Hydrogeologic framework and geologic structure of the Floridan aquifer system and intermediate confining unit in the Lake Okeechobee area, Florida

USGS Publications Warehouse

Reese, Ronald S.

2014-01-01

The successful implementation of aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) as a water-management tool requires detailed information on the hydrologic and hydraulic properties of the potential water storage zones. This report presents stratigraphic and hydrogeologic sections of the upper part of the Floridan aquifer system and the overlying confining unit or aquifer system in the Lake Okeechobee area, and contour maps of the upper contacts of the Ocala Limestone and the Arcadia Formation, which are represented in the sections. The sections and maps illustrate hydrogeologic factors such as confinement of potential storage zones, the distribution of permeability within the zones, and geologic features that may control the efficiency of injection, storage, and recovery of water, and thus may influence decisions on ASR activities in areas of interest to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

Unifying Computer-Based Assessment across Conceptual Instruction, Problem-Solving, and Digital Games

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, William L.; Baker, Ryan S.; Rossi, Lisa M.

2014-01-01

As students work through online learning systems such as the Reasoning Mind blended learning system, they often are not confined to working within a single educational activity; instead, they work through various different activities such as conceptual instruction, problem-solving items, and fluency-building games. However, most work on assessing…

On the Effect of Confinement on the Structure and Properties of Small-Molecular Organic Semiconductors

DOE PAGES

Martín, Jaime; Dyson, Matthew; Reid, Obadiah G.; ...

2017-12-11

Many typical organic optoelectronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, and photovoltaic cells, use an ultrathin active layer where the organic semiconductor is confined within nanoscale dimensions. However, the question of how this spatial constraint impacts the active material is rarely addressed, although it may have a drastic influence on the phase behavior and microstructure of the active layer and hence the final performance. Here, the small-molecule semiconductor p-DTS(FBTTh 2) 2 is used as a model system to illustrate how sensitive this class of material can be to spatial confinement on device-relevant length scales. It is also shown thatmore » this effect can be exploited; it is demonstrated, for instance, that spatial confinement is an efficient tool to direct the crystal orientation and overall texture of p-DTS(FBTTh 2) 2 structures in a controlled manner, allowing for the manipulation of properties including photoluminescence and charge transport characteristics. This insight should be widely applicable as the temperature/confinement phase diagrams established via differential scanning calorimetry and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction are used to identify specific processing routes that can be directly extrapolated to other functional organic materials, such as polymeric semiconductors, ferroelectrics or high-refractive-index polymers, to induce desired crystal textures or specific (potentially new) polymorphs.« less

On the Effect of Confinement on the Structure and Properties of Small-Molecular Organic Semiconductors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Martín, Jaime; Dyson, Matthew; Reid, Obadiah G.

Many typical organic optoelectronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, and photovoltaic cells, use an ultrathin active layer where the organic semiconductor is confined within nanoscale dimensions. However, the question of how this spatial constraint impacts the active material is rarely addressed, although it may have a drastic influence on the phase behavior and microstructure of the active layer and hence the final performance. Here, the small-molecule semiconductor p-DTS(FBTTh 2) 2 is used as a model system to illustrate how sensitive this class of material can be to spatial confinement on device-relevant length scales. It is also shown thatmore » this effect can be exploited; it is demonstrated, for instance, that spatial confinement is an efficient tool to direct the crystal orientation and overall texture of p-DTS(FBTTh 2) 2 structures in a controlled manner, allowing for the manipulation of properties including photoluminescence and charge transport characteristics. This insight should be widely applicable as the temperature/confinement phase diagrams established via differential scanning calorimetry and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction are used to identify specific processing routes that can be directly extrapolated to other functional organic materials, such as polymeric semiconductors, ferroelectrics or high-refractive-index polymers, to induce desired crystal textures or specific (potentially new) polymorphs.« less

Dancing disclinations in confined active nematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shendruk, Tyler N.; Doostmohammadi, Amin; Thijssen, Kristian; Yeomans, Julia M.

The spontaneous emergence of collective flows is a generic property of active fluids and often leads to chaotic flow patterns characterised by swirls, jets, and topological disclinations in their orientation field. However, the ability to achieve structured flows and ordered disclinations is of particular importance in the design and control of active systems. By confining an active nematic fluid within a channel, we find a regular motion of disclinations, in conjunction with a well defined and dynamic vortex lattice. As pairs of moving disclinations travel through the channel, they continually exchange partners producing a dynamic ordered state, reminiscent of Ceilidh dancing. We anticipate that this biomimetic ability to self-assemble organised topological disclinations and dynamically structured flow fields in engineered geometries will pave the road towards establishing new active topological microfluidic devices.

WASTE HANDLING BUILDING VENTILATION SYSTEM DESCRIPTION DOCUMENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

P.A. Kumar

2000-06-21

The Waste Handling Building Ventilation System provides heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) for the contaminated, potentially contaminated, and uncontaminated areas of the Monitored Geologic Repository's (MGR) Waste Handling Building (WHB). In the uncontaminated areas, the non-confinement area ventilation system maintains the proper environmental conditions for equipment operation and personnel comfort. In the contaminated and potentially contaminated areas, in addition to maintaining the proper environmental conditions for equipment operation and personnel comfort, the contamination confinement area ventilation system directs potentially contaminated air away from personnel in the WHB and confines the contamination within high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration units. Themore » contamination confinement areas ventilation system creates airflow paths and pressure zones to minimize the potential for spreading contamination within the building. The contamination confinement ventilation system also protects the environment and the public by limiting airborne releases of radioactive or other hazardous contaminants from the WHB. The Waste Handling Building Ventilation System is designed to perform its safety functions under accident conditions and other Design Basis Events (DBEs) (such as earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, and loss of the primary electric power). Additional system design features (such as compartmentalization with independent subsystems) limit the potential for cross-contamination within the WHB. The system provides status of important system parameters and equipment operation, and provides audible and/or visual indication of off-normal conditions and equipment failures. The Waste Handling Building Ventilation System confines the radioactive and hazardous material within the building such that the release rates comply with regulatory limits. The system design, operations, and maintenance activities incorporate ALARA (as low as is reasonably achievable) principles to maintain personnel radiation doses to all occupational workers below regulatory limits and as low as is reasonably achievable. The Waste Handling Building Ventilation System interfaces with the Waste Handling Building System by being located within the WHB and by maintaining specific pressures, temperatures, and humidity within the building. The system also depends on the WHB for water supply. The system interfaces with the Site Radiological Monitoring System for continuous monitoring of the exhaust air; the Waste Handling Building Fire Protection System for detection of fire and smoke; the Waste Handling Building Electrical System for normal, emergency, and standby power; and the Monitored Geologic Repository Operations Monitoring and Control System for monitoring and control of the system.« less

Influence of the confining pressure on precursory and rupture processes of Westerly granite.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Passelegue, Francois; Nicolas, Aurelien; Madonna, Claudio; Schubnel, Alexandre

2016-04-01

In the shallow crust, brittle deformation mechanisms lead to damage and rupture of rocks. These mechanisms are generally described by non-linear stress relations and decrease of the elastic moduli due to microcrak opening and sliding. However, failure mode depends on confining pressure and ranges from axial splitting to shear localization. Here we report experiments on Westerly granite samples deformed under controlled upper crustal stress conditions in the laboratory. Experiments were conducted under triaxial loading (σ1>σ2=σ3) at confining pressures (σ3) ranging from 2 to 50 MPa (similar to upper crustal stress conditions) and at constant axial strain rate 10-5/s. Usual a dual gain system, a high frequency acoustic monitoring array recorded particles acceleration during macroscopic rupture of the intact specimen and premonitory background microseismicity. Secondly, acoustic sensors were used in an active way to measure the evolution of elastic wave velocities. In addition, we used an amplified strain gage to record the dynamic stress change during the dynamic rupture. Our preliminary results show that increasing confining pressure leads to the transition between axial cracks opening to shear localization. This result is supported by the moment tensor solutions of acoustic emissions and CT scan imaging of the post mortem sample. In addition, we systematically observe an exponential increase of the premonitory activity up to the shear failure of the sample. While the intensity of this precursory activity increase with the confining pressure in term of energy, the crack density leading to the failure of the sample is independent of the confinement. We show that the dynamic rupture occurs in only few microseconds, suggesting a rupture speed close to the shear wave velocity. In addition, the ratio between the stress drop and the peak of stress increases with the confinement. This result suggest that the weakening of faulting increases with the confinement. Finally, using both dynamic stress drop and axial displacement measurement, we show that the fracture energy increases with both confining pressure and seismic slip.

CFCC: A Covert Flows Confinement Mechanism for Virtual Machine Coalitions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Ge; Jin, Hai; Zou, Deqing; Shi, Lei; Ohoussou, Alex K.

Normally, virtualization technology is adopted to construct the infrastructure of cloud computing environment. Resources are managed and organized dynamically through virtual machine (VM) coalitions in accordance with the requirements of applications. Enforcing mandatory access control (MAC) on the VM coalitions will greatly improve the security of VM-based cloud computing. However, the existing MAC models lack the mechanism to confine the covert flows and are hard to eliminate the convert channels. In this paper, we propose a covert flows confinement mechanism for virtual machine coalitions (CFCC), which introduces dynamic conflicts of interest based on the activity history of VMs, each of which is attached with a label. The proposed mechanism can be used to confine the covert flows between VMs in different coalitions. We implement a prototype system, evaluate its performance, and show that our mechanism is practical.

Spontaneous ordering and vortex states of active fluids in circular confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theillard, Maxime; Ezhilan, Barath; Saintillan, David

2015-11-01

Recent experimental, theoretical and simulation studies have shown that confinement can profoundly affect self-organization in active suspensions leading to striking features such as directed fluid pumping in planar confinement, formation of steady and spontaneous vortices in radial confinement. Motivated by this, we study the dynamics in a suspension of biologically active particles confined in spherical geometries using a mean-field kinetic theory for which we developed a novel numerical solver. In the case of circular confinement, we conduct a systematic exploration of the entire parameter space and distinguish 3 broad states: no-flow, stable vortex and chaotic and several interesting sub-states. Our efficient numerical framework is also employed to study 3D effects and dynamics in more complex geometries.

Topological defects in confined populations of spindle-shaped cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duclos, Guillaume; Erlenkämper, Christoph; Joanny, Jean-François; Silberzan, Pascal

2017-01-01

Most spindle-shaped cells (including smooth muscles and sarcomas) organize in vivo into well-aligned `nematic’ domains, creating intrinsic topological defects that may be used to probe the behaviour of these active nematic systems. Active non-cellular nematics have been shown to be dominated by activity, yielding complex chaotic flows. However, the regime in which live spindle-shaped cells operate, and the importance of cell-substrate friction in particular, remains largely unexplored. Using in vitro experiments, we show that these active cellular nematics operate in a regime in which activity is effectively damped by friction, and that the interaction between defects is controlled by the system’s elastic nematic energy. Due to the activity of the cells, these defects behave as self-propelled particles and pairwise annihilate until all displacements freeze as cell crowding increases. When confined in mesoscopic circular domains, the system evolves towards two identical +1/2 disclinations facing each other. The most likely reduced positions of these defects are independent of the size of the disk, the cells’ activity or even the cell type, but are well described by equilibrium liquid crystal theory. These cell-based systems thus operate in a regime more stable than other active nematics, which may be necessary for their biological function.

Confinement regulates complex biochemical networks: initiation of blood clotting by "diffusion acting".

PubMed

Shen, Feng; Pompano, Rebecca R; Kastrup, Christian J; Ismagilov, Rustem F

2009-10-21

This study shows that environmental confinement strongly affects the activation of nonlinear reaction networks, such as blood coagulation (clotting), by small quantities of activators. Blood coagulation is sensitive to the local concentration of soluble activators, initiating only when the activators surpass a threshold concentration, and therefore is regulated by mass transport phenomena such as flow and diffusion. Here, diffusion was limited by decreasing the size of microfluidic chambers, and it was found that microparticles carrying either the classical stimulus, tissue factor, or a bacterial stimulus, Bacillus cereus, initiated coagulation of human platelet-poor plasma only when confined. A simple analytical argument and numerical model were used to describe the mechanism for this phenomenon: confinement causes diffusible activators to accumulate locally and surpass the threshold concentration. To interpret the results, a dimensionless confinement number, Cn, was used to describe whether a stimulus was confined, and a Damköhler number, Da(2), was used to describe whether a subthreshold stimulus could initiate coagulation. In the context of initiation of coagulation by bacteria, this mechanism can be thought of as "diffusion acting", which is distinct from "diffusion sensing". The ability of confinement and diffusion acting to change the outcome of coagulation suggests that confinement should also regulate other biological "on" and "off" processes that are controlled by thresholds.

Automated entry technologies for confined space work activities: A survey.

PubMed

Botti, Lucia; Ferrari, Emilio; Mora, Cristina

2017-04-01

Work in confined spaces poses a significant risk to workers and rescuers involved in the emergency response when an accident occurs. Despite several standards and regulations define the safety requirements for such activities, injuries, and fatalities still occur. Furthermore, the on-site inspections after accidents often reveal that both employers and employees fail to implement safe entry procedures. Removing the risk is possible by avoiding the worker entry, but many activities require the presence of the operator inside the confined space to perform manual tasks. The following study investigates the available technologies for hazardous confined space work activities, e.g., cleaning, inspecting, and maintenance tasks. The aim is to provide a systematic review of the automated solutions for high-risk activities in confined spaces, considering the non-man entry as the most effective confined space safety strategy. Second, this survey aims to provide suggestions for future research addressing the design of new technologies. The survey consists of about 60 papers concerning innovative technologies for confined space work activities. The document review shows that several solutions have been developed and automation can replace the workers for a limited number of hazardous tasks. Several activities still require the manual intervention due to the complex characteristics of confined spaces, e.g., to remove the remains of the automatic cleaning process from the bottom of a tank. The results show that available technologies require more flexibility to adapt to such occupational environments and further research is needed.

A General Solution for Groundwater Flow in Estuarine Leaky Aquifer System with Considering Aquifer Anisotropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Po-Chia; Chuang, Mo-Hsiung; Tan, Yih-Chi

2014-05-01

In recent years the urban and industrial developments near the coastal area are rapid and therefore the associated population grows dramatically. More and more water demand for human activities, agriculture irrigation, and aquaculture relies on heavy pumping in coastal area. The decline of groundwater table may result in the problems of seawater intrusion and/or land subsidence. Since the 1950s, numerous studies focused on the effect of tidal fluctuation on the groundwater flow in the coastal area. Many studies concentrated on the developments of one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) analytical solutions describing the tide-induced head fluctuations. For example, Jacob (1950) derived an analytical solution of 1D groundwater flow in a confined aquifer with a boundary condition subject to sinusoidal oscillation. Jiao and Tang (1999) derived a 1D analytical solution of a leaky confined aquifer by considered a constant groundwater head in the overlying unconfined aquifer. Jeng et al. (2002) studied the tidal propagation in a coupled unconfined and confined costal aquifer system. Sun (1997) presented a 2D solution for groundwater response to tidal loading in an estuary. Tang and Jiao (2001) derived a 2D analytical solution in a leaky confined aquifer system near open tidal water. This study aims at developing a general analytical solution describing the head fluctuations in a 2D estuarine aquifer system consisted of an unconfined aquifer, a confined aquifer, and an aquitard between them. Both the confined and unconfined aquifers are considered to be anisotropic. The predicted head fluctuations from this solution will compare with the simulation results from the MODFLOW program. In addition, the solutions mentioned above will be shown to be special cases of the present solution. Some hypothetical cases regarding the head fluctuation in costal aquifers will be made to investigate the dynamic effects of water table fluctuation, hydrogeological conditions, and characteristics of soil on the groundwater level fluctuations in the 2D estuarine leaky aquifer system.

Systems and methods for advanced ultra-high-performance InP solar cells

DOEpatents

Wanlass, Mark

2017-03-07

Systems and Methods for Advanced Ultra-High-Performance InP Solar Cells are provided. In one embodiment, an InP photovoltaic device comprises: a p-n junction absorber layer comprising at least one InP layer; a front surface confinement layer; and a back surface confinement layer; wherein either the front surface confinement layer or the back surface confinement layer forms part of a High-Low (HL) doping architecture; and wherein either the front surface confinement layer or the back surface confinement layer forms part of a heterointerface system architecture.

Applications of a general random-walk theory for confined diffusion.

PubMed

Calvo-Muñoz, Elisa M; Selvan, Myvizhi Esai; Xiong, Ruichang; Ojha, Madhusudan; Keffer, David J; Nicholson, Donald M; Egami, Takeshi

2011-01-01

A general random walk theory for diffusion in the presence of nanoscale confinement is developed and applied. The random-walk theory contains two parameters describing confinement: a cage size and a cage-to-cage hopping probability. The theory captures the correct nonlinear dependence of the mean square displacement (MSD) on observation time for intermediate times. Because of its simplicity, the theory also requires modest computational requirements and is thus able to simulate systems with very low diffusivities for sufficiently long time to reach the infinite-time-limit regime where the Einstein relation can be used to extract the self-diffusivity. The theory is applied to three practical cases in which the degree of order in confinement varies. The three systems include diffusion of (i) polyatomic molecules in metal organic frameworks, (ii) water in proton exchange membranes, and (iii) liquid and glassy iron. For all three cases, the comparison between theory and the results of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations indicates that the theory can describe the observed diffusion behavior with a small fraction of the computational expense. The confined-random-walk theory fit to the MSDs of very short MD simulations is capable of accurately reproducing the MSDs of much longer MD simulations. Furthermore, the values of the parameter for cage size correspond to the physical dimensions of the systems and the cage-to-cage hopping probability corresponds to the activation barrier for diffusion, indicating that the two parameters in the theory are not simply fitted values but correspond to real properties of the physical system.

Proposal of the confinement strategy of radioactive and hazardous materials for the European DEMO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, X. Z.; Carloni, D.; Stieglitz, R.; Ciattaglia, S.; Johnston, J.; Taylor, N.

2017-04-01

Confinement of radioactive and hazardous materials is one of the fundamental safety functions in a nuclear fusion facility, which has to limit the mobilisation and dispersion of sources and hazards during normal, abnormal and accidental situations. In a first step energy sources and radioactive source have been assessed for a conceptual DEMO configuration. The confinement study for the European DEMO has been investigated for the main systems at the plant breakdown structure (PBS) level 1 taking a bottom-up approach. Based on the identification of the systems possessing a confinement function, a confinement strategy has been proposed, in which DEMO confinement systems and barriers have been defined. In addition, confinement for the maintenance has been issued as well. The assignment of confinement barriers to the identified sources under abnormal and accidental conditions has been performed, and the DEMO main safety systems have been proposed as well. Finally, confinement related open issues have been pointed out, which need to be resolved in parallel with DEMO development.

Thickness of the Mississippi River Valley confining unit, eastern Arkansas

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gonthier, Gerard; Mahon, Gary L.

1993-01-01

Concern arose in the late 1980s over the vulnerability of the Mississippi Valley alluvial aquifer to contamination from potential surface sources related to pesticide or fertilizer use, industrial activity, landfills, or livestock operations. In 1990 a study was begun to locate areas in Arkansas where the groundwater flow system is susceptible to contamination by surface contaminants. As a part of that effort, the thickness of the clay confining unit overlying the alluvial aquifer in eastern Arkansas was mapped. The study area included all or parts of 27 counties in eastern Arkansas that are underlain by the alluvial aquifer and its overlying confining unit. A database of well attributes was compiled based on data from driller's logs and from published data and stored in computer files. A confining-unit thickness map was created from the driller's-log database using geographic information systems technology. A computer program was then used to contour the data. Where the confining unit is present, it ranges in thickness from 0 feet in many locations in the study area to 140 feet in northeastern Greene County and can vary substantially over short distances. Although general trends in the thickness of the confining unit are apparent, the thickness has great spatial variability. An apparent relation exists between thickness of the confining unit and spatial variability in thickness. In areas where the thickness of the confining unit is 40 feet or less, such as in Clay, eastern Craighead, northwestern Mississippi, and Woodruff Counties, thickness of the unit tends robe more uniform than in areas where the thickness of the unit generally exceeds 40 feet, such as in Arkansas, Lonoke, and Prairie Counties. At some sites the confining unit is very thick compared to its thickness in the immediate surrounding area. Locations of abandoned Mississippi River meander channels generally coincide with location of locally thick confining unit. Deposition of the confining unit onto the coarser alluvial aquifer deposits has reduced the relief of the land surface. Hence, the altitude of the top of the alluvial aquifer varies more than the altitude of the land surface and is indicative of a depositional setting.

Spindles and active vortices in a model of confined filament-motor mixtures.

PubMed

Head, David A; Briels, Wj; Gompper, Gerhard

2011-11-16

Robust self-organization of subcellular structures is a key principle governing the dynamics and evolution of cellular life. In fission yeast cells undergoing division, the mitotic spindle spontaneously emerges from the interaction of microtubules, motor proteins and the confining cell walls, and asters and vortices have been observed to self-assemble in quasi-two dimensional microtubule-kinesin assays. There is no clear microscopic picture of the role of the active motors driving this pattern formation, and the relevance of continuum modeling to filament-scale structures remains uncertain. Here we present results of numerical simulations of a discrete filament-motor protein model confined to a pressurised cylindrical box. Stable spindles, nematic configurations, asters and high-density semi-asters spontaneously emerge, the latter pair having also been observed in cytosol confined within emulsion droplets. State diagrams are presented delineating each stationary state as the pressure, motor speed and motor density are varied. We further highlight a parameter regime where vortices form exhibiting collective rotation of all filaments, but have a finite life-time before contracting to a semi-aster. Quantifying the distribution of life-times suggests this contraction is a Poisson process. Equivalent systems with fixed volume exhibit persistent vortices with stochastic switching in the direction of rotation, with switching times obeying similar statistics to contraction times in pressurised systems. Furthermore, we show that increasing the detachment rate of motors from filament plus-ends can both destroy vortices and turn some asters into vortices. We have shown that discrete filament-motor protein models provide new insights into the stationary and dynamical behavior of active gels and subcellular structures, because many phenomena occur on the length-scale of single filaments. Based on our findings, we argue the need for a deeper understanding of the microscopic activities underpinning macroscopic self-organization in active gels and urge further experiments to help bridge these lengths.

Confinement Regulates Complex Biochemical Networks: Initiation of Blood Clotting by “Diffusion Acting”

PubMed Central

Shen, Feng; Pompano, Rebecca R.; Kastrup, Christian J.; Ismagilov, Rustem F.

2009-01-01

Abstract This study shows that environmental confinement strongly affects the activation of nonlinear reaction networks, such as blood coagulation (clotting), by small quantities of activators. Blood coagulation is sensitive to the local concentration of soluble activators, initiating only when the activators surpass a threshold concentration, and therefore is regulated by mass transport phenomena such as flow and diffusion. Here, diffusion was limited by decreasing the size of microfluidic chambers, and it was found that microparticles carrying either the classical stimulus, tissue factor, or a bacterial stimulus, Bacillus cereus, initiated coagulation of human platelet-poor plasma only when confined. A simple analytical argument and numerical model were used to describe the mechanism for this phenomenon: confinement causes diffusible activators to accumulate locally and surpass the threshold concentration. To interpret the results, a dimensionless confinement number, Cn, was used to describe whether a stimulus was confined, and a Damköhler number, Da2, was used to describe whether a subthreshold stimulus could initiate coagulation. In the context of initiation of coagulation by bacteria, this mechanism can be thought of as “diffusion acting”, which is distinct from “diffusion sensing”. The ability of confinement and diffusion acting to change the outcome of coagulation suggests that confinement should also regulate other biological “on” and “off” processes that are controlled by thresholds. PMID:19843446

Active matter and Curvature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sknepnek, Rastko

Coupling between active motion and curvature is an integral part of many fundamental biological processes such as gastrulation and intestinal crypt fission. However, to date very little is known about how curvature affects active motion. Here we use a particle-based model to study the interplay between activity and curvature in dense systems. Using detailed numerical simulations and simple physical arguments, we show that the presence of curvature results in a number of steady-state configurations that have no analogues in flat geometries. These states are particularly interesting if topological constraints require the presence of defects in the ground states in the passive limit. We focus on polar and nematic active systems confined to move on the surface of a sphere and show that activity can lead to the formation of moving band and multidefect states. We extend our model to self-propelled filaments confined to a plane or the surface of a sphere. We show that the activity leads to an effective softening of the polymer chain. As a result of this softening, with the increase in activity, the system transitions between a jammed polymer-melt state, an active turbulent state characterised by a proliferation of hair-pin defects, to a region dominated by phase segregation (MIPS), finally followed by the onset of a homogenous state characterised by spiral motion of individual polymers. UK EPSRC EP/M009599/1.

Human Infrastructure Detection and Exploitation (HIDE)

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-11-01

Finding human infrastructure elements such as machinery, chemicals, radiofrequency emissions, electrical currents, or other evidence of human ... activity in confined enclosed spaces is a deficiency in current intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems. In addition, operations in

Maximal Fluctuations of Confined Actomyosin Gels: Dynamics of the Cell Nucleus.

PubMed

Rupprecht, J-F; Singh Vishen, A; Shivashankar, G V; Rao, M; Prost, J

2018-03-02

We investigate the effect of stress fluctuations on the stochastic dynamics of an inclusion embedded in a viscous gel. We show that, in nonequilibrium systems, stress fluctuations give rise to an effective attraction towards the boundaries of the confining domain, which is reminiscent of an active Casimir effect. We apply this generic result to the dynamics of deformations of the cell nucleus, and we demonstrate the appearance of a fluctuation maximum at a critical level of activity, in agreement with recent experiments [E. Makhija, D. S. Jokhun, and G. V. Shivashankar, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113, E32 (2016)PNASA60027-842410.1073/pnas.1513189113].

Overview of C-2W Field-Reversed Configuration Experimental Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gota, H.; Binderbauer, M. W.; Tajima, T.; Putvinski, S.; Tuszewski, M.; Dettrick, S.; Korepanov, S.; Romero, J.; Smirnov, A.; Song, Y.; Thompson, M. C.; van Drie, A.; Yang, X.; Ivanov, A. A.; TAE Team

2017-10-01

Tri Alpha Energy's research has been devoted to producing a high temperature, stable, long-lived field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma state by neutral-beam injection (NBI) and edge biasing/control. C-2U experiments have demonstrated drastic improvements in particle and energy confinement properties of FRC's, and the plasma performance obtained via 10 MW NBI has achieved plasma sustainment of up to 5 ms and plasma (diamagnetism) lifetimes of 10 + ms. The emerging confinement scaling, whereby electron energy confinement time is proportional to a positive power of the electron temperature, is very attractive for higher energy plasma confinement; accordingly, verification of the observed Te scaling law will be a key future research objective. The new experimental device, C-2W (now also called ``Norman''), has the following key subsystem upgrades from C-2U: (i) higher injected power, optimum energies, and extended pulse duration of the NBI system; (ii) installation of inner divertors with upgraded edge-biasing systems; (iii) fast external equilibrium/mirror-coil current ramp-up capability; and (iv) installation of trim/saddle coils for active feedback control of the FRC plasma. This paper will review highlights of the C-2W program.

Unique Chernobyl Cranes for Deconstruction Activities in the New Safe Confinement - 13542

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Parameswaran, N.A. Vijay; Chornyy, Igor; Owen, Rob

2013-07-01

The devastation left behind from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (ChNPP) Unit 4 accident which occurred on April 26, 1986 presented unparalleled technical challenges to the world engineering and scientific community. One of the largest tasks that are in progress is the design and construction of the New Safe Confinement (NSC). The NSC is an engineered enclosure for the entire object shelter (OS) that includes a suite of process equipment. The process equipment will be used for the dismantling of the destroyed Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) Unit. One of the major mechanical handling systems to be installed in themore » NSC is the Main Cranes System (MCS). The planned decontamination and decommissioning or dismantling (D and D) activities will require the handling of heavily shielded waste disposal casks containing nuclear fuel as well as lifting and transporting extremely large structural elements. These activities, to be performed within the NSC, will require large and sophisticated cranes. The article will focus on the unique design features of the MCS for the D and D activities. (authors)« less

Instabilities and patterns in an active nematic film

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srivastava, Pragya; Marchetti, Cristina

2015-03-01

Experiments on microtubule bundles confined to an oil-water interface have motivated extensive theoretical studies of two-dimensional active nematics. Theoretical models taking into account the interplay between activity, flow and order have remarkably reproduced several experimentally observed features of the defect-dynamics in these ``living'' nematics. Here, we derive minimal description of a two-dimensional active nematic film confined between walls. At high friction, we eliminate the flow to obtain closed equations for the nematic order parameter, with renormalized Frank elastic constants. Active processes can render the ``Frank'' constants negative, resulting in the instability of the uniformly ordered nematic state. The minimal model yields emergent patterns of growing complexity with increasing activity, including bands and turbulent dynamics with a steady density of topological defects, as obtained with the full hydrodynamic equations. We report on the scaling of the length scales of these patterns and of the steady state number of defects with activity and system size. National Science Foundation grant DMR-1305184 and Syracuse Soft Matter Program.

Functional changes in neutrophils and psychoneuroendocrine responses during 105 days of confinement.

PubMed

Strewe, C; Muckenthaler, F; Feuerecker, M; Yi, B; Rykova, M; Kaufmann, I; Nichiporuk, I; Vassilieva, G; Hörl, M; Matzel, S; Schelling, G; Thiel, M; Morukov, B; Choukèr, A

2015-05-01

The innate immune system as one key element of immunity and a prerequisite for an adequate host defense is of emerging interest in space research to ensure crew health and thus mission success. In ground-based studies, spaceflight-associated specifics such as confinement caused altered immune functions paralleled by changes in stress hormone levels. In this study, six men were confined for 105 days to a space module of ~500 m(3) mimicking conditions of a long-term space mission. Psychic stress was surveyed by different questionnaires. Blood, saliva, and urine samples were taken before, during, and after confinement to determine quantitative and qualitative immune responses by analyzing enumerative assays and quantifying microbicide and phagocytic functions. Additionally, expression and shedding of L-selectin (CD62L) on granulocytes and different plasma cytokine levels were measured. Cortisol and catecholamine levels were analyzed in saliva and urine. Psychic stress or an activation of the psychoneuroendocrine system could not be testified. White blood cell counts were not significantly altered, but innate immune functions showed increased cytotoxic and reduced microbicide capabilities. Furthermore, a significantly enhanced shedding of CD62L might be a hint at increased migratory capabilities. However, this was observed in the absence of any acute inflammatory state, and no rise in plasma cytokine levels was detected. In summary, confinement for 105 days caused changes in innate immune functions. Whether these changes result from an alert immune state in preparation for further immune challenges or from a normal adaptive process during confinement remains to be clarified in future research. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

Optimization of life support systems and their systems reliability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fan, L. T.; Hwang, C. L.; Erickson, L. E.

1971-01-01

The identification, analysis, and optimization of life support systems and subsystems have been investigated. For each system or subsystem that has been considered, the procedure involves the establishment of a set of system equations (or mathematical model) based on theory and experimental evidences; the analysis and simulation of the model; the optimization of the operation, control, and reliability; analysis of sensitivity of the system based on the model; and, if possible, experimental verification of the theoretical and computational results. Research activities include: (1) modeling of air flow in a confined space; (2) review of several different gas-liquid contactors utilizing centrifugal force: (3) review of carbon dioxide reduction contactors in space vehicles and other enclosed structures: (4) application of modern optimal control theory to environmental control of confined spaces; (5) optimal control of class of nonlinear diffusional distributed parameter systems: (6) optimization of system reliability of life support systems and sub-systems: (7) modeling, simulation and optimal control of the human thermal system: and (8) analysis and optimization of the water-vapor eletrolysis cell.

A method to estimate groundwater depletion from confining layers

USGS Publications Warehouse

Konikow, Leonard F.; Neuzil, Christopher E.

2007-01-01

Although depletion of storage in low‐permeability confining layers is the source of much of the groundwater produced from many confined aquifer systems, it is all too frequently overlooked or ignored. This makes effective management of groundwater resources difficult by masking how much water has been derived from storage and, in some cases, the total amount of water that has been extracted from an aquifer system. Analyzing confining layer storage is viewed as troublesome because of the additional computational burden and because the hydraulic properties of confining layers are poorly known. In this paper we propose a simplified method for computing estimates of confining layer depletion, as well as procedures for approximating confining layer hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific storage (Ss) using geologic information. The latter makes the technique useful in developing countries and other settings where minimal data are available or when scoping calculations are needed. As such, our approach may be helpful for estimating the global transfer of groundwater to surface water. A test of the method on a synthetic system suggests that the computational errors will generally be small. Larger errors will probably result from inaccuracy in confining layer property estimates, but these may be no greater than errors in more sophisticated analyses. The technique is demonstrated by application to two aquifer systems: the Dakota artesian aquifer system in South Dakota and the coastal plain aquifer system in Virginia. In both cases, depletion from confining layers was substantially larger than depletion from the aquifers.

Exposure of unsuspecting workers to deadly atmospheres in below-ground confined spaces and investigation of related whole-air sample composition using adsorption gas chromatography.

PubMed

Smith, Philip A; Lockhart, Bonnie; Besser, Brett W; Michalski, Michael A R

2014-01-01

Hazardous atmospheres in confined spaces may be obvious when a source of air contamination or oxygen (O2) deficiency is recognized. Such is often the case in general industry settings, especially with work processes which create hazardous atmospheres that may be anticipated. Hazards present in active sewers are also well recognized; but the possibility that O2 deficiency or high airborne contaminant concentrations may exist in new construction sewers or storm drains has been repeatedly ignored with deadly results. Low O2 and high carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations may exist in new construction manholes that have not yet been connected to an active sewer or drain system, and these concentrations have been shown to vary over time. A recent incident is described where workers repeatedly entered such a confined space without incident, but subsequent entry resulted in a fatality and a near-miss for a co-worker rescuer. Additional cases are discussed, with an emphasis placed on elevated CO2 concentrations as a causative factor. A description is provided for the adsorptive gas chromatography whole-air analysis methodology used to quantitatively determine atmospheric conditions present at this type of fatality site or others after an incident, and for the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method used to provide confirmation of analyte identity with high certainty. Many types of confined spaces may be encountered in addition to the underground varieties discussed, and many possible atmospheric hazards are possible. The definitive whole-air analysis approach described here may be of use and should be considered to investigate many confined space fatality and near-miss cases, and to better understand the causes of dangerous atmosphere conditions that may arise in confined spaces.

Comparing the cyclic behavior of concrete cylinders confined by shape memory alloy wire or steel jackets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Joonam; Choi, Eunsoo; Park, Kyoungsoo; Kim, Hong-Taek

2011-09-01

Shape memory alloy (SMA) wire jackets for concrete are distinct from conventional jackets of steel or fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) since they provide active confinement which can be easily achieved due to the shape memory effect of SMAs. This study uses NiTiNb SMA wires of 1.0 mm diameter to confine concrete cylinders with the dimensions of 300 mm × 150 mm (L × D). The NiTiNb SMAs have a relatively wider temperature hysteresis than NiTi SMAs; thus, they are more suitable for the severe temperature-variation environments to which civil structures are exposed. Steel jackets of passive confinement are also prepared in order to compare the cyclic behavior of actively and passively confined concrete cylinders. For this purpose, monotonic and cyclic compressive loading tests are conducted to obtain axial and circumferential strain. Both strains are used to estimate the volumetric strains of concrete cylinders. Plastic strains from cyclic behavior are also estimated. For the cylinders jacketed by NiTiNb SMA wires, the monotonic axial behavior differs from the envelope of cyclic behavior. The plastic strains of the actively confined concrete show a similar trend to those of passive confinement. This study proposed plastic strain models for concrete confined by SMA wire or steel jackets. For the volumetric strain, the active jackets of NiTiNb SMA wires provide more energy dissipation than the passive jacket of steel.

Hydrogeologic framework and simulation of ground-water flow and travel time in the shallow aquifer system in the area of Naval Support Activity Memphis, Millington, Tennessee

USGS Publications Warehouse

Robinson, James L.; Carmichael, John K.; Halford, Keith J.; Ladd, David E.

1997-01-01

Naval Support Activity (NSA) Memphis is a Department of the Navy facility located at the City of Millington, Tennessee, about 5 miles north of Memphis. Contaminants have been detected in surface-water, sediment, and ground-water samples collected at the facility. As part of the Installation Restoration Program, the Navy is considering remedial-action options to prevent or lessen the effect of ground-water contamination at the facility and to control the movement and discharge of contaminants. A numerical model of the ground-water-flow system in the area of NSA Memphis was constructed and calibrated so that quantifiable estimates could be made of ground-water-flow rates, direction, and time-of-travel. The sediments beneath NSA Memphis, to a depth of about 200 feet, form a shallow aquifer system. From youngest to oldest, the stratigraphic units that form the shallow aquifer system are alluvium, loess, fluvial deposits, and the Cockfield and Cook Mountain Formations. The shallow aquifer system is organized into five hydrogeologic units: (1) a confining unit composed of the relatively low permeability sediments of the upper alluvium and the loess; (2) the A1 aquifer comprising sand and gravel of the lower alluvium and the fluvial deposits, and sand lenses in the upper part of the preserved section of the Cockfield Formation; (3) a confining unit composed of clay and silt within the upper part of the Cockfield Formation; (4) the Cockfield aquifer comprising sand lenses within the lower part of the preserved section of the Cockfield Formation; and (5) a confining unit formed by low permeability sediments of the Cook Mountain Formation that composes the upper confining unit for the Memphis aquifer. Thicknesses of individual units vary considerably across the facility. Structural and depositional features that affect the occurrence of ground water in the shallow aquifer system include faulting, an erosional scarp, and 'windows' in the confining units. Underlying the shallow aquifer system is the Memphis aquifer, the primary source of water for NSA Memphis and the City of Memphis, Tennessee. Analyses of sediment cores, aquifer and well specific-capacity tests, and numerical modeling were used to estimate the hydraulic characteristics of units of the shallow aquifer system. The vertical hydraulic conductivity of core samples of the alluvium-loess confining unit ranged from about 8.5 x 10-5 to 1.6 x 10-2 feet per day, and the total porosity of the samples ranged from about 35 to 48 percent. The results of the aquifer test were used to estimate a horizontal hydraulic conductivity of about 5 feet per day for the alluvial-fluvial deposits aquifer. The total porosity of core samples of the alluvial-fluvial deposits aquifer ranged from about 22 to 39 percent. The vertical hydraulic conductivity of core samples of the Cockfield confining unit ranged from about 4.5 x 10-5 to 2.5 x 10-3 feet per day, and the total porosity ranged from about 41 to 55 percent. Well specific-capacity tests indicate that the horizontal hydraulic conductivity of sand units that compose the Cockfield aquifer range from about 0.5 to 3 feet per day. The vertical hydraulic conductivity of core samples of the Cook Mountain confining unit ranged from about 5.0 x 10-6 to 9.9 x 10-4 feet per day. Total porosity of core samples of the Cook Mountain confining unit ranged from about 30 to 42 percent. Ground-water flow and time-of-travel in the shallow aquifer system were simulated using the MODFLOW finite-difference model and the -particle-tracking program MODPATH. A three-layer, steady-state model of the shallow aquifer system was constructed and calibrated to the potentiometric surface of the A1 aquifer. Results of numerical modeling support the proposed conceptual hydrogeologic model of the shallow aquifer system. Ground-water time-of-travel in the A1 aquifer was simulated using an assumed effective porosity of 25 percent. Typical ground-water-flow velocities were on the or

Plasma confinement system and methods for use

DOEpatents

Jarboe, Thomas R.; Sutherland, Derek

2017-09-05

A plasma confinement system is provided that includes a confinement chamber that includes one or more enclosures of respective helicity injectors. The one or more enclosures are coupled to ports at an outer radius of the confinement chamber. The system further includes one or more conductive coils aligned substantially parallel to the one or more enclosures and a further set of one or more conductive coils respectively surrounding portions of the one or more enclosures. Currents may be provided to the sets of conductive coils to energize a gas within the confinement chamber into a plasma. Further, a heat-exchange system is provided that includes an inner wall, an intermediate wall, an outer wall, and pipe sections configured to carry coolant through cavities formed by the walls.

Structural and lithologic study of northern coast ranges and Sacramento Valley, California

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rich, E. I. (Principal Investigator)

1973-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Analysis of ERTS-1 imagery of the Northern California Coast Ranges has disclosed a potential relation between a heretofore unrecognized fracture system and known deposits of mercury and geothermally active areas in the Coast Range and between oil and gas fields in the Sacramento Valley. Three potentially important systems of linear elements within the Coast Ranges, detected on ERTS-1 imagery, may represent fault systems or zones of shearing because topographic offset and stratigraph disruption can be seen along one or two of the lineations. One of the systems in subparallel to the San Andreas fault and is confined to the Pacific Coastal Belt. Another set is confined to the central core of the Coast Ranges. The third set of linear features (Valley System) has not heretofore been recognized. Some of the known mercury deposits and geothermally active areas near Clear Lake, in the Coast Ranges, are along the Valley System or at the intersection of the Central and Valley Systems. The plotted locations of some of the oil and gas fields in the Sacramento Valley are associated with the Valley and/or Central Systems. If these relations prove reliable, the ERTS-1 imagery may prove to be an extremely useful exploration tool.

Connector Mechanism Has Smaller Stroke

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Milam, M. Bruce

1992-01-01

System for connecting electrical and/or fluid lines includes mechanism reducing length of stroke necessary to make or break connections. Feature enables connection and disconnection in confined space, and compensates for misalignment between connectors. Connector in active member moves upward at twice the speed of downward stroke of passive member. Stroke amplified within connector system. Applications include connections between modular electronic units, coupled vehicles, and hydraulic systems.

Dynamics and density distribution of strongly confined noninteracting nonaligning self-propelled particles in a nonconvex boundary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fily, Yaouen; Baskaran, Aparna; Hagan, Michael F.

2015-01-01

We study the dynamics of nonaligning, noninteracting self-propelled particles confined to a box in two dimensions. In the strong confinement limit, when the persistence length of the active particles is much larger than the size of the box, particles stay on the boundary and align with the local boundary normal. It is then possible to derive the steady-state density on the boundary for arbitrary box shapes. In nonconvex boxes, the nonuniqueness of the boundary normal results in hysteretic dynamics and the density is nonlocal, i.e., it depends on the global geometry of the box. These findings establish a general connection between the geometry of a confining box and the behavior of an ideal active gas it confines, thus providing a powerful tool to understand and design such confinements.

Synchronized oscillations and acoustic fluidization in confined granular materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giacco, F.; de Arcangelis, L.; Ciamarra, M. Pica; Lippiello, E.

2018-01-01

According to the acoustic fluidization hypothesis, elastic waves at a characteristic frequency form inside seismic faults even in the absence of an external perturbation. These waves are able to generate a normal stress which contrasts the confining pressure and promotes failure. Here, we study the mechanisms responsible for this wave activation via numerical simulations of a granular fault model. We observe the particles belonging to the percolating backbone, which sustains the stress, to perform synchronized oscillations over ellipticlike trajectories in the fault plane. These oscillations occur at the characteristic frequency of acoustic fluidization. As the applied shear stress increases, these oscillations become perpendicular to the fault plane just before the system fails, opposing the confining pressure, consistently with the acoustic fluidization scenario. The same change of orientation can be induced by external perturbations at the acoustic fluidization frequency.

Contact binary stars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dupree, A. K.

1983-01-01

Ultraviolet and X-ray surveys of the W Ursae Majoris type stars are reviewed. These systems exhibit extended coronas and transition regions that are confined close to the optically determined surfaces. Correlations of X-ray activity with period or rotational velocity indicate a turn-over or saturation of emission at the short periods or high velocities found in the W UMa-type systems. For a number of systems, ultraviolet emission appears to be anti-correlated with the strength of X-ray emission. These observations are discussed in terms of solar structures, activity, and evolution.

Fusion energy division annual progress report, period ending December 31, 1980

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1981-11-01

The ORNL Program encompasses most aspects of magnetic fusion research including research on two magnetic confinement programs (tokamaks and ELMO bumpy tori); the development of the essential technologies for plasma heating, fueling, superconducting magnets, and materials; the development of diagnostics; the development of atomic physics and radiation effect data bases; the assessment of the environmental impact of magnetic fusion; the physics and engineering of present-generation devices; and the design of future devices. The integration of all of these activities into one program is a major factor in the success of each activity. An excellent example of this integration is themore » extremely successful application of neutral injection heating systems developed at ORNL to tokamaks both in the Fusion Energy Division and at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The goal of the ORNL Fusion Program is to maintain this balance between plasma confinement, technology, and engineering activities.« less

Hydrodynamic entrainment in micro-confined suspensions and its implications for two-point microrheology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aponte-Rivera, Christian; Zia, Roseanna N.

2017-11-01

We study hydrodynamic entrainment in spherically confined colloidal suspensions of hydrodynamically interacting particles as a model system for intracellular and other micro-confined biophysical transport. Modeling of transport and rheology in such materials requires an accurate description of the microscopic forces driving particle motion and of particle interactions with nearby boundaries. We carry out dynamic simulations of concentrated, spherically confined colloids as a model system to study the effect of 3D confinement on entrainment and rheology. We show that entrainment between two tracer particles exhibits qualitatively different functional dependence on inter-particle separation as compared to an unbound suspension, and develop a scaling theory that collapses the concentrated mobility of spherically confined suspensions for all volume fractions and particle to cavity size ratios onto a master curve. For widely separated particles, the master curve can be predicted via a Green's function, which suggests a framework with which to conduct two-point microrheology measurements near confining boundaries. The implications of these results for experiments in micro-confined biophysical systems, such as the interior of eukaryotic cells, are discussed.

Influence of a Confined Methanol Solvent on the Reactivity of Active Sites in UiO-66.

PubMed

Caratelli, Chiara; Hajek, Julianna; Rogge, Sven M J; Vandenbrande, Steven; Meijer, Evert Jan; Waroquier, Michel; Van Speybroeck, Veronique

2018-02-19

UiO-66, composed of Zr-oxide bricks and terephthalate linkers, is currently one of the most studied metal-organic frameworks due to its exceptional stability. Defects can be introduced in the structure, creating undercoordinated Zr atoms which are Lewis acid sites. Here, additional Brønsted sites can be generated by coordinated protic species from the solvent. In this Article, a multilevel modeling approach was applied to unravel the effect of a confined methanol solvent on the active sites in UiO-66. First, active sites were explored with static periodic density functional theory calculations to investigate adsorption of water and methanol. Solvent was then introduced in the pores with grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, followed by a series of molecular dynamics simulations at operating conditions. A hydrogen-bonded network of methanol molecules is formed, allowing the protons to shuttle between solvent methanol, adsorbed water, and the inorganic brick. Upon deprotonation of an active site, the methanol solvent aids the transfer of protons and stabilizes charged configurations via hydrogen bonding, which could be crucial in stabilizing reactive intermediates. The multilevel modeling approach adopted here sheds light on the important role of a confined solvent on the active sites in the UiO-66 material, introducing dynamic acidity in the system at finite temperatures by which protons may be easily shuttled from various positions at the active sites. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

Nanoscale capillary freezing of ionic liquids confined between metallic interfaces and the role of electronic screening

PubMed Central

Comtet, Jean; Niguès, Antoine; Kaiser, Vojtech; Coasne, Benoit; Bocquet, Lydéric; Siria, Alessandro

2017-01-01

Room temperature Ionic liquids (RTIL) are new materials with fundamental importance for energy storage and active lubrication. They are unsual liquids, which challenge the classical frameworks of electrolytes, whose behavior at electrified interfaces remains elusive with exotic responses relevant to their electrochemical activity. By means of tuning fork based AFM nanorheological measurements, we explore here the properties of confined RTIL, unveiling a dramatic change of the RTIL towards a solid-like phase below a threshold thickness, pointing to capillary freezing in confinement. This threshold is related to the metallic nature of the confining materials, with more metallic surfaces facilitating freezing. This is interpreted in terms of the shift of freezing transition, taking into account the influence of the electronic screening on RTIL wetting of the confining surfaces. Our findings provide fresh views on the properties of confined RTIL with implications for their properties inside nanoporous metallic structures and suggests applications to tune nanoscale lubrication with phase-changing RTIL, by varying the nature and patterning of the substrate, and application of active polarisation. PMID:28346432

Nanoscale capillary freezing of ionic liquids confined between metallic interfaces and the role of electronic screening.

PubMed

Comtet, Jean; Niguès, Antoine; Kaiser, Vojtech; Coasne, Benoit; Bocquet, Lydéric; Siria, Alessandro

2017-06-01

Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are new materials with fundamental importance for energy storage and active lubrication. They are unusual liquids, which challenge the classical frameworks of electrolytes, whose behaviour at electrified interfaces remains elusive, with exotic responses relevant to their electrochemical activity. Using tuning-fork-based atomic force microscope nanorheological measurements, we explore here the properties of confined RTILs, unveiling a dramatic change of the RTIL towards a solid-like phase below a threshold thickness, pointing to capillary freezing in confinement. This threshold is related to the metallic nature of the confining materials, with more metallic surfaces facilitating freezing. This behaviour is interpreted in terms of the shift of the freezing transition, taking into account the influence of the electronic screening on RTIL wetting of the confining surfaces. Our findings provide fresh views on the properties of confined RTIL with implications for their properties inside nanoporous metallic structures, and suggests applications to tune nanoscale lubrication with phase-changing RTILs, by varying the nature and patterning of the substrate, and application of active polarization.

Nanoscale capillary freezing of ionic liquids confined between metallic interfaces and the role of electronic screening

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Comtet, Jean; Niguès, Antoine; Kaiser, Vojtech; Coasne, Benoit; Bocquet, Lydéric; Siria, Alessandro

2017-06-01

Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are new materials with fundamental importance for energy storage and active lubrication. They are unusual liquids, which challenge the classical frameworks of electrolytes, whose behaviour at electrified interfaces remains elusive, with exotic responses relevant to their electrochemical activity. Using tuning-fork-based atomic force microscope nanorheological measurements, we explore here the properties of confined RTILs, unveiling a dramatic change of the RTIL towards a solid-like phase below a threshold thickness, pointing to capillary freezing in confinement. This threshold is related to the metallic nature of the confining materials, with more metallic surfaces facilitating freezing. This behaviour is interpreted in terms of the shift of the freezing transition, taking into account the influence of the electronic screening on RTIL wetting of the confining surfaces. Our findings provide fresh views on the properties of confined RTIL with implications for their properties inside nanoporous metallic structures, and suggests applications to tune nanoscale lubrication with phase-changing RTILs, by varying the nature and patterning of the substrate, and application of active polarization.

Flowing Active Liquids in a Pipe: Hysteretic Response of Polar Flocks to External Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morin, Alexandre; Bartolo, Denis

2018-04-01

We investigate the response of colloidal flocks to external fields. We first show that individual colloidal rollers align with external flows, as would a classical spin with magnetic fields. Assembling polar active liquids from colloidal rollers, we experimentally demonstrate their hysteretic response: Confined colloidal flocks can proceed against external flows. We theoretically explain this collective robustness, using an active hydrodynamic description, and show how orientational elasticity and confinement protect the direction of collective motion. Finally, we exploit the intrinsic bistability of confined active flows to devise self-sustained microfluidic oscillators.

Variational Monte Carlo Method with Dirichlet Boundary Conditions: Application to the Study of Confined Systems by Impenetrable Surfaces with Different Symmetries.

PubMed

Sarsa, Antonio; Le Sech, Claude

2011-09-13

Variational Monte Carlo method is a powerful tool to determine approximate wave functions of atoms, molecules, and solids up to relatively large systems. In the present work, we extend the variational Monte Carlo approach to study confined systems. Important properties of the atoms, such as the spatial distribution of the electronic charge, the energy levels, or the filling of electronic shells, are modified under confinement. An expression of the energy very similar to the estimator used for free systems is derived. This opens the possibility to study confined systems with little changes in the solution of the corresponding free systems. This is illustrated by the study of helium atom in its ground state (1)S and the first (3)S excited state confined by spherical, cylindrical, and plane impenetrable surfaces. The average interelectronic distances are also calculated. They decrease in general when the confinement is stronger; however, it is seen that they present a minimum for excited states under confinement by open surfaces (cylindrical, planes) around the radii values corresponding to ionization. The ground (2)S and the first (2)P and (2)D excited states of the lithium atom are calculated under spherical constraints for different confinement radii. A crossing between the (2)S and (2)P states is observed around rc = 3 atomic units, illustrating the modification of the atomic energy level under confinement. Finally the carbon atom is studied in the spherical symmetry by using both variational and diffusion Monte Carlo methods. It is shown that the hybridized state sp(3) becomes lower in energy than the ground state (3)P due to a modification and a mixing of the atomic orbitals s, p under strong confinement. This result suggests a model, at least of pedagogical interest, to interpret the basic properties of carbon atom in chemistry.

25 CFR 141.21 - Trade confined to premises.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Trade confined to premises. 141.21 Section 141.21 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES BUSINESS PRACTICES ON THE NAVAJO, HOPI AND ZUNI RESERVATIONS General Business Practices § 141.21 Trade confined to premises. The licensee shall confine all trade on the...

Robotic system for retractable teleoperated arm within enclosed shell with capability of operating within a confined space

DOEpatents

Randolph, John David; Lloyd, Peter Downes; Love, Lonnie Joe; Kwon, Dong Soo; Blank, James Allen; Davis, Hurley Thomas

2001-01-01

An apparatus for performing a task in a confined space having an access port. The apparatus comprise: a confinement box securable to the access port of the confined space; a shell extending from the confinement box; a teleoperated arm movable between a retracted position, in which the teleoperated arm is disposed within the shell, and a deployed position, in which the teleoperated arm extends through the access port and into the confined space to perform the task; and a control system for commanding the teleoperated arm. The arm links and joint connectors of the teleoperated arm assembly are the conduits for the process

Directed collective motion of bacteria under channel confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wioland, H.; Lushi, E.; Goldstein, R. E.

2016-07-01

Dense suspensions of swimming bacteria are known to exhibit collective behaviour arising from the interplay of steric and hydrodynamic interactions. Unconfined suspensions exhibit transient, recurring vortices and jets, whereas those confined in circular domains may exhibit order in the form of a spiral vortex. Here we show that confinement into a long and narrow macroscopic ‘racetrack’ geometry stabilises bacterial motion to form a steady unidirectional circulation. This motion is reproduced in simulations of discrete swimmers that reveal the crucial role that bacteria-driven fluid flows play in the dynamics. In particular, cells close to the channel wall produce strong flows which advect cells in the bulk against their swimming direction. We examine in detail the transition from a disordered state to persistent directed motion as a function of the channel width, and show that the width at the crossover point is comparable to the typical correlation length of swirls seen in the unbounded system. Our results shed light on the mechanisms driving the collective behaviour of bacteria and other active matter systems, and stress the importance of the ubiquitous boundaries found in natural habitats.

Step-by-step growth of epitaxially aligned polythiophene by surface-confined reaction

PubMed Central

Lipton-Duffin, J. A.; Miwa, J. A.; Kondratenko, M.; Cicoira, F.; Sumpter, B. G.; Meunier, V.; Perepichka, D. F.; Rosei, F.

2010-01-01

One of the great challenges in surface chemistry is to assemble aromatic building blocks into ordered structures that are mechanically robust and electronically interlinked—i.e., are held together by covalent bonds. We demonstrate the surface-confined growth of ordered arrays of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) chains, by using the substrate (the 110 facet of copper) simultaneously as template and catalyst for polymerization. Copper acts as promoter for the Ullmann coupling reaction, whereas the inherent anisotropy of the fcc 110 facet confines growth to a single dimension. High resolution scanning tunneling microscopy performed under ultrahigh vacuum conditions allows us to simultaneously image PEDOT oligomers and the copper lattice with atomic resolution. Density functional theory calculations confirm an unexpected adsorption geometry of the PEDOT oligomers, which stand on the sulfur atom of the thiophene ring rather than lying flat. This polymerization approach can be extended to many other halogen-terminated molecules to produce epitaxially aligned conjugated polymers. Such systems might be of central importance to develop future electronic and optoelectronic devices with high quality active materials, besides representing model systems for basic science investigations. PMID:20534511

Physiological changes, sleep, and morning mood in an isolated environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kraft, Norbert O.; Inoue, Natsuhiko; Mizuno, Koh; Ohshima, Hiroshi; Murai, Tadashi; Sekiguchi, Chiharu; Orasanu, J. M. (Principal Investigator)

2002-01-01

BACKGROUND: Previous isolation studies have shown increased 24-h urine volumes and body weight gains in subjects. This project examined those and other physiological variables in relationship to sleep motor activity, subjective sleep quality, mood, and complaints during confinement. METHODS: Six male and two female subjects lived for 7 d in the National Space Development Agency of Japan's isolation chamber, which simulates the interior of the Japanese Experiment Module. Each 24-h period included 6 h of sleep, 3 meals, and 20 min of exercise. Each morning, subjects completed Sleep Sensation and Complaint Index questionnaires. Catecholamine and creatinine excretion, urine volume, and body weight were measured on the 2 d before and 2 d after confinement, and sleep motor activity was measured during confinement. RESULTS: Confinement produced no significant change in body weight, urine volume, or questionnaire results. In contrast, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and sleep motor activity exhibited significant differences during confinement (p < 0.05). Higher nocturnal norepinephrine excretion correlated with higher sleep motor activity. CONCLUSION: The 24-h epinephrine values were slightly higher than normal throughout the experiment, but lower than for subjects working under time-stress. High sympathetic activity (as indicated by norepinephrine) may have interfered with sleep.

A photocleavable rapamycin conjugate for spatiotemporal control of small GTPase activity.

PubMed

Umeda, Nobuhiro; Ueno, Tasuku; Pohlmeyer, Christopher; Nagano, Tetsuo; Inoue, Takanari

2011-01-12

We developed a novel method to spatiotemporally control the activity of signaling molecules. A newly synthesized photocaged rapamycin derivative induced rapid dimerization of FKBP (FK-506 binding protein) and FRB (FKBP-rapamycin binding protein) upon UV irradiation. With this system and the spatially confined UV irradiation, we achieved subcellularly localized activation of Rac, a member of small GTPases. Our technique offers a powerful approach to studies of dynamic intracellular signaling events.

Effects of Acute Confinement Stress-induced Hypothalamic-Pituitary Adrenal Axis Activation and Concomitant Peripheral and Central Transforming Growth Factor-β1 Measures in Nonhuman Primates.

PubMed

Coplan, Jeremy D; Gopinath, Srinath; Abdallah, Chadi G; Margolis, Jeffrey; Chen, Wei; Scharf, Bruce A; Rosenblum, Leonard A; Batuman, Olcay A; Smith, Eric L P

2017-02-01

Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is a multifunctional cytokine with anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive and neuroprotective properties. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and immune system exert bidirectional influences on each other, via cortisol and TGF-β1, but the exact nature of the interaction is not well characterized. The current study examined the effects, in bonnet macaques ( Macaca radiata ), of two consecutive acute confinement stress periods in an unfamiliar room while mildly restrained, first without and then with dexamethasone pretreatment (0.01 mg/kg IM). Preceding the confinement studies, a non-stress control condition obtained contemporaneous levels of cortisol and TGF-β1 in both plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to match the confinement stress studies. Subjects were reared under either normative or variable foraging demand (VFD) conditions. Since there were no rearing effects at baseline or for any of the conditions tested -- either for cortisol or TGF-β -- the study analyses were conducted on the combined rearing groups. The stress condition increased both plasma and CSF cortisol levels whereas dexamethasone pretreatment decreased cortisol concentrations to below baseline levels despite stress. The stress condition decreased TGF-β1 concentrations only in CSF but not in serum. Together the data suggested that stress-induced reductions of a centrally active neuroprotective cytokine occurs in the face of HPA axis activation, potentially facilitating glucocortoid-induced neurotoxicity. Stress-induced reductions of neuroprotective cytokines prompts exploration of protective measures against glucocorticoid-induced neurotoxicity.

Modeling and analysis of secondary sources coupling for active sound field reduction in confined spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montazeri, Allahyar; Taylor, C. James

2017-10-01

This article addresses the coupling of acoustic secondary sources in a confined space in a sound field reduction framework. By considering the coupling of sources in a rectangular enclosure, the set of coupled equations governing its acoustical behavior are solved. The model obtained in this way is used to analyze the behavior of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) active sound field control (ASC) systems, where the coupling of sources cannot be neglected. In particular, the article develops the analytical results to analyze the effect of coupling of an array of secondary sources on the sound pressure levels inside an enclosure, when an array of microphones is used to capture the acoustic characteristics of the enclosure. The results are supported by extensive numerical simulations showing how coupling of loudspeakers through acoustic modes of the enclosure will change the strength and hence the driving voltage signal applied to the secondary loudspeakers. The practical significance of this model is to provide a better insight on the performance of the sound reproduction/reduction systems in confined spaces when an array of loudspeakers and microphones are placed in a fraction of wavelength of the excitation signal to reduce/reproduce the sound field. This is of particular importance because the interaction of different sources affects their radiation impedance depending on the electromechanical properties of the loudspeakers.

Metallic tin quantum sheets confined in graphene toward high-efficiency carbon dioxide electroreduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lei, Fengcai; Liu, Wei; Sun, Yongfu; Xu, Jiaqi; Liu, Katong; Liang, Liang; Yao, Tao; Pan, Bicai; Wei, Shiqiang; Xie, Yi

2016-09-01

Ultrathin metal layers can be highly active carbon dioxide electroreduction catalysts, but may also be prone to oxidation. Here we construct a model of graphene confined ultrathin layers of highly reactive metals, taking the synthetic highly reactive tin quantum sheets confined in graphene as an example. The higher electrochemical active area ensures 9 times larger carbon dioxide adsorption capacity relative to bulk tin, while the highly-conductive graphene favours rate-determining electron transfer from carbon dioxide to its radical anion. The lowered tin-tin coordination numbers, revealed by X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, enable tin quantum sheets confined in graphene to efficiently stabilize the carbon dioxide radical anion, verified by 0.13 volts lowered potential of hydroxyl ion adsorption compared with bulk tin. Hence, the tin quantum sheets confined in graphene show enhanced electrocatalytic activity and stability. This work may provide a promising lead for designing efficient and robust catalysts for electrolytic fuel synthesis.

Reducing Threshold of Multi Quantum Wells InGaN Laser Diode by Using InGaN/GaN Waveguide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdullah, Rafid A.; Ibrahim, Kamarulazizi

2010-07-01

ISE TCAD (Integrated System Engineering Technology Computer Aided Design) software simulation program has been utilized to help study the effect of using InGaN/GaN as a waveguide instead of conventional GaN waveguide for multi quantum wells violet InGaN laser diode (LD). Simulation results indicate that the threshold of the LD has been reduced by using InGaN/GaN waveguide where InGaN/GaN waveguide increases the optical confinement factor which leads to increase the confinement carriers at the active region of the LD.

