86,439 research outputs found
Strain identity of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor is more important than richness in regulating plant and fungal performance under nutrient rich conditions
This work was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/I014527/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Novel method for the measurement of liquid film thickness during fuel spray impingement on surfaces
This paper describes the development and application of a novel optical technique for the measurement of liquid film thickness formed on surfaces during the impingement of automotive fuel sprays. The technique makes use of the change of the light scattering characteristics of a metal surface with known roughness, when liquid is deposited. Important advantages of the technique over previously established methods are the ability to measure the time-dependent spatial distribution of the liquid film without a need to add a fluorescent tracer to the liquid, while the measurement principle is not influenced by changes of the pressure and temperature of the liquid or the surrounding gas phase. Also, there is no need for non-fluorescing surrogate fuels. However, an in situ calibration of the dependence of signal intensity on liquid film thickness is required. The developed method can be applied to measure the time-dependent and two-dimensional distribution of the liquid fuel film thickness on the piston or the liner of gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines. The applicability of this technique was evaluated with impinging sprays of several linear alkanes and alcohols with different thermo-physical properties. The surface temperature of the impingement plate was controlled to simulate the range of piston surface temperatures inside a GDI engine. Two sets of liquid film thickness measurements were obtained. During the first set, the surface temperature of the plate was kept constant, while the spray of different fuels interacted with the surface. In the second set, the plate temperature was adjusted to match the boiling temperature of each fuel. In this way, the influence of the surface temperature on the liquid film created by the spray of different fuels and their evaporation characteristics could be demonstrated
The Phase-Space Density Profiles of Cold Dark Matter Halos
We examine the coarse-grained phase-space density profiles of a set of
recent, high-resolution simulations of galaxy-sized Cold Dark Matter (CDM)
halos. Over two and a half decades in radius the phase-space density closely
follows a power-law, , with . This behaviour matches the self-similar solution obtained by
Bertschinger for secondary infall in a uniformly expanding universe. On the
other hand, the density profile corresponding to Bertschinger's solution (a
power-law of slope ) differs significantly from the density
profiles of CDM halos. We show that isotropic mass distributions with power-law
phase-space density profiles form a one-parameter family of structures
controlled by , the ratio of the velocity dispersion to the peak
circular velocity. For one recovers the power-law
solution . For larger than some critical
value, , solutions become non-physical, leading to negative
densities near the center. The critical solution, , has
the narrowest phase-space density distribution compatible with the power-law
phase-space density stratification constraint. Over three decades in radius the
critical solution is indistinguishable from an NFW profile. Our results thus
suggest that the NFW profile is the result of a hierarchical assembly process
that preserves the phase-space stratification of Bertschinger's infall model
but which ``mixes'' the system maximally, perhaps as a result of repeated
merging.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures; submitted to The Astrophysical Journa
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An agent-based DDM for high level architecture
The Data Distribution Management (DDM) service is one of the six services provided in the Runtime Infrastructure (RTI) of High Level Architecture (HLA). Its purpose is to perform data filtering and reduce irrelevant data communicated between federates. The two DDM schemes proposed for RTI, region based and grid based DDM, are oriented to send as little irrelevant data to subscribers as possible, but only manage to filter part of this information and some irrelevant data is still being communicated. Previously (G. Tan et al., 2000), we employed intelligent agents to perform data filtering in HLA, implemented an agent based DDM in RTI (ARTI) and compared it with the other two filtering mechanisms. The paper reports on additional experiments, results and analysis using two scenarios: the AWACS sensing aircraft simulation and the air traffic control simulation scenario. Experimental results show that compared with other mechanisms, the agent based approach communicates only relevant data and minimizes network communication, and is also comparable in terms of time efficiency. Some guidelines on when the agent based scheme can be used are also give
The diffuse neutrino flux from the inner Galaxy: constraints from very high energy gamma-ray observations
Recently, the MILAGRO collaboration reported on the detection of a diffuse
multi-TeV emission from a region of the Galactic disk close to the inner
Galaxy. The emission is in excess of what is predicted by conventional models
for cosmic ray propagation, which are tuned to reproduce the spectrum of cosmic
rays observed locally. By assuming that the excess detected by MILAGRO is of
hadronic origin and that it is representative for the whole inner Galactic
region, we estimate the expected diffuse flux of neutrinos from a region of the
Galactic disk with coordinates . Our estimate has
to be considered as the maximal expected neutrino flux compatible with all the
available gamma ray data, since any leptonic contribution to the observed
gamma-ray emission would lower the neutrino flux. The diffuse flux of
neutrinos, if close to the maximum allowed level, may be detected by a
km--scale detector located in the northern hemisphere. A detection would
unambiguously reveal the hadronic origin of the diffuse gamma-ray emission.Comment: submitted to Astroparticle Physic
Medial Frontal Cortex Activity and Loss-Related Responses to Errors
Making an error elicits activity from brain regions that monitor performance, especially the medial frontal cortex (MFC). However, uncertainty exists about whether the posterior or anterior/rostral MFC processes errors, and to what degree affective responses to errors are mediated in the MFC, specifically the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC). To test the hypothesis that rACC mediates a type of affective response, we conceptualized affect in response to an error as a reaction to loss, and amplified this response with a monetary penalty. While subjects performed a cognitive interference task during functional magnetic resonance imaging, hemodynamic activity in the rACC was significantly greater when subjects lost money due to an error, compared to errors that did not lead to monetary loss. A significant interaction between the incentive conditions and error events demonstrated that the effect was not merely due to working harder to win (or not lose) money, although an effect of motivation was noted in the mid-MFC. Activation foci also occurred in similar regions of the posterior MFC for error and interference processing, which were not modulated by the incentive conditions. However, at the level of the individual subject, substantial functional variability occurred along the MFC during error processing, including foci in the rostral/anterior extent of the MFC not appearing in the group analysis. The findings support the hypothesis that the rostral extent of the MFC (rACC) processes loss-related responses to errors, and individual differences may account for some of the reported variation of error-related foci in the MFC
Characterization of Power-to-Phase Conversion in High-Speed P-I-N Photodiodes
Fluctuations of the optical power incident on a photodiode can be converted
into phase fluctuations of the resulting electronic signal due to nonlinear
saturation in the semiconductor. This impacts overall timing stability (phase
noise) of microwave signals generated from a photodetected optical pulse train.
In this paper, we describe and utilize techniques to characterize this
conversion of amplitude noise to phase noise for several high-speed (>10 GHz)
InGaAs P-I-N photodiodes operated at 900 nm. We focus on the impact of this
effect on the photonic generation of low phase noise 10 GHz microwave signals
and show that a combination of low laser amplitude noise, appropriate
photodiode design, and optimum average photocurrent is required to achieve
phase noise at or below -100 dBc/Hz at 1 Hz offset a 10 GHz carrier. In some
photodiodes we find specific photocurrents where the power-to-phase conversion
factor is observed to go to zero
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