9,661 research outputs found
Anomalous microwave response of high-temperature superconducting thin-film microstrip resonator in weak dc magnetic fields
We have studied an anomalous microwave (mw) response of superconducting
YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-delta} (YBCO) microstrip resonators in the presence of a weak
dc magnetic field, H_{dc}. The surface resistance (R_{s}) and reactance (X_{s})
show a correlated non-monotonic behaviour as a function of H_{dc}. R_{s} and
X_{s} were found to initially decrease with elevated H_{dc} and then increase
after H_{dc} reaches a crossover field, H_{c}, which is independent of the
amplitude and frequency of the input mw signal within the measurements. The
frequency dependence of R_{s} is almost linear at fixed H_{dc} with different
magnitudes (H_{c}). The impedance plane analysis
demonstrates that r_{H}, which is defined as the ratio of the change in
R_{s}(H_{dc}) and that in X_{s}(H_{dc}), is about 0.6 at H_{dc}<H_{c} and 0.1
at H_{dc}>H_{c}. The H_{dc} dependence of the surface impedance is
qualitatively independent of the orientation of H_{dc}.Comment: REVTex 3.1, 5 pages, 6 EPS figures, submitted to Physica
Improvement of dielectric loss of doped Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films for tunable microwave devices
Al2O3-Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (Al2O3-BST) thin films, with different Al2O3 contents,
were deposited on (100) LaAlO3 substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD)
technique. The Al2O3-BST films was demosnstrated to be a suitable systems to
fabricate ferroelectric thin films with low dielectric loss and higher figure
of merit for tunable microwave devices. Pure BST thin films were also
fabricated for comparison purpose. The films' structure and morphology were
analyzed by X-ray diffractiopn and scanning electron microscopy, respectively;
nad showed that the surface roughness for the Al2O3-BST films increased with
the Al2O3 content. Apart from that, the broadening in the intensity peak in XRD
result indicating the grain size of the Al2O3-BST films reduced with the
increasing of Al2O3 dopant. We measured the dielctric properties of Al2O3-BST
films with a home-made non-destructive dual resonator method at frequency ~ 7.7
GHZ. The effect of doped Al2O3 into BST thin films significantly reduced the
dielectric constant, dielectric loss and tunability compare to pure BST thin
film. Our result shows the figure of merit (K), used to compare the films with
varied dielectric properties, increased with the Al2O3 content. Therefore
Al2O3-BST films show the potential to be exploited in tunable microwave
devices.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted & tentatively for Feb 15 2004
issue, Journal of Applied Physic
The Nernst effect in high- superconductors
The observation of a large Nernst signal in an extended region above
the critical temperature in hole-doped cuprates provides evidence that
vortex excitations survive above . The results support the scenario that
superfluidity vanishes because long-range phase coherence is destroyed by
thermally-created vortices (in zero field), and that the pair condensate
extends high into the pseudogap state in the underdoped (UD) regime. We present
a series of measurements to high fields which provide strong evidence for
this phase-disordering scenario.Comment: 21 pages, 28 figure
PALMA: Perfect Alignments using Large Margin Algorithms
Despite many years of research on how to properly align sequences in the presence of sequencing errors, alternative splicing and micro-exons, the correct alignment of mRNA sequences to genomic DNA is still a challenging task. We present a novel approach based on large margin learning that combines kernel based splice site predictions with common sequence alignment techniques. By solving a convex optimization problem, our algorithm -- called PALMA -- tunes the parameters of the model such that the true alignment scores higher than all other alignments. In an experimental study on the alignments of mRNAs containing artificially generated micro-exons, we show that our algorithm drastically outperforms all other methods: It perfectly aligns all 4358 sequences on an hold-out set, while the best other method misaligns at least 90 of them. Moreover, our algorithm is very robust against noise in the query sequence: when deleting, inserting, or mutating up to 50 of the query sequence, it still aligns 95 of all sequences correctly, while other methods achieve less than 36 accuracy. For datasets, additional results and a stand-alone alignment tool see http://www.fml.mpg.de/raetsch/projects/palma
The Concentration of Manganese, Copper, Zinc, Lead and Thorium in Sediments of Paka Estuary,Terengganu, Malaysia
14 cm cores sediments from the Paka River were analyzed for Mn, Cu, Zn, Pb
and Th using the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS).