Amoeboid swimming in a channel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Hao; Farutin, Alexander; Hu, Wei-Fan; Thiébaud, Marine; Rafaï, Salima; Peyla, Philippe; Lai, Ming-Chih; Misbah, Chaouqi

Several micro-organisms, such as bacteria, algae, or spermatozoa, use flagella or cilia to swim in a fluid, while many other micro-organisms instead use ample shape deformation, described as amoeboid, to propel themselves by either crawling on a substrate or swimming. Many eukaryotic cells were believed to require an underlying substratum to migrate (crawl) by using membrane deformation (like blebbing or generation of lamellipodia) but there is now increasing evidence that a large variety of cells (including those of the immune system) can migrate without the assistance of focal adhesion, allowing them to swim as efficiently as they can crawl. This paper details the analysis of amoeboid swimming in a confined fluid by modeling the swimmer as an inextensible membrane deploying local active forces. The swimmer displays a rich behavior: it may settle into a straight trajectory in the channel or navigate from one wall to the other depending on its confinement. The nature of the swimmer is also found to be affected by confinement: the swimmer can behave, on the average over one swimming cycle, as a pusher at low confinement, and becomes a puller at higher confinement. The swimmer's nature is thus not an intrinsic property. The scaling of the swimmer velocity V with the force amplitude A is analyzed in detail showing that at small enough A, $V\\sim A^2/\\eta^2$, whereas at large enough A, V is independent of the force and is determined solely by the stroke frequency and swimmer size. This finding starkly contrasts with currently known results found from swimming models where motion is based on flagellar or ciliary activity, where $V\\sim A/\\eta$. To conclude, two definitions of efficiency as put forward in the literature are analyzed with distinct outcomes. We find that one type of efficiency has an optimum as a function of confinement while the other does not. Future perspectives are outlined.

Structure, thermodynamic properties, and phase diagrams of few colloids confined in a spherical pore.

PubMed

Paganini, Iván E; Pastorino, Claudio; Urrutia, Ignacio

2015-06-28

We study a system of few colloids confined in a small spherical cavity with event driven molecular dynamics simulations in the canonical ensemble. The colloidal particles interact through a short range square-well potential that takes into account the basic elements of attraction and excluded-volume repulsion of the interaction among colloids. We analyze the structural and thermodynamic properties of this few-body confined system in the framework of inhomogeneous fluids theory. Pair correlation function and density profile are used to determine the structure and the spatial characteristics of the system. Pressure on the walls, internal energy, and surface quantities such as surface tension and adsorption are also analyzed for a wide range of densities and temperatures. We have characterized systems from 2 to 6 confined particles, identifying distinctive qualitative behavior over the thermodynamic plane T - ρ, in a few-particle equivalent to phase diagrams of macroscopic systems. Applying the extended law of corresponding states, the square well interaction is mapped to the Asakura-Oosawa model for colloid-polymer mixtures. We link explicitly the temperature of the confined square-well fluid to the equivalent packing fraction of polymers in the Asakura-Oosawa model. Using this approach, we study the confined system of few colloids in a colloid-polymer mixture.

Structure, thermodynamic properties, and phase diagrams of few colloids confined in a spherical pore

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Paganini, Iván E.; Pastorino, Claudio, E-mail: pastor@cnea.gov.ar; Urrutia, Ignacio, E-mail: iurrutia@cnea.gov.ar

2015-06-28

We study a system of few colloids confined in a small spherical cavity with event driven molecular dynamics simulations in the canonical ensemble. The colloidal particles interact through a short range square-well potential that takes into account the basic elements of attraction and excluded-volume repulsion of the interaction among colloids. We analyze the structural and thermodynamic properties of this few-body confined system in the framework of inhomogeneous fluids theory. Pair correlation function and density profile are used to determine the structure and the spatial characteristics of the system. Pressure on the walls, internal energy, and surface quantities such as surfacemore » tension and adsorption are also analyzed for a wide range of densities and temperatures. We have characterized systems from 2 to 6 confined particles, identifying distinctive qualitative behavior over the thermodynamic plane T − ρ, in a few-particle equivalent to phase diagrams of macroscopic systems. Applying the extended law of corresponding states, the square well interaction is mapped to the Asakura-Oosawa model for colloid-polymer mixtures. We link explicitly the temperature of the confined square-well fluid to the equivalent packing fraction of polymers in the Asakura-Oosawa model. Using this approach, we study the confined system of few colloids in a colloid-polymer mixture.« less

Tailoring nanoscopic confines to maximize catalytic activity of hydronium ions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Hui; Eckstein, Sebastian; Vjunov, Aleksei; Camaioni, Donald M.; Lercher, Johannes A.

2017-05-01

Acid catalysis by hydronium ions is ubiquitous in aqueous-phase organic reactions. Here we show that hydronium ion catalysis, exemplified by intramolecular dehydration of cyclohexanol, is markedly influenced by steric constraints, yielding turnover rates that increase by up to two orders of magnitude in tight confines relative to an aqueous solution of a Brønsted acid. The higher activities in zeolites BEA and FAU than in water are caused by more positive activation entropies that more than offset higher activation enthalpies. The higher activity in zeolite MFI with pores smaller than BEA and FAU is caused by a lower activation enthalpy in the tighter confines that more than offsets a less positive activation entropy. Molecularly sized pores significantly enhance the association between hydronium ions and alcohols in a steric environment resembling the constraints in pockets of enzymes stabilizing active sites.

Pore-scale investigation on stress-dependent characteristics of granular packs and the impact of pore deformation on fluid distribution

DOE PAGES

Yoon, Hongkyu; Klise, Katherine A.; Torrealba, Victor A.; ...

2015-05-25

Understanding the effect of changing stress conditions on multiphase flow in porous media is of fundamental importance for many subsurface activities including enhanced oil recovery, water drawdown from aquifers, soil confinement, and geologic carbon storage. Geomechanical properties of complex porous systems are dynamically linked to flow conditions, but their feedback relationship is often oversimplified due to the difficulty of representing pore-scale stress deformation and multiphase flow characteristics in high fidelity. In this work, we performed pore-scale experiments of single- and multiphase flow through bead packs at different confining pressure conditions to elucidate compaction-dependent characteristics of granular packs and their impactmore » on fluid flow. A series of drainage and imbibition cycles were conducted on a water-wet, soda-lime glass bead pack under varying confining stress conditions. Simultaneously, X-ray micro-CT was used to visualize and quantify the degree of deformation and fluid distribution corresponding with each stress condition and injection cycle. Micro-CT images were segmented using a gradient-based method to identify fluids (e.g., oil and water), and solid phase redistribution throughout the different experimental stages. Changes in porosity, tortuosity, and specific surface area were quantified as a function of applied confining pressure. Results demonstrate varying degrees of sensitivity of these properties to confining pressure, which suggests that caution must be taken when considering scalability of these properties for practical modeling purposes. Changes in capillary number with confining pressure are attributed to the increase in pore velocity as a result of pore contraction. Furthermore, this increase in pore velocity was found to have a marginal impact on average phase trapping at different confining pressures.« less

How to Recharge a Confined Aquifer: An Exploration of Geologic Controls on Groundwater Storage.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maples, S.; Fogg, G. E.; Maxwell, R. M.; Liu, Y.

2017-12-01

Decreased snowpack storage and groundwater overdraft in California has increased interest in managed aquifer recharge (MAR) of excess winter runoff to the Central Valley aquifer system, which has unused storage capacity that far exceeds the state's surface reservoirs. Recharge to the productive, confined aquifer system remains a challenge due to the presence of nearly-ubiquitous, multiple silt and clay confining units that limit recharge pathways. However, previous studies have identified interconnected networks of sand and gravel deposits that bypass the confining units and accommodate rapid, high-volume recharge to the confined aquifer system in select locations. We use the variably-saturated, fully-integrated groundwater/surface-water flow code, ParFlow, in combination with a high-resolution, transition probability Markov-chain geostatistical model of the subsurface geologic heterogeneity of the east side of the Sacramento Valley, CA, to characterize recharge potential across a landscape that includes these geologic features. Multiple 180-day MAR simulations show that recharge potential is highly dependent on subsurface geologic structure, with a several order-of-magnitude range of recharge rates and volumes across the landscape. Where there are recharge pathways to the productive confined-aquifer system, pressure propagation in the confined system is widespread and rapid, with multi-kilometer lateral pressure propagation. Although widespread pressure propagation occurs in the confined system, only a small fraction of recharge volume is accommodated there. Instead, the majority of recharge occurs by filling unsaturated pore spaces. Where they outcrop at land surface, high-K recharge pathways fill rapidly, accommodating the majority of recharge during early time. However, these features become saturated quickly, and somewhat counterintuitively, the low-K silt and clay facies accommodate the majority of recharge volume during most of the simulation. These findings (1) highlight the large variability of MAR potential across the landscape, wherein the recharge capacity in select areas far exceeds recharge potential over most of the landscape, and (2) elucidate important physical processes that control MAR potential in alluvial aquifer systems.

The Active Bacterial Community in a Pristine Confined Aquifer

EPA Science Inventory

This study of the active bacteria residing in a pristine confined aquifer provides unexpected insights into the ecology of iron-reducing and sulfate-reducing bacteria in the subsurface. At 18 wells in east-central Illinois, we trapped the microbes that attached to aquifer sedimen...

Optimizing accuracy of determinations of CO₂ storage capacity and permanence, and designing more efficient storage operations: An example from the Rock Springs Uplift, Wyoming

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bentley, Ramsey; Dahl, Shanna; Deiss, Allory

At a potential injection site on the Rock Springs Uplift in southwest Wyoming, an investigation of confining layers was undertaken to develop and test methodology, identify key data requirements, assess previous injection scenarios relative to detailed confining layer properties, and integrate all findings in order to reduce the uncertainty of CO₂ storage permanence. The assurance of safe and permanent storage of CO₂ at a storage site involves a detailed evaluation of the confining layers. Four suites of field data were recognized as crucial for determining storage permanence relative to the confining layers; seismic, core and petrophysical data from a wellbore,more » formation fluid samples, and in-situ formation tests. Core and petrophysical data were used to create a vertical heterogenic property model that defined porosity, permeability, displacement pressure, geomechanical strengths, and diagenetic history. These analyses identified four primary confining layers and multiple redundant confining layers. In-situ formation tests were used to evaluate fracture gradients, regional stress fields, baseline microseismic data, step-rate injection tests, and formation perforation responses. Seismic attributes, correlated with the vertical heterogenic property models, were calculated and used to create a 3-D volume model over the entire site. The seismic data provided the vehicle to transform the vertical heterogenic property model into a horizontal heterogenic property model, which allowed for the evaluation of confining layers across the entire study site without risking additional wellbore perforations. Lastly, formation fluids were collected and analyzed for geochemical and isotopic compositions from stacked reservoir systems. These data further tested primary confining layers, by evaluating the evidence of mixing between target reservoirs (mixing would imply an existing breach of primary confining layers). All data were propagated into a dynamic, heterogenic geologic property model used to test various injection scenarios. These tests showed that the study site could retain 25MT of injected CO₂ over an injection lifespan of 50 years. Major findings indicate that active reservoir pressure management through reservoir fluid production (minimum of three production wells) greatly reduces the risk of breaching a confining layer. To address brine production, a well completion and engineering study was incorporated to reduce the risks of scaling and erosion during injection and production. These scenarios suggest that the dolostone within the Mississippian Madison Limestone is the site’s best injection/production target by two orders of magnitude, and that commercial well equipment would meet all performance requirements. This confirms that there are multiple confining layers in southwest Wyoming that are capable of retaining commercial volumes of CO₃, making Wyoming’s Paleozoic reservoirs ideal storage targets for low-risk injection and long-term storage. This study also indicates that column height retention calculations are reduced in a CO₂-brine system relative to a hydrocarbon-brine system, which is an observation that affects all potential CCS sites. Likewise, this study identified the impacts that downhole testing imparts on reservoir fluids, and the likelihood of introducing uncertainty in baseline site assumptions and later modeling.« less

Immersed Boundary Simulations of Active Fluid Droplets

PubMed Central

Hawkins, Rhoda J.

2016-01-01

We present numerical simulations of active fluid droplets immersed in an external fluid in 2-dimensions using an Immersed Boundary method to simulate the fluid droplet interface as a Lagrangian mesh. We present results from two example systems, firstly an active isotropic fluid boundary consisting of particles that can bind and unbind from the interface and generate surface tension gradients through active contractility. Secondly, a droplet filled with an active polar fluid with homeotropic anchoring at the droplet interface. These two systems demonstrate spontaneous symmetry breaking and steady state dynamics resembling cell motility and division and show complex feedback mechanisms with minimal degrees of freedom. The simulations outlined here will be useful for quantifying the wide range of dynamics observable in these active systems and modelling the effects of confinement in a consistent and adaptable way. PMID:27606609

Dynamical Properties of a Living Nematic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Genkin, Mikhail

The systems, which are made of a large number or interacting particles, or agents that convert the energy stored in the environment into mechanical motion, are called active systems, or active matter. The examples of active matter include both living and synthetic systems. The size of agents varies significantly: bird flocks and fish schools represent macroscopic active systems, while suspensions of living organisms or artificial colloidal particles are examples of microscopic ones. In this work, I studied one of the simplest realization of active matter termed living (or active) nematics, that can be conceived by mixing swimming bacteria and nematic liquid crystal. Using modeling, numerical simulations and experiments I studied various dynamical properties of active nematics. This work hints into new methods of control and manipulation of active matter. Active nematic exhibits complex spatiotemporal behavior manifested by formation, proliferation, and annihilation of topological defects. A new computational 2D model coupling nematic liquid crystal and swimming bacteria dynamics have been proposed. We investigated the developed system of partial differential equations analytically and integrated it numerically using the highly efficient parallel GPU code. The integration results are in a very good agreement with other theoretical and experimental studies. In addition, our model revealed a number of testable phenomena. The major model prediction (bacteria accumulation in positive and depletion in negative topological defects) was tested by a dedicated experiment. We extended our model to study active nematics in a biphasic state, where nematic and isotropic phases coexist. Typically this coexistence is manifested by formation of tactoids - isotropic elongated regions surrounded by nematic phase, or nematic regions surrounded by isotropic phase. Using numerical integration, we revealed fundamental properties of such systems. Our main model outcome - spontaneous negative charging of isotropic-nematic interfaces - was confirmed by the experiment. The provided modeling and experimental results are in a very good qualitative and quantitative agreement. At last, we studied living nematics experimentally. We worked with swimming bacteria Bacillus subtilis suspended in disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) liquid crystal. Using cylindrical confinement, we were able to observe quantization of nematics' bending instability. Our experimental results revealed a complex interplay between bacteria self-propulsion and nematics' elasticity in the presence of cylindrical confinements of different sizes.

Active Control of Charge Density Waves at Degenerate Semiconductor Interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vinnakota, Raj; Genov, Dentcho

We present numerical modeling of an active electronically controlled highly confined charge-density waves, i.e. surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at the metallurgic interfaces of degenerate semiconductor materials. An electro-optic switching element for fully-functional plasmonic circuits based on p-n junction semiconductor Surface Plasmon Polariton (SPP) waveguide is shown. Two figures of merits are introduced and parametric study has been performed identifying the device optimal operation range. The Indium Gallium Arsenide (In0.53Ga0.47As) is identified as the best semiconductor material for the device providing high optical confinement, reduced system size and fast operation. The electro-optic SPP switching element is shown to operate at signal modulation up to -24dB and switching rates surpassing 100GHz, thus potentially providing a new pathway toward bridging the gap between electronic and photonic devices. The current work is funded by the NSF EPSCoR CIMM project under award #OIA-1541079.

High data rate atom interferometric device

DOEpatents

Biedermann, Grant; McGuinness, Hayden James Evans; Rakholia, Akash

2015-07-21

A light-pulse atomic interferometry (LPAI) apparatus is provided. The LPAI apparatus comprises a vessel, two sets of magnetic coils configured to magnetically confine an atomic vapor in two respective magneto-optical traps (MOTs) within the vessel when activated, and an optical system configured to irradiate the atomic vapor within the vessel with laser radiation that, when suitably tuned, can launch atoms previously confined in each of the MOTs toward the other MOT. In embodiments, the magnetic coils are configured to produce a magnetic field that is non-zero at the midpoint between the traps. In embodiments, the time-of-flight of the launched atoms from one MOT to the other is 12 ms or less. In embodiments, the MOTs are situated approximately 36 mm apart. In embodiments, the apparatus is configured to activate the magnetic coils according to a particular temporal magnetic field gradient profile.

Intrinsic Flow and Momentum Transport during Improved Confinement in MST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Craig, D.; Tan, E.; Schott, B.; Anderson, J. K.; Boguski, J.; Nornberg, M. D.; Xing, Z. A.

2017-10-01

Progress in absolute wavelength calibration of the Charge Exchange Recombination Spectroscopy (CHERS) system on MST has enabled new observations and analysis of intrinsic flow and momentum transport. Localized toroidal and poloidal flow measurements with systematic accuracy of +/- 3 km/s have been obtained during improved confinement Pulsed Parallel Current Drive (PPCD) plasmas at high plasma current (400-500 kA). The magnetic activity prior to and during the transition to improved confinement tends to increase the flow and sets the initial condition for the momentum profile evolution during improved confinement where intrinsic flow drive appears to weaken. Inboard flows change in time during PPCD, consistent with changes in the core-resonant m =1, n =6 tearing mode phase velocity. Outboard flows near the magnetic axis are time-independent, resulting in the development of a strongly sheared toroidal flow in the core and asymmetry in the poloidal flow profile. The deceleration of the n =6 mode during the period of improved confinement correlates well with the n =6 mode amplitude and is roughly consistent with the expected torque from eddy currents in the conducting shell. The level of Dα emission and secondary mode amplitudes (n =7-10) do not correlate with the mode deceleration suggesting that the momentum loss from charge exchange with neutrals and diffusion due to residual magnetic stochasticity are not significant in PPCD. This work has been supported by the U.S.D.O.E.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gordienko, V.A.; Dubinov, A.E.; Zhuravlev, S.S.

A new type of magnetic confinement system--a Galathea with a myxine in the shape of a convex polyhedron--is proposed. The system was modeled experimentally by passing an RF current through the myxine. On the one hand, the myxine acts as an inductor whose electric field ionizes the gas and, on the other, it acts as an RF magnetic confinement system. A steady-state plasma produced and confined in this system is almost spherical in shape. The electron density and specific (per unit volume) glow intensity of the plasma produced are found to be higher than those in conventional helical inductors.

Hormonal changes during a long term isolation (SFINCSS-99 project)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Larina, I.; Custaud, M.; Gauquelin-Koch, G.; Gharib, C.; Grigoriev, A.; Nichiporuk, I.

Long duration of space mission and functioning in Earth's orbit of the International Space Station make humans put up with spatial constraint for many months. From previous studies, it appears that confinement and inactivity can induce great psychological and physiological modifications by social and sensory deprivation. SFINCSS-99 experiment had the goal to determine the cardiovascular and the hormonal pattern of blood volume regulating hormones responses. Simulation experiments were performed in pressurized chambers outfitted with technical infrastructure including the systems for air regeneration, thermal and humidity air control, power supply, communications, TV monitoring, gas analysis and local electronic network. Three groups of test-subjects were functioning in parallel in adjacent modules, which mocked the ISS Russian and others segments. One33 crew (group I) occupied the 100 m module and the others the 200 m module (II &III). They could communicate and work together. Group I consisted from Russian males- volunteers aged of 37 to 48 who spent 240 days in chamber. Group II included 4 males (one German and three Russians) aged from 27 to 45, spent 110 days in isolation. In blood samples, drawing before, during and after isolation's period hormones were determined, in urine samples - excretion of hormones, electrolytes, nitrites, nitrates, and osmolality. The increase of plasma volume (hematocrit decrease in Group I was 13,2%: 42,7+/-0,5 vs 39,2+/-1,2; p< 0,05; in Group II - 4,1%: 44,3+/-1,0 vs 43,3+/-2,6) in association with a tendency to decrease in plasma renin activity (in Group I 13,1+/-3,5 vs 27,8+/-6,0) was likely to be due to decreased sympathetic activity, this do agree with the changes in urinary catecholamine (CA) during confinement. Urinary CA were significantly higher during the recovery period than during confinement (in Group I 341+/-44 vs 240+/-19, p< 0,05). This suggests that the sympathoadrenal system was activated, and agrees with the increase of heart rate. The ratio of nitrite/nitrate in urine, an indicator of NO release, didn't show significant changes. In this experiment Bystritskaia noted a presence of phase in adaptation process approximately 60 days long, the similar facts were obtained by Gushin V., who showed the presence of about 60-days rhythm of communication activity (oral and written). Analysis of data suggests that duration of isolation was a factor mainly for regulation of hormones but all physiological systems are highly influenced by confinement, which can decrease the capacity for work of the person.

Hydrodynamics of suspensions of passive and active rigid particles: a rigid multiblob approach

DOE PAGES

Usabiaga, Florencio Balboa; Kallemov, Bakytzhan; Delmotte, Blaise; ...

2016-01-12

We develop a rigid multiblob method for numerically solving the mobility problem for suspensions of passive and active rigid particles of complex shape in Stokes flow in unconfined, partially confined, and fully confined geometries. As in a number of existing methods, we discretize rigid bodies using a collection of minimally resolved spherical blobs constrained to move as a rigid body, to arrive at a potentially large linear system of equations for the unknown Lagrange multipliers and rigid-body motions. Here we develop a block-diagonal preconditioner for this linear system and show that a standard Krylov solver converges in a modest numbermore » of iterations that is essentially independent of the number of particles. Key to the efficiency of the method is a technique for fast computation of the product of the blob-blob mobility matrix and a vector. For unbounded suspensions, we rely on existing analytical expressions for the Rotne-Prager-Yamakawa tensor combined with a fast multipole method (FMM) to obtain linear scaling in the number of particles. For suspensions sedimented against a single no-slip boundary, we use a direct summation on a graphical processing unit (GPU), which gives quadratic asymptotic scaling with the number of particles. For fully confined domains, such as periodic suspensions or suspensions confined in slit and square channels, we extend a recently developed rigid-body immersed boundary method by B. Kallemov, A. P. S. Bhalla, B. E. Griffith, and A. Donev (Commun. Appl. Math. Comput. Sci. 11 (2016), no. 1, 79-141) to suspensions of freely moving passive or active rigid particles at zero Reynolds number. We demonstrate that the iterative solver for the coupled fluid and rigid-body equations converges in a bounded number of iterations regardless of the system size. In our approach, each iteration only requires a few cycles of a geometric multigrid solver for the Poisson equation, and an application of the block-diagonal preconditioner, leading to linear scaling with the number of particles. We optimize a number of parameters in the iterative solvers and apply our method to a variety of benchmark problems to carefully assess the accuracy of the rigid multiblob approach as a function of the resolution. We also model the dynamics of colloidal particles studied in recent experiments, such as passive boomerangs in a slit channel, as well as a pair of non-Brownian active nanorods sedimented against a wall.« less

76 FR 45620 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Confined...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-29

... spaces having contained combustible or flammable liquids or gases and toxic, corrosive, or irritating... flammable or combustible liquids or gases (Sec. 1915.13(b)(10)); (9) ensure confined and enclosed spaces are... for OMB Review; Comment Request; Confined and Enclosed Spaces and Other Dangerous Atmospheres in...

Active Brownian particles near straight or curved walls: Pressure and boundary layers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duzgun, Ayhan; Selinger, Jonathan V.

2018-03-01

Unlike equilibrium systems, active matter is not governed by the conventional laws of thermodynamics. Through a series of analytic calculations and Langevin dynamics simulations, we explore how systems cross over from equilibrium to active behavior as the activity is increased. In particular, we calculate the profiles of density and orientational order near straight or circular walls and show the characteristic width of the boundary layers. We find a simple relationship between the enhancements of density and pressure near a wall. Based on these results, we determine how the pressure depends on wall curvature and hence make approximate analytic predictions for the motion of curved tracers, as well as the rectification of active particles around small openings in confined geometries.

Confined catalysis under two-dimensional materials

PubMed Central

Li, Haobo; Xiao, Jianping; Bao, Xinhe

2017-01-01

Confined microenvironments formed in heterogeneous catalysts have recently been recognized as equally important as catalytically active sites. Understanding the fundamentals of confined catalysis has become an important topic in heterogeneous catalysis. Well-defined 2D space between a catalyst surface and a 2D material overlayer provides an ideal microenvironment to explore the confined catalysis experimentally and theoretically. Using density functional theory calculations, we reveal that adsorption of atoms and molecules on a Pt(111) surface always has been weakened under monolayer graphene, which is attributed to the geometric constraint and confinement field in the 2D space between the graphene overlayer and the Pt(111) surface. A similar result has been found on Pt(110) and Pt(100) surfaces covered with graphene. The microenvironment created by coating a catalyst surface with 2D material overlayer can be used to modulate surface reactivity, which has been illustrated by optimizing oxygen reduction reaction activity on Pt(111) covered by various 2D materials. We demonstrate a concept of confined catalysis under 2D cover based on a weak van der Waals interaction between 2D material overlayers and underlying catalyst surfaces. PMID:28533413

System and method of operating toroidal magnetic confinement devices

DOEpatents

Chance, M.S.; Jardin, S.C.; Stix, T.H.; Grimm, R.C.; Manickam, J.; Okabayashi, M.

1984-08-30

This invention pertains to methods and arrangements for attaining high beta values in plasma confinement devices. More specifically, this invention pertains to methods for accessing the second stability region of operation in toroidal magnetic confinement devices.

Texture and Elastic Anisotropy of Mantle Olivine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nikitin, A. N.; Ivankina, T. I.; Bourilitchev, D. E.; Klima, K.; Locajicek, T.; Pros, Z.

Eight olivine rock samples from different European regions were collected for neu- tron texture analyses and for P-wave velocity measurements by means of ultrasonic sounding at various confining pressures. The orientation distribution functions (ODFs) of olivine were determined and pole figures of the main crystallographic planes were calculated. The spatial P-wave velocity distributions were determined at confining pressures from 0.1 to 400 MPa and modelled from the olivine textures. In dependence upon the type of rock (xenolith or dunite) different behavior of both the P-wave veloc- ity distributions and the anisotropy coefficients with various confining pressures was observed. In order to explain the interdependence of elastic anisotropy and hydrostatic pressure, a model for polycrystalline olivine rocks was suggested, which considers the influence of the crystallographic and the mechanical textures on the elastic behaviour of the polycrystal. Since the olivine texture depends upon the active slip systems and the deformation temperature, neutron texture analyses enable us to estimate depth and thermodynamical conditions during texture formation.

Propagating confined states in phase dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brand, Helmut R.; Deissler, Robert J.

1992-01-01

Theoretical treatment is given to the possibility of the existence of propagating confined states in the nonlinear phase equation by generalizing stationary confined states. The nonlinear phase equation is set forth for the case of propagating patterns with long wavelengths and low-frequency modulation. A large range of parameter values is shown to exist for propagating confined states which have spatially localized regions which travel on a background with unique wavelengths. The theoretical phenomena are shown to correspond to such physical systems as spirals in Taylor instabilities, traveling waves in convective systems, and slot-convection phenomena for binary fluid mixtures.

The Drift Chamber for the Experiment to Study the Nature of the Confinement

DOE PAGES

Berdnikov, Vladimir V.; Somov, S. V.; Pentchev, Lubomir; ...

2015-01-01

The GlueX experiment was designed to search for hybrid mesons with exotic quantum numbers using a beam of linearly polarized photons incident on a liquid hydrogen target. The spectrum of these states and their mass splitting from normal mesons may yield information on confinement. The description of the GlueX spectrometer and Forward Drift Chambers (FDC) as a part of track reconstruction system is presented in the text. FDC‘s are multiwire chambers with cathode and anode read-out. The system allows reconstructing tracks of charged particles with ~200mkm accuracy with angles from 20° up to 1°. One of the detector features ismore » 1.64% X 0 material amount in the active area. The cathode gain calibration procedure is presented. The results of such calibration using cosmic data and beam data are presented as well.« less

Pseudochemotaxis in inhomogeneous active Brownian systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vuijk, Hidde D.; Sharma, Abhinav; Mondal, Debasish; Sommer, Jens-Uwe; Merlitz, Holger

2018-04-01

We study dynamical properties of confined, self-propelled Brownian particles in an inhomogeneous activity profile. Using Brownian dynamics simulations, we calculate the probability to reach a fixed target and the mean first passage time to the target of an active particle. We show that both these quantities are strongly influenced by the inhomogeneous activity. When the activity is distributed such that high-activity zone is located between the target and the starting location, the target finding probability is increased and the passage time is decreased in comparison to a uniformly active system. Moreover, for a continuously distributed profile, the activity gradient results in a drift of active particle up the gradient bearing resemblance to chemotaxis. Integrating out the orientational degrees of freedom, we derive an approximate Fokker-Planck equation and show that the theoretical predictions are in very good agreement with the Brownian dynamics simulations.

Economic and environmental issues associated with confinement and pasture-based dairy systems

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Milk is produced in a continuum of dairy systems from full confinement to full pasture grazing. Climate, available feeds, and milk price: feed cost ratio influence the preferred system. All dairy systems have an environmental impact and inputs to maximise profit may lead to pollution levels unacce...

Critical quench dynamics in confined systems.

PubMed

Collura, Mario; Karevski, Dragi

2010-05-21

We analyze the coherent quantum evolution of a many-particle system after slowly sweeping a power-law confining potential. The amplitude of the confining potential is varied in time along a power-law ramp such that the many-particle system finally reaches or crosses a critical point. Under this protocol we derive general scaling laws for the density of excitations created during the nonadiabatic sweep of the confining potential. It is found that the mean excitation density follows an algebraic law as a function of the sweeping rate with an exponent that depends on the space-time properties of the potential. We confirm our scaling laws by first order adiabatic calculation and exact results on the Ising quantum chain with a varying transverse field.

77 FR 49277 - Takes of Marine Mammals During Specified Activities; Confined Blasting Operations by the U.S...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-15

... Miami Harbor in 2005 to 2006 estimated between 200 to 250 days of confined blasting with one shot per... blasting means that the shots would be ``confined'' in the rock with stemming that prevents the explosive... Harbor Miami-Dade County, Florida Navigation Study, Final General Reevaluation Report and Environmental...

Elevated-Confined Phase-Change Random Access Memory Cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee; Koon, Hock; Shi; Luping; Zhao; Rong; Yang; Hongxin; Lim; Guan, Kian; Li; Jianming; Chong; Chong, Tow

2010-04-01

A new elevated-confined phase-change random access memory (PCRAM) cell structure to reduce power consumption was proposed. In this proposed structure, the confined phase-change region is sitting on top of a small metal column enclosed by a dielectric at the sides. Hence, more heat can be effectively sustained underneath the phase-change region. As for the conventional structure, the confined phase-change region is sitting directly above a large planar bottom metal electrode, which can easily conduct most of the induced heat away. From simulations, a more uniform temperature profile around the active region and a higher peak temperature at the phase-change layer (PCL) in an elevated-confined structure were observed. Experimental results showed that the elevated-confined PCRAM cell requires a lower programming power and has a better scalability than a conventional confined PCRAM cell.

Hydrogeology and water quality of the shallow aquifer system at the Explosive Experimental Area, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Site, Dahlgren, Virginia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bell, C.F.

1996-01-01

In October 1993, the U.S. Geological Survey began a study to characterize the hydrogeology of the shallow aquifer system at the Explosive Experimental Area, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Site, Dahlgren, Virginia, which is located on the Potomac River in the Coastal Plain Physiographic Province. The study provides a description of the hydrogeologic units, directions of ground-water flow, and back-ground water quality in the study area to a depth of about 100 feet. Lithologic, geophysical, and hydrologic data were collected from 28 wells drilled for this study, from 3 existing wells, and from outcrops. The shallow aquifer system at the Explosive Experimental Area consists of two fining-upward sequences of Pleistocene fluvial-estuarine deposits that overlie Paleocene-Eocene marine deposits of the Nanjemoy-Marlboro confining unit. The surficial hydrogeologic unit is the Columbia aquifer. Horizontal linear flow of water in this aquifer generally responds to the surface topography, discharging to tidal creeks, marshes, and the Potomac River, and rates of flow in this aquifer range from 0.003 to 0.70 foot per day. The Columbia aquifer unconformably overlies the upper confining unit 12-an organic-rich clay that is 0 to 55 feet thick. The upper confining unit conformably overlies the upper confined aquifer, a 0- to 35-feet thick unit that consists of interbedded fine-grained to medium-grained sands and clay. The upper confined aquifer probably receives most of its recharge from the adjacent and underlying Nanjemoy-Marlboro confining unit. Water in the upper confined aquifer generally flows eastward, northward, and northeastward at about 0.03 foot per day toward the Potomac River and Machodoc Creek. The Nanjemoy-Marlboro confining unit consists of glauconitic, fossiliferous silty fine-grained sands of the Nanjemoy Formation. Where the upper confined system is absent, the Nanjemoy-Marlboro confining unit is directly overlain by the Columbia aquifer. In some parts of the Explosive Experimental Area, horizontal hydraulic conductivities of the Nanjemoy-Marlboro confining unit and the Columbia aquifer are similar (from 10-4 to 10-2 foot per day), and these units effectively combine to form a thick (greater than 50 feet) aquifer. The background water quality of the shallow aquifer system is characteristic of ground waters in the Virginia Coastal Plain Physiographic Province. Water in the Columbia aquifer is a mixed ionic type, has a median pH of 5.9, and a median total dissolved solids of 106 milligrams per liter. Water in the upper confined aquifer and Nanjemoy-Marlboro confining unit is a sodium- calcium-bicarbonate type, and generally has higher pH, dissolved solids, and alkalinity than water in the Columbia aquifer. Water in the upper confined aquifer and some parts of the Columbia aquifer is anoxic, and it has high concentrations of dissolved iron, manganese, and sulfide.

Soft inclusion in a confined fluctuating active gel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh Vishen, Amit; Rupprecht, J.-F.; Shivashankar, G. V.; Prost, J.; Rao, Madan

2018-03-01

We study stochastic dynamics of a point and extended inclusion within a one-dimensional confined active viscoelastic gel. We show that the dynamics of a point inclusion can be described by a Langevin equation with a confining potential and multiplicative noise. Using a systematic adiabatic elimination over the fast variables, we arrive at an overdamped equation with a proper definition of the multiplicative noise. To highlight various features and to appeal to different biological contexts, we treat the inclusion in turn as a rigid extended element, an elastic element, and a viscoelastic (Kelvin-Voigt) element. The dynamics for the shape and position of the extended inclusion can be described by coupled Langevin equations. Deriving exact expressions for the corresponding steady-state probability distributions, we find that the active noise induces an attraction to the edges of the confining domain. In the presence of a competing centering force, we find that the shape of the probability distribution exhibits a sharp transition upon varying the amplitude of the active noise. Our results could help understanding the positioning and deformability of biological inclusions, e.g., organelles in cells, or nucleus and cells within tissues.

Hydrodynamics of confined active fluids.

PubMed

Brotto, Tommaso; Caussin, Jean-Baptiste; Lauga, Eric; Bartolo, Denis

2013-01-18

We theoretically describe the dynamics of swimmer populations in rigidly confined thin liquid films. We first demonstrate that hydrodynamic interactions between confined swimmers depend solely on their shape and are independent of their specific swimming mechanism. We also show that, due to friction with the nearby rigid walls, confined swimmers do not just reorient in flow gradients but also in uniform flows. We then quantify the consequences of these microscopic interaction rules on the large-scale hydrodynamics of isotropic populations. We investigate in detail their stability and the resulting phase behavior, highlighting the differences with conventional active, three-dimensional suspensions. Two classes of polar swimmers are distinguished depending on their geometrical polarity. The first class gives rise to coherent directed motion at all scales, whereas for the second class we predict the spontaneous formation of coherent clusters (swarms).

Surface-Activated Coupling Reactions Confined on a Surface.

PubMed

Dong, Lei; Liu, Pei Nian; Lin, Nian

2015-10-20

Chemical reactions may take place in a pure phase of gas or liquid or at the interface of two phases (gas-solid or liquid-solid). Recently, the emerging field of "surface-confined coupling reactions" has attracted intensive attention. In this process, reactants, intermediates, and products of a coupling reaction are adsorbed on a solid-vacuum or a solid-liquid interface. The solid surface restricts all reaction steps on the interface, in other words, the reaction takes place within a lower-dimensional, for example, two-dimensional, space. Surface atoms that are fixed in the surface and adatoms that move on the surface often activate the surface-confined coupling reactions. The synergy of surface morphology and activity allow some reactions that are inefficient or prohibited in the gas or liquid phase to proceed efficiently when the reactions are confined on a surface. Over the past decade, dozens of well-known "textbook" coupling reactions have been shown to proceed as surface-confined coupling reactions. In most cases, the surface-confined coupling reactions were discovered by trial and error, and the reaction pathways are largely unknown. It is thus highly desirable to unravel the mechanisms, mechanisms of surface activation in particular, of the surface-confined coupling reactions. Because the reactions take place on surfaces, advanced surface science techniques can be applied to study the surface-confined coupling reactions. Among them, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are the two most extensively used experimental tools. The former resolves submolecular structures of individual reactants, intermediates, and products in real space, while the latter monitors the chemical states during the reactions in real time. Combination of the two methods provides unprecedented spatial and temporal information on the reaction pathways. The experimental findings are complemented by theoretical modeling. In particular, density-functional theory (DFT) transition-state calculations have been used to shed light on reaction mechanisms and to unravel the trends of different surface materials. In this Account, we discuss recent progress made in two widely studied surface-confined coupling reactions, aryl-aryl (Ullmann-type) coupling and alkyne-alkyne (Glaser-type) coupling, and focus on surface activation effects. Combined experimental and theoretical studies on the same reactions taking place on different metal surfaces have clearly demonstrated that different surfaces not only reduce the reaction barrier differently and render different reaction pathways but also control the morphology of the reaction products and, to some degree, select the reaction products. We end the Account with a list of questions to be addressed in the future. Satisfactorily answering these questions may lead to using the surface-confined coupling reactions to synthesize predefined products with high yield.

Theoretical Studies of Nonuniform Orientational Order in Liquid Crystals and Active Particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duzgun, Ayhan

I investigate three systems that exhibit complex patterns in orientational order, which are controlled by geometry interacting with the dynamics of phase transitions, metastability, and activity. 1. Liquid Crystal Elastomers: Liquid-crystal elastomers are remarkable materials that combine the elastic properties of cross-linked polymer networks with the anisotropy of liquid crystals. Any distortion of the polymer network affects the nematic order of the liquid crystal, and, likewise, any change in the magnitude or direction of the nematic order influences the shape of the elastomer. When elastomers are prepared without any alignment, they develop disordered polydomain structures as they are cooled into the nematic phase. To model these polydomain structures, I develop a dynamic theory for the isotropic-nematic transition in elastomers. 2. Active Brownian Particles: Unlike equilibrium systems, active matter is not governed by the conventional laws of thermodynamics. I perform Langevin dynamics simulations and analytic calculations to explore how systems cross over from equilibrium to active behavior as the activity is increased. Based on these results, I calculate how the pressure depends on wall curvature, and hence make analytic predictions for the motion of curved tracers and other effects of confinement in active matter systems. 3. Skyrmions in Liquid Crystals: Skyrmions are localized topological defects in the orientation of an order parameter field, without a singularity in the magnitude of the field. For many years, such defects have been studied in the context of chiral liquid crystals--for example, as bubbles in a confined cholesteric phase or as double-twist tubes in a blue phase. More recently, skyrmions have been investigated extensively in the context of chiral magnets. In this project, I compare skyrmions in chiral liquid crystals with the analogous magnetic defects. Through simulations based on the nematic order tensor, I model both isolated skyrmions and periodic defect lattices.

Colloidal transport through trap arrays controlled by active microswimmers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Wen; Misko, Vyacheslav R.; Marchesoni, Fabio; Nori, Franco

2018-07-01

We investigate the dynamics of a binary mixture consisting of active and passive colloidal particles diffusing in a 2D array of truncated harmonic wells, or traps. We explore the possibility of using a small fraction of active particles to manipulate a much larger fraction of passive particles, for instance, to confine them in or extract them from the traps. The results of our study have potential application in biology and medical sciences, for example, to remove dead cells or undesired contaminants from biological systems by means of self-propelled nano-robots.

Alizarin Red S-Confined Layer-By-Layer Films as Redox-Active Coatings on Electrodes for the Voltammetric Determination of L-Dopa

PubMed Central

Takahashi, Shigehiro; Suzuki, Iwao; Sugawara, Tatsuro; Seno, Masaru; Minaki, Daichi; Anzai, Jun-Ichi

2017-01-01

The preparation of redox-active coatings is a key step in fabricating electrochemical biosensors. To this goal, a variety of coating materials have been used in combination with redox-active compounds. In this study, alizarin red S (ARS) was confined in layer-by-layer (LbL) films composed of poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) to study the redox properties. A gold (Au) disc electrode coated with PEI/CMC LbL film was immersed in an ARS solution to uptake ARS into the film. ARS was successfully confined in the LbL film through electrostatic interactions. The cyclic voltammogram (CV) of ARS-confined PEI/CMC film-coated electrodes thus prepared exhibited redox waves in the potential range from −0.5 to −0.7 V originating from 9,10-anthraquinone moiety in ARS, demonstrating that ARS preserves its redox activity in the LbL film. An additional oxidation peak appeared around −0.4 V in the CV recorded in the solution containing phenylboronic acid (PBA), due to the formation of a boronate ester of ARS (ARS-PBA) in the film. The oxidation peak current at −0.4 V decreased upon addition of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-dopa) to the solution. Thus, the results suggest a potential use of the ARS-confined PEI/CMC films for constructing voltammetric sensors for L-dopa. PMID:28772942

Globally aligned states and hydrodynamic traffic jams in confined suspensions of active asymmetric particles.

PubMed

Lefauve, Adrien; Saintillan, David

2014-02-01

Strongly confined active liquids are subject to unique hydrodynamic interactions due to momentum screening and lubricated friction by the confining walls. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that two-dimensional dilute suspensions of fore-aft asymmetric polar swimmers in a Hele-Shaw geometry can exhibit a rich variety of novel phase behaviors depending on particle shape, including coherent polarized density waves with global alignment, persistent counterrotating vortices, density shocks and rarefaction waves. We also explain these phenomena using a linear stability analysis and a nonlinear traffic flow model, both derived from a mean-field kinetic theory.

Hydropower application of confined space regulations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Franseen, H.W.

1995-12-31

OSHA`s {open_quotes}Permit Required Confined Space{close_quotes} rules, 1910.146, became effective April 15, 1993. Their rules define a {open_quotes}confined space{close_quotes} and {open_quotes}permit required confined space{close_quotes}; provide general requirements for those entering the confined space, for the attendant and entry supervisor; define what a confined space program and permit system should be; and describe training requirements and rescue considerations. Tapoco Inc., began preparing confined space procedures in 1992 using Alcoa Engineering Standards and OSHA`s proposed rules. A joint union management team was formed, and this team began evaluating spaces which meet the confined space definition. In 1993, employees were trained, and all entriesmore » into spaces were done according to Alcoa`s and OSHA`s proposed rules. Rescue teams have been trained at each site. Some unique confined spaces and or unique entry conditions have been encountered which have required extensive evaluation.« less

Analysis of Tide and Offshore Storm-Induced Water Table Fluctuations for Structural Characterization of a Coastal Island Aquifer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trglavcnik, Victoria; Morrow, Dean; Weber, Kela P.; Li, Ling; Robinson, Clare E.

2018-04-01

Analysis of water table fluctuations can provide important insight into the hydraulic properties and structure of a coastal aquifer system including the connectivity between the aquifer and ocean. This study presents an improved approach for characterizing a permeable heterogeneous coastal aquifer system through analysis of the propagation of the tidal signal, as well as offshore storm pulse signals through a coastal aquifer. Offshore storms produce high wave activity, but are not necessarily linked to significant onshore precipitation. In this study, we focused on offshore storm events during which no onshore precipitation occurred. Extensive groundwater level data collected on a sand barrier island (Sable Island, NS, Canada) show nonuniform discontinuous propagation of the tide and offshore storm pulse signals through the aquifer with isolated inland areas showing enhanced response to both oceanic forcing signals. Propagation analysis suggests that isolated inland water table fluctuations may be caused by localized leakage from a confined aquifer that is connected to the ocean offshore but within the wave setup zone. Two-dimensional groundwater flow simulations were conducted to test the leaky confined-unconfined aquifer conceptualization and to identify the effect of key parameters on tidal signal propagation in leaky confined-unconfined coastal aquifers. This study illustrates that analysis of offshore storm signal propagation, in addition to tidal signal propagation, provides a valuable and low resource approach for large-scale characterization of permeable heterogeneous coastal aquifers. Such an approach is needed for the effective management of coastal environments where water resources are threatened by human activities and the changing climate.

Random close packing of disks and spheres in confined geometries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desmond, Kenneth W.; Weeks, Eric R.

2009-11-01

Studies of random close packing of spheres have advanced our knowledge about the structure of systems such as liquids, glasses, emulsions, granular media, and amorphous solids. In confined geometries, the structural properties of random-packed systems will change. To understand these changes, we study random close packing in finite-sized confined systems, in both two and three dimensions. Each packing consists of a 50-50 binary mixture with particle size ratio of 1.4. The presence of confining walls significantly lowers the overall maximum area fraction (or volume fraction in three dimensions). A simple model is presented, which quantifies the reduction in packing due to wall-induced structure. This wall-induced structure decays rapidly away from the wall, with characteristic length scales comparable to the small particle diameter.

Detection of the liquid-liquid transition in the deeply cooled water confined in MCM-41 with elastic neutron scattering technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhe; Ito, Kanae; Chen, Sow-Hsin

2016-05-01

In this paper we present a review on our recent experimental investigations into the phase behavior of the deeply cooled water confined in a nanoporous silica material, MCM-41, with elastic neutron scattering technique. Under such strong confinement, the homogeneous nucleation process of water is avoided, which allows the confined water to keep its liquid state at temperatures and pressures that are inaccessible to the bulk water. By measuring the average density of the confined heavy water, we observe a likely first-order low-density liquid (LDL) to high-density liquid (HDL) transition in the deeply cooled region of the confined heavy water. The phase separation starts from 1.12±0.17{ kbar} and 215±1{ K} and extends to higher pressures and lower temperatures in the phase diagram. This starting point could be the liquid-liquid critical point of the confined water. The locus of the Widom line is also estimated. The observation of the liquid-liquid transition in the confined water has potential to explain the mysterious behaviors of water at low temperatures. In addition, it may also have impacts on other disciplines, because the confined water system represents many biological and geological systems in which water resides in nanoscopic pores or in the vicinity of hydrophilic or hydrophobic surfaces.

Physical stratigraphy and hydrostratigraphy of Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene sediments, Burke and Screven Counties, Georgia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Falls, W.F.; Baum, J.S.; Prowell, D.C.

1997-01-01

Six geologic units are recognized in the Cretaceous and the Paleocene sediments of eastern Burke and Screven Counties in Georgia on the basis of lithologic, geophysical, and paleontologic data collected from three continuously cored testholes in Georgia and one testhole in South Carolina. The six geologic units are separated by regional unconformities and are designated from oldest to youngest as the Cape Fear Formation, the Middendorf Formation, the Black Creek Group (undivided), and the Steel Creek Formation in the Upper Cretaceous section, and the Ellenton and the Snapp Formations in the Paleocene section. The geologic units provide a spatial and temporal framework for the identification and correlation of a basal confining unit beneath the Midville aquifer system and five aquifers and five confining units in the Dublin and the Midville aquifer systems. The Dublin aquifer system is divided hydrostratigraphically into the Millers Pond, the upper Dublin, and the lower Dublin aquifers. The Midville aquifer system is divided hydrostratigraphically into the upper and the lower Midville aquifers. The fine-grained sediments of the Millers Pond, the lower Dublin, and the lower Midville confining units are nonmarine deposits and are present in the upper part of the Snapp Formation, the Black Creek Group (undivided), and the Middendorf Formation, respectively. Hydrologic data for specific sets of monitoring wells at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Millers Pond site in Georgia confirm that these three units are leaky confining units and locally impede vertical ground-water flow between adjacent aquifers. The fine-grained sediments of the upper Dublin and the upper Midville confining units are marine-deltaic deposits of the Ellenton Formation and the Black Creek Group (undivided), respectively. Hydrologic data confirm that the upper Dublin confining unit regionally impedes vertical ground-water flow on both sides of the Savannah River. The upper Midville confining unit impedes vertical ground-water flow in the middle and downdip parts of the study area and is a leaky confining unit in the updip part of the study area. Recognition of the upper Dublin confining unit as a regional confining unit between the Millers Pond and the upper Dublin aquifers also confirms that the Millers Pond aquifer is a separate hydrologic unit from the rest of the Dublin aquifer system. This multi-aquifer framework increases the vertical hydrostratigraphic resolution of hydraulic properties and gradients in the Dublin and Midville aquifer systems for the investigation of ground-water flow beneath the Savannah River in the vicinity of the U.S. Department of Energy Savannah River Site.

Glucose Infusion into Exercising Dogs after Confinement: Rectal and Active Muscle Temperatures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greenleaf, J. E.; Kruk, B.; Nazar, K.; Falecka-Wieczorek, I.; Kaciuba-Uscilko, H.

1995-01-01

Intravenous glucose infusion into ambulatory dogs results in attenuation of exercise-induced increase of both rectal and thigh muscle temperatures. That glucose (Glu) infusion attenuates excessive increase in body temperature from restricted activity during confinement deconditioning. Intravenous glucose infusion attenuates the rise in exercise core temperature in deconditioned dogs by a yet undefined mechanism.

Reproduction, mastitis, and body condition of seasonally calved Holstein and Jersey cows in confinement or pasture systems.

PubMed

Washburn, S P; White, S L; Green, J T; Benson, G A

2002-01-01

Dairy cows in confinement and pasture-based feeding systems were compared across four spring-calving and three fall-calving replicates for differences in reproduction, mastitis, body weights, and body condition scores. Feeding systems and replicates included both Jersey and Holstein cows. Cows in confinement were fed a total mixed ration, and cows on pasture were supplemented with concentrates and provided baled hay or haylage when pasture supply was limiting. Breeding periods were for 75 d in spring or fall. Reproductive performance did not differ significantly due to feeding system or season. Jerseys had higher conception rates (59.6 vs. 49.5 +/- 3.3%) and higher percentages of cows pregnant in 75 d (78.1 vs. 57.9 +/- 3.9%) than Holsteins. Cows in confinement had 1.8 times more clinical mastitis and eight times the rate of culling for mastitis than did cows on pasture. Jerseys had half as many clinical cases of mastitis per cow as Holsteins. Only 41 +/- 5% of confinement Holsteins remained for a subsequent lactation, starting within the defined calving season compared with 51 +/- 5% of pastured Holsteins and 71 and 72 +/- 5% of Jerseys, respectively. Body weights and condition scores were generally higher for confinement cows than pastured cows, and Jerseys had higher condition scores and lower body weights than Holsteins. In summary, pastured cows had fewer clinical cases of mastitis, lower body condition scores, and lower body weights than confinement cows. Holsteins were less likely to rebreed, had more mastitis, higher culling rates, and lower body condition scores than Jerseys.

Microfluidic rheology of active particle suspensions: Kinetic theory.

PubMed

Alonso-Matilla, Roberto; Ezhilan, Barath; Saintillan, David

2016-07-01

We analyze the effective rheology of a dilute suspension of self-propelled slender particles confined between two infinite parallel plates and subject to a pressure-driven flow. We use a continuum kinetic model to describe the configuration of the particles in the system, in which the disturbance flows induced by the swimmers are taken into account, and use it to calculate estimates of the suspension viscosity for a range of channel widths and flow strengths typical of microfluidic experiments. Our results are in agreement with previous bulk models, and in particular, demonstrate that the effect of activity is strongest at low flow rates, where pushers tend to decrease the suspension viscosity whereas pullers enhance it. In stronger flows, dissipative stresses overcome the effects of activity leading to increased viscosities followed by shear-thinning. The effects of confinement and number density are also analyzed, and our results confirm the apparent transition to superfluidity reported in recent experiments on pusher suspensions at intermediate densities. We also derive an approximate analytical expression for the effective viscosity in the limit of weak flows and wide channels, and demonstrate good agreement between theory and numerical calculations.

An electrostatically and a magnetically confined electron gun lens system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bernius, Mark T.; Man, Kin F.; Chutjian, Ara

1988-01-01

Focal properties, electron trajectory calculations, and geometries are given for two electron 'gun' lens systems that have a variety of applications in, for example, electron-neutral and electron-ion scattering experiments. One nine-lens system utilizes only electrostatic confinement and is capable of focusing electrons onto a fixed target with extremely small divergence angles, over a range of final energies 1-790 eV. The second gun lens system is a simpler three-lens system suitable for use in a uniform, solenoidal magnetic field. While the focusing properties of such a magnetically confined lens systenm are simpler to deal with, the system does illustrate features of electron extraction and Brillouin flow that have not been suitably emphasized in the literature.

Influence of confining layers' heterogeneity on the barometric response functions in semi-confined aquifers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Redaelli, Marco; Perulero Serrano, Raul

2017-04-01

It has been shown that Barometric Response Functions (BRFs) can provide a useful tool for detecting the occurrence of highly conducive bodies which span across aquifer confining layers and can potentially give rise to pathways for pollutant migration (Hussein et al 2013, Odling et al 2015). Analytical models employed to estimate BRFs from geological system properties assume homogeneity within the aquifer and its confining layer. These assumptions are rarely satisfied in practice. Our study focusses on the impact on predicted BRFs of heterogeneous distribution of high conductivity geomaterials within the confining layer. The work is grounded on a suite of three-dimensional, transient numerical computations of groundwater flow in a confining layer-aquifer system for i) a perfectly homogeneous two-layer setting where a single highly conducive block is fully penetrating the confining layer and ii) a heterogeneous two-layer system where hydraulic conductivity in the confining layer is modelled as a stochastic process. Our numerical results are interpreted through a comparison against those associated with an analytical model which assumes system homogeneity. Monitoring points located in the middle of the modelled aquifer domain, mimicking screened boreholes in field conditions, are used to extract water level records. The output is used to obtain the corresponding BRFs (in terms of gain and phase components) and compared vis-a-vis the selected analytical solution. The results show a wide variety of BRF responses, especially in the gain component, which vary from almost confined to unconfined scenarios. Our simulations show that the BRFs are a viable tool to improve understanding of the degree of spatial continuity within low permeability heterogeneous geological materials such as glacial till which is frequently found overlying water bearing units across the UK and other localities worldwide. As such, it has the potential to improve groundwater vulnerability assessment protocols. The results are promising and support the merit of additional developments through, e.g., numerical Monte Carlo simulations which can be performed to extract meaningful statistical information on the nature of BRFs as a function of randomly heterogeneous confining layers. Keywords: groundwater vulnerability, numerical modeling, barometric response functions, semi-confined aquifers References Hussein M.E.A., Odling N.E. & Clark R.A. (2013). Borehole water level response to barometric pressure as an indicator of aquifer vulnerability, Water Resources Research, 49: 7102-7119. Odling N.E, Perulero Serrano R., Hussein M.E.A, Riva M. & Guadagnini A. (2015). Detecting the vulnerability of groundwater in semi-confined aquifers using barometric response functions, Journal of Hydrology, 520: 143-156.

Active Brownian Particles. From Individual to Collective Stochastic Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romanczuk, P.; Bär, M.; Ebeling, W.; Lindner, B.; Schimansky-Geier, L.

2012-03-01

We review theoretical models of individual motility as well as collective dynamics and pattern formation of active particles. We focus on simple models of active dynamics with a particular emphasis on nonlinear and stochastic dynamics of such self-propelled entities in the framework of statistical mechanics. Examples of such active units in complex physico-chemical and biological systems are chemically powered nano-rods, localized patterns in reaction-diffusion system, motile cells or macroscopic animals. Based on the description of individual motion of point-like active particles by stochastic differential equations, we discuss different velocity-dependent friction functions, the impact of various types of fluctuations and calculate characteristic observables such as stationary velocity distributions or diffusion coefficients. Finally, we consider not only the free and confined individual active dynamics but also different types of interaction between active particles. The resulting collective dynamical behavior of large assemblies and aggregates of active units is discussed and an overview over some recent results on spatiotemporal pattern formation in such systems is given.

Effect of micro-stirring on enzymatic reaction kinetics inside a biomimetic container

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gozen, Irep; Horowitz, Viva; Chambers, Zachary; Manoharan, Vinothan

The intracellular environment is dynamic, influenced by the motion of active machinery such as cytoskeleton filaments and molecular motors. To understand whether and how such activity affects the rates of diffusion-limited reactions, we construct a model system consisting of a phospholipid vesicle encapsulating a small number of micro- or nanoparticles, the active motion of which can be induced by chemical or magnetic cues. We aim to determine a relation between active motion of particles and rates of enzymatic reactions in the confined volume. Our findings might illuminate how active motion influences cytoplasmic reaction dynamics, or may have played a role in protocell genetics.

[Comment to DPR 177/011].

PubMed

De Santis, Anna Elisa

2012-01-01

The subject of this study is the analysis of DPR 177/2011 regarding occupational safety in confined environments suspected of pollution The study wishes to represent a platform for the knowledge of the relevant principles and issues that are the functional basis for occupational health professionals, to offer a scheme in which it is possible to implement local actions of occupational prevention in the confined spaces and to help Italian intervention plans Italian within the European area, such, e.g., the present "Healthy workplaces campaign working together for risk prevention" promoted by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. The interiorization of this behavioural scheme is needed for professionals and authorities in the occupational safety systems, both public and private, who have the institutional duty to obtain trheir effectiveness. To observe the safety system in the specific matter of confined spaces, their essential elements were considered. These elements were identified both in the DPR 177/2011 and in other pertinent documents. This study doesn't pretend to identify all relevant documents, but wishes to underline the open structure of the system for acquiring non strictly juridical documents, such as ICOH guidelines and International code of ethics for occupational health professionals and pertinent authorities. A specific matter of the study is the different role of rules and ethical principles in verifying the adequacy of the safety system. The role of guidelines and ethic principles in the internal evaluation of legal value was examined for their relevance in order to decide on adequacy of the employer's management in safety matter adequacy which can by evaluated looking at his effective knowledge of spaces and good selection of managers and professionals. Furthermore, the study establishes how central--in reaching the safety--is the method based on effectiveness in managing the prevention in occupational health. The managerial method, not based on formal interpretation but on the effective situation of the spaces and of the human resources, is a critical element in safety systems and represents an acceptable scheme for the conduct of the subjects in charge for the production cycle. They are those who effectively decide on the site, except for some situations, as it is for example the prevision of managerial liability for activity in outsourcing. It has been stressed in this study the dynamicity of safety system in confined spaces which can be derived by the employer's duty of vigilance for interference risks between his activity and the activity of other enterprises operating in outsourcing. This duty it is permanent in every space and moment of production cycle. This context of functional responsibility, and liability when it exists, based on reality as well as on the knowledge of the spaces and human resources, shows the central function of qualified MD and his functionality in both aspects. In the first, he is able to understand various risks existing for health. In the second, for the many strict contacts with workers, he can participate in developing their information and formation, which have educational importance for the safety system of the occupational health. To conclude about the occupational safety system, this study stresses that the activity of qualified MD is not a simple surveillance carried out by medical examinations as a routine, but it is a strategic issue for the realization of organizational wellness at work, which is functional to respect both the human rights and an efficient production cycle.

Mott glass from localization and confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chou, Yang-Zhi; Nandkishore, Rahul M.; Radzihovsky, Leo

2018-05-01

We study a system of fermions in one spatial dimension with linearly confining interactions and short-range disorder. We focus on the zero-temperature properties of this system, which we characterize using bosonization and the Gaussian variational method. We compute the static compressibility and ac conductivity, and thereby demonstrate that the system is incompressible, but exhibits gapless optical conductivity. This corresponds to a "Mott glass" state, distinct from an Anderson and a fully gapped Mott insulator, arising due to the interplay of disorder and charge confinement. We argue that this Mott glass phenomenology should persist to nonzero temperatures.

Determination of broken KAM surfaces for particle orbits in toroidal confinement systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

White, R. B.

2015-10-05

Here, the destruction of Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser surfaces in a Hamiltonian system is an important topic in nonlinear dynamics, and in particular in the theory of particle orbits in toroidal magnetic confinement systems. Analytic models for transport due to mode-particle resonances are not sufficiently correct to give the effect of these resonances on transport. In this paper we compare three different methods for the detection of the loss of stability of orbits in the dynamics of charged particles in a toroidal magnetic confinement device in the presence of time dependent magnetic perturbations.

Precursor detonation wave development in ANFO due to aluminum confinement

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jackson, Scott I; Klyanda, Charles B; Short, Mark

2010-01-01

Detonations in explosive mixtures of ammonium-nitrate-fuel-oil (ANFO) confined by aluminum allow for transport of detonation energy ahead of the detonation front due to the aluminum sound speed exceeding the detonation velocity. The net effect of this energy transport on the detonation is unclear. It could enhance the detonation by precompressing the explosive near the wall. Alternatively, it could decrease the explosive performance by crushing porosity required for initiation by shock compression or destroying confinement ahead of the detonation. At present, these phenomena are not well understood. But with slowly detonating, non-ideal high explosive (NIHE) systems becoming increasing prevalent, proper understandingmore » and prediction of the performance of these metal-confined NIHE systems is desirable. Experiments are discussed that measured the effect of this ANFO detonation energy transported upstream of the front by a 76-mm-inner-diameter aluminum confining tube. Detonation velocity, detonation-front shape, and aluminum response are recorded as a function of confiner wall thickness and length. Detonation shape profiles display little curvature near the confining surface, which is attributed to energy transported upstream modifying the flow. Average detonation velocities were seen to increase with increasing confiner thickness, while wavefront curvature decreased due to the stiffer, subsonic confinement. Significant radial sidewall tube motion was observed immediately ahead of the detonation. Axial motion was also detected, which interfered with the front shape measurements in some cases. It was concluded that the confiner was able to transport energy ahead of the detonation and that this transport has a definite effect on the detonation by modifying its characteristic shape.« less

Effective diffusion of confined active Brownian swimmers.

PubMed

Sandoval, Mario; Dagdug, Leornardo

2014-12-01

We theoretically find the effect of confinement and thermal fluctuations on the diffusivity of a spherical active swimmer moving inside a two-dimensional narrow cavity of general shape. The explicit formulas for the effective diffusion coefficient of a swimmer moving inside two particular cavities are presented. We also compare our analytical results with Brownian dynamics simulations and we obtain excellent agreement.

Altitudes and thicknesses of hydrogeologic units of the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma

USGS Publications Warehouse

Westerman, Drew A.; Gillip, Jonathan A.; Richards, Joseph M.; Hays, Phillip D.; Clark, Brian R.

2016-09-29

A hydrogeologic framework was constructed to represent the altitudes and thicknesses of hydrogeologic units within the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system as part of a regional groundwater-flow model supported by the U.S. Geological Survey Water Availability and Use Science Program. The Ozark Plateaus aquifer system study area is nearly 70,000 square miles and includes parts of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Nine hydrogeologic units were selected for delineation within the aquifer system and include the Western Interior Plains confining system, the Springfield Plateau aquifer, the Ozark confining unit, the Ozark aquifer, which was divided into the upper, middle, and lower Ozark aquifers to better capture the spatial variation in the hydrologic properties, the St. Francois confining unit, the St. Francois aquifer, and the basement confining unit. Geophysical and well-cutting logs, along with lithologic descriptions by well drillers, were compiled and interpreted to create hydrologic altitudes for each unit. The final compiled dataset included more than 23,000 individual altitude points (excluding synthetic points) representing the nine hydrogeologic units within the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system.

A case study of the carbon footprint of milk from high-performing confinement and grass-based dairy farms.

