437 research outputs found
Preliminary characterizations of a mid-shelf bank in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico as essential habitat for reef fishes
Characteristics of the snapper-grouper-grunt complex, benthic habitat description, and patterns of reef fish recruitment at Sonnier Bank in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico
Extended quantum conditional entropy and quantum uncertainty inequalities
Quantum states can be subjected to classical measurements, whose
incompatibility, or uncertainty, can be quantified by a comparison of certain
entropies. There is a long history of such entropy inequalities between
position and momentum. Recently these inequalities have been generalized to the
tensor product of several Hilbert spaces and we show here how their derivations
can be shortened to a few lines and how they can be generalized. All the
recently derived uncertainty relations utilize the strong subadditivity (SSA)
theorem; our contribution relies on directly utilizing the proof technique of
the original derivation of SSA.Comment: 4 page
Atomic spectrometry update: a review of advances in environmental analysis
This is the 33th annual review of the application of atomic spectrometry to the chemical analysis of environmental samples. This update refers to papers published approximately between August 2016 and June 2017 and continues the series of Atomic Spectrometry Updates (ASUs) in environmental analysis that should be read in conjunction with other related ASUs in the series, namely: clinical and biological materials, foods and beverages; advances in atomic spectrometry and related techniques; elemental speciation; X-ray spectrometry; and metals, chemicals and functional materials. In the field of air analysis, highlights within this review period included the fabrication of new air samplers using 3D printer technology, development of a portable aerosol concentrator unit based upon electrostatic precipitation and instrumental developments such as a prototype portable spark emission spectrometer to quantify metal particles in workplace air. The advent of ICP-MS/MS systems has enabled analysts to develop improved methods for the determination of PGEs and radioactive elements present in airborne particles. With such instruments, the capacity to eliminate or minimise many isobaric interferences now enables analysts to forego the use of many onerous sample clean-up procedures. Improvements in the capabilities of aerosol mass spectrometers were noted as were developments in other complimentary measurement techniques such as Raman. In the arena of water analysis there are growing concerns regarding engineered NPs e.g. Ag NPs, entering water courses resulting in the development and optimisation of new methods based upon FFF and sp-ICP-MS techniques to measure such inputs. Similar concerns exist for MRI contrasting agents e.g. Gd-based compounds and here improved methodologies that involve the use of sample preconcentration using chelating columns and ICP-MS analysis have been proposed. In the field of plant and soil analysis, similar to developments in the water sector, there has been increased interest in the measurement of NPs. Many comparisons of sample digestion or extraction methods have been reported but a key issue rarely addressed is transferability, i.e. whether methods preferred by one group of researchers using particular apparatus are also optimal in a different laboratory using different apparatus. New sample preconcentration methods continued to appear although – as in previous years – the CRMs selected for method validation often failed to reflect the nature of the intended sample(s). A noteworthy advance is the use of HR-CS-ETMAS for elemental analysis. Developments in LIBS included greater use of TEA CO2 lasers in place of Nd:YAG lasers and increased use of stand-off measurement. The past year has also seen a rise in proximal sensing using LIBS and pXRFS. In the field of geological analysis, the quest continues for well-characterised matrix-matched materials suitable for the calibration of elemental and, particularly, isotopic measurements by microanalytical techniques. Increasing interest in stable isotope analysis by SIMS is reflected by the number of matrix-matched RMs developed specifically for this technique. Much work continues on ways of improving isotope ratio measurements by ICP-MS and TIMS for a wide range of different isotope systems relevant to geochemical studies. High spatial resolution analysis by LIBS, LA-ICP-MS and SIMS to obtain data on chemical and isotopic variations in minerals and biogenic materials in two and three dimensions are the foundation for many new insights in geoscientific research. In XRFS and LIBS, the advantages and limitations of portable instrumentation continue to be major focus of activity
Effects of a nanoscopic filler on the structure and dynamics of a simulated polymer melt and the relationship to ultra-thin films
We perform molecular dynamics simulations of an idealized polymer melt
surrounding a nanoscopic filler particle to probe the effects of a filler on
the local melt structure and dynamics. We show that the glass transition
temperature of the melt can be shifted to either higher or lower
temperatures by appropriately tuning the interactions between polymer and
filler. A gradual change of the polymer dynamics approaching the filler surface
