2,887 research outputs found
Metastable phases and "metastable" phase diagrams
The work discusses specifics of phase transitions for metastable states of
substances. The objects of condensed media physics are primarily equilibrium
states of substances with metastable phases viewed as an exception, while the
overwhelming majority of organic substances investigated in chemistry are
metastable. It turns out that at normal pressure many of simple molecular
compounds based on light elements (these include: most hydrocarbons; nitrogen
oxides, hydrates, and carbides; carbon oxide (CO); alcohols, glycerin etc) are
metastable substances too, i.e. they do not match the Gibbs' free energy
minimum for a given chemical composition. At moderate temperatures and
pressures, the phase transitions for given metastable phases throughout the
entire experimentally accessible time range are reversible with the equilibrium
thermodynamics laws obeyed. At sufficiently high pressures (1-10 GPa), most of
molecular phases irreversibly transform to more energy efficient polymerized
phases, both stable and metastable. These transformations are not consistent
with the equality of the Gibbs' free energies between the phases before and
after the transition, i.e. they are not phase transitions in "classical"
meaning. The resulting polymeric phases at normal pressure can exist at
temperatures above the melting one for the initial metastable molecular phase.
Striking examples of such polymers are polyethylene and a polymerized
modification of CO. Many of energy-intermediate polymeric phases can apparently
be synthesized by the "classical" chemistry techniques at normal pressure.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Optical Response for the d-density wave model
We have calculated the optical conductivity and the Raman response for the
d-density wave model, proposed as a possible explanation for the pseudogap seen
in high Tc cuprates. The total optical spectral weight remains approximately
constant on opening of the pseudogap for fixed temperature. This occurs because
there is a transfer of weight from the Drude peak to interband transitions
across the pseudogap. The interband peak in the optical conductivity is
prominent but becomes progressively reduced with increasing temperature, with
impurity scattering, which distributes it over a larger energy range, and with
ineleastic scattering which can also shift its position, making it difficult to
have a direct determination of the value of the pseudogap. Corresponding
structure is seen in the optical scattering rate, but not necessarily at the
same energies as in the conductivity.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, final revised version published in PR
High-pressure structural, elastic and electronic properties of the scintillator host material, KMgF_3
The high-pressure structural behaviour of the fluoroperovskite KMgF_3 is
investigated by theory and experiment. Density functional calculations were
performed within the local density approximation and the generalized gradient
approximation for exchange and correlation effects, as implemented within the
full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital method. In situ high-pressure powder
x-ray diffraction experiments were performed up to a maximum pressure of 40 GPa
using synchrotron radiation. We find that the cubic Pm\bar{3}m crystal symmetry
persists throughout the pressure range studied. The calculated ground state
properties -- the equilibrium lattice constant, bulk modulus and elastic
constants -- are in good agreement with experimental results. By analyzing the
ratio between the bulk and shear modulii, we conclude that KMgF_3 is brittle in
nature. Under ambient conditions, KMgF_3 is found to be an indirect gap
insulator with the gap increasing under pressure.Comment: 4 figure
Markers of human endometrial hypoxia can be detected in vivo and ex vivo during physiological menstruation
An orthotopic xenograft model of human nonseminomatous germ cell tumour
We have established the first example of an orthotopic xenograft model of human nonseminomatous germ cell tumour (NSGCT). This reproducible model exhibits many clinically relevant features including metastases to the retroperitoneal lymph nodes and lungs, making it an ideal tool for research into the development and progression of testicular germ cell tumours. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co
Adaptive Comparative Judgement: A Tool to Support Students’ Assessment Literacy
Comparative judgment in assessment is a process whereby repeated comparison of two items (e.g., assessment answers) can allow an accurate ranking of all the submissions to be achieved. In adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ), technology is used to automate the process and present pairs of pieces of work over iterative cycles. An online ACJ system was used to present students with work prepared by a previous cohort at the same stage of their studies. Objective marks given to the work by experienced faculty were compared to the rankings given to the work by a cohort of veterinary students (n=154). Each student was required to review and judge 20 answers provided by the previous cohort to a free-text short answer question. The time that students spent on the judgment tasks was recorded, and students were asked to reflect on their experiences after engaging with the task. There was a strong positive correlation between student ranking and faculty marking. A weak positive correlation was found between the time students spent on the judgments and their performance on the part of their own examination that contained questions in the same format. Slightly less than half of the students agreed that the exercise was a good use of their time, but 78% agreed that they had learned from the process. Qualitative data highlighted different levels of benefit from the simplest aspect of learning more about the topic to an appreciation of the more generic lessons to be learned
Synchronization Landscapes in Small-World-Connected Computer Networks
Motivated by a synchronization problem in distributed computing we studied a
simple growth model on regular and small-world networks, embedded in one and
two-dimensions. We find that the synchronization landscape (corresponding to
the progress of the individual processors) exhibits Kardar-Parisi-Zhang-like
kinetic roughening on regular networks with short-range communication links.
Although the processors, on average, progress at a nonzero rate, their spread
(the width of the synchronization landscape) diverges with the number of nodes
(desynchronized state) hindering efficient data management. When random
communication links are added on top of the one and two-dimensional regular
networks (resulting in a small-world network), large fluctuations in the
synchronization landscape are suppressed and the width approaches a finite
value in the large system-size limit (synchronized state). In the resulting
synchronization scheme, the processors make close-to-uniform progress with a
nonzero rate without global intervention. We obtain our results by ``simulating
the simulations", based on the exact algorithmic rules, supported by
coarse-grained arguments.Comment: 20 pages, 22 figure
Parity Fluctuations Between Coulomb Blockaded Superconducting Islands
We find that if two superconducting islands of different number parity are
linked by a tunnel junction the unpaired electron in the odd island has a
tendency to tunnel into the even island. This process leads to fluctuations in
time of the number parity of each island, giving rise to a random telegraph
noise spectrum with a characteristic frequency that has an unusual temperature
dependence. This new phenomenon should be observable in a Cooper-pair pump and
similar single-electron tunneling devices.Comment: 4 pages, self-unpacking uuencoded gz-compressed postscript file with
3 figures included; also available at
http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/janko/publications.htm
Anisotropic thermodynamics of d-wave superconductors in the vortex state
We show that the density of states and the thermodynamic properties of a 2D
d-wave superconductor in the vortex state with applied magnetic field
in the plane depend on the angle between and the order parameter nodes.
Within a semiclassical treatment of the extended quasiparticle states, we
obtain fourfold oscillations of the specific heat, measurement of which
provides a simple probe of gap symmetry. The frequency dependence of the
density of states and the temperature dependence of thermodynamic properties
obey different power laws for field in the nodal and anti-nodal direction. The
fourfold pattern is changed to twofold when orthorhombicity is considered.Comment: 5 pages, figures included, minor changes, published versio
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