20,409 research outputs found
Computer integration of hydrodynamics equations for heat pipes
Program has five operational modes that provide user flexibility in answering crucial heat-pipe design questions. User specifies heat input and rejection distribution
Sasakian quiver gauge theories and instantons on cones over lens 5-spaces
We consider SU(3)-equivariant dimensional reduction of Yang-Mills theory over
certain cyclic orbifolds of the 5-sphere which are Sasaki-Einstein manifolds.
We obtain new quiver gauge theories extending those induced via reduction over
the leaf spaces of the characteristic foliation of the Sasaki-Einstein
structure, which are projective planes. We describe the Higgs branches of these
quiver gauge theories as moduli spaces of spherically symmetric instantons
which are SU(3)-equivariant solutions to the Hermitian Yang-Mills equations on
the associated Calabi-Yau cones, and further compare them to moduli spaces of
translationally-invariant instantons on the cones. We provide an explicit
unified construction of these moduli spaces as K\"ahler quotients and show that
they have the same cyclic orbifold singularities as the cones over the lens
5-spaces.Comment: v2: 54 pages, accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics
Sensing human hand motions for controlling dexterous robots
The Dexterous Hand Master (DHM) system is designed to control dexterous robot hands such as the UTAH/MIT and Stanford/JPL hands. It is the first commercially available device which makes it possible to accurately and confortably track the complex motion of the human finger joints. The DHM is adaptable to a wide variety of human hand sizes and shapes, throughout their full range of motion
Fast Single-Charge Sensing with an rf Quantum Point Contact
We report high-bandwidth charge sensing measurements using a GaAs quantum
point contact embedded in a radio frequency impedance matching circuit
(rf-QPC). With the rf-QPC biased near pinch-off where it is most sensitive to
charge, we demonstrate a conductance sensitivity of 5x10^(-6) e^(2)/h Hz^(-1/2)
with a bandwidth of 8 MHz. Single-shot readout of a proximal few-electron
double quantum dot is investigated in a mode where the rf-QPC back-action is
rapidly switched.Comment: related papers available at http://marcuslab.harvard.ed
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation: Political Risk Insurance, Property Rights and State Sovereingty
This thesis is concerned with the role of the United States investment insurance agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), in enforcing property and contract rights on behalf of United States (U.S.) infrastructure investors, pursuant to the deregulation of infrastructure markets across the developing world. Drawing on evidence from two recent high profile breach of regulatory contract disputes between OPIC insured U.S. energy companies and Indonesia and India respectively, the thesis finds that while legalized modes of dispute settlement have proliferated, the ‘rules of the game’— their efficacy in delimiting outcomes—emerge as a function of state power and interests, as states undertake to enforce or resist legal obligations. Second, and contrary to the image of U.S. foreign economic policy-makers as beholden to corporate interests, the thesis finds that the agency’s transformation from ‘aid to trade’ as underpinned the expansion of U.S. infrastructure investors to the developing world during the 1990s was driven by state officials consistent with evolving conceptions of U.S. national interests, central to which was the desire to expand markets for U.S. foreign investors and capital goods exporters. In this regard, the transformation of developing country infrastructure markets and the shift in the modes of resolving investor-state expropriation disputes as but one element of economic globalization and the ‘legalization’ of dispute settlement respectively are revealed as a function of U.S. material interests and power at the point of enforcement. The thesis contends, however, that the changes observed reflect not only U.S. power and interests but a specifically American conception of private property and contract rights so as to reveal OPIC investment insurance as a conduit for the diffusion of shifting property norms concerning regulatory taking (expropriation) from the United States to the world economy at large
Variable Conductance Heat Pipe Technology
A research and development program in variable conductance heat pipe technology is reported. The project involved: (1) theoretical and/or experimental studies in hydrostatics, (2) hydrodynamics, (3) heat transfer into and out of the pipe, (4) fluid selection, and (5) materials compatibility. The development, fabrication, and test of the space hardware resulted in a successful flight of the heat pipe experiment on the OAO-3 satellite. A summary of the program is provided and a guide to the location of publications on the project is included
Two Gap State Density in MgB: A True Bulk Property or A Proximity Effect?
We report on the temperature dependence of the quasiparticle density of
states (DOS) in the simple binary compound MgB2 directly measured using
scanning tunneling microscope (STM). To achieve high quality tunneling
conditions, a small crystal of MgB2 is used as a tip in the STM experiment. The
``sample'' is chosen to be a 2H-NbSe2 single crystal presenting an atomically
flat surface. At low temperature the tunneling conductance spectra show a gap
at the Fermi energy followed by two well-pronounced conductance peaks on each
side. They appear at voltages V mV and V mV. With rising temperature both peaks disappear at the Tc of the bulk
MgB2, a behavior consistent with the model of two-gap superconductivity. The
explanation of the double-peak structure in terms of a particular proximity
effect is also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
16S rRNA gene sequencing of mock microbial populations- impact of DNA extraction method, primer choice and sequencing platform
peer-reviewedBackground
Next-generation sequencing platforms have revolutionised our ability to investigate the microbiota composition of complex environments, frequently through 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the bacterial component of the community. Numerous factors, including DNA extraction method, primer sequences and sequencing platform employed, can affect the accuracy of the results achieved. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of these three factors on 16S rRNA gene sequencing results, using mock communities and mock community DNA.
Results
The use of different primer sequences (V4-V5, V1-V2 and V1-V2 degenerate primers) resulted in differences in the genera and species detected. The V4-V5 primers gave the most comparable results across platforms. The three Ion PGM primer sets detected more of the 20 mock community species than the equivalent MiSeq primer sets. Data generated from DNA extracted using the 2 extraction methods were very similar.
Conclusions
Microbiota compositional data differed depending on the primers and sequencing platform that were used. The results demonstrate the risks in comparing data generated using different sequencing approaches and highlight the merits of choosing a standardised approach for sequencing in situations where a comparison across multiple sequencing runs is required.This publication has emanated from research supported in part by a research
grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under Grant Numbers SFI/12/RC/2273 and 11/PI/1137 and by FP7 funded CFMATTERS (Cystic Fibrosis
Microbiome-determined Antibiotic Therapy Trial in Exacerbations: Results Stratified, Grant Agreement no. 603038)
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