1,605 research outputs found
Study of the one-dimensional off-lattice hot-monomer reaction model
Hot monomers are particles having a transient mobility (a ballistic flight)
prior to being definitely absorbed on a surface. After arriving at a surface,
the excess energy coming from the kinetic energy in the gas phase is dissipated
through degrees of freedom parallel to the surface plane. In this paper we
study the hot monomer-monomer adsorption-reaction process on a continuum
(off-lattice) one-dimensional space by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The
system exhibits second-order irreversible phase transition between a reactive
and saturated (absorbing) phases which belong to the directed percolation (DP)
universality class. This result is interpreted by means of a coarse-grained
Langevin description which allows as to extend the DP conjecture to transitions
occurring in continuous media.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, final version to appear in J. Phys.
Dynamic Critical approach to Self-Organized Criticality
A dynamic scaling Ansatz for the approach to the Self-Organized Critical
(SOC) regime is proposed and tested by means of extensive simulations applied
to the Bak-Sneppen model (BS), which exhibits robust SOC behavior. Considering
the short-time scaling behavior of the density of sites () below the
critical value, it is shown that i) starting the dynamics with configurations
such that one observes an {\it initial increase} of the
density with exponent ; ii) using initial configurations with
, the density decays with exponent . It is
also shown that he temporal autocorrelation decays with exponent . Using these, dynamically determined, critical exponents and suitable
scaling relationships, all known exponents of the BS model can be obtained,
e.g. the dynamical exponent , the mass dimension exponent , and the exponent of all returns of the activity , in excellent agreement with values already accepted and obtained
within the SOC regime.Comment: Rapid Communication Physical Review E in press (4 pages, 5 figures
Short-Time Critical Dynamics of Damage Spreading in the Two-Dimensional Ising Model
The short-time critical dynamics of propagation of damage in the Ising
ferromagnet in two dimensions is studied by means of Monte Carlo simulations.
Starting with equilibrium configurations at and magnetization
, an initial damage is created by flipping a small amount of spins in one
of the two replicas studied. In this way, the initial damage is proportional to
the initial magnetization in one of the configurations upon quenching the
system at , the Onsager critical temperature of the
ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition. It is found that, at short times, the
damage increases with an exponent , which is much larger
than the exponent characteristic of the initial increase of the
magnetization . Also, an epidemic study was performed. It is found that
the average distance from the origin of the epidemic ()
grows with an exponent , which is the same,
within error bars, as the exponent . However, the survival
probability of the epidemics reaches a plateau so that . On the other
hand, by quenching the system to lower temperatures one observes the critical
spreading of the damage at , where all the measured
observables exhibit power laws with exponents , , and .Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures (included). Phys. Rev. E (2010), in press
Microbiological quality of Portuguese yogurts
The microbiological quality of four brands of natural yogurts and two probiotic yogurts available in the Portuguese
market, was evaluated during the shelf-life period. Although the specific flora decreased during storage it was always
within the range of recommended values. No coliforms and an insignificant number of fungi were detected
Antibiotic resistance of Enterobacteriaceae isolated from the domestic food related environments
Background: Multidrug resistant Enterobacteriaceae which was confined to the hospital environments is now emerging in the domestic food related environments as well. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of antibiotic re-sistant Enterobacteriaceae in the domestic food related environments. Methods: Resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, tetracy-cline, nalidixic acid, nitrofurantoin, and trimethoprim was evaluated in 125 isolates; col-lected in domestic food related environments using agar micro dilution method. Results: Results indicated that 49.6% of the isolates were resistant to at least one antibi-otic (32.8% to ampicillin, 6.4% to nitrofurantoin, 4% to tetracycline, 3.2% to nalidixic acid, 2.4% to chloramphenicol and 1.7% to trimethoprim). Resistance to multiple antibi-otics was observed in 6.4% of the isolates. Conclusion: This study implicates existence of antibiotic resistant Enterobactericeae in the domestic food related environments. This resistance phenomenon requires continual vigilance; and further studies are required to evaluate the role of domestic surfaces in the transmission of resistant pathogens and spread of infectious diseases.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Measurements of the Yield Stress in Frictionless Granular Systems
We perform extensive molecular dynamics simulations of 2D frictionless
granular materials to determine whether these systems can be characterized by a
single static yield shear stress. We consider boundary-driven planar shear at
constant volume and either constant shear force or constant shear velocity.
