6,200 research outputs found
Coarse-graining polymers as soft colloids
We show how to coarse grain polymers in a good solvent as single particles,
interacting with density-independent or density-dependent interactions. These
interactions can be between the centres of mass, the mid-points or end-points
of the polymers. We also show how to extend these methods to polymers in poor
solvents and mixtures of polymers. Treating polymers as soft colloids can
greatly speed up the simulation of complex many-polymer systems, including
polymer-colloid mixtures.Comment: to appear in Physica A, special STATPHYS 2001 edition. Content of
invited talk by AA
Trapping of Rb atoms by ac electric fields
We demonstrate trapping of an ultracold gas of neutral atoms in a macroscopic
ac electric trap. Three-dimensional confinement is obtained by switching
between two saddle-point configurations of the electric field. Stable trapping
is observed in a narrow range of switching frequencies around 60 Hz. The
dynamic confinement of the atoms is directly visualized at different phases of
the ac switching cycle. We observe about 10^5 Rb atoms in the 1 mm^3 large and
several microkelvins deep trap with a lifetime of approximately 5 s.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; updated version, added journal referenc
Genetic research in a public-private research consortium: prospects for indirect use of Elige breeding germplasm in academic research
The creation of a public¿private research partnership between plant breeding industry and academia can be beneficial for all parties involved. Academic partners benefit from the material contributions by industry and a practically relevant research focus, while industry benefits from increased insights and methodology tailored to a relevant set of data. However, plant breeding industry is highly competitive and there are obvious limits to the data and material partners are willing and able to share. This will usually include current and historic released cultivated materials, but will very often not include the elite germplasm used in-house to create new cultivars. Especially for crops where hybrid cultivars dominate the market, parental lines of hybrid cultivars are considered core assets that are never provided to outside parties. However, this limitation often does not apply to DNA or genetic fingerprints of these parental lines. We developed a procedure to take advantage of elite breeding materials for the creation of new promising research populations, through indirect selection of parents. The procedure starts with the identification of a number of traits for further study based on the presence of marker-trait associations and a priori knowledge within the participating companies about promising traits for quality improvement. Next, regression-based multi-QTL models are fitted to hybrid cultivar data to identify QTLs. Fingerprint data of parental lines of a limited number of specific hybrids are then used to predict parental phenotypes using the multi-QTL model fitted on hybrid data. The specific hybrids spanned the whole of the sensory space adequately. Finally, a choice of parental lines is made based on the QTL model predictions and new promising line combinations are identified. Breeding industry is then asked to create and provide progeny of these line combinations for further research. This approach will be illustrated with a case study in tomato
Fabrication and electrical transport properties of embedded graphite microwires in a diamond matrix
Micrometer width and nanometer thick wires with different shapes were
produced \approx 3~\upmum below the surface of a diamond crystal using a
microbeam of He ions with 1.8~MeV energy. Initial samples are amorphous and
after annealing at ~K, the wires crystallized into a
graphite-like structures, according to confocal Raman spectroscopy
measurements. The electrical resistivity at room temperature is only one order
of magnitude larger than the in-plane resistivity of highly oriented pyrolytic
bulk graphite and shows a small resistivity ratio(). A small negative magnetoresistance below ~K was
measured and can be well understood taking spin-dependent scattering processes
into account. The used method provides the means to design and produce
millimeter to micrometer sized conducting circuits with arbitrary shape
embedded in a diamond matrix.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Journal of Physics D: Applied
Physics (Feb. 2017
Gel spinning of porous poly(methyl methacrylate)) fibres
Solutions of poly(methyl methacrylate) in 1-butanol demix on cooling. By solution extrusion, fibres are produced which have an oriented porosity. The relation between this morphology, the phase diagram and the extrusion procedure is discussed
Electrical current distribution across a metal-insulator-metal structure during bistable switching
Combining scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron-beam-induced
current (EBIC) imaging with transport measurements, it is shown that the
current flowing across a two-terminal oxide-based capacitor-like structure is
preferentially confined in areas localized at defects. As the thin-film device
switches between two different resistance states, the distribution and
intensity of the current paths, appearing as bright spots, change. This implies
that switching and memory effects are mainly determined by the conducting
properties along such paths. A model based on the storage and release of charge
carriers within the insulator seems adequate to explain the observed memory
effect.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, submitted to J. Appl. Phy
A regional ocean circulation model for the mid-Cretaceous North Atlantic Basin: implications for black shale formation
High concentrations of organic matter accumulated in marine sediments during Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs) in the Cretaceous. Model studies examining these events invariably make use of global ocean circulation models. In this study, a regional model for the North Atlantic Basin during OAE2 at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary has been developed. A first order check of the results has been performed by comparison with the results of a recent global Cenomanian CCSM3 run, from which boundary and initial conditions were obtained. The regional model is able to maintain tracer patterns and to produce velocity patterns similar to the global model. The sensitivity of the basin tracer and circulation patterns to changes in the geometry of the connections with the global ocean is examined with three experiments with different bathymetries near the sponges. Different geometries turn out to have little effect on tracer distribution, but do affect circulation and upwelling patterns. The regional model is also used to test the hypothesis that ocean circulation may have been behind the deposition of black shales during OAEs. Three scenarios are tested which are thought to represent pre-OAE, OAE and post-OAE situations. Model results confirm that Pacific intermediate inflow together with coastal upwelling could have enhanced primary production during OAE2. A low sea level in the pre-OAE scenario could have inhibited large scale black shale formation, as could have the opening of the Equatorial Atlantic Seaway in the post-OAE scenario
Can Polymer Coils be modeled as "Soft Colloids"?
We map dilute or semi-dilute solutions of non-intersecting polymer chains
onto a fluid of ``soft'' particles interacting via a concentration dependent
effective pair potential, by inverting the pair distribution function of the
centers of mass of the initial polymer chains. A similar inversion is used to
derive an effective wall-polymer potential; these potentials are combined to
successfully reproduce the calculated exact depletion interaction induced by
non-intersecting polymers between two walls. The mapping opens up the
possibility of large-scale simulations of polymer solutions in complex
geometries.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures ReVTeX[epsfig,multicol,amssymb] references update
Stability of Colloidal Quasicrystals
Freezing of charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions and relative stabilities
of crystals and quasicrystals are studied using thermodynamic perturbation
theory. Macroion interactions are modelled by effective pair potentials
combining electrostatic repulsion with polymer-depletion or van der Waals
attraction. Comparing free energies -- counterion terms included -- for
elementary crystals and rational approximants to icosahedral quasicrystals,
parameters are identified for which one-component quasicrystals are stabilized
by a compromise between packing entropy and cohesive energy.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
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