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Upper ocean climate of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea during the Holocene Insolation Maximum â a model study
ine thousand years ago (9 ka BP), the Northern Hemisphere experienced enhanced seasonality caused by an orbital configuration close to the minimum of the precession index. To assess the impact of this "Holocene Insolation Maximum" (HIM) on the Mediterranean Sea, we use a regional ocean general circulation model forced by atmospheric input derived from global simulations. A stronger seasonal cycle is simulated by the model, which shows a relatively homogeneous winter cooling and a summer warming with well-defined spatial patterns, in particular, a subsurface warming in the Cretan and western Levantine areas.
The comparison between the SST simulated for the HIM and a reconstruction from planktonic foraminifera transfer functions shows a poor agreement, especially for summer, when the vertical temperature gradient is strong. As a novel approach, we propose a reinterpretation of the reconstruction, to consider the conditions throughout the upper water column rather than at a single depth. We claim that such a depth-integrated approach is more adequate for surface temperature comparison purposes in a situation where the upper ocean structure in the past was different from the present-day. In this case, the depth-integrated interpretation of the proxy data strongly improves the agreement between modelled and reconstructed temperature signal with the subsurface summer warming being recorded by both model and proxies, with a small shift to the south in the model results.
The mechanisms responsible for the peculiar subsurface pattern are found to be a combination of enhanced downwelling and wind mixing due to strengthened Etesian winds, and enhanced thermal forcing due to the stronger summer insolation in the Northern Hemisphere. Together, these processes induce a stronger heat transfer from the surface to the subsurface during late summer in the western Levantine; this leads to an enhanced heat piracy in this region, a process never identified before, but potentially characteristic of time slices with enhanced insolation
Nonequilibrium candidate Monte Carlo: A new tool for efficient equilibrium simulation
Metropolis Monte Carlo simulation is a powerful tool for studying the
equilibrium properties of matter. In complex condensed-phase systems, however,
it is difficult to design Monte Carlo moves with high acceptance probabilities
that also rapidly sample uncorrelated configurations. Here, we introduce a new
class of moves based on nonequilibrium dynamics: candidate configurations are
generated through a finite-time process in which a system is actively driven
out of equilibrium, and accepted with criteria that preserve the equilibrium
distribution. The acceptance rule is similar to the Metropolis acceptance
probability, but related to the nonequilibrium work rather than the
instantaneous energy difference. Our method is applicable to sampling from both
a single thermodynamic state or a mixture of thermodynamic states, and allows
both coordinates and thermodynamic parameters to be driven in nonequilibrium
proposals. While generating finite-time switching trajectories incurs an
additional cost, driving some degrees of freedom while allowing others to
evolve naturally can lead to large enhancements in acceptance probabilities,
greatly reducing structural correlation times. Using nonequilibrium driven
processes vastly expands the repertoire of useful Monte Carlo proposals in
simulations of dense solvated systems
Glacial-interglacial changes in bottom-water oxygen content on the Portuguese margin
During the last and penultimate glacial maxima, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were lower than present, possibly in part because of increased storage of respired carbon in the deep oceans. The amount of respired carbon present in a water mass can be calculated from its oxygen content through apparent oxygen utilization; the oxygen content can in turn be calculated from the carbon isotope gradient within the sediment column. Here we analyse the shells of benthic foraminifera occurring at the sediment surface and the oxic/anoxic interface on the Portuguese Margin to reconstruct the carbon isotope gradient and hence bottom-water oxygenation over the past 150,000 years. We find that bottom-water oxygen concentrations were 45 and 65âÎŒmol kgâ1 lower than present during the last and penultimate glacial maxima, respectively. We calculate that concentrations of remineralized organic carbon were at least twice as high as today during the glacial maxima. We attribute these changes to decreased ventilation linked to a reorganization of ocean circulation and a strengthened global biological pump. If the respired carbon pool was of a similar size throughout the entire glacial deep Atlantic basin, then this sink could account for 15 and 20 per cent of the glacial PCO2 drawdown during the last and penultimate glacial maxima
Engineered swift equilibration of a Brownian particle
A fundamental and intrinsic property of any device or natural system is its
relaxation time relax, which is the time it takes to return to equilibrium
after the sudden change of a control parameter [1]. Reducing relax , is
frequently necessary, and is often obtained by a complex feedback process. To
overcome the limitations of such an approach, alternative methods based on
driving have been recently demonstrated [2, 3], for isolated quantum and
classical systems [4--9]. Their extension to open systems in contact with a
thermostat is a stumbling block for applications. Here, we design a
protocol,named Engineered Swift Equilibration (ESE), that shortcuts
time-consuming relaxations, and we apply it to a Brownian particle trapped in
an optical potential whose properties can be controlled in time. We implement
the process experimentally, showing that it allows the system to reach
equilibrium times faster than the natural equilibration rate. We also estimate
the increase of the dissipated energy needed to get such a time reduction. The
method paves the way for applications in micro and nano devices, where the
reduction of operation time represents as substantial a challenge as
miniaturization [10]. The concepts of equilibrium and of transformations from
an equilibrium state to another, are cornerstones of thermodynamics. A textbook
illustration is provided by the expansion of a gas, starting at equilibrium and
expanding to reach a new equilibrium in a larger vessel. This operation can be
performed either very slowly by a piston, without dissipating energy into the
environment, or alternatively quickly, letting the piston freely move to reach
the new volume
Antiepileptic Drugs and Suicide: A Systematic Review of Adverse Effects
<b><i>Background:</i></b> Since the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) report on antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and suicide risk was released (2008), several studies have been published on this controversial relationship. This systematic review (SR) gives an updated approach to this health issue. <b><i>Summary:</i></b> We searched 6 databases. We ultimately included 11 publications: 4 cohort studies, 1 case-crossover study, 2 community case-control studies, and 4 SRs. Overall, 1 SR described studies already included; 3 studies reported a 2- to 4-fold overall increase in risk; 1 study reported an increased risk of suicide among epilepsy patients on AEDs with high risk of depression; 1study showed a protective effect among epilepsy patients; 2 studies were conducted with patients with bipolar disorder (1 showed a protective effect, whereas the other showed a 3-fold increase in risk of suicide), and the other 3 studies reported results for single AEDs. Several biases affected the published results. <b><i>Key Messages:</i></b> There is no clear evidence of an association between the use of AEDs and an increased risk of suicide because of the heterogeneity in the studies at the clinical and methodological level. A future study should cover all indications for use, retrieve information from a healthcare database, and include a defined set of covariates to avoid bias.</jats:p
Efficiency of Free Energy Transduction in Autonomous Systems
We consider the thermodynamics of chemical coupling from the viewpoint of
free energy transduction efficiency. In contrast to an external
parameter-driven stochastic energetics setup, the dynamic change of the
equilibrium distribution induced by chemical coupling, adopted, for example, in
biological systems, is inevitably an autonomous process. We found that the
efficiency is bounded by the ratio between the non-symmetric and the
symmetrized Kullback-Leibler distance, which is significantly lower than unity.