PubMed

O'Brien, D; Capper, J L; Garnsworthy, P C; Grainger, C; Shalloo, L

2014-03-01

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is the preferred methodology to assess carbon footprint per unit of milk. The objective of this case study was to apply an LCA method to compare carbon footprints of high-performance confinement and grass-based dairy farms. Physical performance data from research herds were used to quantify carbon footprints of a high-performance Irish grass-based dairy system and a top-performing United Kingdom (UK) confinement dairy system. For the US confinement dairy system, data from the top 5% of herds of a national database were used. Life-cycle assessment was applied using the same dairy farm greenhouse gas (GHG) model for all dairy systems. The model estimated all on- and off-farm GHG sources associated with dairy production until milk is sold from the farm in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq) and allocated emissions between milk and meat. The carbon footprint of milk was calculated by expressing GHG emissions attributed to milk per tonne of energy-corrected milk (ECM). The comparison showed that when GHG emissions were only attributed to milk, the carbon footprint of milk from the Irish grass-based system (837 kg of CO2-eq/t of ECM) was 5% lower than the UK confinement system (884 kg of CO2-eq/t of ECM) and 7% lower than the US confinement system (898 kg of CO2-eq/t of ECM). However, without grassland carbon sequestration, the grass-based and confinement dairy systems had similar carbon footprints per tonne of ECM. Emission algorithms and allocation of GHG emissions between milk and meat also affected the relative difference and order of dairy system carbon footprints. For instance, depending on the method chosen to allocate emissions between milk and meat, the relative difference between the carbon footprints of grass-based and confinement dairy systems varied by 3 to 22%. This indicates that further harmonization of several aspects of the LCA methodology is required to compare carbon footprints of contrasting dairy systems. In comparison to recent reports that assess the carbon footprint of milk from average Irish, UK, and US dairy systems, this case study indicates that top-performing herds of the respective nations have carbon footprints 27 to 32% lower than average dairy systems. Although differences between studies are partly explained by methodological inconsistency, the comparison suggests that potential exists to reduce the carbon footprint of milk in each of the nations by implementing practices that improve productivity. Copyright © 2014 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Case Study of Behaviour and Performance of Confined or Pastured Cows During the Dry Period

PubMed Central

Black, Randi A.; Krawczel, Peter D.

2016-01-01

Simple Summary Pasture and freestall systems offer benefits and consequences during lactation but have not been investigated during the dry period. The effect of pasture or confined systems during the dry period on behaviour and milk quality was investigated. Freestall housing resulted in more resting behaviour and less locomotor activity during the dry period compared to pastured cows. At calving, freestall housed cows performed fewer lying bouts and less locomotor activity compared to pastured cows. Pasture resulted in less aggression around feeding but high respiration rates during peak heat times. Pasture during the dry period altered lying behavior, reduced feed bunk aggression and increased heat stress behaviors. Abstract The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of the dry cow management system (pasture or confined) on: (1) lying behaviour and activity; (2) feeding and heat stress behaviours; (3) intramammary infections, postpartum. Non-lactating Holstein cows were assigned to either deep-bedded, sand freestalls (n = 14) or pasture (n = 14) using rolling enrollment. At dry-off, cows were equipped with an accelerometer to determine daily lying time (h/d), lying bouts (bouts/d), steps (steps/d) and divided into periods: far-off (60 to 15 d prepartum), close-up (14 to 1 d prepartum), calving (calving date) and postpartum (1 to 14 d postpartum). Respiration rates were recorded once weekly from dry off to calving from 1300 to 1500 h. Feeding displacements were defined as one cow successfully displacing another from the feed bunk and were recorded once per week during the 2 h period, immediately after feeding at 800 h. Pastured cows were fed a commercial dry cow pellet during far-off and total mixed ration during close-up, with free access to hay and grazing. Freestall housed cows were fed a total mixed ration at far-off and close-up. Cows housed in freestalls were moved to a maternity pen with a mattress at commencement of labour. Pastured cows calved in pasture. After calving, all cows were commingled in a pen identical to the freestall housing treatment. Cows housed in freestalls laid down for longer during far-off and close-up periods, had fewer lying bouts during the calving period and took fewer steps throughout the study period when compared to pastured cows. Freestall housed cows experienced more displacements after feeding than did pastured cows. Respiration rates increased with an increasing temperature humidity index, more in pastured cows than in freestall housed cows. Pastured cows altered their lying behaviour and activity, suggesting a shift in time budget priorities between pastured and confined dry cows. Pastured cows also experienced less aggression around feeding but may be more susceptible to heat stress. PMID:27420102

Fluctuation spectra and force generation in nonequilibrium systems.

PubMed

Lee, Alpha A; Vella, Dominic; Wettlaufer, John S

2017-08-29

Many biological systems are appropriately viewed as passive inclusions immersed in an active bath: from proteins on active membranes to microscopic swimmers confined by boundaries. The nonequilibrium forces exerted by the active bath on the inclusions or boundaries often regulate function, and such forces may also be exploited in artificial active materials. Nonetheless, the general phenomenology of these active forces remains elusive. We show that the fluctuation spectrum of the active medium, the partitioning of energy as a function of wavenumber, controls the phenomenology of force generation. We find that, for a narrow, unimodal spectrum, the force exerted by a nonequilibrium system on two embedded walls depends on the width and the position of the peak in the fluctuation spectrum, and oscillates between repulsion and attraction as a function of wall separation. We examine two apparently disparate examples: the Maritime Casimir effect and recent simulations of active Brownian particles. A key implication of our work is that important nonequilibrium interactions are encoded within the fluctuation spectrum. In this sense, the noise becomes the signal.

Confined polyelectrolytes: The complexity of a simple system.

PubMed

Nunes, Sandra C C; Skepö, Marie; Pais, Alberto A C C

2015-08-05

The interaction between polyelectrolytes and counterions in confined situations and the mutual relationship between chain conformation and ion condensation is an important issue in several areas. In the biological field, it assumes particular relevance in the understanding of the packaging of nucleic acids, which is crucial in the design of gene delivery systems. In this work, a simple coarse-grained model is used to assess the cooperativity between conformational change and ion condensation in spherically confined backbones, with capsides permeable to the counterions. It is seen that the variation on the degree of condensation depends on counterion valence. For monovalent counterions, the degree of condensation passes through a minimum before increasing as the confining space diminishes. In contrast, for trivalent ions, the overall tendency is to decrease the degree of condensation as the confinement space also decreases. Most of the particles reside close to the spherical wall, even for systems in which the density is higher closer to the cavity center. This effect is more pronounced, when monovalent counterions are present. Additionally, there are clear variations in the charge along the concentric layers that cannot be totally ascribed to polyelectrolyte behavior, as shown by decoupling the chain into monomers. If both chain and counterions are confined, the formation of a counterion rich region immediately before the wall is observed. Spool and doughnut-like structures are formed for stiff chains, within a nontrivial evolution with increasing confinement. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Confinement of activating receptors at the plasma membrane controls natural killer cell tolerance.

PubMed

Guia, Sophie; Jaeger, Baptiste N; Piatek, Stefan; Mailfert, Sébastien; Trombik, Tomasz; Fenis, Aurore; Chevrier, Nicolas; Walzer, Thierry; Kerdiles, Yann M; Marguet, Didier; Vivier, Eric; Ugolini, Sophie

2011-04-05

Natural killer (NK) cell tolerance to self is partly ensured by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-specific inhibitory receptors on NK cells, which dampen their reactivity when engaged. However, NK cells that do not detect self MHC class I are not autoreactive. We used dynamic fluorescence correlation spectroscopy to show that MHC class I-independent NK cell tolerance in mice was associated with the presence of hyporesponsive NK cells in which both activating and inhibitory receptors were confined in an actin meshwork at the plasma membrane. In contrast, the recognition of self MHC class I by inhibitory receptors "educated" NK cells to become fully reactive, and activating NK cell receptors became dynamically compartmentalized in membrane nanodomains. We propose that the confinement of activating receptors at the plasma membrane is pivotal to ensuring the self-tolerance of NK cells.

Conservation of prehistoric caves and stability of their inner climate: lessons from Chauvet and other French caves.

PubMed

Bourges, F; Genthon, P; Genty, D; Lorblanchet, M; Mauduit, E; D'Hulst, D

2014-09-15

In the last 150 years, some prehistoric painted caves suffered irreversible degradations due to misperception of conservation issues and subsequent mismanagement. These sites presented naturally an exceptional stability of their internal climate allowing conservation in situ of outstanding fragile remains, some for nearly 40,000 years. This is for a large part due to exchanges of air, CO2, heat and water with the karstic system in which these caves are included. We introduce the concept of underground confinement, based on the stability of the inner cave climate parameters, especially its temperature. Confined caves present the best conservative properties. It is emphasized that this confined state implies slow exchanges with the surrounding karst and that a stable cave cannot be viewed as a closed system. This is illustrated on four case studies of French caves of various confinement states evidenced by long term continuous monitoring and on strategies to improve their conservation properties. The Chauvet cave presents optimal conservation properties. It is wholly confined as shown by the stability of its internal parameters since its discovery in 1994. In Marsoulas cave, archeological works removed the entrance scree and let a strong opening situation of the decorated zone. Remediation is expected by adding a buffer structure at the entrance. In Pech Merle tourist cave, recurrent painting fading was related to natural seasonal drying of walls. Improvement of the cave closure system restored a confined state insuring optimal visibility of the paintings. In Gargas tourist cave, optimization of closures, lighting system and number of visitors, allowed it to gradually reach a semi-confined state that improved the conservation properties. Conclusions are drawn on the characterization of confinement state of caves and on the ways to improve their conservation properties by restoring their initial regulation mechanisms and to avoid threats to their stability. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Orthostatic Intolerance in Older Persons: Etiology and Countermeasures

PubMed Central

Goswami, Nandu; Blaber, Andrew P.; Hinghofer-Szalkay, Helmut; Montani, Jean-Pierre

2017-01-01

Orthostatic challenge produced by upright posture may lead to syncope if the cardiovascular system is unable to maintain adequate brain perfusion. This review outlines orthostatic intolerance related to the aging process, long-term bedrest confinement, drugs, and disease. Aging-associated illness or injury due to falls often leads to hospitalization. Older patients spend up to 83% of hospital admission lying in bed and thus the consequences of bedrest confinement such as physiological deconditioning, functional decline, and orthostatic intolerance represent a central challenge in the care of the vulnerable older population. This review examines current scientific knowledge regarding orthostatic intolerance and how it comes about and provides a framework for understanding of (patho-) physiological concepts of cardiovascular (in-) stability in ambulatory and bedrest confined senior citizens as well as in individuals with disease conditions [e.g., orthostatic intolerance in patients with diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, spinal cord injury (SCI)] or those on multiple medications (polypharmacy). Understanding these aspects, along with cardio-postural interactions, is particularly important as blood pressure destabilization leading to orthostatic intolerance affects 3–4% of the general population, and in 4 out of 10 cases the exact cause remains elusive. Reviewed also are countermeasures to orthostatic intolerance such as exercise, water drinking, mental arithmetic, cognitive training, and respiration training in SCI patients. We speculate that optimally applied countermeasures such as mental challenge maintain sympathetic activity, and improve venous return, stroke volume, and consequently, blood pressure during upright standing. Finally, this paper emphasizes the importance of an active life style in old age and why early re-mobilization following bedrest confinement or bedrest is crucial in preventing orthostatic intolerance, falls and falls-related injuries in older persons. PMID:29163185

Are Complex Magnetic Field Structures Responsible for the Confined X-class Flares in Super Active Region 12192?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Jun; Li, Ting; Chen, Huadong, E-mail: zjun@nao.cas.cn, E-mail: hdchen@nao.cas.cn

From 2014 October 19 to 27, six X-class flares occurred in super active region (AR) 12192. They were all confined flares and were not followed by coronal mass ejections. To examine the structures of the four flares close to the solar disk center from October 22 to 26, we firstly employ composite triple-time images in each flare process to display the stratified structure of these flare loops. The loop structures of each flare in both the lower (171 Å) and higher (131 Å) temperature channels are complex, e.g., the flare loops rooting at flare ribbons are sheared or twisted (enwound)more » together, and the complex structures were not destroyed during the flares. For the first flare, although the flare loop system appears as a spindle shape, we can estimate its structures from observations, with lengths ranging from 130 to 300 Mm, heights from 65 to 150 Mm, widths at the middle part of the spindle from 40 to 100 Mm, and shear angles from 16° to 90°. Moreover, the flare ribbons display irregular movements, such as the left ribbon fragments of the flare on October 22 sweeping a small region repeatedly, and both ribbons of the flare on October 26 moved along the same direction instead of separating from each other. These irregular movements also imply that the corresponding flare loops are complex, e.g., several sets of flare loops are twisted together. Although previous studies have suggested that the background magnetic fields prevent confined flares from erupting,based on these observations, we suggest that complex flare loop structures may be responsible for these confined flares.« less

LARGE-SCALE CONTRACTION AND SUBSEQUENT DISRUPTION OF CORONAL LOOPS DURING VARIOUS PHASES OF THE M6.2 FLARE ASSOCIATED WITH THE CONFINED FLUX ROPE ERUPTION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kushwaha, Upendra; Joshi, Bhuwan; Moon, Yong-Jae

We investigate evolutionary phases of an M6.2 flare and the associated confined eruption of a prominence. The pre-flare phase exhibits spectacular large-scale contraction of overlying extreme ultraviolet (EUV) coronal loops during which the loop system was subjected to an altitude decrease of ∼20 Mm (40% of the initial height) for an extended span of ∼30 minutes. This contraction phase is accompanied by sequential EUV brightenings associated with hard X-ray (HXR; up to 25 keV) and microwave (MW) sources from low-lying loops in the core region which together with X-ray spectra indicate strong localized heating in the source region before themore » filament activation. With the onset of the flare’s impulsive phase, we detect HXR and MW sources that exhibit intricate temporal and spatial evolution in relation to the fast rise of the prominence. Following the flare maximum, the filament eruption slowed down and subsequently became confined within the large overlying active region loops. During the confinement process of the erupting prominence, we detect MW emission from the extended coronal region with multiple emission centroids, which likely represent emission from hot blobs of plasma formed after the collapse of the expanding flux rope and entailing prominence material. RHESSI spectroscopy reveals high plasma temperature (∼30 MK) and substantial non-thermal characteristics (δ ∼ 5) during the impulsive phase of the flare. The time evolution of thermal energy exhibits a good correspondence with the variations in cumulative non-thermal energy, which suggests that the energy of accelerated particles is efficiently converted to hot flare plasma, implying an effective validation of the Neupert effect.« less

Fluid dynamics in biological active nematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Amanda; Hirst, Linda

We use biological materials to form a self-mixing active system that consists of microtubules driven by kinesin clusters. Microtubules are rigid biopolymers that are a part of the cytoskeleton. Kinesin motors are molecular motors that walk along microtubules to transport cellular cargo. In this system, microtubules are bundled together, and as the kinesin clusters walk along the filaments, the microtubule bundles move relative to each other. As microtubules shear against each other, they extend, bend, buckle and fracture. When confined in a 2D water-oil interface, the system becomes an active nematic that self-mixes due to the buckling and fracturing. To quantify this self-mixing, we attached beads to the microtubules, and tracked their motion. We quantify the quality of mixing using the bead trajectories. This new active material has potential applications as a self-mixing solvent. CCBM NSF-CREST, UC Merced Health Science Research Institute.

Summary and evaluation of hydraulic property data available for the Hanford Site upper basalt confined aquifer system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spane, F.A. Jr.; Vermeul, V.R.

Pacific Northwest Laboratory, as part of the Hanford Site Ground-Water Surveillance Project, examines the potential for offsite migration of contamination within the upper basalt confined aquifer system. For the past 40 years, hydrologic testing of the upper basalt confined aquifer has been conducted by a number of Hanford Site programs. Hydraulic property estimates are important for evaluating aquifer flow characteristics (i.e., ground-water flow patterns, flow velocity, transport travel time). Presented are the first comprehensive Hanford Site-wide summary of hydraulic properties for the upper basalt confined aquifer system (i.e., the upper Saddle Mountains Basalt). Available hydrologic test data were reevaluated usingmore » recently developed diagnostic test analysis methods. A comparison of calculated transmissivity estimates indicates that, for most test results, a general correspondence within a factor of two between reanalysis and previously reported test values was obtained. For a majority of the tests, previously reported values are greater than reanalysis estimates. This overestimation is attributed to a number of factors, including, in many cases, a misapplication of nonleaky confined aquifer analysis methods in previous analysis reports to tests that exhibit leaky confined aquifer response behavior. Results of the test analyses indicate a similar range for transmissivity values for the various hydro-geologic units making up the upper basalt confined aquifer. Approximately 90% of the calculated transmissivity values for upper basalt confined aquifer hydrogeologic units occur within the range of 10{sup 0} to 10{sup 2} m{sup 2}/d, with 65% of the calculated estimate values occurring between 10{sup 1} to 10{sup 2} m{sup 2}d. These summary findings are consistent with the general range of values previously reported for basalt interflow contact zones and sedimentary interbeds within the Saddle Mountains Basalt.« less

Markov-state model for CO2 binding with carbonic anhydrase under confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Gong; Xu, Weina; Lu, Diannan; Wu, Jianzhong; Liu, Zheng

2018-01-01

Enzyme immobilization with a nanostructure material can enhance its stability and facilitate reusability. However, the apparent activity is often compromised due to additional diffusion barriers and complex interactions with the substrates and solvent molecules. The present study elucidates the effects of the surface hydrophobicity of nano-confinement on CO2 diffusion to the active site of human carbonic anhydrase II (CA), an enzyme that is able to catalyze CO2 hydration at extremely high turnover rates. Using the Markov-state model in combination with coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that a hydrophobic cage increases CO2 local density but hinders its diffusion towards the active site of CA under confinement. By contrast, a hydrophilic cage hinders CO2 adsorption but promotes its binding with CA. An optimal surface hydrophobicity can be identified to maximize both the CO2 occupation probability and the diffusion rate. The simulation results offer insight into understanding enzyme performance under nano-confinement and help us to advance broader applications of CA for CO2 absorption and recovery.

Nanobubbles in confined solution: Generation, contact angle, and stability.

PubMed

Wei, Jiachen; Zhang, Xianren; Song, Fan; Shao, Yingfeng

2018-02-14

The formation of gas bubbles presents a frequent challenge to microfluidic operations, for which fluids are geometrically confined to a microscale space. Here, to understand the mechanism of nucleating gas bubbles in microfluidic devices, we investigate the formation and stability of nanobubbles in confined solutions. Our molecular dynamics simulations show that while pinning of the contact line is a prerequisite for the stability of surface nanobubbles in open systems that can exchange gas with surrounding environment, in confined solutions, stable nanobubbles can exist even without pinning. In supersaturated condition, stable bubbles can be found in confined solutions with acute or obtuse contact angle, depending on the substrate hydrophobicity. We also demonstrate that when open to the bulk solution, the stable nanobubbles in closed systems would become unstable unless both supersaturation and pinning of the contact line are satisfied. Our results not only shed light on the design of novel heterogeneous surfaces for generating nanobubbles in confined space with controllable shape and stability but also address the crucial effect of gas exchange with the surroundings in determining the stability of nanobubbles.

Nanobubbles in confined solution: Generation, contact angle, and stability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Jiachen; Zhang, Xianren; Song, Fan; Shao, Yingfeng

2018-02-01

The formation of gas bubbles presents a frequent challenge to microfluidic operations, for which fluids are geometrically confined to a microscale space. Here, to understand the mechanism of nucleating gas bubbles in microfluidic devices, we investigate the formation and stability of nanobubbles in confined solutions. Our molecular dynamics simulations show that while pinning of the contact line is a prerequisite for the stability of surface nanobubbles in open systems that can exchange gas with surrounding environment, in confined solutions, stable nanobubbles can exist even without pinning. In supersaturated condition, stable bubbles can be found in confined solutions with acute or obtuse contact angle, depending on the substrate hydrophobicity. We also demonstrate that when open to the bulk solution, the stable nanobubbles in closed systems would become unstable unless both supersaturation and pinning of the contact line are satisfied. Our results not only shed light on the design of novel heterogeneous surfaces for generating nanobubbles in confined space with controllable shape and stability but also address the crucial effect of gas exchange with the surroundings in determining the stability of nanobubbles.

Confined wormlike chains in external fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morrison, Greg

The confinement of biomolecules is ubiquitous in nature, such as the spatial constraints of viral encapsulation, histone binding, and chromosomal packing. Advances in microfluidics and nanopore fabrication have permitted powerful new tools in single molecule manipulation and gene sequencing through molecular confinement as well. In order to fully understand and exploit these systems, the ability to predict the structure of spatially confined molecules is essential. In this talk, I describe a mean field approach to determine the properties of stiff polymers confined to cylinders and slits, which is relevant for a variety of biological and experimental conditions. I show that this approach is able to not only reproduce known scaling laws for confined wormlike chains, but also provides an improvement over existing weakly bending rod approximations in determining the detailed chain properties (such as correlation functions). Using this approach, we also show that it is possible to study the effect of an externally applied tension or static electric field in a natural and analytically tractable way. These external perturbations can alter the scaling laws and introduce important new length scales into the system, relevant for histone unbinding and single-molecule analysis of DNA.

Overview of spaceflight immunology studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, G. R.

1993-01-01

The effects of spaceflight and analogues of spaceflight are discussed here and in nine accompanying articles. In this summary we present spaceflight studies with human subjects, animal subjects, and cell cultures and we review ground-based systems used to model the observed effects of spaceflight on the immune system. Human paradigms include bed rest, academic or psychological stress, physical stress, hypobaric or high altitude stress, and confinement. Animal models include antiorthostatic and orthostatic suspension, hypobarism, and confinement. The ten manuscripts in this collection were selected to provide a summary that should give the reader an overview of the various activities of spaceflight immunology researchers throughout the history of space travel. This manuscript identifies the major contributors to the study of spaceflight immunology, explains what types of studies have been conducted, and how they have changed over the years. Also presented is a discussion of the unusual limitations associated with spaceflight research and the efforts to develop appropriate ground-based surrogate model systems. Specific details, data, and mechanistic speculations will be held to a minimum, because they will be discussed in depth in the other articles in the collection.

Mitigating clogging and arrest in confined self-propelled systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savoie, William; Aguilar, Jeffrey; Monaenkova, Daria; Linevich, Vadim; Goldman, Daniel

Ensembles of self-propelling elements, like colloidal surfers, bacterial biofilms, and robot swarms can spontaneously form density heterogeneities. To understand how to prevent potentially catastrophic clogs in task-oriented active matter systems (like soil excavating robots), we present a robophysical study of excavation of granular media in a confined environment. We probe the efficacy of two social strategies observed in our studies of fire ants (S. invicta). The first behavior (denoted as unequal workload) prescribes to each excavator a different probability to enter the digging area. The second behavior (denoted as reversal\\x9D), is characterized by a probability to forfeit excavation when progress is sufficiently obstructed. For equal workload distribution and no reversal behavior, clogs at the digging site prevent excavation for sufficient numbers of robots. Measurements of aggregation relaxation times reveal how the strategies mitigate clogs. The unequal workload behavior reduces the tunnel density, decreasing the probability of clog formation. Reversal behavior, while allowing clogs to form, reduces aggregation relaxation time. We posit that application of social behaviors can be useful for swarm robot systems where global control and organization may not be possible.

Immune responses in humans after 60 days of confinement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmitt, D. A.; Peres, C.; Sonnenfeld, G.; Tkackzuk, J.; Arquier, M.; Mauco, G.; Ohayon, E.

1995-01-01

A confinement experiment in a normobaric diving chamber was undertaken to better understand the effect of confinement and isolation on human psychology and physiology. Pre- and postconfinement blood samples were obtained from four test subjects and control donors to analyze immune responses. No modification in the levels of CD2+, CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD19+, and CD56+ cells was observed after confinement. Mitogen-induced T-lymphocyte proliferation and interleukin-2 receptor expression were not altered significantly. Whole blood interferon-alpha and gamma-induction and plasma cortisol levels were also unchanged, as was natural killer cell activity. These data suggest that in humans, no specific components of the immune response are affected by a 2-month isolation and confinement of a small group.

A Study of Energy Conversion Devices Using Photoactive Organometallic Electrocatalysts.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-05-23

arylisocyanide complexes confined to polymeric thin films in solar energy conversion systems . The chemical systems of interest were chromium...The goals of the project then became threefold: 1) examine the thermo- dynamics an- ’ kinetics of charge transfer in the systems in which we had shown...complexes confined to polymeric thin films in solar energy conversion systems . The chemical systems of interest were chromium, molybdenum and

A high performance lithium ion capacitor achieved by the integration of a Sn-C anode and a biomass-derived microporous activated carbon cathode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Fei; Gao, Jihui; Zhu, Yuwen; Pi, Xinxin; Wang, Lijie; Liu, Xin; Qin, Yukun

2017-02-01

Hybridizing battery and capacitor materials to construct lithium ion capacitors (LICs) has been regarded as a promising avenue to bridge the gap between high-energy lithium ion batteries and high-power supercapacitors. One of the key difficulties in developing advanced LICs is the imbalance in the power capability and charge storage capacity between anode and cathode. Herein, we design a new LIC system by integrating a rationally designed Sn-C anode with a biomass-derived activated carbon cathode. The Sn-C nanocomposite obtained by a facile confined growth strategy possesses multiple structural merits including well-confined Sn nanoparticles, homogeneous distribution and interconnected carbon framework with ultra-high N doping level, synergically enabling the fabricated anode with high Li storage capacity and excellent rate capability. A new type of biomass-derived activated carbon featuring both high surface area and high carbon purity is also prepared to achieve high capacity for cathode. The assembled LIC (Sn-C//PAC) device delivers high energy densities of 195.7 Wh kg-1 and 84.6 Wh kg-1 at power densities of 731.25 W kg-1 and 24375 W kg-1, respectively. This work offers a new strategy for designing high-performance hybrid system by tailoring the nanostructures of Li insertion anode and ion adsorption cathode.

A high performance lithium ion capacitor achieved by the integration of a Sn-C anode and a biomass-derived microporous activated carbon cathode.

PubMed

Sun, Fei; Gao, Jihui; Zhu, Yuwen; Pi, Xinxin; Wang, Lijie; Liu, Xin; Qin, Yukun

2017-02-03

Hybridizing battery and capacitor materials to construct lithium ion capacitors (LICs) has been regarded as a promising avenue to bridge the gap between high-energy lithium ion batteries and high-power supercapacitors. One of the key difficulties in developing advanced LICs is the imbalance in the power capability and charge storage capacity between anode and cathode. Herein, we design a new LIC system by integrating a rationally designed Sn-C anode with a biomass-derived activated carbon cathode. The Sn-C nanocomposite obtained by a facile confined growth strategy possesses multiple structural merits including well-confined Sn nanoparticles, homogeneous distribution and interconnected carbon framework with ultra-high N doping level, synergically enabling the fabricated anode with high Li storage capacity and excellent rate capability. A new type of biomass-derived activated carbon featuring both high surface area and high carbon purity is also prepared to achieve high capacity for cathode. The assembled LIC (Sn-C//PAC) device delivers high energy densities of 195.7 Wh kg -1 and 84.6 Wh kg -1 at power densities of 731.25 W kg -1 and 24375 W kg -1 , respectively. This work offers a new strategy for designing high-performance hybrid system by tailoring the nanostructures of Li insertion anode and ion adsorption cathode.

A high performance lithium ion capacitor achieved by the integration of a Sn-C anode and a biomass-derived microporous activated carbon cathode

PubMed Central

Sun, Fei; Gao, Jihui; Zhu, Yuwen; Pi, Xinxin; Wang, Lijie; Liu, Xin; Qin, Yukun

2017-01-01

Hybridizing battery and capacitor materials to construct lithium ion capacitors (LICs) has been regarded as a promising avenue to bridge the gap between high-energy lithium ion batteries and high-power supercapacitors. One of the key difficulties in developing advanced LICs is the imbalance in the power capability and charge storage capacity between anode and cathode. Herein, we design a new LIC system by integrating a rationally designed Sn-C anode with a biomass-derived activated carbon cathode. The Sn-C nanocomposite obtained by a facile confined growth strategy possesses multiple structural merits including well-confined Sn nanoparticles, homogeneous distribution and interconnected carbon framework with ultra-high N doping level, synergically enabling the fabricated anode with high Li storage capacity and excellent rate capability. A new type of biomass-derived activated carbon featuring both high surface area and high carbon purity is also prepared to achieve high capacity for cathode. The assembled LIC (Sn-C//PAC) device delivers high energy densities of 195.7 Wh kg−1 and 84.6 Wh kg−1 at power densities of 731.25 W kg−1 and 24375 W kg−1, respectively. This work offers a new strategy for designing high-performance hybrid system by tailoring the nanostructures of Li insertion anode and ion adsorption cathode. PMID:28155853

In situ nanoplasmonic probing of enzymatic activity of monolayer-confined glucose oxidase on colloidal nanoparticles.

PubMed

He, Haili; Xu, Xiaolong; Wu, Haoxi; Zhai, Yujuan; Jin, Yongdong

2013-05-07

In situ probing protein-particle interactions and activities of proteins on colloidal nanoparticle (NP) surfaces is a long-standing key challenge in understanding the nanobio interfaces and virtually important for a variety of biological and biomedical applications. The interactions of NPs with proteins, for instance, are known to form NP bioconjugates or protein coronas; protein surface immobilization and molecular layer-by-layer deposition techniques are widely used, but a clear understanding of the confinement effect on protein activity by molecular coating, at the monolayer level, remains poorly understood. We explore here a novel approach, using colloidal plasmonic nanocomplexes coated with glucose oxidase (GOx) as self-sensing nanoprobes for in situ optical probing of surface-confined enzymatic activity, which is at least 1-2 orders of magnitude more sensitive than standard colorimetric assays for detecting GOx activity. We found that enzymatic activity of monolayer-confined GOx on colloidal NPs was significantly enhanced as compared with free GOx (also proved by conformational changes from circular dichroism studies), with a low apparent Michaelis-Menten constant Km of ~0.115 mM and high turnover kcat/Km of ~8394 M(-1)·s(-1); compared with the "anchored-type" suspending GOx, the outmost polyelectrolyte monolayer-protected "sandwiched-type" GOx exhibits significantly improved enzymatic activities toward higher temperatures and wider pH range. This finding is of fundamental important and instructive for safe use of such nanomaterials for bioapplications.

THERMAL COOK-OFF EXPERIMENTS OF THE HMX BASED HIGH EXPLOSIVE LX-04 TO CHARACTERIZE VIOLENCE WITH VARYING CONFINEMENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Garcia, F; Vandersall, K S; Forbes, J W

Thermal cook-off experiments were carried out using LX-04 explosive (85% HMX and 15% Viton by weight) with different levels of confinement to characterize the effect of confinement on the reaction violence. These experiments involved heating a porous LX-04 sample in a stainless steel container with varying container end plate thickness and assembly bolt diameter to control overall confinement. As expected, detonation did not occur and reducing the overall confinement lowered the reaction violence. This is consistent with modeling results that predict that a lower confinement will act to lower the cook-off pressure and thus the overall burn rate which lowersmore » the overall violence. These results suggest that controlling the overall system confinement can modify the relative safety in a given scenario.« less

Kinetic equation and nonequilibrium entropy for a quasi-two-dimensional gas.

PubMed

Brey, J Javier; Maynar, Pablo; García de Soria, M I

2016-10-01

A kinetic equation for a dilute gas of hard spheres confined between two parallel plates separated a distance smaller than two particle diameters is derived. It is a Boltzmann-like equation, which incorporates the effect of the confinement on the particle collisions. A function S(t) is constructed by adding to the Boltzmann expression a confinement contribution. Then it is shown that for the solutions of the kinetic equation, S(t) increases monotonically in time, until the system reaches a stationary inhomogeneous state, when S becomes the equilibrium entropy of the confined system as derived from equilibrium statistical mechanics. From the entropy, other equilibrium properties are obtained, and molecular dynamics simulations are used to verify some of the theoretical predictions.

Conceptualization and analysis of ground-water flow system in the Coastal Plain of Virginia and adjacent parts of Maryland and North Carolina

USGS Publications Warehouse

Harsh, John F.; Laczniak, Randell J.

1990-01-01

The ground-water flow system in the Coastal Plain of Virginia and adjacent parts of Maryland and North Carolina consists of a water table aquifer and an underlying sequence of confined aquifers and intervening confining units composed of unconsolidated sand and clay. A digital flow model was developed to enhance knowledge of the behavior of the ground-water flow system in response to its development. Ten pumping periods covering 90 yr of withdrawal simulated the history of ground-water development. Simulated potentiometric-surface maps for 1980 show lowered water levels and the development of coalescing cones of depression around the cities of Franklin, Suffolk, and Williamsburg and the town of West Point, all in Virginia. The largest simulated decline in water level, about 210 ft was near Franklin. Water budgets indicate that over the period of simulation (1891-1980): (1) pumpage from the model area increased by about 105 Mgal/d; (2) lateral boundary outflow increased by about 5 Mgal/d; (3) ground-water flow to streams and coastal water decreased by about 107.5 Mgal/d; (4) lateral boundary inflow increased by about 0.7 Mgal/d, and (5) water released from aquifer storage increased by about 1.6 Mgal/d. Simulated rates of recharge into the confined aquifer system at the end of the final pumping period (1980) varied up to 3.8 in/yr. and simulated rates of discharge out of the confined system varied up to 2.2 in/yr. Results of simulations show an increase of about 110 Mgal/d into the confined system from the unconfined system over the period of simulation. This increase in flow into the confined system affected local discharge of ground water to streams and regional discharge to coastal water. Lowering the storage coefficient of the aquifer had a minimal effect simulated water levels, whereas increasing the storage coefficient had a much more significant effect.

Noise-induced modulation of the relaxation kinetics around a non-equilibrium steady state of non-linear chemical reaction networks.

PubMed

Ramaswamy, Rajesh; Sbalzarini, Ivo F; González-Segredo, Nélido

2011-01-28

Stochastic effects from correlated noise non-trivially modulate the kinetics of non-linear chemical reaction networks. This is especially important in systems where reactions are confined to small volumes and reactants are delivered in bursts. We characterise how the two noise sources confinement and burst modulate the relaxation kinetics of a non-linear reaction network around a non-equilibrium steady state. We find that the lifetimes of species change with burst input and confinement. Confinement increases the lifetimes of all species that are involved in any non-linear reaction as a reactant. Burst monotonically increases or decreases lifetimes. Competition between burst-induced and confinement-induced modulation may hence lead to a non-monotonic modulation. We quantify lifetime as the integral of the time autocorrelation function (ACF) of concentration fluctuations around a non-equilibrium steady state of the reaction network. Furthermore, we look at the first and second derivatives of the ACF, each of which is affected in opposite ways by burst and confinement. This allows discriminating between these two noise sources. We analytically derive the ACF from the linear Fokker-Planck approximation of the chemical master equation in order to establish a baseline for the burst-induced modulation at low confinement. Effects of higher confinement are then studied using a partial-propensity stochastic simulation algorithm. The results presented here may help understand the mechanisms that deviate stochastic kinetics from its deterministic counterpart. In addition, they may be instrumental when using fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) or fluorescence-correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to measure confinement and burst in systems with known reaction rates, or, alternatively, to correct for the effects of confinement and burst when experimentally measuring reaction rates.

Chiral symmetry breaking by spatial confinement in tactoidal droplets of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals

PubMed Central

Tortora, Luana; Lavrentovich, Oleg D.

2011-01-01

In many colloidal systems, an orientationally ordered nematic (N) phase emerges from the isotropic (I) melt in the form of spindle-like birefringent tactoids. In cases studied so far, the tactoids always reveal a mirror-symmetric nonchiral structure, sometimes even when the building units are chiral. We report on chiral symmetry breaking in the nematic tactoids formed in molecularly nonchiral polymer-crowded aqueous solutions of low-molecular weight disodium cromoglycate. The parity is broken by twisted packing of self-assembled molecular aggregates within the tactoids as manifested by the observed optical activity. Fluorescent confocal microscopy reveals that the chiral N tactoids are located at the boundaries of cells. We explain the chirality induction as a replacement of energetically costly splay packing of the aggregates within the curved bipolar tactoidal shape with twisted packing. The effect represents a simple pathway of macroscopic chirality induction in an organic system with no molecular chirality, as the only requirements are orientational order and curved shape of confinement. PMID:21402929

In vitro systems for the study of microtubule-based cell polarity in fission yeast.

PubMed

Taberner, Núria; Lof, Andries; Roth, Sophie; Lamers, Dimitry; Zeijlemaker, Hans; Dogterom, Marileen

2015-01-01

Establishment of cell polarity is essential for processes such as growth and division. In fission yeast, as well as other species, polarity factors travel at the ends of microtubules to cortical sites where they associate with the membrane and subsequently maintain a polarized activity pattern despite their ability to diffuse in the membrane. In this chapter we present methods to establish an in vitro system that captures the essential features of this process. This bottom-up approach allows us to identify the minimal molecular requirements for microtubule-based cell polarity. We employ microfabrication techniques combined with surface functionalization to create rigid chambers with affinity for proteins, as well as microfluidic techniques to create and shape emulsion droplets with functionalized lipid boundaries. Preliminary results are shown demonstrating that a properly organized microtubule cytoskeleton can be confined to these confined spaces, and proteins traveling at the ends of growing microtubules can be delivered to their boundaries. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Transport and Clogging of Particulate Flow in Fracture Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Koplik, Joel

The aim of the project is to understand the effects of confinement in narrow rough-walled fractures on the transport behavior of fluids and suspended particles in subsurface hydro- carbon reservoirs. A key motivation for the study is that such fracture systems provide the highest throughput in oil and gas extraction and have been the focus of recent industrial activity. The scientific challenge is to understand how the confined geometry alters transport phenomena, and in particular its influence on (diagnostic) tracer transport and the effects of flow channeling and clogging on fluid motion. An important complicating feature of geological fractures ismore » the self-affine fractal nature of their surface roughness, leading to irregular but correlated fluid and particle motion. The key technique used is computer simulation, augmented by analytical calculations and collaboration with outside experimental colleagues when possible. The principal topics studied were fluid permeability, tracer dispersion, flow channeling and anisotropy, particle transport in narrow channels and particle trapping in tight fractures.« less

Enhanced magnetic field probe array for improved excluded flux calculations on the C-2U advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration plasma experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roche, T.; Thompson, M. C.; Mendoza, R.; Allfrey, I.; Garate, E.; Romero, J.; Douglass, J.

2016-11-01

External flux conserving coils were installed onto the exterior of the C-2U [M. W. Binderbauer et al., Phys. Plasmas 22, 056110 (2015)] confinement vessel to increase the flux confinement time of the system. The 0.5 in. stainless steel vessel wall has a skin time of ˜5 ms. The addition of the external copper coils effectively increases this time to ˜7 ms. This led to better-confined/longer-lived field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas. The fringing fields generated by the external coils have the side effect of rendering external field measurements invalid. Such measurements were key to the previous method of excluded flux calculation [M. C. Thompson et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 10D709 (2012)]. A new array of B-dot probes and Rogowski coils were installed to better determine the amount of flux leaked out of the system and ultimately provide a more robust measurement of plasma parameters related to pressure balance including the excluded flux radius. The B-dot probes are surface mountable chip inductors with inductance of 33 μH capable of measuring the DC magnetic field and transient field, due to resistive current decay in the wall/coils, when coupled with active integrators. The Rogowski coils measure the total change in current in each external coil (150 A/2 ms). Currents were also actively driven in the external coils. This renders the assumption of total flux conservation invalid which further complicates the analysis process. The ultimate solution to these issues and the record breaking resultant FRC lifetimes will be presented.

Enhanced magnetic field probe array for improved excluded flux calculations on the C-2U advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration plasma experiment.

PubMed

Roche, T; Thompson, M C; Mendoza, R; Allfrey, I; Garate, E; Romero, J; Douglass, J

2016-11-01

External flux conserving coils were installed onto the exterior of the C-2U [M. W. Binderbauer et al., Phys. Plasmas 22, 056110 (2015)] confinement vessel to increase the flux confinement time of the system. The 0.5 in. stainless steel vessel wall has a skin time of ∼5 ms. The addition of the external copper coils effectively increases this time to ∼7 ms. This led to better-confined/longer-lived field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas. The fringing fields generated by the external coils have the side effect of rendering external field measurements invalid. Such measurements were key to the previous method of excluded flux calculation [M. C. Thompson et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 10D709 (2012)]. A new array of B-dot probes and Rogowski coils were installed to better determine the amount of flux leaked out of the system and ultimately provide a more robust measurement of plasma parameters related to pressure balance including the excluded flux radius. The B-dot probes are surface mountable chip inductors with inductance of 33 μH capable of measuring the DC magnetic field and transient field, due to resistive current decay in the wall/coils, when coupled with active integrators. The Rogowski coils measure the total change in current in each external coil (150 A/2 ms). Currents were also actively driven in the external coils. This renders the assumption of total flux conservation invalid which further complicates the analysis process. The ultimate solution to these issues and the record breaking resultant FRC lifetimes will be presented.

Enhanced magnetic field probe array for improved excluded flux calculations on the C-2U advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration plasma experiment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Roche, T., E-mail: troche@trialphaenergy.com; Thompson, M. C.; Mendoza, R.

2016-11-15

External flux conserving coils were installed onto the exterior of the C-2U [M. W. Binderbauer et al., Phys. Plasmas 22, 056110 (2015)] confinement vessel to increase the flux confinement time of the system. The 0.5 in. stainless steel vessel wall has a skin time of ∼5 ms. The addition of the external copper coils effectively increases this time to ∼7 ms. This led to better-confined/longer-lived field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas. The fringing fields generated by the external coils have the side effect of rendering external field measurements invalid. Such measurements were key to the previous method of excluded flux calculation [M.more » C. Thompson et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 10D709 (2012)]. A new array of B-dot probes and Rogowski coils were installed to better determine the amount of flux leaked out of the system and ultimately provide a more robust measurement of plasma parameters related to pressure balance including the excluded flux radius. The B-dot probes are surface mountable chip inductors with inductance of 33 μH capable of measuring the DC magnetic field and transient field, due to resistive current decay in the wall/coils, when coupled with active integrators. The Rogowski coils measure the total change in current in each external coil (150 A/2 ms). Currents were also actively driven in the external coils. This renders the assumption of total flux conservation invalid which further complicates the analysis process. The ultimate solution to these issues and the record breaking resultant FRC lifetimes will be presented.« less

Enzymatic reactivity of glucose oxidase confined in nanochannels.

PubMed

Yu, Jiachao; Zhang, Yuanjian; Liu, Songqin

2014-05-15

The construction of nanodevices coupled with an integrated real-time detection system for evaluation of the function of biomolecules in biological processes, and enzymatic reaction kinetics occurring at the confined space or interface is a significant challenge. In this work, a nanochannel-enzyme system in which the enzymatic reaction could be investigated with an electrochemical method was constructed. The model system was established by covalently linking glucose oxidase (GOD) onto the inner wall of the nanochannels of the porous anodic alumina (PAA) membrane. An Au disc was attached at the end of the nanochannels of the PAA membrane as the working electrode for detection of H2O2 product of enzymatic reaction. The effects of ionic strength, amount of immobilized enzyme and pore diameter of the nanochannels on the enzymatic reaction kinetics were illustrated. The GOD confined in nanochannels showed high stability and reactivity. Upon addition of glucose to the nanochannel-enzyme system, the current response had a calibration range span from 0.005 to 2 mM of glucose concentration. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (K(m)(app)) of GOD confined in nanochannel was 0.4 mM. The presented work provided a platform for real-time monitoring of the enzyme reaction kinetics confined in nanospaces. Such a nanochannel-enzyme system could also help design future biosensors and enzyme reactors with high sensitivity and efficiency. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Radio Frequency (RF) Trap for Confinement of Antimatter Plasmas Using Rotating Wall Electric Fields

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sims, William Herbert, III; Pearson, J. Boise

2004-01-01

Perturbations associated with a rotating wall electric field enable the confinement of ions for periods approaching weeks. This steady state confinement is a result of a radio frequency manipulation of the ions. Using state-of-the-art techniques it is shown that radio frequency energy can produce useable manipulation of the ion cloud (matter or antimatter) for use in containment experiments. The current research focuses on the improvement of confinement systems capable of containing and transporting antimatter.

Effect of confining pressure due to external jacket of steel plate or shape memory alloy wire on bond behavior between concrete and steel reinforcing bars.

PubMed

Choi, Eunsoo; Kim, Dongkyun; Park, Kyoungsoo

2014-12-01

For external jackets of reinforced concrete columns, shape memory alloy (SMA) wires are easy to install, and they provide active and passive confining pressure; steel plates, on the other hand, only provide passive confining pressure, and their installation on concrete is not convenient because of the requirement of a special device. To investigate how SMA wires distinctly impact bond behavior compared with steel plates, this study conducted push-out bond tests of steel reinforcing bars embedded in concrete confined by SMA wires or steel plates. For this purpose, concrete cylinders were prepared with dimensions of 100 mm x 200 mm, and D-22 reinforcing bars were embedded at the center of the concrete cylinders. External jackets of 1.0 mm and 1.5 mm thickness steel plates were used to wrap the concrete cylinders. Additionally, NiTiNb SMA wire with a diameter of 1.0 mm was wound around the concrete cylinders. Slip of the reinforcing bars due to pushing force was measured by using a displacement transducer, while the circumferential deformation of specimens was obtained by using an extensometer. The circumferential deformation was used to calculate the circumferential strains of the specimens. This study assessed the radial confining pressure due to the external jackets on the reinforcing bars at bond strength from bond stress-slip curves and bond stress-circumferential strain curves. Then, the effects of the radial confining pressure on the bond behavior of concrete are investigated, and an equation is suggested to estimate bond strength using the radial confining pressure. Finally, this study focused on how active confining pressure due to recovery stress of the SMA wires influences bond behavior.

Hydrogeologic setting, hydraulic properties, and ground-water flow at the O-Field area of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland

USGS Publications Warehouse

Banks, W.S.; Smith, B.S.; Donnelly, C.A.

1996-01-01

The U.S. Army disposed chemical agents, laboratory materials, and unexploded ordnance at O-Field in the Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, from before World War II until at least the 1950's. Soil, ground water, surface water,and wetland sediments in the O-Field area were contaminated from the disposal activity. A ground-water-flow model of the O-Field area was constructed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1989 to simulate flow in the central and southern part of the Gunpowder Neck. The USGS began an additional study of the contamination in the O-Field area in cooperation with the U.S. Army in 1990 to (1) further define the hydrogeologic framework of the O-Field area, (2) characterize the hydraulic properties of the aquifers and confining units, and (3) define ground-water flow paths at O-Field based on the current data and simulations of ground-water flow. A water-table aquifer, an upper confining unit, and an upper confined aquifer comprise the shallow ground-water aquifer system of the O-Field area. A lower confining unit, through which ground-water movement is negligible, is considered a lower boundary to the shallow aquifer system. These units are all part of the Pleistocene Talbot Formation. The model developed in the previous study was redesigned using the data collected during this study and emphasized New O-Field. The current steady-state model was calibrated to water levels of June 1993. The rate of ground-water flow calculated by the model was approximately 0.48 feet per day (ft/d) and the rate determined from chlorofluorocarbon dates was approximately 0.39 ft/d.

Volume-confined synthesis of ligand-free gold nanoparticles with tailored sizes for enhanced catalytic activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shaik, Firdoz; Zhang, Weiqing; Niu, Wenxin; Lu, Xianmao

2014-10-01

Ligand-free Au nanoparticles with controlled sizes are synthesized via a volume-confined method. In this synthesis, mesoporous hollow silica shells (mHSS) are used as nano-containers for the impregnation of HAuCl4 solution before they are separated from the bulk solution. With a simple heating process, the Au precursor confined within the cavity of the isolated hollow shells is converted into ligand-free Au nanoparticles. The size of the Au nanoparticles can be tuned precisely by loading HAuCl4 solution of different concentrations, or by using mHSS with different cavity volumes. The ligand-free Au nanoparticles demonstrate superior catalytic activity than sodium citrate-capped Au nanoparticles.

Electrochemistry of Cytochrome P450 BM3 in Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Films

PubMed Central

Udit, Andrew K.; Hill, Michael G.; Gray, Harry B.

2008-01-01

Direct electrochemistry of the cytochrome P450 BM3 heme domain (BM3) was achieved by confining the protein within sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) films on the surface of basal-plane graphite (BPG) electrodes. Cyclic voltammetry revealed the heme FeIII/II redox couple at −330 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl, pH 7.4). Up to 10 V/s, the peak current was linear with scan rate, allowing us to treat the system as surface-confined within this regime. The standard heterogeneous rate constant determined at 10 V/s was estimated to be 10 s−1. Voltammograms obtained for the BM3-SDS-BPG system in the presence of dioxygen exhibited catalytic waves at the onset of FeIII reduction. The altered heme reduction potential of the BM3-SDS-graphite system indicates that SDS is likely bound in the enzyme active-site region. Compared to other P450-surfactant systems, we find redox potentials and electron transfer rates that differ by ~ 100 mV and > 10-fold, respectively, indicating that the nature of the surfactant environment has a significant effect on the observed heme redox properties. PMID:17129070

Multifaceted catalytic hydrogenation of amides via diverse activation of a sterically confined bipyridine-ruthenium framework.

PubMed

Miura, Takashi; Naruto, Masayuki; Toda, Katsuaki; Shimomura, Taiki; Saito, Susumu

2017-05-16

Amides are ubiquitous and abundant in nature and our society, but are very stable and reluctant to salt-free, catalytic chemical transformations. Through the activation of a "sterically confined bipyridine-ruthenium (Ru) framework (molecularly well-designed site to confine adsorbed H 2 in)" of a precatalyst, catalytic hydrogenation of formamides through polyamide is achieved under a wide range of reaction conditions. Both C=O bond and C-N bond cleavage of a lactam became also possible using a single precatalyst. That is, catalyst diversity is induced by activation and stepwise multiple hydrogenation of a single precatalyst when the conditions are varied. The versatile catalysts have different structures and different resting states for multifaceted amide hydrogenation, but the common structure produced upon reaction with H 2 , which catalyzes hydrogenation, seems to be "H-Ru-N-H."

Simulations of Model Microswimmers with Fully Resolved Hydrodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oyama, Norihiro; Molina, John J.; Yamamoto, Ryoichi

2017-10-01

Swimming microorganisms, which include bacteria, algae, and spermatozoa, play a fundamental role in most biological processes. These swimmers are a special type of active particle, that continuously convert local energy into propulsive forces, thereby allowing them to move through their surrounding fluid medium. While the size, shape, and propulsion mechanism vary from one organism to the next, they share certain general characteristics: they exhibit force-free motion and they swim at a small Reynolds number. To study the dynamics of such systems, we use the squirmer model, which provides an ideal representation of swimmers as spheroidal particles that propel owing to a modified boundary condition at their surface. We have considered the single-particle and many-particle dynamics of swimmers in bulk and confined systems using the smoothed profile method, which allows us to efficiently solve the coupled particle-fluid problem. For the single-particle dynamics, we studied the diffusive behavior caused by the swimming of the particles. At short-time scales, the diffusion is caused by the hydrodynamic interactions, whereas at long-time scales, it is determined by the particle-particle collisions. Thus, the short-time diffusion will be the same for both swimmers and inert tracer particles. We then investigated the dynamics of confined microswimmers using cylindrical and parallel-plate confining walls. For the cylindrical confinement, we find evidence of an order/disorder phase transition which depends on the specific type of swimmers and the size of the cylinder. Under parallel-plane walls, some swimmers exhibit wavelike modes, which lead to traveling density waves that bounce back and forth between the walls. From an analysis of the bulk systems, we can show that this wavelike motion can be understood as a pseudoacoustic mode and is a consequence of the intrinsic swimming properties of the particles. The results presented here, together with the simulation method that we have developed, allow us to better understand the complex hydrodynamic interactions in microswimmer dispersions.

Microscopic pressure-cooker model for studying molecules in confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santamaria, Ruben; Adamowicz, Ludwik; Rosas-Acevedo, Hortensia

2015-04-01

A model for a system of a finite number of molecules in confinement is presented and expressions for determining the temperature, pressure, and volume of the system are derived. The present model is a generalisation of the Zwanzig-Langevin model because it includes pressure effects in the system. It also has general validity, preserves the ergodic hypothesis, and provides a formal framework for previous studies of hydrogen clusters in confinement. The application of the model is illustrated by an investigation of a set of prebiotic compounds exposed to varying pressure and temperature. The simulations performed within the model involve the use of a combination of molecular dynamics and density functional theory methods implemented on a computer system with a mixed CPU-GPU architecture.

Assessing groundwater availability and the response of the groundwater system to intensive exploitation in the North China Plain by analysis of long-term isotopic tracer data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Su, Chen; Cheng, Zhongshuang; Wei, Wen; Chen, Zongyu

2018-03-01

The use of isotope tracers as a tool for assessing aquifer responses to intensive exploitation is demonstrated and used to attain a better understanding of the sustainability of intensively exploited aquifers in the North China Plain. Eleven well sites were selected that have long-term (years 1985-2014) analysis data of isotopic tracers. The stable isotopes δ18O and δ2H and hydrochemistry were used to understand the hydrodynamic responses of the aquifer system, including unconfined and confined aquifers, to groundwater abstraction. The time series data of 14C activity were also used to assess groundwater age, thereby contributing to an understanding of groundwater sustainability and aquifer depletion. Enrichment of the heavy oxygen isotope (18O) and elevated concentrations of chloride, sulfate, and nitrate were found in groundwater abstracted from the unconfined aquifer, which suggests that intensive exploitation might induce the potential for aquifer contamination. The time series data of 14C activity showed an increase of groundwater age with exploitation of the confined parts of the aquifer system, which indicates that a larger fraction of old water has been exploited over time, and that the groundwater from the deep aquifer has been mined. The current water demand exceeds the sustainable production capabilities of the aquifer system in the North China Plain. Some measures must be taken to ensure major cuts in groundwater withdrawals from the aquifers after a long period of depletion.

Effect of spatial confinement on magnetic hyperthermia via dipolar interactions in Fe3O4 nanoparticles for biomedical applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sadat, M E; Patel, Ronak; Sookoor, Jason

2014-09-01

In this work, the effect of nanoparticle confinement on the magnetic relaxation of iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NP) was investigated by measuring the hyperthermia heating behavior in high frequency alternating magnetic field. Three different Fe3O4 nanoparticle systems having distinct nanoparticle configurations were studied in terms of magnetic hyperthermia heating rate and DC magnetization. All magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) systems were constructed using equivalent ~10nm diameter NP that were structured differently in terms of configuration, physical confinement, and interparticle spacing. The spatial confinement was achieved by embedding the Fe3O4 nanoparticles in the matrices of the polystyrene spheres of 100 nm, while themore » unconfined was the free Fe3O4 nanoparticles well-dispersed in the liquid via PAA surface coating. Assuming the identical core MNPs in each system, the heating behavior was analyzed in terms of particle freedom (or confinement), interparticle spacing, and magnetic coupling (or dipole-dipole interaction). DC magnetization data were correlated to the heating behavior with different material properties. Analysis of DC magnetization measurements showed deviation from classical Langevin behavior near saturation due to dipole interaction modification of the MNPs resulting in a high magnetic anisotropy. It was found that the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of the unconfined nanoparticle systems were significantly higher than those of confined (the MNPs embedded in the polystyrene matrix). This increase of SAR was found to be attributable to high Néel relaxation rate and hysteresis loss of the unconfined MNPs. It was also found that the dipole-dipole interactions can significantly reduce the global magnetic response of the MNPs and thereby decrease the SAR of the nanoparticle systems.« less

Enhancing Kondo coupling in alkaline-earth-metal atomic gases with confinement-induced resonances in mixed dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Yanting; Zhang, Ren; Zhang, Peng; Zhai, Hui

2017-12-01

The Kondo effect describes the spin-exchange interaction between localized impurities and itinerant fermions. The ultracold alkaline-earth atomic gas provides a natural platform for quantum simulation of the Kondo model, utilizing its long-lived clock state and the nuclear-spin exchange interaction between clock state and ground state. One of the key issue now is whether the Kondo temperature can be high enough to be reached in current experiments, for which we have proposed to use transverse confinement to confine atoms into a one-dimensional tube and to use the confinement-induced resonance to enhance Kondo coupling. In this work, we further consider the (1 +0 ) -dimensional scattering problem when the clock state is further confined by an axial harmonic confinement. We show that this axial confinement for the clock-state atoms not only plays a role for localizing them, but can also act as an additional control knob to reach the confinement-induced resonance. We show that, in the presence of both the transverse and the axial confinements, the confinement-induced resonance can be reached in the practical conditions and the Kondo effect can be attainable in this system.

Impact of production systems on swine confinement buildings bioaerosols.

PubMed

Létourneau, Valérie; Nehmé, Benjamin; Mériaux, Anne; Massé, Daniel; Duchaine, Caroline

2010-02-01

Hog production has been substantially intensified in Eastern Canada. Hogs are now fattened in swine confinement buildings with controlled ventilation systems and high animal densities. Newly designed buildings are equipped with conventional manure handling and management systems, shallow or deep litter systems, or source separation systems to manage the large volumes of waste. However, the impacts of those alternative production systems on bioaerosol concentrations within the barns have never been evaluated. Bioaerosols were characterized in 18 modern swine confinement buildings, and the differences in bioaerosol composition in the three different production systems were evaluated. Total dust, endotoxins, culturable actinomycetes, fungi, and bacteria were collected with various apparatuses. The total DNA of the air samples was extracted, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to assess the total number of bacterial genomes, as a total (culturable and nonculturable) bacterial assessment. The measured total dust and endotoxin concentrations were not statistically different in the three studied production systems. In buildings with sawdust beds, actinomycetes and molds were found in higher concentrations than in the conventional barns. Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Scopulariopsis species were identified in all the studied swine confinement buildings. A. flavus, A. terreus, and A. versicolor were abundantly present in the facilities with sawdust beds. Thermotolerant A. fumigatus and Mucor were usually found in all the buildings. The culturable bacteria concentrations were higher in the barns with litters than in the conventional buildings, while real-time PCR revealed nonstatistically different concentrations of total bacteria in all the studied swine confinement buildings. In terms of workers' respiratory health, barns equipped with a solid/liquid separation system may offer better air quality than conventional buildings or barns with sawdust beds. The impact of ventilation rates, air distribution, or building design still has to be explored.

The effect of a confining unit on the geochemical evolution of ground water in the Upper Floridan aquifer system

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wicks, C.M.; Herman, J.S.

1994-01-01

In west-central Florida, sections of the Upper Floridan aquifer system range in character from confined to leaky to unconfined. The confining unit is the Hawthorn Formation, a clay-rich sequence. The presence or absence of the Hawthorn Formation affects the geochemical evolution of the ground water in the Upper Floridan aquifer system. Mass-balance and mass-transfer models suggest that, in unconfined areas, the geochemical reactions are dolomite dissolution, ion exchange (Mg for Na, K), sulfate reduction, calcite dissolution, and CO2 exchange. In the areas in which the Hawthorn Formation is leaky, the evolution of the ground water is accounted for by ion exchange, sulfate reduction, calcite dissolution, and CO2 exchange. In the confined areas, no ion exchange and only limited sulfate reduction occur, and the chemical character of the ground water is consistent with dolomite and gypsum dissolution, calcite precipitation, and CO2 ingassing. The Hawthorn Formation acts both as a physical barrier to the transport of CO2 and organic matter and as a source of ion-exchange sites, but the carbonate-mineral reactions are largely unaffected by the extent of confinement of the Upper Floridan aquifer. ?? 1994.

Dipole configuration for confinement of positrons and electron-positron plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stenson, E. V.; Saitoh, H.; Horn-Stanja, J.; Hergenhahn, U.; Paschkowski, N.; Sunn Pedersen, T.; Stoneking, M. R.; Dickmann, M.; Singer, M.; Vohburger, S.; Hugenschmidt, C.; Schweikhard, L.; Danielson, J. R.; Surko, C. M.

2016-10-01

Laboratory creation and confinement of electron-positron plasmas, which are expected to exhibit atypical plasma physics characteristics, would enable tests of many theory and simulation predictions (e.g., the stabilization of anomalous transport mechanisms). This is the goal of APEX/PAX (A Positron-Electron eXperiment/Positron Accumulation eXperiment). Following demonstration of efficient (38%) E ×B injection and subsequent confinement (τ = 3-5 ms) of cold positrons in a dipole magnetic field, the system is undergoing upgrades from a supported permanent magnet to a supported HTSC (high-temperature superconductor) coil, then to a levitated HTSC coil suitable for the simultaneous confinement of electrons and positrons. This contribution will report on the design and testing of the new systems and subsystems (e.g., for cooling, excitation, and levitation) and, if available, on results of upcoming experiments using a ``rotating wall'' to generate inward particle flux deeper into the confinement region. on behalf of the APEX/PAX team and collaborators.

Confinement boosts CO oxidation on an Ni atom embedded inside boron nitride nanotubes

DOE PAGES

Zhang, Yadong; Liu, Yuzhen; Meng, Zhaoshun; ...

2018-01-01

Because of the confinement effect, Ni embedded on the interior surface of BNNT exhibits a much higher catalytic activity for CO oxidation by comparing with that embedded in h-BN or on the outside surface of BNNT.

Magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma with tuning of electrostatic field

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman [Irvine, CA; Binderbauer, Michl [Irvine, CA; Qerushi, Artan [Irvine, CA; Tahsiri, Hooshang [Irvine, CA

2008-10-21

A system and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions they are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma with tuning of electrostatic field

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman; Binderbauer, Michl; Qerushi, Artan; Tahsiri, Hooshang

2006-10-10

A system and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions they are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma with tuning of electrostatic field

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman; Binderbauer, Michl; Qerushi, Artan; Tahsiri, Hooshang

2006-03-21

A system and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions they are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Dynamics of Ice/Water Confined in Nanoporous Alumina.

PubMed

Suzuki, Yasuhito; Steinhart, Martin; Graf, Robert; Butt, Hans-Jürgen; Floudas, George

2015-11-19

Dielectric (DS), IR spectroscopy, and (1)H MAS NMR are employed in the study of ice/water confined in nanoporous alumina with pore diameters ranging from 400 nm down to 25 nm. Within nanoporous alumina there is a transformation from heterogeneous nucleation of hexagonal ice in the larger pores to homogeneous nucleation of cubic ice in the smaller pores. DS and IR show excellent agreement in the temperature interval and pore size dependence of the transformation. DS further revealed two dynamic processes under confinement. The "fast" and "slow" processes with an Arrhenius temperature dependence are attributed to ice and supercooled water relaxation, respectively. The main relaxation process of ice under confinement ("slow" process) has an activation energy of 44 ± 2 kJ/mol. The latter is in agreement with the reported relaxation times and activation energy of cubic ice prepared following a completely different route (by pressure). (1)H MAS NMR provided new insight in the state of ice structures as well as of supercooled water. Under confinement, a layer of liquid-like water coexists with ice structures. In addition, both ice structures under confinement appear to be more ordered than bulk hexagonal ice. Supercooled water in the smaller pores is different from bulk water. It shows a shift of the signal toward higher chemical shift values which may suggest stronger hydrogen bonding between the water molecules or increasing interactions with the AAO walls.

Collective workload organization in confined excavation of granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monaenkova, Daria; Linevich, Vadim; Goodisman, Michael A.; Goldman, Daniel I.

2015-03-01

Many social insects collectively construct large nests in complex substrates; such structures are often composed of narrow tunnels. The benefits of collective construction, including reduced construction costs per worker come with challenges of navigation in crowded, confined spaces. Here we study the workforce organization of groups of S. invicta fire ants creating tunnels in wet granular media. We monitor the activity levels of marked (painted) workers-defined as a number of tunnel visits over 12 hours- during initiation of tunnels. The activity levels are described by a Lorenz curve with a Gini coefficient of ~ 0 . 7 indicating that a majority of the excavation is performed by a minority of workers. We hypothesize that this workload distribution is beneficial for excavation in crowded conditions, and use a 2D cellular automata (CA) model to reproduce behaviors of the excavating ants. CA simulations reveal that tunnel construction rates decrease in groups of equally active animals compared to groups with the natural workload distribution. We use predictions of the CA model to organize collective excavation of granular material by teams of digging robots, and use the robots to test hypotheses of crowded excavation in the physical world. We acknowledge support of National Science Foundation, Physics of Living Systems division.

