758 research outputs found
Fiber Supercapacitors Based on Carbon Nanotube-PANI Composites
Flexible and wearable electronic devices are of a high academic and industrial interest. In order to power these devices, there is a need for compatible energy storage units that can exhibit similar mechanical flexibility. Fiber-based devices have thus become increasingly popular since their light-weight, and flexible structure can be easily integrated into textiles. Supercapacitors have garnered a lot of attention due to their excellent cycling durability, fast charge times and superior power density. The primary challenge, however, with electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs), which are part of the supercapacitor family, is that their energy densities are significantly lower compared to those of batteries. Pseudocapacitors, on the other hand, can be designed and created with large energy densities and other outstanding properties typical for supercapacitors. This chapter discusses the fabrication and testing of supercapacitors based on carbon nanotube-polyaniline (PANI) composite fibers. These flexible and light-weight devices are assembled using different electrolytes for comparison. The created in this work PANI-CNT composite devices attain an energy density of 6.16Â Wh/kg at a power density of 630Â W/kg and retained a capacitance of 88% over 1000 charge-discharge cycles
Quantum Effects for the Dirac Field in Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS Black Hole Background
The behavior of a charged massive Dirac field on a Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS
black hole background is investigated. The essential self-adjointness of the
Dirac Hamiltonian is studied. Then, an analysis of the discharge problem is
carried out in analogy with the standard Reissner-Nordstrom black hole case.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, Iop styl
The Taiwan Birth Panel Study: a prospective cohort study for environmentally- related child health
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Taiwan Birth Panel Study (TBPS) is a prospective follow-up study to investigate the development of child health and disease in relation to in-utero and/or early childhood environmental exposures. The rationale behind the establishment of such a cohort includes the magnitude of potential environmental exposures, the timing of exposure window, fatal and children's susceptibility to toxicants, early exposure delayed effects, and low-level or unknown neurodevelopmental toxicants.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 486 mother-infant paired was enrolled from April 2004 to January 2005 in this study. Maternal blood before delivery, placenta and umbilical cord blood at birth, and mothers' urine after delivery were collected. The follow-up was scheduled at birth, 4, 6 months, and 1, 2, 3 and 5 years. The children's blood, urine, hair, and saliva were collected at 2 years of age and children's urine was collected at 5 years of age as well. The study has been approved by the ethical committee of National Taiwan University Hospital. All the subjects signed the inform consent on entering the study and each of the follow up.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Through this prospective birth cohort, the main health outcomes were focused on child growth, neurodevelopment, behaviour problem and atopic diseases. We investigated the main prenatal and postnatal factors including smoking, heavy metals, perfluorinated chemicals, and non-persistent pesticides under the consideration of interaction of the environment and genes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This cohort study bridges knowledge gaps and answers unsolved issues in the low-level, prenatal or postnatal, and multiple exposures, genetic effect modification, and the initiation and progression of "environmentally-related childhood diseases."</p
Higgs-pair Production and Decay in Simplest Little Higgs Model
In the framework of the simplest little Higgs model (SLHM), we study the
production of a pair of neutral CP-even Higgs bosons at the LHC. First, we
examine the production rate and find that it can be significantly larger than
the SM prediction. Then we investigate the decays of the Higgs-pair and find
that for a low Higgs mass their dominant decay mode is hh->\eta\eta\eta\eta
(\eta is a CP-odd scalar) while hh->b\bar{b}\eta\eta and hh->\eta\eta WW may
also have sizable ratios. Finally, we comparatively study the rates of pp-> hh
-> b\bar{b}\tau^+ \tau^-, pp->hh->b\bar{b}\gamma\gamma, and pp->hh->WWWW in the
SLHM and the littlest Higgs models (LHT). We find that for a light Higgs,
compared with the SM predictions, all the three rates can be sizably enhanced
in the LHT but severely suppressed in the SLHM; while for an intermediately
heavy Higgs, both the LHT and SLHM can enhance sizably the SM predictions.Comment: Version in Nucl. Phys.
Pseudogap-less high T superconductivity in BaCoFeAs
The pseudogap state is one of the peculiarities of the cuprate high
temperature superconductors. Here we investigate its presence in
BaCoFeAs, a member of the pnictide family, with temperature
dependent scanning tunneling spectroscopy. We observe that for under, optimally
and overdoped systems the gap in the tunneling spectra always closes at the
bulk T, ruling out the presence of a pseudogap state. For the underdoped
case we observe superconducting gaps over large fields of view, setting a lower
limit of tens of nanometers on the length scale of possible phase separated
regions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Lipopolysaccharide O1 Antigen Contributes to the Virulence in Klebsiella pneumoniae Causing Pyogenic Liver Abscess
Klebsiella pneumoniae is the common cause of a global emerging infectious disease, community-acquired pyogenic liver abscess (PLA). Capsular polysaccharide (CPS) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are critical for this microorganism's ability to spread through the blood and to cause sepsis. While CPS type K1 is an important virulence factor in K. pneumoniae causing PLA, the role of LPS in PLA is not clear. Here, we characterize the role of LPS O antigen in the pathogenesis of K. pneumoniae causing PLA. NTUH-K2044 is a LPS O1 clinical strain; the presence of the O antigen was shown via the presence of 1,3-galactan in the LPS, and of sequences that align with the wb gene cluster, known to produce O-antigen. Serologic analysis of K. pneumoniae clinical isolates demonstrated that the O1 serotype was more prevalent in PLA strains than that in non-tissue-invasive strains (38/42 vs. 9/32, P<0.0001). O1 serotype isolates had a higher frequency of serum resistance, and mutation of the O1 antigen changed serum resistance in K. pneumoniae. A PLA-causing strain of CPS capsular type K2 and LPS serotype O1 (i.e., O1:K2 PLA strain) deleted for the O1 synthesizing genes was profoundly attenuated in virulence, as demonstrated in separate mouse models of septicemia and liver abscess. Immunization of mice with the K2044 magA-mutant (K1− O1) against LPS O1 provided protection against infection with an O1:K2 PLA strain, but not against infection with an O1:K1 PLA strain. Our findings indicate that the O1 antigen of PLA-associated K. pneumoniae contributes to virulence by conveying resistance to serum killing, promoting bacterial dissemination to and colonization of internal organs after the onset of bacteremia, and could be a useful vaccine candidate against infection by an O1:K2 PLA strain
Spectroscopic scanning tunneling microscopy insights into Fe-based superconductors
In the first three years since the discovery of Fe-based high Tc
superconductors, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy have shed
light on three important questions. First, STM has demonstrated the complexity
of the pairing symmetry in Fe-based materials. Phase-sensitive quasiparticle
interference (QPI) imaging and low temperature spectroscopy have shown that the
pairing order parameter varies from nodal to nodeless s\pm within a single
family, FeTe1-xSex. Second, STM has imaged C4 -> C2 symmetry breaking in the
electronic states of both parent and superconducting materials. As a local
probe, STM is in a strong position to understand the interactions between these
broken symmetry states and superconductivity. Finally, STM has been used to
image the vortex state, giving insights into the technical problem of vortex
pinning, and the fundamental problem of the competing states introduced when
superconductivity is locally quenched by a magnetic field. Here we give a
pedagogical introduction to STM and QPI imaging, discuss the specific
challenges associated with extracting bulk properties from the study of
surfaces, and report on progress made in understanding Fe-based superconductors
using STM techniques.Comment: 36 pages, 23 figures, 229 reference
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