Direct measurement of salt–mineral repulsion using atomic force microscopy

The disjoining pressure between a mineral and soluble salt crystal in concentrated aqueous solution has been successfully measured with atomic force microscopy

Isolating quantum coherence with pathway-selective coherent multi-dimensional spectroscopy

Coherent coupling between spatially separated systems has long been explored as a necessary requirement for quantum information and cryptography. Recent discoveries suggest such phenomena appear in a much wider range of processes, including light-harvesting in photosynthesis. These discoveries have been facilitated by developments in coherent multi-dimensional spectroscopy (CMDS) that allow interactions between different electronic states to be identified in crowded spectra. For complex systems, however, spectral broadening and multiple overlapping peaks limit the ability to separate, identify and properly analyse all contributions. Here we demonstrate how pathway-selective CMDS can overcome these limitations to reveal, isolate and allow detailed analysis of weak coherent coupling between spatially separated excitons localised to different semiconductor quantum wells. Selective excitation of the coherence pathways, by spectrally shaping the laser pulses, provides access to previously hidden details and enables quantitative analysis that can facilitate precise and detailed understanding of interactions in this and other complex systems

What's inside our kit?

With sustainability continuing to be high on the agenda internationally, the film and media industries are beginning to enter into the debate. Not only from a content point of view but also with more consideration being given to kit design, recycling and maintenance. What are the issues and questions that we should be provoking in ourselves as educators and in our students. How is it possible in such a technologically driven industry and a numbers driven education system to ask difficult ideological and ethical questions of ourselves and our suppliers? Increasingly the developing world is paying the price, in the form of human rights abuses, child labour exploitation, conflict minerals and poor working conditions, for the developed worlds reliance on advanced technology, a great deal of which is used by the tv and film industry. How do we become as ethical and thoughtful in our use and acquisition of kit as we are in our consumption of coffee and awareness of climate change?</p

Social Constructionism: A Unifying Metaperspective for Social Work

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Session 4: Meta Perspectives in Practice. Presenter: J. Christopher Hall, PhD, University of Louisville (2005) - "Social Constructivism : A Unifying Metaperspective for Social Work"The Ohio State University College of Social Wor

Planetary nebulae after common-envelope phases initiated by low-mass red giants

It is likely that at least some planetary nebulae are composed of matter which was ejected from a binary star system during common-envelope (CE) evolution. For these planetary nebulae the ionizing component is the hot and luminous remnant of a giant which had its envelope ejected by a companion in the process of spiralling-in to its current short-period orbit. A large fraction of CE phases which end with ejection of the envelope are thought to be initiated by low-mass red giants, giants with inert, degenerate helium cores. We discuss the possible end-of-CE structures of such stars and their subsequent evolution to investigate for which structures planetary nebulae are formed. We assume that a planetary nebula forms if the remnant reaches an effective temperature greater than 30 kK within 10^4 yr of ejecting its envelope. We assume that the composition profile is unchanged during the CE phase so that possible remnant structures are parametrized by the end-of-CE core mass, envelope mass and entropy profile. We find that planetary nebulae are expected in post-CE systems with core masses greater than about 0.3 solar masses if remnants end the CE phase in thermal equilibrium. We show that whether the remnant undergoes a pre-white dwarf plateau phase depends on the prescribed end-of-CE envelope mass. Thus, observing a young post-CE system would constrain the end-of CE envelope mass and post-CE evolution.Comment: Published in MNRAS. 12 pages, 12 figures. Minor changes to match published versio

Minimisation of energy consumption variance for multi-process manufacturing lines through genetic algorithm manipulation of production schedule

Typical manufacturing scheduling algorithms do not consider the energy consumption of each job, or its variance, when they generate a production schedule. This can become problematic for manufacturers when local infrastructure has limited energy distribution capabilities. In this paper, a genetic algorithm based schedule modification algorithm is presented. By referencing energy consumption models for each job, adjustments are made to the original schedule so that it produces a minimal variance in the total energy consumption in a multi-process manufacturing production line, all while operating within the constraints of the manufacturing line and individual processes. Empirical results show a significant reduction in energy consumption variance can be achieved on schedules containing multiple concurrent jobs