The Role of Undercoordinated Sites on Zinc Electrodes for CO2 Reduction to CO

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) using renewable energies is a promising route toward global carbon neutrality. Recently, the use of copper catalysts and CO feedstocks, instead of CO2, has been shown to enhance the selectivity toward multicarbon products, leading to increased efforts in developing tandem electrocatalytic systems. State-of-the-art CO2-to-CO electrocatalysts are mainly based on noble metals such as silver and gold. Earth-abundant zinc, in contrast, displays poorer selectivity and activity. Herein, the use of porous dendritic oxidederived zinc (OD-Zn) catalysts for CO2RR is reported. These catalysts can reduce CO2 to CO with a maximum Faradaic efficiency of 86% at −0.95 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and partial current density of −266 mA cm–2 at −1.00 V vs RHE. OD-Zn is further found to have a higher amount of undercoordinated sites and exhibits higher CO2RR activity and CO selectivity than electrodeposited Zn metal. While oxygen vacancies have been previously implicated as active sites, detailed experiments and density functional theory calculations show that Zn sites with a high degree of undercoordination provide even higher activity, in view of their nearly optimal *COOH adsorption energies. These findings showcase Zn-Oderived particles with plentiful undercoordinated sites as cost-effective electrocatalysts for CO production

Light scattering observations of spin reversal excitations in the fractional quantum Hall regime

Resonant inelastic light scattering experiments access the low lying excitations of electron liquids in the fractional quantum Hall regime in the range $2/5 \geq \nu \geq 1/3$. Modes associated with changes in the charge and spin degrees of freedom are measured. Spectra of spin reversed excitations at filling factor $\nu \gtrsim 1/3$ and at $\nu \lesssim 2/5$ identify a structure of lowest spin-split Landau levels of composite fermions that is similar to that of electrons. Observations of spin wave excitations enable determinations of energies required to reverse spin. The spin reversal energies obtained from the spectra illustrate the significant residual interactions of composite fermions. At $\nu = 1/3$ energies of spin reversal modes are larger but relatively close to spin conserving excitations that are linked to activated transport. Predictions of composite fermion theory are in good quantitative agreement with experimental results.Comment: Submitted to special issue of Solid State Com

Preliminary Strength Measurements of High Temperature Ash Filter Deposits

The objective of this study is to develop and evaluate preliminary strength measurement techniques for high temperature candle filter ash deposits. The efficient performance of a high temperature gas filtering system is essential for many of the new thermal cycles being proposed for power plants of the future. These new cycles hold the promise of higher thermal efficiency and lower emissions of pollutants. Many of these cycles involve the combustion or gasification of coal to produce high temperature gases to eventually be used in gas turbines. These high temperature gases must be relatively free of particulates. Today, the candle filter appears to be the leading candidate for high temperature particulate removal. The performance of a candle filter depends on the ash deposits shattering into relatively large particles during the pulse cleaning (back flushing) of the filters. These relatively large particles fall into the ash hopper and are removed from the system. Therefore, these 1247 particles must be sufficiently large so that they will not be re-entrained by the gas flow. The shattering process is dictated by the strength characteristics of the ash deposits. Consequently, the objective of this research is to develop measurements for the desired strength characteristics of the ash deposits. Experimental procedures were developed to measure Young`s modulus of the ash deposit at room temperature and the failure tensile strain of ash deposits from room temperature to elevated temperatures. Preliminary data has been obtained for both soft and hard ash deposits. The qualifier ``preliminary`` is used to indicate that these measurements are a first for this material, and consequently, the measurement techniques are not perfected. In addition, the ash deposits tested are not necessarily uniform and further tests are needed in order to obtain meaningful average data

Glueballs of Super Yang-Mills from Wrapped Branes

In this paper we study qualitative features of glueballs in N=1 SYM for models of wrapped branes in IIA and IIB backgrounds. The scalar mode, 0++ is found to be a mixture of the dilaton and the internal part of the metric. We carry out the numerical study of the IIB background. The potential found exhibits a mass gap and produces a discrete spectrum without any cut-off. We propose a regularization procedure needed to make these states normalizable.Comment: 22 pages plus a appendixes, 2 figure

Resonant Enhancement of Inelastic Light Scattering in the Fractional Quantum Hall Regime at ν=1/3\nu=1/3

Strong resonant enhancements of inelastic light scattering from the long wavelength inter-Landau level magnetoplasmon and the intra-Landau level spin wave excitations are seen for the fractional quantum Hall state at $\nu = 1/3$. The energies of the sharp peaks (FWHM $\lesssim 0.2meV$) in the profiles of resonant enhancement of inelastic light scattering intensities coincide with the energies of photoluminescence bands assigned to negatively charged exciton recombination. To interpret the observed enhancement profiles, we propose three-step light scattering mechanisms in which the intermediate resonant transitions are to states with charged excitonic excitations.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

