adsorption with activated carbon was also effective for quantitative separation. Through these fundamental studies, the advanced partitioning process is presented as the candidate to be examined with an actual high-level liquid waste

Partitioning sparse rectangular matrices for parallel processing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kolda, T.G.

1998-05-01

The authors are interested in partitioning sparse rectangular matrices for parallel processing. The partitioning problem has been well-studied in the square symmetric case, but the rectangular problem has received very little attention. They will formalize the rectangular matrix partitioning problem and discuss several methods for solving it. They will extend the spectral partitioning method for symmetric matrices to the rectangular case and compare this method to three new methods -- the alternating partitioning method and two hybrid methods. The hybrid methods will be shown to be best.

A brief history of partitions of numbers, partition functions and their modern applications

Science.gov (United States)

Debnath, Lokenath

2016-04-01

'Number rules the universe.' The Pythagoras 'If you wish to forsee the future of mathematics our course is to study the history and present conditions of the science.' Henri Poincaré 'The primary source (Urqell) of all mathematics are integers.' Hermann Minkowski This paper is written to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Mathematical Association of America. It deals with a short history of different kinds of natural numbers including triangular, square, pentagonal, hexagonal and k-gonal numbers, and their simple properties and their geometrical representations. Included are Euclid's and Pythagorean's main contributions to elementary number theory with the main contents of the Euclid Elements of the 13-volume masterpiece of mathematical work. This is followed by Euler's new discovery of the additive number theory based on partitions of numbers. Special attention is given to many examples, Euler's theorems on partitions of numbers with geometrical representations of Ferrers' graphs, Young's diagrams, Lagrange's four-square theorem and the celebrated Waring problem. Included are Euler's generating functions for the partitions of numbers, Euler's pentagonal number theorem, Gauss' triangular and square number theorems and the Jacobi triple product identity. Applications of the theory of partitions of numbers to different statistics such as the Bose- Einstein, Fermi- Dirac, Gentile, and Maxwell- Boltzmann statistics are briefly discussed. Special attention is given to pedagogical information through historical approach to number theory so that students and teachers at the school, college and university levels can become familiar with the basic concepts of partitions of numbers, partition functions and their modern applications, and can pursue advanced study and research in analytical and computational number theory.

Total internal partition sums for molecular species in the 2000 edition of the HITRAN database

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fischer, J.; Gamache, R.R.; Goldman, A.; Rothman, L.S.; Perrin, A.

2003-01-01

Total internal partition sums (TIPS) are calculated for all molecular species in the 2000 HITRAN database. In addition, the TIPS for 13 other isotopomers/isotopologues of ozone and carbon dioxide are presented. The calculations address the corrections suggested by Goldman et al. (JQSRT 66 (2000) 455). The calculations consider the temperature range 70-3000 K to be applicable to a variety of remote sensing needs. The method of calculation for each molecular species is stated and comparisons with data from the literature are discussed. A new method of recall for the partition sums, Lagrange 4-point interpolation, is developed. This method, unlike previous versions of the TIPS code, allows all molecular species to be considered

Carbon sequestration and water flow regulation services in mature Mediterranean Forest

Science.gov (United States)

Beguería, S.; Ovando, P.

2015-12-01

We develop a forestland use and management model that integrates spatially-explicit biophysical and economic data, to estimate the expected pattern of climate regulation services through carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration in tree and shrubs biomass, and water flow regulation. We apply this model to examine the potential trade-offs and synergies in the supply of CO2 sequestration and water flow services in mature Mediterranean forest, considering two alternative forest management settings. A forest restoration scenario through investments in facilitating forest regeneration, and a forestry activity abandonment scenario as result of unprofitable forest regeneration investment. The analysis is performed for different discount rates and price settings for carbon and water. The model is applied at the farm level in a group of 567 private silvopastoral farms across Andalusia (Spain), considering the main forest species in this region: Quercus ilex, Q. suber, Pinus pinea, P. halepensis, P. pinaster and Eucalyptus sp., as well as for tree-less shrubland and pastures. The results of this research are provided by forest land unit, vegetation, farm and for the group of municipalities where the farms are located. Our results draw attention to the spatial variability of CO2 and water flow regulation services, and point towards a trade-off between those services. The pattern of economic benefits associated to water and carbon services fluctuates according to the assumptions regarding price levels and discounting rates, as well as in connection to the expected forest management and tree growth models, and to spatially-explicit forest attributes such as existing tree and shrubs inventories, the quality of the sites for growing different tree species, soil structure or the climatic characteristics. The assumptions made regarding the inter-temporal preferences and relative prices have a large effect on the estimated economic value of carbon and water services. These results

One carbon metabolism in anaerobic bacteria: Regulation of carbon and electron flow during organic acid production: Progress report, February 1, 1987-February 1, 1988

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeikus, J.G.; Shen, Gwo-Jenn.

1988-01-01

These studies concern the fundamental biochemical mechanisms that control carbon and electron flow in anaerobic bacteria that conserve energy when coupling hydrogen consumption to the production of acetic, propionic, or butyric acids. Two acidogens, Propionispira arboris and Butyribacterium methylotrophicum were chosen as model systems to understand the function of oxidoreductases and electron carriers in the regulation of hydrogen metabolism and single carbon metabolism. In P. arboris, H 2 consumption was linked to the inhibition of CO 2 production and an increase in the propionate/acetate rate; whereas, H 2 consumption was linked to a stimulation of CO 2 consumption and an increase in the butyrate/acetate ratio in B. methylotrophicum. We report studies on the enzymes involved in the regulation of singe carbon metabolism, the enzyme activities and pathways responsible for conversion of multicarbon components to acetate and propionate or butyrate, and how low pH inhibits H 2 and acetic acid production in Sarcina ventriculi as a consequence of hydrogenase regulation. 9 refs

New Linear Partitioning Models Based on Experimental Water: Supercritical CO2 Partitioning Data of Selected Organic Compounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Burant, Aniela; Thompson, Christopher; Lowry, Gregory V; Karamalidis, Athanasios K

2016-05-17

Partitioning coefficients of organic compounds between water and supercritical CO2 (sc-CO2) are necessary to assess the risk of migration of these chemicals from subsurface CO2 storage sites. Despite the large number of potential organic contaminants, the current data set of published water-sc-CO2 partitioning coefficients is very limited. Here, the partitioning coefficients of thiophene, pyrrole, and anisole were measured in situ over a range of temperatures and pressures using a novel pressurized batch-reactor system with dual spectroscopic detectors: a near-infrared spectrometer for measuring the organic analyte in the CO2 phase and a UV detector for quantifying the analyte in the aqueous phase. Our measured partitioning coefficients followed expected trends based on volatility and aqueous solubility. The partitioning coefficients and literature data were then used to update a published poly parameter linear free-energy relationship and to develop five new linear free-energy relationships for predicting water-sc-CO2 partitioning coefficients. A total of four of the models targeted a single class of organic compounds. Unlike models that utilize Abraham solvation parameters, the new relationships use vapor pressure and aqueous solubility of the organic compound at 25 °C and CO2 density to predict partitioning coefficients over a range of temperature and pressure conditions. The compound class models provide better estimates of partitioning behavior for compounds in that class than does the model built for the entire data set.

Impact of Si on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of 22MnB5 Hot Stamping Steel Treated by Quenching & Partitioning (Q&P)

Science.gov (United States)

Linke, Bernd M.; Gerber, Thomas; Hatscher, Ansgar; Salvatori, Ilaria; Aranguren, Iñigo; Arribas, Maribel

2018-01-01

Based on 22MnB5 hot stamping steel, three model alloys containing 0.5, 0.8, and 1.5 wt pct Si were produced, heat treated by quenching and partitioning (Q&P), and characterized. Aided by DICTRA calculations, the thermal Q&P cycles were designed to fit into industrial hot stamping by keeping partitioning times ≤ 30 seconds. As expected, Si increased the amount of retained austenite (RA) stabilized after final cooling. However, for the intermediate Si alloy the heat treatment exerted a particularly pronounced influence with an RA content three times as high for the one-step process compared to the two-step process. It appeared that 0.8 wt pct Si sufficed to suppress direct cementite formation from within martensite laths but did not sufficiently stabilize carbon-soaked RA at higher temperatures. Tensile and bending tests showed strongly diverging effects of austenite on ductility. Total elongation improved consistently with increasing RA content independently from its carbon content. In contrast, the bending angle was not impacted by high-carbon RA but deteriorated almost linearly with the amount of low-carbon RA.

Oxidation suppressing device for steel materials in carbon dioxide cooled reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawakami, Haruo

1986-01-01

Purpose: To effectively reduce impurity hydrogens in carbon dioxide. Constitution: At least three gas chambers are arranged serially each by way of a valve in a gas flow channel branched from a primary carbon dioxide coolant circuits. Then, a polymeric partition membrane having higher permeation rate for hydrogen than for carbon dioxide, e.g., made of polytrifluorochloroethylene is disposed between first and second gas chambers and, further, the first and the third gas chambers are connected each by way of a valve to the primary carbon dioxide coolant circuit to constitute a gas recovery channel. Carbon dioxide is caused to flow through the channel by means of a pump disposed between the second and third gas chambers, hydrogen as impurity passed through the partition walls is concentrated and discharged out of the channel, while the carbon dioxide with reduced hydrogen content is returned from the first and the third gas chambers to the circuit. (Sekiya, K.)

Molecular Regulation of Photosynthetic Carbon Dioxide Fixation in Nonsulfur Purple Bacteria

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tabita, Fred Robert [The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)

2015-12-01

The overall objective of this project is to determine the mechanism by which a transcriptional activator protein affects CO₂ fixation (cbb) gene expression in nonsulfur purple photosynthetic bacteria, with special emphasis to Rhodobacter sphaeroides and with comparison to Rhodopseudomonas palustris. These studies culminated in several publications which indicated that additional regulators interact with the master regulator CbbR in both R. sphaeroides and R. palustris. In addition, the interactive control of the carbon and nitrogen assimilatory pathways was studied and unique regulatory signals were discovered.

Light Competition and Carbon Partitioning-Allocation in an improved Forest Ecosystem Model

Science.gov (United States)

Collalti, Alessio; Santini, Monia; Valentini Valentini, Riccardo

2010-05-01

. Hence, the presence of a cohort in a storey determines the amount of light received for the photosynthetic processes. The population density (numbers of trees per cell) represents a good competition index for determining the tree crown structure and tree crown dimension within a forest population. The tree crown tend to branch out horizontally to intercept as much light as possible. The model assess the structure of the tree crown both vertically and horizontally on the base of the population density and it up-scales the result to the whole stand. The canopy depth and the percentage of horizontal coverage determines moreover a crowding competition index that lead to a specific biomass partitioning-allocation ratio among the different tree components (foliage, roots and stem) and especially for the stem affecting Height-Diameter (at breast height) ratio. In this model, Height-Diameter ratio is used as an alternative competition index in determining the vigour and the strength of competition on free growth status of trees. The forest dominant vegetative cover affects moreover the presence of a dominated layer, it influences its yield and its Carbon stocking capacity and hence it influences the forest ecosystem CO2 carbon balance. From this model it is possible to simulate the impact of Climate Change on forests, the feedback of one or more dominated layers in terms of CO2 uptake in a forest stand and the effects of forest management activities for the next years.

Development of partitioning method : cold experiment with partitioning test facility in NUCEF (I)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamaguchi, Isoo; Morita, Yasuji; Kondo, Yasuo

1996-03-01

A test facility in which about 1.85 x 10 14 Bq of high-level liquid waste can be treated has been completed in 1994 at Nuclear Fuel Cycle Safety Engineering Research Facility (NUCEF) for research and development of Partitioning Method. The outline of the partitioning test facility and support equipments for it which were design terms, constructions, arrangements, functions and inspections were given in JAERI-Tech 94-030. The present report describes the results of the water transfer test and partitioning tests, which are methods of precipitation by denitration, oxalate precipitation, solvent extraction, and adsorption with inorganic ion exchanger, using nitric acid to master operation method of the test facility. As often as issues related to equipments occurred during the tests, they were improved. As to issues related to processes such as being stopped up of columns, their measures of solution were found by testing in laboratories. They were reflected in operation of the Partitioning Test Facility. Their particulars and improving points were described in this report. (author)

Comparative Energetics of Carbon Storage Molecules in Green Algae

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Laurens, Lieve M [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); McKie-Krisberg, Zaid M. [City University of New York; Huang, Andy [City University of New York; Polle, Jurgen E. W. [City University of New York

2018-02-28

Several members of the green algae possess the ability to produce lipids and/or high value compounds in significant quantities. While for several of these green algal species induction of increased lipid production has been shown, and cultivation of species for high value molecules occurs at production scale, the molecular mechanisms governing over-accumulation of molecules synthesized from isoprenoid precursors, carotenoids, for example, have received far less attention. Here, we present a calculation of the required ATP equivalencies per carbon atom and reducing power equivalencies as NADH/NADPH (NAD(P)H) per carbon atom for the isoprenoid molecules ..beta..-carotene (C40), astaxanthin (C40), and squalene (C30). We compared energetic requirements of carbohydrates, triacylglycerol, and isoprenoid molecules under a gradient of conditions of cellular stress. Our calculations revealed slightly less ATP and NAD(P)H equivalency per carbon atom between triacylglycerol and the three isoprenoid molecules. Based on our results, we propose that the driving force for differences in accumulation patterns of carotenoids vs. triacylglycerols in algal cells under stress is largely dependent on the presence and regulation of bypass mechanisms at metabolic junction bottlenecks, like pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), within particular species. We provide a discussion of several molecular mechanisms that may influence carbon partitioning within different groups of green algae, including metabolic inhibition through accumulation of specific substrates related to ATP and reducing equivalent production (NAD(P)H) as well as cellular compartmentalization. This work contributes to the ongoing discussion of cellular homeostatic regulation during stress, as well as the potential mechanisms driving long-term carbon storage as it relates to energy and redox states within the algal cell.

Purification of biomaterials by phase partitioning

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, J. M.

1984-01-01

A technique which is particularly suited to microgravity environments and which is potentially more powerful than electrophoresis is phase partitioning. Phase partitioning is purification by partitioning between the two immiscible aqueous layers formed by solution of the polymers poly(ethylene glycol) and dextran in water. This technique proved to be very useful for separations in one-g but is limited for cells because the cells are more dense than the phase solutions thus tend to sediment to the bottom of the container before reaching equilibrium with the preferred phase. There are three phases to work in this area: synthesis of new polymers for affinity phase partitioning; development of automated apparatus for ground-based separations; and design of apparatus for performing simple phase partitioning space experiments, including examination of mechanisms for separating phases in the absence of gravity.

Atmospheric occurrence, transport and gas-particle partitioning of polychlorinated biphenyls over the northwestern Pacific Ocean

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Zilan; Lin, Tian; Li, Zhongxia; Li, Yuanyuan; Guo, Tianfeng; Guo, Zhigang

2017-10-01

Ship-board air samples were collected during March to May 2015 from the East China Sea (ECS) to the northwestern Pacific Ocean (NWP) to explore the atmospheric occurrence and gas-particle partitioning of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) when the westerly East Asian Monsoon prevailed. Total PCB concentrations in the atmosphere ranged from 56.8 to 261 pg m-3. Higher PCB levels were observed off the coast and minor temperature-induced changes showed that continuous emissions from East Asia remain as an important source to the regional atmosphere. A significant relationship between Koa (octanol-air partition coefficient) and KP (gas-particle partition coefficient) for PCBs was observed under continental air masses, suggesting that land-derived organic aerosols affected the PCB gas-particle partitioning after long-range transport, while an absence of this correlation was identified in marine air masses. The PCB partitioning cannot be fully explained by the absorptive mechanism as the predicted KP were found to be 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than the measured Kp, while the prediction was closely matched when soot adsorption was considered. The results suggested the importance of soot carbon as a transport medium for PCBs during their long-range transport and considerable impacts of continental outflows on PCBs across the downwind area. The estimated transport mass of particulate PCBs into the ECS and NWP totals 2333 kg during the spring, constituting ca. 17% of annual emission inventories of unintentionally produced PCB in China.

Partitioning and desorption behavior of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from disparate sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reeves, W.R.; McDonald, T.J.; Cizmas, L.; Donnelly, K.C.

2004-01-01

Contaminated sediments pose a unique challenge for risk assessment or remediation because the overlying water column may transport contaminants offsite or to ecological receptors. This research compares the behavior of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on marine sediments from two sites. The first site was affected by shipping activities and the second was impacted by a creosote seep. Organic carbon:water partitioning coefficients (K oc values) were measured with three solutions. Desorption was measured using Tenax beads. PAHs from the ship channel had lower K oc values than those from the creosote facility. For example, the average log K oc value of ship channel pyrene was significantly lower than that of creosote facility pyrene (4.39±0.35 and 5.29±0.09, respectively, when tested in 5 mM calcium chloride). These results were consistent with the greater desorption of pyrene, phenanthrene and benzo(a)pyrene from the ship channel than from the creosote facility sediments. Organic compound desorption from sediments can be considered to be a two-stage process, with a labile fraction that desorbs quickly and a refractory fraction that desorbs much more slowly. In both sediments, more than 75% of the benzo(a)pyrene was found to have partitioned into the refractory phase. The amounts of phenanthrene and pyrene that partitioned into the refractory phase were lower. Linear correlations of log K oc with log (C R /C L ) (where C R and C L are the fractions of the compound in the refractory and labile phases, respectively, at time zero) showed that partitioning measurements made with the US EPA's Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure fluid (US EPA, 1996) most closely matched predictions of desorption behavior. The data imply that with a larger data set, it may be possible to relate simple partitioning measurements to desorption behavior. Partitioning measurements were used to predict water concentrations. Despite having higher concentrations of carcinogenic PAHs

Effects of elevated carbon dioxide concentration on growth and N2 fixation of young Robinia pseudoacacia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feng, Z; Flessa, H.; Dyckmans, J.

2004-01-01

The effects of elevated carbon dioxide concentration on carbon and nitrogen uptake and nitrogen source partitioning were determined in one year-old locust trees using a dual 13 C and 15 N continuous labelling experiment. Elevated carbon dioxide increased the fraction of new carbon in total carbon, but it did not alter carbon partitioning among plant compartments. Elevated carbon dioxide also increased the fraction of new nitrogen in total nitrogen. This was coupled with a shift in nitrogen source partitioning toward nitrogen fixation. Soil nitrogen uptake was not affected, but nitrogen fixation was markedly increased by elevated carbon dioxide treatment. The increased nitrogen fixation tended to decrease the C/N ratio in the presence of elevated carbon dioxide. Total dry mass of root nodules doubled in response to elevated carbon dioxide, however, this effect was not considered significant because of the great variability in root nodule formation. Overall, it was concluded that the growth of locust trees in an elevated carbon dioxide environment will not primarily be limited by nitrogen availability, giving the R. pseudoacacia species a competitive advantage over non-nitrogen-fixing tree species. It was also suggested that the increase in nitrogen fixation observed in response to elevated carbon dioxide treatment may play a key role in the growth response of forest ecosystems to elevated carbon dioxide by improving nitrogen availability for non-nitrogen-fixing trees. 51 refs., 1 tab., 4 figs

Betweenness-based algorithm for a partition scale-free graph

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Bai-Da; Wu Jun-Jie; Zhou Jing; Tang Yu-Hua

2011-01-01

Many real-world networks are found to be scale-free. However, graph partition technology, as a technology capable of parallel computing, performs poorly when scale-free graphs are provided. The reason for this is that traditional partitioning algorithms are designed for random networks and regular networks, rather than for scale-free networks. Multilevel graph-partitioning algorithms are currently considered to be the state of the art and are used extensively. In this paper, we analyse the reasons why traditional multilevel graph-partitioning algorithms perform poorly and present a new multilevel graph-partitioning paradigm, top down partitioning, which derives its name from the comparison with the traditional bottom—up partitioning. A new multilevel partitioning algorithm, named betweenness-based partitioning algorithm, is also presented as an implementation of top—down partitioning paradigm. An experimental evaluation of seven different real-world scale-free networks shows that the betweenness-based partitioning algorithm significantly outperforms the existing state-of-the-art approaches. (interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

Separation of soil respiration: a site-specific comparison of partition methods

Science.gov (United States)

Comeau, Louis-Pierre; Lai, Derrick Y. F.; Jinglan Cui, Jane; Farmer, Jenny

2018-06-01

Without accurate data on soil heterotrophic respiration (Rh), assessments of soil carbon (C) sequestration rate and C balance are challenging to produce. Accordingly, it is essential to determine the contribution of the different sources of the total soil CO2 efflux (Rs) in different ecosystems, but to date, there are still many uncertainties and unknowns regarding the soil respiration partitioning procedures currently available. This study compared the suitability and relative accuracy of five different Rs partitioning methods in a subtropical forest: (1) regression between root biomass and CO2 efflux, (2) lab incubations with minimally disturbed soil microcosm cores, (3) root exclusion bags with hand-sorted roots, (4) root exclusion bags with intact soil blocks and (5) soil δ13C-CO2 natural abundance. The relationship between Rh and soil moisture and temperature was also investigated. A qualitative evaluation table of the partition methods with five performance parameters was produced. The Rs was measured weekly from 3 February to 19 April 2017 and found to average 6.1 ± 0.3 Mg C ha-1 yr-1. During this period, the Rh measured with the in situ mesh bags with intact soil blocks and hand-sorted roots was estimated to contribute 49 ± 7 and 79 ± 3 % of Rs, respectively. The Rh percentages estimated with the root biomass regression, microcosm incubation and δ13C-CO2 natural abundance were 54 ± 41, 8-17 and 61 ± 39 %, respectively. Overall, no systematically superior or inferior Rs partition method was found. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each technique with the conclusion that combining two or more methods optimizes Rh assessment reliability.

Plane partition vesicles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rensburg, E J Janse van; Ma, J

2006-01-01

We examine partitions and their natural three-dimensional generalizations, plane partitions, as models of vesicles undergoing an inflation-deflation transition. The phase diagrams of these models include a critical point corresponding to an inflation-deflation transition, and exhibits multicritical scaling in the vicinity of a multicritical point located elsewhere on the critical curve. We determine the locations of the multicritical points by analysing the generating functions using analytic and numerical means. In addition, we determine the numerical values of the multicritical scaling exponents associated with the multicritical scaling regimes in these models

The importance of applying an appropriate data partitioning

CERN Document Server

Dimitrov, Gancho; The ATLAS collaboration

2015-01-01

In this presentation are described specific technical solutions put in place in various database applications of the ATLAS experiment at LHC where we make use of several partitioning techniques available in Oracle 11g. With the broadly used range partitioning and its option of automatic interval partitioning we add our own logic in PLSQL procedures and scheduler jobs to sustain data sliding windows in order to enforce various data retention policies. We also make use of the new Oracle 11g reference partitioning in the ATLAS Nightly Build System to achieve uniform data segmentation. However the most challenging was to segment the data of the new ATLAS Distributed Data Management system, which resulted in tens of thousands list type partitions and sub-partitions. Partition and sub-partition management, index strategy, statistics gathering and queries execution plan stability are important factors when choosing an appropriate physical model for the application data management. The so-far accumulated knowledge wi...

Carbonic anhydrase III regulates peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-{gamma}2

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mitterberger, Maria C. [Cell Metabolism and Differentiation Research Group, Institute for Biomedical Aging Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 6020 Innsbruck (Austria); Kim, Geumsoo [Laboratory of Biochemistry, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-8012 (United States); Rostek, Ursula [Cell Metabolism and Differentiation Research Group, Institute for Biomedical Aging Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 6020 Innsbruck (Austria); Levine, Rodney L. [Laboratory of Biochemistry, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-8012 (United States); Zwerschke, Werner, E-mail: werner.zwerschke@oeaw.ac.at [Cell Metabolism and Differentiation Research Group, Institute for Biomedical Aging Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 6020 Innsbruck (Austria)

2012-05-01

Carbonic anhydrase III (CAIII) is an isoenzyme of the CA family. Because of its low specific anhydrase activity, physiological functions in addition to hydrating CO{sub 2} have been proposed. CAIII expression is highly induced in adipogenesis and CAIII is the most abundant protein in adipose tissues. The function of CAIII in both preadipocytes and adipocytes is however unknown. In the present study we demonstrate that adipogenesis is greatly increased in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) from CAIII knockout (KO) mice, as demonstrated by a greater than 10-fold increase in the induction of fatty acid-binding protein-4 (FABP4) and increased triglyceride formation in CAIII{sup -/-} MEFs compared with CAIII{sup +/+} cells. To address the underlying mechanism, we investigated the expression of the two adipogenic key regulators, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-{gamma}2 (PPAR{gamma}2) and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-{alpha}. We found a considerable (approximately 1000-fold) increase in the PPAR{gamma}2 expression in the CAIII{sup -/-} MEFs. Furthermore, RNAi-mediated knockdown of endogenous CAIII in NIH 3T3-L1 preadipocytes resulted in a significant increase in the induction of PPAR{gamma}2 and FABP4. When both CAIII and PPAR{gamma}2 were knocked down, FABP4 was not induced. We conclude that down-regulation of CAIII in preadipocytes enhances adipogenesis and that CAIII is a regulator of adipogenic differentiation which acts at the level of PPAR{gamma}2 gene expression. -- Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We discover a novel function of Carbonic anhydrase III (CAIII). Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We show that CAIII is a regulator of adipogenesis. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We demonstrate that CAIII acts at the level of PPAR{gamma}2 gene expression. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Our data contribute to a better understanding of the role of CAIII in fat tissue.

Effects of sediment composition on inorganic mercury partitioning, speciation and bioavailability in oxic surficial sediments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhong Huan; Wang Wenxiong

2008-01-01

Artificially prepared sediments were used to assess the effects of sediment composition on inorganic Hg partitioning, speciation and bioavailability. Organic coating in sediment greatly increased the Hg partitioning and the amount of bioavailable Hg bound with the clay and the Fe and Mn oxides, but had little effect on that bound with the quartz and calcium carbonate as a result of weaker binding of humic acids and fulvic acids. The clay content increased the concentration of Hg in the sediments but inhibited the gut juice extraction due to the strong binding of Hg-organic matter (OM) complexes. Most Hg in the sediments was complexed by OM (mainly distributed in the organo-complexed phase and the strongly complexed phase), and the Hg-OM complexes (especially Hg in the strongly complexed phase) in sediments contributed much to gut juice extraction. Redistribution of Hg-OM complexes between sediments and gut juices may occur during gut juice extraction and modify Hg bioavailability and speciation in sediments. - Organic and clay contents in sediments are the two most important components controlling Hg partitioning in sediments and bioavailability

Present status of partitioning developments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakamura, Haruto; Kubota, Masumitsu; Tachimori, Shoichi

1978-09-01

Evolution and development of the concept of partitioning of high-level liquid wastes (HLLW) in nuclear fuel reprocessing are reviewed historically from the early phase of separating useful radioisotopes from HLLW to the recent phase of eliminating hazardous nuclides such as transuranium elements for safe waste disposal. Since the criteria in determining the nuclides for elimination and the respective decontamination factors are important in the strategy of partitioning, current views on the criteria are summarized. As elimination of the transuranium is most significant in the partitioning, various methods available of separating them from fission products are evaluated. (auth.)

Classification algorithms using adaptive partitioning

KAUST Repository

Binev, Peter; Cohen, Albert; Dahmen, Wolfgang; DeVore, Ronald

2014-01-01

© 2014 Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Algorithms for binary classification based on adaptive tree partitioning are formulated and analyzed for both their risk performance and their friendliness to numerical implementation. The algorithms can be viewed as generating a set approximation to the Bayes set and thus fall into the general category of set estimators. In contrast with the most studied tree-based algorithms, which utilize piecewise constant approximation on the generated partition [IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 52 (2006) 1335.1353; Mach. Learn. 66 (2007) 209.242], we consider decorated trees, which allow us to derive higher order methods. Convergence rates for these methods are derived in terms the parameter - of margin conditions and a rate s of best approximation of the Bayes set by decorated adaptive partitions. They can also be expressed in terms of the Besov smoothness β of the regression function that governs its approximability by piecewise polynomials on adaptive partition. The execution of the algorithms does not require knowledge of the smoothness or margin conditions. Besov smoothness conditions are weaker than the commonly used Holder conditions, which govern approximation by nonadaptive partitions, and therefore for a given regression function can result in a higher rate of convergence. This in turn mitigates the compatibility conflict between smoothness and margin parameters.

Classification algorithms using adaptive partitioning

KAUST Repository

Binev, Peter

2014-12-01

© 2014 Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Algorithms for binary classification based on adaptive tree partitioning are formulated and analyzed for both their risk performance and their friendliness to numerical implementation. The algorithms can be viewed as generating a set approximation to the Bayes set and thus fall into the general category of set estimators. In contrast with the most studied tree-based algorithms, which utilize piecewise constant approximation on the generated partition [IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 52 (2006) 1335.1353; Mach. Learn. 66 (2007) 209.242], we consider decorated trees, which allow us to derive higher order methods. Convergence rates for these methods are derived in terms the parameter - of margin conditions and a rate s of best approximation of the Bayes set by decorated adaptive partitions. They can also be expressed in terms of the Besov smoothness β of the regression function that governs its approximability by piecewise polynomials on adaptive partition. The execution of the algorithms does not require knowledge of the smoothness or margin conditions. Besov smoothness conditions are weaker than the commonly used Holder conditions, which govern approximation by nonadaptive partitions, and therefore for a given regression function can result in a higher rate of convergence. This in turn mitigates the compatibility conflict between smoothness and margin parameters.

Partitioning of water flux in a Sierra Nevada ponderosa pine plantation

Science.gov (United States)

Kurpius, M.R.; Panek, J.A.; Nikolov, N.T.; McKay, M.; Goldstein, Allen H.

2003-01-01

The weather patterns of the west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (cold, wet winters and hot, dry summers) strongly influence how water is partitioned between transpiration and evaporation and result in a specific strategy of water use by ponderosa pine trees (Pinus ponderosa) in this region. To investigate how year-round water fluxes were partitioned in a young ponderosa pine ecosystem in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, water fluxes were continually measured from June 2000 to May 2001 using a combination of sap flow and eddy covariance techniques (above- and below-canopy). Water fluxes were modeled at our study site using a biophysical model, FORFLUX. During summer and fall water fluxes were equally partitioned between transpiration and soil evaporation while transpiration dominated the water fluxes in winter and spring. The trees had high rates of canopy conductance and transpiration in the early morning and mid-late afternoon and a mid-day depression during the dry season. We used a diurnal centroid analysis to show that the timing of high canopy conductance and transpiration relative to high vapor pressure deficit (D) shifted with soil moisture: during periods of low soil moisture canopy conductance and transpiration peaked early in the day when D was low. Conversely, during periods of high soil moisture canopy conductance and transpiration peaked at the same time or later in the day than D. Our observations suggest a general strategy by the pine trees in which they maximize stomatal conductance, and therefore carbon fixation, throughout the day on warm sunny days with high soil moisture (i.e. warm periods in winter and late spring) and maximize stomatal conductance and carbon fixation in the morning through the dry periods. FORFLUX model estimates of evaporation and transpiration were close to measured/calculated values during the dry period, including the drought, but underestimated transpiration and overestimated evaporation during the wet period. ?? 2003

Transcriptional regulation of respiration in yeast metabolizing differently repressive carbon substrates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fendt Sarah-Maria

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Depending on the carbon source, Saccharomyces cerevisiae displays various degrees of respiration. These range from complete respiration as in the case of ethanol, to almost complete fermentation, and thus very low degrees of respiration on glucose. While many key regulators are known for these extreme cases, we focus here on regulators that are relevant at intermediate levels of respiration. Results We address this question by linking the functional degree of respiration to transcriptional regulation via enzyme abundances. Specifically, we investigated aerobic batch cultures with the differently repressive carbon sources glucose, mannose, galactose and pyruvate. Based on 13C flux analysis, we found that the respiratory contribution to cellular energy production was largely absent on glucose and mannose, intermediate on galactose and highest on pyruvate. In vivo abundances of 40 respiratory enzymes were quantified by GFP-fusions under each condition. During growth on the partly and fully respired substrates galactose and pyruvate, several TCA cycle and respiratory chain enzymes were significantly up-regulated. From these enzyme levels and the known regulatory network structure, we determined the probability for a given transcription factor to cause the coordinated expression changes. The most probable transcription factors to regulate the different degrees of respiration were Gcr1p, Cat8p, the Rtg-proteins and the Hap-complex. For the latter three ones we confirmed their importance for respiration by quantifying the degree of respiration and biomass yields in the corresponding deletion strains. Conclusions Cat8p is required for wild-type like respiration, independent of its known activation of gluconeogenic genes. The Rtg-proteins and the Hap-complex are essential for wild-type like respiration under partially respiratory conditions. Under fully respiratory conditions, the Hap-complex, but not the Rtg-proteins are essential

Transcriptional regulation of respiration in yeast metabolizing differently repressive carbon substrates.

Science.gov (United States)

Fendt, Sarah-Maria; Sauer, Uwe

2010-02-18

Depending on the carbon source, Saccharomyces cerevisiae displays various degrees of respiration. These range from complete respiration as in the case of ethanol, to almost complete fermentation, and thus very low degrees of respiration on glucose. While many key regulators are known for these extreme cases, we focus here on regulators that are relevant at intermediate levels of respiration. We address this question by linking the functional degree of respiration to transcriptional regulation via enzyme abundances. Specifically, we investigated aerobic batch cultures with the differently repressive carbon sources glucose, mannose, galactose and pyruvate. Based on 13C flux analysis, we found that the respiratory contribution to cellular energy production was largely absent on glucose and mannose, intermediate on galactose and highest on pyruvate. In vivo abundances of 40 respiratory enzymes were quantified by GFP-fusions under each condition. During growth on the partly and fully respired substrates galactose and pyruvate, several TCA cycle and respiratory chain enzymes were significantly up-regulated. From these enzyme levels and the known regulatory network structure, we determined the probability for a given transcription factor to cause the coordinated expression changes. The most probable transcription factors to regulate the different degrees of respiration were Gcr1p, Cat8p, the Rtg-proteins and the Hap-complex. For the latter three ones we confirmed their importance for respiration by quantifying the degree of respiration and biomass yields in the corresponding deletion strains. Cat8p is required for wild-type like respiration, independent of its known activation of gluconeogenic genes. The Rtg-proteins and the Hap-complex are essential for wild-type like respiration under partially respiratory conditions. Under fully respiratory conditions, the Hap-complex, but not the Rtg-proteins are essential for respiration.

Summer-winter concentrations and gas-particle partitioning of short chain chlorinated paraffins in the atmosphere of an urban setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Thanh; Han, Shanlong; Yuan, Bo; Zeng, Lixi; Li, Yingming; Wang, Yawei; Jiang, Guibin

2012-12-01

Short chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) are semi-volatile chemicals that are considered persistent in the environment, potential toxic and subject to long-range transport. This study investigates the concentrations and gas-particle partitioning of SCCPs at an urban site in Beijing during summer and wintertime. The total atmospheric SCCP levels ranged 1.9-33.0 ng/m(3) during wintertime. Significantly higher levels were found during the summer (range 112-332 ng/m(3)). The average fraction of total SCCPs in the particle phase (ϕ) was 0.67 during wintertime but decreased significantly during the summer (ϕ = 0.06). The ten and eleven carbon chain homologues with five to eight chlorine atoms were the predominant SCCP formula groups in air. Significant linear correlations were found between the gas-particle partition coefficients and the predicted subcooled vapor pressures and octanol-air partition coefficients. The gas-particle partitioning of SCCPs was further investigated and compared with both the Junge-Pankow adsorption and K(oa)-based absorption models. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Integrated proteomics and metabolomics suggests symbiotic metabolism and multimodal regulation in a fungal-endobacterial system.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhou; Yao, Qiuming; Dearth, Stephen P; Entler, Matthew R; Castro Gonzalez, Hector F; Uehling, Jessie K; Vilgalys, Rytas J; Hurst, Gregory B; Campagna, Shawn R; Labbé, Jessy L; Pan, Chongle

2017-03-01

Many plant-associated fungi host endosymbiotic endobacteria with reduced genomes. While endobacteria play important roles in these tri-partite plant-fungal-endobacterial systems, the active physiology of fungal endobacteria has not been characterized extensively by systems biology approaches. Here, we use integrated proteomics and metabolomics to characterize the relationship between the endobacterium Mycoavidus sp. and the root-associated fungus Mortierella elongata. In nitrogen-poor media, M. elongata had decreased growth but hosted a large and growing endobacterial population. The active endobacterium likely extracted malate from the fungal host as the primary carbon substrate for energy production and biosynthesis of phospho-sugars, nucleobases, peptidoglycan and some amino acids. The endobacterium obtained nitrogen by importing a variety of nitrogen-containing compounds. Further, nitrogen limitation significantly perturbed the carbon and nitrogen flows in the fungal metabolic network. M. elongata regulated many pathways by concordant changes on enzyme abundances, post-translational modifications, reactant concentrations and allosteric effectors. Such multimodal regulations may be a general mechanism for metabolic modulation. © 2016 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Benefits of Adaptive Partitioning for Parallel AMR Applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steensland, Johan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States). Advanced Software Research and Development

2008-07-01

Parallel adaptive mesh refinement methods potentially lead to realistic modeling of complex three-dimensional physical phenomena. However, the dynamics inherent in these methods present significant challenges in data partitioning and load balancing. Significant human resources, including time, effort, experience, and knowledge, are required for determining the optimal partitioning technique for each new simulation. In reality, scientists resort to using the on-board partitioner of the computational framework, or to using the partitioning industry standard, ParMetis. Adaptive partitioning refers to repeatedly selecting, configuring and invoking the optimal partitioning technique at run-time, based on the current state of the computer and application. In theory, adaptive partitioning automatically delivers superior performance and eliminates the need for repeatedly spending valuable human resources for determining the optimal static partitioning technique. In practice, however, enabling frameworks are non-existent due to the inherent significant inter-disciplinary research challenges. This paper presents a study of a simple implementation of adaptive partitioning and discusses implied potential benefits from the perspective of common groups of users within computational science. The study is based on a large set of data derived from experiments including six real-life, multi-time-step adaptive applications from various scientific domains, five complementing and fundamentally different partitioning techniques, a large set of parameters corresponding to a wide spectrum of computing environments, and a flexible cost function that considers the relative impact of multiple partitioning metrics and diverse partitioning objectives. The results show that even a simple implementation of adaptive partitioning can automatically generate results statistically equivalent to the best static partitioning. Thus, it is possible to effectively eliminate the problem of determining the

Limiting partition coefficients of sulfur-containing aromatics in a biphasic [bmim][MeSO4]-supercritical CO(2) system

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Planeta, Josef; Šťavíková, Lenka; Karásek, Pavel; Roth, Michal

2011-01-01

Roč. 56, č. 3 (2011), s. 527-531 ISSN 0021-9568 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA203/08/1465 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40310501 Keywords : ionic liquid * supercritical carbon dioxide * solute partitioning Subject RIV: CB - Analytical Chemistry, Separation Impact factor: 1.693, year: 2011

Lipid membrane partitioning of lysolipids and fatty acids: Effects of membrane phase structure and detergent chain length

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Høyrup, Lise Pernille Kristine; Davidsen, Jesper; Jørgensen, Kent

2001-01-01

gel phase and at high temperatures in the disordered fluid phase of the phospholipid membrane vesicles. The long saturated acyl chains of the lysolipids and fatty acids varied from 10 to 16 carbon atoms and all titrations were performed below the critical micellar concentrations (cmc...... of magnitude higher when the saturated acyl chain of the detergents increases by two carbon atoms. The obtained partition coefficients are of importance in relation to a deeper understanding of the interplay between global aqueous and local membrane concentrations of the detergents and the functional influence...

