Simulation of Laser Ablation in Aluminum: The Effectivity of Double Pulses

Lasers are becoming a more and more important tool in cutting and shaping materials. Improving precision and effectivity is an ongoing demand in science and industry. One possibility are double pulses. Here we study laser ablation of aluminum by the two-temperature model. There the laser is modeled as a source in a continuum heat conduction equation for the electrons, whose temperature then is transferred to a molecular dynamics particle model by an electron-phonon coupling term. The melting and ablation effectivity is investigated depending on the relative intensity and the time delay between two Gaussian shaped laser pulses. It turns out that at least for aluminum the optimal pulse shapes are standard Gaussian pulses. For double pulses with delay times up to 200 ps we find a behavior as observed in experiment: the ablation depth decreases beyond a delay of 10 ps even if one does not account for the weakening at the second pulse due to laser-plasma interaction.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Cereal and oilseed production in Finland under different socioeconomic scenarios until 2050: an analysis with models of two different scales

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Variational cluster approximation at finite temperatures

Being able to describe thermodynamics and dynamics of ordered systems at finite temperature allows capturing the signatures of different phases as well as thermal transitions between them. Systems of strongly correlated electrons residing in multiple orbitals where spin-orbit coupling is of significance can exhibit a multitude of exotic phases. Modelling these systems and capturing their properties for the entire temperature range is a non-trivial task. In this thesis, the implementation details of several cluster solvers used for the variational cluster approximation (VCA) at finite temperature are described, since this method is capable of modelling the systems mentioned before while incorporating local quantum fluctuations. The most reliable, sufficiently benchmarked and best performing solver among them is then used to investigate the magnetic and orbital properties of Sr2IrO4 and Ca2RuO4 described by three-band Hubbard models, as well as the Kondo lattice model at half-filling

Hard Problems on Random Graphs

Many graph properties are expressible in first order logic. Whether a graph contains a clique or a dominating set of size k are two examples. For the solution size as its parameter the first one is W[1]-complete and the second one W[2]-complete meaning that both of them are hard problems in the worst-case. If we look at both problem from the aspect of average-case complexity, the picture changes. Clique can be solved in expected FPT time on uniformly distributed graphs of size n, while this is not clear for Dominating Set. We show that it is indeed unlikely that Dominating Set can be solved efficiently on random graphs: If yes, then every first-order expressible graph property can be solved in expected FPT time, too. Furthermore, this remains true when we consider random graphs with an arbitrary constant edge probability. We identify a very simple problem on random matrices that is equally hard to solve on average: Given a square boolean matrix, are there k rows whose logical AND is the zero vector? The related Even Set problem on the other hand turns out to be efficiently solvable on random instances, while it is known to be hard in the worst-case

miRNA contributions to pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis inferred from GWAS.

ObjectiveOnset of multiple sclerosis (MS) occurs in childhood for approximately 5% of cases (pediatric MS, or ped-MS). Epigenetic influences are strongly implicated in MS pathogenesis in adults, including the contribution from microRNAs (miRNAs), small noncoding RNAs that affect gene expression by binding target gene mRNAs. Few studies have specifically examined miRNAs in ped-MS, but individuals developing MS at an early age may carry a relatively high burden of genetic risk factors, and miRNA dysregulation may therefore play a larger role in the development of ped-MS than in adult-onset MS. This study aimed to look for evidence of miRNA involvement in ped-MS pathogenesis.MethodsGWAS results from 486 ped-MS cases and 1362 controls from the U.S. Pediatric MS Network and Kaiser Permanente Northern California membership were investigated for miRNA-specific signals. First, enrichment of miRNA-target gene network signals was evaluated using MIGWAS software. Second, SNPs in miRNA genes and in target gene binding sites (miR-SNPs) were tested for association with ped-MS, and pathway analysis was performed on associated target genes.ResultsMIGWAS analysis showed that miRNA-target gene signals were enriched in GWAS (P = 0.038) and identified 39 candidate biomarker miRNA-target gene pairs, including immune and neuronal signaling genes. The miR-SNP analysis implicated dysregulation of miRNA binding to target genes in five pathways, mainly involved in immune signaling.InterpretationEvidence from GWAS suggests that miRNAs play a role in ped-MS pathogenesis by affecting immune signaling and other pathways. Candidate biomarker miRNA-target gene pairs should be further studied for diagnostic, prognostic, and/or therapeutic utility

Clearance kinetics and matrix binding partners of the receptor for advanced glycation end products

Elucidating the sites and mechanisms of sRAGE action in the healthy state is vital to better understand the biological importance of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE). Previous studies in animal models of disease have demonstrated that exogenous sRAGE has an anti-inflammatory effect, which has been reasoned to arise from sequestration of pro-inflammatory ligands away from membrane-bound RAGE isoforms. We show here that sRAGE exhibits in vitro binding with high affinity and reversibly to extracellular matrix components collagen I, collagen IV, and laminin. Soluble RAGE administered intratracheally, intravenously, or intraperitoneally, does not distribute in a specific fashion to any healthy mouse tissue, suggesting against the existence of accessible sRAGE sinks and receptors in the healthy mouse. Intratracheal administration is the only effective means of delivering exogenous sRAGE to the lung, the organ in which RAGE is most highly expressed; clearance of sRAGE from lung does not differ appreciably from that of albumin. Copyright: © 2014 Milutinovic et al

Investigating afforestation and bioenergy CCS as climate change mitigation strategies

The land-use sector can contribute to climate change mitigation not only by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but also by increasing carbon uptake from the atmosphere and thereby creating negative CO2 emissions. In this paper, we investigate two land-based climate change mitigation strategies for carbon removal: (1) afforestation and (2) bioenergy in combination with carbon capture and storage technology (bioenergy CCS). In our approach, a global tax on GHG emissions aimed at ambitious climate change mitigation incentivizes land-based mitigation by penalizing positive and rewarding negative CO2 emissions from the land-use system. We analyze afforestation and bioenergy CCS as standalone and combined mitigation strategies. We find that afforestation is a cost-efficient strategy for carbon removal at relatively low carbon prices, while bioenergy CCS becomes competitive only at higher prices. According to our results, cumulative carbon removal due to afforestation and bioenergy CCS is similar at the end of 21st century (600–700 GtCO2), while land-demand for afforestation is much higher compared to bioenergy CCS. In the combined setting, we identify competition for land, but the impact on the mitigation potential (1000 GtCO2) is partially alleviated by productivity increases in the agricultural sector. Moreover, our results indicate that early-century afforestation presumably will not negatively impact carbon removal due to bioenergy CCS in the second half of the 21st century. A sensitivity analysis shows that land-based mitigation is very sensitive to different levels of GHG taxes. Besides that, the mitigation potential of bioenergy CCS highly depends on the development of future bioenergy yields and the availability of geological carbon storage, while for afforestation projects the length of the crediting period is crucial.Peer Reviewe