260 research outputs found
Safety and reactogenicity of the 10-valent pneumococcal non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV) co-administered with DTPa-HBV-IPV/Hib in Vietnamese infants
Continuous Quantum Measurement and the Quantum to Classical Transition
While ultimately they are described by quantum mechanics, macroscopic
mechanical systems are nevertheless observed to follow the trajectories
predicted by classical mechanics. Hence, in the regime defining macroscopic
physics, the trajectories of the correct classical motion must emerge from
quantum mechanics, a process referred to as the quantum to classical
transition. Extending previous work [Bhattacharya, Habib, and Jacobs, Phys.
Rev. Lett. {\bf 85}, 4852 (2000)], here we elucidate this transition in some
detail, showing that once the measurement processes which affect all
macroscopic systems are taken into account, quantum mechanics indeed predicts
the emergence of classical motion. We derive inequalities that describe the
parameter regime in which classical motion is obtained, and provide numerical
examples. We also demonstrate two further important properties of the classical
limit. First, that multiple observers all agree on the motion of an object, and
second, that classical statistical inference may be used to correctly track the
classical motion.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, Revtex
Inflationary Perturbations: the Cosmological Schwinger Effect
This pedagogical review aims at presenting the fundamental aspects of the
theory of inflationary cosmological perturbations of quantum-mechanical origin.
The analogy with the well-known Schwinger effect is discussed in detail and a
systematic comparison of the two physical phenomena is carried out. In
particular, it is demonstrated that the two underlying formalisms differ only
up to an irrelevant canonical transformation. Hence, the basic physical
mechanisms at play are similar in both cases and can be reduced to the
quantization of a parametric oscillator leading to particle creation due to the
interaction with a classical source: pair production in vacuum is therefore
equivalent to the appearance of a growing mode for the cosmological
fluctuations. The only difference lies in the nature of the source: an electric
field in the case of the Schwinger effect and the gravitational field in the
case of inflationary perturbations. Although, in the laboratory, it is
notoriously difficult to produce an electric field such that pairs extracted
from the vacuum can be detected, the gravitational field in the early universe
can be strong enough to lead to observable effects that ultimately reveal
themselves as temperature fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background.
Finally, the question of how quantum cosmological perturbations can be
considered as classical is discussed at the end of the article.Comment: 49 pages, 6 figures, to appear in a LNP volume "Inflationary
Cosmology
Feedback cooling of a nanomechanical resonator
Cooled, low-loss nanomechanical resonators offer the prospect of directly
observing the quantum dynamics of mesoscopic systems. However, the present
state of the art requires cooling down to the milliKelvin regime in order to
observe quantum effects. Here we present an active feedback strategy based on
continuous observation of the resonator position for the purpose of obtaining
these low temperatures. In addition, we apply this to an experimentally
realizable configuration, where the position monitoring is carried out by a
single-electron transistor. Our estimates indicate that with current technology
this technique is likely to bring the required low temperatures within reach.Comment: 10 pages, RevTex4, 4 color eps figure
Enhancement of near-cloaking. Part II: the Helmholtz equation
The aim of this paper is to extend the method of improving cloaking
structures in the conductivity to scattering problems. We construct very
effective near-cloaking structures for the scattering problem at a fixed
frequency. These new structures are, before using the transformation optics,
layered structures and are designed so that their first scattering coefficients
vanish. Inside the cloaking region, any target has near-zero scattering cross
section for a band of frequencies. We analytically show that our new
construction significantly enhances the cloaking effect for the Helmholtz
equation.Comment: 16pages, 12 fugure
Decoherence from a Chaotic Environment: An Upside Down "Oscillator" as a Model
Chaotic evolutions exhibit exponential sensitivity to initial conditions.
This suggests that even very small perturbations resulting from weak coupling
of a quantum chaotic environment to the position of a system whose state is a
non-local superposition will lead to rapid decoherence. However, it is also
known that quantum counterparts of classically chaotic systems lose exponential
sensitivity to initial conditions, so this expectation of enhanced decoherence
is by no means obvious. We analyze decoherence due to a "toy" quantum
environment that is analytically solvable, yet displays the crucial phenomenon
of exponential sensitivity to perturbations. We show that such an environment,
with a single degree of freedom, can be far more effective at destroying
quantum coherence than a heat bath with infinitely many degrees of freedom.
