Infrared Radiation

Green areas in the urban environment can contribute to the mitigation of the Urban Heat Island. In a context of climate change, with the expected increase in temperature, dryness and intensity of heat waves, green areas assume even higher importance as they can create a cooling effect that extends to the surrounding areas. This study analyses the thermal performance of a small green space (0.24 ha) and its influence in the surrounding atmospheric environment of a densely urbanised area in Lisbon. Measurements of weather parameters (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar and infrared radiation) were carried out along a selected path, starting from inside the green area to surrounding streets with different orientations and solar exposure. It was found that the garden was cooler than the surrounding areas, either in the sun or in the shade. These differences were higher in hotter days and particularly related to the mean radiant temperature (Tmrt). The highest difference found was of 6.9 C in relation to air temperature and 39.2 C in relation to Tmrt; in both cases this difference occurred between the shaded site inside the garden and the sunny site in an EeW oriented street in the southern part of the studied area. Besides the local weather conditions, particularly the low wind speed, the sun exposure and the urban geometry are the potential factors that explain these differences. The cooling effect of green areas on the surrounding environment can be enhanced by additional measures related to the urban features of each city.

Identification of fossil burned bones is commonly based on their black colour. While colour-based identification is applicable to recent burned bones, fossil bones may be black due to mineral staining, such as by black manganese oxides. We therefore developed an analytical method that purifies oxides from bones. The end product of the method was analysed by means of Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy. The method can be used for differentiating between black fossil bones that are burned and unstained, burned and stained, and stained but not burned. A survey of 30 black bones from the Mousterian and Aurignacian deposits of Hayonim Cave (Israel) showed that the majority of the bones were indeed burned, of which a few were burned and stained. Several bones were stained and unburned. This method can be readily applied to other archaeological sites where the proportions of burned and stained bones may be quite different.

Nanoantennas for visible and infrared radiation can strongly enhance the interaction of light with nanoscale matter by their ability to efficiently link propagating and spatially localized optical fields. This ability unlocks an enormous potential for applications ranging from nanoscale optical microscopy and spectroscopy over solar energy conversion, integrated optical nanocircuitry, opto-electronics and density-ofstates engineering to ultra-sensing as well as enhancement of optical nonlinearities.

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is an important greenhouse gas accounting for 60% of the total greenhouse effect. Soil is a major source for atmospheric CO 2 . In the event of growing threats of global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions, reducing CO 2 emission by sequestering C in the soil is of prime importance. Soil management practices like increasing soil organic carbon content, reduced tillage, manuring, residue incorporation, improving soil biodiversity, micro-aggregation and mulching can play an important role in sequestering C in soil.

Energy consumption for drying of mushroom slices was evaluated using various drying methods including hot air, microwave, vacuum, infrared, microwave-vacuum and hot air-infrared. Results of data analysis showed that the lowest and highest energy consumption levels in drying mushroom slices were associated with microwave and vacuum dryers, respectively. The use of vacuum in conjunction with microwave drying increased energy consumption relative to microwave drying alone. Energy consumption in the hot air dryer showed a downward trend with increasing temperature and an upward trend with increasing air velocity. In drying mushroom using infrared radiation, it was observed that increased air velocity increases drying time and consequently the amount of consumed energy. Using a combination of hot air and infrared drying decreased energy consumption relative to infrared drying alone and increased it relative to hot air drying. In the combined microwave-vacuum dryer, drying time and consequently energy consumption decreased in comparison to the vacuum dryer. Hot air-infrared drying of mushroom slices proved to have the lowest energy consumption.

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SBDART is a software tool that computes plane-parallel radiative transfer in clear and cloudy conditions within the earth's atmosphere and at the surface. All important processes that affect the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared radiation fields are included. The code is a marriage of a sophisticated discrete ordinate radiative transfer module, low-resolution atmospheric transmission models, and Mie scattering results for light scattering by water droplets and ice crystals. The code is well suited for a wide variety of atmospheric radiative energy balance and remote sensing studies. It is designed so that it can be used for case studies as well as sensitivity analysis. For small sets of computations or teaching applications it is available on the World Wide Web with a user-friendly interface. For sensitivity studies requiring many computations it is available by anonymous FTP as a well organized and documented FORTRAN 77 source code.

