1,927 research outputs found
Techno-economic Evaluation Methodology and Preliminary Comparison of an Amine-based and Advanced Solid Sorbent-based CO2 Capture Process for NGCC Power Plants
AbstractThe post combustion capture process using the traditional amine based solvent absorption process is a very mature technology that suffers from a high energy penalty being taken on the power plant and requires significant capital investment that causes us a high increase in the cost of electricity. An advanced solid-based adsorption is discussed in this work as well as a techno-economic evaluation methodology in order to compare the advantages of this novel process to the conventional process. Some indications of the expected technical and economic benefits of the process are also discussed
A comparison of Noether charge and Euclidean methods for Computing the Entropy of Stationary Black Holes
The entropy of stationary black holes has recently been calculated by a
number of different approaches. Here we compare the Noether charge approach
(defined for any diffeomorphism invariant Lagrangian theory) with various
Euclidean methods, specifically, (i) the microcanonical ensemble approach of
Brown and York, (ii) the closely related approach of Ba\~nados, Teitelboim, and
Zanelli which ultimately expresses black hole entropy in terms of the Hilbert
action surface term, (iii) another formula of Ba\~nados, Teitelboim and Zanelli
(also used by Susskind and Uglum) which views black hole entropy as conjugate
to a conical deficit angle, and (iv) the pair creation approach of Garfinkle,
Giddings, and Strominger. All of these approaches have a more restrictive
domain of applicability than the Noether charge approach. Specifically,
approaches (i) and (ii) appear to be restricted to a class of theories
satisfying certain properties listed in section 2; approach (iii) appears to
require the Lagrangian density to be linear in the curvature; and approach (iv)
requires the existence of suitable instanton solutions. However, we show that
within their domains of applicability, all of these approaches yield results in
agreement with the Noether charge approach. In the course of our analysis, we
generalize the definition of Brown and York's quasilocal energy to a much more
general class of diffeomorphism invariant, Lagrangian theories of gravity. In
an appendix, we show that in an arbitrary diffeomorphism invariant theory of
gravity, the ``volume term" in the ``off-shell" Hamiltonian associated with a
time evolution vector field always can be expressed as the spatial
integral of , where are the constraints
associated with the diffeomorphism invariance.Comment: 29 pages (double-spaced) late
Kinetics of the DNA polymerase \u3ci\u3epyrococcus kodakaraensis\u3c/i\u3e
The polymerase chain reaction is one of the most important reactions in molecular biology. Single stranded DNA is copied in a complex series of steps, at the core of which lies the action of the DNA polymerase. At each nucleotide along the template, the polymerase screens the dNTP pool until it finds the complementary dNTP. The insertion of each dNMP is a balance between high fidelity and rapid elongation. In this study the kinetics of the β type polymerase pyrococcus kodakaraensis (KOD) is analyzed. The kinetics is influenced by reaction conditions such as the dNTP pool composition and temperature. In a previous study by Viljoen et al. [2005, A macroscopic kinetic model for DNA polymerase elongation and high-fidelity nucleotide selection. Computational Biology and Chemistry 29, 101–110], a macroscopic kinetics expression of the polymerase chain reaction has been derived. The model contains four parameters that are intrinsic to a specific polymerase. The experiments to measure the temperature- dependence of the parameters for KOD DNA polymerase are reported. The results indicate that the optimal temperature for an equimolar dNTP pool is 72.5 °C and the optimum temperature shifts to lower temperatures when the dNTP pool composition is biased
Application of Bounded Linear Stability Analysis Method for Metrics-Driven Adaptive Control
This paper presents the application of Bounded Linear Stability Analysis (BLSA) method for metrics-driven adaptive control. The bounded linear stability analysis method is used for analyzing stability of adaptive control models, without linearizing the adaptive laws. Metrics-driven adaptive control introduces a notion that adaptation should be driven by some stability metrics to achieve robustness. By the application of bounded linear stability analysis method the adaptive gain is adjusted during the adaptation in order to meet certain phase margin requirements. Analysis of metrics-driven adaptive control is evaluated for a second order system that represents a pitch attitude control of a generic transport aircraft. The analysis shows that the system with the metrics-conforming variable adaptive gain becomes more robust to unmodeled dynamics or time delay. The effect of analysis time-window for BLSA is also evaluated in order to meet the stability margin criteria
Equivalence of the (generalised) Hadamard and microlocal spectrum condition for (generalised) free fields in curved spacetime
We prove that the singularity structure of all n-point distributions of a
state of a generalised real free scalar field in curved spacetime can be
estimated if the two-point distribution is of Hadamard form. In particular this
applies to the real free scalar field and the result has applications in
perturbative quantum field theory, showing that the class of all Hadamard
states is the state space of interest. In our proof we assume that the field is
a generalised free field, i.e. that it satisies scalar (c-number) commutation
relations, but it need not satisfy an equation of motion. The same argument
also works for anti-commutation relations and it can be generalised to
vector-valued fields. To indicate the strengths and limitations of our
