3,899 research outputs found
Universal relationship between crystallinity and irreversibility field of MgB2
The relationship between irreversibility field, Hirr, and crystallinity of
MgB2 bulks including carbon substituted samples was studied. The Hirr was found
to increase with an increase of FWHM of MgB2 (110) peak, which corresponds to
distortion of honeycomb boron sheet, and their universal correlation was
discovered even including carbon substituted samples. Excellent Jc
characteristics under high magnetic fields were observed in samples with large
FWHM of (110) due to the enhanced intraband scattering and strengthened grain
boundary flux pinning. The relationship between crystallinity and Hirr can
explain the large variation of Hirr for MgB2 bulks, tapes, single crystals and
thin films.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Appl. Phys. Lett. (in press
The great ideas of biology: Exploration through experimentation in an undergraduate lab course
We developed an introductory laboratory course to provide a visceral experience that aims at getting students truly excited about scientific study of the living world. Our vehicle to do that was to focus on what Paul Nurse dubbed “the great ideas of biology” rather than an approach to biology that celebrates specific factual knowledge. To that end, we developed eight diverse experimental
modules, each of which highlights a key biological concept and gives an opportunity to use theory to generate testable hypotheses, to perform high quality measurements to test those hypotheses (some of which are clearly wrong), and to perform sophisticated computational data analysis. Some
modules incorporate modern microscopy and computational techniques in classic experiments, such as bacterial growth and the Luria‐Delbrück experiment, while others address current research questions using methods like optogenetics and single molecule measurements. We have offered the course eight times, and in the most recent edition of the course, we conducted pre/post‐course interviews and
attitude surveys. The students, both bio and non‐bio majors alike, reported being captivated by seeing life occur across the broad range of experiments and model organisms. We observed demonstrable development of their curiosity and enthusiasm for biology. Additionally, we found that
prior to the course, students had only vague notions about what it means to make quantitative biological measurements and interpret them. They completed the course with a clearer understanding of scientific inquiry in biology and the skills and confidence to actually perform and interpret measurements in living systems
Possible co-existence of local itinerancy and global localization in a quasi-one-dimensional conductor
In the chain compound PrBaCuO localization appears simultaneously
with a dimensional crossover in the electronic ground state when the scattering
rate in the chains exceeds the hopping rate between the chains. Here we report
the discovery of a large, transverse magnetoresistance in PrBaCuO
in the localized regime. This result suggests a novel form of localization
whereby electrons retain their metallic (quasi-one-dimensional) character over
a microscopic length scale despite the fact that macroscopically, they exhibit
localized (one-dimensional) behavior.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Figure
Structural Features of Layered Iron Pnictide Oxides (Fe2As2)(Sr4M2O6)
Structural features of newly found perovskite-based iron pnictide oxide
system have been systematically studied. Compared to REFePnO system,
perovskite-based system tend to have lower Pn-Fe-Pn angle and higher pnictogen
height owing to low electronegativity of alkaline earth metal and small
repulsive force between pnictogen and oxygen atoms. As-Fe-As angles of
(Fe2As2)(Sr4Cr2O6), (Fe2As2)(Sr4V2O6) and (Fe2Pn2)(Sr4MgTiO6) are close to
ideal tetrahedron and those pnictogen heights of about 1.40 A are close to
NdFeAsO with optimized carrier concentration. These structural features of this
system may leads to realization of high Tc superconductivity.Comment: 3pages, 2figures, 1table, proceedings of M2S 200
Angle-resolved photoemission study of insulating and metallic Cu-O chains in PrBaCuO and PrBaCuO
We compare the angle-resolved photoemission spectra of the hole-doped Cu-O
chains in PrBaCuO (Pr123) and in PrBaCuO (Pr124).
While, in Pr123, a dispersive feature from the chain takes a band maximum at
(momentum along the chain) and loses its spectral weight
around the Fermi level, it reaches the Fermi level at in
Pr124. Although the chains in Pr123 and Pr124 are approximately 1/4-filled,
they show contrasting behaviors: While the chains in Pr123 have an instability
to charge ordering, those in Pr124 avoid it and show an interesting spectral
feature of a metallic coupled-chain system.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to be published in PR
Anomalous behaviors of the charge and spin degrees of freedom in the CuO double chains of PrBaCuO
The density-matrix renormalization-group method is used to study the
electronic states of a two-chain Hubbard model for CuO double chains of
PrBaCuO. We show that the model at quarter filling has the charge
ordered phases with stripe-type and in-line--type patterns in the parameter
space, and in-between, there appears a wide region of vanishing charge gap; the
latter phase is characteristic of either Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid or a
metallic state with a spin gap. We argue that the low-energy electronic state
of the CuO double chains of PrBaCuO should be in the metallic state
with a possibly small spin gap.Comment: REVTEX 4, 10 pages, 9 figures; submitted to PR
An Asian emission inventory of anthropogenic emission sources for the period 1980?2020
International audienceWe developed a new emission inventory for Asia (Regional Emission inventory in ASia (REAS) Version 1.1) for the period 1980?2020. REAS is the first inventory to integrate historical, present, and future emissions in Asia on the basis of a consistent methodology. We present here emissions in 2000, historical emissions for 1980?2003, and projected emissions for 2010 and 2020 of SO2, NOx, CO, NMVOC, black carbon (BC), and organic carbon (OC) from fuel combustion and industrial sources. Total energy consumption in Asia more than doubled between 1980 and 2003, causing a rapid growth in Asian emissions, by 28% for BC, 30% for OC, 64% for CO, 108% for NMVOC, 119% for SO2, and 176% for NOx. In particular, Chinese NOx emissions showed a marked increase of 280% over 1980 levels, and growth in emissions since 2000 has been extremely high. These increases in China were mainly caused by increases in coal combustion in the power plants and industrial sectors. NMVOC emissions also rapidly increased because of growth in the use of automobiles, solvents, and paints. By contrast, BC, OC, and CO emissions in China showed decreasing trends from 1996 to 2000 because of a reduction in the use of biofuels and coal in the domestic and industry sectors. However, since 2000, Chinese emissions of these species have begun to increase. Thus, the emissions of air pollutants in Asian countries (especially China) showed large temporal variations from 1980?2003. Future emissions in 2010 and 2020 in Asian countries were projected by emission scenarios and from emissions in 2000. For China, we developed three emission scenarios: PSC (policy success case), REF (reference case), and PFC (policy failure case). In the 2020 REF scenario, Asian total emissions of SO2, NOx, and NMVOC were projected to increase substantially by 22%, 44%, and 99%, respectively, over 2000 levels. The 2020 REF scenario showed a modest increase in CO (12%), a lesser increase in BC (1%), and a slight decrease in OC (?5%) compared with 2000 levels. However, it should be noted that Asian total emissions are strongly influenced by the emission scenarios for China
Fragile three-dimensionality in the quasi-one-dimensional cuprate PrBa_2Cu_4O_8
In this article we report on the experimental realization of dimensional
crossover phenomena in the chain compound PrBaCuO using
temperature, high magnetic fields and disorder as independent tuning
parameters. In purer crystals of PrBaCuO, a highly anisotropic
three-dimensional Fermi-liquid state develops at low temperatures. This
metallic state is extremely susceptible to disorder however and localization
rapidly sets in. We show, through quantitative comparison of the relevant
energy scales, that this metal/insulator crossover occurs precisely when the
scattering rate within the chain exceeds the interchain hopping rate(s), i.e.
once carriers become confined to a single conducting element.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, published at
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1367-2630/8/9/172/njp6_9_172.htm
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