Enhancement of the ferromagnetic order of graphite after sulphuric acid treatment

We have studied the changes in the ferromagnetic behavior of graphite powder and graphite flakes after treatment with diluted sulphuric acid. We show that this kind of acid treatment enhances substantially the ferromagnetic magnetization of virgin graphite micrometer size powder as well as in graphite flakes. The anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) amplitude at 300 K measured in a micrometer size thin graphite flake after acid treatment reaches values comparable to polycrystalline cobalt.Comment: 3.2 pages, 4 figure

Environmental drivers of distribution and reef development of the Mediterranean coral Cladocora caespitosa

Cladocora caespitosa is the only Mediterranean scleractinian similar to tropical reef-building corals. While this species is part of the recent fossil history of the Mediterranean Sea, it is currently considered endangered due to its decline during the last decades. Environmental factors affecting the distribution and persistence of extensive bank reefs of this endemic species across its whole geographic range are poorly understood. In this study, we examined the environmental response of C. caespitosa and its main types of assemblages using ecological niche modeling and ordination analysis. We also predicted other suitable areas for the occurrence of the species and assessed the conservation effectiveness of Mediterranean marine protected areas (MPAs) for this coral. We found that phosphate concentration and wave height were factors affecting both the occurrence of this versatile species and the distribution of its extensive bioconstructions in the Mediterranean Sea. A set of factors (diffuse attenuation coefficient, calcite and nitrate concentrations, mean wave height, sea surface temperature, and shape of the coast) likely act as environmental barriers preventing the species from expansion to the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea. Uncertainties in our large-scale statistical results and departures from previous physiological and ecological studies are also discussed under an integrative perspective. This study reveals that Mediterranean MPAs encompass eight of the ten banks and 16 of the 21 beds of C. caespitosa. Preservation of water clarity by avoiding phosphate discharges may improve the protection of this emblematic species.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [CTM2014-57949-R]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Flavor Alignment in SUSY GUTs

A Supersymmetric Grand unified model is constructed based on SO(10)xSO(10) symmetry in which new types of Yukawa matrices couple standard and exotic fermions. Evolution of these couplings from the Grand Unified scale to the electroweak scale causes some of them to be driven to their fixed points. This solves the supersymmetric alignment problem and ensures that there are no observable flavor changing neutral currents mediated by supersymmetric particles. Fermion hierarchy and neutrino mixing constraints are automatically satisfied in this formalism.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Ferromagnetic coupling and magnetic anisotropy in molecular Ni(II) squares

We investigated the magnetic properties of two isostructural Ni(II) metal complexes [Ni4Lb8] and [Ni4Lc8]. In each molecule the four Ni(II) centers form almost perfect regular squares. Magnetic coupling and anisotropy of single crystals were examined by magnetization measurements and in particular by high-field torque magnetometry at low temperatures. The data were analyzed in terms of an effective spin Hamiltonian appropriate for Ni(II) centers. For both compounds, we found a weak intramolecular ferromagnetic coupling of the four Ni(II) spins and sizable single-ion anisotropies of the easy-axis type. The coupling strengths are roughly identical for both compounds, whereas the zero-field-splitting parameters are significantly different. Possible reasons for this observation are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Isothermal Recombinase Polymerase amplification (RPA) of Schistosoma haematobium DNA and oligochromatographic lateral flow detection

© 2015 Rosser et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. The attached file is the published version of the article

Ab-initio prediction of the electronic and optical excitations in polythiophene: isolated chains versus bulk polymer

We calculate the electronic and optical excitations of polythiophene using the GW approximation for the electronic self-energy, and include excitonic effects by solving the electron-hole Bethe-Salpeter equation. Two different situations are studied: excitations on isolated chains and excitations on chains in crystalline polythiophene. The dielectric tensor for the crystalline situation is obtained by modeling the polymer chains as polarizable line objects, with a long-wavelength polarizability tensor obtained from the ab-initio polarizability function of the isolated chain. With this model dielectric tensor we construct a screened interaction for the crystalline case, including both intra- and interchain screening. In the crystalline situation both the quasi-particle band gap and the exciton binding energies are drastically reduced in comparison with the isolated chain. However, the optical gap is hardly affected. We expect this result to be relevant for conjugated polymers in general.Comment: 15 pages including 4 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev. B, 6/15/200

CP violation from noncommutative geometry

If the geometry of space-time is \nc, i.e. $[x_{\mu},x_{\nu}]=i \theta_{\mu \nu}$, then \nc \cpviolng effects may be manifest at low energies. For a \nc scale $\Lambda \equiv \theta^{-1/2} \leq 2 TeV$, \cpviol from \ncg is comparable to that from the Standard Model (SM) alone: the \nc contributions to $\epsilon$ and $\epsilon'/\epsilon$ in the $K$-system, may actually dominate over the Standard Model contributions. Present data permit \ncg to be the only source of \cpviol. Furthermore the most recent findings for g-2 of the muon are consistent with predictions from \ncg. If the geometry of space-time is \nc, $i.e.$ $[x_{\mu},x_{\nu}]=i \theta_{\mu \nu}$, then \nc \cpviolng effects may be manifest at low energies. For a \nc scale $\Lambda \equiv \theta^{-1/2} \leq 2 TeV$, \cpviol from \ncg is comparable to that from the Standard Model (SM) alone: the \nc contributions to $\epsilon$ and $\epsilon'/\epsilon$ in the K-system, may actually dominate over the Standard Model contributions. Present data permit \ncg to be the only source of \cpviol. Furthermore the most recent findings for g-2 of the muon are consistent with predictions from \ncg.Comment: fixed notation, corrected some typo

Review of the Phenomenology of Noncommutative Geometry

We present a pedagogical review of particle physics models that are based on the noncommutativity of space-time, $[\hat{x}_\mu,\hat{x}_\nu]=i \theta_{\mu \nu}$, with specific attention to the phenomenology these models predict in particle experiments either in existence or under development. We summarize results obtained for high energy scattering such as would occur for example in a future $e^+e^-$ linear collider with $\sqrt{s} = 500 GeV$, as well as low energy experiments such as those pertaining to elementary electric dipole moments and other \cpviolng observables, and finally comment on the status of phenomenological work in cosmology and extra dimensions.Comment: updated, references added, corrected typo