Impacts of boundary layer turbulence and land surface process parameterizations on simulated sea breeze characteristics

This paper investigates the sensitivity of sea breeze (SB) simulations to combinations of boundary-layer turbulence and land-surface process parameterizations implemented in the MM5 mesoscale meteorological mode for an observed SB case over the Swedish west coast. Various combinations from four different planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes [Blackadar, Gayno-Seaman (GS), Eta, MRF], and two land surface model (LSM) schemes (SLAB, Noah) with different complexity are designed to simulate a typical SB case over the Swedish west coast. The simulations are conducted using two-way interactively nested grids. Simulated 10-m winds are compared against observed near-surface wind data from the GÖTE2001 campaign to examine the diurnal cycle of wind direction and speed for SB timing. The SB (vertical) circulation is also compared in the different experiments. The results show that the different combinations of PBL and LSM parameterization schemes result in different SB timing and vertical circulation characteristics. All experiments predict a delayed SB. The vertical component of the SB circulation varies in the experiments, among which the GS PBL scheme produces the strongest SB circulation. Evident differences between the SLAB and Noah LSMs are also found, especially in maximum of updraft and downdraft velocities of the SB vertical circulation. The results have significant implications for convective initiation, air quality studies and other environmental problems in coastal areas

A low-cost through-the-wall FMCW radar for stand-off operation and activity detection

In this paper we present a new through-wall (TW) FMCW radar system. The architecture of the radar enables both high sensitivity and range resolutions of <1.5 m. Moreover, the radar employs moving target indication (MTI) signal processing to remove the problematic primary wall reflection, allowing higher signal-to- noise and signal-to-interference ratios, which can be traded-off for increased operational stand-off. The TW radar operates at 5.8 GHz with a 200 MHz bandwidth. Its dual-frequency design minimises interference from signal leakage, and permits a baseband output after deramping which is digitized using an inexpensive 24-bit off-the-shelf sound card. The system is therefore an order of magnitude lower in cost than competitor ultrawideband (UWB) TW systems. The high sensitivity afforded by this wide dynamic range has allowed us to develop a wall removal technique whereby high-order digital filters provide a flexible means of MTI filtering based on the phases of the returned echoes. Experimental data demonstrates through-wall detection of individuals and groups of people in various scenarios. Target positions were located to within ±1.25 m in range, allowing us distinguish between two closely separated targets. Furthermore, at 8.5 m standoff, our wall removal technique can recover target responses that would have otherwise been masked by the primary wall reflection, thus increasing the stand-off capability of the radar. Using phase processing, our experimental data also reveals a clear difference in the micro-Doppler signatures across various types of everyday actions

Real-time observations of TRIP-induced ultrahigh strain hardening in a dual-phase CrMnFeCoNi high-entropy alloy.

Strategies involving metastable phases have been the basis of the design of numerous alloys, yet research on metastable high-entropy alloys is still in its infancy. In dual-phase high-entropy alloys, the combination of local chemical environments and loading-induced crystal structure changes suggests a relationship between deformation mechanisms and chemical atomic distribution, which we examine in here in a Cantor-like Cr20Mn6Fe34Co34Ni6 alloy, comprising both face-centered cubic (fcc) and hexagonal closed packed (hcp) phases. We observe that partial dislocation activities result in stable three-dimensional stacking-fault networks. Additionally, the fraction of the stronger hcp phase progressively increases during plastic deformation by forming at the stacking-fault network boundaries in the fcc phase, serving as the major source of strain hardening. In this context, variations in local chemical composition promote a high density of Lomer-Cottrell locks, which facilitate the construction of the stacking-fault networks to provide nucleation sites for the hcp phase transformation

Optimizing hysteretic power loss of magnetic ferrite nanoparticles

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. "June 2013."Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-46).This thesis seeks to correlate hysteretic power loss of tertiary ferrite nanoparticles in alternating magnetic fields to trends predicted by physical models. By employing integration of hysteresis loops simulated from physical models for single-domain ferromagnets, we have identified ferrite materials optimal for remote heating. Several organometallic thermal decomposition methods were adapted to synthesize nanoparticles with anisotropy energies varying over 3 orders of magnitude and transferred into water using a high-temperature ligand exchange protocol. Furthermore, we compare nanoparticles of the same composition and size produced via different synthesis conditions and highlight differences in their materials properties. These analyses identify the synthesis conditions that yield nanoparticles with optimized magnetic properties and with some of the highest power dissipation (specific loss power) found in literature for tertiary ferrite materials.by Ritchie Chen.S.M

