Field-induced water electrolysis switches an oxide semiconductor from an insulator to a metal

Here we demonstrate that water-infiltrated nanoporous glass electrically switches an oxide semiconductor from an insulator to metal. We fabricated the field effect transistor structure on an oxide semiconductor, SrTiO3, using 100%-water-infiltrated nanoporous glass - amorphous 12CaO*7Al2O3 - as the gate insulator. For positive gate voltage, electron accumulation, water electrolysis and electrochemical reduction occur successively on the SrTiO3 surface at room temperature, leading to the formation of a thin (~3 nm) metal layer with an extremely high electron concentration of 10^15-10^16 cm^-2, which exhibits exotic thermoelectric behaviour.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figure

The MPIfR-MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey: II. The eccentric double neutron star system PSR J1208a-5936 and a neutron star merger rate update

The MPIfR-MeerKAT Galactic Plane survey at L-band (MMGPS-L) is the most sensitive pulsar survey in the Southern Hemisphere, providing 78 discoveries in an area of 900 sq. deg. Here, we present a follow-up study of one of these new discoveries, PSR J1208a-5936, a 28.71-ms recycled pulsar in a double neutron star system with an orbital period of Pb=0.632 days and an eccentricity of e=0.348, merging within the Hubble time. Through timing of almost one year of observations, we detected the relativistic advance of periastron ( Ì = 0.918(1) deg yra-1), resulting in a total system mass of Mt=2.586(5) M·. We also achieved low-significance constraints on the amplitude of the Einstein delay and Shapiro delay, in turn yielding constraints on the pulsar mass (Mp = 1.26a-0.25+0.13 M·), the companion mass (Mc = 1.32a-0.13+0.25 M·), and the inclination angle (i=57 ± 12). This system is highly eccentric compared to other Galactic field double neutron stars with similar periods, possibly hinting at a larger-than-usual supernova kick during the formation of the second-born neutron star. The binary will merge within 7.2(2) Gyr due to the emission of gravitational waves, making it a progenitor of the neutron star merger events seen by ground-based gravitational wave observatories. With the improved sensitivity of the MMGPS-L, we updated the Milky Way neutron star merger rate to be RMWnew = 25a-9+19 Myra-1 within 90% credible intervals, which is lower than previous studies based on known Galactic binaries owing to the lack of further detections despite the highly sensitive nature of the survey. This implies a local cosmic neutron star merger rate of Rlocalnew = 293a-103+222 Gpca-3 yra-1, which is consistent with LIGO and Virgo O3 observations. With this, we also predict the observation of 10a-4+8 neutron star merger events during the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4 run. We predict the uncertainties on the component masses and the inclination angle will be reduced to 5- 10a-3 M· and 0.4 after two decades of timing, and that in at least a decade from now the detection of b and the sky proper motion will serve to make an independent constraint of the distance to the system

Boundaries of Semantic Distraction: Dominance and Lexicality Act at Retrieval

Three experiments investigated memory for semantic information with the goal of determining boundary conditions for the manifestation of semantic auditory distraction. Irrelevant speech disrupted the free recall of semantic category-exemplars to an equal degree regardless of whether the speech coincided with presentation or test phases of the task (Experiment 1) and occurred regardless of whether it comprised random words or coherent sentences (Experiment 2). The effects of background speech were greater when the irrelevant speech was semantically related to the to-be-remembered material, but only when the irrelevant words were high in output dominance (Experiment 3). The implications of these findings in relation to the processing of task material and the processing of background speech is discussed

The MPIfR-MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey II. The eccentric double neutron star system PSR J1208-5936 and a neutron star merger rate update

The MMGPS-L is the most sensitive pulsar survey in the Southern Hemisphere. We present a follow-up study of one of these new discoveries, PSR J1208-5936, a 28.71-ms recycled pulsar in a double neutron star system with an orbital period of Pb=0.632 days and an eccentricity of e=0.348. Through timing of almost one year of observations, we detected the relativistic advance of periastron (0.918(1) deg/yr), resulting in a total system mass of Mt=2.586(5) Mo. We also achieved low-significance constraints on the amplitude of the Einstein delay and Shapiro delay, in turn yielding constraints on the pulsar mass (Mp=1.26(+0.13/-0.25) Mo), the companion mass (Mc=1.32(+0.25/-0.13) Mo, and the inclination angle (i=57(2) degrees). This system is highly eccentric compared to other Galactic field double neutron stars with similar periods, possibly hinting at a larger-than-usual supernova kick during the formation of the second-born neutron star. The binary will merge within 7.2(2) Gyr due to the emission of gravitational waves. With the improved sensitivity of the MMGPS-L, we updated the Milky Way neutron star merger rate to be 25(+19/-9) Myr$^{-1}$ within 90% credible intervals, which is lower than previous studies based on known Galactic binaries owing to the lack of further detections despite the highly sensitive nature of the survey. This implies a local cosmic neutron star merger rate of 293(+222/-103} Gpc/yr, consistent with LIGO and Virgo O3 observations. With this, we predict the observation of 10(+8/-4) neutron star merger events during the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4 run. We predict the uncertainties on the component masses and the inclination angle will be reduced to 5x10$^{-3}$ Mo and 0.4 degrees after two decades of timing, and that in at least a decade from now the detection of the shift in Pb and the sky proper motion will serve to make an independent constraint of the distance to the system

Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectroscopy of Chlorophyll a: Solvent Dependent Spectral Evolution

