4,241 research outputs found
Neutrino Oscillations for Dummies
The reality of neutrino oscillations has not really sunk in yet. The
phenomenon presents us with purely quantum mechanical effects over macroscopic
time and distance scales (milliseconds and 1000s of km). In order to help with
the pedagogical difficulties this poses, I attempt here to present the physics
in words and pictures rather than math. No disrespect is implied by the title;
I am merely borrowing a term used by a popular series of self-help books
Antiferromagnetic Alignment and Relaxation Rate of Gd Spins in the High Temperature Superconductor GdBa_2Cu_3O_(7-delta)
The complex surface impedance of a number of GdBaCuO
single crystals has been measured at 10, 15 and 21 GHz using a cavity
perturbation technique. At low temperatures a marked increase in the effective
penetration depth and surface resistance is observed associated with the
paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic alignment of the Gd spins. The effective
penetration depth has a sharp change in slope at the N\'eel temperature, ,
and the surface resistance peaks at a frequency dependent temperature below 3K.
The observed temperature and frequency dependence can be described by a model
which assumes a negligibly small interaction between the Gd spins and the
electrons in the superconducting state, with a frequency dependent magnetic
susceptibility and a Gd spin relaxation time being a strong function
of temperature. Above , has a component varying as , while below it increases .Comment: 4 Pages, 4 Figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Time dependence of current-voltage measurements of c-axis quasiparticle conductivity in 2212-BSCCO mesa structures
We report four-point IV measurements of the c-axis conductivity of mesa
structures of 2212-BSCCO, using a system with sub-microsecond resolution along
with multi-level pulses. These allow a test to be made for the presence of
nonequilibrium effects. Our results suggest simple heating alone is important
in measurements of this kind.Comment: to appear in proceedings of LT23; submitted to Physica
PBO Fibres: from saliling design towards architectural performance
p. 3013-3023PBO fibres, also called "high-performance" polymer fibres, are a group of materials known as "rigid rods". Through this work it is pretended to make some considerations about the use of these new generation fibres. Poly (p-phenylene-2.6-benzobisoxazole)(PBO) is rigid-rod isotropic crystal polymer. PBO fibre is a high performance fibre developed by TOYOBO (Japan) PBO fibre is quite flexible and has very soft handling, in spite of its extremely high mechanical properties. Over the past ten years Future Fibres Company has pioneered the use of PBO for yacht rigging and has proven it to provide remarkable performance and longevity. Their method of producing these PBO cables delivers the lightest, smallest cables available on the market today. The PBO cable is formed by combining the incredible properties of PBO (poly(p-phenylene-2,6- benzobisoxazole)) fibre with the simple yet undeniably reliable process of continuous winding.
A PBO cable is dry fibre tightly compacted and does not rely on a resin matrix that, if impacted, can be compromised. The cover of the cable is a vital component and whilst PBO is an excellent material for yacht rigging purposes, due to its extreme strength, low elongation and general robustness it must be protected from sunlight and seawater. Future Fibres has perfected its cover design that comprises a consolidating film, environmental protection layer and a customizable braided cover that can be tailored to suit any specific application. PBO has great potential to be used in construction or rehabilitation applications. At the same time the fibres, following further testing, would open up several design opportunities for high quality architectural projects.Gough, CE.; Pobo Blasco, M.; Ruiz Checa, JR. (2009). PBO Fibres: from saliling design towards architectural performance. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/670
Characteristic operator functions for quantum input-plant-output models and coherent control
We introduce the characteristic operator as the generalization of the usual
concept of a transfer function of linear input-plant-output systems to
arbitrary quantum nonlinear Markovian input-output models. This is intended as
a tool in the characterization of quantum feedback control systems that fits in
with the general theory of networks. The definition exploits the linearity of
noise differentials in both the plant Heisenberg equations of motion and the
differential form of the input-output relations. Mathematically, the
characteristic operator is a matrix of dimension equal to the number of outputs
times the number of inputs (which must coincide), but with entries that are
operators of the plant system. In this sense the characteristic operator
