Temporal evolution of DMS and DMSP in Antarctic Coastal Sea water

The temporal evolution of concentrations of dimethylsulphide (DMS), its precursor dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) and chlorophyll a is surveyed weekly in the water column and in a landfast ice core at a coastal station of Gerlache Inlet (Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica) from 27 November 2000 to 14 February 2001. The DMS and DMSP profile concentrations in the water column are similar and show a clear temporal trend, with minimum values (<0.7?nM) at all depths occurring on 27 November 2000 and maximum values (4.8 × 10²?nM for DMS and 1.8 × 10²?nM for DMSP) in surface water on 27 December 2000 for DMS and on 19 December 2000 for DMSP. When the sea-ice cover is present, the temporal evolution of DMSP closely follows that of chlorophyll a in the water column, supporting the idea that DMSP, and therefore DMS, has a phytoplanktonic origin. However, when the ice cover breaks up during the late austral summer, a second phytoplankton bloom occurs, while the DMSP concentration in the sea-water column remains very low. In the ice core, the results show higher concentrations of DMSP than those of the underlying sea water, highlighting the important role of sea ice in the sulphur cycle of the Antarctic ecosystem.     

A fast-neutron coincidence collar using liquid scintillators for fresh fuel verification

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The IAEA has developed a liquid scintillator-based system for the non-destructive assay of 235U in fresh fuel assemblies. The fast neutron...     

A Critical Look at Strings

Following the invitation of the editors of Foundations of Physics, I give here a personal assessment of string theory, from the point of view of an outsider, and I compare it with the theory, methods, and expectations of my own field.     

Atomistic simulation of InGaN/GaN quantum disk LEDs

In this work electronic and optoelectronic properties of InGaN/GaN nanocolumn quantum disk LEDs have been studied with the multiscale simulation tool tiberCAD. Calculations have been performed with an atomistic tight-binding model. Results shows that emission energies have a minor dependence on the nanocolumn dimension while In concentration in the active region is a critical parameter.