Structural Transitions of Confined Model Proteins: Molecular Dynamics Simulation and Experimental Validation

PubMed Central

Lu, Diannan; Liu, Zheng; Wu, Jianzhong

2006-01-01

Proteins fold in a confined space not only in vivo, i.e., folding assisted by molecular chaperons and chaperonins in a crowded cellular medium, but also in vitro as in production of recombinant proteins. Despite extensive work on protein folding in bulk, little is known about how and to what extent the thermodynamics and kinetics of protein folding are altered by confinement. In this work, we use a Gō-like off-lattice model to investigate the folding and stability of an all β-sheet protein in spherical cages of different sizes and surface hydrophobicity. We find whereas extreme confinement inhibits correct folding, a hydrophilic cage stabilizes the protein due to restriction of the unfolded configurations. In a hydrophobic cage, however, strong attraction from the cage surface destabilizes the confined protein because of competition between self-aggregation and adsorption of hydrophobic residues. We show that the kinetics of protein collapse and folding is strongly correlated with both the cage size and the surface hydrophobicity. It is demonstrated that a cage of moderate size and hydrophobicity optimizes both the folding yield and kinetics of structural transitions. To support the simulation results, we have also investigated the refolding of hen-egg lysozyme in the presence of cetyltrimethylammoniumbromide (CTAB) surfactants that provide an effective confinement of the proteins by micellization. The influence of the surfactant hydrophobicity on the structural and biological activity of the protein is determined with circular dichroism spectrum, fluorescence emission spectrum, and biological activity assay. It is shown that, as predicted by coarse-grained simulations, CTAB micelles facilitate the collapse of denatured lysozyme, whereas the addition of β-cyclodextrin-grafted-PNIPAAm, a weakly hydrophobic stripper, dissociates CTAB micelles and promotes the conformational rearrangement and thereby gives an improved recovery of lysozyme activity. PMID:16461405

Single-site trinuclear copper oxygen clusters in mordenite for selective conversion of methane to methanol.

PubMed

Grundner, Sebastian; Markovits, Monica A C; Li, Guanna; Tromp, Moniek; Pidko, Evgeny A; Hensen, Emiel J M; Jentys, Andreas; Sanchez-Sanchez, Maricruz; Lercher, Johannes A

2015-06-25

Copper-exchanged zeolites with mordenite structure mimic the nuclearity and reactivity of active sites in particulate methane monooxygenase, which are enzymes able to selectively oxidize methane to methanol. Here we show that the mordenite micropores provide a perfect confined environment for the highly selective stabilization of trinuclear copper-oxo clusters that exhibit a high reactivity towards activation of carbon-hydrogen bonds in methane and its subsequent transformation to methanol. The similarity with the enzymatic systems is also implied from the similarity of the reversible rearrangements of the trinuclear clusters occurring during the selective transformations of methane along the reaction path towards methanol, in both the enzyme system and copper-exchanged mordenite.

Antiswarming: Structure and dynamics of repulsive chemically active particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Wen; Brady, John F.

2017-12-01

Chemically active Brownian particles with surface catalytic reactions may repel each other due to diffusiophoretic interactions in the reaction and product concentration fields. The system behavior can be described by a "chemical" coupling parameter Γc that compares the strength of diffusiophoretic repulsion to Brownian motion, and by a mapping to the classical electrostatic one component plasma (OCP) system. When confined to a constant-volume domain, body-centered cubic (bcc) crystals spontaneously form from random initial configurations when the repulsion is strong enough to overcome Brownian motion. Face-centered cubic (fcc) crystals may also be stable. The "melting point" of the "liquid-to-crystal transition" occurs at Γc≈140 for both bcc and fcc lattices.

Mitigation Systems for Confined Blast Loading - Crew Protection in Armored Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-04-01

Effects of Tungsten Alloy Property Variations on Penetrator Performance for Spaced Armors.” Advances in Powder Metallurgy and Particulate Materials...Table 8.1. Cylinder properties for confined field test. ............................................... 93 Table 8.2. FEM snapshot of the confined...persons or property . Blast mitigation should reduce the overpressure, impulse, fragments, projectile, thermal and toxic hazards that occur during an

Hydrogeologic implications of increased septic-tank-soil-absorption system density, Ogden Valley, Weber County, Utah

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lowe, Mike; Miner, Michael L.; ,

1990-01-01

Ground water in Ogden Valley occurs in perched, confined, and unconfined aquifers in the valley fill to depths of 600 feet and more. The confined aquifer, which underlies only the western portion of the valley, is overlain by cleyey silt lacustrine sediments probably deposited during the Bonneville Basin's Little Valley lake cycle sometime between 90,000 and 150,000 years ago. The top of this cleyey silt confining layer is generally 25 to 60 feet below the ground surface. Unconfined conditions occur above and beyond the outer margin of the confining layer. The sediments overlying the confining layer are primarily Lake Bonneville deposits. Water samples from springs, streams, and wells around Pineview Reservoir, and from the reservoir itself, were collected and analyzed. These samples indicate that water quality in Ogden Valley is presently good. Average nitrate concentrations in the shallow unconfined aquifer increase toward the center of Ogden Valley. This trend was not observed in the confined aquifer. There is no evidence, however, of significant water-quality deterioration, even in the vicinity of Huntsville, a town that has been densely developed using septic-tank-soil-absorption systems for much of the time since it was founded in 1860.

The Conformations of Confined Polymers in an External Potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morrison, Greg

The confinement of biomolecules is ubiquitous in nature, such as the spatial constraints of viral encapsulation, histone binding, and chromosomal packing. Advances in microfluidics and nanopore fabrication have permitted powerful new tools in single molecule manipulation and gene sequencing through molecular confinement as well. In order to fully understand and exploit these systems, the ability to predict the structure of spatially confined molecules is essential. In this talk, I describe a mean field approach to determine the properties of stiff polymers confined to cylinders and slits, which is relevant for a variety of biological and experimental conditions. I show that this approach is able to not only reproduce known scaling laws for confined wormlike chains, but also provides an improvement over existing weakly bending rod approximations in determining the detailed chain properties (such as correlation functions). Using this approach, we also show that it is possible to study the effect of an externally applied tension or static electric field in a natural and analytically tractable way. These external perturbations can alter the scaling laws and introduce important new length scales into the system, relevant for histone unbinding and single-molecule analysis of DNA.

Transparent electrode for optical switch

DOEpatents

Goldhar, J.; Henesian, M.A.

1984-10-19

The invention relates generally to optical switches and techniques for applying a voltage to an electro-optical crystal, and more particularly, to transparent electodes for an optical switch. System architectures for very large inertial confinement fusion (ICF) lasers require active optical elements with apertures on the order of one meter. Large aperture optical switches are needed for isolation of stages, switch-out from regenerative amplifier cavities and protection from target retroreflections.

Confined Space Evaluation Student Manual, #19613

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chochoms, Michael

Many workplaces contain spaces that are considered to be “confined” because their configuration hinders the activities of employees who must enter into, work in, and exit from them. In general, the permit-required confined spaces (PRCSs) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard requires that Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) evaluate the workplace to determine if any spaces are PRCSs. The standard specifies strict procedures for the evaluation and atmospheric testing of a space before and during an entry by workers. The OSHA PRCS standard provides for alternative (less stringent than full-permit) entry procedures in cases where the only hazard inmore » a space is atmospheric and the hazard can be controlled by forced air. At LANL, all confined spaces or potential confined spaces on LANL-owned or -operated property must be identified and evaluated by a confined space evaluator accompanied by a knowledgeable person. This course provides the information needed by confined space evaluators to make judgements about whether a space is a confined space, and if so, whether the space will require a permit for entry.« less

Lipid vesicles chaperone an encapsulated RNA aptamer.

PubMed

Saha, Ranajay; Verbanic, Samuel; Chen, Irene A

2018-06-13

The organization of molecules into cells is believed to have been critical for the emergence of living systems. Early protocells likely consisted of RNA functioning inside vesicles made of simple lipids. However, little is known about how encapsulation would affect the activity and folding of RNA. Here we find that confinement of the malachite green RNA aptamer inside fatty acid vesicles increases binding affinity and locally stabilizes the bound conformation of the RNA. The vesicle effectively 'chaperones' the aptamer, consistent with an excluded volume mechanism due to confinement. Protocellular organization thereby leads to a direct benefit for the RNA. Coupled with previously described mechanisms by which encapsulated RNA aids membrane growth, this effect illustrates how the membrane and RNA might cooperate for mutual benefit. Encapsulation could thus increase RNA fitness and the likelihood that functional sequences would emerge during the origin of life.

Precipitation of ACC in liposomes-a model for biomineralization in confined volumes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tester, Chantel C; Wu, Ching-Hsuan; Weigand, Steven

2013-01-10

Biomineralizing organisms frequently precipitate minerals in small phospholipid bilayer-delineated compartments. We have established an in vitro model system to investigate the effect of confinement in attoliter to femtoliter volumes on the precipitation of calcium carbonate. In particular, we analyze the growth and stabilization of liposome-encapsulated amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) nanoparticles using a combination of in situ techniques, cryo-transmission electron microscopy (Cryo-TEM), and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Herein, we discuss ACC nanoparticle growth rate as a function of liposome size, carbon dioxide flux across the liposome membrane, pH, and osmotic pressure. Based on these experiments, we argue that the stabilizationmore » of ACC nanoparticles in liposomes is a consequence of a low nucleation rate (high activation barrier) of crystalline polymorphs of calcium carbonate.« less

Inhibited phase behavior of gas hydrates in graphene oxide: influences of surface and geometric constraints.

PubMed

Kim, Daeok; Kim, Dae Woo; Lim, Hyung-Kyu; Jeon, Jiwon; Kim, Hyungjun; Jung, Hee-Tae; Lee, Huen

2014-11-07

Porous materials have provided us unprecedented opportunities to develop emerging technologies such as molecular storage systems and separation mechanisms. Pores have also been used as supports to contain gas hydrates for the application in gas treatments. Necessarily, an exact understanding of the properties of gas hydrates in confining pores is important. Here, we investigated the formation of CO2, CH4 and N2 hydrates in non-interlamellar voids in graphene oxide (GO), and their thermodynamic behaviors. For that, low temperature XRD and P-T traces were conducted to analyze the water structure and confirm hydrate formation, respectively, in GO after its exposure to gaseous molecules. Confinement and strong interaction of water with the hydrophilic surface of graphene oxide reduce water activity, which leads to the inhibited phase behavior of gas hydrates.

The hydrogeologic framework for the southeastern Coastal Plain aquifer system of the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Renken, R.A.

1984-01-01

Tertiary and Cretaceous age sand aquifers of the southeastern United States Coastal Plain constitute a distinct multistate hydrogeologic regime informally defined as the southeastern sand aquifer. Seven regional hydrogeologic units are defined; four regional aquifer units and three regional confining beds. Sand aquifers of this system consist of quartzose, feldspathic, and coarse to fine sand and sandstone and minor limestone; confining beds are composed of clay, shale, chalk, and marl. Three hydrogeologic units of Cretaceous to Holocene age overlie the sand system: the surficial aquifer, upper confining unit, and Floridan aquifer system. These three units are not part of the southeastern sand aquifer, but are an integral element of the total hydrogeologic system, and some act as a source of recharge to, or discharge from the underlying clastic sediments. Low-permeability strata of Paleozoic to early Mesozoic age form the base off the total system. (USGS)

Impact of boundaries on velocity profiles in bubble rafts.

PubMed

Wang, Yuhong; Krishan, Kapilanjan; Dennin, Michael

2006-03-01

Under conditions of sufficiently slow flow, foams, colloids, granular matter, and various pastes have been observed to exhibit shear localization, i.e., regions of flow coexisting with regions of solidlike behavior. The details of such shear localization can vary depending on the system being studied. A number of the systems of interest are confined so as to be quasi two-dimensional, and an important issue in these systems is the role of the confining boundaries. For foams, three basic systems have been studied with very different boundary conditions: Hele-Shaw cells (bubbles confined between two solid plates); bubble rafts (a single layer of bubbles freely floating on a surface of water); and confined bubble rafts (bubbles confined between the surface of water below and a glass plate on top). Often, it is assumed that the impact of the boundaries is not significant in the "quasistatic limit," i.e., when externally imposed rates of strain are sufficiently smaller than internal kinematic relaxation times. In this paper, we directly test this assumption for rates of strain ranging from 10(-3) to 10(-2) s(-1). This corresponds to the quoted rate of strain that had been used in a number of previous experiments. It is found that the top plate dramatically alters both the velocity profile and the distribution of nonlinear rearrangements, even at these slow rates of strain. When a top is present, the flow is localized to a narrow band near the wall, and without a top, there is flow throughout the system.

Confinement of gene drive systems to local populations: A comparative analysis

PubMed Central

Marshall, John M.; Hay, Bruce A.

2011-01-01

Mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever pose a major health problem through much of the world. One approach to disease prevention involves the use of selfish genetic elements to drive disease-refractory genes into wild mosquito populations. Recently engineered synthetic drive systems have provided encouragement for this strategy; but at the same time have been greeted with caution over the concern that transgenes may spread into countries and communities without their consent. Consequently, there is also interest in gene drive systems that, while strong enough to bring about local population replacement, are unable to establish themselves beyond a partially-isolated release site, at least during the testing phase. Here, we develop simple deterministic and stochastic models to compare the confinement properties of a variety of gene drive systems. Our results highlight several systems with desirable features for confinement – a high migration rate required to become established in neighboring populations, and low-frequency persistence in neighboring populations for moderate migration rates. Single-allele underdominance and single-locus engineered underdominance have the strongest confinement properties, but are difficult to engineer and require a high introduction frequency, respectively. Toxin-antidote systems such as Semele, Merea and two-locus engineered underdominance show promising confinement properties and require lower introduction frequencies. Killer-rescue is self-limiting in time, but is able to disperse to significant levels in neighboring populations. We discuss the significance of these results in the context of a phased release of transgenic mosquitoes, and the need for characterization of local ecology prior to a release. PMID:22094363

Plasminogen Activator of the Blood Vessels in Tumours and in Carrageenin-induced Granulomas

PubMed Central

Pick, C. R.; Cater, D. B.

1971-01-01

Fibrinolytic activity in tumours was studied by the fibrin slide technique. The tumour cells were inactive and fibrinolysis was seen only in areas with young blood vessels. In carrageenin-induced granulomas at 6 days the fibrinolytic activity was small and confined to mature veins, but from 7-14 days activity was high in zones containing young vessels supplying the terminal capillary buds; these latter showed no activity. In old fibrosed granulomas there was no fibrinolytic activity. The vascular permeability changes of inflammation (detected by the colloidal carbon technique) showed no correlation with fibrinolytic activity, and systemic injection of inflammatory agents had no effect on the fibrinolytic activity of the vessels. These findings are discussed in relationship to tumour vascularization. ImagesFigs. 5-8Figs. 1-4 PMID:5547651

Study of Polymer Crystallization by Physical Vapor Deposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeong, Hyuncheol

When a polymer is confined under the submicron length scale, confinement size and interfaces can significantly impact the crystallization kinetics and resulting morphology. The ability to tune the morphology of confined polymer systems is of critical importance for the development of high-performance polymer microelectronics. The wisdom from the research on confined crystallization suggests that it would be beneficial to have a processing route in which the crystallization of polymers is driven by interface and temperature effects at a nanometer-scale confinement. In practice, for atomic and small-molecular systems, physical vapor deposition (PVD) has been recognized as the most successful processing route for the precise control of the film structure at surface utilizing confinement effects. While standard PVD technologies are not generally applicable to the deposition of the chemically fragile macromolecules, the development of matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) now enables the non-destructive PVD of high-molecular weight polymers. In this thesis work, we investigated the use of MAPLE for the precise control of the crystallization of polymer films at a molecular level. We also sought to decipher the rules governing the crystallization of confined polymers, by using MAPLE as a tool to form confined polymer systems onto substrates with a controlled temperature. We first explored the early stages of film growth and crystallization of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) at the substrate surface formed by MAPLE. The unique mechanism of film formation in MAPLE, the deposition of submicron-sized polymer droplets, allowed for the manifestation of confinement and substrate effects in the crystallization of MAPLE-deposited PEO. Furthermore, we also focused on the property of the amorphous PEO film formed by MAPLE, showing the dependence of polymer crystallization kinetics on the thermal history of the amorphous phase. Lastly, we probed how MAPLE processing affected the semi-crystalline structure in MAPLE-deposited polyethylene (PE) films. Depositing PE at various temperatures remarkably allowed for the tunability of the melting temperature and crystallinity of the PE films, thus manipulating the semi-crystalline structure. By comparing the structure of PE formed by different processing routes, i.e., MAPLE and melt-crystallization, we discussed how processing routes affect the development of semi-crystalline phase in polymer films.

Formation of a field reversed configuration for magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman; Binderbauer, Michl

2003-12-16

A system and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions they are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Formation of a field reversed configuration for magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman; Binderbauer, Michl; Qerushi, Artan; Tahsiri, Hooshang

2007-02-20

A system and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions they are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Formation of a field reversed configuration for magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman; Binderbauer, Michl; Qerushi, Artan; Tahsiri, Hooshang

2006-02-07

A system and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions they are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) Fusion for Space Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nadler, Jon

1999-01-01

An Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) device was assembled at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Propulsion Research Center (PRC) to study the possibility of using EEC technology for deep space propulsion and power. Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement is capable of containing a nuclear fusion plasma in a series of virtual potential wells. These wells would substantially increase plasma confinement, possibly leading towards a high-gain, breakthrough fusion device. A one-foot in diameter IEC vessel was borrowed from the Fusion Studies Laboratory at the University of Illinois@Urbana-Champaign for the summer. This device was used in initial parameterization studies in order to design a larger, actively cooled device for permanent use at the PRC.

Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) Fusion For Space Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nadler, Jon

1999-01-01

An Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) device was assembled at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Propulsion Research Center (PRC) to study the possibility of using IEC technology for deep space propulsion and power. Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement is capable of containing a nuclear fusion plasma in a series of virtual potential wells. These wells would substantially increase plasma confinement, possibly leading towards a high-gain, breakthrough fusion device. A one-foot in diameter IEC vessel was borrowed from the Fusion Studies Laboratory at the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign for the summer. This device was used in initial parameterization studies in order to design a larger, actively cooled device for permanent use at the PRC.

Physics objectives of PI3 spherical tokamak program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howard, Stephen; Laberge, Michel; Reynolds, Meritt; O'Shea, Peter; Ivanov, Russ; Young, William; Carle, Patrick; Froese, Aaron; Epp, Kelly

2017-10-01

Achieving net energy gain with a Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) system requires the initial plasma state to satisfy a set of performance goals, such as particle inventory (1021 ions), sufficient magnetic flux (0.3 Wb) to confine the plasma without MHD instability, and initial energy confinement time several times longer than the compression time. General Fusion (GF) is now constructing Plasma Injector 3 (PI3) to explore the physics of reactor-scale plasmas. Energy considerations lead us to design around an initial state of Rvessel = 1 m. PI3 will use fast coaxial helicity injection via a Marshall gun to create a spherical tokamak plasma, with no additional heating. MTF requires solenoid-free startup with no vertical field coils, and will rely on flux conservation by a metal wall. PI3 is 5x larger than SPECTOR so is expected to yield magnetic lifetime increase of 25x, while peak temperature of PI3 is expected to be similar (400-500 eV) Physics investigations will study MHD activity and the resistive and convective evolution of current, temperature and density profiles. We seek to understand the confinement physics, radiative loss, thermal and particle transport, recycling and edge physics of PI3.

Naltrexone-sensitive analgesia following exposure of mice to 2450-MHz radiofrequency radiation (RFR)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maillefer, R.H.; Quock, R.M.

1991-03-11

This study was conducted to determine whether exposure to RFR might induce sufficient thermal stress to activate endogenous opioid mechanisms and induce analgesia. Male Swiss Webster mice, 20-25 g, were exposed to 10, 15 or 20 mV/cm{sup 2} RFR in a 2,450-MHz waveguide system for 10 min, then tested in the abdominal constriction paradigm. Specific absorption rates (SAR) were 23.7 W/kg at 10 mW/cm{sup 2}, 34.6 W/kg at 15 mW/cm{sup 2} and 45.5 W/kg at 20 mW/cm{sup 2}. Confinement in the exposure chamber alone did not appreciably alter body temperature but did appear to induce a stress-associated analgesia that wasmore » insensitive to the opioid receptor blocker naltrexone. Exposure of confined mice to RFR elevated body temperature and further increased analgesia in SAR-dependent manner. The high-SAR RFR-induced analgesia, but not the hyperthermia, was reduced by naltrexone. These findings suggest that (1) RFR produces SAR-dependent hyperthermia and analgesia and (2) RFR-induced analgesia is mediated by opioid mechanisms while confinement-induced analgesia involves non-opioid mechanisms.« less

Effect of micellar collisions and polyvinylpyrrolidone confinement on the electrical conductivity percolation parameters of water/AOT/isooctane reverse micelles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guettari, Moez; Aferni, Ahmed E. L.; Tajouri, Tahar

2017-12-01

The main aim of this paper is the analysis of micellar collisions and polymer confinement effects on the electrical conductivity percolative behavior of water/sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT)/isooctane reverse micelles. Firstly, we have performed conductance measurements of the system for three AOT to isooctane volume ratio, φm = 0.1 , 0.15 and 0.2 to examine the influence of micellar collisions on the percolation parameters. All the measurements were carried out over the 298.15 K-333.15 K temperature range at a fixed water to AOT molar ratio, W0 = 45 . We have assessed that the rise of micellar collisions frequency enhances the conductance percolation. Secondly, the confinement effect of a water-soluble polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), on the reverse micelles conductance behavior was investigated. Temperature-induced percolation, Tp , have shown a dependence on the polymer concentration, CPVP . It was also observed that for various PVP concentrations, the activation energy of percolation decreases. Finally, the values of the critical exponents determined in the presence and absence of PVP prove that the polymer affects the dynamic of percolation.

Assessment of the BTEX concentrations and reactivity in a confined parking area in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Castro, Barbara Prestes; de Souza Machado, Gladson; Bauerfeldt, Glauco Favila; Nunes Fortes, Julio Domingos; Martins, Eduardo Monteiro

2015-03-01

In this work, the contribution of evaporative emissions from light passenger vehicles to the degradation of the air quality was investigated on the basis of the indoor quantification of the monoaromatic volatile compounds Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes (BTEX), specifically, a confined shopping mall parking area in the northern zone of Rio de Janeiro, a site that represents the reality of the vehicular fleet of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro. In order to evaluate the concentration of the BTEX compounds, samples were collected, by an active sampling system using charcoal cartridge as adsorbent. The samples were extracted with organic solvent and subsequently analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). The average results were 54.14 μg m-3 (benzene), 209.24 μg m-3 (toluene), 45.87 μg m-3 (ethylbenzene) and 118.93 μg m-3 (xylenes). These results are compared with results from the literature of vehicular emissions in confined spaces such as garages and tunnels. Possible correlations with emissions from moving vehicles, obtained from previous studies in a tunnel of large circulation and emissions obtained in other underground parkings, are also investigated. The results suggest different emission sources.

Nondestructive Inspection System for Special Nuclear Material Using Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Neutrons and Laser Compton Scattering Gamma-Rays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ohgaki, H.; Daito, I.; Zen, H.; Kii, T.; Masuda, K.; Misawa, T.; Hajima, R.; Hayakawa, T.; Shizuma, T.; Kando, M.; Fujimoto, S.

2017-07-01

A Neutron/Gamma-ray combined inspection system for hidden special nuclear materials (SNMs) in cargo containers has been developed under a program of Japan Science and Technology Agency in Japan. This inspection system consists of an active neutron-detection system for fast screening and a laser Compton backscattering gamma-ray source in coupling with nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) method for precise inspection. The inertial electrostatic confinement fusion device has been adopted as a neutron source and two neutron-detection methods, delayed neutron noise analysis method and high-energy neutron-detection method, have been developed to realize the fast screening system. The prototype system has been constructed and tested in the Reactor Research Institute, Kyoto University. For the generation of the laser Compton backscattering gamma-ray beam, a race track microtron accelerator has been used to reduce the size of the system. For the NRF measurement, an array of LaBr3(Ce) scintillation detectors has been adopted to realize a low-cost detection system. The prototype of the gamma-ray system has been demonstrated in the Kansai Photon Science Institute, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology. By using numerical simulations based on the data taken from these prototype systems and the inspection-flow, the system designed by this program can detect 1 kg of highly enriched 235U (HEU) hidden in an empty 20-ft container within several minutes.

Robustness of predator-prey models for confinement regime transitions in fusion plasmas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhu, H.; Chapman, S. C.; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Tromso

2013-04-15

Energy transport and confinement in tokamak fusion plasmas is usually determined by the coupled nonlinear interactions of small-scale drift turbulence and larger scale coherent nonlinear structures, such as zonal flows, together with free energy sources such as temperature gradients. Zero-dimensional models, designed to embody plausible physical narratives for these interactions, can help to identify the origin of enhanced energy confinement and of transitions between confinement regimes. A prime zero-dimensional paradigm is predator-prey or Lotka-Volterra. Here, we extend a successful three-variable (temperature gradient; microturbulence level; one class of coherent structure) model in this genre [M. A. Malkov and P. H. Diamond,more » Phys. Plasmas 16, 012504 (2009)], by adding a fourth variable representing a second class of coherent structure. This requires a fourth coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equation. We investigate the degree of invariance of the phenomenology generated by the model of Malkov and Diamond, given this additional physics. We study and compare the long-time behaviour of the three-equation and four-equation systems, their evolution towards the final state, and their attractive fixed points and limit cycles. We explore the sensitivity of paths to attractors. It is found that, for example, an attractive fixed point of the three-equation system can become a limit cycle of the four-equation system. Addressing these questions which we together refer to as 'robustness' for convenience is particularly important for models which, as here, generate sharp transitions in the values of system variables which may replicate some key features of confinement transitions. Our results help to establish the robustness of the zero-dimensional model approach to capturing observed confinement phenomenology in tokamak fusion plasmas.« less

Motor-mediated Cortical versus Astral Microtubule Organization in Lipid-monolayered Droplets

PubMed Central

Baumann, Hella; Surrey, Thomas

2014-01-01

The correct spatial organization of microtubules is of crucial importance for determining the internal architecture of eukaryotic cells. Microtubules are arranged in space by a multitude of biochemical activities and by spatial constraints imposed by the cell boundary. The principles underlying the establishment of distinct intracellular architectures are only poorly understood. Here, we studied the effect of spatial confinement on the self-organization of purified motors and microtubules that are encapsulated in lipid-monolayered droplets in oil, varying in diameter from 5–100 μm, which covers the size range of typical cell bodies. We found that droplet size alone had a major organizing influence. The presence of a microtubule-crosslinking motor protein decreased the number of accessible types of microtubule organizations. Depending on the degree of spatial confinement, the presence of the motor caused either the formation of a cortical array of bent microtubule bundles or the generation of single microtubule asters in the droplets. These are two of the most prominent forms of microtubule arrangements in plant and metazoan cells. Our results provide insights into the combined organizing influence of spatial constraints and cross-linking motor activities determining distinct microtubule architectures in a minimal biomimetic system. In the future, this simple lipid-monolayered droplet system characterized here can be expanded readily to include further biochemical activities or used as the starting point for the investigation of motor-mediated microtubule organization inside liposomes surrounded by a deformable lipid bilayer. PMID:24966327

Evaluation of the effect of accounting method, IPCC v. LCA, on grass-based and confinement dairy systems' greenhouse gas emissions.

PubMed

O'Brien, D; Shalloo, L; Patton, J; Buckley, F; Grainger, C; Wallace, M

2012-09-01

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guideline methodology, which are the principal greenhouse gas (GHG) quantification methods, were evaluated in this study using a dairy farm GHG model. The model was applied to estimate GHG emissions from two contrasting dairy systems: a seasonal calving pasture-based dairy farm and a total confinement dairy system. Data used to quantify emissions from these systems originated from a research study carried out over a 1-year period in Ireland. The genetic merit of cows modelled was similar for both systems. Total mixed ration was fed in the Confinement system, whereas grazed grass was mainly fed in the grass-based system. GHG emissions from these systems were quantified per unit of product and area. The results of both methods showed that the dairy system that emitted the lowest GHG emissions per unit area did not necessarily emit the lowest GHG emissions possible for a given level of product. Consequently, a recommendation from this study is that GHG emissions be evaluated per unit of product given the growing affluent human population and increasing demand for dairy products. The IPCC and LCA methods ranked dairy systems' GHG emissions differently. For instance, the IPCC method quantified that the Confinement system reduced GHG emissions per unit of product by 8% compared with the grass-based system, but the LCA approach calculated that the Confinement system increased emissions by 16% when off-farm emissions associated with primary dairy production were included. Thus, GHG emissions should be quantified using approaches that quantify the total GHG emissions associated with the production system, so as to determine whether the dairy system was causing emissions displacement. The IPCC and LCA methods were also used in this study to simulate, through a dairy farm GHG model, what effect management changes within both production systems have on GHG emissions. The findings suggest that single changes have a small mitigating effect on GHG emissions (<5%), except for strategies used to control emissions from manure storage in the Confinement system (14% to 24%). However, when several management strategies were combined, GHG emissions per unit of product could be reduced significantly (15% to 30%). The LCA method was identified as the preferred approach to assess the effect of management changes on GHG emissions, but the analysis indicated that further standardisation of the approach is needed given the sensitivity of the approach to allocation decisions regarding milk and meat.

Overview of Advanced Space Propulsion Activities in the Space Environmental Effects Team at MSFC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edwards, David; Carruth, Ralph; Vaughn, Jason; Schneider, Todd; Kamenetzky, Rachel; Gray, Perry

2000-01-01

Exploration of our solar system, and beyond, requires spacecraft velocities beyond our current technological level. Technologies addressing this limitation are numerous. The Space Environmental Effects (SEE) Team at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is focused on three discipline areas of advanced propulsion; Tethers, Beamed Energy, and Plasma. This presentation will give an overview of advanced propulsion related activities in the Space Environmental Effects Team at MSFC. Advancements in the application of tethers for spacecraft propulsion were made while developing the Propulsive Small Expendable Deployer System (ProSEDS). New tether materials were developed to meet the specifications of the ProSEDS mission and new techniques had to be developed to test and characterize these tethers. Plasma contactors were developed, tested and modified to meet new requirements. Follow-on activities in tether propulsion include the Air-SEDS activity. Beamed energy activities initiated with an experimental investigation to quantify the momentum transfer subsequent to high power, 5J, ablative laser interaction with materials. The next step with this experimental investigation is to quantify non-ablative photon momentum transfer. This step was started last year and will be used to characterize the efficiency of solar sail materials before and after exposure to Space Environmental Effects (SEE). Our focus with plasma, for propulsion, concentrates on optimizing energy deposition into a magnetically confined plasma and integration of measurement techniques for determining plasma parameters. Plasma confinement is accomplished with the Marshall Magnetic Mirror (M3) device. Initial energy coupling experiments will consist of injecting a 50 amp electron beam into a target plasma. Measurements of plasma temperature and density will be used to determine the effect of changes in magnetic field structure, beam current, and gas species. Experimental observations will be compared to predictions from computer modeling.

Quantum confinement of nanocrystals within amorphous matrices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lusk, Mark T.; Collins, Reuben T.; Nourbakhsh, Zahra; Akbarzadeh, Hadi

2014-02-01

Nanocrystals encapsulated within an amorphous matrix are computationally analyzed to quantify the degree to which the matrix modifies the nature of their quantum-confinement power—i.e., the relationship between nanocrystal size and the gap between valence- and conduction-band edges. A special geometry allows exactly the same amorphous matrix to be applied to nanocrystals of increasing size to precisely quantify changes in confinement without the noise typically associated with encapsulating structures that are different for each nanocrystal. The results both explain and quantify the degree to which amorphous matrices redshift the character of quantum confinement. The character of this confinement depends on both the type of encapsulating material and the separation distance between the nanocrystals within it. Surprisingly, the analysis also identifies a critical nanocrystal threshold below which quantum confinement is not possible—a feature unique to amorphous encapsulation. Although applied to silicon nanocrystals within an amorphous silicon matrix, the methodology can be used to accurately analyze the confinement softening of other amorphous systems as well.

Evolution of Cement-Casing Interface in Wellbore Microannuli under Stress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matteo, E. N.; Gomez, S. P.; Sobolik, S. R.; Taha, M. R.; Stormont, J.

2017-12-01

Laboratory tests measured the compressibility and flow characteristics of wellbore microannuli. Specimens, consisting of a cement sheath cast on a steel casing with microannuli, were subjected to confining pressures and casing pressures in a pressure vessel that allows simultaneous measurement of gas flow along the axis of the specimen. The flow was interpreted as the hydraulic aperture of the microannuli. We found the hydraulic aperture decreases as confining stress is increased. The larger the initial hydraulic aperture, the more it decreases as confining stress increases. The changes in measured hydraulic aperture correspond to changes of many orders of magnitude in permeability of the wellbore system, suggesting that microannulus response to stress changes may have a significant impact on estimates of wellbore leakage. A finite element model of a wellbore system was developed that included elements representing the microannulus that incorporated the hyperbolic joint model. The thickness of the microannulus elements is equivalent to the hydraulic aperture. The calculated normal stress across the microannulus used in the numerical implementation was found to be similar to the applied confining pressure in the laboratory tests. The microannulus elements were found to reasonably reproduce laboratory behavior during loading from confining pressure increases. The calculated microannulus response to internal casing pressure changes was less stiff than measured, which may be due to hardening of the microannulus during testing. In particular, the microannulus model could be used to estimate CO2 leakage as a function of formation stress changes and/or displacements, or loading from casing expansion or contraction during wellbore operations. Recommendations for future work include an application of the joint model with a thermally active large-scale reservoir coupled with pore pressure caused by dynamic CO2 injection and subsequent microannulus region affects. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525. SAND2017-8090 A.

75 FR 12566 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Existing Collection; Comments Requested

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-16

...: the number of inmate deaths while confined and the number of deaths attributed to suicide and the number of confined inmates that attempted suicide; (f) At midyear, the total rated capacity of jail... obtain community mental health services, etc.); (e) Types of specific suicide prevention procedures (e.g...

INSTALLATION OF A POST-ACCIDENT CONFINEMENT HIGH-LEVEL RADIATION MONITORING SYSTEM IN THE KOLA NUCLEAR POWER STATION (UNIT 2) IN RUSSIA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

GREENE,G.A.; GUPPY,J.G.

1998-09-01

This is the final report on the INSP project entitled, ``Post-Accident Confinement High-Level Radiation Monitoring System'' conducted by BNL under the authorization of Project Work Plan WBS 1.2.2.6 (Attachment 1). This project was initiated in February 1993 to assist the Russians in reducing risks associated with the continued operation of older Soviet-designed nuclear power plants, specifically the Kola VVER-440/230 Unit 2, through improved accident detection capability, specifically by the installation of a dual train high-level radiation detection system in the confinement of Unit 2 of the Kola NPP. The major technical objective of this project was to provide, install andmore » make operational the necessary hardware inside the confinement of the Kola NPP Unit 2 to provide early and reliable warning of the release of radionuclides from the reactor into the confinement air space as an indication of the occurrence of a severe accident at the plant. In addition, it was intended to provide hands-on experience and training to the Russian plant workers in the installation, operation, calibration and maintenance of the equipment in order that they may use the equipment without continued US assistance as an effective measure to improve reactor safety at the plant.« less

Interplay of differential cell mechanical properties, motility, and proliferation in emergent collective behavior of cell co-cultures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutter, Leo; Kolbman, Dan; Wu, Mingming; Ma, Minglin; Das, Moumita

The biophysics of cell co-cultures, i.e. binary systems of cell populations, is of great interest in many biological processes including formation of embryos, and tumor progression. During these processes, different types of cells with different physical properties are mixed with each other, with important consequences for cell-cell interaction, aggregation, and migration. The role of the differences in their physical properties in their collective behavior remains poorly understood. Furthermore, until recently most theoretical studies of collective cell migration have focused on two dimensional systems. Under physiological conditions, however, cells often have to navigate three dimensional and confined micro-environments. We study a confined, three-dimensional binary system of interacting, active, and deformable particles with different physical properties such as deformability, motility, adhesion, and division rates using Langevin Dynamics simulations. Our findings may provide insights into how the differences in and interplay between cell mechanical properties, division, and motility influence emergent collective behavior such as cell aggregation and segregation experimentally observed in co-cultures of breast cancer cells and healthy breast epithelial cells. This work was partially supported by a Cottrell College Science Award.

Erk regulation of actin capping and bundling by Eps8 promotes cortex tension and leader bleb-based migration

PubMed Central

Logue, Jeremy S; Cartagena-Rivera, Alexander X; Baird, Michelle A; Davidson, Michael W; Chadwick, Richard S; Waterman, Clare M

2015-01-01

Within the confines of tissues, cancer cells can use blebs to migrate. Eps8 is an actin bundling and capping protein whose capping activity is inhibited by Erk, a key MAP kinase that is activated by oncogenic signaling. We tested the hypothesis that Eps8 acts as an Erk effector to modulate actin cortex mechanics and thereby mediate bleb-based migration of cancer cells. Cells confined in a non-adhesive environment migrate in the direction of a very large ‘leader bleb.’ Eps8 bundling activity promotes cortex tension and intracellular pressure to drive leader bleb formation. Eps8 capping and bundling activities act antagonistically to organize actin within leader blebs, and Erk mediates this effect. An Erk biosensor reveals concentrated kinase activity within leader blebs. Bleb contents are trapped by the narrow neck that separates the leader bleb from the cell body. Thus, Erk activity promotes actin bundling by Eps8 to enhance cortex tension and drive the bleb-based migration of cancer cells under non-adhesive confinement. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08314.001 PMID:26163656

Anomalous Faraday effect of a system with extraordinary optical transmittance.

PubMed

Khanikaev, Alexander B; Baryshev, Alexander V; Fedyanin, Andrey A; Granovsky, Alexander B; Inoue, Mitsuteru

2007-05-28

It is shown theoretically that the Faraday rotation becomes anomalously large and exhibits extraordinary behavior near the frequencies of the extraordinary optical transmittance through optically thick perforated metal film with holes filled with a magneto-optically active material. This phenomenon is explained as result of strong confinement of the evanescent electromagnetic field within magnetic material, which occurs due to excitation of the coupled plasmon-polaritons on the opposite surfaces of the film.

Estimating DoD Transportation Spending: Analyses of Contract and Payment Transactions

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and of expenditures by shipment material and volume (or cube). The analysis of DLA expenditures appears in Appendix...Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) not completely captured in DD350 data. Limited implementation outside the United States confines inferences that can be...Defense Information Systems Agency DLA Defense Logistics Agency DoD U.S. Department of Defense DoDAAC U.S. Department of Defense Activity Address Code

A Review of Quantum Confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Connerade, Jean-Patrick

2009-12-01

A succinct history of the Confined Atom problem is presented. The hydrogen atom confined to the centre of an impenetrable sphere counts amongst the exactly soluble problems of physics, alongside much more noted exact solutions such as Black Body Radiation and the free Hydrogen atom in absence of any radiation field. It shares with them the disadvantage of being an idealisation, while at the same time encapsulating in a simple way particular aspects of physical reality. The problem was first formulated by Sommerfeld and Welker [1]—henceforth cited as SW—in connection with the behaviour of atoms at very high pressures, and the solution was published on the occasion of Pauli's 60th birthday celebration. At the time, it seemed that there was not much other connection with physical reality beyond a few simple aspects connected to the properties of atoms in solids, for which more appropriate models were soon developed. Thus, confined atoms attracted little attention until the advent of the metallofullerene, which provided the first example of a confined atom with properties quite closely related to those originally considered by SW. Since then, the problem has received much more attention, and many more new features of quantum confinement, quantum compression, the quantum Faraday cage, electronic reorganisation, cavity resonances, etc have been described, which are relevant to real systems. Also, a number of other situations have been uncovered experimentally to which quantum confinement is relevant. Thus, studies of the confined atom are now more numerous, and have been extended both in terms of the models used and the systems to which they can be applied. Connections to thermodynamics are explored through the properties of a confined two-level atom adapted from Einstein's celebrated model, and issues of dynamical screening of electromagnetic radiation by the confining shell are discussed in connection with the Faraday cage produced by a confining conducting shell. The conclusions are shown to be relevant to a proposed `quantum computer'. The description of the actual geometry of C60, as opposed to a purely spherical approximation, leads to some qualification of the computed results.

Confinement-Induced Drug-Tolerance in Mycobacteria Mediated by an Efflux Mechanism

PubMed Central

Luthuli, Brilliant B.; Purdy, Georgiana E.; Balagaddé, Frederick K.

2015-01-01

Tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s deadliest curable disease, responsible for an estimated 1.5 million deaths annually. A considerable challenge in controlling this disease is the prolonged multidrug chemotherapy (6 to 9 months) required to overcome drug-tolerant mycobacteria that persist in human tissues, although the same drugs can sterilize genetically identical mycobacteria growing in axenic culture within days. An essential component of TB infection involves intracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that multiply within macrophages and are significantly more tolerant to antibiotics compared to extracellular mycobacteria. To investigate this aspect of human TB, we created a physical cell culture system that mimics confinement of replicating mycobacteria, such as in a macrophage during infection. Using this system, we uncovered an epigenetic drug-tolerance phenotype that appears when mycobacteria are cultured in space-confined bioreactors and disappears in larger volume growth contexts. Efflux mechanisms that are induced in space-confined growth environments contribute to this drug-tolerance phenotype. Therefore, macrophage-induced drug tolerance by mycobacteria may be an effect of confined growth among other macrophage-specific mechanisms. PMID:26295942

Subsystem functional and the missing ingredient of confinement physics in density functionals.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Armiento, Rickard Roberto; Mattsson, Ann Elisabet; Hao, Feng

2010-08-01

The subsystem functional scheme is a promising approach recently proposed for constructing exchange-correlation density functionals. In this scheme, the physics in each part of real materials is described by mapping to a characteristic model system. The 'confinement physics,' an essential physical ingredient that has been left out in present functionals, is studied by employing the harmonic-oscillator (HO) gas model. By performing the potential {yields} density and the density {yields} exchange energy per particle mappings based on two model systems characterizing the physics in the interior (uniform electron-gas model) and surface regions (Airy gas model) of materials for the HO gases,more » we show that the confinement physics emerges when only the lowest subband of the HO gas is occupied by electrons. We examine the approximations of the exchange energy by several state-of-the-art functionals for the HO gas, and none of them produces adequate accuracy in the confinement dominated cases. A generic functional that incorporates the description of the confinement physics is needed.« less

Segmental dynamics of polymers in nanoscopic confinements, as probed by simulations of polymer/layered-silicate nanocomposites.

PubMed

Kuppa, V; Foley, T M D; Manias, E

2003-09-01

In this paper we review molecular modeling investigations of polymer/layered-silicate intercalates, as model systems to explore polymers in nanoscopically confined spaces. The atomic-scale picture, as revealed by computer simulations, is presented in the context of salient results from a wide range of experimental techniques. This approach provides insights into how polymeric segmental dynamics are affected by severe geometric constraints. Focusing on intercalated systems, i.e. polystyrene (PS) in 2 nm wide slit-pores and polyethylene-oxide (PEO) in 1 nm wide slit-pores, a very rich picture for the segmental dynamics is unveiled, despite the topological constraints imposed by the confining solid surfaces. On a local scale, intercalated polymers exhibit a very wide distribution of segmental relaxation times (ranging from ultra-fast to ultra-slow, over a wide range of temperatures). In both cases (PS and PEO), the segmental relaxations originate from the confinement-induced local density variations. Additionally, where there exist special interactions between the polymer and the confining surfaces ( e.g., PEO) more molecular mechanisms are identified.

Surface thermodynamic analysis of fluid confined in a cone and comparison with the sphere-plate and plate-plate geometries.

PubMed

Zargarzadeh, Leila; Elliott, Janet A W

2013-10-22

The behavior of pure fluid confined in a cone is investigated using thermodynamic stability analysis. Four situations are explained on the basis of the initial confined phase (liquid/vapor) and its pressure (above/below the saturation pressure). Thermodynamic stability analysis (a plot of the free energy of the system versus the size of the new potential phase) reveals whether the phase transition is possible and, if so, the number and type (unstable/metastable/stable) of equilibrium states in each of these situations. Moreover we investigated the effect of the equilibrium contact angle and the cone angle (equivalent to the confinement's surface separation distance) on the free energy (potential equilibrium states). The results are then compared to our previous study of pure fluid confined in the gap between a sphere and a flat plate and the gap between two flat plates.1 Confined fluid behavior of the four possible situations (for these three geometries) can be explained in a unified framework under two categories based on only the meniscus shape (concave/convex). For systems with bulk-phase pressure imposed by a reservoir, the stable coexistence of pure liquid and vapor is possible only when the meniscus is concave.

Secondary Confinement of Water Observed in Eutectic Melting of Aqueous Salt Systems in Nanopores.

PubMed

Meissner, Jens; Prause, Albert; Findenegg, Gerhard H

2016-05-19

Freezing and melting of aqueous solutions of alkali halides confined in the cylindrical nanopores of MCM-41 and SBA-15 silica was probed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). We find that the confinement-induced shift of the eutectic temperature in the pores can be significantly greater than the shift of the melting temperature of pure water. Greatest shifts of the eutectic temperature are found for salts that crystallize as oligohydrates at the eutectic point. This behavior is explained by the larger fraction of pore volume occupied by salt hydrates as compared to anhydrous salts, on the assumption that precipitated salt constitutes an additional confinement for ice/water in the pores. A model based on this secondary confinement effect gives a good representation of the experimental data. Salt-specific secondary confinement may play a role in a variety of fields, from salt-impregnated advanced adsorbents and catalysts to the thermal weathering of building materials.

Wigner time delay and spin-orbit activated confinement resonances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keating, D. A.; Deshmukh, P. C.; Manson, S. T.

2017-09-01

A study of the photoionization of spin-orbit split subshells of high-Z atoms confined in C60 has been performed using the relativistic-random-phase approximation. Specifically, Hg@C60 5p, Rn@C60 6p and Ra@C60 5d were investigated and the near-threshold confinement resonances in the j = l - 1/2 channels were found to engender structures in the j = l + 1/2 cross sections via correlation in the form of interchannel coupling. These structures are termed spin-orbit induced confinement resonances and they are found to profoundly influence the Wigner time delay spectrum resulting in time delays of tens or hundreds of attoseconds along with dramatic swings in time delay over small energy intervals. Pronounced relativistic effects in time delay are also found. These structures, including their manifestation in time delay spectra, are expected to be general phenomena in the photoionization of spin-orbit doublets in confined high-Z atoms.

Hierarchical self-assembly of actin in micro-confinements using microfluidics

PubMed Central

Deshpande, Siddharth; Pfohl, Thomas

2012-01-01

We present a straightforward microfluidics system to achieve step-by-step reaction sequences in a diffusion-controlled manner in quasi two-dimensional micro-confinements. We demonstrate the hierarchical self-organization of actin (actin monomers—entangled networks of filaments—networks of bundles) in a reversible fashion by tuning the Mg2+ ion concentration in the system. We show that actin can form networks of bundles in the presence of Mg2+ without any cross-linking proteins. The properties of these networks are influenced by the confinement geometry. In square microchambers we predominantly find rectangular networks, whereas triangular meshes are predominantly found in circular chambers. PMID:24032070

Simulations of Coulomb systems confined by polarizable surfaces using periodic Green functions.

PubMed

Dos Santos, Alexandre P; Girotto, Matheus; Levin, Yan

2017-11-14

We present an efficient approach for simulating Coulomb systems confined by planar polarizable surfaces. The method is based on the solution of the Poisson equation using periodic Green functions. It is shown that the electrostatic energy arising from the surface polarization can be decoupled from the energy due to the direct Coulomb interaction between the ions. This allows us to combine an efficient Ewald summation method, or any other fast method for summing over the replicas, with the polarization contribution calculated using Green function techniques. We apply the method to calculate density profiles of ions confined between the charged dielectric and metal surfaces.

Hydrodynamics of confined colloidal fluids in two dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sané, Jimaan; Padding, Johan T.; Louis, Ard A.

2009-05-01

We apply a hybrid molecular dynamics and mesoscopic simulation technique to study the dynamics of two-dimensional colloidal disks in confined geometries. We calculate the velocity autocorrelation functions and observe the predicted t-1 long-time hydrodynamic tail that characterizes unconfined fluids, as well as more complex oscillating behavior and negative tails for strongly confined geometries. Because the t-1 tail of the velocity autocorrelation function is cut off for longer times in finite systems, the related diffusion coefficient does not diverge but instead depends logarithmically on the overall size of the system. The Langevin equation gives a poor approximation to the velocity autocorrelation function at both short and long times.

Local structural ordering in surface-confined liquid crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Śliwa, I.; Jeżewski, W.; Zakharov, A. V.

2017-06-01

The effect of the interplay between attractive nonlocal surface interactions and attractive pair long-range intermolecular couplings on molecular structures of liquid crystals confined in thin cells with flat solid surfaces has been studied. Extending the McMillan mean field theory to include finite systems, it has been shown that confining surfaces can induce complex orientational and translational ordering of molecules. Typically, local smectic A, nematic, and isotropic phases have been shown to coexist in certain temperature ranges, provided that confining cells are sufficiently thick, albeit finite. Due to the nonlocality of surface interactions, the spatial arrangement of these local phases can display, in general, an unexpected complexity along the surface normal direction. In particular, molecules located in the vicinity of surfaces can still be organized in smectic layers, even though nematic and/or isotropic order can simultaneously appear in the interior of cells. The resulting surface freezing of smectic layers has been confirmed to occur even for rather weak surface interactions. The surface interactions cannot, however, prevent smectic layers from melting relatively close to system boundaries, even when molecules are still arranged in layers within the central region of the system. The internal interfaces, separating individual liquid-crystal phases, are demonstrated here to form fronts of local finite-size transitions that move across cells under temperature changes. Although the complex molecular ordering in surface confined liquid-crystal systems can essentially be controlled by temperature variations, specific thermal properties of these systems, especially the nature of the local transitions, are argued to be strongly conditioned to the degree of molecular packing.

Static and dynamic properties of two-dimensional Coulomb clusters.

PubMed

Ash, Biswarup; Chakrabarti, J; Ghosal, Amit

2017-10-01

We study the temperature dependence of static and dynamic responses of Coulomb interacting particles in two-dimensional confinements across the crossover from solid- to liquid-like behaviors. While static correlations that investigate the translational and bond orientational order in the confinements show the footprints of hexatic-like phase at low temperatures, dynamics of the particles slow down considerably in this phase, reminiscent of a supercooled liquid. Using density correlations, we probe long-lived heterogeneities arising from the interplay of the irregularity in the confinement and long-range Coulomb interactions. The relaxation at multiple time scales show stretched-exponential decay of spatial correlations in irregular traps. Temperature dependence of characteristic time scales, depicting the structural relaxation of the system, show striking similarities with those observed for the glassy systems, indicating that some of the key signatures of supercooled liquids emerge in confinements with lower spatial symmetries.

Effects of Institutional Confinement for Delinquency on Levels of Depression and Anxiety among Male Adolescents

PubMed Central

White, Helene R.; Shi, Jing; Hirschfield, Paul; Mun, Eun-Young; Loeber, Rolf

2013-01-01

Youth within the juvenile justice system report higher rates of mental illnesses than their peers. This study tested whether institutional confinement increases levels of depression and anxiety among male adolescents. We examined heterogeneous trajectories of depression and anxiety from ages 11 to 14 for 510 male adolescents. Youths who were first placed in custody at age 15 (treatment group) were matched with control boys (no official arrest or reported confinement during adolescence) within each trajectory group using a propensity score matching procedure. Matches were found for 37 pairs for depression and 34 pairs for anxiety. There were no significant differences between the confined and control groups in levels of depression or anxiety at age 16. More research is needed to identify aspects of the juvenile justice system that may positively or negatively affect youth’s mental health status. PMID:23504068

Spatial confinement governs orientational order in patchy particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwashita, Yasutaka; Kimura, Yasuyuki

2016-06-01

Orientational order in condensed matter plays a key role in determining material properties such as ferromagnetism, viscoelasticity or birefringence. We studied purely orientational ordering in closely-packed one-patch colloidal particles confined between flat substrates, where the particles can only rotate and are ordered via the sticky interaction between the patches. For the first time, we experimentally realized a rich variety of mesoscopic patterns through orientational ordering of colloids by controlling patch size and confinement thickness. The combination of experiment and numerical simulation reveals the decisive role of confinement: An ordered state(s) is selected from the (meta)stable options in bulk when it is commensurate with the system geometry and boundary conditions; otherwise, frustration induces a unique order. Our study offers a new means of systematic control over mesoscopic structures via orientational ordering in patchy particles. The system would also possess unique functionalities through the rotational response of the particles to external stimuli.

Nanotechnology and textiles engineered by carbon nanotubes for the realization of advanced personal protective equipments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Andretta, Antonio, E-mail: Antonio-Andretta@klopman.com; Terranova, Maria Letizia; Lavecchia, Teresa

2014-06-19

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) and CNT-based active materials have been used to assemble the gas sensing unit of innovative platforms able to detect toxic atmospheres developing in confined workplaces. The main goal of the project was to realize a full-featured, operator-friendly safety detection and monitoring system based on multifunctional textiles nanotechnologies. The fabricated sensing platform consists of a multiple gas detector coupled with a specifically designed telecommunication infrastructure. The portable device, totally integrated in the workwear, offers several advantages over the conventional safety tools employed in industrial work activities.

Nanotechnology and textiles engineered by carbon nanotubes for the realization of advanced personal protective equipments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andretta, Antonio; Terranova, Maria Letizia; Lavecchia, Teresa; Gay, Stefano; Picano, Alfredo; Mascioletti, Alessandro; Stirpe, Daniele; Cucchiella, Cristian; Pascucci, Eddy; Dugnani, Giovanni; Gatti, Davide; Laria, Giuseppe; Codenotti, Barbara; Maldini, Giorgio; Roth, Siegmar; Passeri, Daniele; Rossi, Marco; Tamburri, Emanuela

2014-06-01

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) and CNT-based active materials have been used to assemble the gas sensing unit of innovative platforms able to detect toxic atmospheres developing in confined workplaces. The main goal of the project was to realize a full-featured, operator-friendly safety detection and monitoring system based on multifunctional textiles nanotechnologies. The fabricated sensing platform consists of a multiple gas detector coupled with a specifically designed telecommunication infrastructure. The portable device, totally integrated in the workwear, offers several advantages over the conventional safety tools employed in industrial work activities.

ECRH and W7-X: An intriguing pair

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erckmann, V.; Braune, H.; Gantenbein, G.; Jelonnek, J.; Kasparek, W.; Laqua, H. P.; Lechte, C.; Marushchenko, N. B.; Michel, G.; Plaum, B.; Thumm, M.; Weissgerber, M.; Wolf, R.; W7-X ECRH Teams

2014-02-01

The construction of the W7-X basic machine is almost completed and the device is approaching the commissioning phase. W7-X operation will be supported by ECRH working at 140 GHz in 2nd harmonic X- or O-mode with 10 MW cw power. Presently the activities at W7-X concentrate on the implementation of wall-armour, in-vessel components and diagnostics. The ECRH-system is in stand by with 5 out of 10 gyrotrons operational. The status of both, the W7-X device and the ECRH system is reported. Further R&D activities concentrate on extending the launching capability for sophisticated confinement investigations with remote steering launchers in a poloidal plane with weak magnetic field gradient.

Single-site trinuclear copper oxygen clusters in mordenite for selective conversion of methane to methanol

DOE PAGES

Grundner, Sebastian; Markovits, Monica A. C.; Li, Guanna; ...

2015-06-25

Copper-exchanged zeolites with mordenite structure mimic the nuclearity and reactivity of active sites in particulate methane monooxygenase, which are enzymes able to selectively oxidize methane to methanol. Here we show that the mordenite micropores provide a perfect confined environment for the highly selective stabilization of trinuclear copper-oxo clusters that exhibit a high reactivity towards activation of carbon–hydrogen bonds in methane and its subsequent transformation to methanol. In conclusion, the similarity with the enzymatic systems is also implied from the similarity of the reversible rearrangements of the trinuclear clusters occurring during the selective transformations of methane along the reaction path towardsmore » methanol, in both the enzyme system and copper-exchanged mordenite.« less

Single-site trinuclear copper oxygen clusters in mordenite for selective conversion of methane to methanol

PubMed Central

Grundner, Sebastian; Markovits, Monica A.C.; Li, Guanna; Tromp, Moniek; Pidko, Evgeny A.; Hensen, Emiel J.M.; Jentys, Andreas; Sanchez-Sanchez, Maricruz; Lercher, Johannes A.

2015-01-01

Copper-exchanged zeolites with mordenite structure mimic the nuclearity and reactivity of active sites in particulate methane monooxygenase, which are enzymes able to selectively oxidize methane to methanol. Here we show that the mordenite micropores provide a perfect confined environment for the highly selective stabilization of trinuclear copper-oxo clusters that exhibit a high reactivity towards activation of carbon–hydrogen bonds in methane and its subsequent transformation to methanol. The similarity with the enzymatic systems is also implied from the similarity of the reversible rearrangements of the trinuclear clusters occurring during the selective transformations of methane along the reaction path towards methanol, in both the enzyme system and copper-exchanged mordenite. PMID:26109507

Recent Trends in Fusion Gyrotron Development at KIT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gantenbein, G.; Avramidis, K.; Franck, J.; Illy, S.; Ioannidis, Z. C.; Jin, J.; Jelonnek, J.; Kalaria, P.; Pagonakis, I. Gr.; Ruess, S.; Rzesnicki, T.; Thumm, M.; Wu, C.

2017-10-01

ECRH&CD is one of the favorite heating system for magnetically confined nuclear fusion plasmas. KIT is strongly involved in the development of high power gyrotrons for use in ECRH systems for nuclear fusion. KIT is upgrading the sub-components of the existing 2 MW, 170 GHz coaxial-cavity short-pulse gyrotron to support long-pulse operation up to 1 s, all components will be equipped with a specific active cooling system. Two important developments for future high power, highly efficient gyrotrons will be discussed: design of gyrotrons with high operating frequency (˜ 240 GHz) and efficiency enhancement by using advanced collector designs with multi-staged voltage depression.

Dielectric response properties of parabolically-confined nanostructures in a quantizing magnetic field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabeeh, Kashif

This thesis presents theoretical studies of dielectric response properties of parabolically-confined nanostructures in a magnetic field. We have determined the retarded Schrodinger Green's function for an electron in such a parabolically confined system in the presence of a time dependent electric field and an ambient magnetic field. Following an operator equation of motion approach developed by Schwinger, we calculate the result in closed form in terms of elementary functions in direct-time representation. From the retarded Schrodinger Green's function we construct the closed-form thermodynamic Green's function for a parabolically confined quantum-dot in a magnetic field to determine its plasmon spectrum. Due to confinement and Landau quantization this system is fully quantized, with an infinite number of collective modes. The RPA integral equation for the inverse dielectric function is solved using Fredholm theory in the nondegenerate and quantum limit to determine the frequencies with which the plasmons participate in response to excitation by an external potential. We exhibit results for the variation of plasmon frequency as a function of magnetic field strength and of confinement frequency. A calculation of the van der Waals interaction energy between two harmonically confined quantum dots is discussed in terms of the dipole-dipole correlation function. The results are presented as a function of confinement strength and distance between the dots. We also rederive a result of Fertig & Halperin [32] for the tunneling-scattering of an electron through a saddle potential which is also known as a quantum point contact (QPC), in the presence of a magnetic field. Using the retarded Green's function we confirm the result for the transmission coefficient and analyze it.

Use of /sup 3/He/sup + +/ ICRF minority heating to simulate alpha particle heating

DOEpatents

Post, D.E. Jr.; Hwang, D.Q.; Hovey, J.

1983-11-16

It is an object of the present invention to provide a better understanding of alpha particle behavior in a magnetically confined, energetic plasma. Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved means and method for studying and measuring the energy distribution of heated alpha particles in a confined plasma. Yet another object of the present invention is to permit detailed analysis of energetic alpha particle behavior in a magnetically confined plasma for use in near term fusion reactor experiments. A still further object of the present invention is to simulate energetic alpha particle behavior in a deuterium-tritium plasma confined in a fusion reactor without producing the neutron activation associated with the thus produced alpha particles.

Micro X-ray CT Imaging of Sediments under Confining Pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schindler, M.; Prasad, M.

2016-12-01

We developed a pressure and temperature control system for use inside the micro X-ray CT scanner Xradia 400. We succeeded in building a pressure vessel that can be pressurized to 34.5 MPa (5000 psi) while being transparent to X-rays. The setup can currently be cooled to -5°C and heated to 40°C. We were able to observe grain damage and porosity reduction due to applied confining pressure in clean quartz sand samples and quartz sand and bentonite samples. By comparing micro CT images at atmospheric pressure and 13.8 MPa (2000 psi) confining pressure, we observed compaction of the samples resulting in grain damage and fracturing of sediment grains (Figure 1). When the confining pressure was decreased some grains experienced further fracturing. The grain damage appears irreversible. Further fracturing of grains in pre-compacted sediment was observed upon repeated confining pressure cycling. We are currently working on feed-throughs for fluid lines and electric wiring to use ultrasonic transducers and pressure control in combination. Further we plan to include pore pressure in addition to confining pressure into the system. The pressure control system in combination with ultrasonic transducers will allow us to visually observe pore scale changes in rock samples while simultaneously identifying their influence on ultrasonic velocities. Such pore-scale changes are usually not taken into account by rock physics models and could help to identify why laboratory data diverges from theoretical models. Further, it is possible to compute compressibility from mCT images at different stress states by image correlation

Compression and release dynamics of an active matter system of Euglena gracilis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lam, Amy; Tsang, Alan C. H.; Ouellette, Nicholas; Riedel-Kruse, Ingmar

Active matter, defined as ensembles of self-propelled particles, encompasses a large variety of systems at all scales, from nanoparticles to bird flocks. Though various models and simulations have been created to describe the dynamics of these systems, experimental verification has been difficult to obtain. This is frequently due to the complex interaction rules which govern the particle behavior, in turn making systematic varying of parameters impossible. Here, we propose a model for predicting the system evolution of compression and release of an active system based on experiments and simulations. In particular, we consider ensembles of the unicellular, photo-responsive algae, Euglena gracilis, under light stimulation. By varying the spatiotemporal light patterns, we are able to finely adjust cell densities and achieve arbitrary non-homogeneous distributions, including compression into high-density aggregates of varying geometries. We observe the formation of depletion zones after the release of the confining stimulus and investigate the effects of the density distribution and particle rotational noise on the depletion. These results provide implications for defining state parameters which determine system evolution.

Improved mechanical stability of HKUST-1 in confined nanospace.

PubMed

Casco, M E; Fernández-Catalá, J; Martínez-Escandell, M; Rodríguez-Reinoso, F; Ramos-Fernández, E V; Silvestre-Albero, J

2015-09-28

One of the main concerns in the technological application of several metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) relates to their structural instability under pressure (after a conforming step). Here we report for the first time that mechanical instability can be highly improved via nucleation and growth of MOF nanocrystals in the confined nanospace of activated carbons.

