Observations with powerful X-ray telescopes, such as XMM-Newton and Chandra, significantly advance our understanding of massive stars. Nearly all early-type stars are X-ray sources. Studies of their X-ray emission provide important diagnostics of stellar winds. High-resolution X-ray spectra of O-type stars are well explained when stellar wind clumping is taking into account, providing further support to a modern picture of stellar winds as non-stationary, inhomogeneous outflows. X-ray variability is detected from such winds, on time scales likely associated with stellar rotation. High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy indicates that the winds of late O-type stars are predominantly in a hot phase. Consequently, X-rays provide the best observational window to study these winds. X-ray spectroscopy of evolved, Wolf-Rayet type, stars allows to probe their powerful metal enhanced winds, while the mechanisms responsible for the X-ray emission of these stars are not yet understood.

Stellar winds play an important role for the evolution of massive stars and their cosmic environment. Multiple lines of evidence, coming from spectroscopy, polarimetry, variability, stellar ejecta, and hydrodynamic modeling, suggest that stellar winds are non-stationary and inhomogeneous. This is referred to as 'wind clumping'. The urgent need to understand this phenomenon is boosted by its far-reaching implications. Most importantly, all techniques to derive empirical mass-loss rates are more or less corrupted by wind clumping. Consequently, mass-loss rates are extremely uncertain. Within their range of uncertainty, completely different scenarios for the evolution of massive stars are obtained. Settling these questions for Galactic OB, LBV and Wolf-Rayet stars is prerequisite to understanding stellar clusters and galaxies, or predicting the properties of first-generation stars. In order to develop a consistent picture and understanding of clumped stellar winds, an international workshop on 'Clumping in Hot Star Winds' was held in Potsdam, Germany, from 18. - 22. June 2007. About 60 participants, comprising almost all leading experts in the field, gathered for one week of extensive exchange and discussion. The Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) included John Brown (Glasgow), Joseph Cassinelli (Madison), Paul Crowther (Sheffield), Alex Fullerton (Baltimore), Wolf-Rainer Hamann (Potsdam, chair), Anthony Moffat (Montreal), Stan Owocki (Newark), and Joachim Puls (Munich). These proceedings contain the invited and contributed talks presented at the workshop, and document the extensive discussions.

<p>The theme of this thesis is the reaction to fire performanceof wood and other building products, andparticularly thematerial fire properties time to ignition, rate of heat releaseand smoke production. These properties have been measured by asmall-scale fire test method, the Cone Calorimeter, andpresented for different types of building products.</p><p>Uncertainty analysis, included instrument and assumptionuncertainty, has been performed for the case that both O2 andCO2 are measured for calculation of the rate of heat release inthe Cone Calorimeter. The partial derivatives for theuncertainty analysis are given. The relative uncertainty forthe rate of heat release measurements in the Cone Calorimeteris between ±5% to ±10% for rate of heat releasevalues larger than about 50 kW/m2.</p><p>The time to ignition in the Cone Calorimeter is compatiblewith the time to ignition in the ISO Ignitability test, whichis the main test method for measuring time to ignition. Thetime to ignition is an increasing linear function of density.The rate of heat release in the Cone Calorimeter is dependentof material thickness and of use of retainer frame. Thematerial thickness gives the heat release curve duration andshape. Thin materials have short burning time and two maximumvalues. Thick materials have long burning time and when thematerial is thicker than about 35 mm no second maximum appears.When the retainer frame is used the actual exposed surface isreduced from 0.01 m2 to 0.0088 m2, the rate of heat release isreduced and the burning time is increased. A comparison ofresults with and without use of the retainer frame gives thenequal results when the exposed area is set to 0.0088 m2 in thecase of using the retainer frame.</p><p>The time to flashover in the full-scale room corner test waspredicted on the basis of Cone Calorimeter data at 50 kW/m2 bya power law of ignition time, the total heat release calculatedover 300 s after ignition and the density of the product. Therelation gives a simple relation to evaluate if a productreaches flashover in the room corner test.