144 research outputs found
An integrated Bragg grating oxygen sensor using a hydrophobic sol-gel layer doped with an organic dye
Oxygen sensing is required for the understanding of many chemical processes across a diverse set of fields including medicine, environmental science and chemical synthesis. Oxygen sensing can be achieved through the use of electronic sensors. However, there are limitations associated with electronic sensors including susceptibility to electromagnetic interference and presenting a spark risk in flammable environments. Optical fiber and integrated optical chemical sensors overcome these limitations of electrical based sensing methods
Integrated planar Bragg grating oxygen sensor
We demonstrate an integrated planar Bragg grating sensor for the detection of oxygen by modification of the surface with a silica sol-gel containing immobilized methylene blue
Modeling the effect of copper availability on bacterial denitrification
When denitrifying bacteria such as Paracoccus denitrificans respire anaerobically they convert nitrate to dinitrogen gas via a pathway which includes the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (NO). The copper-dependent enzyme Nitrous Oxide reductase (Nos) catalyzes the reduction of NO to dinitrogen. In low-copper conditions, recent experiments in chemostats have demonstrated that Nos efficiency decreases resulting in significant NO emissions. For the first time, a chemostat-based mathematical model is developed that describes the anaerobic denitrification pathway based on Michaelis-Menten kinetics and published kinetic parameters. The model predicts steady-state enzyme levels from experimental data. For low copper concentrations, the predicted Nos level is significantly reduced, whereas the levels for the non copper-dependent reductases in the pathway remain relatively unaffected. The model provides time courses for the pathway metabolites that accurately reflect previously published experimental data. In the absence of experimental data purely predictive analyses can also be readily performed by calculating the relative Nos level directly from the copper concentration. Here, the model quantitatively estimates the increasing level of emitted NO as the copper level decreases. We have developed a mathematical model for the denitrification pathway based on existing experimental results, Michaelis-Menten kinetics and experimentally obtained kinetic constants. This is the first such model to incorporate the copper concentration in order to predict emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (NO), as well as the other nitrogenous compounds in the pathway. The model predicts increasing NO emissions as the copper level is lowered, in agreement with experimental observations in chemostats. © 2013 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Integrated Bragg grating sensors: achieving chemical sensing in liquid and gas flow systems
The sensing of chemical species is required within a diverse set of fields including industry, environmental monitoring and homeland security. The sensing of chemicals in liquid and gaseous environments has been traditionally achieved by electronic and electrochemical sensors. However, optical sensors demonstrate many benefits over these electronic systems, including remote interrogation of large sensor arrays via optical fibre and telecoms equipment, immunity from EM interference and absence of spark risk in flammable environments
The McKean-Vlasov Equation in Finite Volume
We study the McKean--Vlasov equation on the finite tori of length scale
in --dimensions. We derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for the
existence of a phase transition, which are based on the criteria first
uncovered in \cite{GP} and \cite{KM}. Therein and in subsequent works, one
finds indications pointing to critical transitions at a particular model
dependent value, of the interaction parameter. We show that
the uniform density (which may be interpreted as the liquid phase) is
dynamically stable for and prove, abstractly, that a
{\it critical} transition must occur at . However for
this system we show that under generic conditions -- large, and
isotropic interactions -- the phase transition is in fact discontinuous and
occurs at some \theta\t < \theta^{\sharp}. Finally, for H--stable, bounded
interactions with discontinuous transitions we show that, with suitable
scaling, the \theta\t(L) tend to a definitive non--trivial limit as
Four dimensional "old minimal" N=2 supersymmetrization of R^4
We write in superspace the lagrangian containing the fourth power of the Weyl
tensor in the "old minimal" d=4, N=2 supergravity, without local SO(2)
symmetry. Using gauge completion, we analyze the lagrangian in components. We
find out that the auxiliary fields which belong to the Weyl and compensating
vector multiplets have derivative terms and therefore cannot be eliminated
on-shell. Only the auxiliary fields which belong to the compensating nonlinear
multiplet do not get derivatives and could still be eliminated; we check that
this is possible in the leading terms of the lagrangian. We compare this result
to the similar one of "old minimal" N=1 supergravity and we comment on possible
generalizations to other versions of N=1,2 supergravity.Comment: 31 pages, no figures. Minor corrections. Details of the full
calculation included as an appendix. Reference adde
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Large time asymptotics of growth models on space-like paths II: PNG and parallel TASEP
We consider the polynuclear growth (PNG) model in 1+1 dimension with flat
initial condition and no extra constraints. The joint distributions of surface
height at finitely many points at a fixed time moment are given as marginals of
a signed determinantal point process. The long time scaling limit of the
surface height is shown to coincide with the Airy_1 process. This result holds
more generally for the observation points located along any space-like path in
the space-time plane. We also obtain the corresponding results for the discrete
time TASEP (totally asymmetric simple exclusion process) with parallel update.Comment: 39 pages,6 figure
Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works
The detection of exolife is one of the goals of very ambitious future space
missions that aim to take direct images of Earth-like planets. While
associations of simple molecules present in the planet's atmosphere (,
, etc.) have been identified as possible global biomarkers, we
review here the detectability of a signature of life from the planet's surface,
i.e. the green vegetation. The vegetation reflectance has indeed a specific
spectrum, with a sharp edge around 700 nm, known as the "Vegetation Red Edge"
(VRE). Moreover vegetation covers a large surface of emerged lands, from
tropical evergreen forest to shrub tundra. Thus considering it as a potential
global biomarker is relevant. Earthshine allows to observe the Earth as a
distant planet, i.e. without spatial resolution. Since 2001, Earthshine
observations have been used by several authors to test and quantify the
detectability of the VRE in the Earth spectrum. The egetation spectral
signature is detected as a small 'positive shift' of a few percents above the
continuum, starting at 700 nm. This signature appears in most spectra, and its
strength is correlated with the Earth's phase (visible land versus visible
ocean). The observations show that detecting the VRE on Earth requires a
photometric relative accuracy of 1% or better. Detecting something equivalent
on an Earth-like planet will therefore remain challenging, moreover considering
the possibility of mineral artifacts and the question of 'red edge'
universality in the Universe.Comment: Invited talk in "Strategies for Life Detection" (ISSI Bern, 24-28
April 2006) to appear in a hardcopy volume of the ISSI Space Science Series,
Eds, J. Bada et al., and also in an issue of Space Science Reviews. 13 pages,
8 figures, 1 tabl
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