Poly Drop

Poly Drop is a software interface to control an Open Drop digital micro-fluidics system. We obtained a hardware system from Gaudi labs. Our task was to create a Graphical User Interface that made the control of the device easier and more automated for better testing. We created software that had 3 parts: a control GUI, arduino code to control the hardware, and Image Analysis that gives the user information such as location and color of liquid drops as they move across the electrode grid of the Open Drop system. The GUI was developed using Java Swing. The communication between the GUI and the arduino was accomplished using the open source RXTX library. The image analysis portion was created using the open source OpenCV software

Detection of Extended Polarized Ultraviolet Radiation from the z = 1.82 Radio Galaxy 3C 256

We have detected spatially extended linear polarized UV emission from the high-redshift radio galaxy 3C~256 ($z=1.82$). A spatially integrated ($7.8''$ diameter aperture) measurement of the degree of polarization of the $V-$band (rest frame 0.19 $\mu$m) emission yields a value of 16.4\% ($\pm 2.2$\%) with a position angle of $42{}\rlap{\rm .}^\circ 4$ ($\pm 3{}\rlap{\rm .}^\circ 9$), orthogonal to the position angle on the sky of the major axis of the extended emission. The peak emission measured with a $3.6''$ diameter circular aperture is 11.7\% ($\pm 1.5$\%) polarized with a position angle of $42{}\rlap{\rm .}^\circ 4$ ($\pm 3{}\rlap{\rm .}^\circ 6$). An image of the polarized flux is presented, clearly displaying that the polarized flux is extended and present over the entire extent of the object. While it has been suggested that the UV continuum of 3C~256 might be due to star formation (Elston 1988) or a protogalaxy (Eisenhardt \& Dickinson 1993) based on its extremely blue spectral energy distribution and similar morphology at UV and visible wavelengths, we are unable to reconcile the observed high degree of polarization with such a model. While the detection of polarized emission from HZRGs has been shown to be a common phenomena, 3C~256 is only the third object for which a measurement of the extended polarized UV emission has been presented. These data lend additional support to the suggestion first made by di Serego Alighieri and collaborators that the ``alignment effect'', the tendency for the extended UV continuum radiation and line emission from HZRGs to be aligned with the major axis of the extended radio emission, is in large part due to scattering of anisotropic nuclear emission.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX (aaspp style) file. Figure available by request to [email protected]

Imaging Inter-Edge State Scattering Centers in the Quantum Hall Regime

We use an atomic force microscope tip as a local gate to study the scattering between edge channels in a 2D electron gas in the quantum Hall regime. The scattering is dominated by individual, microscopic scattering centers, which we directly image here for the first time. The tip voltage dependence of the scattering indicates that tunneling occurs through weak links and localized states.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Double-Layer Systems at Zero Magnetic Field

We investigate theoretically the effects of intralayer and interlayer exchange in biased double-layer electron and hole systems, in the absence of a magnetic field. We use a variational Hartree-Fock-like approximation to analyze the effects of layer separation, layer density, tunneling, and applied gate voltages on the layer densities and on interlayer phase coherence. In agreement with earlier work, we find that for very small layer separations and low layer densities, an interlayer-correlated ground state possessing spontaneous interlayer coherence (SILC) is obtained, even in the absence of interlayer tunneling. In contrast to earlier work, we find that as a function of total density, there exist four, rather than three, distinct noncrystalline phases for balanced double-layer systems without interlayer tunneling. The newly identified phase exists for a narrow range of densities and has three components and slightly unequal layer densities, with one layer being spin polarized, and the other unpolarized. An additional two-component phase is also possible in the presence of sufficiently strong bias or tunneling. The lowest-density SILC phase is the fully spin- and pseudospin-polarized ``one-component'' phase discussed by Zheng {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 55}, 4506 (1997)]. We argue that this phase will produce a finite interlayer Coulomb drag at zero temperature due to the SILC. We calculate the particle densities in each layer as a function of the gate voltage and total particle density, and find that interlayer exchange can reduce or prevent abrupt transfers of charge between the two layers. We also calculate the effect of interlayer exchange on the interlayer capacitance.Comment: 35 pages, 19 figures included. To appear in PR

Reply to: New Meta- and Mega-analyses of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in Schizophrenia: Do They Really Increase Our Knowledge About the Nature of the Disease Process?

