10,114 research outputs found
Comment on "Self-Purification in Semiconductor Nanocrystals"
In a recent Letter [PRL 96, 226802 (2006)], Dalpian and Chelikowsky claimed
that formation energies of Mn impurities in CdSe nanocrystals increase as the
size of the nanocrystal decreases, and argued that this size dependence leads
to "self-purification" of small nanocrystals. They presented
density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations showing a strong size dependence
for Mn impurity formation energies, and proposed a general explanation. In this
Comment we show that several different DFT codes, pseudopotentials, and
exchange-correlation functionals give a markedly different result: We find no
such size dependence. More generally, we argue that formation energies are not
relevant to substitutional doping in most colloidally grown nanocrystals.Comment: 1 page, 1 figur
The life and health challenges of young Malaysian couples: results from a stakeholder consensus and engagement study to support non-communicable disease prevention
BACKGROUND: Malaysia faces burgeoning obesity and diabetes epidemics with a 250% and 88% increase respectively between 1996 and 2006. Identifying the health challenges of young adults in Malaysia, who constitute 27.5 % of the population, is critical for NCD prevention. The aim of the study was two-fold: (1) to achieve consensus amongst stakeholders on the most important challenge impacting the health of young adults, and (2) to engage with stakeholders to formulate a NCD prevention framework.METHODS: The Delphi Technique was utilised to achieve group consensus around the most important life and health challenges that young adults face in Malaysia. Subsequently, the results of the consensus component were shared with the stakeholders in an engagement workshop to obtain input on a NCD prevention framework.RESULTS: We found that life stress was a significant concern. It would seem that the apathy towards pursuing or maintaining a healthy lifestyle among young adults may be significantly influenced by the broader distal determinant of life stress. The high cost of living is suggested to be the main push factor for young working adults towards attaining better financial security to improve their livelihood. In turn, this leads to a more stressful lifestyle with less time to focus on healthier lifestyle choices.CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight a pivotal barrier to healthier lifestyles. By assisting young adults to cope with daily living coupled with realistic opportunities to make healthier dietary choices, be more active, and less sedentary could assist in the development of NCD health promotion strategies<br/
Three-dimensional light-matter interface for collective spin squeezing in atomic ensembles
We study the three-dimensional nature of the quantum interface between an
ensemble of cold, trapped atomic spins and a paraxial laser beam, coupled
through a dispersive interaction. To achieve strong entanglement between the
collective atomic spin and the photons, one must match the spatial mode of the
collective radiation of the ensemble with the mode of the laser beam while
minimizing the effects of decoherence due to optical pumping. For ensembles
coupling to a probe field that varies over the extent of the cloud, the set of
atoms that indistinguishably radiates into a desired mode of the field defines
an inhomogeneous spin wave. Strong coupling of a spin wave to the probe mode is
not characterized by a single parameter, the optical density, but by a
collection of different effective atom numbers that characterize the coherence
and decoherence of the system. To model the dynamics of the system, we develop
a full stochastic master equation, including coherent collective scattering
into paraxial modes, decoherence by local inhomogeneous diffuse scattering, and
backaction due to continuous measurement of the light entangled with the spin
waves. This formalism is used to study the squeezing of a spin wave via
continuous quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement. We find that the greatest
squeezing occurs in parameter regimes where spatial inhomogeneities are
significant, far from the limit in which the interface is well approximated by
a one-dimensional, homogeneous model.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure
Fully broadband vAPP coronagraphs enabling polarimetric high contrast imaging
We present designs for fully achromatic vector Apodizing Phase Plate (vAPP)
coronagraphs, that implement low polarization leakage solutions and achromatic
beam-splitting, enabling observations in broadband filters. The vAPP is a pupil
plane optic, inducing the phase through the inherently achromatic geometric
phase. We discuss various implementations of the broadband vAPP and set
requirements on all the components of the broadband vAPP coronagraph to ensure
that the leakage terms do not limit a raw contrast of 1E-5. Furthermore, we
discuss superachromatic QWPs based of liquid crystals or quartz/MgF2
combinations, and several polarizer choices. As the implementation of the
(broadband) vAPP coronagraph is fully based on polarization techniques, it can
easily be extended to furnish polarimetry by adding another QWP before the
coronagraph optic, which further enhances the contrast between the star and a
polarized companion in reflected light. We outline several polarimetric vAPP
system designs that could be easily implemented in existing instruments, e.g.