Partitioning of etofenprox under simulated California rice-growing conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Vasquez, Martice E; Gunasekara, Amrith S; Cahill, Thomas M; Tjeerdema, Ronald S

2010-01-01

The pyrethroid insecticide etofenprox is of current interest to rice farmers in the Sacramento Valley owing to its effectiveness against the rice water weevil, Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus Kuschel. This study aimed to describe the partitioning of etofenprox under simulated rice field conditions by determining its Henry's law constant (H) (an estimate of volatilization) and organic carbon-normalized soil-water distribution coefficient (K(oc)) at representative field temperatures. A comparison of etofenprox and lambda-cyhalothrin is presented using a level-1 fugacity model. Experimental determination of H revealed that etofenprox partitioned onto the apparatus walls and did not significantly volatilize; the maximum value of H was estimated to be 6.81 x 10(-1) Pa m(3) mol(-1) at 25 degrees C, based on its air and water method detection limits. Calculated values for H ranged from 5.6 x 10(-3) Pa m(3) mol(-1) at 5 degrees C to 2.9 x 10(-1) Pa m(3) mol(-1) at 40 degrees C, based on estimated solubility and vapor pressure values at various temperatures. Log K(oc) values (at 25 degrees C) were experimentally determined to be 6.0 and 6.4 for Princeton and Richvale rice field soils, respectively, and were very similar to the values for other pyrethroids. Finally, temperature appears to have little influence on etofenprox sorption, as the log K(oc) for the Princeton soil at 35 degrees C was 6.1. High sorption coefficients and relatively insignificant desorption and volatilization of etofenprox suggest that its insolubility drives it to partition from water by sorbing to soils with high affinity. Offsite movement is unlikely unless transported in a bound state on suspended sediments.

Gentile statistics and restricted partitions

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

The partition function of Gentile statistics also has the property that it nicely interpolates between the ... We now construct the partition function for such a system which also incorporates the property of interpolation ... As in [4], we however keep s arbitrary even though for s > 2 there are no quadratic. Hamiltonian systems.

The importance of having an appropriate data segmentation (partitioning)

CERN Document Server

Dimitrov, Gancho; The ATLAS collaboration

2014-01-01

In this presentation will be shown real life examples from database applications in the ATLAS experiment @ LHC where we make use of many Oracle partitioning techniques available in Oracle 11g. With the broadly used range partitioning and its option of automatic interval partitioning we add our own logic in PLSQL for sustaining data sliding windows in order to enforce various data retention policies. We also make use of the reference partitioning in some use cases, however the most challenging was to segment the data of a large bookkeeping system which resulted in tens of thousands list partitions and list sub-partitions. Partition and sub-partition management, index strategy, statistics gathering and queries execution plan stability are important factors when choosing an appropriate for the use case data management model. The gained experience with all of those will be shared with the audience.

Generating Milton Babbitt's all-partition arrays

OpenAIRE

Bemman, Brian; Meredith, David

2016-01-01

In most of Milton Babbitt's (1916–2011) works written since the early 1960s, both the pitch and rhythmic content is organized according to a highly constrained structure known as the all-partition array. The all-partition array provides a framework that ensures that as many different forms of a tone row as possible (generated by any combination of transposition, inversion or reversal) are expressed 'horizontally' and that each integer partition of 12 whose cardinality is no greater than the n...

Lift of dilogarithm to partition identities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terhoeven, M.

1992-11-01

For the whole set of dilogarithm identities found recently using the thermodynamic Bethe-Ansatz for the ADET series of purely elastic scattering theories we give partition identities which involve characters of those conformal field theories which correspond to the UV-limits of the scattering theories. These partition identities in turn allow to derive the dilogarithm identities using modular invariance and a saddle point approximation. We conjecture on possible generalizations of this correspondance, namely, a lift from dilogarithm to partition identities. (orig.)

Determination of solid-liquid partition coefficients (Kd) for the herbicides inspiration and trifluralin in five UK agricultural soils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cooke, Cindy M.; Shaw, George; Collins, Chris D.

2004-01-01

Isoproturon and trifluralin are herbicides of contrasting chemical characters and modes of action. Standard batch sorption procedures were carried out to investigate the individual sorption behaviour of 14 C-isoproturon and 14 C-trifluralin in five agricultural soils (1.8-4.2% OC), and the soil solid-liquid partition coefficients (K d values) were determined. Trifluralin exhibited strong partitioning to the soil solid phase (K d range 106-294) and low desorption potential, thus should not pose a threat to sensitive waters via leaching, although particle erosion and preferential flow pathways may facilitate transport. For isoproturon, soil adsorption was low (K d range 1.96-5.75) and desorption was high, suggesting a high leaching potential, consistent with isoproturon being the most frequently found pesticide in UK surface waters. Soil partitioning was directly related to soil organic carbon (OC) content. Accumulation isotherms were modelled using a dual-phase adsorption model to estimate adsorption and desorption rate coefficients. Associations between herbicides and soil humic substances were also shown using gel filtration chromatography. - Capsule: Herbicide soil sorption described by a dual-phase adsorption model reflected soil partitioning, as influenced by soil OC and humic substances

Leaf nitrogen assimilation and partitioning differ among subtropical forest plants in response to canopy addition of nitrogen treatments

Science.gov (United States)

Nan Liu; Shuhua Wu; Qinfeng Guo; Jiaxin Wang; Ce Cao; Jun Wang

2018-01-01

Global increases in nitrogen deposition may alter forest structure and function by interferingwith plant nitrogen metabolism (e.g., assimilation and partitioning) and subsequent carbon assimilation, but it is unclear how these responses to nitrogen deposition differ among species. In this study, we conducted a 2-year experiment to investigate the effects of canopy...

Data Partitioning Technique for Improved Video Prioritization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ismail Amin Ali

2017-07-01

Full Text Available A compressed video bitstream can be partitioned according to the coding priority of the data, allowing prioritized wireless communication or selective dropping in a congested channel. Known as data partitioning in the H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC codec, this paper introduces a further sub-partition of one of the H.264/AVC codec’s three data-partitions. Results show a 5 dB improvement in Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR through this innovation. In particular, the data partition containing intra-coded residuals is sub-divided into data from: those macroblocks (MBs naturally intra-coded, and those MBs forcibly inserted for non-periodic intra-refresh. Interactive user-to-user video streaming can benefit, as then HTTP adaptive streaming is inappropriate and the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC codec is too energy demanding.

EXTENSION OF FORMULAS FOR PARTITION FUNCTIONS

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Ladan et al.

2Department of Mathematics, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. ... 2 + 1 + 1. = 1 + 1 + 1 + 1. Partition function ( ). Andrew and Erikson (2004) stated that the ..... Andrews, G.E., 1984, The Theory of Partitions, Cambridge ... Pure Appl. Math.

Summer–winter concentrations and gas-particle partitioning of short chain chlorinated paraffins in the atmosphere of an urban setting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Thanh; Han Shanlong; Yuan Bo; Zeng Lixi; Li Yingming; Wang Yawei; Jiang Guibin

2012-01-01

Short chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) are semi-volatile chemicals that are considered persistent in the environment, potential toxic and subject to long-range transport. This study investigates the concentrations and gas-particle partitioning of SCCPs at an urban site in Beijing during summer and wintertime. The total atmospheric SCCP levels ranged 1.9–33.0 ng/m 3 during wintertime. Significantly higher levels were found during the summer (range 112–332 ng/m 3 ). The average fraction of total SCCPs in the particle phase (φ) was 0.67 during wintertime but decreased significantly during the summer (φ = 0.06). The ten and eleven carbon chain homologues with five to eight chlorine atoms were the predominant SCCP formula groups in air. Significant linear correlations were found between the gas-particle partition coefficients and the predicted subcooled vapor pressures and octanol–air partition coefficients. The gas-particle partitioning of SCCPs was further investigated and compared with both the Junge–Pankow adsorption and K oa -based absorption models. - Highlights: ► Short chain chlorinated paraffins were investigated in air samples from Beijing. ► Higher levels of SCCPs were found in air during summertime than wintertime. ► Relevant physical–chemical properties were estimated by SPARC and EPI Suite. ► Obtained data were used to model the gas-particle partitioning of SCCPs. - Atmospheric levels and gas-particle partitioning of SCCPs in Beijing, China.

The partition dimension of cycle books graph

Science.gov (United States)

Santoso, Jaya; Darmaji

2018-03-01

Let G be a nontrivial and connected graph with vertex set V(G), edge set E(G) and S ⊆ V(G) with v ∈ V(G), the distance between v and S is d(v,S) = min{d(v,x)|x ∈ S}. For an ordered partition ∏ = {S 1, S 2, S 3,…, Sk } of V(G), the representation of v with respect to ∏ is defined by r(v|∏) = (d(v, S 1), d(v, S 2),…, d(v, Sk )). The partition ∏ is called a resolving partition of G if all representations of vertices are distinct. The partition dimension pd(G) is the smallest integer k such that G has a resolving partition set with k members. In this research, we will determine the partition dimension of Cycle Books {B}{Cr,m}. Cycle books graph {B}{Cr,m} is a graph consisting of m copies cycle Cr with the common path P 2. It is shown that the partition dimension of cycle books graph, pd({B}{C3,m}) is 3 for m = 2, 3, and m for m ≥ 4. pd({B}{C4,m}) is 3 + 2k for m = 3k + 2, 4 + 2(k ‑ 1) for m = 3k + 1, and 3 + 2(k ‑ 1) for m = 3k. pd({B}{C5,m}) is m + 1.

Quantum Dilogarithms and Partition q-Series

Science.gov (United States)

Kato, Akishi; Terashima, Yuji

2015-08-01

In our previous work (Kato and Terashima, Commun Math Phys. arXiv:1403.6569, 2014), we introduced the partition q-series for mutation loop γ—a loop in exchange quiver. In this paper, we show that for a certain class of mutation sequences, called reddening sequences, the graded version of partition q-series essentially coincides with the ordered product of quantum dilogarithm associated with each mutation; the partition q-series provides a state-sum description of combinatorial Donaldson-Thomas invariants introduced by Keller.

A statistical mechanical approach to restricted integer partition functions

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Chi-Chun; Dai, Wu-Sheng

2018-05-01

The main aim of this paper is twofold: (1) suggesting a statistical mechanical approach to the calculation of the generating function of restricted integer partition functions which count the number of partitions—a way of writing an integer as a sum of other integers under certain restrictions. In this approach, the generating function of restricted integer partition functions is constructed from the canonical partition functions of various quantum gases. (2) Introducing a new type of restricted integer partition functions corresponding to general statistics which is a generalization of Gentile statistics in statistical mechanics; many kinds of restricted integer partition functions are special cases of this restricted integer partition function. Moreover, with statistical mechanics as a bridge, we reveal a mathematical fact: the generating function of restricted integer partition function is just the symmetric function which is a class of functions being invariant under the action of permutation groups. Using this approach, we provide some expressions of restricted integer partition functions as examples.

Spatially Partitioned Embedded Runge--Kutta Methods

KAUST Repository

Ketcheson, David I.

2013-10-30

We study spatially partitioned embedded Runge--Kutta (SPERK) schemes for partial differential equations (PDEs), in which each of the component schemes is applied over a different part of the spatial domain. Such methods may be convenient for problems in which the smoothness of the solution or the magnitudes of the PDE coefficients vary strongly in space. We focus on embedded partitioned methods as they offer greater efficiency and avoid the order reduction that may occur in nonembedded schemes. We demonstrate that the lack of conservation in partitioned schemes can lead to nonphysical effects and propose conservative additive schemes based on partitioning the fluxes rather than the ordinary differential equations. A variety of SPERK schemes are presented, including an embedded pair suitable for the time evolution of fifth-order weighted nonoscillatory spatial discretizations. Numerical experiments are provided to support the theory.

Spatially Partitioned Embedded Runge--Kutta Methods

KAUST Repository

Ketcheson, David I.; MacDonald, Colin B.; Ruuth, Steven J.

2013-01-01

We study spatially partitioned embedded Runge--Kutta (SPERK) schemes for partial differential equations (PDEs), in which each of the component schemes is applied over a different part of the spatial domain. Such methods may be convenient for problems in which the smoothness of the solution or the magnitudes of the PDE coefficients vary strongly in space. We focus on embedded partitioned methods as they offer greater efficiency and avoid the order reduction that may occur in nonembedded schemes. We demonstrate that the lack of conservation in partitioned schemes can lead to nonphysical effects and propose conservative additive schemes based on partitioning the fluxes rather than the ordinary differential equations. A variety of SPERK schemes are presented, including an embedded pair suitable for the time evolution of fifth-order weighted nonoscillatory spatial discretizations. Numerical experiments are provided to support the theory.

Partitioning of net carbon dioxide flux measured by automatic transparent chamber

Science.gov (United States)

Dyukarev, EA

2018-03-01

Mathematical model was developed for describing carbon dioxide fluxes at open sedge-sphagnum fen during growing season. The model was calibrated using the results of observations from automatic transparent chamber and it allows us to estimate autotrophic, heterotrophic and ecosystem respiration fluxes, gross and net primary vegetation production, and the net carbon balance.

Quench and partitioning steel: a new AHSS concept for automotive anti-intrusion applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

De Cooman, B.C. [Graduate Inst. for Ferrous Technology, Pohang Univ. of Science and Technology, Pohang (Korea); Speer, J.G. [Advanced Steel Processing and Products Research Centre, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)

2006-09-15

A new type of high strength, high toughness, martensitic steel, based on a newly proposed quench and partitioning (Q and P) process, is presented. This high strength martensitic grade is produced by the controlled low temperature partitioning of carbon from as-quenched martensite laths to retained inter-lath austenite under conditions where both low temperature transition carbide formation and cementite precipitation are suppressed. The contribution focuses on both the current understanding of the fundamental processes involved and includes a discussion of the technical feasibility of large-scale industrial production of these steels as sheet products. The Q and P process, which is carried out on steels with a lean composition, should be implemented easily on some current industrial continuous annealing and galvanizing lines. In addition, martensitic Q and P sheet steel is characterized by very favourable combinations of strength, ductility and toughness, which are particularly relevant for high strength anti-intrusion automotive parts. (orig.)

Excellent mechanical properties and resistance to cavitation erosion for an ultra-low carbon CrMnN stainless steel through quenching and partitioning treatment

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Ze-an; Fu, Wan-tang; Zhu, Zhe; Li, Bin; Shi, Zhong-ping; Sun, Shu-hua

2018-05-01

The retained austenite content (RAC), the mechanical properties, and the resistance to cavitation erosion (CE) of the 00Cr13Mn8MoN steel after quenching and partitioning (Q&P) processing were investigated. The results show that the Q&P process affected the RAC, which reached the maximum value after partitioning at 400°C for 10 min. The tensile strength of the steel slightly decreased with increasing partitioning temperature and time. However, the elongation and product of strength and elongation first increased and then decreased. The sample partitioned at 400°C for 10 min exhibited the optimal property: a strength-ductility of 23.8 GPa·%. The resistance to CE for the 00Cr13Mn8MoN steel treated by the Q&P process was improved due to work hardening, spalling, and cavitation-induced martensitic transformation of the retained austenite.

Dynamics of vacuum-sealed, double-leaf partitions

Science.gov (United States)

Kavanaugh, Joshua Stephen

The goal of this research is to investigate the feasibility and potential effectiveness of using vacuum-sealed, double-leaf partitions for applications in noise control. Substantial work has been done previously on double-leaf partitions where the acoustics of the inner chamber and mechanical vibrations of structural supports are passively and actively controlled. The work presented here is unique in that the proposed system aims to eliminate the need for active acoustic control of transmitted acoustic energy by removing all the air between the two panels of the double partition. Therefore, the only remaining energy paths would be along the boundary and at the points where there are intermediate structural supports connecting the two panels. The eventual goal of the research is to develop a high-loss double-leaf partition that simplifies active control by removing the need for control of the air cavity and channeling all the energy into discrete structural paths. The work presented here is a first step towards the goal of designing a high-loss, actively-controlled double-leaf partition with an air-evacuated inner chamber. One experiment is conducted to investigate the effects of various levels of vacuum on the response of a double-leaf partition whose panels are mechanically coupled only at the boundary. Another experiment is conducted which investigates the effect of changing the stiffness of an intermediate support coupling the two panels of a double-leaf partition in which a vacuum has been applied to the inner cavity. The available equipment was able to maintain a 99% vacuum between the panels. Both experiments are accompanied by analytical models used to investigate the importance of various dynamic parameters. Results show that the vacuum-sealed system shows some potential for increased transmission loss, primarily by the changing the natural frequencies of the double-leaf partition.

Alternative oxidase in the branched mitochondrial respiratory network: an overview on structure, function, regulation, and role

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sluse F.E.

1998-01-01

Full Text Available Plants and some other organisms including protists possess a complex branched respiratory network in their mitochondria. Some pathways of this network are not energy-conserving and allow sites of energy conservation to be bypassed, leading to a decrease of the energy yield in the cells. It is a challenge to understand the regulation of the partitioning of electrons between the various energy-dissipating and -conserving pathways. This review is focused on the oxidase side of the respiratory chain that presents a cyanide-resistant energy-dissipating alternative oxidase (AOX besides the cytochrome pathway. The known structural properties of AOX are described including transmembrane topology, dimerization, and active sites. Regulation of the alternative oxidase activity is presented in detail because of its complexity. The alternative oxidase activity is dependent on substrate availability: total ubiquinone concentration and its redox state in the membrane and O2 concentration in the cell. The alternative oxidase activity can be long-term regulated (gene expression or short-term (post-translational modification, allosteric activation regulated. Electron distribution (partitioning between the alternative and cytochrome pathways during steady-state respiration is a crucial measurement to quantitatively analyze the effects of the various levels of regulation of the alternative oxidase. Three approaches are described with their specific domain of application and limitations: kinetic approach, oxygen isotope differential discrimination, and ADP/O method (thermokinetic approach. Lastly, the role of the alternative oxidase in non-thermogenic tissues is discussed in relation to the energy metabolism balance of the cell (supply in reducing equivalents/demand in energy and carbon and with harmful reactive oxygen species formation.

Partitions in languages and parallel computations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burgin, M S; Burgina, E S

1982-05-01

Partitions of entries (linguistic structures) are studied that are intended for parallel data processing. The representations of formal languages with the aid of such structures is examined, and the relationships are considered between partitions of entries and abstract families of languages and automata. 18 references.

Scheduling Driven Partitioning of Heterogeneous Embedded Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pop, Paul; Eles, Petru; Peng, Zebo

1998-01-01

In this paper we present an algorithm for system level hardware/software partitioning of heterogeneous embedded systems. The system is represented as an abstract graph which captures both data-flow and the flow of control. Given an architecture consisting of several processors, ASICs and shared...... busses, our partitioning algorithm finds the partitioning with the smallest hardware cost and is able to predict and guarantee the performance of the system in terms of worst case delay....

Partition functions for supersymmetric black holes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Manschot, J.

2008-01-01

This thesis presents a number of results on partition functions for four-dimensional supersymmetric black holes. These partition functions are important tools to explain the entropy of black holes from a microscopic point of view. Such a microscopic explanation was desired after the association of a

Aspects of system modelling in Hardware/Software partitioning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Peter Voigt; Madsen, Jan

1996-01-01

This paper addresses fundamental aspects of system modelling and partitioning algorithms in the area of Hardware/Software Codesign. Three basic system models for partitioning are presented and the consequences of partitioning according to each of these are analyzed. The analysis shows...... the importance of making a clear distinction between the model used for partitioning and the model used for evaluation It also illustrates the importance of having a realistic hardware model such that hardware sharing can be taken into account. Finally, the importance of integrating scheduling and allocation...

Generating Milton Babbitt's all-partition arrays

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bemman, Brian; Meredith, David

2016-01-01

In most of Milton Babbitt's (1916–2011) works written since the early 1960s, both the pitch and rhythmic content is organized according to a highly constrained structure known as the all-partition array. The all-partition array provides a framework that ensures that as many different forms...

Acidification, not carbonation, is the major regulator of carbon fluxes in the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi.

Science.gov (United States)

Kottmeier, Dorothee M; Rokitta, Sebastian D; Rost, Björn

2016-07-01

A combined increase in seawater [CO2 ] and [H(+) ] was recently shown to induce a shift from photosynthetic HCO3 (-) to CO2 uptake in Emiliania huxleyi. This shift occurred within minutes, whereas acclimation to ocean acidification (OA) did not affect the carbon source. To identify the driver of this shift, we exposed low- and high-light acclimated E. huxleyi to a matrix of two levels of dissolved inorganic carbon (1400, 2800 μmol kg(-1) ) and pH (8.15, 7.85) and directly measured cellular O2 , CO2 and HCO3 (-) fluxes under these conditions. Exposure to increased [CO2 ] had little effect on the photosynthetic fluxes, whereas increased [H(+) ] led to a significant decline in HCO3 (-) uptake. Low-light acclimated cells overcompensated for the inhibition of HCO3 (-) uptake by increasing CO2 uptake. High-light acclimated cells, relying on higher proportions of HCO3 (-) uptake, could not increase CO2 uptake and photosynthetic O2 evolution consequently became carbon-limited. These regulations indicate that OA responses in photosynthesis are caused by [H(+) ] rather than by [CO2 ]. The impaired HCO3 (-) uptake also provides a mechanistic explanation for lowered calcification under OA. Moreover, it explains the OA-dependent decrease in photosynthesis observed in high-light grown phytoplankton. © 2016 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust.

Visualising the equilibrium distribution and mobility of organic contaminants in soil using the chemical partitioning space.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Fiona; Wania, Frank

2011-06-01

Assessing the behaviour of organic chemicals in soil is a complex task as it is governed by the physical chemical properties of the chemicals, the characteristics of the soil as well as the ambient conditions of the environment. The chemical partitioning space, defined by the air-water partition coefficient (K(AW)) and the soil organic carbon-water partition coefficient (K(OC)), was employed to visualize the equilibrium distribution of organic contaminants between the air-filled pores, the pore water and the solid phases of the bulk soil and the relative importance of the three transport processes removing contaminants from soil (evaporation, leaching and particle erosion). The partitioning properties of twenty neutral organic chemicals (i.e. herbicides, pharmaceuticals, polychlorinated biphenyls and volatile chemicals) were estimated using poly-parameter linear free energy relationships and superimposed onto these maps. This allows instantaneous estimation of the equilibrium phase distribution and mobility of neutral organic chemicals in soil. Although there is a link between the major phase and the dominant transport process, such that chemicals found in air-filled pore space are subject to evaporation, those in water-filled pore space undergo leaching and those in the sorbed phase are associated with particle erosion, the partitioning coefficient thresholds for distribution and mobility can often deviate by many orders of magnitude. In particular, even a small fraction of chemical in pore water or pore air allows for evaporation and leaching to dominate over solid phase transport. Multiple maps that represent soils that differ in the amount and type of soil organic matter, water saturation, temperature, depth of surface soil horizon, and mineral matters were evaluated.

Uncertainties associated with lacking data for predictions of solid-solution partitioning of metals in soil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le, T.T. Yen; Hendriks, A. Jan

2014-01-01

Soil properties, i.e., pH and contents of soil organic matter (SOM), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), clay, oxides, and reactive metals, are required inputs to both mechanistic and empirical modeling in assessing metal solid-solution partitioning. Several of these properties are rarely measured in site-specific risk assessment. We compared the uncertainties induced by lacking data on these soil properties in estimating metal soil solution concentrations. The predictions by the Orchestra framework were more sensitive to lacking soil property data than the predictions by the transfer functions. The deviations between soil solution concentrations of Cd, Ni, Zn, Ba, and Co estimated with measured SOM and those estimated with generic SOM by the Orchestra framework were about 10 times larger than the deviations in the predictions by the transfer functions. High uncertainties were induced by lacking data in assessing solid-solution partitioning of oxy-anions like As, Mo, Sb, Se, and V. Deviations associated with lacking data in predicting soil solution concentrations of these metals by the Orchestra framework reached three-to-six orders of magnitude. The solid-solution partitioning of metal cations was strongly influenced by pH and contents of organic matter, oxides, and reactive metals. Deviations of more than two orders of magnitude were frequently observed between the estimates of soil solution concentrations with the generic values of these properties and the estimates based on the measured data. Reliable information on these properties is preferred to be included in the assessment by either the Orchestra framework or transfer functions. - Highlights: • Estimates of metal solid-solution partitioning sensitive to soil property data. • Uncertainty mainly due to lacking reactive metal contents, pH, and organic matter. • Soil solution concentrations of oxy-anions highly influenced by oxide contents. • Clay contents had least effects on solid-solution partitioning

Uncertainties associated with lacking data for predictions of solid-solution partitioning of metals in soil

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Le, T.T. Yen, E-mail: YenLe@science.ru.nl; Hendriks, A. Jan

2014-08-15

Soil properties, i.e., pH and contents of soil organic matter (SOM), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), clay, oxides, and reactive metals, are required inputs to both mechanistic and empirical modeling in assessing metal solid-solution partitioning. Several of these properties are rarely measured in site-specific risk assessment. We compared the uncertainties induced by lacking data on these soil properties in estimating metal soil solution concentrations. The predictions by the Orchestra framework were more sensitive to lacking soil property data than the predictions by the transfer functions. The deviations between soil solution concentrations of Cd, Ni, Zn, Ba, and Co estimated with measured SOM and those estimated with generic SOM by the Orchestra framework were about 10 times larger than the deviations in the predictions by the transfer functions. High uncertainties were induced by lacking data in assessing solid-solution partitioning of oxy-anions like As, Mo, Sb, Se, and V. Deviations associated with lacking data in predicting soil solution concentrations of these metals by the Orchestra framework reached three-to-six orders of magnitude. The solid-solution partitioning of metal cations was strongly influenced by pH and contents of organic matter, oxides, and reactive metals. Deviations of more than two orders of magnitude were frequently observed between the estimates of soil solution concentrations with the generic values of these properties and the estimates based on the measured data. Reliable information on these properties is preferred to be included in the assessment by either the Orchestra framework or transfer functions. - Highlights: • Estimates of metal solid-solution partitioning sensitive to soil property data. • Uncertainty mainly due to lacking reactive metal contents, pH, and organic matter. • Soil solution concentrations of oxy-anions highly influenced by oxide contents. • Clay contents had least effects on solid-solution partitioning

Determination of solid-liquid partition coefficients (K{sub d}) for the herbicides inspiration and trifluralin in five UK agricultural soils

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cooke, Cindy M. [Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY (United Kingdom)]. E-mail: cindy.cooke@imperial.ac.uk; Shaw, George [Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY (United Kingdom); Collins, Chris D. [Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY (United Kingdom)

2004-12-01

Isoproturon and trifluralin are herbicides of contrasting chemical characters and modes of action. Standard batch sorption procedures were carried out to investigate the individual sorption behaviour of {sup 14}C-isoproturon and {sup 14}C-trifluralin in five agricultural soils (1.8-4.2% OC), and the soil solid-liquid partition coefficients (K{sub d} values) were determined. Trifluralin exhibited strong partitioning to the soil solid phase (K{sub d} range 106-294) and low desorption potential, thus should not pose a threat to sensitive waters via leaching, although particle erosion and preferential flow pathways may facilitate transport. For isoproturon, soil adsorption was low (K{sub d} range 1.96-5.75) and desorption was high, suggesting a high leaching potential, consistent with isoproturon being the most frequently found pesticide in UK surface waters. Soil partitioning was directly related to soil organic carbon (OC) content. Accumulation isotherms were modelled using a dual-phase adsorption model to estimate adsorption and desorption rate coefficients. Associations between herbicides and soil humic substances were also shown using gel filtration chromatography. - Capsule: Herbicide soil sorption described by a dual-phase adsorption model reflected soil partitioning, as influenced by soil OC and humic substances.

Partitioning evapotranspiration using long-term carbon dioxide and water vapor fluxes

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Russell L.; Biederman, Joel A.

2017-07-01

The separate components of evapotranspiration (ET) elucidate the pathways and time scales over which water is returned to the atmosphere, but ecosystem-scale measurements of transpiration (T) and evaporation (E) remain elusive. We propose a novel determination of E and T using multiyear eddy covariance estimates of ET and gross ecosystem photosynthesis (GEP). The method is applicable at water-limited sites over time periods during which a linear regression between GEP (abscissa) and ET (ordinate) yields a positive ET axis intercept, an estimate of E. At four summer-rainfall semiarid sites, T/ET increases to a peak coincident with maximum GEP and remains elevated as the growing season progresses, consistent with previous, direct measurements. The seasonal course of T/ET is related to increasing leaf area index and declining frequency of rainy days—an index of the wet surface conditions that promote E—suggesting both surface and climatic controls on ET partitioning.

A flow-through aqueous standard generation system for thin film microextraction investigations of UV filters and biocides partitioning to different environmental compartments.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmadi, Fardin; Sparham, Chris; Pawliszyn, Janusz

2017-11-01

In this paper problems associated with preparation of aqueous standard of highly hydrophobic compounds such as partial precipitation, being lost on the surfaces, low solubility in water and limited sample volume for accurate determination of their distribution coefficients are addressed. The following work presents two approaches that utilize blade thin film microextraction (TFME) to investigate partitioning of UV filters and biocides to humic acid (dissolved organic carbon) and sediment. A steady-state concentration of target analytes in water was generated using a flow-through aqueous standard generation (ASG) system. Dialysis membranes, a polytetrafluoroethylene permeation tube, and a frit porous (0.5 μm) coated by epoxy glue were basic elements used for preparation of the ASG system. In the currently presented study, negligible depletion TFME using hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) and octadecyl silica-based (C18) sorbents was employed towards the attainment of free concentration values of target analytes in the studied matrices. Thin film geometry provided a large volume of extraction phase, which improved the sensitivity of the method towards highly matrix-bound analytes. Extractions were performed in the equilibrium regime so as to prevent matrix effects and with aims to reach maximum method sensitivity for all analytes under study. Partitioning of analytes on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was investigated in ASG to facilitate large sample volume conditions. Binding percentages and DOC distribution coefficients (Log K DOC ) ranged from 20 to 98% and 3.71-6.72, respectively. Furthermore, sediment-water partition coefficients (K d ), organic-carbon normalized partition coefficients (Log K OC ), and DOC distribution coefficients (Log K DOC ) were investigated in slurry sediment, and ranged from 33 to 2860, 3.31-5.24 and 4.52-5.75 Lkg -1 , respectively. The obtained results demonstrated that investigations utilizing ASG and TFME can yield reliable binding

Matrix string partition function

CERN Document Server

Kostov, Ivan K; Kostov, Ivan K.; Vanhove, Pierre

1998-01-01

We evaluate quasiclassically the Ramond partition function of Euclidean D=10 U(N) super Yang-Mills theory reduced to a two-dimensional torus. The result can be interpreted in terms of free strings wrapping the space-time torus, as expected from the point of view of Matrix string theory. We demonstrate that, when extrapolated to the ultraviolet limit (small area of the torus), the quasiclassical expressions reproduce exactly the recently obtained expression for the partition of the completely reduced SYM theory, including the overall numerical factor. This is an evidence that our quasiclassical calculation might be exact.

An Association-Oriented Partitioning Approach for Streaming Graph Query

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yun Hao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The volumes of real-world graphs like knowledge graph are increasing rapidly, which makes streaming graph processing a hot research area. Processing graphs in streaming setting poses significant challenges from different perspectives, among which graph partitioning method plays a key role. Regarding graph query, a well-designed partitioning method is essential for achieving better performance. Existing offline graph partitioning methods often require full knowledge of the graph, which is not possible during streaming graph processing. In order to handle this problem, we propose an association-oriented streaming graph partitioning method named Assc. This approach first computes the rank values of vertices with a hybrid approximate PageRank algorithm. After splitting these vertices with an adapted variant affinity propagation algorithm, the process order on vertices in the sliding window can be determined. Finally, according to the level of these vertices and their association, the partition where the vertices should be distributed is decided. We compare its performance with a set of streaming graph partition methods and METIS, a widely adopted offline approach. The results show that our solution can partition graphs with hundreds of millions of vertices in streaming setting on a large collection of graph datasets and our approach outperforms other graph partitioning methods.

Partitioning net ecosystem carbon exchange into net assimilation and respiration using 13CO2 measurements: A cost-effective sampling strategy

Science.gov (United States)

OgéE, J.; Peylin, P.; Ciais, P.; Bariac, T.; Brunet, Y.; Berbigier, P.; Roche, C.; Richard, P.; Bardoux, G.; Bonnefond, J.-M.

2003-06-01

The current emphasis on global climate studies has led the scientific community to set up a number of sites for measuring the long-term biosphere-atmosphere net CO2 exchange (net ecosystem exchange, NEE). Partitioning this flux into its elementary components, net assimilation (FA), and respiration (FR), remains necessary in order to get a better understanding of biosphere functioning and design better surface exchange models. Noting that FR and FA have different isotopic signatures, we evaluate the potential of isotopic 13CO2 measurements in the air (combined with CO2 flux and concentration measurements) to partition NEE into FR and FA on a routine basis. The study is conducted at a temperate coniferous forest where intensive isotopic measurements in air, soil, and biomass were performed in summer 1997. The multilayer soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer model MuSICA is adapted to compute 13CO2 flux and concentration profiles. Using MuSICA as a "perfect" simulator and taking advantage of the very dense spatiotemporal resolution of the isotopic data set (341 flasks over a 24-hour period) enable us to test each hypothesis and estimate the performance of the method. The partitioning works better in midafternoon when isotopic disequilibrium is strong. With only 15 flasks, i.e., two 13CO2 nighttime profiles (to estimate the isotopic signature of FR) and five daytime measurements (to perform the partitioning) we get mean daily estimates of FR and FA that agree with the model within 15-20%. However, knowledge of the mesophyll conductance seems crucial and may be a limitation to the method.

Making carbon dioxide sequestration feasible: Toward federal regulation of CO2 sequestration pipelines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mack, Joel; Endemann, Buck

2010-01-01

As the United States moves closer to a national climate change policy, it will have to focus on a variety of factors affecting the manner in which the country moves toward a future with a substantially lower carbon footprint. In addition to encouraging renewable energy, smart grid, clean fuels and other technologies, the United States will need to make substantial infrastructure investments in a variety of industries. Among the significant contributors to the current carbon footprint in the United States is the use of coal as a major fuel for the generation of electricity. One of the most important technologies that the United States can employ to reduce its carbon footprint is to sequester the carbon dioxide ('CO 2 ') from coal-fired power plants. This article focuses on the legal and policy issues surrounding a critical piece of the necessary sequestration infrastructure: CO 2 pipelines that will carry CO 2 from where it is removed from fuel or waste gas streams to where it will be sequestered. Ultimately, this article recommends developing a federally regulated CO 2 pipeline program to foster the implementation of carbon sequestration technology.

Determination of solid-liquid partition coefficients (Kd) for the herbicides isoproturon and trifluralin in five UK agricultural soils.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooke, Cindy M; Shaw, George; Collins, Chris D

2004-12-01

Isoproturon and trifluralin are herbicides of contrasting chemical characters and modes of action. Standard batch sorption procedures were carried out to investigate the individual sorption behaviour of 14C-isoproturon and 14C-trifluralin in five agricultural soils (1.8-4.2% OC), and the soil solid-liquid partition coefficients (Kd values) were determined. Trifluralin exhibited strong partitioning to the soil solid phase (Kd range 106-294) and low desorption potential, thus should not pose a threat to sensitive waters via leaching, although particle erosion and preferential flow pathways may facilitate transport. For isoproturon, soil adsorption was low (Kd range 1.96-5.75) and desorption was high, suggesting a high leaching potential, consistent with isoproturon being the most frequently found pesticide in UK surface waters. Soil partitioning was directly related to soil organic carbon (OC) content. Accumulation isotherms were modelled using a dual-phase adsorption model to estimate adsorption and desorption rate coefficients. Associations between herbicides and soil humic substances were also shown using gel filtration chromatography.

Inside-sediment partitioning of PAH, PCB and organochlorine compounds and inferences on sampling and normalization methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Opel, Oliver; Palm, Wolf-Ulrich; Steffen, Dieter; Ruck, Wolfgang K.L.

2011-01-01

Comparability of sediment analyses for semivolatile organic substances is still low. Neither screening of the sediments nor organic-carbon based normalization is sufficient to obtain comparable results. We are showing the interdependency of grain-size effects with inside-sediment organic-matter distribution for PAH, PCB and organochlorine compounds. Surface sediment samples collected by Van-Veen grab were sieved and analyzed for 16 PAH, 6 PCB and 18 organochlorine pesticides (OCP) as well as organic-matter content. Since bulk concentrations are influenced by grain-size effects themselves, we used a novel normalization method based on the sum of concentrations in the separate grain-size fractions of the sediments. By calculating relative normalized concentrations, it was possible to clearly show underlying mechanisms throughout a heterogeneous set of samples. Furthermore, we were able to show that, for comparability, screening at <125 μm is best suited and can be further improved by additional organic-carbon normalization. - Research highlights: → New method for the comparison of heterogeneous sets of sediment samples. → Assessment of organic pollutants partitioning mechanisms in sediments. → Proposed method for more comparable sediment sampling. - Inside-sediment partitioning mechanisms are shown using a new mathematical approach and discussed in terms of sediment sampling and normalization.

