Measurements of climatic parameters and ground-level ozone at Terra Nova Bay in Antarctica

Summary The results of local meteorology, solar radiation and ground-level ozone measurements taken in Antarctica during the second Italian expedition (December 86–February 87) at Terra Nova Bay are presented. During the summer months the site of the Italian base camp is characterized by a thin strip of deglaciated ground, along which the temperature measurements close to the ground and up to 6 m high show a strongly superdiabatic profile. This irregular trend of the temperature in the surface layer is mainly due to the notable incoming amounts of radiation and to the extreme transparency of the atmosphere. This is also shown by the low values of the ratio between total radiation and diffuse radiation. The ground is thus subjected to intense heating, especially in the warmer hours of the day, while the surface layer of the atmosphere will be characterized by strong upward heat fluxes and by turbulent convective movements. Vertical-temperature-profile measurements show an almost forced persistence in the superdiabatic trend, which tends towards isothermic values only as a resultof rapid variations in the direction and intensity of the wind, connected to the downward flux of cold air masses, shown also by the simultaneous increases in ground-level ozone concentrations which would support the presence of dry-deposition processes in the lower layer. However, the complex local orography and the horizontal discontinuity (sea, deglaciated coast, snow-covered surfaces) do not permit a correct application of profile flux relations, normally used in studies on groundlevel dry-deposition. Paper presented at the IV Congresso del Gruppo Nazionale per la Fisica dell'Atmosfera e dell'Oceano, June 22–24, 1987, Rome.     

An FT-IR study of adsorption of sulfur dioxide on alpha- and gamma-alumina

In the Claus process hydrogen sulfide reacts to elemental sulfur. Because the Claus reaction is thermodynamically limited, sulfur compounds are still present in Claus tailgas. To avoid air pollution, the tailgas has to be treated.Alfa- and gamma-alumina are being used either as a catalyst or as a support for an active component in the Claus process and some tailgas treatment processes. In order to elucidate the mechanism of the Claus reaction, the adsorption of sulfur dioxide on both of the above aluminas was investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.Different adsorbed species displaying a different heat of adsorption were detected. A broad band near 3500 cm^–1 is associated with the basic hydroxyl groups. This band is assigned to a hydrogen bond between the surface of alumina and a bisulfite species. As bisulfite species are reactive towards hydrogen sulfide, we assume that bisulfite species are active intermediates on alumina in the Claus reaction.     

UVB irradiation of normal human skin favors the development of type-2 T-cells in vivo and in primary dermal cell cultures

To determine the effect of UVB exposure on the balance of type-1 or type-2 T-cells in skin, we examined the expression of key markers interferon (IFN)-gamma and interleukin (IL)-4 in cryostat sections. IFN-gamma mRNA was clearly detectable in nonirradiated control skin, and IFN-gamma protein was found in 2% of the dermal CD3pos T-cells, whereas IL-4 mRNA was hardly detectable, and no IL-4 protein was found. In contrast, IL-4 mRNA expression increased upon irradiation, and IL-4 was found in 2% of the T-cells at day 2 after UVB-exposure. Concomitantly, IFN-gamma mRNA expression decreased, and IFN-gamma protein became absent. We also analyzed T-cells present in primary dermal cell cultures, which were used as an in vitro equivalent of the in vivo situation. As compared with T-cells from control skin, T-cells in dermal cell cultures from UVB-exposed skin displayed an increased IL-4 and decreased IFN-gamma expression. No such skewing occurred when the T-cells from irradiated skin were cloned in the absence of a dermal microenvironment. Except for an occasional positive T-cell, type-1-associated cell-surface markers (CCR5, CXCR3) or type-2 markers (CCR3, CD30, CRTH2) were undetectable in situ. But these markers were expressed on cultured dermal T-cells from UVB-exposed and control skin at a comparable level, but did not correlate with the IFN-gamma and IL-4 production. Altogether, UVB-induced changes of the dermal microenvironment favor the development of type-2 T-cells.     

推动电视观赏体验新革命

随着价格合理、以硬盘为基础的个人录像机(PVRs)的出现,以及宽带IP(网络协议)连接的全面普及,人们的电视观赏体验也在彻底改变.消费者不必再按照电视公司设定的时间表收看节目.他们可以透过"时空转换(Timeshift)",选择自己方便的时段播放节目,或从影片点播服务器下载节目,并且确保数字影片格式丝毫不会影响观赏效果.     

网络化环境中的内容共享

融合与互连继续推动着消费类电子产业.与以前相比,当今的电子设备具有更多功能、更大内存和更高级的通信性能.因此,在越来越多的设备上,消费者可以采集、存储和播放音频、视频以及静态图像.     

Control of the oscillator strength of the exciton in a single InGaN-GaN quantum dot

We report direct evidence for the control of the oscillator strength of the exciton state in a single quantum dot by the application of a vertical electric field. This is achieved through the study of the radiative lifetime of a single InGaN-GaN quantum dot in a p-i-n diode structure. Our results are in good quantitative agreement with theoretical predictions from an atomistic tight-binding model. Furthermore, the increase of the overlap between the electron and hole wave functions due to the applied field is shown experimentally to increase the attractive Coulomb interaction leading to a change in the sign of the biexcitonic binding energy.     

The effects of varying metal precursor fluxes on the growth of InAlN by metal organic vapour phase epitaxy

InAlN is a relatively new addition to the palette of nitride semiconductor alloys, with potential applications in distributed Bragg reflectors and high electron mobility transistors. However relatively little is known about the effects of different growth conditions on InAlN’s structure and properties and more importantly what these effects can tell us about the surface processes of growth. Here we have investigated the effects of varying various metal fluxes. First, we varied the total fluxes of all the precursors while maintaining their ratios. This led to an increase in growth rate, of itself very desirable, but at the considerable cost of significantly roughened surfaces. Analysis of these surfaces using power spectral density functions suggests that they were all produced by a combination of stochastic roughening and smoothing by surface diffusion, suggesting that at a given temperature increasing the growth rate will always lead to roughening. In addition, we examined the effect of varying just the trimethylindium flux (and therefore varying the indium to gallium ratio). As this flux was increased the indium incorporation initially increased but then levelled off, and for further increases the amount of indium on the surface as droplets increases significantly, suggesting that there is a limit to the indium incorporation that than be achieved at a given temperature and pressure. This suggests that there are practical limits to simultaneously achieving high growth rates, high indium contents and low surface roughnesses.