26,081 research outputs found
Potentiometric Determination of the Stability Constants of 2-, 3- and 4-Hydroxybutyrato Complexes of Cobalt(II), Nickel(II), Cadmium(II) and Lead(II)
The stability constants of the title complexes were determined
potentiometrically using a quinhydrone electrode at (298.2 ± 0.1) K
in buffer solutions of ionic strength 2 mol dm-3 adjusted by addition
of NaC104âą The numerical values of stability constants were evaluated
from experimental data by computer program based on a
weighted least squares method
Global torques and stochasticity as the drivers of massive black hole pairing in the young Universe
The forthcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will probe the
population of coalescing massive black hole (MBH) binaries up to the onset of
structure formation. Here we simulate the galactic-scale pairing of MBHs in a typical, non-clumpy main-sequence galaxy embedded in a
cosmological environment at . In order to increase our statistical
sample, we adopt a strategy that allows us to follow the evolution of six
secondary MBHs concomitantly. We find that the magnitude of the
dynamical-friction induced torques is significantly smaller than that of the
large-scale, stochastic gravitational torques arising from the perturbed and
morphologically evolving galactic disc, suggesting that the standard dynamical
friction treatment is inadequate for realistic galaxies at high redshift. The
dynamical evolution of MBHs is very stochastic, and a variation in the initial
orbital phase can lead to a drastically different time-scale for the inspiral.
Most remarkably, the development of a galactic bar in the host system either
significantly accelerates the inspiral by dragging a secondary MBH into the
centre, or ultimately hinders the orbital decay by scattering the MBH in the
galaxy outskirts. The latter occurs more rarely, suggesting that galactic bars
overall promote MBH inspiral and binary coalescence. The orbital decay time can
be an order of magnitude shorter than what would be predicted relying on
dynamical friction alone. The stochasticity, and the important role of global
torques, have crucial implications for the rates of MBH coalescences in the
early Universe: both have to be accounted for when making predictions for the
upcoming LISA observatory.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 15 pages, 10 Figures, 2 Table
The final COS-B database: In-flight calibration of instrumental parameters
A method for the determination of temporal variation of sensitivity is designed to find a set of parameters which lead to maximum consistency between the intensities derived from different observation periods. This method is briefly described and the resulting sensitivity and background variations presented
Swiss ethnoveterinary knowledge on medicinal plants - a within-country comparison of Italian speaking regions with north-western German speaking regions
BACKGROUND:
Ethnoveterinary knowledge in Europe may play an important role as a basis for sustainable treatment options for livestock. Aims of our study were (a) to compare the ethnoveterinary practices of two culturally and sociodemographically different regions of Switzerland, (b) to compare results with earlier ethnoveterinary studies conducted in Switzerland and in adjacent Italian regions and, (c) to evaluate possible reasons for regional differences in European ethnoveterinary medicine.
METHODS:
25 interviews were conducted in 2014 in all Italian speaking regions (ItR) of Switzerland, and 31 interviews were held in five north-western German speaking Cantons (GeC). Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect detailed information regarding plant species, mode of preparation, dosage, route of administration, category of use, origin of knowledge, frequency of use, and satisfaction with outcomes of the treatments.
RESULTS:
A total of 162 homemade remedies in ItR and 219 in GeC were reported, out of which 125 and 145, respectively, were reported to contain only one plant species (homemade single species herbal remedy report, HSHR). 44 ItR and 43 GeC plant species were reported to treat livestock, of which only a half were used in both regions. For each HSHR, we classified the treatment intention of all use reports (UR), leading to a total of 205 and 219 UR in ItR and GeC respectively. While cattle were the most often treated livestock species in both study regions, in ItR 40% of UR were administered to small ruminants. Main indications in both regions were gastrointestinal diseases and skin afflictions, but in ItR a high number of URs were reported as antiparasitics. URs were mainly handed down from the past generation, but in GeC the source of knowledge for 20% of URs were from courses. Regarding the used plant species, ItR showed a higher concordance with Swiss than Italian studies, but with some differences to all regions. A total of 22 (14 ItR; 8 GeC) plant species in this study have not been reported before in ethnoveterinary studies of Swiss and Italian alpine regions.
