Effects of Bose-Einstein Condensation on forces among bodies sitting in a boson heat bath

We explore the consequences of Bose-Einstein condensation on two-scalar-exchange mediated forces among bodies that sit in a boson gas. We find that below the condensation temperature the range of the forces becomes infinite while it is finite at temperatures above condensation.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Dark matter in natural supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model

We explore the dark matter sector in extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) that can provide a good fit to the PAMELA cosmic ray positron excess, while at the same time addressing the little hierarchy problem of the MSSM. Adding a singlet Higgs superfield, S, can account for the observed positron excess, as recently discussed in the literature, but we point out that it requires a fine-tuned choice for the parameters of the model. We find that including an additional singlet allows both a reduction of the weak-scale fine-tuning, and an interpretation of the cosmic ray observations in terms of dark matter annihilations in the galactic halo. Our setup contains a light axion, but does not require light CP-even scalars in the spectrum.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, references adde

Enhancement of microalgae anaerobic digestion by thermo-alkaline pretreatment with lime (CaO)

The aim of this study was to evaluate for the first time the effect of a thermo-alkaline pretreatment with lime (CaO) on microalgae anaerobic digestion. The pretreatment was carried out by adding different CaO doses (4 and 10%) at different temperatures (room temperature (25 °C), 55 and 72 °C). The exposure time was 4 days for pretreatments at 25 °C, and 24 h for pretreatments at 55 and 72 °C. Following, a biochemical methane potential test was conducted with pretreated and untreated microalgae. According to the results, the pretreatment enhanced proteins solubilisation by 32.4% and carbohydrates solubilisation by 31.4% with the highest lime dose and temperature (10% CaO and 72 °C). Furthermore, anaerobic digestion kinetics were improved in all cases (from 0.08 to 0.14 day- 1 for untreated and pretreated microalgae, respectively). The maximum biochemical methane potential increase (25%) was achieved with 10% CaO at 72 °C, in accordance with the highest biomass solubilisation. Thus, lime pretreatment appears as a potential strategy to improve microalgae anaerobic digestion.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Impact of edge shape on the functionalities of graphene-based single-molecule electronics devices

We present an ab-initio analysis of the impact of edge shape and graphene-molecule anchor coupling on the electronic and transport functionalities of graphene-based molecular electronics devices. We analyze how Fano-like resonances, spin filtering and negative differential resistance effects may or may not arise by modifying suitably the edge shapes and the terminating groups of simple organic molecules. We show that the spin filtering effect is a consequence of the magnetic behavior of zigzag-terminated edges, which is enhanced by furnishing these with a wedge shape. The negative differential resistance effect is originated by the presence of two degenerate electronic states localized at each of the atoms coupling the molecule to graphene which are strongly affected by a bias voltage. The effect could thus be tailored by a suitable choice of the molecule and contact atoms if edge shape could be controlled with atomic precision.Comment: 11 pages, 20 figure

Mobility of Bloch Walls via the Collective Coordinate Method

We have studied the problem of the dissipative motion of Bloch walls considering a totally anisotropic one dimensional spin chain in the presence of a magnetic field. Using the so-called "collective coordinate method" we construct an effective Hamiltonian for the Bloch wall coupled to the magnetic excitations of the system. It allows us to analyze the Brownian motion of the wall in terms of the reflection coefficient of the effective potential felt by the excitations due to the existence of the wall. We find that for finite values of the external field the wall mobility is also finite. The spectrum of the potential at large fields is investigated and the dependence of the damping constant on temperature is evaluated. As a result we find the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the wall mobility.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

The Abacus Cosmos: A Suite of Cosmological N-body Simulations

We present a public data release of halo catalogs from a suite of 125 cosmological $N$-body simulations from the Abacus project. The simulations span 40 $w$CDM cosmologies centered on the Planck 2015 cosmology at two mass resolutions, $4\times 10^{10}\;h^{-1}M_\odot$ and $1\times 10^{10}\;h^{-1}M_\odot$, in $1.1\;h^{-1}\mathrm{Gpc}$ and $720\;h^{-1}\mathrm{Mpc}$ boxes, respectively. The boxes are phase-matched to suppress sample variance and isolate cosmology dependence. Additional volume is available via 16 boxes of fixed cosmology and varied phase; a few boxes of single-parameter excursions from Planck 2015 are also provided. Catalogs spanning $z=1.5$ to $0.1$ are available for friends-of-friends and Rockstar halo finders and include particle subsamples. All data products are available at https://lgarrison.github.io/AbacusCosmosComment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables. Additional figures added for mass resolution convergence tests, and additional redshifts added for existing tests. Matches ApJS accepted versio

Factors affecting sperm recovery rates and survival after centrifugation of equine semen