Underestimation of boreal soil carbon stocks by mathematical soil carbon models linked to soil nutrient status

Science.gov (United States)

Ťupek, Boris; Ortiz, Carina A.; Hashimoto, Shoji; Stendahl, Johan; Dahlgren, Jonas; Karltun, Erik; Lehtonen, Aleksi

2016-08-01

Inaccurate estimate of the largest terrestrial carbon pool, soil organic carbon (SOC) stock, is the major source of uncertainty in simulating feedback of climate warming on ecosystem-atmosphere carbon dioxide exchange by process-based ecosystem and soil carbon models. Although the models need to simplify complex environmental processes of soil carbon sequestration, in a large mosaic of environments a missing key driver could lead to a modeling bias in predictions of SOC stock change.We aimed to evaluate SOC stock estimates of process-based models (Yasso07, Q, and CENTURY soil sub-model v4) against a massive Swedish forest soil inventory data set (3230 samples) organized by a recursive partitioning method into distinct soil groups with underlying SOC stock development linked to physicochemical conditions.For two-thirds of measurements all models predicted accurate SOC stock levels regardless of the detail of input data, e.g., whether they ignored or included soil properties. However, in fertile sites with high N deposition, high cation exchange capacity, or moderately increased soil water content, Yasso07 and Q models underestimated SOC stocks. In comparison to Yasso07 and Q, accounting for the site-specific soil characteristics (e. g. clay content and topsoil mineral N) by CENTURY improved SOC stock estimates for sites with high clay content, but not for sites with high N deposition.Our analysis suggested that the soils with poorly predicted SOC stocks, as characterized by the high nutrient status and well-sorted parent material, indeed have had other predominant drivers of SOC stabilization lacking in the models, presumably the mycorrhizal organic uptake and organo-mineral stabilization processes. Our results imply that the role of soil nutrient status as regulator of organic matter mineralization has to be re-evaluated, since correct SOC stocks are decisive for predicting future SOC change and soil CO2 efflux.

Technical Report: Investigation of Carbon Cycle Processes within a Managed Landscape: An Ecosystem Manipulation and Isotope Tracer Approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Griffis, Timothy J; Baker, John M; Billmark, Kaycie

2009-06-01

The goal of this research is to provide a better scientific understanding of carbon cycle processes within an agricultural landscape characteristic of the Upper Midwest. This project recognizes the need to study processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales to reduce uncertainty in ecosystem and landscape-scale carbon budgets to provide a sound basis for shaping future policy related to carbon management. Specifically, this project has attempted to answer the following questions: 1. Would the use of cover crops result in a shift from carbon neutral to significant carbon gain in corn-soybean rotation ecosystems of the Upper Midwest? 2. Can stable carbon isotope analyses be used to partition ecosystem respiration into its autotrophic and heterotrophic components? 3. Can this partitioning be used to better understand the fate of crop residues to project changes in the soil carbon reservoir? 4. Are agricultural ecosystems of the Upper Midwest carbon neutral, sinks, or sources? Can the proposed measurement and modeling framework help address landscape-scale carbon budget uncertainties and help guide future carbon management policy?

Prediction of Partition Coefficients of Organic Compounds for SPME/PDMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liao Hsuan-Yu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The partition coefficients of 51 organic compounds between SPME/PDMS and gas were compiled from the literature sources in this study. The effect of physicochemical properties and descriptors on the partitioning process of partition coefficients was explicated by the correlation analysis. The PDMS-gas partition coefficients were well correlated to the molecular weight of organic compounds (r = 0.832, p < 0.05. An empirical model, consisting of the molecular weight and the polarizability, was developed to appropriately predict the partition coefficients of organic compounds. The empirical model for estimating the PDMS-gas partition coefficient will contribute to the practical applications of the SPME technique.

Variable length adjacent partitioning for PTS based PAPR reduction of OFDM signal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ibraheem, Zeyid T.; Rahman, Md. Mijanur; Yaakob, S. N.; Razalli, Mohammad Shahrazel; Kadhim, Rasim A.

2015-01-01

Peak-to-Average power ratio (PAPR) is a major drawback in OFDM communication. It leads the power amplifier into nonlinear region operation resulting into loss of data integrity. As such, there is a strong motivation to find techniques to reduce PAPR. Partial Transmit Sequence (PTS) is an attractive scheme for this purpose. Judicious partitioning the OFDM data frame into disjoint subsets is a pivotal component of any PTS scheme. Out of the existing partitioning techniques, adjacent partitioning is characterized by an attractive trade-off between cost and performance. With an aim of determining effects of length variability of adjacent partitions, we performed an investigation into the performances of a variable length adjacent partitioning (VL-AP) and fixed length adjacent partitioning in comparison with other partitioning schemes such as pseudorandom partitioning. Simulation results with different modulation and partitioning scenarios showed that fixed length adjacent partition had better performance compared to variable length adjacent partitioning. As expected, simulation results showed a slightly better performance of pseudorandom partitioning technique compared to fixed and variable adjacent partitioning schemes. However, as the pseudorandom technique incurs high computational complexities, adjacent partitioning schemes were still seen as favorable candidates for PAPR reduction

Variable length adjacent partitioning for PTS based PAPR reduction of OFDM signal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ibraheem, Zeyid T.; Rahman, Md. Mijanur; Yaakob, S. N.; Razalli, Mohammad Shahrazel; Kadhim, Rasim A. [School of Computer and Communication Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Arau, Perlis (Malaysia)

2015-05-15

Peak-to-Average power ratio (PAPR) is a major drawback in OFDM communication. It leads the power amplifier into nonlinear region operation resulting into loss of data integrity. As such, there is a strong motivation to find techniques to reduce PAPR. Partial Transmit Sequence (PTS) is an attractive scheme for this purpose. Judicious partitioning the OFDM data frame into disjoint subsets is a pivotal component of any PTS scheme. Out of the existing partitioning techniques, adjacent partitioning is characterized by an attractive trade-off between cost and performance. With an aim of determining effects of length variability of adjacent partitions, we performed an investigation into the performances of a variable length adjacent partitioning (VL-AP) and fixed length adjacent partitioning in comparison with other partitioning schemes such as pseudorandom partitioning. Simulation results with different modulation and partitioning scenarios showed that fixed length adjacent partition had better performance compared to variable length adjacent partitioning. As expected, simulation results showed a slightly better performance of pseudorandom partitioning technique compared to fixed and variable adjacent partitioning schemes. However, as the pseudorandom technique incurs high computational complexities, adjacent partitioning schemes were still seen as favorable candidates for PAPR reduction.

Phase Grouping Line Extraction Algorithm Using Overlapped Partition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

WANG Jingxue

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Aiming at solving the problem of fracture at the discontinuities area and the challenges of line fitting in each partition, an innovative line extraction algorithm is proposed based on phase grouping using overlapped partition. The proposed algorithm adopted dual partition steps, which will generate overlapped eight partitions. Between the two steps, the middle axis in the first step coincides with the border lines in the other step. Firstly, the connected edge points that share the same phase gradients are merged into the line candidates, and fitted into line segments. Then to remedy the break lines at the border areas, the break segments in the second partition steps are refitted. The proposed algorithm is robust and does not need any parameter tuning. Experiments with various datasets have confirmed that the method is not only capable of handling the linear features, but also powerful enough in handling the curve features.

Soil-water partition coefficients for uranium and thorium: a systematic study of Tummalapalle mining site, India

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dalvi, Aditi; Verma, Rakesh; Kumar, Sangita D.; Reddy, A.V.R.

2012-01-01

The simplest and most common parameter for modeling radionuclide mobility in soils is the partition coefficient (K d ). The soil-water partition coefficient for radionuclide is affected by numerous geochemical parameters like pH, sorption to clays, presence of organic matter, iron oxides, other soil constituents and the chemical forms of the radionuclide as well as oxidation/reduction conditions and major ion chemistry. In these studies radionuclides uranium and thorium were systematically assessed for their behaviour in the soils from Tummalapalle mining site. Physico-chemical characteristics such as chemical composition, pH, CaCO 3 content and organic carbon were determined for soils and synthetic groundwater samples. Oven dried soil samples (1g) were taken in polycarbonate tube and washed with synthetic ground water till the pH of the supernatant solution remained unchanged. The soil sample was then equilibrated with 30 mL of synthetic ground water spiked with an element of interest. The pH was adjusted to its initial value by addition of small increments of dilute NaOH/HNO 3 . The tubes containing samples were gently shaken for 72 h at room temperature. On completion of the experiment, it was centrifuged using high-speed centrifugation for 30 min and the aqueous phase was separated and analysed. The blank was processed in the same manner without adding soil. Determination of U and Th in the supernatant was carried out using ICPMS. The K d of thorium was found to be two-three order of magnitude higher than that of uranium for both the soil samples assessed in this study. The presence of carbonates and organic carbon in the groundwater has a significant effect on the K d of uranium. The K d values for uranium were found to be hundred fold lower in the presence of carbonates. (author)

Analytical model for macromolecular partitioning during yeast cell division

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kinkhabwala, Ali; Khmelinskii, Anton; Knop, Michael

2014-01-01

Asymmetric cell division, whereby a parent cell generates two sibling cells with unequal content and thereby distinct fates, is central to cell differentiation, organism development and ageing. Unequal partitioning of the macromolecular content of the parent cell — which includes proteins, DNA, RNA, large proteinaceous assemblies and organelles — can be achieved by both passive (e.g. diffusion, localized retention sites) and active (e.g. motor-driven transport) processes operating in the presence of external polarity cues, internal asymmetries, spontaneous symmetry breaking, or stochastic effects. However, the quantitative contribution of different processes to the partitioning of macromolecular content is difficult to evaluate. Here we developed an analytical model that allows rapid quantitative assessment of partitioning as a function of various parameters in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This model exposes quantitative degeneracies among the physical parameters that govern macromolecular partitioning, and reveals regions of the solution space where diffusion is sufficient to drive asymmetric partitioning and regions where asymmetric partitioning can only be achieved through additional processes such as motor-driven transport. Application of the model to different macromolecular assemblies suggests that partitioning of protein aggregates and episomes, but not prions, is diffusion-limited in yeast, consistent with previous reports. In contrast to computationally intensive stochastic simulations of particular scenarios, our analytical model provides an efficient and comprehensive overview of partitioning as a function of global and macromolecule-specific parameters. Identification of quantitative degeneracies among these parameters highlights the importance of their careful measurement for a given macromolecular species in order to understand the dominant processes responsible for its observed partitioning

Estimation of gas-particle partitioning coefficients (Kp) of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in carbonaceous aerosols collected at Chiang-Mai, Bangkok and Hat-Yai, Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Pongpiachan, Siwatt; Ho, Kin Fai; Cao, Junji

2013-01-01

To assess environmental contamination with carcinogens, carbonaceous compounds, water-soluble ionic species and trace gaseous species were identified and quantified every three hours for three days at three different atmospheric layers at the heart of Chiang-Mai, Bangkok and Hat-Yai from December 2006 to February 2007. A DRI Model 2001 Thermal/Optical Carbon Analyzer with the IMPROVE thermal/optical reflectance (TOR) protocol was used to quantify the organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) contents in PM10. Diurnal and vertical variability was also carefully investigated. In general, OC and EC mass concentration showed the highest values at the monitoring period of 21.00-00.00 as consequences of human activities at night bazaar coupled with reduction of mixing layer, decreased wind speed and termination of photolysis at nighttime. Morning peaks of carbonaceous compounds were observed during the sampling period of 06:00-09:00, emphasizing the main contribution of traffic emission in the three cities. The estimation of incremental lifetime particulate matter exposure (ILPE) raises concern of high risk of carbonaceous accumulation over workers and residents living close to the observatory sites. The average values of incremental lifetime particulate matter exposure (ILPE) of total carbon at Baiyoke Suit Hotel and Baiyoke Sky Hotel are approximately ten times higher than those air samples collected at Prince of Songkla University Hat-Yai campus corpse incinerator and fish-can manufacturing factory but only slightly higher than those of rice straw burning in Songkla province. This indicates a high risk of developing lung cancer and other respiratory diseases across workers and residents living in high buildings located in Pratunam area. Using knowledge of carbonaceous fractions in PM10, one can estimate the gas-particle partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Dachs-Eisenreich model highlights the crucial role of adsorption in gas

Partition wall structure in spent fuel storage pool and construction method for the partition wall

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Izawa, Masaaki

1998-01-01

A partitioning wall for forming cask pits as radiation shielding regions by partitioning inside of a spent fuel storage pool is prepared by covering both surface of a concrete body by shielding metal plates. The metal plate comprises opposed plate units integrated by welding while sandwiching a metal frame as a reinforcing material for the concrete body, the lower end of the units is connected to a floor of a pool by fastening members, and concrete is set while using the metal plate of the units as a frame to form the concrete body. The shielding metal plate has a double walled structure formed by welding a lining plate disposed on the outer surface of the partition wall and a shield plate disposed to the inner side. Then the term for construction can be shortened, and the capacity for storing spent fuels can be increased. (N.H.)

Partitioning of polychlorinated biphenyls into human cells and adipose tissues: evaluation of octanol, triolein, and liposomes as surrogates.

Science.gov (United States)

Quinn, Cristina L; van der Heijden, Stephan A; Wania, Frank; Jonker, Michiel T O

2014-05-20

Whereas octanol, triacylglycerides, and liposomes have all been proposed as surrogates for measuring the affinity of hydrophobic organic contaminants to human lipids, no comparative evaluation of their suitability exists. Here we conducted batch sorption experiments with polyoxymethylene passive samplers to determine the partition coefficients at 37 °C of 18 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from water into (i) triolein (Ktriolein/water), (ii) eight types of liposomes (Kliposome/water), (iii) human abdominal fat tissues (KAFT/water) from seven individuals, and (iv) human MCF-7 cells cultured in vitro (Kcell/water). Differences between KAFT/water among individuals and between Kliposome/water among liposome types were very small and not correlated to structural attributes of the PCBs. Similarly, the length and degree of saturation of the phospholipid carbon chains, the headgroup, and the composition of the liposome did not affect the partitioning of PCBs into the studied liposomes. Whereas Kliposome/water values were similar to literature values of Koctanol/water adjusted to 37 °C, they both were lower than KAFT/water and Kcell/water by a factor of 3 on average. Partitioning of PCBs into triolein on the other hand closely mimicked that into human lipids, for which triolein is thus a better surrogate than either octanol or liposomes. Previously published polyparameter linear free energy relationships for partitioning from water into storage lipids and liposomes predicted the measured partition coefficients with a root-mean-square error of less than 0.15 log units, if the chosen equations and solute descriptors do not allow chlorine substitution in the ortho-position to influence the prediction. By guiding the selection of (i) a surrogate for the experimental determination and (ii) a method for the prediction of partitioning into human lipids, this study contributes to a better assessment of hydrophobic organic contaminant bioaccumulation in humans.

Statistical partitioning of a three-year time series of direct urban net CO2 flux measurements into biogenic and anthropogenic components

Science.gov (United States)

Menzer, Olaf; McFadden, Joseph P.

2017-12-01

Eddy covariance flux measurements are increasingly used to quantify the net carbon dioxide exchange (FC) in urban areas. FC represents the sum of anthropogenic emissions, biogenic carbon release from plant and soil respiration, and carbon uptake by plant photosynthesis. When FC is measured in natural ecosystems, partitioning into respiration and photosynthesis is a well-established procedure. In contrast, few studies have partitioned FC at urban flux tower sites due to the difficulty of accounting for the temporal and spatial variability of the multiple sources and sinks. Here, we partitioned a three-year time series of flux measurements from a suburban neighborhood of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. We segregated FC into one subset that captured fluxes from a residential neighborhood and into another subset that covered a golf course. For both land use types we modeled anthropogenic flux components based on winter data and extrapolated them to the growing season, to estimate gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Reco) at half-hourly, daily, monthly and annual scales. During the growing season, GPP had the largest magnitude (up to - 9.83 g C m-2 d-1) of any component CO2 flux, biogenic or anthropogenic, and both GPP and Reco were more dynamic seasonally than anthropogenic fluxes. Owing to the balancing of Reco against GPP, and the limitations of the growing season in a cold temperate climate zone, the net biogenic flux was only 1.5%-4.5% of the anthropogenic flux in the dominant residential land use type, and between 25%-31% of the anthropogenic flux in highly managed greenspace. Still, the vegetation sink at our site was stronger than net anthropogenic emissions on 16-20 days over the residential area and on 66-91 days over the recreational area. The reported carbon flux sums and dynamics are a critical step toward developing models of urban CO2 fluxes within and across cities that differ in vegetation cover.

Effect of intercritical deformation on microstructure and mechanical properties of a low-silicon aluminum-added hot-rolled directly quenched and partitioned steel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tan, Xiao-Dong, E-mail: tan.x@mpie.de [State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 40237 Düsseldorf (Germany); Xu, Yun-Bo, E-mail: yunbo_xu@126.com [State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Ponge, Dirk [Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 40237 Düsseldorf (Germany); Yang, Xiao-Long; Hu, Zhi-Ping; Peng, Fei [State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Ju, Xiao-Wei [CERI LONG PRODUCT CO., LTD., Beijing 100176 (China); Wu, Di [State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); Raabe, Dierk [Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 40237 Düsseldorf (Germany)

2016-02-22

Here, we applied hot-rolling in conjunction with direct quenching and partitioning (HDQ&P) processes with different rolling schedules to a low-C low-Si Al-added steel. Ferrite was introduced into the steel by intercritical rolling and air cooling after hot-rolling. The effect of intercritcal deformation on the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties was investigated. The promotion of austenite stabilization and the optimization of the TRIP effect due to a moderate degree of intercritical deformation were systematically explored. The results show that the addition of 1.46 wt% of Al can effectively promote ferrite formation. An intercritical deformation above 800 °C can result in a pronounced bimodal grain size distribution of ferrite and some elongated ferrite grains containing sub-grains. The residual strain states of both austenite and ferrite and the occurrence of bainite transformation jointly increase the retained austenite fraction due to its mechanical stabilization and the enhanced carbon partitioning into austenite from its surrounding phases. An intercritical deformation below 800 °C can profoundly increase the ferrite fraction and promote the recrystallization of deformed ferrite. The formation of this large fraction of ferrite enhances the carbon enrichment in the untransformed austenite and retards the bainite transformation during the partitioning process and finally enhances martensite transformation and decreases the retained austenite fraction. The efficient TRIP effect of retained austenite and the possible strain partitioning of bainite jointly improve the work hardening and formability of the steel and lead to the excellent mechanical properties with relatively high tensile strength (905 MPa), low yield ratio (0.60) and high total elongation (25.2%).

Spatial partitions systematize visual search and enhance target memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Solman, Grayden J F; Kingstone, Alan

2017-02-01

Humans are remarkably capable of finding desired objects in the world, despite the scale and complexity of naturalistic environments. Broadly, this ability is supported by an interplay between exploratory search and guidance from episodic memory for previously observed target locations. Here we examined how the environment itself may influence this interplay. In particular, we examined how partitions in the environment-like buildings, rooms, and furniture-can impact memory during repeated search. We report that the presence of partitions in a display, independent of item configuration, reliably improves episodic memory for item locations. Repeated search through partitioned displays was faster overall and was characterized by more rapid ballistic orienting in later repetitions. Explicit recall was also both faster and more accurate when displays were partitioned. Finally, we found that search paths were more regular and systematic when displays were partitioned. Given the ubiquity of partitions in real-world environments, these results provide important insights into the mechanisms of naturalistic search and its relation to memory.

Experiments and Recommendations for Partitioning Systems of Equations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mafteiu-Scai Liviu Octavian

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Partitioning the systems of equations is a very important process when solving it on a parallel computer. This paper presents some criteria which leads to more efficient parallelization, that must be taken into consideration. New criteria added to preconditioning process by reducing average bandwidth are pro- posed in this paper. These new criteria lead to a combination between preconditioning and partitioning of systems equations, so no need two distinct algorithms/processes. In our proposed methods - where the preconditioning is done by reducing the average bandwidth- two directions were followed in terms of partitioning: for a given preconditioned system determining the best partitioning (or one as close and the second consist in achieving an adequate preconditioning, depending on a given/desired partitioning. A mixed method it is also proposed. Experimental results, conclusions and recommendations, obtained after parallel implementation of conjugate gradient on IBM BlueGene /P supercomputer- based on a synchronous model of parallelization- are also presented in this paper.

Partitional clustering algorithms

CERN Document Server

2015-01-01

This book summarizes the state-of-the-art in partitional clustering. Clustering, the unsupervised classification of patterns into groups, is one of the most important tasks in exploratory data analysis. Primary goals of clustering include gaining insight into, classifying, and compressing data. Clustering has a long and rich history that spans a variety of scientific disciplines including anthropology, biology, medicine, psychology, statistics, mathematics, engineering, and computer science. As a result, numerous clustering algorithms have been proposed since the early 1950s. Among these algorithms, partitional (nonhierarchical) ones have found many applications, especially in engineering and computer science. This book provides coverage of consensus clustering, constrained clustering, large scale and/or high dimensional clustering, cluster validity, cluster visualization, and applications of clustering. Examines clustering as it applies to large and/or high-dimensional data sets commonly encountered in reali...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban atmosphere of Guangzhou, China: Size distribution characteristics and size-resolved gas-particle partitioning

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Huan; Yu, Jian Zhen

2012-07-01

Size distributions of thirteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), elemental carbon (EC), and organic carbon (OC) in the range of 0.01-18 μm were measured using a nano Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor (nano-MOUDI) in an urban location in Guangzhou, China in July 2006. PAH size distributions were fit with five modes and the respective mass median aerodynamic diameters (MMAD) are: Aitken mode (MMAD: ˜0.05 μm), three accumulation modes AMI, AMII, AMIII (MMAD: 0.13-0.17 μm, 0.4-0.45 μm, and 0.9-1.2 μm, respectively), and coarse mode (MMAD: 4-6 μm). Seven-ring PAH was mainly in AMII and AMIII. Five- and six-ring PAHs were found to be abundant in all the three AM. Three- and four-ring PAHs had a significant presence in the coarse mode in addition to the three AM. Size-resolved gas-particle partition coefficients of PAHs (Kp) were estimated using measured EC and OC data. The Kp values of a given PAH could differ by a factor of up to ˜7 on particles in different size modes, with the highest Kp associated with the AMI particles and the lowest Kp associated with the coarse mode particles. Comparison of calculated overall Kp with measured Kp values in Guangzhou by Yang et al. (2010) shows that adsorption on EC appeared to be the dominant mechanism driving the gas-particle partitioning of three- and four-ring PAHs while absorption in OM played a dominant role for five- and six-ring PAHs. The calculated equilibrium timescales of repartitioning indicate that five- to seven-ring PAHs could not achieve equilibrium partitioning within their typical residence time in urban atmospheres, while three- and four-ring PAHs could readily reach new equilibrium states in particles of all sizes. A partitioning flux is therefore proposed to replace the equilibrium assumption in modeling PAH transport and fate.

Topological string partition functions as polynomials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamaguchi, Satoshi; Yau Shingtung

2004-01-01

We investigate the structure of the higher genus topological string amplitudes on the quintic hypersurface. It is shown that the partition functions of the higher genus than one can be expressed as polynomials of five generators. We also compute the explicit polynomial forms of the partition functions for genus 2, 3, and 4. Moreover, some coefficients are written down for all genus. (author)

Effects of sulfur dioxide on nitrogen fixation, carbon partitioning, and yield components in snapbean

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griffith, S.M.; Campbell, W.F.

1987-01-01

The air pollutant SO 2 is known to affect plant biochemistry and physiology, although very little is known about its effects on N 2 -fixation in legumes. This study sought to determine if N 2 -fixation, C partitioning, and plant productivity of snapbean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were affected under short-term, low-level SO 2 exposures. Plants were exposed, 29 d after planting (7 d before anthesis), to 0, 18, and 36 μmol SO 2 m -3 for 4 h d -1 for 5 d in a fumigation chamber. On the last day of SO 2 treatment, plants were also exposed to 14 CO 2 to determine changes in C partitioning patterns. At these concentrations, there was no visible damage to plant tissue and no significant changes in dry weight or yield components. Only the 36 μmol SO 2 m -3 treatment reduced C 2 H 2 reduction rates, but recovery to near control rates occurred within 24 h after SO 2 removal. Leaves of plants treated with 18 μmol SO 2 m -3 exported more of their total assimilated 14 C than control plants, while those treated with 36 μmol SO 2 m -3 retained greater amounts. Retention of 14 C at the 36 μmol SO 2 m -3 level may account for the inhibition of C 2 H 2 -reduction because of less photosynthate arriving at the root nodules. These data suggest that SO 2 levels that do not cause visible injury may interfere with C metabolism and transport in snapbean

Partitioning of selected antioxidants in mayonnaise

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Charlotte; Schwarz, K.; Stockmann, H.

1999-01-01

This study examined partitioning of alpha-, beta-, and gamma- tocopherol and six polar antioxidants (Trolox, ferulic acid, caffeic acid, propyl gallate, gallic acid, and catechin) in mayonnaise. Partitioning of antioxidants between different phases was determined after separation of mayonnaise...... acid and catechin) to 83% (Trolox). Accordingly, proportions of 6% (Trolox) to 80% (gallic acid and catechin) were found in the aqueous phase. Similar trends were observed after dialysis. After ultracentrifugation, large proportions of polar antioxidants were found in the "emulsion phase...... by either (a) centrifugation + ultracentrifugation or (b) centrifugation + dialysis. Antioxidants partitioned in accordance with their chemical structure and polarity: Tocopherols were concentrated in the oil phase (93-96%), while the proportion of polar antioxidants in the oil phase ranged from 0% (gallic...

Partitioning of resveratrol between pentane and DMSO

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shen, Chen; Stein, Paul C.; Klösgen-Buchkremer, Beate Maria

2015-01-01

Partitioning of trans-3,5,4′-trihydroxy-stilbene (resveratrol) between n-pentane and DMSO was investigated as a contribution to understand the interaction between resveratrol and biomembranes. In order to determine the partition coefficient P* of resveratrol between pentane and DMSO, resveratrol ...

Fat polygonal partitions with applications to visualization and embeddings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark de Berg

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Let T be a rooted and weighted tree, where the weight of any node is equal to the sum of the weights of its children. The popular Treemap algorithm visualizes such a tree as a hierarchical partition of a square into rectangles, where the area of the rectangle corresponding to any node in T is equal to the weight of that node. The aspect ratio of the rectangles in such a rectangular partition necessarily depends on the weights and can become arbitrarily high.We introduce a new hierarchical partition scheme, called a polygonal partition, which uses convex polygons rather than just rectangles. We present two methods for constructing polygonal partitions, both having guarantees on the worst-case aspect ratio of the constructed polygons; in particular, both methods guarantee a bound on the aspect ratio that is independent of the weights of the nodes.We also consider rectangular partitions with slack, where the areas of the rectangles may differ slightly from the weights of the corresponding nodes. We show that this makes it possible to obtain partitions with constant aspect ratio. This result generalizes to hyper-rectangular partitions in ℝd. We use these partitions with slack for embedding ultrametrics into d-dimensional Euclidean space:  we give a polylog(Δ-approximation algorithm for embedding n-point ultrametrics into ℝd with minimum distortion, where Δ denotes the spread of the metric. The previously best-known approximation ratio for this problem was polynomial in n. This is the first algorithm for embedding a non-trivial family of weighted-graph metrics into a space of constant dimension that achieves polylogarithmic approximation ratio.

Long-term nitrogen regulation of forest carbon sequestration

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Y.; Luo, Y.

2009-12-01

It is well established that nitrogen (N) limits plant production but unclear how N regulates long-term terrestrial carbon (C) sequestration in response to rising atmospheric C dioxide (CO2)(Luo et al., 2004). Most experimental evidence on C-N interactions is primarily derived from short-term CO2 manipulative studies (e.g. Oren et al., 2001; Reich et al., 2006a), which abruptly increase C inputs into ecosystems and N demand from soil while atmospheric CO2 concentration in the real world is gradually increasing over time (Luo & Reynolds, 1999). It is essential to examine long-term N regulations of C sequestration in natural ecosystems. Here we present results of a synthesis of more than 100 studies on long-term C-N interactions during secondary succession. C significantly accumulates in plant, litter and forest floor in most studies, and in mineral soil in one-third studies during stand development. Substantial increases in C stock are tightly coupled with N accretion. The C: N ratio in plant increases with stand age in most cases, but remains relatively constant in litter, forest floor and mineral soil. Our results suggest that natural ecosystems could have the intrinsic capacity to maintain long-term C sequestration through external N accrual, high N use efficiency, and efficient internal N cycling.

Transcriptome analysis of temporal regulation of carbon metabolism by CcpA in Bacillus subtilis reveals additional target genes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lulko, Andrzej T.; Buist, Girbe; Kok, Jan; Kuipers, Oscar P.

2007-01-01

The pleiotropic regulator of carbon metabolism in Grampositive bacteria, CcpA, regulates gene expression by binding to so-called cre elements, which are located either upstream or in promoter regions, or in open-reading frames. In this study we compared the transcriptomes of Bacillus subtilis 168

High Pressure/Temperature Metal Silicate Partitioning of Tungsten

Science.gov (United States)

Shofner, G. A.; Danielson, L.; Righter, K.; Campbell, A. J.

2010-01-01

The behavior of chemical elements during metal/silicate segregation and their resulting distribution in Earth's mantle and core provide insight into core formation processes. Experimental determination of partition coefficients allows calculations of element distributions that can be compared to accepted values of element abundances in the silicate (mantle) and metallic (core) portions of the Earth. Tungsten (W) is a moderately siderophile element and thus preferentially partitions into metal versus silicate under many planetary conditions. The partitioning behavior has been shown to vary with temperature, silicate composition, oxygen fugacity, and pressure. Most of the previous work on W partitioning has been conducted at 1-bar conditions or at relatively low pressures, i.e. pressure. Predictions based on extrapolation of existing data and parameterizations suggest an increased pressured dependence on metal/ silicate partitioning of W at higher pressures 5. However, the dependence on pressure is not as well constrained as T, fO2, and silicate composition. This poses a problem because proposed equilibration pressures for core formation range from 27 to 50 GPa, falling well outside the experimental range, therefore requiring exptrapolation of a parametereized model. Higher pressure data are needed to improve our understanding of W partitioning at these more extreme conditions.

Asymmetrical Damage Partitioning in Bacteria: A Model for the Evolution of Stochasticity, Determinism, and Genetic Assimilation.

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Lin; Rang, Camilla Ulla; Proenca, Audrey Menegaz; Chao, Jasper Ubirajara

2016-01-01

Non-genetic phenotypic variation is common in biological organisms. The variation is potentially beneficial if the environment is changing. If the benefit is large, selection can favor the evolution of genetic assimilation, the process by which the expression of a trait is transferred from environmental to genetic control. Genetic assimilation is an important evolutionary transition, but it is poorly understood because the fitness costs and benefits of variation are often unknown. Here we show that the partitioning of damage by a mother bacterium to its two daughters can evolve through genetic assimilation. Bacterial phenotypes are also highly variable. Because gene-regulating elements can have low copy numbers, the variation is attributed to stochastic sampling. Extant Escherichia coli partition asymmetrically and deterministically more damage to the old daughter, the one receiving the mother's old pole. By modeling in silico damage partitioning in a population, we show that deterministic asymmetry is advantageous because it increases fitness variance and hence the efficiency of natural selection. However, we find that symmetrical but stochastic partitioning can be similarly beneficial. To examine why bacteria evolved deterministic asymmetry, we modeled the effect of damage anchored to the mother's old pole. While anchored damage strengthens selection for asymmetry by creating additional fitness variance, it has the opposite effect on symmetry. The difference results because anchored damage reinforces the polarization of partitioning in asymmetric bacteria. In symmetric bacteria, it dilutes the polarization. Thus, stochasticity alone may have protected early bacteria from damage, but deterministic asymmetry has evolved to be equally important in extant bacteria. We estimate that 47% of damage partitioning is deterministic in E. coli. We suggest that the evolution of deterministic asymmetry from stochasticity offers an example of Waddington's genetic assimilation

Asymmetrical Damage Partitioning in Bacteria: A Model for the Evolution of Stochasticity, Determinism, and Genetic Assimilation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lin Chao

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Non-genetic phenotypic variation is common in biological organisms. The variation is potentially beneficial if the environment is changing. If the benefit is large, selection can favor the evolution of genetic assimilation, the process by which the expression of a trait is transferred from environmental to genetic control. Genetic assimilation is an important evolutionary transition, but it is poorly understood because the fitness costs and benefits of variation are often unknown. Here we show that the partitioning of damage by a mother bacterium to its two daughters can evolve through genetic assimilation. Bacterial phenotypes are also highly variable. Because gene-regulating elements can have low copy numbers, the variation is attributed to stochastic sampling. Extant Escherichia coli partition asymmetrically and deterministically more damage to the old daughter, the one receiving the mother's old pole. By modeling in silico damage partitioning in a population, we show that deterministic asymmetry is advantageous because it increases fitness variance and hence the efficiency of natural selection. However, we find that symmetrical but stochastic partitioning can be similarly beneficial. To examine why bacteria evolved deterministic asymmetry, we modeled the effect of damage anchored to the mother's old pole. While anchored damage strengthens selection for asymmetry by creating additional fitness variance, it has the opposite effect on symmetry. The difference results because anchored damage reinforces the polarization of partitioning in asymmetric bacteria. In symmetric bacteria, it dilutes the polarization. Thus, stochasticity alone may have protected early bacteria from damage, but deterministic asymmetry has evolved to be equally important in extant bacteria. We estimate that 47% of damage partitioning is deterministic in E. coli. We suggest that the evolution of deterministic asymmetry from stochasticity offers an example of Waddington

The bacterial response regulator ArcA uses a diverse binding site architecture to regulate carbon oxidation globally.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dan M Park

Full Text Available Despite the importance of maintaining redox homeostasis for cellular viability, how cells control redox balance globally is poorly understood. Here we provide new mechanistic insight into how the balance between reduced and oxidized electron carriers is regulated at the level of gene expression by mapping the regulon of the response regulator ArcA from Escherichia coli, which responds to the quinone/quinol redox couple via its membrane-bound sensor kinase, ArcB. Our genome-wide analysis reveals that ArcA reprograms metabolism under anaerobic conditions such that carbon oxidation pathways that recycle redox carriers via respiration are transcriptionally repressed by ArcA. We propose that this strategy favors use of catabolic pathways that recycle redox carriers via fermentation akin to lactate production in mammalian cells. Unexpectedly, bioinformatic analysis of the sequences bound by ArcA in ChIP-seq revealed that most ArcA binding sites contain additional direct repeat elements beyond the two required for binding an ArcA dimer. DNase I footprinting assays suggest that non-canonical arrangements of cis-regulatory modules dictate both the length and concentration-sensitive occupancy of DNA sites. We propose that this plasticity in ArcA binding site architecture provides both an efficient means of encoding binding sites for ArcA, σ(70-RNAP and perhaps other transcription factors within the same narrow sequence space and an effective mechanism for global control of carbon metabolism to maintain redox homeostasis.

PhotosynthateRegulation of the Root System Architecture Mediated bythe Heterotrimeric G Protein Complex in Arabidopsis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yashwanti Mudgil

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Assimilate partitioning to the root system is a desirable developmental trait to control but little is known of the signaling pathway underlying partitioning. A null mutation in the gene encoding the Gβ subunit of the heterotrimeric G protein complex, a nexus for a variety of signaling pathways, confers altered sugar partitioning in roots. While fixed carbon rapidly reached the roots of wild type and agb1-2 mutant seedlings, agb1 roots had more of this fixed carbon in the form of glucose, fructose, and sucrose which manifested as a higher lateral root density. Upon glucose treatment, the agb1-2 mutant had abnormal gene expression in the root tip validated by transcriptome analysis. In addition, PIN2 membrane localization and level was altered in the agb1-2 mutant. The heterotrimeric G protein complex integrates photosynthesis-derived sugar signaling incorporating both membrane-and transcriptional-based mechanisms. The time constants for these signaling mechanisms are in the same range as photosynthate delivery to the root, raising the possibility that root cells are able to use changes in carbon fixation in real time to adjust growth behavior.

Choosing the best partition of the output from a large-scale simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Challacombe, Chelsea Jordan [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Casleton, Emily Michele [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2017-09-26

Data partitioning becomes necessary when a large-scale simulation produces more data than can be feasibly stored. The goal is to partition the data, typically so that every element belongs to one and only one partition, and store summary information about the partition, either a representative value plus an estimate of the error or a distribution. Once the partitions are determined and the summary information stored, the raw data is discarded. This process can be performed in-situ; meaning while the simulation is running. When creating the partitions there are many decisions that researchers must make. For instance, how to determine once an adequate number of partitions have been created, how are the partitions created with respect to dividing the data, or how many variables should be considered simultaneously. In addition, decisions must be made for how to summarize the information within each partition. Because of the combinatorial number of possible ways to partition and summarize the data, a method of comparing the different possibilities will help guide researchers into choosing a good partitioning and summarization scheme for their application.

Why partition nuclear waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohen, J.J.

1976-01-01

A cursory review of literature dealing with various separatory processes involved in the handling of high-level liquid nuclear waste discloses that, for the most part, discussion centers on separation procedures and methodology for handling the resulting fractions, particularly the actinide wastes. There appears to be relatively little discussion on the incentives or motivations for performing these separations in the first place. Discussion is often limited to the assumption that we must separate out ''long-term'' from our ''short-term'' management problems. This paper deals with that assumption and devotes primary attention to the question of ''why partition waste'' rather than the question of ''how to partition waste'' or ''what to do with the segregated waste.''

A Timing-Driven Partitioning System for Multiple FPGAs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kalapi Roy

1996-01-01

Full Text Available Field-programmable systems with multiple FPGAs on a PCB or an MCM are being used by system designers when a single FPGA is not sufficient. We address the problem of partitioning a large technology mapped FPGA circuit onto multiple FPGA devices of a specific target technology. The physical characteristics of the multiple FPGA system (MFS pose additional constraints to the circuit partitioning algorithms: the capacity of each FPGA, the timing constraints, the number of I/Os per FPGA, and the pre-designed interconnection patterns of each FPGA and the package. Existing partitioning techniques which minimize just the cut sizes of partitions fail to satisfy the above challenges. We therefore present a timing driven N-way partitioning algorithm based on simulated annealing for technology-mapped FPGA circuits. The signal path delays are estimated during partitioning using a timing model specific to a multiple FPGA architecture. The model combines all possible delay factors in a system with multiple FPGA chips of a target technology. Furthermore, we have incorporated a new dynamic net-weighting scheme to minimize the number of pin-outs for each chip. Finally, we have developed a graph-based global router for pin assignment which can handle the pre-routed connections of our MFS structure. In order to reduce the time spent in the simulated annealing phase of the partitioner, clusters of circuit components are identified by a new linear-time bottom-up clustering algorithm. The annealing-based N-way partitioner executes four times faster using the clusters as opposed to a flat netlist with improved partitioning results. For several industrial circuits, our approach outperforms the recursive min-cut bi-partitioning algorithm by 35% in terms of nets cut. Our approach also outperforms an industrial FPGA partitioner by 73% on average in terms of unroutable nets. Using the performance optimization capabilities in our approach we have successfully partitioned the

Martensitic transformation and stress partitioning in a high-carbon steel

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Villa, Matteo; Grumsen, Flemming Bjerg; Pantleon, Karen

2012-01-01

Martensitic transformation in a high-carbon steel was investigated with (synchrotron) X-ray diffraction at sub-zero Celsius temperature. In situ angular X-ray diffraction was applied to: (i) quantitatively determine the fractions of retained austenite and martensite; and (ii) measure the evolutio...

