205 research outputs found
Electrification of road transport and the impacts on air quality and health in the UK
Currently, many cities in Europe are affected by concentrations of PM2.5 and NO2 above the WHO guidelines on the protection of human health. This is a global problem in which the growth of road transport constitutes a major factor. Looking to the future, electric vehicles (EVs) are considered to be the choice technology for reducing road transport greenhouse gas emissions, but their impact on air quality needs to be considered. Taking the UK as a case study, this paper begins by understanding the trajectory of a future scenario without the introduction of EVs, reflecting on the latest emission control improvements in internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). This is then compared to a 2050 scenario in which the introduction of EVs, based on the UK government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan, is reviewed. This plan includes a ban on the sale of ICEV cars and LGVs, beginning in 2030, with the subsequent electrification of heavier vehicles. By 2030, population exposure to NOx was found to be significantly reduced in the ICEV scenario, with a marginal further reduction found for the EV scenario. The EV scenario further reduced NOx exposure by 2050, with most of the benefits being realized before 2040. For the ICEV and EV scenario, PM2.5 emissions were largely unchanged due to the primary contribution of non-exhaust emissions, suggesting that EVs are likely to yield relatively smaller changes in exposure to PM2.5 than for NOx
One-parameter scaling theory for DNA extension in a nanochannel
Experiments measuring DNA extension in nanochannels are at odds with even the
most basic predictions of current scaling arguments for the conformations of
confined semiflexible polymers such as DNA. We show that a theory based on a
weakly self-avoiding, one-dimensional "telegraph" process collapses
experimental data and simulation results onto a single master curve throughout
the experimentally relevant region of parameter space and explains the
mechanisms at play.Comment: Revised version. 5 pages, 4 figures, revised version, supplementary
informatio
Distribution of label spacings for genome mapping in nanochannels
In genome mapping experiments, long DNA molecules are stretched by confining
them to very narrow channels, so that the locations of sequence-specific
fluorescent labels along the channel axis provide large-scale genomic
information. It is difficult, however, to make the channels narrow enough so
that the DNA molecule is fully stretched. In practice its conformations may
form hairpins that change the spacings between internal segments of the DNA
molecule, and thus the label locations along the channel axis. Here we describe
a theory for the distribution of label spacings that explains the heavy tails
observed in distributions of label spacings in genome mapping experiments.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Magnetic Dipole Absorption of Radiation in Small Conducting Particles
We give a theoretical treatment of magnetic dipole absorption of
electromagnetic radiation in small conducting particles, at photon energies
which are large compared to the single particle level spacing, and small
compared to the plasma frequency. We discuss both diffusive and ballistic
electron dynamics for particles of arbitrary shape.
The conductivity becomes non-local when the frequency is smaller than the
frequency \omega_c characterising the transit of electrons from one side of the
particle to the other, but in the diffusive case \omega_c plays no role in
determining the absorption coefficient. In the ballistic case, the absorption
coefficient is proportional to \omega^2 for \omega << \omega_c, but is a
decreasing function of \omega for \omega >> \omega_c.Comment: 25 pages of plain TeX, 2 postscipt figure
A microfluidic device for the study of the orientational dynamics of microrods
We describe a microfluidic device for studying the orientational dynamics of
microrods. The device enables us to experimentally investigate the tumbling of
microrods immersed in the shear flow in a microfluidic channel with a depth of
400 mu and a width of 2.5 mm. The orientational dynamics was recorded using a
20 X microscopic objective and a CCD camera. The microrods were produced by
shearing microdroplets of photocurable epoxy resin. We show different examples
of empirically observed tumbling. On the one hand we find that short stretches
of the experimentally determined time series are well described by fits to
solutions of Jeffery's approximate equation of motion [Jeffery, Proc. R. Soc.
London. 102 (1922), 161-179]. On the other hand we find that the empirically
observed trajectories drift between different solutions of Jeffery's equation.
We discuss possible causes of this orbit drift.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure
Aperiodic tumbling of microrods advected in a microchannel flow
We report on an experimental investigation of the tumbling of microrods in
the shear flow of a microchannel (40 x 2.5 x 0.4 mm). The rods are 20 to 30
microns long and their diameters are of the order of 1 micron. Images of the
centre-of-mass motion and the orientational dynamics of the rods are recorded
using a microscope equipped with a CCD camera. A motorised microscope stage is
used to track individual rods as they move along the channel. Automated image
analysis determines the position and orientation of a tracked rods in each
video frame. We find different behaviours, depending on the particle shape, its
initial position, and orientation. First, we observe periodic as well as
aperiodic tumbling. Second, the data show that different tumbling trajectories
exhibit different sensitivities to external perturbations. These observations
can be explained by slight asymmetries of the rods. Third we observe that after
some time, initially periodic trajectories lose their phase. We attribute this
to drift of the centre of mass of the rod from one to another stream line of
the channel flow.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, as accepted for publicatio
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