ALBERT

Description: Idealised global circulation model simulations with circumpolar and localised (one and two) storm tracks are re-analysed to determine scaling, intermittency and phase-space structures. In a hundred year experiment with a circumpolar storm track, the spectrum S(f ) of the first principal component of the zonal wind fluctuations shows the following power law regimes: (a) a short-term memory between f- -4 and f  -2 up to 50 days and (b) a long-term memory f -1 from 50 to 400 days and f -0.24 beyond 400 days, similar to observed maritime single station near-surface air temperature data. In the presence of localised storm tracks, the wave number two dominates the dynamics and a long-term memory cannot be detected. The recurrence plot is introduced as a novel tool to comprehensively visualise the evolution of the dynamical system in terms of state separations (distances) in phase space. The patterns allow for a qualitative interpretation of the underlying local phenomena in phase space, such as waves, analogs, extremes, and global regimes. Attractor dimensions are, in general, larger than 10, but they appear to be lower in the wave-dominated regimes of the double storm track experiment.

Description: Vergleichende Betrachtungen der neuesten Untersuchungsergebnisse in verschiedenen Marschgebieten Niedersachsens und der Niederlande führen zu der Feststellung, daß trotz örtlich sehr unterschiedlicher Einflüsse auf das Sedimentationsgeschehen der Aufbau der holozänen Schichten von überregional wirksamen Faktoren bestimmt sein muß. Der Aufbau der holozänen Schichten im südlichen Nordseeküstengebiet wird vor allem durch die von glazialeustatischen Meeresspiegelbewegungen bedingte Meerestransgression bestimmt. Einflüsse tektonischer Krustenbewegungen und anderer Faktoren sind demgegenüber nur von untergeordneter Bedeutung. Der Ablauf der holozänen Meerestransgression an der südlichen Nordseeküste wird auf Grund von 57 Radiokarbondatierungen und umfangreicher Kartierungsarbeiten in einem Diagramm dargestellt. Es gibt unter größtmöglicher Berücksichtigung der Sedimentsetzungen die mittleren Hochwasserstände zu den verschiedenen Zeitperioden wieder. Stärkere Anstiegsbewegungen des Meeresspiegels treten im Präboreal (8000—6750 v. Chr.), im Atlantikum (5500—2500 v. Chr.) und im Subatlantikum (ab 300 v. Chr.) bis heute auf. Die umgekehrten Tendenzen sind im Boreal (6750—5500 v. Chr.) und im Subboreal (2500—300 v. Chr.) festzustellen. Diese Verlangsamungen bzw. Unterbrechungen des Transgressionsablaufes sind in etwa zeitgleich mit bedeutenden Gletscherregenerationen auf dem nordamerikanischen Kontinent. Diese beiden bedeutendsten Einschnitte in der Kurve des holozänen Transgressionsablaufes im Boreal und Subboreal werden zu einer Untergliederung des Holozäns in 3 Unterabteilungen verwendet (Alt-, Mittel-, Jungholozän). Innerhalb dieser Unterabteilungen werden dann jeweils eine untere Stufe (Transgressionsbeschleunigung) und eine obere Stufe (Transgressionsverlangsamung) unterschieden. Im Jungholozän stehen wir z. Zt. noch in der unteren Stufe. Weitere Untergliederungen ergeben sich aus der Ausscheidung kleinerer Schwankungen des Transgressionsverlaufes, wobei im unteren Mittelholozän 3 Folgen, im oberen Mittelholozän 2 Folgen und im Jungholozän 4 Folgen unterschieden werden können. Jede dieser Folgen setzt sich aus einem Überflutungs- und einem Verlandungsabschnitt zusammen.

Description: Much of our knowledge of past ocean temperatures comes from the foraminifera Mg / Ca palaeothermometer. Several non-thermal controls on foraminifera Mg incorporation have been identified, of which vital-effects, salinity and secular variation in seawater Mg / Ca are the most commonly considered. Ocean carbonate chemistry is also known to influence Mg / Ca, yet this is rarely considered as a source of uncertainty either because (1) precise pH and [CO32−] reconstructions are sparse, or (2) it is not clear from existing culture studies how a correction should be applied. We present new culture data of the relationship between carbonate chemistry for the surface-dwelling planktic species Globigerinoides ruber, and compare our results to data compiled from existing studies. We find a coherent relationship between Mg / Ca and the carbonate system and argue that pH rather than [CO32−] is likely to be the dominant control. Applying these new calibrations to datasets for the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and Eocene–Oligocene Transition (EOT) enable us to produce a more accurate picture of surface hydrology change for the former, and a reassessment of the amount of subtropical precursor cooling for the latter. We show that properly corrected Mg / Ca and δ18O datasets for the PETM imply no salinity change, and that the amount of precursor cooling over the EOT has been previously underestimated by ∼ 2 °C based on Mg / Ca. Finally, we present new laser-ablation data of EOT-age Turborotalia ampliapertura from St Stephens Quarry (Alabama), for which a solution ICPMS Mg / Ca record is available (Wade et al., 2012). We show that the two datasets are in excellent agreement, demonstrating that fossil solution and laser-ablation data may be directly comparable. Together with an advancing understanding of the effect of Mg / Casw, the coherent picture of the relationship between Mg / Ca and pH that we outline here represents a step towards producing accurate and quantitative palaeotemperatures using this proxy.

