6,378 research outputs found

    Sol–gel synthesis and characterization of barium (magnesium) aluminosilicate glass sealants for solid oxide fuel cells

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    Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) correspond to efficient energy conversion systems coupled with low emissions of pollutants. In the aim to fabricate high temperature planar SOFC, glass and glass-ceramic sealants are developed to associate several criteria and properties : high thermal expansion (11.0 to 12.0 ⋅ 10− 6 K− 1), high electrical resistance > 2 kΩ/cm2, good thermochemical compatibility with the other active materials of the fuel cell, and stability under H2 and H2O atmospheres at an operation temperature of 800 °C for a long time. According to these requirements, new BAS (BaO–Al2O3–SiO2) and BMAS (BaO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2) glass-ceramic sealants have been developed by sol–gel route which is a non-conventional process for such applications. By this soft chemistry process, we anticipate a decrease in the glasses processing temperature due to a better homogeneity between cationic precursors in the mixture and a more important reactivity of materials. Experimental results in terms of thermomechanical properties, thermal expansion coefficient, crystalline phase content, and microstructure were discussed. In particular, the influence of the %BaO on the thermomechanical properties of glass-ceramics was described. Changes in properties of glass-ceramics were closely related to the microstructure. The influence of MgO on glass processing temperatures, on the structure and on the microstructure is evaluated in order to confirm that these glass-ceramics are promising candidates to SOFC applications. So, after performing a systematic investigation to the various systems, the properties of suitable glass were proposed

    Role Of The Alzheimer\u27s Amyloid Precursor Protein In High Fat Diet Induced Obesity And Regulating Macrophage Phenotype

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    Amyloid precursor protein (APP) derived amyloid beta peptides have been extensively investigated in Alzheimer\u27s disease pathology of the brain. However, the function of full length APP in the central nervous system remains unclear. Even less is known about the behavior of this ubiquitously expressed protein and it metabolites outside of the central nervous system. Therefore, we sought to broaden our understanding of the expression and function of APP and its proteolytic fragments in specific non-neuronal tissues. Although the majority of research effort is currently focused on neuronal amyloid beta production and its effects on cells, prior work in our lab demonstrated a novel role for APP in regulating the phenotype of monocytic lineage cells. Therefore, we hypothesized that APP can behave as a proinflammatory receptor on these cells involved in modulating their tissue infiltration and differentiation. Based upon the fact that midlife obesity is a risk factor for Alzheimer\u27s disease and both obese adipose tissue and Alzheimer\u27s disease brains share a common presence of increased, reactive macrophage and microglia, respectively, we hypothesized that APP may have a common role in both diseases regulating the infiltration or proinflammatory activation of microglia and macrophage characterizing both diseases. Indeed, recent data has demonstrated that APP levels are increased in adipose tissue from obese versus control individuals. To test this idea we utilized a high fat diet feeding paradigm on both C57BL6 wild type and APP-/- mice to examine any role for APP and high fat diet dependent changes in adipose tissue, brain, and intestine. In vivo changes were compared to those obtained using primary cells isolated from the murine models. Collectively, these data suggest that APP does regulate microglia and macrophage phenotype in a manner responsible for altering their behavior in tissue specific fashion. This suggests that immune-related functions of APP may be a common type of pathophysiology linking the complex diseases of obesity and Alzheimer\u27s disease

    ¿Con qué criterios valora el profesorado la aplicación de un proyecto de innovación de física en contexto?

