13,404 research outputs found
New Experimental Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron in a Paramagnetic Insulator
We report results of an experimental search for the intrinsic Electric Dipole
Moment (EDM) of the electron using a solid-state technique. The experiment
employs a paramagnetic, insulating gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) that has a
large magnetic response at low temperatures. The presence of the eEDM would
lead to a small but non-zero magnetization as the GGG sample is subject to a
strong electric field. We search for the resulting Stark-induced magnetization
with a sensitive magnetometer. Recent progress on the suppression of several
sources of background allows the experiment to run free of spurious signals at
the level of the statistical uncertainties. We report our first limit on the
eEDM of 10ecm with 5 days of
data averaging.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, Revtex 4.
Forecasting the path of a laterally propagating dike
An important aspect of eruption forecasting is predicting the path of propagating dikes. We show how lateral dike propagation can be forecast using the minimum potential energy principle. We compare theory to observed propagation paths of dikes originating at the Bárðarbunga volcano, Iceland, in 2014 and 1996, by developing a probability distribution for the most likely propagation path. The observed propagation paths agree well with the model prediction. We find that topography is very important for the model, and our preferred forecasting model considers its influence on the potential energy change of the crust and magma. We tested the influence of topography by running the model assuming no topography and found that the path of the 2014 dike could not be hindcasted. The results suggest that lateral dike propagation is governed not only by deviatoric stresses but also by pressure gradients and gravitational potential energy. Furthermore, the model predicts the formation of curved dikes around cone-shaped structures without the assumption of a local deviatoric stress field. We suggest that a likely eruption site for a laterally propagating dike is in topographic lows. The method presented here is simple and computationally feasible. Our results indicate that this kind of a model can be applied to mitigate volcanic hazards in regions where the tectonic setting promotes formation of laterally propagating vertical intrusive sheets
PPARα: energy combustion, hypolipidemia, inflammation and cancer
The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα, or NR1C1) is a nuclear hormone receptor activated by a structurally diverse array of synthetic chemicals known as peroxisome proliferators. Endogenous activation of PPARα in liver has also been observed in certain gene knockout mouse models of lipid metabolism, implying the existence of enzymes that either generate (synthesize) or degrade endogenous PPARα agonists. For example, substrates involved in fatty acid oxidation can function as PPARα ligands. PPARα serves as a xenobiotic and lipid sensor to regulate energy combustion, hepatic steatosis, lipoprotein synthesis, inflammation and liver cancer. Mainly, PPARα modulates the activities of all three fatty acid oxidation systems, namely mitochondrial and peroxisomal β-oxidation and microsomal ω-oxidation, and thus plays a key role in energy expenditure. Sustained activation of PPARα by either exogenous or endogenous agonists leads to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma resulting from sustained oxidative and possibly endoplasmic reticulum stress and liver cell proliferation. PPARα requires transcription coactivator PPAR-binding protein (PBP)/mediator subunit 1(MED1) for its transcriptional activity
Efficiency of Energy Conversion in Thermoelectric Nanojunctions
Using first-principles approaches, this study investigated the efficiency of
energy conversion in nanojunctions, described by the thermoelectric figure of
merit . We obtained the qualitative and quantitative descriptions for the
dependence of on temperatures and lengths. A characteristic temperature:
was observed. When , . When , tends to a saturation value. The dependence of
on the wire length for the metallic atomic chains is opposite to that for
the insulating molecules: for aluminum atomic (conducting) wires, the
saturation value of increases as the length increases; while for
alkanethiol (insulating) chains, the saturation value of decreases as the
length increases. can also be enhanced by choosing low-elasticity bridging
materials or creating poor thermal contacts in nanojunctions. The results of
this study may be of interest to research attempting to increase the efficiency
of energy conversion in nano thermoelectric devices.Comment: 2 figure
Effect of an electric field on superfluid helium scintillation produced by alpha-particle sources
We report a study of the intensity and time dependence of scintillation
produced by weak alpha particle sources in superfluid helium in the presence of
an electric field (0 - 45 kV/cm) in the temperature range of 0.2 K to 1.1 K at
the saturated vapor pressure. Both the prompt and the delayed components of the
scintillation exhibit a reduction in intensity with the application of an
electric field. The reduction in the intensity of the prompt component is well
approximated by a linear dependence on the electric field strength with a
reduction of 15% at 45 kV/cm. When analyzed using the Kramers theory of
columnar recombination, this electric field dependence leads to the conclusion
that roughly 40% of the scintillation results from species formed from atoms
originally promoted to excited states and 60% from excimers created by
ionization and subsequent recombination with the charges initially having a