Tropical soils are important sources and sinks of atmospheric methane (CH 4 ) and major sources of oxides of nitrogen gases, nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and NO x (NO+NO 2 ). These gases are present in the atmosphere in trace amounts and are important to atmospheric chemistry and earth's radiative balance. Although nitric oxide (NO) does not directly contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, it contributes to climate forcing through its role in photochemistry of hydroxyl radicals and ozone (O 3 ) and plays a key role in air quality issues. Agricultural soils are a primary source of anthropogenic trace gas emissions, and the tropics and subtropics contribute greatly, particularly since 51% of world soils are in these climate zones.

A laboratory scale infrared-convective dryer was developed and single layer drying of onion slices was carried out at infrared power levels of 300, 400 and 500 W, drying air temperatures of 35, 40 and 45 °C and inlet drying air velocities of 1.0, 1.25 and 1.5 m/s. The drying time reduced by about 2.25 times on increasing infrared power from 300 to 500 W, air temperature 35–45 °C and air velocity from 1.0 to 1.5 m/s. Effective moisture diffusivity varied from 0.21 × 10−10 to 1.57 × 10−10 m2/s and was significantly influenced by infrared power and air temperature.. The rehydration ratio of dehydrated onion slices was found to be in the range of 4.5 and 5.3.

This article aims to review and analyze the aspects and characteristics related to infrared food drying. Indeed, with a review of 100 relevant publications all dealing with infrared food drying, this article notes that infrared drying has several advantages over other common food drying methods. Shorter drying time, a better final dried product quality, and more energy savings in the process are revealed as the most important advantages of infrared drying over convective heat drying. Infrared dryers can also be easily combined with other drying methods such as hot air, microwave, vibration, and vacuum. This article clearly shows that using infrared heating for food drying purposes has become more popular in the last decade and its application in the industrial drying of different foodstuffs has been employed widely.

Quantized Pancharatnam-Berry phase diffractive optics using computer-generated space-variant subwavelength dielectric grating is presented. The formation of the geometrical phase is done by discrete orientation of the local subwavelength grating. We discuss a theoretical analysis and experimentally demonstrate a quantized geometrical blazed phase of polarization diffraction grating, as well as polarization dependent focusing lens for infrared radiation at wavelength 10.6 m.

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is developing chalcogenide glass fibers for applications in the mid-and long-wave IR wavelength regions from 2 to 12 µm. The chalcogen glasses (i.e., glasses based on the elements S, Se, and Te) are transparent in the IR, possess low phonon energies, are chemically durable, and can be drawn into fiber. Both conventional solid core/clad and microstructured fibers have been developed. Chalcogenide glass compositions have been developed that allow rare earth doping to enable rare-earth-doped fiber lasers in the IR. Also, highly nonlinear compositions have been developed with nonlinearities ∼1000× silica that enables nonlinear wavelength conversion from the near IR to the mid-and long-wave IR. In this paper, we review rareearth-doped chalcogenide fiber for mid-and long-wave IR lasers, and highly nonlinear chalcogenide fiber and photonic crystal fiber for wavelength conversion in the mid-and long-wave IR.

This paper strongly suggests that the microwave rationale behind modern-day SETI lore is suspect, and that our search for electromagnetic signals from extraterrestrial technical civilizations may be doomed to failure because we are 'tuned to the wrong frequencies'. The old idea that lasers would be better for interstellar communications is revisited. That optical transmissions might be superior for CETI/SETI has generally been discounted by the community. Indeed, there is very little in the literature about the optical approach, as its efficacy was more or less dismissed by SETI researchers some twenty years ago. The main reason that the laser approach to SETI has been given a bad 'press' is the assumption that ETIs lack the skills to target narrow optical beams into selected stars. This assumption of ineptitude is shown to be erroneous, and calls into question some aspects of the rationale for Microwave SETI. The detectability of both continuous wave and pulsed visible/infrared laser signals is described in some detail.

