5,149 research outputs found
Evidences of spin-temperature in Dynamic Nuclear Polarization: an exact computation of the EPR spectrum
In dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) experiments, the compound is driven
out-of-equilibrium by microwave (MW) irradiation of the radical electron spins.
Their stationary state has been recently probed via electron double resonance
(ELDOR) techniques showing, at low temperature, a broad depolarization of the
electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrum under microwave irradiation. In
this theoretical manuscript, we develop a numerical method to compute exactly
the EPR spectrum in presence of dipolar interactions. Our results reproduce the
observed broad depolarisation and provide a microscopic justification for
spectral diffusion mechanism. We show the validity of the spin-temperature
approach for typical radical concentration used in dissolution DNP protocols.
In particular once the interactions are properly taken into account, the
spin-temperature is consistent with the non-monotonic behavior of the EPR
spectrum with a wide minimum around the irradiated frequency.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Title and abstract change
Regulation by Iterative Learning in Continuum Soft Robots
The dynamic uncertainties and disturbances characterizing continuum soft robots call for the derivation of simple and possibly information-free controllers. We propose an iterative learning control law for shape regulation of continuum soft robots consisting of a PD action and a feedforward term, updated to learn the potential forces at the target configuration. We prove that the regulator achieves global asymptotic stabilization of the closed-loop system to the desired set-point. Simulation results validate the proposed control law
Exploring Design Seeds for Urban Transformation
There is a growing interest in considering interaction aspects for the design of urban public places. Emerging approaches present different frames inherent to the interplay among people and information between us and address the role of urban infrastructures and technologies in encouraging interactions. In this paper we use the concept of Urban Interaction Design to provide a framework for understanding transformations due to urban design, while bringing new values and perspectives into the design process itself. This framework is a product of three design seeds: participatory urbanism, urban data visualization and urban gamification. Each one of them contributes with specific insights and mechanics to re-defining urban interaction. We use three design cases to illustrate how
Urban Interaction Design is a promising path to follow in the context of sustainable HCI. The concepts are discussed highlighting the main assets for future development
Clustering of vertically constrained passive particles in homogeneous, isotropic turbulence
We analyze the dynamics of small particles vertically confined, by means of a
linear restoring force, to move within a horizontal fluid slab in a
three-dimensional (3D) homogeneous isotropic turbulent velocity field. The
model that we introduce and study is possibly the simplest description for the
dynamics of small aquatic organisms that, due to swimming, active regulation of
their buoyancy, or any other mechanism, maintain themselves in a shallow
horizontal layer below the free surface of oceans or lakes. By varying the
strength of the restoring force, we are able to control the thickness of the
fluid slab in which the particles can move. This allows us to analyze the
statistical features of the system over a wide range of conditions going from a
fully 3D incompressible flow (corresponding to the case of no confinement) to
the extremely confined case corresponding to a two-dimensional slice. The
background 3D turbulent velocity field is evolved by means of fully resolved
direct numerical simulations. Whenever some level of vertical confinement is
present, the particle trajectories deviate from that of fluid tracers and the
particles experience an effectively compressible velocity field. Here, we have
quantified the compressibility, the preferential concentration of the
particles, and the correlation dimension by changing the strength of the
restoring force. The main result is that there exists a particular value of the
force constant, corresponding to a mean slab depth approximately equal to a few
times the Kolmogorov length scale, that maximizes the clustering of the
particles
Time irreversibility in reversible shell models of turbulence
Turbulent flows governed by the Navier-Stokes equations (NSE) generate an
out-of-equilibrium time irreversible energy cascade from large to small scales.