retains details of the effective plant dynamical structure and is an
essentially quantum object. We illustrate the relevance to model reduction and
simplification by showing that the convergence of the characteristic operator
in adiabatic elimination limit models requires the same conditions and
assumptions appearing in the work on limit quantum stochastic differential
theorems of Bouten and Silberfarb. This approach also shows in a natural way
that the limit coefficients of the quantum stochastic differential equations in
adiabatic elimination problems arise algebraically as Schur complements, and
amounts to a model reduction where the fast degrees of freedom are decoupled
from the slow ones, and eliminated.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure (To appear Journal Mathematical Physics, January
2015
Clinical impact of double protease inhibitor boosting with Lopinavir/Ritonavir and Amprenavir as part of salvage antiretroviral therapy
Purpose: Double protease inhibitor (PI) boosting is being explored as a new strategy in salvage antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. However, if a negative drug interaction leads to decreased drug levels of either or both PIs, double PI boosting could lead to decreased virologic response. A negative drug interaction has been described between amprenavir (APV) and lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r). This observational cohort study assessed the virologic impact of the addition of APV to a salvage ARV regimen, which also contains LPV/r, compared to a regimen containing LPV/r alone. Method: Patients initiated on a salvage ARV regimen that included LPV/r obtained from the expanded access program in Toronto, Canada, were evaluated. APV (600-1,200 mg bid) was added at the discretion of the treating physician. Results: Using multivariate Cox proportional hazards models, we found that the addition of APV to a LPV/r-containing salvage regimen was not significantly associated with time to virologic suppression (< 50 copies/mL; adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 0.75, p = .12) or with time to virologic rebound (adjusted HR = 1.46, p = .34). Those patients who received higher doses of APV had an increased chance of virologic suppression (p = .03). In a subset of 27 patients, the median LPV Ctrough was significantly lower in patients receiving APV (p = .04), and the median APV Ctrough was reduced compared to reported controls. Conclusion: Our data do not support an additional benefit in virologic reduction of double boosting with APV and LPV/r relative to LPV/r alone in salvage ARV therapy. Our study's limitations include its retrospective nature and the imbalance between the two groups potentially confounding the results. Although these factors were adjusted for in the multivariate analysis, a prospective randomized controlled trial is warranted to confirm our findings
Methods for differentiating prion types in food-producing animals
Prions are an enigma amongst infectious disease agents as they lack a genome yet confer specific pathologies thought to be dictated mainly, if not solely, by the conformation of the disease form of the prion protein (PrPSc). Prion diseases affect humans and animals, the latter including the food-producing ruminant species cattle, sheep, goats and deer. Importantly, it has been shown that the disease agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is zoonotic, causing variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans. Current diagnostic tests can distinguish different prion types and in food- producing animals these focus on the differentiation of BSE from the non-zoonotic agents. Whilst BSE cases are now rare, atypical forms of both scrapie and BSE have been reported, as well as two types of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids. Typing of animal prion isolates remains an important aspect of prion diagnosis and is now becoming more focused on identifying the range of prion types that are present in food-producing animals and also developing tests that can screen for emerging, novel prion diseases. Here, we review prion typing methodologies in light of current and emerging prion types in food-producing animals
Classical 5D fields generated by a uniformly accelerated point source
Gauge fields associated with the manifestly covariant dynamics of particles
in spacetime are five-dimensional. In this paper we explore the old
problem of fields generated by a source undergoing hyperbolic motion in this
framework. The 5D fields are computed numerically using absolute time
-retarded Green-functions, and qualitatively compared with Maxwell fields
generated by the same motion. We find that although the zero mode of all fields
coincides with the corresponding Maxwell problem, the non-zero mode should
affect, through the Lorentz force, the observed motion of test particles.Comment: 36 pages, 8 figure
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