21,874 research outputs found
The sialate O-acetylesterase EstA from gut Bacteroidetes species enables sialidase-mediated cross-species foraging of 9-O-acetylated sialoglycans
Linear electric field frequency shift (important for next generation electric dipole moment searches) induced in confined gases by a magnetic field gradient
The search for particle electric dipole moments (edm) represents a most
promising way to search for physics beyond the standard model. A number of
groups are planning a new generation of experiments using stored gases of
various kinds. In order to achieve the target sensitivities it will be
necessary to deal with the systematic error resulting from the interaction of
the well-known field with
magnetic field gradients (often referred to as the geometric phase effect
(Commins, ED; Am. J. Phys. \QTR{bf}{59}, 1077 (1991), Pendlebury, JM
\QTR{em}{et al;} Phys. Rev. \QTR{bf}{A70}, 032102 (2004)). This interaction
produces a frequency shift linear in the electric field, mimicking an edm. In
this work we introduce an analytic form for the velocity auto-correlation
function which determines the velocity-position correlation function which in
turn determines the behavior of the frequency shift (Lamoreaux, SK and Golub,
R; Phys. Rev \QTR{bf}{A71}, 032104 (2005)) and show how it depends on the
operating conditions of the experiment. We also discuss some additional issues.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure
Photoelectrochemical water splitting: silicon photocathodes for hydrogen evolution
The development of low cost, scalable, renewable energy technologies is one of today's most pressing scientific challenges. We report on progress towards the development of a photoelectrochemical water-splitting system that will use sunlight and water as the inputs to produce renewable hydrogen with oxygen as a by-product. This system is based on the design principle of incorporating two separate, photosensitive inorganic semiconductor/liquid junctions to collectively generate the 1.7-1.9 V at open circuit needed to support both the oxidation of H_2O (or OH^-) and the reduction of H^+ (or H_2O). Si microwire arrays are a promising photocathode material because the high aspect-ratio electrode architecture allows for the use of low cost, earth-abundant materials without sacrificing energy-conversion efficiency, due to the orthogonalization of light absorption and charge-carrier collection. Additionally, the high surfacearea design of the rod-based semiconductor array inherently lowers the flux of charge carriers over the rod array surface relative to the projected geometric surface of the photoelectrode, thus lowering the photocurrent density at the solid/liquid junction and thereby relaxing the demands on the activity (and cost) of any electrocatalysts. Arrays of Si microwires grown using the Vapor Liquid Solid (VLS) mechanism have been shown to have desirable electronic light absorption properties. We have demonstrated that these arrays can be coated with earth-abundant metallic catalysts and used for photoelectrochemical production of hydrogen. This development is a step towards the demonstration of a complete artificial photosynthetic system, composed of only inexpensive, earth-abundant materials, that is simultaneously efficient, durable, and scalable
Barriers, control and identity in health information seeking among African American women
Qualitative research methods were used to examine the role of racial, cultural, and socio-economic group (i.e., communal) identities on perceptions of barriers and control related to traditional and internet resources for seeking health information. Eighteen lower income, African American women participated in training workshops on using the internet for health, followed by two focus groups. Transcripts were analyzed using standardized coding methods. Results demonstrated that participants perceived the internet as a tool for seeking health information, which they believed would empower them within formal healthcare settings. Participants invoked racial, cultural, and socio-economic identities when discussing barriers to seeking health information within healthcare systems and the internet. The findings indicate that the internet may be a valuable tool for accessing health information among lower income African American women if barriers are reduced. Recommendations are made that may assist health providers in improving health information seeking outcomes of African American women
Sloan Digital Sky Survey Spectroscopic Lens Search. I. Discovery of Intermediate-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies Behind Foreground Luminous Red Galaxies
We present a catalog of 49 spectroscopic strong gravitational lens candidates
selected from a Sloan Digital Sky Survey sample of 50996 luminous red galaxies.
Potentially lensed star-forming galaxies are detected through the presence of
background oxygen and hydrogen nebular emission lines in the spectra of these
massive foreground galaxies. This multiline selection eliminates the ambiguity
of single-line identification and provides a very promising sample of candidate
galaxy-galaxy lens systems at low to intermediate redshift, with foreground
redshifts ranging from 0.16 to 0.49 and background redshifts from 0.25 to 0.81.
