1,006 research outputs found
Direct thermal conductance measurements on suspended monocrystalline nanostructures
We describe and demonstrate a new class of devices that enable direct thermal conductance measurements on monocrystalline nanostructures. These are possible through our newly developed techniques for three-dimensional, successive surface nanomachining of GaAs-based heterostructures. Our methods allow the patterning of complex devices comprising electrically insulating, mesoscopic thermal conductors with separate, thermal transducers in situ. Intimate thermal contact between these elements is provided by their epitaxial registry. Low-temperature thermal conductance measurements indicate that phonon boundary scattering in these initial nanometer is scale structures is partially specular. These devices offer promise for ultrasensitive bolometry and calorimetry
User's Guide for ERB 7 Matrix. Volume 1: Experiment Description and Quality Control Report for Year 1
The Nimbus 7 ERB MATRIX Tape is a computer program in which radiances and irradiances are converted into fluxes which are used to compute the basic scientific output parameters, emitted flux, albedo, and net radiation. They are spatially averaged and presented as time averages over one-day, six-day, and monthly periods. MATRIX data for the period November 16, 1978 through October 31, 1979 are presented. Described are the Earth Radiation Budget experiment, the Science Quality Control Report, Items checked by the MATRIX Science Quality Control Program, and Science Quality Control Data Analysis Report. Additional material from the detailed scientific quality control of the tapes which may be very useful to a user of the MATRIX tapes is included. Known errors and data problems and some suggestions on how to use the data for further climatologic and atmospheric physics studies are also discussed
Force balance in canonical ensembles of static granular packings
We investigate the role of local force balance in the transition from a
microcanonical ensemble of static granular packings, characterized by an
invariant stress, to a canonical ensemble. Packings in two dimensions admit a
reciprocal tiling, and a collective effect of force balance is that the area of
this tiling is also invariant in a microcanonical ensemble. We present
analytical relations between stress, tiling area and tiling area fluctuations,
and show that a canonical ensemble can be characterized by an intensive
thermodynamic parameter conjugate to one or the other. We test the equivalence
of different ensembles through the first canonical simulations of the force
network ensemble, a model system.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JSTA
Pressure and Motion of Dry Sand -- Translation of Hagen's Paper from 1852
In a remarkable paper from 1852, Gotthilf Heinrich Ludwig Hagen measured and
explained two fundamental aspects of granular matter: The first effect is the
saturation of pressure with depth in a static granular system confined by silo
walls -- generally known as the Janssen effect. The second part of his paper
describes the dynamics observed during the flow out of the container -- today
often called the Beverloo law -- and forms the foundation of the hourglass
theory. The following is a translation of the original German paper from 1852.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in Granular Matter, original
article (German) can be found under http://www.phy.duke.edu/~msperl/Janssen
High-resolution imaging at the SOAR telescope
Bright single and binary stars were observed at the 4.1-m telescope with a
fast electron-multiplication camera in the regime of partial turbulence
correction by the visible-light adaptive optics system. We compare the angular
resolution achieved by simple averaging of AO-corrected images (long-exposure),
selection and re-centering (shift-and-add or "lucky" imaging) and speckle
interferometry. The effect of partial AO correction, vibrations, and image
post-processing on the attained resolution is shown. Potential usefulness of
these techniques is evaluated for reaching the diffraction limit in
ground-based optical imaging. Measurements of 75 binary stars obtained during
these tests are given and objects of special interest are discussed. We report
tentative resolution of the astrometric companion to Zeta Aqr B. A concept of
advanced high-resolution camera is outlined.Comment: Accepted for publication in PASP. 14 pages, 9 figures, 2 tabl
Parity Effect and Charge Binding Transition in Submicron Josephson Junction Arrays
We reconsider the issue of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition
into an insulating state in the Coulomb-dominated Josephson junction arrays. We
show that previously predicted picture of the Cooper-pair BKT transtion at T =
T_2 is valid only under the condition that T_2 is considerably below the
parity-effect temperature (which is usually almost 10 times below the value of
superconductive transition temperature), and even in this case it is not a
rigorous phase transition but only a crossover, whereas the real phase
transition takes place at T_1 = T_2/4. Our theory is in agreement with
available experimental data on Coulomb-dominated Josephson arrays and also
sheds some light on the origin of unusual reentrant temperature dependence of
resistivity in the array with nearly-criticial ratio of Coulomb to Josephson
energies.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, to be published in JETP Letters, April 9
Differential activation of killer cells in the circulation and the lung: a study of current smoking status and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Background:CD8+ T-lymphocytes, natural killer T-like cells (NKT-like cells, CD56+CD3+) and natural killer cells (NK cells, CD56+CD3−) are the three main classes of human killer cells and they are implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Activation of these cells can initiate immune responses by virtue of their production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines that cause lung tissue damage, mucus hypersecretion and emphysema. The objective of the current study was to investigate the activation levels of human killer cells in healthy non-smokers, healthy smokers, ex-smokers with COPD and current smokers with COPD, in both peripheral blood and induced sputum.
