The density factor in the synthesis of carbon nanotube forest by injection chemical vapor deposition

Beneath the seeming straight-forwardness of growing carbon nanotube(CNT) forests by the injection chemical vapor deposition(CVD) method, control of the forest morphology on various substrates is yet to be achieved. Using ferrocene dissolved in xylene as the precursor, we demonstrate that the concentration of ferrocene and the injection rate of the precursor dictate the CNT density of these forests. However, CNT density will also be affected by the substrates and the growth temperature which determine the diffusion of the catalyst adatoms. The CNT growth rate is controlled by the temperature and chemical composition of the gases in the CVD reactor. We show that the final height of the forest is diffusion limited, at least in the conditions of our experiments. Because of the proximity and entanglement of the CNTs in a forest, the growing CNTs can lift-up the inactive CNTs resulting in reduced density toward the base of the forest unless the nucleation rate of the new catalyst particles is sufficiently high to replenish the inactive catalyst particles. Significant loss of CNT attachment by the lift-up effect reduces the adhesion of the forest to the substrate. Optimizing the ferrocene concentration in the precursor, precursor injection rate, gas mixture, substrate, and temperature is necessary to achieve desired forest morphology for specific applications

Families of Graphs With Chromatic Zeros Lying on Circles

We define an infinite set of families of graphs, which we call $p$-wheels and denote $(Wh)^{(p)}_n$, that generalize the wheel ($p=1$) and biwheel ($p=2$) graphs. The chromatic polynomial for $(Wh)^{(p)}_n$ is calculated, and remarkably simple properties of the chromatic zeros are found: (i) the real zeros occur at $q=0,1,...p+1$ for $n-p$ even and $q=0,1,...p+2$ for $n-p$ odd; and (ii) the complex zeros all lie, equally spaced, on the unit circle $|q-(p+1)|=1$ in the complex $q$ plane. In the $n \to \infty$ limit, the zeros on this circle merge to form a boundary curve separating two regions where the limiting function $W(\{(Wh)^{(p)}\},q)$ is analytic, viz., the exterior and interior of the above circle. Connections with statistical mechanics are noted.Comment: 8 pages, Late

The VISTA Science Archive

We describe the VISTA Science Archive (VSA) and its first public release of data from five of the six VISTA Public Surveys. The VSA exists to support the VISTA Surveys through their lifecycle: the VISTA Public Survey consortia can use it during their quality control assessment of survey data products before submission to the ESO Science Archive Facility (ESO SAF); it supports their exploitation of survey data prior to its publication through the ESO SAF; and, subsequently, it provides the wider community with survey science exploitation tools that complement the data product repository functionality of the ESO SAF. This paper has been written in conjunction with the first public release of public survey data through the VSA and is designed to help its users understand the data products available and how the functionality of the VSA supports their varied science goals. We describe the design of the database and outline the database-driven curation processes that take data from nightly pipeline-processed and calibrated FITS files to create science-ready survey datasets. Much of this design, and the codebase implementing it, derives from our earlier WFCAM Science Archive (WSA), so this paper concentrates on the VISTA-specific aspects and on improvements made to the system in the light of experience gained in operating the WSA.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures. Minor edits to fonts and typos after sub-editting. Published in A&

Nitrogen cost minimization is promoted by structural changes in the transcriptome of N-deprived Prochlorococcus cells

Prochlorococcus is a globally abundant marine cyanobacterium with many adaptations that reduce cellular nutrient requirements, facilitating growth in its nutrient-poor environment. One such genomic adaptation is the preferential utilization of amino acids containing fewer N-atoms, which minimizes cellular nitrogen requirements. We predicted that transcriptional regulation might further reduce cellular N budgets during transient N limitation. To explore this, we compared transcription start sites (TSSs) in Prochlorococcus MED4 under N-deprived and N-replete conditions. Of 64 genes with primary and internal TSSs in both conditions, N-deprived cells initiated transcription downstream of primary TSSs more frequently than N-replete cells. Additionally, 117 genes with only an internal TSS demonstrated increased internal transcription under N-deprivation. These shortened transcripts encode predicted proteins with an average of 21% less N content compared to full-length transcripts. We hypothesized that low translation rates, which afford greater control over protein abundances, would be beneficial to relatively slow-growing organisms like Prochlorococcus. Consistent with this idea, we found that Prochlorococcus exhibits greater usage of glycine-glycine motifs, which causes translational pausing, when compared to faster growing microbes. Our findings indicate that structural changes occur within the Prochlorococcus MED4 transcriptome during N-deprivation, potentially altering the size and structure of proteins expressed under nutrient limitation.Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Grant GBMF495)Simons Foundation (Award 329108)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DBI-0424599

Reproductive Failure in UK Harbour Porpoises Phocoena phocoena : Legacy of Pollutant Exposure?

