32,952 research outputs found
Nanoclay-Directed Structure and Morphology in PVDF Electrospun Membranes
The incorporation of organically modified Lucentite nanoclay dramatically modifies the structure and morphology of the PVDF electrospun fibers. In a molecular level, the nanoclay preferentially stabilizes the all-trans conformation of the polymer chain, promoting an α to β transformation of the crystalline phase. The piezoelectric properties of the β-phase carry great promise for energy harvest applications. At a larger scale, the nanoclay facilitates the formation of highly uniform, bead-free fibers. Such an effect can be attributed to the enhanced conductivity and viscoelasticity of the PVDF-clay suspension. The homogenous distribution of the directionally aligned nanoclays imparts advanced mechanical properties to the nanofibers
UV Upturn in Elliptical Galaxies: Theory
The UV upturn is the rising flux with decreasing wavelength between the Lyman
limit and 2500\AA found virtually in all bright spheroidal galaxies. It has
been a mystery ever since it was first detected by the OAO-2 space telescope
(Code & Welch 1979) because such old metal-rich populations were not expected
to contain any substantial number of hot stars. It was confirmed by following
space missions, ANS (de Boer 1982), IUE (Bertola et al. 1982) and HUT (Brown et
al. 1997). The positive correlation between the UV-to-optical colour (i.e., the
strength of the UV upturn) and the Mg2 line strength found by Burstein et al.
(1987) through IUE observations has urged theorists to construct novel
scenarios in which metal-rich () old ( a few Gyr)
stars become UV bright (Greggio & Renzini 1990; Horch et al. 1992). Also
interesting was to find using HUT that, regardless of the UV strength, the UV
spectral slopes at 1000--2000\AA in the six UV bright galaxies were nearly
identical suggesting a very small range of temperatures of the UV sources in
these galaxies (Brown et al. 1997), which corresponds to K. This, together with other evidence, effectively ruled out
young stars as the main driver of the UV upturn. A good review on the
observational side of the story is given in the next article by Tom Brown, as
well as in the recent articles of Greggio & Renzini (1999) and O'Connell
(1999).Comment: 6 figures; belated paper from Keele Conferenc
Estimation of COVID-19 spread curves integrating global data and borrowing information
Currently, novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a big threat to
global health. The rapid spread of the virus has created pandemic, and
countries all over the world are struggling with a surge in COVID-19 infected
cases. There are no drugs or other therapeutics approved by the US Food and
Drug Administration to prevent or treat COVID-19: information on the disease is
very limited and scattered even if it exists. This motivates the use of data
integration, combining data from diverse sources and eliciting useful
information with a unified view of them. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian
hierarchical model that integrates global data for real-time prediction of
infection trajectory for multiple countries. Because the proposed model takes
advantage of borrowing information across multiple countries, it outperforms an
existing individual country-based model. As fully Bayesian way has been
adopted, the model provides a powerful predictive tool endowed with uncertainty
quantification. Additionally, a joint variable selection technique has been
integrated into the proposed modeling scheme, which aimed to identify possible
country-level risk factors for severe disease due to COVID-19
Fatigability and Recovery of Arm Muscles with Advanced Age for Dynamic and Isometric Contractions
This study determined whether age-related mechanisms can increase fatigue of arm muscles during maximal velocity dynamic contractions, as it occurs in the lower limb. We compared elbow flexor fatigue of young (n = 10, 20.8 ± 2.7 years) and old men (n = 16, 73.8 ± 6.1 years) during and in recovery from a dynamic and an isometric postural fatiguing task. Each task was maintained until failure while supporting a load equivalent to 20% of maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) torque. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to assess supraspinal fatigue (superimposed twitch, SIT) and muscle relaxation. Time to failure was longer for the old men than for the young men for the isometric task (9.5 ± 3.1 vs. 17.2 ± 7.0 min, P = 0.01) but similar for the dynamic task (6.3 ± 2.4 min vs. 6.0 ± 2.0 min, P = 0.73). Initial peak rate of relaxation was slower for the old men than for the young men, and was associated with a longer time to failure for both tasks (P \u3c 0.05). Low initial power during elbow flexion was associated with the greatest difference (reduction) in time to failure between the isometric task and the dynamic task (r = − 0.54, P = 0.015). SIT declined after both fatigue tasks similarly with age, although the recovery of SIT was associated with MVIC recovery for the old (both sessions) but not for the young men. Biceps brachii and brachioradialis EMG activity (% MVIC) of the old men were greater than that of the young men during the dynamic fatiguing task (P \u3c 0.05), but were similar during the isometric task. Muscular mechanisms and greater relative muscle activity (EMG activity) explain the greater fatigue during the dynamic task for the old men compared with the young men in the elbow flexor muscles. Recovery of MVC torque however relies more on the recovery of supraspinal fatigue among the old men than among the young men
Fermion Production in Strong Magnetic Field and its Astrophysical Implications
We calculate the effective potential of a strong magnetic field induced by
fermions with anomalous magnetic moments which couple to the electromagnetic
field in the form of the Pauli interaction. For a uniform magnetic field, we
find the explicit form of the effective potential. It is found that the
non-vanishing imaginary part develops for a magnetic field stronger than a
critical field and has a quartic form which is quite different from the
exponential form of the Schwinger process. We also consider a linear magnetic
field configuration as an example of inhomogeneous magnetic fields. We find
that the imaginary part of the effective potential is nonzero even below the
critical field and shows an exponentially decreasing behavior with respect to
the inverse of the magnetic field gradient, which is the non-perturbative
characteristics analogous to the Schwinger process. These results imply the
instability of the strong magnetic field to produce fermion pairs as a purely
magnetic effect. The possible applications to the astrophysical phenomena with
strong magnetic field are also discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
N_pN_n dependence of empirical formula for the lowest excitation energy of the 2^+ states in even-even nuclei
We examine the effects of the additional term of the type on the recently proposed empirical formula for the lowest excitation
energy of the states in even-even nuclei. This study is motivated by the
fact that this term carries the favorable dependence of the valence nucleon
numbers dictated by the scheme. We show explicitly that there is not
any improvement in reproducing by including the extra
term. However, our study also reveals that the excitation energies
, when calculated by the term alone (with the mass number
dependent term), are quite comparable to those calculated by the original
empirical formula.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
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