12,985 research outputs found
Towards electron transport measurements in chemically modified graphene: The effect of a solvent
Chemical functionalization of graphene modifies the local electron density of
the carbon atoms and hence electron transport. Measuring these changes allows
for a closer understanding of the chemical interaction and the influence of
functionalization on the graphene lattice. However, not only chemistry, in this
case diazonium chemistry, has an effect on the electron transport. Latter is
also influenced by defects and dopants resulting from different processing
steps. Here, we show that solvents used in the chemical reaction process change
the transport properties. In more detail, the investigated combination of
isopropanol and heating treatment reduces the doping concentration and
significantly increases the mobility of graphene. Furthermore, the isopropanol
treatment alone increases the concentration of dopants and introduces an
asymmetry between electron and hole transport which might be difficult to
distinguish from the effect of functionalization. The results shown in this
work demand a closer look on the influence of solvents used for chemical
modification in order to understand their influence
Gated rotation mechanism of site-specific recombination by ÏC31 integrase
Integrases, such as that of the Streptomyces temperate bacteriophage ÏC31, promote site-specific recombination between DNA sequences in the bacteriophage and bacterial genomes to integrate or excise the phage DNA. ÏC31 integrase belongs to the serine recombinase family, a large group of structurally related enzymes with diverse biological functions. It has been proposed that serine integrases use a âsubunit rotationâ mechanism to exchange DNA strands after double-strand DNA cleavage at the two recombining att sites, and that many rounds of subunit rotation can occur before the strands are religated. We have analyzed the mechanism of ÏC31 integrase-mediated recombination in a topologically constrained experimental system using hybrid âphesâ recombination sites, each of which comprises a ÏC31 att site positioned adjacent to a regulatory sequence recognized by Tn3 resolvase. The topologies of reaction products from circular substrates containing two phes sites support a right-handed subunit rotation mechanism for catalysis of both integrative and excisive recombination. Strand exchange usually terminates after a single round of 180° rotation. However, multiple processive â360° rotationâ rounds of strand exchange can be observed, if the recombining sites have nonidentical base pairs at their centers. We propose that a regulatory âgatingâ mechanism normally blocks multiple rounds of strand exchange and triggers product release after a single round
A CS J = 2 1 survey of the galactic center region
A CS map of the galactic center region is presented consisting of 15,000 spectra covering -1 deg. less than 3. deg. 6 min., -0 deg.4 min. less than b less than 0 deg. 4 min., each having an rms noise of 0.15 K in 1 MHz filters. CS is a high-excitation molecule, meaning that it is excited into emission only when the ambient density is less than n much greater than or approx. 2 x 10 to the 4th power/cu cm CS emission in the inner 2 deg. of the galaxy is nearly as pervasive as CO emission, in stark contrast to the outer galaxy where CS emission is confined to cloud cores. Galactic center clouds are on average much more dense than outer Galaxy clouds. This can be understood as a necessary consequence of the strong tidal stresses in the inner galaxy
Anti-aliasing with stratified B-spline filters of arbitrary degree
A simple and elegant method is presented to perform anti-aliasing in raytraced images. The method uses stratified
sampling to reduce the occurrence of artefacts in an image and features a B-spline filter to compute the final
luminous intensity at each pixel. The method is scalable through the specification of the filter degree. A B-spline
filter of degree one amounts to a simple anti-aliasing scheme with box filtering. Increasing the degree of the B-spline generates progressively smoother filters. Computation of the filter values is done in a recursive way, as part of a sequence of Newton-Raphson iterations, to obtain the optimal sample positions in screen space. The proposed method can perform both anti-aliasing in space and in time, the latter being more commonly known as motion blur. We show an application of the method to the ray casting of implicit procedural surfaces
Compressibility of positive semidefinite factorizations and quantum models
We investigate compressibility of the dimension of positive semidefinite
matrices while approximately preserving their pairwise inner products. This can
either be regarded as compression of positive semidefinite factorizations of
nonnegative matrices or (if the matrices are subject to additional
normalization constraints) as compression of quantum models. We derive both
lower and upper bounds on compressibility. Applications are broad and range
from the statistical analysis of experimental data to bounding the one-way
quantum communication complexity of Boolean functions.Comment: 13 page
Flame-made Ceria Nanoparticles
Flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) has been used to synthesize high-surface-area ceria from cerium acetate in acetic acid solution. With the addition of an iso-octane/2-butanol mixture to that solution, homogeneous CeO2 nanoparticles were obtained. The specific surface area of the powders ranged from 240 to 101 m2/g by controlling the oxygen dispersion and liquid precursor flow rates through the flame. Furthermore, for production rates from 2 to 10 g/h a constant average primary particle size could be obtained at selected process parameters. The ceria showed high crystallinity and primary particles with a stepped surface. The powder exhibited good thermal stability and conserved up to 40% of its initial specific surface area when calcinated for 2 h at 900 °C. This shows the potential of FSP made ceria for high-temperature applications as in three-way catalysts or fuel cell
Construction and Measurements of an Improved Vacuum-Swing-Adsorption Radon-Mitigation System
In order to reduce backgrounds from radon-daughter plate-out onto detector
surfaces, an ultra-low-radon cleanroom is being commissioned at the South
Dakota School of Mines and Technology. An improved vacuum-swing-adsorption
radon mitigation system and cleanroom build upon a previous design implemented
at Syracuse University that achieved radon levels of
0.2Bqm. This improved system will employ a better pump and
larger carbon beds feeding a redesigned cleanroom with an internal HVAC unit
and aged water for humidification. With the rebuilt (original) radon mitigation
system, the new low-radon cleanroom has already achieved a 300
reduction from an input activity of Bqm to a
cleanroom activity of Bqm.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of Low Radioactivity Techniques (LRT)
2015, Seattle, WA, March 18-20, 201
Impact of aging on the evolution of cooperation in the spatial prisoner's dilemma game
Aging is always present, tailoring our interactions with others and
postulating a finite lifespan during which we are able to exercise them. We
consider the prisoner's dilemma game on a square lattice, and examine how
quenched age distributions and different aging protocols influence the
evolution of cooperation when taking the life experience and knowledge
accumulation into account as time passes. In agreement with previous studies,
we find that a quenched assignment of age to players, introducing heterogeneity
to the game, substantially promotes cooperative behavior. Introduction of aging
and subsequent death as a coevolutionary process may act detrimental on
cooperation but enhances it efficiently if the offspring of individuals that
have successfully passed their strategy is considered newborn. We study
resulting age distributions of players, and show that the heterogeneity is
vital yet insufficient for explaining the observed differences in cooperator
abundance on the spatial grid. The unexpected increment of cooperation levels
can be explained by a dynamical effect that has a highly selective impact on
the propagation of cooperator and defector states.Comment: 7 two-column pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Physical
Review
Simultaneous deposition of Au nanoparticles during flame synthesis of TiO2 and SiO2
Nanostructured gold/titania and gold/silica particles with up to 4 wt% Au were made by a single-step process in a spray flame reactor. Gold(III)-chloride hydrate and titania- or silica-based metalorganic precursors were mixed in a liquid fuel solution, keeping concentrations in the flame and overall combustion enthalpy constant. The powders were characterized by x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, and ultraviolet-visible analysis. The titania or silica specific surface area and the crystalline structure of titania were not affected by the presence of gold in the flame. Furthermore the size of the gold deposits was independent of the metal oxide support (TiO2 or SiO2) and its specific surface area (100 and 320 m2/g, respectively). The gold nanoparticles were nonagglomerated, spherical, mostly single crystalline, and well dispersed on the metal oxide support. Depending on the Au weight fraction (1, 2, and 4 wt%) the Au nanoparticles' mass mean diameter was 3, 7, and 15 nm, respectively, on both titania and silica. The particles showed surface plasmon absorption bands in the ultraviolet-visible region, which is typical for nano-sized gold. This absorption band was red shifted in the case of the titania support, while no shift occurred with the silica suppor
Soliton blue-shift in tapered photonic crystal fiber
We show that solitons undergo a strong blue shift in fibers with a dispersion
landscape that varies along the direction of propagation. The experiments are
based on a small-core photonic crystal fiber, tapered to have a core diameter
that varies continuously along its length, resulting in a zero-dispersion
wavelength that moves from 731 nm to 640 nm over the transition. The central
wavelength of a soliton translates over 400 nm towards shorter wavelength. This
accompanied by strong emission of radiation into the UV and IR spectral region.
The experimental results are confirmed by numerical simulation.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
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