assumption we also prove the analogues of a theorem by Borchers and Zimmermann
on the self-adjointness of field operators and of a very weak form of the
Jost-Schroer theorem. The original proofs of these results in the Wightman
framework make use of analytic continuation arguments. In our case no
analyticity is assumed, but to some extent the scalar commutation relations can
take its place.Comment: 18 page
Decoupling in the 1D frustrated quantum XY model and Josephson junction ladders: Ising critical behavior
A generalization of the one-dimensional frustrated quantum XY model is
considered in which the inter and intra-chain coupling constants of the two
infinite XY (planar rotor) chains have different strengths. The model can
describe the superconductor to insulator transition due to charging effects in
a ladder of Josephson junctions in a magnetic field with half a flux quantum
per plaquette. From a fluctuation-effective action, this transition is expected
to be in the universality class of the two-dimensional classical XY-Ising
model. The critical behavior is studied using a Monte Carlo transfer matrix
applied to the path-integral representation of the model and a
finite-size-scaling analysis of data on small system sizes. It is found that,
unlike the previous studied case of equal inter and intra-chain coupling
constants, the XY and Ising-like excitations of the quantum model decouple for
large interchain coupling, giving rise to pure Ising model critical behavior
for the chirality order parameter and a superconductor-insulator transition in
the universality class of the 2D classical XY model.Comment: 15 pages with figures, RevTex 3.0, INPE-93/00
Associations between blood sex steroid concentrations and risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in healthy older women in Australia: a prospective cohort substudy of the ASPREE trial
Background: Blood testosterone concentrations in women decline during the reproductive years and reach a nadir in the seventh decade, after which concentrations increase and are restored to those of reproductive-aged women early in the eighth decade. We aimed to establish the association between the concentration of testosterone in the blood and risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all-cause mortality in healthy older women. Methods: SHOW was a prospective cohort substudy of the longitudinal randomised ASPREE trial. Eligible participants were women aged at least 70 years from Australia with unimpaired cognition, no previous MACE, and a life expectancy of at least 5 years. Participants who were receiving hormonal or steroid therapy were ineligible for inclusion. We measured serum concentrations of sex steroids with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and of SHBG with immunoassay. We compared lower concentrations of sex hormones with higher concentrations using four quartiles. Primary endpoints were risk of MACE and all-cause mortality, the associations of which with sex steroid concentrations were assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression that included age, body-mass index, smoking status, alcohol consumption, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, impaired renal function, and treatment allocation in the ASPREE trial (aspirin vs placebo). ASPREE is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01038583. Findings: Of the 9180 women recruited to the ASPREE trial between March 10, 2010, and Dec 31 2014, 6358 participants provided sufficient biobank samples at baseline and 5535 were included in the final analysis. Median age at entry was 74·0 years (IQR 71·7–77·7). During a median 4·4 years of follow-up (24 553 person-years), 144 (2·6%) women had a first MACE (incidence 5·9 per 1000 person-years). During a median 4·6 years of follow-up (3·8–5·6), 200 women died (7·9 per 1000 person-years). In the fully adjusted models, higher concentrations of testosterone were associated with a lower incidence of MACE (quartile 4 vs quartile 1: hazard ratio 0·57 [95% CI 0·36–0·91]; p=0·02), as were higher concentrations of DHEA (quartile 4 vs quartile 1: 0·61 [0·38–0·97]; p=0·04). For oestrone, a lower risk of MACE was seen for concentrations in quartile 2 only, compared with quartile 1 (0·55 [0·33–0·92]; p=0·02). In fully adjusted models, no association was seen between SHBG and MACE, or between any hormone or SHBG and all-cause mortality. Interpretation: Blood concentrations of testosterone and DHEA above the lowest quartile in older women were associated with a reduced risk of a first-ever MACE. Given that the physiological effects of DHEA are mediated through its steroid metabolites, if the current findings were to be replicated, trials investigating testosterone therapy for the primary prevention of ischaemic cardiovascular disease events in older women would be warranted. Funding: The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, US National Institute on Aging, the Victorian Cancer Agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and Monash University
Anomalous dimensions and phase transitions in superconductors
The anomalous scaling in the Ginzburg-Landau model for the superconducting
phase transition is studied. It is argued that the negative sign of the
exponent is a consequence of a special singular behavior in momentum space. The
negative sign of comes from the divergence of the critical correlation
function at finite distances. This behavior implies the existence of a Lifshitz
point in the phase diagram. The anomalous scaling of the vector potential is
also discussed. It is shown that the anomalous dimension of the vector
potential has important consequences for the critical dynamics in
superconductors. The frequency-dependent conductivity is shown to obey the
scaling . The prediction is
obtained from existing Monte Carlo data.Comment: RevTex, 20 pages, no figures; small changes; version accepted in PR
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