Effect of Q&P heat treatment on fine microstructure and mechanical properties of a low-alloy medium-carbon steel

Science.gov (United States)

Jafari, Rahim; Kheirandish, Shahram; Mirdamadi, Shamsoddin

2018-01-01

The current research investigates the effect of ultrafine microstructure resulted from Quench and Partitioning (Q&P) process on obtaining ultra-high strengths in a low-alloy steel with 4wt.% carbon. The purpose of Q&P heat treatment is to enrich the austenite with carbon by partitioning of carbon from supersaturated martensite to austenite, in order to stabilize it to the room temperature. The microstructure, consequently, is consists of martensite, retained austenite and in some conditions bainite. Two-step Q&P heat treatment with quench and partitioning temperatures equal to 120°C and 300°C respectively were applied to the samples at different times. Mechanical behavior was studied by tensile test. The microstructure of the samples was observed using SEM, and TEM and to quantify the amount of retained austenite X-ray diffraction was used. The retained austenite grain size was estimated to be about 0.5 µm and the highest amount of retained austenite obtained was 10 vol%. All samples showed a yield strength and a tensile strength of above 900MPa and 1500MP respectively. The yield strength increased with increase in partitioning time, whereas tensile strength showed an inverse behavior. The elongation in samples varied from 5% to 9% which seemed to not have a direct connection with the amount of retained austenite, but instead it was related to the ferritic structures formed during partitioning such as coalesced martensite, bainite and tempered martensite.

Combinatorics and complexity of partition functions

CERN Document Server

Barvinok, Alexander

2016-01-01

Partition functions arise in combinatorics and related problems of statistical physics as they encode in a succinct way the combinatorial structure of complicated systems. The main focus of the book is on efficient ways to compute (approximate) various partition functions, such as permanents, hafnians and their higher-dimensional versions, graph and hypergraph matching polynomials, the independence polynomial of a graph and partition functions enumerating 0-1 and integer points in polyhedra, which allows one to make algorithmic advances in otherwise intractable problems. The book unifies various, often quite recent, results scattered in the literature, concentrating on the three main approaches: scaling, interpolation and correlation decay. The prerequisites include moderate amounts of real and complex analysis and linear algebra, making the book accessible to advanced math and physics undergraduates. .

A novel partitioning method for block-structured adaptive meshes

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Lin; Litvinov, Sergej; Hu, Xiangyu Y.; Adams, Nikolaus A.

2017-07-01

We propose a novel partitioning method for block-structured adaptive meshes utilizing the meshless Lagrangian particle concept. With the observation that an optimum partitioning has high analogy to the relaxation of a multi-phase fluid to steady state, physically motivated model equations are developed to characterize the background mesh topology and are solved by multi-phase smoothed-particle hydrodynamics. In contrast to well established partitioning approaches, all optimization objectives are implicitly incorporated and achieved during the particle relaxation to stationary state. Distinct partitioning sub-domains are represented by colored particles and separated by a sharp interface with a surface tension model. In order to obtain the particle relaxation, special viscous and skin friction models, coupled with a tailored time integration algorithm are proposed. Numerical experiments show that the present method has several important properties: generation of approximately equal-sized partitions without dependence on the mesh-element type, optimized interface communication between distinct partitioning sub-domains, continuous domain decomposition which is physically localized and implicitly incremental. Therefore it is particularly suitable for load-balancing of high-performance CFD simulations.

A novel partitioning method for block-structured adaptive meshes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fu, Lin, E-mail: lin.fu@tum.de; Litvinov, Sergej, E-mail: sergej.litvinov@aer.mw.tum.de; Hu, Xiangyu Y., E-mail: xiangyu.hu@tum.de; Adams, Nikolaus A., E-mail: nikolaus.adams@tum.de

2017-07-15

We propose a novel partitioning method for block-structured adaptive meshes utilizing the meshless Lagrangian particle concept. With the observation that an optimum partitioning has high analogy to the relaxation of a multi-phase fluid to steady state, physically motivated model equations are developed to characterize the background mesh topology and are solved by multi-phase smoothed-particle hydrodynamics. In contrast to well established partitioning approaches, all optimization objectives are implicitly incorporated and achieved during the particle relaxation to stationary state. Distinct partitioning sub-domains are represented by colored particles and separated by a sharp interface with a surface tension model. In order to obtain the particle relaxation, special viscous and skin friction models, coupled with a tailored time integration algorithm are proposed. Numerical experiments show that the present method has several important properties: generation of approximately equal-sized partitions without dependence on the mesh-element type, optimized interface communication between distinct partitioning sub-domains, continuous domain decomposition which is physically localized and implicitly incremental. Therefore it is particularly suitable for load-balancing of high-performance CFD simulations.

Dissolved oxygen and dietary phosphorus modulate utilization and effluent partitioning of phosphorus in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) aquaculture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McDaniel, Nichole K.; Sugiura, Shozo H.; Kehler, Thomas; Fletcher, John W.; Coloso, Relicardo M.; Weis, Peddrick; Ferraris, Ronaldo P.

2005-01-01

Phosphorus (P) is the limiting nutrient in freshwater primary production, and excessive levels cause premature eutrophication. P levels in aquaculture effluents are now tightly regulated. Increasing our understanding of waste P partitioning into soluble, particulate, and settleable fractions is important in the management of effluent P. When water supply is limited, dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) decreases below the optimum levels. Therefore, we studied effects of DO (6 and 10 mg/L) and dietary P (0.7 and 1.0% P) on rainbow trout growth, P utilization, and effluent P partitioning. Biomass increased by 40% after 3 weeks. DO at 10 mg/L significantly increased fish growth and feed efficiency, and increased the amount of P in the soluble fraction of the effluent. Soluble effluent P was greater in fish fed 1.0% P. DO increases fish growth and modulates P partitioning in aquaculture effluent. - Dissolved oxygen concentration not only influences fish growth rate, but also affects dietary phosphorus utilization by fish in intensive aquaculture

The influence of hydrogen bonding on partition coefficients

Science.gov (United States)

Borges, Nádia Melo; Kenny, Peter W.; Montanari, Carlos A.; Prokopczyk, Igor M.; Ribeiro, Jean F. R.; Rocha, Josmar R.; Sartori, Geraldo Rodrigues

2017-02-01

This Perspective explores how consideration of hydrogen bonding can be used to both predict and better understand partition coefficients. It is shown how polarity of both compounds and substructures can be estimated from measured alkane/water partition coefficients. When polarity is defined in this manner, hydrogen bond donors are typically less polar than hydrogen bond acceptors. Analysis of alkane/water partition coefficients in conjunction with molecular electrostatic potential calculations suggests that aromatic chloro substituents may be less lipophilic than is generally believed and that some of the effect of chloro-substitution stems from making the aromatic π-cloud less available to hydrogen bond donors. Relationships between polarity and calculated hydrogen bond basicity are derived for aromatic nitrogen and carbonyl oxygen. Aligned hydrogen bond acceptors appear to present special challenges for prediction of alkane/water partition coefficients and this may reflect `frustration' of solvation resulting from overlapping hydration spheres. It is also shown how calculated hydrogen bond basicity can be used to model the effect of aromatic aza-substitution on octanol/water partition coefficients.

Compactified webs and domain wall partition functions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shabbir, Khurram [Government College University, Department of Mathematics, Lahore (Pakistan)

2017-04-15

In this paper we use the topological vertex formalism to calculate a generalization of the ''domain wall'' partition function of M-strings. This generalization allows calculation of partition function of certain compactified webs using a simple gluing algorithm similar to M-strings case. (orig.)

Solid-phase partitioning of mercury in artisanal gold mine tailings from selected key areas in Mindanao, Philippines, and its implications for mercury detoxification.

Science.gov (United States)

Opiso, Einstine M; Aseneiro, John Paul J; Banda, Marybeth Hope T; Tabelin, Carlito B

2018-03-01

The solid-phase partitioning of mercury could provide necessary data in the identification of remediation techniques in contaminated artisanal gold mine tailings. This study was conducted to determine the total mercury content of mine wastes and identify its solid-phase partitioning through selective sequential extraction coupled with cold vapour atomic absorption spectroscopy. Samples from mine tailings and the carbon-in-pulp (CIP) process were obtained from selected key areas in Mindanao, Philippines. The results showed that mercury use is still prevalent among small-scale gold miners in the Philippines. Tailings after ball mill-gravity concentration (W-BM and Li-BM samples) from Mt Diwata and Libona contained high levels of mercury amounting to 25.024 and 6.5 mg kg -1 , respectively. The most prevalent form of mercury in the mine tailings was elemental/amalgamated mercury, followed by water soluble, exchangeable, organic and strongly bound phases, respectively. In contrast, mercury content of carbon-in-pulp residues were significantly lower at only 0.3 and 0.06 mg kg -1 for P-CIP (Del Pilar) and W-CIP (Mt Diwata), respectively. The bulk of mercury in P-CIP samples was partitioned in residual fraction while in W-CIP samples, water soluble mercury predominated. Overall, this study has several important implications with regards to mercury detoxification of contaminated mine tailings from Mindanao, Philippines.

Carbonic anhydrases are upstream regulators of CO2-controlled stomatal movements in guard cells

KAUST Repository

Hu, Honghong

2009-12-13

The continuing rise in atmospheric CO2 causes stomatal pores in leaves to close and thus globally affects CO2 influx into plants, water use efficiency and leaf heat stress. However, the CO2-binding proteins that control this response remain unknown. Moreover, which cell type responds to CO2, mesophyll or guard cells, and whether photosynthesis mediates this response are matters of debate. We demonstrate that Arabidopsis thaliana double-mutant plants in the beta-carbonic anhydrases betaCA1 and betaCA4 show impaired CO2-regulation of stomatal movements and increased stomatal density, but retain functional abscisic-acid and blue-light responses. betaCA-mediated CO2-triggered stomatal movements are not, in first-order, linked to whole leaf photosynthesis and can function in guard cells. Furthermore, guard cell betaca-overexpressing plants exhibit instantaneous enhanced water use efficiency. Guard cell expression of mammalian alphaCAII complements the reduced sensitivity of ca1 ca4 plants, showing that carbonic anhydrase-mediated catalysis is an important mechanism for betaCA-mediated CO2-induced stomatal closure and patch clamp analyses indicate that CO2/HCO3- transfers the signal to anion channel regulation. These findings, together with ht1-2 (ref. 9) epistasis analysis demonstrate that carbonic anhydrases function early in the CO2 signalling pathway, which controls gas-exchange between plants and the atmosphere.

Structural analysis of the ParR/parC plasmid partition complex

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møller-Jensen, Jakob; Ringgaard, Simon; Mercogliano, Christopher P

2007-01-01

Accurate DNA partition at cell division is vital to all living organisms. In bacteria, this process can involve partition loci, which are found on both chromosomes and plasmids. The initial step in Escherichia coli plasmid R1 partition involves the formation of a partition complex between the DNA...

Partitioning of organochlorine pesticides from water to polyethylene passive samplers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hale, Sarah E.; Martin, Timothy J.; Goss, Kai-Uwe; Arp, Hans Peter H.; Werner, David

2010-01-01

The mass transfer rates and equilibrium partitioning behaviour of 14 diverse organochlorine pesticides (OCP) between water and polyethylene (PE) passive samplers, cut from custom made PE sheets and commercial polyethylene plastic bags, were quantified. Overall mass transfer coefficients, k O , estimated PE membrane diffusion coefficients, D PE , and PE-water partitioning coefficients, K PE-water, are reported. In addition, the partitioning of three polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from water to PE is quantified and compared with literature values. K PE-water values agreed mostly within a factor of two for both passive samplers and also with literature values for the reference PAHs. As PE is expected to exhibit similar sorption behaviour to long-chain alkanes, PE-water partitioning coefficients were compared to hexadecane-water partitioning coefficients estimated with the SPARC online calculator, COSMOtherm and a polyparameter linear free energy relationship based on the Abraham approach. The best correlation for all compounds tested was with COSMOtherm estimated hexadecane-water partitioning coefficients. - The partitioning of organochlorine pesticides between single phase polyethylene passive samplers and water is quantified.

Joint Decision-Making and the Coordination of a Sustainable Supply Chain in the Context of Carbon Tax Regulation and Fairness Concerns.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhi; Zheng, Xiao-Xue; Gong, Ben-Gang; Gui, Yun-Miao

2017-11-27

Carbon tax regulation and consumers' low-carbon preference act as incentives for firms to abate emissions. Manufacturers can improve product sustainability and retailers can strengthen the promotion of low-carbon products as part of such abatement. Current incomplete rationality also affects product sustainability and low-carbon promotion level. In this context, we consider a supply chain with a manufacturer and a retailer and investigate the impacts of the manufacturer's and the retailer's fairness concerns on their production sustainability level, low-carbon promotion level and profitability. We also explore the coordination contract. The results show that the manufacturer's and the retailer's fairness concerns decrease their product sustainability and low-carbon promotion level, together with the profits of the system and the manufacturer. With regard to the retailer's fairness concern, the product sustainability level and the manufacturer's profit are lower; moreover, the low-carbon promotion level and the profits of the supply chain and the retailer are higher. A revenue-sharing contract can coordinate the supply chain perfectly; however, members' fairness concerns increase the difficulty of coordination. Finally, the numerical results reveal that carbon tax regulation can encourage the manufacturer to enhance the product sustainability level. Further, the impacts on the low-carbon promotion level and firms' profitability are related to the cost coefficients of product sustainability.

Time and Space Partitioning the EagleEye Reference Misson

Science.gov (United States)

Bos, Victor; Mendham, Peter; Kauppinen, Panu; Holsti, Niklas; Crespo, Alfons; Masmano, Miguel; de la Puente, Juan A.; Zamorano, Juan

2013-08-01

We discuss experiences gained by porting a Software Validation Facility (SVF) and a satellite Central Software (CSW) to a platform with support for Time and Space Partitioning (TSP). The SVF and CSW are part of the EagleEye Reference mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). As a reference mission, EagleEye is a perfect candidate to evaluate practical aspects of developing satellite CSW for and on TSP platforms. The specific TSP platform we used consists of a simulated LEON3 CPU controlled by the XtratuM separation micro-kernel. On top of this, we run five separate partitions. Each partition runs its own real-time operating system or Ada run-time kernel, which in turn are running the application software of the CSW. We describe issues related to partitioning; inter-partition communication; scheduling; I/O; and fault-detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR).

Prediction of Partition Coefficients of Organic Compounds for SPME/PDMS

OpenAIRE

Liao Hsuan-Yu; Huang Miao-Ling; Lu Yu-Ting; Chao Keh-Ping

2016-01-01

The partition coefficients of 51 organic compounds between SPME/PDMS and gas were compiled from the literature sources in this study. The effect of physicochemical properties and descriptors on the partitioning process of partition coefficients was explicated by the correlation analysis. The PDMS-gas partition coefficients were well correlated to the molecular weight of organic compounds (r = 0.832, p < 0.05). An empirical model, consisting of the molecular weight and the polarizability, was ...

An overview of alternative fossil fuel price and carbon regulation scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wiser, Ryan; Bolinger, Mark

2004-10-01

) current oil prices, (3) externally generated oil price forecasts, and (4) the historical difficulty in accurately forecasting oil prices. Overall, a spread between the FE-EERE High Oil Price and Reference scenarios of well over $8/bbl is supported by the literature. We conclude that a wide range of carbon regulation scenarios are possible, especially within the time frame considered by EERE and FE (through 2050). The Working Group's Carbon Cap-and-Trade Scenario is found to be less aggressive than many Kyoto-style targets that have been analyzed, and similar in magnitude to the proposed Climate Stewardship Act. The proposed scenario is more aggressive than some other scenarios found in the literature, however, and ignores carbon banking and offsets and does not allow nuclear power to expand. We are therefore somewhat concerned that the stringency of the proposed carbon regulation scenario in the 2010 to 2025 period will lead to a particularly high estimated cost of carbon reduction. As described in more detail later, we encourage some flexibility in the Working Group's ultimate implementation of the Carbon Cap-and-Trade Scenario. We conclude by identifying additional scenarios that might be considered in future analyses, describing a concern with the proposed specification of the High Fuel Price Scenario, and highlighting the possible difficulty of implementing extreme scenarios with current energy modeling tools.

A critical compilation and review of default soil solid/liquid partition coefficients, Kd, for use in environmental assessments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thibault, D.H.; Sheppard, M.I.; Smith, P.A.

1990-03-01

Environmental assessments of the Canadian concept for disposal of nuclear fuel waste in plutonic rock formations require analyses of the migration of nuclides from the disposal vault to the biosphere. Analyses of nuclide migration via groundwater through the geosphere, unconsolidated overburden and soil use models requiring solid/liquid partition coefficients (K d ) to describe the interaction of the nuclides with the solid materials. This report presents element-specific soil solid/liquid partition coefficients based on a detailed survey of the literature. Values for clays, silt, sand and organic soils are summarized. Partition coefficients for the following elements are presented: americium, antimony, arsenic, barium, boron, cadmium, calcium, carbon, cerium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, copper, curium, europium, iodine, iron, lead, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, neptunium, nickel, niobium, palladium, phosphorus, plutonium, polonium, radium, ruthenium, samarium, selenium, silver, strontium, technetium, tellurium, terbium, thorium, tin, tritium, uranium, zinc, and zirconium. The values compiled in this study are compared with earlier K d value compendiums and are the values recommended for the use in the soil, deep sediment and overburden models for the Environmental Impact Statement on the concept for disposal of Canada's nuclear fuel waste

Phylogenetic systematics and biogeography of hummingbirds: Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses of partitioned data and selection of an appropriate partitioning strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

McGuire, Jimmy A; Witt, Christopher C; Altshuler, Douglas L; Remsen, J V

2007-10-01

Hummingbirds are an important model system in avian biology, but to date the group has been the subject of remarkably few phylogenetic investigations. Here we present partitioned Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses for 151 of approximately 330 species of hummingbirds and 12 outgroup taxa based on two protein-coding mitochondrial genes (ND2 and ND4), flanking tRNAs, and two nuclear introns (AK1 and BFib). We analyzed these data under several partitioning strategies ranging between unpartitioned and a maximum of nine partitions. In order to select a statistically justified partitioning strategy following partitioned Bayesian analysis, we considered four alternative criteria including Bayes factors, modified versions of the Akaike information criterion for small sample sizes (AIC(c)), Bayesian information criterion (BIC), and a decision-theoretic methodology (DT). Following partitioned maximum likelihood analyses, we selected a best-fitting strategy using hierarchical likelihood ratio tests (hLRTS), the conventional AICc, BIC, and DT, concluding that the most stringent criterion, the performance-based DT, was the most appropriate methodology for selecting amongst partitioning strategies. In the context of our well-resolved and well-supported phylogenetic estimate, we consider the historical biogeography of hummingbirds using ancestral state reconstructions of (1) primary geographic region of occurrence (i.e., South America, Central America, North America, Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles), (2) Andean or non-Andean geographic distribution, and (3) minimum elevational occurrence. These analyses indicate that the basal hummingbird assemblages originated in the lowlands of South America, that most of the principle clades of hummingbirds (all but Mountain Gems and possibly Bees) originated on this continent, and that there have been many (at least 30) independent invasions of other primary landmasses, especially Central America.

Construction of Scaling Partitions of Unity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ole Christensen

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Partitions of unity in ℝd formed by (matrix scales of a fixed function appear in many parts of harmonic analysis, e.g., wavelet analysis and the analysis of Triebel-Lizorkin spaces. We give a simple characterization of the functions and matrices yielding such a partition of unity. For expanding matrices, the characterization leads to easy ways of constructing appropriate functions with attractive properties like high regularity and small support. We also discuss a class of integral transforms that map functions having the partition of unity property to functions with the same property. The one-dimensional version of the transform allows a direct definition of a class of nonuniform splines with properties that are parallel to those of the classical B-splines. The results are illustrated with the construction of dual pairs of wavelet frames.

Photosynthate Regulation of the Root System Architecture Mediated by the Heterotrimeric G Protein Complex in Arabidopsis.

Science.gov (United States)

Mudgil, Yashwanti; Karve, Abhijit; Teixeira, Paulo J P L; Jiang, Kun; Tunc-Ozdemir, Meral; Jones, Alan M

2016-01-01

Assimilate partitioning to the root system is a desirable developmental trait to control but little is known of the signaling pathway underlying partitioning. A null mutation in the gene encoding the Gβ subunit of the heterotrimeric G protein complex, a nexus for a variety of signaling pathways, confers altered sugar partitioning in roots. While fixed carbon rapidly reached the roots of wild type and agb1-2 mutant seedlings, agb1 roots had more of this fixed carbon in the form of glucose, fructose, and sucrose which manifested as a higher lateral root density. Upon glucose treatment, the agb1-2 mutant had abnormal gene expression in the root tip validated by transcriptome analysis. In addition, PIN2 membrane localization was altered in the agb1-2 mutant. The heterotrimeric G protein complex integrates photosynthesis-derived sugar signaling incorporating both membrane-and transcriptional-based mechanisms. The time constants for these signaling mechanisms are in the same range as photosynthate delivery to the root, raising the possibility that root cells are able to use changes in carbon fixation in real time to adjust growth behavior.

Probabilistic Decision Based Block Partitioning for Future Video Coding

KAUST Repository

Wang, Zhao

2017-11-29

In the latest Joint Video Exploration Team development, the quadtree plus binary tree (QTBT) block partitioning structure has been proposed for future video coding. Compared to the traditional quadtree structure of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, QTBT provides more flexible patterns for splitting the blocks, which results in dramatically increased combinations of block partitions and high computational complexity. In view of this, a confidence interval based early termination (CIET) scheme is proposed for QTBT to identify the unnecessary partition modes in the sense of rate-distortion (RD) optimization. In particular, a RD model is established to predict the RD cost of each partition pattern without the full encoding process. Subsequently, the mode decision problem is casted into a probabilistic framework to select the final partition based on the confidence interval decision strategy. Experimental results show that the proposed CIET algorithm can speed up QTBT block partitioning structure by reducing 54.7% encoding time with only 1.12% increase in terms of bit rate. Moreover, the proposed scheme performs consistently well for the high resolution sequences, of which the video coding efficiency is crucial in real applications.

Development of the four group partitioning process at JAERI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kubota, Masumitsu; Morita, Yasuji; Yamaguchi, Isoo; Yamagishi, Isao; Fujiwara, T.; Watanabe, Masayuki; Mizoguchi, Kenichi; Tatsugae, Ryozo

1999-01-01

At JAERI, development of a partitioning method started about 24 years ago. From 1973 to 1984, a partitioning process was developed for separating elements in HLLW into 3 groups; TRU, Sr-Cs and others. The partitioning process consisted of three steps; solvent extraction of U and Pu with TBP, solvent extraction of Am and Cm with DIDPA, and adsorption of Sr and Cs with inorganic ion exchangers. The process was demonstrated with real HLLW. Since 1985, a four group partitioning process has been developed, in which a step for separating the Tc-PGM group was developed in addition to the three group separation. Effective methods for separating TRU, especially Np, and Tc have been developed. In this paper, the flow sheet of the four group partitioning and the results of tests with simulated and real HLLW in NUCEF hot-cell are shown. (J.P.N.)

Chaos synchronization basing on symbolic dynamics with nongenerating partition.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xingyuan; Wang, Mogei; Liu, Zhenzhen

2009-06-01

Using symbolic dynamics and information theory, we study the information transmission needed for synchronizing unidirectionally coupled oscillators. It is found that when sustaining chaos synchronization with nongenerating partition, the synchronization error will be larger than a critical value, although the required coupled channel capacity can be smaller than the case of using a generating partition. Then we show that no matter whether a generating or nongenerating partition is in use, a high-quality detector can guarantee the lead of the response oscillator, while the lag responding can make up the low precision of the detector. A practicable synchronization scheme basing on a nongenerating partition is also proposed in this paper.

The Partition of Multi-Resolution LOD Based on Qtm

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, M.-L.; Xing, H.-Q.; Zhao, X.-S.; Chen, J.

2011-08-01

The partition hierarch of Quaternary Triangular Mesh (QTM) determine the accuracy of spatial analysis and application based on QTM. In order to resolve the problem that the partition hierarch of QTM is limited by the level of the computer hardware, the new method that Multi- Resolution LOD (Level of Details) based on QTM will be discussed in this paper. This method can make the resolution of the cells varying with the viewpoint position by partitioning the cells of QTM, selecting the particular area according to the viewpoint; dealing with the cracks caused by different subdivisions, it satisfies the request of unlimited partition in part.

THE PARTITION OF MULTI-RESOLUTION LOD BASED ON QTM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.-L. Hou

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The partition hierarch of Quaternary Triangular Mesh (QTM determine the accuracy of spatial analysis and application based on QTM. In order to resolve the problem that the partition hierarch of QTM is limited by the level of the computer hardware, the new method that Multi- Resolution LOD (Level of Details based on QTM will be discussed in this paper. This method can make the resolution of the cells varying with the viewpoint position by partitioning the cells of QTM, selecting the particular area according to the viewpoint; dealing with the cracks caused by different subdivisions, it satisfies the request of unlimited partition in part.

Measurements of Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, and Other Related Tracers at High Spatial and Temporal Resolution in an Urban Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Rella, C.; Jacobson, G.

2012-04-01

The ability to quantify the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide on the urban scale is essential for understanding the atmospheric drivers to global climate change. In the 'top-down' approach, overall carbon fluxes are determined by combining remote measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations with complex atmospheric transport models, and these emissions measurements are compared to "bottoms-up" predictions based on detailed inventories of the sources and sinks of carbon, both anthropogenic and biogenic in nature. This approach, which has been proven to be effective at continental scales, becomes challenging to implement at the urban scale, due to poorly understood micrometeorological atmospheric transport models and high variability of the emissions sources in space (e.g., factories, highways, residences) and time (rush hours, factory shifts and shutdowns, residential energy usage variability during the day and over the year). New measurement and analysis techniques are required to make sense of the carbon dioxide signal in cities. Here we present detailed, high spatial- and temporal-resolution greenhouse gas measurements in Silicon Valley in California. The synthesis of two experimental campaigns is presented: real-time measurements from two ten-meter urban 'towers,' and ground-based mobile mapping measurements. Real-time carbon dioxide data from a nine-month period are combined with real-time carbon monoxide, methane, acetylene, and carbon 13 measurements to partition the observed CO2 concentrations between different anthropogenic sectors (e.g., transport, residential) and biogenic sources. The carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide ratio is shown to vary over more than a factor of two from season to season or even from day to night, indicating rapid and frequent shifts in the balance between different carbon dioxide sources. Clear differences are seen between the two urban sites, which are separated by 7 km. Further information is given by the carbon 13 signature

Siderophile Volatile Element Partitioning during Core Formation.

Science.gov (United States)

Loroch, D. C.; Hackler, S.; Rohrbach, A.; Klemme, S.

2017-12-01

Since the nineteen sixties it is known, that the Earth's mantle is depleted relative to CI chondrite in numerous elements as a result of accretion and core-mantle differentiation. Additionally, if we take the chondritic composition as the initial solar nebular element abundances, the Earth lacks 85 % of K and up to 98 % of other volatiles. However one potentially very important group of elements has received considerably less attention in this context and these elements are the siderophile but volatile elements (SVEs). SVEs perhaps provide important information regarding the timing of volatile delivery to Earth. Especially for the SVEs the partitioning between metal melt and silicate melt (Dmetal/silicate) at core formation conditions is poorly constrained, never the less they are very important for most of the core formation models. This study is producing new metal-silicate partitioning data for a wide range of SVEs (S, Se, Te, Tl, Ag, As, Au, Cd, Bi, Pb, Sn, Cu, Ge, Zn, In and Ga) with a focus on the P, T and fO2dependencies. The initial hypothesis that we are aiming to test uses the accretion of major portions of volatile elements while the core formation was still active. The key points of this study are: - What are the effects of P, T and fO2 on SVE metal-silicate partioning? - What is the effect of compositional complexity on SVE metal-silicate partioning? - How can SVE's D-values fit into current models of core formation? The partitioning experiments will be performed using a Walker type multi anvil apparatus in a pressure range between 10 and 20 GPa and temperatures of 1700 up to 2100 °C. To determine the Dmetal/silicate values we are using a field emission high-resolution JEOL JXA-8530F EPMA for major elements and a Photon Machines Analyte G2 Excimer laser (193 nm) ablation system coupled to a Thermo Fisher Element 2 single-collector ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) for the trace elements. We recently finished the first sets of experiments and can provide the

LHCb: Optimising query execution time in LHCb Bookkeeping System using partition pruning and partition wise joins

CERN Multimedia

Mathe, Z

2013-01-01

The LHCb experiment produces a huge amount of data which has associated metadata such as run number, data taking condition (detector status when the data was taken), simulation condition, etc. The data are stored in files, replicated on the Computing Grid around the world. The LHCb Bookkeeping System provides methods for retrieving datasets based on their metadata. The metadata is stored in a hybrid database model, which is a mixture of Relational and Hierarchical database models and is based on the Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). The database access has to be reliable and fast. In order to achieve a high timing performance, the tables are partitioned and the queries are executed in parallel. When we store large amounts of data the partition pruning is essential for database performance, because it reduces the amount of data retrieved from the disk and optimises the resource utilisation. This research presented here is focusing on the extended composite partitioning strategy such as rang...

Open software tools for eddy covariance flux partitioning

Science.gov (United States)

Agro-ecosystem management and assessment will benefit greatly from the development of reliable techniques for partitioning evapotranspiration (ET) into evaporation (E) and transpiration (T). Among other activities, flux partitioning can aid in evaluating consumptive vs. non-consumptive agricultural...

Partitioning a macroscopic system into independent subsystems

Science.gov (United States)

Delle Site, Luigi; Ciccotti, Giovanni; Hartmann, Carsten

2017-08-01

We discuss the problem of partitioning a macroscopic system into a collection of independent subsystems. The partitioning of a system into replica-like subsystems is nowadays a subject of major interest in several fields of theoretical and applied physics. The thermodynamic approach currently favoured by practitioners is based on a phenomenological definition of an interface energy associated with the partition, due to a lack of easily computable expressions for a microscopic (i.e. particle-based) interface energy. In this article, we outline a general approach to derive sharp and computable bounds for the interface free energy in terms of microscopic statistical quantities. We discuss potential applications in nanothermodynamics and outline possible future directions.

Native oxy-PAHs, N-PACs, and PAHs in historically contaminated soils from Sweden, Belgium, and France: their soil-porewater partitioning behavior, bioaccumulation in Enchytraeus crypticus, and bioavailability.

Science.gov (United States)

Arp, Hans Peter H; Lundstedt, Staffan; Josefsson, Sarah; Cornelissen, Gerard; Enell, Anja; Allard, Ann-Sofie; Kleja, Dan Berggren

2014-10-07

Soil quality standards are based on partitioning and toxicity data for laboratory-spiked reference soils, instead of real world, historically contaminated soils, which would be more representative. Here 21 diverse historically contaminated soils from Sweden, Belgium, and France were obtained, and the soil-porewater partitioning along with the bioaccumulation in exposed worms (Enchytraeus crypticus) of native polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) were quantified. The native PACs investigated were polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and, for the first time to be included in such a study, oxygenated-PAHs (oxy-PAHs) and nitrogen containing heterocyclic PACs (N-PACs). The passive sampler polyoxymethylene (POM) was used to measure the equilibrium freely dissolved porewater concentration, Cpw, of all PACs. The obtained organic carbon normalized partitioning coefficients, KTOC, show that sorption of these native PACs is much stronger than observed in laboratory-spiked soils (typically by factors 10 to 100), which has been reported previously for PAHs but here for the first time for oxy-PAHs and N-PACs. A recently developed KTOC model for historically contaminated sediments predicted the 597 unique, native KTOC values in this study within a factor 30 for 100% of the data and a factor 3 for 58% of the data, without calibration. This model assumes that TOC in pyrogenic-impacted areas sorbs similarly to coal tar, rather than octanol as typically assumed. Black carbon (BC) inclusive partitioning models exhibited substantially poorer performance. Regarding bioaccumulation, Cpw combined with liposome-water partition coefficients corresponded better with measured worm lipid concentrations, Clipid (within a factor 10 for 85% of all PACs and soils), than Cpw combined with octanol-water partition coefficients (within a factor 10 for 76% of all PACs and soils). E. crypticus mortality and reproducibility were also quantified. No enhanced mortality was observed in the 21 historically

Off-diagonal series expansion for quantum partition functions

Science.gov (United States)

Hen, Itay

2018-05-01

We derive an integral-free thermodynamic perturbation series expansion for quantum partition functions which enables an analytical term-by-term calculation of the series. The expansion is carried out around the partition function of the classical component of the Hamiltonian with the expansion parameter being the strength of the off-diagonal, or quantum, portion. To demonstrate the usefulness of the technique we analytically compute to third order the partition functions of the 1D Ising model with longitudinal and transverse fields, and the quantum 1D Heisenberg model.

Understanding carbon regulation in aquatic systems - Bacteriophages as a model [v1; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/4zd

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Swapnil Sanmukh

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The bacteria and their phages are the most abundant constituents of the aquatic environment, and so represent an ideal model for studying carbon regulation in an aquatic system. The microbe-mediated interconversion of bioavailable organic carbon (OC into dissolved organic carbon (DOC by the microbial carbon pump (MCP has been suggested to have the potential to revolutionize our view of carbon sequestration. It is estimated that DOC is the largest pool of organic matter in the ocean and, though a major component of the global carbon cycle, its source is not yet well understood. A key element of the carbon cycle is the microbial conversion of DOC into inedible forms. The primary aim of this study is to understand the phage conversion from organic to inorganic carbon during phage-host interactions. Time studies of phage-host interactions under controlled conditions reveal their impact on the total carbon content of the samples and their interconversion of organic and inorganic carbon compared to control samples. A total organic carbon (TOC analysis showed an increase in inorganic carbon content by 15-25 percent in samples with bacteria and phage compared to samples with bacteria alone. Compared to control samples, the increase in inorganic carbon content was 60-70-fold in samples with bacteria and phage, and 50-55-fold for samples with bacteria alone. This study indicates the potential impact of phages in regulating the carbon cycle of aquatic systems.

A layer model of ethanol partitioning into lipid membranes.

Science.gov (United States)

Nizza, David T; Gawrisch, Klaus

2009-06-01

The effect of membrane composition on ethanol partitioning into lipid bilayers was assessed by headspace gas chromatography. A series of model membranes with different compositions have been investigated. Membranes were exposed to a physiological ethanol concentration of 20 mmol/l. The concentration of membranes was 20 wt% which roughly corresponds to values found in tissue. Partitioning depended on the chemical nature of polar groups at the lipid/water interface. Compared to phosphatidylcholine, lipids with headgroups containing phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylserine, and sphingomyelin showed enhanced partitioning while headgroups containing phosphatidylethanolamine resulted in a lower partition coefficient. The molar partition coefficient was independent of a membrane's hydrophobic volume. This observation is in agreement with our previously published NMR results which showed that ethanol resides almost exclusively within the membrane/water interface. At an ethanol concentration of 20 mmol/l in water, ethanol concentrations at the lipid/water interface are in the range from 30-15 mmol/l, corresponding to one ethanol molecule per 100-200 lipids.

Dominant partition method. [based on a wave function formalism

Science.gov (United States)

Dixon, R. M.; Redish, E. F.

1979-01-01

By use of the L'Huillier, Redish, and Tandy (LRT) wave function formalism, a partially connected method, the dominant partition method (DPM) is developed for obtaining few body reductions of the many body problem in the LRT and Bencze, Redish, and Sloan (BRS) formalisms. The DPM maps the many body problem to a fewer body one by using the criterion that the truncated formalism must be such that consistency with the full Schroedinger equation is preserved. The DPM is based on a class of new forms for the irreducible cluster potential, which is introduced in the LRT formalism. Connectivity is maintained with respect to all partitions containing a given partition, which is referred to as the dominant partition. Degrees of freedom corresponding to the breakup of one or more of the clusters of the dominant partition are treated in a disconnected manner. This approach for simplifying the complicated BRS equations is appropriate for physical problems where a few body reaction mechanism prevails.

Sharing-Aware Horizontal Partitioning for Exploiting Correlations during Query Processing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tzoumas, Kostas; Deshpande, Amol; Jensen, Christian Søndergaard

2010-01-01

Optimization of join queries based on average selectivities is suboptimal in highly correlated databases. In such databases, relations are naturally divided into partitions, each partition having substantially different statistical characteristics. It is very compelling to discover such data...... partitions during query optimization and create multiple plans for a given query, one plan being optimal for a particular combination of data partitions. This scenario calls for the sharing of state among plans, so that common intermediate results are not recomputed. We study this problem in a setting...

[Carbon emissions and low-carbon regulation countermeasures of land use change in the city and town concentrated area of central Liaoning Province, China].

Science.gov (United States)

Xi, Feng-ming; Liang, Wen-juan; Niu, Ming-fen; Wang, Jiao-yue

2016-02-01

Carbon emissions due to land use change have an important impact on global climate change. Adjustment of regional land use patterns has a great scientific significance to adaptation to a changing climate. Based on carbon emission/absorption parameters suitable for Liaoning Province, this paper estimated the carbon emission of land use change in the city and town concentrated area of central Liaoning Province. The results showed that the carbon emission and absorption were separately 308.51 Tg C and 11.64 Tg C from 1997 to 2010. It meant 3.8% of carbon emission. was offset by carbon absorption. Among the 296.87 Tg C net carbon emission of land use change, carbon emission of remaining land use type was 182.24 Tg C, accounting for 61.4% of the net carbon emission, while the carbon emission of land use transformation was 114.63 Tg C, occupying the rest 38.6% of net carbon emission. Through quantifying the mapping relationship between land use change and carbon emission, it was shown that during 1997-2004 the contributions of remaining construction land (40.9%) and cropland transform ation to construction land (40.6%) to carbon emission were larger, but the greater contributions to carbon absorption came from cropland transformation to forest land (38.6%) and remaining forest land (37.5%). During 2004-2010, the land use types for carbon emission and absorption were the same to the period of 1997-2004, but the contribution of remaining construction land to carbon emission increased to 80.6%, and the contribution of remaining forest land to carbon absorption increased to 71.7%. Based on the carbon emission intensity in different land use types, we put forward the low-carbon regulation countermeasures of land use in two aspects. In carbon emission reduction, we should strict control land transformation to construction land, increase the energy efficiency of construction land, and avoid excessive development of forest land and water. In carbon sink increase, we should

Joint Decision-Making and the Coordination of a Sustainable Supply Chain in the Context of Carbon Tax Regulation and Fairness Concerns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhi Liu

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Carbon tax regulation and consumers’ low-carbon preference act as incentives for firms to abate emissions. Manufacturers can improve product sustainability and retailers can strengthen the promotion of low-carbon products as part of such abatement. Current incomplete rationality also affects product sustainability and low-carbon promotion level. In this context, we consider a supply chain with a manufacturer and a retailer and investigate the impacts of the manufacturer’s and the retailer’s fairness concerns on their production sustainability level, low-carbon promotion level and profitability. We also explore the coordination contract. The results show that the manufacturer’s and the retailer’s fairness concerns decrease their product sustainability and low-carbon promotion level, together with the profits of the system and the manufacturer. With regard to the retailer’s fairness concern, the product sustainability level and the manufacturer’s profit are lower; moreover, the low-carbon promotion level and the profits of the supply chain and the retailer are higher. A revenue-sharing contract can coordinate the supply chain perfectly; however, members’ fairness concerns increase the difficulty of coordination. Finally, the numerical results reveal that carbon tax regulation can encourage the manufacturer to enhance the product sustainability level. Further, the impacts on the low-carbon promotion level and firms’ profitability are related to the cost coefficients of product sustainability.