SPHERE and SCExAO.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and
Instrumentation 201
Diagnostic pitfalls of urogenital tuberculosis
Objectives: To describe characteristics, details of diagnosis and outcomes of urogenital tuberculosis (UGTB) in a low-prevalence country.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study of 37 consecutive patients diagnosed with UGTB between 1st January 2014 and 31st October 2019 in an East London hospital.
Results: 68% (25/37) of patients were male and the median age was 42 years (IQR 34–55). 89% (33/37) of patients were born outside the United Kingdom with 65% (24/37) born in the South Asian region. Renal (32.4%), epididymal (24.3%) and endometrial TB (21.6%) were the most prevalent forms of UGTB. Only 13.5% of UGTB patients had concurrent pulmonary TB. The median length of time from symptom onset to treatment was 163 days, while endometrial TB had an average delay to diagnosis of 564 days. Approximately half of patients with UGTB were culture positive (51.4%). However, 70% of early morning urines (EMUs) sent in urinary TB were culture positive. 11 patients (30.6%) underwent two or more invasive procedures, such as biopsy to obtain specimen samples. The mean treatment length for all UGTB cases was 7.3 months (SD 3.1). Notably, 25% of patients with endometrial TB required surgery despite antituberculous treatment.
Conclusions: UGTB is challenging to diagnose as early disease is often asymptomatic. Clinicians faced with non-specific symptoms, or features suggestive of urogenital malignancy amongst patients from TB-endemic areas, should maintain a high suspicion of UGTB
Faxen relations in solids - a generalized approach to particle motion in elasticity and viscoelasticity
A movable inclusion in an elastic material oscillates as a rigid body with
six degrees of freedom. Displacement/rotation and force/moment tensors which
express the motion of the inclusion in terms of the displacement and force at
arbitrary exterior points are introduced. Using reciprocity arguments two
general identities are derived relating these tensors. Applications of the
identities to spherical particles provide several new results, including simple
expressions for the force and moment on the particle due to plane wave
excitation.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Radio galaxies and their magnetic fields out to z <= 3
We present polarisation properties at GHz of two separate
extragalactic source populations: passive quiescent galaxies and luminous
quasar-like galaxies. We use data from the {\it Wide-Field Infrared Survey
Explorer} data to determine the host galaxy population of the polarised
extragalactic radio sources. The quiescent galaxies have higher percentage
polarisation, smaller radio linear size, and GHz luminosity of
W Hz, while the quasar-like
galaxies have smaller percentage polarisation, larger radio linear size at
radio wavelengths, and a GHz luminosity of W Hz, suggesting that the environment of the
quasar-like galaxies is responsible for the lower percentage polarisation. Our
results confirm previous studies that found an inverse correlation between
percentage polarisation and total flux density at GHz. We suggest that
the population change between the polarised extragalactic radio sources is the
origin of this inverse correlation and suggest a cosmic evolution of the space
density of quiescent galaxies. Finally, we find that the extragalactic
contributions to the rotation measures (RMs) of the nearby passive galaxies and
the distant quasar-like galaxies are different. After accounting for the RM
contributions by cosmological large-scale structure and intervening Mg\,{II}
absorbers we show that the distribution of intrinsic RMs of the distant
quasar-like sources is at most four times as wide as the RM distribution of the
nearby quiescent galaxies, if the distribution of intrinsic RMs of the
WISE-Star sources itself is at least several rad m wide.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication into MNRA
The surface carbon and nitrogen abundances in models of ultra metal-poor stars
We investigate whether the observed high number of carbon- and
nitrogen-enhanced extremely metal-poor stars could be explained by peculiar
evolutionary properties during the core He flash at the tip of the red giant
branch. For this purpose we compute a series of detailed stellar models
expanding upon our previous work; in particular, we investigate if during the
major He flash the penetration of the helium convective zone into the overlying
hydrogen-rich layers can produce carbon- and nitrogen-rich abundances in
agreement with current spectroscopic observations. The dependence of this
phenomenon on selected model input parameters, such as initial metallicity and
treatment of convection is examined in detail.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to A&
Proton endor study of the photoexcited triplet state PT in Rps. sphaeroides R-26 photosynthetic reaction centres
The photoexcited triplet state PT of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides R-26 has been investigated by ENDOR measurements performed on frozen photosynthetic reaction centre solutions. For the first time hyperfine data could be obtained for PT. These data indicate a delocalisation of the triplet state over two bacteriochlorophyll a molecules
- …