2,350 research outputs found
Vacancy assisted arsenic diffusion and time dependent clustering effects in silicon
We present results of kinetic lattice Monte Carlo (KLMC) simulations of
substitutional arsenic diffusion in silicon mediated by lattice vacancies.
Large systems are considered, with 1000 dopant atoms and long range \textit{ab
initio} interactions, to the 18th nearest lattice neighbor, and the diffusivity
of each defect species over time is calculated. The concentration of vacancies
is greater than equilibrium concentrations in order to simulate conditions
shortly after ion implantation. A previously unreported time dependence in the
applicability of the pair diffusion model, even at low temperatures, is
demonstrated. Additionally, long range interactions are shown to be of critical
importance in KLMC simulations; when shorter interaction ranges are considered
only clusters composed entirely of vacancies form. An increase in arsenic
diffusivity for arsenic concentrations up to is
observed, along with a decrease in arsenic diffusivity for higher arsenic
concentrations, due to the formation of arsenic dominated clusters. Finally,
the effect of vacancy concentration on diffusivity and clustering is studied,
and increasing vacancy concentration is found to lead to a greater number of
clusters, more defects per cluster, and a greater vacancy fraction within the
clusters.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figure
The RMS Survey: Ammonia and water maser analysis of massive star forming regions
The Red MSX Source (RMS) survey has identified a sample of ~1200 massive
young stellar objects (MYSOs), compact and ultra compact HII regions from a
sample of ~2000 MSX and 2MASS colour selected sources. We have used the 100 m
Green Bank telescope to search for 22-24 GHz water maser and ammonia (1,1),
(2,2) and (3,3) emission towards ~600 RMS sources located within the northern
Galactic plane. We have identified 308 H2O masers which corresponds to an
overall detection rate of ~50%. Abridged: We detect ammonia emission towards
479 of these massive young stars, which corresponds to ~80%. Ammonia is an
excellent probe of high density gas allowing us to measure key parameters such
as gas temperatures, opacities, and column densities, as well as providing an
insight into the gas kinematics. The average kinetic temperature, FWHM line
width and total NH3 column density for the sample are approximately 22 K, 2
km/s and 2x10^{15} cm^{-2}, respectively. We find that the NH3 (1,1) line width
and kinetic temperature are correlated with luminosity and finding no
underlying dependence of these parameters on the evolutionary phase of the
embedded sources, we conclude that the observed trends in the derived
parameters are more likely to be due to the energy output of the central source
and/or the line width-clump mass relationship. The velocities of the peak H2O
masers and the NH3 emission are in excellent agreement with each other, which
would strongly suggest an association between the dense gas and the maser
emission. Moreover, we find the bolometric luminosity of the embedded source
and the isotropic luminosity of the H2O maser are also correlated. We conclude
from the correlations of the cloud and water maser velocities and the
bolometric and maser luminosity that there is a strong dynamical relationship
between the embedded young massive star and the H2O maser.Comment: 17 pages and 17 figures and 8 tables. Tables\,2 and 5 and full
versions of Figs. 3 and 7 are only available in electronic form at the CDS
via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.125.5) or via
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A
Teaching Breast Self-Examination in the High School
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73530/1/j.1746-1561.1977.tb01051.x.pd
Protostellar accretion traced with chemistry. High resolution C18O and continuum observations towards deeply embedded protostars in Perseus
Context: Understanding how accretion proceeds is a key question of star
formation, with important implications for both the physical and chemical
evolution of young stellar objects. In particular, very little is known about
the accretion variability in the earliest stages of star formation.
Aims: To characterise protostellar accretion histories towards individual
sources by utilising sublimation and freeze-out chemistry of CO.
Methods: A sample of 24 embedded protostars are observed with the
Submillimeter Array (SMA) in context of the large program "Mass Assembly of
Stellar Systems and their Evolution with the SMA" (MASSES). The size of the
CO emitting region, where CO has sublimated into the gas-phase, is
measured towards each source and compared to the expected size of the region
given the current luminosity. The SMA observations also include 1.3 mm
continuum data, which are used to investigate whether a link can be established
between accretion bursts and massive circumstellar disks.