</p><p>The smoke production has also been measured in the ConeCalorimeter. The white light and the laser smoke measurementsystems have shown similar results. There is a correlationbetween Cone Calorimeter and room corner test smoke productionwhen the products are divided into groups: those that reachflashover in the room corner test in less than 10 min and thosethat have more than 10 min to flashover. Temperature profilesin wood have been measured in the Cone Calorimeter by a simpletechnique. The effect of fire protective gypsum plasterboardson the charring of wood frame members has been determined andcompared with fullscale furnace wall tests. The protectiveeffects of twenty different boards have been presented. ConeCalorimeter and furnace tests show similar charring of wooduntil the boards fall down in furnace tests. After that, thecharring of wood is higher in the furnace, because the wood isexposed directly to the fire.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>building products, charring of wood, ConeCalorimeter, fire retardant treated wood, fire tests,ignitability, mass loss, rate of heat release, reaction tofire, smoke production, wood products</p>

Mass loss, in the form of slow stellar winds, is a decisive factor for the evolution of cool luminous giants, eventually turning them into white dwarfs. These dense outflows are also a key factor in the enrichment of the interstellar medium with newly produced elements from the interior of these stars. There are strong indications that these winds are accelerated by radiation pressure on dust grains, but the actual grain species responsible for driving the outflows in M-type Asymptotic Giant Branch stars are still a matter of debate. Observations of dust features in the circumstellar environment of these stars suggest that magnesium-iron silicates are possible wind-drivers. However, the optical properties of these silicate grains are strongly influenced by the Fe-content. Fe-bearing condensates heat up strongly when interacting with the radiation field and therefore cannot form close enough to the star to trigger outflows. Fe-free condensates, on the other hand, have a low absorption cross-section at near-IR wavelengths where AGB stars emit most of their flux.  To solve this conundrum, it has been suggested that winds of M-type AGB stars may be driven by photon scattering on Fe-free silicate grains with sizes comparable to the wavelength of the flux maximum, rather than by true absorption. In this thesis we investigate dynamical models of M-type AGB stars, using Fe-free silicates as the wind-driving dust species. According to our findings these models produce both dynamic and photometric properties consistent with observations. Especially noteworthy are the large photometric variations in the visual band during a pulsation cycle, seen both in the observed and synthetic fluxes. A closer examination of the models reveals that these variations are caused by changes in the molecular layers, and not by changes in the dust. This is a strong indication that stellar winds of M-type AGB stars are driven by dust materials that are very transparent in the visual and near-infrared wavelength regions, otherwise these molecular effects would not be visible.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Given the difficulties of determining the relative humidity (RH) in rooms used for the storage of apples accurately, the aim of this study was to calibrate the ventilated evaporimeter, an instrument used to measure the water evaporation that occurs due to the relative humidity and temperature, as well as evaluating if the mass loss improves gas diffusion and contributes to the quality maintenance of Royal Gala and Galaxy apples during storage and enables the use of a high CO2 partial pressure. This work also aimed to evaluate if there are any differences in the levels of mass loss between apples that were placed in distinct positions in the controlled atmosphere storage room. In order to do this, four experiments were performed: the first aimed to calibrate the ventilated evaporimeter in 85, 90, 95 and 100% of RH at a temperature of 1ºC. In the second experiment, the treatments were consisted by the period and level of mass loss (1 or 3%) in Royal Gala apple stored in controlled atmosphere at a temperature of 1ºC. For the third experiment, carried out with Galaxy apple, treatments were conducted with a high CO2 (3.0 kPa) and a low O2 (0.4 kPa) partial pressure associated with 3% of mass loss, aside from two treatments with a respiratory quotient (RQ) of 1.5, at 1ºC. For the fourth experiment, apple samples were placed in different positions in a commercial apple storage room in order to evaluate the mass loss. It was possible to obtain an average value of evaporation, in cm day-1, at a temperature of 1ºC, in different relative humidities through the calibration of the evaporimeter and the daily determination of water evaporation. The mass loss, both initial and linear, during the storage period, improved gas diffusion in the pulp of Royal Gala apple and reduced cracking, flesh breakdown and mealiness. The mass loss in Galaxy apple also improved the gas diffusion, which enabled the use of 3.0 kPa of CO2, however, with an RQ 1.5, a high CO2 partial pressure cannot be used. Mass loss occurred heterogeneously in the commercial storage