Characterization and seasonal variations of surface active substances in the natural sea surface micro-layers of the coastal Middle Adriatic stations

Surface micro-layer (ML) samples were collected in different seasons over a long time period in the coastal area of the Middle Adriatic Sea including the seawater Rogoznica lake location and the semi-enclosed estuarine Martinska station. Natural surface micro-layers were studied as original samples and as ex-situ reconstructed films after previous extraction by organic solvents of different polarities (n-hexane and dichloromethane). Using alternating current (AC) voltammetry (out-of-phase mode) the concentration of surface active substances (SAS) in original ML of both locations was determined, and the enrichment factor (EF) in the ML was related to the underlayer water (ULW) samples collected at 0.5 m depth. Seasonal variability of SAS concentrations of the ML was observed at both locations. The ex-situ films were studied using a modified AC voltammetry method (out-of-phase mode) transferring an organic extract of natural micro-layers spread onto electrolyte from the air-water interface to the mercury electrode surface. The comparison of adsorption characteristics for model lipids of different polarities and those of transferred ex-situ reconstructed films has revealed that different types of lipid material were present in each ex-situ film of the same micro-layer. Additional characterization of the surface active material of natural MLs was carried out by AC voltammetry (in-phase mode) using cathodic reduction of cadmium ions as an indicator of permeability of different films adsorbed at the mercury electrode. The SAS of ML of both investigated locations induced an inhibition effect to the reduction of cadmium ions. Seasonal variations of inhibition have also been noticed. The electrochemical study contributed to the physicochemical characterization of the surface active matter of the surface micro-layer with the emphasis to the role of lipids which, although they represent a minor fraction of the total micro-layer organic material, contribute considerably to the micro-layer formation and stabilization at the air–water interface.     

Sensitivity study of the influence of cloud droplet concentration on hail suppression effectiveness

A cloud-resolving mesoscale model with a two-moment microphysical scheme has been used. The software package for cloud seeding and two categories of precipitation elements (graupel and frozen raindrops) are incorporated in the model. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of cloud droplet concentration on hail suppression effectiveness. The concentration level of cloud droplets is prescribed in the model. We performed sensitivity tests of precipitation amounts (rain and hail) on the cloud droplet concentration in unseeded and seeded cases. We demonstrated for the unseeded case that increasing the concentration of cloud droplets created a reduction in rain accumulation, while the amount of hail accumulation increased. It is necessary to understand whether natural diversity in the cloud droplet concentration can affect the effectiveness of hail suppression. For operational cloud seeding activities, it would be helpful to determine whether it is possible to suppress hail if we know the optimal level of concentration for cloud droplets. Our study showed that hail suppression effectiveness had the greatest influence on lowering cloud droplet concentration levels; suppression effectiveness decreased as the cloud droplet concentration increased.     

Tendencies for the amounts of chemical material used for cloud seeding in Serbia

Weather modification activities are performed predominantly by cloud seeding. Some operational projects have been performed for more than half a century and cover planetary scales. These activities lead to a large amount of deposited chemical materials (seeding agents) at the ground level during precipitation. These deposits depend on the amount of the seeding agent. In the future, increased amounts of seeding agent deposits could be a serious problem due to various negative effects on the human environment. Therefore, the main intent of this paper is to determine trends for the seeding agent amount over certain areas of Serbia. Four areas covered by the Hail Suppression Project in Serbia are considered: the target area in central Serbia and areas in western and central Serbia, which are well-known hailfall regions. The annual seeding agent amounts show a slow decreasing trend because fewer seedings were performed during the last decade of the last century, which was due to economic reasons. In contrast, the annual seeding agent amounts of the other analysed areas indicate an increasing trend induced by the transfer of rockets to these hailfall regions. The main difference among small areas is the mean agent amount and its maximum time position as a consequence of the high spatial and time variability of the hail. However, a sharp decreasing trend that is influenced by the implementation of new methodologies, seeding agents and delivery tools may also be a factor in the implementation of cloud seeding projects. The given method is not only strictly applicable locally and may be applied to any other cloud seeding scenario and seeding area. Dominantly increasing trends in the agent amount indicate that the importance of weather modifications in the future will be greater than ever and will have both positive and negative effects.     

Adapting project management method and ANFIS strategy for variables selection and analyzing wind turbine wake effect

We present a project management methodology designed for the selection of wind turbines wake effect most influential parameters, who need to run wind farm project for large energy conversion. Very frequently, the managers of these projects are not project management professionals, so they need guidance to have autonomy, using minimal time and documentation resources. Therefore, agile method is adapted to assist the project management. Wind energy poses challenges such as the reduction in the wind speed due to the wake effect by other turbines. If a turbine is within the area of turbulence caused by another turbine, or the area behind another turbine, the wind speed suffers a reduction and, therefore, there is a decrease in the production of electricity. In order to increase the efficiency of a wind farm, analyzing the parameters, which have influence on the wake effect, is one of the focal research areas. To maximize the power produced in a wind farm, it is important to determine and analyze the most influential factors on the wake effects or wake wind speeds since the effect has most influence on the produced power. This procedure is typically called variable selection, and it corresponds to finding a subset of the full set of recorded variables that exhibits good predictive abilities. In this study, architecture for modeling complex systems in function approximation and regression was used, based on using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). Variable searching using the ANFIS network was performed to determine how the five parameters affect the wake wind speed. Our article answers the call for renewing the theoretical bases of wind farm project management in order to overcome the problems that stem from the application of methods based on decision-rationality norms, which bracket the complexity of action and interactions in projects.     

