14,517 research outputs found
Technical Note: Could benzalkonium chloride be a suitable alternative to mercuric chloride for preservation of seawater samples?
Instrumental equipment unsuitable or unavailable for fieldwork as well as lack of ship space can necessitate the preservation of seawater samples prior to analysis in a shore-based laboratory. Mercuric chloride (HgCl2) is routinely used for such preservation, but its handling and subsequent disposal incur environmental risks and significant expense. There is therefore a strong motivation to find less hazardous alternatives. Benzalkonium chloride (BAC) has been used previously as microbial inhibitor for freshwater samples. Here, we assess the use of BAC for marine samples prior to the measurement of oxygen-to-argon (O2 / Ar) ratios, as used for the determination of biological net community production. BAC at a concentration of 50 mg dm−3 inhibited microbial activity for at least 3 days in samples tested with chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations up to 1 mg m−3. BAC concentrations of 100 and 200 mg dm−3 were no more effective than 50 mg dm−3 . With fewer risks to human health and the environment, and no requirement for expensive waste disposal, BAC could be a viable alternative to HgCl2 for short-term preservation of seawater samples, but is not a replacement for HgCl2 in the case of oxygen triple isotope analysis, which requires storage over weeks to months. In any event, further tests on a case-by-case basis should be undertaken if use of BAC was considered, since its inhibitory activity may depend on concentration and composition of the microbial community
From Graphene constrictions to single carbon chains
We present an atomic-resolution observation and analysis of graphene
constrictions and ribbons with sub-nanometer width. Graphene membranes are
studied by imaging side spherical aberration-corrected transmission electron
microscopy at 80 kV. Holes are formed in the honeycomb-like structure due to
radiation damage. As the holes grow and two holes approach each other, the
hexagonal structure that lies between them narrows down. Transitions and
deviations from the hexagonal structure in this graphene ribbon occur as its
width shrinks below one nanometer. Some reconstructions, involving more
pentagons and heptagons than hexagons, turn out to be surprisingly stable.
Finally, single carbon atom chain bridges between graphene contacts are
observed. The dynamics are observed in real time at atomic resolution with
enough sensitivity to detect every carbon atom that remains stable for a
sufficient amount of time. The carbon chains appear reproducibly and in various
configurations from graphene bridges, between adsorbates, or at open edges and
seem to represent one of the most stable configurations that a few-atomic
carbon system accomodates in the presence of continuous energy input from the
electron beam.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Detecting the Earliest Galaxies Through Two New Sources of 21cm Fluctuations
The first galaxies that formed at a redshift ~20-30 emitted continuum photons
with energies between the Lyman-alpha and Lyman limit wavelengths of hydrogen,
to which the neutral universe was transparent except at the Lyman-series
resonances. As these photons redshifted or scattered into the Lyman-alpha
resonance they coupled the spin temperature of the 21cm transition of hydrogen
to the gas temperature, allowing it to deviate from the microwave background
temperature. We show that the fluctuations in the radiation emitted by the
first galaxies produced strong fluctuations in the 21cm flux before the
Lyman-alpha coupling became saturated. The fluctuations were caused by biased
inhomogeneities in the density of galaxies, along with Poisson fluctuations in
the number of galaxies. Observing the power-spectra of these two sources would
probe the number density of the earliest galaxies and the typical mass of their
host dark matter halos. The enhanced amplitude of the 21cm fluctuations from
the era of Lyman-alpha coupling improves considerably the practical prospects
for their detection.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, ApJ, published. Normalization fixed in top
panels of Figures 4-
A modular approach to the antifungal sphingofungin family: concise total synthesis of sphingofungin A and C
Sphingofungins are fungal natural products known to inhibit the biosynthesis of sphingolipids which play pivotal roles in various cell functions. Here, we report a short and flexible synthetic approach towards the sphingofungin family. Key step of the synthesis was a decarboxylative cross-coupling reaction of chiral sulfinyl imines with a functionalized tartaric acid derivative, which yielded the core motive of sphingofungins carrying four consecutive stereocenters and a terminal double bond. Subsequent metathesis reaction allowed for the introduction of different side chains of choice resulting in a total of eight sphingofungins, including for the first time sphingofungin C (eight steps from commercially available protected tartaric acid with an overall yield of 6%) and sphingofungin A (ten steps). All newly synthesized derivatives were tested for their antifungal, cell proliferative and antiparasitic activity unraveling their structure-activity relations
Closed-loop and congestion control of the global carbon climate system
