869 research outputs found
Health hazards of ultrafine metal and metal oxide powders
Study reveals that suggested threshold limit values are from two to fifty times lower than current recommended threshold limit values. Proposed safe limits of exposure to the ultrafine dusts are based on known toxic potential of various materials as determined in particle size ranges
Validity of the second law in nonextensive quantum thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics in nonextensive statistical mechanics is
discussed in the quantum regime. Making use of the convexity property of the
generalized relative entropy associated with the Tsallis entropy indexed by q,
Clausius' inequality is shown to hold in the range of q between zero and two.
This restriction on the range of the entropic index, q, is purely quantum
mechanical and there exists no upper bound of q for validity of the second law
in classical theory.Comment: 12 pages, no figure
Time decay of the remanent magnetization in the spin glass model at T=0
Using the zero-temperature Metropolis dynamics, the time decay of the
remanent magnetization in the Edward-Anderson spin glass model with a
uniform random distribution of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions
has been investigated. Starting from the saturation, the magnetization per spin
reveals a slow decrease with time, which can be approximated by a power
law:, . Moreover, its
relaxation does not lead it into one of the ground states, and therefore the
system is trapped in metastable isoenergetic microstates remaining magnetized.
Such behaviour is discussed in terms of a random walk the system performs on
its available configuration space.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Hypermethioninaemia due to methionine adenosyltransferase I/III (MAT I/III) deficiency: diagnosis in an expanded neonatal screening programme
The Expanded Newborn Screening Program (MS/MS) in the region of Galicia (NW Spain) was initiated in 2000 and includes the measurement of methionine levels in dried blood spots. Between June 2000 and June 2007, 140 818 newborns were analysed, and six cases of persistent hypermethioninaemia were detected: one homocystinuria due to cystathionine β-synthase (CβS) deficiency, and five methionine adenosyltransferase I/III (MAT I/III) deficiencies. The five cases of MAT I/III deficiency represent an incidence of 1/28 163 newborns. In these five patients, methionine levels in dried blood spots ranged from 50 to 147 μmol/L. At confirmation of the persistence of the hypermethioninaemia in a subsequent plasma sample, plasma methionine concentrations were moderately elevated in 4 of the 5 patients (mean 256 μmol/L), while total homocysteine (tHcy) was normal; the remaining patient showed plasma methionine of 573 μmol/L and tHcy of 22.8 μmol/L. All five patients were heterozygous for the same dominant mutation, R264H in the MAT1A gene. With a diet not exceeding recommended protein requirements for their age, all patients maintained methionine levels below 300 μmol/L. Currently, with a mean of 2.5 years since diagnosis, the patients are asymptomatic and show developmental quotients within the normal range. Our results show a rather high frequency of hypermethioninaemia due to MAT I/III deficiency in the Galician neonatal population, indicating a need for further studies to evaluate the impact of persistent isolated hypermethioninaemia in neonatal screening programmes
Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy on Glass-Forming Propylene Carbonate
Dielectric spectroscopy covering more than 18 decades of frequency has been
performed on propylene carbonate in its liquid and supercooled-liquid state.
Using quasi-optic submillimeter and far-infrared spectroscopy the dielectric
response was investigated up to frequencies well into the microscopic regime.
We discuss the alpha-process whose characteristic timescale is observed over 14
decades of frequency and the excess wing showing up at frequencies some three
decades above the peak frequency. Special attention is given to the
high-frequency response of the dielectric loss in the crossover regime between
alpha-peak and boson-peak. Similar to our previous results in other glass
forming materials we find evidence for additional processes in the crossover
regime. However, significant differences concerning the spectral form at high
frequencies are found. We compare our results to the susceptibilities obtained
from light scattering and to the predictions of various models of the glass
transition.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Edge electron states for quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors in the magnetic-field-induced spin-density-wave phases
We develop a microscopic picture of the electron states localized at the
edges perpendicular to the chains in the Bechgaard salts in the quantum Hall
regime. In a magnetic-field-induced spin-density-wave state (FISDW)
characterized by an integer N, there exist N branches of chiral gapless edge
excitations. Localization length is much longer and velocity much lower for
these states than for the edge states parallel to the chains. We calculate the
contribution of these states to the specific heat and propose a time-of-flight
experiment to probe the propagating edge modes directly.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. V.2: Minor changes to the final version published
in PR
Limits on the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
We present an analysis of high-precision pulsar timing data taken as part of
the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational waves (NANOGrav)
project. We have observed 17 pulsars for a span of roughly five years using the
Green Bank and Arecibo radio telescopes. We analyze these data using standard
pulsar timing models, with the addition of time-variable dispersion measure and
frequency-variable pulse shape terms. Sub-microsecond timing residuals are
obtained in nearly all cases, and the best root-mean-square timing residuals in
this set are ~30-50 ns. We present methods for analyzing post-fit timing
residuals for the presence of a gravitational wave signal with a specified
spectral shape. These optimally take into account the timing fluctuation power
removed by the model fit, and can be applied to either data from a single
pulsar, or to a set of pulsars to detect a correlated signal. We apply these
methods to our dataset to set an upper limit on the strength of the
nHz-frequency stochastic supermassive black hole gravitational wave background
of h_c (1 yr^-1) < 7x10^-15 (95%). This result is dominated by the timing of
the two best pulsars in the set, PSRs J1713+0747 and J1909-3744.Comment: To be submitted to Ap
Chirality scenario of the spin-glass ordering
Detailed account is given of the chirality scenario of experimental
spin-glass transitions. In this scenario, the spin glass order of weakly
anisotropic Heisenberg-like spin-glass magnets including canonical spin glasses
are essentially chirality driven. Recent numerical and experimental results are
discussed in conjunction with this scenario.Comment: Submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Japan "Special Issue on Frustration
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