The effects of flow direction of solvent (CO 2 ) on the fluid-to-particle mass transfer were studied for packed beds of sintered porous pellets of two sizes (diameters of 1 and 2 cm) at conditions supercritical with respect to carbon dioxide using toluene and 1,2-dichlorobenzene as the impregnating solutes. Dynamic extraction experiments were performed in the laminar flow regime (Re ) 8-90) where both free and forced convection modes of mass transfer were found to be significant. Measured mass transfer coefficients showed an almost linear dependence on the Reynolds number (Re ≈0.9 ). Downflow of fluid had a strong effect on accelerating extraction rates, in particular at lower Reynolds numbers and for conditions near the critical point of CO 2 , where natural convection is dominant. Experimental mass-transfer coefficients were well correlated using a single general equation that accounts for both modes of mass transfer (free and forced convection) as well as for upflow or downflow operation (i.e., with gravity opposing or assisting forced convection). IE9601514 X Abstract published in Advance ACS Abstracts, September 15, 1996.

The Advanced Virgo (AdV) sensitivity might be influenced by the effects of environmental noise, in particular magnetic noise (MN). In order to show the impact on the gravitational-wave strain signal h(t) and on the AdV sensitivity, we must understand the coupling between the environmental magnetic activity and the strain. The relationship between the environmental noise -measured by a physical environment monitor (PEM) -and h(t) is investigated using injection studies, where an intentional stimulus is introduced and the responses of both PEM sensors and the instrument are analyzed. We also present the most outstanding measurements and results obtained from both the characterization and the mitigation studies of the environmental MN. Results show that MN does not affect AdV sensitivity up to ≈ 100 Mpc in BNS range.

We present the results of a 430-MHz survey for pulsars conducted during the upgrade to the 305-m Arecibo radio telescope. Our survey covered a total of 1147 square degrees of sky using a drift-scan technique. We detected 33 pulsars, 10 of which were not known prior to the survey observations. The highlight of the new discoveries is PSR J0407+1607, which has a spin period of 25.7 ms, a characteristic age of 1.5 Gyr and is in a 1.8-yr orbit about a low-mass (>0.2 Msun) companion. The long orbital period and small eccentricity (e = 0.0009) make the binary system an important new addition to the ensemble of binary pulsars suitable to test for violations of the strong equivalence principle. We also report on our initially unsuccessful attempts to detect optically the companion to J0407+1607 which imply that its absolute visual magnitude is > 12.1. If, as expected on evolutionary grounds, the companion is an He white dwarf, our non-detection imples a cooling age of least 1 Gyr.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

No abstract