2,469 research outputs found
Design of catalytic monoliths for closed-cycle carbon dioxide lasers
Pulsed carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers have many applications in aeronautics, space research, weather monitoring and other areas. Full exploitation of the potential of these lasers in hampered by the dissociation of CO2 that occurs during laser operation. The development of closed-cycle CO2 lasers requires active CO-O2 recombination (CO oxidation) catalyst and design methods for implementation of catalysts in CO2 laser systems. A monolith catalyst section model and associated design computer program, LASCAT, are presented to assist in the design of a monolith catalyst section of a closed cycle CO2 laser system. Using LASCAT,the designer is able to specify a number of system parameters and determine the monolith section performance. Trade-offs between the catalyst activity, catalyst dimensions, monolith dimensions, pressure drop, O2 conversion, and other variables can be explored and adjusted to meet system design specifications. An introduction describes a typical closed-cycle CO2 system, and indicates some advantages of a closed cycle laser system over an open cycle system and some advantages of monolith support over other types of supports. The development and use of a monolith catalyst model is presented. The results of a design study and a discussion of general design rules are given
Lorentz angle measurements in irradiated silicon detectors between 77 K and 300 K
Future experiments are using silicon detectors in a high radiation
environment and in high magnetic fields. The radiation tolerance of silicon
improves by cooling it to temperatures below 180 K. At low temperatures the
mobility increases, which leads to larger deflections of the charge carriers by
the Lorentz force. A good knowledge of the Lorentz angle is needed for design
and operation of silicon detectors. We present measurements of the Lorentz
angle between 77 K and 300 K before and after irradiation with a primary beam
of 21 MeV protons.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ICHEP2000, Osaka, Japa
Noise Stabilization of Self-Organized Memories
We investigate a nonlinear dynamical system which ``remembers'' preselected
values of a system parameter. The deterministic version of the system can
encode many parameter values during a transient period, but in the limit of
long times, almost all of them are forgotten. Here we show that a certain type
of stochastic noise can stabilize multiple memories, enabling many parameter
values to be encoded permanently. We present analytic results that provide
insight both into the memory formation and into the noise-induced memory
stabilization. The relevance of our results to experiments on the
charge-density wave material is discussed.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Why, what, and how? case study on law, risk, and decision making as necessary themes in built environment teaching
The paper considers (and defends) the necessity of including legal studies as a core part of built environment undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. The writer reflects upon his own experience as a lawyer working alongside and advising built environment professionals in complex land remediation and site safety management situations in the United Kingdom and explains how themes of liability, risk, and decision making can be integrated into a practical simulation in order to underpin more traditional lecture-based law teaching. Through reflection upon the writer's experiments with simulation-based teaching, the paper suggests some innovations that may better orientate law teaching to engage these themes and, thereby, enhance the relevance of law studies to the future needs of built environment professionals in practice.</p
New magnetic phase in metallic V_{2-y}O_3 close to the metal insulator transition
We have observed two spin density wave (SDW) phases in hole doped metallic
V_{2-y}O_3, one evolves from the other as a function of doping, pressure or
temperature. They differ in their response to an external magnetic field, which
can also induce a transition between them. The phase boundary between these two
states in the temperature-, doping-, and pressure-dependent phase diagram has
been determined by magnetization and magnetotransport measurements. One phase
exists at high doping level and has already been described in the literature.
The second phase is found in a small parameter range close to the boundary to
the antiferromagnetic insulating phase (AFI). The quantum phase transitions
between these states as a function of pressure and doping and the respective
metamagnetic behavior observed in these phases are discussed in the light of
structurally induced changes of the band structure.Comment: REVTeX, 8 pages, 12 EPS figures, submitted to PR
Clinical disease course and survival outcomes following disease recurrence in adenoid cystic carcinoma with and without NOTCH signaling pathway activation.
