Physical Biology of the Materials-Microorganism Interface.

Future solar-to-chemical production will rely upon a deep understanding of the material-microorganism interface. Hybrid technologies, which combine inorganic semiconductor light harvesters with biological catalysis to transform light, air, and water into chemicals, already demonstrate a wide product scope and energy efficiencies surpassing that of natural photosynthesis. But optimization to economic competitiveness and fundamental curiosity beg for answers to two basic questions: (1) how do materials transfer energy and charge to microorganisms, and (2) how do we design for bio- and chemocompatibility between these seemingly unnatural partners? This Perspective highlights the state-of-the-art and outlines future research paths to inform the cadre of spectroscopists, electrochemists, bioinorganic chemists, material scientists, and biologists who will ultimately solve these mysteries

Humanitarian meaning of university professional education

In the 20th century, the university faced a principally new type of cultural development and there was a necessity of transformation to get adapted to new conditions. Change of cultural epochs lead to a change in criteria and principles conditioning the university education system. Largely it affected “externally invisible and inaudible” factor, “the fluid of spiritual life” of the university, “human immaterial sub-basis” of its existence (Jaspers, 2006) - its humanitarian meaning. This can nowadays indicate that existence of the university is challenged

Historical Retrospective Review of Idea of University: Complementarily of Reason and Spirituality

Background: In the paper the Idea of the University and its transformations throughout the history are analysed. The content of the Idea of the University was based on understanding of spirituality when the man is upcoming to enlightening. Religion, philosophy, and education get together, when spirituality is defined as the categories and personal characteristics of a human. According to philosophy, spirituality is a non-physical way of a human being, which was granted to him as the ability of self-education. Religion understands spirituality as invariant of enlightening. The scientific-methodical apparatus of education was created to realize the potential ways for raising a person to enlightening in secular or religious schools. The spiritual aura was constantly presented at the University. Methods: A general philosophical approach and comparative historical method were used in the research. Results: Understanding the role of spirituality in the University education was absolutely manifested. The University was based on the idea of going up from individual towards the Universal Truth and Absolute Spirit. Knowledge and Truth are ideological categories of the University. Truth contained the spirituality and rational knowledge in the unity. Conclusions: The University has not lost its Idea throughout the history. The basic conclusion of the paper is that its Idea as well as its essence is the change of its criteria in response to the new historical reality

Humanitarian and Anthropologic Aspects of Tolerance

The article deals with the problem of tolerance in the prospective of modern information sociality. The method of comparativism makes it possible to find the specifics of the status of this problem at different stages of historical development. Sociocultural approach allowed us extensively consider tolerance as a way of communicative interaction between people (in the biological, social, national, cultural plans). Due to the nature of the modern type of society, its communicative ontology, tolerance is seen as a principle indifferent towards anthropological orientations in the society organization. Tolerance is a social, but not individually personal principle of life interaction between people. However, particularly this indifference gives tolerance possibility to organize society based on democracy, law and ethical norms and to saturate all forms of human interaction with the anthropological content. In this content tolerance has both positive (tolerance is the basis of social democratic regimes) and negative (alienation and disunity of people on a personal level, the crisis of personal identity) sides

Controlling the Frequency-Temperature Sensitivity of a Cryogenic Sapphire Maser Frequency Standard by Manipulating Fe3+ Spins in the Sapphire Lattice

To create a stable signal from a cryogenic sapphire maser frequency standard, the frequency-temperature dependence of the supporting Whispering Gallery mode must be annulled. We report the ability to control this dependence by manipulating the paramagnetic susceptibility of Fe3+ ions in the sapphire lattice. We show that the maser signal depends on other Whispering Gallery modes tuned to the pump signal near 31 GHz, and the annulment point can be controlled to exist between 5 to 10 K depending on the Fe3+ ion concentration and the frequency of the pump. This level of control has not been achieved previously, and will allow improvements in the stability of such devices.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure

Phenomena induced by powerful HF pumping towards magnetic zenith with a frequency near the F-region critical frequency and the third electron gyro harmonic frequency

