Low multipath antennas for GNSS-based attitude determination systems applied to high-altitude platforms

High-altitude platforms (HAPs) are a flexible and attractive technology for providing innovative wireless services. These aerial platforms can be successfully employed for mobile or broadband communications and for disaster monitoring or response. However, one of the open issues is whether HAP stations can provide reliable services without temporal outages owing to stratospheric winds that can cause positional and attitude instabilities thus affecting the communication system operation. To counteract this issue, one possible solution is to use reconfigurable antennas whose pointing direction can be adjusted depending on the platform spatial orientation. However, this would require real-time three-axial attitude data. As a possible solution, this paper will review the potential of GNSS-based attitude determination systems with reference to HAP stations. In particular, it will be shown how the use of a particular class of low multipath and lightweight antennas can provide a high degree of accuracy without altering the avionic ballast.     

Delicious guinea pigs: Seasonality studies and the use of fat in the pre-Columbian Andean diet

In the Nearctic ecozone (temperate, subarctic, and arctic environments) hunter–gatherers often have to rely on diets with inadequate caloric intakes during certain times of the year. Although the Neotropic ecozone has different and less extreme conditions, it can also be nutritionally challenging. While the tropical forests offer a more stable diet (in terms of carbohydrates, proteins, and fat availability), high altitude biomes, such as the central Andes, can challenge human populations to metabolize proteins properly in certain times of the year. Guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) may have been incorporated in the Andean diet because they represented an additional source of fat, especially when carbohydrates were short in supply.     

Evidence of magmatic CO2-rich fluids in peraluminous graphite-bearing leucogranites from Deep Freeze Range (northern Victoria Land,Antarctica)

Fine-grained peraluminous synkinematic leuco-monzogranites (SKG), of Cambro-Ordovician age, occur as veins and sills (up to 20–30 m thick) in the Deep Freeze Range, within the medium to high-grade metamorphics of the Wilson Terrane. Secondary fibrolite + graphite intergrowths occur in feldspars and subordinately in quartz. Four main solid and fluid inclusion populations are observed: primary mixed CO₂+H₂O inclusions + Al₂SiO₅ ± brines in garnet (type 1); early CO₂-rich inclusions (± brines) in quartz (type 2); early CO₂+CH₄ (up to 4 mol%)±H₂O inclusions + graphite + fibrolite in quartz (type 3); late CH₄+CO₂+N₂ inclusions and H₂O inclusions in quartz (type 4). Densities of type 1 inclusions are consistent with the crystallization conditions of SKG (750°C and 3 kbar). The other types are post-magmatic: densities of type 2 and 3 inclusions suggest isobaric cooling at high temperature (700–550°C). Type 4 inclusions were trapped below 500°C. The SKG crystallized from a magma that was at some stage vapour-saturated; fluids were CO₂-rich, possibly with immiscible brines. CO₂-rich fluids (±brines) characterize the transition from magmatic to post-magmatic stages; progressive isobaric cooling (T<670°C) led to a continuous decrease off _{O 2} can entering in the graphite stability field; at the same time, the feldspars reacted with CO₂-rich fluids to give secondary fibrolite + graphite. Decrease ofT andf _{O 2} can explain the progressive variation in the fluid composition from CO₂-rich to CH₄ and water dominated in a closed system (in situ evolution). The presence of N₂ the late stages indicates interaction with external metamorphic fluids.Contribution within the network Hydrothermal/metamorphic water-rock interactions in crystalline rocks: a multidisciplinary approach on paleofluid analysis. CEC program: Human Capital and Mobility     

Far-infrared observations of main sequence stars surrounded by dust shells

We present 50 and 100µm photometry and size information for several main sequence stars surrounded by dust shells. The observations from NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory include the Vega-like stars, Beta Pic, Fomalhaut, as well as four stars suggested by Walker and Wolstencroft to belong possibly to the same class. The results of our observations are best interpreted as upper limits to the far-infrared sizes of the dust clouds around all of the stars except Fomalhaut and Beta Pic. We have also fit simple, optically thin models to the Beta Pic data to explore the range of shell parameters consistent with our limits and with previous observations.     

Observation of MKN 501 at gamma-ray energies

During a balloon flight in September 1979 of the MISO low-energy -ray telescope, the BL Lac-object MkN 501 was studied in the hard X-ray range above 30 keV and in the low energy -ray range up to 19 MeV. No statistically significant X- and -ray fluxes were detected. The implications of the upper limits obtained are discussed in the light of the relativistic jet theories recently proposed.     

内蒙古西辽河流域特种玉米品种特性及气候区划

基于玉米本身的特性和用途的不同,将玉米分为高油型玉米、高淀粉型玉米、高赖氨酸型玉米和甜玉米四大类型.根据每种玉米品种对气候条件、土壤类型、地形特征等的不同需求,以通辽地区作为内蒙古东部西辽河流域玉米主产区的示范区,提出了特种玉米的区划指标,并利用GIS技术进行适宜种植区域划分.内蒙古通辽地区大部分农区适宜种植特种玉米,最适宜区、适宜区基本上均位于通辽南部和中部农业区.     

河南省洛阳—三门峡铝土矿地质特征及其勘查开发前景

河南省洛阳-三门峡的铝土矿，是赋存于中石炭统本溪组的一水硬铝石型沉积铝土矿。本区不仅蕴藏量多，而且有相当数量的富铝土矿，勘查开发潜力大，前景广阔。     

基于GIS的区域地质调查数字制图--以1∶5万<里庄幅>为例

本文以 1∶5万里庄幅为例 ,阐述了运用GIS系统对区调过程中各种资料的处理与编辑方法 ,并介绍了数字制图方法及工艺流程 ,提出了GIS系统在 1∶5万区调工作中的应用前景     

Genesis of chlorine and sulphur in fumarolic emissions at Vulcano Island (Italy): assessment of pH and redox conditions in the hydrothermal system

Chlorine- and sulphur-bearing compounds in fumarole discharges of the La Fossa crater at Vulcano Island (Italy) can be modelled by a mixing process between magmatic gases and vapour from a boiling hydrothermal system. This allows estimating the compounds in both endmembers. Magma degassing cannot explain the time variation of sulphur and HCl concentrations in the deep endmember, which are more probably linked to reactions of solid phases at depth, before mixing with the hydrothermal vapours. Based on the P–T conditions and speciation of the boiling hydrothermal system below La Fossa, the HCl and S_tot contents in the hydrothermal vapours were used to compute the redox conditions and pH of the aqueous solution. The results suggest that the haematite–magnetite buffer controls the hydrothermal fO₂ values, while the pH has increased since the end of the 1970s. The main processes affecting pH values may be linked to Na–Ca exchanges between evolved seawater, feeding the boiling hydrothermal system, and local rocks. While Na is removed from water, calcium enters the solution, undergoes hydrolysis and produces HCl, lowering the pH of the water. The increasing water–rock ratio within the hydrothermal system lowers the Ca availability, so the aqueous solution becomes less acidic. Seawater flowing towards the boiling hydrothermal brine dissolves a large quantity of pyrite along its path. In the boiling hydrothermal system, dissolved sulphur precipitates as pyrite and anhydrite, and becomes partitioned in vapour phase as H₂S and SO₂. These results are in agreement with the paragenesis of hydrothermal alteration minerals recovered in drilled wells at Vulcano and are also in agreement with the isotopic composition of sulphur emitted by the crater fumaroles.