1,039 research outputs found
Hydrogen production by photoelectrolytic decomposition of H2O using solar energy
Photoelectrochemical systems for the efficient decomposition of water are discussed. Semiconducting d band oxides which would yield the combination of stability, low electron affinity, and moderate band gap essential for an efficient photoanode are sought. The materials PdO and Fe-xRhxO3 appear most likely. Oxygen evolution yields may also be improved by mediation of high energy oxidizing agents, such as CO3(-). Examination of several p type semiconductors as photocathodes revealed remarkable stability for p-GaAs, and also indicated p-CdTe as a stable H2 photoelectrode. Several potentially economical schemes for photoelectrochemical decomposition of water were examined, including photoelectrochemical diodes and two stage, four photon processes
Bloch Electrons in a Magnetic Field - Why Does Chaos Send Electrons the Hard Way?
We find that a 2D periodic potential with different modulation amplitudes in
x- and y-direction and a perpendicular magnetic field may lead to a transition
to electron transport along the direction of stronger modulation and to
localization in the direction of weaker modulation. In the experimentally
accessible regime we relate this new quantum transport phenomenon to avoided
band crossing due to classical chaos.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, minor modifications, PRL to appea
Direct detection and characterization of foot-and-mouth disease virus in East Africa using a field-ready real-time PCR platform
Effective control and monitoring of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) relies upon rapid and accurate disease confirmation. Currently, clinical samples are usually tested in reference laboratories using standardized assays recommended by The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). However, the requirements for prompt and serotype-specific diagnosis during FMD outbreaks, and the need to establish robust laboratory testing capacity in FMD-endemic countries have motivated the development of simple diagnostic platforms to support local decision-making. Using a portable thermocycler, the T-COR™ 8, this study describes the laboratory and field evaluation of a commercially available, lyophilized pan-serotype-specific real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) assay and a newly available FMD virus (FMDV) typing assay (East Africa-specific for serotypes: O, A, Southern African Territories [SAT] 1 and 2). Analytical sensitivity, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the pan-serotype-specific lyophilized assay were comparable to that of an OIE-recommended laboratory-based rRT-PCR (determined using a panel of 57 FMDV-positive samples and six non-FMDV vesicular disease samples for differential diagnosis). The FMDV-typing assay was able to correctly identify the serotype of 33/36 FMDV-positive samples (no cross-reactivity between serotypes was evident). Furthermore, the assays were able to accurately detect and type FMDV RNA in multiple sample types, including epithelial tissue suspensions, serum, oesophageal–pharyngeal (OP) fluid and oral swabs, both with and without the use of nucleic acid extraction. When deployed in laboratory and field settings in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, both assays reliably detected and serotyped FMDV RNA in samples (n = 144) collected from pre-clinical, clinical and clinically recovered cattle. These data support the use of field-ready rRT-PCR platforms in endemic settings for simple, highly sensitive and rapid detection and/or characterization of FMDV
Hall conductance of Bloch electrons in a magnetic field
We study the energy spectrum and the quantized Hall conductance of electrons
in a two-dimensional periodic potential with perpendicular magnetic field
WITHOUT neglecting the coupling of the Landau bands. Remarkably, even for weak
Landau band coupling significant changes in the Hall conductance compared to
the one-band approximation of Hofstadter's butterfly are found. The principal
deviations are the rearrangement of subbands and unexpected subband
contributions to the Hall conductance.Comment: to appear in PRB; Revtex, 9 pages, 5 postscript figures; figures with
better resolution may be obtained from http://www.chaos.gwdg.d
A modified version of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II for cognitive matching of infants with and without Down syndrome
Background Many measures of infants' early cognitive development, including the BSID-II (The Bayley Scales of Infant Development), mix together test items that assess a number of different developmental domains including language, attention, motor functioning and social abilities, and some items contribute to the assessment of more than one domain. Consequently, the scales may lead to under- or over-estimates of cognitive abilities in some clinical samples and may not be the best measure to use for matching purposes.
Method To address this issue we created a modified form of the BSID-II (the BSID-M) to provide a ‘purer’ assessment of the general cognitive capacities in infants with Down syndrome (DS) from 6 to 18 months of age. We excluded a number of items that implicated language, motor, attentional and social functioning from the original measure. This modified form was administered to 17 infants with Down syndrome when 6, 12 and 18 months old and to 41 typically developing infants at 4, 7 and 10 months old.
