1,653 research outputs found
Electromechanical tuning of vertically-coupled photonic crystal nanobeams
We present the design, the fabrication and the characterization of a tunable
one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal cavity (PCC) etched on two
vertically-coupled GaAs nanobeams. A novel fabrication method which prevents
their adhesion under capillary forces is introduced. We discuss a design to
increase the flexibility of the structure and we demonstrate a large reversible
and controllable electromechanical wavelength tuning (> 15 nm) of the cavity
modes.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
The tensor part of the Skyrme energy density functional. I. Spherical nuclei
We perform a systematic study of the impact of the J^2 tensor term in the
Skyrme energy functional on properties of spherical nuclei. In the Skyrme
energy functional, the tensor terms originate both from zero-range central and
tensor forces. We build a set of 36 parameterizations, which covers a wide
range of the parameter space of the isoscalar and isovector tensor term
coupling constants, with a fit protocol very similar to that of the successful
SLy parameterizations. We analyze the impact of the tensor terms on a large
variety of observables in spherical mean-field calculations, such as the
spin-orbit splittings and single-particle spectra of doubly-magic nuclei, the
evolution of spin-orbit splittings along chains of semi-magic nuclei, mass
residuals of spherical nuclei, and known anomalies of charge radii. Our main
conclusion is that the currently used central and spin-orbit parts of the
Skyrme energy density functional are not flexible enough to allow for the
presence of large tensor terms.Comment: 38 pages, 36 figures; Minor correction
OPTIMAL MOVEMENT FOR LOWER EXTREMITY INJURY PREVENTION; HOW TO CREATE AN OPTIMAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR YOUTH SOCCER GIRLS
For lower extremity injury prevention, it is crucial to decrease external loads to the joints in sport-specific situations. The purpose of this study was to examine how landing kinetics and psychological factors (i.e., motivation) change during a four-week laboratory training program. Ten talented soccer girls practiced three sport-specific tasks and received expert video instruction. Increased fun and competence in week 3 compared to week 1 was observed. No significant changes of effort and joint load (a discrete number to describe combined external frontal and transverse plane knee and ankle moments) were found. Results are promising and innovative as this is the first study testing the entire OPTIMAL model including retention and linking biomechanics with perceived motivation. More research is planned on additional instructions and feedback that may enhance the motor learning curve
Ultra-stable implanted 83Rb/83mKr electron sources for the energy scale monitoring in the KATRIN experiment
The KATRIN experiment aims at the direct model-independent determination of
the average electron neutrino mass via the measurement of the endpoint region
of the tritium beta decay spectrum. The electron spectrometer of the MAC-E
filter type is used, requiring very high stability of the electric filtering
potential. This work proves the feasibility of implanted 83Rb/83mKr calibration
electron sources which will be utilised in the additional monitor spectrometer
sharing the high voltage with the main spectrometer of KATRIN. The source
employs conversion electrons of 83mKr which is continuously generated by 83Rb.
The K-32 conversion line (kinetic energy of 17.8 keV, natural line width of 2.7
eV) is shown to fulfill the KATRIN requirement of the relative energy stability
of +/-1.6 ppm/month. The sources will serve as a standard tool for continuous
monitoring of KATRIN's energy scale stability with sub-ppm precision. They may
also be used in other applications where the precise conversion lines can be
separated from the low energy spectrum caused by the electron inelastic
scattering in the substrate.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, minor revision of the preprint,
accepted by JINST on 5.2.201
Direct Visualization and Silver Enhancement of Ultra-Small Antibody-Bound Gold Particles on Immunolabeled Ultrathin Resin Sections
Ultra-small gold colloids bound to immunolabeled ultrathin resin sections were visualized using transmission, scanning, and scanning transmission electron microscopy (TEM, SEM, STEM). The best marker contrast is obtained in a field emission STEM (200 kV) equipped with a high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) detector. HAADF STEM renders possible the simultaneous visualization of ultra-small gold and ultrastructural details in unstained resin sections, and an overall presentation of a labeled E. coli cell.
For routine work, an enhancement step is a prerequisite for easy detection of bound marker molecules. Five different silver enhancing solutions were tested for their suitability for ultra-small gold intensification. Enhancers lacking the protective colloid gum arabic exhibit lower quality with regard to efficiency and homogeneity of enhancement. This problem can be overcome by adding gum arabic. Silver enhancement generally results in heterogeneously sized particles. This is most probably due to the heterogeneous original gold colloid probe. In general, an estimation of enhancement efficiency is associated with difficulties depending on experimental conditions and the electron microscopic imaging modes used. Only a low number of the ultra-small gold particles seems to remain unenhanced or poorly enhanced when treated with high-quality enhancers. On-section labeling of ultrathin resin sections with silver-enhanced ultra-small gold markers also offers the possibility of high-resolution immunolabeling experiments at the light microscopic level
ENIGMA: Efficient Learning-based Inference Guiding Machine
ENIGMA is a learning-based method for guiding given clause selection in
saturation-based theorem provers. Clauses from many proof searches are
classified as positive and negative based on their participation in the proofs.
