725 research outputs found
Vegetation's Red Edge: A Possible Spectroscopic Biosignature of Extraterrestrial Plants
Earth's deciduous plants have a sharp order-of-magnitude increase in leaf
reflectance between approximately 700 and 750 nm wavelength. This strong
reflectance of Earth's vegetation suggests that surface biosignatures with
sharp spectral features might be detectable in the spectrum of scattered light
from a spatially unresolved extrasolar terrestrial planet. We assess the
potential of Earth's step-function-like spectroscopic feature, referred to as
the "red edge", as a tool for astrobiology. We review the basic characteristics
and physical origin of the red edge and summarize its use in astronomy: early
spectroscopic efforts to search for vegetation on Mars and recent reports of
detection of the red edge in the spectrum of Earthshine (i.e., the spatially
integrated scattered light spectrum of Earth). We present Earthshine
observations from Apache Point Observatory to emphasize that time variability
is key to detecting weak surface biosignatures such as the vegetation red edge.
We briefly discuss the evolutionary advantages of vegetation's red edge
reflectance, and speculate that while extraterrestrial "light harvesting
organisms" have no compelling reason to display the exact same red edge feature
as terrestrial vegetation, they might have similar spectroscopic features at
different wavelengths than terrestrial vegetation. This implies that future
terrestrial-planet-characterizing space missions should obtain data that allow
time-varying, sharp spectral features at unknown wavelengths to be identified.
We caution that some mineral reflectance edges are similar in slope and
strength to vegetation's red edge (albeit at different wavelengths); if an
extrasolar planet reflectance edge is detected care must be taken with its
interpretation.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Astrobiolog
Stationary solutions of the one-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger equation: I. Case of repulsive nonlinearity
All stationary solutions to the one-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger
equation under box and periodic boundary conditions are presented in analytic
form. We consider the case of repulsive nonlinearity; in a companion paper we
treat the attractive case. Our solutions take the form of stationary trains of
dark or grey density-notch solitons. Real stationary states are in one-to-one
correspondence with those of the linear Schr\"odinger equation. Complex
stationary states are uniquely nonlinear, nodeless, and symmetry-breaking. Our
solutions apply to many physical contexts, including the Bose-Einstein
condensate and optical pulses in fibers.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures -- revised versio
Glide and Superclimb of Dislocations in Solid He
Glide and climb of quantum dislocations under finite external stress,
variation of chemical potential and bias (geometrical slanting) in Peierls
potential are studied by Monte Carlo simulations of the effective string model.
We treat on unified ground quantum effects at finite temperatures . Climb at
low is assisted by superflow along dislocation core -- {\it superclimb}.
Above some critical stress avalanche-type creation of kinks is found. It is
characterized by hysteretic behavior at low . At finite biases gliding
dislocation remains rough even at lowest -- the behavior opposite to
non-slanted dislocations. In contrast to glide, superclimb is characterized by
quantum smooth state at low temperatures even for finite bias. In some
intermediate -range giant values of the compressibility as well as
non-Luttinger type behavior of the core superfluid are observed.Comment: Updated version submitted to JLTP as QFS2010 proceedings; 11 pages, 6
figure
Nanofabrication by magnetic focusing of supersonic beams
We present a new method for nanoscale atom lithography. We propose the use of
a supersonic atomic beam, which provides an extremely high-brightness and cold
source of fast atoms. The atoms are to be focused onto a substrate using a thin
magnetic film, into which apertures with widths on the order of 100 nm have
been etched. Focused spot sizes near or below 10 nm, with focal lengths on the
order of 10 microns, are predicted. This scheme is applicable both to precision
patterning of surfaces with metastable atomic beams and to direct deposition of
material.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Electron-Electron Interactions and the Hall-Insulator
Using the Kubo formula, we show explicitly that a non-interacting electron
system can not behave like a Hall-insulator, {\it ie.,} a DC resistivity matrix
and finite in the zero temperature
limit, as has been observed recently in experiment. For a strongly interacting
electron system in a magnetic field, we illustrate, by constructing a specific
form of correlations between mobile and localized electrons, that the Hall
resistivity can approximately equal to its classical value. A Hall-insulator is
realized in this model when the density of mobile electrons becomes vanishingly
small. It is shown that in non-interacting electron systems, the
zero-temperature frequency-dependent conductacnce generally does not give the
DC conductance.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX3.