room, being higher at the bottom and on the front of the storage room. / Diante das dificuldades de determinação precisa da umidade relativa em câmaras de armazenamento de maçãs, este trabalho teve como objetivo calibrar o evaporímetro ventilado, equipamento para quantificar a evaporação de água que ocorre em função da umidade relativa e temperatura, além de avaliar se a perda de massa aumenta a difusão de gases e contribui para manutenção da qualidade de maçãs Royal Gala e Galaxy e possibilita a utilização de pressão parcial de CO2 mais elevada em atmosfera controlada. O trabalho também objetivou avaliar se existe diferença de níveis de perda de massa em diferentes posições de uma câmara comercial de armazenamento de maçãs. Para isso foram realizados quatro experimentos: no primeiro buscou-se calibrar o evaporímetro ventilado nos níveis de UR de 85, 90, 95 e 100% na temperatura de 1ºC. No segundo experimento os tratamentos constituíram-se de período e nível de perda de massa (1 ou 3%) em maçã Royal Gala em atmosfera controlada na temperatura de 1ºC. No terceiro experimento, com maçãs Galaxy , os tratamentos foram com pressão parcial de CO2 (3,0 kPa) e O2 (0,4 kPa) associado com 3% de perda de massa, além de dois tratamentos com Quociente Respiratório (QR) de 1,5, todos em 1ºC. Num quarto experimento, os tratamentos foram amostras de maçãs expostas em diferentes posições de uma câmara comercial para avaliar a perda de massa. Por meio da calibração do evaporímetro foi possível, através da determinação da evaporação diária de água, obter um valor de evaporação médio, em cm dia-1, para temperatura de 1°C em diferentes umidades relativas. A perda de massa, tanto inicial quanto linear durante o período de armazenamento, aumentou a difusão de gases na polpa de maçã Royal Gala , reduziu rachadura, degenerescência e polpa farinácea. Em maçã Galaxy a perda de massa também aumentou a difusão de gases, o que possibilitou a utilização de 3,0 kPa de CO2, entretanto, com QR 1,5 o alto CO2 não pôde ser utilizado. A perda de massa ocorreu de forma heterogênea na câmara comercial de armazenamento, sendo mais elevada na parte inferior e na frente da câmara.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Many factors influence the occurrence of physiological disorders in stored fruits, the relative humidity (RH) is one of the main. The low RH dehydrates the fruits and the high one can cause physiological disorders. Thus to improve the determination and the control of humidity during storage, experiments were conducted on apples, peaches, grapes, guava and Murcott aiming at: quantifying the appropriate level of mass loss for the best quality post storage of these fruits; quantifying the mass loss of apples, peaches and other fruits due to the relative humidity in which they were exposed. According to the results, in Royal Gala apples, the induction of 4% of mass loss in 30 days (initial) or throughout the storage period (linear) prevents the occurrence of physiological disorders. In 'Fuji' apples, the development of breakdown and pulp crack occurs most frequently when the fruits are stored in high relative humidity, higher than 95%. In 'Eragil' peaches, stored for 21 days at 0.5 °C, having 4, 5, 6 and 7% of mass loss, it was verified that the increase in mass loss leads to an increase in pulp firmness, woolliness and reduction in juiciness. Furthermore, in the storage conditions used when executing the experiment, the intensity of daily mass loss of species is increasing in the following order: apple, grape, Murcott, guava and peach. / Muitos fatores influenciam a ocorrência de distúrbios fisiológicos em frutas armazenadas, entre estes a umidade relativa (UR) é um dos principais. A UR baixa desidrata os frutos e alta pode causar distúrbios fisiológicos. Diante disso, para melhorar a determinação e o controle da umidade durante o armazenamento, foram conduzidos experimentos com maçãs, pêssegos, uva, goiaba e tangor Murcott com os objetivos de: quantificar o nível adequado de perda de massa para obter a melhor qualidade pós-armazenamento destes frutos; quantificar a perda de massa de maçãs, pêssegos e outras frutas em função da umidade relativa em que ficaram expostos. Segundo os resultados, em maçãs Royal Gala a indução da perda de massa de 4% nos primeiros 30 dias (inicial) ou durante todo o período (linear) de armazenamento evita a ocorrência de distúrbios fisiológicos. Em maçãs Fuji , o desenvolvimento da degenerescência e rachadura de polpa, ocorre com maior frequência, quando os frutos são acondicionados em umidade relativa alta, maior que 95%. Em pêssegos Eragil , armazenados durante 21 dias na temperatura -0,5°C e perda de massa de 4, 5, 6 e 7%, foi constatado que o aumento na perda de massa promove aumento na firmeza de polpa, lanosidade e redução na suculência. Além disso, nas condições de armazenamento utilizadas na execução do experimento, a intensidade de perda de massa diária das espécies é crescente na seguinte ordem: maçã, uva, tangor Murcott , goiaba e pessêgo.

