3,812 research outputs found
Hydrogen adsorption in metal-organic frameworks: the role of nuclear quantum effects
The role of nuclear quantum effects on the adsorption of molecular hydrogen
in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has been investigated on grounds of
Grand-Canonical Quantized Liquid Density-Functional Theory (GC-QLDFT)
calculations. For this purpose, we have carefully validated classical H2 -host
interaction potentials that are obtained by fitting Born-Oppenheimer ab initio
reference data. The hydrogen adsorption has first been assessed classically
using Liquid Density-Functional Theory (LDFT) and the Grand-Canonical Monte
Carlo (GCMC) methods. The results have been compared against the semi-classical
treatment of quantum effects by applying the Feynman-Hibbs correction to the
Born-Oppenheimer-derived potentials, and by explicit treatment within the
Grand-Canonical Quantized Liquid Density-Functional Theory (GC-QLDFT). The
results are compared with experimental data and indicate pronounced quantum and
possibly many-particle effects. After validation calculations have been carried
out for IRMOF-1 (MOF-5), GC-QLDFT is applied to study the adsorption of H2 in a
series of MOFs, including IRMOF-4, -6, -8, -9, -10, -12, -14, -16, -18 and
MOF-177. Finally, we discuss the evolution of the H2 quantum fluid with
increasing pressure and lowering temperature
Grand-Canonical Quantized Liquid Density-Functional Theory in a Car-Parrinello Implementation
Quantized Liquid Density-Functional Theory [Phys. Rev. E 2009, 80, 031603], a
method developed to assess the adsorption of gas molecules in porous
nanomaterials, is reformulated within the grand canonical ensemble. With the
grand potential it is possible to compare directly external and internal
thermodynamic quantities. In our new implementation, the grand potential is
minimized utilizing the Car-Parrinello approach and gives, in particular for
low temperature simulations, a significant computational advantage over the
original canonical approaches. The method is validated against original QLDFT,
and applied to model potentials and graphite slit pores.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure
Generation of spiral bevel gears with zero kinematical errors and computer aided tooth contact analysis
Kinematic errors in spiral bevel gears are a major source of noise and vibrations in transmissions. A method for the generation of Gleason's spiral bevel gears which provides conjugated gear tooth surfaces and an improved bearing contact was developed. A computer program for the simulation of meshing, misalignment, and bearing contact was written
Local Phonon Density of States in an Elastic Substrate
The local, eigenfunction-weighted acoustic phonon density of states (DOS)
tensor is calculated for a model substrate consisting of a semi-infinite
isotropic elastic continuum with a stress-free surface. On the surface, the
local DOS is proportional to the square of the frequency, as for the
three-dimensional Debye model, but with a constant of proportionality that is
considerably enhanced compared to the Debye value, a consequence of the
Rayleigh surface modes. The local DOS tensor at the surface is also
anisotropic, as expected. Inside the substrate the local DOS is both spatially
anisotropic and non-quadratic in frequency. However, at large depths, the local
DOS approaches the isotropic Debye value. The results are applied to a Si
substrate.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, RevTe
Addition of histamine to subcutaneously injected Plasmodium berghei sporozoites increases the parasite liver load and could facilitate whole-parasite vaccination
Background: Whole-parasite immunization remains the benchmark in malaria vaccine development. A major bottleneck in the translation of whole-parasite immunization towards routine vaccination is the mode of administration, since high degrees of protection are currently only achieved by intravenous, and not by intradermal or subcutaneous injection of viable parasites. It is known that only a small proportion of subcutaneously administered parasites reach the subsequent liver stage and low parasite liver load was shown to be associated with low protective efficacy. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate whether the liver load following subcutaneous parasite injection could be augmented by co-administration of pro-inflammatory or anti-coagulatory drugs.
Methods: In the C57BL/6 Plasmodium berghei ANKA model, the clinical outcome (time to patent blood stage infection and survival) and relative parasite liver load was assessed in mice infected by subcutaneous or intramuscular sporozoite (SPZ) administration in the presence or absence of histamine and heparin supplementation in comparison to intravenously administered SPZ. In addition, a vaccination experiment was carried out to assess the protective efficacy of an improved, histamine-supplemented subcutaneous immunization regimen.
Results: The parasite liver load following subcutaneous SPZ administration can be significantly increased by co-administration of histamine and heparin. A dose-dependent relation between parasite liver load and histamine dosage was observed. However, despite a relatively high parasite liver load, the protective efficacy of histamine-supplemented subcutaneous immunization remains inferior as compared to intravenous SPZ administration.
Conclusions: Histamine supplementation might facilitate the future development of a non-intravenous whole-parasite vaccine. Further investigations are needed to reveal the effect of histamine supplementation and subcutaneous SPZ administration on the acquisition of protective immunity
Efficient tight-binding Monte Carlo structural sampling of complex materials
While recent work towards the development of tight-binding and ab-initio
algorithms has focused on molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo methods can often
lead to better results with relatively little effort. We present here a
multi-step Monte Carlo algorithm that makes use of the possibility of quickly
evaluating local energies. For the thermalization of a 1000-atom configuration
of {\it a}-Si, this algorithm gains about an order of magnitude in speed over
standard molecular dynamics. The algorithm can easily be ported to a wide range
of materials and can be dynamically optimized for a maximum efficiency.Comment: 5 pages including 3 postscript figure
Entanglement in Quantum Spin Chains, Symmetry Classes of Random Matrices, and Conformal Field Theory
We compute the entropy of entanglement between the first spins and the
rest of the system in the ground states of a general class of quantum
spin-chains. We show that under certain conditions the entropy can be expressed
in terms of averages over ensembles of random matrices. These averages can be
evaluated, allowing us to prove that at critical points the entropy grows like
as , where and are determined explicitly. In an important class of systems,
is equal to one-third of the central charge of an associated Virasoro algebra.
Our expression for therefore provides an explicit formula for the
central charge.Comment: 4 page
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