813 research outputs found
Effects of environmental conditions on the micro-mechanical properties of formulated waterborne coatings
Waterborne colloidal polymer coatings are widely used in architectural and agricultural applications where they are subject to challenging environments, such as extremes of temperatures and relative humidities (RH). This research investigates the effects of adding two common co-formulants, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and xanthan gum (XG), to waterborne polymer composite coatings in these environments. The mechanical properties of the resulting coatings are of particular interest. Hardness, creep and tack properties of thick (similar to 400 mu m) formulated model coatings were characterized using a micro-indentation technique operating in a single cycle within a bespoke environmental chamber. Measurements were made at three temperatures (16, 20 and 30 degrees C), which span the glass transition temperature (T-g) of the acrylic copolymer binder, and over three RH values of 10%, 43%, and 90%. The creep data were analysed using the Burgers model to extract characteristic viscoelastic properties. The tack was found by recording the force when withdrawing the probe from the sample and using it to obtain nominal stress (knowing the indentation depth and probe geometry) during the indenter's withdrawal and hence the work of adhesion (W-Adh) to detach from the coating. Tack adhesion is completely lost below the binder's T-g but increases when the ambient temperature increases. In formulated coatings, both the tack and creep deformation increase as the relative humidity increases, and this trend is observed at each temperature. There is no evidence from thermal analysis for plasticization of the acrylic polymer by moisture sorption, but the two co-formulants are hydrophilic. The observed softening of the coatings at high RH can be attributed to water sorption in the components. The presence of glassy PAA has the effect of raising the hardness of glassy coatings, but only at low RH when there is no plasticization by water. The addition of hydrophilic XG surprisingly reduces tack adhesion while also raising the viscosity of the coating. These findings will inform the formulation of waterborne colloidal coatings to function in a range of environments.work was funded by EPSRC (Grant EP/L016788/1) through the
Doctoral Training Centre in Micro- and NanoMaterials and Technology
(MiNMaT). We benefited from useful discussions with Dr. Marco Ram-
aioli (INRAE, AgroParisTech - Center de Massy) and Dr. Nicholas Ballard
(University of the Basque Country). We thank Violeta Doukova and Dave
Jones (University of Surrey) for laboratory assistance and Dr. Agata
Gajewicz-Jaromin for performing DSC and TGA analyses. We also thank
Dr. James Adams (Cubica Technology) for his assistance in writing data
analysis scripts. We thank Richard Turner (Acal BFI UK Ltd.) for the
relative humidity and temperature probes, and for his assistance with
their setup
Finitely presented wreath products and double coset decompositions
We characterize which permutational wreath products W^(X)\rtimes G are
finitely presented. This occurs if and only if G and W are finitely presented,
G acts on X with finitely generated stabilizers, and with finitely many orbits
on the cartesian square X^2. On the one hand, this extends a result of G.
Baumslag about standard wreath products; on the other hand, this provides
nontrivial examples of finitely presented groups. For instance, we obtain two
quasi-isometric finitely presented groups, one of which is torsion-free and the
other has an infinite torsion subgroup.
Motivated by the characterization above, we discuss the following question:
which finitely generated groups can have a finitely generated subgroup with
finitely many double cosets? The discussion involves properties related to the
structure of maximal subgroups, and to the profinite topology.Comment: 21 pages; no figure. To appear in Geom. Dedicat
Experiments on the twisted vortex state in superfluid 3He-B
We have performed measurements and numerical simulations on a bundle of
vortex lines which is expanding along a rotating column of initially
vortex-free 3He-B. Expanding vortices form a propagating front: Within the
front the superfluid is involved in rotation and behind the front the twisted
vortex state forms, which eventually relaxes to the equilibrium vortex state.