causes the change in the glass transition. We also find that while the bulk
structure of the polymers changes little, the polymers close to the surface
tend to be elongated and flattened, independent of the type of interaction we
study. Consequently, the dynamics appear strongly influenced by the
interactions, while the melt structure is only altered by the geometric
constraints imposed by the presence of the filler. Our findings show a strong
similarity to those obtained for ultra-thin polymer films (thickness nm) suggesting that both ultra-thin films and filled-polymer systems might
be understood in the same context
Atomic spectrometry update – a review of advances in environmental analysis
This is the 34th annual review of the application of atomic spectrometry to the chemical analysis of environmental samples. This Update refers to papers published approximately between August 2017 and June 2018 and continues the series of Atomic Spectrometry Updates (ASUs) in Environmental Analysis that should be read in conjunction with other related ASUs in the series, namely: clinical and biological materials, foods and beverages; advances in atomic spectrometry and related techniques; elemental speciation; X-ray spectrometry; and metals, chemicals and functional materials. The review is not intended to be a comprehensive overview but selective with the aim of providing a critical insight into developments in instrumentation, methodologies and data handling that represent a significant advance in the use of atomic spectrometry in the environmental science
Active Galactic Nuclei at the Crossroads of Astrophysics
Over the last five decades, AGN studies have produced a number of spectacular
examples of synergies and multifaceted approaches in astrophysics. The field of
AGN research now spans the entire spectral range and covers more than twelve
orders of magnitude in the spatial and temporal domains. The next generation of
astrophysical facilities will open up new possibilities for AGN studies,
especially in the areas of high-resolution and high-fidelity imaging and
spectroscopy of nuclear regions in the X-ray, optical, and radio bands. These
studies will address in detail a number of critical issues in AGN research such
as processes in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes, physical
conditions of broad-line and narrow-line regions, formation and evolution of
accretion disks and relativistic outflows, and the connection between nuclear
activity and galaxy evolution.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures; review contribution; "Exploring the Cosmic
Frontier: Astrophysical Instruments for the 21st Century", ESO Astrophysical
Symposia Serie
Observation of Orbitally Excited B_s Mesons
We report the first observation of two narrow resonances consistent with
states of orbitally excited (L=1) B_s mesons using 1 fb^{-1} of ppbar
collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector at the
Fermilab Tevatron. We use two-body decays into K^- and B^+ mesons reconstructed
as B^+ \to J/\psi K^+, J/\psi \to \mu^+ \mu^- or B^+ \to \bar{D}^0 \pi^+,
\bar{D}^0 \to K^+ \pi^-. We deduce the masses of the two states to be m(B_{s1})
= 5829.4 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2 and m(B_{s2}^*) = 5839.7 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2.Comment: Version accepted and published by Phys. Rev. Let
Energy and system size dependence of \phi meson production in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions
We study the beam-energy and system-size dependence of \phi meson production
(using the hadronic decay mode \phi -- K+K-) by comparing the new results from
Cu+Cu collisions and previously reported Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4
and 200 GeV measured in the STAR experiment at RHIC. Data presented are from
mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) for 0.4 < pT < 5 GeV/c. At a given beam energy, the
transverse momentum distributions for \phi mesons are observed to be similar in
yield and shape for Cu+Cu and Au+Au colliding systems with similar average
numbers of participating nucleons. The \phi meson yields in nucleus-nucleus
collisions, normalised by the average number of participating nucleons, are
found to be enhanced relative to those from p+p collisions with a different
trend compared to strange baryons. The enhancement for \phi mesons is observed
to be higher at \sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV compared to 62.4 GeV. These observations
for the produced \phi(s\bar{s}) mesons clearly suggest that, at these collision
energies, the source of enhancement of strange hadrons is related to the
formation of a dense partonic medium in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions
and cannot be alone due to canonical suppression of their production in smaller
systems.Comment: 20 pages and 5 figure
Heavy quarkonia in a medium as a quantum dissipative system: Master-equation approach
The problem of the evolution of a heavy quarkonium in a medium can be recast
as that of a quantum dissipative system. Within the framework of the
master-equation approach to open quantum systems, we consider the real-time
dynamics of quarkonia. We find that in a plasma at fixed temperature, the
populations of the various quarkonium states evolve together, while their
momentum distribution satisfies a Fokker-Planck equation.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Version 2 matches the published versio
- …