Multi-instrument observational data from an experiment on 13 October 2006 at the EISCAT/HEATING facility at Tromsø, Norway are analysed. The experiment was carried out in the evening hours when the electron density in the F-region dropped, and the HF pump frequency <I>f<sub>H</sub></I> was near and then above the critical frequency of the F2 layer. The distinctive feature of this experiment is that the pump frequency was just below the third electron gyro harmonic frequency, while both the HF pump beam and UHF radar beam were directed towards the magnetic zenith (MZ). The HF pump-induced phenomena were diagnosed with several instruments: the bi-static HF radio scatter on the London-Tromsø-St. Petersburg path, the CUTLASS radar in Hankasalmi (Finland), the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) UHF radar at Tromsø and the Tromsø ionosonde (dynasonde). The results show thermal electron excitation of the HF-induced striations seen simultaneously from HF bi-static scatter and CUTLASS radar observations, accompanied by increases of electron temperature when the heater frequency was near and then above the critical frequency of the F2 layer by up to 0.4 MHz. An increase of the electron density up to 25% accompanied by strong HF-induced electron heating was observed, only when the heater frequency was near the critical frequency and just below the third electron gyro harmonic frequency. It is concluded that the combined effect of upper hybrid resonance and gyro resonance at the same altitude gives rise to strong electron heating, the excitation of striations, HF ray trapping and extension of HF waves to altitudes where they can excite Langmuir turbulence and fluxes of electrons accelerated to energies that produce ionization

Multi-wavelength observations of afterglow of GRB 080319B and the modeling constraints

We present observations of the afterglow of GRB 080319B at optical, mm and radio frequencies from a few hours to 67 days after the burst. Present observations along with other published multi-wavelength data have been used to study the light-curves and spectral energy distributions of the burst afterglow. The nature of this brightest cosmic explosion has been explored based on the observed properties and it's comparison with the afterglow models. Our results show that the observed features of the afterglow fits equally good with the Inter Stellar Matter and the Stellar Wind density profiles of the circum-burst medium. In case of both density profiles, location of the maximum synchrotron frequency $\nu_m$ is below optical and the value of cooling break frequency $\nu_c$ is below $X-$rays, $\sim 10^{4}$s after the burst. Also, the derived value of the Lorentz factor at the time of naked eye brightness is $\sim 300$ with the corresponding blast wave size of $\sim 10^{18}$ cm. The numerical fit to the multi-wavelength afterglow data constraints the values of physical parameters and the emission mechanism of the burst.Comment: 8 Pages, 3 Figures, Accepted for publication to Astronomy and Astrophysics on 02/04/200

Hybrid electron spin resonance and whispering gallery mode resonance spectroscopy of Fe3+ in sapphire

The development of a new era of quantum devices requires an understanding of how paramagnetic dopants or impurity spins behave in crystal hosts. Here, we describe a spectroscopic technique which uses traditional electron spin resonance (ESR) combined with the measurement of a large population of electromagnetic whispering gallery modes. This allows the characterization of the physical parameters of paramagnetic impurity ions in the crystal at low temperatures. We present measurements of two ultrahigh-purity sapphires cooled to 20 mK in temperature, and determine the concentration of Fe3 ions and their frequency sensitivity to a dc magnetic field. Our method is different from ESR in that it is possible to track the resonant frequency of the ion from zero applied magnetic field to any arbitrary value, allowing excellent measurement precision. This high precision reveals anisotropic behavior of the Zeeman splitting. In both crystals, each Zeeman component demonstrates a different g factor

Structural Heterogeneity in Low-Alloyed Pipe Steel 13HFA after Hot Rolling

The distribution of structural components over the cross section of tubular billet was investigated. Using the anisotropy coefficient, the degree of orientation of the ferritic-pearlitic structure is determined. The relationship between the values of the anisotropy coefficient and the hardness.Исследовано распределение структурных составляющих по сечению трубной заготовки. Используя коэффициент анизотропии, определена степень ориентации феррито-перлитной структуры. Установлена связь между значениями коэффициента анизотропии и твердостью

Cooperative up-conversion in Eu3+,Yb3+-doped SiO2–PbO–PbF2–CdF2 oxyfluoride glass

Novel oxy fluoride glass doped with YbF3 and Eu2O3 is synthesized in the SiO2–PbO–PbF2–CdF2 system by melt quenching technique. Its physical properties, as well as the optical absorption of Eu3+ and Yb3+ ions are studied. Spectroscopic properties of Eu3+ ions are modeled within modified Judd–Ofelt theory, yielding absorption oscillator strength, luminescence branching ratios and radiative lifetime of 5D0 state. Intrinsic emission of Eu3+ ions under direct excitation in the UV, as well as up-conversion luminescence under near-IR excitation via cooperative energy transfer, 2Yb3+→ Eu3+, are studied. In the latter case, the glass provides intense reddish-orange emission with CIE coordinates x= 0.636, y= 0.363. The asymmetry parameter R for Eu3+ emission in the studied glass is about 8. The efficiency of this transfer mechanism is estimated from shortening of 2F5/2(Yb3+) lifetime to be 10 ± 1%