3,252 research outputs found
A Comparative Analysis of Regional Production Costs of Fed Beef Produced for the U.S. and Japanese Markets
This study compared and analyzed actual 1989 production costs for representative regional feedlots in the U.S. The results show that grain surplus regions have lower total costs and poorer feeding efficiencies. The analysis suggest that Iowa has a comparative advantage in producing heavily marbled beef required by the Japanese market. Southwestern states have an advantage in producing leaner beef and stand to benefit if U.S. consumers develop a taste for Select-quality beef
Direct ab initio MD simulation of silver ion diffusion in chalcogenide glasses
In this paper, we present new models of germanium selenide chalcogenide
glasses heavily doped with silver. The models were readily obtained with ab
initio molecular dynamics and their structure agrees closely with diffraction
measurements. Thermal molecular dynamics simulation reveals the dynamics of Ag+
ions and the existence of trapping centers as conjectured in other theory work.
We show that first principles simulation is a powerful tool to reveal the
motion of ions in glass.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Stat. Sol. {b} Rapid Research
Letter
Magnetoresistance and spin-transfer torque in magnetic tunnel junctions
We comment on both recent progress and lingering puzzles related to research
on magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). MTJs are already being used in
applications such as magnetic-field sensors in the read heads of disk drives,
and they may also be the first device geometry in which spin-torque effects are
applied to manipulate magnetic dynamics, in order to make nonvolatile magnetic
random access memory. However, there remain many unanswered questions about
such basic properties as the magnetoresistance of MTJs, how their properties
change as a function of tunnel-barrier thickness and applied bias, and what are
the magnitude and direction of the spin-transfer-torque vector induced by a
tunnel current.Comment: 37 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to a collection of "Current
Perspectives" articles on spin transfer torque now available in the Journal
of Magnetism and Magnetic Material
Hypercoagulability progresses to hypocoagulability during evolution of acetaminophen-induced acute liver injury in pigs
Increases in prothrombin time (PT) and international normalised ratio (INR) characterise acute liver injury (ALI) and failure (ALF), yet a wide heterogeneity in clotting abnormalities exists. This study defines evolution of coagulopathy in 10 pigs with acetaminophen (APAP)-induced ALI compared to 3 Controls. APAP administration began at 0 h and continued to ‘ALF’, defined as INR >3. In APAP pigs, INR was 1.05 ± 0.02 at 0 h, 2.15 ± 0.43 at 16 h and > 3 at 18 ± 1 h. At 12 h thromboelastography (TEG) demonstrated increased clot formation rate, associated with portal vein platelet aggregates and reductions in protein C, protein S, antithrombin and A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease with Thrombospondin type 1 repeats–13 (ADAMTS-13) to 60%, 24%, 47% and 32% normal respectively. At 18 ± 1 h, INR > 3 was associated with: hypocoagulable TEG profile with heparin-like effect; falls in thrombin generation, Factor V and Factor VIII to 52%, 19% and 17% normal respectively; further decline in anticoagulants; thrombocytopenia; neutrophilia and endotoxemia. Multivariate analysis, found that ADAMTS-13 was an independent predictor of a hypercoagulable TEG profile and platelet count, endotoxin, Protein C and fibrinogen were independent predictors of a hypocoagulable TEG profile. INR remained normal in Controls. Dynamic changes in coagulation occur with progression of ALI: a pro-thrombotic state progresses to hypocoagulability
Recent progress with large-scale ab initio calculations: the CONQUEST code
While the success of density functional theory (DFT) has led to its use in a
wide variety of fields such as physics, chemistry, materials science and
biochemistry, it has long been recognised that conventional methods are very
inefficient for large complex systems, because the memory requirements scale as
and the cpu requirements as (where is the number of atoms). The
principles necessary to develop methods with linear scaling of the cpu and
memory requirements with system size ( methods) have been
established for more than ten years, but only recently have practical codes
showing this scaling for DFT started to appear. We report recent progress in
the development of the \textsc{Conquest} code, which performs
DFT calculations on parallel computers, and has a demonstrated ability to
handle systems of over 10,000 atoms. The code can be run at different levels of
precision, ranging from empirical tight-binding, through \textit{ab initio}
tight-binding, to full \textit{ab initio}, and techniques for calculating ionic
forces in a consistent way at all levels of precision will be presented.
Illustrations are given of practical \textsc{Conquest} calculations in the
strained Ge/Si(001) system.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted by phys. stat. sol.
High-reflectivity, high-Q micromechanical membranes via guided resonances for enhanced optomechanical coupling
Using Fano-type guided resonances (GRs) in photonic crystal (PhC) slab
structures, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate optical reflectivity
enhancement of high-Q SiNx membrane-type resonators used in
membrane-in-the-middle optomechanical (OM) systems. Normal-incidence
transmission and mechanical ringdown measurements of 50-nm-thick PhC membranes
demonstrate GRs near 1064 nm, leading to a ~ 4\times increase in reflectivity
while preserving high mechanical Q factors of up to ~ 5 \times 10^6. The
results would allow improvement of membrane-in-the-middle OM systems by virtue
of increased OM coupling, presenting a path towards ground state cooling of
such a membrane and observations of related quantum effects
Microwave Oscillations of a Nanomagnet Driven by a Spin-Polarized Current
We describe direct electrical measurements of microwave-frequency dynamics in
individual nanomagnets that are driven by spin transfer from a DC
spin-polarized current. We map out the dynamical stability diagram as a
function of current and magnetic field, and we show that spin transfer can
produce several different types of magnetic excitations, including small-angle
precession, a more complicated large-angle motion, and a high-current state
that generates little microwave signal. The large-angle mode can produce a
significant emission of microwave energy, as large as 40 times the
Johnson-noise background.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
Dynamic Structure Factor of Liquid and Amorphous Ge From Ab Initio Simulations
We calculate the dynamic structure factor S(k,omega) of liquid Ge (l-Ge) at
temperature T = 1250 K, and of amorphous Ge (a-Ge) at T = 300 K, using ab
initio molecular dynamics. The electronic energy is computed using
density-functional theory, primarily in the generalized gradient approximation,
together with a plane wave representation of the wave functions and ultra-soft
pseudopotentials. We use a 64-atom cell with periodic boundary conditions, and
calculate averages over runs of up to 16 ps. The calculated liquid S(k,omega)
agrees qualitatively with that obtained by Hosokawa et al, using inelastic
X-ray scattering. In a-Ge, we find that the calculated S(k,omega) is in
qualitative agreement with that obtained experimentally by Maley et al. Our
results suggest that the ab initio approach is sufficient to allow approximate
calculations of S(k,omega) in both liquid and amorphous materials.Comment: 31 pages and 8 figures. Accepted for Phys. Rev.
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