A large number of water-and climate-related applications, such as drought monitoring, are based on spaceborne-derived relationships between land surface temperature (LST) and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The majority of these applications rely on the existence of a negative slope between the two variables, as identified in site-and time-specific studies. The current paper investigates the generality of the LST-NDVI relationship over a wide range of moisture and climatic/radiation regimes encountered over the North American continent (up to 608N) during the summer growing season (April-September). Information on LST and NDVI was obtained from long-term (21 years) datasets acquired with the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). It was found that when water is the limiting factor for vegetation growth (the typical situation for low latitudes of the study area and during the midseason), the LST-NDVI correlation is negative. However, when energy is the limiting factor for vegetation growth (in higher latitudes and elevations, especially at the beginning of the growing season), a positive correlation exists between LST and NDVI. Multiple regression analysis revealed that during the beginning and the end of the growing season, solar radiation is the predominant factor driving the correlation between LST and NDVI, whereas other biophysical variables play a lesser role. Air temperature is the primary factor in midsummer. It is concluded that there is a need to use empirical LST-NDVI relationships with caution and to restrict their application to drought monitoring to areas and periods where negative correlations are observed, namely, to conditions when water-not energy-is the primary factor limiting vegetation growth.

Key Words exobiology, astrobiology, bioastronomy, optical SETI, life in the universe s Abstract The search for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence is placed in the broader astronomical context of the search for extrasolar planets and biomarkers of primitive life elsewhere in the universe. A decision tree of possible search strategies is presented as well as a brief history of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) projects since 1960. The characteristics of 14 SETI projects currently operating on telescopes are discussed and compared using one of many possible figures of merit. Plans for SETI searches in the immediate and more distant future are outlined. Plans for success, the significance of null results, and some opinions on deliberate transmission of signals (as well as listening) are also included. SETI results to date are negative, but in reality, not much searching has yet been done.

A variety of optical and electro-optical instruments are used for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications to the human eye. These generally expose ocular structures to either coherent or incoherent optical radiation (ultraviolet, visible, or infrared radiation) under unique conditions. We convert both laser and incoherent exposure guidelines derived for normal exposure conditions to the application of ophthalmic sources.

From the time mechanical refrigeration was first introduced, its use has significantly increased. In general, cooling is achieved with vapor compression machines that use specific refrigerants (blends of hydrogen, carbon, fluorine and chlorine in various mixing ratios) that can be tailored to create cooling at any required temperature level. Each refrigerant exhibits a specific global warming potential and ozone depletion potential in the atmosphere by absorbing infrared radiation and breaking down of ozone molecules. Since the adverse effects of those substances have been discovered, the field of refrigeration has been moving away from conventional refrigerants, and searching for better alternatives. Thermoacoustic refrigeration is such an alternative that can provide cooling to essentially any required temperature level without using any environmentally harmful substances. It is presently a niche technology that can be expanded into a broader market, primarily if the sizing problem can be solved. Currently, the most efficient thermoacoustic refrigerators are used in industrial settings. This work explores the possibility of decreasing the footprint of these refrigerators by utilizing a coiled resonator. A CFD analysis has been developed and first results in regard to coiled resonators are shown and discussed.

