393 research outputs found
Storage capabilities of a 4-junction single electron trap with an on-chip resistor
We report on the operation of a single electron trap comprising a chain of
four Al/AlOx/Al tunnel junctions attached, at one side, to a memory island and,
at the other side, to a miniature on-chip Cr resistor R=50 kOhm which served to
suppress cotunneling. At appropriate voltage bias the bi-stable states of the
trap, with the charges differing by the elementary charge e, were realized. At
low temperature, spontaneous switching between these states was found to be
infrequent. For instance, at T=70 mK the system was capable of holding an
electron for more than 2 hours, this time being limited by the time of the
measurement.Comment: 3 pages of text and 2 figure
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Effect of elevated CO2 and high temperature on seed-set and grain quality of rice
Hybrid vigour may help overcome the negative effects of climate change in rice. A popular rice hybrid (IR75217H), a heat-tolerant check (N22), and a mega-variety (IR64) were tested for tolerance of seed-set and grain quality to high-temperature stress at anthesis at ambient and elevated [CO2]. Under an ambient air temperature of 29 °C (tissue temperature 28.3 °C), elevated [CO2] increased vegetative and reproductive growth, including seed yield in all three genotypes. Seed-set was reduced by high temperature in all three genotypes, with the hybrid and IR64 equally affected and twice as sensitive as the tolerant cultivar N22. No interaction occurred between temperature and [CO2] for seed-set. The hybrid had significantly more anthesed spikelets at all temperatures than IR64 and at 29 °C this resulted in a large yield advantage. At 35 °C (tissue temperature 32.9 °C) the hybrid had a higher seed yield than IR64 due to the higher spikelet number, but at 38 °C (tissue temperature 34–35 °C) there was no yield advantage. Grain gel consistency in the hybrid and IR64 was reduced by high temperatures only at elevated [CO2], while the percentage of broken grains increased from 10% at 29 °C to 35% at 38 °C in the hybrid. It is concluded that seed-set of hybrids is susceptible to short episodes of high temperature during anthesis, but that at intermediate tissue temperatures of 32.9 °C higher spikelet number (yield potential) of the hybrid can compensate to some extent. If the heat tolerance from N22 or other tolerant donors could be transferred into hybrids, yield could be maintained under the higher temperatures predicted with climate change
Analysis and Optimization of a Piezoelectric Harvester on a Car Damper
AbstractLow power levels obtained from piezoelectric conversion of ambient vibrations appear to be a promising solution to supply wireless sensors embedded inside automotive suspension. However such a solution requires overall an optimum power extraction from the piezoelectric power harvester. This leads to the use of a sufficiently accurate and flexible modelling method to find the optimal characterics and configuration of the harvester. To this end, an innovative bond graph model of the piezoelectric harvester embedded in the quarter vehicle system is proposed for providing the harvested power when a car travels a road with a speed bump at 30km/h. Results show that around of 0.5 milliwatt electrical power is harvested when varying key parameters like the location and characteristics of the piezoelectric device
Enhanced transmission of slit arrays in an extremely thin metallic film
Horizontal resonances of slit arrays are studied. They can lead to an
enhanced transmission that cannot be explained using the single-mode
approximation. A new type of cavity resonance is found when the slits are
narrow for a wavelength very close to the period. It can be excited for very
low thicknesses. Optimization shows these structures could constitute
interesting monochromatic filters
Removing noise from pyrosequenced amplicons
Background
In many environmental genomics applications a homologous region of DNA from a diverse sample is first amplified by PCR and then sequenced. The next generation sequencing technology, 454 pyrosequencing, has allowed much larger read numbers from PCR amplicons than ever before. This has revolutionised the study of microbial diversity as it is now possible to sequence a substantial fraction of the 16S rRNA genes in a community. However, there is a growing realisation that because of the large read numbers and the lack of consensus sequences it is vital to distinguish noise from true sequence diversity in this data. Otherwise this leads to inflated estimates of the number of types or operational taxonomic units (OTUs) present. Three sources of error are important: sequencing error, PCR single base substitutions and PCR chimeras. We present AmpliconNoise, a development of the PyroNoise algorithm that is capable of separately removing 454 sequencing errors and PCR single base errors. We also introduce a novel chimera removal program, Perseus, that exploits the sequence abundances associated with pyrosequencing data. We use data sets where samples of known diversity have been amplified and sequenced to quantify the effect of each of the sources of error on OTU inflation and to validate these algorithms