Generally, the concentrations of all elements decreased with depth and have
significantly higher concentration at the surface depth of the core. The
concentration of Mn and Cu have average value of 151.1 ± 59.1 mg/g dry
weights and 29.2 ± 6.9 mg/g dry weights, while Zn and Pb averaged at 72.5 ±
15.5 mg/g dry weights and 54.9 ± 2.5 mg/g dry weights, respectively. Th were
slightly varied widely and ranged from 0.6 mg/g dry weights to 1.4 mg/g dry
weights. In this study, only Mn and Th have enrichment factor (EF) values close
to unity and may therefore be considered to be predominantly terrigenous in
origin. On the contrary, the higher EF values found for Cu, Zn and Pb indicate
that these metals might have some influenced from the anthropogenic inpu
Anti-fouling double-skinned forward osmosis membrane with zwitterionic brush for oily wastewater treatment
Despite its attractive features for energy saving separation, the performance of forward osmosis (FO) has been restricted by internal concentration polarization and fast fouling propensity that occur in the membrane sublayer. These problems have significantly affected the membrane performance when treating highly contaminated oily wastewater. In this study, a novel double-skinned FO membrane with excellent anti-fouling properties has been developed for emulsified oil-water treatment. The double-skinned FO membrane comprises a fully porous sublayer sandwiched between a highly dense polyamide (PA) layer for salt rejection and a fairly loose dense bottom zwitterionic layer for emulsified oil particle removal. The top dense PA layer was synthesized via interfacial polymerization meanwhile the bottom layer was made up of a zwitterionic polyelectrolyte brush-(poly(3-(N-2-methacryloxyethyl-N,N-dimethyl) ammonatopropanesultone), abbreviated as PMAPS layer. The resultant double-skinned membrane exhibited a high water flux of 13.7 ± 0.3 L/m2.h and reverse salt transport of 1.6 ± 0.2 g/m2.h under FO mode using 2 M NaCl as the draw solution and emulsified oily solution as the feed. The double-skinned membrane outperforms the single-skinned membrane with much lower fouling propensity for emulsified oil-water separation
Growth hormone receptor and IGF-1 receptor immunoreactivity during orthodontic tooth movement in the prednisolone-treated rat
Bone remodeling during tooth movement is regulated by local and systemic factors. Two regulators of bone metabolism are growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-1). Their effects are mediated via binding to GH receptor (GHR) and IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) in target tissues. Corticosteroids may affect the activity of these growth factors. This study examined the effect of prednisolone on GHR and IGF-IR expression in dental tissues following orthodontic tooth movement. The corti ticosteroid-treated group (N = 6) was administered prednisolone ( 1 mg/kg,) daily and the control group (N = 6) received equivalent volumes of saline. An orthodontic force (30 g) was applied to the maxillary first molar. Animals were sacrificed 12 days postappliance insertion. Sagittal sections of the first molar were stained for GHR and IGF-IR immunoreactivity. GHR and IGF-IR cell counts were elevated following appliance-treatment. Orthodontic tooth movement appeared to up-regulate GHR and IGF-IR immunoreactivity, but this up-regulation was reduced following prednisolone treatment. The suppression of GHR and IGF-I immunoreactivity in steroid-treated animals infers the mechanism whereby bone resorption and deposition, necessary for orthodontic tooth movement, may be inhibited by prednisolone. However, at 12 days postappliance insertion. no difference in orthodontic tooth movement was observed following low-dose prednisolone treatment
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3d augmented mirror: a multimodal interface for string instrument learning and teaching with gesture support
Multimodal interfaces can open up new possibilities for music education, where the traditional model of teaching is based predominantly on verbal feedback. This paper explores the development and use of multimodal interfaces in novel tools to support music practice training. The design of multimodal interfaces for music education presents a challenge in several respects. One is the integration of multimodal technology into the music learning process. The other is the technological development, where we present a solution that aims to support string practice training with visual and auditory feedback. Building on the traditional function of a physical mirror as a teaching aid, we describe the concept and development of an "augmented mirror" using 3D motion capture technology
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