The low density of ions in mass spectrometers generally precludes direct infrared (IR) absorption measurements. The IR spectrum of an ion can nonetheless be obtained by inducing photodissociation of the ion using a high-intensity tunable laser. The emergence of free electron lasers (FELs) and recent breakthroughs in bench-top lasers based on nonlinear optics have now made it possible to routinely record IR spectra of gasphase ions. As the energy of one IR photon is insufficient to cause dissociation of molecules and strongly bound complexes, two main experimental strategies have been developed to effect photodissociation. In infrared multiple-photon dissociation (IR-MPD) many photons are absorbed resonantly and their energy is stored in the bath of vibrational modes, leading to dissociation. In the ''messenger'' technique a weakly bound van der Waals atom is detached upon absorption of a single photon. Fundamental, historical, and practical aspects of these methods will be presented. Both of these approaches make use of very different methods of ion preparation and manipulation. While in IR-MPD ions are irradiated in trapping mass spectrometers, the ''messenger'' technique is generally carried out in molecular beam instruments. The main focus of this review is the application of IR spectroscopy to biologically relevant molecular systems (amino acids, peptides, proteins). Particular issues that will be addressed here include gas-phase zwitterions, the (chemical) structures of peptides and their collision-induced dissociation (CID) products, IR spectra of gas-phase proteins, and the chelation of metal -ligand complexes. Another growing area of research is IR spectroscopy on solvated clusters, which offer a bridge between the gas-phase and solution environments. The development of state-of-the-art computational approaches has gone hand-inhand with advances in experimental techniques. The main advantage of gas-phase cluster research, as opposed to condensed-phase experiments, is that the systems of interest can be understood in detail and structural effects can be studied in isolation. It will be shown that IR spectroscopy of mass-selected (bio)molecular systems is now well-placed to address specific questions on the individual effect of charge carriers (protons and metal ions), as well as solvent molecules on the overall structure. #

We retrospectively analyzed the temporal and spatial variations of four different physical parameters characterizing the state of the atmosphere and ionosphere several days before the M 9 Tohoku, Japan earthquake of March 11, 2011. The data include outgoing long wave radiation (OLR), GPS/TEC, lower Earth orbit ionospheric tomography and critical frequency foF2. Our first results show that on March 7th a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation was observed from the satellite data and an anomaly developed near the epicenter. The GPS/TEC data indicate an increase and variation in electron density reaching a maximum value on March 8. Starting from this day in the lower ionosphere also there was confirmed an abnormal TEC variation over the epicenter. From March 3 to 11 a large increase in electron concentration was recorded at all four Japanese ground-based ionosondes, which returned to normal after the main earthquake. The jointly preliminary analysis of atmospheric and ionospheric parameters during the M 9 Tohoku, Japan earthquake has revealed the presence of related variations of these parameters implying their connection with the earthquake process. This study may lead to a better understanding of the response of the atmosphere/ionosphere to the great Tohoku earthquake.

This article aims to review and analyze the aspects and characteristics related to infrared food drying. Indeed, with a review of 100 relevant publications all dealing with infrared food drying, this article notes that infrared drying has several advantages over other common food drying methods. Shorter drying time, a better final dried product quality, and more energy savings in the process are revealed as the most important advantages of infrared drying over convective heat drying. Infrared dryers can also be easily combined with other drying methods such as hot air, microwave, vibration, and vacuum. This article clearly shows that using infrared heating for food drying purposes has become more popular in the last decade and its application in the industrial drying of different foodstuffs has been employed widely.

Spiral phase elements with topological charges based on space-variant Pancharatnam-Berry phase optical elements are presented. Such elements can be achieved by use of continuous computer-generated space-variant subwavelength dielectric gratings. We present a theoretical analysis and experimentally demonstrate spiral geometrical phases for infrared radiation at a wavelength of 10.6 mm.

Using a triple-layer antireflection coating of Al 2 O 3 , Si, and SiO 2 , we have achieved a minimum facet reflectivity of 1 3 10 26 and a bandwidth of 90 nm for a reflectivity of 5 3 10 25 or less for 1550-nm center-wavelength InGaAsP semiconductor lasers. A facet reflectivity of 3 3 10 26 and a bandwidth of 30 nm for a reflectivity of 5 3 10 25 were achieved for 1310-nm InGaAsP lasers. This coating is applicable to broadband external-cavity-tuned laser sources, edge-emitting light-emitting diodes, and semiconductor laser amplifiers.

