27,088 research outputs found
Boron-oxygen defect imaging in p-type Czochralski silicon
In this work, we demonstrate an accurate method for determining the effective boron-oxygen (BO) related defect density on Czochralski-grown silicon wafers using photoluminescence imaging. Furthermore, by combining a recently developed dopant density imaging technique and microscopic Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements of the local interstitial oxygen concentration [Oi ], the BO-related defect density, [Oi ], and the boron dopant density from the same wafer were determined, all with a spatial resolution of 160 μm. The results clearly confirm the established dependencies of the BO-related defect density on [Oi ] and the boron dopant density and demonstrate a powerful technique for studying this important defect.This work was supported by the Australian Research
Council (ARC) Future Fellowships program and the
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) fellowships
program
Curate and storyspace: an ontology and web-based environment for describing curatorial narratives
Existing metadata schemes and content management systems used by museums focus on describing the heritage objects that the museum holds in its collection. These are used to manage and describe individual heritage objects according to properties such as artist, date and preservation requirements. Curatorial narratives, such as physical or online exhibitions tell a story that spans across heritage objects and have a meaning that does not necessarily reside in the individual heritage objects themselves. Here we present curate, an ontology for describing curatorial narratives. This draws on structuralist accounts that distinguish the narrative from the story and plot, and also a detailed analysis of two museum exhibitions and the curatorial processes that contributed to them. Storyspace, our web based interface and API to the ontology, is being used by curatorial staff in two museums to model curatorial narratives and the processes through which they are constructed
Finite temperature Casimir pistons for electromagnetic field with mixed boundary conditions and its classical limit
In this paper, the finite temperature Casimir force acting on a
two-dimensional Casimir piston due to electromagnetic field is computed. It was
found that if mixed boundary conditions are assumed on the piston and its
opposite wall, then the Casimir force always tends to restore the piston
towards the equilibrium position, regardless of the boundary conditions assumed
on the walls transverse to the piston. In contrary, if pure boundary conditions
are assumed on the piston and the opposite wall, then the Casimir force always
tend to pull the piston towards the closer wall and away from the equilibrium
position. The nature of the force is not affected by temperature. However, in
the high temperature regime, the magnitude of the Casimir force grows linearly
with respect to temperature. This shows that the Casimir effect has a classical
limit as has been observed in other literatures.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, accepted by Journal of Physics
Effects of Diversity on Multi-agent Systems: Minority Games
We consider a version of large population games whose agents compete for
resources using strategies with adaptable preferences. The games can be used to
model economic markets, ecosystems or distributed control. Diversity of initial
preferences of strategies is introduced by randomly assigning biases to the
strategies of different agents. We find that diversity among the agents reduces
their maladaptive behavior. We find interesting scaling relations with
diversity for the variance and other parameters such as the convergence time,
the fraction of fickle agents, and the variance of wealth, illustrating their
dynamical origin. When diversity increases, the scaling dynamics is modified by
kinetic sampling and waiting effects. Analyses yield excellent agreement with
simulations.Comment: 41 pages, 16 figures; minor improvements in content, added
references; to be published in Physical Review
Removal and transformation of hexavalent chromium in sequencing batch reactor
The objectives of this study are to evaluate the efficiency of removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and to ascertain the fate of Cr(VI) in the treatment process. An SBR was operated with the FILL, REACT, SETTLE, DRAW and IDLE periods in the time ratio of 2:12:2:1.5:6.5 for a cycle time of 24 h. The study was divided into 5 phases with the addition of 0.5, 2.0, 3.0 and 5.0 mg/ℓ of Cr(VI) in Phases II, III, IV and V for a duration of 46, 75, 43 and 16 operational cycles, respectively. The Cr(VI) removal efficiencies for SBR were found to be 79.8, 88.4 and 99.8% in Phases III, IV and V, respectively. The results revealed that Cr(VI) removal efficiency improved with acclimated activated sludge. Determination of Cr in the suspended sludge showed that around 95% of the Cr species were Cr(III). Determination of Cr concentration profiles during the FILL and REACT periods showed that the predominant species was Cr(III) as Cr(VI) was bio-reduced. The proposed Cr(VI) removal mechanism involves bioreduction to Cr(III) which was subsequently precipitated and adsorbed by activated sludge. Precipitation rather than sorption is envisaged to be the main path of removal of Cr(III) from the solution.Keywords: Sequencing batch reactor, hexavalent chromium, removal, transformation, mechanis
Ultrafast Photoinduced Formation of Metallic State in a Perovskite-type Manganite with Short Range Charge and Orbital Order
Femtosecond reflection spectroscopy was performed on a perovskite-type
manganite, Gd0.55Sr0.45MnO3, with the short-range charge and orbital order
(CO/OO). Immediately after the photoirradiation, a large increase of the
reflectivity was detected in the mid-infrared region. The optical conductivity
spectrum under photoirradiation obtained from the Kramers-Kronig analyses of
the reflectivity changes demonstrates a formation of a metallic state. This
suggests that ferromagnetic spin arrangements occur within the time resolution
(ca. 200 fs) through the double exchange interaction, resulting in an ultrafast
CO/OO to FM switching.Comment: 4 figure
Tractable Pathfinding for the Stochastic On-Time Arrival Problem
We present a new and more efficient technique for computing the route that
maximizes the probability of on-time arrival in stochastic networks, also known
as the path-based stochastic on-time arrival (SOTA) problem. Our primary
contribution is a pathfinding algorithm that uses the solution to the
policy-based SOTA problem---which is of pseudo-polynomial-time complexity in
the time budget of the journey---as a search heuristic for the optimal path. In
particular, we show that this heuristic can be exceptionally efficient in
practice, effectively making it possible to solve the path-based SOTA problem
as quickly as the policy-based SOTA problem. Our secondary contribution is the
extension of policy-based preprocessing to path-based preprocessing for the
SOTA problem. In the process, we also introduce Arc-Potentials, a more
efficient generalization of Stochastic Arc-Flags that can be used for both
policy- and path-based SOTA. After developing the pathfinding and preprocessing
algorithms, we evaluate their performance on two different real-world networks.