UHECR Acceleration in Dark Matter Filaments of Cosmological Structure Formation

A mechanism for proton acceleration to ~10^21eV is suggested. It may operate in accretion flows onto thin dark matter filaments of cosmic structure formation. The flow compresses the ambient magnetic field to strongly increase and align it with the filament. Particles begin the acceleration by the ExB drift with the accretion flow. The energy gain in the drift regime is limited by the conservation of the adiabatic invariant p_perp^2/B. Upon approaching the filament, the drift turns into the gyro-motion around the filament so that the particle moves parallel to the azimuthal electric field. In this 'betatron' regime the acceleration speeds up to rapidly reach the electrodynamic limit $cp_{max}=eBR$ for an accelerator with magnetic field $B$ and the orbit radius $R$ (Larmor radius). The periodic orbit becomes unstable and the particle slings out of the filament to the region of a weak (uncompressed) magnetic field, which terminates the acceleration. The mechanism requires pre-acceleration that is likely to occur in structure formation shocks upstream or nearby the filament accretion flow. Previous studies identify such shocks as efficient proton accelerators to a firm upper limit ~10^19.5 eV placed by the catastrophic photo-pion losses. The present mechanism combines explosive energy gain in its final (betatron) phase with prompt particle release from the region of strong magnetic field. It is this combination that allows protons to overcome both the photo-pion and the synchrotron-Compton losses and therefore attain energy 10^21 eV. A requirement on accelerator to reach a given E_max placed by the accelerator energy dissipation \propto E_{max}^{2}/Z_0 due to the finite vacuum impedance Z_0 is circumvented by the cyclic operation of the accelerator.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures, to be published in JCA

Influence of the starting composition on the structural and superconducting properties of MgB2 phase

We report the preparation of Mg$_{1-x}$B$_{2}$ (0$\le$x$\le$0.5) compounds with the nominal compositions. Single phase MgB$_{2}$ was obtained for x=0 sample. For 0$<$x$\le$0.5, MgB$_{4}$ coexists with "MgB$_{2}$" and the amount of MgB$_{4}$ increases with x. With the increase of x, the lattice parameter ${\it c}$ of "MgB$_{2}$" increases and the lattice parameter ${\it a}$ decreases, correspondingly T$_{c}$ of Mg$_{1-x}$B$_{2}$ decreases. The results were discussed in terms of the presence of Mg vacancies or B interstitials in the MgB$_{2}$ structure. This work is helpful to the understanding of the MgB$_{2}$ films with different T$_{c}$, as well as the Mg site doping effect for MgB$_{2}$.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Expression profiling of cyclin B1 and D1 in cervical carcinoma

Aim: Cyclins are a family of regulatory proteins that play a key role in controlling the cell cycle. Abnormalities of cell cycle regulators, including cyclins and cyclin dependent kinases, have been reported in various malignant tumors. This study was undertaken to quantitatively detect cyclin B1 and D1 in cervical cancer. Methods: A quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot assay were used to analyze the expression of cyclin B1/D1 mRNA and proteins, respectively, in fresh invasive cervical cancer (n = 41) and normal cervical tissues (n = 10). Results: There was significantly greater cyclin B1 expression in invasive cervical cancer than in normal cervical tissue (P = 0.019). However, cyclin D1 expression was not significantly different. A Western blot assay yielded similar results. Conclusion: Our results were consistent with the concept that up-regulation of cyclin B1 expression occurred in cervical cancer and an aberrant expression of cyclin B1 might play an important role in cervical carcinogenesis.Цель: циклины представляют собой семейство регуляторных белков, контролирующих клеточный цикл. Наличие функциональных и структурных нарушений регуляторов клеточного цикла (циклинов и циклинзависимых киназ) было отмечено в клетках различных злокачественных новообразований. Целью данного исследования было проведение количественного определения циклинов B1 и D1 в клетках рака шейки матки. Методы: определение уровня экспрессии циклинов B1/D1 (mRNA и белков соответственно) в свежеполученных клетках инвазивного рака шейки матки (n = 41) и нормальной ткани шейки матки (n = 10) проводили методами RT-PCR в режиме реального времени и Вестерн-блот анализа. Результаты: отмечен более высокий уровень экспрессии гена циклина В1 в клетках инвазивного рака шейки матки, чем в клетках нормальной ткани (P = 0,019). Не выявлены значительные различия в уровне экспрессии гена циклина D1. При Вестерн-блот анализе получены аналогичные результаты. Выводы: результаты исследования подтверждают концепцию об активации экспрессии циклина В1 при раке шейки матки. Аберрантная экспрессия циклина В1 может играть важную роль при злокачественной трансформации эпителия шейки матки

Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell state in quasi-one-dimensional superconductors

The properties of a quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) superconductor with {\it an open Fermi surface} are expected to be unusual in a magnetic field. On the one hand, the quasi-1D structure of the Fermi surface strongly favors the formation of a non-uniform state (Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) state) in the presence of a magnetic field acting on the electron spins. On the other hand, a magnetic field acting on an open Fermi surface induces a dimensional crossover by confining the electronic wave-functions wave-functions along the chains of highest conductivity, which results in a divergence of the orbital critical field and in a stabilization at low temperature of a cascade of superconducting phases separated by first order transistions. In this paper, we study the phase diagram as a function of the anisotropy. We discuss in details the experimental situation in the quasi-1D organic conductors of the Bechgaard salts family and argue that they appear as good candidates for the observation of the LOFF state, provided that their anisotropy is large enough. Recent experiments on the organic quasi-1D superconductor (TMTSF)$_2$ClO$_4$ are in agreement with the results obtained in this paper and could be interpreted as a signature of a high-field superconducting phase. We also point out the possibility to observe a LOFF state in some quasi-2D organic superconductors.Comment: 24 pages+17 figures (upon request), RevTex, ORSAY-LPS-24109