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The global carbon-climate system is a complex dynamical system with multiple feedbacks among components, and to steer this system away from dangerous climate change, it may not be enough to prescribe action according to long-term scenarios of fossil fuel emissions. We introduce here concepts from control theory, a branch of applied mathematics that is effective at steering complex dynamical systems to desired states, and distinguish between open- and closed-loop control. We attempt (1) to show that current scientific work on carbon-climate feedbacks and climate policy more closely resembles the conceptual model of open- than closed-loop control, (2) to introduce a mathematical generalization of the carbon-climate system as a compartmental dynamical system that can facilitate the formal treatment of the closed-loop control problem, and (3) to formulate carbon-climate control as a congestion control problem, discussing important concepts such as observability and controllability. We also show that most previous discussions on climate change mitigation and policy development have relied on an implicit assumption of open-loop control that does not consider frequent corrections due to deviations of goals from observations. Using a reduced complexity model, we illustrate that the problem of managing the global carbon cycle can be abstracted as a network congestion problem, accounting for nonlinear behavior and feedback from a global carbon monitoring system. As opposed to <jats:italic>scenarios</jats:italic>, the goal of closed-loop control is to develop <jats:italic>rules</jats:italic> for continuously steering the global carbon-climate system away from dangerous climate change.</jats:p>
A New Shear Estimator for Weak Lensing Observations
We present a new shear estimator for weak lensing observations which properly
accounts for the effects of a realistic point spread function (PSF). Images of
faint galaxies are subject to gravitational shearing followed by smearing with
the instrumental and/or atmospheric PSF. We construct a `finite resolution
shear operator' which when applied to an observed image has the same effect as
a gravitational shear applied prior to smearing. This operator allows one to
calibrate essentially any shear estimator. We then specialize to the case of
weighted second moment shear estimators. We compute the shear polarizability
which gives the response of an individual galaxy's polarization to a
gravitational shear. We then compute the response of the population of
galaxies, and thereby construct an optimal weighting scheme for combining shear
estimates from galaxies of various shapes, luminosities and sizes. We define a
figure of merit --- an inverse shear variance per unit solid angle --- which
characterizes the quality of image data for shear measurement. The new method
is tested with simulated image data. We discuss the correction for anisotropy
of the PSF and propose a new technique involving measuring shapes from images
which have been convolved with a re-circularizing PSF. We draw attention to a
hitherto ignored noise related bias and show how this can be analyzed and
corrected for. The analysis here draws heavily on the properties of real PSF's
and we include as an appendix a brief review, highlighting those aspects which
are relevant for weak lensing.Comment: 39 pages, 9 figure
Cooperative Scattering by Cold Atoms
We have studied the interplay between disorder and cooperative scattering for
single scattering limit in the presence of a driving laser. Analytical results
have been derived and we have observed cooperative scattering effects in a
variety of experiments, ranging from thermal atoms in an optical dipole trap,
atoms released from a dark MOT and atoms in a BEC, consistent with our
theoretical predictions.Comment: submitted for special issue of PQE 201
Measuring the Reduced Shear
Neglecting the second order corrections in weak lensing measurements can lead
to a few percent uncertainties on cosmic shears, and becomes more important for
cluster lensing mass reconstructions. Existing methods which claim to measure
the reduced shears are not necessarily accurate to the second order when a
point spread function (PSF) is present. We show that the method of Zhang (2008)
exactly measures the reduced shears at the second order level in the presence
of PSF. A simple theorem is provided for further confirming our calculation,
and for judging the accuracy of any shear measurement method at the second
order based on its properties at the first order. The method of Zhang (2008) is
well defined mathematically. It does not require assumptions on the
morphologies of galaxies and the PSF. To reach a sub-percent level accuracy,
the CCD pixel size is required to be not larger than 1/3 of the Full Width at
Half Maximum (FWHM) of the PSF. Using a large ensemble (> 10^7) of mock
galaxies of unrestricted morphologies, we find that contaminations to the shear
signals from the noise of background photons can be removed in a well defined
way because they are not correlated with the source shapes. The residual shear
measurement errors due to background noise are consistent with zero at the
sub-percent level even when the amplitude of such noise reaches about 1/10 of
the source flux within the half-light radius of the source. This limit can in
principle be extended further with a larger galaxy ensemble in our simulations.
On the other hand, the source Poisson noise remains to be a cause of systematic
errors. For a sub-percent level accuracy, our method requires the amplitude of
the source Poisson noise to be less than 1/80 ~ 1/100 of the source flux within
the half-light radius of the source, corresponding to collecting roughly 10^4
source photons.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, minor changes from the previous
versio
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