Description: In the framework of the German Atmospheric Research Program AFO-2000 a system of consistent coupled numerical models has been developed. The purpose of the model system is to serve as a tool for the execution of European urban air quality regulations. A consortium with the acronym VALIUM was formed, which consisted of German research institutes, environmental consultancies and an environmental agency. A substantial part of the VALIUM program was devoted to the generation of a set of high quality data for the validation of the numerical model system. The validation data are based on a combination of field studies, tracer experiments and corresponding wind tunnel experiments. The field experiments were carried out inside and around a street canyon in a city district of Hanover/Germany. After a brief introduction to the VALIUM project a summary of the main results will be given.

Description: Sponges (phylum Porifera) had been considered as an enigmatic phylum, prior to the analysis of their genetic repertoire/tool kit. Already with the isolation of the first adhesion molecule, galectin, it became clear that the sequences of the sponge cell surface receptors and those of the molecules forming the intracellular signal transduction pathways, triggered by them, share high similarity to those identified in other metazoan phyla. These studies demonstrated that all metazoan phyla, including the Porifera, originate from one common ancestor, the Urmetazoa. The sponges evolved during a time prior to the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary (542 million years ago (myr)). They appeared during two major "snowball earth events", the Sturtian glaciation (710 to 680 myr) and the Varanger-Marinoan ice ages (605 to 585 myr). During this period the aqueous milieu was silica rich due to the silicate weathering. The oldest sponge fossils (Hexactinellida) have been described from Australia, China and Mongolia and were assessed to have existed coeval with the diverse Ediacara fauna. Only little younger are the fossils discovered in the Sansha section in Hunan (Early Cambrian; China). It has been proposed that only the sponges had the genetic repertoire to cope with the adverse conditions, e.g. temperature-protection molecules or proteins protecting them against ultraviolet radiation. The skeletal elements of the Hexactinellida (model organisms Monorhaphis chuni and Monorhaphis intermedia or Hyalonema sieboldi) and Demospongiae (models Suberites domuncula and Geodia cydonium), the spicules, are formed enzymatically by the anabolic enzyme silicatein and the catabolic enzyme silicase. Both, the spicules of Hexactinellida and of Demospongiae, comprise a central axial canal and an axial filament which harbors the silicatein. After intracellular formation of the first lamella around the channel and the subsequent extracellular apposition of further lamellae the spicules are completed in a net formed of collagen fibers. The data summarized here substantiate that with the finding of silicatein a new aera in the field of bio/inorganic chemistry started. For the first time strategies could be formulated and experimentally proven that allow the formation/synthesis of inorganic structures by organic molecules. These findings are not only of importance for the further understanding of basic pathways in the body plan formation of sponges but also of eminent importance for applied/commercial processes in a sustainable use of biomolecules for novel bio/inorganic materials.

Description: This paper presents recent advances and future challenges of the application of different linear and nonlinear inversion algorithms in acoustics, electromagnetics, and elastodynamics. The presented material can be understood as an extension of our previous work on this topic. The inversion methods considered in this presentation vary from linear schemes, like the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) applied electromagnetics and the Synthetic Aperture Focussing Technique (SAFT) as its counterpart in ultrasonics, and the linearized Diffraction Tomography (DT), to nonlinear schemes, like the Contrast Source Inversion (CSI) combined with different regularization approaches. Inversion results of the above mentioned inversion schemes are presented and compared for instance for time-domain ultrasonic data from the Fraunhofer-Institute for Nondestructive Testing (IZFP, Saarbrücken, Germany). Convenient tools for nondestructive evaluation of solids can be electromagnetic and/or elastodynamic waves; since their governing equations, including acoustics, exhibit strong structural similarities, the same inversion concepts apply. In particular, the heuristic SAFT algorithm can be and has been utilized for all kinds of waves, once a scalar approximation can be justified. Relating SAFT to inverse scattering in terms of diffraction tomography, it turns out that linearization is the most stringent inherent approximation. A comparison of the inversion results using the linear time-domain inversion scheme SAFT and well tested nonlinear frequency-domain inversion schemes demonstrates the considerable potential to extend and improve the ultrasonic imaging technique SAFT while consulting the mathematics of wavefield inversion, yet, in particular if the underlying effort is considered, the relatively simple and effective SAFT algorithm works surprisingly well. Since SAFT is a widely accepted imaging tool in ultrasonic NDE it seems worthwhile to check its formal restrictions and assumptions whether they could be overcome and whether they would outperform the standard and original SAFT algorithm.