Spiral phase elements with topological charges based on space-variant Pancharatnam-Berry phase optical elements are presented. Such elements can be achieved by use of continuous computer-generated space-variant subwavelength dielectric gratings. We present a theoretical analysis and experimentally demonstrate spiral geometrical phases for infrared radiation at a wavelength of 10.6 mm.

A thermal model for nanosecond pulsed laser ablation of Cu in one dimension and in ambient gas, He at 1 atm, is proposed in which equations concerning heat conduction in the target and gas dynamics in the plume are solved. These equations are coupled to each other through the energy and mass balances at interface between the target and the vapor and also Knudsen layer conditions. By assumption of local thermal equilibrium, Saha-Eggert equations are used to investigate plasma formation. The shielding effect of the plasma, due to photoionization and inverse bremsstrahlung processes, is considered. Bremsstrahlung and blackbody radiation and spectral emissions of the plasma are also investigated. Spatial and temporal distribution of the target temperature, number densities of Cu and He, pressure and temperature of the plume, bremsstrahlung and blackbody radiation, and also spectral emissions of Cu at three wavelengths ͑510, 516, and 521 nm͒ are obtained. Results show that the spectral power of Cu lines has the same pattern as CuI relative intensities from National Institute of Standard and Technology. Investigation of spatially integrated bremsstrahlung and blackbody radiation, and also Cu spectral emissions indicates that although in early times the bremsstrahlung radiation dominates the two other radiations, the Copper spectral emission is the dominant radiation in later times. It should be mentioned that the blackbody radiation has the least values in both time intervals. The results can be used for prediction of the optimum time and position of the spectral line emission, which is applicable in some time resolved spectroscopic techniques such as laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. Furthermore, the results suggest that for distinguishing between the spectral emission and the bremsstrahlung radiation, a spatially resolved spectroscopy can be used instead of the time resolved one.

Chemisorption of pyridine was applied as a method for studying the acidic properties of niobium pentoxide supported on silica, magnesia, alumina, titania, and zirconia, The infrared spectra of adsorbed pyridine were used to evaluate the concentration and the relative strength of BrCnsted and Lewis acid sites. Lewis acidity was found in all the supported niobium oxide systems, while BrCnsted acid sites were only detected for niobia supported on the alumina and silica supports. The origin and characteristics of the surface acid sites present in supported niobium oxide catalysts are discussed in the present study.

We review both the theoretical electromagnetic response and the spectroscopic measurements of metamaterials. To critically examine published results for metamaterial structures operating in the range from terahertz to optical frequencies, we focus on protocols allowing one to extract the optical constants from experimental observables. We discuss the complexity of this task when applied to metamaterials exhibiting electric, magnetic, and magneto-optical response. The general theory of the electromagnetic response of such systems is presented and methods are described. Finally, we briefly overview possible solutions for implementing metamaterials with tunable resonant behavior.

The recent M9 Tohoku Japan earthquake of March 11, 2011 was the largest recorded earthquake ever to hit this nation. We retrospectively analyzed the temporal and spatial variations of four different physical parameters - outgoing long wave radiation (OLR), GPS/TEC, Low-Earth orbit tomography and critical frequency foF2. These changes characterize the state of the atmosphere and ionosphere several days before the onset of this earthquake. Our first results show that on March 8th a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation was observed from the satellite data and an anomaly developed near the epicenter. The GPS/TEC data indicate an increase and variation in electron density reaching a maximum value on March 8. Starting on this day in the lower ionospheric there was also confirmed an abnormal TEC variation over the epicenter. From March 3-11 a large increase in electron concentration was recorded at all four Japanese ground based ionosondes, which return to normal after the main earthquake. We found a positive correlation between the atmospheric and ionospheric anomalies and the Tohoku earthquake. This study may lead to a better understanding of the response of the atmosphere /ionosphere to the Great Tohoku earthquake

