35,969 research outputs found
Novel characterization method of impedance cardiography signals using time-frequency distributions
The purpose of this document is to describe a methodology to select the most adequate time-frequency distribution (TFD) kernel for the characterization of impedance cardiography signals (ICG). The predominant ICG beat was extracted from a patient and was synthetized using time-frequency variant Fourier approximations. These synthetized signals were used to optimize several TFD kernels according to a performance maximization. The optimized kernels were tested for noise resistance on a clinical database. The resulting optimized TFD kernels are presented with their performance calculated using newly proposed methods. The procedure explained in this work showcases a new method to select an appropriate kernel for ICG signals and compares the performance of different time-frequency kernels found in the literature for the case of ICG signals. We conclude that, for ICG signals, the performance (P) of the spectrogram with either Hanning or Hamming windows (P¿=¿0.780) and the extended modified beta distribution (P¿=¿0.765) provided similar results, higher than the rest of analyzed kernels.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
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Chemical characterization of water-soluble organic carbon aerosols at a rural site in the Pearl River Delta, China, in the summer of 2006
Online measurements of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) aerosols were made using a particle-into-liquid sampler (PILS) combined with a total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer at a rural site in the Pearl River Delta region, China, in July 2006. A macroporous nonionic (DAX-8) resin was used to quantify hydrophilic and hydrophobic WSOC, which are defined as the fractions of WSOC that penetrated through and retained on the DAX-8 column, respectively. Laboratory calibrations showed that hydrophilic WSOC (WSOCHPI) included low-molecular aliphatic dicarboxylic acids and carbonyls, saccharides, and amines, while hydrophobic WSOC (WSOCHPO) included longer-chain aliphatic dicarboxylic acids and carbonyls, aromatic acids, phenols, organic nitrates, cyclic acids, and fulvic acids. On average, total WSOC (TWSOC) accounted for 60% of OC, and WSOCHPO accounted for 60% of TWSOC. Both WSOC HIP and WSOCHPO increased with photochemical aging determined from the NOx/NOy ratio. In particular, the average WSOCHPO mass was found to increase by a factor of five within a timescale of ∼10 hours, which was substantially larger than that of WSOCHPI (by a factor of 2-3). The total increase in OC mass with photochemical aging was associated with the large increase in WSOCHPO mass. These results, combined with the laboratory calibrations, suggest that significant amounts of hydrophobic organic compounds (likely containing large carbon numbers) were produced by photochemical processing. By contrast, water-insoluble OC (WIOC) mass did not exhibit significant changes with photochemical aging, suggesting that chemical transformation of WIOC to WSOC was not a dominant process for the production of WSOC during the study period. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union
High-Pressure Induced Structural Phase Transition in CaCrO4: Evidence from Raman Scattering Studies
Raman spectroscopic studies have been carried out on CaCrO4 under pressure up
to 26GPa at ambient temperature. The Raman spectra showed CaCrO4 experienced a
continuous structural phase transition started at near 6GPa, and finished at
about 10GPa. It is found that the high-pressure phase could be quenched to
ambient conditions. Pressure dependence of the Raman peaks suggested there
existed four pressure regions related to different structural characters. We
discussed these characters and inferred that the nonreversible structural
transition in CaCrO4, most likely was from a zircon-type (I41/amd) ambient
phase to a scheelite-type high pressure structure (I41/a).Comment: submitte
Resonant vibrations, peak broadening and noise in single molecule contacts: beyond the resonant tunnelling picture
We carry out experiments on single-molecule junctions at low temperatures,
using the mechanically controlled break junction technique. Analyzing the
results received with more than ten different molecules the nature of the first
peak in the differential conductance spectra is elucidated. We observe an
electronic transition with a vibronic fine structure, which is most frequently
smeared out and forms a broad peak. In the usual parameter range we find strong
indications that additionally fluctuations become active even at low
temperatures. We conclude that the electrical field feeds instabilities, which
are triggered by the onset of current. This is underscored by noise
measurements that show strong anomalies at the onset of charge transport
Poly(2-cyclopropyl-2-oxazoline): from rate acceleration by Cyclopropyl to Thermoresponsive properties
The synthesis and microwave-assisted living cationic ring-opening polymerization of 2-cyclopropyl-2-oxazoline is reported revealing the fastest polymerization for an aliphatic substituted 2-oxazoline to date, which is ascribed to the electron withdrawing effect of the cyclopropyl group. The poly(2-cyclopropyl-2-oxazoline) (pCPropOx) represents an alternative thermo-responsive poly(2-oxazoline) with a reversible critical temperature close to body temperature. The cloud point (CP) of the obtained pCPropOx in aqueous solution was evaluated in detail by turbidimetry, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and viscosity measurements. pCPropOx is amorphous with a significantly higher glass transition temperature (T(g) similar to 80 degrees C) compared to the amorphous poly(2-n-propyl-2-oxazoline) (pnPropOx) (T(g) similar to 40 degrees C), while poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline) piPropOx is semicrystalline. In addition, a pCPropOx comb polymer was prepared by methacrylic acid end-capping of the living cationic species followed by RAFT polymerization of the macromonomer. The polymer architecture does not influence the concentration dependence of the CP, however, both the CP and T(g) of the comb polymer are lower due to the increased number of hydrophobic end groups
Magnetic and structural quantum phase transitions in CeCu6-xAux are independent
The heavy-fermion compound CeCuAu has become a model system for
unconventional magnetic quantum criticality. For small Au concentrations , the compound undergoes a structural transition from
orthorhombic to monoclinic crystal symmetry at a temperature with
for . Antiferromagnetic order sets in
close to . To shed light on the interplay between quantum
critical magnetic and structural fluctuations we performed neutron-scattering
and thermodynamic measurements on samples with . The
resulting phase diagram shows that the antiferromagnetic and monoclinic phase
coexist in a tiny Au concentration range between and . The
application of hydrostatic and chemical pressure allows to clearly separate the
transitions from each other and to explore a possible effect of the structural
transition on the magnetic quantum critical behavior. Our measurements
demonstrate that at low temperatures the unconventional quantum criticality
exclusively arises from magnetic fluctuations and is not affected by the
monoclinic distortion.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Upper limits on stray force noise for LISA
We have developed a torsion pendulum facility for LISA gravitational
reference sensor ground testing that allows us to put significant upper limits
on residual stray forces exerted by LISA-like position sensors on a
representative test mass and to characterize specific sources of disturbances
for LISA. We present here the details of the facility, the experimental
procedures used to maximize its sensitivity, and the techniques used to
characterize the pendulum itself that allowed us to reach a torque sensitivity
below 20 fNm /sqrt{Hz} from 0.3 to 10 mHz. We also discuss the implications of
the obtained results for LISA.Comment: To be published in Classical and Quantum Gravity, special issue on
Amaldi5 2003 conference proceedings (10 pages, 6 figures
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