Exawatt-Zettawatt Pulse Generation and Applications
A new amplification method, weaving the three basic compression techniques,
Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA), Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse
Amplification (OPCPA) and Plasma Compression by Backward Raman Amplification
(BRA) in plasma, is proposed. It is called C3 for Cascaded Conversion
Compression. It has the capability to compress with good efficiency kilojoule
to megajoule, nanosecond laser pulses into femtosecond pulses, to produce
exawatt and beyond peak power. In the future, C3 could be used at large-scale
facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) or the Laser Megajoule
(LMJ) and open the way to zettawatt level pulses. The beam will be focused to a
wavelength spot size with a f#1. The very small beam size, i.e. few
centimeters, along with the low laser repetition rate laser system will make
possible the use of inexpensive, precision, disposable optics. The resulting
intensity will approach the Schwinger value, thus opening up new possibilities
in fundamental physics.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure
Energy, interaction, and photoluminescence of spin-reversed quasielectrons in fractional quantum Hall systems
The energy and photoluminescence spectra of a two-dimensional electron gas in
the fractional quantum Hall regime are studied. The single-particle properties
of reversed-spin quasielectrons (QE's) as well as the
pseudopotentials of their interaction with one another and with Laughlin
quasielectrons (QE's) and quasiholes (QH's) are calculated. Based on the
short-range character of the QE--QE and QE--QE
repulsion, the partially unpolarized incompressible states at the filling
factors and are postulated within Haldane's
hierarchy scheme. To describe photoluminescence, the family of bound
QE states of a valence hole and QE's are
predicted in analogy to the found earlier fractionally charged excitons
QE. The binding energy and optical selection rules for both families are
compared. The QE is found radiative in contrast to the dark QE,
and the QE is found non-radiative in contrast to the bright
QE.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Relic neutrino masses and the highest energy cosmic rays
We consider the possibility that a large fraction of the ultrahigh energy
cosmic rays are decay products of Z bosons which were produced in the
scattering of ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos on cosmological relic
neutrinos. We compare the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum with
the one predicted in the above Z-burst scenario and determine the required mass
of the heaviest relic neutrino as well as the necessary ultrahigh energy cosmic
neutrino flux via a maximum likelihood analysis. We show that the value of the
neutrino mass obtained in this way is fairly robust against variations in
presently unknown quantities, like the amount of neutrino clustering, the
universal radio background, and the extragalactic magnetic field, within their
anticipated uncertainties. Much stronger systematics arises from different
possible assumptions about the diffuse background of ordinary cosmic rays from
unresolved astrophysical sources. In the most plausible case that these
ordinary cosmic rays are protons of extragalactic origin, one is lead to a
required neutrino mass in the range 0.08 eV - 1.3 eV at the 68 % confidence
level. This range narrows down considerably if a particular universal radio
background is assumed, e.g. to 0.08 eV - 0.40 eV for a large one. The required
flux of ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos near the resonant energy should be
detected in the near future by AMANDA, RICE, and the Pierre Auger Observatory,
otherwise the Z-burst scenario will be ruled out.Comment: 19 pages, 22 figures, REVTeX
Functional strength training and movement performance therapy produce analogous improvement in sit-to-stand early after stroke:Early phase randomised controlled trial
Objectives: Restoring independence in the sit-to-stand (STS) task is an important objective for stroke rehabilitation. It is not known if a particular intervention, strength training or therapy focused on movement performance is more likely to improve STS recovery. This study aimed to compare STS outcomes from functional strength training, movement performance therapy and conventional therapy. Design: Randomised controlled trial. Setting: Acute stroke units. Participants: Medically well patients (n=93) with recent (<42 days) stroke. The mean age of patients was 68.8 years, mean time post ictus was 33.5 days, 54 (58%) were male, 20 showed neglect (22%) and 37 (40%) had a left-sided brain lesion. Interventions: Six weeks of either conventional therapy, functional strength training or movement performance therapy. Subjects were allocated to groups on a random basis. Main outcome measures: STS ability, timing, symmetry, co-ordination, smoothness and knee velocity were measured at baseline, outcome (after 6 weeks of intervention) and followup (3 months after outcome). Results: No significant differences were found between the groups. All three groups improved their STS ability, with 88% able to STS at follow-up compared with 56% at baseline. Few differences were noted in quality of movement, with only symmetry when rising showing significantly greater improvement in the movement performance therapy group; this benefit was not evident at follow-up. Conclusions: Recovery of the STS movement is consistently good during stroke rehabilitation, irrespective of the type of therapy experienced. Changes in quality of movement did not differ according to group allocation, indicating that the type of therapy is less important
CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children
© 2016 Bishop et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet there is little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments in children. Children\u27s language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicine and the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them. Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possible to achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying children who might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representing ten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatrics and child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46 statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing on this topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a sevenpoint scale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the first two authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus. The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation (round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting \u27agree\u27 or \u27strongly agree\u27) was at least 80 percent for 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their response with written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resulting consensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and a concluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base
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