Consequences of this low efficiency are demonstrated in the simple two-state
case, which serves as an important minimal model for studying the energetics of
biomolecules.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Energetics and performance of a microscopic heat engine based on exact calculations of work and heat distributions
We investigate a microscopic motor based on an externally controlled
two-level system. One cycle of the motor operation consists of two strokes.
Within each stroke, the two-level system is in contact with a given thermal
bath and its energy levels are driven with a constant rate. The time evolution
of the occupation probabilities of the two states are controlled by one rate
equation and represent the system's response with respect to the external
driving. We give the exact solution of the rate equation for the limit cycle
and discuss the emerging thermodynamics: the work done on the environment, the
heat exchanged with the baths, the entropy production, the motor's efficiency,
and the power output. Furthermore we introduce an augmented stochastic process
which reflects, at a given time, both the occupation probabilities for the two
states and the time spent in the individual states during the previous
evolution. The exact calculation of the evolution operator for the augmented
process allows us to discuss in detail the probability density for the
performed work during the limit cycle. In the strongly irreversible regime, the
density exhibits important qualitative differences with respect to the more
common Gaussian shape in the regime of weak irreversibility.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure
Optimal protocols for Hamiltonian and Schr\"odinger dynamics
For systems in an externally controllable time-dependent potential, the
optimal protocol minimizes the mean work spent in a finite-time transition
between given initial and final values of a control parameter. For an initially
thermalized ensemble, we consider both Hamiltonian evolution for classical
systems and Schr\"odinger evolution for quantum systems. In both cases, we show
that for harmonic potentials, the optimal work is given by the adiabatic work
even in the limit of short transition times. This result is counter-intuitive
because the adiabatic work is substantially smaller than the work for an
instantaneous jump. We also perform numerical calculations of the optimal
protocol for Hamiltonian dynamics in an anharmonic quartic potential. For a
two-level spin system, we give examples where the adiabatic work can be reached
in either a finite or an arbitrarily short transition time depending on the
allowed parameter space.Comment: submitted to J. Stat. Mech.: Theor. Exp
Ultrathin 2 nm gold as ideal impedance-matched absorber for infrared light
Thermal detectors are a cornerstone of infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz)
technology due to their broad spectral range. These detectors call for suitable
broad spectral absorbers with minimalthermal mass. Often this is realized by
plasmonic absorbers, which ensure a high absorptivity butonly for a narrow
spectral band. Alternativly, a common approach is based on impedance-matching
the sheet resistance of a thin metallic film to half the free-space impedance.
Thereby, it is possible to achieve a wavelength-independent absorptivity of up
to 50 %, depending on the dielectric properties of the underlying substrate.
However, existing absorber films typicallyrequire a thickness of the order of
tens of nanometers, such as titanium nitride (14 nm), whichcan significantly
deteriorate the response of a thermal transducers. Here, we present the
application of ultrathin gold (2 nm) on top of a 1.2 nm copper oxide seed layer
as an effective IR absorber. An almost wavelength-independent and long-time
stable absorptivity of 47(3) %, ranging from 2 m to 20 m, could be
obtained and is further discussed. The presented gold thin-film represents
analmost ideal impedance-matched IR absorber that allows a significant
improvement of state-of-the-art thermal detector technology
Heat release by controlled continuous-time Markov jump processes
We derive the equations governing the protocols minimizing the heat released
by a continuous-time Markov jump process on a one-dimensional countable state
space during a transition between assigned initial and final probability
distributions in a finite time horizon. In particular, we identify the
hypotheses on the transition rates under which the optimal control strategy and
the probability distribution of the Markov jump problem obey a system of
differential equations of Hamilton-Bellman-Jacobi-type. As the state-space mesh
tends to zero, these equations converge to those satisfied by the diffusion
process minimizing the heat released in the Langevin formulation of the same
problem. We also show that in full analogy with the continuum case, heat
minimization is equivalent to entropy production minimization. Thus, our
results may be interpreted as a refined version of the second law of
thermodynamics.Comment: final version, section 2.1 revised, 26 pages, 3 figure
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