Entanglement between living bacteria and quantized light witnessed by Rabi splitting

We model recent experiments on living sulphur bacteria interacting with quantised light, using the Dicke model. The strong coupling achieved between the bacteria and the light indicates that during the experiment the bacteria (treated as dipoles) and the quantized light are entangled. The vacuum Rabi splitting, which was measured in the experiment for a range of different parameters, can be used as an entanglement witness

A Correlational Study of SansEC Sensors’ Electric Field Distribution on Lightning Attachment

Old Dominion University and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center (LaRC) Aviation Safety Program Atmospheric Environmental Safety Technologies Project team conducted research in using SansEC (Sans Electric Connection) sensors to provide lightning strike protection (LSP) and damage mitigation for composite aircraft. SansEC sensors are simplistic devices consisting of an open circuit conductive trace, shaped in a planar geometric spiral [1], [2], [3]. SansEC sensors can be designed in various shapes and sizes depending on the application. For applications on exterior aircraft surfaces, the sensor must be designed to perform the required lightning strike protection [1], [3]. Lightning-direct effect current tests were conducted on multiple sensor configurations to evaluate their ability to withstand the incident lightning energy and protect the underlying composite [3]. Test results indicated several SansEC sensor geometric configurations demonstrated an intrinsic ability to steer the lightning current along the corner of the sensor [3]. This was a significant finding because when lightning strikes an airplane, its current is channeled onto the aircraft surface at an attachment point and flows along the aircraft surface to the detachment point and can cause damage to critical points on the aircraft that can be catastrophic [3], [4], [5]. The SansEC sensors’ intrinsic ability to steer lightning current could be used to deflect lightning current from an attachment or detachment point to a less critical point on an in-flight aircraft, to mitigate detrimental damage. To investigate this phenomenology, electromagnetic computational simulations were conducted to calculate the electric field distribution on the SansEC sensors’ conductive trace to determine if the associated electromagnetic radiation preceding lightning attachment establishes modal structures on the conductive trace which predisposition the direction of the current flow [3]. The simulations provided a means to visualize the trace’s modal structure and identified electric field regions residing on the sensor [3]. This thesis presents a correlational study of the SansEC sensors’ computed electric field distribution to the measured lightning propagation direction for various SansEC sensor configurations [3]

A study of Chaetomium in cellulose decay

Only in recent years has there been any extensive investigation of fungi capable of attacking and utilizing cellulose materials. During this period many genera have been shown to be active cellulose destroyers. Chaetomium, which has been studied rather extensively, is a genus with fifty or more species, about one-half of which are known to be relatively high in cellulolytic activity. One of the most extensive studies in this genus has been that of Greathouse and Ames (3). They tested sixteen species, three of which were new, using various sources of nitrogen. They found that the sixteen species fall into seven groups based upon their ability to utilize the cotton fabric in the presence of different nitrogen sources. Chaetomium globosum caused the greatest deterioration to the fabric of any of the species tested, although C. caprinum, C. cancroideum, C. dolichotrichum and C. funicolum were nearly as active. In general agreement with the above workers, Thom, Humfield and Holman (5) had previously found that Chaetomium globosum was superior to the seven species they tested on fabric. In a much less complete study of this genus White, Darby, Stechert and Sanderson (6) found that Chaetomium indicum and C. funicolum were equally as active as Chaetomium globosum in destroying cellulose. Since a number of strains of Chaetomium globosum were available for study, it seemed of interest to compare their activity with other species, several of which had not been tested previously

Critical phenomena in globally coupled excitable elements

Critical phenomena in globally coupled excitable elements are studied by focusing on a saddle-node bifurcation at the collective level. Critical exponents that characterize divergent fluctuations of interspike intervals near the bifurcation are calculated theoretically. The calculated values appear to be in good agreement with those determined by numerical experiments. The relevance of our results to jamming transitions is also mentioned.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

OER Evidence Report 2013-2014

The Open Educational Resources Research Hub (OER Research Hub) provides a focus for research, designed to give answers to the overall question ‘What is the impact of OER on learning and teaching practices?’ and identify the particular influence of openness. We do this by working in collaboration with projects across four education sectors (K12, college, higher education and informal) extending a network of research with shared methods and shared results. The project combines: – Targeted research collaboration with high profile OER projects – A programme of international fellowship – Global networking and expertise in OER implementation and evaluation – A hub for research data and excellence in practice This report is an interim review of evidence recorded against the key hypotheses that focus the research of the OER Research Hub project

Transparent and Flexible Thin Film Electroluminescent Devices Using HiTUS Deposition and Laser Processing Fabrication

Highly transparent thin film electroluminescent structures offering excellent switch on characteristics, high luminance and large break-down voltages have been deposited onto glass and flexible polymeric materials with no substrate heating using high target utilization sputtering. Deposition of ZnS:Mn as the active light emitting layer and Y2O3,Al2O3,Ta2O5, and HfO2 as dielectric materials arranged in single and multiple layer configurations were investigated. Devices incorporating Al2O3,HfO2 quadruple layers demonstrate the highest attainable luminance at low threshold voltage. Single pulse excimer laser irradiation of the phosphor layer prior to deposition of the top dielectric layer enhanced the luminance of the devices. The devices fabricated on glass and polymeric substrates exhibited a maximum luminance of 500 and 450 cdm−2 when driven at 270 VRMS and 220 VRMS, respectively, with a 1.0 kHz sine wave

Correlational Study of Open Circuit Resonant (SansEC) Sensor’s Electric Field Distribution on Lightning Attachment

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is conducting research to develop an open circuit SansEC (Sans Electric Connection) sensor to provide lightning strike protection (LSP) in conjunction with damage detection and diagnosis for composite aircraft. SansEC sensors are simplistic devices consisting of an open circuit conductive trace shaped in a planar geometric spiral. The length and width of the conductive trace as well as the gap separation between adjacent turns determines the inductance, resistance and capacitance of the LRC circuit and its associated resonant response. When the sensor is placed on a composite substrate, the electric impedance of the substrate is reflected in the sensors resonant response thus enabling it to detect permittivity and conductivity changes associated with composite damage. SansEC sensors can be designed in various shapes and sizes depending on the application. For applications on exterior aircraft surfaces, the sensor must be designed to perform the required lightning strike protection in addition to damage detection and diagnosis. [1] [2] Lightning-direct effect current tests were conducted on multiple SansEC sensor configurations to evaluate their ability to withstand the incident lightning energy and protect the underlying composite. Test results indicated several SansEC sensor geometric configurations demonstrated an intrinsic ability to steer the lightning current along the corner of the sensor. To investigate this phenomenology, electromagnetic computational simulations were conducted to calculate the electric field distribution on the SansEC sensor’s conductive trace to determine if the associated electromagnetic radiation preceding lightning attachment establishes modal structures on the conductive trace which predisposition the direction of the current flow. The simulations provide a means to visualize the trace’s modal structure and identify electric field regions residing on the sensor. This paper presents a correlational study of the SansEC sensor’s computed electric field distribution to the measured lightning propagation direction for various SansEC sensor configurations. The study suggests the direction of lightning propagation follows strong electric field regions resident on the conductive trace