28,984 research outputs found
Towards the development of safe and commercially viable nickel–iron batteries: improvements to Coulombic efficiency at high iron sulphide electrode formulations
NiFe batteries are emerging as an important energy storage technology but suffer from a hydrogen-producing side reaction which has safety implications and reduces coulombic efficiency. This manuscript describes a systematic improvement approach for the production of Fe/FeS-based anodes at high concentrations of iron sulphide. Electrodes were made by mixing varying amounts of iron sulphide in such a way that its concentration ranges from between 50 and 100 % (compositions expressed on a PTFE-free basis). Electrode performance was evaluated by cycling our in-house-produced anodes against commercially available nickel electrodes. The results show that anodes produced with larger concentrations outperform their lower concentration counterparts in terms of coulombic efficiency although a slight decrease in the overall cell performance was found when using pure FeS anodes. At high FeS concentrations a hydrogen-producing side reaction has been virtually eliminated resulting in coulombic efficiencies of over 95 %. This has important implications for the safety and commercial development of NiFe batteries
Quantum fluctuations of a vortex in an optical lattice
Using a variational ansatz for the wave function of the Bose-Einstein
condensate, we develop a quantum theory of vortices and quadrupole modes in a
one-dimensional optical lattice. We study the coupling between the quadrupole
modes and Kelvin modes, which turns out to be formally analogous to the theory
of parametric processes in quantum optics. This leads to the possibility of
squeezing vortices. We solve the quantum multimode problem for the Kelvin modes
and quadrupole modes numerically and find properties that cannot be explained
with a simple linear-response theory.Comment: final version, minor change
Power-law weighted networks from local attachments
This letter introduces a mechanism for constructing, through a process of
distributed decision-making, substrates for the study of collective dynamics on
extended power-law weighted networks with both a desired scaling exponent and a
fixed clustering coefficient. The analytical results show that the connectivity
distribution converges to the scaling behavior often found in social and
engineering systems. To illustrate the approach of the proposed framework we
generate network substrates that resemble steady state properties of the
empirical citation distributions of (i) publications indexed by the Institute
for Scientific Information from 1981 to 1997; (ii) patents granted by the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office from 1975 to 1999; and (iii) opinions written by
the Supreme Court and the cases they cite from 1754 to 2002.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures; Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision
and Control and the European Control Conference, Orlando, FL, Dec. 2011;
Added references; We modified the model in order to take into account
extended power-law distributions which better fit to the citations data sets;
Added proofs of theorems; Shorten version; Updated plo
Perturbation expansions for a class of singular potentials
Harrell's modified perturbation theory [Ann. Phys. 105, 379-406 (1977)] is
applied and extended to obtain non-power perturbation expansions for a class of
singular Hamiltonians H = -D^2 + x^2 + A/x^2 + lambda/x^alpha, (A\geq 0, alpha
> 2), known as generalized spiked harmonic oscillators. The perturbation
expansions developed here are valid for small values of the coupling lambda >
0, and they extend the results which Harrell obtained for the spiked harmonic
oscillator A = 0. Formulas for the the excited-states are also developed.Comment: 23 page
Almost Engel finite and profinite groups
Let g be an element of a group G. For a positive integer n, let En(g) be the subgroup generated by all commutators [:::[[x; g]; g]; : : : ; g] over x 2 G, where g is repeated n times. We prove that if G is a prfinite group such that for every g 2 G there is n = n(g) such that En(g) is finite, then G has afinite normal subgroup N such that G=N is locally nilpotent. The proof uses the Wilson{Zelmanov theorem saying that Engel profinite groups are locally nilpotent. In the case of a finite group G, we prove that if, for some n, jEn(g)j 6 m for all g 2 G, then the order of the nilpotent residual 1(G) is bounded in terms of m
Spiked oscillators: exact solution
A procedure to obtain the eigenenergies and eigenfunctions of a quantum
spiked oscillator is presented. The originality of the method lies in an
adequate use of asymptotic expansions of Wronskians of algebraic solutions of
the Schroedinger equation. The procedure is applied to three familiar examples
of spiked oscillators
The political economy of the Jospin government
