1,031 research outputs found

    Observational constraints on cosmic neutrinos and dark energy revisited

    Full text link
    Using several cosmological observations, i.e. the cosmic microwave background anisotropies (WMAP), the weak gravitational lensing (CFHTLS), the measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations (SDSS+WiggleZ), the most recent observational Hubble parameter data, the Union2.1 compilation of type Ia supernovae, and the HST prior, we impose constraints on the sum of neutrino masses (\mnu), the effective number of neutrino species (\neff) and dark energy equation of state (ww), individually and collectively. We find that a tight upper limit on \mnu can be extracted from the full data combination, if \neff and ww are fixed. However this upper bound is severely weakened if \neff and ww are allowed to vary. This result naturally raises questions on the robustness of previous strict upper bounds on \mnu, ever reported in the literature. The best-fit values from our most generalized constraint read \mnu=0.556^{+0.231}_{-0.288}\rm eV, \neff=3.839\pm0.452, and w=−1.058±0.088w=-1.058\pm0.088 at 68% confidence level, which shows a firm lower limit on total neutrino mass, favors an extra light degree of freedom, and supports the cosmological constant model. The current weak lensing data are already helpful in constraining cosmological model parameters for fixed ww. The dataset of Hubble parameter gains numerous advantages over supernovae when w=−1w=-1, particularly its illuminating power in constraining \neff. As long as ww is included as a free parameter, it is still the standardizable candles of type Ia supernovae that play the most dominant role in the parameter constraints.Comment: 39 pages, 15 figures, 7 tables, accepted to JCA

    PS-PVD thermal/environmental barrier coatings with novel microstructures

    Get PDF
    Plasma spray physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD) technology has attracted increasing attention due to it promising potential in processing advanced functional coatings such as thermal/environmental barrier coatings (TBCs) by flexibly tailoring the coating microstructure architecture in a broad range. In this work, yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) TBCs with a novel quasi-columnar structure was prepared by co-deposition of vapor phase and nano-clusters using PS-PVD and the associated deposition mechanism was discussed. The thermo-physical and mechanical properties, sintering resistance and thermal shock life of the coating were investigated. The thermal conductivity is in a range of 0.7~1.0 W/mk between 200 °C and 1200 °C and the average life is ~4000 cycles during thermal shock testing in which the coating surface was heated to 1200 °C within 20 s and held at the temperature for 5 min by gas flame. Noted that the quasi-columnar TBC revealed much better resistance to glassy CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 (CMAS) adsorption than those TBCs produced by air plasma spray (APS) and electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) and some attempts were made to understand the related mechanisms. Ytterbium silicate/mullite/Si environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) were sprayed onto SiC ceramic matrix composites (CMC) by PS-PVD. The dense ytterbium silicate coating deposited at 65 kw is mainly composed of ytterbium disilicate resulting from vapor-phase deposition, whereas the layered coating at 40 kw is mainly ytterbium monosilicate from liquid deposition

    Association among dietary magnesium, serum magnesium, and diabetes: a crosssectional study in middle-aged and older adults

    Get PDF
    Background: A number of studies have reported the association between magnesium (Mg) and diabetes. However, the various conclusions were inconsistent and the data on the Chinese population was limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association among dietary Mg, serum Mg, and diabetes in Chinese adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study that contained 2904 subjects was conducted. Biochemical test results and dietary intakes of subjects were collected for analysis. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) were used to determine the relationship between Mg status and diabetes by logistic regression. Results: The prevalence of diabetes of the investigated population was 10.1 %. Dietary Mg intake was not significantly correlated with diabetes (P > 0.05). The significant negative association between serum Mg and diabetes existed, and the multivariate adjusted OR was 0.34 (95 % CI 0.24, 0.49) in model 3 for the highest quartile of serum Mg compared with the lowest. The P values for trend were all less than 0.001 for the relationship between serum Mg and diabetes. Dietary Mg intake and serum Mg were not significantly correlated in the diabetes population (P = 0.936). Conclusions: Dietary Mg was not significantly correlated with diabetes, while serum Mg was inversely correlated with diabetes in the Chinese population. Meanwhile, dietary Mg intake and serum Mg were not significantly correlated in the diabetes population
    • …
    corecore