Methods/Principal Findings:After informed consent, 124 participants were recruited into the study and peripheral blood or induced sputum was taken. The activation states and receptor expression of killer cells were measured by flow cytometry. In peripheral blood, current smokers, regardless of disease state, have the highest proportion of activated CD8+ T-lymphocytes, NKT-like cells and NK cells compared with ex-smokers with COPD and healthy non-smokers. Furthermore, CD8+ T-lymphocyte and NK cell activation is positively correlated with the number of cigarettes currently smoked. Conversely, in induced sputum, the proportion of activated killer cells was related to disease state rather than current smoking status, with current and ex-smokers with COPD having significantly higher rates of activation than healthy smokers and healthy non-smokers.
Conclusions: A differential effect in systemic and lung activation of killer cells in COPD is evident. Systemic activation appears to be related to current smoking whereas lung activation is related to the presence or absence of COPD, irrespective of current smoking status. These findings suggest that modulating killer cell activation may be a new target for the treatment of COPD
Angoricity and compactivity describe the jamming transition in soft particulate matter
The application of concepts from equilibrium statistical mechanics to
out-of-equilibrium systems has a long history of describing diverse systems
ranging from glasses to granular materials. For dissipative jammed systems--
particulate grains or droplets-- a key concept is to replace the energy
ensemble describing conservative systems by the volume-stress ensemble. Here,
we test the applicability of the volume-stress ensemble to describe the jamming
transition by comparing the jammed configurations obtained by dynamics with
those averaged over the ensemble as a probe of ergodicity. Agreement between
both methods suggests the idea of "thermalization" at a given angoricity and
compactivity. We elucidate the thermodynamic order of the jamming transition by
showing the absence of critical fluctuations in static observables like
pressure and volume. The approach allows to calculate observables such as the
entropy, volume, pressure, coordination number and distribution of forces to
characterize the scaling laws near the jamming transition from a statistical
mechanics viewpoint.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figure
Phonon-mediated thermal conductance of mesoscopic wires with rough edges
We present an analysis of acoustic phonon propagation through long,
free-standing, insulating wires with rough surfaces. Due to a crossover from
ballistic propagation of the lowest-frequency phonon mode at to a diffusive (or even localized) behavior upon the increase of
phonon frequency, followed by re-entrance into the quasi-ballistic regime, the
heat conductance of a wire acquires an intermediate tendency to saturate within
the temperature range .Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures included; minor changes and corrections, figures 1
and 2 replaced by better versions; to appear in PRB Brief Report
Scaling Analysis of Magnetic Filed Tuned Phase Transitions in One-Dimensional Josephson Junction Arrays
We have studied experimentally the magnetic field-induced
superconductor-insulator quantum phase transition in one-dimensional arrays of
small Josephson junctions. The zero bias resistance was found to display a
drastic change upon application of a small magnetic field; this result was
analyzed in context of the superfluid-insulator transition in one dimension. A
scaling analysis suggests a power law dependence of the correlation length
instead of an exponential one. The dynamical exponents were determined to
be close to 1, and the correlation length critical exponents were also found to
be about 0.3 and 0.6 in the two groups of measured samples.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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