654 research outputs found
Vacuum-UV spectroscopy of interstellar ice analogs. II. Absorption cross-sections of nonpolar ice molecules
Dust grains in cold circumstellar regions and dark-cloud interiors at 10-20 K
are covered by ice mantles. A nonthermal desorption mechanism is invoked to
explain the presence of gas-phase molecules in these environments, such as the
photodesorption induced by irradiation of ice due to secondary ultraviolet
photons. To quantify the effects of ice photoprocessing, an estimate of the
photon absorption in ice mantles is required. In a recent work, we reported the
vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) absorption cross sections of nonpolar molecules in the
solid phase. The aim was to estimate the VUV-absorption cross sections of
nonpolar molecular ice components, including CH4, CO2, N2, and O2. The column
densities of the ice samples deposited at 8 K were measured in situ by infrared
spectroscopy in transmittance. VUV spectra of the ice samples were collected in
the 120-160 nm (10.33-7.74 eV) range using a commercial microwave-discharged
hydrogen flow lamp. We found that, as expected, solid N2 has the lowest
VUV-absorption cross section, which about three orders of magnitude lower than
that of other species such as O2, which is also homonuclear. Methane (CH4) ice
presents a high absorption near Ly-alpha (121.6 nm) and does not absorb below
148 nm. Estimating the ice absorption cross sections is essential for models of
ice photoprocessing and allows estimating the ice photodesorption rates as the
number of photodesorbed molecules per absorbed photon in the ice.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 7 table
Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell phase in the superconductor (TMTSF)2ClO4: Theory versus experiment
We consider a formation of the Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) phase
in a quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) conductor in a magnetic field, parallel to its
conducting chains, where we take into account both the paramagnetic
spin-splitting and orbital destructive effects against superconductivity. We
show that, due to a relative weakness of the orbital effects in a Q1D case, the
LOFF phase appears in (TMTSF)ClO superconductor for real values of its
Q1D band parameters. We compare our theoretical calculations with the recent
experimental data by Y. Maeno's group [S. Yonezawa et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.
\textbf{100}, 117002 (2008)] and show that there is a good qualitative and
quantitative agreement between the theory and experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Transient Analysis of Warm Electron Injection Programming of Double Gate SONOS Memories by means of Full Band Monte Carlo Simulation
In this paper we investigate "Warm Electron Injection" as a mechanism for NOR
programming of double-gate SONOS memories through 2D full band Monte Carlo
simulations. Warm electron injection is characterized by an applied VDS smaller
than 3.15 V, so that electrons cannot easily accumulate a kinetic energy larger
than the height of the Si/SiO2 barrier. We perform a time-dependent simulation
of the program operation where the local gate current density is computed with
a continuum-based method and is adiabatically separated from the 2D full Monte
Carlo simulation used for obtaining the electron distribution in the phase
space. In this way we are able to compute the time evolution of the charge
stored in the nitride and of the threshold voltages corresponding to forward
and reverse bias. We show that warm electron injection is a viable option for
NOR programming in order to reduce power supply, preserve reliability and CMOS
logic level compatibility. In addition, it provides a well localized charge,
offering interesting perspectives for multi-level and dual bit operation, even
in devices with negligible short channel effects
Experimental verification of strong rotational dependence of fluorescence and predissociation yield in the bâÂčΠᔀ(v = 1) level of ÂčâŽNâ
New, rotationally resolved fluorescence-excitation spectra confirm coupled-channel SchroÌdinger-equation predictions of strong rotational dependence of the fluorescence and predissociation yields in the b(v = 1) level of ÂčâŽNâ.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation
grant AST-0906158 and the Australian Research Council
grants DP0558962, DP0773050, and LX0882438
Answering Complex Open-Domain Questions with Multi-Hop Dense Retrieval
We propose a simple and efficient multi-hop dense retrieval approach for answering complex open-domain questions, which achieves state-of-the-art performance on two multi-hop datasets, HotpotQA and multi-evidence FEVER. Contrary to previous work, our method does not require access to any corpus-specific information, such as inter-document hyperlinks or human-annotated entity markers, and can be applied to any unstructured text corpus. Our system also yields a much better efficiency-accuracy trade-off, matching the best published accuracy on HotpotQA while being 10 times faster at inference time
A modified atmospheric non-hydrostatic model on low aspect ratio grids
© The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Tellus A 64 (2012): 17516, doi:10.3402/tellusa.v64i0.17516.It is popular to use a horizontal explicit and a vertical implicit (HE-VI) scheme in the compressible nonhydrostatic (NH) model. However, when the aspect ratio becomes small, a small time-interval is required in HE-VI, because the Courant-Fredrich-Lewy (CFL) criterion is determined by the horizontal grid spacing. Furthermore, simulations from HE-VI can depart from the forwardâbackward (FB) scheme in NH even when the time interval is less than the CFL criterion allowed. Hence, a modified non-hydrostatic (MNH) model is proposed, in which the left-hand side of the continuity equation is multiplied by a parameter d (45d516, in this study). When the linearized MNH is solved by FB (can be other schemes), the eigenvalue shows that MNH can suppress the frequency of acoustic waves very effectively but does not have a significant impact on the gravity waves. Hence, MNH enables to use a longer time step than that allowed in the original NH. When the aspect ratio is small, MNH solved by FB can be more accurate and efficient than the NH solved by HE-VI. Therefore, MNH can be very useful to study cloud, Large Eddy Simulation (LES), turbulence, flow over complex terrains, etc., which require fine resolution in both horizontal and vertical directions