The chemical composition of the halo and evolutionary problems

The chemical composition of the Milky-Way halo is studied on the basis of a sample of metal-poor (logarithmic metallicity less than –1) globular clusters. The histogram obtained may be interpreted in the terms of the classical galaxy formation theory of Eggen, Lynden-Bell and Sandage. Interestingly enough, this is in a rough agreement with the data on metallicity of high-redshift damped Ly-alpha and Ly-alpha forest systems. This may serve the important purpose of constraining the nature and the formation timescale of MACHOs discovered through gravitational microlensing experiments. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Evidence for strange stars from joint observation of harmonic absorption bands and of redshift

From recent reports on terrestrial heavy ion collision experiments it appears that one may not obtain information about the existence of asymptotic freedom (AF) and chiral symmetry restoration (CSR) for quarks of QCD at high density. This information may still be obtained from compact stars – if they are made up of strange quark matter (SQM).
Very high gravitational redshift lines (GRL), seen from some compact stars, seem to suggest high ratios of mass and radius ( M / R ) for them. This is suggestive of strange stars (SS) and can in fact be fitted very well with SQM equation of state (EOS) deduced with built in AF and CSR. In some other stars broad absorption bands (BAB) appear at about  ∼0.3 keV  and multiples thereof, that may fit in very well with resonance with harmonic compressional breathing mode frequencies of these SS. Emission at these frequencies are also observed in six stars.
If these two features of large GRL and BAB were observed together in a single star, it would strengthen the possibility for the existence of SS in nature and would vindicate the current dogma of AF and CSR that we believe in QCD. Recently, in 4U  1700 − 24  , both features appear to be detected, which may well be interpreted as observation of SS – although the group that analyzed the data did not observe this possibility. We predict that if the shifted lines, that has been observed, are from neon with GRL shift   z = 0.4  – then the compact object emitting it is a SS of mass 1.2   M_⊙  and radius 7 km. In addition the fit to the spectrum leaves a residual with broad dips at 0.35 keV and multiples thereof, as in 1E  1207 − 5209  which is again suggestive of SS.     

The micro-glitch in PSR B1821−24: a case for a strange pulsar?

The single glitch observed in PSR B1821−24, a millisecond pulsar in M28, is unusual on two counts. First, the magnitude of this glitch is at least an order of magnitude smaller  (Δν/ν∼ 10⁻¹¹)  than the smallest glitch observed to date. Secondly, all other glitching pulsars have strong magnetic fields with   B ≳ 10¹¹ G  and are young, whereas PSR B1821−24 is an old recycled pulsar with a field strength of  2.25 × 10⁹ G  . We have earlier suggested that some of the recycled pulsars could actually be strange quark stars. In this work, we argue that the crustal properties of such a strange pulsar are just right to give rise to a glitch of this magnitude, explaining the scarcity of larger glitches in millisecond pulsars.     

An inadvertent transport of the seeding material as a result of cloud modification

Successful seeding of clouds in weather modification experiments essentially depends on the seeding time and dynamics, amount of seeding material and location of the initial seeding area. In the present study, we focus on the influence of the initial seeding zone location on the transport of seeding agent material into the target cloud. In addition, the inadvertent transport of seeding material is analysed. During weather modification activities, a lot of seeding material can be transferred far from the seeding zone in a downwind direction. The primary motivation for this research was to prove this statement. We use a three-dimensional, mesoscale cloud-resolving model to achieve our goal. We performed sensitivity tests with respect to the distance between the mass centres of the initial seeding area and the cloud. Different seeding scenarios are analysed. Our principal findings are as follows: (1) For distances between the mass centres of the initial seeding area and the cloud below 2.5 km, all seeding agent material would be activated after a short time. For distances above 10 km, most of the seeding agent would remain inactivated, because horizontal transport of the seeding agent becomes more important than transport induced by the main updraft. For these scenarios, the seeding agent is injected in the cold peripheral part of the cloud. (2) Sensitivity tests show that the inactivated seeding agent would remain close to the seeding area if the seeding is performed below cloud base. This effect occurs even for large distances between the seeding area and the target cloud (>20 km) due to low-level convergence. Thus, this seeding method suppresses the inert seeding material from being transferred far from the seeding zone. (3) The complete seeding material stays inactivated if the seeding is performed between the ?8 and ?12°C isotherms in front of the increased reflectivity zone. As a consequence, it would be transferred far from its initial area. The cloud would not be able to capture the seeding agent even during its greatest lateral extent.