Any lenses confirmed within our sample would be important new probes of
early-type galaxy mass distributions, providing complementary constraints to
those obtained from currently known lensed high-redshift quasars.Comment: 23 pages; to appear in The Astronomical Journal, 2004 April. Version
with full-resolution figures available at
http://web.mit.edu/bolton/www/speclens.ps.gz (PostScript) or
http://web.mit.edu/bolton/www/speclens.pdf (PDF
Evidence for Rotation in the Galaxy at z=3.15 Responsible for a Damped Lyman-alpha Absorption System in the Spectrum of Q2233+1310
Proof of the existence of a significant population of normal disk galaxies at
redshift z>2 would have profound implications for theories of structure
formation and evolution. We present evidence based on Keck HIRES observations
that the damped Lyman-alpha absorber at z=3.15 toward the quasar Q2233+1310 may
well be such an example. Djorgovski et al have recently detected the
Lyman-alpha emission from the absorber, which we assume is at the systemic
redshift of the absorbing galaxy. By examining the profiles of the metal
absorption lines arising from the absorbing galaxy in relation to its systemic
redshift, we find strong kinematical evidence for rotation. Therefore the
absorber is likely to be a disk galaxy. The inferred circular velocity for the
galaxy is >200 km/s. With a separation of ~17 kpc between the galaxy and the
quasar sightline, the implied dynamic mass for the galaxy is >1.6x10(11) solar
mass. The metallicity of the galaxy is found to be [Fe/H]=-1.4, typical of
damped Lyman-alpha galaxies at such redshifts. However, in another damped
galactic rotation is evident. In the latter case, the damped Lyman-alpha
absorber occurs near the background quasar in redshift so its properties may be
influenced by the background quasar. These represent the only two cases at
present for which the technique used here may be applied. Future applications
of the same technique to a large sample of damped Lyman-alpha galaxies may
allow us to determine if a significant population of disk galaxies already
existed only a few billion years after the Big Bang.Comment: AASTEX, 2 PS figures, accepted by ApJ, 6 pages total, replaced on
1-22-97, the only change is the enlarged figure
pH-Independent, 520 mV Open-Circuit Voltages of Si/Methyl Viologen^(2+/+) Contacts Through Use of Radial n^+p-Si Junction Microwire Array Photoelectrodes
The effects of introducing an n^+-doped emitter layer have been evaluated for both planar Si photoelectrodes and for radial junction Si microwire-array photoelectrodes. In contact with the pH-independent, one-electron, outer-sphere, methyl viologen redox system (denoted MV^(2+/+)), both planar and wire array p-Si photoelectrodes yielded open-circuit voltages, V_(oc), that varied with the pH of the solution. The highest V_(oc) values were obtained at pH = 2.9, with V_(oc) = 0.53 V for planar p-Si electrodes and V_(oc) = 0.42 V for vaporâliquidâsolid catalyzed p-Si microwire array samples, under 60 mW cm^(â2) of 808 nm illumination. Increases in the pH of the electrolyte produced a decrease in V_(oc) by approximately â44 mV/pH unit for planar electrodes, with similar trends observed for the Si microwire array electrodes. In contrast, introduction of a highly doped, n^+ emitter layer produced V_(oc) = 0.56 V for planar Si electrodes and V_(oc) = 0.52 V for Si microwire array electrodes, with the photoelectrode properties in each system being essentially independent of pH over six pH units (3 < pH < 9). Hence, formation of an n^+ emitter layer not only produced nearly identical photovoltages for planar and Si microwire array photoelectrodes, but decoupled the band energetics of the semiconductor (and hence the obtainable photovoltage) from the value of the redox potential of the solution. The formation of radial junctions on Si microwire arrays thus provides an approach to obtaining Si-based photoelectrodes with high-photovoltages that can be used for a variety of photoelectrochemical processes, including potentially the hydrogen evolution reaction, under various pH conditions, regardless of the intrinsic barrier height and flat-band properties of the Si/liquid contact
Identifying Active Manifolds
Determining the "active manifold'' for a minimization problem is a large step towards solving the problem. Many researchers have studied under what conditions certain algorithms identify active manifolds in a finite number of iterations. In this work we outline a unifying framework encompassing many earlier results on identification via the Subgradient (Gradient) Projection Method, Newton-like Methods, and the Proximal Point Algorithm. This framework, prox-regular partial smoothness, has the advantage of not requiring convexity for its conclusions, and therefore extends many of these earlier results
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