Powder containing 2H-type silicon carbide produced by reacting silicon dioxide and carbon powder in nitrogen atmosphere in the presence of aluminum

The production of powder which contains silicon carbide consisting of 40% of 2H-type silicon carbide, beta type silicon carbide and less than 3% of nitrogen is discussed. The reaction temperature to produce the powder containing 40% of 2H-type silicon carbide is set at above 1550 degrees C in an atmosphere of aluminum or aluminum compounds and nitrogen gas or an antioxidation atmosphere containing nitrogen gas. The mixture ratio of silicon dioxide and carbon powder is 0.55 - 1:2.0 and the contents of aluminum or aluminum compounds within silicon dioxide is less than 3% in weight

Actively Contracting Bundles of Polar Filaments

We introduce a phenomenological model to study the properties of bundles of polar filaments which interact via active elements. The stability of the homogeneous state, the attractors of the dynamics in the unstable regime and the tensile stress generated in the bundle are discussed. We find that the interaction of parallel filaments can induce unstable behavior and is responsible for active contraction and tension in the bundle. Interaction between antiparallel filaments leads to filament sorting. Our model could apply to simple contractile structures in cells such as stress fibers.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTex, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Megabits secure key rate quantum key distribution

Quantum cryptography (QC) can provide unconditional secure communication between two authorized parties based on the basic principles of quantum mechanics. However, imperfect practical conditions limit its transmission distance and communication speed. Here we implemented the differential phase shift (DPS) quantum key distribution (QKD) with up-conversion assisted hybrid photon detector (HPD) and achieved 1.3 M bits per second secure key rate over a 10-km fiber, which is tolerant against the photon number splitting (PNS) attack, general collective attacks on individual photons, and any other known sequential unambiguous state discrimination (USD) attacks.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Pattern formation driven by nematic ordering of assembling biopolymers

The biopolymers actin and microtubules are often in an ongoing assembling/disassembling state far from thermal equilibrium. Above a critical density this leads to spatially periodic patterns, as shown by a scaling argument and in terms of a phenomenological continuum model, that meets also Onsager's statistical theory of the nematic--to--isotropic transition in the absence of reaction kinetics. This pattern forming process depends much on nonlinear effects and a common linear stability analysis of the isotropic distribution of the filaments is often misleading. The wave number of the pattern decreases with the assembling/disassembling rate and there is an uncommon discontinuous transition between the nematic and the periodic state.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

An evaluation of metal removal during wastewater treatment: The potential to achieve more stringent final effluent standards

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 Taylor & Francis.Metals are of particular importance in relation to water quality, and concern regarding the impact of these contaminants on biodiversity is being encapsulated within the latest water-related legislation such as the Water Framework Directive in Europe and criteria revisions to the Clean Water Act in the United States. This review undertakes an evaluation of the potential of 2-stage wastewater treatment consisting of primary sedimentation and biological treatment in the form of activated sludge processes, to meet more stringent discharge consents that are likely to be introduced as a consequence. The legislation, sources of metals, and mechanisms responsible for their removal are discussed, to elucidate possible pathways by which the performance of conventional processes may be optimized or enhanced. Improvements in effluent quality, achievable by reducing concentrations of suspended solids or biochemical oxygen demand, may also reduce metal concentrations although meeting possible requirements for the removal of copper my be challenging

Self-organization and Mechanical Properties of Active Filament Bundles

A phenomenological description for active bundles of polar filaments is presented. The activity of the bundle results from crosslinks, that induce relative displacements between the aligned filaments. Our generic description is based on momentum conservation within the bundle. By specifying the internal forces, a simple minimal model for the bundle dynamics is obtained, capturing generic dynamic behaviors. In particular, contracted states as well as solitary and oscillatory waves appear through dynamic instabilities. The introduction of filament adhesion leads to self-organized persistent filament transport. Furthermore, calculating the tension, homogeneous bundles are shown to be able to actively contract and to perform work against external forces. Our description is motivated by dynamic phenomena in the cytoskeleton and could apply to stress-fibers and self-organization phenomena during cell-locomotion.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure