Period–luminosity relations for red supergiant variables – II. The distance to M101

We report the discovery of 42 red supergiant variables (RSVs) in the late-type spiral galaxy M101. Periods for the luminosity variation of these RSVs were determined from 20 epochs of ground-based CCD photometry in the Kron–Cousins R band obtained with the KPNO 2.1-m and WIYN 3.5-m telescopes over a span of three years. The periods found were in the range 200–1300 days. Using the relationship between the RSV periods and their luminosity in the Kron–Cousins I band, we estimate a reddening-corrected distance modulus to M101 of 29.40±0.16 mag (based on a distance modulus of 18.5±0.1 mag for the Large Magellanic Cloud). This distance is consistent with the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project Cepheid distances of 29.34±0.17 mag for the outer field of M101 and 29.21±0.17 mag for the inner field.     

Brevetoxin abundance and composition during ECOHAB-Florida field monitoring cruises in the Gulf of Mexico

This project was undertaken to provide information about the composition and fate of brevetoxins in concert with the multidisciplinary study, ECOHAB-FL, of Karenia brevis blooms in the Gulf of Mexico. Brevetoxin composition was provided for water samples collected during and in the absence of K. brevis blooms from November 1998, through September 2002. The identity and concentration of the most abundant brevetoxins were determined using high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). The analytical methods changed in 2002 to the use of a mass spectrometer for brevetoxin identification and quantitation. The most abundant brevetoxins observed during blooms were PbTx-1, -2 and -3. PbTx-2 was the most abundant toxin observed in viable bloom situations with an abundance of K. brevis cells. Starting with the 2000 cruises, a distinction was made between intra-cellular toxins (inside viable K. brevis cells) and extra-cellular brevetoxins (dissolved brevetoxins outside of the cell). An important observation was the change in composition of the major brevetoxins from intra-cellular to extra-cellular toxins. The most abundant intra-cellular toxin was PbTx-2, whereas the most abundant brevetoxin recovered from the extra-cellular (dissolved) fraction in the water was PbTx-3. The abundance of PbTx-3 relative to PbTx-2 generally increased as a bloom aged, indicating the conversion of PbTx-2 to -3 as cells lysed, and the persistence of PbTx-3 in the water after cell death.     

The QuakeSim Project: Web Services for Managing Geophysical Data and Applications

We describe our distributed systems research efforts to build the “cyberinfrastructure” components that constitute a geophysical Grid, or more accurately, a Grid of Grids. Service-oriented computing principles are used to build a distributed infrastructure of Web accessible components for accessing data and scientific applications. Our data services fall into two major categories: Archival, database-backed services based around Geographical Information System (GIS) standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium, and streaming services that can be used to filter and route real-time data sources such as Global Positioning System data streams. Execution support services include application execution management services and services for transferring remote files. These data and execution service families are bound together through metadata information and workflow services for service orchestration. Users may access the system through the QuakeSim scientific Web portal, which is built using a portlet component approach.     

The role of ocean dynamics in producing decadal climate variability in the North Pacific

 Decadal time scale climate variability in the North Pacific has implications for climate both locally and over North America. A crucial question is the degree to which this variability arises from coupled ocean/atmosphere interactions over the North Pacific that involve ocean dynamics, as opposed to either purely thermodynamic effects of the oceanic mixed layer integrating in situ the stochastic atmospheric forcing, or the teleconnected response to tropical variability. The part of the variability that is coming from local coupled ocean/atmosphere interactions involving ocean dynamics is potentially predictable by an ocean/atmosphere general circulation model (O/A GCM), and such predictions could (depending on the achievable lead time) have distinct societal benefits. This question is examined using the results of fully coupled O/A GCMs, as well as targeted numerical experiments with stand-alone ocean and atmosphere models individually. It is found that coupled ocean/atmosphere interactions that involve ocean dynamics are important to determining the strength and frequency of a decadal-time scale peak in the spectra of several oceanic variables in the Kuroshio extension region off Japan. Local stochastic atmospheric heat flux forcing, integrated by the oceanic mixed layer into a red spectrum, provides a noise background from which the signal must be extracted. Although teleconnected ENSO responses influence the North Pacific in the 2–7 years/cycle frequency band, it is shown that some decadal-time scale processes in the North Pacific proceed without ENSO. Likewise, although the effects of stochastic atmospheric forcing on ocean dynamics are discernible, a feedback path from the ocean to the atmosphere is suggested by the results. Received: 23 January 2000 / Accepted: 10 January 2001     

Geosynthesis of dibenzothiophene and alkyl dibenzothiophenes in crude oils and sediments by carbon catalysis

Sediment extracts and crude oils have been shown to contain methyl substituted biphenyls and dibenzothiophenes, with isomer distributions suggesting a geochemical relationship between the two compound classes. Laboratory simulation experiments have shown that carbon catalyses the reaction between surface adsorbed sulfur and biphenyl to form dibenzothiophene. Similarly, the methyl substituted biphenyls reacted to yield corresponding methyl dibenzothiophenes. We suggest that the widespread distribution of dibenzothiophene and alkylated dibenzothiophenes in sediments and crude oils is the result of a catalytic reaction of biphenyl ring systems and surface-adsorbed sulfur on the surface of carbonaceous material.     