Description: With the development of medical technique and computational electromagnetics, high resolution anatomic human models have already been widely developed and used in computation of electromagnetic fields induced in human body. Although these so called voxel-based human models are powerful tools for research on electromagnetic safety, their unchangeable standing posture makes it impossible to simulate a realistic scenario in which people have a lot of different postures. This paper describes a poser program package which was developed as an improved version of the free-from deformation technique to overcome this problem. It can set rotation angles of different human joints and then deform the original human model to make it have different postures. The original whole-body human model can be deformed smoothly, continuity of internal tissues and organs is maintained and the mass of different tissues and organs can be conserved in a reasonable level. As a typical application of the postured human models, this paper also studies the effect of the step voltage due to a lightning strike on the human body. Two voxel-based human body models with standing and walking posture were developed and integrated into simulation models to compute the current density distribution in the human body shocked by the step voltage. In order to speed up the transient simulation, the reduced c technique was used, leading to a speedup factor of around 20. The error introduced by the reduced c technique is discussed and simulation results are presented in detail.

Description: In the framework of the German Atmospheric Research Program AFO-2000 a system of consistent coupled numerical models has been developed. The purpose of the model system is to serve as a tool for the execution of European urban air quality regulations. A consortium with the acronym VALIUM was formed, which consisted of German research institutes, environmental consultancies and an environmental agency. A substantial part of the VALIUM program was devoted to the generation of a set of high quality data for the validation of the numerical model system. The validation data are based on a combination of field studies, tracer experiments and corresponding wind tunnel experiments. The field experiments were carried out inside and around a street canyon in a city district of Hanover/Germany. After a brief introduction to the VALIUM project a summary of the main results will be given.

Description: Sponges (phylum Porifera) had been considered as an enigmatic phylum, prior to the analysis of their genetic repertoire/tool kit. Already with the isolation of the first adhesion molecule, galectin, it became clear that the sequences of sponge cell surface receptors and of molecules forming the intracellular signal transduction pathways triggered by them, share high similarity with those identified in other metazoan phyla. These studies demonstrated that all metazoan phyla, including Porifera, originate from one common ancestor, the Urmetazoa. The sponges evolved prior to the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary (542 million years ago [myr]) during two major "snowball earth events", the Sturtian glaciation (710 to 680 myr) and the Varanger-Marinoan ice ages (605 to 585 myr). During this period the ocean was richer in silica due to the silicate weathering. The oldest sponge fossils (Hexactinellida) have been described from Australia, China and Mongolia and are thought to have existed coeval with the diverse Ediacara fauna. Only little younger are the fossils discovered in the Sansha section in Hunan (Early Cambrian; China). It has been proposed that only the sponges possessed the genetic repertoire to cope with the adverse conditions, e.g. temperature-protection molecules or proteins protecting them against ultraviolet radiation. The skeletal elements of the Hexactinellida (model organisms Monorhaphis chuni and Monorhaphis intermedia or Hyalonema sieboldi) and Demospongiae (models Suberites domuncula and Geodia cydonium), the spicules, are formed enzymatically by the anabolic enzyme silicatein and the catabolic enzyme silicase. Both, the spicules of Hexactinellida and of Demospongiae, comprise a central axial canal and an axial filament which harbors the silicatein. After intracellular formation of the first lamella around the channel and the subsequent extracellular apposition of further lamellae the spicules are completed in a net formed of collagen fibers. The data summarized here substantiate that with the finding of silicatein a new aera in the field of bio/inorganic chemistry started. For the first time strategies could be formulated and experimentally proven that allow the formation/synthesis of inorganic structures by organic molecules. These findings are not only of importance for the further understanding of basic pathways in the body plan formation of sponges but also of eminent importance for applied/commercial processes in a sustainable use of biomolecules for novel bio/inorganic materials.