The interaction of the monomeric chlorophyll Q-band electronic transition with solvents of differing physical-chemical properties is investigated through two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES). Chlorophyll constitutes the key chromophore molecule in light harvesting complexes. It is well-known that the surrounding protein in the light harvesting complex fine-tunes chlorophyll electronic transitions to optimize energy transfer. Therefore, an understanding of the influence of the environment on the monomeric chlorophyll electronic transitions is important. The Q-band 2DES is inhomogeneous at early times, particularly in hydrogen bonding polar solvents, but also in nonpolar solvents like cyclohexane. Interestingly this inhomogeneity persists for long times, even up to the nanosecond time scale in some solvents. The reshaping of the 2DES occurs over multiple time scales and was assigned mainly to spectral diffusion. At early times the reshaping is Gaussian-like, hinting at a strong solvent reorganization effect. The temporal evolution of the 2DES response was analyzed in terms of a Brownian oscillator model. The spectral densities underpinning the Brownian oscillator fitting were recovered for the different solvents. The absorption spectra and Stokes shift were also properly described by this model. The extent and nature of inhomogeneous broadening was a strong function of solvent, being larger in H-bonding and viscous media and smaller in nonpolar solvents. The fastest spectral reshaping components were assigned to solvent dynamics, modified by interactions with the solute

One Dimensional Hybrid-Vlasov Simulation of a Hall Thruster

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97103/1/AIAA2012-4313.pd

Rochechouart 2017-Drilling Campaign: First Results

No abstract available

Observing Supermassive Black Holes across cosmic time: from phenomenology to physics

In the last decade, a combination of high sensitivity, high spatial resolution observations and of coordinated multi-wavelength surveys has revolutionized our view of extra-galactic black hole (BH) astrophysics. We now know that supermassive black holes reside in the nuclei of almost every galaxy, grow over cosmological times by accreting matter, interact and merge with each other, and in the process liberate enormous amounts of energy that influence dramatically the evolution of the surrounding gas and stars, providing a powerful self-regulatory mechanism for galaxy formation. The different energetic phenomena associated to growing black holes and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), their cosmological evolution and the observational techniques used to unveil them, are the subject of this chapter. In particular, I will focus my attention on the connection between the theory of high-energy astrophysical processes giving rise to the observed emission in AGN, the observable imprints they leave at different wavelengths, and the methods used to uncover them in a statistically robust way. I will show how such a combined effort of theorists and observers have led us to unveil most of the SMBH growth over a large fraction of the age of the Universe, but that nagging uncertainties remain, preventing us from fully understating the exact role of black holes in the complex process of galaxy and large-scale structure formation, assembly and evolution.Comment: 46 pages, 21 figures. This review article appears as a chapter in the book: "Astrophysical Black Holes", Haardt, F., Gorini, V., Moschella, U and Treves A. (Eds), 2015, Springer International Publishing AG, Cha

Mean-atom-trajectory model for the velocity autocorrelation function of monatomic liquids

We present a model for the motion of an average atom in a liquid or supercooled liquid state and apply it to calculations of the velocity autocorrelation function $Z(t)$ and diffusion coefficient $D$. The model trajectory consists of oscillations at a distribution of frequencies characteristic of the normal modes of a single potential valley, interspersed with position- and velocity-conserving transits to similar adjacent valleys. The resulting predictions for $Z(t)$ and $D$ agree remarkably well with MD simulations of Na at up to almost three times its melting temperature. Two independent processes in the model relax velocity autocorrelations: (a) dephasing due to the presence of many frequency components, which operates at all temperatures but which produces no diffusion, and (b) the transit process, which increases with increasing temperature and which produces diffusion. Because the model provides a single-atom trajectory in real space and time, including transits, it may be used to calculate all single-atom correlation functions.Comment: LaTeX, 8 figs. This is an updated version of cond-mat/0002057 and cond-mat/0002058 combined Minor changes made to coincide with published versio

Increase in immune cell infiltration with progression of oral epithelium from hyperkeratosis to dysplasia and carcinoma

In the present study, epithelium derived lesions of various pathological manifestations were examined histologically and immunohistochemically for mononuclear cell infiltration. The infiltrate under the transformed epithelium of oral lesions, was examined for differences in the composition of immune mononuclear cells as the epithelium moves from hyperkeratosis through various degrees of dysplasia to squamous cell carcinoma. The study was performed on 53 human tongue tissues diagnosed as hyperkeratosis (11 cases), mild dysplasia (nine cases), moderate and severe dysplasia (14 cases) and squamous cell carcinoma (19 cases). A similar analysis was performed on 30 parotid gland tissues diagnosed as pleomorphic adenoma (14 cases) and carcinoma ex-pleomorphic adenoma (16 cases). Immunohistochemical analysis of various surface markers of the tumour infiltrating immune cells was performed and correlated with the transformation level as defined by morphology and the expression of p53 in the epithelium. The results revealed that, in the tongue lesions, the changes in the epithelium from normal appearance to transformed were accompanied by a corresponding increase in the infiltration of CD4, CD8, CD14, CD19+20, and HLA/DR positive cells. The most significant change was an increase in B lymphocytes in tongue lesions, that was in accordance with the transformation level (P<0.001). In the salivary gland, a significant number of cases did not show an infiltrate. In cases where an infiltrate was present, a similar pattern was observed and the more malignant tissues exhibited a higher degree of immune cell infiltration