FAST TRACK COMMUNICATION: Confinement resonances in the photoionization of endohedral atoms: myth or reality?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korol, A. V.; Solov'yov, A. V.

2010-10-01

We demonstrate that the structure of confinement resonances in the photoionization cross section of an endohedral atom is very sensitive to the mean displacement langarang of the atom from the cage centre. The resonances are strongly suppressed if 2langarang exceeds the photoelectron half-wavelength. We explain the results of recent experiments which contradict the earlier theoretical predictions on the existence of confinement resonances in particular endohedral systems.

3D architecture constructed via the confined growth of MoS2 nanosheets in nanoporous carbon derived from metal-organic frameworks for efficient hydrogen production.

PubMed

Liu, Yun; Zhou, Xiaoli; Ding, Tao; Wang, Chunde; Yang, Qing

2015-11-21

The design and synthesis of robust, high-performance and low-cost three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical structured materials for the electrochemical reduction of water to generate hydrogen is of great significance for practical water splitting applications. In this study, we develop an in situ space-confined method to synthesize an MoS2-based 3D hierarchical structure, in which the MoS2 nanosheets grow in the confined nanopores of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-derived 3D carbons as electrocatalysts for efficient hydrogen production. Benefiting from its unique structure, which has more exposed active sites and enhanced conductivity, the as-prepared MoS2/3D nanoporous carbon (3D-NPC) composite exhibits remarkable electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with a small onset overpotential of ∼0.16 V, large cathodic currents, small Tafel slope of 51 mV per decade and good durability. We anticipate that this in situ confined growth provides new insights into the construction of high performance catalysts for energy storage and conversion.

Conceptual hydrogeologic framework of the shallow aquifer system at Virginia Beach, Virginia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, Barry S.; Harlow, George E.

2002-01-01

The hydrogeologic framework of the shallow aquifer system at Virginia Beach was revised to provide a better understanding of the distribution of fresh ground water, its potential use, and its susceptibility to contamination. The revised conceptual framework is based primarily on analyses of continuous cores and downhole geophysical logs collected at 7 sites to depths of approximately 200 ft.The shallow aquifer system at Virginia Beach is composed of the Columbia aquifer, the Yorktown confining unit, and the Yorktown-East-over aquifer. The shallow aquifer system is separated from deeper units by the continuous St. Marys confining unit.The Columbia aquifer is defined as the predominantly sandy surficial deposits above the Yorktown confining unit. The Yorktown confining unit is composed of a series of very fine sandy to silty clay units of various colors at or near the top of the Yorktown Formation. The Yorktown confining unit varies in thickness and in composition, but on a regional scale is a leaky confining unit. The Yorktown-Eastover aquifer is defined as the predominantly sandy deposits of the Yorktown Formation and the upper part of the Eastover Formation above the confining clays of the St. Marys Formation. The limited areal extent of highly permeable deposits containing freshwater in the Yorktown-Eastover aquifer precludes the installation of highly productive freshwater wells over most of the city. Some deposits of biofragmental sand or shell hashes in the Yorktown-Eastover aquifer can support high-capacity wells.A water sample was collected from each of 10 wells installed at 5 of the 7 core sites to determine the basic chemistry of the aquifer system. One shallow well and one deep well was installed at each site. Concentrations of chloride were higher in the water from the deeper well at each site. Concentrations of dissolved iron in all of the water samples were higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Secondary Drinking Water Regulations. Concentrations of manganese and chloride were higher than the Secondary Drinking Water Regulations in samples from some wells.In the humid climate of Virginia Beach, the periodic recharge of freshwater through the sand units of the shallow aquifer system occurs often enough to create a dynamic equilibrium whereby freshwater flows continually down and away from the center of the ridges to mix with and sweep brackish water and saltwater back toward the tidal rivers, bays, salt marshes, and the Atlantic Ocean.The aquifers and confining units of the shallow aquifer system at Virginia Beach are heterogeneous, discontinuous, and without exact marker beds, which makes correlations in the study area difficult. Investigations using well cuttings, spot cores, or split-spoon samples with geophysical logs are not as definitive as continuous cores for determining or correlating hydrogeologic units. Future investigations of the shallow aquifer system would benefit by collecting continuous cores.

Non-unique monopole oscillations of harmonically confined Yukawa systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ducatman, Samuel; Henning, Christian; Kaehlert, Hanno; Bonitz, Michael

2008-11-01

Recently it was shown that the Breathing Mode (BM), the mode of uniform radial expansion and contraction, which is well known from harmonically confined Coulomb systems [1], does not exist in general for other systems [2]. As a consequence the monopole oscillation (MO), the radial collective excitation, is not unique, but there are several MO with different frequencies. Within this work we show simulation results of those monopole oscillations of 2-dimensional harmonically confined Yukawa systems, which are known from, e.g., dusty plasma crystals [3,4]. We present the corresponding spectrum of the particle motion, including analysis of the frequencies found, and compare with theoretical investigations.[1] D.H.E. Dubin and J.P. Schiffer, Phys. Rev. E 53, 5249 (1996)[2] C. Henning at al., accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. (2008)[3] A. Melzer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 115002 (2001)[4] M. Bonitz et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 075001 (2006)

Brownian Dynamics simulations of model colloids in channel geometries and external fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siems, Ullrich; Nielaba, Peter

2018-04-01

We review the results of Brownian Dynamics simulations of colloidal particles in external fields confined in channels. Super-paramagnetic Brownian particles are well suited two- dimensional model systems for a variety of problems on different length scales, ranging from pedestrian walking through a bottleneck to ions passing ion-channels in living cells. In such systems confinement into channels can have a great influence on the diffusion and transport properties. Especially we will discuss the crossover from single file diffusion in a narrow channel to the diffusion in the extended two-dimensional system. Therefore a new algorithm for computing the mean square displacement (MSD) on logarithmic time scales is presented. In a different study interacting colloidal particles were dragged over a washboard potential and are additionally confined in a two-dimensional micro-channel. In this system kink and anti-kink solitons determine the depinning process of the particles from the periodic potential.

Defect-mediated spatial complexity and chaos in a phase-conjugate resonator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Indebetouw, Guy; Liu, Siuying R.

1992-01-01

We have studied the spatiotemporal dynamics of a phase-conjugate resonator. The cavity Fresnel number is used to vary the degree of transverse confinement of the system. The generation and subsequent motion of the phase defects in the wave front are seen to mediate the system's dynamics. The number of defects and the complexity of their motion increases as the confinement is relaxed, leading the system through a sequence of bifurcations and eventually to chaos.

Filament dynamics in confined chemical gardens and in filiform corrosion.

PubMed

Brau, Fabian; Haudin, Florence; Thouvenel-Romans, Stephanie; De Wit, Anne; Steinbock, Oliver; Cardoso, Silvana S S; Cartwright, Julyan H E

2018-01-03

Two reaction systems that are at first sight very different produce similar macroscopic filamentary product trails. The systems are chemical gardens confined to a Hele-Shaw cell and corroding metal plates that undergo filiform corrosion. We show that the two systems are in fact very much alike. Our experiments and analysis show that filament dynamics obey similar scaling laws in both instances: filament motion is nearly ballistic and fully self-avoiding, which creates self-trapping events.

PdHx entrapped in covalent triazine framework modulates selectivity in glycerol oxidation [Modulation of palladium activity and stability by a covalent triazine framework

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chan-Thaw, Carine E.; Villa, Alberto; Wang, Di

The confinement of a Pd nanoparticle within a nitrogen-containing covalent triazine framework (CTF) material was investigated to understand if the highly tunable CTF chemistry mediates the Pd catalytic properties through an ensemble effect with the CTF nitrogen atoms or a confinement effect within the CTF pores. The results surprisingly demonstrate that the CTF stabilizes the formation of 2.6 nm PdHx particles within the pores. These PdHx particles are very active for the liquid phase oxidation of glycerol due to the in situ formation of H2O2 which catalytically promotes the initial C-C cleavage. In addition the confined particles are stable overmore » many catalytic cycles whereas nanoparticles trapped outside of the pores loose activity rapidly. These results indicate that there is the potential to tune the CTF chemistry to significantly modify the chemistry of the catalytic metals.« less

PdHx entrapped in covalent triazine framework modulates selectivity in glycerol oxidation [Modulation of palladium activity and stability by a covalent triazine framework

DOE PAGES

Chan-Thaw, Carine E.; Villa, Alberto; Wang, Di; ...

2015-06-25

The confinement of a Pd nanoparticle within a nitrogen-containing covalent triazine framework (CTF) material was investigated to understand if the highly tunable CTF chemistry mediates the Pd catalytic properties through an ensemble effect with the CTF nitrogen atoms or a confinement effect within the CTF pores. The results surprisingly demonstrate that the CTF stabilizes the formation of 2.6 nm PdHx particles within the pores. These PdHx particles are very active for the liquid phase oxidation of glycerol due to the in situ formation of H2O2 which catalytically promotes the initial C-C cleavage. In addition the confined particles are stable overmore » many catalytic cycles whereas nanoparticles trapped outside of the pores loose activity rapidly. These results indicate that there is the potential to tune the CTF chemistry to significantly modify the chemistry of the catalytic metals.« less

Integration of Quantum Confinement and Alloy Effect to Modulate Electronic Properties of RhW Nanocrystals for Improved Catalytic Performance toward CO2 Hydrogenation.

PubMed

Zhang, Wenbo; Wang, Liangbing; Liu, Haoyu; Hao, Yiping; Li, Hongliang; Khan, Munir Ullah; Zeng, Jie

2017-02-08

The d-band center and surface negative charge density generally determine the adsorption and activation of CO 2 , thus serving as important descriptors of the catalytic activity toward CO 2 hydrogenation. Herein, we engineered the d-band center and negative charge density of Rh-based catalysts by tuning their dimensions and introducing non-noble metals to form an alloy. During the hydrogenation of CO 2 into methanol, the catalytic activity of Rh 75 W 25 nanosheets was 5.9, 4.0, and 1.7 times as high as that of Rh nanoparticles, Rh nanosheets, and Rh 73 W 27 nanoparticles, respectively. Mechanistic studies reveal that the remarkable activity of Rh 75 W 25 nanosheets is owing to the integration of quantum confinement and alloy effect. Specifically, the quantum confinement in one dimension shifts up the d-band center of Rh 75 W 25 nanosheets, strengthening the adsorption of CO 2 . Moreover, the alloy effect not only promotes the activation of CO 2 to form CO 2 δ- but also enhances the adsorption of intermediates to facilitate further hydrogenation of the intermediates into methanol.

How to Recharge a Confined Alluvial Aquifer System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maples, S.; Fogg, G. E.; Liu, Y.

2016-12-01

Greater water storage capacity is needed to offset future decreases in snowpack-water storage in California. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) in California's Central Valley aquifer system is a promising alternative to new surface reservoir storage because it has the potential to both reduce overdraft conditions observed in many Central Valley groundwater basins and offset continued decreases in snowpack storage. MAR to the Central Valley's productive confined-aquifer system remains a challenge because, like most alluvial aquifer systems, it is composed mostly of silt and clay sediments that form nearly ubiquitous, multiple confining layers that inhibit direct recharge of the interconnected sand and gravel body networks. Several studies have mapped surficial soil types in the Central Valley that are conducive to MAR, but few studies have evaluated how subsurface geologic heterogeneity controls recharge to the confined aquifer system. Here, we use a transition probability Markov-chain geostatistical model conditioned with 1200 well logs to create a physically-realistic representation of the subsurface geologic heterogeneity in the American and Cosumnes River watersheds on the east side of the Sacramento Valley, CA, where studies have shown the presence of massive, interconnected, highly-permeable gravel deposits that are potentially conducive to considerably higher rates of regional recharge than would be possible over the rest of the landscape. Such localized stratigraphic features to support accelerated recharge occur throughout the Central Valley, but are mostly still undiscovered. A variably-saturated, fully-integrated, groundwater/surface-water code, ParFlow, was used to simulate MAR dynamics in this system. Results show the potential for (1) accelerated, high-volume recharge through interconnected gravels where they outcrop at land surface, and (2) regional repressurization of the deeper confined aquifer system. These findings provide insight into the critical role of subsurface heterogeneity on MAR dynamics in alluvial aquifer systems and highlight the potential for MAR in California and elsewhere.

Hydrogeology and groundwater quality of Highlands County, Florida

USGS Publications Warehouse

Spechler, Rick M.

2010-01-01

Groundwater is the main source of water supply in Highlands County, Florida. As the demand for water in the county increases, additional information about local groundwater resources is needed to manage and develop the water supply effectively. To address the need for additional data, a study was conducted to evaluate the hydrogeology and groundwater quality of Highlands County. Total groundwater use in Highlands County has increased steadily since 1965. Total groundwater withdrawals increased from about 37 million gallons per day in 1965 to about 107 million gallons per day in 2005. Much of this increase in water use is related to agricultural activities, especially citrus cultivation, which increased more than 300 percent from 1965 to 2005. Highlands County is underlain by three principal hydrogeologic units. The uppermost water-bearing unit is the surficial aquifer, which is underlain by the intermediate aquifer system/intermediate confining unit. The lowermost hydrogeologic unit is the Floridan aquifer system, which consists of the Upper Floridan aquifer, as many as three middle confining units, and the Lower Floridan aquifer. The surficial aquifer consists primarily of fine-to-medium grained quartz sand with varying amounts of clay and silt. The aquifer system is unconfined and underlies the entire county. The thickness of the surficial aquifer is highly variable, ranging from less than 50 to more than 300 feet. Groundwater in the surficial aquifer is recharged primarily by precipitation, but also by septic tanks, irrigation from wells, seepage from lakes and streams, and the lateral groundwater inflow from adjacent areas. The intermediate aquifer system/intermediate confining unit acts as a confining layer (except where breached by sinkholes) that restricts the vertical movement of water between the surficial aquifer and the underlying Upper Floridan aquifer. The sediments have varying degrees of permeability and consist of permeable limestone, dolostone, or sand, or relatively impermeable layers of clay, clayey sand, or clayey carbonates. The thickness of the intermediate aquifer system/ intermediate confining unit ranges from about 200 feet in northwestern Highlands County to more than 600 feet in the southwestern part. Although the intermediate aquifer system is present in the county, it is unclear where the aquifer system grades into a confining unit in the eastern part of the county. Up to two water-bearing units are present in the intermediate aquifer system within the county. The lateral continuity and water-bearing potential of the various aquifers within the intermediate aquifer system are highly variable. The Floridan aquifer system is composed of a thick sequence of limestone and dolostone of Upper Paleocene to Oligocene age. The top of the aquifer system ranges from less than 200 feet below NGVD 29 in extreme northwestern Highlands County to more than 600 feet below NGVD 29 in the southwestern part. The principal source of groundwater supply in the county is the Upper Floridan aquifer. As of 2005, about 89 percent of the groundwater withdrawn from the county was obtained from this aquifer, mostly for agricultural irrigation and public supply. Over most of Highlands County, the Upper Floridan aquifer generally contains freshwater, and the Lower Floridan aquifer contains more mineralized water. The potentiometric surface of the Upper Floridan aquifer is constantly fluctuating, mainly in response to seasonal variations in rainfall and groundwater withdrawals. The potentiometric surface of the Upper Floridan aquifer in May 2007, which represents the hydrologic conditions near the end of the dry season when water levels generally are near their lowest, ranged from about 79 feet above NGVD 29 in northwestern Highlands County to about 40 feet above NGVD 29 in the southeastern part of the county. The potentiometric surface of the Upper Floridan aquifer in September 2007 was about 3 to 10 feet high

The Enskog Equation for Confined Elastic Hard Spheres

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maynar, P.; García de Soria, M. I.; Brey, J. Javier

2018-03-01

A kinetic equation for a system of elastic hard spheres or disks confined by a hard wall of arbitrary shape is derived. It is a generalization of the modified Enskog equation in which the effects of the confinement are taken into account and it is supposed to be valid up to moderate densities. From the equation, balance equations for the hydrodynamic fields are derived, identifying the collisional transfer contributions to the pressure tensor and heat flux. A Lyapunov functional, H[f], is identified. For any solution of the kinetic equation, H decays monotonically in time until the system reaches the inhomogeneous equilibrium distribution, that is a Maxwellian distribution with a density field consistent with equilibrium statistical mechanics.

John H. Dillon Medal Talk: Polymer Droplets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalnoki-Veress, Kari

2008-03-01

The simplicity of a liquid droplet, say a dew drop on spider silk, is both esthetically beautiful and scientifically intriguing. The interplay of surface energies, thermal motion, and confinement of the liquid, especially on small length scales can reveal interesting physics. Droplets are an ideal confining geometry because the length scales can be easily controlled and it is possible to arrange the system such that each droplet acts as an independent experiment. The talk will focus on some recent examples where we have used the droplet geometry to learn about material properties. It will become apparent in the presentation that the deviations from the ``expected'' behaviour in confined systems are far from subtle!

Temperature dependent electron delocalization in CdSe/CdS type-I core-shell systems: An insight from scanning tunneling spectroscopy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kundu, Biswajit; Chakrabarti, Sudipto; Pal, Amlan J., E-mail: sspajp@iacs.res.in

2016-03-14

Core-shell nanocrystals having a type-I band-alignment confine charge carriers to the core. In this work, we choose CdSe/CdS core-shell nano-heterostructures that evidence confinement of holes only. Such a selective confinement occurs in the core-shell nanocrystals due to a low energy-offset of conduction band (CB) edges resulting in delocalization of electrons and thus a decrease in the conduction band-edge. Since the delocalization occurs through a thermal assistance, we study temperature dependence of selective delocalization process through scanning tunneling spectroscopy. From the density of states (DOS), we observe that the electrons are confined to the core at low temperatures. Above a certainmore » temperature, they become delocalized up to the shell leading to a decrease in the CB of the core-shell system due to widening of quantum confinement effect. With holes remaining confined to the core due to a large offset in the valence band (VB), we record the topography of the core-shell nanocrystals by probing their CB and VB edges separately. The topographies recorded at different temperatures representing wave-functions of electrons and holes corresponded to the results obtained from the DOS spectra. The results evidence temperature-dependent wave-function delocalization of one-type of carriers up to the shell layer in core-shell nano-heterostructures.« less

Magnetic force micropiston: an integrated force/microfluidic device for the application of compressive forces in a confined environment.

PubMed

Fisher, J K; Kleckner, N

2014-02-01

Cellular biology takes place inside confining spaces. For example, bacteria grow in crevices, red blood cells squeeze through capillaries, and chromosomes replicate inside the nucleus. Frequently, the extent of this confinement varies. Bacteria grow longer and divide, red blood cells move through smaller and smaller passages as they travel to capillary beds, and replication doubles the amount of DNA inside the nucleus. This increase in confinement, either due to a decrease in the available space or an increase in the amount of material contained in a constant volume, has the potential to squeeze and stress objects in ways that may lead to changes in morphology, dynamics, and ultimately biological function. Here, we describe a device developed to probe the interplay between confinement and the mechanical properties of cells and cellular structures, and forces that arise due to changes in a structure's state. In this system, the manipulation of a magnetic bead exerts a compressive force upon a target contained in the confining space of a microfluidic channel. This magnetic force microfluidic piston is constructed in such a way that we can measure (a) target compliance and changes in compliance as induced by changes in buffer, extract, or biochemical composition, (b) target expansion force generated by changes in the same parameters, and (c) the effects of compression stress on a target's structure and function. Beyond these issues, our system has general applicability to a variety of questions requiring the combination of mechanical forces, confinement, and optical imaging.

Magnetic force micropiston: An integrated force/microfluidic device for the application of compressive forces in a confined environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fisher, J. K.; Kleckner, N.

2014-02-01

Cellular biology takes place inside confining spaces. For example, bacteria grow in crevices, red blood cells squeeze through capillaries, and chromosomes replicate inside the nucleus. Frequently, the extent of this confinement varies. Bacteria grow longer and divide, red blood cells move through smaller and smaller passages as they travel to capillary beds, and replication doubles the amount of DNA inside the nucleus. This increase in confinement, either due to a decrease in the available space or an increase in the amount of material contained in a constant volume, has the potential to squeeze and stress objects in ways that may lead to changes in morphology, dynamics, and ultimately biological function. Here, we describe a device developed to probe the interplay between confinement and the mechanical properties of cells and cellular structures, and forces that arise due to changes in a structure's state. In this system, the manipulation of a magnetic bead exerts a compressive force upon a target contained in the confining space of a microfluidic channel. This magnetic force microfluidic piston is constructed in such a way that we can measure (a) target compliance and changes in compliance as induced by changes in buffer, extract, or biochemical composition, (b) target expansion force generated by changes in the same parameters, and (c) the effects of compression stress on a target's structure and function. Beyond these issues, our system has general applicability to a variety of questions requiring the combination of mechanical forces, confinement, and optical imaging.

Two-dimensional nature of the active Brownian motion of catalytic microswimmers at solid and liquid interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dietrich, Kilian; Renggli, Damian; Zanini, Michele; Volpe, Giovanni; Buttinoni, Ivo; Isa, Lucio

2017-06-01

Colloidal particles equipped with platinum patches can establish chemical gradients in H2O2-enriched solutions and undergo self-propulsion due to local diffusiophoretic migration. In bulk (3D), this class of active particles swim in the direction of the surface heterogeneities introduced by the patches and consequently reorient with the characteristic rotational diffusion time of the colloids. In this article, we present experimental and numerical evidence that planar 2D confinements defy this simple picture. Instead, the motion of active particles both on solid substrates and at flat liquid-liquid interfaces is captured by a 2D active Brownian motion model, in which rotational and translational motion are constrained in the xy-plane. This leads to an active motion that does not follow the direction of the surface heterogeneities and to timescales of reorientation that do not match the free rotational diffusion times. Furthermore, 2D-confinement at fluid-fluid interfaces gives rise to a unique distribution of swimming velocities: the patchy colloids uptake two main orientations leading to two particle populations with velocities that differ up to one order of magnitude. Our results shed new light on the behavior of active colloids in 2D, which is of interest for modeling and applications where confinements are present.

Development of a confined water sensitive urban design (WSUD) system using engineered soils.

PubMed

Dunphy, A; Beecham, S; Vigneswaran, S; Ngo, H H; McLaughlan, R; Collins, A

2007-01-01

Innovative Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) systems are being investigated at three locations to the north and south of Sydney, Australia. These systems contain porous concrete pipes that are designed so that stormwater exfiltrates through the permeable walls of the pipes into the surrounding substrate media material. The porous pipes and media material treat the passing stormwater. The primary aim of the overall project is to develop a model to describe the treatment effectiveness of confined WSUD systems. This paper focuses on the system located at the Weathertex Industrial Site, Heatherbrae. Due to wood processing operations that occur at this site, it is recognised that the surface runoff will carry a heavy organics loading. Granulated Activated Carbon (GAC) is recognised for its ability to reduce the concentration of dissolved organics present in both wastewater and stormwater. GAC was therefore chosen as a filtration medium to be investigated at this site. To maximise the effectiveness of the GAC, extensive laboratory batch studies were undertaken prior to the field system being constructed to determine the optimum GAC/sand ratio. The purpose of the experimental work was to assess the dissolved organic removal potential through sorption of various concentrations of GAC. The aim of this paper is to describe these laboratory experiments and discuss how they related to the field system. Through these experiments it was determined that a sand/GAC ratio of 25:1 was ideal for the media material at the Heatherbrae site.

Cylindrical fabric-confined soil structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harrison, Richard A.

A cylindrical fabric-soil structural concept for implementation on the moon and Mars which provides many advantages is proposed. The most efficient use of fabric is to fashion it into cylindrical tubes, creating cylindrical fabric-confined soil structures. The length, diameter, and curvature of the tubes will depend on the intended application. The cylindrical hoop forces provide radial confinement while end caps provide axial confinement. One of the ends is designed to allow passage of the soil into the fabric tube before sealing. Transportation requirements are reduced due to the low mass and volume of the fabric. Construction requirements are reduced due to the self-erection capability via the pneumatic exoskeleton. Maintenance requirements are reduced due to the passive nature of the concept. The structure's natural ductility is well suited for any seismic activity.

Vibrational nonlinear optical properties of spatially confined weakly bound complexes.

PubMed

Zaleśny, Robert; Chołuj, Marta; Kozłowska, Justyna; Bartkowiak, Wojciech; Luis, Josep M

2017-09-13

This study focuses on the theoretical description of the influence of spatial confinement on the electronic and vibrational contributions to (hyper)polarizabilities of two dimeric hydrogen bonded systems, namely HCNHCN and HCNHNC. A two-dimensional analytical potential is employed to render the confining environment (e.g. carbon nanotube). Based on the results of the state-of-the-art calculations, performed at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory, we established that: (i) the influence of spatial confinement increases with increasing order of the electrical properties, (ii) the effect of spatial confinement is much larger in the case of the electronic than vibrational contribution (this holds for each order of the electrical properties) and (iii) the decrease in the static nuclear relaxation first hyperpolarizability upon the increase of confinement strength is mainly due to changes in the harmonic term, however, in the case of nuclear relaxation second hyperpolarizability the anharmonic terms contribute more to the drop of this property.

Enhancement of Brownian motion for a chain of particles in a periodic potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dessup, Tommy; Coste, Christophe; Saint Jean, Michel

2018-02-01

The transport of particles in very confined channels in which single file diffusion occurs has been largely studied in systems where the transverse confining potential is smooth. However, in actual physical systems, this potential may exhibit both static corrugations and time fluctuations. Some recent results suggest the important role played by this nonsmoothness of the confining potential. In particular, quite surprisingly, an enhancement of the Brownian motion of the particles has been evidenced in these kinds of systems. We show that this enhancement results from the commensurate effects induced by the underlying potential on the vibrational spectra of the chain of particles, and from the effective temperature associated with its time fluctuations. We will restrict our derivation to the case of low temperatures for which the mean squared displacement of the particles remains smaller than the potential period.

Simulation study of charged nanoparticles confined in a rectangular tube with discrete wall charges.

PubMed

Yuet, Pak K

2006-03-28

The development of novel nanomaterials has been a subject of intense interest in recent years. An interesting structure among these materials is the so-called "pea pods" (i.e., nanoparticles confined in nanotubes). To facilitate the development and commercialization of these materials, it is important that we have an in-depth understanding of their behavior. The study of confined charged particles is particularly challenging because of the long-ranged nature of electrostatic interaction, and both interparticle and particle-confinement interactions are likely to play a role in determining the system behavior. The primary objective of this study is to develop a better understanding of the behavior of charged nanoparticles in a charged tubular confinement using Monte Carlo simulation, with particular focus on the effect of electrostatic interactions on the structure of the particles. Simulation results have shown that (i) the structuring of confined particles is associated with the asymmetry of the long-ranged interaction and (ii) factors such as confinement geometry and particle charge and size asymmetry can be manipulated to produce different particle structures. The present study represents the first step in an attempt to gain further insight into the behavior of confined nanosystems, with the ultimate objective of exploiting these characteristics, particularly the interactions between the confined particles and their external environment, in developing novel nanomaterials.

The role of the immune system in central nervous system plasticity after acute injury.

PubMed

Peruzzotti-Jametti, Luca; Donegá, Matteo; Giusto, Elena; Mallucci, Giulia; Marchetti, Bianca; Pluchino, Stefano

2014-12-26

Acute brain injuries cause rapid cell death that activates bidirectional crosstalk between the injured brain and the immune system. In the acute phase, the damaged CNS activates resident and circulating immune cells via the local and systemic release of soluble mediators. This early immune activation is necessary to confine the injured tissue and foster the clearance of cellular debris, thus bringing the inflammatory reaction to a close. In the chronic phase, a sustained immune activation has been described in many CNS disorders, and the degree of this prolonged response has variable effects on spontaneous brain regenerative processes. The challenge for treating acute CNS damage is to understand how to optimally engage and modify these immune responses, thus providing new strategies that will compensate for tissue lost to injury. Herein we have reviewed the available information regarding the role and function of the innate and adaptive immune responses in influencing CNS plasticity during the acute and chronic phases of after injury. We have examined how CNS damage evolves along the activation of main cellular and molecular pathways that are associated with intrinsic repair, neuronal functional plasticity and facilitation of tissue reorganization. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Confinement and Structural Changes in Vertically Aligned Dust Structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hyde, Truell

2013-10-01

In physics, confinement is known to influence collective system behavior. Examples include coulomb crystal variants such as those formed from ions or dust particles (classical), electrons in quantum dots (quantum) and the structural changes observed in vertically aligned dust particle systems formed within a glass box placed on the lower electrode of a Gaseous Electronics Conference (GEC) rf reference cell. Recent experimental studies have expanded the above to include the biological domain by showing that the stability and dynamics of proteins confined through encapsulation and enzyme molecules placed in inorganic cavities such as those found in biosensors are also directly influenced by their confinement. In this paper, the self-assembly and subsequent collective behavior of structures formed from n, charged dust particles interacting with one another and located within a glass box placed on the lower, powered electrode of a GEC rf reference cell is discussed. Self-organized formation of vertically aligned one-dimensional chains, two-dimensional zigzag structures, and three-dimensional helical structures of triangular, quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, and heptagonal symmetries are shown to occur. System evolution is shown to progress from one-dimensional chain structures, through a zigzag transition to a two-dimensional, spindle like structures, and then to various three-dimensional, helical structures exhibiting various symmetries. Stable configurations are shown to be strongly dependent upon system confinement. The critical conditions for structural transitions as well as the basic symmetry exhibited by the one-, two-, and three-dimensional structures that subsequently develop will be shown to be in good agreement with molecular dynamics simulations.

Preparing for the crewed Mars journey: microbiota dynamics in the confined Mars500 habitat during simulated Mars flight and landing.

PubMed

Schwendner, Petra; Mahnert, Alexander; Koskinen, Kaisa; Moissl-Eichinger, Christine; Barczyk, Simon; Wirth, Reinhard; Berg, Gabriele; Rettberg, Petra

2017-10-04

The Mars500 project was conceived as the first full duration simulation of a crewed return flight to Mars. For 520 days, six crew members lived confined in a specifically designed spacecraft mock-up. The herein described "MIcrobial ecology of Confined Habitats and humAn health" (MICHA) experiment was implemented to acquire comprehensive microbiota data from this unique, confined manned habitat, to retrieve important information on the occurring microbiota dynamics, the microbial load and diversity in the air and on various surfaces. In total, 360 samples from 20 (9 air, 11 surface) locations were taken at 18 time-points and processed by extensive cultivation, PhyloChip and next generation sequencing (NGS) of 16S rRNA gene amplicons. Cultivation assays revealed a Staphylococcus and Bacillus-dominated microbial community on various surfaces, with an average microbial load that did not exceed the allowed limits for ISS in-flight requirements indicating adequate maintenance of the facility. Areas with high human activity were identified as hotspots for microbial accumulation. Despite substantial fluctuation with respect to microbial diversity and abundance throughout the experiment, the location within the facility and the confinement duration were identified as factors significantly shaping the microbial diversity and composition, with the crew representing the main source for microbial dispersal. Opportunistic pathogens, stress-tolerant or potentially mobile element-bearing microorganisms were predicted to be prevalent throughout the confinement, while the overall microbial diversity dropped significantly over time. Our findings clearly indicate that under confined conditions, the community structure remains a highly dynamic system which adapts to the prevailing habitat and micro-conditions. Since a sterile environment is not achievable, these dynamics need to be monitored to avoid spreading of highly resistant or potentially pathogenic microorganisms and a potentially harmful decrease of microbial diversity. If necessary, countermeasures are required, to maintain a healthy, diverse balance of beneficial, neutral and opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms. Our results serve as an important data collection for (i) future risk estimations of crewed space flight, (ii) an optimized design and planning of a spacecraft mission and (iii) for the selection of appropriate microbial monitoring approaches and potential countermeasures, to ensure a microbiologically safe space-flight environment.

Influence of confinement on polymer-electrolyte relaxational dynamics.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zanotti, J.-M.; Smith, L. J.; Price, D. L.

2004-01-01

Conception and industrial production of viable high specific energy/power batteries is a central issue for the development of non-polluting vehicles. In terms of stored energy and safety, solid-state devices using polymer electrolytes are highly desirable. One of the most studied systems is PEO (polyethylene oxide) complexed by Li salts. Polymer segmental motions and ionic conductivity are closely related. Bulk PEO is actually a biphasic system where an amorphous and a crystalline state (Tm 335 K) coexist. To improve ionic conduction in those systems requires a significant increase of the amorphous phase fraction where lithium conduction is known to mainly takemore » place. Confinement strongly affects properties of condensed matter and in particular the collective phenomena inducing crystallization. Confinement of the polymer matrix is therefore a possible alternative route to the unpractical use of high temperature. Results of a quasi-elastic incoherent neutron scattering study of the influence of confinement on polyethylene oxide (PEO) and (PEO)8Li+[(CF3SO2)2N]- (or (POE)8LiTFSI) dynamics are presented. The nano-confining media is Vycor, a silica based hydrophilic porous glass (characteristic size of the 3D pore network 50 {angstrom}). As expected, the presence of Li salt slows down the bulk polymer dynamics. The confinement also affects dramatically the apparent mean-square displacement of the polymer. Local relaxational PEO dynamics is described KWW model. We also present an alternate model and show how the detailed polymer dynamics (correlation times and local geometry of the motions) can be described without the use of such stretched exponentials so as to access a rheology-related meaningful physical quantity: the monomeric friction coefficient.« less

Assessing contextual factors that influence acceptance of pedestrian alerts by a night vision system.

PubMed

Källhammer, Jan-Erik; Smith, Kip

2012-08-01

We investigated five contextual variables that we hypothesized would influence driver acceptance of alerts to pedestrians issued by a night vision active safety system to inform the specification of the system's alerting strategies. Driver acceptance of automotive active safety systems is a key factor to promote their use and implies a need to assess factors influencing driver acceptance. In a field operational test, 10 drivers drove instrumented vehicles equipped with a preproduction night vision system with pedestrian detection software. In a follow-up experiment, the 10 drivers and 25 additional volunteers without experience with the system watched 57 clips with pedestrian encounters gathered during the field operational test. They rated the acceptance of an alert to each pedestrian encounter. Levels of rating concordance were significant between drivers who experienced the encounters and participants who did not. Two contextual variables, pedestrian location and motion, were found to influence ratings. Alerts were more accepted when pedestrians were close to or moving toward the vehicle's path. The study demonstrates the utility of using subjective driver acceptance ratings to inform the design of active safety systems and to leverage expensive field operational test data within the confines of the laboratory. The design of alerting strategies for active safety systems needs to heed the driver's contextual sensitivity to issued alerts.

Anomalous dynamics of aqueous solutions of di-propylene glycol methylether confined in MCM-41 by quasielastic neutron scattering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swenson, Jan; Elamin, Khalid; Chen, Guo; Lohstroh, Wiebke; Sakai, Victoria Garcia

2014-12-01

The molecular dynamics of solutions of di-propylene glycol methylether (2PGME) and H2O (or D2O) confined in 28 Å pores of MCM-41 have been studied by quasielastic neutron scattering and differential scanning calorimetry over the concentration range 0-90 wt.% water. This system is of particular interest due to its pronounced non-monotonic concentration dependent dynamics of 2PGME in the corresponding bulk system, showing the important role of hydrogen bonding for the dynamics. In this study we have elucidated how this non-monotonic concentration dependence is affected by the confined geometry. The results show that this behaviour is maintained in the confinement, but the slowest diffusive dynamics of 2PGME is now observed at a considerably higher water concentration; at 75 wt.% water in MCM-41 compared to 30 wt.% water in the corresponding bulk system. This difference can be explained by an improper mixing of the two confined liquids. The results suggest that water up to a concentration of about 20 wt.% is used to hydrate the hydrophilic hydroxyl surface groups of the silica pores, and that it is only at higher water contents the water becomes partly mixed with 2PGME. Hence, due to this partial micro-phase separation of the two liquids larger, and thereby slower relaxing, structural entities of hydrogen bonded water and 2PGME molecules can only be formed at higher water contents than in the bulk system. However, the Q-dependence is unchanged with confinement, showing that the nature of the molecular motions is preserved. Thus, there is no indication of localization of the dynamics at length scales of less than 20 Å. The dynamics of both water and 2PGME is strongly dominated by translational diffusion at a temperature of 280 K.

Anomalous dynamics of aqueous solutions of di-propylene glycol methylether confined in MCM-41 by quasielastic neutron scattering

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Swenson, Jan, E-mail: jan.swenson@chalmers.se; Elamin, Khalid; Chen, Guo

2014-12-07

The molecular dynamics of solutions of di-propylene glycol methylether (2PGME) and H{sub 2}O (or D{sub 2}O) confined in 28 Å pores of MCM-41 have been studied by quasielastic neutron scattering and differential scanning calorimetry over the concentration range 0–90 wt.% water. This system is of particular interest due to its pronounced non-monotonic concentration dependent dynamics of 2PGME in the corresponding bulk system, showing the important role of hydrogen bonding for the dynamics. In this study we have elucidated how this non-monotonic concentration dependence is affected by the confined geometry. The results show that this behaviour is maintained in the confinement,more » but the slowest diffusive dynamics of 2PGME is now observed at a considerably higher water concentration; at 75 wt.% water in MCM-41 compared to 30 wt.% water in the corresponding bulk system. This difference can be explained by an improper mixing of the two confined liquids. The results suggest that water up to a concentration of about 20 wt.% is used to hydrate the hydrophilic hydroxyl surface groups of the silica pores, and that it is only at higher water contents the water becomes partly mixed with 2PGME. Hence, due to this partial micro-phase separation of the two liquids larger, and thereby slower relaxing, structural entities of hydrogen bonded water and 2PGME molecules can only be formed at higher water contents than in the bulk system. However, the Q-dependence is unchanged with confinement, showing that the nature of the molecular motions is preserved. Thus, there is no indication of localization of the dynamics at length scales of less than 20 Å. The dynamics of both water and 2PGME is strongly dominated by translational diffusion at a temperature of 280 K.« less

Dynamic neutral beam current and voltage control to improve beam efficacy in tokamaks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pace, D. C.; Austin, M. E.; Bardoczi, L.; Collins, C. S.; Crowley, B.; Davis, E.; Du, X.; Ferron, J.; Grierson, B. A.; Heidbrink, W. W.; Holcomb, C. T.; McKee, G. R.; Pawley, C.; Petty, C. C.; Podestà, M.; Rauch, J.; Scoville, J. T.; Spong, D. A.; Thome, K. E.; Van Zeeland, M. A.; Varela, J.; Victor, B.

2018-05-01

An engineering upgrade to the neutral beam system at the DIII-D tokamak [J. L. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] enables time-dependent programming of the beam voltage and current. Initial application of this capability involves pre-programmed beam voltage and current injected into plasmas that are known to be susceptible to instabilities that are driven by energetic ( E ≥ 40 keV) beam ions. These instabilities, here all Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs), increase the transport of the beam ions beyond a classical expectation based on particle drifts and collisions. Injecting neutral beam power, P beam ≥ 2 MW, at reduced voltage with increased current reduces the drive for Alfvénic instabilities and results in improved ion confinement. In lower-confinement plasmas, this technique is applied to eliminate the presence of AEs across the mid-radius of the plasmas. Simulations of those plasmas indicate that the mode drive is decreased and the radial extent of the remaining modes is reduced compared to a higher beam voltage case. In higher-confinement plasmas, this technique reduces AE activity in the far edge and results in an interesting scenario of beam current drive improving as the beam voltage reduces from 80 kV to 65 kV.

Dynamic neutral beam current and voltage control to improve beam efficacy in tokamaks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Austin, Max E.; Bardoczi, Laszlo; Collins, Cami S.

Here, an engineering upgrade to the neutral beam system at the DIII-D tokamak enables time-dependent programming of the beam voltage and current. Initial application of this capability involves pre-programmed beam voltage and current injected into plasmas that are known to be susceptible to instabilities that are driven by energetic (E ≥ 40 keV) beam ions. These instabilities, here all Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs), increase the transport of the beam ions beyond a classical expectation based on particle drifts and collisions. Injecting neutral beam power, P beam ≥ 2MW, at reduced voltage with increased current reduces the drive for Alfvénic instabilities andmore » results in improved ion confinement. In lower-confinement plasmas, this technique is applied to eliminate the presence of AEs across the mid-radius of the plasmas. Simulations of those plasmas indicate that the mode drive is decreased and the radial extent of the remaining modes is reduced compared to a higher beam voltage case. In higher-confinement plasmas, this technique reduces AE activity in the far edge and results in an interesting scenario of beam current drive improving as the beam voltage reduces from 80 kV to 65 kV.« less

Expanding Non-solenoidal Startup with Local Helicity Injection to Increased Toroidal Field and Helicity Injection Rate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perry, J. M.; Barr, J. L.; Bodner, G. M.; Bongard, M. W.; Burke, M. G.; Fonck, R. J.; Hinson, E. T.; Lewicki, B. T.; Reusch, J. A.; Schlossberg, D. J.; Winz, G. R.

2015-11-01

Local helicity injection (LHI) is a non-solenoidal startup technique under development on the Pegasus ST. Plasma currents up to 0.18 MA have been initiated by LHI in conjunction with poloidal field induction. A 0-D power balance model has been developed to predict plasma current evolution by balancing helicity input against resistive dissipation. The model is being validated against a set of experimental measurements and magnetic reconstructions with radically varied plasma geometric evolutions. Outstanding physics issues with LHI startup are the scalings of confinement and MHD activity with helicity injection rate and toroidal field strength, as well as injector behavior at high field. Preliminary results from the newly-installed Thomson scattering system suggest core temperatures of a few hundred eV during LHI startup. Measurements are being expanded to multiple spatial points for ongoing confinement studies. A set of larger-area injectors is being installed in the lower divertor region, where increased toroidal field will provide a helicity injection rate over 3 times that of outboard injectors. In this regime helicity injection will be the dominant current drive. Experiments with divertor injectors will permit experimental differentiation of several possible confinement models, and demonstrate the feasibility of LHI startup at high field. Work supported by US DOE grant DE-FG02-96ER54375.

Dynamic neutral beam current and voltage control to improve beam efficacy in tokamaks

DOE PAGES

Austin, Max E.; Bardoczi, Laszlo; Collins, Cami S.; ...

2018-04-20

Here, an engineering upgrade to the neutral beam system at the DIII-D tokamak enables time-dependent programming of the beam voltage and current. Initial application of this capability involves pre-programmed beam voltage and current injected into plasmas that are known to be susceptible to instabilities that are driven by energetic (E ≥ 40 keV) beam ions. These instabilities, here all Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs), increase the transport of the beam ions beyond a classical expectation based on particle drifts and collisions. Injecting neutral beam power, P beam ≥ 2MW, at reduced voltage with increased current reduces the drive for Alfvénic instabilities andmore » results in improved ion confinement. In lower-confinement plasmas, this technique is applied to eliminate the presence of AEs across the mid-radius of the plasmas. Simulations of those plasmas indicate that the mode drive is decreased and the radial extent of the remaining modes is reduced compared to a higher beam voltage case. In higher-confinement plasmas, this technique reduces AE activity in the far edge and results in an interesting scenario of beam current drive improving as the beam voltage reduces from 80 kV to 65 kV.« less

Clustering of vertically constrained passive particles in homogeneous isotropic turbulence.

PubMed

De Pietro, Massimo; van Hinsberg, Michel A T; Biferale, Luca; Clercx, Herman J H; Perlekar, Prasad; Toschi, Federico

2015-05-01

We analyze the dynamics of small particles vertically confined, by means of a linear restoring force, to move within a horizontal fluid slab in a three-dimensional (3D) homogeneous isotropic turbulent velocity field. The model that we introduce and study is possibly the simplest description for the dynamics of small aquatic organisms that, due to swimming, active regulation of their buoyancy, or any other mechanism, maintain themselves in a shallow horizontal layer below the free surface of oceans or lakes. By varying the strength of the restoring force, we are able to control the thickness of the fluid slab in which the particles can move. This allows us to analyze the statistical features of the system over a wide range of conditions going from a fully 3D incompressible flow (corresponding to the case of no confinement) to the extremely confined case corresponding to a two-dimensional slice. The background 3D turbulent velocity field is evolved by means of fully resolved direct numerical simulations. Whenever some level of vertical confinement is present, the particle trajectories deviate from that of fluid tracers and the particles experience an effectively compressible velocity field. Here, we have quantified the compressibility, the preferential concentration of the particles, and the correlation dimension by changing the strength of the restoring force. The main result is that there exists a particular value of the force constant, corresponding to a mean slab depth approximately equal to a few times the Kolmogorov length scale η, that maximizes the clustering of the particles.

Confinement of β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors in the plasma membrane of cardiomyocyte-like H9c2 cells is mediated by selective interactions with PDZ domain and A-kinase anchoring proteins but not caveolae

PubMed Central

Valentine, Cathleen D.; Haggie, Peter M.

2011-01-01

The sympathetic nervous system regulates cardiac output by activating adrenergic receptors (ARs) in cardiac myocytes. The predominant cardiac ARs, β1- and β2AR, are structurally similar but mediate distinct signaling responses. Scaffold protein–mediated compartmentalization of ARs into discrete, multiprotein complexes has been proposed to dictate differential signaling responses. To test the hypothesis that βARs integrate into complexes in live cells, we measured receptor diffusion and interactions by single-particle tracking. Unstimulated β1- and β2AR were highly confined in the membrane of H9c2 cardiomyocyte-like cells, indicating that receptors are tethered and presumably integrated into protein complexes. Selective disruption of interactions with postsynaptic density protein 95/disks large/zonula occludens-1 (PDZ)–domain proteins and A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs) increased receptor diffusion, indicating that these scaffold proteins participate in receptor confinement. In contrast, modulation of interactions between the putative scaffold caveolae and β2AR did not alter receptor dynamics, suggesting that these membrane domains are not involved in β2AR confinement. For both β1- and β2AR, the receptor carboxy-terminus was uniquely responsible for scaffold interactions. Our data formally demonstrate that distinct and stable protein complexes containing β1- or β2AR are formed in the plasma membrane of cardiomyocyte-like cells and that selective PDZ and AKAP interactions are responsible for the integration of receptors into complexes. PMID:21680711

Confinement of β(1)- and β(2)-adrenergic receptors in the plasma membrane of cardiomyocyte-like H9c2 cells is mediated by selective interactions with PDZ domain and A-kinase anchoring proteins but not caveolae.

PubMed

Valentine, Cathleen D; Haggie, Peter M

2011-08-15

The sympathetic nervous system regulates cardiac output by activating adrenergic receptors (ARs) in cardiac myocytes. The predominant cardiac ARs, β(1)- and β(2)AR, are structurally similar but mediate distinct signaling responses. Scaffold protein-mediated compartmentalization of ARs into discrete, multiprotein complexes has been proposed to dictate differential signaling responses. To test the hypothesis that βARs integrate into complexes in live cells, we measured receptor diffusion and interactions by single-particle tracking. Unstimulated β(1)- and β(2)AR were highly confined in the membrane of H9c2 cardiomyocyte-like cells, indicating that receptors are tethered and presumably integrated into protein complexes. Selective disruption of interactions with postsynaptic density protein 95/disks large/zonula occludens-1 (PDZ)-domain proteins and A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs) increased receptor diffusion, indicating that these scaffold proteins participate in receptor confinement. In contrast, modulation of interactions between the putative scaffold caveolae and β(2)AR did not alter receptor dynamics, suggesting that these membrane domains are not involved in β(2)AR confinement. For both β(1)- and β(2)AR, the receptor carboxy-terminus was uniquely responsible for scaffold interactions. Our data formally demonstrate that distinct and stable protein complexes containing β(1)- or β(2)AR are formed in the plasma membrane of cardiomyocyte-like cells and that selective PDZ and AKAP interactions are responsible for the integration of receptors into complexes.

Neutron imaging with bubble chambers for inertial confinement fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghilea, Marian C.

One of the main methods to obtain energy from controlled thermonuclear fusion is inertial confinement fusion (ICF), a process where nuclear fusion reactions are initiated by heating and compressing a fuel target, typically in the form of a pellet that contains deuterium and tritium, relying on the inertia of the fuel mass to provide confinement. In inertial confinement fusion experiments, it is important to distinguish failure mechanisms of the imploding capsule and unambiguously diagnose compression and hot spot formation in the fuel. Neutron imaging provides such a technique and bubble chambers are capable of generating higher resolution images than other types of neutron detectors. This thesis explores the use of a liquid bubble chamber to record high yield 14.1 MeV neutrons resulting from deuterium-tritium fusion reactions on ICF experiments. A design tool to deconvolve and reconstruct penumbral and pinhole neutron images was created, using an original ray tracing concept to simulate the neutron images. The design tool proved that misalignment and aperture fabrication errors can significantly decrease the resolution of the reconstructed neutron image. A theoretical model to describe the mechanism of bubble formation was developed. A bubble chamber for neutron imaging with Freon 115 as active medium was designed and implemented for the OMEGA laser system. High neutron yields resulting from deuterium-tritium capsule implosions were recorded. The bubble density was too low for neutron imaging on OMEGA but agreed with the model of bubble formation. The research done in here shows that bubble detectors are a promising technology for the higher neutron yields expected at National Ignition Facility (NIF).

Ground-state energy of an exciton-(LO) phonon system in a parabolic quantum well

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gerlach, B.; Wüsthoff, J.; Smondyrev, M. A.

1999-12-01

This paper presents a variational study of the ground-state energy of an exciton-(LO) phonon system, which is spatially confined to a quantum well. The exciton-phonon interaction is of Fröhlich type, the confinement potentials are assumed to be parabolic functions of the coordinates. Making use of functional integral techniques, the phonon part of the problem can be eliminated exactly, leading us to an effective two-particle system, which has the same spectral properties as the original one. Subsequently, Jensen's inequality is applied to obtain an upper bound on the ground-state energy. The main intention of this paper is to analyze the influence of the quantum-well-induced localization of the exciton on its ground-state energy (or its binding energy, respectively). To do so, we neglect any mismatch of the masses or the dielectric constants, but admit an arbitrary strength of the confinement potentials. Our approach allows for a smooth interpolation of the ultimate limits of vanishing and infinite confinement, corresponding to the cases of a free three-dimensional and a free two-dimensional exciton-phonon system. The interpolation formula for the ground-state energy bound corresponds to similar formulas for the free polaron or the free exciton-phonon system. These bounds in turn are known to compare favorably with all previous ones, which we are aware of.

Taboo search by successive confinement: Surveying a potential energy surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chekmarev, Sergei F.

2001-09-01

A taboo search for minima on a potential energy surface (PES) is performed by means of confinement molecular dynamics: the molecular dynamics trajectory of the system is successively confined to various basins on the PES that have not been sampled yet. The approach is illustrated for a 13-atom Lennard-Jones cluster. It is shown that the taboo search radically accelerates the process of surveying the PES, with the probability of finding a new minimum defined by a propagating Fermi-like distribution.

Environmental effects of dredging. Documentation of the settle module for ADDAMS: Design of confined disposal facilities for solids retention and initial storage. Technical notes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hayes, D.F.; Schroeder, P.R.

This technical note documents the SETTLE computer program which facilitates the design of a confined disposal facility (CDF) to retain solids, provide initial storage, and meet effluent discharge limitations for suspended solids during a dredged matenal disposal operation. Detailed information can be found in Engineer Manual 1110-2-5027, Confined Dredged Material Disposal. SETTLE is a part of the Automated Dredging and Disposal Alternatives Management System (ADDAMS).

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wang, Dong; Liu, Rui; Wang, Yuming

We studied the background field for 60 two-ribbon flares of M-and-above classes during 2011–2015. These flares are categorized into two groups, i.e., eruptive and confined flares, based on whether a flare is associated with a coronal mass ejection or not. The background field of source active regions is approximated by a potential field extrapolated from the B {sub z} component of vector magnetograms provided by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager. We calculated the decay index n of the background field above the flaring polarity inversion line, and defined a critical height h {sub crit} corresponding to the theoretical threshold (more » n {sub crit} = 1.5) of the torus instability. We found that h {sub crit} is approximately half of the distance between the centroids of opposite polarities in active regions and that the distribution of h {sub crit} is bimodal: it is significantly higher for confined flares than for eruptive ones. The decay index increases monotonously with increasing height for 86% (84%) of the eruptive (confined) flares but displays a saddle-like profile for the rest, 14% (16%), which are found exclusively in active regions of multipolar field configuration. Moreover, n at the saddle bottom is significantly smaller in confined flares than that in eruptive ones. These results highlight the critical role of background field in regulating the eruptive behavior of two-ribbon flares.« less

Thermal activation in Co/Sb nanoparticle-multilayer thin films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madden, Michael R.

Multilayer "Co" /"Sb" thin films created via electron-beam physical vapor deposition are known to exhibit thermally activated dynamics. Scanning tunneling microscopy has indicated that the "Co" forms nanoparticles within an "Sb" matrix during deposition and subsequently forms nanowires by way of NP migration within the interstices of the confining layers. The electrical resistance of these systems decays during this irreversible aging process in a manner well-modeled by an Arrhenius law. Presently, this phenomenon is shown to possess some degree of tunability with respect to "Co" layer thickness tCo as well as deposition temperature Tdep , whereby characteristic timescales increase with either parameter. Furthermore, fluctuation timescales and activation energies seem to decrease and increase respectively with increasing t Co. An easily calibrated, one-time-use, time-temperature switch based on such systems lies within the realm of plausibility. The results presented here can be considered to be part of an ongoing development of the concept.

Energies and densities of electrons confined in elliptical and ellipsoidal quantum dots

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Halder, Avik; Kresin, Vitaly V.

Here, we consider a droplet of electrons confined within an external harmonic potential well of elliptical or ellipsoidal shape, a geometry commonly encountered in work with semiconductor quantum dots and other nanoscale or mesoscale structures. For droplet sizes exceeding the effective Bohr radius, the dominant contribution to average system parameters in the Thomas– Fermi approximation comes from the potential energy terms, which allows us to derive expressions describing the electron droplet’s shape and dimensions, its density, total and capacitive energy, and chemical potential. Our analytical results are in very good agreement with experimental data and numerical calculations, and make itmore » possible to follow the dependence of the properties of the system on its parameters (the total number of electrons, the axial ratios and curvatures of the confinement potential, and the dielectric constant of the material). One interesting feature is that the eccentricity of the electron droplet is not the same as that of its confining potential well.« less

Energies and densities of electrons confined in elliptical and ellipsoidal quantum dots

DOE PAGES

Halder, Avik; Kresin, Vitaly V.

2016-08-09

Here, we consider a droplet of electrons confined within an external harmonic potential well of elliptical or ellipsoidal shape, a geometry commonly encountered in work with semiconductor quantum dots and other nanoscale or mesoscale structures. For droplet sizes exceeding the effective Bohr radius, the dominant contribution to average system parameters in the Thomas– Fermi approximation comes from the potential energy terms, which allows us to derive expressions describing the electron droplet’s shape and dimensions, its density, total and capacitive energy, and chemical potential. Our analytical results are in very good agreement with experimental data and numerical calculations, and make itmore » possible to follow the dependence of the properties of the system on its parameters (the total number of electrons, the axial ratios and curvatures of the confinement potential, and the dielectric constant of the material). One interesting feature is that the eccentricity of the electron droplet is not the same as that of its confining potential well.« less

Interfacial electrofluidics in confined systems

PubMed Central

Tang, Biao; Groenewold, Jan; Zhou, Min; Hayes, Robert A.; Zhou, Guofu (G.F.)

2016-01-01

Electrofluidics is a versatile principle that can be used for high speed actuation of liquid interfaces. In most of the applications, the fundamental mechanism of electro-capillary instability plays a crucial role, yet it’s potential richness in confined fluidic layers has not been well addressed. Electrofluidic displays which are comprised of thin pixelated colored films in a range of architectures are excellent systems for studying such phenomena. In this study we show theoretically and experimentally that confinement leads to the generation of a cascade of voltage dependent modes as a result of the electro-capillary instability. In the course of reconciling theory with our experimental data we have observed a number of previously unreported phenomena such as a significant induction time (several milliseconds) prior to film rupture as well as a rupture location not corresponding to the minimum electric field strength in the case of the standard convex water/oil interface used in working devices. These findings are broadly applicable to a wide range of switchable electrofluidic applications and devices having confined liquid films. PMID:27221211

Graphene quantum blisters: A tunable system to confine charge carriers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdullah, H. M.; Van der Donck, M.; Bahlouli, H.; Peeters, F. M.; Van Duppen, B.

2018-05-01

Due to Klein tunneling, electrostatic confinement of electrons in graphene is not possible. This hinders the use of graphene for quantum dot applications. Only through quasi-bound states with finite lifetime has one achieved to confine charge carriers. Here, we propose that bilayer graphene with a local region of decoupled graphene layers is able to generate bound states under the application of an electrostatic gate. The discrete energy levels in such a quantum blister correspond to localized electron and hole states in the top and bottom layers. We find that this layer localization and the energy spectrum itself are tunable by a global electrostatic gate and that the latter also coincides with the electronic modes in a graphene disk. Curiously, states with energy close to the continuum exist primarily in the classically forbidden region outside the domain defining the blister. The results are robust against variations in size and shape of the blister which shows that it is a versatile system to achieve tunable electrostatic confinement in graphene.

Dynamics of Water in Gemini Surfactant-Based Lyotropic Liquid Crystals

DOE PAGES

McDaniel, Jesse G.; Mantha, Sriteja; Yethiraj, Arun

2016-09-26

The dynamics of water confined to nanometer-sized domains is important in a variety of applications ranging from proton exchange membranes to crowding effects in biophysics. In this work we study the dynamics of water in gemini surfactant-based lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) using molecular dynamics simulations. These systems have well characterized morphologies, e.g., hexagonal, gyroid, and lamellar, and the surfaces of the confining regions can be controlled by modifying the headgroup of the surfactants. This allows one to study the effect of topology, functionalization, and interfacial curvature on the dynamics of confined water. Through analysis of the translational diffusion and rotationalmore » relaxation we conclude that the hydration level and resulting confinement lengthscale is the predominate determiner of the rates of water dynamics, and other effects, namely surface functionality and curvature, are largely secondary. In conclusion, this novel analysis of the water dynamics in these LLC systems provides an important comparison for previous studies of water dynamics in lipid bilayers and reverse micelles.« less

Strong coupling between 0D and 2D modes in optical open microcavities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trichet, A. A. P.; Dolan, P. R.; Smith, J. M.

2018-02-01

We present a study of the coupling between confined modes and continuum states in an open microcavity system. The confined states are the optical modes of a plano-concave Fabry-Pérot cavity while the continuum states are the propagating modes in a surrounding planar cavity. The length tunability of the open cavity system allows to study the evolution of localised modes as they are progressively deconfined and coupled to the propagating modes. We observe an anti-crossing between the confined and propagating modes proving that mode-mixing takes place in between these two families of modes, and identify 0D-2D mixed modes which exhibit reduced loss compared with their highly localised counterparts. For practical design, we investigate the details of the microcavity shape that can be used to engineer the degree of mode-mixing. This study discusses for the first time experimentally and theoretically how light confinement arises in planar micromirrors and is of interest for the realisation of chip-based extended microphotonics using open cavities.

Electrostatically confined quantum rings in bilayer graphene.

PubMed

Zarenia, M; Pereira, J M; Peeters, F M; Farias, G A

2009-12-01

We propose a new system where electron and hole states are electrostatically confined into a quantum ring in bilayer graphene. These structures can be created by tuning the gap of the graphene bilayer using nanostructured gates or by position-dependent doping. The energy levels have a magnetic field (B(0)) dependence that is strikingly distinct from that of usual semiconductor quantum rings. In particular, the eigenvalues are not invariant under a B(0) --> -B(0) transformation and, for a fixed total angular momentum index m, their field dependence is not parabolic, but displays two minima separated by a saddle point. The spectra also display several anticrossings, which arise due to the overlap of gate-confined and magnetically confined states.

Determination of shift in energy of band edges and band gap of ZnSe spherical quantum dot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siboh, Dutem; Kalita, Pradip Kumar; Sarma, Jayanta Kumar; Nath, Nayan Mani

2018-04-01

We have determined the quantum confinement induced shifts in energy of band edges and band gap with respect to size of ZnSe spherical quantum dot employing an effective confinement potential model developed in our earlier communication "arXiv:1705.10343". We have also performed phenomenological analysis of our theoretical results in comparison with available experimental data and observe a very good agreement in this regard. Phenomenological success achieved in this regard confirms validity of the confining potential model as well as signifies the capability and applicability of the ansatz for the effective confining potential to have reasonable information in the study of real nano-structured spherical systems.

Use of Activated Carbon to Control Volatilization of Organic Contaminants from the Indiana Harbor Confined Disposal Facility

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

PAHs (17 priority pollutant PAHs) were extracted from sediment by USEPA SW-846 Method 3545 and analyzed by gas chromatography /mass spectrometry...slurry at concentrations of 0.025, 0.05, and 0.10 g/L. The carbon- sediment mixture was equilibrated by tumbling in zero headspace jars for 15 minutes...cooled injection gas chromatography injection system at -40 °C. Once the analytes were transferred, the injection port was heated to 240 °C and

Single Pt Atoms Confined into a Metal-Organic Framework for Efficient Photocatalysis.

PubMed

Fang, Xinzuo; Shang, Qichao; Wang, Yu; Jiao, Long; Yao, Tao; Li, Yafei; Zhang, Qun; Luo, Yi; Jiang, Hai-Long

2018-02-01

It is highly desirable yet remains challenging to improve the dispersion and usage of noble metal cocatalysts, beneficial to charge transfer in photocatalysis. Herein, for the first time, single Pt atoms are successfully confined into a metal-organic framework (MOF), in which electrons transfer from the MOF photosensitizer to the Pt acceptor for hydrogen production by water splitting under visible-light irradiation. Remarkably, the single Pt atoms exhibit a superb activity, giving a turnover frequency of 35 h -1 , ≈30 times that of Pt nanoparticles stabilized by the same MOF. Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy further unveils that the single Pt atoms confined into the MOF provide highly efficient electron transfer channels and density functional theory calculations indicate that the introduction of single Pt atoms into the MOF improves the hydrogen binding energy, thus greatly boosting the photocatalytic H 2 production activity. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Confinement degradation by Alfvén-eigenmode induced fast-ion transport in steady-state scenario discharges

DOE PAGES

Heidbrink, William W.; Ferron, John R.; Holcomb, Christopher T.; ...

2014-08-21

Here, analysis of neutron and fast-ion D α data from the DIII-D tokamak shows that Alfvén eigenmode activity degrades fast-ion confinement in many high β N, high q min, steady-state scenario discharges. (β N is the normalized plasma pressure and q min is the minimum value of the plasma safety factor.) Fast-ion diagnostics that are sensitive to the co-passing population exhibit the largest reduction relative to classical predictions. The increased fast-ion transport in discharges with strong AE activity accounts for the previously observed reduction in global confinement with increasing q min; however, not all high q min discharges show appreciablemore » degradation. Two relatively simple empirical quantities provide convenient monitors of these effects: (1) an 'AE amplitude' signal based on interferometer measurements and (2) the ratio of the neutron rate to a zero-dimensional classical prediction.« less

In-situ space-confined catalysis for fabricating 3D mesoporous graphene and their capacitive properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Jian; Zhu, Shan; Feng, Chao; Zhao, Naiqin; Shi, Chunsheng; Liu, En-Zuo; He, Fang; Ma, Liying; Li, Jiajun; He, Chunnian

2018-03-01

A one-step strategy for preparing 3D mesoporous graphene networks (3DMGNs) based on the concepts of space-confined effect, catalytic effect and chemical activation is reported in this work. The soluble salts act as the in-situ templates to confine the thickness of 3D graphene layers. Meanwhile, the Fe-catalysts greatly improve the graphitization of the graphene matrix, which are easy to be removed by acid treatment. In addition, the KOH activation introduces abundant mesopores into the graphene networks, which facilities the electrolyte permeation. Thus, when using as electrode materials for supercapacitor, the as-obtained 3DMGNs with high electron conductivity, large surface area and hierarchical porous structure exhibit excellent capacitive properties, including high specific capacitance (215 F g-1 at 0.5 A g-1) and superior rate performance (168 F g-1 at 50 A g-1).

