Quantitative Analysis on the Energy and Environmental Impact of the Korean National Energy R&D Roadmap a Using Bottom-Up Energy System Model

According to the Paris Agreement at the 21st Conference of the Parties, 196 member states are obliged to submit their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) for every 5 years. As a member, South Korea has already proposed the reduction target and need to submit the achievement as a result of the policies and endeavors in the near future. In this paper, a Korean bottom-up energy system model to support the low-carbon national energy R&D roadmap will be introduced and through the modeling of various scenarios, the mid-to long-term impact on energy consumptions and CO2 emissions will be analyzed as well. The results of the analysis showed that, assuming R&D investments for the 11 types of technologies, savings of 13.7% with regards to final energy consumptions compared to the baseline scenario would be feasible by 2050. Furthermore, in the field of power generation, the generation proportion of new and renewable energy is expected to increase from 3.0% as of 2011 to 19.4% by 2050. This research also suggested that the analysis on the Energy Technology R&D Roadmap based on the model can be used not only for overall impact analysis and R&D portfolio establishment, but also for the development of detailed R&D strategies.1100Ysciessciscopu

Novel optical metrology for inspection of nanostructures fabricated by substrate conformal imprint lithography

Substrate conformal imprint lithography (SCIL) technology enables the fabrication of complex and non-trivial 3D nanostructures such a slanted gratings and metasurfaces with sub-10 nm resolution over large areas for industrial-scale production, which can be fabricated in a single lithography step. This technology utilizes novel composite silicone rubber stamps that provide versatility in addition to high precision. To inspect the quality and reproducibility of the nanostructures that are fabricated using SCIL, a novel optical characterization method using Fourier microscopy is proposed. In this method, nanostructures are illuminated under a microscope objective using a collimated light beam at different incident angles and the properties of the reflected and/or diffracted beams are analysed to extract the critical dimensions of the nanostructures. This fast and non-destructive method has the potential for being used as an in-line inspection technology to extract the critical dimensions of the nanostructures over large areas and improve the overall properties of nanostructured surfaces.</p

The altered gut microbiota in adults with cystic fibrosis

peer-reviewedBackground Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disease that affects the function of a number of organs, principally the lungs, but also the gastrointestinal tract. The manifestations of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) dysfunction in the gastrointestinal tract, as well as frequent antibiotic exposure, undoubtedly disrupts the gut microbiota. To analyse the effects of CF and its management on the microbiome, we compared the gut microbiota of 43 individuals with CF during a period of stability, to that of 69 non-CF controls using 454-pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The impact of clinical parameters, including antibiotic therapy, on the results was also assessed. Results The CF-associated microbiome had reduced microbial diversity, an increase in Firmicutes and a reduction in Bacteroidetes compared to the non-CF controls. While the greatest number of differences in taxonomic abundances of the intestinal microbiota was observed between individuals with CF and the healthy controls, gut microbiota differences were also reported between people with CF when grouped by clinical parameters including % predicted FEV1 (measure of lung dysfunction) and the number of intravenous (IV) antibiotic courses in the previous 12 months. Notably, CF individuals presenting with severe lung dysfunction (% predicted FEV1 ≤ 40%) had significantly (p < 0.05) reduced gut microbiota diversity relative to those presenting with mild or moderate dysfunction. A significant negative correlation (−0.383, Simpson’s Diversity Index) was also observed between the number of IV antibiotic courses and gut microbiota diversity. Conclusions This is one of the largest single-centre studies on gut microbiota in stable adults with CF and demonstrates the significantly altered gut microbiota, including reduced microbial diversity seen in CF patients compared to healthy controls. The data show the impact that CF and it's management have on gut microbiota, presenting the opportunity to develop CF specific probiotics to minimise microbiota alterations.The authors and their work were supported by the Science Foundation of Ireland and funded by the Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology (SFI-CSET) grant 02/CE/B124 and by FP7 funded CFMATTERS (Cystic Fibrosis Microbiome-determined Antibiotic Therapy Trial in Exacerbations: Results Stratified, Grant Agreement no. 603038)

2,3,8-trisubstituted quinolines with antimalarial activity

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCombination therapy drugs are considered a fundamental way to control malaria as it mimimizes the risk of emergence of resistance to the individual partner drugs. Consequently, this type of therapy constitutes a driving force for the discovery of new drug901212151231FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQSEM INFORMAÇÃOSEM INFORMAÇÃOWe especially thank Prof. Marcos Eberlin (Thomsom Laboratory) for HRMS analyses. We are grateful to Sergio Wittlin, Sibylle Sax and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Basel, Switzerland) for conducting the resistance assays. We thank Mark We