The theme of this thesis is the reaction to fire performanceof wood and other building products, andparticularly thematerial fire properties time to ignition, rate of heat releaseand smoke production. These properties have been measured by asmall-scale fire test method, the Cone Calorimeter, andpresented for different types of building products. Uncertainty analysis, included instrument and assumptionuncertainty, has been performed for the case that both O2 andCO2 are measured for calculation of the rate of heat release inthe Cone Calorimeter. The partial derivatives for theuncertainty analysis are given. The relative uncertainty forthe rate of heat release measurements in the Cone Calorimeteris between ±5% to ±10% for rate of heat releasevalues larger than about 50 kW/m2. The time to ignition in the Cone Calorimeter is compatiblewith the time to ignition in the ISO Ignitability test, whichis the main test method for measuring time to ignition. Thetime to ignition is an increasing linear function of density.The rate of heat release in the Cone Calorimeter is dependentof material thickness and of use of retainer frame. Thematerial thickness gives the heat release curve duration andshape. Thin materials have short burning time and two maximumvalues. Thick materials have long burning time and when thematerial is thicker than about 35 mm no second maximum appears.When the retainer frame is used the actual exposed surface isreduced from 0.01 m2 to 0.0088 m2, the rate of heat release isreduced and the burning time is increased. A comparison ofresults with and without use of the retainer frame gives thenequal results when the exposed area is set to 0.0088 m2 in thecase of using the retainer frame. The time to flashover in the full-scale room corner test waspredicted on the basis of Cone Calorimeter data at 50 kW/m2 bya power law of ignition time, the total heat release calculatedover 300 s after ignition and the density of the product. Therelation gives a simple relation to evaluate if a productreaches flashover in the room corner test. The smoke production has also been measured in the ConeCalorimeter. The white light and the laser smoke measurementsystems have shown similar results. There is a correlationbetween Cone Calorimeter and room corner test smoke productionwhen the products are divided into groups: those that reachflashover in the room corner test in less than 10 min and thosethat have more than 10 min to flashover. Temperature profilesin wood have been measured in the Cone Calorimeter by a simpletechnique. The effect of fire protective gypsum plasterboardson the charring of wood frame members has been determined andcompared with fullscale furnace wall tests. The protectiveeffects of twenty different boards have been presented. ConeCalorimeter and furnace tests show similar charring of wooduntil the boards fall down in furnace tests. After that, thecharring of wood is higher in the furnace, because the wood isexposed directly to the fire. Keywords:building products, charring of wood, ConeCalorimeter, fire retardant treated wood, fire tests,ignitability, mass loss, rate of heat release, reaction tofire, smoke production, wood products / <p>NR 20140805</p>

Thesis (MSc. Agriculture (Horticulture)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / The Agricultural Research Council-Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Crops (ARC-ITSC) is continuously developing new avocado selections, in order for the South African Avocado Industry (SAAI) to remain competitive in various international avocado markets. However, information on the response of some of these selections, including ‘Fuerte 2 and 4’, ‘BL1058’ and ‘H287’ to low temperature storage and ripening physiology, has not been investigated. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of harvest season and ripening duration on the physico-chemical properties of newly developed ‘Fuerte-type’ avocado fruit selections during ripening. ‘Fuerte-type’ avocado fruit were indexed for maturity using moisture content, thereafter harvested and stored at 5.5°C for 28 days during the 2014 and 2015 harvest seasons. The experiment comprised five treatments: control (commercial ‘Fuerte’), ‘Fuerte 2 and 4’, ‘BL1058’ and ‘H287’ arranged as a factorial in a completely randomised design (RCD) with 3 replicates. The treatment factors were: (i) 2 x harvest seasons, (ii) 5 x selections and (iii) 6 x ripening days. After withdrawal from low storage