Tip–sample interactions: Extraction of single molecular pair potentials from force curves

This article describes a method for extracting the true tip–sample potential from an experimental force curve in atomic force microscopy. This potential is not the negative integral of the force curve. Rather, the potential is a more complicated function of the force curve and cantilever spring constant. If information about the shape of the tip is known, a decorrelation may be performed to extract molecular pair potentials from the total tip–sample potential. Applications and limitations of this method are discussed

Force indeterminacy in the jammed state of hard disks

Granular packings of hard discs are investigated by means of contact dynamics which is an appropriate technique to explore the allowed force-realizations in the space of contact forces. Configurations are generated for given values of the friction coefficient, and then an ensemble of equilibrium forces is found for fixed contacts. We study the force fluctuations within this ensemble. In the limit of zero friction the fluctuations vanish in accordance with the isostaticity of the packing. The magnitude of the fluctuations has a non-monotonous friction dependence. The increase for small friction can be attributed to the opening of the angle of the Coulomb cone, while the decrease as friction increases is due to the reduction of connectivity of the contact-network, leading to local, independent clusters of indeterminacy. We discuss the relevance of indeterminacy to packings of deformable particles and to the mechanical response properties.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes, journal reference adde

Origin of the ankle in the ultra-high energy cosmic ray spectrum and of the extragalactic protons below it

The sharp change in slope of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHECR) spectrum around 10^18.6 eV (the ankle), combined with evidence of a light but extragalactic component near and below the ankle and intermediate composition above, has proved exceedingly challenging to understand theoretically, without fine-tuning. We propose a mechanism whereby photo-disintegration of ultrahigh energy nuclei in the region surrounding a UHECR accelerator accounts for the observed spectrum and inferred composition at Earth. For suitable source conditions, the model reproduces the spectrum and the composition over the entire extragalactic cosmic ray energy range, i.e. above 10^17.5 eV. Predictions for the spectrum and flavors of neutrinos resulting from this process are also presented.Comment: extended discussion of source parameters, accepted for publication in PR

Human capital and entrepreneurial success : a meta-analytical review

The study meta-analytically integrates results from three decades of human capital research in entrepreneurship. Based on 70 independent samples (N = 24,733), we found a significant but small relationship between human capital and success (r(c) = .098). We examined theoretically derived moderators of this relationship referring to conceptualizations of human capital, to context, and to measurement of success. The relationship was higher for outcomes of human capital investments (knowledge/skills) than for human capital investments (education/experience), for human capital with high task-relatedness compared to low task-relatedness, for young businesses compared to old businesses, and for the dependent variable size compared to growth or profitability. Findings are relevant for practitioners (lenders, policy makers, educators) and for future research. Our findings show that future research should pursue moderator approaches to study the effects of human capital on success. Further, human capital is most important if it is task-related and if it consists of outcomes of human capital investments rather than human capital investments; this suggests that research should overcome a static view of human capital and should rather investigate the processes of learning, knowledge acquisition, and the transfer of knowledge to entrepreneurial tasks

Models relating the radio emission and ionised gas in Seyfert nuclei

Possible models are discussed in which the radio emitting components in Seyfert II nuclei can compress and accelerate the ambient nuclear medium to produce the characteristics of the narrow line region. A first order model, which considers only the expansion of the radio components, is briefly described. However, in many Seyfert nuclei it appears that the linear motion of the radio components is also important. This can result in shock heating of the ambient medium, and if the cooling time is long enough, can lead to a displacement between the radio component and the associated emission lines. This effect may be present in NGC 1068 and NGC 5929 and by considering ram pressure balance and the cooling length it is possible to estimate lobe velocities and ambient densities

The morphology of Sersic-Pastoriza galaxies

The authors present the preliminary results of their radio-continuum and neutral hydrogen observations of Sersic-Pastoriza (S-P) galaxies. They show that the central regions contain a population of compact features thought to be young supernova remnants (SNRs) and discuss the overall morphology of the nuclei

Differences in the thermal bioclimatic conditions on the urban and rural areas in a southern Hungarian city (Szeged)

The aim of this study is to compare the bioclimatic situation of a city and the surrounding rural area on the example of a Southern Hungarian city (Szeged). To examine the frequency of the one hour averages of the PET index, it is shown that due to the strong direct radiation a strong or extreme heat stress values has 1.1 % higher occurrence in the rural areas compared to the urban ones. But considering the PET averages through the whole examined time period, it is 14 % higher in the urban areas. This effect is more pronounced in summer, when daytime with extreme heat stress is followed by night with 7-8 °C higher PET values in the city. During these times, the human body cannot regenerate in the nights before the repeated extreme heat stress occurs again during daytime. This makes the urban bioclimatic conditions (in summer, especially during heat wave) more demanding, compared to the rural ones