Intermittent type silica gel adsorption refrigerator Patent

Intermittent type silica gel adsorption refrigerator for providing temperature control for spacecraft component

On the Geroch-Traschen class of metrics

We compare two approaches to semi-Riemannian metrics of low regularity. The maximally 'reasonable' distributional setting of Geroch and Traschen is shown to be consistently contained in the more general setting of nonlinear distributional geometry in the sense of Colombea

Community rotorcraft air transportation benefits and opportunities

Information about rotorcraft that will assist community planners in assessing and planning for the use of rotorcraft transportation in their communities is provided. Information useful to helicopter researchers, manufacturers, and operators concerning helicopter opportunities and benefits is also given. Three primary topics are discussed: the current status and future projections of rotorcraft technology, and the comparison of that technology with other transportation vehicles; the community benefits of promising rotorcraft transportation opportunities; and the integration and interfacing considerations between rotorcraft and other transportation vehicles. Helicopter applications in a number of business and public service fields are examined in various geographical settings

Aharonov-Bohm-like effect for light propagating in nematics with disclinations

Using a geometric approach for the propagation of light in anisotropic media, we investigate what effect the director field of disclinations may have on the polarization state of light. Parallel transport around the defect, of the spinor describing the polarization, indicates the acquisition of a topological phase, in analogy with the Aharonov-Bohm effect.Comment: 6 pages, to appear in Europhysics Letter

Giant and reversible extrinsic magnetocaloric effects in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 films due to strain

Large thermal changes driven by a magnetic field have been proposed for environmentally friendly energy efficient refrigeration, but only a few materials which suffer hysteresis show these giant magnetocaloric effects. Here we create giant and reversible extrinsic magnetocaloric effects in epitaxial films of the ferromagnetic manganite La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 using strain mediated feedback from BaTiO3 substrates near a first-order structural phase transition. Our findings should inspire the discovery of giant magnetocaloric effects in a wide range of magnetic materials, and the parallel development of nanostructured bulk samples for practical applications.Comment: 32 pages, 1 Table, 5 figures, supplementary informatio

Dynamical extensions for shell-crossing singularities

We derive global weak solutions of Einstein's equations for spherically symmetric dust-filled space-times which admit shell-crossing singularities. In the marginally bound case, the solutions are weak solutions of a conservation law. In the non-marginally bound case, the equations are solved in a generalized sense involving metric functions of bounded variation. The solutions are not unique to the future of the shell-crossing singularity, which is replaced by a shock wave in the present treatment; the metric is bounded but not continuous.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Conservation and global distribution of non-canonical antigens in enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

BACKGROUND: Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) cause significant diarrheal morbidity and mortality in children of resource-limited regions, warranting development of effective vaccine strategies. Genetic diversity of the ETEC pathovar has impeded development of broadly protective vaccines centered on the classical canonical antigens, the colonization factors and heat-labile toxin. Two non-canonical ETEC antigens, the EtpA adhesin, and the EatA mucinase are immunogenic in humans and protective in animal models. To foster rational vaccine design that complements existing strategies, we examined the distribution and molecular conservation of these antigens in a diverse population of ETEC isolates. METHODS: Geographically diverse ETEC isolates (n = 1159) were interrogated by PCR, immunoblotting, and/or whole genome sequencing (n = 46) to examine antigen conservation. The most divergent proteins were purified and their core functions assessed in vitro. RESULTS: EatA and EtpA or their coding sequences were present in 57.0% and 51.5% of the ETEC isolates overall, respectively; and were globally dispersed without significant regional differences in antigen distribution. These antigens also exhibited \u3e93% amino acid sequence identity with even the most divergent proteins retaining the core adhesin and mucinase activity assigned to the prototype molecules. CONCLUSIONS: EtpA and EatA are well-conserved molecules in the ETEC pathovar, suggesting that they serve important roles in virulence and that they could be exploited for rational vaccine design

Deep-water macroalgae from the Canary Islands: new records and biogeographical relationships

Due to the geographical location and paleobiogeography of the Canary Islands, the seaweed flora contains macroalgae with different distributional patterns. In this contribution, the biogeographical relations of several new records of deep-water macroalgae recently collected around the Canarian archipelago are discussed. These are Bryopsidella neglecta (Berthotd) Rietema,Discosporangium mesarthrocarpum (Meneghini) Hauck, Hincksia onslowensis (Amsler et Kapraun)P.C. Silva, Syringoderma floridana Henry, Peyssonnelia harveyana J. Agardh, Cryptonemia seminervis(C. Agardh) J. Agardh, Botryodadia wynnei Ballantine, Gloiocladia blomquistii (Searles) R. E.Norris, PIahchrysis peltata (W. R. Taylor) P. Huv4 et H. Huv4, Leptofauchea brasiliensis Joly, and Sarcodiotheca divaricata W. R. Taylor. These new records, especially those in the Florideophyceae,support the strong affinity of the Canary Islands seaweed flora with the warm-temperate Mediterranean-Atlantic region. Some species are recorded for the first time from the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean, enhancing the biogeographic relations of the Canarian marine flora with that of the western Atlantic regions

The determination of the electron-phonon interaction from tunneling data in the two-band superconductor MgB2

We calculate the tunneling density of states (DOS) of MgB2 for different tunneling directions, by directly solving the real-axis, two-band Eliashberg equations (EE). Then we show that the numeric inversion of the standard single-band EE, if applied to the DOS of the two-band superconductor MgB2, may lead to wrong estimates of the strength of certain phonon branches (e.g. the E_2g) in the extracted electron-phonon spectral function alpha^(2)F(omega). The fine structures produced by the two-band interaction turn out to be clearly observable only for tunneling along the ab planes in high-quality single crystals. The results are compared to recent experimental data.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of M2S-HTSC-VII conference, Rio de Janeiro (May 2003