This work was supported by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Grant No. U54EB020403 (to the ENIGMA consortium)

The zCOSMOS 10k-Bright Spectroscopic Sample

We present spectroscopic redshifts of a large sample of galaxies with I_(AB) < 22.5 in the COSMOS field, measured from spectra of 10,644 objects that have been obtained in the first two years of observations in the zCOSMOS-bright redshift survey. These include a statistically complete subset of 10,109 objects. The average accuracy of individual redshifts is 110 km s^(–1), independent of redshift. The reliability of individual redshifts is described by a Confidence Class that has been empirically calibrated through repeat spectroscopic observations of over 600 galaxies. There is very good agreement between spectroscopic and photometric redshifts for the most secure Confidence Classes. For the less secure Confidence Classes, there is a good correspondence between the fraction of objects with a consistent photometric redshift and the spectroscopic repeatability, suggesting that the photometric redshifts can be used to indicate which of the less secure spectroscopic redshifts are likely right and which are probably wrong, and to give an indication of the nature of objects for which we failed to determine a redshift. Using this approach, we can construct a spectroscopic sample that is 99% reliable and which is 88% complete in the sample as a whole, and 95% complete in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 0.8. The luminosity and mass completeness levels of the zCOSMOS-bright sample of galaxies is also discussed

The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11663 deg^2 of imaging data, with most of the roughly 2000 deg^2 increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry over 250 deg^2 along the Celestial Equator in the Southern Galactic Cap. A coaddition of these data goes roughly two magnitudes fainter than the main survey. The spectroscopy is now complete over a contiguous area of 7500 deg^2 in the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000 galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC-2), reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milli-arcseconds per coordinate. A systematic error in bright galaxy photometr is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat-fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities. (Abridged)Comment: 20 pages, 10 embedded figures. Accepted to ApJS after minor correction

The Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission

The Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission is a NASA observatory designed to discover and characterize near-Earth asteroids and comets. The mission's primary objective is to find the majority of objects large enough to cause severe regional impact damage ($>$140 m in effective spherical diameter) within its five-year baseline survey. Operating at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, the mission will survey to within 45 degrees of the Sun in an effort to find the objects in the most Earth-like orbits. The survey cadence is optimized to provide observational arcs long enough to reliably distinguish near-Earth objects from more distant small bodies that cannot pose an impact hazard. Over the course of its survey, NEO Surveyor will discover $\sim$200,000 - 300,000 new NEOs down to sizes as small as $\sim$10 m and thousands of comets, significantly improving our understanding of the probability of an Earth impact over the next century.Comment: accepted to PS

Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Loaded with Surfactant: Low Temperature Magic Angle Spinning 13C and 29Si NMR Enhanced by Dynamic Nuclear Polarization

We show that dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) can be used to enhance NMR signals of13C and 29Si nuclei located in mesoporous organic/inorganic hybrid materials, at several hundreds of nanometers from stable radicals (TOTAPOL) trapped in the surrounding frozen disordered water. The approach is demonstrated using mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN), functionalized with 3-(N-phenylureido)propyl (PUP) groups, filled with the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The DNP-enhanced proton magnetization is transported into the mesopores via 1H–1H spin diffusion and transferred to rare spins by cross-polarization, yielding signal enhancements εon/off of around 8. When the CTAB molecules are extracted, so that the radicals can enter the mesopores, the enhancements increase to εon/off ≈ 30 for both nuclei. A quantitative analysis of the signal enhancements in MSN with and without surfactant is based on a one-dimensional proton spin diffusion model. The effect of solvent deuteration is also investigated

Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function

We explore the inter-relationships between mass, star-formation rate and environment in the SDSS, zCOSMOS and other surveys. The differential effects of mass and environment are completely separable to z ~ 1, indicating that two distinct processes are operating, "mass-quenching" and "environment-quenching". Environment-quenching, at fixed over-density, evidently does not change with epoch to z ~ 1, suggesting that it occurs as large-scale structure develops in the Universe. The observed constancy of the mass-function shape for star-forming galaxies, demands that the mass-quenching of galaxies around and above M*, must be proportional to their star-formation rates at all z < 2. We postulate that this simple mass-quenching law also holds over a much broader range of stellar mass and epoch. These two simple quenching processes, plus some additional quenching due to merging, then naturally produce (a) a quasi-static Schechter mass function for star-forming galaxies with a value of M* that is set by the proportionality between the star-formation and mass-quenching rates, (b) a double Schechter function for passive galaxies with two components: the dominant one is produced by mass-quenching and has exactly the same M* as the star-forming galaxies but an alpha shallower by +1, while the other is produced by environment effects and has the same M* and alpha as the star-forming galaxies, and is larger in high density environments. Subsequent merging of quenched galaxies modifies these predictions somewhat in the denser environments, slightly increasing M* and making alpha more negative. All of these detailed quantitative relationships between the Schechter parameters are indeed seen in the SDSS, lending strong support to our simple empirically-based model. The model naturally produces for passive galaxies the "anti-hierarchical" run of mean ages and alpha-element abundances with mass.Comment: 66 pages, 19 figures, 1 movie, accepted for publication in ApJ. The movie is also available at http://www.exp-astro.phys.ethz.ch/zCOSMOS/MF_simulation_d1_d4.mo