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Stardust microcrater residue compositional groups
Compositional groups are defined in residue from Stardust craters (1-9 Dc) by qualitative EDS. These compositional groups are being further studied by a FIB-SEM technique to determine representative residue compositions
Earth-like sand fluxes on Mars
Strong and sustained winds on Mars have been considered rare, on the basis of surface meteorology measurements and global circulation models, raising the question of whether the abundant dunes and evidence for wind erosion seen on the planet are a current process. Recent studies showed sand activity, but could not determine whether entire dunes were movingâimplying large sand fluxesâor whether more localized and surficial changes had occurred. Here we present measurements of the migration rate of sand ripples and dune lee fronts at the Nili Patera dune field. We show that the dunes are near steady state, with their entire volumes composed of mobile sand. The dunes have unexpectedly high sand fluxes, similar, for example, to those in Victoria Valley, Antarctica, implying that rates of landscape modification on Mars and Earth are similar
A universal relationship between magnetization and local structure changes below the ferromagnetic transition in La_{1-x}Ca_xMnO_3; evidence for magnetic dimers
We present extensive X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) measurements on
La_{1-x}Ca_xMnO_3 as a function of B-field (to 11T) and Ca concentration, x
(21-45%). These results reveal local structure changes (associated with polaron
formation) that depend only on the magnetization for a given sample,
irrespective of whether the magnetization is achieved through a decrease in
temperature or an applied magnetic field. Furthermore, the relationship between
local structure and magnetization depends on the hole doping. A model is
proposed in which a filamentary magnetization initially develops via the
aggregation of pairs of Mn atoms involving a hole and an electron site. These
pairs have little distortion and it is likely that they pre-form at
temperatures above T_c.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures (1 with 2 parts) -- v2. new data added (updated
figures); discussion expande
Possible mechanism for achieving glass-like thermal conductivities in crystals with off-center atoms
In the filled Ga/Ge clathrate, Eu and Sr are off-center in site 2 but Ba is
on-center. All three filler atoms (Ba,Eu,Sr) have low temperature Einstein
modes; yet only for the Eu and Sr systems is there a large dip in the thermal
conductivity, attributed to the Einstein modes. No dip is observed for Ba. Here
we argue that it is the off-center displacement that is crucial for
understanding this unexplained difference in behavior. It enhances the coupling
between the "rattler" motion and the lattice phonons for the Eu and Sr systems,
and turns on/off another scattering mechanism (for 1K < T < 20K) produced by
the presence/absence of off-center sites. The random occupation of different
off-center sites produces a high density of symmetry-breaking defects which
scatters phonons. It may also be important for improving our understanding of
other glassy systems.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure (2 parts) -- v2: intro broadened; strengthened
arguments regarding need for additional phonon scattering mechanis
Relationship between macroscopic physical properties and local distortions of low doping La{1-x}Ca{x}MnO3: an EXAFS study
A temperature-dependent EXAFS investigation of La{1-x}Ca{x}MnO3 is presented
for the concentration range that spans the ferromagnetic-insulator (FMI) to
ferromagnetic-metal (FMM) transition region, x = 0.16-0.22. The samples are
insulating for x = 0.16-0.2 and show a metal/insulator transition for x = 0.22.
All samples are ferromagnetic although the saturation magnetization for the 16%
Ca sample is only ~ 70% of the expected value at 0.4T. We find that the FMI
samples have similar correlations between changes in the local Mn-O distortions
and the magnetization as observed previously for the colossal magnetoresistance
(CMR) samples (0.2 < x < 0.5) - except that the FMI samples never become fully
magnetized. The data show that there are at least two distinct types of
distortions. The initial distortions removed as the insulating sample becomes
magnetized are small and provides direct evidence that roughly 50% of the Mn
sites have a small distortion/site and are magnetized first. The large
remaining Mn-O distortions at low T are attributed to a small fraction of
Jahn-Teller-distorted Mn sites that are either antiferromagnetically ordered or
unmagnetized. Thus the insulating samples are very similar to the behavior of
the CMR samples up to the point at which the M/I transition occurs for the CMR
materials. The lack of metallic conductivity for x <= 0.2, when 50% or more of
the sample is magnetic, implies that there must be preferred magnetized Mn
sites and that such sites do not percolate at these concentrations.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.
