Measurement of Spin Polarization by Andreev Reflection in Ferromagnetic In1-xMnxSb Epilayers

We carried out Point Contact Andreev Reflection (PCAR) spin spectroscopy measurements on epitaxially-grown ferromagnetic In1-xMnxSb epilayers with a Curie temperature of ~9K. The spin sensitivity of PCAR in this material was demonstrated by parallel control studies on its non-magnetic analog, In1-yBeySb. We found the conductance curves of the Sn point contacts with In1-yBeySb to be fairly conventional, with the possible presence of proximity-induced superconductivity effects at the lowest temperatures. The experimental Z-values of interfacial scattering agreed well with the estimates based on the Fermi velocity mismatch between the semiconductor and the superconductor. These measurements provided control data for subsequent PCAR measurements on ferromagnetic In1-xMnxSb, which indicated spin polarization in In1-xMnxSb to be 52 +- 3%

Effects of Diversity on Multi-agent Systems: Minority Games

We consider a version of large population games whose agents compete for resources using strategies with adaptable preferences. The games can be used to model economic markets, ecosystems or distributed control. Diversity of initial preferences of strategies is introduced by randomly assigning biases to the strategies of different agents. We find that diversity among the agents reduces their maladaptive behavior. We find interesting scaling relations with diversity for the variance and other parameters such as the convergence time, the fraction of fickle agents, and the variance of wealth, illustrating their dynamical origin. When diversity increases, the scaling dynamics is modified by kinetic sampling and waiting effects. Analyses yield excellent agreement with simulations.Comment: 41 pages, 16 figures; minor improvements in content, added references; to be published in Physical Review

Removal and transformation of hexavalent chromium in sequencing batch reactor

The objectives of this study are to evaluate the efficiency of removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and to ascertain the fate of Cr(VI) in the treatment process. An SBR was operated with the FILL, REACT, SETTLE, DRAW and IDLE periods in the time ratio of 2:12:2:1.5:6.5 for a cycle time of 24 h. The study was divided into 5 phases with the addition of 0.5, 2.0, 3.0 and 5.0 mg/ℓ of Cr(VI) in Phases II, III, IV and V for a duration of 46, 75, 43 and 16 operational cycles, respectively. The Cr(VI) removal efficiencies for SBR were found to be 79.8, 88.4 and 99.8% in Phases III, IV and V, respectively. The results revealed that Cr(VI) removal efficiency improved with acclimated activated sludge. Determination of Cr in the suspended sludge showed that around 95% of the Cr species were Cr(III). Determination of Cr concentration profiles during the FILL and REACT periods showed that the predominant species was Cr(III) as Cr(VI) was bio-reduced. The proposed Cr(VI) removal mechanism involves bioreduction to Cr(III) which was subsequently precipitated and adsorbed by activated sludge. Precipitation rather than sorption is envisaged to be the main path of removal of Cr(III) from the solution.Keywords: Sequencing batch reactor, hexavalent chromium, removal, transformation, mechanis

Vibrations of closed-shell Lennard-Jones icosahedral and cuboctahedral clusters and their effect on the cluster ground state energy

Vibrational spectra of closed shell Lennard-Jones icosahedral and cuboctahedral clusters are calculated for shell numbers between 2 and 9. Evolution of the vibrational density of states with the cluster shell number is examined and differences between icosahedral and cuboctahedral clusters described. This enabled a quantum calculation of quantum ground state energies of the clusters in the quasiharmonic approximation and a comparison of the differences between the two types of clusters. It is demonstrated that in the quantum treatment, the closed shell icosahedral clusters binding energies differ from those of cuboctahedral clusters more than is the case in classical treatment

Estimated glomerular filtration rate as an independent predictor of atherosclerotic vascular disease in older women

Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) levels have been shown to predict atherosclerotic vascular disease hospitalization and mortality. We sought to investigate the role of renal function in the prediction of 10-year atherosclerotic vascular hospitalization and deaths in an unselected population of elderly women in and compared these predictions to Framingham equation

Entanglement and statistics in Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry

Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry allows one to detect the presence of entanglement in two-photon input states. The same result holds for two-particles input states which obey to Fermionic statistics. In the latter case however anti-bouncing introduces qualitative differences in the interferometer response. This effect is analyzed in a Gedankenexperiment where the particles entering the interferometer are assumed to belong to a one-parameter family of quons which continuously interpolate between the Bosonic and Fermionic statistics.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; minor editorial changes and new references adde

Predicting insect migration density and speed in the daytime convective boundary layer

Insect migration needs to be quantified if spatial and temporal patterns in populations are to be resolved. Yet so little ecology is understood above the flight boundary layer (i.e. >10 m) where in north-west Europe an estimated 3 billion insects km(-1) month(-1) comprising pests, beneficial insects and other species that contribute to biodiversity use the atmosphere to migrate. Consequently, we elucidate meteorological mechanisms principally related to wind speed and temperature that drive variation in daytime aerial density and insect displacements speeds with increasing altitude (150-1200 m above ground level). We derived average aerial densities and displacement speeds of 1.7 million insects in the daytime convective atmospheric boundary layer using vertical-looking entomological radars. We first studied patterns of insect aerial densities and displacements speeds over a decade and linked these with average temperatures and wind velocities from a numerical weather prediction model. Generalized linear mixed models showed that average insect densities decline with increasing wind speed and increase with increasing temperatures and that the relationship between displacement speed and density was negative. We then sought to derive how general these patterns were over space using a paired site approach in which the relationship between sites was examined using simple linear regression. Both average speeds and densities were predicted remotely from a site over 100 km away, although insect densities were much noisier due to local 'spiking'. By late morning and afternoon when insects are migrating in a well-developed convective atmosphere at high altitude, they become much more difficult to predict remotely than during the early morning and at lower altitudes. Overall, our findings suggest that predicting migrating insects at altitude at distances of ≈ 100 km is promising, but additional radars are needed to parameterise spatial covariance

Quantum Gauge Equivalence in QED

We discuss gauge transformations in QED coupled to a charged spinor field, and examine whether we can gauge-transform the entire formulation of the theory from one gauge to another, so that not only the gauge and spinor fields, but also the forms of the operator-valued Hamiltonians are transformed. The discussion includes the covariant gauge, in which the gauge condition and Gauss's law are not primary constraints on operator-valued quantities; it also includes the Coulomb gauge, and the spatial axial gauge, in which the constraints are imposed on operator-valued fields by applying the Dirac-Bergmann procedure. We show how to transform the covariant, Coulomb and spatial axial gauges to what we call ``common form,'' in which all particle excitation modes have identical properties. We also show that, once that common form has been reached, QED in different gauges has a common time-evolution operator that defines time-translation for states that represent systems of electrons and photons. By combining gauge transformations with changes of representation from standard to common form, the entire apparatus of a gauge theory can be transformed from one gauge to another.Comment: Contribution for a special issue of Foundations of Physics honoring Fritz Rohrlich; edited by Larry P. Horwitz, Tel-Aviv University, and Alwyn van der Merwe, University of Denver (Plenum Publishing, New York); 40 pages, REVTEX, Preprint UCONN-93-3, 1 figure available upon request from author