360 research outputs found
Testing alternative fuels, solar-thermal systems
The Terrestrial Energy Systems Technical Committee
works to advance the application of engineering
sciences and systems engineering to the
production, storage, distribution and conservation
of energy for terrestrial uses
Massive Complex Scalar Field in a Kerr-Sen Black Hole Background: Exact Solution of Wave Equation and Hawking Radiation
The separated radial part of a massive complex scalar wave equation in the
Kerr-Sen geometry is shown to satisfy the generalized spheroidal wave equation
which is, in fact, a confluent Heun equation up to a multiplier. The Hawking
evaporation of scalar particles in the Kerr-Sen black hole background is
investigated by the Damour-Ruffini-Sannan's method. It is shown that quantum
thermal effect of the Kerr-Sen black hole has the same characteras that of the
Kerr-Newman black hole.Comment: Revtex, 5 pages, no figure, submitted to Phys. Rev.
A Possible Crypto-Superconducting Structure in a Superconducting Ferromagnet
We have measured the dc and ac electrical and magnetic properties in various
magnetic fields of the recently reported superconducting ferromagnet
RuSr2GdCu2O8. Our reversible magnetization measurements demonstrate the absence
of a bulk Meissner state in the compound below the superconducting transition
temperature. Several scenarios that might account for the absence of a bulk
Meissner state, including the possible presence of a sponge-like non-uniform
superconducting or a crypto-superconducting structure in the chemically uniform
Ru-1212, have been proposed and discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 PNG figures, submitted to Proceedings of the 9th Japan-US
Workshop on High-Tc Superconductors, Yamanashi, Japan, October 13-15, 1999;
accepted for publication in Physica C (December 24, 1999
Use of traditional serological methods and oral fluids to assess immunogenicity in children aged 2-16Â years after successive annual vaccinations with LAIV.
BACKGROUND: The UK introduced quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (qLAIV) for children in 2013/2014. The impact of annual vaccination on effectiveness and immunogenicity is being assessed. METHOD: A phase III/IV open-label study of the immunogenicity of annual vaccination with qLAIV (Fluenzâą) was conducted over three consecutive years (2014/15-2016/17) in 254, 249 and 162 children respectively. Serum responses to vaccine components were measured by Haemagglutination Inhibition (HAI) and anti-A(H1N1)pdm09 Neuraminidase (NAI) assays, stratified according to previous receipt of AS03B-adjuvanted A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic vaccine in 2009/10. Antibody levels to the A(H1N1)pdm09 and H3N2 vaccine components in oral fluids (OF) were explored using an ELISA. FINDINGS: More paired pre- and post-vaccination oral fluids (96%) than paired sera (87%) were obtained. Geometric mean titre rises using HAI assays were limited, with maximum rises seen in year one for both influenza B strains when 39% and 43% of subjects seroconverted (95% confidence interval 33-46% and 36-50%, respectively) and year two for influenza H3N2, when 40% (33-46%) individuals seroconverted. Prior pandemic vaccine receipt resulted in higher pre- and post-vaccination A(H1N1)pdm09 HAI titres and lower pre-and post-vaccination NAI (N1 neuraminidase) titres in all three years. OF results were congruent with HAI results; assay specificity compared to HAI was 88.1 and 71.6 percent, and sensitivity was 86.4 and 74.8 percent respectively for A(H1N1)pdm09 and H3N2. CONCLUSION: In all three study years, vaccination with qLAIV resulted in poor antibody responses. However, OFs are an alternative specimen type that allows self sampling, can easily be obtained from children, and their analysis leads to similar conclusions as classic serology by HAI. Their suitability for seroprevalence studies should be investigated. We demonstrated a sustained effect from prior receipt of the AS03B-adjuvanted A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccine, even after repeat vaccination with qLAIV indicating that early exposure to influenza antigens has a significant long lasting effect
Dyonic dilaton black holes
The properties of static spherically symmetric black holes, which are both
electrically and magnetically charged, and which are coupled to the dilaton in
the presence of a cosmological constant, Lambda, are considered. It is shown
that apart from the Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter solution with constant
dilaton, such solutions do not exist if Lambda > 0 (in arbitrary spacetime
dimension >=4 ). However, asymptotically anti-de Sitter dyonic black hole
solutions with a non-trivial dilaton do exist if Lambda < 0. Both these
solutions and the asymptotically flat (Lambda = 0) solutions are studied
numerically for arbitrary values of the dilaton coupling parameter, g_0, in
four dimensions. The asymptotically flat solutions are found to exhibit two
horizons if g_0 = 0, 1, \sqrt{3}, \sqrt{6}, ..., \sqrt{n(n+1)/2},..., and one
horizon otherwise. For asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions the result is
similar, but the corresponding values of g_0 are altered in a non-linear
fashion which depends on Lambda and the mass and charges of the black holes.
All dyonic solutions with Lambda <= 0 are found to have zero Hawking
temperature in the extreme limit, however, regardless of the value of g_0.Comment: 24 pages, phyzzx, epsf, 7 in-text figures. Small addition to
introduction, and a few extra reference
Candida albicans Hypha Formation and Mannan Masking of ÎČ-Glucan Inhibit Macrophage Phagosome Maturation
Received 28 August 2014 Accepted 28 October 2014 Published 2 December 2014 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Janet Willment, Aberdeen Fungal Group, University of Aberdeen, for kindly providing the soluble Dectin-1-Fc reporter. All microscopy was performed with the assistance of the University of Aberdeen Core Microscopy & Histology Facility, and we thank the IFCC for their assistance with flow cytometry. We thank the Wellcome Trust for funding (080088, 086827, 075470, 099215, 097377, and 101873). E.R.B. and A.J.P.B. are funded by the European Research Council (ERC-2009-AdG-249793), and J.L. is funded by a Medical Research Council Clinical Training Fellowship.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Loop operators and S-duality from curves on Riemann surfaces
We study Wilson-'t Hooft loop operators in a class of N=2 superconformal
field theories recently introduced by Gaiotto. In the case that the gauge group
is a product of SU(2) groups, we classify all possible loop operators in terms
of their electric and magnetic charges subject to the Dirac quantization
condition. We then show that this precisely matches Dehn's classification of
homotopy classes of non-self-intersecting curves on an associated Riemann
surface--the same surface which characterizes the gauge theory. Our analysis
provides an explicit prediction for the action of S-duality on loop operators
in these theories which we check against the known duality transformation in
several examples.Comment: 41 page
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