Evidence for Magnetic Field Induced Changes of the Phase of Tunneling States: Spontaneous Echoes in (KBr)(KCN) in Magnetic Fields
Recently, it has been discovered that in contrast to expectations the
low-temperature dielectric properties of some multi-component glasses depend
strongly on magnetic fields. In particular, the low-frequency dielectric
susceptibility and the amplitude of coherent polarization echoes show striking
non-monotonic magnetic field dependencies. The low-temperature dielectric
response of these materials is governed by atomic tunneling systems. We now
have investigated the coherent properties of tunneling states in a crystalline
host in magnetic fields up to 230mT. Two-pulse echo experiments have been
performed on a KBr crystal containing about 7.5% CN. Like in glasses, but
perhaps even more surprising in the case of a crystalline system, we observe a
very strong magnetic field dependence of the echo amplitude. Moreover, for the
first time we have direct evidence that magnetic fields change the phase of
coherent tunneling systems in a well-defined way. We present the data and
discuss the possible origin of this intriguing effect.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR
Fast cosmological parameter estimation using neural networks
We present a method for accelerating the calculation of CMB power spectra,
matter power spectra and likelihood functions for use in cosmological parameter
estimation. The algorithm, called CosmoNet, is based on training a multilayer
perceptron neural network and shares all the advantages of the recently
released Pico algorithm of Fendt & Wandelt, but has several additional benefits
in terms of simplicity, computational speed, memory requirements and ease of
training. We demonstrate the capabilities of CosmoNet by computing CMB power
spectra over a box in the parameter space of flat \Lambda CDM models containing
the 3\sigma WMAP1 confidence region. We also use CosmoNet to compute the WMAP3
likelihood for flat \Lambda CDM models and show that marginalised posteriors on
parameters derived are very similar to those obtained using CAMB and the WMAP3
code. We find that the average error in the power spectra is typically 2-3% of
cosmic variance, and that CosmoNet is \sim 7 \times 10^4 faster than CAMB (for
flat models) and \sim 6 \times 10^6 times faster than the official WMAP3
likelihood code. CosmoNet and an interface to CosmoMC are publically available
at www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/software/cosmonet.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, minor changes to match version accepted by MNRAS
letter
Oral dosing for antenatal corticosteroids in the Rhesus macaque.
Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) are standard of care for women at risk of preterm delivery, although choice of drug, dose or route have not been systematically evaluated. Further, ACS are infrequently used in low resource environments where most of the mortality from prematurity occurs. We report proof of principle experiments to test betamethasone-phosphate (Beta-P) or dexamethasone-phosphate (Dex-P) given orally in comparison to the clinical treatment with the intramuscular combination drug beta-phosphate plus beta-acetate in a Rhesus Macaque model. First, we performed pharmacokinetic studies in non-pregnant monkeys to compare blood levels of the steroids using oral dosing with Beta-P, Dex-P and an effective maternal intramuscular dose of the beta-acetate component of the clinical treatment. We then evaluated maternal and fetal blood steroid levels with limited fetal sampling under ultrasound guidance in pregnant macaques. We found that oral Beta is more slowly cleared from plasma than oral Dex. The blood levels of both drugs were lower in maternal plasma of pregnant than in non-pregnant macaques. Using the pharmacokinetic data, we treated groups of 6-8 pregnant monkeys with oral Beta-P, oral Dex-P, or the maternal intramuscular clinical treatment and saline controls and measured pressure-volume curves to assess corticosteroid effects on lung maturation at 5d. Oral Beta-P improved the pressure-volume curves similarly to the clinical treatment. Oral Dex-P gave more variable and nonsignificant responses. We then compared gene expression in the fetal lung, liver and hippocampus between oral Beta-P and the clinical treatment by RNA-sequencing. The transcriptomes were largely similar with small gene expression differences in the lung and liver, and no differences in the hippocampus between the groups. As proof of principle, ACS therapy can be effective using inexpensive and widely available oral drugs. Clinical dosing strategies must carefully consider the pharmacokinetics of oral Beta-P or Dex-P to minimize fetal exposure while achieving the desired treatment responses
Multisymplectic Geometry and Multisymplectic Preissman Scheme for the KP Equation
The multisymplectic structure of the KP equation is obtained directly from
the variational principal. Using the covariant De Donder-Weyl Hamilton function
theories, we reformulate the KP equation to the multisymplectic form which
proposed by Bridges. From the multisymplectic equation, we can derive a
multisymplectic numerical scheme of the KP equation which can be simplified to
multisymplectic forty-five points scheme.Comment: 17 papges, 8 figure
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