Vertical partitioning of relational OLTP databases using integer programming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Amossen, Rasmus Resen

2010-01-01

A way to optimize performance of relational row store databases is to reduce the row widths by vertically partition- ing tables into table fractions in order to minimize the number of irrelevant columns/attributes read by each transaction. This pa- per considers vertical partitioning algorithms...... for relational row- store OLTP databases with an H-store-like architecture, meaning that we would like to maximize the number of single-sited transactions. We present a model for the vertical partitioning problem that, given a schema together with a vertical partitioning and a workload, estimates the costs...... applied to the TPC-C benchmark and the heuristic is shown to obtain solutions with costs close to the ones found using the quadratic program....

Metric Structures on Fibered Manifolds Through Partitions of Unity

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Hulya Kadioglu

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The notion of partitions of unity is extremely useful as it allows one to extend local constructions on Euclidean patches to global ones. It is widely used in many fields in mathematics. Therefore, prolongation of this useful tool to another manifold may help constructing many geometric structures. In this paper, we construct a partition of unity on a fiber bundle by using a given partition of unity on the base manifold. On the other hand we show that the converse is also possible if it is a vector bundle. As an application, we define a Riemannian metric on the fiber bundle by using induced partition of unity on the fiber bundle.

Limiting partition coefficients of solutes in biphasic trihexyltetradecylphosphonium chloride ionic liquid-supercritical CO2 system: measurement and LSER-based correlation

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Planeta, Josef; Karásek, Pavel; Roth, Michal

2007-01-01

Roč. 111, č. 26 (2007), s. 7620-7625 ISSN 1520-6106 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR KJB400310504; GA ČR GA203/05/2106; GA ČR GA203/07/0886 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40310501 Keywords : phosphonium ionic liquid * supercritical carbon dioxide * solute partition coefficient Subject RIV: CB - Analytical Chemistry, Separation Impact factor: 4.086, year: 2007

Measurements of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide at High Spatial and Temporal Resolution in an Urban Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Rella, C.; Jacobson, G. A.; Crosson, E.

2011-12-01

The ability to take inventory of critical greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane and quantify their sources and sinks is essential for understanding the atmospheric drivers to global climate change. "Top down" inversion measurements and models are used to quantify net carbon fluxes into the atmosphere. The overall carbon fluxes are determined by combining remote measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations with complex atmospheric transport models, and these emissions measurements are compared to "bottoms-up" predictions based on detailed inventories of the sources and sinks of carbon, both anthropogenic and biogenic in nature. At smaller distance scales, such as that of a city or even smaller, the basic framework underpinning the inversion modeling technique begins to break down: atmospheric transport models, which are well understood at a length scale of 100 km, work poorly or not at all at a 100m distance scale. Furthermore, the variability of the emissions sources in space (e.g., factories, highways, residences) and time (rush hours, factory shifts and shutdowns, residential energy usage variability during the day and over the year) complicate the interpretation of the measured signals. In this paper we present detailed, high spatial- and temporal-resolution greenhouse gas measurements in Silicon Valley, CA. The results of two experimental campaigns are presented: a 10m urban 'tower' and ground-based mobile mapping measurements. In both campaigns, real-time carbon dioxide data are combined with real-time carbon monoxide measurements to partition the observed CO2 concentrations between anthropogenic and biogenic sources . The urban tower measurements are made continuously over a period of many weeks. The mobile maps of the vicinity of the urban tower are taken repeatedly over a period of several days, and at different times of the day and under different atmospheric conditions, to assess the robustness and repeatability of the maps. Initial

PAQ: Partition Analysis of Quasispecies.

Science.gov (United States)

Baccam, P; Thompson, R J; Fedrigo, O; Carpenter, S; Cornette, J L

2001-01-01

The complexities of genetic data may not be accurately described by any single analytical tool. Phylogenetic analysis is often used to study the genetic relationship among different sequences. Evolutionary models and assumptions are invoked to reconstruct trees that describe the phylogenetic relationship among sequences. Genetic databases are rapidly accumulating large amounts of sequences. Newly acquired sequences, which have not yet been characterized, may require preliminary genetic exploration in order to build models describing the evolutionary relationship among sequences. There are clustering techniques that rely less on models of evolution, and thus may provide nice exploratory tools for identifying genetic similarities. Some of the more commonly used clustering methods perform better when data can be grouped into mutually exclusive groups. Genetic data from viral quasispecies, which consist of closely related variants that differ by small changes, however, may best be partitioned by overlapping groups. We have developed an intuitive exploratory program, Partition Analysis of Quasispecies (PAQ), which utilizes a non-hierarchical technique to partition sequences that are genetically similar. PAQ was used to analyze a data set of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope sequences isolated from different regions of the brain and another data set consisting of the equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) regulatory gene rev. Analysis of the HIV-1 data set by PAQ was consistent with phylogenetic analysis of the same data, and the EIAV rev variants were partitioned into two overlapping groups. PAQ provides an additional tool which can be used to glean information from genetic data and can be used in conjunction with other tools to study genetic similarities and genetic evolution of viral quasispecies.

Actinide and fission product partitioning and transmutation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-07-01

The fourth international information exchange meeting on actinide and fission product partitioning and transmutation, took place in Mito City in Japan, on 111-13 September 1996. The proceedings are presented in six sessions: the major programmes and international cooperation, the partitioning and transmutation programs, feasibility studies, particular separation processes, the accelerator driven transmutation, and the chemistry of the fuel cycle. (A.L.B.)

NapA Mediates a Redox Regulation of the Antioxidant Response, Carbon Utilization and Development in Aspergillus nidulans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ariann E. Mendoza-Martínez

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The redox-regulated transcription factors (TFs of the bZIP AP1 family, such as yeast Yap1 and fission yeast Pap1, are activated by peroxiredoxin proteins (Prxs to regulate the antioxidant response. Previously, Aspergillus nidulans mutants lacking the Yap1 ortholog NapA have been characterized as sensitive to H2O2 and menadione. Here we study NapA roles in relation to TFs SrrA and AtfA, also involved in oxidant detoxification, showing that these TFs play different roles in oxidative stress resistance, catalase gene regulation and development, during A. nidulans life cycle. We also uncover novel NapA roles in repression of sexual development, normal conidiation, conidial mRNA accumulation, and carbon utilization. The phenotypic characterization of ΔgpxA, ΔtpxA, and ΔtpxB single, double and triple peroxiredoxin mutants in wild type or ΔnapA backgrounds shows that none of these Prxs is required for NapA function in H2O2 and menadione resistance. However, these Prxs participate in a minor NapA-independent H2O2 resistance pathway and NapA and TpxA appear to regulate conidiation along the same route. Using transcriptomic analysis we show that during conidial development NapA-dependent gene expression pattern is different from canonical oxidative stress patterns. In the course of conidiation, NapA is required for regulation of at least 214 genes, including ethanol utilization genes alcR, alcA and aldA, and large sets of genes encoding proteins involved in transcriptional regulation, drug detoxification, carbohydrate utilization and secondary metabolism, comprising multiple oxidoreductases, membrane transporters and hydrolases. In agreement with this, ΔnapA mutants fail to grow or grow very poorly in ethanol, arabinose or fructose as sole carbon sources. Moreover, we show that NapA nuclear localization is induced not only by oxidative stress but also by growth in ethanol and by carbon starvation. Together with our previous work, these results show

VLSI PARTITIONING ALGORITHM WITH ADAPTIVE CONTROL PARAMETER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. N. Filippenko

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the problem of very large-scale integration circuit partitioning. A graph is selected as a mathematical model describing integrated circuit. Modification of ant colony optimization algorithm is presented, which is used to solve graph partitioning problem. Ant colony optimization algorithm is an optimization method based on the principles of self-organization and other useful features of the ants’ behavior. The proposed search system is based on ant colony optimization algorithm with the improved method of the initial distribution and dynamic adjustment of the control search parameters. The experimental results and performance comparison show that the proposed method of very large-scale integration circuit partitioning provides the better search performance over other well known algorithms.

mTORC2 and AMPK differentially regulate muscle triglyceride content via Perilipin 3

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maximilian Kleinert

2016-08-01

Conclusions: We identified a novel link between mTORC2 and PLIN3, which regulates lipid storage in muscle. While mTORC2 is a negative regulator, we further identified AMPK as a positive regulator of PLIN3, which impacts whole-body substrate utilization and nutrient partitioning.

Consistent Estimation of Partition Markov Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jesús E. García

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The Partition Markov Model characterizes the process by a partition L of the state space, where the elements in each part of L share the same transition probability to an arbitrary element in the alphabet. This model aims to answer the following questions: what is the minimal number of parameters needed to specify a Markov chain and how to estimate these parameters. In order to answer these questions, we build a consistent strategy for model selection which consist of: giving a size n realization of the process, finding a model within the Partition Markov class, with a minimal number of parts to represent the process law. From the strategy, we derive a measure that establishes a metric in the state space. In addition, we show that if the law of the process is Markovian, then, eventually, when n goes to infinity, L will be retrieved. We show an application to model internet navigation patterns.

Anion-Regulated Selective Generation of Cobalt Sites in Carbon: Toward Superior Bifunctional Electrocatalysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wan, Gang [State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Ding-xi Road Shanghai 200050 P. R. China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 P. R. China; Yang, Ce [Chemical Science and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 Cass Avenue Lemont IL 60439 USA; Zhao, Wanpeng [State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Ding-xi Road Shanghai 200050 P. R. China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 P. R. China; Li, Qianru [State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Ding-xi Road Shanghai 200050 P. R. China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 P. R. China; Wang, Ning [State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Ding-xi Road Shanghai 200050 P. R. China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 P. R. China; Li, Tao [X-ray Science Division, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 Cass Avenue Lemont IL 60439 USA; Zhou, Hua [X-ray Science Division, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 Cass Avenue Lemont IL 60439 USA; Chen, Hangrong [State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Ding-xi Road Shanghai 200050 P. R. China; Shi, Jianlin [State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Ding-xi Road Shanghai 200050 P. R. China

2017-11-06

The introduction of active transition metal sites (TMSs) in carbon enables the synthesis of noble-metal-free electrocatalysts for clean energy conversion applications, however, there are often multiple existing forms of TMSs, which are of different natures and catalytic models. Regulating the evolution of distinctive TMSs is highly desirable but remains challenging to date. Anions, as essential elements involved in the synthesis, have been totally neglected previously in the construction of TMSs. Herein, the effects of anions on the creation of different types of TMSs is investigated for the first time. It is found that the active cobalt-nitrogen sites tend to be selectively constructed on the surface of N-doped carbon by using chloride, while metallic cobalt nanoparticles encased in protective graphite layers are the dominant forms of cobalt species with nitrate ions. The obtained catalysts demonstrate cobalt-sites-dependent activity for ORR and HER in acidic media. And the remarkably enhanced catalytic activities approaching that of benchmark Pt/C in acidic medium has been obtained on the catalyst dominated with cobalt-nitrogen sites, confirmed by the advanced spectroscopic . Our finding demonstrates a general paradigm of anion-regulated evolution of distinctive TMSs, providing a new pathway for enhancing performances of various targeted reactions related with TMSs.

Potassium nutrition and water availability affect phloem transport of photosynthetic carbon in eucalypt trees

Science.gov (United States)

Epron, Daniel; Cabral, Osvaldo; Laclau, Jean-Paul; Dannoura, Masako; Packer, Ana Paula; Plain, Caroline; Battie-Laclau, Patricia; Moreira, Marcelo; Trivelin, Paulo; Bouillet, Jean-Pierre; Gérant, Dominique; Nouvellon, Yann

2015-04-01

Potassium fertilisation strongly affects growth and carbon partitioning of eucalypt on tropical soil that are strongly weathered. In addition, potassium fertilization could be of great interest in mitigating the adverse consequences of drought in planted forests, as foliar K concentrations influence osmotic adjustment, stomatal regulation and phloem loading. Phloem is the main pathway for transferring photosynthate from source leaves to sink organs, thus controlling growth partitioning among the different tree compartments. But little is known about the effect of potassium nutrition on phloem transport of photosynthetic carbon and on the interaction between K nutrition and water availability. In situ 13C pulse labelling was conducted on tropical eucalypt trees (Eucalyptus grandis L.) grown in a trial plantation with plots in which 37% of throughfall were excluded (about 500 mm/yr) using home-made transparent gutters (-W) or not (+W) and plots that received 0.45 mol K m-2 applied as KCl three months after planting (+K) or not (-K). Three trees were labelled in each of the four treatments (+K+W, +K-W, -K+W and -K-W). Trees were labelled for one hour by injecting pure 13CO2 in a 27 m3 whole crown chamber. We estimated the velocity of carbon transfer in the trunk by comparing time lags between the uptake of 13CO2 and its recovery in trunk CO2 efflux recorded by off axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy (Los Gatos Research) in two chambers per tree, one just under the crown and one at the base of the trunk. We analyzed the dynamics of the label recovered in the foliage and in the phloem sap by analysing carbon isotope composition of bulk leaf organic matter and phloem extracts using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer. The velocity of carbon transfer in the trunk and the initial rate 13C disappearance from the foliage were much higher in +K trees than in -K trees with no significant effect of rainfall. The volumetric flow of phloem, roughly estimated by multiplying

Legal and regulatory issues regarding classification and disposal of wastes from actinide partitioning and transmutation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kocher, D.C.

1989-01-01

Partitioning and transmutation of actinide radioelements in spent nuclear fuel from civilian power reactors is potentially attractive because the resulting wastes might be acceptable for disposal using systems which are considerably less costly than a deep geologic repository. At present, there are no legal or regulatory prohibitions to seeking alternatives to a geologic repository for disposal of such wastes. However, additional laws and regulations would be needed, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been reluctant to alter the current framework for radioactive waste management, in which geologic repositories or near-surface facilities are the only disposal options established in law and regulations unless a compelling need for alternatives with intermediate waste-isolation capabilities is demonstrated. There are also important technical considerations which are not encouraging with regard to the development of intermediate disposal systems for wastes from partitioning and transmutation of actinides in civilian spent fuel. First, the wastes may contain sufficient concentrations of fission products. Second, defense reprocessing wastes may contain sufficient concentrations of fission products and long-lived actinides. Thus, in developing the legal and regulatory framework for alternative disposal systems, there is a need to establish maximum concentrations of fission products and long-lived actinides that would be acceptable for intermediate disposal. 19 refs

Limit Shapes and Fluctuations of Bounded Random Partitions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Beltoft, Dan

Random partitions of integers, bounded both in the number of summands and the size of each summand are considered, subject to the probability measure which assigns a probability proportional to some fixed positive number to the power of the number being partitioned. This corresponds to considering...

Partitioning ecosystems for sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Martyn G

2016-03-01

Decline in the abundance of renewable natural resources (RNRs) coupled with increasing demands of an expanding human population will greatly intensify competition for Earth's natural resources during this century, yet curiously, analytical approaches to the management of productive ecosystems (ecological theory of wildlife harvesting, tragedy of the commons, green economics, and bioeconomics) give only peripheral attention to the driving influence of competition on resource exploitation. Here, I apply resource competition theory (RCT) to the exploitation of RNRs and derive four general policies in support of their sustainable and equitable use: (1) regulate resource extraction technology to avoid damage to the resource base; (2) increase efficiency of resource use and reduce waste at every step in the resource supply chain and distribution network; (3) partition ecosystems with the harvesting niche as the basic organizing principle for sustainable management of natural resources by multiple users; and (4) increase negative feedback between consumer and resource to bring about long-term sustainable use. A simple policy framework demonstrates how RCT integrates with other elements of sustainability science to better manage productive ecosystems. Several problem areas of RNR management are discussed in the light of RCT, including tragedy of the commons, overharvesting, resource collapse, bycatch, single species quotas, and simplification of ecosystems.

In-situ partitioning and bioconcentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons among water, suspended particulate matter, and fish in the Dongjiang and Pearl Rivers and the Pearl River Estuary, China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Haiyan; Lu, Lei; Huang, Wen; Yang, Juan; Ran, Yong

2014-01-01

Highlights: • PAHs are relatively higher in marine fish than in freshwater fish. • PAHs respectively show significant correlations with DOC, POC, and Chl a. • The log K oc for PAHs is one order magnitude higher than the predicted. • The log BCF values in fish and their tissues are nonlinear in respect to log K ow . • Lipid is related to PAHs in freshwater fish, but not in marine fishes. - Abstract: The partitioning and bioaccumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water, suspended particulate matter (SPM), and fish samples from the Dongjiang River (DR), Pearl River (PR), and the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) were examined. Although PAHs are much lower in PRE than in DR or PR, PAHs in some fish species are significantly higher in PRE than in DR or PR. Aqueous or particulate PAHs respectively show significant correlations with dissolved organic carbon, particulate organic matter, and chlorophyll a, suggesting that biological pumping effect regulates their distribution. The in situ partitioning coefficients (log K oc ) for PAHs are one order magnitude higher than the empirical log K oc –log K ow correlation. The bioconcentration factor (BCF) is slightly higher for the marine fish than for the freshwater fish. The above phenomena indicate that BCF may vary due to the diversity of fish species, feeding habits, and metabolism of PAHs in fish

Sediment-porewater partition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from Lanzhou Reach of Yellow River, China

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu Yong [Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071 (China); Xu Jian, E-mail: xujian@nankai.edu.cn [Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071 (China); Wang Ping; Sun Hongwen; Dai Shugui [Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071 (China)

2009-06-15

Pollution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the aquatic environment has drawn much attention around the world. The occurrence of 16 priority PAHs in the sediments and corresponding porewaters in Lanzhou Reach of Yellow River, China, and their partitioning behavior between the two phases were investigated. The results demonstrated that the total PAH levels in the sediments were positively correlated with the sediment clay contents (R{sup 2} = 0.756). Concentrations of total PAHs in porewaters ranged from 48.2 to 206 {mu}g/L, and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene (InP) was the most abundant compound measured in the porewater samples with a mean value of 42.9 {mu}g/L. The compositions of PAHs in porewaters were dominated by their compositions in the sediment samples. The in situ organic carbon normalized partition coefficients (logK{sub oc}{sup '}) of the PAHs between sediments and porewaters were significantly correlated with their octanol-water partition coefficients (log K{sub ow}) when log K{sub ow} values were less than 5.5 (naphthalene (Nap) excluded). logK{sub oc}{sup '} values of 14 PAHs were lower than those predicted by the Karickhoff relationship. This discrepancy was largest for InP, dibenzo[a,h]anthracene (DBA), and benzo[ghi]perylene (BgP). The results in present study showed the tendency of PAHs release from sediment to porewater, indicating that PAHs sequestered in the sediments may be a pollution source to aquatic ecosystem.

Partitioning of fissile and radio-toxic materials from spent nuclear fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bychkov, A.V.; Skiba, O.V.; Kormilitsyn, M.V.

2007-01-01

Full text of publication follows. The term ''partitioning'' means separation of one group of radwaste components from another. Such technological approaches are mainly applied to extraction of long-lived fission products (Tc, I) and minor actinides (Np, Am, Cm) from the waste arising from spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. Transmutation of the extracted minor actinides should be performed in a reactor or some accelerated systems. The combination of these technologies, partitioning and transmutation (P and T), will reduce the radiotoxicity of radwaste. In recent decades, partitioning has been directly linked to spent fuel reprocessing. Therefore, the basic investigations have been focused on the partitioning of liquid wastes arising from the PUREX process. These subjects have been the most developed ones, but the processes of fine aqueous separation generates an extra amount of liquid waste. This fact has an effect on the nuclear fuel cycle economy. Therefore, some other advanced compact methods have also been studied. These are dry methods involving molten chlorides and fluorides, the methods based on a supercritical movable phase, etc. The report provides a brief review of information on the basic partitioning process flow-sheets developed in France, Japan, Russia and other countries. Recent approaches to partitioning have been mostly directed towards radio-toxic hazard reduction and ecology. In the future, partitioning should be closely bound up with reprocessing and other spent nuclear fuel management processes. Reprocessing/partitioning should also be aimed at solving the problems of safety (non-proliferation) and economy in a closed fuel cycle. It is necessary to change a future ''technological philosophy'' of reprocessing and partitioning. The basic spent fuel components (U, Pu, Th) are to be extracted only for recycling in a closed nuclear fuel cycle. If these elements are regarded as a waste, additional expenses are required for transmutation. If we consider

Net carbon allocation in soybean seedlings as influenced by soil water stress at two soil temperatures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCoy, E.L.; Boersma, L.; Ekasingh, M.

1990-01-01

The influence of water stress at two soil temperatures on allocation of net photoassimilated carbon in soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) was investigated using compartmental analysis. The experimental phase employed classical 14 C labeling methodology with plants equilibrated at soil water potentials of -0.04, -0.25 and -0.50 MPa; and soil temperatures of 25 and 10C. Carbon immobilization in the shoot apex generally followed leaf elongation rates with decreases in both parameters at increasing water stress at both soil temperatures. However, where moderate water stress resulted in dramatic declines in leaf elongation rates, carbon immobilization rates were sharply decreased only at severe water stress levels. Carbon immobilization was decreased in the roots and nodules of the nonwater stressed treatment by the lower soil temperature. This relation was reversed with severe water stress, and carbon immobilization in the roots and nodules was increased at the lower soil temperature. Apparently, the increased demand for growth and/or carbon storage in these tissues with increased water stress overcame the low soil temperature limitations. Both carbon pool sizes and partitioning of carbon to the sink tissues increased with moderate water stress at 25C soil temperature. Increased pool sizes were consistent with whole plant osmotic adjustment at moderate water stress. Increased partitioning to the sinks was consistent with carbon translocation processes being less severely influenced by water stress than is photosynthesis

Mesh Partitioning Algorithm Based on Parallel Finite Element Analysis and Its Actualization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Zhang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In parallel computing based on finite element analysis, domain decomposition is a key technique for its preprocessing. Generally, a domain decomposition of a mesh can be realized through partitioning of a graph which is converted from a finite element mesh. This paper discusses the method for graph partitioning and the way to actualize mesh partitioning. Relevant softwares are introduced, and the data structure and key functions of Metis and ParMetis are introduced. The writing, compiling, and testing of the mesh partitioning interface program based on these key functions are performed. The results indicate some objective law and characteristics to guide the users who use the graph partitioning algorithm and software to write PFEM program, and ideal partitioning effects can be achieved by actualizing mesh partitioning through the program. The interface program can also be used directly by the engineering researchers as a module of the PFEM software. So that it can reduce the application of the threshold of graph partitioning algorithm, improve the calculation efficiency, and promote the application of graph theory and parallel computing.

Sediment pore water distribution coefficients of PCB congeners in enriched black carbon sediment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martinez, Andres; O'Sullivan, Colin; Reible, Danny; Hornbuckle, Keri C.

2013-01-01

More than 2300 sediment pore water distribution coefficients (K PCBids ) of 93 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured and modeled from sediments from Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal. K PCBids were calculated from previously reported bulk sediment values and newly analyzed pore water. PCBs in pore waters were measured using SPME PDMS-fiber and ∑PCB ranged from 41 to 1500 ng L −1 . The resulting K PCBids were ∼1 log unit lower in comparison to other reported values. A simple model for the K PCBid consisted of the product of the organic carbon fraction and the octanol–water partition coefficient and provided an excellent prediction for the measured values, with a mean square error of 0.09 ± 0.06. Although black carbon content is very high in these sediments and was expected to play an important role in the distribution of PCBs, no improvement was obtained when a two-carbon model was used. -- Highlights: •PCB sediment-pore water distribution coefficients were measured and modeled. •Distribution coefficients were lower in comparison to other reported values. •Organic carbon fraction times the K OW yielded the best prediction model. •The incorporation of black carbon into a model did not improve the results. -- The organic carbon fraction times the octanol–water partition coefficient yielded the best prediction model for the sediment pore water distribution coefficient of PCBs

Polyhedral Computations for the Simple Graph Partitioning Problem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Michael Malmros

The simple graph partitioning problem is to partition an edge-weighted graph into mutually disjoint subgraphs, each containing no more than b nodes, such that the sum of the weights of all edges in the subgraphs is maximal. In this paper we present a branch-and-cut algorithm for the problem that ...

On the partition dimension of two-component graphs

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

D O Haryeni

2017-11-17

Nov 17, 2017 ... Partition dimension; disconnected graph; component. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 05C12, 05C15. 1. Introduction. The study of the partition dimension for graphs was initiated by Chartrand et al. [2] aimed at finding a new way to solve the problem in metric dimensions of graphs. Many results.

Probabilistic Decision Based Block Partitioning for Future Video Coding

KAUST Repository

Wang, Zhao; Wang, Shiqi; Zhang, Jian; Wang, Shanshe; Ma, Siwei

2017-01-01

, the mode decision problem is casted into a probabilistic framework to select the final partition based on the confidence interval decision strategy. Experimental results show that the proposed CIET algorithm can speed up QTBT block partitioning structure

Environmental concentration and atmospheric deposition of halogenated flame retardants in soil from Nepal: Source apportionment and soil-air partitioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Yadav, Ishwar Chandra; Devi, Ningombam Linthoingambi; Li, Jun; Zhang, Gan

2018-02-01

While various investigations have been driven on polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and other flame retardants (FRs) in different framework around the world, information about contamination and fate of PBDEs and other FRs in developing countries especially in the Indian subcontinent is uncommon. Nepal being located in the Indian subcontinent, very little is known about contamination level of semi-volatile organic pollutants discharged into the environment. This motivated us to investigate the environmental fate of halogenated flame retardant (HFRs) in Nepalese condition. In this study, we investigated the concentration, fate, and sources of 9 PBDEs, 2 dechlorane plus isomers (DPs), and 6 novel brominated flame retardants (NBFRs). Moreover, air-soil exchange and soil-air partitioning were also evaluated to characterize the pattern of air-soil exchange and environmental fate. In general, the concentrations of NBFRs in soil were more prevalent than PBDEs and DPs, and accounted 95% of ∑HFRs. By and large, the concentrations of NBFRs and DPs were measured high in Kathmandu, while PBDEs level exceeded in Pokhara. Principal component analysis (PCA) study suggested contributions from commercial penta-, octa-, and deca-BDEs products and de-bromination of highly brominated PBDEs as the significant source of PBDEs. Likewise, low f anti ratio suggested DPs in soil might have originated from long-range atmospheric transport from remote areas, while high levels of decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) in soil were linked with the use of wide varieties of consumer products. The estimated fugacity fraction (ff) for individual HFR was quite lower (soil is overwhelming. Soil-air partitioning study revealed neither octanol-air partition coefficient (K OA ) nor black carbon partition coefficient (K BC-A ) is an appropriate surrogate for soil organic matter (SOM), subsequently, absorption by SOM has no or little role in the partitioning of HFRs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All

Investigating the Early Carbon Cycle Using Carbonaceous Inclusions and Dissolved Carbon in Detrital Zircon

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, E. A.; Boehnke, P.; Harrison, M.; Mao, W. L.

2015-12-01

Because the terrestrial rock record extends only to ~4 Ga and older materials thus far identified are limited to detrital zircons, information about volatile abundances and cycles on early Earth is limited. Carbon, for instance, plays an important role not only in the modern biosphere but also in deep recycling of materials between the crust and mantle. We are investigating the record of carbon abundance and origin in Hadean zircons from Jack Hills (W. Australia) using two main approaches. First, carbon may partition into the zircon structure at trace levels during crystallization from a magma, and better understanding of this partitioning behavior will allow for zircon's use as a monitor of magmatic carbon contents. We have measured carbon abundances in zircon from a variety of igneous rocks (gabbro; I-, A-, and S-type granitoids) via SIMS and found that although abundances are typically low (average raw 12C/30Si ~ 1x10-6), S-type granite zircons can reach a factor of 1000 over this background. Around 10% of Hadean zircons investigated show similar enrichments, consistent with other evidence for the derivation of many Jack Hills zircons from S-type granitoids and with the establishment of modern-level carbon abundances in the crust by ca. 4.2 Ga. Diamond and graphite inclusions reported in the Jack Hills zircons by previous studies proved to be contamination by polishing debris, leaving the true abundance of these materials in the population uncertain. On a second front, we have identified and investigated primary carbonaceous inclusions in these zircons. From a population of over 10,000 Jack Hills zircons, we identified one concordant 4.10±0.01 Ga zircon that contains primary graphite inclusions (so interpreted due to their enclosure in a crack-free zircon host as shown by transmission X-ray microscopy and their crystal habit). Their δ13CPDB of -24±5‰ is consistent with a biogenic origin and, in the absence of a likely inorganic mechanism to produce such a

Partitioning of unstructured meshes for load balancing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin, O.C.; Otto, S.W.

1994-01-01

Many large-scale engineering and scientific calculations involve repeated updating of variables on an unstructured mesh. To do these types of computations on distributed memory parallel computers, it is necessary to partition the mesh among the processors so that the load balance is maximized and inter-processor communication time is minimized. This can be approximated by the problem, of partitioning a graph so as to obtain a minimum cut, a well-studied combinatorial optimization problem. Graph partitioning algorithms are discussed that give good but not necessarily optimum solutions. These algorithms include local search methods recursive spectral bisection, and more general purpose methods such as simulated annealing. It is shown that a general procedure enables to combine simulated annealing with Kernighan-Lin. The resulting algorithm is both very fast and extremely effective. (authors) 23 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab

Managing Network Partitions in Structured P2P Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Shafaat, Tallat M.; Ghodsi, Ali; Haridi, Seif

Structured overlay networks form a major class of peer-to-peer systems, which are touted for their abilities to scale, tolerate failures, and self-manage. Any long-lived Internet-scale distributed system is destined to face network partitions. Consequently, the problem of network partitions and mergers is highly related to fault-tolerance and self-management in large-scale systems. This makes it a crucial requirement for building any structured peer-to-peer systems to be resilient to network partitions. Although the problem of network partitions and mergers is highly related to fault-tolerance and self-management in large-scale systems, it has hardly been studied in the context of structured peer-to-peer systems. Structured overlays have mainly been studied under churn (frequent joins/failures), which as a side effect solves the problem of network partitions, as it is similar to massive node failures. Yet, the crucial aspect of network mergers has been ignored. In fact, it has been claimed that ring-based structured overlay networks, which constitute the majority of the structured overlays, are intrinsically ill-suited for merging rings. In this chapter, we motivate the problem of network partitions and mergers in structured overlays. We discuss how a structured overlay can automatically detect a network partition and merger. We present an algorithm for merging multiple similar ring-based overlays when the underlying network merges. We examine the solution in dynamic conditions, showing how our solution is resilient to churn during the merger, something widely believed to be difficult or impossible. We evaluate the algorithm for various scenarios and show that even when falsely detecting a merger, the algorithm quickly terminates and does not clutter the network with many messages. The algorithm is flexible as the tradeoff between message complexity and time complexity can be adjusted by a parameter.

Removal of dissolved organic carbon by aquifer material: Correlations between column parameters, sorption isotherms and octanol-water partition coefficient.

Science.gov (United States)

Pradhan, Snigdhendubala; Boernick, Hilmar; Kumar, Pradeep; Mehrotra, Indu

2016-07-15

The correlation between octanol-water partition coefficient (KOW) and the transport of aqueous samples containing single organic compound is well documented. The concept of the KOW of river water containing the mixture of organics was evolved by Pradhan et al. (2015). The present study aims at determining the KOW and sorption parameters of synthetic aqueous samples and river water to finding out the correlation, if any. The laboratory scale columns packed with aquifer materials were fed with synthetic and river water samples. Under the operating conditions, the compounds in the samples did not separate, and all the samples that contain more than one organic compound yielded a single breakthrough curve. Breakthrough curves simulated from sorption isotherms were compared with those from the column runs. The sorption parameters such as retardation factor (Rf), height of mass transfer zone (HMTZ), rate of mass transfer zone (RMTZ), breakpoint column capacity (qb) and maximum column capacity (qx) estimated from column runs, sorption isotherms and models developed by Yoon-Nelson, Bohart-Adam and Thomas were in agreement. The empirical correlations were found between the KOW and sorption parameters. The transport of the organics measured as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) through the aquifer can be predicted from the KOW of the river water and other water samples. The novelty of the study is to measure KOW and to envisage the fate of the DOC of the river water, particularly during riverbank filtration. Statistical analysis of the results revealed a fair agreement between the observed and computed values. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Partitioning of Intermediary Carbon Metabolism in Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Leek.

Science.gov (United States)

Shachar-Hill, Y.; Pfeffer, P. E.; Douds, D.; Osman, S. F.; Doner, L. W.; Ratcliffe, R. G.

1995-05-01

Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are symbionts for a large variety of crop plants; however, the form in which they take up carbon from the host is not established. To trace the course of carbon metabolism, we have used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with [13C]glucose labeling in vivo and in extracts to examine leek (Allium porrum) roots colonized by Glomus etunicatum (and uncolonized controls) as well as germinating spores. These studies implicate glucose as a likely substrate for vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the symbiotic state. Root feeding of 0.6 mM 1-[13C]glucose labeled only the fungal metabolites trehalose and glycogen. The time course of this labeling was dependent on the status of the host. Incubation with 50 mM 1-[13C]glucose caused labeling of sucrose (in addition to fungal metabolites) with twice as much labeling in uncolonized plants. There was no detectable scrambling of the label from C1 glucose to the C6 position of glucose moieties in trehalose or glycogen. Labeling of mannitol C1,6 in the colonized root tissue was much less than in axenically germinating spores. Thus, carbohydrate metabolism of host and fungus are significantly altered in the symbiotic state.

Constructing ordinal partition transition networks from multivariate time series.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jiayang; Zhou, Jie; Tang, Ming; Guo, Heng; Small, Michael; Zou, Yong

2017-08-10

A growing number of algorithms have been proposed to map a scalar time series into ordinal partition transition networks. However, most observable phenomena in the empirical sciences are of a multivariate nature. We construct ordinal partition transition networks for multivariate time series. This approach yields weighted directed networks representing the pattern transition properties of time series in velocity space, which hence provides dynamic insights of the underling system. Furthermore, we propose a measure of entropy to characterize ordinal partition transition dynamics, which is sensitive to capturing the possible local geometric changes of phase space trajectories. We demonstrate the applicability of pattern transition networks to capture phase coherence to non-coherence transitions, and to characterize paths to phase synchronizations. Therefore, we conclude that the ordinal partition transition network approach provides complementary insight to the traditional symbolic analysis of nonlinear multivariate time series.

Carbide characterization in a Nb-microalloyed advanced ultrahigh strength steel after quenching-partitioning-tempering process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, X.D.; Xu, W.Z.; Guo, Z.H.; Wang, L.; Rong, Y.H.

2010-01-01

Based on the observations of scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, four kinds of carbides were identified in a Nb-microalloyed steel after quenching-partitioning-tempering treatment. In addition to transitional epsilon carbide that usually forms in silicon-free carbon steel, other three types of niobium carbides (NbC) formed at various treatment stages respectively. They are incoherent NbC inclusion that nucleated at solidification mainly, fine NbC that nucleated in lath martensite at tempering stage and regular polygonal NbC that nucleated in austenite before quenching. Their formation mechanisms on steel were discussed briefly based on thermodynamics.

Phylogenetic relationships in Asarum: Effect of data partitioning and a revised classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinn, Brandon T; Kelly, Lawrence M; Freudenstein, John V

2015-05-01

Generic boundaries and infrageneric relationships among the charismatic temperate magnoliid Asarum sensu lato (Aristolochiaceae) have long been uncertain. Previous molecular phylogenetic analyses used either plastid or nuclear loci alone and varied greatly in their taxonomic implications for the genus. We analyzed additional molecular markers from the nuclear and plastid genomes, reevaluated the possibility of a derived loss of autonomous self-pollination, and investigated the topological effects of matrix-partitioning-scheme choice. We sequenced seven plastid regions and the nuclear ITS1-ITS2 region of 58 individuals representing all previously recognized Asarum s.l. segregate genera and the monotypic genus Saruma. Matrices were partitioned using common a priori partitioning schemes and PartitionFinder. Topologies that were recovered using a priori partitioning of matrices differed from those recovered using a PartitionFinder-selected scheme, and by analysis method. We recovered six monophyletic groups that we circumscribed into three subgenera and six sections. Putative fungal mimic characters served as synapomorphies only for subgenus Heterotropa. Subgenus Geotaenium, a new subgenus, was recovered as sister to the remainder of Asarum by ML analyses of highly partitioned datasets. Section Longistylis, also newly named, is sister to section Hexastylis. Our analyses do not unambiguously support a single origin for all fungal-mimicry characters. Topologies recovered through the analysis of PartitionFinder-optimized matrices can differ drastically from those inferred from a priori partitioned matrices, and by analytical method. We recommend that investigators evaluate the topological effects of matrix partitioning using multiple methods of phylogenetic reconstruction. © 2015 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

The Partitioning of Carbon Biomass among the Pico- and Nano-plankton Community in the South Brazilian Bight during a Strong Summer Intrusion of South Atlantic Central Water

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natascha M. Bergo

2017-07-01

Full Text Available To investigate how pico- and nano-plankton respond to oceanographic conditions in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean, we assessed the influence of a summer intrusion of the South Atlantic Central Water (SACW on the spatial and vertical dynamics of planktonic abundance and carbon biomass across environmental gradients. Seawater samples were collected from six depths within the euphotic zone at nine oceanographic stations in a transect on the Brazilian continental shelf in January 2013. The abundance of pico- and nano-plankton populations was determined by flow cytometry, and carbon biomass was calculated based on conversion factors from the literature. The autotrophic Synechococcus spp., picoeukaryotes, and nanoeukaryotes were more abundant in the surface layers of the innermost stations influenced by Coastal Water (maximum of 1.19 × 105, 1.5 × 104, and 8.61 × 103 cell·mL−1, respectively, whereas Prochlorococcus spp. dominated (max. of 6.57 × 104 cell·mL−1 at the outermost stations influenced by Tropical Water and in the uplifting layers of the SACW around a depth of 100 m. Numerically, heterotrophic bacterial populations were predominant, with maximum concentrations (2.11 × 106 cell·mL−1 recorded in the surface layers of the inner and mid shelves in Coastal Water and the upper limits of the SACW. Nutrient-rich (high silicate and phosphate and relatively less saline waters enhanced the picoeukaryotic biomass, while Synechococcus and heterotrophic bacteria were linked to higher temperatures, lower salinities, and higher inputs of ammonia and dissolved organic carbon. The relative importance of each group to carbon biomass partitioning under upwelling conditions is led by heterotrophic bacteria, followed by picoeukaryotes, Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, and when the SACW is not as influential, the relative contribution of each phytoplanktonic group is more evenly distributed. In addition to habitat preferences, the physical structure

Hashing for Statistics over K-Partitions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dahlgaard, Soren; Knudsen, Mathias Baek Tejs; Rotenberg, Eva

2015-01-01

In this paper we analyze a hash function for k-partitioning a set into bins, obtaining strong concentration bounds for standard algorithms combining statistics from each bin. This generic method was originally introduced by Flajolet and Martin [FOCS'83] in order to save a factor Ω(k) of time per...... concentration bounds on the most popular applications of k-partitioning similar to those we would get using a truly random hash function. The analysis is very involved and implies several new results of independent interest for both simple and double tabulation, e.g. A simple and efficient construction...