To the best of our knowledge, these techniques provide the most efficient
computation strategy for the path-based SOTA problem for general probability
distributions, both with and without preprocessing.Comment: Submission accepted by the International Symposium on Experimental
Algorithms 2016 and published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer
Science series on June 1, 2016. Includes typographical corrections and
modifications to pre-processing made after the initial submission to SODA'15
(July 7, 2014
Mechanisms leading to oligomers and SOA through aqueous photooxidation: insights from OH radical oxidation of acetic acid and methylglyoxal
Previous experiments have demonstrated that the aqueous OH radical oxidation of methylglyoxal produces low volatility products including pyruvate, oxalate and oligomers. These products are found predominantly in the particle phase in the atmosphere, suggesting that methylglyoxal is a precursor of secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Acetic acid plays a central role in the aqueous oxidation of methylglyoxal and it is a ubiquitous product of gas phase photochemistry, making it a potential "aqueous" SOA precursor in its own right. However, the fate of acetic acid upon aqueous-phase oxidation is not well understood. In this research, acetic acid (20 μM–10 mM) was oxidized by OH radicals, and pyruvic acid and methylglyoxal experimental samples were analyzed using new analytical methods, in order to better understand the formation of SOA from acetic acid and methylglyoxal. Glyoxylic, glycolic, and oxalic acids formed from acetic acid and OH radicals. In contrast to the aqueous OH radical oxidation of methylglyoxal, the aqueous OH radical oxidation of acetic acid did not produce succinic acid and oligomers. This suggests that the methylgloxal-derived oligomers do not form through the acid catalyzed esterification pathway proposed previously. Using results from these experiments, radical mechanisms responsible for oligomer formation from methylglyoxal oxidation in clouds and wet aerosols are proposed. The importance of acetic acid/acetate as an SOA precursor is also discussed. We hypothesize that this and similar chemistry is central to the daytime formation of oligomers in wet aerosols
Resonant Neutrino Spin-Flavor Precession and Supernova Nucleosynthesis and Dynamics
We discuss the effects of resonant spin-flavor precession (RSFP) of Majorana
neutrinos on heavy element nucleosynthesis in neutrino-heated supernova ejecta
and the dynamics of supernovae. In assessing the effects of RSFP, we explicitly
include matter-enhanced (MSW) resonant neutrino flavor conversion effects where
appropriate. We point out that for plausible ranges of neutrino magnetic
moments and proto-neutron star magnetic fields, spin-flavor conversion of
(or ) with a cosmologically significant mass (1--100 eV)
into a light could lead to an enhanced neutron excess in
neutrino-heated supernova ejecta. This could be beneficial for models of
-process nucleosynthesis associated with late-time neutrino-heated ejecta
from supernovae. Similar spin-flavor conversion of neutrinos at earlier epochs
could lead to an increased shock reheating rate and, concomitantly, a larger
supernova explosion energy. We show, however, that such increased neutrino
heating likely will be accompanied by an enhanced neutron excess which could
exacerbate the problem of the overproduction of the neutron number
nuclei in the supernova ejecta from this stage. In all of these scenarios, the
average energy will be increased over those predicted by supernova
models with no neutrino mixings. This may allow the SN1987a data to constrain
RSFP-based schemes.Comment: Latex file, 33 pages including 11 figures, uses psfig.sty, minor
changes about wording and clarification of the text, to be published in Phys.
Rev.
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