3,947 research outputs found
Chemistry of sprite discharges through ion-neutral reactions
International audienceWe estimate the concentration changes, caused by a single streamer in sprites, of ozone and related minor species as odd nitrogen (NOx) and hydrogen (HOx) families in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. The streamer has an intense electric field and high electron density at its head where a large number of chemically-radical ions and atoms are produced through electron impact on neutral molecules. After propagation of the streamer, the densities of minor species can be perturbed through ion-neutral chemical reactions initiated by the relaxation of these radical products. We evaluate the production rates of ions and atoms using electron kinetics model and assuming the electric field and electron density in the streamer head. We calculate the density variations mainly for NOx, Ox, and HOx species using a one-dimensional model of the neutral and ion composition of the middle atmosphere, including the effect of the sprite streamer. Results at the nighttime condition show that the densities of NO, O3, H, and OH increase suddenly through reactions triggered by firstly produced atomic nitrogen and oxygen, and electrons just after streamer initiation. It is shown that NO and NO2 still remain for 1 h by a certain order of increase with their source-sink balance predominantly around 60 km; for other species, increases in O3, OH, HO2, and H2O2 still remain in the range of 40?70 km. From this affirmative result of long time behavior previously not presented, we emphasize that sprites would have a power to impact on local chemistry at night. We also discuss comparison with previous studies and suggestion for satellite observations
Conditional transfer of quantum correlation in the intensity of twin beams
A conditional protocol of transferring quantum-correlation in continuous
variable regime was experimentally demonstrated. The quantum-correlation in two
pairs of twin beams, each characterized by intensity-difference squeezing of
7.0 dB, was transferred to two initially independent idler beams. The
quantum-correlation transfer resulted in intensity-difference squeezing of 4.0
dB between two idler beams. The dependence of preparation probability and
transfer fidellity on the selection bandwidth was also studied.Comment: 5 pages, submitte
Technique for bulk Fermiology by photoemission applied to layered ruthenates
We report the Fermi surfaces of the superconductor Sr2RuO4 and the
non-superconductor Sr1.8Ca0.2RuO4 probed by bulk-sensitive high-energy
angle-resolved photoemission. It is found that there is one square-shaped
hole-like, one square-shaped electron-like and one circle-shaped electron-like
Fermi surface in both compounds. These results provide direct evidence for
nesting instability giving rise to magnetic fluctuations. Our study clarifies
that the electron correlation effects are changed with composition depending on
the individual band.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures including 2 color figure
Construction of a high-efficiency multi-site-directed mutagenesis
Although site-directed mutagenesis has been used in many fields, it still has low rate of success and high cost because of low-yield target products. A modified method for multi-site-directed mutagenesis was developed with shifted primer design and cold-start polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The developed method was successfully applied to hexapeptide gene synthesis and recombinant enterokinase gene modification in the plasmids pET41a and pET24b-EK. The efficiency was pronounced at a 1:10 molar ratio of 7-base mutant products to 705-bp fragment products as control. Even in a 10-base substitution mutagenic PCR, a 1:50 molar ratio of mutant products to 705-bp fragment products was reached. Meanwhile, the quality of mutants was proved through the transformation efficiency and sequencing. This method was beneficial to prepare high-quality multibase mutagenesis and also implied that large-scale multibase mutagenesis was feasible, efficient, economical, and productive.Key words: Site-directed multibase mutagenesis, shift primer, hexapeptide gene, enterokinase gene
Age of the Universe: Influence of the Inhomogeneities on the global Expansion-Factor
For the first time we calculate quantitatively the influence of
inhomogeneities on the global expansion factor by averaging the Friedmann
equation. In the framework of the relativistic second-order
Zel'dovich-approximation scheme for irrotational dust we use observational
results in form of the normalisation constant fixed by the COBE results and we
check different power spectra, namely for adiabatic CDM, isocurvature CDM, HDM,
WDM, Strings and Textures. We find that the influence of the inhomogeneities on
the global expansion factor is very small. So the error in determining the age
of the universe using the Hubble constant in the usual way is negligible. This
does not imply that the effect is negligible for local astronomical
measurements of the Hubble constant. Locally the determination of the
redshift-distance relation can be strongly influenced by the peculiar velocity
fields due to inhomogeneities. Our calculation does not consider such effects,
but is contrained to comparing globally homogeneous and averaged inhomogeneous
matter distributions. In addition we relate our work to previous treatments.Comment: 10 pages, version accepted by Phys. Rev.
Seasonal variations of CO and HCN in the troposphere measured by solar absorption spectroscopy over Poker Flat, Alaska
Tropospheric partial column abundances of CO and HCN have been retrieved from infrared solar spectra observed with a ground-based spectrometer at Poker Flat Alaska (65°N, 147°W) over the time period from 2000 to 2004. From these data we report the transpacific transport induced inter-annual variability of tropospheric CO over Poker Flat. This is the first report of solar infrared data from the Poker Flat station, where the geographical location of the site means that remote sensing measurements are sampling the transport of transpacific air parcels going to Northern America from Eastern Siberia and Asia. The five year time-span of the data also show significant differences in year to year CO and HCN tropospheric column enhancements driven by changes in Siberian/Asian pollution sources
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