1,313 research outputs found
Glassy dynamics in mono-, di-, and tri-propylene glycol: From the alpha- to the fast beta-relaxation
We present a thorough characterization of the glassy dynamics of three
propylene glycols (mono-, di- and trimer) by broadband dielectric spectroscopy.
By covering a frequency range of more than 15 decades, we have access to the
entire variety of dynamic processes typical for glassy dynamics. These results
add three more molecular glass formers to the sparse list of materials for
which real broadband spectra, including the region of the fast beta-process,
are available. Some first analyses of the various observed dynamic processes
are provided
Acu-TENS and Postexercise Expiratory Flow Volume in Healthy Subjects
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation over acupoints (Acu-TENS) facilitates recovery of resting heart rate after treadmill exercise in healthy subjects. Its effect on postexercise respiratory indices has not been reported. This study investigates the effect of Acu-TENS on forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) in healthy subjects after a submaximal exercise. Eleven male subjects were invited to the laboratory twice, two weeks apart, to receive in random order either Acu-TENS or Placebo-TENS (no electrical output from the TENS unit) over bilateral Lieque (LU7) and Dingchuan (EX-B1) for 45 minutes, before undergoing exercise following the Bruce protocol. Exercise duration, rate of perceived exertion (RPE), and peak heart rate (PHR) were recorded. Between-group FEV1 and FVC, before, immediately after, at 15, 30, and 45minutes postexercise, were compared. While no between-group differences in PHR, RPE, and FVC were found, Acu-TENS was associated with a longer exercise duration (0.9 min (P = .026)) and a higher percentage increase in FEV1 at 15 and 45 minutes postexercise (3.3 ± 3.7% (P = .013) and 5.1 ± 7.5% (P = .047), resp.) compared to Placebo-TENS. We concluded that Acu-TENS was associated with a higher postexercise FEV1 and a prolongation of submaximal exercise
Scanning SQUID Susceptometry of a paramagnetic superconductor
Scanning SQUID susceptometry images the local magnetization and
susceptibility of a sample. By accurately modeling the SQUID signal we can
determine the physical properties such as the penetration depth and
permeability of superconducting samples. We calculate the scanning SQUID
susceptometry signal for a superconducting slab of arbitrary thickness with
isotropic London penetration depth, on a non-superconducting substrate, where
both slab and substrate can have a paramagnetic response that is linear in the
applied field. We derive analytical approximations to our general expression in
a number of limits. Using our results, we fit experimental susceptibility data
as a function of the sample-sensor spacing for three samples: 1) delta-doped
SrTiO3, which has a predominantly diamagnetic response, 2) a thin film of
LaNiO3, which has a predominantly paramagnetic response, and 3) a
two-dimensional electron layer (2-DEL) at a SrTiO3/AlAlO3 interface, which
exhibits both types of response. These formulas will allow the determination of
the concentrations of paramagnetic spins and superconducting carriers from fits
to scanning SQUID susceptibility measurements.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figure
Measurement of Cosmic-ray Muons and Muon-induced Neutrons in the Aberdeen Tunnel Underground Laboratory
We have measured the muon flux and production rate of muon-induced neutrons
at a depth of 611 m water equivalent. Our apparatus comprises three layers of
crossed plastic scintillator hodoscopes for tracking the incident cosmic-ray
muons and 760 L of gadolinium-doped liquid scintillator for producing and
detecting neutrons. The vertical muon intensity was measured to be cmssr. The yield of
muon-induced neutrons in the liquid scintillator was determined to be
neutrons/(gcm). A fit to the recently measured neutron
yields at different depths gave a mean muon energy dependence of for liquid-scintillator targets.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, 3 table
Non exponential relaxation in fully frustrated models
We study the dynamical properties of the fully frustrated Ising model. Due to
the absence of disorder the model, contrary to spin glass, does not exhibit any
Griffiths phase, which has been associated to non-exponential relaxation
dynamics. Nevertheless we find numerically that the model exhibits a stretched
exponential behavior below a temperature T_p corresponding to the percolation
transition of the Kasteleyn-Fortuin clusters. We have also found that the
critical behavior of this clusters for a fully frustrated q-state spin model at
the percolation threshold is strongly affected by frustration. In fact while in
absence of frustration the q=1 limit gives random percolation, in presence of
frustration the critical behavior is in the same universality class of the
ferromagnetic q=1/2-state Potts model.Comment: 7 pages, RevTeX, 11 figs, to appear on Physical Review
Collaborative Project Across Three Hong Kong Universities: A Case Study in E-Commerce Education
This paper reports on the work undertaken by three tertiary institutions in Hong Kong to provide business students with the opportunity to experience a project-based teamwork game in learning e-commerce (EC). The teaching objective of this EC project is to develop the knowledge and skills of students, such as in the use of EC site-building tools, critical thinking, communication skills, teamwork, and entrepreneurship. This study examined student attitudes toward the learning in introductory e-commerce course via a project-based teamwork game in EC using a non-traditional teaching approach. The results ofan evaluation indicate that the project-based teamwork approach performed to expectations. Based on the feedback from students from the three tertiary institutions, the project was found to facilitate the teaching and learning of EC and to be interesting, exciting, innovative, and more worthwhile than traditional textbook-based learning
Concentration Dependence of Superconductivity and Order-Disorder Transition in the Hexagonal Rubidium Tungsten Bronze RbxWO3. Interfacial and bulk properties
We revisited the problem of the stability of the superconducting state in
RbxWO3 and identified the main causes of the contradictory data previously
published. We have shown that the ordering of the Rb vacancies in the
nonstoichiometric compounds have a major detrimental effect on the
superconducting temperature Tc.The order-disorder transition is first order
only near x = 0.25, where it cannot be quenched effectively and Tc is reduced
below 1K. We found that the high Tc's which were sometimes deduced from
resistivity measurements, and attributed to compounds with .25 < x < .30, are
to be ascribed to interfacial superconductivity which generates spectacular
non-linear effects. We also clarified the effect of acid etching and set more
precisely the low-rubidium-content boundary of the hexagonal phase.This work
makes clear that Tc would increase continuously (from 2 K to 5.5 K) as we
approach this boundary (x = 0.20), if no ordering would take place - as its is
approximately the case in CsxWO3. This behaviour is reminiscent of the
tetragonal tungsten bronze NaxWO3 and asks the same question : what mechanism
is responsible for this large increase of Tc despite the considerable
associated reduction of the electron density of state ? By reviewing the other
available data on these bronzes we conclude that the theoretical models which
are able to answer this question are probably those where the instability of
the lattice plays a major role and, particularly, the model which call upon
local structural excitations (LSE), associated with the missing alkali atoms.Comment: To be published in Physical Review
Asymptotic behavior of the density of states on a random lattice
We study the diffusion of a particle on a random lattice with fluctuating
local connectivity of average value q. This model is a basic description of
relaxation processes in random media with geometrical defects. We analyze here
the asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalue distribution for the Laplacian
operator. We found that the localized states outside the mobility band and
observed by Biroli and Monasson (1999, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 32 L255), in a
previous numerical analysis, are described by saddle point solutions that
breaks the rotational symmetry of the main action in the real space. The
density of states is characterized asymptotically by a series of peaks with
periodicity 1/q.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
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