Method of producing nickel electrode

A large capacity nickel electrode is provided in which the charging efficiency and discharge utilization coefficient are improved in comparison to nickel electrodes which are produced by the conventional method. Nickel electrodes retaining nickel active material or nickel active material and cobalt compounds on a porous nickel substrate are immersed in a cobalt sulfate aqueous solution whose pH is adjusted in the range of 3.5 to 6.0, followed by crystallization of the hydroxide or oxide by pyrolysis or immersion in alkali, thereby coating the surface of the nickel active material with cobalt crystals and simultaneously promoting alloying of the nickel-cobalt

Noise-induced dynamics in bistable systems with delay

Noise-induced dynamics of a prototypical bistable system with delayed feedback is studied theoretically and numerically. For small noise and magnitude of the feedback, the problem is reduced to the analysis of the two-state model with transition rates depending on the earlier state of the system. In this two-state approximation, we found analytical formulae for the autocorrelation function, the power spectrum, and the linear response to a periodic perturbation. They show very good agreement with direct numerical simulations of the original Langevin equation. The power spectrum has a pronounced peak at the frequency corresponding to the inverse delay time, whose amplitude has a maximum at a certain noise level, thus demonstrating coherence resonance. The linear response to the external periodic force also has maxima at the frequencies corresponding to the inverse delay time and its harmonics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Region-Specific Responses of Adductor Longus Muscle to Gravitational Load-Dependent Activity in Wistar Hannover Rats

Response of adductor longus (AL) muscle to gravitational unloading and reloading was studied. Male Wistar Hannover rats (5-wk old) were hindlimb-unloaded for 16 days with or without 16-day ambulation recovery. The electromyogram (EMG) activity in AL decreased after acute unloading, but that in the rostral region was even elevated during continuous unloading. The EMG levels in the caudal region gradually increased up to 6th day, but decreased again. Approximately 97% of fibers in the caudal region were pure type I at the beginning of experiment. Mean percentage of type I fibers in the rostral region was 61% and that of type I+II and II fiber was 14 and 25%, respectively. The percent type I fibers decreased and de novo appearance of type I+II was noted after unloading. But the fiber phenotype in caudal, not rostral and middle, region was normalized after 16-day ambulation. Pronounced atrophy after unloading and re-growth following ambulation was noted in type I fibers of the caudal region. Sarcomere length in the caudal region was passively shortened during unloading, but that in the rostral region was unchanged or even stretched slightly. Growth-associated increase of myonuclear number seen in the caudal region of control rats was inhibited by unloading. Number of mitotic active satellite cells decreased after unloading only in the caudal region. It was indicated that the responses of fiber properties in AL to unloading and reloading were closely related to the region-specific neural and mechanical activities, being the caudal region more responsive

Relativistic Electron Shock Drift Acceleration in Low Mach Number Galaxy Cluster Shocks

An extreme case of electron shock drift acceleration in low Mach number collisionless shocks is investigated as a plausible mechanism of initial acceleration of relativistic electrons in large-scale shocks in galaxy clusters where upstream plasma temperature is of the order of 10 keV and a degree of magnetization is not too small. One-dimensional electromagnetic full particle simulations reveal that, even though a shock is rather moderate, a part of thermal incoming electrons are accelerated and reflected through relativistic shock drift acceleration and form a local nonthermal population just upstream of the shock. The accelerated electrons can self-generate local coherent waves and further be back-scattered toward the shock by those waves. This may be a scenario for the first stage of the electron shock acceleration occurring at the large-scale shocks in galaxy clusters such as CIZA J2242.8+5301 which has well defined radio relics.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Competition between unconventional superconductivity and incommensurate antiferromagnetic order in CeRh1-xCoxIn5

Elastic neutron diffraction measurements were performed on the quasi-two dimensional heavy fermion system CeRh1-xCoxIn5, ranging from an incommensurate antiferromagnet for low x to an unconventional superconductor on the Co-rich end of the phase diagram. We found that the superconductivity competes with the incommensurate antiferromagnetic (AFM) order characterized by qI=(1/2, 1/2, delta) with delta=0.298, while it coexists with the commensurate AFM order with qc=(1/2, 1/2, 1/2). This is in sharp contrast to the CeRh1-xIrxIn5 system, where both the commensurate and incommensurate magnetic orders coexist with the superconductivity. These results reveal that particular areas on the Fermi surface nested by qI play an active role in forming the superconducting state in CeCoIn5.Comment: RevTeX4, 4 pages, 4 eps figures; corrected a typo and a referenc

Ambient Conditions of Winter Thunderstorms in Japan to Reproduce Observed Gamma‐Ray Glow Energy Spectra

Electric field of thunderclouds modifies components and energy spectra of the cosmic-ray air shower. In particular, thunderstorms accelerate charged particles, resulting in an enhancement of gamma-ray fluxes on the ground, known as a gamma-ray glow. This phenomenon has been observed in recent years by the Gamma-Ray Observation of Winter THunderclouds collaboration from winter thunderstorms in the Hokuriku area of Japan. The present work examines the ambient conditions required to produce spectral features of the previously detected gamma-ray glows, by using Monte Carlo simulations of particle interactions in the atmosphere. We focus on three parameters, the strength and length of the electric field, and the length of a null-field attenuation region below the electrified region. The average spectrum of observed gamma-ray glows in winter thunderstorms of Japan requires an electric field intensity close to 0.31 MV/m, slightly exceeding the Relativistic Runaway Electron Avalanche threshold of 0.284 MV/m. The vertical size of the electric field region should be comparable to 1 km. The estimated attenuation region size is 300–500 m, necessary to reduce the low-energy photon flux of the average gamma-ray glows. There is still a wide range of acceptable parameter sets with degeneracy to make a similar spectrum