23,326 research outputs found
Thermodynamic dislocation theory of high-temperature deformation in aluminum and steel
The statistical-thermodynamic dislocation theory developed in previous papers
is used here in an analysis of high-temperature deformation of aluminum and
steel. Using physics-based parameters that we expect theoretically to be
independent of strain rate and temperature, we are able to fit experimental
stress-strain curves for three different strain rates and three different
temperatures for each of these two materials. Our theoretical curves include
yielding transitions at zero strain in agreement with experiment. We find that
thermal softening effects are important even at the lowest temperatures and
smallest strain rates.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPILLOVERS WITHIN THE CANOLA BIOTECH INDUSTRY
The study uses firm-specific data in the biotech canola industry to empirically examine research spillovers among public and private firms at the level of research output, research sales revenue, and research social revenue. The non-pecuniary spillovers that are examined include basic research, human capital/ knowledge (as measured through other-firm expenditures) and genetics (as measured through yields of other-firms). The results provide strong empirical evidence of several research spillovers in the biotech crop research industry such as: basic and applied public research creates a positive spillover for private firms at all levels; applied expenditure within-group reduces other-firm revenue while between-group expenditure increases revenue; genetic spillovers within-group have a positive impact on yield but tend to have a negative impact on firm revenue.Agribusiness,
Pecuniary, Non-Pecuniary, and Downstream Research Spillovers: The Case of Canola
This paper develops an empirical framework for estimating a number of inter-firm and downstream research spillovers in the canola crop research industry. The spillovers include basic research, human capital/ knowledge (as measured through other-firm expenditures), and genetics (as measured through yields of other-firms). The model used to examine spillover effects on research productivity provides evidence that there are many positive inter-firm non-pecuniary research spillovers, which is consistent with a research clustering effect. The second model, which examines spillovers at the level of firm revenue , shows that, while private firms tend to crowd one another, public firm expenditure on basic and applied research creates a crowding-in effect for private firms. This model also shows that enhanced intellectual property rights have increased the revenues of private firms. The third model, which examines social value of each firm's output, provides evidence that downstream research spillovers remain important in this modern crop research industry.basic research, applied research, public research expenditures, private research expenditures, biotechnology, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, O3,
Inhibition of DNA ejection from bacteriophage by Mg+2 counterions
The problem of inhibiting viral DNA ejection from bacteriophages by
multivalent counterions, specifically Mg counterions, is studied.
Experimentally, it is known that MgSO salt has a strong and non-monotonic
effect on the amount of DNA ejected. There exists an optimal concentration at
which the minimum amount of DNA is ejected from the virus. At lower or higher
concentrations, more DNA is ejected from the capsid. We propose that this
phenomenon is the result of DNA overcharging by Mg multivalent
counterions. As Mg concentration increases from zero, the net charge of
DNA changes from negative to positive. The optimal inhibition corresponds to
the Mg concentration where DNA is neutral. At lower/higher
concentrations, DNA genome is charged. It prefers to be in solution to lower
its electrostatic self-energy, which consequently leads to an increase in DNA
ejection. By fitting our theory to available experimental data, the strength of
DNADNA short range attraction energies, mediated by Mg, is found to
be 0.004 per nucleotide base. This and other fitted parameters agree
well with known values from other experiments and computer simulations. The
parameters are also in aggreement qualitatively with values for tri- and
tetra-valent counterions.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, improved manuscript. Submitted to J. Chem. Phys
(2010
Large-scale bottleneck effect in two-dimensional turbulence
The bottleneck phenomenon in three-dimensional turbulence is generally
associated with the dissipation range of the energy spectrum. In the present
work, it is shown by using a two-point closure theory, that in two-dimensional
turbulence it is possible to observe a bottleneck at the large scales, due to
the effect of friction on the inverse energy cascade. This large-scale
bottleneck is directly related to the process of energy condensation, the
pile-up of energy at wavenumbers corresponding to the domain size. The link
between the use of friction and the creation of space-filling structures is
discussed and it is concluded that the careless use of hypofriction might
reduce the inertial range of the energy spectrum
Stochastic and deterministic models for age-structured populations with genetically variable traits
Understanding how stochastic and non-linear deterministic processes interact
is a major challenge in population dynamics theory. After a short review, we
introduce a stochastic individual-centered particle model to describe the
evolution in continuous time of a population with (continuous) age and trait
structures. The individuals reproduce asexually, age, interact and die. The
'trait' is an individual heritable property (d-dimensional vector) that may
influence birth and death rates and interactions between individuals, and vary
by mutation. In a large population limit, the random process converges to the
solution of a Gurtin-McCamy type PDE. We show that the random model has a long
time behavior that differs from its deterministic limit. However, the results
on the limiting PDE and large deviation techniques \textit{\`a la}
Freidlin-Wentzell provide estimates of the extinction time and a better
understanding of the long time behavior of the stochastic process. This has
applications to the theory of adaptive dynamics used in evolutionary biology.
