697 research outputs found
Triplet-charge annihilation in a small molecule donor: acceptor blend as a major loss mechanism in organic photovoltaics
Organic photovoltaics (OPV) are close to reaching a landmark 20% device efficiency. One of the proposed reasons that OPVs have yet to attain this milestone is their propensity toward triplet formation. Herein, a small molecule donor, DRCN5T, is studied using a variety of morphology and spectroscopy techniques, and blended with both fullerene and non-fullerene acceptors. Specifically, grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering and transient absorption, Raman, and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopies are focused on. It is shown that despite DRCN5T's ability to achieve OPV efficiencies of over 10%, it generates an unusually high population of triplets. These triplets are primarily formed in amorphous regions via back recombination from a charge transfer state, and also undergo triplet-charge annihilation. As such, triplets have a dual role in DRCN5T device efficiency suppression: they both hinder free charge carrier formation and annihilate those free charges that do form. Using microsecond transient absorption spectroscopy under oxygen conditions, this triplet-charge annihilation (TCA) is directly observed as a general phenomenon in a variety of DRCN5T: fullerene and non-fullerene blends. Since TCA is usually inferred rather than directly observed, it is demonstrated that this technique is a reliable method to establish the presence of TCA
Symmetries and Elasticity of Nematic Gels
A nematic liquid-crystal gel is a macroscopically homogeneous elastic medium
with the rotational symmetry of a nematic liquid crystal. In this paper, we
develop a general approach to the study of these gels that incorporates all
underlying symmetries. After reviewing traditional elasticity and clarifying
the role of broken rotational symmetries in both the reference space of points
in the undistorted medium and the target space into which these points are
mapped, we explore the unusual properties of nematic gels from a number of
perspectives. We show how symmetries of nematic gels formed via spontaneous
symmetry breaking from an isotropic gel enforce soft elastic response
characterized by the vanishing of a shear modulus and the vanishing of stress
up to a critical value of strain along certain directions. We also study the
phase transition from isotropic to nematic gels. In addition to being fully
consistent with approaches to nematic gels based on rubber elasticity, our
description has the important advantages of being independent of a microscopic
model, of emphasizing and clarifying the role of broken symmetries in
determining elastic response, and of permitting easy incorporation of spatial
variations, thermal fluctuations, and gel heterogeneity, thereby allowing a
full statistical-mechanical treatment of these novel materials.Comment: 21 pages, 4 eps figure
Single-Proton Removal Reaction Study of 16B
The low-lying level structure of the unbound system B has been
investigated via single-proton removal from a 35 MeV/nucleon C beam. The
coincident detection of the beam velocity B fragment and neutron allowed
the relative energy of the in-flight decay of B to be reconstructed. The
resulting spectrum exhibited a narrow peak some 85 keV above threshold. It is
argued that this feature corresponds to a very narrow (100 keV)
resonance, or an unresolved multiplet, with a dominant + configuration which decays by d-wave neutron
emission.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, submitted to Phys. Lett.
B(E1) Strengths from Coulomb Excitation of 11Be
The (E1;) strength for Be has been extracted from
intermediate energy Coulomb excitation measurements, over a range of beam
energies using a new reaction model, the extended continuum discretized coupled
channels (XCDCC) method. In addition, a measurement of the excitation cross
section for Be+Pb at 38.6 MeV/nucleon is reported. The (E1)
strength of 0.105(12) efm derived from this measurement is consistent
with those made previously at 60 and 64 MeV/nucleon, i n contrast to an
anomalously low result obtained at 43 MeV/nucleon. By coupling a
multi-configuration description of the projectile structure with realistic
reaction theory, the XCDCC model provides for the first time a fully quantum
mechanical description of Coulomb excitation. The XCDCC calculations reveal
that the excitation process involves significant contributions from nuclear,
continuum, and higher-order effects. An analysis of the present and two earlier
intermediate energy measurements yields a combined B(E1) strength of 0.105(7)
efm. This value is in good agreement with the value deduced
independently from the lifetime of the state in Be, and has a
comparable p recision.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.
