Low-temperature specific heat for ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic orders in CaRu1-xMnxO3

Low-temperature specific heat of CaRu1-xMnxO3 was measured to clarify the role of d electrons in ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic orders observed above x=0.2. Specific heat divided by temperature C_p/T is found to roughly follow a T^2 function, and relatively large magnitudes of electronic specific heat coefficient gamma were obtained in wide x range. In particular, gamma is unchanged from the value at x=0 (84 mJ/K^2 mol) in the paramagnetic state for x<=0.1, but linearly reduced with increasing x above x= 0.2. These features of gamma strongly suggest that itinerant d electrons are tightly coupled with the evolution of magnetic orders in small and intermediate Mn concentrations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to be published in J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. (SCES 2011, Cambridge, UK

Characterization of the chemical composition of banana peels from southern Brazil across the seasons using nuclear magnetic resonance and chemometrics

Banana peels are a source of important bioactive compounds, such as phenolics, carotenoids, biogenic amines, among others. For industrial usage of that by-product, a certain homogeneity of its chemical composition is claimed, a trait affected by the effect of (a)bioatic ecological factors. In this sense, this study aimed to investigate the banana peels chemical composition, to get insights on eventual metabolic changes caused by the seasons, in southern Brazil. For this purpose, a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-based metabolic profiling strategy was adopted, followed by chemometrics analysis, using the specmine package for the R environment. The obtained results show that the different seasons can, in fact, influence the metabolic composition, namely the levels of metabolites extracted from the bananas peels. The analytical approach herein adopted, i.e., NMR-based metabolomics coupled to chemometrics analysis, seems to enable identifying the chemical heterogeneity of banana peels over the harvest seasons, allowing obtaining standardized extracts for further technological purposes of usage.CAPES -Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior(407323/2013-9)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Conceptual Design of a Fast-Ignition Laser Fusion Reactor FALCON-D

A new conceptual design of the laser fusion power plant FALCON-D (Fast ignition Advanced Laser fusion reactor CONcept with a Dry wall chamber) has been proposed. The fast ignition method can achieve the sufficient fusion gain for a commercial operation (~100) with about 10 times smaller fusion yield than the conventional central ignition method. FALCON-D makes full use of this property and aims at designing with a compact dry wall chamber (5~6m radius). 1-D/2-D hydrodynamic simulations showed the possibility of the sufficient gain achievement with a 40 MJ target yield. The design feasibility of the compact dry wall chamber and solid breeder blanket system was shown through the thermomecanical analysis of the dry wall and neutronics analysis of the blanket system. A moderate electric output (~400MWe) can be achieved with a high repetition (30Hz) laser. This dry wall concept not only reduces some difficulties accompanied with a liquid wall but also enables a simple cask maintenance method for the replacement of the blanket system, which can shorten the maintenance time. The basic idea of the maintenance method for the final optics system has also been proposed. Some critical R&D issues required for this design are also discussed

Tactile Sensors Based on Conductive Polymers

This paper presents results from a selection of tactile sensors that have been designed and fabricated. These sensors are based on a common approach that consists in placing a sheet of piezoresistive material on the top of a set of electrodes. We use a thin film of conductive polymer as the piezoresistive mate¬rial. Specifically, a conductive water-based ink of this polymer is deposited by spin coating on a flexible plastic sheet, giving it a smooth, homogeneous and conducting thin film. The main interest in this procedure is that it is cheap and it allows the fabrication of flexible and low cost tactile sensors. In this work we present results from sensors made using two technologies. Firstly, we have used a flexible Printed Circuit Board (PCB) technology to fabricate the set of electrodes and addressing tracks. The result is a simple, flexible tactile sensor. In addition to these sensors on PCB, we have proposed, designed and fabricated sensors with screen printing technology. In this case, the set of electrodes and addressing tracks are made by printing an ink based on silver nanoparticles. The intense characterization provides us insights into the design of these tactile sensors.This work has been partially funded by the spanish government under contract TEC2006-12376-C02

Psychosocial twin cohort studies in Japan: the Keio Twin Research Center (KoTReC)

The Keio Twin Research Center (KoTReC) was established in 2009 at Keio University to combine two longitudinal cohort projects — the Keio Twin Study (KTS) for adolescence and adulthood and the Tokyo Twin Cohort Project (ToTCoP) for infancy and childhood. KoTReC also conducted a two-time panel study of self-control and psychopathology in twin adolescence in 2012 and 2013 and three independent anonymous cross-sectional twin surveys (ToTcross) before 2012 — the ToTCross, the Junior and Senior High School Survey and the High School Survey. This article introduces the recent research designs of KoTReC and its publications

Suzaku X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of Cassiopeia A

Suzaku X-ray observations of a young supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A, were carried out. K-shell transition lines from highly ionized ions of various elements were detected, including Chromium (Cr-Kalpha at 5.61 keV). The X-ray continuum spectra were modeled in the 3.4--40 keV band, summed over the entire remnant, and were fitted with a simplest combination of the thermal bremsstrahlung and the non-thermal cut-off power-law models. The spectral fits with this assumption indicate that the continuum emission is likely to be dominated by the non-thermal emission with a cut-off energy at > 1 keV. The thermal-to-nonthermal fraction of the continuum flux in the 4-10 keV band is best estimated as ~0.1. Non-thermal-dominated continuum images in the 4--14 keV band were made. The peak of the non-thermal X-rays appears at the western part. The peak position of the TeV gamma-rays measured with HEGRA and MAGIC is also shifted at the western part with the 1-sigma confidence. Since the location of the X-ray continuum emission was known to be presumably identified with the reverse shock region, the possible keV-TeV correlations give a hint that the accelerated multi-TeV hadrons in Cassiopeia A are dominated by heavy elements in the reverse shock region.Comment: Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan 61, pp.1217-1228 (2009