We evaluated the finished product quality and infrared (IR) drying characteristics of fresh and sugar-infused blueberries dried with a catalytic infrared (CIR) dryer. IR drying tests were conducted at four product temperatures (60, 70, 80, and 90 C) to evaluate the drying rate and the color and texture of the finished product. Fresh blueberries dried with convective hot air drying at 60 C were used as control for comparison. The experimental data of moisture changes during IR drying were modeled with eight different models, including Page, modified Page, Thompson, Newton, Wang and Singh, and Henderson and Pabis, and two models developed in this study. The Thompson model showed the best fit to all experimental data. The CIR drying produced firmer-texture products with much reduced drying time compared with hot air drying. For fresh blueberries, CIR drying conserved drying time by 44% at 60 C. The effective moisture diffusivity ranged from 2.24 Â 10 À10 to 16.4 Â 10 À10 m 2 /s and from 0.61 Â 10 À10 to 3.84 Â 10 À10 m 2 /s for fresh and sugar-infused blueberries, respectively.

Quantized Pancharatnam-Berry phase diffractive optics using computer-generated space-variant subwavelength dielectric grating is presented. The formation of the geometrical phase is done by discrete orientation of the local subwavelength grating. We discuss a theoretical analysis and experimentally demonstrate a quantized geometrical blazed phase of polarization diffraction grating, as well as polarization dependent focusing lens for infrared radiation at wavelength 10.6 m.

An ultraviolet (UV) weathering device based on integrating sphere technology has been designed, fabricated, and implemented for studying the accelerated weathering of polymers. This device has the capability of irradiating multiple test specimens with uniform, high intensity UV radiation while simultaneously subjecting them to a wide range of precisely and independently controlled temperature and relative humidity environments. This article describes the integrating sphere-based weathering system, its ability to precisely control temperature and relative humidity, and its ability to produce a highly uniform UV irradiance.

Vein pattern recognition is one of the newest biometric techniques researched today. While the concept behind the method is quite simple, there are various challenges to be found throughout the design and implementation of a vein scanning device concerning the hardware lighting system and the actual algorithms used for processing the acquired images. In order to keep the scanning errors to a minimum the image acquired from the camera should be almost noiseless and the algorithms should be able to detect the vein pattern in various real life conditions. Many implementations of this method are now in a commercial phase and there is a great need for a system that can detect, analyze and extract the correct human vein pattern while keeping a low cost and reducing the computational needs of the image processing algorithms. This paper will offer some hardware implementation solutions based on our research and different algorithms will be discussed.

The impact of electric overhead radiant heaters on the microclimate, air flows, transport and deposition of suspended particulate matter (SPM) was monitored between March 2004 and March 2005 in the historic churches of Saint Michael Archangel in Szalowa and Saint Catherine in Cracow (Poland). The measurements show that although irradiation at the floor level increases temperature and reduces relative humidity in the interior of the church, the effect out of the heated zone and for the surfaces sheltered from irradiation is very limited, i.e. their extent is comparable with natural fluctuations inherent to the local climate of the church. The radiant heaters proved to generate little convectional flow of the air. Therefore, the heating system was not found to increase the concentration of SPM indoors; in particular, no re-suspension of particles already present in the church was observed. This work has demonstrated that the overhead radiant heaters are capable of providing localised heat to the areas where people congregate without adversely affecting painted walls and the works of arts displayed in churches. Care, however, should be taken that sensitive works of art are not exposed to the direct infrared radiation.

The ability to perform off-road autonomous navigation at any time of day or night is a requirement for some unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) programs. Because there are times when it is desirable for military UGVs to operate without emitting strong, detectable electromagnetic signals, a passive only terrain perception mode of operation is also often a requirement. Thermal infrared (TIR) cameras can be used to provide day and night passive terrain perception. TIR cameras have a detector sensitive to either mid-wave infrared (MWIR) radiation (3-5µm) or long-wave infrared (LWIR) radiation (7-14µm). With the recent emergence of high-quality uncooled LWIR cameras, TIR cameras have become viable passive perception options for some UGV programs. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has used a stereo pair of TIR cameras under several UGV programs to perform stereo ranging, terrain mapping, tree-trunk detection, pedestrian detection, negative obstacle detection, and water detection based on object reflections. In addition, we have evaluated stereo range data at a variety of UGV speeds, evaluated dual-band TIR classification of soil, vegetation, and rock terrain types, analyzed 24 hour water and 12 hour mud TIR imagery, and analyzed TIR imagery for hazard detection through smoke. Since TIR cameras do not currently provide the resolution available from megapixel color cameras, a UGV's daytime safe speed is often reduced when using TIR instead of color cameras. In this paper, we summarize the UGV terrain perception work JPL has performed with TIR cameras over the last decade and describe a calibration target developed by General Dynamics Robotic Systems (GDRS) for TIR cameras and other sensors.