This article explores the political economy of the French Socialist Party (PS), beginning with the neo-liberal U-turn of 1983. It then charts the re-evaluation of the PS's political economic foundations after the 1993 defeat, the rejection of the neo-liberal 'pensée unique', and the rehabilitation of a broadly Keynesian frame of reference. The article goes on to explore how this shift has fed through into the Jospin government's policy and positions at both the national and international level. It explores aspirations to reinvent the EU as a Keynesian social democratic 'policy space', and at the national level, employment, macroeconomic, and structural policies
Topology and energy transport in networks of interacting photosynthetic complexes
We address the role of topology in the energy transport process that occurs
in networks of photosynthetic complexes. We take inspiration from light
harvesting networks present in purple bacteria and simulate an incoherent
dissipative energy transport process on more general and abstract networks,
considering both regular structures (Cayley trees and hyperbranched fractals)
and randomly-generated ones. We focus on the the two primary light harvesting
complexes of purple bacteria, i.e., the LH1 and LH2, and we use
network-theoretical centrality measures in order to select different LH1
arrangements. We show that different choices cause significant differences in
the transport efficiencies, and that for regular networks centrality measures
allow to identify arrangements that ensure transport efficiencies which are
better than those obtained with a random disposition of the complexes. The
optimal arrangements strongly depend on the dissipative nature of the dynamics
and on the topological properties of the networks considered, and depending on
the latter they are achieved by using global vs. local centrality measures. For
randomly-generated networks a random arrangement of the complexes already
provides efficient transport, and this suggests the process is strong with
respect to limited amount of control in the structure design and to the
disorder inherent in the construction of randomly-assembled structures.
Finally, we compare the networks considered with the real biological networks
and find that the latter have in general better performances, due to their
higher connectivity, but the former with optimal arrangements can mimic the
real networks' behaviour for a specific range of transport parameters. These
results show that the use of network-theoretical concepts can be crucial for
the characterization and design of efficient artificial energy transport
networks.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, revised versio
Dislocation interactions mediated by grain boundaries
The dynamics of dislocation assemblies in deforming crystals indicate the
emergence of collective phenomena, intermittent fluctuations and strain
avalanches. In polycrystalline materials, the understanding of plastic
deformation mechanisms depends on grasping the role of grain boundaries on
dislocation motion. Here the interaction of dislocations and elastic, low angle
grain boundaries is studied in the framework of a discrete dislocation
representation. We allow grain boundaries to deform under the effect of
dislocation stress fields and compare the effect of such a perturbation to the
case of rigid grain boudaries. We are able to determine, both analytically and
numerically, corrections to dislocation stress fields acting on neighboring
grains, as mediated by grain boundary deformation. Finally, we discuss
conclusions and consequences for the avalanche statistics, as observed in
polycrystalline samples.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Plate-impact loading of cellular structures formed by selective laser melting
Porous materials are of great interest because of improved energy absorption over their solid counterparts. Their properties, however, have been difficult to optimize. Additive manufacturing has emerged as a potential technique to closely define the structure and properties of porous components, i.e. density, strut width and pore size; however, the behaviour of these materials at very high impact energies remains largely unexplored. We describe an initial study of the dynamic compression response of lattice materials fabricated through additive manufacturing. Lattices consisting of an array of intersecting stainless steel rods were fabricated into discs using selective laser melting. The resulting discs were impacted against solid stainless steel targets at velocities ranging from 300 to 700 m s-1 using a gas gun. Continuum CTH simulations were performed to identify key features in the measured wave profiles, while 3D simulations, in which the individual cells were modelled, revealed details of microscale deformation during collapse of the lattice structure. The validated computer models have been used to provide an understanding of the deformation processes in the cellular samples. The study supports the optimization of cellular structures for application as energy absorbers. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd
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