1,505 research outputs found
Hysteresis loops of Co-Pt perpendicular magnetic multilayers
We develop a phenomenological model to study magnetic hysteresis in two
samples designed as possible perpendicular recording media. A stochastic
cellular automata model captures cooperative behavior in the nucleation of
magnetic domains. We show how this simple model turns broad hysteresis loops
into loops with sharp drops like those observed in these samples, and explains
their unusual features. We also present, and experimentally verify, predictions
of this model, and suggest how insights from this model may apply more
generally.Comment: 4.5 pages, 5 figure
Labour Market and Social Policy in Italy: Challenges and Changes. Bertelsmann Policy Brief #2016/02
vEight years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, Italy has still to cope with and
overcome a plethora of economic and social challenges. On top of this, it faces an
unfavourable demographic structure and severe disparities between its northern and
southern regions. Some promising reforms have recently been enacted, specifically
targeting poverty and social exclusion. However, much more remains to be done on
the way towards greater economic stability and widely shared prosperity
Effects of climate-induced changes in isoprene emissions after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo
In the 1990s the rates of increase of greenhouse gas concentrations, most notably of methane, were observed to change, for reasons that have yet to be fully determined. This period included the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and an El Nino warm event, both of which affect biogeochemical processes, by changes in temperature, precipitation and radiation. We examine the impact of these changes in climate on global isoprene emissions and the effect these climate dependent emissions have on the hydroxy radical, OH, the dominant sink for methane. We model a reduction of isoprene emissions in the early 1990s, with a maximum decrease of 40 Tg(C)/yr in late 1992 and early 1993, a change of 9%. This reduction is caused by the cooler, drier conditions following the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Isoprene emissions are reduced both directly, by changes in temperature and a soil moisture dependent suppression factor, and indirectly, through reductions in the total biomass. The reduction in isoprene emissions causes increases of tropospheric OH which lead to an increased sink for methane of up to 5 Tg(CH4)/year, comparable to estimated source changes over the time period studied. There remain many uncertainties in the emission and oxidation of isoprene which may affect the exact size of this effect, but its magnitude is large enough that it should remain important
MRI ventilation abnormalities predict quality-of-life and lung function changes in mild-to-moderate COPD: Longitudinal TINCan study
CT biomarkers of emphysema (15th percentile of the CT density histogram, HU15%) and airways disease (wall thickness of airways with 10 mm internal perimeter, Pi10) have shown promise for providing prognostic information.2 Although recent data3 showed that the change in CT emphysema may be used to estimate the efficacy of therapy in patients with α-1-antitrypsin-deficiency, thus far none of the currently developed CT biomarkers have been shown to reflect changes in outcomes that are important to patients with COPD. MRI with inhaled noble gases provide highly sensitive and unique microstructural and functional information in COPD.4 MRI biomarkers of COPD are highly reproducible,5 are associated with COPD outcomes6 and detect changes with greater sensitivity and before disease-related changes can be detected by CT or FEV1. Here we evaluated longitudinal changes in both CT and MRI measurements of COPD. Based on previous longitudinal results,8 ,10 we hypothesised that 3He MRI biomarkers would predict quality-of-life and FEV1 changes in COPD, and that longitudinal changes in MRI biomarkers would be correlated with changes in COPD quality-of-life measures
Enhancing Acceleration Radiation from Ground-State Atoms via Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics
When ground state atoms are accelerated through a high Q microwave cavity,
radiation is produced with an intensity which can exceed the intensity of Unruh
acceleration radiation in free space by many orders of magnitude. The cavity
field at steady state is described by a thermal density matrix under most
conditions. However, under some conditions gain is possible, and when the atoms
are injected in a regular fashion, the radiation can be produced in a squeezed
state
Photon wave mechanics and position eigenvectors
One and two photon wave functions are derived by projecting the quantum state
vector onto simultaneous eigenvectors of the number operator and a recently
constructed photon position operator [Phys. Rev A 59, 954 (1999)] that couples
spin and orbital angular momentum. While only the Landau-Peierls wave function
defines a positive definite photon density, a similarity transformation to a
biorthogonal field-potential pair of positive frequency solutions of Maxwell's
equations preserves eigenvalues and expectation values. We show that this real
space description of photons is compatible with all of the usual rules of
quantum mechanics and provides a framework for understanding the relationships
amongst different forms of the photon wave function in the literature. It also
gives a quantum picture of the optical angular momentum of beams that applies
to both one photon and coherent states. According to the rules of qunatum
mechanics, this wave function gives the probability to count a photon at any
position in space.Comment: 14 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Percolation Threshold, Fisher Exponent, and Shortest Path Exponent for 4 and 5 Dimensions
