4,284 research outputs found
FATIGABILITY OF TRUNK MUSCLES WHEN SIMULATING PUSHING MOVEMENT DURING TREADMILL WALKING
Pushing is a common movement in moving objects, and it also related to about 9% to 20% low back injuries occurrence (Hoozemans et al., 1998). The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of fatigue on trunk muscle activity during treadmill walking with and without a pushing movement
Observing Coherence Effects in an Overdamped Quantum System
It is usually considered that the spectrum of an optical cavity coupled to an
atomic medium does not exhibit a normal-mode splitting unless the system
satisfies the strong coupling condition, meaning the Rabi frequency of the
coherent coupling exceeds the decay rates of atom and cavity excitations. Here
we show that this need not be the case, but depends on the way in which the
coupled system is probed. Measurements of the reflection of a probe laser from
the input mirror of an overdamped cavity reveal an avoided crossing in the
spectrum which is not observed when driving the atoms directly and measuring
the Purcell-enhanced cavity emission. We understand these observations by
noting a formal correspondence with electromagnetically-induced transparency of
a three-level atom in free space, where our cavity acts as the absorbing medium
and the coupled atoms play the role of the control field
Sensitivity limits of a Raman atom interferometer as a gravity gradiometer
We evaluate the sensitivity of a dual cloud atom interferometer to the
measurement of vertical gravity gradient. We study the influence of most
relevant experimental parameters on noise and long-term drifts. Results are
also applied to the case of doubly differential measurements of the
gravitational signal from local source masses. We achieve a short term
sensitivity of 3*10^(-9) g/Hz^(-1/2) to differential gravity acceleration,
limited by the quantum projection noise of the instrument. Active control of
the most critical parameters allows to reach a resolution of 5*10^(-11) g after
8000 s on the measurement of differential gravity acceleration. The long term
stability is compatible with a measurement of the gravitational constant G at
the level of 10^(-4) after an integration time of about 100 hours.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figure
PERFLUOROOCTANE SULFONATE (PFOS) AND PERFLUOROOCTANOATE (PFOA) CONTAMINATION OF WATER ENVIRONMENT IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart
Sensitive gravity-gradiometry with atom interferometry: progress towards an improved determination of the gravitational constant
We here present a high sensitivity gravity-gradiometer based on atom
interferometry. In our apparatus, two clouds of laser-cooled rubidium atoms are
launched in fountain configuration and interrogated by a Raman interferometry
sequence to probe the gradient of gravity field. We recently implemented a
high-flux atomic source and a newly designed Raman lasers system in the
instrument set-up. We discuss the applications towards a precise determination
of the Newtonian gravitational constant G. The long-term stability of the
instrument and the signal-to-noise ratio demonstrated here open interesting
perspectives for pushing the measurement precision below the 100 ppm level
Challenges to Accurate Estimation of Methane Emission from Septic Tanks with Long Emptying Intervals
Septic tanks in low- and middle-income countries are often not emptied for a long time, potentially resulting in poor pollutant removal efficiency and increased greenhouse gas emissions, including methane (CH₄). We examined the impact of long emptying intervals (4.0–23 years) on the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) removal efficiency of 15 blackwater septic tanks and the CH₄ emission rates of 23 blackwater septic tanks in Hanoi. The average BOD removal efficiency was 37% (−2–65%), and the average CH₄ emission rate was 10.9 (2.2–26.8) g/(cap·d). The emptying intervals were strongly negatively correlated with BOD removal efficiency (R = −0.676, p = 0.006) and positively correlated with CH₄ emission rates (R = 0.614, p = 0.001). CH₄ emission rates were positively correlated with sludge depth (R = 0.596, p = 0.002), but against expectation, negatively correlated with BOD removal efficiency (R = −0.219, p = 0.451). These results suggest that shortening the emptying interval improves the BOD removal efficiency and reduces the CH₄ emission rate. Moreover, the CH₄ emission estimation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is a positive conversion of BOD removal, might be inaccurate for septic tanks with long emptying intervals. Our findings suggest that emptying intervals, sludge depth, and per-capita emission factors reflecting long emptying intervals are potential parameters for accurately estimating CH₄ emissions from septic tanks
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