418 research outputs found
TWO RECIPES FROM PORTUGUESE TRADITION OF GILDING ON WOODEN SUPPORT BETWEEN LABORATORY REPRODUCTION AND ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATION
This paper has the main purpose to compile and highlight the first data obtained from
experimental studies on docÎŒmented reconstructions of gilded composites performed within a
research project on gilding materials and techniques in Portugal (www.gilt-teller.pt) funded by
FCT. Two water gilding recipes were appropriately chosen from the treatises written by the
Portuguese Filipe Nunes (1615) and José Lopes Baptista de Almada (1749) as being
representative for Baroque Ă©poque. Based on these recipes, the production of raw materials -
âgesso grossoâ, âgesso finoâ, bole, animal glue (from lamb and goat skins) - was made as
faithful as possible. Their application was then performed in laboratory following the
indications given by these authors or by treatises of previous Ă©poques (e.g. the Bolognese
treatise for thawing leather), on plane and curved wooden supports (pine and oak species)
using three types of leaf: gold (Au/Ag/Cu) of 22 and 23.75 karat respectively and silver. After
the completion of gilding, the samplesâ surfaces were divided into areas and on each different
finishing layers (wax, animal glue size) and decorations (punching, âesgrafitadoâ, âestofadoâ)
were applied. An analytical campaign using optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) on surfaces and cross sections, X-ray diffraction (XRD), microcomputerized
tomography (microCT) and colorimetry (CIEL*a*b*) was undertaken in order to
characterize the gilded composites and to assess the faithfulness of the reproductions in the
laboratory. Correlations between the information given by the recipes and the composition and
stratigraphical patterns of the reconstructions can be established. Furthermore, the study aims
to highlight the difficulties encountered in analyzing real samples and comparing the results
with those from reproductions as the number and types of layered materials are not always
reproducible. A critical approach is needed and criteria for faithful reproduction of ancient
recipes are suggested
From Things to Services: A Social IoT Approach for Tourist Service Management
In the context of Internet of Things (IoT), the cooperation and synergy between varied and disparate communicating objects is strained by trustworthiness, confidentiality and interoperability concerns. These restrictions can limit the development of IoT-based applications especially considering the emergent boost in the number of communicating objects and their growing itinerant nature in a collective service context. A new perspective arises with the paradigm of Social Internet of Things (SIoT), that relies on the implementation of semi-independent communicating objects with cooperation assessed by social relations and social feed-back. In this article, we present the development and expansion of the IoT concept towards SIoT in the context of the interactions between tourist services as communicating objects. As a proof-of-concept we propose a composition of services as virtualized social objects and the interaction between them, by taking into consideration the balance, trustworthiness, cooperation and synergy of services. Furthermore we present a solution to integrate also accessibility in SIoT services. The presented concept is presented using a demonstrator build for tourist services
Purification of Noisy Entanglement and Faithful Teleportation via Noisy Channels
Two separated observers, by applying local operations to a supply of
not-too-impure entangled states ({\em e.g.} singlets shared through a noisy
channel), can prepare a smaller number of entangled pairs of arbitrarily high
purity ({\em e.g.} near-perfect singlets). These can then be used to faithfully
teleport unknown quantum states from one observer to the other, thereby
achieving faithful transfrom one observer to the other, thereby achieving
faithful transmission of quantum information through a noisy channel. We give
upper and lower bounds on the yield of pure singlets ()
distillable from mixed states , showing if
\bra{\Psi^-}M\ket{\Psi^-}>\half.Comment: 4 pages (revtex) plus 1 figure (postscript). See also
http://vesta.physics.ucla.edu/~smolin/ . Replaced to correct interchanged
and near top of column 2, page
Uncertainty in the Representation of Orography in Weather and Climate Models and Implications for Parameterized Drag
The representation of orographic drag remains a major source of uncertainty for numerical weather prediction (NWP) and climate models. Its accuracy depends on contributions from both the model gridâscale orography (GSO) and the subgridâscale orography (SSO). Different models use different source orography datasets and different methodologies to derive these orography fields. This study presents the first comparison of orography fields across several operational global NWP models. It also investigates the sensitivity of an orographic drag parameterisation to the interâmodel spread in SSO fields and the resulting implications for representing the northern hemisphere winter circulation in a NWP model. The interâmodel spread in both the GSO and the SSO fields is found to be considerable. This is due to differences in the underlying source dataset employed and in the manner in which this dataset is processed (in particular how it is smoothed and interpolated) to generate the model fields. The sensitivity of parameterised orographic drag to the interâmodel variability in SSO fields is shown to be considerable and dominated by the influence of two SSO fields: the standard deviation and the mean gradient of the SSO. NWP model sensitivity experiments demonstrate that the interâmodel spread in these fields is of firstâorder importance to the interâmodel spread in parameterised surface stress, and to current known systematic model biases. The revealed importance of the SSO fields supports careful reconsideration of how these fields are generated, guiding future development of orographic drag parameterisations and reâevaluation of the resolved impacts of orography on the flow
Enhancement of de Haas-van Alphen Oscillation due to Spin in the Magnetic Breakdown System
The effects of the Zeeman term on the de Haas-van Alphen oscillation is
studied in the magnetic breakdown system. We find that the amplitude of the
oscillation with the frequencies of and are enhanced by the Zeeman term, while they are expected to be
reduced in the semiclassical theory. A possible interpretation of the
experiments in organic conductors is discussed.Comment: 4 pages,4 figures. Submitted to Journal of Physical Society of Japa
Motional effects on the efficiency of excitation transfer
Energy transfer plays a vital role in many natural and technological
processes. In this work, we study the effects of mechanical motion on the
excitation transfer through a chain of interacting molecules with application
to biological scenarios of transfer processes. Our investigation demonstrates
that, for various types of mechanical oscillations, the transfer efficiency is
significantly enhanced over that of comparable static configurations. This
enhancement is a genuine quantum signature, and requires the collaborative
interplay between the quantum-coherent evolution of the excitation and the
mechanical motion of the molecules; it has no analogue in the classical
incoherent energy transfer. This effect may not only occur naturally, but it
could be exploited in artificially designed systems to optimize transport
processes. As an application, we discuss a simple and hence robust control
technique.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures; completely revised; version accepted for
publicatio
The foundations of statistical mechanics from entanglement: Individual states vs. averages
We consider an alternative approach to the foundations of statistical
mechanics, in which subjective randomness, ensemble-averaging or time-averaging
are not required. Instead, the universe (i.e. the system together with a
sufficiently large environment) is in a quantum pure state subject to a global
constraint, and thermalisation results from entanglement between system and
environment. We formulate and prove a "General Canonical Principle", which
states that the system will be thermalised for almost all pure states of the
universe, and provide rigorous quantitative bounds using Levy's Lemma.Comment: 12 pages, v3 title changed, v2 minor change
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