BACKGROUND: Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is a rare salivary cancer. The highest rates of disease recurrence are in patients with NOTCH pathway activation, reported in up to 20%. Novel drugs targeting NOTCH signaling are under investigation in the recurrent/metastatic (R/M) setting. To understand their clinical utility, there is an urgent need to better characterize the disease course and outcomes following current standard of care treatment. METHODS: 120 patients with R/M ACC underwent clinical review at a single UK Cancer Centre. Patients were retrospectively assessed for tumor NOTCH pathway activation using next generation sequencing (NGS) targeting NOTCH1/2/3 genes and/or NOTCH1 intra-cellular domain (NICD1) immunohistochemistry. Demographic and treatment data were extracted from the clinical notes. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed using log rank test. RESULTS: NOTCH pathway activation was identified in 13/120 patients (11 %). In 12/101 patients analyzed by NGS, NOTCH1/3 activating somatic mutations were identified, and a further patient was identified with NICD1 diffuse nuclear staining in whom NGS testing was not possible. Patients with NOTCH pathway activation had shorter median RFS (1.1 vs 3.4 years, p = 0.2032) and significantly reduced median OS from diagnosis (4.0 vs 16.3 years, p < 0.0001). There was significantly reduced median OS from time of disease recurrence/metastasis (1.9 vs 9.6 years, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study clearly demonstrates a reduction in OS from time of first confirmed disease recurrence/metastasis for patients with NOTCH pathway activated ACC. This provides support for developing new drugs for this sub-group of patients, for whom clinical outcomes are significantly worse and effective treatments are lacking
Gender equality and girls education: Investigating frameworks, disjunctures and meanings of quality education
The article draws on qualitative educational research across a diversity of low-income countries to examine the gendered inequalities in education as complex, multi-faceted and situated rather than a series of barriers to be overcome through linear inputâoutput processes focused on isolated dimensions of quality. It argues that frameworks for thinking about educational quality often result in analyses of gender inequalities that are fragmented and incomplete. However, by considering education quality more broadly as a terrain of quality it investigates questions of educational transitions, teacher supply and community participation, and develops understandings of how education is experienced by learners and teachers in their gendered lives and their teaching practices. By taking an approach based on theories of human development the article identifies dynamics of power underpinning gender inequalities in the literature and played out in diverse contexts and influenced by social, cultural and historical contexts. The review and discussion indicate that attaining gender equitable quality education requires recognition and understanding of the ways in which inequalities intersect and interrelate in order to seek out multi-faceted strategies that address not only different dimensions of girlsâ and womenâs lives, but understand gendered relationships and structurally entrenched inequalities between women and men, girls and boys
The Acute Brain Response to Levodopa Heralds Dyskinesias in Parkinson Disease
OBJECTIVE: In Parkinson disease (PD), longâterm treatment with the dopamine precursor levodopa gradually induces involuntary âdyskinesiaâ movements. The neural mechanisms underlying the emergence of levodopaâinduced dyskinesias in vivo are still poorly understood. Here, we applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map the emergence of peakâofâdose dyskinesias in patients with PD. METHODS: Thirteen PD patients with dyskinesias and 13 PD patients without dyskinesias received 200mg fastâacting oral levodopa following prolonged withdrawal from their normal dopaminergic medication. Immediately before and after levodopa intake, we performed fMRI, while patients produced a mouse click with the right or left hand or no action (NoâGo) contingent on 3 arbitrary cues. The scan was continued for 45 minutes after levodopa intake or until dyskinesias emerged. RESULTS: During NoâGo trials, PD patients who would later develop dyskinesias showed an abnormal gradual increase of activity in the presupplementary motor area (preSMA) and the bilateral putamen. This hyperactivity emerged during the first 20 minutes after levodopa intake. At the individual level, the excessive NoâGo activity in the predyskinesia period predicted whether an individual patient would subsequently develop dyskinesias (p < 0.001) as well as severity of their dayâtoâday symptomatic dyskinesias (p < 0.001). INTERPRETATION: PD patients with dyskinesias display an immediate hypersensitivity of preSMA and putamen to levodopa, which heralds the failure of neural networks to suppress involuntary dyskinetic movements. Ann Neurol 2014;75:829â83
Exciton bimolecular annihilation dynamics in supramolecular nanostructures of conjugated oligomers
We present femtosecond transient absorption measurements on -conjugated
supramolecular assemblies in a high pump fluence regime.
Oligo(\emph{p}-phenylenevinylene) monofunctionalized with
ureido-\emph{s}-triazine (MOPV) self-assembles into chiral stacks in dodecane
solution below 75C at a concentration of M. We
observe exciton bimolecular annihilation in MOPV stacks at high excitation
fluence, indicated by the fluence-dependent decay of B-exciton
spectral signatures, and by the sub-linear fluence dependence of time- and
wavelength-integrated photoluminescence (PL) intensity. These two
characteristics are much less pronounced in MOPV solution where the phase
equilibrium is shifted significantly away from supramolecular assembly,
slightly below the transition temperature. A mesoscopic rate-equation model is
applied to extract the bimolecular annihilation rate constant from the
excitation fluence dependence of transient absorption and PL signals. The
results demonstrate that the bimolecular annihilation rate is very high with a
square-root dependence in time. The exciton annihilation results from a
combination of fast exciton diffusion and resonance energy transfer. The
supramolecular nanostructures studied here have electronic properties that are
intermediate between molecular aggregates and polymeric semiconductors
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