31,505 research outputs found
Cloudphysical Parameters in Dependence on Height above Cloud Base in Different Clouds.
On flights with the DLR icing research aircraft the dependence of aircraft icing on cloudphysical parameters was determined; both for aircraft-referred icing and for normalized icing, as well as for various clouds and locations in clouds. This is done with an improvement of icing predicitons in mind. The species of the cloud and the distance from cloud base are called here cloud parameters; while under cloudphysical parameters are understood liquid water content, temperature, particle size distribution and particle phase. Results from four icing flights are discussed, selected from a total of forty vertical soundings. —The results are arranged in four classes: Stratus/cumulus mixed, stratus; with and without precipitation at the ground
Mesoscopic Thermovoltage Measurement Design
Quantitative thermoelectric measurements in the mesoscopic regime require
accurate knowledge of temperature, thermovoltage, and device energy scales. We
consider the effect of a finite load resistance on thermovoltage measurements
of InAs/InP heterostructure nanowires. Load resistance and ac attenuation
distort the measured thermovoltage therefore complicating the evaluation of
device performance. Understanding these effects improves experimental design
and data interpretation.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figure
Studies on the bit rate requirements for a HDTV format with 1920 1080 pixel resolution, progressive scanning at 50 Hz frame rate targeting large flat panel displays
This paper considers the potential for an HDTV delivery format with 1920 times 1080 pixels progressive scanning and 50 frames per second in broadcast applications. The paper discusses the difficulties in characterizing the display to be assumed for reception. It elaborates on the required bit rate of the 1080p/50 format when critical content is coded in MPEG-4 H.264 AVC Part 10 and subjectively viewed on a large, flat panel display with 1920 times 1080 pixel resolution. The paper describes the initial subjective quality evaluations that have been made in these conditions. The results of these initial tests suggest that the required bit-rate for a 1080p/50 HDTV signal in emission could be kept equal or lower than that of 2nd generation HDTV formats, to achieve equal or better image qualit
Quantum-dot thermometry
We present a method for the measurement of a temperature differential across
a single quantum dot that has transmission resonances that are separated in
energy by much more than the thermal energy. We determine numerically that the
method is accurate to within a few percent across a wide range of parameters.
The proposed method measures the temperature of the electrons that enter the
quantum dot and will be useful in experiments that aim to test theory which
predicts quantum dots are highly-efficient thermoelectrics.Comment: 3 pages, 4 Figure
Lineshape of the thermopower of quantum dots
Quantum dots are an important model system for thermoelectric phenomena, and
may be used to enhance the thermal-to-electric energy conversion efficiency in
functional materials. It is therefore important to obtain a detailed
understanding of a quantum-dot's thermopower as a function of the Fermi energy.
However, so far it has proven difficult to take effects of co-tunnelling into
account in the interpretation of experimental data. Here we show that a
single-electron tunnelling model, using knowledge of the dot's electrical
conductance which in fact includes all-order co-tunneling effects, predicts the
thermopower of quantum dots as a function of the relevant energy scales, in
very good agreement with experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
KWISP: an ultra-sensitive force sensor for the Dark Energy sector
An ultra-sensitive opto-mechanical force sensor has been built and tested in
the optics laboratory at INFN Trieste. Its application to experiments in the
Dark Energy sector, such as those for Chameleon-type WISPs, is particularly
attractive, as it enables a search for their direct coupling to matter. We
present here the main characteristics and the absolute force calibration of the
KWISP (Kinetic WISP detection) sensor. It is based on a thin Si3N4
micro-membrane placed inside a Fabry-Perot optical cavity. By monitoring the
cavity characteristic frequencies it is possible to detect the tiny membrane
displacements caused by an applied force. Far from the mechanical resonant
frequency of the membrane, the measured force sensitivity is 5.0e-14
N/sqrt(Hz), corresponding to a displacement sensitivity of 2.5e-15 m/sqrt(Hz),
while near resonance the sensitivity is 1.5e-14 N/sqrt(Hz), reaching the
estimated thermal limit, or, in terms of displacement, 7.5e-16 N/sqrt(Hz).
These displacement sensitivities are comparable to those that can be achieved
by large interferometric gravitational wave detectors.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures in colo
Integrating across memory episodes: Developmental trends
Memory enables us to use information from our past experiences to guide new behaviours, calling for the need to integrate or form inference across multiple distinct episodic experiences. Here, we compared children (aged 9-10 years), adolescents (aged 12-13 years), and young adults (aged 19-25 years) on their ability to form integration across overlapping associations in memory. Participants first encoded a set of overlapping, direct AB- and BC-associations (object-face and face-object pairs) as well as non-overlapping, unique DE-associations. They were then tested on these associations and inferential AC-associations. The experiment consisted of four such encoding/retrieval cycles, each consisting of different stimuli set. For accuracy on both unique and inferential associations, young adults were found to outperform teenagers, who in turn outperformed children. However, children were particularly slower than teenagers and young adults in making judgements during inferential than during unique associations. This suggests that children may rely more on making inferences during retrieval, by first retrieving the direct associations, followed by making the inferential judgement. Furthermore, young adults showed a higher correlation between accuracy in direct (AB, BC) and inferential AC-associations than children. This suggests that, young adults relied closely on AB- and BC-associations for making AC decisions, potentially by forming integrated ABC-triplets during encoding or retrieval. Taken together, our findings suggest that there may be an age-related shift in how information is integrated across experienced episodes, namely from relying on making inferences at retrieval during middle childhood to forming integrated representations at different memory processing stages in adulthood
Detecting solar chameleons through radiation pressure
Light scalar fields can drive the accelerated expansion of the universe.
Hence, they are obvious dark energy candidates. To make such models compatible
with tests of General Relativity in the solar system and "fifth force" searches
on Earth, one needs to screen them. One possibility is the so-called
"chameleon" mechanism, which renders an effective mass depending on the local
matter density. If chameleon particles exist, they can be produced in the sun
and detected on Earth exploiting the equivalent of a radiation pressure. Since
their effective mass scales with the local matter density, chameleons can be
reflected by a dense medium if their effective mass becomes greater than their
total energy. Thus, under appropriate conditions, a flux of solar chameleons
may be sensed by detecting the total instantaneous momentum transferred to a
suitable opto-mechanical force/pressure sensor. We calculate the solar
chameleon spectrum and the reach in the chameleon parameter space of an
experiment using the preliminary results from a force/pressure sensor,
currently under development at INFN Trieste, to be mounted in the focal plane
of one of the X-Ray telescopes of the CAST experiment at CERN. We show, that
such an experiment signifies a pioneering effort probing uncharted chameleon
parameter space.Comment: revised versio
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