This research was supported by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the Seventh European Community Framework Programme (Project Cetacean-stressors, PIOF-GA-2010-276145 to PDJ and SM). Additional funding was provided through the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS) (Grants SSFA/2008 and SSFA / ASCOBANS / 2010 / 5 to SM). Analysis of Scottish reproductive and teeth samples was funded by the EC-funded BIOCET project (BIOaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in small CETaceans in European waters: transport pathways and impact on reproduction, grant EVK3-2000-00027 to GJP), and Marine Scotland (GJP). Samples examined in this research were collected under the collaborative Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (http://ukstrandings.org/), which is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the UK’s Devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales (http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Defaul​t.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=No​ne&Completed=0&ProjectID=15331) (grants to PDJ, RD). UK Defra also funded the chemical analysis under a service-level agreement with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (grants to RJL, JB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The DeRisk database: Extreme Design Waves for Offshore Wind Turbines

The estimation of extreme loads from waves is an essential part of the design of an offshore wind turbine. Standard design codes suggest to either use simplified methods based on regular waves, or to perform fully nonlinear computations. The former might not provide an accurate representation of the extreme waves, while the latter is computationally too intensive for design iterations. We address these limitations by using the fully nonlinear solver OceanWave3D to establish the DeRisk database, a large dataset of extreme waves kinematics in a two-dimensional domain. From the database, which is open and freely available, a designer can extract fully-nonlinear wave kinematics for a wave condition and water depth of interest by identifying a suitable computation in the database and, if needed, by Froude-scaling the kinematics. The nonlinear solver is validated against the DeRisk model experiments at two different water depths, $33.0 [m]$ and $20.0 [m]$, and an excellent agreement is found for the analyzed cases. The experiments are used to calibrate OceanWave3D's numerical breaking filter constant, and the best agreement is found for $\beta=0.5$. We compare the experimental static force with predictions by the DeRisk database and the Rainey force model, and with state-of-the-art industrial practices. For milder storms, we find a good agreement in the predicted extreme force between the present methodology and the standard methodologies. At the deep location and for stronger storms, the largest loads are given by slamming loads due to breaking waves. In this condition, the database methodology is less accurate than the embedded stream function method and more accurate than the WiFi JIP methodology, providing generally nonconservative estimates. For strong storms at the shallower location, where wave breaking is less dominating, the database methodology is the most accurate overall.Comment: Submitted to Marine Structures (Elsevier), 46 pages, 16 figures, 6 tables. The database associated with the publication is available at https://data.dtu.dk/articles/dataset/The_DeRisk_Database/1032203

Pharmacokinetics of β-Lactam Antibiotics:Clues from the Past to Help Discover Long-Acting Oral Drugs in the Future

β-Lactams represent perhaps the most important class of antibiotics yet discovered. However, despite many years of active research, none of the currently approved drugs in this class combine oral activity with long duration of action. Recent developments suggest that new β-lactam antibiotics with such a profile would have utility in the treatment of tuberculosis. Consequently, the historical β-lactam pharmacokinetic data have been compiled and analyzed to identify possible directions and drug discovery strategies aimed toward new β-lactam antibiotics with this profile

Ground State Entropy of Potts Antiferromagnets: Bounds, Series, and Monte Carlo Measurements

We report several results concerning $W(\Lambda,q)=\exp(S_0/k_B)$, the exponent of the ground state entropy of the Potts antiferromagnet on a lattice $\Lambda$. First, we improve our previous rigorous lower bound on $W(hc,q)$ for the honeycomb (hc) lattice and find that it is extremely accurate; it agrees to the first eleven terms with the large-$q$ series for $W(hc,q)$. Second, we investigate the heteropolygonal Archimedean $4 \cdot 8^2$ lattice, derive a rigorous lower bound, on $W(4 \cdot 8^2,q)$, and calculate the large-$q$ series for this function to $O(y^{12})$ where $y=1/(q-1)$. Remarkably, these agree exactly to all thirteen terms calculated. We also report Monte Carlo measurements, and find that these are very close to our lower bound and series. Third, we study the effect of non-nearest-neighbor couplings, focusing on the square lattice with next-nearest-neighbor bonds.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, to appear in Phys. Rev.

The Structure of Chromatic Polynomials of Planar Triangulation Graphs and Implications for Chromatic Zeros and Asymptotic Limiting Quantities

We present an analysis of the structure and properties of chromatic polynomials $P(G_{pt,\vec m},q)$ of one-parameter and multi-parameter families of planar triangulation graphs $G_{pt,\vec m}$, where ${\vec m} = (m_1,...,m_p)$ is a vector of integer parameters. We use these to study the ratio of $|P(G_{pt,\vec m},\tau+1)|$ to the Tutte upper bound $(\tau-1)^{n-5}$, where $\tau=(1+\sqrt{5} \ )/2$ and $n$ is the number of vertices in $G_{pt,\vec m}$. In particular, we calculate limiting values of this ratio as $n \to \infty$ for various families of planar triangulations. We also use our calculations to study zeros of these chromatic polynomials. We study a large class of families $G_{pt,\vec m}$ with $p=1$ and $p=2$ and show that these have a structure of the form $P(G_{pt,m},q) = c_{_{G_{pt}},1}\lambda_1^m + c_{_{G_{pt}},2}\lambda_2^m + c_{_{G_{pt}},3}\lambda_3^m$ for $p=1$, where $\lambda_1=q-2$, $\lambda_2=q-3$, and $\lambda_3=-1$, and $P(G_{pt,\vec m},q) = \sum_{i_1=1}^3 \sum_{i_2=1}^3 c_{_{G_{pt}},i_1 i_2} \lambda_{i_1}^{m_1}\lambda_{i_2}^{m_2}$ for $p=2$. We derive properties of the coefficients $c_{_{G_{pt}},\vec i}$ and show that $P(G_{pt,\vec m},q)$ has a real chromatic zero that approaches $(1/2)(3+\sqrt{5} \ )$ as one or more of the $m_i \to \infty$. The generalization to $p \ge 3$ is given. Further, we present a one-parameter family of planar triangulations with real zeros that approach 3 from below as $m \to \infty$. Implications for the ground-state entropy of the Potts antiferromagnet are discussed.Comment: 57 pages, latex, 15 figure