What other's disappointment may do to selfish people: Emotion and social value orientation in a negotiation context

The authors examined whether individual differences in social value orientation moderate responses to other’s expressions of disappointment in negotiation. The literature suggested competing hypotheses: First, prosocials are more responsive to other’s disappointment because they have a greater concern for other; second, proselfs are more responsive because they see other’s disappointment as a threat to their own outcomes. Results of a computer-mediated negotiation in which a simulated opponent expressed disappointment, no emotion, or anger supported the second prediction: Proselfs conceded more to a disappointed opponent than to a neutral or angry one, whereas prosocials were unaffected by the other’s emotion. This effect was mediated by participants’ motivation to satisfy the other’s needs, which disappointment triggered more strongly in proselfs than in prosocials. Implications for theorizing on emotion, social value orientation, and negotiation are discussed

Method to compute the stress-energy tensor for the massless spin 1/2 field in a general static spherically symmetric spacetime

A method for computing the stress-energy tensor for the quantized, massless, spin 1/2 field in a general static spherically symmetric spacetime is presented. The field can be in a zero temperature state or a non-zero temperature thermal state. An expression for the full renormalized stress-energy tensor is derived. It consists of a sum of two tensors both of which are conserved. One tensor is written in terms of the modes of the quantized field and has zero trace. In most cases it must be computed numerically. The other tensor does not explicitly depend on the modes and has a trace equal to the trace anomaly. It can be used as an analytic approximation for the stress-energy tensor and is equivalent to other approximations that have been made for the stress-energy tensor of the massless spin 1/2 field in static spherically symmetric spacetimes.Comment: 34 pages, no figure

Projected shell model study of odd-odd f-p-g shell proton-rich nuclei

A systematic study of 2-quasiparticle bands of the proton-rich odd-odd nuclei in the mass A ~ 70-80 region is performed using the projected shell model approach. The study includes Br-, Rb-, and Y-isotopes with N = Z+2, and Z+4. We describe the energy spectra and electromagnetic transition strengths in terms of the configuration mixing of the angular-momentum projected multi-quasiparticle states. Signature splitting and signature inversion in the rotational bands are discussed and are shown to be well described. A preliminary study of the odd-odd N = Z nucleus, 74Rb using the concept of spontaneous symmetry breaking is also presented.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, final version accepted by Phys. Rev.

Measuring the elements of the optical density matrix

Most methods for experimentally reconstructing the quantum state of light involve determining a quasiprobability distribution such as the Wigner function. In this paper we present a scheme for measuring individual density matrix elements in the photon number state representation. Remarkably, the scheme is simple, involving two beam splitters and a reference field in a coherent state.Comment: 6 pages and 1 figur

Theoretical analysis of neutron scattering results for quasi-two dimensional ferromagnets

A theoretical study has been carried out to analyse the available results from the inelastic neutron scattering experiment performed on a quasi-two dimensional spin-1/2 ferromagnetic material $K_2CuF_4$. Our formalism is based on a conventional semi-classical like treatment involving a model of an ideal gas of vortices/anti-vortices corresponding to an anisotropic XY Heisenberg ferromagnet on a square lattice. The results for dynamical structure functions for our model corresponding to spin-1/2, show occurrence of negative values in a large range of energy transfer even encompassing the experimental range, when convoluted with a realistic spectral window function. This result indicates failure of the conventional theoretical framework to be applicable to the experimental situation corresponding to low spin systems. A full quantum formalism seems essential for treating such systems.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 1 Table Submitted for publicatio

Two Mathematically Equivalent Versions of Maxwell's Equations

This paper is a review of the canonical proper-time approach to relativistic mechanics and classical electrodynamics. The purpose is to provide a physically complete classical background for a new approach to relativistic quantum theory. Here, we first show that there are two versions of Maxwell's equations. The new version fixes the clock of the field source for all inertial observers. However now, the (natural definition of the effective) speed of light is no longer an invariant for all observers, but depends on the motion of the source. This approach allows us to account for radiation reaction without the Lorentz-Dirac equation, self-energy (divergence), advanced potentials or any assumptions about the structure of the source. The theory provides a new invariance group which, in general, is a nonlinear and nonlocal representation of the Lorentz group. This approach also provides a natural (and unique) definition of simultaneity for all observers. The corresponding particle theory is independent of particle number, noninvariant under time reversal (arrow of time), compatible with quantum mechanics and has a corresponding positive definite canonical Hamiltonian associated with the clock of the source. We also provide a brief review of our work on the foundational aspects of the corresponding relativistic quantum theory. Here, we show that the standard square-root and the Dirac equations are actually two distinct spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ particle equations.Comment: Appeared: Foundations of Physic