We develop a method of constructing percolation clusters that allows us to
build very large clusters using very little computer memory by limiting the
maximum number of sites for which we maintain state information to a number of
the order of the number of sites in the largest chemical shell of the cluster
being created. The memory required to grow a cluster of mass s is of the order
of bytes where ranges from 0.4 for 2-dimensional lattices
to 0.5 for 6- (or higher)-dimensional lattices. We use this method to estimate
, the exponent relating the minimum path to the
Euclidean distance r, for 4D and 5D hypercubic lattices. Analyzing both site
and bond percolation, we find (4D) and
(5D). In order to determine
to high precision, and without bias, it was necessary to
first find precise values for the percolation threshold, :
(4D) and (5D) for site and
(4D) and (5D) for bond
percolation. We also calculate the Fisher exponent, , determined in the
course of calculating the values of : (4D) and
(5D)
RTLola Cleared for Take-Off: Monitoring Autonomous Aircraft
The autonomous control of unmanned aircraft is a highly safety-critical
domain with great economic potential in a wide range of application areas,
including logistics, agriculture, civil engineering, and disaster recovery. We
report on the development of a dynamic monitoring framework for the DLR ARTIS
(Autonomous Rotorcraft Testbed for Intelligent Systems) family of unmanned
aircraft based on the formal specification language RTLola. RTLola is a
stream-based specification language for real-time properties. An RTLola
specification of hazardous situations and system failures is statically
analyzed in terms of consistency and resource usage and then automatically
translated into an FPGA-based monitor. Our approach leads to highly efficient,
parallelized monitors with formal guarantees on the noninterference of the
monitor with the normal operation of the autonomous system
RHESSI images and spectra of two small flares
We studied the evolution of two small flares (GOES class C2 and C1) that
developed in the same active region with different morphological
characteristics: one is extended and the other is compact. We analyzed the
accuracy and the consistency of different algorithms implemented in RHESSI
software to reconstruct the image of the emitting sources, for energies between
3 and 12 keV. We found that all tested algorithms give consistent results for
the peak position whil the other parameters can differ at most by a factor 2.
Pixon and Forward-fit generally converge to similar results but Pixon is more
reliable for reconstructing a complex source. We investigated the spectral
characteristics of the two flares during their evolution in the 3--25 keV
energy band. We found that a single thermal model of the photon spectrum is
inadequate to fit the observations and we needed to add either a non-thermal
model or a hot thermal one.The non-thermal and the double thermal fits are
comparable. If we assume a non-thermal model, the non-thermal energy is always
higher than the thermal one.Only during the very final decay phase a single
thermal model fits fairly well the observed spectrum.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, accepted by Solar Physic
Influence of future climate and cropland expansion on isoprene emissions and tropospheric ozone
Over the 21st century, changes in CO2 levels, climate and land use are expected to alter the global distribution of vegetation, leading to changes in trace gas emissions from plants, including, importantly, the emissions of isoprene. This, combined with changes in anthropogenic emissions, has the potential to impact tropospheric ozone levels, which above a certain level are harmful to animals and vegetation. In this study we use a biogenic emissions model following the empirical parameterisation of the MEGAN model, with vegetation distributions calculated by the Sheffield Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (SDGVM) to explore a range of potential future (2095) changes in isoprene emissions caused by changes in climate (including natural land use changes), land use, and the inhibition of isoprene emissions by CO2. From the present-day (2000) value of 467 Tg C yr−1, we find that the combined impact of these factors could cause a net decrease in isoprene emissions of 259 Tg C yr−1 (55%) with individual contributions of +78 Tg C yr−1 (climate change), −190 Tg C yr−1 (land use) and −147 Tg C yr−1 (CO2 inhibition). Using these isoprene emissions and changes in anthropogenic emissions, a series of integrations is conducted with the UM-UKCA chemistry-climate model with the aim of examining changes in ozone over the 21st century. Globally, all combined future changes cause a decrease in the tropospheric ozone burden of 27 Tg (7%) from 379 Tg in the present-day. At the surface, decreases in ozone of 6–10 ppb are calculated over the oceans and developed northern hemispheric regions, due to reduced NOx transport by PAN and reductions in NOx emissions in these areas respectively. Increases of 4–6 ppb are calculated in the continental tropics due to cropland expansion in these regions, increased CO2 inhibition of isoprene emissions, and higher temperatures due to climate change. These effects outweigh the decreases in tropical ozone caused by increased tropical isoprene emissions with climate change. Our land use change scenario consists of cropland expansion, which is most pronounced in the tropics. The tropics are also where land use change causes the greatest increases in ozone. As such there is potential for increased crop exposure to harmful levels of ozone. However, we find that these ozone increases are still not large enough to raise ozone to such damaging levels
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