Conventional centrifugation protocols result in important sperm losses during removal of the supernatant. In this study, the effect of centrifugation force (400 or 900 × g), duration (5 or 10 min), and column height (20 or 40 mL; Experiment 1); sperm concentration (25, 50, and 100 × 10[superscript 6]/mL; Experiment 2), and centrifugation medium (EZ-Mixin CST [Animal Reproduction Systems, Chino, CA, USA], INRA96 [IMV Technologies, Maple Grove, MN, USA], or VMDZ [Partnar Animal Health, Port Huron, MI, USA]; Experiment 3) on sperm recovery and survival after centrifugation and cooling and storage were evaluated. Overall, sperm survival was not affected by the combination of centrifugation protocol and cooling. Total sperm yield was highest after centrifugation for 10 min at 400 × g in 20-mL columns (95.6 ± 5%, mean ± SD) or 900 × g in 20-mL (99.2 ± 0.8%) or 40-mL (91.4 ± 4.5%) columns, and at 900 × g for 5 min in 20-mL columns (93.8 ± 8.9%; P < 0.0001). Total (TMY) and progressively motile sperm yield followed a similar pattern (P < 0.0001). Sperm yields were not significantly different among samples centrifuged at various sperm concentrations. However, centrifugation at 100 × 10[superscript 6]/mL resulted in significantly lower total sperm yield (83.8 ± 10.7%) and TMY (81.7 ± 6.8%) compared with noncentrifuged semen. Centrifugation in VMDZ resulted in significantly lower TMY (69.3 ± 22.6%), progressively motile sperm yield (63.5 ± 18.2%), viable yield (60.9 ± 36.5%), and survival of progressively motile sperm after cooling (21 ± 10.8%) compared with noncentrifuged semen. In conclusion, centrifuging volumes of ≤ 20 mL minimized sperm losses with conventional protocols. With 40-mL columns, it may be recommended to increase the centrifugal force to 900 × g for 10 min and dilute the semen to a sperm concentration of 25 to 50 × 10[superscript 6]/mL in a milk- or fractionated milk-based medium. The semen extender VMDZ did not seem well suited for centrifugation of equine semen

Rejoinder

Ferrer, A. (2014). Rejoinder. Quality Engineering. 26(1):99-101. doi:10.1080/08982112.2014.846107S99101261Box, G. E. P. (1976). Science and Statistics. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 71(356), 791-799. doi:10.1080/01621459.1976.10480949Duchesne, C., Liu, J. J., & MacGregor, J. F. (2012). Multivariate image analysis in the process industries: A review. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 117, 116-128. doi:10.1016/j.chemolab.2012.04.003Ferrer, A. (2007). Multivariate Statistical Process Control Based on Principal Component Analysis (MSPC-PCA): Some Reflections and a Case Study in an Autobody Assembly Process. Quality Engineering, 19(4), 311-325. doi:10.1080/08982110701621304Ferrer, A. (2013). Latent Structures-Based Multivariate Statistical Process Control: A Paradigm Shift. Quality Engineering, 26(1), 72-91. doi:10.1080/08982112.2013.846093Megahed, F. M., Wells, L. J., Camelio, J. A., & Woodall, W. H. (2012). A Spatiotemporal Method for the Monitoring of Image Data. Quality and Reliability Engineering International, 28(8), 967-980. doi:10.1002/qre.1287Prats-Montalbán, J. M., de Juan, A., & Ferrer, A. (2011). Multivariate image analysis: A review with applications. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 107(1), 1-23. doi:10.1016/j.chemolab.2011.03.002SCHALL, S., & CHANDRA, J. (1987). Multivariate quality control using principal components. International Journal of Production Research, 25(4), 571-588. doi:10.1080/00207548708919862Shi, J., & Zhou, S. (2009). Quality control and improvement for multistage systems: A survey. IIE Transactions, 41(9), 744-753. doi:10.1080/07408170902966344Westerhuis, J. A., Kourti, T., & MacGregor, J. F. (1998). Analysis of multiblock and hierarchical PCA and PLS models. Journal of Chemometrics, 12(5), 301-321. doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-128x(199809/10)12:53.0.co;2-sWold, S., Kettaneh, N., & Tjessem, K. (1996). Hierarchical multiblock PLS and PC models for easier model interpretation and as an alternative to variable selection. Journal of Chemometrics, 10(5-6), 463-482. doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-128x(199609)10:5/63.0.co;2-lWold, S., Kettaneh-Wold, N., MacGregor, J. F., & Dunn, K. G. (2009). Batch Process Modeling and MSPC. Comprehensive Chemometrics, 163-197. doi:10.1016/b978-044452701-1.00108-

Long range neutrino forces in the cosmic relic neutrino background

Neutrinos mediate long range forces among macroscopic bodies in vacuum. When the bodies are placed in the neutrino cosmic background, these forces are modified. Indeed, at distances long compared to the scale $T^{-1}$, the relic neutrinos completely screen off the 2-neutrino exchange force, whereas for small distances the interaction remains unaffected.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure