716 research outputs found
Low temperature specific heat of vanadium carbide
Low temperature specific heat measurements on vanadium carbide crystal
High-speed Civil Transport Aircraft Emissions
Estimates are given for the emissions from a proposed high speed civil transport (HSCT). This advanced technology supersonic aircraft would fly in the lower stratosphere at a speed of roughly Mach 1.6 to 3.2 (470 to 950 m/sec or 920 to 1850 knots). Because it would fly in the stratosphere at an altitude in the range of 15 to 23 km commensurate with its design speed, its exhaust effluents could perturb the chemical balance in the upper atmosphere. The first step in determining the nature and magnitude of any chemical changes in the atmosphere resulting from these proposed aircraft is to identify and quantify the chemically important species they emit. Relevant earlier work is summarized, dating back to the Climatic Impact Assessment Program of the early 1970s and current propulsion research efforts. Estimates are provided of the chemical composition of an HSCT's exhaust, and these emission indices are presented. Other aircraft emissions that are not due to combustion processes are also summarized; these emissions are found to be much smaller than the exhaust emissions. Future advances in propulsion technology, in experimental measurement techniques, and in understanding upper atmospheric chemistry may affect these estimates of the amounts of trace exhaust species or their relative importance
Test of the quantumness of atom-atom correlations in a bosonic gas
It is shown how the quantumness of atom-atom correlations in a trapped
bosonic gas can be made observable. Application of continuous feedback control
of the center of mass of the atomic cloud is shown to generate oscillations of
the spatial extension of the cloud, whose amplitude can be directly used as a
characterization of atom-atom correlations. Feedback parameters can be chosen
such that the violation of a Schwarz inequality for atom-atom correlations can
be tested at noise levels much higher than the standard quantum limit
Precision atomic gravimeter based on Bragg diffraction
We present a precision gravimeter based on coherent Bragg diffraction of
freely falling cold atoms. Traditionally, atomic gravimeters have used
stimulated Raman transitions to separate clouds in momentum space by driving
transitions between two internal atomic states. Bragg interferometers utilize
only a single internal state, and can therefore be less susceptible to
environmental perturbations. Here we show that atoms extracted from a
magneto-optical trap using an accelerating optical lattice are a suitable
source for a Bragg atom interferometer, allowing efficient beamsplitting and
subsequent separation of momentum states for detection. Despite the inherently
multi-state nature of atom diffraction, we are able to build a Mach-Zehnder
interferometer using Bragg scattering which achieves a sensitivity to the
gravitational acceleration of with an
integration time of 1000s. The device can also be converted to a gravity
gradiometer by a simple modification of the light pulse sequence.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure
Atom laser coherence and its control via feedback
We present a quantum-mechanical treatment of the coherence properties of a
single-mode atom laser. Specifically, we focus on the quantum phase noise of
the atomic field as expressed by the first-order coherence function, for which
we derive analytical expressions in various regimes. The decay of this function
is characterized by the coherence time, or its reciprocal, the linewidth. A
crucial contributor to the linewidth is the collisional interaction of the
atoms. We find four distinct regimes for the linewidth with increasing
interaction strength. These range from the standard laser linewidth, through
quadratic and linear regimes, to another constant regime due to quantum
revivals of the coherence function. The laser output is only coherent (Bose
degenerate) up to the linear regime. However, we show that application of a
quantum nondemolition measurement and feedback scheme will increase, by many
orders of magnitude, the range of interaction strengths for which it remains
coherent.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, revtex
Comparison of nested and ELISA based polymerase chain reaction assays for detecting Chlamydia trachomatis in pregnant women with preterm complications
Identification of pregnant women infected with Chlamydia trachomatis is essential to allow early antibiotic treatment in order to prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes. In this study, two nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) namely nested PCR (BioSewoom, Korea) and Amplicor CT/NG (Roche Diagnostic, USA) were evaluated in terms of sensitivity and specificity for the detection of C. trachomatis DNA in pregnant women with preterm complications. A cross-sectional study was carried out in two public hospitals in Southern Selangor, Malaysia. Endocervical swabs obtained were subjected to DNA amplification using nested PCR (BioSewoom, Korea) and Amplicor CT/NG (Roche Diagnostic, USA). A total of 83
endocervical swabs obtained from pregnant women of less than 37 weeks gestation and presented with preterm complications were subjected to chlamydial DNA detection using both assays. The study shows that Amplicor CT/NG assay is more effective in the detection of C. trachomatis
DNA from endocervical swabs compared to Biosewoom nested PCR kit. Agreement between the two assays were poor (kappa=0.094) with nested PCR showing a low sensitivity of 10.81% and a 97.83% specificity when compared to Amplicor CT/NG. The results obtained indicated that BioSewoom nested PCR was less sensitive than Amplicor CT/NG for detecting
C. trachomatis in endocervical specimens and that another more reliable test is required for confirmatory result
Nurturing care: science and effective interventions to promote early childhood development
Making Friends in the Rainforest: Negrito Adaptation to Risk and Uncertainty
The so-called negritos adapt not just to a tropical forest environment but also to an environment characterized by perturbations and fluctuations. As with other hunter-gatherers in the region and, indeed, throughout the world, they use both social and ecological methods to enhance their chances of survival in this changing environment: socially, they have developed networks of trading and marriage partners; ecologically, they maintain patches of key resources that are available for future harvesting. As evidenced in the case of the Batek (Orang Asli), patterns of forest structure and composition are sometimes direct outcomes of intentional resource concentration and enrichment strategies.
While little of the above is controversial anthropologically, what has drawn some debate is the nature of the relationship with partner societies. Conventional wisdom posits relations of inequality between foragers and others : foragers and farmers are often construed as hierarchical dyads where foragers supply products or labor to farmers in exchange for agricultural harvests and other trade goods. This kind of adaptation appears to be one of divergent specialization. However, there are cases, such as in the relationship between Batek and Semaq Beri, where both societies follow a roughly similar mode of adaptation, and specialization has not materialized. In sum, while not denying that hierarchy and inequality exist, I suggest that they have to be contextualized within a larger strand of relationships that includes both hierarchy and egality. Further, such relationships are part of the general portfolio of risk reduction strategies, following which access to widely scattered environmental resources, and passage from one location to another, is enhanced not by competing with and displacing neighbors but by maintaining a flexible regime of friendly exchange partners
Numerical study of one-dimensional and interacting Bose-Einstein condensates in a random potential
We present a detailed numerical study of the effect of a disordered potential
on a confined one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate, in the framework of a
mean-field description. For repulsive interactions, we consider the
Thomas-Fermi and Gaussian limits and for attractive interactions the behavior
of soliton solutions. We find that the disorder average spatial extension of
the stationary density profile decreases with an increasing strength of the
disordered potential both for repulsive and attractive interactions among
bosons. In the Thomas Fermi limit, the suppression of transport is accompanied
by a strong localization of the bosons around the state k=0 in momentum space.
The time dependent density profiles differ considerably in the cases we have
considered. For attractive Bose-Einstein condensates, a bright soliton exists
with an overall unchanged shape, but a disorder dependent width. For weak
disorder, the soliton moves on and for a stronger disorder, it bounces back and
forth between high potential barriers.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, few typos correcte
Laboratory and modeling studies on the effects of water and soot emissions and ambient conditions on the properties of contrail ice particles in the jet regime
Contrails and contrail-induced cirrus clouds are identified as the most uncertain components in determining aviation impacts on global climate change. Parameters affecting contrail ice particle formation immediately after the engine exit plane (< 5 s in plume age) may be critical to ice particle properties used in large-scale models predicting contrail radiative forcing. Despite this, detailed understanding of these parametric effects is still limited. In this paper, we present results from recent laboratory and modeling studies conducted to investigate the effects of water and soot emissions and ambient conditions on near-field formation of contrail ice particles and ice particle properties. The Particle Aerosol Laboratory (PAL) at the NASA Glenn Research Center and the Aerodyne microphysical parcel model for contrail ice particle formation were employed. Our studies show that exhaust water concentration has a significant impact on contrail ice particle formation and properties. When soot particles were introduced, ice particle formation was observed only when exhaust water concentration was above a critical level. When no soot or sulfuric acid was introduced, no ice particle formation was observed, suggesting that ice particle formation from homogeneous nucleation followed by homogeneous freezing of liquid water was unfavorable. Soot particles were found to compete for water vapor condensation, and higher soot concentrations emitted into the chamber resulted in smaller ice particles being formed. Chamber conditions corresponding to higher cruising altitudes were found to favor ice particle formation. The microphysical model captures trends of particle extinction measurements well, but discrepancies between the model and the optical particle counter measurements exist as the model predicts narrower ice particle size distributions and ice particle sizes nearly a factor of two larger than measured. These discrepancies are likely due to particle loss and scatter during the experimental sampling process and the lack of treatment of turbulent mixing in the model. Our combined experimental and modeling work demonstrates that formation of contrail ice particles can be reproduced in the NASA PAL facility, and the parametric understanding of the ice particle properties from the model and experiments can potentially be used in large-scale models to provide better estimates of the impact of aviation contrails on climate change
- …