Effects of microchannel confinement on acoustic vaporisation of ultrasound phase change contrast agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Shengtao; Zhang, Ge; Hau Leow, Chee; Tang, Meng-Xing

2017-09-01

The sub-micron phase change contrast agent (PCCA) composed of a perfluorocarbon liquid core can be activated into gaseous state and form stable echogenic microbubbles for contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging. It has shown great promise in imaging microvasculature, tumour microenvironment, and cancer cells. Although PCCAs have been extensively studied for different diagnostic and therapeutic applications, the effect of biologically geometrical confinement on the acoustic vaporisation of PCCAs is still not clear. We have investigated the difference in PCCA-produced ultrasound contrast enhancement after acoustic activation with and without a microvessel confinement on a microchannel phantom. The experimental results indicated more than one-order of magnitude less acoustic vaporisation in a microchannel than that in a free environment taking into account the attenuation effect of the vessel on the microbubble scattering. This may provide an improved understanding in the applications of PCCAs in vivo.

Manipulation of competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic domains in exchange-biased nanostructures

DOE PAGES

Fraile Rodríguez, Arantxa; Basaran, Ali C.; Morales, Rafael; ...

2015-11-20

In this work, using photoemission electron microscopy combined with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism we show that a progressive spatial confinement of a ferromagnet (FM), either through thickness variation or laterally via patterning, actively controls the domains of uncompensated spins in the antiferromagnet (AF) in exchange-biased systems. Direct observations of the spin structure in both sides of the FM/AF interface in a model system, Ni/FeF 2, show that the spin structure is determined by the balance between the competing FM and AF magnetic energies. Coexistence of exchange bias domains, with opposite directions, can be established in Ni/FeF 2 bilayers for Nimore » thicknesses below 10 nm. Patterning the Ni/FeF 2 heterostructures with antidots destabilizes the FM state, enhancing the formation of opposite exchange bias domains below a critical antidot separation of the order of a few FeF 2 crystal domains. The results suggest that dimensional confinement of the FM may be used to manipulate the AF spin structure in spintronic devices and ultrahigh-density information storage media. Lastly, the underlying mechanism of the uncompensated AF domain formation in Ni/FeF 2 may be generic to other magnetic systems with complex noncollinear FM/AF spin structures.« less

State diagram of a three-sphere microswimmer in a channel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daddi-Moussa-Ider, Abdallah; Lisicki, Maciej; Mathijssen, Arnold J. T. M.; Hoell, Christian; Goh, Segun; Bławzdziewicz, Jerzy; Menzel, Andreas M.; Löwen, Hartmut

2018-06-01

Geometric confinements are frequently encountered in soft matter systems and in particular significantly alter the dynamics of swimming microorganisms in viscous media. Surface-related effects on the motility of microswimmers can lead to important consequences in a large number of biological systems, such as biofilm formation, bacterial adhesion and microbial activity. On the basis of low-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics, we explore the state diagram of a three-sphere microswimmer under channel confinement in a slit geometry and fully characterize the swimming behavior and trajectories for neutral swimmers, puller- and pusher-type swimmers. While pushers always end up trapped at the channel walls, neutral swimmers and pullers may further perform a gliding motion and maintain a stable navigation along the channel. We find that the resulting dynamical system exhibits a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation in which swimming in the mid-plane becomes unstable beyond a transition channel height while two new stable limit cycles or fixed points that are symmetrically disposed with respect to the channel mid-height emerge. Additionally, we show that an accurate description of the averaged swimming velocity and rotation rate in a channel can be captured analytically using the method of hydrodynamic images, provided that the swimmer size is much smaller than the channel height.

Thermal characterization of static and dynamical properties of the confined molecular systems interacting through dispersion force.

PubMed

Ramos, Sergio Luis L M; Ogino, Michihiko; Oguni, Masaharu

2015-01-28

We investigated the thermal properties of liquid methylcyclohexane and racemic sec-butylcyclohexane, as representatives of a molecular system with only dispersion-force intermolecular interactions, confined in the pores (thickness/diameter d = 12, 6, 1.1 nm) of silica gels by adiabatic calorimetry. The results imply a heterogeneous picture for molecular aggregate under confinement consisting of an interfacial region and an inner pore one. In the vicinity of a glass-transition temperature T(g,bulk) of bulk liquid, two distinguishable relaxation phenomena were observed for the confined systems and their origins were attributed to the devitrification, namely glass transition, processes of (1) a layer of interfacial molecules adjacent to the pore walls and (2) the molecules located in the middle of the pore. A third glass-transition phenomenon was observed at lower temperatures and ascribed to a secondary relaxation process. The glass transition of the interfacial-layer molecules was found to proceed at temperatures rather above T(g,bulk), whereas that of the molecules located in the inner pore region occurred at temperatures below T(g,bulk). We discuss the reason why the molecules located in different places in the pores reveal the respectively different dynamical properties.

Estrogenicity and Nutrient Concentration of Surface Waters Surrounding a Large Confinement Dairy Operation Using Best Management Practices for Land Application of Animal Wastes

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The impact of a confinement dairy operation (> 2,000 head) using best management practices for land application of animal wastes, on estrogenic activity (E-Screen), estrogens, and nutrients of associated surface waters and tile drain runoff were evaluated. Farm tile drain and creek samples were col...

Sleep-wake differences in heart rate variability during a 105-day simulated mission to Mars.

PubMed

Vigo, Daniel E; Ogrinz, Barbara; Wan, Li; Bersenev, Evgeny; Tuerlinckx, Francis; Van Den Bergh, Omer; Aubert, André E

2012-02-01

In prolonged spaceflights the effect of long-term confinement on the autonomic regulation of the heart is difficult to separate from the effect of prolonged exposure to microgravity or other space-related stressors. Our objective was to investigate whether the sleep-wake variations in the autonomic control of the heart are specifically altered by long-term confinement during the 105-d pilot study of the Earth-based Mars500 project. Before (pre), during (T1: 30, T2: 70, andT3: 100 d), and after (post) confinement, 24-h EKG records were obtained from the six crewmembers that participated in the mission. Sleep and wake periods were determined by fitting a square wave to the data. Autonomic activity was evaluated through time and frequency domain indexes of heart rate variability (HRV) analysis during wake and sleep periods. During confinement, wake HRV showed decreased mean heart rate and increased amplitude at all frequency levels, particularly in the very low (pre: 13.3 +/- 0.2; T1: 13.9 +/- 0.3; T2: 13.9 +/- 0.2; T3: 13.9 +/- 0.2; post: 13.2 +/- 0.2) and high (pre: 7.6 +/- 0.4; T1: 8.3 +/- 0.5; T2: 8.2 +/- 0.4; T3: 8.1 +/- 0.4; post: 7.6 +/- 0.3) frequency components (values expressed as mean +/- SE of wavelet power coefficients). Sleep HRV remained constant, while sleep-wake high frequency HRV differences diminished. The observed autonomic changes during confinement reflect an increase in parasympathetic activity during wake periods. Several factors could account for this observation, including reduced daylight exposure related to the confinement situation.

Improved confinement region without large magnetohydrodynamic activity in TPE-RX reversed-field pinch plasma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yambe, Kiyoyuki; Hirano, Yoichi; Sakakita, Hajime

2014-11-15

We found that spontaneous improved confinement was brought about depending on the operating region in the Toroidal Pinch Experiment-Reversed eXperiment (TPE-RX) reversed-field pinch plasma [Y. Yagi et al., Fusion Eng. Des. 45, 421 (1999)]. Gradual decay of the toroidal magnetic field at plasma surface B{sub tw} reversal makes it possible to realize a prolonged discharge, and the poloidal beta value and energy confinement time increase in the latter half of the discharge, where reversal and pinch parameters become shallow and low, respectively. In the latter half of the discharge, the plasma current and volume-averaged toroidal magnetic field 〈B{sub t}〉 increasemore » again, the electron density slowly decays, the electron temperature and soft X-ray radiation intensity increase, and the magnetic fluctuations are markedly reduced. In this period of improved confinement, the value of (〈B{sub t}〉-B{sub tw})/B{sub pw}, where B{sub pw} is the poloidal magnetic field at the plasma surface, stays almost constant, which indicates that the dynamo action occurs without large magnetohydrodynamic activities.« less

A landscape perspective on bat foraging ecology along rivers: does channel confinement and insect availability influence the response of bats to aquatic resources in riverine landscapes?

PubMed

Hagen, Elizabeth M; Sabo, John L

2011-07-01

River and riparian areas provide an important foraging habitat for insectivorous bats owing to high insect availability along waterways. However, structural characteristics of the riverine landscape may also influence the location of foraging bats. We used bat detectors to compare bat activity longitudinally along river reaches with contrasting channel confinement, ratio of valley floor width to active channel width, and riparian vegetation, and laterally with distance from the river along three different reach types. We measured rates of insect emergence from the river and aerial insect availability above the river and laterally up to 50-m into the riparian habitat in order to assess the relationship between food resources and insectivorous bat activity. Longitudinally, bat activity was concentrated along confined reaches in comparison to unconfined reaches but was not related to insect availability. Laterally, bats tracked exponential declines in aquatic insects with distance from the river. These data suggest that along the lateral dimension bats track food resources, but that along the longitudinal dimension channel shape and landscape structure determine bat distributions more than food resources.

Documentation of a computer program to simulate transient leakage from confining units using the modular finite-difference, ground-water flow model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Leake, S.A.; Leahy, P.P.; Navoy, A.S.

1994-01-01

Transient leakage into or out of a compressible fine-grained confining unit results from ground- water storage changes within the unit. The computer program described in this report provides a new method of simulating transient leakage using the U.S. Geological Survey modular finite- difference ground-water flow model (MODFLOW). The new program is referred to as the Transient- Leakage Package. The Transient-Leakage Package solves integrodifferential equations that describe flow across the upper and lower boundaries of confining units. For each confining unit, vertical hydraulic conductivity, thickness, and specific storage are specified in input arrays. These properties can vary from cell to cell and the confining unit need not be present at all locations in the grid; however, the confining units must be bounded above and below by model layers in which head is calculated or specified. The package was used in an example problem to simulate drawdown around a pumping well in a system with two aquifers separated by a confining unit. For drawdown values in excess of 1 centimeter, the solution using the new package closely matched an exact analytical solution. The problem also was simulated without the new package by using a separate model layer to represent the confining unit. That simulation was refined by using two model layers to represent the confining unit. The simulation using the Transient-Leakage Package was faster and more accurate than either of the simulations using model layers to represent the confining unit.

Nafion induced surface confinement of oxygen in carbon-supported oxygen reduction catalysts

DOE PAGES

Chlistunoff, Jerzy; Sansinena, Jose -Maria

2016-11-17

We studied the surface confinement of oxygen inside layers of Nafion self-assembled on carbon-supported oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts. It is demonstrated that oxygen accumulates in the hydrophobic component of the polymer remaining in contact with the carbon surface. Furthermore, the amount of surface confined oxygen increases with the degree of carbon surface graphitization, which promotes the self-assembly of the polymer. Planar macrocyclic ORR catalysts possessing a delocalized system of π electrons such as Co and Fe porphyrins and phthalocyanines have virtually no effect on the surface confinement of oxygen, in accordance with their structural similarity to graphitic carbon surfacesmore » where they adsorb. Platinum particles in carbon-supported ORR catalysts with high metal contents (20%) disrupt the self-assembly of Nafion and virtually eliminate the oxygen confinement, but the phenomenon is still observed for low Pt loading (4.8%) catalysts.« less

Anomalous Dynamics of Water Confined in Protein-Protein and Protein-DNA Interfaces.

PubMed

Chong, Song-Ho; Ham, Sihyun

2016-10-06

Confined water often exhibits anomalous properties not observable in the bulk phase. Although water in hydrophobic confinement has been the focus of intense investigation, the behavior of water confined between hydrophilic surfaces, which are more frequently found in biological systems, has not been fully explored. Here, we investigate using molecular dynamics simulations dynamical properties of the water confined in hydrophilic protein-protein and protein-DNA interfaces. We find that the interfacial water exhibits glassy slow relaxations even at 300 K. In particular, the rotational dynamics show a logarithmic decay that was observed in glass-forming liquids at deeply supercooled states. We argue that such slow water dynamics are indeed induced by the hydrophilic binding surfaces, which is in opposition to the picture that the hydration water slaves protein motions. Our results will significantly impact the view on the role of water in biomolecular interactions.

Molecular dynamics study of ionic liquid confined in silicon nanopore

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Y. S.; Sha, M. L.; Cai, K. Y.

2017-05-01

Molecular dynamics simulations was carried to investigate the structure and dynamics of [BMIM][PF6] ionic liquid (IL) confined inside a slit-like silicon nanopore with pore size of 5.5 nm. It is clearly shown that the mass and number densities of the confined ILs are oscillatory, high density layers are also formed in the vicinity of the silicon surface, which indicates the existence of solid-like high density IL layers. The orientational investigation shows that the imidazolium ring of [BMIM] cation lies preferentially flat on the surface of the silicon pore walls. Furthermore, the mean squared displacement (MSD) calculation indicates that the dynamics of confined ILs are significantly slower than those observed in bulk systems. Our results suggest that the interactions between the pore walls and the ILs can strongly affect the structural and dynamical properties of the confined ILs.

FINAL DESIGN REVIEW REPORT Subcritical Experiments Gen 2, 3-ft Confinement Vessel Weldment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Romero, Christopher

A Final Design Review (FDR) of the Subcritical Experiments (SCE) Gen 2, 3-ft. Confinement Vessel Weldment was held at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on September 14, 2017. The review was a focused review on changes only to the confinement vessel weldment (versus a system design review). The changes resulted from lessons-learned in fabricating and inspecting the current set of confinement vessels used for the SCE Program. The baseline 3-ft. confinement vessel weldment design has successfully been used (to date) for three (3) high explosive (HE) over-tests, two (2) fragment tests, and five (5) integral HE experiments. The design teammore » applied lessons learned from fabrication and inspection of these vessel weldments to enhance fit-up, weldability, inspection, and fitness for service evaluations. The review team consisted of five (5) independent subject matter experts with engineering design, analysis, testing, fabrication, and inspection experience. The« less

Correlation energy, correlated electron density, and exchange-correlation potential in some spherically confined atoms.

PubMed

Vyboishchikov, Sergei F

2016-12-05

We report correlation energies, electron densities, and exchange-correlation potentials obtained from configuration interaction and density functional calculations on spherically confined He, Be, Be 2+ , and Ne atoms. The variation of the correlation energy with the confinement radius R c is relatively small for the He, Be 2+ , and Ne systems. Curiously, the Lee-Yang-Parr (LYP) functional works well for weak confinements but fails completely for small R c . However, in the neutral beryllium atom the CI correlation energy increases markedly with decreasing R c . This effect is less pronounced at the density-functional theory level. The LYP functional performs very well for the unconfined Be atom, but fails badly for small R c . The standard exchange-correlation potentials exhibit significant deviation from the "exact" potential obtained by inversion of Kohn-Sham equation. The LYP correlation potential behaves erratically at strong confinements. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Nafion induced surface confinement of oxygen in carbon-supported oxygen reduction catalysts

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chlistunoff, Jerzy; Sansinena, Jose -Maria

We studied the surface confinement of oxygen inside layers of Nafion self-assembled on carbon-supported oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts. It is demonstrated that oxygen accumulates in the hydrophobic component of the polymer remaining in contact with the carbon surface. Furthermore, the amount of surface confined oxygen increases with the degree of carbon surface graphitization, which promotes the self-assembly of the polymer. Planar macrocyclic ORR catalysts possessing a delocalized system of π electrons such as Co and Fe porphyrins and phthalocyanines have virtually no effect on the surface confinement of oxygen, in accordance with their structural similarity to graphitic carbon surfacesmore » where they adsorb. Platinum particles in carbon-supported ORR catalysts with high metal contents (20%) disrupt the self-assembly of Nafion and virtually eliminate the oxygen confinement, but the phenomenon is still observed for low Pt loading (4.8%) catalysts.« less

Energy minimization in nematic liquid crystal systems driven by geometric confinement and temperature gradients with applications in colloidal systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolacz, Jakub

We first explore the topology of liquid crystals and look at the fundamental limitations of liquid crystals in confined geometries. The properties of liquid crystal droplets are studied both theoretically and through simulations. We then demonstrate a method of chemically patterning surfaces that allows us to generate periodic arrays of micron-sized liquid crystal droplets and compare them to our simulation results. The parallelizable method of self-localizing liquid crystals using 2D chemical patterning developed here has applications in liquid crystal biosensors and lens arrays. We also present the first work looking at colloidal liquid crystals under the guise of thermophoresis. We observe that strong negative thermophoresis occurs in these systems and develop a theory based on elastic energy minimization. We also calculate a Soret coefficient two orders of magnitude larger than those present in the literature. This large Soret coefficient has considerable potential for improving thermophoretic sorting mechanisms such as Thermal-Field Flow Fractionation and MicroScale Thermophoresis. The final piece of this work demonstrates a method of using projection lithography to polymerize liquid crystal colloids with a defined internal director. While still a work in progress, there is potential for generating systems of active colloids that can change shape upon external stimulus and in the generation of self-folding shapes by selective polymerization and director predetermination in the vain of micro-kirigami.

Methane Hydrate in Confined Spaces: An Alternative Storage System.

PubMed

Borchardt, Lars; Casco, Mirian Elizabeth; Silvestre-Albero, Joaquin

2018-06-05

Methane hydrate inheres the great potential to be a nature-inspired alternative for chemical energy storage, as it allows to store large amounts of methane in a dense solid phase. The embedment of methane hydrate in the confined environment of porous materials can be capitalized for potential applications as its physicochemical properties, such as the formation kinetics or pressure and temperature stability, are significantly changed compared to the bulk system. We review this topic from a materials scientific perspective by considering porous carbons, silica, clays, zeolites, and polymers as host structures for methane hydrate formation. We discuss the contribution of advanced characterization techniques and theoretical simulations towards the elucidation of the methane hydrate formation and dissociation process within the confined space. We outline the scientific challenges this system is currently facing and look on possible future applications for this technology. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Nonlinear adhesion dynamics of confined lipid membranes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

To, Tung; Le Goff, Thomas; Pierre-Louis, Olivier

Lipid membranes, which are ubiquitous objects in biological environments are often confined. For example, they can be sandwiched between a substrate and the cytoskeleton between cell adhesion, or between other membranes in stacks, or in the Golgi apparatus. We present a study of the nonlinear dynamics of membranes in a model system, where the membrane is confined between two flat walls. The dynamics derived from the lubrication approximation is highly nonlinear and nonlocal. The solution of this model in one dimension exhibits frozen states due to oscillatory interactions between membranes caused by the bending rigidity. We develope a kink model for these phenomena based on the historical work of Kawasaki and Otha. In two dimensions, the dynamics is more complex, and depends strongly on the amount of excess area in the system. We discuss the relevance of our findings for experiments on model membranes, and for biological systems. Supported by the grand ANR Biolub.

CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Depletion interactions in a cylindric pipeline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Li-Xin; Gao, Hai-Xia; Li, Chun-Shu; Xiao, Chang-Ming

2009-08-01

In a colloidal system confined by a small cylindric pipeline, the depletion interaction between two large spheres is different to the system confined by two plates, and the influence on depletion interaction from the pipeline is related to both the size and shape of it. In this paper, the depletion interactions in the systems confined by pipelines of different sizes or different shapes are studied by Monte Carlo simulations. The numerical results show that the influence on depletion force from the cylindric pipeline is stronger than that from two parallel plates, and the depletion force will be strengthened when the diameter of the cylinder is decreased. In addition, we also find that the depletion interaction is rather affected if the shape change of the pipeline is slightly changed, and the influence on depletion force from the shape change is stronger than that from the size change.

Ground-water resources of the Clifton Park area, Saratoga County, New York

USGS Publications Warehouse

Heisig, Paul M.

2002-01-01

Ground water is the sole source of public water supply for Clifton Park, a growing suburban community north of Albany, New York. Increasing water demand, coupled with concerns over ground-water quantity and quality, led the Clifton Park Water Authority in 1995 to initiate a cooperative study with the U.S. Geological Survey to update and refine the understanding of ground-water resources in the area.Ground-water resources are largely associated with three aquifers in the eastern half of the area. These aquifers overlie or encompass the Colonie Channel, a north-south-oriented bedrock channel that is filled primarily with lacustrine glacial deposits. The three aquifers are: (1) an unconfined lacustrine sand aquifer, (2) the Colonie Channel aquifer, which is confined within the deepest parts of the channel and variably confined and unconfined within the shallower, peripheral channel areas, and (3) an unconfined alluvial aquifer beneath the Mohawk River flood plain, which represents the southern limit of the study area. The lacustrine sand aquifer has little potential for large-scale withdrawals because it is predominantly fine grained and is susceptible to contamination from human activities at land surface. Water from this aquifer can, however, recharge the underlying peripheral parts of the Colonie Channel aquifer where hydraulic connections are present. The Colonie Channel aquifer consists of thin sand and gravel and (or) shallow, fractured bedrock over much of the channel area; discontinuous deposits of thicker (more than 20 feet) sand and gravel are common in the peripheral channel areas. The deepest, or central, channel area of this aquifer is isolated from the overlying lacustrine sand aquifer by a continuous lacustrine silt and clay unit, which is the primary channel-fill deposit. The most productive areas of the Colonie Channel aquifer are typically the shallow peripheral areas, where conditions range from unconfined to confined. The most productive aquifer within the area is the alluvial aquifer, which is sustained to an unknown extent by induced infiltration of Mohawk River water.The chemical composition of ground water within the Clifton Park area varies widely in response to hydrogeologic setting, pumpage, and contamination from human activities. These chemical differences can be used to deduce ground-water flow paths within and between the unconfined and confined areas of the aquifer system. Six water types are defined; three are naturally occurring and three are the result of human activities.Precipitation that infiltrates the land surface is the sole source of recharge to the lacustrine sand aquifer; precipitation also recharges the alluvial aquifer and unconfined parts of the Colonie Channel aquifer. Ground-water withdrawals from confined or unconfined peripheral areas of the Colonie Channel aquifer induce flow from recharge areas, from the underlying bedrock, or from other confined aquifer areas.The rate of recharge to the confined central area of the Colonie Channel aquifer appears to be low. Potentiometric levels as much as 100 feet below water-table levels in the overlying lacustrine sand aquifer indicate two large depressions in the potentiometric surface; these depressions indicate that withdrawals from this aquifer have cumulatively exceeded the recharge rates. Localized recharge of the central channel area apparently occurs from two peripheral channel areas that are characterized by zones of elevated water levels and (or) by water chemistry that differs from those within the central channel area. Recharge from, or hydraulic connection with, adjoining segments of the Colonie Channel aquifer to the north and south is likely, but the potential for significant recharge is low because the aquifer is thin and poorly permeable.

Safety management for polluted confined space with IT system: a running case.

PubMed

Hwang, Jing-Jang; Wu, Chien-Hsing; Zhuang, Zheng-Yun; Hsu, Yi-Chang

2015-01-01

This study traced a deployed real IT system to enhance occupational safety for a polluted confined space. By incorporating wireless technology, it automatically monitors the status of workers on the site and upon detected anomalous events, managers are notified effectively. The system, with a redefined standard operations process, is running well at one of Formosa Petrochemical Corporation's refineries. Evidence shows that after deployment, the system does enhance the safety level by real-time monitoring the workers and by managing well and controlling the anomalies. Therefore, such technical architecture can be applied to similar scenarios for safety enhancement purposes.

Aperture tolerances for neutron-imaging systems in inertial confinement fusion.

PubMed

Ghilea, M C; Sangster, T C; Meyerhofer, D D; Lerche, R A; Disdier, L

2008-02-01

Neutron-imaging systems are being considered as an ignition diagnostic for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [Hogan et al., Nucl. Fusion 41, 567 (2001)]. Given the importance of these systems, a neutron-imaging design tool is being used to quantify the effects of aperture fabrication and alignment tolerances on reconstructed neutron images for inertial confinement fusion. The simulations indicate that alignment tolerances of more than 1 mrad would introduce measurable features in a reconstructed image for both pinholes and penumbral aperture systems. These simulations further show that penumbral apertures are several times less sensitive to fabrication errors than pinhole apertures.

On-farm biopurification systems: role of white rot fungi in depuration of pesticide-containing wastewaters.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Carlos E; Castro-Gutiérrez, Víctor; Chin-Pampillo, Juan Salvador; Ruiz-Hidalgo, Karla

2013-08-01

Environmental contamination with pesticides is an undesired consequence of agricultural activities. Biopurification systems (BPS) comprise a novel strategy to degrade pesticides from contaminated wastewaters, consisting of a highly active biological mixture confined in a container or excavation. The design of BPS promotes microbial activity, in particular by white rot fungi (WRF). Due to their physiological features, specifically the production of highly unspecific ligninolytic enzymes and some intracellular enzymatic complexes, WRF show the ability to transform a wide range of organic pollutants. This minireview summarizes the potential participation of WRF in BPS. The first part presents the potential use of WRF in biodegradation of pollutants, particularly pesticides, and includes a brief description of the enzymatic systems involved in their oxidation. The second part presents an outline of BPS, focusing on the elements that influence the participation of WRF in their operation, and includes a summary of the studies regarding the fungal-mediated degradation of pesticides in BPS biomixtures and other solid-phase systems that mimic BPS. © 2013 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Virginia Coastal Plain Hydrogeologic Framework

USGS Publications Warehouse

McFarland, Randolph E.; Scott, Bruce T.

2006-01-01

A refined descriptive hydrogeologic framework of the Coastal Plain of eastern Virginia provides a new perspective on the regional ground-water system by incorporating recent understanding gained by discovery of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater and determination of other geological relations. The seaward-thickening wedge of extensive, eastward-dipping strata of largely unconsolidated sediments is classified into a series of 19 hydrogeologic units, based on interpretations of geophysical logs and allied descriptions and analyses from a regional network of 403 boreholes. Potomac aquifer sediments of Early Cretaceous age form the primary ground-water supply resource. The Potomac aquifer is designated as a single aquifer because the fine-grained interbeds, which are spatially highly variable and inherently discontinuous, are not sufficiently dense across a continuous expanse to act as regional barriers to ground-water flow. Part of the Potomac aquifer in the outer part of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater consists of megablock beds, which are relatively undeformed internally but are bounded by widely separated faults. The Potomac aquifer is entirely truncated across the inner part of the crater. The Potomac confining zone approximates a transition from the Potomac aquifer to overlying hydrogeologic units. New or revised designations of sediments of Late Cretaceous age that are present only south of the James River include the upper Cenomanian confining unit, the Virginia Beach aquifer and confining zone, and the Peedee aquifer and confining zone. The Virginia Beach aquifer is a locally important ground-water supply resource. Sediments of late Paleocene to early Eocene age that compose the Aquia aquifer and overlying Nanjemoy-Marlboro confining unit are truncated along the margin of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater. Sediments of late Eocene age compose three newly designated confining units within the crater, which are from bottom to top, the impact-generated Exmore clast and Exmore matrix confining units, and the Chickahominy confining unit. Piney Point aquifer sediments of early Eocene to middle Miocene age overlie most of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater and beyond, but are a locally significant ground-water supply resource only outside of the crater across the middle reaches of the Northern Neck, Middle, and York-James Peninsulas. Sediments of middle Miocene to late Miocene age that compose the Calvert confining unit and overlying Saint Marys confining unit effectively separate the underlying Piney Point aquifer and deeper aquifers from overlying shallow aquifers. Saint Marys aquifer sediments of late Miocene age separate the Calvert and Saint Marys confining units across two limited areas only. Sediments of the Yorktown-Eastover aquifer of late Miocene to late Pliocene age form the second most heavily used ground-water supply resource. The Yorktown confining zone approximates a transition to the overlying late Pliocene to Holocene sediments of the surficial aquifer, which extends across the entire land surface in the Virginia Coastal Plain and is a moderately used supply. The Yorktown-Eastover aquifer and the eastern part of the surficial aquifer are closely associated across complex and extensive hydraulic connections and jointly compose a shallow, generally semiconfined ground-water system that is hydraulically separated from the deeper system. Vertical faults extend from the basement upward through most of the hydrogeologic units but may be more widespread and ubiquitous than recognized herein, because areas of sparse boreholes do not provide adequate spatial control. Hydraulic conductivity probably is decreased locally by disruption of depositional intergranular structure by fault movement in the generally incompetent sediments. Localized fluid flow in open fractures may be unique in the Chickahominy confining unit. Some hydrogeologic units are partly to wholly truncated where displacements are large rela

Accidental degeneracies in nonlinear quantum deformed systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aleixo, A. N. F.; Balantekin, A. B.

2011-09-01

We construct a multi-parameter nonlinear deformed algebra for quantum confined systems that includes many other deformed models as particular cases. We demonstrate that such systems exhibit the property of accidental pairwise energy level degeneracies. We also study, as a special case of our multi-parameter deformation formalism, the extension of the Tamm-Dancoff cutoff deformed oscillator and the occurrence of accidental pairwise degeneracy in the energy levels of the deformed system. As an application, we discuss the case of a trigonometric Rosen-Morse potential, which is successfully used in models for quantum confined systems, ranging from electrons in quantum dots to quarks in hadrons.

An automated scraper system for swine confinement facilities

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Odor and air emissions released by some commercial, large swine operations can be a nuisance. Research has shown that some swine confinement buildings can emit significant amounts of odors, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and other gases, especially from deep pit buildings with long-term manure storage. A m...

FINE STRUCTURES AND OVERLYING LOOPS OF CONFINED SOLAR FLARES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, Shuhong; Zhang, Jun; Xiang, Yongyuan, E-mail: shuhongyang@nao.cas.cn

2014-10-01

Using the Hα observations from the New Vacuum Solar Telescope at the Fuxian Solar Observatory, we focus on the fine structures of three confined flares and the issue why all the three flares are confined instead of eruptive. All the three confined flares take place successively at the same location and have similar morphologies, so can be termed homologous confined flares. In the simultaneous images obtained by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, many large-scale coronal loops above the confined flares are clearly observed in multi-wavelengths. At the pre-flare stage, two dipoles emerge near the negative sunspot, and the dipolar patches aremore » connected by small loops appearing as arch-shaped Hα fibrils. There exists a reconnection between the small loops, and thus the Hα fibrils change their configuration. The reconnection also occurs between a set of emerging Hα fibrils and a set of pre-existing large loops, which are rooted in the negative sunspot, a nearby positive patch, and some remote positive faculae, forming a typical three-legged structure. During the flare processes, the overlying loops, some of which are tracked by activated dark materials, do not break out. These direct observations may illustrate the physical mechanism of confined flares, i.e., magnetic reconnection between the emerging loops and the pre-existing loops triggers flares and the overlying loops prevent the flares from being eruptive.« less

Ground-water flow in the shallow aquifer system at the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, Virginia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, Barry S.

2001-01-01

The Environmental Directorate of the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, Virginia, is concerned about possible contamination of ground water at the Station. Ground water at the Station flows through a shallow system of layered aquifers and leaky confining units. The units of the shallow aquifer system are the Columbia aquifer, the Cornwallis Cave confining unit, the Cornwallis Cave aquifer, the Yorktown confining unit, and the Yorktown-Eastover aquifer. The Eastover-Calvert confining unit separates the shallow aquifer system from deeper confined aquifers beneath the Station. A three-dimensional, finite-difference, ground-water flow model was used to simulate steady-state ground-water flow of the shallow aquifer system in and around the Station. The model simulated ground-water flow from the peninsular drainage divide that runs across the Lackey Plain near the southern end of the Station north to King Creek and the York River and south to Skiffes Creek and the James River. The model was calibrated by minimizing the root mean square error between 4 7 measured and corresponding simulated water levels. The calibrated model was used to determine the ground-water budget and general directions of ground-water flow. A particle-tracking routine was used with the calibrated model to estimate groundwater flow paths, flow rates, and traveltimes from selected sites at the Station. Simulated ground-water flow velocities of the Station-area model were small beneath the interstream areas of the Lackey Plain and Croaker Flat, but increased outward toward the streams and rivers where the hydraulic gradients are larger. If contaminants from the land surface entered the water table at or near the interstream areas of the Station, where hydraulic gradients are smaller, they would migrate more slowly than if they entered closer to the streams or the shores of the rivers where gradients commonly are larger. The ground-water flow simulations indicate that some ground water leaks downward from the water table to the Yorktown confining unit and, where the confining unit is absent, to the Yorktown-Eastover aquifer. The velocities of advective-driven contaminants would decrease considerably when entering the Yorktown confining unit because the hydraulic conductivity of the confining unit is small compared to that of the aquifers. Any contaminants that moved with advective ground-water flow near the groundwater divide of the Lackey Plain would move relatively slowly because the hydraulic gradients are small there. The direction in which the contaminants would move, however, would be determined by precisely where the contaminants entered the water table. The model was not designed to accurately simulate ground-water flow paths through local karst features. Beneath Croaker Flat, ground water flows downward through the Columbia aquifer and the Yorktown confining unit into the Yorktown-Eastover aquifer. Analyses of the movement of simulated particles from two adjacent sites at Croaker Flat indicated that ground-water flow paths were similar at first but diverged and discharged to different tributaries of Indian Field Creek or to the York River. These simulations indicate that complex and possibly divergent flow paths and traveltimes are possible at the Station. Although the Station-area model is not detailed enough to simulate ground-water flow at the scales commonly used to track and remediate contaminants at specific sites, general concepts about possible contaminant migration at the Station can be inferred from the simulations.

Walking the talk--speech activates the leg motor cortex.

PubMed

Liuzzi, Gianpiero; Ellger, Tanja; Flöel, Agnes; Breitenstein, Caterina; Jansen, Andreas; Knecht, Stefan

2008-09-01

Speech may have evolved from earlier modes of communication based on gestures. Consistent with such a motor theory of speech, cortical orofacial and hand motor areas are activated by both speech production and speech perception. However, the extent of speech-related activation of the motor cortex remains unclear. Therefore, we examined if reading and listening to continuous prose also activates non-brachiofacial motor representations like the leg motor cortex. We found corticospinal excitability of bilateral leg muscle representations to be enhanced by speech production and silent reading. Control experiments showed that speech production yielded stronger facilitation of the leg motor system than non-verbal tongue-mouth mobilization and silent reading more than a visuo-attentional task thus indicating speech-specificity of the effect. In the frame of the motor theory of speech this finding suggests that the system of gestural communication, from which speech may have evolved, is not confined to the hand but includes gestural movements of other body parts as well.

SOLAR MULTIPLE ERUPTIONS FROM A CONFINED MAGNETIC STRUCTURE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Jeongwoo; Chae, Jongchul; Liu, Chang

2016-09-20

How eruption can recur from a confined magnetic structure is discussed based on the Solar Dynamics Observatory observations of the NOAA active region 11444, which produced three eruptions within 1.5 hr on 2012 March 27. The active region (AR) had the positive-polarity magnetic fields in the center surrounded by the negative-polarity fields around. Since such a distribution of magnetic polarity tends to form a dome-like magnetic fan structure confined over the AR, the multiple eruptions were puzzling. Our investigation reveals that this event exhibits several properties distinct from other eruptions associated with magnetic fan structures: (i) a long filament encirclingmore » the AR was present before the eruptions; (ii) expansion of the open–closed boundary (OCB) of the field lines after each eruption was suggestive of the growing fan-dome structure, and (iii) the ribbons inside the closed magnetic polarity inversion line evolved in response to the expanding OCB. It thus appears that in spite of multiple eruptions the fan-dome structure remained undamaged, and the closing back field lines after each eruption rather reinforced the fan-dome structure. We argue that the multiple eruptions could occur in this AR in spite of its confined magnetic structure because the filament encircling the AR was adequate for slipping through the magnetic separatrix to minimize the damage to its overlying fan-dome structure. The result of this study provides a new insight into the productivity of eruptions from a confined magnetic structure.« less

Transition from eruptive to confined flares in the same active region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zuccarello, F. P.; Chandra, R.; Schmieder, B.; Aulanier, G.; Joshi, R.

2017-05-01

Context. Solar flares are sudden and violent releases of magnetic energy in the solar atmosphere that can be divided into two classes: eruptive flares, where plasma is ejected from the solar atmosphere resulting in a coronal mass ejection (CME), and confined flares, where no CME is associated with the flare. Aims: We present a case study showing the evolution of key topological structures, such as spines and fans, which may determine the eruptive versus non-eruptive behavior of the series of eruptive flares followed by confined flares, which all originate from the same site. Methods: To study the connectivity of the different flux domains and their evolution, we compute a potential magnetic field model of the active region. Quasi-separatrix layers are retrieved from the magnetic field extrapolation. Results: The change in behavior of the flares from one day to the next - from eruptive to confined - can be attributed to the change in orientation of the magnetic field below the fan with respect to the orientation of the overlaying spine rather than an overall change in the stability of the large-scale field. Conclusions: Flares tend to be more confined when the field that supports the filament and the overlying field gradually becomes less anti-parallel as a direct result of changes in the photospheric flux distribution, being themselves driven by continuous shearing motions of the different magnetic flux concentrations. Movies associated to Figs. 2, 3, and 5 are available at http://www.aanda.org

System and method for generating steady state confining current for a toroidal plasma fusion reactor

DOEpatents

Fisch, Nathaniel J.

1981-01-01

A system for generating steady state confining current for a toroidal plasma fusion reactor providing steady-state generation of the thermonuclear power. A dense, hot toroidal plasma is initially prepared with a confining magnetic field with toroidal and poloidal components. Continuous wave RF energy is injected into said plasma to establish a spectrum of traveling waves in the plasma, where the traveling waves have momentum components substantially either all parallel, or all anti-parallel to the confining magnetic field. The injected RF energy is phased to couple to said traveling waves with both a phase velocity component and a wave momentum component in the direction of the plasma traveling wave components. The injected RF energy has a predetermined spectrum selected so that said traveling waves couple to plasma electrons having velocities in a predetermined range .DELTA.. The velocities in the range are substantially greater than the thermal electron velocity of the plasma. In addition, the range is sufficiently broad to produce a raised plateau having width .DELTA. in the plasma electron velocity distribution so that the plateau electrons provide steady-state current to generate a poloidal magnetic field component sufficient for confining the plasma. In steady state operation of the fusion reactor, the fusion power density in the plasma exceeds the power dissipated in the plasma.

System and method for generating steady state confining current for a toroidal plasma fusion reactor

DOEpatents

Bers, Abraham

1981-01-01

A system for generating steady state confining current for a toroidal plasma fusion reactor providing steady-state generation of the thermonuclear power. A dense, hot toroidal plasma is initially prepared with a confining magnetic field with toroidal and poloidal components. Continuous wave RF energy is injected into said plasma to estalish a spectrum of traveling waves in the plasma, where the traveling waves have momentum components substantially either all parallel, or all anti-parallel to the confining magnetic field. The injected RF energy is phased to couple to said traveling waves with both a phase velocity component and a wave momentum component in the direction of the plasma traveling wave components. The injected RF energy has a predetermined spectrum selected so that said traveling waves couple to plasma electrons having velocities in a predetermined range .DELTA.. The velocities in the range are substantially greater than the thermal electron velocity of the plasma. In addition, the range is sufficiently broad to produce a raised plateau having width .DELTA. in the plasma electron velocity distribution so that the plateau electrons provide steady-state current to generate a poloidal magnetic field component sufficient for confining the plasma. In steady state operation of the fusion reactor, the fusion power density in the plasma exceeds the power dissipated inthe plasma.

In-vehicle group activity modeling and simulation in sensor-based virtual environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirkhodaie, Amir; Telagamsetti, Durga; Poshtyar, Azin; Chan, Alex; Hu, Shuowen

2016-05-01

Human group activity recognition is a very complex and challenging task, especially for Partially Observable Group Activities (POGA) that occur in confined spaces with limited visual observability and often under severe occultation. In this paper, we present IRIS Virtual Environment Simulation Model (VESM) for the modeling and simulation of dynamic POGA. More specifically, we address sensor-based modeling and simulation of a specific category of POGA, called In-Vehicle Group Activities (IVGA). In VESM, human-alike animated characters, called humanoids, are employed to simulate complex in-vehicle group activities within the confined space of a modeled vehicle. Each articulated humanoid is kinematically modeled with comparable physical attributes and appearances that are linkable to its human counterpart. Each humanoid exhibits harmonious full-body motion - simulating human-like gestures and postures, facial impressions, and hands motions for coordinated dexterity. VESM facilitates the creation of interactive scenarios consisting of multiple humanoids with different personalities and intentions, which are capable of performing complicated human activities within the confined space inside a typical vehicle. In this paper, we demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of VESM in terms of its capabilities to seamlessly generate time-synchronized, multi-source, and correlated imagery datasets of IVGA, which are useful for the training and testing of multi-source full-motion video processing and annotation. Furthermore, we demonstrate full-motion video processing of such simulated scenarios under different operational contextual constraints.

Pediatric scleroderma: systemic or localized forms.

PubMed

Torok, Kathryn S

2012-04-01

Pediatric scleroderma includes 2 major groups of clinical entities, systemic sclerosis (SSc) and localized scleroderma (LS). Although both share a common pathophysiology, their clinical manifestations differ. LS is typically confined to the skin and underlying subcutis, with up to a quarter of patients showing extracutaneous disease manifestations such as arthritis and uveitis. Vascular, cutaneous, gastrointestinal, pulmonary, and musculoskeletal involvement are most commonly seen in children with SSc. Treatment of both forms targets the active inflammatory stage and halts disease progression; however, progress needs to be made toward the development of more effective antifibrotic therapy to help reverse disease damage. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dynamical behavior of a single polymer chain under nanometric confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lagrené, K.; Zanotti, J.-M.; Daoud, M.; Farago, B.; Judeinstein, P.

2010-10-01

We address the dynamical behavior of a single polymer chain under nanometric confinement. We consider a polymer melt made of a mixture of hydrogenated and deuterated high molecular mass Poly(Ethylene Oxide) (PEO). The confining material is a membrane of Anodic Aluminum Oxide (AAO), a macroscopically highly ordered confining system made of parallel cylindrical channels. We use Neutron Spin-Echo (NSE) under the Zero Average Contrast (ZAC) condition to, all at once, i) match the intense porous AAO detrimental elastic SANS (Small Angle Neutron Scattering) contribution to the total intermediate scattering function I(Q,t) and ii) measure the Q dependence of the dynamical modes of a single chain under confinement. The polymer dynamics is probed on an extremely broad spacial ([2.2 10-2 Å-1, 0.2 Å-1]) and temporal ([0.1 ns, 600 ns]) ranges. We do not detect any influence of confinement on the polymer dynamics. This result is discussed in the framework of the debate on the existence of a "corset effect" recently suggested by NMR relaxometry data.

Communication: Relationship between local structure and the stability of water in hydrophobic confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Altabet, Y. Elia; Debenedetti, Pablo G.

2017-12-01

Liquid water confined between nanoscale hydrophobic objects can become metastable with respect to its vapor at nanoscale separations. While the separations are only several molecular diameters, macroscopic theories are often invoked to interpret the thermodynamics and kinetics of water under confinement. We perform detailed rate and free energy calculations via molecular simulations in order to assess the dependence of the rate of evaporation, free energy barriers, and free energy differences between confined liquid and vapor upon object separation and compare them to the relevant macroscopic theories. At small enough separations, the rate of evaporation appears to deviate significantly from the predictions of classical nucleation theory, and we attribute such deviations to changes in the structure of the confined liquid film. However, the free energy difference between the confined liquid and vapor phases agrees quantitatively with macroscopic theory, and the free energy barrier to condensation displays qualitative agreement. Overall, the present work suggests that theories attempting to capture the kinetic behavior of nanoscale systems should incorporate structural details rather than treating it as a continuum.

Hydrology of the southeastern Coastal Plain aquifer system in South Carolina and parts of Georgia and North Carolina

USGS Publications Warehouse

Aucott, Walter R.

1996-01-01

Transmissivity values used in the flow simulation range from less than 1,000 feet squared per day near the updip limit of most aquifers to about 30,000 feet squared per day in the Middendorf aquifer in the Savannah River Plant area. Vertical hydraulic conductivity values used in simulation of confining units range from about 6x10-7 feet per day for the confining unit between the Middendorf and Black Creek aquifers in coastal areas to 3x10-2 feet per day for most of the confining units near their updip limits. Storage coefficients used in transient simulations were 0.15 where unconfined conditions exist and 0.0005 where confined conditions exist.

Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) for Space Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Poivey, Christian; Buchner, Stephen

2007-01-01

This presentation discusses radiation hardness assurance (RHA) for space systems, providing both the programmatic aspects of RHA and the RHA procedure. RHA consists of all activities undertaken to ensure that the electronics and materials of a space system perform to their design specifications after exposure to the space radiation environment. RHA also pertains to environment definition, part selection, part testing, spacecraft layout, radiation tolerant design, and mission/system/subsystems requirements. RHA procedure consists of establishing mission requirements, defining and evaluating the radiation hazard, selecting and categorizing the appropriate parts, and evaluating circuit response to hazard. The RHA approach is based on risk management and is confined only to parts, it includes spacecraft layout, system/subsystem/circuit design, and system requirements and system operations. RHA should be taken into account in the early phases of a program including the proposal and feasibility analysis phases.

Nanoscale High Energetic Materials: A Polymeric Nitrogen Chain N8 Confined inside a Carbon Nanotube

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abou-Rachid, Hakima; Hu, Anguang; Timoshevskii, Vladimir; Song, Yanfeng; Lussier, Louis-Simon

2008-05-01

We present a theoretical study of a new hybrid material, nanostructured polymeric nitrogen, where a polymeric nitrogen chain is encapsulated in a carbon nanotube. The electronic and structural properties of the new system are studied by means of ab initio electronic structure and molecular dynamics calculations. Finite temperature simulations demonstrate the stability of this nitrogen phase at ambient pressure and room temperature using carbon nanotube confinement. This nanostructured confinement may open a new path towards stabilizing polynitrogen or polymeric nitrogen at ambient conditions.

Effective diffusion of confined active Brownian swimmers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandoval, Mario; Dagdug, Leonardo

2014-11-01

We find theoretically the effect of confinement and thermal fluctuations, on the diffusivity of a spherical active swimmer moving inside a two-dimensional narrow cavity of general shape. The explicit formulas for the effective diffusion coefficient of a swimmer moving inside two particular cavities are presented. We also compare our analytical results with Brownian Dynamics simulations and we obtain excellent agreement. L.D. thanks Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT) Mexico, for partial support by Grant No. 176452. M. S. thanks CONACyT and Programa de Mejoramiento de Profesorado (PROMEP) for partially funding this work under Grant No. 103.5/13/6732.

Pauli structures arising from confined particles interacting via a statistical potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Batle, Josep; Ciftja, Orion; Farouk, Ahmed; Alkhambashi, Majid; Abdalla, Soliman

2017-09-01

There have been suggestions that the Pauli exclusion principle alone can lead a non-interacting (free) system of identical fermions to form crystalline structures dubbed Pauli crystals. Single-shot imaging experiments for the case of ultra-cold systems of free spin-polarized fermionic atoms in a two-dimensional harmonic trap appear to show geometric arrangements that cannot be characterized as Wigner crystals. This work explores this idea and considers a well-known approach that enables one to treat a quantum system of free fermions as a system of classical particles interacting with a statistical interaction potential. The model under consideration, though classical in nature, incorporates the quantum statistics by endowing the classical particles with an effective interaction potential. The reasonable expectation is that possible Pauli crystal features seen in experiments may manifest in this model that captures the correct quantum statistics as a first order correction. We use the Monte Carlo simulated annealing method to obtain the most stable configurations of finite two-dimensional systems of confined particles that interact with an appropriate statistical repulsion potential. We consider both an isotropic harmonic and a hard-wall confinement potential. Despite minor differences, the most stable configurations observed in our model correspond to the reported Pauli crystals in single-shot imaging experiments of free spin-polarized fermions in a harmonic trap. The crystalline configurations observed appear to be different from the expected classical Wigner crystal structures that would emerge should the confined classical particles had interacted with a pair-wise Coulomb repulsion.

Near-surface, marine seismic-reflection data defines potential hydrogeologic confinement bypass in a tertiary carbonate aquifer, southeastern Florida

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cunningham, Kevin J.; Walker, Cameron; Westcott, Richard L.

2012-01-01

Approximately 210 km of near-surface, high-frequency, marine seismic-reflection data were acquired on the southeastern part of the Florida Platform between 2007 and 2011. Many high-resolution, seismic-reflection profiles, interpretable to a depth of about 730 m, were collected on the shallow-marine shelf of southeastern Florida in water as shallow as 1 m. Landward of the present-day shelf-margin slope, these data image middle Eocene to Pleistocene strata and Paleocene to Pleistocene strata on the Miami Terrace. This high-resolution data set provides an opportunity to evaluate geologic structures that cut across confining units of the Paleocene to Oligocene-age carbonate rocks that form the Floridan aquifer system.Seismic profiles image two structural systems, tectonic faults and karst collapse structures, which breach confining beds in the Floridan aquifer system. Both structural systems may serve as pathways for vertical groundwater flow across relatively low-permeability carbonate strata that separate zones of regionally extensive high-permeability rocks in the Floridan aquifer system. The tectonic faults occur as normal and reverse faults, and collapse-related faults have normal throw. The most common fault occurrence delineated on the reflection profiles is associated with karst collapse structures. These high-frequency seismic data are providing high quality structural analogs to unprecedented depths on the southeastern Florida Platform. The analogs can be used for assessment of confinement of other carbonate aquifers and the sealing potential of deeper carbonate rocks associated with reservoirs around the world.

Ground-water flow in the New Jersey Coastal Plain

USGS Publications Warehouse

Martin, Mary

1998-01-01

Ground-water flow in 10 aquifers and 9 intervening confining units of the New Jersey Coastal Plain was simulated as part of the Regional Aquifer System Analysis. Data on aquifer and confining unit characteristics and on pumpage and water levels from 1918 through 1980 were incorporated into a multilayer finite-difference model. The report describes the conceptual hydrogeologic model of the unstressed flow systems, the methods and approach used in simulating flow, and the results of the simulations.

Trends in Adsorption Energies of the Oxygenated Species on Single Platinum Atom Embedded in Carbon Nanotubes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Siahrostami, Samira; Li, Guo-Ling; Nørskov, Jens K.

Herein we study the effect of strain on the catalytic activity of different Pt-doped single wall metallic carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). We consider the possibility of the Pt-doped at single vacancy inside the SWCNT to investigate the effect of confinement on the reaction mechanism. Density functional theory calculations indicate that for the SWCNTs with tube diameters below 7 Å, the strain energy varies significantly influencing the adsorption energies of the key intermediates of the ORR reaction. For the SWCNTs with tube diameters above 7 Å, on the other hand, both the calculated strain and themore » adsorption energies are almost constant. We furthermore find that the adsorption energies are strongly affected by confinement effects as shown for Pt-doped systems that are located inside the SWCNT. We show that the Pt-doped at single vacancy of the SWCNT strongly binds the oxygenated species under ORR potentials and therefore the active species is covered by oxo- or hydroxo group. Because the presence of Pt atoms doped at the single and double vacancies of the SWCNT is equivalently probable we also studied the Pt-doped at double vacancy. We find that the most active motif is the Pt-doped at double vacancy of SWCNT with 0.24V overpotenital.« less

Trends in Adsorption Energies of the Oxygenated Species on Single Platinum Atom Embedded in Carbon Nanotubes

DOE PAGES

Siahrostami, Samira; Li, Guo-Ling; Nørskov, Jens K.; ...

2017-09-30

Herein we study the effect of strain on the catalytic activity of different Pt-doped single wall metallic carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). We consider the possibility of the Pt-doped at single vacancy inside the SWCNT to investigate the effect of confinement on the reaction mechanism. Density functional theory calculations indicate that for the SWCNTs with tube diameters below 7 Å, the strain energy varies significantly influencing the adsorption energies of the key intermediates of the ORR reaction. For the SWCNTs with tube diameters above 7 Å, on the other hand, both the calculated strain and themore » adsorption energies are almost constant. We furthermore find that the adsorption energies are strongly affected by confinement effects as shown for Pt-doped systems that are located inside the SWCNT. We show that the Pt-doped at single vacancy of the SWCNT strongly binds the oxygenated species under ORR potentials and therefore the active species is covered by oxo- or hydroxo group. Because the presence of Pt atoms doped at the single and double vacancies of the SWCNT is equivalently probable we also studied the Pt-doped at double vacancy. We find that the most active motif is the Pt-doped at double vacancy of SWCNT with 0.24V overpotenital.« less

Pressure in an exactly solvable model of active fluid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marini Bettolo Marconi, Umberto; Maggi, Claudio; Paoluzzi, Matteo

2017-07-01

We consider the pressure in the steady-state regime of three stochastic models characterized by self-propulsion and persistent motion and widely employed to describe the behavior of active particles, namely, the Active Brownian particle (ABP) model, the Gaussian colored noise (GCN) model, and the unified colored noise approximation (UCNA) model. Whereas in the limit of short but finite persistence time, the pressure in the UCNA model can be obtained by different methods which have an analog in equilibrium systems, in the remaining two models only the virial route is, in general, possible. According to this method, notwithstanding each model obeys its own specific microscopic law of evolution, the pressure displays a certain universal behavior. For generic interparticle and confining potentials, we derive a formula which establishes a correspondence between the GCN and the UCNA pressures. In order to provide explicit formulas and examples, we specialize the discussion to the case of an assembly of elastic dumbbells confined to a parabolic well. By employing the UCNA we find that, for this model, the pressure determined by the thermodynamic method coincides with the pressures obtained by the virial and mechanical methods. The three methods when applied to the GCN give a pressure identical to that obtained via the UCNA. Finally, we find that the ABP virial pressure exactly agrees with the UCNA and GCN results.

Optical study of xanthene-type dyes in nano-confined liquid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahdi Shavakandi, Seyyed; Alizadeh, Khalil; Sharifi, Soheil; Marti, Othmar; Amirkhani, Masoud

2017-04-01

The optical activity of dye molecules in different environments is of great interest for many applications such as laser system or biological imaging. We investigate the fluorescence and absorption spectrum of nano-confined xanthene dyes (RhB and fluorescein sodium salt) in a two-phase liquid. Each show very distinct optical behavior in the water phase of a reverse microemulsion. Their optical properties such as absorption and fluorescence for different concentrations of dye and nanodroplets are investigated. We show that for the same concentration of dye in the microemulsion the peak of fluorescence intensity is varied by altering the concentration of nanodroplets. However, the trend of the change is widely different depending on the hydrophobicity of dyes. Quantum-mechanical second order perturbation theory is used to calculate the ratio of dipole moments in the ground and excited states, which accounts for the Stokes shift in fluorescence peak. Photon correlation spectroscopy is employed to check the trace of the dye in the oil phase of the microemulsion.

Plasma Centrifuge Heat Engine - a Route to Non-thermal p- 11 B Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnes, D. C.

2007-06-01

An invention [US Patent and Trademark Office App. Nos. 60/596567 (2005) and 60/766791 (2006)] combines centrifugal and dipole confinement, with recent oscillating plasma theory. The plasma undergoes compression/expansion (C/E), parallel to B by centrifugal force and perpendicular to B by B variation, providing a thermal cycle which recovers most (>95%) of heating as mechanical energy. This gives a "Q-amplifier" for beam-target systems. Centrifugally confined Boron plasma undergoes C/E by slow, cross-B interchange activity. Parallel and perpendicular C/E are matched by the rotation profile which arises naturally. Hot plasma is heated and cold plasma is cooled. Beam-target fusion reactions occur in the hot plasma region and expansion returns most of the heat energy as rotation energy. Rotation energy, in turn, produces waves which drive protons to an energy near the fusion peak cross section. A possible machine, including the arrangement of magnets and HV, is described.

Electric-field-induced structural changes in water confined between two graphene layers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sobrino Fernández, Mario; Peeters, F. M.; Neek-Amal, M.

2016-07-01

An external electric field changes the physical properties of polar liquids due to the reorientation of their permanent dipoles. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we predict that an in-plane electric field applied parallel to the channel polarizes water molecules which are confined between two graphene layers, resulting in distinct ferroelectricity and electrical hysteresis. We found that electric fields alter the in-plane order of the hydrogen bonds: Reversing the electric field does not restore the system to the nonpolar initial state, instead a residual dipole moment remains in the system. The square-rhombic structure of 2D ice is transformed into two rhombic-rhombic structures. Our study provides insights into the ferroelectric state of water when confined in nanochannels and shows how this can be tuned by an electric field.

Confining the state of light to a quantum manifold by engineered two-photon loss

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leghtas, Z.; Touzard, S.; Pop, I. M.; Kou, A.; Vlastakis, B.; Petrenko, A.; Sliwa, K. M.; Narla, A.; Shankar, S.; Hatridge, M. J.; Reagor, M.; Frunzio, L.; Schoelkopf, R. J.; Mirrahimi, M.; Devoret, M. H.

2015-02-01

Physical systems usually exhibit quantum behavior, such as superpositions and entanglement, only when they are sufficiently decoupled from a lossy environment. Paradoxically, a specially engineered interaction with the environment can become a resource for the generation and protection of quantum states. This notion can be generalized to the confinement of a system into a manifold of quantum states, consisting of all coherent superpositions of multiple stable steady states. We have confined the state of a superconducting resonator to the quantum manifold spanned by two coherent states of opposite phases and have observed a Schrödinger cat state spontaneously squeeze out of vacuum before decaying into a classical mixture. This experiment points toward robustly encoding quantum information in multidimensional steady-state manifolds.

Multiple patterns of diblock copolymer confined in irregular geometries with soft surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Ying; Sun, Min-Na; Zhang, Jin-Jun; Pan, Jun-Xing; Guo, Yu-Qi; Wang, Bao-Feng; Wu, Hai-Shun

2015-12-01

The different confinement shapes can induce the formation of various interesting and novel morphologies, which might inspire potential applications of materials. In this paper, we study the directed self-assembly of diblock copolymer confined in irregular geometries with a soft surface by using self-consistent field theory. Two types of confinement geometries are considered, namely, one is the concave pore with one groove and the other is the concave pore with two grooves. We obtain more novel and different structures which could not be produced in other two-dimensional (2D) confinements. Comparing these new structures with those obtained in regular square confinement, we find that the range of ordered lamellae is enlarged and the range of disordered structure is narrowed down under the concave pore confinement. We also compare the different structures obtained under the two types of confinement geometries, the results show that the effect of confinement would increase, which might induce the diblock copolymer to form novel structures. We construct the phase diagram as a function of the fraction of B block and the ratio of h/L of the groove. The simulation reveals that the wetting effect of brushes and the shape of confinement geometries play important roles in determining the morphologies of the system. Our results improve the applications in the directed self-assembly of diblock copolymer for fabricating the irregular structures. Project supported by the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Grant No. 20121404110004), the Research Foundation for Excellent Talents of Shanxi Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, China, and the Scientific and Technological Innovation Programs of Higher Education Institutions in Shanxi Province, China.

The ESA Mice in Space (MIS) habitat: effects of cage confinement on neuromusculoskeletal structure and function and stress/behavior using wild-type C57Bl/6JRj mice in a modular science reference model (MSRM) test on ground

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blottner, Dieter; Vico, Laurence; Jamon, D. Berckmansp L. Vicop Y. Liup R. Canceddap M.

Background: Environmental conditions likely affect physiology and behaviour of mice used for Life Sciences Research on Earth and in Space. Thus, mice habitats with sufficient statistical numbers should be developed for adequate life support and care and that should meet all nesces-sary ethical and scientific requirements needed to successfully perform animal experimentation in Space. Aim of study: We here analysed the effects of cage confinement on the weightbear-ing musculoskeletal system, behaviour and stress of wild-type mice (C57BL/6JRj, 30 g b.wt., total n = 24) housed for 25 days in a prototypical ground-based MSRM (modular science ref-erence module) in the frame of breadboard activities for a fully automated life support habitat called "Mice in Space" (MIS) at the Leuven University, Belgium. Results: Compared with control housing (individually ventilated cages, IVC-mice) the MIS mice revealed no significant changes in soleus muscle size and myofiber distribution (type I vs. II) and quality of bone (3-D microarchitecture and mineralisation of calvaria, spine and femur) determined by confocal and micro-computed tomography. Corticosterone metabolism measured non-invasively (faeces) monitored elevated adrenocortical activity at only start of the MIS cage confinement (day 1). Behavioural tests (i.e., grip strength, rotarod, L/D box, elevated plus-maze, open field, ag-gressiveness) performed subsequently revealed only minor changes in motor performance (MIS vs. controls). Conclusions: The MIS habitat will not, on its own, produce major effects that could confound interpretation of data induced by microgravity exposure on orbit as planned for future biosatellite programmes. Sponsors: ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, NL

Locomotor activity in males of Aedes aegypti can shift in response to females' presence.

PubMed

Araripe, Luciana Ordunha; Bezerra, Jéssica Rodrigues Assunção; Rivas, Gustavo Bueno da Silva; Bruno, Rafaela Vieira

2018-04-18

The study of physiological and behavioral traits of mosquito vectors has been of growing relevance for the proposition of alternative methods for controlling vector-borne diseases. Despite this, most studies focus on the female's traits, including the behavior of host seeking, the physiology of disease transmission and the site-choice for oviposition. However, understanding the factors that lead to males' reproductive success is of utmost importance, since it can help building new strategies for constraining population growth. Male behavior towards mating varies widely among species and the communication between males and females is the first aspect securing a successful encounter. Here we used an automated monitoring system to study the profile of locomotor activity of Aedes aegypti males in response to female's presence in an adapted confinement tube. We propose a new method to quantify male response to the presence of females, which can be potentially tested as an indicator of the success of one male in recognizing a female for mating. Locomotor activity varies in daily cycles regulated by an endogenous clock and synchronized by external factors, such as light and temperature. Our results show the previously described startle response to light, which is displayed as a steep morning activity peak immediately when lights are on. Activity drops during the day and begins to rise again right before evening, happening about 1.5 h earlier in males than in females. Most interestingly, males' activity shows a double peak, and the second peak is very subtle when males are alone and relatively more pronounced when females are present in the confinement tubes. The switch in the peak of activity, measured by the herein suggested Peak Matching Index (PMI), was significantly different between males with and without females. The adapted monitoring system used here allowed us to quantify the response of individual males to nearby females in terms of the extent of the activity peak displacement. In this direction, we created the peak matching index (PMI), a new parameter that we anticipate could be interpreted as the inclination of males to respond to females' presence, and further tested as an indicator of the potential for finding females for mating.

Aging and rejuvenation of active matter under topological constraints.

PubMed

Janssen, Liesbeth M C; Kaiser, Andreas; Löwen, Hartmut

2017-07-18

The coupling of active, self-motile particles to topological constraints can give rise to novel non-equilibrium dynamical patterns that lack any passive counterpart. Here we study the behavior of self-propelled rods confined to a compact spherical manifold by means of Brownian dynamics simulations. We establish the state diagram and find that short active rods at sufficiently high density exhibit a glass transition toward a disordered state characterized by persistent self-spinning motion. By periodically melting and revitrifying the spherical spinning glass, we observe clear signatures of time-dependent aging and rejuvenation physics. We quantify the crucial role of activity in these non-equilibrium processes, and rationalize the aging dynamics in terms of an absorbing-state transition toward a more stable active glassy state. Our results demonstrate both how concepts of passive glass phenomenology can carry over into the realm of active matter, and how topology can enrich the collective spatiotemporal dynamics in inherently non-equilibrium systems.

