426 research outputs found
Terahertz Sieves
[EN] Imaging at terahertz (THz) frequencies offers a great potential for applications including security screening, telecommunications biodetection, and spectroscopy. Some of these applications need specially designed lenses with customized characteristics that are not commercially available. In this letter, we present the THz sieves as a new kind of THz lenses. We demonstrate that these lenses improve the resolution of conventional zone plates constructed with the same level of detail. Amplitude and phase THz sieves were three-dimensional printed and tested experimentally. Excellent agreement was obtained between the experimental and calculated results.This work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and FEDER, Spain, under Grant DPI2015-71256-R, in part by the Generalitat Valenciana under Grant PROMETEOII-2014-072, Spain, and in part by the National Center for Research and Development in Poland under Grant LIDER/020/319/L-5/13/NCBR/2014.Machado-Olivares, FJ.; Zagrajek, P.; Monsoriu Serra, JA.; Furlan, WD. (2018). Terahertz Sieves. IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology. 8(1):140-143. https://doi.org/10.1109/TTHZ.2017.2762292S1401438
Would You Be Happier If You Looked Better? A Focusing Illusion
Some people might believe that individuals who are more satisfied with their body are also happier. However, people tend to overrate the influence of some factors (e.g. money or health) on their happiness; a phenomenon termed the focusing illusion. Our aim was to examine the focusing illusion in relation to body satisfaction. We experimentally manipulated body satisfaction and life satisfaction focus by varying the order of relevant measurement scales. Volunteers (N = 97) completed two questionnaires placed in separate envelopes to control the order of scales administration. Participants either completed the Body Satisfaction Scale followed by the Satisfaction with Life Scale or vice versa. In line with the focusing illusion the association between body satisfaction and life satisfaction was significantly stronger when participants were asked about their body satisfaction first. Body satisfaction as a focusing illusion may need to be considered by scientist as well as lay people who try to look better and be happier
Feasibility of Undertaking Off-Site Infant Eye-Tracking Assessments of Neuro-Cognitive Functioning in Early-Intervention Centres
Recent work suggests that differences in functional brain development
are already identifiable in 6- to 9-month-old infants from low
socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. Investigation of early
SES-related differences in neuro-cognitive functioning requires
the recruitment of large and diverse samples of infants, yet it is
often difficult to persuade low-SES parents to come to a university
setting. One solution is to recruit infants through early intervention
children’s centres (CCs). These are often located in areas of
high relative deprivation to support young children. Given the
increasing portability of eye-tracking equipment, assessment of
large clusters of infants could be undertaken in centres by suitably
trained early intervention staff. Here, we report on a study involving
174 infants and their parents, carried out in partnership with
CCs, exploring the feasibility of this approach. We report the
processes of setting up the project and participant recruitment.
We report the diversity of sample obtained on the engagement of
CC staff in training and the process of assessment itself.We report
the quality of the data obtained, and the levels of engagement of
parents and infants. We conclude that this approach has great
potential for recruiting large and diverse samples worldwide,
provides sufficiently reliable data and is engaging to staff, parents
and infants
Cataclysmic Variables in the First Year of the Zwicky Transient Facility
Using selection criteria based on amplitude, time, and color, we have identified 329 objects as known or candidate cataclysmic variables (CVs) during the first year of testing and operation of the Zwicky Transient Facility. Of these, 90 are previously confirmed CVs, 218 are strong candidates based on the shape and color of their light curves obtained during 3–562 days of observation, and the remaining 21 are possible CVs but with too few data points to be listed as good candidates. Almost half of the strong candidates are within 10 deg of the galactic plane, in contrast to most other large surveys that have avoided crowded fields. The available Gaia parallaxes are consistent with sampling the low mass transfer CVs, as predicted by population models. Our follow-up spectra have confirmed Balmer/helium emission lines in 27 objects, with four showing high-excitation He ii emission, including candidates for an AM CVn, a polar, and an intermediate polar. Our results demonstrate that a complete survey of the Galactic plane is needed to accomplish an accurate determination of the number of CVs existing in the Milky Way
Synthetic antibodies against BRIL as universal fiducial marks for single-particle cryoEM structure determination of membrane proteins
We propose the concept of universal fiducials based on a set of pre-made semi-synthetic antibodies (sABs) generated by customized phage display selections against the fusion protein BRIL, an engineered variant of apocytochrome b562a. These sABs can bind to BRIL fused either into the loops or termini of different GPCRs, ion channels, receptors and transporters without disrupting their structure. A crystal structure of BRIL in complex with an affinity-matured sAB (BAG2) that bound to all systems tested delineates the footprint of interaction. Negative stain and cryoEM data of several examples of BRIL-membrane protein chimera highlight the effectiveness of the sABs as universal fiducial marks. Taken together with a cryoEM structure of sAB bound human nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, this work demonstrates that these anti-BRIL sABs can greatly enhance the particle properties leading to improved cryoEM outcomes, especially for challenging membrane proteins
Technical Design Report for the PANDA Solenoid and Dipole Spectrometer Magnets
This document is the Technical Design Report covering the two large
spectrometer magnets of the PANDA detector set-up. It shows the conceptual
design of the magnets and their anticipated performance. It precedes the tender
and procurement of the magnets and, hence, is subject to possible modifications
arising during this process.Comment: 10 pages, 14MB, accepted by FAIR STI in May 2009, editors: Inti
Lehmann (chair), Andrea Bersani, Yuri Lobanov, Jost Luehning, Jerzy Smyrski,
Technical Coordiantor: Lars Schmitt, Bernd Lewandowski (deputy),
Spokespersons: Ulrich Wiedner, Paola Gianotti (deputy
Cataclysmic Variables in the First Year of the Zwicky Transient Facility
Using selection criteria based on amplitude, time, and color, we have identified 329 objects as known or candidate cataclysmic variables (CVs) during the first year of testing and operation of the Zwicky Transient Facility. Of these, 90 are previously confirmed CVs, 218 are strong candidates based on the shape and color of their light curves obtained during 3–562 days of observation, and the remaining 21 are possible CVs but with too few data points to be listed as good candidates. Almost half of the strong candidates are within 10 deg of the galactic plane, in contrast to most other large surveys that have avoided crowded fields. The available Gaia parallaxes are consistent with sampling the low mass transfer CVs, as predicted by population models. Our follow-up spectra have confirmed Balmer/helium emission lines in 27 objects, with four showing high-excitation He ii emission, including candidates for an AM CVn, a polar, and an intermediate polar. Our results demonstrate that a complete survey of the Galactic plane is needed to accomplish an accurate determination of the number of CVs existing in the Milky Way
- …