Characterization of inclusions and their distribution in natural and artificial samples by synchrotron cryo-micro-tomography (SCXRT)

Zur geometrischen Vermessung und Beschreibung von Einschlüssen in natürlichen sowie im Labor geschaffenen Eispartikeln wurde ein neuartiger Versuchaufbau an der Tomographie-Endstation der Material Science Beam Line an der Swiss Light Source (SLS, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Schweiz) entwickelt. Dieser besteht aus einer Plexiglas-Tasse und einem doppelwandigen Kaptonfolien-Käfig, der wiederum auf die Düse eines CryojetXL (Oxford Instruments) montiert wurde. Abgesehen von dem hohen Maß an Flexibilit¨at bez¨uglich der Installation erlaubt es dieser Aufbau, die Temperatur des Experiments mit einer Genauigkeit von ± 1 K über einen Bereich von 271 K bis 220 K zu regeln. In den hier beschriebenen Experimenten wurde eine räumliche Auflösung von 1.4 µm erzielt.

Design-based stereology to quantify structural properties of artificial and natural snow using thin sections

The quantification of the structural properties of snow is traditionally based on model-based stereology. Model-based stereology requires assumptions about the shape of the investigated structure. Here, we show how the density, specific surface area, and grain boundary area can be measured using a design-based method, where no assumptions about structural properties are necessary. The stereological results were also compared to X-ray tomography to control the accuracy of the method. The specific surface area calculated with the stereological method was 19.8 ± 12.3% smaller than with X-ray tomography. For the density, the stereological method gave results that were 11.7 ± 12.1% larger than X-ray tomography. The statistical analysis of the estimates confirmed that the stereological method and the sampling used are accurate. This stereological method was successfully tested on artificially produced ice beads but also on several snow types. Combining stereology and polarisation microscopy provides a good estimate of grain boundary areas in ice beads and in natural snow, with some limitatio

(Table 1) Attenuation coefficient of lateral propagating light in sea ice, southern Beaufort Sea

The attenuation property of a lateral propagating light (LPL) in sea ice was measured using an artificial lamp in the Canadian Arctic during the 2007/2008 winter. A measurement method is proposed and applied whereby a recording instrument is buried in the sea ice and an artificial lamp is moved across the instrument. The apparent attenuation coefficient µ(lamda) for the lateral propagating light is obtained from the measured logarithmic relative variation rate. With the exception of blue and red lights, the attenuation coefficient changed little with wavelength, but changed considerably with depth. The vertical decrease of the attenuation coefficient was found to be correlated with salinity: the greater the salinity, the greater the attenuation coefficient. A clear linear relation of salinity and the lateral attenuation coefficient with R2 = 0.939 exists to address the close correlation of the attenuation of LPL with the scattering from the brine. The observed attenuation coefficient of LPL is much larger than that of the vertical propagation light, which we speculate to be caused by scattering. Part of this scattered component is transmitted out of the sea ice from the upper and lower surfaces.

Counts and abundance of macrozoobenthic organisms settled in artificial soft sediment at Brandal, Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen

In the Arctic the currently observed rising air temperature results in more frequent calving of icebergs. The latter are derived from tidewater glaciers. Arctic macrozoobenthic soft-sediment communities are considerably disturbed by direct hits and sediment reallocation caused by iceberg scouring. With the aim to describe the primary succession of macrozoobenthic communities following these events, scientific divers installed 28 terracotta containers in the soft-sediment off Brandal (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, Norway) at 20 m water depth in 2002. The containers were filled with a bentonite-sand-mixture resembling the natural sediment. Samples were taken annually between 2003 and 2007. A shift from pioneering species (e.g. Cumacea: Lamprops fuscatus) towards more specialized taxa, as well as from surface-detritivores towards subsurface-detritivores was observed. This is typical for an ecological succession following the facilitation and inhibition succession model. Similarity between experimental and non-manipulated communities from 2003 was significantly highest after three years of succession. In the following years similarity decreased, probably due to elevated temperatures, which prevented the fjord-system from freezing. Some organisms numerically important in the non-manipulated community (e.g., the polychaete Dipolydora quadrilobata) did not colonies the substrate during the experiment. This suggests that the community had not fully matured within the first three years. Later, the settlement was probably impeded by consequences of warming temperatures. This demonstrates the long-lasting effects of severe disturbances on Arctic macrozoobenthic communities. Furthermore, environmental changes, such as rising temperatures coupled with enhanced food availability due to an increasing frequency of ice-free days per year, may have a stronger effect on succession than exposure time.

Red de investigación en Visión Artificial y Robótica. Establecimiento de contenidos e implantación y seguimiento del plan de evaluación

Se presenta en esta memoria el trabajo desarrollado durante el curso 2013/14 por los componentes de la “Red de investigación en Visión Artificial y Robótica. Establecimiento de contenidos e implantación y seguimiento del plan de evaluación”. Código de Red ICE 3031. Este ha sido el primer curso en el que se imparte la asignatura a estudio y nuestros esfuerzos han estado orientados tanto a la valoración de los materiales elaborados en los años precedentes como al seguimiento y ponderación del sistema de evaluación propuesto para la asignatura de Visión Artificial y Robótica y que consiste en la evaluación continua de trabajos desarrollados por los estudiantes a lo largo de todo el cuatrimestre. Además, estos trabajos han de ser expuestos oralmente en el aula. Para ello, el alumno ha de desarrollar también las transparencias que le sirvan para apoyar su presentación.

Synthesis and expression of a gene encoding a 48-residue repeat in the Pseudomonas syringae ice nucleation protein

The aim of this work was to construct short analogues of the repetitive water-binding domain of the Pseudomonas syringae ice nucleation protein, InaZ. Structural analysis of these analogues might provide data pertaining to the protein-water contacts that underlie ice nucleation. An artificial gene coding for a 48-mer repeat sequence from InaZ was synthesized from four oligodeoxyribonucleotides and ligated into the expression vector, pGEX2T. The recombinant vector was cloned in Escherichia coli and a glutathione S-transferase fusion protein obtained. This fusion protein displayed a low level of ice-nucleating activity when tested by a droplet freezing assay. The fusion protein could be cleaved with thrombin, providing a means for future recovery of the 48-mer peptide in amounts suitable for structural analysis by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Generic helical edge states due to Rashba spin-orbit coupling in a topological insulator

We study the helical edge states of a two-dimensional topological insulator without axial spin symmetry due to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Lack of axial spin symmetry can lead to so-called generic helical edge states, which have energy-dependent spin orientation. This opens the possibility of inelastic backscattering and thereby nonquantized transport. Here we find analytically the new dispersion relations and the energy dependent spin orientation of the generic helical edge states in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling within the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model, for both a single isolated edge and for a finite width ribbon. In the single-edge case, we analytically quantify the energy dependence of the spin orientation, which turns out to be weak for a realistic HgTe quantum well. Nevertheless, finite size effects combined with Rashba spin-orbit coupling result in two avoided crossings in the energy dispersions, where the spin orientation variation of the edge states is very significantly increased for realistic parameters. Finally, our analytical results are found to compare well to a numerical tight-binding regularization of the model.