In the NSE, the energy transfer is due to the nonlinear terms that are formally
symmetric under time reversal. As for the dissipative term: first it explicitly
breaks time reversibility; second it produces a small-scale sink for the energy
transfer that remains effective even in the limit of vanishing viscosity. As a
result, it is not clear how to disentangle the time irreversibility originating
from the non-equilibrium energy cascade from the explicit time-reversal
symmetry breaking due to the viscous term. To this aim, in this paper we
investigate the properties of the energy transfer in turbulent Shell models by
using a reversible viscous mechanism, avoiding any explicit breaking of the symmetry. We probe time-irreversibility by studying the
statistics of Lagrangian power, which is found to be asymmetric under time
reversal also in the time-reversible model. This suggests that the turbulent
dynamics converges to a strange attractor where time-reversibility is
spontaneously broken and whose properties are robust for what concerns purely
inertial degrees of freedoms, as verified by the anomalous scaling behavior of
the velocity structure functions.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Relationship between Protein Oxidation Biomarkers and Uterine Health in Dairy Cows during the Postpartum Period
High neutrophil (PMN, Polymorphonuclear neutrophil) counts in the endometrium of cows affected by endometritis, suggests the involvement of oxidative stress (OS) among the causes of impaired fertility. Protein oxidation, in particular, advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP), are OS biomarkers linked to PMN activity. To test this hypothesis, the relationship between protein oxidation and uterus health was studied in thirty-eight dairy cows during the puerperium. The animals were found to be cycling, without any signs of disease and pharmacological treatments. PMN count was performed either through a cytobrush or a uterine horn lavage (UHL). Cows were classified into four groups, based on the uterine ultrasonographic characteristics and the PMN percentage in the uterine horns with a higher percentage of high neutrophil horn (HNH). They were classified as: Healthy (H); Subclinical Endometritis (SCE); Grade 1 Endometritis (EM1); and Grade 2 Endometritis (EM2). AOPP and carbonyls were measured in plasma and UHL. UHL samples underwent Western blot analysis to visualize the carbonyl and dityrosine formation. Plasma AOPP were higher (p < 0.05) in EM2. AOPP and carbonyl group concentrations were higher in the HNH samples (p < 0.05). Protein concentration in the UHL was higher in the EM2 (p < 0.05). Carbonyl and dityrosine formation was more intense in EM1 and EM2. Protein oxidation observed in the EM2 suggests the presence of an inflammatory status in the uterus which, if not adequately hindered, could result in low fertility
Data-driven appraisal of renewable energy potentials for sustainable freshwater production in Africa
Clean water scarcity plagues several hundred million people worldwide, representing a major global problem. Nearly half of the total population lacking access to safe and drinkable water lives in Africa. Nonetheless, the African continent has a remarkable yet untapped potential in terms of renewable energy production, which may serve to produce clean water from contaminated or salty resources and for water extraction and distribution. In this view, the analysis of possible scenarios relies on data-driven approaches due to the scale of the problem and the general lack of comprehensive, direct on-site experience. In this work, we aim to systematically review and map the renewable potentials against the freshwater shortage in Africa to gain insight on perspective possible policies and provide a readily usable and well-structured framework and database for further analyses. All reported datasets are critically discussed, organized in tables, and classified by a few metadata to facilitate their usability in further analyses. The accompanying discussion focuses on regions that, in the near future, are expected to significantly exploit their renewable energy potentials, and on the reasons at the basis of the local water shortage, including technological and distribution problems
Rigid probe solutes in a smectic-A liquid crystal: An unconventional route to the latter's positional order parameters
Biphenylene and pyrene were dissolved in the nematic and smectic-A phases of the liquid crystal 4,4’-di-n-heptyl-azoxybenzene and the orientational order parameters of both solutes and solvent measured via proton and deuteron nuclear-magnetic-resonance spectroscopy. This new data set was then merged with the one previously obtained, formed by 4,4’-di-chloro-benzene and naphthalene as solutes in the same solvent, and the resulting overall data set analyzed with a statistical thermodynamic density-functional theory to provide positional-orientational distribution functions of the various solutes along with the smectic solvent’s positional order parametersM.E.D.P. is grateful to the European Commission, the European Social Fund, and the Regione Calabria for cofunding her Ph.D. scholarship. M.E.D.P., G.C., and G.D.L. thank the University of Calabria and MIUR PRIN 2009 for financial support. G.C. acknowledges the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Research via a Raóon y Cajal research fellowshi
Equivalence of nonequilibrium ensembles in turbulence models
Understanding under which conditions it is possible to construct equivalent ensembles is key to advancing our ability to connect microscopic and macroscopic properties of non-equilibrium statisti- cal mechanics. In the case of fluid dynamical systems, a first issue is to test whether different models for viscosity lead to the same macroscopic properties of the fluid systems in different regimes. Such models include, besides the standard choice of constant viscosity, also cases where the time symme- try of the evolution equations is exactly preserved, as it must be in the corresponding microscopic systems, when available. Here a time-reversible dynamics is obtained by imposing the conservation of global observables. We test the equivalence of reversible and irreversible ensembles for the case of a multiscale shell model of turbulence. We verify that the equivalence is obeyed for the mean-values of macroscopic observables, up to an error that vanishes as the system becomes more and more chaotic
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