18,294 research outputs found
Zeevruchten: Microplastics op je bord?
Onze samenleving lijdt aan een ‘plastic passion’. Plastic is werkelijk overal. Tot in zeevruchten tref je minuscule stukjes plastic, zogenaamde microplastics, aan. Microplastics is de naam voor stukjes plastic kleiner dan 5mm. Soms zijn ze zo gemaakt, denk maar aan de plastic pellets als grondstof gebruikt in de plasticindustrie of als schuurparels in verzorgingscrubs. Maar microplastics kunnen ook ontstaan door het uiteenvallen van grote stukken plastic afval of bij het wassen van synthetische kledij. Je vindt deze plastic vezeltjes en stukjes in onder andere mosselen en Noordzeegarnalen. De aanwezigheid van microplastics in ons voedsel haalt vaak het nieuws en zorgt voor ongerustheid bij de liefhebbers van al het lekkers uit zee. Maar moeten we ons ook echt zorgen maken
The granular silo as a continuum plastic flow: the hour-glass vs the clepsydra
The granular silo is one of the many interesting illustrations of the
thixotropic property of granular matter: a rapid flow develops at the outlet,
propagating upwards through a dense shear flow while material at the bottom
corners of the container remains static. For large enough outlets, the
discharge flow is continuous; however, by contrast with the clepsydra for which
the flow velocity depends on the height of fluid left in the container, the
discharge rate of granular silos is constant. Implementing a plastic rheology
in a 2D Navier-Stokes solver (following the mu(I)-rheology or a constant
friction), we simulate the continuum counterpart of the granular silo. Doing
so, we obtain a constant flow rate during the discharge and recover the
Beverloo scaling independently of the initial filling height of the silo. We
show that lowering the value of the coefficient of friction leads to a
transition toward a different behavior, similar to that of a viscous fluid, and
where the filling height becomes active in the discharge process. The pressure
field shows that large enough values of the coefficient of friction (
0.3) allow for a low-pressure cavity to form above the outlet, and can thus
explain the Beverloo scaling. In conclusion, the difference between the
discharge of a hourglass and a clepsydra seems to reside in the existence or
not of a plastic yield stress.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Exploring prospects of novel drugs for tuberculosis
Tuberculosis remains a disease with an enormous impact on public health worldwide. With the continuously increasing epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis, new drugs are desperately needed. However, even for the treatment of drug-sensitive tuberculosis, new drugs are required to shorten the treatment duration and thereby prevent development of drug resistance. Within the past ten years, major advances in tuberculosis drug research have been made, leading to a considerable number of antimycobacterial compounds which are now in the pipeline. Here we discuss a number of these novel promising tuberculosis drugs, as well as the discovery of two new potential drug targets for the development of novel effective drugs to curb the tuberculosis pandemic, ie, the coronin 1 and protein kinase G pathways. Protein kinase G is secreted by mycobacteria and is responsible for blocking lysosomal delivery within the macrophage. Coronin 1 is responsible for activating the phosphatase, calcineurin, and thereby preventing phagosome-lysosome fusion within the macrophage. Blocking these two pathways may lead to rapid killing of mycobacteri
Monolithic microwave integrated circuit water vapor radiometer
A proof of concept Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) Water Vapor Radiometer (WVR) is under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). WVR's are used to remotely sense water vapor and cloud liquid water in the atmosphere and are valuable for meteorological applications as well as for determination of signal path delays due to water vapor in the atmosphere. The high cost and large size of existing WVR instruments motivate the development of miniature MMIC WVR's, which have great potential for low cost mass production. The miniaturization of WVR components allows large scale deployment of WVR's for Earth environment and meteorological applications. Small WVR's can also result in improved thermal stability, resulting in improved calibration stability. Described here is the design and fabrication of a 31.4 GHz MMIC radiometer as one channel of a thermally stable WVR as a means of assessing MMIC technology feasibility
The relation between bar formation, galaxy luminosity, and environment
We derive the bar fraction in three different environments ranging from the
field to Virgo and Coma clusters, covering an unprecedentedly large range of