The sintering kinetics and microstructural evolution of alumina tubes (∼17 mm length, ∼9 mm inner diameter, and ∼11 mm outer diameter) were studied by conventional and microwave heating at 2.45 GHz. Temperature during microwave heating was measured with an infrared pyrometer and was calibrated to ±10°C. With no hold at sintering temperature, microwave-sintered samples reached 95% density at 1350°C versus 1600°C for conventionally heated samples. The activation energy for microwave sintering was 85 ± 10 kJ/mol, whereas the activation energy for conventionally sintered samples was 520 ± 14 kJ/mol. Despite the difference in temperature, grains grew from ∼1.0 μm at 86% density to ∼2.6 μm at 98% density for both conventionally sintered and microwave-sintered samples. The grain size/density trajectory was independent of the heating source. It is concluded that the enhanced densification with microwave heating is not a consequence of fast-firing and therefore is not a result in the change in the relative rates of surface and grain boundary diffusion in the presence of microwave energy.

Current efforts in structural biology aim to integrate structural information within the context of cellular organization and function. X-rays and infrared radiation stand at opposite ends of the electromagnetic spectrum and act as complementary probes for achieving this goal. Intense and bright beams are produced by synchrotron radiation, and are efficiently used in the wavelength domain extending from hard X-rays to the farinfrared (or THz) regime. While X-ray crystallography provides exquisite details on atomic structure, Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy (FTIRM) is emerging as a spectroscopic probe and imaging tool for correlating molecular structure to biochemical dynamics and function. In this manuscript, the role of synchrotron FTIRM in bridging the gap towards 'functional biology' is discussed based upon recent achievements, with a critical assessment of the contributions to biological and biomedical research.

The primary purpose of the comparison was to establish the equivalence of the calibration of infrared radiation thermometers within Europe in the temperature range 800 C to 2000 C. Seven EU national metrological institutes (NMIs) participated. The equivalence of calibrations was determined by circulating a transfer standard infrared radiation thermometer between the participating laboratories. The calibrations obtained were compared with the reference calibration performed by the co-ordinating laboratory (National Physical Laboratory). It was found that, after correction for the size-of-source effect, the calibrations of the participating laboratories nearly all agree to better than 0,1 % of temperature.

Soil organic matter has recently been implicated as an important sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). However, the relative impacts of various agricultural management practices on soil organic matter dynamics and, therefore, C sequestration at spatial scales larger than a single plot or times longer than the typical three year experiment have rarely been reported. Results of maintaining agricultural management practices in the forest-derived soils of the eastern Corn (Zea mays L.) Belt states of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania (USA) were studied. We found annual organic C input and tillage intensity were the most important factors in affecting C sequestration. The impact of rotation on C sequestration was primarily related to the way it altered annual total C inputs. The removal of above-ground plant biomass and use of cover crops were of lesser importance. The most rapid changes in soil organic matter content occurred during the ®rst ®ve years after a management practice was imposed with slower changes occurring thereafter. Certain management practices, e.g. no-tillage (NT), increased the soil's ability to sequester atmospheric CO 2 . The impact of this sequestration will be signi®cant only when these practices are used extensively on a large percentage of cropland and when the C-building practices are maintained. Any soil C sequestered will be rapidly mineralized to CO 2 if the soil organic matter building practices are not maintained. # 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.