cylindrical Gaussian distribution about the alpha track of 60 nm radius. The
intensity of the delayed component of the scintillation has a stronger
dependence on the electric field strength and on temperature. The implications
of these data on the mechanisms affecting scintillation in liquid helium are
discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 23 figure
Experimental Evidence of Time Delay Induced Death in Coupled Limit Cycle Oscillators
Experimental observations of time delay induced amplitude death in a pair of
coupled nonlinear electronic circuits that are individually capable of
exhibiting limit cycle oscillations are described. In particular, the existence
of multiply connected death islands in the parameter space of the coupling
strength and the time delay parameter for coupled identical oscillators is
established. The existence of such regions was predicted earlier on theoretical
grounds in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 5109 (1998); Physica 129D, 15 (1999)]. The
experiments also reveal the occurrence of multiple frequency states, frequency
suppression of oscillations with increased time delay and the onset of both
in-phase and anti-phase collective oscillations.Comment: 4 aps formatted RevTeX pages; 6 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Species of Shootflies Reared from Sorghum in Andra Pradesh, India
A total of 13 species of shootflies from two genera, Atherigona and Acritochaeta, were reared over a four-year period from a range of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) cultivars showing typical ‘dead heart’ symptoms. Atherigona soccata Rond. was the dominant species (<99% of the flies reared), while the second most common species was Acritochaeta orientalis Schin. An interesting record was Atherigona eriochloae Mall. reared from tillers of ratooned sorghum. Three species as yet undescribed were recorded. More females than males were reared in the course of the study — the sex ratio was 1:1.27. It was concluded that only A. soccata is likely to be important when considering control of damage to sorghum by resistance breeding or the use of insecticide
Open-Retrieval Conversational Question Answering
Conversational search is one of the ultimate goals of information retrieval.
Recent research approaches conversational search by simplified settings of
response ranking and conversational question answering, where an answer is
either selected from a given candidate set or extracted from a given passage.
These simplifications neglect the fundamental role of retrieval in
conversational search. To address this limitation, we introduce an
open-retrieval conversational question answering (ORConvQA) setting, where we
learn to retrieve evidence from a large collection before extracting answers,
as a further step towards building functional conversational search systems. We
create a dataset, OR-QuAC, to facilitate research on ORConvQA. We build an
end-to-end system for ORConvQA, featuring a retriever, a reranker, and a reader
that are all based on Transformers. Our extensive experiments on OR-QuAC
demonstrate that a learnable retriever is crucial for ORConvQA. We further show
that our system can make a substantial improvement when we enable history
modeling in all system components. Moreover, we show that the reranker
component contributes to the model performance by providing a regularization
effect. Finally, further in-depth analyses are performed to provide new
insights into ORConvQA.Comment: Accepted to SIGIR'2
Effect of Thermoelectric Cooling in Nanoscale Junctions
We propose a thermoelectric cooling device based on an atomic-sized junction.
Using first-principles approaches, we investigate the working conditions and
the coefficient of performance (COP) of an atomic-scale electronic refrigerator
where the effects of phonon's thermal current and local heating are included.
It is observed that the functioning of the thermoelectric nano-refrigerator is
restricted to a narrow range of driving voltages. Compared with the bulk
thermoelectric system with the overwhelmingly irreversible Joule heating, the
4-Al atomic refrigerator has a higher efficiency than a bulk thermoelectric
refrigerator with the same due to suppressed local heating via the
quasi-ballistic electron transport and small driving voltages. Quantum nature
due to the size minimization offered by atomic-level control of properties
facilitates electron cooling beyond the expectation of the conventional
thermoelectric device theory.Comment: 8 figure
Potassium fertilization in relation to downy mildew disease incidence in grape leaves
Influence of different sources of potassium and their method of application was studied on incidence of downy mildew infection in grape leaves of 'Sharad Seedless' (syn: 'Kishmish Chorni'). The total phenolic content and individual phenolic acids were analysed from healthy and downy mildew infected leaves of 'Sharad Seedless' and the degree of downy mildew infection was well correlated with potassium content in the petioles. Different sources and method of potassium application had significant effect on Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) enzyme activity and preformed phenols in healthy vines. Significant increase in PAL enzyme activity, total phenols and individual phenolic acids was registered with increase in disease severity. Magnitude of percent change in PAL enzyme activity and total phenolic content was highest in vines with maximum disease infection. Among the phenolic acids, o-Coumaric acid, p-Coumaric acid have a definite role in disease resistance. We could also observe the variation in disease severity in vines which received different sources of potassium which was supplied in different quantities whether through soil and/or through fertigation
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