Formation and reactions of alkyl adamantanes in sediments: Carbon surface reactions

Diamondoids are hydrocarbons with a carbon skeleton that is superimposable on the diamond lattice. Adamantane is the cage-shaped primary unit of diamondoids and occurs widely in sediments and petroleum. The first report of adamantane isolated from petroleum extends back seven decades, but the precursors and reaction mechanisms for the formation of adamantane and related diamondoids in sediments has remained unclear. We report the formation of alkyl adamantanes by heating β-ionone with activated carbon in closed system pyrolysis experiments in the range 170-320 °C. In addition, hydrogen exchange, demethylation, methyl transfer and isomerisation reactions were observed when the model compounds adamantane and 1,3-dimethyladamantane were heated at moderate temperature with activated carbon. A reaction pathway for the formation and reactions of alkyl adamantanes is proposed on the basis of ring isomerisation of adamantane to protoadamantane on the activated carbon surface. The carbonaceous surface reactions described help account for the occurrence and distribution of alkyl adamantanes in petroleum basins, as evidenced by the strong linear relationships between compound pairs related by isomerisation and demethylation for a set of crude oils from the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia.     

The right to move: informal use rights and urban practices of mobility

Everyday urban practices are enabled by both formal and informal rights regimes. Researchers often focus on the effects of formal rights; informal rights to use urban spaces have been less widely examined, particularly in North America. This article examines practices of intra-urban mobility in a gentrifying area of Portland, Oregon. We find that rights regimes regarding movement in urban space importantly shape who uses particular transit strategies and infrastructures. Specifically, we identify rights regimes rooted in explications of a city ideal and a neighborhood ethic. We suggest that Portland’s widely admired transit planning process has not sufficiently engaged with informal use rights in transit spaces, leading to uneven adoption of a transportation infrastructure that re-inscribes historic racialized injustices. An examination of informal use rights complicates common rights analytics, including those leveraging Lefebvre’s right to the city, emphasizing how all urban rights are contingent, contested and negotiated.     

Experimentally determined dissolution kinetics of Na-rich borosilicate glass at far from equilibrium conditions: Implications for Transition State Theory

The dissolution kinetics of five chemically complex and five chemically simple sodium silicate glass compositions (Na-Si±Al±B) were determined over a range of solution saturation values by varying the flow-through rates (1-100 mL/d) in a dynamic single-pass flow-through (SPFT) apparatus. The chemically complex borosilicate glasses are representative of prospective hosts for radioactive waste disposal and are characterized by relatively high molar Si/(Si + Al) and Na/(Al + B) ratios (>0.7 and >1.0, respectively). Analysis by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) indicates that the fraction of ^ivB to ⁱⁱⁱB (N₄) varies from 0.66 to 0.70. Despite large differences in bulk chemistry, values of δ²⁹Si peak shift determined by MAS-NMR varies only by about 7 ppm (δ²⁹Si = −94 to −87 ppm), indicating small differences in polymerization state for the glasses. Forward rates of reaction measured in dynamic experiments converge (average log₁₀ rate [40 °C, pH 9] = −1.87 ± 0.79 [g/(m² d)]) at high values of flow-rate (q) to sample surface area (S). Dissolution rates are independent of total Free Energy of Hydration (FEH) and this model appears to overestimate the impact of excess Na on chemical durability. For borosilicate glass compositions in which molar Na > Al + B, further addition of Na appears to stabilize the glass structure with respect to hydrolysis and dissolution. Compared to other borosilicate and aluminosilicate glasses, the glass specimens from this study dissolve at nearly the same rate (0-∼56×) as the more polymerized glasses, such as vitreous reedmergnerite (NaBSi₃O₈), albite, and silica. Dissolution of glass follows the order: boroaluminosilicate glass > vitreous reedmergnerite > vitreous albite > silica glass, which is roughly the same order of increasingly negative ²⁹Si chemical shifts. The chemical shift of ²⁹Si is a measure of the extent of bond overlap between Si and O and correlates with the forward rate of reaction. Thus, dissolution appears to be rate-limited by rupture of the Si-O bond, which is consistent with the tenants of Transition State Theory (TST). Therefore, dissolution at far from equilibrium conditions is dependent upon the speed of the rate-controlling elementary reaction and not on the sum of the free energies of hydration of the constituents of boroaluminosilicate glass.