Comparison of Nitrofen Uptake via Water and Food and its Distribution in Tissue of Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio L.

Carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) were exposed to nitrofen (NIP) by different routes (via water or food) to compare bioaccumulation parameters and tissue distribution. The bioconcentration factor of NIP was 5,100, and the lipid-corrected biomagnification factor was 0.137. Growth-corrected elimination half lives were 2.1–3.0 days via aqueous exposure and 2.7–2.9 days via dietary exposure. From either uptake route, the tissue distribution of NIP was highest in the head, followed by muscle, viscera, dermis, digestive tract and hepatopancreas, which was highly correlated with the tissue lipid content. We conclude that the uptake route has no influence on tissue distribution of NIP and that the accumulation potential in tissues depends on the lipid content

Using spin to understand the formation of LIGO's black holes

With the detection of four candidate binary black hole (BBH) mergers by the Advanced LIGO detectors thus far, it is becoming possible to constrain the properties of the BBH merger population in order to better understand the formation of these systems. Black hole (BH) spin orientations are one of the cleanest discriminators of formation history, with BHs in dynamically formed binaries in dense stellar environments expected to have spins distributed isotropically, in contrast to isolated populations where stellar evolution is expected to induce BH spins preferentially aligned with the orbital angular momentum. In this work we propose a simple, model-agnostic approach to characterizing the spin properties of LIGO's BBH population. Using measurements of the effective spin of the binaries, which is LIGO's best constrained spin parameter, we introduce a simple parameter to quantify the fraction of the population that is isotropically distributed, regardless of the spin magnitude distribution of the population. Once the orientation characteristics of the population have been determined, we show how measurements of effective spin can be used to directly constrain the underlying BH spin magnitude distribution. Although we find that the majority of the current effective spin measurements are too small to be informative, with LIGO's four BBH candidates we find a slight preference for an underlying population with aligned spins over one with isotropic spins (with an odds ratio of 1.1). We argue that it will be possible to distinguish symmetric and anti-symmetric populations at high confidence with tens of additional detections, although mixed populations may take significantly more detections to disentangle. We also derive preliminary spin magnitude distributions for LIGO's black holes, under the assumption of aligned or isotropic populations

Realization of an extremely low reflectance surface based on InP porous nanostructures for application to photoelectrochemical solar cells

Extremely low reflectance was obtained from InP porous nanostructures in UV, visible, and near-infrared ranges. Porous samples were electrochemically prepared on which 130-nm-diameter nanopores were formed in a straight, vertical direction and were laterally separated by 50-nm-thick InP nanowalls. The reflectance strongly depended on the surface morphology. The lowest reflectance of 0.1% in the visible light range was obtained after the irregular top layer had been completely removed. Superior photoelectrochemical properties were obtained on the InP porous structures due to two unique features: the large surface area inside pores, and the large photon absorption enhanced on the low reflectance surface

Fundamental Study of InP-Based Open-Gate Field-Effect Transistors for Application to Liquid-Phase Chemical Sensors

We prove with this paper that InP-based open-gate Field Effect Transistors (FETs) work well as liquid-phase chemical sensors. The open-gate FET clearly exhibited current saturation and a pinch-off behavior in the electrolyte, resulting in a rapid response to the gate bias applied via the electrolyte. A series of sensing measurements showed that the surface potential of the InP linearly changed with the pH values of the electrolytes in a pH range from 3.0 to 12.0. The pH sensitivity of the open-gate FETs depended on the ion species contained in the electrolyte. A Si3N4 layer was useful as an ion selective membrane for the InP open-gate FETs to improve the selectivity of H+ ions

Low Reflectance Surface Observed on InP Porous Structures after Photoelectrochemical Etching

Extremely low reflectance was obtained from InP porous nanostructures in UV, visible, and near-infrared light ranges. The reflectance strongly depended on the surface morphology of the porous structures prepared by the electrochemical process, and the lowest reflectance of 0.1% in the visible light range was obtained from a sample after the irregular top layer was completely removed. Large anodic photocurrents were obtained on the InP porous structures that had low reflectance surfaces with deeper pores

Amperometric Detection of Hydrogen Peroxide Using InP Porous Nanostructures

The electrocatalytic activity of n-type InP porous nanostructures was investigated in terms of their application to amperometric biochemical sensors. The current sensitivities for H2O2 detection were strongly dependent on the structural properties of these porous nanostructures. A sample with deeper pores responsed more sensitively because of the enlarged surface area inside the nanopores. The removal of an irregular top layer also effectively improved the current sensitivity. The conductive porous nanostructures presented here were very promising for the direct amperometric detection of H2O2