Results The results suggested that the modified form continued to provide a meaningful and stable measure of cognitive functioning and revealed that DS infants may score marginally higher in terms of general cognitive abilities when using this modified form than they might when using the standard BSID-II scales.
Conclusions This modified form may be useful for researchers who need a ‘purer’ measure with which to match infants with DS and other infants with intellectual disabilities on cognitive functioning
Fractal Stability Border in Plane Couette Flow
We study the dynamics of localised perturbations in plane Couette flow with
periodic lateral boundary conditions. For small Reynolds number and small
amplitude of the initial state the perturbation decays on a viscous time scale
. For Reynolds number larger than about 200, chaotic transients
appear with life times longer than the viscous one. Depending on the type of
the perturbation isolated initial conditions with infinite life time appear for
Reynolds numbers larger than about 270--320. In this third regime, the life
time as a function of Reynolds number and amplitude is fractal. These results
suggest that in the transition region the turbulent dynamics is characterised
by a chaotic repeller rather than an attractor.Comment: 4 pages, Latex, 4 eps-figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Le
The Bean-Livingston barrier at a superconductor/magnet interface
The Bean-Livingston barrier at the interface of type-II
superconductor/soft-magnet heterostructures is studied on the basis of the
classical London approach. This shows a characteristic dependence on the
geometry of the particular structure and its interface as well as on the
relative permeability of the involved magnetic constituent. The modification of
the barrier by the presence of the magnet can be significant, as demonstrated
for a cylindrical superconducting filament covered with a coaxial magnetic
sheath. Using typical values of the relative permeability, the critical field
of first penetration of magnetic flux is predicted to be strongly enhanced,
whereas the variation of the average critical current density with the external
field is strongly depressed, in accord with the observations of recent
experiments.Comment: RevTeX 4; revised version; accepted in Journal of Physics: Condensed
Matte
Crystal Growth, Characterization and Anisotropic Electrical Properties of GaSe Single Crystals for THz Source and Radiation Detector Applications
The single crystal growth of large semi‐insulating GaSe by the vertical Bridgman technique using zone‐refined selenium (Se) and HP gallium (Ga) is described. The grown crystals (up to 10 cm long and 2.5 cm diameter) have been characterized thoroughly by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive analysis by x‐rays (EDAX), optical absorption/transmission, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), charge carrier electrical property measurements, second harmonic test, and radiation detection measurements
Debt Maturity Choices, Multi-stage Investments and Financing Constraints
We develop a dynamic investment options framework with optimal capital structure and analyze the effect of debt maturity. We find that in the absence of financing constraints short-term debt maximizes firm value. In contrast with most literature results, in the absence of constraints, higher volatility may increase initial debt for firms with low initial revenues, issuing long term debt that expires after the investment option maturity. This effect, which is due to the option value of receiving the value of assets and remaining tax savings, does not hold for short term debt and firms with high profitability, where an increase in volatility reduces the firm value. The importance of short-term debt is reduced in the presence of non-negative equity net worth or debt financing constraints and firms behave more conservatively in the use of initial debt. With non-negative equity net worth, higher volatility has adverse effects on the firm value, while with debt financing constraints higher volatility may enhance firm value for firms with relatively low revenue that have out-of-the-money investment options
Hyperon weak radiative decays in chiral perturbation theory
We investigate the leading-order amplitudes for weak radiative decays of
hyperons in chiral perturbation theory. We consistently include contributions
from the next-to-leading order weak-interaction Lagrangian. It is shown that
due to these terms Hara's theorem is violated. The data for the decays of
charged hyperons can be easily accounted for. However, at this order in the
chiral expansion, the four amplitudes for the decays of neutral hyperons
satisfy relations which are in disagreement with the data. The asymmetry
parameters for all the decays can not be accounted for without higher-order
terms. We shortly comment on the effect of the 27-plet part of the weak
interaction.Comment: 8 pages of REVTeX and using macro-package "feynman.tex" (available at
http://xxx.lanl.gov/ftp/hep-ph/papers/macros) for the 2 figure
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