Unified life detection system: A concept

Systematic investigation of techniques and hardware which could be utilized in life detection system has resulted in identification of group of candidate concepts and selection of "unified system". Theme of concept permits greatest flexibility in procedural details for experiments which can be performed in individual ampules

Fisher Zeroes and Singular Behaviour of the Two Dimensional Potts Model in the Thermodynamic Limit

The duality transformation is applied to the Fisher zeroes near the ferromagnetic critical point in the q>4 state two dimensional Potts model. A requirement that the locus of the duals of the zeroes be identical to the dual of the locus of zeroes in the thermodynamic limit (i) recovers the ratio of specific heat to internal energy discontinuity at criticality and the relationships between the discontinuities of higher cumulants and (ii) identifies duality with complex conjugation. Conjecturing that all zeroes governing ferromagnetic singular behaviour satisfy the latter requirement gives the full locus of such Fisher zeroes to be a circle. This locus, together with the density of zeroes is then shown to be sufficient to recover the singular form of the thermodynamic functions in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 10 pages, 0 figures, LaTeX. Paper expanded and 2 references added clarifying duality relationships between discontinuities in higher cumulant

On the properties of the transition matrix in bouncing cosmologies

We elaborate further on the evolution properties of cosmological fluctuations through a bounce. We show this evolution to be describable either by ``transmission'' and ``reflection'' coefficients or by an effective unitary S-matrix. We also show that they behave in a time reversal invariant way. Therefore, earlier results are now interpreted in a different perspective and put on a firmer basis.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in PR

Objective measurement of habitual sedentary behavior in pre-school children: comparison of activPAL with actigraph monitors

The Actigraph is well established for measurement of both physical activity and sedentary behavior in children. The activPAL is being used increasingly in children, though with no published evidence on its use in free-living children to date. The present study compared the two monitors in preschool children. Children (n 23) wore both monitors simultaneously during waking hours for 5.6d and 10h/d. Daily mean percentage of time sedentary (nontranslocation of the trunk) was 74.6 (SD 6.8) for the Actigraph and 78.9 (SD 4.3) for activPAL. Daily mean percentage of time physically active (light intensity physical activity plus MVPA) was 25.4 (SD 6.8) for the Actigraph and 21.1 (SD 4.3) for the activPAL. Bland-Altman tests and paired t tests suggested small but statistically significant differences between the two monitors. Actigraph and activPAL estimates of sedentary behaviour and physical activity in young children are similar at a group level

Anisotropic Assembly of Colloidal Nanoparticles: Exploiting Substrate Crystallinity

We show that the crystal structure of a substrate can be exploited to drive the anisotropic assembly of colloidal nanoparticles. Pentanethiol-passivated Au particles of approximately 2 nm diameter deposited from toluene onto hydrogen-passivated Si(111) surfaces form linear assemblies (rods) with a narrow width distribution. The rod orientations mirror the substrate symmetry, with a high degree of alignment along principal crystallographic axes of the Si(111) surface. There is a strong preference for anisotropic growth with rod widths substantially more tightly distributed than lengths. Entropic trapping of nanoparticles provides a plausible explanation for the formation of the anisotropic assemblies we observe

Dynamical signatures of the vulcanization transition

Dynamical properties of vulcanized polymer networks are addressed via a Rouse-type model that incorporates the effect of permanent random crosslinks. The incoherent intermediate scattering function is computed in the sol and gel phases, and at the vulcanization transition between them. At any nonzero crosslink density within the sol phase Kohlrausch relaxation is found. The critical point is signalled by divergence of the longest time-scale, and at this point the scattering function decays algebraically, whereas within the gel phase it acquires a time-persistent part identified with the gel fraction.Comment: 4 page

Shift in the LHC Higgs diphoton mass peak from interference with background

The Higgs diphoton amplitude from gluon fusion at the LHC interferes with the continuum background induced by quark loops. I investigate the effect of this interference on the position of the diphoton invariant mass peak used to help determine the Higgs mass. At leading order, the interference shifts the peak towards lower mass by an amount of order 150 MeV or more, with the precise value dependent on the methods used to analyze and fit the data.Comment: 10 pages. v2: comments on scale variation added, reference adde