Some features of the bioelectric activity of the muscles with prolonged hypokinesia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Belaya, N. A.; Amirov, R. Z.; Shaposhnikov, Y. A.; Lebedeva, I. P.; Sologub, B. S.

1978-01-01

The effects of prolonged hypokinesia, brought on by confinement to bed and the attendant lack of motor activity, on the bioelectric activity of muscles are studied. Electromyographic measurements of amplitude and frequency indicators of muscular bioelectric activity were analyzed.

Communication: Slow relaxation, spatial mobility gradients, and vitrification in confined films.

PubMed

Mirigian, Stephen; Schweizer, Kenneth S

2014-10-28

Two decades of experimental research indicate that spatial confinement of glass-forming molecular and polymeric liquids results in major changes of their slow dynamics beginning at large confinement distances. A fundamental understanding remains elusive given the generic complexity of activated relaxation in supercooled liquids and the major complications of geometric confinement, interfacial effects, and spatial inhomogeneity. We construct a predictive, quantitative, force-level theory of relaxation in free-standing films for the central question of the nature of the spatial mobility gradient. The key new idea is that vapor interfaces speed up barrier hopping in two distinct, but coupled, ways by reducing near surface local caging constraints and spatially long range collective elastic distortion. Effective vitrification temperatures, dynamic length scales, and mobile layer thicknesses naturally follow. Our results provide a unified basis for central observations of dynamic and pseudo-thermodynamic measurements.

Suppressed ion-scale turbulence in a hot high-β plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmitz, L.; Fulton, D. P.; Ruskov, E.; Lau, C.; Deng, B. H.; Tajima, T.; Binderbauer, M. W.; Holod, I.; Lin, Z.; Gota, H.; Tuszewski, M.; Dettrick, S. A.; Steinhauer, L. C.

2016-12-01

An economic magnetic fusion reactor favours a high ratio of plasma kinetic pressure to magnetic pressure in a well-confined, hot plasma with low thermal losses across the confining magnetic field. Field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas are potentially attractive as a reactor concept, achieving high plasma pressure in a simple axisymmetric geometry. Here, we show that FRC plasmas have unique, beneficial microstability properties that differ from typical regimes in toroidal confinement devices. Ion-scale fluctuations are found to be absent or strongly suppressed in the plasma core, mainly due to the large FRC ion orbits, resulting in near-classical thermal ion confinement. In the surrounding boundary layer plasma, ion- and electron-scale turbulence is observed once a critical pressure gradient is exceeded. The critical gradient increases in the presence of sheared plasma flow induced via electrostatic biasing, opening the prospect of active boundary and transport control in view of reactor requirements.

Dependence of L-mode confinement on the electron cyclotron power deposition profile in the TCV tokamak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirneva, N. A.; Razumova, K. A.; Pochelon, A.; Behn, R.; Coda, S.; Curchod, L.; Duval, B. P.; Goodman, T. P.; Labit, B.; Karpushov, A. N.; Rancic, M.; Sauter, O.; Silva, M.; TCV Team

2012-01-01

Scenarios with different electron cyclotron heating power profile distributions and widths were compared for the first time in experiments on the Tokamak à Configuration Variable (TCV). The heating profile was changed from shot to shot over a wide range from localized on-axis, with normalized minor radius half-width at half maximum σ1/2 ~ 0.1, up to a widely distributed heating power profile with σ1/2 ~ 0.4 and finally to a profile peaked far off-axis. The global confinement, MHD activity, density, temperature and electron pressure profile evolution were compared. In particular, the energy confinement properties of discharges with localized on-axis heating and distributed on-axis heating were very similar, with degradation close to that predicted by the ITER L-mode scaling; in the case of off-axis heating, on the other hand, the confinement degradation was even stronger.

Diffusional spread and confinement of newly exocytosed synaptic vesicle proteins

PubMed Central

Gimber, Niclas; Tadeus, Georgi; Maritzen, Tanja; Schmoranzer, Jan; Haucke, Volker

2015-01-01

Neurotransmission relies on the calcium-triggered exocytic fusion of non-peptide neurotransmitter-containing small synaptic vesicles (SVs) with the presynaptic membrane at active zones (AZs) followed by compensatory endocytic retrieval of SV membranes. Here, we study the diffusional fate of newly exocytosed SV proteins in hippocampal neurons by high-resolution time-lapse imaging. Newly exocytosed SV proteins rapidly disperse within the first seconds post fusion until confined within the presynaptic bouton. Rapid diffusional spread and confinement is followed by slow reclustering of SV proteins at the periactive endocytic zone. Confinement within the presynaptic bouton is mediated in part by SV protein association with the clathrin-based endocytic machinery to limit diffusional spread of newly exocytosed SV proteins. These data suggest that diffusion, and axonal escape of newly exocytosed vesicle proteins, are counteracted by the clathrin-based endocytic machinery together with a presynaptic diffusion barrier. PMID:26399746

Suppressed ion-scale turbulence in a hot high-β plasma

PubMed Central

Schmitz, L.; Fulton, D. P.; Ruskov, E.; Lau, C.; Deng, B. H.; Tajima, T.; Binderbauer, M. W.; Holod, I.; Lin, Z.; Gota, H.; Tuszewski, M.; Dettrick, S. A.; Steinhauer, L. C.

2016-01-01

An economic magnetic fusion reactor favours a high ratio of plasma kinetic pressure to magnetic pressure in a well-confined, hot plasma with low thermal losses across the confining magnetic field. Field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas are potentially attractive as a reactor concept, achieving high plasma pressure in a simple axisymmetric geometry. Here, we show that FRC plasmas have unique, beneficial microstability properties that differ from typical regimes in toroidal confinement devices. Ion-scale fluctuations are found to be absent or strongly suppressed in the plasma core, mainly due to the large FRC ion orbits, resulting in near-classical thermal ion confinement. In the surrounding boundary layer plasma, ion- and electron-scale turbulence is observed once a critical pressure gradient is exceeded. The critical gradient increases in the presence of sheared plasma flow induced via electrostatic biasing, opening the prospect of active boundary and transport control in view of reactor requirements. PMID:28000675

Diffusional spread and confinement of newly exocytosed synaptic vesicle proteins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gimber, Niclas; Tadeus, Georgi; Maritzen, Tanja; Schmoranzer, Jan; Haucke, Volker

2015-09-01

Neurotransmission relies on the calcium-triggered exocytic fusion of non-peptide neurotransmitter-containing small synaptic vesicles (SVs) with the presynaptic membrane at active zones (AZs) followed by compensatory endocytic retrieval of SV membranes. Here, we study the diffusional fate of newly exocytosed SV proteins in hippocampal neurons by high-resolution time-lapse imaging. Newly exocytosed SV proteins rapidly disperse within the first seconds post fusion until confined within the presynaptic bouton. Rapid diffusional spread and confinement is followed by slow reclustering of SV proteins at the periactive endocytic zone. Confinement within the presynaptic bouton is mediated in part by SV protein association with the clathrin-based endocytic machinery to limit diffusional spread of newly exocytosed SV proteins. These data suggest that diffusion, and axonal escape of newly exocytosed vesicle proteins, are counteracted by the clathrin-based endocytic machinery together with a presynaptic diffusion barrier.

Communication: slow relaxation, spatial mobility gradients, and vitrification in confined films

DOE PAGES

Mirigian, Stephen; Schweizer, Kenneth S.

2014-10-31

Two decades of experimental research indicate that spatial confinement of glass-forming molecular and polymeric liquids results in major changes of their slow dynamics beginning at large confinement distances. A fundamental understanding remains elusive given the generic complexity of activated relaxation in supercooled liquids and the major complications of geometric confinement, interfacial effects, and spatial inhomogeneity. For this research, we construct a predictive, quantitative, force-level theory of relaxation in free-standing films for the central question of the nature of the spatial mobility gradient. The key new idea is that vapor interfaces speed up barrier hopping in two distinct, but coupled, waysmore » by reducing near surface local caging constraints and spatially long range collective elastic distortion. Effective vitrification temperatures, dynamic length scales, and mobile layer thicknesses naturally follow. In conclusion, our results provide a unified basis for central observations of dynamic and pseudo-thermodynamic measurements.« less

Local confinement and bedridden in the context of boundedness - The development of a conceptual definition based on an integrative review

PubMed

Schirghuber, Johannes; Schrems, Berta

2018-04-01

Background: Local confinement and bedridden are important phenomena in nursing care. Nevertheless, conceptual definitions and appropriate nursing diagnoses are missing in the current nursing classification systems. Aim: The aim is to provide the basis for a conceptual definition. To this end, the current state of the German and English usage of the terms local confinement and bedridden are presented. At the same time, definitions of English-language terms, which are internationally widely recognized, are elaborated. Additionally, phenomena associated with local confinement and bedridden are recorded and delimited of each other. Method: The identification of the German and English conceptual usage takes place through an integrative literature review covering the period from 1990 to 2016. Results: There are a variety of English-language terms of location confinement and bedridden. The concepts of homebound, wheelchairbound and bedridden form of local confinement and bedridden most extensively. Instability, immobility is connected as cause and inactivity as a consequence. In contrast to this is bedrest, which is ordered and temporally limited. Conclusions: Local confinement and bedridden are to be viewed through the definition of boundedness. The antecedents (instability, immobility) must be diagnosed to derive adequate interventions to avoid or alleviate the consequences.

Effect of confining wall potential on charged collimated dust beam in low-pressure plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kausik, S. S.; Kakati, B.; Saikia, B. K.

2013-05-01

The effect of confining wall potential on charged collimated dust beam in low-pressure plasma has been studied in a dusty plasma experimental setup by applying electrostatic field to each channel of a multicusp magnetic cage. Argon plasma is produced by hot cathode discharge method at a pressure of 5×10-4 millibars and is confined by a full line cusped magnetic field confinement system. Silver dust grains are produced by gas-evaporation technique and move upward in the form of a collimated dust beam due to differential pressure maintained between the dust and plasma chambers. The charged grains in the beam after coming out from the plasma column enter into the diagnostic chamber and are deflected by a dc field applied across a pair of deflector plates at different confining potentials. Both from the amount of deflection and the floating potential, the number of charges collected by the dust grains is calculated. Furthermore, the collimated dust beam strikes the Faraday cup, which is placed above the deflector plates, and the current (˜pA) so produced is measured by an electrometer at different confining potentials. The experimental results demonstrate the significant effect of confining wall potential on charging of dust grains.

Staphylococcus aureus detection in blood samples by silica nanoparticle-oligonucleotides conjugates.

PubMed

Borsa, Baris A; Tuna, Bilge G; Hernandez, Frank J; Hernandez, Luiza I; Bayramoglu, Gulay; Arica, M Yakup; Ozalp, V Cengiz

2016-12-15

A fast, specific and sensitive homogeneous assay for Staphylococcus aureus detection was developed by measuring the activity of secreted nuclease from the bacteria via a modified DNA oligonucleotide. As biosensor format, an effective system, Nanokeepers as previously reported, were used for triggered release of confined fluorophores, and hence specific detection of S. aureus on nuclease activity was obtained. The interference from blood components for fluorescent quantification was eliminated by a pre-purification by aptamer-functionalized silica magnetic nanoparticles. The reported assay system was exclusively formed by nucleic acid oligos and magnetic or mesoporous silica nanoparticles, that can be used on blood samples in a stepwise manner. The assay was successfully used as a sensing platform for the specific detection of S. aureus cells as low as 682 CFU in whole blood. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Use of aluminum sulfate (alum) to decrease ammonia emissions from beef cattle bedded manure packs

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Confined cattle facilities are an increasingly common housing system in the Northern Great Plains of the United States. Ammonia volatilization from the surface of the floor and bedding in these confined facilities depends on several variables including pH, temperature, and moisture content. When pH ...

PREFACE: Complex dynamics of fluids in disordered and crowded environments Complex dynamics of fluids in disordered and crowded environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coslovich, Daniele; Kahl, Gerhard; Krakoviack, Vincent

2011-06-01

Over the past two decades, the dynamics of fluids under nanoscale confinement has attracted much attention. Motivation for this rapidly increasing interest is based on both practical and fundamental reasons. On the practical and rather applied side, problems in a wide range of scientific topics, such as polymer and colloidal sciences, rheology, geology, or biophysics, benefit from a profound understanding of the dynamical behaviour of confined fluids. Further, effects similar to those observed in confinement are expected in fluids whose constituents have strong size or mass asymmetry, and in biological systems where crowding and obstruction phenomena in the cytosol are responsible for clear separations of time scales for macromolecular transport in the cell. In fundamental research, on the other hand, the interest focuses on the complex interplay between confinement and structural relaxation, which is responsible for the emergence of new phenomena in the dynamics of the system: in confinement, geometric constraints associated with the pore shape are imposed to the adsorbed fluids and an additional characteristic length scale, i.e. the pore size, comes into play. For many years, the topic has been mostly experimentally driven. Indeed, a broad spectrum of systems has been investigated by sophisticated experimental techniques, while theoretical and simulation studies were rather scarce due to conceptual and computational issues. In the past few years, however, theory and simulations could largely catch up with experiments. On one side, new theories have been put forward that duly take into account the porosity, the connectivity, and the randomness of the confinement. On the other side, the ever increasing available computational power now allows investigations that were far out of reach a few years ago. Nowadays, instead of isolated state points, systematic investigations on the dynamics of confined fluids, covering a wide range of system parameters, can be realized. In fact, theory and simulations were recently able to predict new and surprising dynamical features, such as the occurrence of sub-diffusive laws, which result from the trapping due to the geometric and topological constraints and/or quenched disorder, the presence of both continuous and discontinuous glass transitions, and diffusion-localization transitions. Together, theory and simulations are thus able to contribute to a deeper insight into the complex dynamical behaviour of fluids in disordered confinement. Still, many yet unsolved problems remain. The fact that theoretical and simulation approaches have caught up with experimental investigations, has motivated us to organize a workshop on the dynamics of fluids confined in disordered environments, so as to bring together the different communities working in this field: theory and simulations, with their recent developments based on the mode-coupling theory of the glass transition, and experiments, with particular emphasis on colloidal systems and novel techniques. In an effort to give credit to recent developments in related problems of biophysical relevance, an entire session of the programme was dedicated to anomalous diffusion in crowded environments. The workshop was thus aimed at providing a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics of fluids in confinement as well as up-to-date perspectives on the interdisciplinary applications of this field of research. We are proud to say that all 32 contacted speakers accepted our invitation. Additional participants were attracted by our scientific programme, contributing poster presentations to the workshop. In total, close to 50 participants were registered, arriving from 11 different countries (including the US, Japan, and Mexico). Thus we conclude that the workshop indeed addressed a highly topical scientific field. From the scientific point of view a broad range of problems was covered, ranging from biophysics over soft matter to fermion systems. From the vivid discussions it became evident that the close scientific contact between theory, simulation and experiment brought along a fruitful and mutually inspiring atmosphere. On the theoretical side, these discussions have allowed clarification of several connections between the dynamics of models of fluids in porous media (quenched-annealed, pinned particles models), those of well-known limiting cases (Lorentz gas), of realistic models of liquids with strong dynamic asymmetry (asymmetric size and mass mixtures, sodium silicates, polymers blends) and even of bulk glass-formers. On the experimental side, it appeared that soft matter systems may provide an excellent test-bed to verify the theoretical predictions. From the concluding discussion it was also clear that addressing related issues relevant to biology still remains an open challenge for the future. In view of all this, it was concluded that within a short time period a workshop with analogous scope should be organized to address the progress made on both fundamental and interdisciplinary aspects. The realization of this workshop was made possible by generous financial support from CECAM, Centre Blaise Pascal-ENS de Lyon, and the ESF network 'Molecular Simulations in Biosystems and Material Science' (SimBioMa). Complex dynamics of fluids in disordered and crowded environments contents Phonon dispersions of cluster crystals Tim Neuhaus and Christos N Likos Challenges in determining anomalous diffusion in crowded fluids Marcel Hellmann, Joseph Klafter, Dieter W Heermann and Matthias Weiss Diffusion of active tracers in fluctuating fields David S Dean and Vincent Démery Self-diffusion of non-interacting hard spheres in particle gels Jean-Christophe Gimel and Taco Nicolai Probing glassy states in binary mixtures of soft interpenetrable colloids E Stiakakis, B M Erwin, D Vlassopoulos, M Cloitre, A Munam, M Gauthier, H Iatrou and N Hadjichristidis Fluids with quenched disorder: scaling of the free energy barrier near critical points T Fischer and R L C Vink Lennard-Jones binary mixture in disordered matrices: exploring the mode coupling scenario at increasing confinement P Gallo and M Rovere Static and dynamic contributions to anomalous chain dynamics in polymer blends Marco Bernabei, Angel J Moreno and J Colmenero Anomalous transport of a tracer on percolating clusters Markus Spanner, Felix Höfling, Gerd E Schröder-Turk, Klaus Mecke and Thomas Franosch Long-wavelength anomalies in the asymptotic behavior of mode-coupling theory S K Schnyder, F Höfling, T Franosch and Th Voigtmann Dynamic arrest of colloids in porous environments: disentangling crowding and confinement Jan Kurzidim, Daniele Coslovich and Gerhard Kahl Slow dynamics, dynamic heterogeneities, and fragility of supercooled liquids confined in random media Kang Kim, Kunimasa Miyazaki and Shinji Saito

Confined-space synthesis of nanostructured anatase, directed by genetically engineered living organisms for lithium-ion batteries.

PubMed

Ping, Hang; Xie, Hao; Xiang, Mingyu; Su, Bao-Lian; Wang, Yucheng; Zhang, Jinyong; Zhang, Fan; Fu, Zhengyi

2016-10-01

Biomineral formation processes in nature are temporally and spatially regulated under the functions of biomolecules in a confined space. It is potentially very productive to rationally design a mineralized system by taking into account confined space as well as biomolecules. The laboratory technique of "bacterial cell surface display" is an ideal platform to host catalytically active proteins in a three-dimensionally confined space. In the present study, aiming to regulate the synthesis of nanostructured TiO 2 anatase, repeating segments of silaffin were displayed on Escherichia coli surfaces through genetic manipulation. The displayed protein electrostatically interacted with a titanium source and catalyzed the hydrolysis of titanium dioxide precursors through hydrogen bonding interactions on the cell surface. In the subsequent calcination process, the genetically modified cells not only served as a framework for producing rod-shaped TiO 2 assembled by nanoparticles, but also provided a carbon source in situ . The size of nanoparticles was controlled by changing the number of tandem repeats of the protein segment. The as prepared TiO 2 anatase exhibited unique characteristics including nanosized anatase crystals, mesoporous structure and carbon coating. When tested as the anode electrode of a lithium-ion battery, it showed excellent lithium storage performance. The carbon coated anatase anode shows a higher specific capacity of 207 mA h g -1 after 200 cycles at a current rate of 1C and an ultra-long cycling lifetime of 5000 cycles with an outstanding retention capacity of 149 mA h g -1 at a higher rate of 10C. This bioprocess-inspired approach may help broaden the scope and impact of nanosized biominerals.

Amorphization and Directional Crystallization of Metals Confined in Carbon Nanotubes Investigated by in Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy.

PubMed

Tang, Dai-Ming; Ren, Cui-Lan; Lv, Ruitao; Yu, Wan-Jing; Hou, Peng-Xiang; Wang, Ming-Sheng; Wei, Xianlong; Xu, Zhi; Kawamoto, Naoyuki; Bando, Yoshio; Mitome, Masanori; Liu, Chang; Cheng, Hui-Ming; Golberg, Dmitri

2015-08-12

The hollow core of a carbon nanotube (CNT) provides a unique opportunity to explore the physics, chemistry, biology, and metallurgy of different materials confined in such nanospace. Here, we investigate the nonequilibrium metallurgical processes taking place inside CNTs by in situ transmission electron microscopy using CNTs as nanoscale resistively heated crucibles having encapsulated metal nanowires/crystals in their channels. Because of nanometer size of the system and intimate contact between the CNTs and confined metals, an efficient heat transfer and high cooling rates (∼10(13) K/s) were achieved as a result of a flash bias pulse followed by system natural quenching, leading to the formation of disordered amorphous-like structures in iron, cobalt, and gold. An intermediate state between crystalline and amorphous phases was discovered, revealing a memory effect of local short-to-medium range order during these phase transitions. Furthermore, subsequent directional crystallization of an amorphous iron nanowire formed by this method was realized under controlled Joule heating. High-density crystalline defects were generated during crystallization due to a confinement effect from the CNT and severe plastic deformation involved.

Effect of natural gas exsolution on specific storage in a confined aquifer undergoing water level decline.

PubMed

Yager, R M; Fountain, J C

2001-01-01

The specific storage of a porous medium, a function of the compressibility of the aquifer material and the fluid within it, is essentially constant under normal hydrologic conditions. Gases dissolved in ground water can increase the effective specific storage of a confined aquifer, however, during water level declines. This causes a reduction in pore pressure that lowers the gas solubility and results in exsolution. The exsolved gas then displaces water from storage, and the specific storage increases because gas compressibility is typically much greater than that of water or aquifer material. This work describes the effective specific storage of a confined aquifer exsolving dissolved gas as a function of hydraulic head and the dimensionless Henry's law constant for the gas. This relation is applied in a transient simulation of ground water discharge from a confined aquifer system to a collapsed salt mine in the Genesee Valley in western New York. Results indicate that exsolution of gas significantly increased the effective specific storage in the aquifer system, thereby decreasing the water level drawdown.

Effect of natural gas exsolution on specific storage in a confined aquifer undergoing water level decline

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yager, R.M.; Fountain, J.C.

2001-01-01

The specific storage of a porous medium, a function of the compressibility of the aquifer material and the fluid within it, is essentially constant under normal hydrologic conditions. Gases dissolved in ground water can increase the effective specific storage of a confined aquifer, however, during water level declines. This causes a reduction in pore pressure that lowers the gas solubility and results in exsolution. The exsolved gas then displaces water from storage, and the specific storage increases because gas compressibility is typically much greater than that of water or aquifer material. This work describes the effective specific storage of a confined aquifer exsolving dissolved gas as a function of hydraulic head and the dimensionless Henry's law constant for the gas. This relation is applied in a transient simulation of ground water discharge from a confined aquifer system to a collapsed salt mine in the Genesee Valley in western New York. Results indicate that exsolution of gas significantly increased the effective specific storage in the aquifer system, thereby decreasing the water level drawdown.

Manipulating and Visualizing Molecular Interactions in Customized Nanoscale Spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stabile, Francis; Henkin, Gil; Berard, Daniel; Shayegan, Marjan; Leith, Jason; Leslie, Sabrina

We present a dynamically adjustable nanofluidic platform for formatting the conformations of and visualizing the interaction kinetics between biomolecules in solution, offering new time resolution and control of the reaction processes. This platform extends convex lens-induced confinement (CLiC), a technique for imaging molecules under confinement, by introducing a system for in situ modification of the chemical environment; this system uses a deep microchannel to diffusively exchange reagents within the nanoscale imaging region, whose height is fixed by a nanopost array. To illustrate, we visualize and manipulate salt-induced, surfactant-induced, and enzyme-induced reactions between small-molecule reagents and DNA molecules, where the conformations of the DNA molecules are formatted by the imposed nanoscale confinement. By using nanofabricated, nonabsorbing, low-background glass walls to confine biomolecules, our nanofluidic platform facilitates quantitative exploration of physiologically and biotechnologically relevant processes at the nanoscale. This device provides new kinetic information about dynamic chemical processes at the single-molecule level, using advancements in the CLiC design including a microchannel-based diffuser and postarray-based dialysis slit.

An open access microfluidic device for the study of the physical limits of cancer cell deformation during migration in confined environments.

PubMed

Malboubi, Majid; Jayo, Asier; Parsons, Maddy; Charras, Guillaume

2015-08-16

During metastasis, cancerous cells leave the primary tumour, pass into the circulatory system, and invade into new tissues. To migrate through the wide variety of environments they encounter, the cells must be able to remodel their cell shape efficiently to squeeze through small gaps in the extracellular matrix or extravasate into the blood stream or lymphatic system. Several studies have shown that the nucleus is the main limiting factor to migration through small gaps (Wolf et al., 2013; Harada et al., 2014; Mak et al., 2013). To understand the physical limits of cancer cell translocation in confined environments, we have fabricated a microfluidic device to study their ability to adapt their nuclear and cellular shape when passing through small gaps. The device is open access for ease of use and enables examination of the effect of different levels of spatial confinement on cell behaviour and morphology simultaneously. The results show that increasing cell confinement decreases the ability of cells to translocate into small gaps and that cells cannot penetrate into the microchannels below a threshold cross-section.

Equilibrium Polymerization of Butyl Methacrylate in Bulk and in Nanopore Confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, Qian; Simon, Sindee

The equilibrium between monomer and polymer in free radical polymerization can be shifted towards monomer under nanoconfinement. This decrease in ceiling temperature is due to a decrease in the entropy associated with the constrained polymer chains, resulting in a larger negative change in entropy of reaction. Here, we investigate the equilibrium polymerization of butyl methacrylate (BMA) in bulk and in nanopore confinement with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) using di-tert-butyl peroxide (DTBP) as initiator. This system has several advantages compare to the previously studied system of methyl methacrylate (MMA) initiated with 2,2'-azo-bis-isobutyronitrile (AIBN), namely, a reduced rate of reaction, higher boiling point of monomer, and higher initiator utilization temperature range, all of which facilitate the study of the reaction at high temperatures near the ceiling temperature. Interestingly, for BMA, there is no change in limiting conversion between material reacted in bulk and that in controlled pore glass having pore diameters of 7.5 and 50 nm. This unexpected result may be due to the greater flexibility of the PBMA chains compared to PMMA, suggesting that in the BMA/PBMA system, the degree of confinement is relatively low. Future studies will continue to investigate how the entropy change on reaction is affected by confinement.

Nanoscale Confinement Controls the Crystallization of Calcium Phosphate: Relevance to Bone Formation

PubMed Central

Cantaert, Bram; Beniash, Elia; Meldrum, Fiona C.

2015-01-01

A key feature of biomineralization processes is that they take place within confined volumes, in which the local environment can have significant effects on mineral formation. Herein, we investigate the influence of confinement on the formation mechanism and structure of calcium phosphate (CaP). This is of particular relevance to the formation of dentine and bone, structures of which are based on highly mineralized collagen fibrils. CaP was precipitated within 25–300 nm diameter, cylindrical pores of track etched and anodised alumina membranes under physiological conditions, in which this system enables systematic study of the effects of the pore size in the absence of a structural match between the matrix and the growing crystals. Our results show that the main products were polycrystalline hydroxapatite (HAP) rods, together with some single crystal octacalcium phosphate (OCP) rods. Notably, we demonstrate that these were generated though an intermediate amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) phase, and that ACP is significantly stabilised in confinement. This effect may have significance to the mineralization of bone, which can occur through a transient ACP phase. We also show that orientation of the HAP comparable, or even superior to that seen in bone can be achieved through confinement effects alone. Although this simple experimental system cannot be considered, a direct mimic of the in vivo formation of ultrathin HAP platelets within collagen fibrils, our results show that the effects of physical confinement should not be neglected when considering the mechanisms of formation of structures, such as bones and teeth. PMID:24115275

Nanoscale confinement controls the crystallization of calcium phosphate: relevance to bone formation.

PubMed

Cantaert, Bram; Beniash, Elia; Meldrum, Fiona C

2013-10-25

A key feature of biomineralization processes is that they take place within confined volumes, in which the local environment can have significant effects on mineral formation. Herein, we investigate the influence of confinement on the formation mechanism and structure of calcium phosphate (CaP). This is of particular relevance to the formation of dentine and bone, structures of which are based on highly mineralized collagen fibrils. CaP was precipitated within 25-300 nm diameter, cylindrical pores of track etched and anodised alumina membranes under physiological conditions, in which this system enables systematic study of the effects of the pore size in the absence of a structural match between the matrix and the growing crystals. Our results show that the main products were polycrystalline hydroxapatite (HAP) rods, together with some single crystal octacalcium phosphate (OCP) rods. Notably, we demonstrate that these were generated though an intermediate amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) phase, and that ACP is significantly stabilised in confinement. This effect may have significance to the mineralization of bone, which can occur through a transient ACP phase. We also show that orientation of the HAP comparable, or even superior to that seen in bone can be achieved through confinement effects alone. Although this simple experimental system cannot be considered, a direct mimic of the in vivo formation of ultrathin HAP platelets within collagen fibrils, our results show that the effects of physical confinement should not be neglected when considering the mechanisms of formation of structures, such as bones and teeth. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Adsorbates in a Box: Titration of Substrate Electronic States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Zhihai; Wyrick, Jonathan; Luo, Miaomiao; Sun, Dezheng; Kim, Daeho; Zhu, Yeming; Lu, Wenhao; Kim, Kwangmoo; Einstein, T. L.; Bartels, Ludwig

2010-08-01

Nanoscale confinement of adsorbed CO molecules in an anthraquinone network on Cu(111) with a pore size of ≈4nm arranges the CO molecules in a shell structure that coincides with the distribution of substrate confined electronic states. Molecules occupy the states approximately in the sequence of rising electron energy. Despite the sixfold symmetry of the pore boundary itself, the adsorbate distribution adopts the threefold symmetry of the network-substrate system, highlighting the importance of the substrate even for such quasi-free-electron systems.

A dimensionless parameter approach to the thermal behavior of an aquifer thermal energy storage system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doughty, C.; Hellstrom, G.; Tsang, C. F.; Claesson, J.

1982-09-01

The purpose of aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) site-characterization studies is to develop a general procedure whereby the energy recovery factor for a given site may be predicted readily for a wide range of operating conditions without doing detailed numerical simulations. The thermal behavior of a ATES system with steady radial fluid flow around a single injection/production well is discussed. Buoyancy flow is neglected, and the aquifer is confined above and below by impermeable confining layers.

NMR investigation of gaseous SF6 confinement into EPDM rubber.

PubMed

Neutzler, Sven; Terekhov, Maxim; Hoepfel, Dieter; Oellrich, Lothar Rainer

2005-02-01

The confinement process of gaseous sulphurhexafluoride (SF6) in ethylene-propylene-diene (EPDM) rubber was investigated by spectroscopic and spatially resolved NMR techniques. A strong elongation of T1 relaxation time of SF6 and a decrease of the diffusion coefficient were found. A possible explanation may be the strong restriction of molecular mobility due to interactions between SF6 and active centers of the EPDM.

Molecular Dynamics of Flexible Polar Cations in a Variable Confined Space: Toward Exceptional Two-Step Nonlinear Optical Switches.

PubMed

Xu, Wei-Jian; He, Chun-Ting; Ji, Cheng-Min; Chen, Shao-Li; Huang, Rui-Kang; Lin, Rui-Biao; Xue, Wei; Luo, Jun-Hua; Zhang, Wei-Xiong; Chen, Xiao-Ming

2016-07-01

The changeable molecular dynamics of flexible polar cations in the variable confined space between inorganic chains brings about a new type of two-step nonlinear optical (NLO) switch with genuine "off-on-off" second harmonic generation (SHG) conversion between one NLO-active state and two NLO-inactive states. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Limits on rock strength under high confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Renshaw, Carl E.; Schulson, Erland M.

2007-06-01

Understanding of deep earthquake source mechanisms requires knowledge of failure processes active under high confinement. Under low confinement the compressive strength of rock is well known to be limited by frictional sliding along stress-concentrating flaws. Under higher confinement strength is usually assumed limited by power-law creep associated with the movement of dislocations. In a review of existing experimental data, we find that when the confinement is high enough to suppress frictional sliding, rock strength increases as a power-law function only up to a critical normalized strain rate. Within the regime where frictional sliding is suppressed and the normalized strain rate is below the critical rate, both globally distributed ductile flow and localized brittle-like failure are observed. When frictional sliding is suppressed and the normalized strain rate is above the critical rate, failure is always localized in a brittle-like manner at a stress that is independent of the degree of confinement. Within the high-confinement, high-strain rate regime, the similarity in normalized failure strengths across a variety of rock types and minerals precludes both transformational faulting and dehydration embrittlement as strength-limiting mechanisms. The magnitude of the normalized failure strength corresponding to the transition to the high-confinement, high-strain rate regime and the observed weak dependence of failure strength on strain rate within this regime are consistent with a localized Peierls-type strength-limiting mechanism. At the highest strain rates the normalized strengths approach the theoretical limit for crystalline materials. Near-theoretical strengths have previously been observed only in nano- and micro-scale regions of materials that are effectively defect-free. Results are summarized in a new deformation mechanism map revealing that when confinement and strain rate are sufficient, strengths approaching the theoretical limit can be achieved in cm-scale sized samples of rocks rich in defects. Thus, non-frictional failure processes must be considered when interpreting rock deformation data collected under high confinement and low temperature. Further, even at higher temperatures the load-bearing ability of crustal rocks under high confinement may not be limited by a frictional process under typical geologic strain rates.

Surface- and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy reveals spin-waves in iron oxide nanoparticles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez, Raul D.; Sheremet, Evgeniya; Deckert-Gaudig, Tanja; Chaneac, Corinne; Hietschold, Michael; Deckert, Volker; Zahn, Dietrich R. T.

2015-05-01

Nanomaterials have the remarkable characteristic of displaying physical properties different from their bulk counterparts. An additional degree of complexity and functionality arises when oxide nanoparticles interact with metallic nanostructures. In this context the Raman spectra due to plasmonic enhancement of iron oxide nanocrystals are here reported showing the activation of spin-waves. Iron oxide nanoparticles on gold and silver tips are found to display a band around 1584 cm-1 attributed to a spin-wave magnon mode. This magnon mode is not observed for nanoparticles deposited on silicon (111) or on glass substrates. Metal-nanoparticle interaction and the strongly localized electromagnetic field contribute to the appearance of this mode. The localized excitation that generates this mode is confirmed by tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). The appearance of the spin-waves only when the TERS tip is in close proximity to a nanocrystal edge suggests that the coupling of a localized plasmon with spin-waves arises due to broken symmetry at the nanoparticle border and the additional electric field confinement. Beyond phonon confinement effects previously reported in similar systems, this work offers significant insights on the plasmon-assisted generation and detection of spin-waves optically induced.Nanomaterials have the remarkable characteristic of displaying physical properties different from their bulk counterparts. An additional degree of complexity and functionality arises when oxide nanoparticles interact with metallic nanostructures. In this context the Raman spectra due to plasmonic enhancement of iron oxide nanocrystals are here reported showing the activation of spin-waves. Iron oxide nanoparticles on gold and silver tips are found to display a band around 1584 cm-1 attributed to a spin-wave magnon mode. This magnon mode is not observed for nanoparticles deposited on silicon (111) or on glass substrates. Metal-nanoparticle interaction and the strongly localized electromagnetic field contribute to the appearance of this mode. The localized excitation that generates this mode is confirmed by tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). The appearance of the spin-waves only when the TERS tip is in close proximity to a nanocrystal edge suggests that the coupling of a localized plasmon with spin-waves arises due to broken symmetry at the nanoparticle border and the additional electric field confinement. Beyond phonon confinement effects previously reported in similar systems, this work offers significant insights on the plasmon-assisted generation and detection of spin-waves optically induced. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5nr01277e

Apparatus for magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman; Binderbauer, Michl

2013-06-11

An apparatus and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions ions are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Apparatus for magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman; Binderbauer, Michl

2016-07-05

An apparatus and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions ions are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Apparatus for magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman; Binderbauer, Michl

2006-10-31

An apparatus and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions they are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Apparatus for magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman; Binderbauer, Michl

2006-04-11

An apparatus and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions they are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Apparatus for magnetic and electrostatic confinement of plasma

DOEpatents

Rostoker, Norman [Irvine, CA; Binderbauer, Michl [Irvine, CA

2009-08-04

An apparatus and method for containing plasma and forming a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) magnetic topology are described in which plasma ions are contained magnetically in stable, non-adiabatic orbits in the FRC. Further, the electrons are contained electrostatically in a deep energy well, created by tuning an externally applied magnetic field. The simultaneous electrostatic confinement of electrons and magnetic confinement of ions avoids anomalous transport and facilitates classical containment of both electrons and ions. In this configuration, ions and electrons may have adequate density and temperature so that upon collisions ions are fused together by nuclear force, thus releasing fusion energy. Moreover, the fusion fuel plasmas that can be used with the present confinement system and method are not limited to neutronic fuels only, but also advantageously include advanced fuels.

Vortex lattices and defect-mediated viscosity reduction in active liquids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slomka, Jonasz; Dunkel, Jorn

2016-11-01

Generic pattern-formation and viscosity-reduction mechanisms in active fluids are investigated using a generalized Navier-Stokes model that captures the experimentally observed bulk vortex dynamics in microbial suspensions. We present exact analytical solutions including stress-free vortex lattices and introduce a computational framework that allows the efficient treatment of previously intractable higher-order shear boundary conditions. Large-scale parameter scans identify the conditions for spontaneous flow symmetry breaking, defect-mediated low-viscosity phases and negative-viscosity states amenable to energy harvesting in confined suspensions. The theory uses only generic assumptions about the symmetries and long-wavelength structure of active stress tensors, suggesting that inviscid phases may be achievable in a broad class of non-equilibrium fluids by tuning confinement geometry and pattern scale selection.

Geometry-dependent viscosity reduction in sheared active fluids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Słomka, Jonasz; Dunkel, Jörn

2017-04-01

We investigate flow pattern formation and viscosity reduction mechanisms in active fluids by studying a generalized Navier-Stokes model that captures the experimentally observed bulk vortex dynamics in microbial suspensions. We present exact analytical solutions including stress-free vortex lattices and introduce a computational framework that allows the efficient treatment of higher-order shear boundary conditions. Large-scale parameter scans identify the conditions for spontaneous flow symmetry breaking, geometry-dependent viscosity reduction, and negative-viscosity states amenable to energy harvesting in confined suspensions. The theory uses only generic assumptions about the symmetries and long-wavelength structure of active stress tensors, suggesting that inviscid phases may be achievable in a broad class of nonequilibrium fluids by tuning confinement geometry and pattern scale selection.

Physicochemical Characterization of Nanoparticles from Indoor Ventilation Systems and Their Potential Health Impacts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalton, G.; Revkin, A. C.; Gruenspecht, H.; Ramanathan, V.; Brown, M. A.; Nagel, D. C.; Revkin, A. C.; Umo, N. S.; Oseghe, E. O.

2016-12-01

Indoor air pollution remains a major concern to humans considering that we spend about 90% of our daily lives indoors [1,2]. Air pollutants, which ranges from gases to aerosol particles, vary considerably from our homes, public/work places and confined environments such as cars. They can impact on our health depending on the nature and concentration of the pollutants as well as the duration of exposure [3,4]. Particulate matter (PM), which is one of the major air pollutant markers, is present indoors and can be circulated for days to months within a confined space by the ventilation systems. In this study, both physical and chemical compositional evaluation of PM2.5 - 10 was carried out and the recirculation model of these particulates is presented based on the study of some ventilation systems such as air conditioners, cooling vents, and fans. For the first time, it is shown that the compositional variability of PM does not just depend on the source or the ongoing activities in the confined space but also on the recirculation time. Mineral dust particles were found to be dominant, some mixed with organics and soot or BC particles; heavy metals such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), iron (Fe) and others were also analysed from the collected PM. Ventilation systems trap these particulates and do recirculate them over time and this can increase their toxicities and influences their composition. From this study, it can be suggested that regular cleaning of ventilation systems and flushing closed spaces with fresh air may become the most effective ways of controlling the concentration of PM in closed spaces with ventilation units such as indoors and cars. [1] H. K. Lai, et al., Atmospheric Environment 38 (37)(2004). [2] N.E. Klepeis, et al., J. of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology 11(2001). [3] N. Bruce, et al., Bul. of the World Health Organization, 78 (9)(2000). [4] K.A. Miller, et al, The New England Journal of Medicine 356 (2007).

Confined active Brownian particles: theoretical description of propulsion-induced accumulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Das, Shibananda; Gompper, Gerhard; Winkler, Roland G.

2018-01-01

The stationary-state distribution function of confined active Brownian particles (ABPs) is analyzed by computer simulations and analytical calculations. We consider a radial harmonic as well as an anharmonic confinement potential. In the simulations, the ABP is propelled with a prescribed velocity along a body-fixed direction, which is changing in a diffusive manner. For the analytical approach, the Cartesian components of the propulsion velocity are assumed to change independently; active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particle (AOUP). This results in very different velocity distribution functions. The analytical solution of the Fokker-Planck equation for an AOUP in a harmonic potential is presented and a conditional distribution function is provided for the radial particle distribution at a given magnitude of the propulsion velocity. This conditional probability distribution facilitates the description of the coupling of the spatial coordinate and propulsion, which yields activity-induced accumulation of particles. For the anharmonic potential, a probability distribution function is derived within the unified colored noise approximation. The comparison of the simulation results with theoretical predictions yields good agreement for large rotational diffusion coefficients, e.g. due to tumbling, even for large propulsion velocities (Péclet numbers). However, we find significant deviations already for moderate Péclet number, when the rotational diffusion coefficient is on the order of the thermal one.

Simulation of dispersion in layered coastal aquifer systems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Reilly, T.E.

1990-01-01

A density-dependent solute-transport formulation is used to examine ground-water flow in layered coastal aquifers. The numerical experiments indicate that although the transition zone may be thought of as an impermeable 'sharp' interface with freshwater flow parallel to the transition zone in homogeneous aquifers, this is not the case for layered systems. Freshwater can discharge through the transition zone in the confining units. Further, for the best simulation of layered coastal aquifer systems, either a flow-direction-dependent dispersion formulation is required, or the dispersivities must change spatially to reflect the tight thin confining unit. ?? 1990.

Crystallization features of normal alkanes in confined geometry.

PubMed

Su, Yunlan; Liu, Guoming; Xie, Baoquan; Fu, Dongsheng; Wang, Dujin

2014-01-21

How polymers crystallize can greatly affect their thermal and mechanical properties, which influence the practical applications of these materials. Polymeric materials, such as block copolymers, graft polymers, and polymer blends, have complex molecular structures. Due to the multiple hierarchical structures and different size domains in polymer systems, confined hard environments for polymer crystallization exist widely in these materials. The confined geometry is closely related to both the phase metastability and lifetime of polymer. This affects the phase miscibility, microphase separation, and crystallization behaviors and determines both the performance of polymer materials and how easily these materials can be processed. Furthermore, the size effect of metastable states needs to be clarified in polymers. However, scientists find it difficult to propose a quantitative formula to describe the transition dynamics of metastable states in these complex systems. Normal alkanes [CnH2n+2, n-alkanes], especially linear saturated hydrocarbons, can provide a well-defined model system for studying the complex crystallization behaviors of polymer materials, surfactants, and lipids. Therefore, a deeper investigation of normal alkane phase behavior in confinement will help scientists to understand the crystalline phase transition and ultimate properties of many polymeric materials, especially polyolefins. In this Account, we provide an in-depth look at the research concerning the confined crystallization behavior of n-alkanes and binary mixtures in microcapsules by our laboratory and others. Since 2006, our group has developed a technique for synthesizing nearly monodispersed n-alkane containing microcapsules with controllable size and surface porous morphology. We applied an in situ polymerization method, using melamine-formaldehyde resin as shell material and nonionic surfactants as emulsifiers. The solid shell of microcapsules can provide a stable three-dimensional (3-D) confining environment. We have studied multiple parameters of these microencapsulated n-alkanes, including surface freezing, metastability of the rotator phase, and the phase separation behaviors of n-alkane mixtures using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction (XRD), and variable-temperature solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Our investigations revealed new direct evidence for the existence of surface freezing in microencapsulated n-alkanes. By examining the differences among chain packing and nucleation kinetics between bulk alkane solid solutions and their microencapsulated counterparts, we also discovered a mechanism responsible for the formation of a new metastable bulk phase. In addition, we found that confinement suppresses lamellar ordering and longitudinal diffusion, which play an important role in stabilizing the binary n-alkane solid solution in microcapsules. Our work also provided new insights into the phase separation of other mixed system, such as waxes, lipids, and polymer blends in confined geometry. These works provide a profound understanding of the relationship between molecular structure and material properties in the context of crystallization and therefore advance our ability to improve applications incorporating polymeric and molecular materials.

Relativistic neutrons in active galactic nuclei

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sikora, Marek; Begelman, Mitchell C.; Rudak, Bronislaw

1989-01-01

The acceleration of protons to relativistic energies in active galactic nuclei leads to the creation of relativistic neutrons which escape from the central engine. The neutrons decay at distances of up to 1-100 pc, depositing their energies and momenta in situ. Energy deposition by decaying neutrons may inhibit spherical accretion and drive a wind, which could be responsible for the velocity fields in emission-line regions and the outflow of broad absorption line systems. Enhanced pressure in the neutron decay region may also help to confine emission line clouds. A fraction of the relativistic proton energy is radiated in gamma-rays with energies which may be as large as about 100,000 GeV.

Rovibrational states of Wigner molecules in spherically symmetric confining potentials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cioslowski, Jerzy

2016-08-07

The strong-localization limit of three-dimensional Wigner molecules, in which repulsively interacting particles are confined by a weak spherically symmetric potential, is investigated. An explicit prescription for computation of rovibrational wavefunctions and energies that are asymptotically exact at this limit is presented. The prescription is valid for systems with arbitrary angularly-independent interparticle and confining potentials, including those involving Coulombic and screened (i.e., Yukawa/Debye) interactions. The necessary derivations are greatly simplified by explicit constructions of the Eckart frame and the parity-adapted primitive wavefunctions. The performance of the new formalism is illustrated with the three- and four-electron harmonium atoms at their strong-correlation limits.more » In particular, the involvement of vibrational modes with the E symmetry is readily pinpointed as the origin of the “anomalous” weak-confinement behavior of the {sup 1}S{sub +} state of the four-electron species that is absent in its {sup 1}D{sub +} companion of the strong-confinement regime.« less

Improvement in dehydrogenation of MXH4 where M = Na, Li and X = Al, B confined in CNTs: a DFT investigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meenakshi; Agnihotri, Deepak; Jeet, Kiran; Sharma, Hitesh

2016-11-01

Nanoconfinement improves dehydrogenation kinetics of complex metal hydrides. The present paper reports effect of confinement of MXH4, where M = Na, Li and X = Al, B inside carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (n, 0) n = 9-11 chirality and diameter of 7.47 Å, 7.87 Å, 8.73 Å, respectively, using Density Functional calculations. The MXH4 interacts strongly with the surface atoms of CNT (11, 0) and is found to be the smallest stable system for confinement of MXH4 clusters. The Hydrogen release energy (E Hre) of NaAlH4 decreases sharply by 68.3 % , w.r.t. pure NaAlH4 cluster when confined inside CNT(11, 0). Similarly, in CNT (11, 0) E Hre decreases by 38.1 % for LiAlH4, 12.7 % for NaBH4 and 19.1 % for LiBH4. Thus, resulting confinement had a profound effect in improving the energetics of complex metal hydride nanoparticles without catalyst.

A study of an advanced confined linear energy source

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, M. C.; Heidemann, W. B.

1971-01-01

A literature survey and a test program to develop and evaluate an advanced confined linear energy source were conducted. The advanced confined linear energy source is an explosive or pyrotechnic X-Cord (mild detonating fuse) supported inside a confining tube capable of being hermetically sealed and retaining all products of combustion. The energy released by initiation of the X-Cord is transmitted through the support material to the walls of the confining tube causing an appreciable change in cross sectional configuration and expansion of the tube. When located in an assembly that can accept and use the energy of the tube expansion, useful work is accomplished through fracture of a structure, movement of a load, reposition of a pin, release of a restraint, or similar action. The tube assembly imparts that energy without release of debris or gases from the device itself. This facet of the function is important to the protection of men or equipment located in close proximity to the system during the time of function.

An experimental study of a self-confined flow with ring-vorticity distribution. Ph.D. Thesis. Final Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, K. M.; Moore, F. K.

1976-01-01

A new form of self-confined flow was investigated in which a recirculation zone forms away from any solid boundary. An inviscid flow analysis indicated that in a purely meridional axisymmetric flow a stationary, spherical, self-confined region should occur in the center of a streamlined divergent-convergent enlargement zone. The spherical confinement region would be at rest and at constant pressure. Experimental investigations were carried out in a specially built test apparatus to establish the desired confined flow. The streamlined divergent-convergent interior shape of the test section was fabricated according to the theoretical calculation for a particular streamline. The required inlet vorticity distribution was generated by producing a velocity profile with a shaped gauze screen in the straight pipe upstream of the test section. Fluid speed and turbulence intensity were measured with a constant-temperature hot-wire anemometer system. The measured results indicated a very orderly and stable flow field.

Supercooling of water confined in reverse micelles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spehr, T.; Frick, B.; Grillo, I.; Stühn, B.

2008-03-01

We report on the temperature dependence of the nanosecond-timescale dynamics of the ternary mixture water/AOT/oil with deuterated heptane, toluene or decane as the oil. Water-swollen reverse micelles as formed in such microemulsions allow us to investigate the freezing behaviour of water confined in a soft environment. We report here on the first neutron scattering studies in which the freezing of the confined water and of the oil is followed down to temperatures at which the whole system is frozen. We focus on studies of water confined in three different droplet sizes: by means of small-angle neutron scattering we have determined the radii to be 46, 18, and 7 Å for water to surfactant ratios ω = 40, 12, and 3. From elastic temperature scans by neutron backscattering we deduce a strong supercooling of water confined in the reverse swollen micelles which increases with decreasing droplet size. For the smallest droplets we find a supercooling of more than 45 K compared to bulk water.

Correlation of TEM data with confined phonons to determine strain and size of Ge nanocrystals embedded in SixNy matrix

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bahariqushchi, Rahim; Gündoğdu, Sinan; Aydinli, Atilla

2017-11-01

Models that use phonon confinement fail to provide consistent results for nanocrystal sizes in differing dielectric matrices due to varying stress experienced by nanocrystals in different dielectric environments. In cases where direct measurement of stress is difficult, the possibility of stress saturation as a function of size opens up a window for the use of phonon confinement to determine size. We report on a test of this possibility in Ge: SixNy system. Ge nanocrystals (NCs) embedded in silicon nitride matrix have been fabricated using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) followed by post annealing in Ar ambient. Nanocrystal size dependence of Raman spectra was studied taking into account associated stress and an improved phonon confinement approach. Our analysis show same stress for NCs which have sizes below 7.0 nm allowing the use of phonon confinement to determine the nanocrystal size. The results are compared with TEM data and good agreement is observed.

[Confined blasting in microexplosion cystolithotripsy].

PubMed

Uchida, M

1989-03-01

This paper is the 12th report in a series of studies on the application of microexplosion to medicine and biology. Microexplosion lithotripsy is a newly developed technique in our clinic to crush urinary stones with small quantities of explosives. A systematic research project has been performed since the first report of microexplosion lithotripsy in 1977. As a result, microexplosion was successfully applied to the destruction of bladder stones in 130 cases from 1981 to 1988. In blasting to crush rocks in industrial works, two kinds of blasting are available: external charge blasting and confined blasting. The detonation power of the latter is 10 to 50 times larger than that of the former. A detruction test using several kinds of spherical form model calculus and lead azide explosive was performed. The formula to calculate the suitable explosive dose was determined experimentally as shown below. (formula; see text) Thus the theory in general industrial blasting with massive explosives was proved to be effective also in microexplosion with small explosives. An original electric drill system was developed to make a hole in stones for confined blasting. 60 cases, including 2 cases of giant bladder stones over 100 g in weight, were successfully treated by confined blasting using this system without any complication. We consider that any bladder stones, however big or however many, can be treated by microexplosion lithotripsy with confined blasting.

In search of ancestral Kilauea volcano

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lipman, P.W.; Sisson, T.W.; Ui, T.; Naka, J.

2000-01-01

Submersible observations and samples show that the lower south flank of Hawaii, offshore from Kilauea volcano and the active Hilina slump system, consists entirely of compositionally diverse volcaniclastic rocks; pillow lavas are confined to shallow slopes. Submarine-erupted basalt clasts have strongly variable alkalic and transitional basalt compositions (to 41% SiO2, 10.8% alkalies), contrasting with present-day Kilauea tholeiites. The volcaniclastic rocks provide a unique record of ancestral alkalic growth of an archetypal hotspot volcano, including transition to its tholeiitic shield stage, and associated slope-failure events.

Astronaut activity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftus, J. P., Jr.; Bond, R. L.; Patton, R. M.

1975-01-01

Human factors pertinent to the design and operation of spacecraft are considered. The geometric characteristics of spacecraft that define the degree and type of confinement imposed on the crew and the character of equipment management and housekeeping necessary for hygiene, comfort and safety are discussed. The controls and displays of various spacecraft are described to indicate the degree to which crew functions become integral to functions of the total spacecraft. The contributions of the crew to system reliability and performance are summarized and the increasing significance of the crew's role in scientific observation and experimentation is noted.

Ion distributions in electrolyte confined by multiple dielectric interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jing, Yufei; Zwanikken, Jos W.; Jadhao, Vikram; de La Cruz, Monica

2014-03-01

The distribution of ions at dielectric interfaces between liquids characterized by different dielectric permittivities is crucial to nanoscale assembly processes in many biological and synthetic materials such as cell membranes, colloids and oil-water emulsions. The knowledge of ionic structure of these systems is also exploited in energy storage devices such as double-layer super-capacitors. The presence of multiple dielectric interfaces often complicates computing the desired ionic distributions via simulations or theory. Here, we use coarse-grained models to compute the ionic distributions in a system of electrolyte confined by two planar dielectric interfaces using Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations and liquid state theory. We compute the density profiles for various electrolyte concentrations, stoichiometric ratios and dielectric contrasts. The explanations for the trends in these profiles and discuss their effects on the behavior of the confined charged fluid are also presented.

The kinetic stabilizer: a route to simpler tandem mirror systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Post, R F

2001-02-02

As we enter the new millennium there is a growing urgency to address the issue of finding long-range solutions to the world's energy needs. Fusion offers such a solution, provided economically viable means can be found to extract useful energy from fusion reactions. While the magnetic confinement approach to fusion has a long and productive history, to date the mainline approaches to magnetic confinement, namely closed systems such as the tokamak, appear to many as being too large and complex to be acceptable economically, despite the impressive progress that has made toward the achievement of fusion-relevant confinement parameters. Thus theremore » is a growing feeling that it is imperative to search for new and simpler approaches to magnetic fusion, ones that might lead to smaller and more economically attractive fusion power plants.« less

Quantum engineering. Confining the state of light to a quantum manifold by engineered two-photon loss.

PubMed

Leghtas, Z; Touzard, S; Pop, I M; Kou, A; Vlastakis, B; Petrenko, A; Sliwa, K M; Narla, A; Shankar, S; Hatridge, M J; Reagor, M; Frunzio, L; Schoelkopf, R J; Mirrahimi, M; Devoret, M H

2015-02-20

Physical systems usually exhibit quantum behavior, such as superpositions and entanglement, only when they are sufficiently decoupled from a lossy environment. Paradoxically, a specially engineered interaction with the environment can become a resource for the generation and protection of quantum states. This notion can be generalized to the confinement of a system into a manifold of quantum states, consisting of all coherent superpositions of multiple stable steady states. We have confined the state of a superconducting resonator to the quantum manifold spanned by two coherent states of opposite phases and have observed a Schrödinger cat state spontaneously squeeze out of vacuum before decaying into a classical mixture. This experiment points toward robustly encoding quantum information in multidimensional steady-state manifolds. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Fisher information in confined hydrogen-like ions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mukherjee, Neetik; Majumdar, Sangita; Roy, Amlan K.

2018-01-01

Fisher information (I) is investigated for confined hydrogen atom (CHA)-like systems in conjugate r and p spaces. A comparative study between CHA and free H atom (with respect to I) is pursued. A detailed systematic result of I with respect to variation of confinement radius rc is presented, with particular emphasis on non-zero- (l, m) states. In certain respect, inferences in CHA are significantly different from free counterpart, such as (i) dependence on n, l quantum numbers (ii) appearance of maxima in Ip plots for | m | ≠ 0 . The role of atomic number and atomic radius is discussed.

Quantum control of quasi-collision states: A protocol for hybrid fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vilela Mendes, R.

2018-04-01

When confined to small regions quantum systems exhibit electronic and structural properties different from their free space behavior. These properties are of interest, for example, for molecular insertion, hydrogen storage and the exploration of new pathways for chemical and nuclear reactions. Here, a confined three-body problem is studied, with emphasis on the study of the “quantum scars” associated to dynamical collisions. For the particular case of nuclear reactions, it is proposed that a molecular cage might simply be used as a confining device with the collision states accessed by quantum control techniques.

Simulation of High-Beta Plasma Confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Font, Gabriel; Welch, Dale; Mitchell, Robert; McGuire, Thomas

2017-10-01

The Lockheed Martin Compact Fusion Reactor concept utilizes magnetic cusps to confine the plasma. In order to minimize losses through the axial and ring cusps, the plasma is pushed to a high-beta state. Simulations were made of the plasma and magnetic field system in an effort to quantify particle confinement times and plasma behavior characteristics. Computations are carried out with LSP using implicit PIC methods. Simulations of different sub-scale geometries at high-Beta fusion conditions are used to determine particle loss scaling with reactor size, plasma conditions, and gyro radii. ©2017 Lockheed Martin Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Reactive Behavior of Explosive Billets in Deflagration Tube of Varied Confinements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Haibo; Guo, Yingwen; Li, Tao; Fu, Hua; Shang, Hailin; Wen, Shanggang; Qiu, Tian; LaboratoryShock Wave; Detonation Physics Research Team

2017-06-01

The deflagration process of small size cylinder billets of pressed HMX-based explosive JO-9159 and the deflagration tube wall deformation is recorded by combined pressure velocity-meter high-speed frame photographic and radiographic diagnostic system. The influence of confinement structure strength on deflagration evolution behavior is compared with analysis of convective flame propagation along the slot between explosive billet and confinement wall.The follow-up reaction inside the cracks on the initiation site end surface on the side surfaces and between the end surfaces of explosive billets is restored with the analysis results of post experimental explosive billet remains.

Kinetic turbulence simulations at extreme scale on leadership-class systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wang, Bei; Ethier, Stephane; Tang, William

2013-01-01

Reliable predictive simulation capability addressing confinement properties in magnetically confined fusion plasmas is critically-important for ITER, a 20 billion dollar international burning plasma device under construction in France. The complex study of kinetic turbulence, which can severely limit the energy confinement and impact the economic viability of fusion systems, requires simulations at extreme scale for such an unprecedented device size. Our newly optimized, global, ab initio particle-in-cell code solving the nonlinear equations underlying gyrokinetic theory achieves excellent performance with respect to "time to solution" at the full capacity of the IBM Blue Gene/Q on 786,432 cores of Mira at ALCFmore » and recently of the 1,572,864 cores of Sequoia at LLNL. Recent multithreading and domain decomposition optimizations in the new GTC-P code represent critically important software advances for modern, low memory per core systems by enabling routine simulations at unprecedented size (130 million grid points ITER-scale) and resolution (65 billion particles).« less

Spontaneous formation of spiral-like patterns with distinct periodic physical properties by confined electrodeposition of Co-In disks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Golvano-Escobal, Irati; Gonzalez-Rosillo, Juan Carlos; Domingo, Neus; Illa, Xavi; López-Barberá, José Francisco; Fornell, Jordina; Solsona, Pau; Aballe, Lucia; Foerster, Michael; Suriñach, Santiago; Baró, Maria Dolors; Puig, Teresa; Pané, Salvador; Nogués, Josep; Pellicer, Eva; Sort, Jordi

2016-07-01

Spatio-temporal patterns are ubiquitous in different areas of materials science and biological systems. However, typically the motifs in these types of systems present a random distribution with many possible different structures. Herein, we demonstrate that controlled spatio-temporal patterns, with reproducible spiral-like shapes, can be obtained by electrodeposition of Co-In alloys inside a confined circular geometry (i.e., in disks that are commensurate with the typical size of the spatio-temporal features). These patterns are mainly of compositional nature, i.e., with virtually no topographic features. Interestingly, the local changes in composition lead to a periodic modulation of the physical (electric, magnetic and mechanical) properties. Namely, the Co-rich areas show higher saturation magnetization and electrical conductivity and are mechanically harder than the In-rich ones. Thus, this work reveals that confined electrodeposition of this binary system constitutes an effective procedure to attain template-free magnetic, electric and mechanical surface patterning with specific and reproducible shapes.

Monitoring regional effects of high pressure injection of wastewater in a limestone aquifer

USGS Publications Warehouse

Faulkner, Glen L.; Pascale, Charles A.

1975-01-01

More than 10 billion gallons (38 × 106 m3) of acid industrial liquid waste has been injected in about 11 years under high pressure into a saline-water-filled part of a limestone aquifer of low transmissivity between 1,400 and 1,700 feet (430 and 520 m) below land surface near Pensacola, Florida. A similar waste disposal system is planned for the same zone at a site about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) to the east. The injection zone is the lower limestone of the Floridan aquifer. The lower limestone is overlain by a confining layer of plastic clay about 220 feet (67 m) thick at the active injection site and underlain by another confining layer of shale and clay. The upper confining layer is overlain by the upper limestone of the Floridan aquifer.The active injection system consists of two injection wells about a quarter of a mile (0.4 km) apart and three monitor wells. Two of the monitor wells (deep monitors) are used to observe hydraulic and geochemical effects of waste injection in the injection zone at locations about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south and 1.9 miles (3.1 km) north of the center of the injection site. The third well (shallow monitor), used to observe any effects in the upper limestone, is about 100 feet (30 m) from one of the injection wells. Since 1972 the injection zone has also been monitored at a test well at the planned new injection site. Three more monitor wells in the injection zone were activated in early 1974 at sites 17 miles (27 km) northeast, 22 miles (35 km) east and 33 miles (53 km) northeast of the injection site. The six deep monitors provide a system for evaluating the regional effects of injecting wastes. No change in pressure or water quality due to injection was, by mid-1974, evident in the upper limestone at the injection site, but static pressures in the lower limestone at the site had increased 8 fold since injection began in 1963. Chemical analyses indicated probable arrival of the diluted waste at the south monitor well in 1973. By mid-1974 waste evidently had not reached the north monitor well.Calculations indicate that by mid-1974 pressure effects from waste injection extended radially more than 40 miles (64 km) from the injection site. By mid-1974 pressure effects of injection were evident from water-level measurements made at the five deep monitor wells nearest the active injection site. No effects were recognized at the well 33 miles (53 km) away. Less than 20 miles (32 km) northeast of the active injection site, the lower limestone contains fresh water. Changes in the pressure regime due to injection indicate a tendency for northeastward movement of the fresh-water/salt-water interface in the lower limestone.