We present simulations for two biological problems involving life-history trait
evolution when body size is plastic and individual growth is taken into
account.Comment: This work is a proceeding of the CANUM 2008 conferenc
On the Microcanonical Entropy of a Black Hole
It has been suggested recently that the microcanonical entropy of a system
may be accurately reproduced by including a logarithmic correction to the
canonical entropy. In this paper we test this claim both analytically and
numerically by considering three simple thermodynamic models whose energy
spectrum may be defined in terms of one quantum number only, as in a
non-rotating black hole. The first two pertain to collections of noninteracting
bosons, with logarithmic and power-law spectra. The last is an area ensemble
for a black hole with equi-spaced area spectrum. In this case, the many-body
degeneracy factor can be obtained analytically in a closed form. We also show
that in this model, the leading term in the entropy is proportional to the
horizon area A, and the next term is ln A with a negative coefficient.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur
Euclidean-signature Supergravities, Dualities and Instantons
We study the Euclidean-signature supergravities that arise by compactifying
D=11 supergravity or type IIB supergravity on a torus that includes the time
direction. We show that the usual T-duality relation between type IIA and type
IIB supergravities compactified on a spatial circle no longer holds if the
reduction is performed on the time direction. Thus there are two inequivalent
Euclidean-signature nine-dimensional maximal supergravities. They become
equivalent upon further spatial compactification to D=8. We also show that
duality symmetries of Euclidean-signature supergravities allow the harmonic
functions of any single-charge or multi-charge instanton to be rescaled and
shifted by constant factors. Combined with the usual diagonal dimensional
reduction and oxidation procedures, this allows us to use the duality
symmetries to map any single-charge or multi-charge p-brane soliton, or any
intersection, into its near-horizon regime. Similar transformations can also be
made on non-extremal p-branes. We also study the structures of duality
multiplets of instanton and (D-3)-brane solutions.Comment: Latex, 50 pages, typos corrected and references adde
Electron transport through rectifying self-assembled monolayer diodes on silicon: Fermi level pinning at the molecule-metal interface
We report the synthesis and characterization of molecular rectifying diodes
on silicon using sequential grafting of self-assembled monolayers of alkyl
chains bearing a pi group at their outer end (Si/sigma-pi/metal junctions). We
investigate the structure-performance relationships of these molecular devices
and we examine to what extent the nature of the pi end-group (change in the
energy position of their molecular orbitals) drives the properties of these
molecular diodes. For all the pi-groups investigated here, we observe
rectification behavior. These results extend our preliminary work using phenyl
and thiophene groups (S. Lenfant et al., Nano Letters 3, 741 (2003)).The
experimental current-voltage curves are analyzed with a simple analytical
model, from which we extract the energy position of the molecular orbital of
the pi-group in resonance with the Fermi energy of the electrodes. We report
the experimental studies of the band lineup in these silicon/alkyl-pi
conjugated molecule/metal junctions. We conclude that Fermi level pinning at
the pi-group/metal interface is mainly responsible for the observed absence of
dependence of the rectification effect on the nature of the pi-groups, even
though they were chosen to have significant variations in their electronic
molecular orbitalsComment: To be published in J. Phys. Chem.
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