ISO SWS Spectroscopy of Proto-Planetary Nebulae

We are obtaining low- (SWS01) and medium-resolution (SWS06) spectra of PPNe to investigate spectral features arising in these transitional objects. Three sources with the 21 μm feature have been confirmed, one new source found, and evidence of some substructure seen. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On characterizing the temporal dominance patterns of model parameters and processes

Diagnostic analyses of hydrological models intend to improve the understanding of how processes and their dynamics are represented in models. Temporal patterns of parameter dominance could be precisely characterized with a temporally resolved parameter sensitivity analysis. In this way, the discharge conditions are characterized, that lead to a parameter dominance in the model. To achieve this, the analysis of temporal dynamics in parameter sensitivity is enhanced by including additional information in a three‐tiered framework on different aggregation levels. Firstly, temporal dynamics of parameter sensitivity provide daily time series of their sensitivities to detect variations in the dominance of model parameters. Secondly, the daily sensitivities are related to the flow duration curve (FDC) to emphasize high sensitivities of model parameters in relation to specific discharge magnitudes. Thirdly, parameter sensitivities are monthly averaged separately for five segments of the FDC to detect typical patterns of parameter dominances for different discharge magnitudes. The three methodical steps are applied on two contrasting catchments (upland and lowland catchment) to demonstrate how the temporal patterns of parameter dynamics represent different hydrological regimes. The discharge dynamic in the lowland catchment is controlled by groundwater parameters for all discharge magnitudes. In contrast, different processes are relevant in the upland catchment, because the dominances of parameters from fast and slow runoff components in the upland catchment are changing over the year for the different discharge magnitudes. The joined interpretation of these three diagnostic steps provides deeper insights of how model parameters represent hydrological dynamics in models for different discharge magnitudes. Thus, this diagnostic framework leads to a better characterization of model parameters and their temporal dynamics and helps to understand the process behaviour in hydrological models. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

400 Jahre Mathematik und Astronomie an der Universität Würzburg: Alma Julia Herbipolensis 1582–1982

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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400 years mathematics and astronomy at the Wurzburg University: Alma Julia herbipolensis 1582–1982

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s. O. Volk, Mathematik, Astronomie und Physik in der Vergangenheit der Universität Würzburg, Festschrift 1982.

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Paper presented at the 1981 Oberwolfach Conference on Mathematical Methods in Celestial Mechanics.     

Bemerkungen zur Geschichte der Himmelsmechanik

Ohne ZusammenfassungPaper presented at the Conference on Celestial Mechanics, Oberwolfach, Germany, Aug. 17–23, 1969.     

Interaction of Aquatic Dissolved Organic Matter(DOM) with Amitrole: The Nature of the Bound Residues

In this study the binding behaviour of the herbicide amitrole with humic substances respectively dissolved organic matter (DOM) is presented. The results of the binding and release experiments using radio actively ¹⁴C-labelled amitrole ledto the conclusion that the binding of amitrole is very low. About 70% of amitrole bound to humic substances was not extractable. The releasable amitrole portion of the purified DOM-amitrolecomplexes led to a harmful effect in the cress test. Solid-state cross polarisation (CP) magic angle spinning (MAS) ¹⁵N-NMR spectroscopy is a powerful spectroscopic method to elucidate the structure of bound xenobiotics. In addition extraction experiments were used resulting in a binding scheme of amitrole to DOM, where above all the covalent bonding occurred via acid amide bonds.     

The properties of organisms are not tunable parameters selected because they create maximum entropy production on the biosphere scale: A by-product framework in response to Kleidon

Axel Kleidon (Clim Change 66:271–319, 2004) proposed that the organisms that constitute Earth’s biota have free parameters that can be selected to create states of maximum entropy production (MEP) on various scales, from the biota to the planetary radiation balance of the Earth system. I show that Kleidon’s concept, here called the biotic-MEP hypothesis, is fundamentally mistaken. A thought experiment with a life form that would be selected against even though it would generate a higher degree of entropy demonstrates my case: A hypothetical tree that puts forth a non-productive but high-entropy producing black carpet of tissue clearly separates out entropy production from other biological processes and shows that entropy production is not a functional adaptation and therefore it cannot be selected for. A real world example comes from dimethyl sulfide-emitting plankton, which, by increasing cloud albedo, do not raise but rather lower the entropy flux of the Earth system. I provide a number of other examples of biotic processes that individually either decrease or increase the environmental entropy production. It is argued that biological effects on environmental entropy production can be expected to include both positive and negative examples, because these effects are merely by-products of the actual processes that are selected for by evolution. Given my framework of entropy production as a by-product of the true processes that are being selected for, the concept of MEP on environmental scales has no great relevance for discussions of biological evolution or the time history of the effects of life on the global system.