Metal partitioning and uptake in central Ontario forests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watmough, Shaun A.; Dillon, Peter J.; Epova, Ekaterina N.

2005-01-01

Evaluation of the potential environmental risk posed by metals depends to a great extent on modeling the fate and mobility of metals with soil-solution partitioning coefficients (K d ). However, the effect of biological cycling on metal partitioning is rarely considered in standard risk assessments. We determined soil-solution partitioning coefficients for 5 metals (Cd, Zn, Pb, Co and Ni) at 46 forested sites that border the Precambrian Shield in central Ontario, where soil pH aq varied from 3.9 to 8.1. Foliage from the dominant tree species and forest floor samples were also collected from each site to compare their metal levels with K d predictions. Analogous to other studies, log K d values for all metals were predicted by empirical linear regression with soil pH (r 2 = 0.66-0.72), demonstrating that metal partitioning between soil and soil solution can be reliably predicted for relatively unpolluted forest mineral soils by soil pH. In contrast, whereas the so-called bioavailable water-soluble metal fraction could be predicted from soil pH, metal concentrations in foliage and the forest floor at each site were not consistently related to pH. Risk assessment of metals should take into account the role of biota in metal cycling and partitioning in forests, particularly if metal bio-accumulation and chronic toxicity in the food chain, rather than metal mobility in soils, are of primary concern. - Metal cycling by plants should be considered in risk assessment studies

PACE: A dynamic programming algorithm for hardware/software partitioning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Peter Voigt; Madsen, Jan

1996-01-01

This paper presents the PACE partitioning algorithm which is used in the LYCOS co-synthesis system for partitioning control/dataflow graphs into hardware and software parts. The algorithm is a dynamic programming algorithm which solves both the problem of minimizing system execution time...

Disk partition function and oscillatory rolling tachyons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jokela, Niko; Jaervinen, Matti; Keski-Vakkuri, Esko; Majumder, Jaydeep

2008-01-01

An exact cubic open string field theory rolling tachyon solution was recently found by Kiermaier et al and Schnabl. This oscillatory solution has been argued to be related by a field redefinition to the simple exponential rolling tachyon deformation of boundary conformal theory. In the latter approach, the disk partition function takes a simple form. Out of curiosity, we compute the disk partition function for an oscillatory tachyon profile, and find that the result is nevertheless almost the same

An assessment of post-remediation changes in sediment chemistry partitioning in an S/S treated soil.

Science.gov (United States)

Cutter, S.; MacLeod, C. L.; Canning, K.; Carey, P. J.; Hills, C. D.

2003-04-01

The Astra Pyrotechnics plant located in the Dartford Marshes, Kent, UK was the site of a field trial utilizing cement stabilization/solidification (S/S) in September 2000. A hotspot containing 35% copper and several thousand part per million lead and zinc was treated in order to trial an new form of cement stabilization (accelerated carbonation technology or ACT) developed by the Centre for Contaminated Land Remediation. A 10 by 20 meter plot was divided into 4 cells into which untreated, OPC (ordinary Portland cement) treated, Envirocem (a Lafarge special cement) treated and ACT treated soil was placed. Each cell has a leachate collection system and the leachate is monitored monthly. In August 2003, 24 cm cores were collected from each cell. These cores were analysed to determine changes in sediment chemistry and metal partitioning characteristics. Sediment chemistry was determined using an aqua regia digestion followed by ICP OES analysis. The CISMED extraction procedure was used to examine partitioning changes. The contaminant concentrations in the leachates remain below UK drinking water standards. However, seasonal cyclicity is observed with an increase of metals in the leachates during winter months. The sediment cores were analysed for Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mn, Mg, Na, Ni, Pb and Zn. Only the untreated cell showed any discernable changes in metal concentration with depth. The S/S treated cells show no trends although differences in partitioning between the cells is observed.

European Europart integrated project on actinide partitioning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Madic, C.; Hudson, M.J.

2005-01-01

This poster presents the objectives of EUROPART, a scientific integrated project between 24 European partners, mostly funded by the European Community within the FP6. EUROPART aims at developing chemical partitioning processes for the so-called minor actinides (MA) contained in nuclear wastes, i.e. from Am to Cf. In the case of dedicated spent fuels or targets, the actinides to be separated also include U, Pu and Np. The techniques considered for the separation of these radionuclides belong to the fields of hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy, as in the previous FP5 programs named PARTNEW and PYROREP. The two main axes of research within EUROPART will be: The partitioning of MA (from Am to Cf) from high burn-up UO x fuels and multi-recycled MOx fuels; the partitioning of the whole actinide family for recycling, as an option for advanced dedicated fuel cycles (and in connection with the studies to be performed in the EUROTRANS integrated project). In hydrometallurgy, the research is organised into five Work Packages (WP). Four WP are dedicated to the study of partitioning methods mainly based on the use of solvent extraction methods, one WP is dedicated to the development of actinide co-conversion methods for fuel or target preparation. The research in pyrometallurgy is organized into four WP, listed hereafter: development of actinide partitioning methods, study of the basic chemistry of trans-curium elements in molten salts, study of the conditioning of the wastes, some system studies. Moreover, a strong management team will be concerned not only with the technical and financial issues arising from EUROPART, but also with information, communication and benefits for Europe. Training and education of young researchers will also pertain to the project. EUROPART has also established collaboration with US DOE and Japanese CRIEPI. (authors)

BKP plane partitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Foda, Omar; Wheeler, Michael

2007-01-01

Using BKP neutral fermions, we derive a product expression for the generating function of volume-weighted plane partitions that satisfy two conditions. If we call a set of adjacent equal height-h columns, h > 0, an h-path, then 1. Every h-path can assume one of two possible colours. 2. There is a unique way to move along an h-path from any column to another

BKP plane partitions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Foda, Omar; Wheeler, Michael [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010 (Australia)

2007-01-15

Using BKP neutral fermions, we derive a product expression for the generating function of volume-weighted plane partitions that satisfy two conditions. If we call a set of adjacent equal height-h columns, h > 0, an h-path, then 1. Every h-path can assume one of two possible colours. 2. There is a unique way to move along an h-path from any column to another.

Carbon budget of the vineyard – A new feature of sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pitacco Andrea

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Vineyards received scarce attention in relation to the continuous monitoring of carbon fluxes and the assessment of their overall budget, as a common believe is that agricultural crops cannot be net carbon sinks. Indeed, many technical inputs, massive periodical harvests, and the repeated disturbances of upper soil layers, all contribute to a substantial loss both of the old and newly-synthesized organic matter. Woody perennials, however, can behave differently: they grow a permanent structure, stand undisturbed in the same field for decades, originate abundant pruning debris, and are often grass-covered. We have been monitoring the Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE by eddy covariance and the carbon partitioning in a temperate vineyard in North Eastern Italy. Five complete yearly budgets confirm a steady and substantial sink capacity of the system, with a yearly NEE around 800–900 gC m−2, grape harvest representing about 20–25% of it. Biometrical assessment of growth and partitioning show a good agreement with micrometeorological measurements and demonstrate a large input of organic matter into the soil. Even if it can be objected that this sink may be only temporary and the built-up can be substantially disrupted at the end of the vineyard life cycle, these results show that there is a concrete possibility of storing carbon in temperate-climate vineyards, possibly contributing to the global carbon budget. This sink capacity might be accounted in the official calculation of wine carbon footprint and represents a new, relevant feature of their sustainability.

Monotonicity Conditions for Multirate and Partitioned Explicit Runge-Kutta Schemes

KAUST Repository

Hundsdorfer, Willem; Mozartova, Anna; Savcenco, Valeriu

2013-01-01

of partitioned Runge-Kutta methods. It will also be seen that the incompatibility of consistency and mass-conservation holds for ‘genuine’ multirate schemes, but not for general partitioned methods.

PuLP/XtraPuLP : Partitioning Tools for Extreme-Scale Graphs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2017-09-21

PuLP/XtraPulp is software for partitioning graphs from several real-world problems. Graphs occur in several places in real world from road networks, social networks and scientific simulations. For efficient parallel processing these graphs have to be partitioned (split) with respect to metrics such as computation and communication costs. Our software allows such partitioning for massive graphs.

Periodic Schur process, cylindric partitions and N=2* theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iqbal, Amer; Kozcaz, Can; Sohail, Tanweer

2011-01-01

Type IIA string theory compactified on an elliptic CY3-fold gives rise to N=2U(1) gauge theory with an adjoint hypermultiplet. We study the refined open and closed topological string partition functions of this geometry using the refined topological vertex. We show that these partition functions, open and closed, are examples of periodic Schur process and are related to the generating function of the cylindric partitions if the Kaehler parameters are quantized in units of string coupling. The level-rank duality appears as the exchange symmetry of the two Kaehler parameters of the elliptic CY3-fold.

Radio Wave Propagation Scene Partitioning for High-Speed Rails

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bo Ai

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Radio wave propagation scene partitioning is necessary for wireless channel modeling. As far as we know, there are no standards of scene partitioning for high-speed rail (HSR scenarios, and therefore we propose the radio wave propagation scene partitioning scheme for HSR scenarios in this paper. Based on our measurements along the Wuhan-Guangzhou HSR, Zhengzhou-Xian passenger-dedicated line, Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan passenger-dedicated line, and Beijing-Tianjin intercity line in China, whose operation speeds are above 300 km/h, and based on the investigations on Beijing South Railway Station, Zhengzhou Railway Station, Wuhan Railway Station, Changsha Railway Station, Xian North Railway Station, Shijiazhuang North Railway Station, Taiyuan Railway Station, and Tianjin Railway Station, we obtain an overview of HSR propagation channels and record many valuable measurement data for HSR scenarios. On the basis of these measurements and investigations, we partitioned the HSR scene into twelve scenarios. Further work on theoretical analysis based on radio wave propagation mechanisms, such as reflection and diffraction, may lead us to develop the standard of radio wave propagation scene partitioning for HSR. Our work can also be used as a basis for the wireless channel modeling and the selection of some key techniques for HSR systems.

Partition coefficients of organics between water and carbon dioxide revisited: Correlation with solute molecular descriptors and solvent cohesive properties

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Roth, Michal

2016-01-01

Roč. 50, č. 23 (2016), s. 12857-12863 ISSN 0013-936X R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA16-03749S Institutional support: RVO:68081715 Keywords : partitioning between water and supercritical CO2 * organic solutes * K-factor modeling * linear solvation energy relationship Subject RIV: CB - Analytical Chemistry, Separation Impact factor: 6.198, year: 2016

Dynamic State Space Partitioning for External Memory Model Checking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Evangelista, Sami; Kristensen, Lars Michael

2009-01-01

We describe a dynamic partitioning scheme usable by model checking techniques that divide the state space into partitions, such as most external memory and distributed model checking algorithms. The goal of the scheme is to reduce the number of transitions that link states belonging to different...

Efficient Partitioning of Large Databases without Query Statistics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shahidul Islam KHAN

2016-11-01

Full Text Available An efficient way of improving the performance of a database management system is distributed processing. Distribution of data involves fragmentation or partitioning, replication, and allocation process. Previous research works provided partitioning based on empirical data about the type and frequency of the queries. These solutions are not suitable at the initial stage of a distributed database as query statistics are not available then. In this paper, I have presented a fragmentation technique, Matrix based Fragmentation (MMF, which can be applied at the initial stage as well as at later stages of distributed databases. Instead of using empirical data, I have developed a matrix, Modified Create, Read, Update and Delete (MCRUD, to partition a large database properly. Allocation of fragments is done simultaneously in my proposed technique. So using MMF, no additional complexity is added for allocating the fragments to the sites of a distributed database as fragmentation is synchronized with allocation. The performance of a DDBMS can be improved significantly by avoiding frequent remote access and high data transfer among the sites. Results show that proposed technique can solve the initial partitioning problem of large distributed databases.

Unpartitioned versus incompletely partitioned cochleae: radiologic differentiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sennaroglu, Levent; Saatci, Isil

2004-07-01

In the process of evaluating our patients, we realized that the term "Mondini deformity" was being used to describe two different types of incomplete partition of the cochlea. THE First one consisted of an unpartitioned, completely empty cochlea where the interscalar septum and entire modiolus were absent, giving the cochlea a cystic appearance; a grossly dilated vestibule accompanied this lesion. The second pathology fitted the classic description of Mondini deformity, consisting of a normal basal turn and cystic apex (where the middle and apical turns form a cystic cavity), dilated vestibule, and enlarged vestibular aqueduct. This study was planned to investigate the differences between the two types of incomplete partition for inner ear malformations based on radiologic features. We conducted a retrospective review of temporal bone computed tomography (CT) findings. The subjects were 18 patients with profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss who had high-resolution CT with contiguous 1-mm thick images obtained through the petrous bone in axial sections. The CT results were reviewed as incomplete partition type I (IP-I) and type II (IP-II). Incomplete partition type I (unpartitioned cochlea, cystic cochleovestibular malformation) is defined as a malformation in which the cochlea lacks the entire modiolus and interscalar septa, resulting in a cystic appearance and there is an accompanying grossly dilated vestibule. In incomplete partition type II (incompletely partitioned cochlea, the Mondini deformity), there is a cochlea comprised of a normal basal turn and cystic apex accompanied by a minimally dilated vestibule and enlarged vestibular aqueduct (VA). Measurements involving the cochlea, vestibule, vestibular aqueduct, and internal auditory canal (IAC) were done to determine the characteristic features of these pathologies. : Thirteen ears had IP-I and 18 ears had IP-II anomaly. The size of the cochleae in both anomalies showed no significant difference from

RNA graph partitioning for the discovery of RNA modularity: a novel application of graph partition algorithm to biology.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Namhee Kim

Full Text Available Graph representations have been widely used to analyze and design various economic, social, military, political, and biological networks. In systems biology, networks of cells and organs are useful for understanding disease and medical treatments and, in structural biology, structures of molecules can be described, including RNA structures. In our RNA-As-Graphs (RAG framework, we represent RNA structures as tree graphs by translating unpaired regions into vertices and helices into edges. Here we explore the modularity of RNA structures by applying graph partitioning known in graph theory to divide an RNA graph into subgraphs. To our knowledge, this is the first application of graph partitioning to biology, and the results suggest a systematic approach for modular design in general. The graph partitioning algorithms utilize mathematical properties of the Laplacian eigenvector (µ2 corresponding to the second eigenvalues (λ2 associated with the topology matrix defining the graph: λ2 describes the overall topology, and the sum of µ2's components is zero. The three types of algorithms, termed median, sign, and gap cuts, divide a graph by determining nodes of cut by median, zero, and largest gap of µ2's components, respectively. We apply these algorithms to 45 graphs corresponding to all solved RNA structures up through 11 vertices (∼ 220 nucleotides. While we observe that the median cut divides a graph into two similar-sized subgraphs, the sign and gap cuts partition a graph into two topologically-distinct subgraphs. We find that the gap cut produces the best biologically-relevant partitioning for RNA because it divides RNAs at less stable connections while maintaining junctions intact. The iterative gap cuts suggest basic modules and assembly protocols to design large RNA structures. Our graph substructuring thus suggests a systematic approach to explore the modularity of biological networks. In our applications to RNA structures, subgraphs

Cylindric partitions, {{\\boldsymbol{ W }}}_{r} characters and the Andrews-Gordon-Bressoud identities

Science.gov (United States)

Foda, O.; Welsh, T. A.

2016-04-01

We study the Andrews-Gordon-Bressoud (AGB) generalisations of the Rogers-Ramanujan q-series identities in the context of cylindric partitions. We recall the definition of r-cylindric partitions, and provide a simple proof of Borodin’s product expression for their generating functions, that can be regarded as a limiting case of an unpublished proof by Krattenthaler. We also recall the relationships between the r-cylindric partition generating functions, the principal characters of {\\hat{{sl}}}r algebras, the {{\\boldsymbol{ M }}}r r,r+d minimal model characters of {{\\boldsymbol{ W }}}r algebras, and the r-string abaci generating functions, providing simple proofs for each. We then set r = 2, and use two-cylindric partitions to re-derive the AGB identities as follows. Firstly, we use Borodin’s product expression for the generating functions of the two-cylindric partitions with infinitely long parts, to obtain the product sides of the AGB identities, times a factor {(q;q)}∞ -1, which is the generating function of ordinary partitions. Next, we obtain a bijection from the two-cylindric partitions, via two-string abaci, into decorated versions of Bressoud’s restricted lattice paths. Extending Bressoud’s method of transforming between restricted paths that obey different restrictions, we obtain sum expressions with manifestly non-negative coefficients for the generating functions of the two-cylindric partitions which contains a factor {(q;q)}∞ -1. Equating the product and sum expressions of the same two-cylindric partitions, and canceling a factor of {(q;q)}∞ -1 on each side, we obtain the AGB identities.

Subcellular partitioning of metals in Aporrectodea caliginosa along a gradient of metal exposure in 31 field-contaminated soils

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beaumelle, Léa [INRA, UR 251 PESSAC, 78026 Versailles Cedex (France); Gimbert, Frédéric [Laboratoire Chrono-Environnement, UMR 6249 University of Franche-Comté/CNRS Usc INRA, 16 route de Gray, 25030 Besançon Cedex (France); Hedde, Mickaël [INRA, UR 251 PESSAC, 78026 Versailles Cedex (France); Guérin, Annie [INRA, US 0010 LAS Laboratoire d' analyses des sols, 273 rue de Cambrai, 62000 Arras (France); Lamy, Isabelle, E-mail: lamy@versailles.inra.fr [INRA, UR 251 PESSAC, 78026 Versailles Cedex (France)

2015-07-01

Subcellular fractionation of metals in organisms was proposed as a better way to characterize metal bioaccumulation. Here we report the impact of a laboratory exposure to a wide range of field-metal contaminated soils on the subcellular partitioning of metals in the earthworm Aporrectodea caliginosa. Soils moderately contaminated were chosen to create a gradient of soil metal availability; covering ranges of both soil metal contents and of several soil parameters. Following exposure, Cd, Pb and Zn concentrations were determined both in total earthworm body and in three subcellular compartments: cytosolic, granular and debris fractions. Three distinct proxies of soil metal availability were investigated: CaCl{sub 2}-extractable content dissolved content predicted by a semi-mechanistic model and free ion concentration predicted by a geochemical speciation model. Subcellular partitionings of Cd and Pb were modified along the gradient of metal exposure, while stable Zn partitioning reflected regulation processes. Cd subcellular distribution responded more strongly to increasing soil Cd concentration than the total internal content, when Pb subcellular distribution and total internal content were similarly affected. Free ion concentrations were better descriptors of Cd and Pb subcellular distribution than CaCl{sub 2} extractable and dissolved metal concentrations. However, free ion concentrations and soil total metal contents were equivalent descriptors of the subcellular partitioning of Cd and Pb because they were highly correlated. Considering lowly contaminated soils, our results raise the question of the added value of three proxies of metal availability compared to soil total metal content in the assessment of metal bioavailability to earthworm. - Highlights: • Earthworms were exposed to a wide panel of historically contaminated soils • Subcellular partitioning of Cd, Pb and Zn was investigated in earthworms • Three proxies of soil metal availability were

Partitioning and transmutation. Annual Report 1997

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Enarsson, Aa; Landgren, A; Liljenzin, J O; Skaalberg, M; Spjuth, L [Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Goeteborg (Sweden). Dept. of Nuclear Chemistry

1997-12-01

The current research project on partitioning and transmutation at the Dept. of Nuclear Chemistry, CTH, has the primary objective to investigate separation processes useful in connection with transmutation of long-lived radionuclides in high level nuclear waste. Partitioning is necessary in order to recover and purify the elements before and after each irradiation in a P and T treatment. In order to achieve a high transmutation efficiency the chemical separation process used must have small losses to various waste streams. At present, only aqueous based separation processes are known to be able to achieve the high recovery and separation efficiencies necessary for a useful P and T process. Refs, figs, tabs.

The position value for partition function form network games

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nouweland, van den C.G.A.M.; Slikker, M.

We use the axiomatization of the position value for network situations in van den Nouweland and Slikker (2012) to define a position value for partition function form network situations. We do this by generalizing the axioms to the partition function form value function setting as studied in Navarro

Using measured octanol-air partition coefficients to explain environmental partitioning of organochlorine pesticides.

Science.gov (United States)

Shoeib, Mahiba; Harner, Tom

2002-05-01

Octanol-air partition coefficients (Koa) were measured directly for 19 organochlorine (OC) pesticides over the temperature range of 5 to 35 degrees C. Values of log Koa at 25 degrees C ranged over three orders of magnitude, from 7.4 for hexachlorobenzene to 10.1 for 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl) ethane. Measured values were compared to values calculated as KowRT/H (where R is the ideal gas constant [8.314 J mol(-1) K(-1)], T is absolute temperature, and H is Henry's law constant) were, in general, larger. Discrepancies of up to three orders of magnitude were observed, highlighting the need for direct measurements of Koa. Plots of Koa versus inverse absolute temperature exhibited a log-linear correlation. Enthalpies of phase transition between octanol and air (deltaHoa) were determined from the temperature slopes and were in the range of 56 to 105 kJ mol(-1) K(-1). Activity coefficients in octanol (gamma(o)) were determined from Koa and reported supercooled liquid vapor pressures (pL(o)), and these were in the range of 0.3 to 12, indicating near-ideal solution behavior. Differences in Koa values for structural isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane were also explored. A Koa-based model was described for predicting the partitioning of OC pesticides to aerosols and used to calculate particulate fractions at 25 and -10 degrees C. The model also agreed well with experimental results for several OC pesticides that were equilibrated with urban aerosols in the laboratory. A log-log regression of the particle-gas partition coefficient versus Koa had a slope near unity, indicating that octanol is a good surrogate for the aerosol organic matter.

Surface Modifications of Support Partitions for Stabilizing Biomimetic Membrane Arrays

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Perry, Mark; Hansen, Jesper Schmidt; Jensen, Karin Bagger Stibius

2011-01-01

with a high signal-to-noise (s/n) ratio. We demonstratesd this by reconstituting gA and α-hemolysin (α-HL) into BLM arrays. The improvement in membrane array lifetime and s/n ratio demonstrates that surface plasma polymerization of the supporting partition can be used to increase the stability of biomimetic......Black lipid membrane (BLM) formation across apertures in an ethylene tetra-fluoroethylene (ETFE) partition separating two aqueous compartments is an established technique for the creation of biomimetic membranes. Recently multi-aperture BLM arrays have attracted interest and in order to increase...... BLM array stability we studied the effect of covalently modifying the partition substrate using surface plasma polymerization with hydrophobic n-hexene, 1-decene and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) as modification groups. Average lifetimes across singlesided HMDSO modified partitions or using 1-decene...

Exact partition functions for gauge theories on Rλ3

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean-Christophe Wallet

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The noncommutative space Rλ3, a deformation of R3, supports a 3-parameter family of gauge theory models with gauge-invariant harmonic term, stable vacuum and which are perturbatively finite to all orders. Properties of this family are discussed. The partition function factorizes as an infinite product of reduced partition functions, each one corresponding to the reduced gauge theory on one of the fuzzy spheres entering the decomposition of Rλ3. For a particular sub-family of gauge theories, each reduced partition function is exactly expressible as a ratio of determinants. A relation with integrable 2-D Toda lattice hierarchy is indicated.

b-tree facets for the simple graph partitioning polytope

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Michael Malmros

2004-01-01

The simple graph partitioning problem is to partition an edge-weighted graph into mutually disjoint subgraphs, each consisting of no more than b nodes, such that the sum of the weights of all edges in the subgraphs is maximal. In this paper we introduce a large class of facet defining inequalities...... for the simple graph partitioning polytopes P_n(b), b >= 3, associated with the complete graph on n nodes. These inequalities are induced by a graph configuration which is built upon trees of cardinality b. We provide a closed-form theorem that states all necessary and sufficient conditions for the facet...... defining property of the inequalities. Udgivelsesdato: JUN...

Factorisations for partition functions of random Hermitian matrix models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jackson, D.M.; Visentin, T.I.

1996-01-01

The partition function Z N , for Hermitian-complex matrix models can be expressed as an explicit integral over R N , where N is a positive integer. Such an integral also occurs in connection with random surfaces and models of two dimensional quantum gravity. We show that Z N can be expressed as the product of two partition functions, evaluated at translated arguments, for another model, giving an explicit connection between the two models. We also give an alternative computation of the partition function for the φ 4 -model.The approach is an algebraic one and holds for the functions regarded as formal power series in the appropriate ring. (orig.)

Regulation of Chloroplastic Carbonic Anhydrase 1

Science.gov (United States)

Porter, Michael A.; Grodzinski, Bernard

1983-01-01

It was previously reported that magnesium ion inhibited carbonic anhydrase (Bamberger and Avron 1975 Plant Physiol 56: 481-485). Studies with partially purified carbonic anhydrase from spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) chloroplasts show that the effect was the result of the chloride counterion and not the magnesium ion. Enzyme activity was reduced 50% upon addition of 3 to 10 millimolar MgCl2 or KCl while all additions of MgSO4 between 0.3 and 10 millimolar were mildly stimulatory. PMID:16663052

Spatial distribution and partitioning behavior of selected poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances in freshwater ecosystems: A French nationwide survey

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Munoz, Gabriel; Giraudel, Jean-Luc [University of Bordeaux, EPOC, UMR 5805, LPTC, 351 Cours de la Libération, F-33400 Talence, France. (France); Botta, Fabrizio; Lestremau, François [INERIS, Parc Technologique Alata, BP2, 60550 Verneuil-en-Halatte, France. (France); Dévier, Marie-Hélène [University of Bordeaux, EPOC, UMR 5805, LPTC, 351 Cours de la Libération, F-33400 Talence, France. (France); Budzinski, Hélène [CNRS, EPOC, UMR 5805, LPTC, 351 Cours de la Libération, F-33400 Talence, France. (France); Labadie, Pierre, E-mail: pierre.labadie@u-bordeaux.fr [CNRS, EPOC, UMR 5805, LPTC, 351 Cours de la Libération, F-33400 Talence, France. (France)

2015-06-01

The spatial distribution and partitioning of 22 poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in 133 selected rivers and lakes were investigated at a nationwide scale in mainland France. ΣPFASs was in the range < LOD–725 ng L{sup −1} in the dissolved phase (median: 7.9 ng L{sup −1}) and < LOD–25 ng g{sup −1} dry weight (dw) in the sediment (median: 0.48 ng g{sup −1} dw); dissolved PFAS levels were significantly lower at “reference” sites than at urban, rural or industrial sites. Although perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was found to be the prevalent compound on average, a multivariate analysis based on neural networks revealed noteworthy trends for other compounds at specific locations and, in some cases, at watershed scale. For instance, several sites along the Rhône River displayed a peculiar PFAS signature, perfluoroalkyl carboxylates (PFCAs) often dominating the PFAS profile (e.g., PFCAs > 99% of ΣPFASs in the sediment, likely as a consequence of industrial point source discharge). Several treatments for data below detection limits (non-detects) were used to compute descriptive statistics, differences among groups, and correlations between congeners, as well as log K{sub d} and log K{sub oc} partition coefficients; in that respect, the Regression on Order Statistics (robust ROS) method was preferred for descriptive statistics computation while the Akritas–Theil–Sen estimator was used for regression and correlation analyses. Multiple regression results suggest that PFAS levels in the dissolved phase and sediment characteristics (organic carbon fraction and grain size) may be significant controlling factors of PFAS levels in the sediment. - Highlights: • A large-scale survey of PFASs in 133 French rivers and lakes is reported. • Descriptive statistics, correlations and partitioning coefficients were determined. • Non-detects were taken into account using functions from the NADA R-package. • Hot spots of PFAS contamination were found

Photosynthate partitioning in alfalfa before harvest and during regrowth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cralle, H.T.; Heichel, G.H.

1988-01-01

During the harvest regrowth cycle of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) plants, factors such as source to sink distance, sink size, and inter-organ competition continually change. However, consequent changes in the pattern of photosynthate partitioning from leaves to other organs are poorly understood. The authors objective was to examine photosynthate partitioning from upper and lower alfalfa leaves at intervals before herbage harvest and during regrowth after harvest. The uppermost or lowest fully expanded leaf on the longest or dominant stem was labeled with 14 CO 2 . After a 24-h translocation period, the plants were divided into various organs to determine distribution of the radiocarbon. At that time, the upper leaf preferentially partitioned photosynthate to the shoot apex, unexpanded leaves and auxillary shoots of the dominant shoot, whereas the lower leaf preferentially distributed photosynthate to the crown shoots, crown, root, and nodules. Expressions of 14 C partitioning were affected differently by organ mass. While the smallest organs such as nodules and unexpanded leaves always ranked higher for 14 C based on relative specific activity, the largest organs such as roots and crown shoots accumulated the largest percentage of total plant recovered radioactivity. The results illustrate the importance of growth stage and leaf position in photosynthate partitioning in alfalfa and the dominance of herbage meristems for current photosynthate during regrowth

Effect of Strain, Region, and Tissue Composition on Glucose Partitioning in Meniscus Fibrocartilage.

Science.gov (United States)

Kleinhans, Kelsey L; Jackson, Alicia R

2017-03-01

A nearly avascular tissue, the knee meniscus relies on diffusive transport for nutritional supply to cells. Nutrient transport depends on solute partitioning in the tissue, which governs the amount of nutrients that can enter a tissue. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of mechanical strain, tissue region, and tissue composition on the partition coefficient of glucose in meniscus fibrocartilage. A simple partitioning experiment was employed to measure glucose partitioning in porcine meniscus tissues from two regions (horn and central), from both meniscal components (medial and lateral), and at three levels of compression (0%, 10%, and 20%). Partition coefficient values were correlated to strain level, water volume fraction, and glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content of tissue specimens. Partition coefficient values ranged from 0.47 to 0.91 (n = 48). Results show that glucose partition coefficient is significantly (p < 0.001) affected by compression, decreasing with increasing strain. Furthermore, we did not find a statistically significant effect of tissue when comparing medial versus lateral (p = 0.181) or when comparing central and horn regions (p = 0.837). There were significant positive correlations between tissue water volume fraction and glucose partitioning for all groups. However, the correlation between GAG content and partitioning was only significant in the lateral horn group. Determining how glucose partitioning is affected by tissue composition and loading is necessary for understanding nutrient availability and related tissue health and/or degeneration. Therefore, this study is important for better understanding the transport and nutrition-related mechanisms of meniscal degeneration.

Partitioning of copy-number genotypes in pedigrees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andelfinger Gregor U

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Copy number variations (CNVs and polymorphisms (CNPs have only recently gained the genetic community's attention. Conservative estimates have shown that CNVs and CNPs might affect more than 10% of the genome and that they may be at least as important as single nucleotide polymorphisms in assessing human variability. Widely used tools for CNP analysis have been implemented in Birdsuite and PLINK for the purpose of conducting genetic association studies based on the unpartitioned total number of CNP copies provided by the intensities from Affymetrix's Genome-Wide Human SNP Array. Here, we are interested in partitioning copy number variations and polymorphisms in extended pedigrees for the purpose of linkage analysis on familial data. Results We have developed CNGen, a new software for the partitioning of copy number polymorphism using the integrated genotypes from Birdsuite with the Affymetrix platform. The algorithm applied to familial trios or extended pedigrees can produce partitioned copy number genotypes with distinct parental alleles. We have validated the algorithm using simulations on a complex pedigree structure using frequencies calculated from a real dataset of 300 genotyped samples from 42 pedigrees segregating a congenital heart defect phenotype. Conclusions CNGen is the first published software for the partitioning of copy number genotypes in pedigrees, making possible the use CNPs and CNVs for linkage analysis. It was implemented with the Python interpreter version 2.5.2. It was successfully tested on current Linux, Windows and Mac OS workstations.

Modification of carbon fabrics by radio-frequency capacitive discharge at low pressure to regulate mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced plastics based on it

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garifullin, A R; Krasina, I V; Skidchenko, E A; Shaekhov, M F; Tikhonova, N V

2017-01-01

To increase the values of mechanical properties of carbon fiber (CF) composite materials used in sports equipment production the method of radio-frequency capacitive (RFC) low-pressure plasma treatment in air was proposed. Previously it was found that this type of modification allows to effectively regulate the surface properties of fibers of different nature. This treatment method differs from the traditional ones by efficiency and environmental friendliness as it does not require the use of aggressive, environmentally hazardous chemicals. In this paper it was established that RFC low-pressure air plasma treatment of carbon fabrics enhances the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). As a result of experimental studies of CF by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy method it was proved that after radio-frequency capacitive plasma treatment at low pressure in air the oxygen-containing functional groups is grafted on the surface. These groups improve adhesion at the interface “matrix-fiber”. (paper)

Assimilation and subcellular partitioning of elements by grass shrimp collected along an impact gradient

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seebaugh, David R.; Wallace, William G.

2009-01-01

Chronic exposure to polluted field conditions can impact metal bioavailability in prey and may influence metal transfer to predators. The present study investigated the assimilation of Cd, Hg and organic carbon by grass shrimp Palaemonetes pugio, collected along an impact gradient within the New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary. Adult shrimp were collected from five Staten Island, New York study sites, fed 109 Cd- or 203 Hg-labeled amphipods or 14 C-labeled meals and analyzed for assimilation efficiencies (AE). Subsamples of amphipods and shrimp were subjected to subcellular fractionation to isolate metal associated with a compartment presumed to contain trophically available metal (TAM) (metal associated with heat-stable proteins [HSP - e.g., metallothionein-like proteins], heat-denatured proteins [HDP - e.g., enzymes] and organelles [ORG]). TAM- 109 Cd% and TAM- 203 Hg% in radiolabeled amphipods were ∼64% and ∼73%, respectively. Gradients in AE- 109 Cd% (∼54% to ∼75%) and AE- 203 Hg% (∼61% to ∼78%) were observed for grass shrimp, with the highest values exhibited by shrimp collected from sites within the heavily polluted Arthur Kill complex. Population differences in AE- 14 C% were not observed. Assimilated 109 Cd% partitioned to the TAM compartment in grass shrimp varied between ∼67% and ∼75%. 109 Cd bound to HSP in shrimp varied between ∼15% and ∼47%, while 109 Cd associated with metal-sensitive HDP was ∼17% to ∼44%. Percentages of assimilated 109 Cd bound to ORG were constant at ∼10%. Assimilated 203 Hg% associated with TAM in grass shrimp did not exhibit significant variation. Percentages of assimilated 203 Hg bound to HDP (∼47%) and ORG (∼11%) did not vary among populations and partitioning of 203 Hg to HSP was not observed. Using a simplified biokinetic model of metal accumulation from the diet, it is estimated that site-specific variability in Cd AE by shrimp and tissue Cd burdens in field-collected prey (polychaetes Nereis spp

Partitioning carbon fluxes from a Midwestern corn and soybean rotation system using footprint analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Dold, C.; Hatfield, J.; Prueger, J. H.; Wacha, K.

2017-12-01

Midwestern US agriculture is dominated by corn and soybean production. Corn has typically higher Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) than soybean due to increased carboxylation efficiency and different crop management. The conjoined NEE may be measured with eddy covariance (EC) stations covering both crops, however, it is often unclear what the contribution of each crop is, as the CO2 source area remains unknown. The aim of this study was to quantify the contribution of CO2 fluxes from each crop for a conventional corn-soybean rotation system from 2007 - 2015. Therefore, the combined CO2 flux of three adjacent fields with annual corn-soybean rotation was measured with a 9.1 m EC tower (Flux 30). In the center of two of these fields, additional EC towers (Flux 10 and Flux 11) were positioned above the corn and soybean canopy to validate Flux 30 NEE. For each EC system the annual 90% NEE footprint area was calculated, footprints were partitioned among fields, and NEE separated accordingly. The average annual 90% footprint area of Flux 30, and Flux 10/11 corn and soybean was estimated to 206, 11 and 7 ha, respectively. The annual average (±SE) NEE of Flux 30 was -693 ± 47 g CO2 m-2 yr-1, of which 83% out of 90% originated from the three adjacent fields. Corn and soybean NEE measured at Flux 10 and 11 was -1124 ± 95 and 173 ± 73 g CO2 m-2 yr-1, respectively, and 89% and 90% originated from these fields. That demonstrates, that Flux 30 represents the combined NEE of a corn-soybean rotation, and Flux 10 and 11 measured NEE from a single crop. However, the share of Flux 30 NEE originating from corn and soybean grown on the Flux 10/11 fields was -192 ± 16 and -205 ± 18 g CO2 m-2 yr-1, indicating a substantial difference to single crop NEE. While it was possible to measure the NEE of a corn-soybean rotation with a tall EC tower, footprint partitioning could not retrieve NEE for each crop, probably due to differences in measurement height and footprint source area.

Sound Diffraction Around Movable Partitions in Teaching Spaces. Education Building Report 1.

Science.gov (United States)

Choudhury, N. K. D.