We have measured the magnitude of the twist and its relaxation rate as function
of temperature above 0.3Tc. We also demonstrate that the integrity of the
propagating vortex front results from axial superfluid flow, induced by the
twist.Comment: prepared for proceedings of the QFS2007 symposium in Kaza
Absence of a dose-rate effect in the transformation of C3H 10T1/2 cells by α-particles
The findings of Hill et al. (1984) on the greatly enhanced transformation frequencies at very low dose rates of fission neutrons induced us to perform an analogous study with -particles at comparable dose rates. Transformation frequencies were determined with γ-rays at high dose rate (0·5 Gy/min), and with -particles at high (0·2 Gy/min) and at low dose rates (0·83-2·5 mGy/min) in the C3H 10T1/2 cell system.
α-particles were substantially more effective than γ-rays, both for cell inactivation and for neoplastic transformation at high and low dose rates. The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) for cell inactivation and for neoplastic transformation was of similar magnitude, and ranged from about 3 at an -particle dose of 2 Gy to values of the order of 10 at 0·25 Gy. In contrast to the experiments of Hill et al. (1984) with fission neutrons, no increased transformation frequencies were observed when the -particle dose was protracted over several hours
The silting of Lake Carthage, Carthage, Illinois
Cover title.Bibliographical footnotes.Enumeration continues through succeeding title
Electron Spin Decoherence in Bulk and Quantum Well Zincblende Semiconductors
A theory for longitudinal (T1) and transverse (T2) electron spin coherence
times in zincblende semiconductor quantum wells is developed based on a
non-perturbative nanostructure model solved in a fourteen-band restricted basis
set. Distinctly different dependences of coherence times on mobility,
quantization energy, and temperature are found from previous calculations.
Quantitative agreement between our calculations and measurements is found for
GaAs/AlGaAs, InGaAs/InP, and GaSb/AlSb quantum wells.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Quantum Computing with Atomic Josephson Junction Arrays
We present a quantum computing scheme with atomic Josephson junction arrays.
The system consists of a small number of atoms with three internal states and
trapped in a far-off resonant optical lattice. Raman lasers provide the
"Josephson" tunneling, and the collision interaction between atoms represent
the "capacitive" couplings between the modes. The qubit states are collective
states of the atoms with opposite persistent currents. This system is closely
analogous to the superconducting flux qubit. Single qubit quantum logic gates
are performed by modulating the Raman couplings, while two-qubit gates result
from a tunnel coupling between neighboring wells. Readout is achieved by tuning
the Raman coupling adiabatically between the Josephson regime to the Rabi
regime, followed by a detection of atoms in internal electronic states.
Decoherence mechanisms are studied in detail promising a high ratio between the
decoherence time and the gate operation time.Comment: 7 figure
Higgs Boson Decay into Hadronic Jets
The remarkable agreement of electroweak data with standard model (SM)
predictions motivates the study of extensions of the SM in which the Higgs
boson is light and couples in a standard way to the weak gauge bosons.
Postulated new light particles should have small couplings to the gauge bosons.
Within this context it is natural to assume that the branching fractions of the
light SM-like Higgs boson mimic those in the standard model. This assumption
may be unwarranted, however, if there are non-standard light particles coupled
weakly to the gauge bosons but strongly to the Higgs field. In particular, the
Higgs boson may effectively decay into hadronic jets, possibly without
important bottom or charm flavor content. As an example, we present a simple
extension of the SM, in which the predominant decay of the Higgs boson occurs
into a pair of light bottom squarks that, in turn, manifest themselves as
hadronic jets. Discovery of the Higgs boson remains possible at an
electron-positron linear collider, but prospects at hadron colliders are
diminished substantially.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figure
Reddening law and interstellar dust properties along Magellanic sight-lines
This study establishes that SMC, LMC and Milky Way extinction curves obey the
same extinction law which depends on the 2200A bump size and one parameter, and
generalizes the Cardelli, Clayton and Mathis (1989) relationship. This suggests
that extinction in all three galaxies is of the same nature. The role of linear
reddening laws over all the visible/UV wavelength range, particularly important
in the SMC but also present in the LMC and in the Milky Way, is also
highlighted and discussed.Comment: accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science. 16 pages,
12 figures. Some figures are colour plot
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