Casimir Energy and Entropy between perfect metal Spheres

We calculate the Casimir energy and entropy for two perfect metal spheres in the large and short separation limit. We obtain nonmonotonic behavior of the Helmholtz free energy with separation and temperature, leading to parameter ranges with negative entropy, and also nonmonotonic behavior of the entropy with temperature and with the separation between the spheres. The appearance of this anomalous behavior of the entropy is discussed as well as its thermodynamic consequences.Comment: 10 pages and 8 figures. Accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the tenth conference on Quantum Field Theory under the influence of external conditions - QFEXT'1

Numerische Simulation von Temperaturgradienten und thermisch induzierten Eigenspannungen in Natursteinplatten infolge von Sonneneinstrahlung

The interaction between micro-organisms and natural stone surfaces has been studied in great detail in the past. The destructive mechanisms of micro-organisms can be roughly subdivided into (a) chemical attack and (b) physical attack. Microorganisms may physically destroy the structure of stones by creating an inter-granular swelling pressure. Recently, it has been shown experimentally that black spots formed by yeast-like fungi lead to a local temperature increase by selective absorption of solar radiation. The maximum temperature observed for clean marble surfaces remained below the maximum temperature observed on inoculated surfaces. As a consequence, thermal dilatation of inoculated marble was shown to be more important. Destruction of the heated stone occurs predominantly if there exists a thermal gradient. In this paper, temperature distribution in clean and stained marble plates have been simulated numerically. Thermal eigenstresses have been determined. It is shown that tensile stresses of up to 5 N/mm2 can be expected. This may cause damage in weak zones of the surface. A sudden driving rain leads to much higher stresses. Cyclic thermal loading may eventually destroy the surface by fatigu

Untersuchung von Feuchtetransport mittels numerischer Modellierung und Neutronentransmissionsanalyse

Moisture transport in porous building materials is described by a transport model that expresses the action of the several transport mechanisms of liquid water and water vapor in the porous system by a single material specific transfer coefficient. This parameter has to be determined by experimental measurement of moisture distributions inside samples exposed to known initial and boundary conditions. Neutron radiography is employed as experimental method because of its high sensitivity and good spatial resolution. The moisture distribution is determined from the raw data obtained in the measurement by a calculation procedure based on a signal transfer model of the neutron transmission. This approach is illustrated by two examples: the drying of a plain brick sample and the drying of a composite sample consisting of two brick elements separated by a layer of morta

Control of tunneling in an atomtronic switching device

The precise control of quantum systems will play a major role in the realization of atomtronic devices. As in the case of electronic systems, a desirable property is the ability to implement switching. Here we show how to implement switching in a model of dipolar bosons confined to three coupled wells. The model describes interactions between bosons, tunneling of bosons between adjacent wells, and the effect of an external field. We conduct a study of the quantum dynamics of the system to probe the conditions under which switching behavior can occur. The analysis considers both integrable and non-integrable regimes within the model. Through variation of the external field, we demonstrate how the system can be controlled between various switched-on and switched-off configurations.Comment: Revised Communications Physics (open access) version; Major revision: 8 pages, 6 figures; Supplementary material: 2 pages, 5 figure

Near-Field Spherical Scanning Antenna Measurements: Probe Deconvolution and Sensitivity

We define and calculate sensitivity for several actual and simulated probes. Probe sensitivity can have a significant impact on the measurement uncertainty associated with probe deconvolution in near-field spherical-scanning, antenna measurements

Rechnerische Bestimmung der lonenbeweglichkeit in Ziegelstein unter Zuhilfenahme von Ergebnissen aus nichtstationären Diffusionsversuchen

Ion concentration profiles in sandwich-brick specimens have been determined experimentally at different degrees of water saturation. Based on the experimental data, ion diffusion coefficients were determined by inverse analysis. The diffusion equation served as a basis for an optimization technique. It has been shown that the ion diffusivity in bricks decreases markedly as the moisture content decreases. The interface between two adjacent bricks slows down the ion migration at low water content in particular. It is planed to investigate the interface between mortar and bricks in further experimental and numerical studie