CONCLUSIONS:
ItR and GeC, show differences and similarities with respect to their own ethnoveterinary practices and earlier Swiss and Italian ethnoveterinary studies. Linguistic, geographical, as well as social and farm-structural conditions influence the regional ethnoveterinary knowledge. However, political borders seem to be more important than language or geographical barriers
Non-perturbative Interband Response of InSb Driven Off-resonantly by Few-cycle Electromagnetic Transients
Intense multi-THz pulses are used to study the coherent nonlinear response of
bulk InSb by means of field-resolved four-wave mixing spectroscopy. At
amplitudes above 5 MV/cm the signals show a clear temporal substructure which
is unexpected in perturbative nonlinear optics. Simulations based on a
two-level quantum system demonstrate that in spite of the strongly off-resonant
character of the excitation the high-field pulses drive the interband
resonances into a non-perturbative regime of Rabi flopping.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Self-Energy Correction to the Two-Photon Decay Width in Hydrogenlike Atoms
We investigate the gauge invariance of the leading logarithmic radiative
correction to the two-photon decay width in hydrogenlike atoms. It is shown
that an effective treatment of the correction using a Lamb-shift "potential"
leads to equivalent results in both the length as well as the velocity gauges
provided all relevant correction terms are taken into account. Specifically,
the relevant radiative corrections are related to the energies that enter into
the propagator denominators, to the Hamiltonian, to the wave functions, and to
the energy conservation condition that holds between the two photons; the form
of all of these effects is different in the two gauges, but the final result is
shown to be gauge invariant, as it should be. Although the actual calculation
only involves integrations over nonrelativistic hydrogenic Green functions, the
derivation of the leading logarithmic correction can be regarded as slightly
more complex than that of other typical logarithmic terms. The dominant
radiative correction to the 2S two-photon decay width is found to be -2.020536
(alpha/pi) (Zalpha)^2 ln[(Zalpha)^-2] in units of the leading nonrelativistic
expression. This result is in agreement with a length-gauge calculation [S. G.
Karshenboim and V. G. Ivanov, e-print physics/9702027], where the coefficient
was given as -2.025(1).Comment: 9 pages, RevTe
HD 152246 - a new high-mass triple system and its basic properties
Analyses of multi-epoch, high-resolution (R ~ 50.000) optical spectra of the
O-type star HD 152246 (O9 IV according to the most recent classification),
complemented by a limited number of earlier published radial velocities, led to
the finding that the object is a hierarchical triple system, where a close
inner pair (Ba-Bb) with a slightly eccentric orbit (e = 0.11) and a period of
6.0049 days revolves in a 470-day highly eccentric orbit (e = 0.865) with
another massive and brighter component A. The mass ratio of the inner system
must be low since we were unable to find any traces of the secondary spectrum.
The mass ratio A/(Ba+Bb) is 0.89. The outer system has recently been resolved
using long-baseline interferometry on three occasions. The interferometry
confirms the spectroscopic results and specifies elements of the system. Our
orbital solutions, including the combined radial-velocity and interferometric
solution indicate an orbital inclination of the outer orbit of 112{\deg} and
stellar masses of 20.4 and 22.8 solar masses. We also disentangled the spectra
of components A and Ba and compare them to synthetic spectra from two
independent programmes, TLUSTY and FASTWIND. In either case, the fit was not
satisfactory and we postpone a better determination of the system properties
for a future study, after obtaining observations during the periastron passage
of the outer orbit (the nearest chance being March 2015). For the moment, we
can only conclude that component A is an O9 IV star with v*sin(i) = 210 +\- 10
km/s and effective temperature of 33000 +\- 500 K, while component Ba is an O9
V object with v*sin(i) = 65 +/- 3 km/s and T_eff = 33600 +\- 600 K.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Failure of Effective Potential Approach: Nucleus-Electron Entanglement in the He-Ion
Entanglement may be considered a resource for quantum-information processing,
as the origin of robust and universal equilibrium behaviour, but also as a
limit to the validity of an effective potential approach, in which the
influence of certain interacting subsystems is treated as a potential. Here we
show that a closed three particle (two protons, one electron) model of a He-ion
featuring realistic size, interactions and energy scales of electron and
nucleus, respectively, exhibits different types of dynamics depending on the
initial state: For some cases the traditional approach, in which the nucleus
only appears as the center of a Coulomb potential, is valid, in others this
approach fails due to entanglement arising on a short time-scale. Eventually
the system can even show signatures of thermodynamical behaviour, i.e. the
electron may relax to a maximum local entropy state which is, to some extent,
independent of the details of the initial state.Comment: Submitted to Europhysics Letter
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