Transcriptional profiling of the epigenetic regulator Smchd1

Available online 31 December 2015Smchd1 is an epigenetic repressor with important functions in healthy cellular processes and disease. To elucidate its role in transcriptional regulation, we performed two independent genome-wide RNA-sequencing studies comparing wild-type and Smchd1 null samples in neural stem cells and lymphoma cell lines. Using an R-based analysis pipeline that accommodates observational and sample-specific weights in the linear modeling, we identify key genes dysregulated by Smchd1 deletion such as clustered protocadherins in the neural stem cells and imprinted genes in both experiments. Here we provide a detailed description of this analysis, from quality control to read mapping and differential expression analysis. These data sets are publicly available from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (accession numbers GSE64099 and GSE65747).Ruijie Liu, Kelan Chen, Natasha Jansz, Marnie E. Blewitt, Matthew E. Ritchi

Evolution of the second lowest extended state as a function of the effective magnetic field in the fractional quantum hall regime

It has been shown that, at a Landau level filling factor v=1/2, a two-dimensional electron system can be mathematically transformed into a composite fermion system interacting with a Chern-Simons gauge field. At v=1/2, the average of this Chern-Simons gauge field cancels the external magnetic field B-ext so that the effective magnetic field B-eff acting on the composite fermions is zero. Away from v=1/2, the composite fermions experience a net effective magnetic field B-eff. We present the first study of the evolution of the second lowest extended state in a vanishing effective magnetic field in the fractional quantum Hall regime. Our result shows that the evolution of the second lowest extended state has a good linear dependence on the effective magnetic field Beff within the composite fermion picture

Engineering intracellular biomineralization and biosensing by a magnetic protein

Remote measurement and manipulation of biological systems can be achieved using magnetic techniques, but a missing link is the availability of highly magnetic handles on cellular or molecular function. Here we address this need by using high-throughput genetic screening in yeast to select variants of the iron storage ferritin (Ft) that display enhanced iron accumulation under physiological conditions. Expression of Ft mutants selected from a library of 10[superscript 7] variants induces threefold greater cellular iron loading than mammalian heavy chain Ft, over fivefold higher contrast in magnetic resonance imaging, and robust retention on magnetic separation columns. Mechanistic studies of mutant Ft proteins indicate that improved magnetism arises in part from increased iron oxide nucleation efficiency. Molecular-level iron loading in engineered Ft enables detection of individual particles inside cells and facilitates creation of Ft-based intracellular magnetic devices. We demonstrate construction of a magnetic sensor actuated by gene expression in yeast.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant DP2-OD002114)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01-NS076462)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01-MH103160)Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation (Fellowship)McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT (Friends of the McGovern Institute Fellowship

ShapeCrafter: A Recursive Text-Conditioned 3D Shape Generation Model

We present ShapeCrafter, a neural network for recursive text-conditioned 3D shape generation. Existing methods to generate text-conditioned 3D shapes consume an entire text prompt to generate a 3D shape in a single step. However, humans tend to describe shapes recursively-we may start with an initial description and progressively add details based on intermediate results. To capture this recursive process, we introduce a method to generate a 3D shape distribution, conditioned on an initial phrase, that gradually evolves as more phrases are added. Since existing datasets are insufficient for training this approach, we present Text2Shape++, a large dataset of 369K shape-text pairs that supports recursive shape generation. To capture local details that are often used to refine shape descriptions, we build on top of vector-quantized deep implicit functions that generate a distribution of high-quality shapes. Results show that our method can generate shapes consistent with text descriptions, and shapes evolve gradually as more phrases are added. Our method supports shape editing, extrapolation, and can enable new applications in human-machine collaboration for creative design