The Cerenkov effect revisited: from swimming ducks to zero modes in gravitational analogs
We present an interdisciplinary review of the generalized Cerenkov emission
of radiation from uniformly moving sources in the different contexts of
classical electromagnetism, superfluid hydrodynamics, and classical
hydrodynamics. The details of each specific physical systems enter our theory
via the dispersion law of the excitations. A geometrical recipe to obtain the
emission patterns in both real and wavevector space from the geometrical shape
of the dispersion law is discussed and applied to a number of cases of current
experimental interest. Some consequences of these emission processes onto the
stability of condensed-matter analogs of gravitational systems are finally
illustrated.Comment: Lecture Notes at the IX SIGRAV School on "Analogue Gravity" in Como,
Italy from May 16th-21th, 201
Heterotrophic feeding as a newly identified survival strategy of the dinoflagellate Symbiodinium
Survival of free-living and symbiotic dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium spp.) in coral reefs is critical to the maintenance of a healthy coral community. Most coral reefs exist in oligotrophic waters, and their survival strategy in such nutrient-depleted waters remains largely unknown. In this study, we found that two strains of Symbiodinium spp. cultured from the environment and acquired from the tissues of the coral Alveopora japonica had the ability to feed heterotrophically. Symbiodinium spp. fed on heterotrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria (Synechococcus spp.), and small microalgae in both nutrient-replete and nutrient-depleted conditions. Cultured free-living Symbiodinium spp. displayed no autotrophic growth under nitrogen-depleted conditions, but grew when provided with prey. Our results indicate that Symbiodinium spp.âs mixotrophic activity greatly increases their chance of survival and their population growth under nitrogen-depleted conditions, which tend to prevail in coral habitats. In particular, free-living Symbiodinium cells acquired considerable nitrogen from algal prey, comparable to or greater than the direct uptake of ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, or urea. In addition, free-living Symbiodinium spp. can be a sink for planktonic cyanobacteria (Synechococcus spp.) and remove substantial portions of Synechococcus populations from coral reef waters. Our discovery of Symbiodiniumâs feeding alters our conventional views of the survival strategies of photosynthetic Symbiodinium and corals
Decrease in seroprevalence of Hepatitis A after the implementation of nationwide disposable tableware use in Taiwan
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Taiwan is an endemic area of viral hepatitis, including hepatitis A, which is transmitted mainly from the fecal-oral route. In order to reduce the transmission through food intake, the government implemented a policy of nationwide disposal tableware use in public eating places in 1982. We conducted a study to estimate the seroprevalence of Hepatitis A in a group of workers in Taiwan in 2005, determine the risk factors, and compare seroprevalence to published estimates in Taiwan to evaluate changes in the seroprevalence after the implementation of the nationwide disposal tableware use.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We recruited workers of an industrial park during their annual health examinations in 2005 and measured their anti-hepatitis A virus IgG titer using microparticle enzyme immunoassay. We compared the seroprevalence across different birth cohorts within the study population and also analyzed data from previous studies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall sero-positive rate was 22.0% in the 11,777 participants. The rate was much lower among those who were covered by the program since birth (born after 1982) in comparison with those who were not (2.7% vs. 25.3%, p < 0.001). From the analyses of data from pervious studies, we found the age-specific rates were similar in cohorts born in or after 1982 across studies conducted in different time periods but decreased with the calendar year in cohorts born before 1982. In particular, the age-specific seroprevalence dropped to less than one third in a three-year period among those who were born around 1982.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Data from both the current and previous studies in different time periods supported the effectiveness of disposal tableware in preventing the transmission of hepatitis A.</p
Formation of S-bearing Species by VUV/EUV Irradiation of H<SUB>2</SUB>S-containing Ice Mixtures: Photon Energy and Carbon Source Effects
Carbonyl sulfide (OCS) is a key molecule in astrobiology that acts as a catalyst in peptide synthesis by coupling amino acids. Experimental studies suggest that hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a precursor of OCS, could be present in astrophysical environments. In the present study, we used a microwave-discharge hydrogen-flow lamp, simulating the interstellar UV field, and a monochromatic synchrotron light beam to irradiate CO:H2S and CO2:H2S ice mixtures at 14 K with vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) or extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photons in order to study the effect of the photon energy and carbon source on the formation mechanisms and production yields of S-containing products (CS2, OCS, SO2, etc.). Results show that (1) the photo-induced OCS production efficiency in CO:H2S ice mixtures is higher than that of CO2:H2S ice mixtures; (2) a lower concentration of H2S enhances the production efficiency of OCS in both ice mixtures; and (3) the formation pathways of CS2 differ significantly upon VUV and EUV irradiations. Furthermore, CS2 was produced only after VUV photoprocessing of CO:H2S ices, while the VUV-induced production of SO2 occurred only in CO2:H2S ice mixtures. More generally, the production yields of OCS, H2S2, and CS2 were studied as a function of the irradiation photon energy. Heavy S-bearing compounds were also observed using mass spectrometry during the warm-up of VUV/EUV-irradiated CO:H2S ice mixtures. The presence of S-polymers in dust grains may account for the missing sulfur in dense clouds and circumstellar environments
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