Synchronous counting and computational algorithm design
Consider a complete communication network on n nodes, each of which is a state machine with s states. In synchronous 2-counting, the nodes receive a common clock pulse and they have to agree on which pulses are âoddâ and which are âevenâ. We require that the solution is self-stabilising (reaching the correct operation from any initial state) and it tolerates f Byzantine failures (nodes that send arbitrary misinformation). Prior algorithms are expensive to implement in hardware: they require a source of random bits or a large number of states s. We use computational techniques to construct very compact deterministic algorithms for the first non-trivial case of f = 1. While no algorithm exists for n < 4, we show that as few as 3 states are sufficient for all values n â„ 4. We prove that the problem cannot be solved with only 2 states for n = 4, but there is a 2-state solution for all values n â„ 6.Peer reviewe
Helium Clustering in Neutron-Rich Be Isotopes
Measurements of the helium-cluster breakup and neutron removal cross sections
for neutron-rich Be isotopes A=10-12,14 are presented. These have been studied
in the 30 to 42 MeV/u energy range where reaction measurements are proposed to
be sensitive to the cluster content of the ground-state wave-function. These
measurements provide a comprehensive survey of the decay processes of the Be
isotopes by which the valence neutrons are removed revealing the underlying
alpha-alpha core-cluster structure. The measurements indicate that clustering
in the Be isotopes remains important up to the drip-line nucleus 14^Be and that
the dominant helium-cluster structure in the neutron-rich Be isotopes
corresponds to alpha-Xn-alpha.Comment: 5 pages, 2 tables and 3 figure
One-neutron removal reactions on neutron-rich psd-shell nuclei
A systematic study of high energy, one-neutron removal reactions on 23
neutron-rich, psd--shell nuclei (Z=5-9, A=12-25) has been carried out. The
longitudinal momentum distributions of the core fragments and corresponding
single-neutron removal cross sections are reported for reactions on a carbon
target. Extended Glauber model calculations, weighted by the spectroscopic
factors obtained from shell model calculations, are compared to the
experimental results. Conclusions are drawn regarding the use of such reactions
as a spectroscopic tool and spin-parity assignments are proposed for 15B, 17C,
19-21N, 21,23O, 23-25F. The nature of the weakly bound systems 14B and 15,17C
is discussed.Comment: 11 pages + 2 figure
Discrete cilia modelling with singularity distributions
We discuss in detail techniques for modelling flows due to finite and infinite arrays of beating cilia. An efficient technique, based on concepts from previous âsingularity modelsâ is described, that is accurate in both near and far-fields. Cilia are modelled as curved slender ellipsoidal bodies by distributing Stokeslet and potential source dipole singularities along their centrelines, leading to an integral equation that can be solved using a simple and efficient discretisation. The computed velocity on the cilium surface is found to compare favourably with the boundary condition. We then present results for two topics of current interest in biology. 1) We present the first theoretical results showing the mechanism by which rotating embryonic nodal cilia produce a leftward flow by a âposterior tilt,â and track particle motion in an array of three simulated nodal cilia. We find that, contrary to recent suggestions, there is no continuous layer of negative fluid transport close to the ciliated boundary. The mean leftward particle transport is found to be just over 1 ÎŒm/s, within experimentally measured ranges. We also discuss the accuracy of models that represent the action of cilia by steady rotlet arrays, in particular, confirming the importance of image systems in the boundary in establishing the far-field fluid transport. Future modelling may lead to understanding of the mechanisms by which morphogen gradients or mechanosensing cilia convert a directional flow to asymmetric gene expression. 2) We develop a more complex and detailed model of flow patterns in the periciliary layer of the airway surface liquid. Our results confirm that shear flow of the mucous layer drives a significant volume of periciliary liquid in the direction of mucus transport even during the recovery stroke of the cilia. Finally, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the singularity technique and outline future theoretical and experimental developments required to apply this technique to various other biological problems, particularly in the reproductive system
Whole Blood Profiling of T-cell-Derived microRNA Allows the Development of Prognostic models in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Background: MicroRNAs [miRNAs] are cell-specific small non-coding RNAs that can regulate gene expression and have been implicated in inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] pathogenesis. Here we define the cell-specific miRNA profiles and investigate its biomarker potential in IBD.
Methods: In a two-stage prospective multi-centre case control study, next generation sequencing was performed on a discovery cohort of immunomagnetically separated leukocytes from 32 patients (nine Crohn''s disease [CD], 14 ulcerative colitis [UC], eight healthy controls) and differentially expressed signals were validated in whole blood in 294 patients [97 UC, 98 CD, 98 non-IBD, 1 IBDU] using quantitative PCR. Correlations were analysed with phenotype, including need for early treatment escalation as a marker of progressive disease using Cox proportional hazards.
Results: In stage 1, each leukocyte subset [CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells and CD14+ monocytes] was analysed in IBD and controls. Three specific miRNAs differentiated IBD from controls in CD4+ T-cells, including miR-1307-3p [p = 0.01], miR-3615 [p = 0.02] and miR-4792 [p = 0.01]. In the extension cohort, in stage 2, miR-1307-3p was able to predict disease progression in IBD (hazard ratio [HR] 1.98, interquartile range [IQR]: 1.20-3.27; logrank p = 1.80 Ă 10-3), in particular CD [HR 2.81; IQR: 1.11-3.53, p = 6.50 Ă 10-4]. Using blood-based multimarker miRNA models, the estimated chance of escalation in CD was 83% if two or more criteria were met and 90% for UC if three or more criteria are met.
Interpretation: We have identified and validated unique CD4+ T-cell miRNAs that are differentially regulated in IBD. These miRNAs may be able to predict treatment escalation and have the potential for clinical translation; further prospective evaluation is now indicated
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