Results: Depending on the adopted sublimation temperature of the CO ice,
between 20% and 50% of the sources in the sample show extended CO
emission indicating that the gas was warm enough in the past that CO sublimated
and is currently in the process of refreezing; something which we attribute to
a recent accretion burst. Given the fraction of sources with extended CO
emission, we estimate an average interval between bursts of 20000-50000 yr,
which is consistent with previous estimates. No clear link can be established
between the presence of circumstellar disks and accretion bursts, however the
three closest known binaries in the sample (projected separations <20 AU) all
show evidence of a past accretion burst, indicating that close binary
interactions may also play a role in inducing accretion variability.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 21 pages, 13 figure
Integrals Over Polytopes, Multiple Zeta Values and Polylogarithms, and Euler's Constant
Let be the triangle with vertices (1,0), (0,1), (1,1). We study certain
integrals over , one of which was computed by Euler. We give expressions for
them both as a linear combination of multiple zeta values, and as a polynomial
in single zeta values. We obtain asymptotic expansions of the integrals, and of
sums of certain multiple zeta values with constant weight. We also give related
expressions for Euler's constant. In the final section, we evaluate more
general integrals -- one is a Chen (Drinfeld-Kontsevich) iterated integral --
over some polytopes that are higher-dimensional analogs of . This leads to a
relation between certain multiple polylogarithm values and multiple zeta
values.Comment: 19 pages, to appear in Mat Zametki. Ver 2.: Added Remark 3 on a Chen
(Drinfeld-Kontsevich) iterated integral; simplified Proposition 2; gave
reference for (19); corrected [16]; fixed typ
Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) calibration for analysis of nutrient concentrations and trace element contaminants in fertilisers
With the increasing popularity of local blending of fertilisers, the fertiliser industry faces issues regarding quality control and fertiliser adulteration. Another problem is the contamination of fertilisers with trace elements that have been shown to subsequently accumulate in the soil and be taken up by plants, posing a danger to the environment and human health. Conventional characterisation methods necessary to ensure the quality of fertilisers and to comply with local regulations are costly, time consuming and sometimes not even accessible. Alternatively, using a wide range of unamended and intentionally amended fertilisers this study developed empirical calibrations for a portable handheld X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer, determined the reliability for estimating the macro and micro nutrients and evaluated the use of the pXRF for the high-throughput detection of trace element contaminants in fertilisers. The models developed using pXRF for Mg, P, S, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Zn and Mo had R2 values greater or equal to 0.97. These models also performed well on validation, with R2 values greater or equal to 0.97 (except for Fe, R2val = 0.55) and slope values ranging from 0.81 to 1.44. A second set of models were developed with a focus on trace elements in amended fertilisers. The R2 values of calibration for Co, Ni, As, Se, Cd and Pb were greater than or equal to 0.80. At concentrations up to 1000 mg kg-1, good validation statistics were also obtained; R2 values ranged from 0.97–0.99, except in one instance. The regression coefficients of the validation also had good prediction in the range of 0–100 mg kg-1 (R2 values were from 0.78–0.99), but not as well at lower concentrations up to 20 mg kg-1 (R2 values ranged from 0.10–0.99), especially for Cd. This study has demonstrated that pXRF can measure several major (P, Ca) and micro (Mn, Fe, Cu) nutrients, as well as trace elements and potential contaminants (Cr, Ni, As) in fertilisers with high accuracy and precision. The results obtained in this study is good, especially considering that loose powders were scanned for a maximum of 90 seconds without the use of a vacuum pump
The ToxCast pipeline: updates to curve-fitting approaches and database structure
Introduction: The US Environmental Protection Agency Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast) program makes in vitro medium- and high-throughput screening assay data publicly available for prioritization and hazard characterization of thousands of chemicals. The assays employ a variety of technologies to evaluate the effects of chemical exposure on diverse biological targets, from distinct proteins to more complex cellular processes like mitochondrial toxicity, nuclear receptor signaling, immune responses, and developmental toxicity. The ToxCast data pipeline (tcpl) is an open-source R package that stores, manages, curve-fits, and visualizes ToxCast data and populates the linked MySQL Database, invitrodb.Methods: Herein we describe major updates to tcpl and invitrodb to accommodate a new curve-fitting approach. The original tcpl curve-fitting models (constant, Hill, and gain-loss models) have been expanded to include Polynomial 1 (Linear), Polynomial 2 (Quadratic), Power, Exponential 2, Exponential 3, Exponential 4, and Exponential 5 based on BMDExpress and encoded by the R package dependency, tcplfit2. Inclusion of these models impacted invitrodb (beta version v4.0) and tcpl v3 in several ways: (1) long-format storage of generic modeling parameters to permit additional curve-fitting models; (2) updated logic for winning model selection; (3) continuous hit calling logic; and (4) removal of redundant endpoints as a result of bidirectional fitting.Results and discussion: Overall, the hit call and potency estimates were largely consistent between invitrodb v3.5 and 4.0. Tcpl and invitrodb provide a standard for consistent and reproducible curve-fitting and data management for diverse, targeted in vitro assay data with readily available documentation, thus enabling sharing and use of these data in myriad toxicology applications. The software and database updates described herein promote comparability across multiple tiers of data within the US Environmental Protection Agency CompTox Blueprint
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Emittance measurements for the Illinois/CEBAF polarized electron source
The transverse thermal properties of the electrons photoemitted from GaAs determine the intrinsic beam emittance, an important quantity in applications such as polarized electron sources and high-brightness sources. In this paper, emittance measurements using the Illinois/CEBAF polarized electron source are described. The emittance was measured as a function of both the laser beam spot size and laser wavelength at low currents. The data was used to infer the transverse thermal energy of the electrons photoemitted from GaAs for wavelengths between 514 and 840 nm. Near the bandgap the transverse energy is {approximately}34 meV, a factor of 3 lower than that of the beam from a typical thermionic electron gun. 8 refs., 2 figs
Warming and acidification threaten glass sponge Aphrocallistes vastus pumping and reef formation
The glass sponge Aphrocallistes vastus contributes to the formation of large reefs unique to the Northeast Pacific Ocean. These habitats have tremendous filtration capacity that facilitates flow of carbon between trophic levels. Their sensitivity and resilience to climate change, and thus persistence in the Anthropocene, is unknown. Here we show that ocean acidification and warming, alone and in combination have significant adverse effects on pumping capacity, contribute to irreversible tissue withdrawal, and weaken skeletal strength and stiffness of A. vastus. Within one month sponges exposed to warming (including combined treatment) ceased pumping (50–60%) and exhibited tissue withdrawal (10–25%). Thermal and acidification stress significantly reduced skeletal stiffness, and warming weakened it, potentially curtailing reef formation. Environmental data suggests conditions causing irreversible damage are possible in the field at +0.5 °C above current conditions, indicating that ongoing climate change is a serious and immediate threat to A. vastus, reef dependent communities, and potentially other glass sponges
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