An efficient classification model is trained on this data, using fast
feature-based characterization of the clauses . The learned model is then
tightly linked with the core prover and used as a basis of a new parameterized
evaluation heuristic that provides fast ranking of all generated clauses. The
approach is evaluated on the E prover and the CASC 2016 AIM benchmark, showing
a large increase of E's performance.Comment: Submitted to LPAR 201
Inter-muscular coherence in speed skaters with skater's cramp
Introduction: Skater's cramp is a career-ending movement disorder in expert speed skaters noted to be a likely task-specific dystonia. In other movement disorders, including task-specific dystonia, studies have found evidence of central dysregulation expressed as higher inter-muscular coherence. We looked at whether inter-muscular coherence was higher in affected skaters as a possible indicator that it is centrally driven, and by extension further evidence it is a task-specific dystonia.Methods: In 14 affected and 14 control skaters we calculated inter-muscular coherence in the theta-band in a stationary task where tonic muscle activation was measured at 10%, 20% and 50% of maximum voluntary contraction. Additionally, we calculated wavelet coherence while skating at key moments in the stroke cycle.Results: Coherence did not differ in the stationary activation task. While skating, coherence was higher in the impacted leg of affected skaters compared to their non-impacted leg, p = .05, η2 = 0.031, and amplitude of electromyography correlated with coherence in the impacted leg, p = .009, R2adjusted = 0.41. A sub-group of severely affected skaters (n = 6) had higher coherence in the impacted leg compared to the left and right leg of controls, p = .02, Cohen's d = 1.59 and p = .01, Cohen's d = 1.63 respectively. Results were less clear across the entire affected cohort probably due to a diverse case-mix.Conclusion: Our results of higher coherence in certain severe cases of skater's cramp is preliminary evidence of a central dysregulation, making the likelihood it is a task-specific dystonia higher.</p
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Development of a defined compost system for the study of plant-microbe interactions
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria can improve plant health by providing enhanced nutrition, disease suppression and abiotic stress resistance, and have potential to contribute to sustainable agriculture. We have developed a sphagnum peat-based compost platform for investigating plant-microbe interactions. The chemical, physical and biological status of the system can be manipulated to understand the relative importance of these factors for plant health, demonstrated using three case studies: 1. Nutrient depleted compost retained its structure, but plants grown in this medium were severely stunted in growth due to removal of essential soluble nutrients - particularly, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Compost nutrient status was replenished with the addition of selected soluble nutrients, validated by plant biomass; 2. When comparing milled and unmilled compost, we found nutrient status to be more important than matrix structure for plant growth; 3. In compost deficient in soluble P, supplemented with an insoluble inorganic form of P (Ca3(PO4)2), application of a phosphate solubilising Pseudomonas strain to plant roots provides a significant growth boost when compared with a Pseudomonas strain incapable of solubilising Ca3(PO4)2. Our findings show that the compost system can be manipulated to impose biotic and abiotic stresses for testing how microbial inoculants influence plant growth
Retention of Antimicrobial Activity in Plaque and Saliva following Mouthrinse Use in vivo
The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of plaque and saliva towards the prolonged activity, also called substantivity, of three antimicrobial mouthrinses (Listerine (R), Meridol (R), Crest Pro Health (R)), used in combination with a toothpaste (Prodent Coolmint (R)). Volunteers brushed for 4 weeks with a toothpaste without antimicrobial claims, while during the last 2 weeks half of the volunteers used an antimicrobial mouthrinse in addition to brushing. At the end of the experimental period, plaque and saliva samples were collected 6 h after oral hygiene, and bacterial concentrations and viabilities were determined. The contribution of plaque and saliva towards substantivity was assessed by combining plaque obtained after mechanical cleaning only with plaque and saliva obtained after additional use of an antimicrobial rinse. Subsequently, resulting viabilities of the combined plaques were determined. The viabilities of plaque samples after additional rinsing with mouthrinses were lower than of plaque obtained after mechanical cleaning only, regardless of the rinse involved. Moreover, plaque collected 6 h after rinsing with antimicrobial mouthrinses contained a surplus of antimicrobial activity. Only Listerine showed decreased vi
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