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    En este trabajo presentamos algunos de los criterios con los que el profesorado valora la aplicación de un proyecto de física en contexto, analizando su contribución al desarrollo de las capacidades recogidas en las finalidades y los objetivos del bachillerato y buscando identificar los puntos fuertes y los aspectos que habría que revisar para orientar los posibles cambios a introducir para su mejora. Los resultados muestran, por una parte, que el proyecto interesa y se adapta al currículum y a las PAAU y es rico en actividades de enseñanza-aprendizaje, aunque no siempre se saben utilizar de manera eficiente y que, por otra, genera un proceso de formación en el profesorado que se valora como muy positivo y que comporta cambios profesionales más allá de la aplicación del proyecto

    Tidal Synchronization and Differential Rotation of Kepler Eclipsing Binaries

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    Few observational constraints exist for the tidal synchronization rate of late-type stars, despite its fundamental role in binary evolution. We visually inspected the light curves of 2278 eclipsing binaries (EBs) from the Kepler Eclipsing Binary Catalog to identify those with starspot modulations, as well as other types of out-of-eclipse variability. We report rotation periods for 816 EBs with starspot modulations, and find that 79% of EBs with orbital periods less than ten days are synchronized. However, a population of short period EBs exists with rotation periods typically 13% slower than synchronous, which we attribute to the differential rotation of high latitude starspots. At 10 days, there is a transition from predominantly circular, synchronized EBs to predominantly eccentric, pseudosynchronized EBs. This transition period is in good agreement with the predicted and observed circularization period for Milky Way field binaries. At orbital periods greater than about 30 days, the amount of tidal synchronization decreases. We also report 12 previously unidentified candidate δ\delta Scuti and γ\gamma Doradus pulsators, as well as a candidate RS CVn system with an evolved primary that exhibits starspot occultations. For short period contact binaries, we observe a period-color relation, and compare it to previous studies. As a whole, these results represent the largest homogeneous study of tidal synchronization of late-type stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. EB rotation periods and classifications available at https://github.com/jlurie/decatur/blob/master/decatur/data/final_catalog.cs

    A New Model of Biodosimetry to Integrate Low and High Doses

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    Biological dosimetry, that is the estimation of the dose of an exposure to ionizing radiation by a biological parameter, is a very important tool in cases of radiation accidents. The score of dicentric chromosomes, considered to be the most accurate method for biological dosimetry, for low LET radiation and up to 5 Gy, fits very well to a linear-quadratic model of dose-effect curve assuming the Poisson distribution. The accuracy of this estimation raises difficulties for doses over 5 Gy,the highest dose of the majority of dose-effect curves used in biological dosimetry. At doses over 5 Gy most cells show difficulties in reaching mitosis and cannot be used to score dicentric chromosomes. In the present study with the treatment of lymphocyte cultures with caffeine and the standardization of the culture time, metaphases for doses up to 25 Gy have been analyzed. Here we present a new model for biological dosimetry, which includes a Gompertz-type function as the dose response, and also takes into account the underdispersion of aberrationamong-cell distribution. The new model allows the estimation of doses of exposures to ionizing radiation of up to 25 Gy. Moreover, the model is more effective in estimating whole and partial body exposures than the classical method based on linear and linear-quadratic functions, suggesting their effectiveness and great potential to be used after high dose exposures of radiation

    Can we always get the entanglement entropy from the Kadanoff-Baym equations? The case of the T-matrix approximation

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    We study the time-dependent transmission of entanglement entropy through an out-of-equilibrium model interacting device in a quantum transport set-up. The dynamics is performed via the Kadanoff-Baym equations within many-body perturbation theory. The double occupancy <n^R↑n^R↓>< \hat{n}_{R \uparrow} \hat{n}_{R \downarrow} >, needed to determine the entanglement entropy, is obtained from the equations of motion of the single-particle Green's function. A remarkable result of our calculations is that <n^R↑n^R↓>< \hat{n}_{R \uparrow} \hat{n}_{R \downarrow} > can become negative, thus not permitting to evaluate the entanglement entropy. This is a shortcoming of approximate, and yet conserving, many-body self-energies. Among the tested perturbation schemes, the TT-matrix approximation stands out for two reasons: it compares well to exact results in the low density regime and it always provides a non-negative <n^R↑n^R↓>< \hat{n}_{R \uparrow} \hat{n}_{R \downarrow} >. For the second part of this statement, we give an analytical proof. Finally, the transmission of entanglement across the device is diminished by interactions but can be amplified by a current flowing through the system.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
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