This study concerns the diffraction of sound around flexible partitions used in teaching spaces. It includes a comprehensive study of the acoustical conditions in several school buildings in India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. The noise reduction properties of some typical partitions the minimum height of the partition between two teaching…

The part-frequency matrices of a partition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William J. Keith

2016-09-01

Full Text Available A new combinatorial object is introduced, the part-frequency matrix sequence of a partition, whichis elementary to describe and is naturally motivated by Glaisher’s bijection. We prove results thatsuggest surprising usefulness for such a simple tool, including the existence of a related statistic thatrealizes every possible Ramanujan-type congruence for the partition function. To further exhibit itsresearch utility, we give an easy generalization of a theorem of Andrews, Dixit and Yee [1] on the mocktheta functions. Throughout, we state a number of observations and questions that can motivate anarray of investigations.

Development of a test system for high level liquid waste partitioning

OpenAIRE

Duan Wu H.; Chen Jing; Wang Jian C.; Wang Shu W.; Wang Xing H.

2015-01-01

The partitioning and transmutation strategy has increasingly attracted interest for the safe treatment and disposal of high level liquid waste, in which the partitioning of high level liquid waste is one of the critical technical issues. An improved total partitioning process, including a tri-alkylphosphine oxide process for the removal of actinides, a crown ether strontium extraction process for the removal of strontium, and a calixcrown ether cesium extra...

Up-scaling mineral-aqueous interfacial processes that govern isotope and trace element partitioning during calcite growth

Science.gov (United States)

Lammers, L. N.

2014-12-01

The dependence of the isotopic and trace element composition of calcium carbonate minerals on growth conditions including temperature, pH, and salinity is widely used to infer paleoclimate conditions. These inferences rely heavily on phenomenological observations of biogenic and inorganic precipitation both in and ex situ, where only limited variability in solution conditions can be explored. Ionic fluxes between the mineral surface and aqueous growth solution govern the net uptake of both stoichiometric and trace species during calcification, so developing a mechanistic understanding of the reactions governing these fluxes is critical to refine existing proxies and to develop new ones. The micro-scale mechanisms of calcite precipitation from aqueous solution have been extensively studied, and net ionic uptake post-nucleation is known to occur primarily at monomolecular kink sites along step edges at the mineral surface. In this talk, I will present a theoretical framework that uses the quasi-elementary ion attachment and detachment reactions governing ion uptake at kink sites to simultaneously model bulk mineral growth kinetics and tracer partitioning during calcite precipitation. Several distinct processes occur during ion uptake at kink sites that can influence the distribution of trace species, directly impacting the composition of various carbonate paleoproxies including δ44Ca, δ18O, Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca. The distribution of these trace species will be shown to depend on (1) the relative rates of ion desolvation during attachment to kink sites, (2) the relative rates of bond breaking during detachment from kink sites, and (3) the equilibrium partitioning of trace aqueous species. This model accounts for the impact of solution conditions on net ion fluxes and surface speciation, which in turn controls the population of kink sites available for direct ion exchange with the aqueous phase. The impacts of solution variables including pH, temperature and salinity can

Anion and cation partitioning between olivine, plagioclase phenocrysts and the host magma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yurimoto, Hisayoshi; Sueno, Shigeho

1984-01-01

Partition coefficients for -1, -2, -3, +1, +2, +3, +4 and +5 valent ions between the groundmass of tholeiite basalt and coexisting olivine and plagioclase phenocrysts from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge have been determined by secondary ion mass spectrometry. The present cation partitioning strongly supports the 'crystal structure control' mechanism. The partition coefficient for an anion is also under control of the crystal structure, so that each of the cation and anion positions in the crystal structure gives rise to a parabola-shaped peak on the partition coefficient vs. ionic radius diagram. (author)

Basic plan of partitioning and transmutation technology development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ikegami, Tetsuo; Ozawa, Masaki

2003-04-01

Basic plan of partitioning and transmutation technology development has been made in more detail and concrete manner in terms of development goal, nuclides to be portioned and to be transmuted, and development schedule, based on the pre-evaluation results of the Research Evaluation Committee on Research and development of partitioning and transmutation technology for long life nuclides' held in August 2000. A step by step approach, consists of three steps, to reach the goal of partitioning and transmutation technology has been adopted under the recognition that the partitioning and transmutation technology development should be progressed steadily as a long term them. The first step is supposed to be able to attain within about 5 years by the present technology and on the extension of it. Such researches as collective separation of TRU, MA/Ln effective separation, and irradiation experiment of iodine and technetium. The second step is such a goal that is expected to be able to realize the engineering feasibility, within about 15 years, through the progress of science technology in future, although the engineering feasibility is not sufficiently foreseen at present. It will need revolutionary technology or breakthrough. Nuclides to be partitioned and to be transmuted have been selected in view points of 'radioactivity and radio-toxicity', 'geological repository', and 'effective utilization', corresponding to the each step of the development goal. Collaboration with other research organizations and with universities in the world should be pursued. Especially, such collaborations with France, with which information exchange on JOYO/PHENIX irradiation experiments is progressing, and with USA, which has recently developed positive activities in this field, are strongly expected. (author)

Carbon source-sink relationship in Arabidopsis thaliana: the role of sucrose transporters.

Science.gov (United States)

Durand, Mickaël; Mainson, Dany; Porcheron, Benoît; Maurousset, Laurence; Lemoine, Rémi; Pourtau, Nathalie

2018-03-01

The regulation of source-to-sink sucrose transport is associated with AtSUC and AtSWEET sucrose transporters' gene expression changes in plants grown hydroponically under different physiological conditions. Source-to-sink transport of sucrose is one of the major determinants of plant growth. Whole-plant carbohydrates' partitioning requires the specific activity of membrane sugar transporters. In Arabidopsis thaliana plants, two families of transporters are involved in sucrose transport: AtSUCs and AtSWEETs. This study is focused on the comparison of sucrose transporter gene expression, soluble sugar and starch levels and long distance sucrose transport, in leaves and sink organs (mainly roots) in different physiological conditions (along the plant life cycle, during a diel cycle, and during an osmotic stress) in plants grown hydroponically. In leaves, the AtSUC2, AtSWEET11, and 12 genes known to be involved in phloem loading were highly expressed when sucrose export was high and reduced during osmotic stress. In roots, AtSUC1 was highly expressed and its expression profile in the different conditions tested suggests that it may play a role in sucrose unloading in roots and in root growth. The SWEET transporter genes AtSWEET12, 13, and 15 were found expressed in all organs at all stages studied, while differential expression was noticed for AtSWEET14 in roots, stems, and siliques and AtSWEET9, 10 expressions were only detected in stems and siliques. A role for these transporters in carbohydrate partitioning in different source-sink status is proposed, with a specific attention on carbon demand in roots. During development, despite trophic competition with others sinks, roots remained a significant sink, but during osmotic stress, the amount of translocated [U- 14 C]-sucrose decreased for rosettes and roots. Altogether, these results suggest that source-sink relationship may be linked with the regulation of sucrose transporter gene expression.

Partitioning of monomethylmercury between freshwater algae and water.

Science.gov (United States)

Miles, C J; Moye, H A; Phlips, E J; Sargent, B

2001-11-01

Phytoplankton-water monomethylmercury (MeHg) partition constants (KpI) have been determined in the laboratory for two green algae Selenastrum capricornutum and Cosmarium botrytis, the blue-green algae Schizothrix calcicola, and the diatom Thallasiosira spp., algal species that are commonly found in natural surface waters. Two methods were used to determine KpI, the Freundlich isotherm method and the flow-through/dialysis bag method. Both methods yielded KpI values of about 10(6.6) for S. capricornutum and were not significantly different. The KpI for the four algae studied were similar except for Schizothrix, which was significantly lower than S. capricornutum. The KpI for MeHg and S. capricornutum (exponential growth) was not significantly different in systems with predominantly MeHgOH or MeHgCl species. This is consistent with other studies that show metal speciation controls uptake kinetics, but the reactivity with intracellular components controls steady-state concentrations. Partitioning constants determined with exponential and stationary phase S. capricornutum cells at the same conditions were not significantly different, while the partitioning constant for exponential phase, phosphorus-limited cells was significantly lower, suggesting that P-limitation alters the ecophysiology of S. capricornutum sufficiently to impact partitioning, which may then ultimately affect mercury levels in higher trophic species.

Reproductive Interference and Niche Partitioning in Aphidophagous Insects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suzuki Noriyuki

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The range and quality of prey species differ greatly among closely related species of predators. However, the factors responsible for this diversified niche utilization are unclear. This is because the predation and resource competition do not always prevent species coexistence. In this paper, we present evidence in support of reproductive interference as a driver of niche partitioning, focusing on aphidophagous insect. Firstly, we present closely related generalist and specialist species pairs in aphidophagous lacewings to compare the reproductive interference hypothesis with two other hypotheses that have been proposed to explain niche partitioning in lacewings and sympatric speciation through host race formation and sexual selection. Secondly, we present a case study that shows how reproductive interference can drive niche partitioning in sibling ladybird species. Thirdly, we show that many ladybird genera include species inhabiting the same region but having different food and habitat preferences, raising the possibility that reproductive interference might occur in these groups. Finally, we show that intraguild predation cannot always explain the niche partitioning in aphidophagous insects including hoverflies and parasitoids. On the basis of the evidence presented, we urge that future studies investigating predator communities should take account of the role of reproductive interference.

Time Domain Partitioning of Electricity Production Cost Simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barrows, C. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Hummon, M. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Jones, W. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Hale, E. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2014-01-01

Production cost models are often used for planning by simulating power system operations over long time horizons. The simulation of a day-ahead energy market can take several weeks to compute. Tractability improvements are often made through model simplifications, such as: reductions in transmission modeling detail, relaxation of commitment variable integrality, reductions in cost modeling detail, etc. One common simplification is to partition the simulation horizon so that weekly or monthly horizons can be simulated in parallel. However, horizon partitions are often executed with overlap periods of arbitrary and sometimes zero length. We calculate the time domain persistence of historical unit commitment decisions to inform time domain partitioning of production cost models. The results are implemented using PLEXOS production cost modeling software in an HPC environment to improve the computation time of simulations while maintaining solution integrity.

Handling Data Skew in MapReduce Cluster by Using Partition Tuning

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Yufei Gao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The healthcare industry has generated large amounts of data, and analyzing these has emerged as an important problem in recent years. The MapReduce programming model has been successfully used for big data analytics. However, data skew invariably occurs in big data analytics and seriously affects efficiency. To overcome the data skew problem in MapReduce, we have in the past proposed a data processing algorithm called Partition Tuning-based Skew Handling (PTSH. In comparison with the one-stage partitioning strategy used in the traditional MapReduce model, PTSH uses a two-stage strategy and the partition tuning method to disperse key-value pairs in virtual partitions and recombines each partition in case of data skew. The robustness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm were tested on a wide variety of simulated datasets and real healthcare datasets. The results showed that PTSH algorithm can handle data skew in MapReduce efficiently and improve the performance of MapReduce jobs in comparison with the native Hadoop, Closer, and locality-aware and fairness-aware key partitioning (LEEN. We also found that the time needed for rule extraction can be reduced significantly by adopting the PTSH algorithm, since it is more suitable for association rule mining (ARM on healthcare data.

Genus two partition functions of extremal conformal field theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaiotto, Davide; Yin Xi

2007-01-01

Recently Witten conjectured the existence of a family of 'extremal' conformal field theories (ECFTs) of central charge c = 24k, which are supposed to be dual to three-dimensional pure quantum gravity in AdS 3 . Assuming their existence, we determine explicitly the genus two partition functions of k = 2 and k = 3 ECFTs, using modular invariance and the behavior of the partition function in degenerating limits of the Riemann surface. The result passes highly nontrivial tests and in particular provides a piece of evidence for the existence of the k = 3 ECFT. We also argue that the genus two partition function of ECFTs with k ≤ 10 are uniquely fixed (if they exist)

An Analytical Solution for the Impact of Vegetation Changes on Hydrological Partitioning Within the Budyko Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Shulei; Yang, Yuting; McVicar, Tim R.; Yang, Dawen

2018-01-01

Vegetation change is a critical factor that profoundly affects the terrestrial water cycle. Here we derive an analytical solution for the impact of vegetation changes on hydrological partitioning within the Budyko framework. This is achieved by deriving an analytical expression between leaf area index (LAI) change and the Budyko land surface parameter (n) change, through the combination of a steady state ecohydrological model with an analytical carbon cost-benefit model for plant rooting depth. Using China where vegetation coverage has experienced dramatic changes over the past two decades as a study case, we quantify the impact of LAI changes on the hydrological partitioning during 1982-2010 and predict the future influence of these changes for the 21st century using climate model projections. Results show that LAI change exhibits an increasing importance on altering hydrological partitioning as climate becomes drier. In semiarid and arid China, increased LAI has led to substantial streamflow reductions over the past three decades (on average -8.5% in 1990s and -11.7% in 2000s compared to the 1980s baseline), and this decreasing trend in streamflow is projected to continue toward the end of this century due to predicted LAI increases. Our result calls for caution regarding the large-scale revegetation activities currently being implemented in arid and semiarid China, which may result in serious future water scarcity issues here. The analytical model developed here is physically based and suitable for simultaneously assessing both vegetation changes and climate change induced changes to streamflow globally.

A genomics investigation of partitioning into and among flavonoid-derived condensed tannins for carbon sequestration in Populus

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Harding, Scott, A; Tsai, Chung-jui; Lindroth, Richard, L

2013-03-24

The project set out to use comparative (genotype and treatment) and transgenic approaches to investigate the determinants of condensed tannin (CT) accrual and chemical variability in Populus. CT type and amount are thought to effect the decomposition of plant detritus in the soil, and thereby the sequestering of carbon in the soil. The stated objectives were: 1. Genome-wide transcriptome profiling (microarrays) to analyze structural gene, transcription factor and metabolite control of CT partitioning; 2. Transcriptomic (microarray) and chemical analysis of ontogenetic effects on CT and PG partitioning; and 3. Transgenic manipulation of flavonoid biosynthetic pathway genes to modify the control of CT composition. Objective 1: A number of approaches for perturbing CT content and chemistry were tested in Objective 1, and those included nitrogen deficit, leaf wounding, drought, and salicylic acid spraying. Drought had little effect on CTs in the genotypes we used. Plants exhibited unpredictability in their response to salicylic acid spraying, leading us to abandon its use. Reduced plant nitrogen status and leaf wounding caused reproducible and magnitudinally striking increases in leaf CT content. Microarray submissions to NCBI from those experiments are the following: GSE ID 14515: Comparative transcriptomics analysis of Populus leaves under nitrogen limitation: clone 1979. Public on Jan 04, 2010; Contributor(s) Harding SA, Tsai C GSE ID 14893: Comparative transcriptomics analysis of Populus leaves under nitrogen limitation: clone 3200. Public on Feb 19, 2009; Contributor(s) Harding SA, Tsai C GSE ID 16783 Wound-induced gene expression changes in Populus: 1 week; clone RM5. Status Public on Dec 01, 2009; Contributor(s) Harding SA, Tsai C GSE ID 16785 Wound-induced gene expression changes in Populus: 90 hours; clone RM5 Status Public on Dec 01, 2009; Contributor(s) Harding SA, Tsai C Although CT amount changed in response to treatments, CT composition was essentially

Partitioning of TRU elements from Chinese HLLW

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song Chongli; Zhu Yongjun

1994-04-01

The partitioning of TRU elements from the Chinese HLLW is feasible. The required D.F. values for producing a waste suitable for land disposal are given. The TRPO process developed in China could be used for this purpose. The research and development of the TRPO process is summarized and the general flowsheet is given. The Chinese HLLW has very high salt concentration. It causes the formation of third phase when contacted with TRPO extractant. The third phase would disappear by diluting the Chinese HLLW to 2∼3 times before extraction. The preliminary experiment shows very attractive results. The separation of Sr and Cs from the Chinese HLLW is also possible. The process is being studied. The partitioning of TRU elements and long lived ratio-nuclides from the Chinese HLLW provides an alternative method for its disposal. The partitioning of the Chinese HLLW could greatly reduce the waste volume, that is needed to be vitrified and to be disposed in to the deep repository, and then would drastically save the overall waste disposal cost

Radionuclide Partitioning in an Underground Nuclear Test Cavity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rose, T P; Hu, Q; Zhao, P; Conrado, C L; Dickerson, R; Eaton, G F; Kersting, A B; Moran, J E; Nimz, G; Powell, B A; Ramon, E C; Ryerson, F J; Williams, R W; Wooddy, P T; Zavarin, M

2009-01-09

In 2004, a borehole was drilled into the 1983 Chancellor underground nuclear test cavity to investigate the distribution of radionuclides within the cavity. Sidewall core samples were collected from a range of depths within the re-entry hole and two sidetrack holes. Upon completion of drilling, casing was installed and a submersible pump was used to collect groundwater samples. Test debris and groundwater samples were analyzed for a variety of radionuclides including the fission products {sup 99}Tc, {sup 125}Sb, {sup 129}I, {sup 137}Cs, and {sup 155}Eu, the activation products {sup 60}Co, {sup 152}Eu, and {sup 154}Eu, and the actinides U, Pu, and Am. In addition, the physical and bulk chemical properties of the test debris were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Electron Microprobe measurements. Analytical results were used to evaluate the partitioning of radionuclides between the melt glass, rubble, and groundwater phases in the Chancellor test cavity. Three comparative approaches were used to calculate partitioning values, though each method could not be applied to every nuclide. These approaches are based on: (1) the average Area 19 inventory from Bowen et al. (2001); (2) melt glass, rubble, and groundwater mass estimates from Zhao et al. (2008); and (3) fission product mass yield data from England and Rider (1994). The U and Pu analyses of the test debris are classified and partitioning estimates for these elements were calculated directly from the classified Miller et al. (2002) inventory for the Chancellor test. The partitioning results from this study were compared to partitioning data that were previously published by the IAEA (1998). Predictions of radionuclide distributions from the two studies are in agreement for a majority of the nuclides under consideration. Substantial differences were noted in the partitioning values for {sup 99}Tc, {sup 125}Sb, {sup 129}I, and uranium. These differences are attributable to two factors

Carbon partitioning in the food web of a high mountain lake: from bacteria to zooplankton

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alessandra PUGNETTI

1999-08-01

Full Text Available The organisms of the microbial loop in Lake Paione Superiore (LPS, a high mountain lake in the Italian Alpine region, were studied together with phytoplankton and zooplankton for three successive years. The biomass of bacteria, HNF (heterotrophic nanoflagellates, ciliates and phytoplankton, as mean carbon concentration in the three years, was 30 and 37 μg C l-1 near the surface (SUR and the bottom (BOT respectively. Under the ice-cover the mean biomass carbon decreased especially at the BOT, whereas at SUR the decrease was less evident due to the maintenance of higher phytoplankton biomass (mixotrophic flagellates. In LPS ~50% of the carbon was confined in bacteria, 20% in protozoa and 30% in phytoplankton. The ratio Autotrophs/Heterotrophs was lower than 1 (mean: 0,97 at SUR and 0,58 at BOT thus indicating a system with a predominance of the heterotrophs. This might be the result of light inhibition of algal growth coupled to a production of dissolved carbon, utilized by bacteria. During late summer the peak of Daphnia longispina, the main component of the zooplankton of LPS, increased the carbon content in the lake to a total of 158 and 300 μg C l-1 in 1997 and 1998 respectively. At the late summer peaks, zooplankton represented from 78 to 89% of the total carbon of the pelagic communities. Furthermore, the presence of Daphnia could be responsible for a decrease in the biomass carbon of a variety of organisms (algae, protozoa and bacteria. It may be possible that this is an instance of zooplankton grazing on algae, protozoa and also bacteria, as Daphnia has very broad niches and may eat pico-, nanoplankton and small ciliates. In the oligotrophic LPS, a diet which also includes protozoa could give Daphnia a further chance of survival, as ciliates are an important source of fatty acids and sterols.

Comparative partitioning and availability of endogenous and exogenous 226Ra in farm soils from a Brazilian high natural radioactive region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lima, V.T.; Penna Franca, E.; Fizsman, M.

1988-01-01

A sequential selective extraction was performed to determine and compare the partitioning of endogenous and exogenous Ra-226 in farm soils. The methodology allowed a good discrimination between the natural and anthropogenic origins of radium, and the exogenous form was three times more available than the endogenous one. After, a brown-bean crop, it was observed a remobilization of Ra-226 in the exchangeable, bound to carbonates and reducible fractions, and a increment of this element in the soluble phase. (author)

Developing Key Parameters for Green Performance of Partition Wall Blocks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Goh Cheng Siew

2016-01-01

Full Text Available To promote sustainable construction, it is important to consider green performance of construction materials throughout the life cycle. Selecting inappropriate materials could not only affect the functional performance but also preclude the achievement of green building performance as a whole. Green performance of construction materials has therefore been one of the primary considerations of green building assessment systems. Using partition wall blocks as an example, this paper examines green performance of building materials primarily from the cradle to gate boundaries. Nine key parameters are proposed for the green performance of partition wall blocks. Apart from environmental features, technical performance of partition wall blocks is also taken into consideration since it is the determinant of the lifecycle performance. This paper offers a roadmap to decision makers to make environmentally responsible choices for their materials of internal walls and partitions, and hence provides a potential sustainable solution for green buildings.

Impact of water use efficiency on eddy covariance flux partitioning using correlation structure analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Ray; Skaggs, Todd; Alfieri, Joseph; Kustas, William; Wang, Dong; Ayars, James

2016-04-01

Partitioned land surfaces fluxes (e.g. evaporation, transpiration, photosynthesis, and ecosystem respiration) are needed as input, calibration, and validation data for numerous hydrological and land surface models. However, one of the most commonly used techniques for measuring land surface fluxes, Eddy Covariance (EC), can directly measure net, combined water and carbon fluxes (evapotranspiration and net ecosystem exchange/productivity). Analysis of the correlation structure of high frequency EC time series (hereafter flux partitioning or FP) has been proposed to directly partition net EC fluxes into their constituent components using leaf-level water use efficiency (WUE) data to separate stomatal and non-stomatal transport processes. FP has significant logistical and spatial representativeness advantages over other partitioning approaches (e.g. isotopic fluxes, sap flow, microlysimeters), but the performance of the FP algorithm is reliant on the accuracy of the intercellular CO2 (ci) concentration used to parameterize WUE for each flux averaging interval. In this study, we tested several parameterizations for ci as a function of atmospheric CO2 (ca), including (1) a constant ci/ca ratio for C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathway plants, (2) species-specific ci/ca-Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) relationships (quadratic and linear), and (3) generalized C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathway ci/ca-VPD relationships. We tested these ci parameterizations at three agricultural EC towers from 2011-present in C4 and C3 crops (sugarcane - Saccharum officinarum L. and peach - Prunus persica), and validated again sap-flow sensors installed at the peach site. The peach results show that the species-specific parameterizations driven FP algorithm came to convergence significantly more frequently (~20% more frequently) than the constant ci/ca ratio or generic C3-VPD relationship. The FP algorithm parameterizations with a generic VPD relationship also had slightly higher transpiration (5 Wm-2

Partition functions. I. Improved partition functions and thermodynamic quantities for normal, equilibrium, and ortho and para molecular hydrogen

Science.gov (United States)

Popovas, A.; Jørgensen, U. G.

2016-11-01

Context. Hydrogen is the most abundant molecule in the Universe. Its thermodynamic quantities dominate the physical conditions in molecular clouds, protoplanetary disks, etc. It is also of high interest in plasma physics. Therefore thermodynamic data for molecular hydrogen have to be as accurate as possible in a wide temperature range. Aims: We here rigorously show the shortcomings of various simplifications that are used to calculate the total internal partition function. These shortcomings can lead to errors of up to 40 percent or more in the estimated partition function. These errors carry on to calculations of thermodynamic quantities. Therefore a more complicated approach has to be taken. Methods: Seven possible simplifications of various complexity are described, together with advantages and disadvantages of direct summation of experimental values. These were compared to what we consider the most accurate and most complete treatment (case 8). Dunham coefficients were determined from experimental and theoretical energy levels of a number of electronically excited states of H2. Both equilibrium and normal hydrogen was taken into consideration. Results: Various shortcomings in existing calculations are demonstrated, and the reasons for them are explained. New partition functions for equilibrium, normal, and ortho and para hydrogen are calculated and thermodynamic quantities are reported for the temperature range 1-20 000 K. Our results are compared to previous estimates in the literature. The calculations are not limited to the ground electronic state, but include all bound and quasi-bound levels of excited electronic states. Dunham coefficients of these states of H2 are also reported. Conclusions: For most of the relevant astrophysical cases it is strongly advised to avoid using simplifications, such as a harmonic oscillator and rigid rotor or ad hoc summation limits of the eigenstates to estimate accurate partition functions and to be particularly careful when

Predicting solute partitioning in lipid bilayers: Free energies and partition coefficients from molecular dynamics simulations and COSMOmic

Science.gov (United States)

Jakobtorweihen, S.; Zuniga, A. Chaides; Ingram, T.; Gerlach, T.; Keil, F. J.; Smirnova, I.

2014-07-01

Quantitative predictions of biomembrane/water partition coefficients are important, as they are a key property in pharmaceutical applications and toxicological studies. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to calculate free energy profiles for different solutes in lipid bilayers. How to calculate partition coefficients from these profiles is discussed in detail and different definitions of partition coefficients are compared. Importantly, it is shown that the calculated coefficients are in quantitative agreement with experimental results. Furthermore, we compare free energy profiles from MD simulations to profiles obtained by the recent method COSMOmic, which is an extension of the conductor-like screening model for realistic solvation to micelles and biomembranes. The free energy profiles from these molecular methods are in good agreement. Additionally, solute orientations calculated with MD and COSMOmic are compared and again a good agreement is found. Four different solutes are investigated in detail: 4-ethylphenol, propanol, 5-phenylvaleric acid, and dibenz[a,h]anthracene, whereby the latter belongs to the class of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The convergence of the free energy profiles from biased MD simulations is discussed and the results are shown to be comparable to equilibrium MD simulations. For 5-phenylvaleric acid the influence of the carboxyl group dihedral angle on free energy profiles is analyzed with MD simulations.

Predicting solute partitioning in lipid bilayers: Free energies and partition coefficients from molecular dynamics simulations and COSMOmic

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jakobtorweihen, S.; Ingram, T.; Gerlach, T.; Smirnova, I.; Zuniga, A. Chaides; Keil, F. J.

2014-01-01

Quantitative predictions of biomembrane/water partition coefficients are important, as they are a key property in pharmaceutical applications and toxicological studies. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to calculate free energy profiles for different solutes in lipid bilayers. How to calculate partition coefficients from these profiles is discussed in detail and different definitions of partition coefficients are compared. Importantly, it is shown that the calculated coefficients are in quantitative agreement with experimental results. Furthermore, we compare free energy profiles from MD simulations to profiles obtained by the recent method COSMOmic, which is an extension of the conductor-like screening model for realistic solvation to micelles and biomembranes. The free energy profiles from these molecular methods are in good agreement. Additionally, solute orientations calculated with MD and COSMOmic are compared and again a good agreement is found. Four different solutes are investigated in detail: 4-ethylphenol, propanol, 5-phenylvaleric acid, and dibenz[a,h]anthracene, whereby the latter belongs to the class of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The convergence of the free energy profiles from biased MD simulations is discussed and the results are shown to be comparable to equilibrium MD simulations. For 5-phenylvaleric acid the influence of the carboxyl group dihedral angle on free energy profiles is analyzed with MD simulations

Experimental study of radium partitioning between anorthite and melt at 1 atm

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miller, S; Burnett, D; Asimow, P; Phinney, D; Hutcheon, I

2007-03-08

We present the first experimental radium mineral/melt partitioning data, specifically between anorthite and a CMAS melt at atmospheric pressure. Ion microprobe measurement of coexisting anorthite and glass phases produces a molar D{sub Ra} = 0.040 {+-} 0.006 and D{sub Ra}/D{sub Ba} = 0.23 {+-} 0.05 at 1400 C. Our results indicate that lattice strain partitioning models fit the divalent (Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra) partition coefficient data of this study well, supporting previous work on crustal melting and magma chamber dynamics that has relied on such models to approximate radium partitioning behavior in the absence of experimentally determined values.

The total position-spread tensor: Spin partition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El Khatib, Muammar; Evangelisti, Stefano; Leininger, Thierry; Brea, Oriana; Fertitta, Edoardo; Bendazzoli, Gian Luigi

2015-01-01

The Total Position Spread (TPS) tensor, defined as the second moment cumulant of the position operator, is a key quantity to describe the mobility of electrons in a molecule or an extended system. In the present investigation, the partition of the TPS tensor according to spin variables is derived and discussed. It is shown that, while the spin-summed TPS gives information on charge mobility, the spin-partitioned TPS tensor becomes a powerful tool that provides information about spin fluctuations. The case of the hydrogen molecule is treated, both analytically, by using a 1s Slater-type orbital, and numerically, at Full Configuration Interaction (FCI) level with a V6Z basis set. It is found that, for very large inter-nuclear distances, the partitioned tensor growths quadratically with the distance in some of the low-lying electronic states. This fact is related to the presence of entanglement in the wave function. Non-dimerized open chains described by a model Hubbard Hamiltonian and linear hydrogen chains H n (n ≥ 2), composed of equally spaced atoms, are also studied at FCI level. The hydrogen systems show the presence of marked maxima for the spin-summed TPS (corresponding to a high charge mobility) when the inter-nuclear distance is about 2 bohrs. This fact can be associated to the presence of a Mott transition occurring in this region. The spin-partitioned TPS tensor, on the other hand, has a quadratical growth at long distances, a fact that corresponds to the high spin mobility in a magnetic system

Development of long-lived radionuclide partitioning technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Eil Hee; Kwon, S. G.; Yang, H. B.

2001-04-01

This project was aimed at the development of an optimal process that could get recovery yields of 99% for Am and Np and 90% for Tc from a simulated radioactive waste and the improvements of unit processes. The performed works are summarized, as follows. 1) The design and the establishment of a laboratory-scale partitioning process were accomplished, and the interfacial conditions between each unit process were determined. An optimal flow diagram for long-lived radionuclide partitioning process was suggested. 2) In improvements of unit processes, a) Behaviors of the co-extraction and sequential separation for residual U, Np and Tc(/Re) by chemical and electrochemical methods were examined. b) Conditions for co-extraction of Am/RE, and selective stripping of Am with metal containing extractant and a mixed extractant were decided. c) Characteristics of adsorption and elution by ion exchange chromatography and extraction chromatography methods were analysed. d) The simulation codes for long-lived radionuclide partitioning were gathered. and reaction equations were numerically formulated. 3) An existing γ-lead cell was modified the α-γ cells for treatment of long-lived radioactive materials. 4) As the applications of new separation technologies, a) Behaviors of photo reductive precipitation for Am/RE were investigated, b) Conditions for selective extraction and stripping of Am with pyridine series extractants were established. All results will be used as the fundamental data for establishment of partitioning process and radiochemical test of long-lived radionuclides recovery technology to be performed in the next stage

Geography of Global Forest Carbon Stocks & Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Saatchi, S. S.; Yu, Y.; Xu, L.; Yang, Y.; Fore, A.; Ganguly, S.; Nemani, R. R.; Zhang, G.; Lefsky, M. A.; Sun, G.; Woodall, C. W.; Naesset, E.; Seibt, U. H.

2014-12-01

Spatially explicit distribution of carbon stocks and dynamics in global forests can greatly reduce the uncertainty in the terrestrial portion of the global carbon cycle by improving estimates of emissions and uptakes from land use activities, and help with green house gas inventory at regional and national scales. Here, we produce the first global distribution of carbon stocks in living woody biomass at ~ 100 m (1-ha) resolution for circa 2005 from a combination of satellite observations and ground inventory data. The total carbon stored in live woody biomass is estimated to be 337 PgC with 258 PgC in aboveground and 79 PgC in roots, and partitioned globally in boreal (20%), tropical evergreen (50%), temperate (12%), and woodland savanna and shrublands (15%). We use a combination of satellite observations of tree height, remote sensing data on deforestation and degradation to quantify the dynamics of these forests at the biome level globally and provide geographical distribution of carbon storage dynamics in terms sinks and sources globally.

Spatial and Temporal Variations in Slip Partitioning During Oblique Convergence Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Beyer, J. L.; Cooke, M. L.; Toeneboehn, K.

2017-12-01

Physical experiments of oblique convergence in wet kaolin demonstrate the development of slip partitioning, where two faults accommodate strain via different slip vectors. In these experiments, the second fault forms after the development of the first fault. As one strain component is relieved by one fault, the local stress field then favors the development of a second fault with different slip sense. A suite of physical experiments reveals three styles of slip partitioning development controlled by the convergence angle and presence of a pre-existing fault. In experiments with low convergence angles, strike-slip faults grow prior to reverse faults (Type 1) regardless of whether the fault is precut or not. In experiments with moderate convergence angles, slip partitioning is dominantly controlled by the presence of a pre-existing fault. In all experiments, the primarily reverse fault forms first. Slip partitioning then develops with the initiation of strike-slip along the precut fault (Type 2) or growth of a secondary reverse fault where the first fault is steepest. Subsequently, the slip on the first fault transitions to primarily strike-slip (Type 3). Slip rates and rakes along the slip partitioned faults for both precut and uncut experiments vary temporally, suggesting that faults in these slip-partitioned systems are constantly adapting to the conditions produced by slip along nearby faults in the system. While physical experiments show the evolution of slip partitioning, numerical simulations of the experiments provide information about both the stress and strain fields, which can be used to compute the full work budget, providing insight into the mechanisms that drive slip partitioning. Preliminary simulations of precut experiments show that strain energy density (internal work) can be used to predict fault growth, highlighting where fault growth can reduce off-fault deformation in the physical experiments. In numerical simulations of uncut experiments with a

Incorrectly Interpreting the Carbon Mass Balance Technique Leads to Biased Emissions Estimates from Global Vegetation Fires

Science.gov (United States)

Surawski, N. C.; Sullivan, A. L.; Roxburgh, S. H.; Meyer, M.; Polglase, P. J.

2016-12-01

Vegetation fires are a complex phenomenon and have a range of global impacts including influences on climate. Even though fire is a necessary disturbance for the maintenance of some ecosystems, a range of anthropogenically deleterious consequences are associated with it, such as damage to assets and infrastructure, loss of life, as well as degradation to air quality leading to negative impacts on human health. Estimating carbon emissions from fire relies on a carbon mass balance technique which has evolved with two different interpretations in the fire emissions community. Databases reporting global fire emissions estimates use an approach based on `consumed biomass' which is an approximation to the biogeochemically correct `burnt carbon' approach. Disagreement between the two methods occurs because the `consumed biomass' accounting technique assumes that all burnt carbon is volatilized and emitted. By undertaking a global review of the fraction of burnt carbon emitted to the atmosphere, we show that the `consumed biomass' accounting approach overestimates global carbon emissions by 4.0%, or 100 Teragrams, annually. The required correction is significant and represents 9% of the net global forest carbon sink estimated annually. To correctly partition burnt carbon between that emitted to the atmosphere and that remaining as a post-fire residue requires the post-burn carbon content to be estimated, which is quite often not undertaken in atmospheric emissions studies. To broaden our understanding of ecosystem carbon fluxes, it is recommended that the change in carbon content associated with burnt residues be accounted for. Apart from correctly partitioning burnt carbon between the emitted and residue pools, it enables an accounting approach which can assess the efficacy of fire management operations targeted at sequestering carbon from fire. These findings are particularly relevant for the second commitment period for the Kyoto protocol, since improved landscape fire

Review of partitioning proposals for spent nuclear fuels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bowersox, D.F.

1976-07-01

The initial phase of a study about recovery of valuable fission products from spent nuclear fuels has been to review various partitioning proposals. This report briefly describes the aqueous Purex process, the salt transport process, melt refining, fluoride volatility process, and gravimetric separations. All these processes appear to be possible technically, but further research will be necessary to determine which are most feasible. This review includes general recommendations for experimental research and development of several partitioning options

Development of a test system for high level liquid waste partitioning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duan Wu H.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The partitioning and transmutation strategy has increasingly attracted interest for the safe treatment and disposal of high level liquid waste, in which the partitioning of high level liquid waste is one of the critical technical issues. An improved total partitioning process, including a tri-alkylphosphine oxide process for the removal of actinides, a crown ether strontium extraction process for the removal of strontium, and a calixcrown ether cesium extraction process for the removal of cesium, has been developed to treat Chinese high level liquid waste. A test system containing 72-stage 10-mm-diam annular centrifugal contactors, a remote sampling system, a rotor speed acquisition-monitoring system, a feeding system, and a video camera-surveillance system was successfully developed to carry out the hot test for verifying the improved total partitioning process. The test system has been successfully used in a 160 hour hot test using genuine high level liquid waste. During the hot test, the test system was stable, which demonstrated it was reliable for the hot test of the high level liquid waste partitioning.

Approximation methods for the partition functions of anharmonic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lew, P.; Ishida, T.

1979-07-01

The analytical approximations for the classical, quantum mechanical and reduced partition functions of the diatomic molecule oscillating internally under the influence of the Morse potential have been derived and their convergences have been tested numerically. This successful analytical method is used in the treatment of anharmonic systems. Using Schwinger perturbation method in the framework of second quantization formulism, the reduced partition function of polyatomic systems can be put into an expression which consists separately of contributions from the harmonic terms, Morse potential correction terms and interaction terms due to the off-diagonal potential coefficients. The calculated results of the reduced partition function from the approximation method on the 2-D and 3-D model systems agree well with the numerical exact calculations

Influence of organic carbon and nitrate loading on partitioning between dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) and N2 production

Science.gov (United States)

Hardison, Amber K.; Algar, Christopher K.; Giblin, Anne E.; Rich, Jeremy J.

2015-09-01

Biologically available nitrogen is removed from ecosystems through the microbial processes of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) or denitrification, while dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) retains it. A mechanistic understanding of controls on partitioning among these pathways is currently lacking. The objective of this study was to conduct a manipulative experiment to determine the influence of organic C and NO3- loading on partitioning. Sediment was collected from a location on the southern New England shelf (78 m water depth) and sieved. Half of the sediment was mixed with freeze-dried phytoplankton and the other half was not. Sediment was then spread into 1.5 mm, "thin discs" closed at the bottom and placed in large aquarium tanks with filtered, N2/CO2 sparged seawater to maintain O2 limited conditions. Half of the discs received high NO3- loading, while the other half received low NO3- loading, resulting in a multifactorial design with four treatments: no C addition, low NO3- (-C-N); C addition, low NO3- (+C-N); no C addition, high NO3- (-C+N); and C addition, high NO3- (+C+N). Sediment discs were incubated in the tanks for 7 weeks, during which time inorganic N (NH4+, NO3-, and NO2-) was monitored, and sediment discs were periodically removed from the tanks to conduct 15N isotope labeling experiments in vials to measure potential rates of anammox, denitrification, and DNRA. Temporal dynamics of inorganic N concentrations in the tanks were indicative of anoxic N metabolism, with strong response of the build up or consumption of the intermediate NO2-, depending on treatments. Vial incubation experiments with added 15NO2- + 14NH4+ indicated significant denitrification and DNRA activity in sediment thin discs, but incubations with added 15NH4+ + 14NO2- indicated anammox was not at all significant. Inorganic N concentrations in the tanks were fit to a reactive transport model assuming different N transformations. Organic C decomposition rates

Timing Analysis of Mixed-Criticality Hard Real-Time Applications Implemented on Distributed Partitioned Architectures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marinescu, Sorin Ovidiu; Tamas-Selicean, Domitian; Acretoaie, Vlad

In this paper we are interested in the timing analysis of mixed-criticality embedded real-time applications mapped on distributed heterogeneous architectures. Mixedcriticality tasks can be integrated onto the same architecture only if there is enough spatial and temporal separation among them. We...... in partitions using fixedpriority preemptive scheduling. We have extended the stateof- the-art algorithms for schedulability analysis to take into account the partitions. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated using several synthetic and real-life benchmarks....... consider that the separation is provided by partitioning, such that applications run in separate partitions, and each partition is allocated several time slots on a processor. Each partition can have its own scheduling policy. We are interested to determine the worst-case response times of tasks scheduled...