temperature, fruit were ripened at ambient temperature. During ripening, the following physico-chemical properties were evaluated; external chilling injury, electrolyte leakage, mass loss, firmness, respiration rate and peel colour. Results showed that selections and harvest seasons had no significant effect (P=0.668) on the moisture content of the evaluated ‘Fuerte-type’ avocado fruit. After withdrawal from low storage temperature, there was a significant interaction (P˂0.05) between selections and harvest seasons on external chilling injury and electrolyte leakage. Results further showed that external chilling injury correlated with electrolyte leakage during both harvest seasons. Treatment factors had no significant effect (P=0.997) on mass loss. Similarly, treatment factors had no significant effect (P=0.139) on firmness. However, selection ‘H287’ had hard skin with an average firmness of 83.44 densimeter units during ripening in both harvest seasons. Treatment factors were highly significant (P˂0.05) on respiration rate. Respiration rate followed a climacteric pattern and the magnitude of climacteric peak and day of occurrence varied amongst selections during both harvest seasons. Ripening percentage differed significantly (P˂0.05) amongst harvest seasons, selections and ripening days. Treatment factors had no significant effect on lightness (P=0.711), chroma (P=0.378) and hue angle (P=0.536) skin colour parameters,however, variations were recorded as a result of the cold damage black spots. The results indicated that the ‘Fuerte-type’ avocado selections had poor storage qualities. Further studies are required to evaluate physico-chemical properties during low storage temperature and the effect of season, production conditions and maturity level on development of chilling injury. In addition, studies on application of treatments to reduce chilling injury symptoms and analysis of bioactive compounds should be considered for conclusive recommendations. Thereafter, the selections can be planted in different production regions to assess and select the best producing and quality combinations for a given region as part of phase III of the project / Agricultural Sector Education Training Authority (AgriSeta) and National Research Foundation (NRF)

Title: Radiation in stellar winds. Resonance line formation in inhomogeneous hot star winds Author: M.Sc. Brankica Šurlan Department: Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Supervisor: RNDr. Jiří Kubát, CSc., Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Abstract: To incorporate the three-dimensional (3-D) nature of stellar wind clump- ing into radiative transfer calculations, in this thesis a newly developed full 3-D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code for inhomogeneous expanding stellar winds is presented and used to investigate how different model parameters influence reso- nance line formation. Realistic 3-D models that describe the dense as well as the rarefied wind components are used to model the formation of resonance lines in a clumped stellar wind. Non-monotonic velocity fields are accounted for as well. It is shown that the 3-D density and velocity wind inhomogeneities have very strong impact on the resonance line formation. The models show that the line opacity is lower for a larger clump separation and shallower velocity gradients within the clumps. They also demonstrate that to obtain empirically correct mass-loss rates from UV resonance lines, wind clumping and its 3-D nature must be taken into account. 1

Polaris the Cepheid has been observed for centuries, presenting surprises and changing our view of Cepheids and stellar astrophysics, in general. Specifically, understanding Polaris helps anchor the Cepheid Leavitt law, but the distance must be measured precisely. The recent debate regarding the distance to Polaris has raised questions about its role in calibrating the Leavitt law and even its evolutionary status. In this work, I present new stellar evolution models of Cepheids to compare with previously measured CNO abundances, period change and angular diameter. Based on the comparison, I show that Polaris cannot be evolving along the first crossing of the Cepheid instability strip and cannot have evolved from a rapidly-rotating main sequence star. As such, Polaris must also be at least 118 pc away and pulsates in the first overtone, disagreeing with the recent results of Turner et al. (2013, ApJ, 762, L8).