Rf-induced transport of Cooper pairs in superconducting single electron transistors in a dissipative environment
We investigate low-temperature and low-voltage-bias charge transport in a
superconducting Al single electron transistor in a dissipating environment,
realized as on-chip high-ohmic Cr microstrips. In our samples with relatively
large charging energy values Ec > EJ, where EJ is the energy of the Josephson
coupling, two transport mechanisms were found to be dominating, both based on
discrete tunneling of individual Cooper pairs: Depending on the gate voltage
Vg, either sequential tunneling of pairs via the transistor island (in the open
state of the transistor around the points Qg = CgVg = e mod(2e), where Cg is
the gate capacitance) or their cotunneling through the transistor (for Qg away
of these points) was found to prevail in the net current. As the open states of
our transistors had been found to be unstable with respect to quasiparticle
poisoning, high-frequency gate cycling (at f ~ 1 MHz) was applied to study the
sequential tunneling mechanism. A simple model based on the master equation was
found to be in a good agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Parity-Affected Superconductivity in Ultrasmall Metallic Grains
We investigate the breakdown of BCS superconductivity in {\em ultra}\/small
metallic grains as a function of particle size (characterized by the mean
spacing between discrete electronic eigenstates), and the parity ( =
even/odd) of the number of electrons on the island. Assuming equally spaced
levels, we solve the parity-dependent BCS gap equation for the order parameter
. Both the critical level spacing and the
critical temperature at which are parity
dependent, and both are so much smaller in the odd than the even case that
these differences should be measurable in current experiments.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 1 encapsulated postscript figure, submitted to
Physical Review Letter
Towards single-electron metrology
We review the status of the understanding of single-electron transport (SET)
devices with respect to their applicability in metrology. Their envisioned role
as the basis of a high-precision electrical standard is outlined and is
discussed in the context of other standards. The operation principles of single
electron transistors, turnstiles and pumps are explained and the fundamental
limits of these devices are discussed in detail. We describe the various
physical mechanisms that influence the device uncertainty and review the
analytical and numerical methods needed to calculate the intrinsic uncertainty
and to optimise the fabrication and operation parameters. Recent experimental
results are evaluated and compared with theoretical predictions. Although there
are discrepancies between theory and experiments, the intrinsic uncertainty is
already small enough to start preparing for the first SET-based metrological
applications.Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures. Review paper to be published in International
Journal of Modern Physics
Calibration and validation of Corona Kh-4B to generate height models and orthoimages
At 48 years of age CORONA-KH-4B images are important for actual urban planning in Bangladesh, where no old maps or aerial images exist, indicating locations of former water courses that are no longer visible, but causing problems for the stability of building ground. CORONA KH-4B images are available for very low cost or even free of charge. A forward and a backward-looking panoramic camera with a nadir angle of approximately 15° enabled a stereoscopic coverage. Taken from a height of 154km, an image covers approximately 220km × 14km up to 17km with a height to base relation of 1:1.85. The ground sampling distance (GSD) varies with the incidence angle from 1.77m in the centre of the image up to 2.18m in Y-direction and 2.69m in the X-direction at the ends of the images. These nice conditions of the old images are affected by geometric problems of the panoramic images. A geometric bending can be improved by a correction based on the available sidelines, nevertheless deformations dominantly in the longitudinal direction only can be determined based on ground control points. A group of neighboured images have similar deformations, allowing the determination of a correction grid, describing the systematic image errors. This improved the geometry strongly, but could not eliminate all individual and local geometric problems. The high morphologic quality of the CORONA images, but limited absolute height accuracy has been improved by merging with the highly accurate TDM90 height model. For ortho images a fitting of neighboured images was required. © 2020 Copernicus GmbH. All rights reserved
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