Under steady flow conditions, these two ensembles give similar results for the
average shear stress versus shear velocity. However, near jamming it is
possible that the shear stress required to initiate shear flow can differ
substantially from the shear stress required to maintain flow. We perform
several measurements of the shear stress near the initiation and cessation of
flow. At fixed shear velocity, we measure the average shear stress
in the limit of zero shear velocity. At fixed shear force, we
measure the minimum shear stress required to maintain steady flow
at long times. We find that in finite-size systems ,
which implies that there is a jump discontinuity in the shear velocity from
zero to a finite value when these systems begin flowing at constant shear
force. However, our simulations show that the difference , and thus the discontinuity in the shear velocity, tend to zero in
the infinite system size limit. Thus, our results indicate that in the large
system limit, frictionless granular systems are characterized by a single
static yield shear stress. We also monitor the short-time response of these
systems to applied shear and show that the packing fraction of the system and
shape of the velocity profile can strongly influence whether or not the shear
stress at short times overshoots the long-time average value.Comment: 7 pages and 6 figure
Mechanistic model for the electrochemical facetting of metals with development of preferred crystallographic orientations
A model for the development of surface profiles of face-centred cubic metals which can be related to the electrochemical facetting with preferred, oriented crystallographic planes, is proposed and simulated by means of the Monte Carlo method. Successive cycles of selective electrodissolution and electrodeposition under a periodic potential are simulated through the withdrawal and attachment of particles to the metal profile according to specified rules which are supported by experimental observations. The model is applied to the development of two different crystallographic faces starting from either perfectly-ordered void-free profiles (single crystal approach) or a rough profile with defects in the bulk (polycrystal approach). The simulation results are in qualitative agreement with electrochemical facetting data, scanning electron microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy images of various face-centred cubic metals.Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y AplicadasFacultad de Ciencias Exacta
Experimental evidence on the development of scale invariance in the internal structure of self-affine aggregates
It is shown that an alternative approach for the characterization of growing
branched patterns consists of the statistical analysis of frozen structures,
which cannot be modified by further growth, that arise due to competitive
processes among neighbor growing structures. Scaling relationships applied to
these structures provide a method to evaluate relevant exponents and to
characterize growing systems into universality classes. The analysis is applied
to quasi-two-dimensional electrochemically formed silver branched patterns
showing that the size distribution of frozen structures exhibits scale
invariance. The measured exponents, within the error bars, remind us those
predicted by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Effect of Gravity and Confinement on Phase Equilibria: A Density Matrix Renormalization Approach
The phase diagram of the 2D Ising model confined between two infinite walls
and subject to opposing surface fields and to a bulk "gravitational" field is
calculated by means of density matrix renormalization methods. In absence of
gravity two phase coexistence is restricted to temperatures below the wetting
temperature. We find that gravity restores the two phase coexistence up to the
bulk critical temperature, in agreement with previous mean-field predictions.
We calculate the exponents governing the finite size scaling in the temperature
and in the gravitational field directions. The former is the exponent which
describes the shift of the critical temperature in capillary condensation. The
latter agrees, for large surface fields, with a scaling assumption of Van
Leeuwen and Sengers. Magnetization profiles in the two phase and in the single
phase region are calculated. The profiles in the single phase region, where an
interface is present, agree well with magnetization profiles calculated from a
simple solid-on-solid interface hamiltonian.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX and 4 PostScript figures included. Final version as
published. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
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