3,939 research outputs found
Uniform thin film based polymer separators for rechargeable Li-ion batteries
Battery separator’s main function is to prevent physical contact of the electrodes while permitting ions to flow freely. They itself does not participate in any cell reactions, however, its properties significantly determine the performance and safety of the batteries. For high energy and power densities, the separator is required to be very thin and highly porous, while it adversely affects the safety and cycle life of the battery as a result of the reduced mechanical strength. The safety requirement is a top priority for rechargeable Li-ion batteries, especially these used in hybrid electric vehicles and power tools. Battery separators need to have excellent porosity, as well as low cost, lightness and durability
A comparative approach to confirm antibiotic-resistant microbes in the cryosphere
Antibiotic-resistant microbes pose one of the biggest challenges of the current century. While areas with proximity to human impact are closely studied, a lot is yet to learn about antimicrobial resistance in remote regions like the cryosphere. Nowadays, antibiotic (AB) resistance is considered a pollution that has reached the Earth’s most pristine areas. However, monitoring of resistant environmental bacteria therein faces several challenges that inhibit scientific progress in this field. Due to many cultivation-based antibiotic susceptibility tests being optimized for mesophilic pathogenic microorganisms, many researchers opt for expensive molecular biological approaches to detect antibiotic resistance in the cryosphere. However, some disadvantages of these methods prohibit effective comprehensive monitoring of resistant bacteria in pristine areas, hence we suggest established cultivation-based approaches when looking for antimicrobial resistance in the cryosphere. In this study, we compared two common antibiotic susceptibility tests and optimized them to meet the needs of psychrophilic microorganisms. The resulting cultures thereof originated from cryospheric habitats with differing anthropogenic impacts. The results show that these methods are applicable to detect antibiotic resistance in cryospheric habitats and could potentially increase the comparability between studies
Star Formation and Feedback in Dwarf Galaxies
We examine the star formation history and stellar feedback effects of dwarf
galaxies under the influence of extragalactic ultraviolet radiation. We
consider the dynamical evolution of gas in dwarf galaxies using a
one-dimensional, spherically symmetric, Lagrangian numerical scheme to compute
the effects of radiative transfer and photoionization. We include a
physically-motivated star formation recipe and consider the effects of
feedback. Our results indicate that star formation in the severe environment of
dwarf galaxies is a difficult and inefficient process. For intermediate mass
systems, such as the dSphs around the Galaxy, star formation can proceed with
in early cosmic epochs despite the intense background UV flux. Triggering
processes such as merger events, collisions, and tidal disturbance can lead to
density enhancements, reducing the recombination timescale, allowing gas to
cool and star formation to proceed. However, the star formation and gas
retention efficiency may vary widely in galaxies with similar dark matter
potentials, because they depend on many factors, such as the baryonic fraction,
external perturbation, IMF, and background UV intensity. We suggest that the
presence of very old stars in these dwarf galaxies indicates that their initial
baryonic to dark matter content was comparable to the cosmic value. This
constraint suggests that the initial density fluctuation of baryonic matter may
be correlated with that of the dark matter. For the more massive dwarf
elliptical galaxies, the star formation efficiency and gas retention rate is
much higher. Their mass to light ratio is regulated by star formation feedback,
and is expected to be nearly independent of their absolute luminosity. The
results of our theoretical models reproduce the observed correlation.Comment: 35 pages, 13 figure
Reversing A beta Fibrillation and Inhibiting A beta Primary Neuronal Cell Toxicity Using Amphiphilic Polyphenylene Dendrons
Testing Hardy nonlocality proof with genuine energy-time entanglement
We show two experimental realizations of Hardy ladder test of quantum
nonlocality using energy-time correlated photons, following the scheme proposed
by A. Cabello \emph{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{102}, 040401 (2009)].
Unlike, previous energy-time Bell experiments, these tests require precise
tailored nonmaximally entangled states. One of them is equivalent to the
two-setting two-outcome Bell test requiring a minimum detection efficiency. The
reported experiments are still affected by the locality and detection
loopholes, but are free of the post-selection loophole of previous energy-time
and time-bin Bell tests.Comment: 5 pages, revtex4, 6 figure
An Exact Black Hole Entropy Bound
We show that a Rademacher expansion can be used to establish an exact bound
for the entropy of black holes within a conformal field theory framework. This
convergent expansion includes all subleading corrections to the
Bekenstein-Hawking term.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, v2 minor re-wording, additional reference, to appear
in Phyical Review D (title changed in journal
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