Machine Learning-Assisted Directed Evolution Navigates a Combinatorial Epistatic Fitness Landscape with Minimal Screening Burden

Due to screening limitations, in directed evolution (DE) of proteins it is rarely feasible to fully evaluate combinatorial mutant libraries made by mutagenesis at multiple sites. Instead, DE often involves a single-step greedy optimization in which the mutation in the highest-fitness variant identified in each round of single-site mutagenesis is fixed. However, because the effects of a mutation can depend on the presence or absence of other mutations, the efficiency and effectiveness of a single-step greedy walk is influenced by both the starting variant and the order in which beneficial mutations are identified—the process is path-dependent. We recently demonstrated a path-independent machine learning-assisted approach to directed evolution (MLDE) that allows in silico screening of full combinatorial libraries made by simultaneous saturation mutagenesis, thus explicitly capturing the effects of cooperative mutations and bypassing the path-dependence that can limit greedy optimization. Here, we thoroughly investigate and optimize an MLDE workflow by testing a number of design considerations of the MLDE pipeline. Specifically, we (1) test the effects of different encoding strategies on MLDE efficiency, (2) integrate new models and a training procedure more amenable to protein engineering tasks, and (3) incorporate training set design strategies to avoid information-poor low-fitness protein variants (“holes”) in the training data. When applied to an epistatic, hole-filled, four-site combinatorial fitness landscape of protein G domain B1 (GB1), the resulting focused training MLDE (ftMLDE) protocol achieved the global fitness maximum up to 92% of the time at a total screening burden of 470 variants. In contrast, minimal-screening-burden single-step greedy optimization over the GB1 fitness landscape reached the global maximum just 1.2% of the time; ftMLDE matching this minimal screening burden (80 total variants) achieved the global optimum up to 9.6% of the time with a 49% higher expected maximum fitness achieved. To facilitate further development of MLDE, we present the MLDE software package (https://github.com/fhalab/MLDE), which is designed for use by protein engineers without computational or machine learning expertise

Analytical method for the determination of trichlorobenzenes in marine biota (poster)

Trichlorobenzenes (TCBs) were intensively used in the last decades as essential components of dielectric fluids, intermediates in chemical synthesis, solvents, coolants, lubricants, heat-transfer medium; insecticide, additive in polyester dyeing and components of termite-control preparations (1, 2). Due to their widespread occurrence in the various environmental compartments they have been classified by OSPARCOM (Oslo and Paris Commissions) (3) as chemicals for priority action and have been proposed by the Marine Chemistry Working Group (MCWG) as chemical parameters in the Water Framework Directive (4). Based on their octanol-water partitioning coefficients (log Kow = 4.02-4.49) (5) and bioconcentration factors in fish (ranging from 182 to 3200, depending on the lipid content) (6), these chemicals are expected to bioaccumulate in aquatic organisms.Against their potential significance in the marine environment there is relatively little information available concerning the actual concentration levels and distribution of trichlorobenzenes in marine organisms (7, 8).The aim of this work was to develop an analytical method appropriate for the determination of TCBs in marine biota.The analytical method consists of saponification of the fish tissue with methanolic potassium hydroxide, liquid-liquid extraction of the solution with pentane, clean up of the concentrated extract on alumina column and analysis of the extract with gas chromatograph equipped with electron capture detector (ECD). The method proved to be appropriate for the detection of concentration levels typical of the organic contaminants in biota (7) (~1 ng /g wet weight of tissue). The relative standard deviation of the analysis of 1,3,5-, 1,2,4- and 1,2,3-trichlorobenzene was 8, 6 and 18% (n=4) respectively. Higher recoveries of the analytes were obtained with spiked fish samples than with standard solutions (88, 96 and 78 instead of 53, 50 and 32% of 1,3,5-, 1,2,4- and 1,2,3-trichlorobenzene respectively). One plausible explanation of the difference is that the proteins and glycerides of the fish tissue compete effectively with trichlorobenzenes for the base and their presence decrease their decomposition rate