16,621 research outputs found
Unusual magnetoresistance in a topological insulator with a single ferromagnetic barrier
Tunneling surface current through a thin ferromagnetic barrier in a
three-dimensional topological insulator is shown to possess an extraordinary
response to the orientation of barrier magnetization. In contrast to
conventional magnetoresistance devices that are sensitive to the relative
alignment of two magnetic layers, a drastic change in the transmission current
is achieved by a single layer when its magnetization rotates by 90 degrees.
Numerical estimations predict a giant magnetoresistance as large as 800 % at
room temperature and the proximate exchange interaction of 40 meV in the
barrier. When coupled with electrical control of magnetization direction, this
phenomenon may be used to enhance the gating function with potentially sharp
turn-on/off for low power applications
Lycopene content and lipophilic antioxidant capacity of by-products from Psidium guajava fruits produced during puree production industry.
The comparison of lycopene content and lipophilic antioxidant capacity was explored among pink guava fruit and by-products of its puree production industry namely refiner, siever and decanter. Lycopene content was measured using both UV–vis spectrophotometer and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods. Atmospheric pressure chemical ionization liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (APCI-LC–MS) was applied in confirming the studied compound. Two assays were employed to determine the lipophilic antioxidant capacities namely lycopene equivalent antioxidant capacity (LEAC) and β-carotene bleaching assays. Lycopene content and antioxidant capacity were in the order of fruits > decanter > siever > refiner. Decanter exhibited the highest lycopene content and antioxidant among the studied by-products. It also gave a significant higher (p < 0.05) lycopene content than pink guava fruit based on the wet basis. There was a significant correlation between lycopene content and LEAC. All samples had a good antioxidant activity in β-carotene bleaching assay but negatively correlated to lycopene content. Decanter was found to be the highest in lycopene content (17 mg/100 g dry basis) and antioxidant capacity (22 μmol LE/100 g dry basis) among the by-products. This by-product of pink guava puree industry can be a potential source of lycopene and antioxidant compounds
Include medical ethics in the Research Excellence Framework
The Research Excellence Framework of the Higher Education
Funding Council for England is taking place in 2013, its three
key elements being outputs (65% of the profile), impact (20%),
and “quality of the research environment” (15%). Impact will
be assessed using case studies that “may include any social,
economic or cultural impact or benefit beyond academia that
has taken place during the assessment period.”1
Medical ethics in the UK still does not have its own cognate
assessment panel—for example, bioethics or applied
ethics—unlike in, for example, Australia. Several researchers
in medical ethics have reported to the Institute of Medical Ethics
that during the internal preliminary stage of the Research
Excellence Framework several medical schools have decided
to include only research that entails empirical data gathering.
Thus, conceptual papers and ethical analysis will be excluded.
The arbitrary exclusion of reasoned discussion of medical ethics
issues as a proper subject for medical research unless it is based
on empirical data gathering is conceptually mistaken. “Empirical
ethics” is, of course, a legitimate component of medical ethics
research, but to act as though it is the only legitimate component
suggests, at best, a partial understanding of the nature of ethics
in general and medical ethics in particular. It also mistakenly
places medicine firmly on only one side of the
science/humanities “two cultures” divide instead of in its rightful
place bridging the divide.
Given the emphasis by the General Medical Council on medical
ethics in properly preparing “tomorrow’s doctors,” we urge
medical schools to find a way of using the upcoming Research
Excellence Framework to highlight the expertise residing in
their ethicist colleagues. We are confident that appropriate
assessment will reveal work of high quality that can be shown
to have social and cultural impact and benefit beyond academia,
as required by the framework
High-Energy emissions from the Pulsar/Be binary system PSR J2032+4127/MT91 213
PSR J2032+4127 is a radio-loud gamma-ray-emitting pulsar; it is orbiting
around a high-mass Be type star with a very long orbital period of 25-50years,
and is approaching periastron, which will occur in late 2017/early 2018. This
system comprises with a young pulsar and a Be type star, which is similar to
the so-called gamma-ray binary PSR~B1259-63/LS2883. It is expected therefore
that PSR J2032+4127 shows an enhancement of high-energy emission caused by the
interaction between the pulsar wind and Be wind/disk around periastron. Ho et
al. recently reported a rapid increase in the X-ray flux from this system. In
this paper, we also confirm a rapid increase in the X-ray flux along the orbit,
while the GeV flux shows no significant change. We discuss the high-energy
emissions from the shock caused by the pulsar wind and stellar wind interaction
and examine the properties of the pulsar wind in this binary system. We argue
that the rate of increase of the X-ray flux observed by Swift indicates (1) a
variation of the momentum ratio of the two-wind interaction region along the
orbit, or (2) an evolution of the magnetization parameter of the pulsar wind
with the radial distance from the pulsar. We also discuss the pulsar wind/Be
disk interaction at the periastron passage, and propose the possibility of
formation of an accretion disk around the pulsar. We model high-energy
emissions through the inverse-Compton scattering process of the
cold-relativistic pulsar wind off soft photons from the accretion disk.Comment: 18 pages, 23 figures, 1 Table, accepted for publication in Ap
The X-ray modulation of PSR J2032+4127/MT91 213 during the Periastron Passage in 2017
We present the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (Swift), Fermi Large Area
Telescope (Fermi-LAT), and Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations
of the gamma-ray binary PSR J2032+4127/MT91 213, of which the periastron
passage has just occurred in November 2017. In the Swift X-ray light curve, the
flux was steadily increasing before mid-October 2017, however, a sharp X-ray
dip on a weekly time-scale is seen during the periastron passage, followed by a
post-periastron X-ray flare lasting for ~20 days. We suggest that the X-ray dip
is caused by (i) an increase of the magnetization parameter at the shock, and
(ii) the suppression due to the Doppler boosting effect. The 20-day
post-periastron flare could be a consequence of the Be stellar disk passage by
the pulsar. An orbital GeV modulation is also expected in our model, however,
no significant variability is seen in the Fermi-LAT light curve. We suspect
that the GeV emission resulted from the interaction between the binary's
members is hidden behind the bright magnetospheric emission of the pulsar.
Pulsar gating technique would be useful to remove the magnetospheric emission
and recover the predicted GeV modulation, if an accurate radio timing solution
over the periastron passage is provided in the future.Comment: 6 pages, including 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
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