This also means that the standard "quantum Brownian motion" model for a
decohering environment may not be as universally applicable as it once was
conjectured to be.Comment: RevTeX, 29 pages, 5 EPS figures. Substantially rewritten analysis,
improved figures, additional references, and errors fixed. Final version (to
appear in PRA
Surfactant-Free Peroxidase-Mediated Enzymatic Polymerization of a Biorenewable Butyrolactone Monomer via a Green Approach:Synthesis of Sustainable Biobased Latexes
A green surfactant-free one-pot horseradish peroxidase-mediated enzymatic polymerization is successfully applied to produce a sustainable and thermally stable biobased high average molar mass poly(α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone) (PMBL) at ambient conditions in water for the first time. The initiation step required only very low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and 2,4-pentanedione water-soluble initiator to generate the keto-enoxy radicals responsible for forming the primary latex particles. The polymer nanoparticles can be seen as monodisperse, and the biobased latexes are colloidally stable and likely stabilized by the adsorption of 2,4-pentanedione moieties on the particle surfaces. Polymerizations in air produced a 98% yield of PMBL after only 3 h, highlighting the relevance of molecular oxygen. An array of characterization techniques such as dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), 1H, 13C, and HSQC two-dimensional (2D) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) are used to confirm the properties of the synthesized latexes. The PMBL exhibited high thermal stability, with only a 5% weight loss at 340 °C and a glass-transition temperature of 200 °C, which is double that of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). This research provides an interesting pathway for the synthesis of sustainable biobased latexes via enzymes in a green environment using just water at ambient conditions and the potential use of the polymer in high-temperature applications.</p
Surfactant-Free Peroxidase-Mediated Enzymatic Polymerization of a Biorenewable Butyrolactone Monomer via a Green Approach:Synthesis of Sustainable Biobased Latexes
A green surfactant-free one-pot horseradish peroxidase-mediated enzymatic polymerization is successfully applied to produce a sustainable and thermally stable biobased high average molar mass poly(α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone) (PMBL) at ambient conditions in water for the first time. The initiation step required only very low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and 2,4-pentanedione water-soluble initiator to generate the keto-enoxy radicals responsible for forming the primary latex particles. The polymer nanoparticles can be seen as monodisperse, and the biobased latexes are colloidally stable and likely stabilized by the adsorption of 2,4-pentanedione moieties on the particle surfaces. Polymerizations in air produced a 98% yield of PMBL after only 3 h, highlighting the relevance of molecular oxygen. An array of characterization techniques such as dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), 1H, 13C, and HSQC two-dimensional (2D) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) are used to confirm the properties of the synthesized latexes. The PMBL exhibited high thermal stability, with only a 5% weight loss at 340 °C and a glass-transition temperature of 200 °C, which is double that of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). This research provides an interesting pathway for the synthesis of sustainable biobased latexes via enzymes in a green environment using just water at ambient conditions and the potential use of the polymer in high-temperature applications.</p
Monte Carlo reconstruction of the inflationary potential
We present Monte Carlo reconstruction, a new method for ``inverting''
observational data to constrain the form of the scalar field potential
responsible for inflation. This stochastic technique is based on the flow
equation formalism and has distinct advantages over reconstruction methods
based on a Taylor expansion of the potential. The primary ansatz required for
Monte Carlo reconstruction is simply that inflation is driven by a single
scalar field. We also require a very mild slow roll constraint, which can be
made arbitrarily weak since Monte Carlo reconstruction is implemented at
arbitrary order in the slow roll expansion. While our method cannot evade
fundamental limits on the accuracy of reconstruction, it can be simply and
consistently applied to poor data sets, and it takes advantage of the attractor
properties of single-field inflation models to constrain the potential outside
the small region directly probed by observations. We show examples of Monte
Carlo reconstruction for data sets similar to that expected from the Planck
satellite, and for a hypothetical measurement with a factor of five better
parameter discrimination than Planck.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures (RevTeX 4) Version submitted to PRD: references
added, minor clarification
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