Random skew plane partitions with a piecewise periodic back wall

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boutillier, Cedric; Mkrtchyan, Sevak; Reshetikhin, Nicolai

Random skew plane partitions of large size distributed according to an appropriately scaled Schur process develop limit shapes. In the present work we consider the limit of large random skew plane partitions where the inner boundary approaches a piecewise linear curve with non-lattice slopes. Muc...

A conjugate gradient method for the spectral partitioning of graphs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kruyt, Nicolaas P.

1997-01-01

The partitioning of graphs is a frequently occurring problem in science and engineering. The spectral graph partitioning method is a promising heuristic method for this class of problems. Its main disadvantage is the large computing time required to solve a special eigenproblem. Here a simple and

Helium-air exchange flows through partitioned opening and two-opening

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, T. I.

1997-01-01

This paper describes experimental investigations of helium-air exchange flows through partitioned opening and two-opening. Such exchange flows may occur following rupture accident of stand pipe in high temperature engineering test reactor. A test vessel with the two types of small opening on top of test cylinder is used for experiments. An estimation method of mass increment is developed to measure the exchange flow rate. Upward flow of the helium and downward flow of the air in partitioned opening system interact out of entrance and exit of the opening. Therefore, an experiment with two-opening system is made to investigate effect of the fluids interaction of partitioned opening system. As a result of comparison of the exchange flow rates between two types of the opening system, it is demonstrated that the exchange flow rate of the two-opening system is larger than that of the partitioned opening system because of absence of the effect of fluids interaction. (author)

An Efficient Technique for Hardware/Software Partitioning Process in Codesign

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Imene Mhadhbi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Codesign methodology deals with the problem of designing complex embedded systems, where automatic hardware/software partitioning is one key issue. The research efforts in this issue are focused on exploring new automatic partitioning methods which consider only binary or extended partitioning problems. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a hybrid FCMPSO partitioning technique, based on Fuzzy C-Means (FCM and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO algorithms suitable for mapping embedded applications for both binary and multicores target architecture. Our FCMPSO optimization technique has been compared using different graphical models with a large number of instances. Performance analysis reveals that FCMPSO outperforms PSO algorithm as well as the Genetic Algorithm (GA, Simulated Annealing (SA, Ant Colony Optimization (ACO, and FCM standard metaheuristic based techniques and also hybrid solutions including PSO then GA, GA then SA, GA then ACO, ACO then SA, FCM then GA, FCM then SA, and finally ACO followed by FCM.

The impact of aerosol composition on the particle to gas partitioning of reactive mercury.

Science.gov (United States)

Rutter, Andrew P; Schauer, James J

2007-06-01

A laboratory system was developed to study the gas-particle partitioning of reactive mercury (RM) as a function of aerosol composition in synthetic atmospheric particulate matter. The collection of RM was achieved by filter- and sorbent-based methods. Analyses of the RM collected on the filters and sorbents were performed using thermal extraction combined with cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (CVAFS), allowing direct measurement of the RM load on the substrates. Laboratory measurements of the gas-particle partitioning coefficients of RM to atmospheric aerosol particles revealed a strong dependence on aerosol composition, with partitioning coefficients that varied by orders of magnitude depending on the composition of the particles. Particles of sodium nitrate and the chlorides of potassium and sodium had high partitioning coefficients, shifting the RM partitioning toward the particle phase, while ammonium sulfate, levoglucosan, and adipic acid caused the RM to partition toward the gas phase and, therefore, had partitioning coefficients that were lower by orders of magnitude.

Production of Cellulases by Rhizopus stolonifer from Glucose-Containing Media Based on the Regulation of Transcriptional Regulator CRE.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yingyiing; Tang, Bin; Du, Guocheng

2017-03-28

Carbon catabolite repression is a crucial regulation mechanism in microorganisms, but its characteristic in Rhizopus is still unclear. We extracted a carbon regulation gene, cre , that encoded a carbon catabolite repressor protein (CRE) from Rhizopus stolonifer TP-02, and studied the regulation of CRE by real-time qPCR. CRE responded to glucose in a certain range, where it could significantly regulate part of the cellulase genes ( eg, bg, and cbh2 ) without cbh1 . In the comparison of the response of cre and four cellulase genes to carboxymethylcellulose sodium and a simple carbon source (lactose), the effect of CRE was only related to the concentration of reducing sugars. By regulating the reducing sugars to range from 0.4% to 0.6%, a glucose-containing medium with lactose as the inducer could effectively induce cellulases without the repression of CRE. This regulation method could potentially reduce the cost of enzymes produced in industries and provide a possible solution to achieve the large-scale synthesis of cellulases.

Interactions of Reduced Deforestation and the Carbon Market: The Role of Market Regulations and Future Commitments

OpenAIRE

Anger, Niels; Dixon, Alistair; Livengood, Erich

2009-01-01

Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) has been proposed as a potentially inexpensive and plentiful source of emission abatement to supplement other longterm climate policies. However, critics doubt that REDD credits are environmentally equivalent to domestic emission reductions, and suggest an excess supply may disrupt carbon markets. In this context, we investigate the economic implications of emissions market regulations and future emissions reduction commitments, as ...

Parallel file system with metadata distributed across partitioned key-value store c

Science.gov (United States)

Bent, John M.; Faibish, Sorin; Grider, Gary; Torres, Aaron

2017-09-19

Improved techniques are provided for storing metadata associated with a plurality of sub-files associated with a single shared file in a parallel file system. The shared file is generated by a plurality of applications executing on a plurality of compute nodes. A compute node implements a Parallel Log Structured File System (PLFS) library to store at least one portion of the shared file generated by an application executing on the compute node and metadata for the at least one portion of the shared file on one or more object storage servers. The compute node is also configured to implement a partitioned data store for storing a partition of the metadata for the shared file, wherein the partitioned data store communicates with partitioned data stores on other compute nodes using a message passing interface. The partitioned data store can be implemented, for example, using Multidimensional Data Hashing Indexing Middleware (MDHIM).

Partitioning of trace metals in the chemical fractions of bed-load sediments of Nahr-Ibrahim river, Lebanon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korfali, Samira I.; Davies, Brian E.

1999-01-01

Full text.Sediments are the ultimate sink of trace elements. The total metal analysis may only give information concerning possible enrichment of metals. The analysis of metal partitioning in the different chemical components of sediments (exchangeable, carbonate, easily reducible, moderately reducible, organic and residual); give a detailed information on the way in which these metals are bound to sediments, their mobilization capacity and their ability to affect water quality under different environmental conditions. The studied river basin is dominated by limestone formation, the enrichment of metals in the carbonate sediment fraction is a high probability. The objective of the study was to determine the percentage of the total metal content (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu and Pb) in the six chemical fractions of the bed load sediments of Nahr-Ibrahim river during the dry season and verify the role of carbonate for metal sediment deposition. Bed load sediments were sampled at five locations 13Km stretch, upstream from river mouth at two dates, August and October 1996. the dried samples were sieved into three mechanical fractions (1180-250 μm, 250-75 μm and <75 μm). A sequential chemical extraction was carried on each sized sample sediment, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu and Pb were determined on the extracts by AAS. The reported data showed that Fe in mainly in the residual fraction, Mn in the residual and carbonate fraction, Zn in the residual, carbonate and Fe oxide fraction, Cu in the residual, carbonate and organic fraction, Pb in the carbonate fraction. The carbonate fraction in sediments played the major common role for metal sediment deposition

Integer Programming Formulation of the Problem of Generating Milton Babbitt's All-partition Arrays

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tanaka, Tsubasa; Bemman, Brian; Meredith, David

2016-01-01

Milton Babbitt (1916–2011) was a composer of twelve-tone serial music noted for creating the all-partition array. The problem of generating an all-partition array involves finding a rectangular array of pitch-class integers that can be partitioned into regions, each of which represents a distinct...

Accelerating SPARQL queries by exploiting hash-based locality and adaptive partitioning

KAUST Repository

Al-Harbi, Razen; Abdelaziz, Ibrahim; Kalnis, Panos; Mamoulis, Nikos; Ebrahim, Yasser; Sahli, Majed

2016-01-01

State-of-the-art distributed RDF systems partition data across multiple computer nodes (workers). Some systems perform cheap hash partitioning, which may result in expensive query evaluation. Others try to minimize inter-node communication, which

Newly-fixed carbon preferentially flows through starch in the unicellular alga Rhodella

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kroen, W.K.; Ramus, J.S.

1989-01-01

Cells of the unicellular red alga Rhodella reticulata produce copious amounts of anionic extracellular polysaccharides. Previous experiments, comparing growing and non-growing cells, showed little difference in the pattern of initial 14 C partitioning, with a high percentage of label in starch. Short labelling periods, followed by chasing in unlabelled medium, showed rapid movement of carbon through the starch pool within the first 6 hrs, with an accompanying increase in both the protein and mucilage fractions. The overall pattern of carbon metabolism appears fixed throughout growth of the cells, with total carbon input changing with changing growth phase. As starch is extrachloroplastic in the red algae, input of fixed carbon directly into the starch pool may serve as a routing mechanism to direct subsequent carbon metabolism within the cell

Modeling the gas-particle partitioning of secondary organic aerosol: the importance of liquid-liquid phase separation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Zuend

2012-05-01

from ideal mixing in solutions containing inorganic ions and organics that cannot be ignored. Computationally much more efficient calculations relying on the assumption of a complete organic/electrolyte phase separation below a certain RH successfully reproduce gas-particle partitioning in systems in which the average oxygen-to-carbon (O:C ratio is lower than ~0.6, as in the case of α-pinene SOA, and bear the potential for implementation in atmospheric chemical transport models and chemistry-climate models. A full equilibrium calculation is the method of choice for accurate offline (box model computations, where high computational costs are acceptable. Such a calculation enables the most detailed predictions of phase compositions and provides necessary information on whether assuming a complete organic/electrolyte phase separation is a good approximation for a given aerosol system. Based on the group-contribution concept of AIOMFAC and O:C ratios as a proxy for polarity and hygroscopicity of organic mixtures, the results from the α-pinene system are also discussed from a more general point of view.

Assessing the Significance of Above- and Belowground Carbon Allocation of Fast- and Slow-Growing Families of Loblolly Pine - Final Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Topa, M. A.; Weinstein, D. A.; Retzlaff, W. A.

2001-03-01

During this project we experimentally evaluated the below-ground biomass and carbon allocation and partitioning of four different fast- and slow-growing families of loblolly pine located in Scotland County, NC, in an effort to increase the long-term performance of the crop. The trees were subjected to optimal nutrition and control since planting in 1993. Destructive harvests in 1998 and 2000 were used for whole?plant biomass estimates and to identify possible family differences in carbon acquisition (photosynthesis) and water use efficiency. At regular intervals throughout each year we sampled tissues for carbohydrate analyses to assess differences in whole-tree carbon storage. Mini rhizotron observation tubes were installed to monitor root system production and turnover. Stable isotope analysis was used to examine possible functional differences in water and nutrient acquisition of root systems between the various families. A genetic dissection of root ontogenic and architectural traits, including biomass partitioning, was conducted using molecular markers to better understand the functional implications of these traits on resource acquisition and whole-plant carbon allocation.

Partitioning and Transmutation: IAEA Activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Basak, U.; Monti, S.; )

2015-01-01

Full text of publication follows: The importance of partitioning and transmutation (P and T) processes for sustaining nuclear energy growth in the world has been realised in several countries across the world. P and T processes aim at separation and recycling of actinides including minor actinides (MAs) from the spent fuel or high-level liquid waste. The objective of these processes include reuse of separated fissile materials from spent nuclear fuels to obtain energy, enhance resource utilisation, reduce the disposal of toxic radio-nuclides and improve long-term performance of geological repositories. R and D programmes have been launched in many of the Member States to develop advanced partitioning process based on either aqueous or pyro to recover MAs along with other actinides as well as automated and remote techniques for manufacturing fuels containing MAs for the purpose of transmuting them either in fast reactors or accelerator driven hybrids. A number of Member States have been also developing such transmutation systems with the aim to construct and operate demo plants and prototypes in the next decade. The International Atomic Energy Agency has a high priority for the activities on partitioning and transmutation and regularly organises conferences, workshops, seminars and technical meetings in the areas of P and T as a part of information exchange and knowledge sharing at the international level. In the recent past, the Agency organised two technical meetings on advanced partitioning processes and actinide recycle technologies with the objective of providing a common platform for the scientists and engineers working in the areas of separation of actinides along with MAs from spent nuclear fuels and manufacturing of advanced fuels containing MAs in order to bridge the technological gap between them. In 2010, the Agency concluded a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) related to Assessment of Partitioning Processes. The Agency also conducted a first CRP on

Partitioning and Transmutation - Physics, Technology and Politics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gudowski, W.

2002-01-01

Nuclear reactions can be effectively used to destroy radio toxic isotopes through transmutation processes transforming those isotopes into less radio toxic or stable ones Spent nuclear fuel, a mixture of many isotopes with some of them being highly radio toxic for many hundred thousands of years, may be effectively transmuted through nuclear reactions with neutrons. In a dedicated, well designed transmutation system one can, in principle, reduce the radiotoxicity of the spent nuclear fuel to a level, which will require isolation from the biosphere for the period of time for which engineered barriers can be constructed and licensed (not more than 1-2 thousands of years). En effective transmutation process can not be achieved without a suitable partitioning. Only partitioning of the spent nuclear fuel into predetermined groups of elements makes possible an effective use of neutrons to transmute long-lived radioactive isotopes into short-lived or stable one. However, most of the chemical separation/partitioning processes are element- not isotope-specific, therefore the transmutation of the elements with an existing isotope composition is a typical alternative for transmutation processes. Isotope-specific separation is possible but still very expensive and technologically not matured

Minimum nonuniform graph partitioning with unrelated weights

Science.gov (United States)

Makarychev, K. S.; Makarychev, Yu S.

2017-12-01

We give a bi-criteria approximation algorithm for the Minimum Nonuniform Graph Partitioning problem, recently introduced by Krauthgamer, Naor, Schwartz and Talwar. In this problem, we are given a graph G=(V,E) and k numbers ρ_1,\\dots, ρ_k. The goal is to partition V into k disjoint sets (bins) P_1,\\dots, P_k satisfying \\vert P_i\\vert≤ ρi \\vert V\\vert for all i, so as to minimize the number of edges cut by the partition. Our bi-criteria algorithm gives an O(\\sqrt{log \\vert V\\vert log k}) approximation for the objective function in general graphs and an O(1) approximation in graphs excluding a fixed minor. The approximate solution satisfies the relaxed capacity constraints \\vert P_i\\vert ≤ (5+ \\varepsilon)ρi \\vert V\\vert. This algorithm is an improvement upon the O(log \\vert V\\vert)-approximation algorithm by Krauthgamer, Naor, Schwartz and Talwar. We extend our results to the case of 'unrelated weights' and to the case of 'unrelated d-dimensional weights'. A preliminary version of this work was presented at the 41st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2014). Bibliography: 7 titles.

Exact protein distributions for stochastic models of gene expression using partitioning of Poisson processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Pendar, Hodjat; Platini, Thierry; Kulkarni, Rahul V

2013-04-01

Stochasticity in gene expression gives rise to fluctuations in protein levels across a population of genetically identical cells. Such fluctuations can lead to phenotypic variation in clonal populations; hence, there is considerable interest in quantifying noise in gene expression using stochastic models. However, obtaining exact analytical results for protein distributions has been an intractable task for all but the simplest models. Here, we invoke the partitioning property of Poisson processes to develop a mapping that significantly simplifies the analysis of stochastic models of gene expression. The mapping leads to exact protein distributions using results for mRNA distributions in models with promoter-based regulation. Using this approach, we derive exact analytical results for steady-state and time-dependent distributions for the basic two-stage model of gene expression. Furthermore, we show how the mapping leads to exact protein distributions for extensions of the basic model that include the effects of posttranscriptional and posttranslational regulation. The approach developed in this work is widely applicable and can contribute to a quantitative understanding of stochasticity in gene expression and its regulation.

Exact protein distributions for stochastic models of gene expression using partitioning of Poisson processes

Science.gov (United States)

Pendar, Hodjat; Platini, Thierry; Kulkarni, Rahul V.

2013-04-01

Stochasticity in gene expression gives rise to fluctuations in protein levels across a population of genetically identical cells. Such fluctuations can lead to phenotypic variation in clonal populations; hence, there is considerable interest in quantifying noise in gene expression using stochastic models. However, obtaining exact analytical results for protein distributions has been an intractable task for all but the simplest models. Here, we invoke the partitioning property of Poisson processes to develop a mapping that significantly simplifies the analysis of stochastic models of gene expression. The mapping leads to exact protein distributions using results for mRNA distributions in models with promoter-based regulation. Using this approach, we derive exact analytical results for steady-state and time-dependent distributions for the basic two-stage model of gene expression. Furthermore, we show how the mapping leads to exact protein distributions for extensions of the basic model that include the effects of posttranscriptional and posttranslational regulation. The approach developed in this work is widely applicable and can contribute to a quantitative understanding of stochasticity in gene expression and its regulation.

Electron Transfer Strategies Regulate Carbonate Mineral and Micropore Formation.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Zhirui; Tice, Michael M

2018-01-01

Some microbial carbonates are robust biosignatures due to their distinct morphologies and compositions. However, whether carbonates induced by microbial iron reduction have such features is unknown. Iron-reducing bacteria use various strategies to transfer electrons to iron oxide minerals (e.g., membrane-bound enzymes, soluble electron shuttles, nanowires, as well as different mechanisms for moving over or attaching to mineral surfaces). This diversity has the potential to create mineral biosignatures through manipulating the microenvironments in which carbonate precipitation occurs. We used Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, Geothrix fermentans, and Geobacter metallireducens GS-15, representing three different strategies, to reduce solid ferric hydroxide in order to evaluate their influence on carbonate and micropore formation (micro-size porosity in mineral rocks). Our results indicate that electron transfer strategies determined the morphology (rhombohedral, spherical, or long-chained) of precipitated calcium-rich siderite by controlling the level of carbonate saturation and the location of carbonate formation. Remarkably, electron transfer strategies also produced distinctive cell-shaped micropores in both carbonate and hydroxide minerals, thus producing suites of features that could potentially serve as biosignatures recording information about the sizes, shapes, and physiologies of iron-reducing organisms. Key Words: Microbial iron reduction-Micropore-Electron transfer strategies-Microbial carbonate. Astrobiology 18, 28-36.

Task Mapping and Partition Allocation for Mixed-Criticality Real-Time Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tamas-Selicean, Domitian; Pop, Paul

2012-01-01

In this paper we address the mapping of mixedcriticality hard real-time applications on distributed embedded architectures. We assume that the architecture provides both spatial and temporal partitioning, thus enforcing enough separation between applications. With temporal partitioning, each...

Microstructure and mechanical properties of a medium-carbon bainitic steel by a novel quenching and dynamic partitioning (Q-DP) process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Qiangguo; Huang, Xuefei; Huang, Weigang, E-mail: huangwg56@163.com

2016-04-26

A novel Quenching and Dynamic Partitioning (Q-DP) process for a 0.3C-1.4Si-1.8Mn-1.3Cr-0.3Mo (wt%) bainitic steel was developed and the microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated. The results show that the microstructure of the Q-DP treated steel consists of bainite, martensite and retained austenite, and it exhibit a better combination of tensile strength (above 1500 MPa), total elongation (above 17%) and impact toughness (above 90 J). Among the different Q-DP process, the sample treated by 250 °C Q-DP process exhibits the best combination of strength (1519 MPa), ductility (21.3%), the product of strength and elongation (PSE, 32.4 GPa%) and maximum impact toughness (108 J) compared to the quenching and partitioning (Q&P) process and other Q-DP processes. In addition, the work hardening behaviors of the Q&P and Q-DP samples were investigated. The stress-strain curves show that the Q&P and 250 °C Q-DP treated samples exhibit the larger uniform elongation and the value of n calculated for samples is 0.109 and 0.101 respectively.

Partition-based discrete-time quantum walks

Science.gov (United States)

Konno, Norio; Portugal, Renato; Sato, Iwao; Segawa, Etsuo

2018-04-01

We introduce a family of discrete-time quantum walks, called two-partition model, based on two equivalence-class partitions of the computational basis, which establish the notion of local dynamics. This family encompasses most versions of unitary discrete-time quantum walks driven by two local operators studied in literature, such as the coined model, Szegedy's model, and the 2-tessellable staggered model. We also analyze the connection of those models with the two-step coined model, which is driven by the square of the evolution operator of the standard discrete-time coined walk. We prove formally that the two-step coined model, an extension of Szegedy model for multigraphs, and the two-tessellable staggered model are unitarily equivalent. Then, selecting one specific model among those families is a matter of taste not generality.

The Optimization of In-Memory Space Partitioning Trees for Cache Utilization

Science.gov (United States)

Yeo, Myung Ho; Min, Young Soo; Bok, Kyoung Soo; Yoo, Jae Soo

In this paper, a novel cache conscious indexing technique based on space partitioning trees is proposed. Many researchers investigated efficient cache conscious indexing techniques which improve retrieval performance of in-memory database management system recently. However, most studies considered data partitioning and targeted fast information retrieval. Existing data partitioning-based index structures significantly degrade performance due to the redundant accesses of overlapped spaces. Specially, R-tree-based index structures suffer from the propagation of MBR (Minimum Bounding Rectangle) information by updating data frequently. In this paper, we propose an in-memory space partitioning index structure for optimal cache utilization. The proposed index structure is compared with the existing index structures in terms of update performance, insertion performance and cache-utilization rate in a variety of environments. The results demonstrate that the proposed index structure offers better performance than existing index structures.

Actinide and fission product partitioning and transmutation. Status and assessment report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

Implementation and partitioning technology is intended to reduce the inventory of actinides and long-lived fission products in nuclear waste. Such technology can decrease hazards of pre-disposal waste management and of physical disturbance of a waste repository. An authoritative analysis is given of the technical, radiological and economic consequences of the proposed partitioning and transmutation operations on the present and future fuel cycle options. The report is subdivided to a general part for non-specialist readers, and to a technical systems analysis discussing issues on partitioning, transmutation and long-term waste management. (R.P.)

Linking nitrogen partitioning and species abundance to invasion resistance in the Great Basin

Science.gov (United States)

J. J. James; K. W. Davies; R. L. Sheley; Z. T. Aanderud

2008-01-01

Resource partitioning has been suggested as an important mechanism of invasion resistance. The relative importance of resource partitioning for invasion resistance, however, may depend on how species abundance is distributed in the plant community. This study had two objectives. First, we quantified the degree to which one resource, nitrogen (N), is partitioned by time...

Carbon dynamics in corn-soybean sequences as estimated from natural carbon-13 abundance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huggins, D.R.; Clapp, C.E.; Allmaras, R.R.; Lamb, J.A.; Layese, M.F.

1998-01-01

Carbon flow in terrestrial ecosystems regulates partitioning between soil organic C (SOC) and atmospheric CO2. Our objectives were to assess SOC dynamics using natural 13C abundance in corn (Zea mays L., a C4 species)-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr., a C3 species] sequences. Fifteen treatments of continuous corn, continuous soybean, various sequences of corn and soybean, and fallow were initiated in 1981 at Lamberton, MN, on a Webster clay loam (fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Haplaquoll). In 1991, soil and aboveground shoot samples from all treatments were analyzed for total organic C and delta 13C. Carbon inputs, delta 13C, and SOC were integrated into a two-pool model to evaluate C dynamics of corn and soybean. Total SOC was similar across all treatments after 10 yr; however, differences in soil delta 13C occurred between continuous corn (delta 13C = -17.2 per thous and) and continuous soybean (delta 13C = -18.2 per thousand). Modeled C dynamics showed SOC decay rates of 0.011 yr-1 for C4-derived C and 0.007 yr-1 for C3-derived C, and humification rates of 0.16 yr-1 for corn and 0.11 yr-1 for soybean. Decay and humification rates were slightly lower than those found in other Corn Belt studies. Levels of SOC were predicted to decline an additional 7 to 18% with current C inputs from either corn or soybean, respectively. Annual C additions required for SOC maintenance averaged 5.6 Mg C ha-1, 1.4 to 2.1 times greater than previously reported estimates. Controlled variation in natural 13C abundance in corn-soybean rotations during a 10-yr period adequately traced C dynamics

Metals partitioning resulting from rotary kiln incineration of hazardous waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richards, M.K.; Fournier, D.J. Jr.

1992-01-01

In response to the need for date on the partitioning of trace metals from hazardous waste incinerators, an extensive series of test was conducted in the summer of 1991 at the USEPA Incineration Research Facility (IRF) in Jefferson, Arkansas. These tests were conducted in the IRF's rotary kiln incinerator system (RKS) equipped with a pilot-scale Calvert Flux-Force/Condensation scrubber as the primary air pollution control system (APCS). The purpose of this test series was to extend the data base on trace metal partitioning and to investigate the effects of variations in incinerator operation on metal partitioning. Another objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of the scrubber for collecting flue gas metals. This series is a continuation of an ongoing IRF research program investigating trace metal partitioning and APCS collection efficiencies. Two previous test series were conducted using the RKS equipped with a venturi/packed-column scrubber and a single-state ionizing wet scrubber. The primary objective of this test series was to determine the fate of six hazardous and four nonhazardous trace metals fed to the RKS in a synthetic, organic-contaminated solid waste matrix. The six hazardous trace metals used were arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, mercury, and lead. The four nonhazardous trace metals--bismuth, copper, magnesium, and strontium--were included primarily to supply data to evaluate their potential for use as surrogates. The temperature, waste feed chlorine content, and scrubber pressure drop. The test program objectives were to identify. The partitioning of metals among kiln ash, scrubber liquor, and flue gas. Changes in metal partitioning related to variations in kiln exit gas temperature and waste feed chlorine content. The efficiency of the Calvert scrubber for collecting flue gas metals. The effects of scrubber pressure drop on metal collection efficiencies. 2 figs., 2 tabs

Temperature effects on radiation use and biomass partitioning in diverse tropical maize cultivars

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lafitte, H.R.; Edmeades, G.O.

1997-01-01

Temperature can influence crop yields through effects on radiation interception, radiation use, yield component elaboration and/or carbohydrate partitioning. In an attempt to identify causes of yield variation, this study examined these processes in a diverse group of maize cultivars (Zea mays L.). The cultivars were adapted to zones characterized by different temperatures, and were grown in six environments whose mean temperature during the growing season ranged from 13°C to 28°C.Adaptation groups differed greatly in grain and total biomass production across environments, and large differences were observed in harvest index, supporting the hypothesis that temperature has important effects of dry matter partitioning to grain. All yield components were affected. The number of ears per plant, grains per ear and mass per kernel of highland-adapted cultivars declined dramatically when average site temperature exceeded about 17°C, while those of lowland-adapted cultivars were adversely affected by low temperatures. Carbon exchange rates differed among individual cultivars in all environments where that trait was measured, but significant differences were observed among adaptation groups only in the warmest environment, where rates for the highland cultivars were about 15% less than for the others. No consistent differences were observed among adaptation groups for variable chlorophyll fluorescence. Adaptation groups differed significantly in the proportion of incident radiation intercepted by the crop near flowering in three of four environments. This was due to both reduced leaf number and reduced area of individual leaves, but those differences were not proportional to the differences in grain yield among groups. Because indicators of potential assimilate flux to the ear near flowering used in this study (i.e. radiation interception and utilization) could not be consistently related to differences in harvest index among adaptation groups, direct effects of

Strong ion exchange in centrifugal partition extraction (SIX-CPE): effect of partition cell design and dimensions on purification process efficiency.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamzaoui, Mahmoud; Hubert, Jane; Reynaud, Romain; Marchal, Luc; Foucault, Alain; Renault, Jean-Hugues

2012-07-20

The aim of this article was to evaluate the influence of the column design of a hydrostatic support-free liquid-liquid chromatography device on the process efficiency when the strong ion-exchange (SIX) development mode is used. The purification of p-hydroxybenzylglucosinolate (sinalbin) from a crude aqueous extract of white mustard seeds (Sinapis alba L.) was achieved on two types of devices: a centrifugal partition chromatograph (CPC) and a centrifugal partition extractor (CPE). They differ in the number, volume and geometry of their partition cells. The SIX-CPE process was evaluated in terms of productivity and sinalbin purification capability as compared to previously optimized SIX-CPC protocols that were carried out on columns of 200 mL and 5700 mL inner volume, respectively. The objective was to determine whether the decrease in partition cell number, the increase in their volume and the use of a "twin cell" design would induce a significant increase in productivity by applying higher mobile phase flow rate while maintaining a constant separation quality. 4.6g of sinalbin (92% recovery) were isolated from 25 g of a crude white mustard seed extract, in only 32 min and with a purity of 94.7%, thus corresponding to a productivity of 28 g per hour and per liter of column volume (g/h/LV(c)). Therefore, the SIX-CPE process demonstrates promising industrial technology transfer perspectives for the large-scale isolation of ionized natural products. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The calculation of isotopic partition function ratios by a perturbation theory technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, G.; Wolfsberg, M.

1975-01-01

The vibrational Hamiltonian of a molecule in the harmonic approximation, H = (1/2) Σ (g/subi/jp/subi/p/subj/ + f/subi/jq/subi/q/subj/), has been divided into a diagonal part (terms with i=j) and an off-diagonal part (inot-equalj), which is regarded as the perturbation. The vibrational partition function of the molecule is then calculated by Schwinger perturbation theory as the partition function of the unperturbed problem, corresponding to a collection of oscillators with frequencies 2πν/subi/' = (f/subi/ig/subi/i)/sup 1 / 2 /, plus perturbation correction terms which are calculated to second order. With the usual assumptions of isotope effect calculations that the molecular translations and rotations are classical and separable from the vibrations, the perturbation formulation of the vibrational partition function is easily transformed into a perturbation theory formulation of (reduced) isotopic partition function ratios. If, for example, the molecular potential function is expressed in terms of the displacements of bond stretches and bond angle bends from their respective equilibrium values, the unperturbed partition function ratio corresponds to the isotope effect expected for noninteracting bond-stretch and bond-angle-bend oscillators. Detailed comparison is made for a number of molecular systems of perturbation theory calculations of partition functions and isotopic partition function ratios with exact calculations carried out by actually obtaining the normal mode vibrational frequencies of the vibrational Hamiltonian. Good agreement is found. The utility of the perturbation theory formulation resides in the fact that it permits one to look at isotope effects in a very simple manner; some demonstrations are given

The Influence of Oxygen and Sulfur on Uranium Partitioning Into the Core

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, R. D., Jr.; Van Orman, J. A.; Hauck, S. A., II

2017-12-01

Uranium, along with K and Th, may provide substantial long-term heating in planetary cores, depending on the magnitude of their partitioning into the metal during differentiation. In general, non-metallic light elements are known to have a large influence on the partitioning of trace elements, and the presence of sulfur is known to enhance the partitioning of uranium into the metal. Data from the steelmaking literature indicate that oxygen also enhances the solubility of oxygen in liquid iron alloys. Here we present experimental data on the partitioning of U between immiscible liquids in the Fe-S-O system, and use these data along with published metal-silicate partitioning data to calibrate a quantitative activity model for U in the metal. We also determined partition coefficients for Th, K, Nb, Nd, Sm, and Yb, but were unable to fully constrain activity models for these elements with available data. A Monte Carlo fitting routine was used to calculate U-S, U-O, and U-S-O interaction coefficients, and their associated uncertainties. We find that the combined interaction of uranium with sulfur and oxygen is predominant, with S and O together enhancing the solubility of uranium to a far greater degree than either element in isolation. This suggests that uranium complexes with sulfite or sulfate species in the metal. For a model Mars core composition containing 14 at% S and 5 at% O, the metal/silicate partition coefficient for U is predicted to be an order of magnitude larger than for a pure Fe-Ni core.

The French partitioning-transmutation programme, assets and prospects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Viala, M.; Salvatores, M.; Mouney, H.

1997-01-01

Partitioning-transmutation studies are covered by the 1991 French law concerning radioactive waste management. The programme is progressing with a dual approach: - What can be done in partitioning-transmutation? At what cost? In what timescale? - How can long-term gains and short-term disadvantages be qualified and quantified? The first approach concerns technical know-how. The studies based on today's technologies are continuing (reactors, fuels and targets, separation of radionuclides by solvents). The second approach involves an assessment activity, based firstly on studies of scenarios. Pertinent assessment criteria must be brought out. (authors)

Marginal Consistency: Upper-Bounding Partition Functions over Commutative Semirings.

Science.gov (United States)

Werner, Tomás

2015-07-01

Many inference tasks in pattern recognition and artificial intelligence lead to partition functions in which addition and multiplication are abstract binary operations forming a commutative semiring. By generalizing max-sum diffusion (one of convergent message passing algorithms for approximate MAP inference in graphical models), we propose an iterative algorithm to upper bound such partition functions over commutative semirings. The iteration of the algorithm is remarkably simple: change any two factors of the partition function such that their product remains the same and their overlapping marginals become equal. In many commutative semirings, repeating this iteration for different pairs of factors converges to a fixed point when the overlapping marginals of every pair of factors coincide. We call this state marginal consistency. During that, an upper bound on the partition function monotonically decreases. This abstract algorithm unifies several existing algorithms, including max-sum diffusion and basic constraint propagation (or local consistency) algorithms in constraint programming. We further construct a hierarchy of marginal consistencies of increasingly higher levels and show than any such level can be enforced by adding identity factors of higher arity (order). Finally, we discuss instances of the framework for several semirings, including the distributive lattice and the max-sum and sum-product semirings.

Contribution of various carbon sources toward isoprene biosynthesis in poplar leaves mediated by altered atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amy M Trowbridge

Full Text Available Biogenically released isoprene plays important roles in both tropospheric photochemistry and plant metabolism. We performed a (13CO(2-labeling study using proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS to examine the kinetics of recently assimilated photosynthate into isoprene emitted from poplar (Populus × canescens trees grown and measured at different atmospheric CO(2 concentrations. This is the first study to explicitly consider the effects of altered atmospheric CO(2 concentration on carbon partitioning to isoprene biosynthesis. We studied changes in the proportion of labeled carbon as a function of time in two mass fragments, M41(+, which represents, in part, substrate derived from pyruvate, and M69(+, which represents the whole unlabeled isoprene molecule. We observed a trend of slower (13C incorporation into isoprene carbon derived from pyruvate, consistent with the previously hypothesized origin of chloroplastic pyruvate from cytosolic phosphenolpyruvate (PEP. Trees grown under sub-ambient CO(2 (190 ppmv had rates of isoprene emission and rates of labeling of M41(+ and M69(+ that were nearly twice those observed in trees grown under elevated CO(2 (590 ppmv. However, they also demonstrated the lowest proportion of completely labeled isoprene molecules. These results suggest that under reduced atmospheric CO(2 availability, more carbon from stored/older carbon sources is involved in isoprene biosynthesis, and this carbon most likely enters the isoprene biosynthesis pathway through the pyruvate substrate. We offer direct evidence that extra-chloroplastic rather than chloroplastic carbon sources are mobilized to increase the availability of pyruvate required to up-regulate the isoprene biosynthesis pathway when trees are grown under sub-ambient CO(2.

The economic impact of carbon pricing with regulated electricity prices in China—An application of a computable general equilibrium approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Ji Feng; Wang, Xin; Zhang, Ya Xiong; Kou, Qin

2014-01-01

We use a dynamic CGE model (SICGE) to assess the economic and climate impacts of emissions trading system (ETS) in China with a carbon price of 100 Yuan/ton CO2. A particular focus is given to the regulated electricity price regime, which is a major concern of electricity sector’s cost-effective participation in ETS in China. We found: (1) Carbon pricing is an effective policy for China to reduce CO 2 emissions. Total CO 2 emissions reduction ranges from 6.8% to 11.2% in short-term. (2) Rigid electricity price entails lower CO 2 emissions reduction but can be considered as a feasible starting point to introduce carbon pricing policies in short-term as long as governmental subsidies are given to electricity production. (3) In mid- and long-term, the efficient policy is to earmark carbon revenue with competitive electricity price. We propose to use carbon revenue to reduce consumption tax in the first year of the introduction of carbon price and to use the carbon revenue to reduce production tax in following years. - Highlights: • We use a CGE model to assess the impacts of carbon pricing in China. • We test different scenarios of carbon cost pass-through in electricity price. • Carbon pricing policy cost-efficiency is examined with double-dividend hypothesis

Electron Transfer Strategies Regulate Carbonate Mineral and Micropore Formation

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Zhirui; Tice, Michael M.

2018-01-01

Some microbial carbonates are robust biosignatures due to their distinct morphologies and compositions. However, whether carbonates induced by microbial iron reduction have such features is unknown. Iron-reducing bacteria use various strategies to transfer electrons to iron oxide minerals (e.g., membrane-bound enzymes, soluble electron shuttles, nanowires, as well as different mechanisms for moving over or attaching to mineral surfaces). This diversity has the potential to create mineral biosignatures through manipulating the microenvironments in which carbonate precipitation occurs. We used Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, Geothrix fermentans, and Geobacter metallireducens GS-15, representing three different strategies, to reduce solid ferric hydroxide in order to evaluate their influence on carbonate and micropore formation (micro-size porosity in mineral rocks). Our results indicate that electron transfer strategies determined the morphology (rhombohedral, spherical, or long-chained) of precipitated calcium-rich siderite by controlling the level of carbonate saturation and the location of carbonate formation. Remarkably, electron transfer strategies also produced distinctive cell-shaped micropores in both carbonate and hydroxide minerals, thus producing suites of features that could potentially serve as biosignatures recording information about the sizes, shapes, and physiologies of iron-reducing organisms.

Ethylene and carbon dioxide exchange in leaves and whole plants

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