galaxy luminosities (or, equivalently, stellar masses). We confirm that the
fraction of barred galaxies strongly depends on galaxy luminosity. We also show
that the difference between the bar fraction distributions as a function of
galaxy luminosity (and mass) in the field and Coma cluster are statistically
significant, with Virgo being an intermediate case. We interpret this result as
a variation of the effect of environment on bar formation depending on galaxy
luminosity. We speculate that brighter disk galaxies are stable enough against
interactions to keep their cold structure, thus, the interactions are able to
trigger bar formation. For fainter galaxies the interactions become strong
enough to heat up the disks inhibiting bar formation and even destroying the
disks. Finally, we point out that the controversy regarding whether the bar
fraction depends on environment could be resolved by taking into account the
different luminosity ranges of the galaxy samples studied so far.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of EWASS 2012
Special Session 4, Structure of galaxy disks shaped by secular evolution and
environmental processes, ed. P. Di Matteo and C. Jog, Memorie della Societ\`a
Astronomica Italiana Supplement Serie
Short-time Critical Dynamics of the 3-Dimensional Ising Model
Comprehensive Monte Carlo simulations of the short-time dynamic behaviour are
reported for the three-dimensional Ising model at criticality. Besides the
exponent of the critical initial increase and the dynamic exponent
, the static critical exponents and as well as the critical
temperature are determined from the power-law scaling behaviour of observables
at the beginning of the time evolution. States of very high temperature as well
as of zero temperature are used as initial states for the simulations.Comment: 8 pages with 7 figure
Quantum simulation of a Fermi-Hubbard model using a semiconductor quantum dot array
Interacting fermions on a lattice can develop strong quantum correlations,
which lie at the heart of the classical intractability of many exotic phases of
matter. Seminal efforts are underway in the control of artificial quantum
systems, that can be made to emulate the underlying Fermi-Hubbard models.
Electrostatically confined conduction band electrons define interacting quantum
coherent spin and charge degrees of freedom that allow all-electrical
pure-state initialisation and readily adhere to an engineerable Fermi-Hubbard
Hamiltonian. Until now, however, the substantial electrostatic disorder
inherent to solid state has made attempts at emulating Fermi-Hubbard physics on
solid-state platforms few and far between. Here, we show that for gate-defined
quantum dots, this disorder can be suppressed in a controlled manner. Novel
insights and a newly developed semi-automated and scalable toolbox allow us to
homogeneously and independently dial in the electron filling and
nearest-neighbour tunnel coupling. Bringing these ideas and tools to fruition,
we realize the first detailed characterization of the collective Coulomb
blockade transition, which is the finite-size analogue of the
interaction-driven Mott metal-to-insulator transition. As automation and device
fabrication of semiconductor quantum dots continue to improve, the ideas
presented here show how quantum dots can be used to investigate the physics of
ever more complex many-body states
Finite-size scaling of directed percolation above the upper critical dimension
We consider analytically as well as numerically the finite-size scaling
behavior in the stationary state near the non-equilibrium phase transition of
directed percolation within the mean field regime, i.e., above the upper
critical dimension. Analogous to equilibrium, usual finite-size scaling is
valid below the upper critical dimension, whereas it fails above. Performing a
momentum analysis of associated path integrals we derive modified finite-size
scaling forms of the order parameter and its higher moments. The results are
confirmed by numerical simulations of corresponding high-dimensional lattice
models.Comment: 4 pages, one figur
A comparison of efficient permutation tests for unbalanced ANOVA in two by two designs--and their behavior under heteroscedasticity
We compare different permutation tests and some parametric counterparts that
are applicable to unbalanced designs in two by two designs. First the different
approaches are shortly summarized. Then we investigate the behavior of the
tests in a simulation study. A special focus is on the behavior of the tests
under heteroscedastic variances.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, Working Paper of the Department of Management
And Enigineering of the University of Padov
- …