Dispersion of γ-Alumina Nano-Sized Spherical Particles in a Calamitic Liquid Crystal. Study and Optimization of the Confinement Effects

PubMed Central

Diez-Berart, Sergio; López, David O.; Sebastián, Nerea; de la Fuente, María Rosario; Salud, Josep; Robles-Hernández, Beatriz; Pérez-Jubindo, Miguel Ángel

2014-01-01

We report an experimental study on confined systems formed by butyloxybenzylidene octylaniline liquid crystal (4O.8) + γ-alumina nanoparticles. The effects of the confinement in the thermal and dielectric properties of the liquid crystal under different densities of nanoparticles is analyzed by means of high resolution Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimetry (MDSC) and broadband dielectric spectroscopy. First, a drastic depression of the N-I and SmA-N transition temperatures is observed with confinement, the more concentration of nanoparticles the deeper this depression is, driving the nematic range closer to the room temperature. An interesting experimental law is found for both transition temperatures. Second, the change in shape of the heat capacity peaks is quantified by means of the full width half maximum (FWHM). Third, the confinement does not noticeably affect the molecular dynamics. Finally, the combination of nanoparticles and the external applied electric field tends to favor the alignment of the molecules in metallic cells. All these results indicate that the confinement of liquid crystals by means of γ-alumina nanoparticles could be optimum for liquid crystal-based electrooptic devices. PMID:28788528

Thermodynamics of confined gallium clusters.

PubMed

Chandrachud, Prachi

2015-11-11

We report the results of ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of Ga13 and Ga17 clusters confined inside carbon nanotubes with different diameters. The cluster-tube interaction is simulated by the Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential. We discuss the geometries, the nature of the bonding and the thermodynamics under confinement. The geometries as well as the isomer spectra of both the clusters are significantly affected. The degree of confinement decides the dimensionality of the clusters. We observe that a number of low-energy isomers appear under moderate confinement while some isomers seen in the free space disappear. Our finite-temperature simulations bring out interesting aspects, namely that the heat capacity curve is flat, even though the ground state is symmetric. Such a flat nature indicates that the phase change is continuous. This effect is due to the restricted phase space available to the system. These observations are supported by the mean square displacement of individual atoms, which are significantly smaller than in free space. The nature of the bonding is found to be approximately jellium-like. Finally we note the relevance of the work to the problem of single file diffusion for the case of the highest confinement.

Coupling of active motion and advection shapes intracellular cargo transport.

PubMed

Khuc Trong, Philipp; Guck, Jochen; Goldstein, Raymond E

2012-07-13

Intracellular cargo transport can arise from passive diffusion, active motor-driven transport along cytoskeletal filament networks, and passive advection by fluid flows entrained by such cargo-motor motion. Active and advective transport are thus intrinsically coupled as related, yet different representations of the same underlying network structure. A reaction-advection-diffusion system is used here to show that this coupling affects the transport and localization of a passive tracer in a confined geometry. For sufficiently low diffusion, cargo localization to a target zone is optimized either by low reaction kinetics and decoupling of bound and unbound states, or by a mostly disordered cytoskeletal network with only weak directional bias. These generic results may help to rationalize subtle features of cytoskeletal networks, for example as observed for microtubules in fly oocytes.

75 FR 53353 - Notice of Availability of Final Interim Staff Guidance Document No. 25 “Pressure and Helium...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-31

... Guidance Document No. 25 ``Pressure and Helium Leakage Testing of the Confinement Boundary of Spent Fuel...: The Division of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation (SFST) of the Office of Nuclear Materials Safety... Helium Leakage Testing of the Confinement Boundary of Spent Fuel Dry Storage Systems.'' This ISG...

78 FR 73379 - List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: HI-STORM 100 Cask System; Amendment No. 9

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-06

..., and criticality control. If there is no loss of confinement, shielding, or criticality control, the... would prevent loss of confinement, shielding, and criticality control. If there is no loss of...;Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 235 / Friday, December 6, 2013 / Rules and Regulations#0;#0; [[Page 73379...

Two-dimensional assemblies of soft repulsive colloids confined at fluid interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isa, L.; Buttinoni, I.; Fernandez-Rodriguez, M. A.; Vasudevan, S. A.

2017-07-01

Colloidal systems are an excellent example of a materials class for which interrogating fundamental questions leads to answers of direct applied relevance. In our group, we in particular focus on two-dimensional assemblies of micro- and nano-particles confined at the interface between two fluids, e.g., oil-water. Here, we review our work on systems interacting through soft repulsive forces of different origin, i.e., electrostatic and steric. By starting from the paradigmatic case of charged colloids at an interface, we show how they are both offering great opportunities as model systems to investigate the structural and mechanical response of materials and as versatile patterning tools for surface nanostructuring. We then move to the case of deformable particles interacting via steric contacts. We first examine microgel particles, which we also demonstrate as very promising models for structural investigations and robust elements for tunable nanolithography. We conclude by briefly discussing the case of particles comprising a hard inorganic core and a deformable polymer shell, which maintain some of the advantageous features of microgel particles, but also enable the realization of two-dimensional functional materials. This article offers our perspective on a very active field of research, where many interesting developments are expected in the near future. Contribution to the Focus Issue Self-assemblies of Inorganic and Organic Nanomaterials edited by Marie-Paule Pileni.

HOW DID A MAJOR CONFINED FLARE OCCUR IN SUPER SOLAR ACTIVE REGION 12192?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jiang, Chaowei; Feng, Xueshang; Wu, S. T.

We study the physical mechanism of a major X-class solar flare that occurred in the super NOAA active region (AR) 12192 using data-driven numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modeling complemented with observations. With the evolving magnetic fields observed at the solar surface as bottom boundary input, we drive an MHD system to evolve self-consistently in correspondence with the realistic coronal evolution. During a two-day time interval, the modeled coronal field has been slowly stressed by the photospheric field evolution, which gradually created a large-scale coronal current sheet, i.e., a narrow layer with intense current, in the core of the AR. The currentmore » layer was successively enhanced until it became so thin that a tether-cutting reconnection between the sheared magnetic arcades was set in, which led to a flare. The modeled reconnecting field lines and their footpoints match well the observed hot flaring loops and the flare ribbons, respectively, suggesting that the model has successfully “reproduced” the macroscopic magnetic process of the flare. In particular, with simulation, we explained why this event is a confined eruption—the consequence of the reconnection is a shared arcade instead of a newly formed flux rope. We also found a much weaker magnetic implosion effect compared to many other X-class flares.« less

Impact of a robotic surgical system on treatment choice for men with clinically organ-confined prostate cancer.

PubMed

Kobayashi, Takashi; Kanao, Kent; Araki, Motoo; Terada, Naoki; Kobayashi, Yasuyuki; Sawada, Atsuro; Inoue, Takahiro; Ebara, Shin; Watanabe, Toyohiko; Kamba, Tomomi; Sumitomo, Makoto; Nasu, Yasutomo; Ogawa, Osamu

2018-04-01

Introducing a new surgical technology may affect behaviors and attitudes of patients and surgeons about clinical practice. Robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP) was approved in 2012 in Japan. We investigated whether the introduction of this system affected the treatment of organ-confined prostate cancer (PCa) and the use of radical prostatectomy (RP). We conducted a retrospective multicenter study on 718 patients with clinically determined organ-confined PCa treated at one of three Japanese academic institutions in 2011 (n = 338) or 2013 (n = 380). Two patient groups formed according to the treatment year were compared regarding the clinical characteristics of PCa, whether referred or screened at our hospital, comorbidities and surgical risk, and choice of primary treatment. Distribution of PCa risk was not changed by the introduction of RALP. Use of RP increased by 70% (from 127 to 221 cases, p < 0.0001), whereas the number of those undergoing radiotherapy or androgen deprivation therapy decreased irrespective of the disease risk of PCa. Increased use of RP (from 34 to 100 cases) for intermediate- or high-risk PCa patients with mild perioperative risk (American Society of Anesthesiologists score 2) accounted for 70% of the total RP increase, whereas the number of low- or very low-risk PCa patients with high comorbidity scores (Charlson Index ≥ 4) increased from 8 to 25 cases, accounting for 18%. Use of expectant management (active surveillance, watchful waiting) in very low-risk PCa patients was 15% in 2011 and 12% in 2013 (p = 0.791). Introduction of a robotic surgical system had little effect on the risk distribution of PCa. Use of RP increased, apparently due to increased indications in patients who are candidates for RP but have mild perioperative risk. Although small, there was an increase in the number of RPs performed on patients with severe comorbidities but with low-risk or very low-risk PCa.

Decadal-scale changes in dissolved-solids concentrations in groundwater used for public supply, Salt Lake Valley, Utah

USGS Publications Warehouse

Thiros, Susan A.; Spangler, Larry

2010-01-01

Basin-fill aquifers are a major source of good-quality water for public supply in many areas of the southwestern United States and have undergone increasing development as populations have grown over time. During 2005, the basin-fill aquifer in Salt Lake Valley, Utah, provided approximately 75,000 acre-feet, or about 29 percent of the total amount of water used by a population of 967,000. Groundwater in the unconsolidated basin-fill deposits that make up the aquifer occurs under unconfined and confined conditions. Water in the shallow unconfined part of the groundwater system is susceptible to near-surface contamination and generally is not used as a source of drinking water. Groundwater for public supply is withdrawn from the deeper unconfined and confined parts of the system, termed the principal aquifer, because yields generally are greater and water quality is better (including lower dissolved-solids concentrations) than in the shallower parts of the system. Much of the water in the principal aquifer is derived from recharge in the adjacent Wasatch Range (mountain-block recharge). In many areas, the principal aquifer is separated from the overlying shallow aquifer by confining layers of less permeable, fine-grained sediment that inhibit the downward movement of water and any potential contaminants from the surface. Nonetheless, under certain hydrologic conditions, human-related activities can increase dissolved-solids concentrations in the principal aquifer and result in groundwater becoming unsuitable for consumption without treatment or mixing with water having lower dissolved-solids concentrations. Dissolved-solids concentrations in areas of the principal aquifer used for public supply typically are less than 500 milligrams per liter (mg/L), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) secondary (nonenforceable) drinking-water standard. However, substantial increases in dissolved-solids concentrations in the principal aquifer have been documented in some areas used for public supply, raising concerns as to the source(s) and cause(s) of the higher concentrations and the potential long-term effects on groundwater quality.

A modified preparation procedure for carbon nanotube-confined Nd/Na heterobimetallic catalyst for anti-selective catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reactions.

PubMed

Sureshkumar, Devarajulu; Hashimoto, Kazuki; Kumagai, Naoya; Shibasaki, Masakatsu

2013-11-15

A recyclable asymmetric metal-based catalyst is a rare entity among the vast collection of asymmetric catalysts developed so far. Recently we found that the combination of a self-assembling metal-based asymmetric catalyst and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) produced a highly active and recyclable catalyst in which the catalytically active metal complex was dispersed in the MWNT network. Herein we describe an improved preparation procedure and full details of a Nd/Na heterobimetallic complex confined in MWNTs. Facilitated self-assembly of the catalyst with MWNTs avoided the sacrificial use of excess chiral ligand for the formation of the heterobimetallic complex, improving the loading ratio of the catalyst components. Eighty-five percent of the catalyst components were incorporated onto MWNTs to produce the confined catalyst, which was a highly efficient and recyclable catalyst for the anti-selective asymmetric nitroaldol reaction. The requisite precautions for the catalyst preparation to elicit reproducible catalytic performance are summarized. Superior catalytic profiles over the prototype catalyst without MWNTs were revealed in the synthesis of optically active 1,2-nitroalkanols, which are key intermediates for the synthesis of therapeutics.

Ordering of two-dimensional crystals confined in strips of finite width

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ricci, A.; Nielaba, P.; Sengupta, S.; Binder, K.

2007-01-01

Monte Carlo simulations are used to study the effect of confinement on a crystal of point particles interacting with an inverse power law potential ∝r-12 in d=2 dimensions. This system can describe colloidal particles at the air-water interface, a model system for experimental study of two-dimensional melting. It is shown that the state of the system (a strip of width D ) depends very sensitively on the precise boundary conditions at the two “walls” providing the confinement. If one uses a corrugated boundary commensurate with the order of the bulk triangular crystalline structure, both orientational order and positional order is enhanced, and such surface-induced order persists near the boundaries also at temperatures where the system in the bulk is in its fluid state. However, using smooth repulsive boundaries as walls providing the confinement, only the orientational order is enhanced, but positional (quasi-)long range order is destroyed: The mean-square displacement of two particles n lattice parameters apart in the y direction along the walls then crosses over from the logarithmic increase (characteristic for d=2 ) to a linear increase with n (characteristic for d=1 ). The strip then exhibits a vanishing shear modulus. These results are interpreted in terms of a phenomenological harmonic theory. Also the effect of incommensurability of the strip width D with the triangular lattice structure is discussed, and a comparison with surface effects on phase transitions in simple Ising and XY models is made.

Study of confinement and sliding friction of fluids using sum frequency generation spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nanjundiah, Kumar

2007-12-01

Friction and wear are important technologically. Tires on wet roads, windshield wipers and human joints are examples where nanometer-thick liquids are confined between flexible-rigid contact interfaces. Fundamental understanding of the structure of these liquids can assist in the design of products such as artificial joints and lubricants for Micro-electromechanical systems [MEMS]. Prior force measurements have suggested an increase in apparent viscosity of confined liquid and sometimes solid-like responses. But, these have not given the state of molecules under confinement. In the present study, we have used a surface sensitive, non-linear optical technique (infrared-visible sum frequency generation spectroscopy [SFG]) to investigate molecular structure at hidden interfaces. SFG can identify chemical groups, concentration and orientation of molecules at an interface. A friction cell was developed to study sliding of a smooth elastomeric lens against a sapphire surface. Experiments were done with dry sliding as well as lubricated sliding in the presence of linear alkane liquids. SFG spectra at the alkane/sapphire interface revealed ordering of the confined alkane molecules. These were more ordered than alkane liquid, but less ordered than alkane crystal. Cooling of the confined alkane below its melting temperature [TM] led to molecular orientation that was different from that of bulk crystal next to a sapphire surface. Molecules were oriented with their symmetry axis parallel to the surface normal. In addition, the melting temperature [Tconf] under confinement for a series of linear alkanes (n =15--27) showed a surprising trend. Intermediate molecular weights showed melting point depression. The T conf values suggested that melting started at the alkane/sapphire interface. In another investigation, confinement of water between an elastomeric PDMS lens and sapphire was studied. SFG spectra at the sapphire/water/PDMS interface revealed a heterogeneous morphology. The presence of peaks related to PDMS, as well as water, suggested water puddles in the contact area and the sapphire surface had a layer of bound water. This heterogeneity picture provides insight into high friction and stick-slip behavior found in boundary lubrication. For the first time, a broadband SFG system has been coupled with a friction cell to study dynamics and molecular changes at an interface during sliding; sliding of confined alkane between sapphire and PDMS was investigated. A series of SFG spectra were taken while the confined alkane contact spot moved in and out of the laser beam. Even though the experiments were done 15°C above melting temperature, the spectra showed ordering of alkane molecules, similar to that of the confined crystal at the leading and trailing edge. The results suggest that a large portion of the resistance to sliding may come from ordering of molecules at the lens front.

In situ nano- to microscopic imaging and growth mechanism of electrochemical dissolution (e.g., corrosion) of a confined metal surface

PubMed Central

Merola, C.; Cheng, H.-W.; Schwenzfeier, K.; Kristiansen, K.; Chen, Y.-J.; Dobbs, H. A.; Valtiner, M.

2017-01-01

Reactivity in confinement is central to a wide range of applications and systems, yet it is notoriously difficult to probe reactions in confined spaces in real time. Using a modified electrochemical surface forces apparatus (EC-SFA) on confined metallic surfaces, we observe in situ nano- to microscale dissolution and pit formation (qualitatively similar to previous observation on nonmetallic surfaces, e.g., silica) in well-defined geometries in environments relevant to corrosion processes. We follow “crevice corrosion” processes in real time in different pH-neutral NaCl solutions and applied surface potentials of nickel (vs. Ag|AgCl electrode in solution) for the mica–nickel confined interface of total area ∼0.03 mm2. The initial corrosion proceeds as self-catalyzed pitting, visualized by the sudden appearance of circular pits with uniform diameters of 6–7 μm and depth ∼2–3 nm. At concentrations above 10 mM NaCl, pitting is initiated at the outer rim of the confined zone, while below 10 mM NaCl, pitting is initiated inside the confined zone. We compare statistical analysis of growth kinetics and shape evolution of individual nanoscale deep pits with estimates from macroscopic experiments to study initial pit growth and propagation. Our data and experimental techniques reveal a mechanism that suggests initial corrosion results in formation of an aggressive interfacial electrolyte that rapidly accelerates pitting, similar to crack initiation and propagation within the confined area. These results support a general mechanism for nanoscale material degradation and dissolution (e.g., crevice corrosion) of polycrystalline nonnoble metals, alloys, and inorganic materials within confined interfaces. PMID:28827338

Effect of Short-Circuit Pathways on Water Quality in Selected Confined Aquifers (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McMahon, P. B.

2010-12-01

Confined aquifers in the United States generally contain fewer anthropogenic contaminants than unconfined aquifers because confined aquifers often contain water recharged prior to substantial human development and redox conditions are more reducing, which favors degradation of common contaminants like nitrate and chlorinated solvents. Groundwater in a confined part of the High Plains aquifer near York, Nebraska had an adjusted radiocarbon age of about 2,000 years, and groundwater in a confined part of the Floridan aquifer near Tampa, Florida had apparent ages greater than 60 years on the basis of tritium measurements. Yet compounds introduced more recently into the environment (anthropogenic nitrate and volatile organic compounds) were detected in selected public-supply wells completed in both aquifers. Depth-dependent measurements of flow and chemistry in the pumping supply wells, groundwater age dating, numerical modeling of groundwater flow, and other monitoring data indicated that the confined aquifers sampled by the supply wells were connected to contaminated unconfined aquifers by short-circuit pathways. In the High Plains aquifer, the primary pathways appeared to be inactive irrigation wells screened in both the unconfined and confined aquifers. In the Floridan aquifer, the primary pathways were karst sinkholes and conduits. Heavy pumping in both confined systems exacerbated the problem by reducing the potentiometric surface and increasing groundwater velocities, thus enhancing downward gradients and reducing reaction times for processes like denitrification. From a broader perspective, several confined aquifers in the U.S. have experienced large declines in their potentiometric surfaces because of groundwater pumping and this could increase the potential for contamination in those aquifers, particularly where short-circuit pathways connect them to shallower, contaminated sources of water, such as was observed in York and Tampa.

Hydrogeologic framework of the Floridan aquifer system in Florida and in parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama

USGS Publications Warehouse

Miller, James A.

1986-01-01

The Floridan aquifer system of the Southeastern United States is comprised of a thick sequence of carbonate rocks that are mostly of Paleocene to early Miocene age and that are hydraulically connected in varying degrees. The aquifer system consists of a single vertically continuous permeable unit updip and of two major permeable zones (the Upper and Lower Floridan aquifers) separated by one of seven middle confining units downdip. Neither the boundaries of the aquifer system or of its component high- and low-permeability zones necessarily conform to either formation boundaries or time-stratigraphic breaks. The rocks that make up the Floridan aquifer system, its upper and lower confining units, and a surficial aquifer have been separated into several chronostratigraphic units. The external and internal geometry of these stratigraphic units is presented on a series of structure contour and isopach maps and by a series of geohydrologic cross sections and a fence diagram. Paleocene through middle Eocene units consist of an updip clastic facies and a downdip carbonate bank facies, that extends progressively farther north and east in progressively younger units. Upper Eocene and Oligocene strata are predominantly carbonate rocks throughout the study area. Miocene and younger strata are mostly clastic rocks. Subsurface data show that some modifications in current stratigraphic nomenclature are necessary. First, the middle Eocene Lake City Limestone cannot be distinguished lithologically or faunally from the overlying middle Eocene Avon Park 'Limestone.' Accordingly, it is proposed that the term Lake City be abandoned and the term Avon Park Formation be applied to the entire middle Eocene carbonate section of peninsular Florida and southeastern Georgia. A reference well section in Levy County, Fla., is proposed for the expanded Avon Park Formation. The Avon Park is called a 'formation' more properly than a 'limestone' because the unit contains rock types other than limestone. Second, like the Avon Park, the lower Eocene Oldsmar and Paleocene Cedar Keys 'Limestones' of peninsular Florida practically everywhere contain rock types other than limestone. It is therefore proposed that these units be referred to more accurately as Oldsmar Formation and Cedar Keys Formation. The uppermost hydrologic unit in the study area is a surficial aquifer that can be divided into (1) a fluvial sand-and-gravel aquifer in southwestern Alabama and westernmost panhandle Florida, (2) limestone and sandy limestone of the Biscayne aquifer in southeastern peninsular Florida, and (3) a thin blanket of terrace and fluvial sands elsewhere. The surficial aquifer is underlain by a thick sequence of fine clastic rocks and low-permeability carbonate rocks, most of which are part of the middle Miocene Hawthorn Formation and all of which form the upper confining unit of the Floridan aquifer system. In places, the upper confining unit has been removed by erosion or is breached by sinkholes. Water in the Floridan aquifer system thus occurs under unconfined, semiconfined, or fully confined conditions, depending upon the presence, thickness, and integrity of the upper confining unit. Within the Floridan aquifer system, seven low permeability zones of subregional extent split the aquifer system in most places into an Upper and Lower Floridan aquifer. The Upper Floridan aquifer, which consists of all or parts of rocks of Oligocene age, late Eocene age, and the upper half of rocks of middle Eocene age, is highly permeable. The middle confining units that underlie the Upper Floridan are mostly of middle Eocene age but may be as young as Oligocene or as old as early Eocene. Where no middle confining unit exists, the entire aquifer system is comprised of permeable rocks and for hydrologic discussions is treated as the Upper Floridan aquifer. The Lower Floridan aquifer contains a cavernous high-permeability horizon in the lower part of the early Eocene of south

Grazing intensity affects the environmental impact of dairy systems.

PubMed

Aguirre-Villegas, H A; Passos-Fonseca, T H; Reinemann, D J; Larson, R

2017-08-01

Dairy products are major components of the human diet but are also important contributors to global environmental impacts. This study evaluated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, net energy intensity (NEI), and land use of confined dairy systems with increasing levels of pasture in the diet. A Wisconsin farm was modeled to represent practices adopted by dairy operations in a humid continental climate typical in the Great Lakes region and other climates that have large differences in seasonal temperatures. Five grazing scenarios (all of which contained some portion of confinement) were modeled based on different concentrations of dry matter intake from pasture and feed supplementation from corn grain, corn silage, and soybean meal. Scenarios that incorporate grazing consisted of 5 mo of pasture feeding from May to September and 7 mo of confined feeding from October to April. Environmental impacts were compared within the 5 scenarios that incorporate grazing and across 2 entirely confined scenarios with and without on-farm electricity production through anaerobic digestion (AD). To conduct a fair comparison, all scenarios were evaluated based on the same total amount of milk produced per day where resource inputs were adjusted according to the characteristics of each scenario. A cradle-to-farm gate life cycle assessment evaluated the environmental burdens that were partitioned by allocation between milk and meat and by system expansion when biogas-based electricity was produced. Overall, results for all scenarios were comparable. Enteric methane was the greatest contributor to GHG emissions, and the production of crops was the most energy-intense process. For the confined scenario without AD, GHG emissions were 0.87 kg of CO 2 equivalents, NEI was 1.59 MJ, and land use was 1.59 m 2 /kg of fat- and protein-corrected milk (FPCM). Anaerobic digestion significantly reduced emissions to 0.28 kg of CO 2 equivalents/kg of FPCM and reduced NEI to -1.26 MJ/kg of FPCM, indicating a net energy producing system and highlighting the potential of AD to improve the sustainability of confined systems. For scenarios that combined confinement and grazing, GHG emissions ranged from 0.84 to 0.92 kg of CO 2 equivalents, NEI ranged from 1.42 to 1.59 MJ, and land use ranged from 1.19 to 1.26 m 2 /kg of FPCM. All environmental impacts were minimized in scenarios that supplemented enough feed to increase milk yield but maintained dry matter intake from pasture at a level high enough to reduce material and energy use. The Authors. Published by the Federation of Animal Science Societies and Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

Latest Advances in Antibacterial Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loh, Xian Jun

This paper will update readers on the latest work in the area of antibacterial polymeric systems. There is extensive literature on existing systems. This complexity confines us to the latest antibacterial materials which possess (1) responsive antibacterial activity on their own; (2) anti-biofilm formation and (3) formation of antibacterial polymeric films. The objective of this review is to provide an overview of the antibacterial synthetic polymer field. In this paper, I will analyze the early promise of this technology as well as highlight potential challenges that adopters could face. The primary focus will be the application of materials to the medical industry and to show how these materials can be tailored to create responsive, customized bactericidal materials.

Ground state atoms confined in a real Rydberg and complex Rydberg-Scarf II potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mansoori Kermani, Maryam

2017-12-01

In this work, a system of two ground state atoms confined in a one-dimensional real Rydberg potential was modeled. The atom-atom interaction was considered as a nonlocal separable potential (NLSP) of rank one. This potential was assumed because it leads to an analytical solution of the Lippmann-Schwinger equation. The NLSPs are useful in the few body problems that the many-body potential at each point is replaced by a projective two-body nonlocal potential operator. Analytical expressions for the confined particle resolvent were calculated as a key function in this study. The contributions of the bound and virtual states in the complex energy plane were obtained via the derived transition matrix. Since the low energy quantum scattering problems scattering length is an important quantity, the behavior of this parameter was described versus the reduced energy considering various values of potential parameters. In a one-dimensional model, the total cross section in units of the area is not a meaningful property; however, the reflectance coefficient has a similar role. Therefore the reflectance probability and its behavior were investigated. Then a new confined potential via combining the complex absorbing Scarf II potential with the real Rydberg potential, called the Rydberg-Scarf II potential, was introduced to construct a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. In order to investigate the effect of the complex potential, the scattering length and reflectance coefficient were calculated. It was concluded that in addition to the competition between the repulsive and attractive parts of both potentials, the imaginary part of the complex potential has an important effect on the properties of the system. The complex potential also reduces the reflectance probability via increasing the absorption probability. For all numerical computations, the parameters of a system including argon gas confined in graphite were considered.

Compounding effects of fluid confinement and surface strain on the wet–dry transition, thermodynamic response, and dynamics of water–graphene systems

DOE PAGES

Chialvo, Ariel A.; Vlcek, Lukas; Cummings, Peter T.

2014-10-17

We studied the link between the water-mediated (tensile or compressive) strain-driven hydration free energy changes in the association process involving finite-size graphene surfaces, the resulting water-graphene interfacial behavior, and the combined effect of surface strain and fluid confinement on the thermodynamic response functions and the dynamics of water. In this study, we found that either small surface corrugation (compressive strain) or surface stretching (tensile strain) is able to enhance significantly the water-graphene hydrophobicity relative to that of the unstrained surface, an effect that exacerbates the confinement impact on the isothermal compressibility and isobaric thermal expansivity of confined water, as wellmore » as on the slowing down of its dynamics that gives rise to anomalous diffusivity.« less

Status of fusion research and implications for D/He-3 systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miley, George H.

1988-01-01

World wide programs in both magnetic confinement and inertial confinement fusion research have made steady progress towards the experimental demonstration of energy breakeven. However, after breakeven is achieved, considerable time and effort must still be expended to develop a usable power plant. The main program described is focused on Deuterium-Tritium devices. In magnetic confinement, three of the most promising high beta approaches with a reasonable experimental data base are the Field Reversed Configuration, the high field tokamak, and the dense Z-pinch. The situation is less clear in inertial confinement where the first step requires an experimental demonstration of D/T spark ignition. It appears that fusion research has reached a point in time where an R and D plan to develop a D/He-3 fusion reactor can be laid out with some confidence of success.

Somersault of Paramecium in extremely confined environments.

PubMed

Jana, Saikat; Eddins, Aja; Spoon, Corrie; Jung, Sunghwan

2015-08-19

We investigate various swimming modes of Paramecium in geometric confinements and a non-swimming self-bending behavior like a somersault, which is quite different from the previously reported behaviors. We observe that Paramecia execute directional sinusoidal trajectories in thick fluid films, whereas Paramecia meander around a localized region and execute frequent turns due to collisions with adjacent walls in thin fluid films. When Paramecia are further constrained in rectangular channels narrower than the length of the cell body, a fraction of meandering Paramecia buckle their body by pushing on the channel walls. The bucking (self-bending) of the cell body allows the Paramecium to reorient its anterior end and explore a completely new direction in extremely confined spaces. Using force deflection method, we quantify the Young's modulus of the cell and estimate the swimming and bending powers exerted by Paramecium. The analysis shows that Paramecia can utilize a fraction of its swimming power to execute the self-bending maneuver within the confined channel and no extra power may be required for this new kind of self-bending behavior. This investigation sheds light on how micro-organisms can use the flexibility of the body to actively navigate within confined spaces.

Somersault of Paramecium in extremely confined environments

PubMed Central

Jana, Saikat; Eddins, Aja; Spoon, Corrie; Jung, Sunghwan

2015-01-01

We investigate various swimming modes of Paramecium in geometric confinements and a non-swimming self-bending behavior like a somersault, which is quite different from the previously reported behaviors. We observe that Paramecia execute directional sinusoidal trajectories in thick fluid films, whereas Paramecia meander around a localized region and execute frequent turns due to collisions with adjacent walls in thin fluid films. When Paramecia are further constrained in rectangular channels narrower than the length of the cell body, a fraction of meandering Paramecia buckle their body by pushing on the channel walls. The bucking (self-bending) of the cell body allows the Paramecium to reorient its anterior end and explore a completely new direction in extremely confined spaces. Using force deflection method, we quantify the Young’s modulus of the cell and estimate the swimming and bending powers exerted by Paramecium. The analysis shows that Paramecia can utilize a fraction of its swimming power to execute the self-bending maneuver within the confined channel and no extra power may be required for this new kind of self-bending behavior. This investigation sheds light on how micro-organisms can use the flexibility of the body to actively navigate within confined spaces. PMID:26286234

Somersault of Paramecium in extremely confined environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jana, Saikat; Eddins, Aja; Spoon, Corrie; Jung, Sunghwan

2015-08-01

We investigate various swimming modes of Paramecium in geometric confinements and a non-swimming self-bending behavior like a somersault, which is quite different from the previously reported behaviors. We observe that Paramecia execute directional sinusoidal trajectories in thick fluid films, whereas Paramecia meander around a localized region and execute frequent turns due to collisions with adjacent walls in thin fluid films. When Paramecia are further constrained in rectangular channels narrower than the length of the cell body, a fraction of meandering Paramecia buckle their body by pushing on the channel walls. The bucking (self-bending) of the cell body allows the Paramecium to reorient its anterior end and explore a completely new direction in extremely confined spaces. Using force deflection method, we quantify the Young’s modulus of the cell and estimate the swimming and bending powers exerted by Paramecium. The analysis shows that Paramecia can utilize a fraction of its swimming power to execute the self-bending maneuver within the confined channel and no extra power may be required for this new kind of self-bending behavior. This investigation sheds light on how micro-organisms can use the flexibility of the body to actively navigate within confined spaces.

Effect of confinement in small space flight size cages on insulin sensitivity of exercise-trained rats

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mondon, C. E.; Dolkas, C. B.; Reaven, G. M.

1983-01-01

The effect of confinement in small cages (simulating the size to be used in future space Shuttle missions) on insulin sensitivity was studied in rats having an increased insulin sensitivity due to exercise training prior to confinement. Oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) were given to both control and exercise-trained rats before and after placement in the small cages for 7 days. The insulin resistance was assessed by the product of the area of the insulin and glucose curves of the OGTT (IG index). Results show that the values obtained before confinement were one-half as high in exercise-trained rats as those in control rats, reflecting an increased sensitivity to insulin with exercise training. After 7 days confinement, the IG index was found to be not significantly different from initial values for both control and exercise-trained rats. These findings suggest that increased insulin sensitivity in exercise-trained rats persists 7 days after cessation of running activity. The data also indicate that exercise training, before flight, may be beneficial in minimizing the loss of insulin sensitivity expected with decreased use of gravity dependent muscles during exposure to hypogravity in space flight.

Role of Confinement on Adsorption and Dynamics of Ethane and an Ethane–CO 2 Mixture in Mesoporous CPG Silica

DOE PAGES

Patankar, Sumant; Gautam, Siddharth; Rother, Gernot; ...

2016-02-10

It was found that ethane is confined to mineral and organic pores in certain shale formations. Effects of confinement on structural and dynamic properties of ethane in mesoporous controlled pore glass (CPG) were studied by gravimetric adsorption and quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) measurements. The obtained isotherms and scattering data complement each other by quantifying the relative strength of the solid–fluid interactions and the transport properties of the fluid under confinement, respectively. We used a magnetic suspension balance to measure the adsorption isotherms at two temperatures and over a range of pressures corresponding to a bulk density range of 0.01–0.35 g/cmmore » 3. Key confinement effects were highlighted through differences between isotherms for the two pore sizes. A comparison was made with previously published isotherms for CO 2 on the same CPG materials. Behavior of ethane in the smaller pore size was probed further using quasi-elastic neutron scattering. By extracting the self-diffusivity and residence time, we were able to study the effect of pressure and transition from gaseous to supercritical densities on the dynamics of confined ethane. Moreover, a temperature variation QENS study was also completed with pure ethane and a CO 2–ethane mixture. Activation energies extracted from the Arrhenius plots show the effects of CO 2 addition on ethane mobility.« less

Large Bore Powder Gun Qualification (U)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rabern, Donald A.; Valdiviez, Robert

A Large Bore Powder Gun (LBPG) is being designed to enable experimentalists to characterize material behavior outside the capabilities of the NNSS JASPER and LANL TA-55 PF-4 guns. The combination of these three guns will create a capability to conduct impact experiments over a wide range of pressures and shock profiles. The Large Bore Powder Gun will be fielded at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) U1a Complex. The Complex is nearly 1000 ft below ground with dedicated drifts for testing, instrumentation, and post-shot entombment. To ensure the reliability, safety, and performance of the LBPG, a qualification plan has beenmore » established and documented here. Requirements for the LBPG have been established and documented in WE-14-TR-0065 U A, Large Bore Powder Gun Customer Requirements. The document includes the requirements for the physics experiments, the gun and confinement systems, and operations at NNSS. A detailed description of the requirements is established in that document and is referred to and quoted throughout this document. Two Gun and Confinement Systems will be fielded. The Prototype Gun will be used primarily to characterize the gun and confinement performance and be the primary platform for qualification actions. This gun will also be used to investigate and qualify target and diagnostic modifications through the life of the program (U1a.104 Drift). An identical gun, the Physics Gun, will be fielded for confirmatory and Pu experiments (U1a.102D Drift). Both guns will be qualified for operation. The Gun and Confinement System design will be qualified through analysis, inspection, and testing using the Prototype Gun for the majority of process. The Physics Gun will be qualified through inspection and a limited number of qualification tests to ensure performance and behavior equivalent to the Prototype gun. Figure 1.1 shows the partial configuration of U1a and the locations of the Prototype and Physics Gun/Confinement Systems.« less

Two New Pieces of Emergency Response Equipment for use in Confined Space Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Graf, John

2011-01-01

NASA is developing two new pieces of emergency response equipment that recognize and address the constraints of a confined space environment. One piece of equipment is a respirator designed for use in a post fire environment. Traditional first responders generally use supplied air respirators - they provide cool, dry, safe breathing air to the first responder, and because they are supplied at above ambient pressure, the system is tolerant to a loose-fitting mask. Supplied air respirators have a limited supply of air, but because the traditional first responder intends to address the emergency from outside and then retreat, this limited air supply does not pose a serious problem. NASA uses a supplied oxygen respirator for first response to an emergency affecting air quality on the International Space Station. The air supply is rated for 15 minutes - ISS program managers sponsored a hardware development activity to provide the astronauts up to 8 hours of breathing protection after the supplied air system is exhausted. Size and weight limitations prevent the use of a supplied air system for 8 hours for six crew members. A trade study resulted in the selection of a filtering respirator system over a re-breather system; due to design simplicity, operational simplicity, and likely threats to air quality on ISS. The respirator cartridge that filters smoke particles, adsorbs organics and acid gases, and catalytically converts carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide has been qualified for use on ISS, and was delivered on STS-135, the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program.

Confinement of Radioactive Materials at Defense Nuclear Facilities

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-10-01

The design of defense nuclear facilities includes systems whose reliable operation is vital to the protection of the public, workers, and the...final safety-class barrier to the release of hazardous materials with potentially serious public consequences. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety...the public at certain defense nuclear facilities . This change has resulted in downgrading of the functional safety classification of confinement

A Survey of Distributed Capability File Systems and Their Application to Cloud Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

proposition B∧F →Con f [18, figure 15]. 23 ways in which a program may misbehave and attempt to leak information. 3.3.3 Confused Deputy A confused deputy...weaker notion of confinement, due to the fact that its confinement mechanism relies on trusting that subjects will not misbehave . 6.3 Least Privilege Our

Mass action at the single-molecule level.

PubMed

Shon, Min Ju; Cohen, Adam E

2012-09-05

We developed a system to reversibly encapsulate small numbers of molecules in an array of nanofabricated "dimples". This system enables highly parallel, long-term, and attachment-free studies of molecular dynamics via single-molecule fluorescence. In studies of bimolecular reactions of small numbers of confined molecules, we see phenomena that, while expected from basic statistical mechanics, are not observed in bulk chemistry. Statistical fluctuations in the occupancy of sealed reaction chambers lead to steady-state fluctuations in reaction equilibria and rates. These phenomena are likely to be important whenever reactions happen in confined geometries.

Polymer in a pore: Effect of confinement on the free energy barrier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Sanjiv; Kumar, Sanjay

2018-06-01

We investigate the transfer of a polymer chain from cis- side to trans- side through two types of pores: cone-shaped channel and flat-channel. Using the exact enumeration technique, we obtain the free energy landscapes of a polymer chain for such systems. We have also calculated the free-energy barrier of a polymer chain attached to the edge of the pore. The model system allows us to calculate the force required to pull polymer from the pore and stall-force to confine polymer within the pore.

Singlet vs. triplet interelectronic repulsion in confined atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarsa, A.; Buendía, E.; Gálvez, F. J.; Katriel, J.

2018-06-01

Hund's multiplicity rule invariably holds for the ground configurations of few-electron atoms as well as those of multi-electron quantum dots. However, the ordering of the corresponding interelectronic repulsions exhibits a reversal in the former but not in the latter system, upon varying the system parameters. Here, we investigate the transition between these two types of behaviour by studying few-electron atoms confined in spherical cavities. "Counter-intuitive" ordering of the interelectronic repulsions is confirmed when the nuclear charge is low enough and the cavity radius is large enough.

Collective oscillations and coupled modes in confined microfluidic droplet arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schiller, Ulf D.; Fleury, Jean-Baptiste; Seemann, Ralf; Gompper, Gerhard

Microfluidic droplets have a wide range of applications ranging from analytic assays in cellular biology to controlled mixing in chemical engineering. Ensembles of microfluidic droplets are interesting model systems for non-equilibrium many-body phenomena. When flowing in a microchannel, trains of droplets can form microfluidic crystals whose dynamics are governed by long-range hydrodynamic interactions and boundary effects. In this contribution, excitation mechanisms for collective waves in dense and confined microfluidic droplet arrays are investigated by experiments and computer simulations. We demonstrate that distinct modes can be excited by creating specific `defect' patterns in flowing droplet trains. While longitudinal modes exhibit a short-lived cascade of pairs of laterally displacing droplets, transversely excited modes form propagating waves that behave like microfluidic phonons. We show that the confinement induces a coupling between longitudinal and transverse modes. We also investigate the life time of the collective oscillations and discuss possible mechanisms for the onset of instabilities. Our results demonstrate that microfluidic phonons can exhibit effects beyond the linear theory, which can be studied particularly well in dense and confined systems. This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Grant No. SE 1118/4.

Confinement factor, near and far field patterns in InGaN MQW laser diodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martín, J.; Sánchez, M.

2005-07-01

In this work the influence of the QW number in the active region on spectral characteristics in InGaN multi quamtun well lasers is analyzed. A comparison between the abrupt index step structure (Step) and a graded-index structure (GRIN) is done. The effect of the introduction of a p-AlxGa1-xN electron blocking layer, placed above the last InGaN barrier in the Step structure is also analyzed. Calculations of the confinement factor, near and far field patterns were carried out. We found that with the adequate aluminum content in this layer, the confinement factor, near and far field patterns are improved, and values similar to those obtained with GRIN structure can be reached.

Institutional games played by confined juveniles.

PubMed

Bartollas, C; Sieverdes, C M

1983-01-01

This study examined the games played by 561 juvenile offenders confined in six coeducational correctional facilities in one state. The types of games these residents used against staff and peers within the confines of the institution varied considerably. The study documented nineteen games used by males and females, twelve to deal with staff and seven to deal with peers. The games were defined as therapeutic games, material games, psychological games, and physical games. Peer-oriented games included attention-seeking activities and a variety of dominance games. Additionally, these games were described and tabulated according to the sex and race of the residents. The conclusion was that game-playing behavior was no less frequent in coeducational institutions than it was in single-sex institutions.

Diamagnetic susceptibility of a hydrogenic donor in a group IV-VI quantum dot-quantum well heterostructure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Saravanamoorthy, S. N.; Peter, A. John, E-mail: a.john.peter@gmail.com

2016-05-23

Electronic properties of a hydrogenic donor impurity in a CdSe/Pb{sub 0.8}Cd{sub 0.2}Se/CdSe quantum dot quantum well system are investigated for various radii of core with shell materials. Confined energies are obtained taking into account the geometrical size of the system and thereby the donor binding energies are found. The diamagnetic susceptibility is estimated for a confined shallow donor in the well system. The results show that the diamagnetic susceptibility strongly depends on core and shell radii and it is more sensitive to variations of the geometrical size of the well material.

Diffusion in quasi-one-dimensional channels: A small system n, p, T, transition state theory for hopping times.

PubMed

Ahmadi, Sheida; Bowles, Richard K

2017-04-21

Particles confined to a single file, in a narrow quasi-one-dimensional channel, exhibit a dynamic crossover from single file diffusion to Fickian diffusion as the channel radius increases and the particles begin to pass each other. The long time diffusion coefficient for a system in the crossover regime can be described in terms of a hopping time, which measures the time it takes for a particle to escape the cage formed by its neighbours. In this paper, we develop a transition state theory approach to the calculation of the hopping time, using the small system isobaric-isothermal ensemble to rigorously account for the volume fluctuations associated with the size of the cage. We also describe a Monte Carlo simulation scheme that can be used to calculate the free energy barrier for particle hopping. The theory and simulation method correctly predict the hopping times for a two-dimensional confined ideal gas system and a system of confined hard discs over a range of channel radii, but the method breaks down for wide channels in the hard discs' case, underestimating the height of the hopping barrier due to the neglect of interactions between the small system and its surroundings.

Anomalous structural transition of confined hard squares.

PubMed

Gurin, Péter; Varga, Szabolcs; Odriozola, Gerardo

2016-11-01

Structural transitions are examined in quasi-one-dimensional systems of freely rotating hard squares, which are confined between two parallel walls. We find two competing phases: one is a fluid where the squares have two sides parallel to the walls, while the second one is a solidlike structure with a zigzag arrangement of the squares. Using transfer matrix method we show that the configuration space consists of subspaces of fluidlike and solidlike phases, which are connected with low probability microstates of mixed structures. The existence of these connecting states makes the thermodynamic quantities continuous and precludes the possibility of a true phase transition. However, thermodynamic functions indicate strong tendency for the phase transition and our replica exchange Monte Carlo simulation study detects several important markers of the first order phase transition. The distinction of a phase transition from a structural change is practically impossible with simulations and experiments in such systems like the confined hard squares.

From the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation to the Vlasov description and back: Confined interacting particles with drag

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plastino, A. R.; Curado, E. M. F.; Nobre, F. D.; Tsallis, C.

2018-02-01

Nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations endowed with power-law diffusion terms have proven to be valuable tools for the study of diverse complex systems in physics, biology, and other fields. The nonlinearity appearing in these evolution equations can be interpreted as providing an effective description of a system of particles interacting via short-range forces while performing overdamped motion under the effect of an external confining potential. This point of view has been recently applied to the study of thermodynamical features of interacting vortices in type II superconductors. In the present work we explore an embedding of the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation within a Vlasov equation, thus incorporating inertial effects to the concomitant particle dynamics. Exact time-dependent solutions of the q -Gaussian form (with compact support) are obtained for the Vlasov equation in the case of quadratic confining potentials.

Enzymatic reactions in confined environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Küchler, Andreas; Yoshimoto, Makoto; Luginbühl, Sandra; Mavelli, Fabio; Walde, Peter

2016-05-01

Within each biological cell, surface- and volume-confined enzymes control a highly complex network of chemical reactions. These reactions are efficient, timely, and spatially defined. Efforts to transfer such appealing features to in vitro systems have led to several successful examples of chemical reactions catalysed by isolated and immobilized enzymes. In most cases, these enzymes are either bound or adsorbed to an insoluble support, physically trapped in a macromolecular network, or encapsulated within compartments. Advanced applications of enzymatic cascade reactions with immobilized enzymes include enzymatic fuel cells and enzymatic nanoreactors, both for in vitro and possible in vivo applications. In this Review, we discuss some of the general principles of enzymatic reactions confined on surfaces, at interfaces, and inside small volumes. We also highlight the similarities and differences between the in vivo and in vitro cases and attempt to critically evaluate some of the necessary future steps to improve our fundamental understanding of these systems.

System and method for confining an object to a region of fluid flow having a stagnation point

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schroeder, Charles M. (Inventor); Babcock, Hazen P. (Inventor); Shaqfeh, Eric S. G. (Inventor); Chu, Steven (Inventor)

2006-01-01

A device for confining an object to a region proximate to a fluid flow stagnation point includes one or more inlets for carrying the fluid into the region, one or more outlets for carrying the fluid out of the region, and a controller, in fluidic communication with the inlets and outlets, for adjusting the motion of the fluid to produce a stagnation point in the region, thereby confining the object to the region. Applications include, for example, prolonged observation of the object, manipulation of the object, etc. The device optionally may employ a feedback control mechanism, a sensing apparatus (e.g., for imaging), and a storage medium for storing, and a computer for analyzing and manipulating, data acquired from observing the object. The invention further provides methods of using such a device and system in a number of fields, including biology, chemistry, physics, material science, and medical science.

Three-dimensional spatiotemporal focusing of holographic patterns

PubMed Central

Hernandez, Oscar; Papagiakoumou, Eirini; Tanese, Dimitrii; Fidelin, Kevin; Wyart, Claire; Emiliani, Valentina

2016-01-01

Two-photon excitation with temporally focused pulses can be combined with phase-modulation approaches, such as computer-generated holography and generalized phase contrast, to efficiently distribute light into two-dimensional, axially confined, user-defined shapes. Adding lens-phase modulations to 2D-phase holograms enables remote axial pattern displacement as well as simultaneous pattern generation in multiple distinct planes. However, the axial confinement linearly degrades with lateral shape area in previous reports where axially shifted holographic shapes were not temporally focused. Here we report an optical system using two spatial light modulators to independently control transverse- and axial-target light distribution. This approach enables simultaneous axial translation of single or multiple spatiotemporally focused patterns across the sample volume while achieving the axial confinement of temporal focusing. We use the system's capability to photoconvert tens of Kaede-expressing neurons with single-cell resolution in live zebrafish larvae. PMID:27306044

Reverse micelle synthesis of nanoscale metal containing catalysts

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Darab, J.G.; Fulton, J.L.; Linehan, J.C.

1993-03-01

The need for morphological control during the synthesis of catalyst precursor powders is generally accepted to be important. In the liquefaction of coal, for example, iron-bearing catalyst precursor particles containing individual crystallites with diameters in the 1-100 nanometer range are believed to achieve good dispersion through out the coal-solvent slurry during liquefaction 2 runs and to undergo chemical transformations to catalytically active iron sulfide phases. The production of the nanoscale powders described here employs the confining spherical microdomains comprising the aqueous phase of a modified reverse micelle (MRM) microemulsion system as nanoscale reaction vessels in which polymerization, electrochemical reduction andmore » precipitation of solvated salts can occur. The goal is to take advantage of the confining nature of micelles to kinetically hinder transformation processes which readily occur in bulk aqueous solution in order to control the morphology and phase of the resulting powder. We have prepared a variety of metal, alloy, and metal- and mixed metal-oxide nanoscale powders from appropriate MRM systems. Examples of nanoscale powders produced include Co, Mo-Co, Ni{sub 3}Fe, Ni, and various oxides and oxyhydroxides of iron. Here, we discuss the preparation and characterization of nickel metal (with a nickel oxide surface layer) and iron oxyhydroxide MRM nanoscale powders. We have used extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy to study the chemical polymerization process in situ, x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning and transmission electron microcroscopies (SEM and TEM), elemental analysis and structural modelling to characterize the nanoscale powders produced. The catalytic activity of these powders is currently being studied.« less

Behavior of ectopic surface: effects of β-adrenergic stimulation and uncoupling

PubMed Central

Arutunyan, Ara; Pumir, Alain; Krinsky, Valentin; Swift, Luther; Sarvazyan, Narine

2011-01-01

By using both experimental and theoretical means, we have addressed the progression of ectopic activity from individual cardiac cells to a multicellular two-dimensional network. Experimental conditions that favor ectopic activity have been created by local perfusion of a small area of cardiomyocyte network (I-zone) with an isoproterenol-heptanol containing solution. The application of this solution initially slowed down and then fully blocked wave propagation inside the I-zone. After a brief lag period, ectopically active cells appeared in the I-zone, followed by evolution of the ectopic clusters into slowly propagating waves. The changing pattern of colliding and expanding ectopic waves confined to the I-zone persisted for as long as the isoproterenol-heptanol environment was present. On restoration of the control environment, the ectopic waves from the I-zone broke out into the surrounding network causing arrhythmias. The observed sequence of events was also modeled by FitzHugh-Nagumo equations and included a cell’s arrangement of two adjacent square regions of 20 × 20 cells. The control zone consisted of well-connected, excitable cells, and the I-zone was made of weakly coupled cells (heptanol effect), which became spontaneously active as time evolved (isoproterenol effect). The dynamic events in the system have been studied numerically with the use of a finite difference method. Together, our experimental and computational data have revealed that the combination of low coupling, increased excitability, and spatial heterogeneity can lead to the development of ectopic waves confined to the injured network. This transient condition appears to serve as an essential step for the ectopic activity to “mature” before escaping into the surrounding control network. PMID:12893638

Behavior of ectopic surface: effects of beta-adrenergic stimulation and uncoupling.

PubMed

Arutunyan, Ara; Pumir, Alain; Krinsky, Valentin; Swift, Luther; Sarvazyan, Narine

2003-12-01

By using both experimental and theoretical means, we have addressed the progression of ectopic activity from individual cardiac cells to a multicellular two-dimensional network. Experimental conditions that favor ectopic activity have been created by local perfusion of a small area of cardiomyocyte network (I-zone) with an isoproterenol-heptanol containing solution. The application of this solution initially slowed down and then fully blocked wave propagation inside the I-zone. After a brief lag period, ectopically active cells appeared in the I-zone, followed by evolution of the ectopic clusters into slowly propagating waves. The changing pattern of colliding and expanding ectopic waves confined to the I-zone persisted for as long as the isoproterenol-heptanol environment was present. On restoration of the control environment, the ectopic waves from the I-zone broke out into the surrounding network causing arrhythmias. The observed sequence of events was also modeled by FitzHugh-Nagumo equations and included a cell's arrangement of two adjacent square regions of 20 x 20 cells. The control zone consisted of well-connected, excitable cells, and the I-zone was made of weakly coupled cells (heptanol effect), which became spontaneously active as time evolved (isoproterenol effect). The dynamic events in the system have been studied numerically with the use of a finite difference method. Together, our experimental and computational data have revealed that the combination of low coupling, increased excitability, and spatial heterogeneity can lead to the development of ectopic waves confined to the injured network. This transient condition appears to serve as an essential step for the ectopic activity to "mature" before escaping into the surrounding control network.

Changes in Reactivity as Chemistry Becomes Confined to an Interface. The Case of Free Radical Oxidation of C 30H 62 Alkane by OH

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Houle, Frances A.; Wiegel, Aaron A.; Wilson, Kevin R.

Here, we examine in a simple organic aerosol the transition between heterogeneous chemistry under well-mixed conditions to chemistry under interfacial confinement. A single reaction mechanism, shown to reproduce observed OH oxidation chemistry for liquid and semisolid C 30H 62, is used in reaction-diffusion simulations to explore reactivity over a broad viscosity range. The results show that when internal mixing of the aerosol is fast and the particle interface is enriched in C-H groups, ketone and alcohol products, formed via peroxy radical disproportionation, predominate. As viscosity increases the reactions become confined to a shell at the gas-aerosol interface. The confinement ismore » accompanied by emergence of acyloxy reaction pathways that are particularly active when the shell is 1 nm or less. We quantify this trend using a reaction-diffusion index, allowing the parts of the mechanism that control reactivity as viscosity increases to be identified.« less

Classical confinement and outward convection of impurity ions in the MST RFP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, S. T. A.; Den Hartog, D. J.; Mirnov, V. V.; Caspary, K. J.; Magee, R. M.; Brower, D. L.; Chapman, B. E.; Craig, D.; Ding, W. X.; Eilerman, S.; Fiksel, G.; Lin, L.; Nornberg, M.; Parke, E.; Reusch, J. A.; Sarff, J. S.

2012-05-01

Impurity ion dynamics measured with simultaneously high spatial and temporal resolution reveal classical ion transport in the reversed-field pinch. The boron, carbon, oxygen, and aluminum impurity ion density profiles are obtained in the Madison Symmetric Torus [R. N. Dexter et al., Fusion Technol. 19, 131 (1991)] using a fast, active charge-exchange-recombination-spectroscopy diagnostic. Measurements are made during improved-confinement plasmas obtained using inductive control of tearing instability to mitigate stochastic transport. At the onset of the transition to improved confinement, the impurity ion density profile becomes hollow, with a slow decay in the core region concurrent with an increase in the outer region, implying an outward convection of impurities. Impurity transport from Coulomb collisions in the reversed-field pinch is classical for all collisionality regimes, and analysis shows that the observed hollow profile and outward convection can be explained by the classical temperature screening mechanism. The profile agrees well with classical expectations. Experiments performed with impurity pellet injection provide further evidence for classical impurity ion confinement.

Chemical reactions confined within carbon nanotubes.

PubMed

Miners, Scott A; Rance, Graham A; Khlobystov, Andrei N

2016-08-22

In this critical review, we survey the wide range of chemical reactions that have been confined within carbon nanotubes, particularly emphasising how the pairwise interactions between the catalysts, reactants, transition states and products of a particular molecular transformation with the host nanotube can be used to control the yields and distributions of products of chemical reactions. We demonstrate that nanoscale confinement within carbon nanotubes enables the control of catalyst activity, morphology and stability, influences the local concentration of reactants and products thus affecting equilibria, rates and selectivity, pre-arranges the reactants for desired reactions and alters the relative stability of isomeric products. We critically evaluate the relative advantages and disadvantages of the confinement of chemical reactions inside carbon nanotubes from a chemical perspective and describe how further developments in the controlled synthesis of carbon nanotubes and the incorporation of multifunctionality are essential for the development of this ever-expanding field, ultimately leading to the effective control of the pathways of chemical reactions through the rational design of multi-functional carbon nanoreactors.

Changes in Reactivity as Chemistry Becomes Confined to an Interface. The Case of Free Radical Oxidation of C 30H 62 Alkane by OH

DOE PAGES

Houle, Frances A.; Wiegel, Aaron A.; Wilson, Kevin R.

2018-02-14

Here, we examine in a simple organic aerosol the transition between heterogeneous chemistry under well-mixed conditions to chemistry under interfacial confinement. A single reaction mechanism, shown to reproduce observed OH oxidation chemistry for liquid and semisolid C 30H 62, is used in reaction-diffusion simulations to explore reactivity over a broad viscosity range. The results show that when internal mixing of the aerosol is fast and the particle interface is enriched in C-H groups, ketone and alcohol products, formed via peroxy radical disproportionation, predominate. As viscosity increases the reactions become confined to a shell at the gas-aerosol interface. The confinement ismore » accompanied by emergence of acyloxy reaction pathways that are particularly active when the shell is 1 nm or less. We quantify this trend using a reaction-diffusion index, allowing the parts of the mechanism that control reactivity as viscosity increases to be identified.« less

Wetting-mediated collective tubulation and pearling in confined vesicular drops of DDAB solutions.

PubMed

Haidara, Hamidou

2014-12-21

Whether driven by external mechanical stresses (shear flow) or induced by membrane-active peptides and/or proteins, the collective growth of tubules in membranous fluids has seldom been reported. The pearling destabilization of these membranous tubules which requires an activation of the shape distortion, often induced by optical tweezers, membrane-active biomolecules or an electrical field, has also rarely been observed under mild experimental conditions. Here we report such events of collective tubulation and pearling destabilization in sessile drops of a didodecyl-dimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) vesicular solution that are confined by a surrounding oil medium. Based on the wetting dynamics and the features of the tubulation process, we show that the growth of the tubules here relies on a mechanism of "pinning-induced pulling" from the retracting drop, rather than the classical hydrodynamic fingering instability. We show that the whole tubulation process is driven by a strong coupling between the bulk properties of the ternary (DAAB/water/oil) system and the dynamics of wetting. Finally, we discuss the pearling destabilization of these tubules under vanishing static interface tension and quite mild tensile force arising from their pulling. We show that under those mild conditions, shape disturbances readily grow, either as pearling waves moving toward the drop-reservoir or as Rayleigh-type peristaltic modulations. Besides revealing singular non-Rayleigh pearling modes, this work also brings new insights into the flow dynamics in membranous tubules anchored to an infinite reservoir.

Spin polarization of two-dimensional electron system in parabolic potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyake, Takashi; Totsuji, Chieko; Nakanishi, Kenta; Tsuruta, Kenji; Totsuji, Hiroo

2008-09-01

We analyze the ground state of the two-dimensional quantum system of electrons confined in a parabolic potential with the system size around 100 at 0 K. We map the system onto a classical system on the basis of the classical-map hypernetted-chain (CHNC) method which has been proven to work in the integral-equation-based analyses of uniform systems and apply classical Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations. We find that, when we decrease the strength of confinement keeping the number of confined electrons fixed, the energy of the spin-polarized state with somewhat lower average density becomes smaller than that of the spin-unpolarized state with somewhat higher average density. This system thus undergoes the transition from the spin-unpolarized state to the spin polarized state and the corresponding critical value of r estimated from the average density is as low as r∼0.4 which is much smaller than the r value for the Wigner lattice formation. When we compare the energies of spin-unpolarized and spin-polarized states for given average density, our data give the critical r value for the transition between unpolarized and polarized states around 10 which is close to but still smaller than the known possibility of polarization at r∼27. The advantage of our method is a direct applicability to geometrically complex systems which are difficult to analyze by integral equations and this is an example.

The power of the bubble: comparing ultrasonic and laser activated irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Moor, Roeland J. G.; Meire, Maarten A.; Verdaasdonk, Rudolf M.

2014-01-01

The major problem of irrigation is the fluid motion within the confined geometry of the root canal : efficient dispersion of the liquid is difficult, conventional irrigation is limited due to the absence of turbulence over much of the canal volume, vapour lock may limit apical cleaning and disinfection, there is also a stagnation plane beyond the needle tip. The best way to improve irrigant penetration and biofilm removal is achieved by means of the agitation of the fluid. Today ultrasonic activation appears to be the best way to activate and potentiate irrigants among the present-day used means and marketed systems. Another way to activate irrigation solutions is the use of lasers: laser activated irrigation or photon-initiated acoustic streaming have been investigated. Based on present-day research it appears that the efficacy of laser activation (especially with Erbium lasers) can be more efficient thanks to the induction of specific cavitation phenomena and acoustic streaming. Other wavelengths are now explored to be used for laser activated irrigation.

Mechanical pressure and momentum conservation in dry active matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fily, Y.; Kafri, Y.; Solon, A. P.; Tailleur, J.; Turner, A.

2018-01-01

We relate the breakdown of equations of states (EOS) for the mechanical pressure of generic dry active systems to the lack of momentum conservation in such systems. We show how net sources and sinks of momentum arise generically close to confining walls. These typically depend on the interactions of the container with the particles, which makes the mechanical pressure a container-dependent quantity. We show that an EOS is recovered if the dynamics of the propulsive forces of the particles are decoupled from other degrees of freedom and lead to an apolar bulk steady-state. This recovery of an EOS stems from the mean steady-state active force density being the divergence of the flux of ‘active impulse’, an observable which measures the mean momentum particles will receive from the substrate in the future. ), which features invited work from the best early-career researchers working within the scope of J. Phys. A. This project is part of the Journal of Physics series’ 50th anniversary celebrations in 2017. Julien Tailleur was selected by the Editorial Board of J. Phys. A as an Emerging Talent.

Wave function for time-dependent harmonically confined electrons in a time-dependent electric field.

PubMed

Li, Yu-Qi; Pan, Xiao-Yin; Sahni, Viraht

2013-09-21

The many-body wave function of a system of interacting particles confined by a time-dependent harmonic potential and perturbed by a time-dependent spatially homogeneous electric field is derived via the Feynman path-integral method. The wave function is comprised of a phase factor times the solution to the unperturbed time-dependent Schrödinger equation with the latter being translated by a time-dependent value that satisfies the classical driven equation of motion. The wave function reduces to that of the Harmonic Potential Theorem wave function for the case of the time-independent harmonic confining potential.

20007: Quantum particle displacement by a moving localized potential trap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Granot, E.; Marchewka, A.

2009-04-01

We describe the dynamics of a bound state of an attractive δ-well under displacement of the potential. Exact analytical results are presented for the suddenly moved potential. Since this is a quantum system, only a fraction of the initially confined wave function remains confined to the moving potential. However, it is shown that besides the probability to remain confined to the moving barrier and the probability to remain in the initial position, there is also a certain probability for the particle to move at double speed. A quasi-classical interpretation for this effect is suggested. The temporal and spectral dynamics of each one of the scenarios is investigated.

Microtubule organization in three-dimensional confined geometries: evaluating the role of elasticity through a combined in vitro and modeling approach.

PubMed

Cosentino Lagomarsino, Marco; Tanase, Catalin; Vos, Jan W; Emons, Anne Mie C; Mulder, Bela M; Dogterom, Marileen

2007-02-01

Microtubules or microtubule bundles in cells often grow longer than the size of the cell, which causes their shape and organization to adapt to constraints imposed by the cell geometry. We test the reciprocal role of elasticity and confinement in the organization of growing microtubules in a confining box-like geometry, in the absence of other (active) microtubule organizing processes. This is inspired, for example, by the cortical microtubule array of elongating plant cells, where microtubules are typically organized in an aligned array transverse to the cell elongation axis. The method we adopt is a combination of analytical calculations, in which the polymers are modeled as inextensible filaments with bending elasticity confined to a two-dimensional surface that defines the limits of a three-dimensional space, and in vitro experiments, in which microtubules are polymerized from nucleation seeds in microfabricated chambers. We show that these features are sufficient to organize the polymers in aligned, coiling configurations as for example observed in plant cells. Though elasticity can account for the regularity of these arrays, it cannot account for a transverse orientation of microtubules to the cell's long axis. We therefore conclude that an additional active, force-generating process is necessary to create a coiling configuration perpendicular to the long axis of the cell.

On the Factors Determining the Eruptive Character of Solar Flares

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baumgartner, Christian; Thalmann, Julia K.; Veronig, Astrid M.

2018-02-01

We investigated how the magnetic field in solar active regions (ARs) controls flare activity, i.e., whether a confined or eruptive flare occurs. We analyzed 44 flares of GOES class M5.0 and larger that occurred during 2011–2015. We used 3D potential magnetic field models to study their location (using the flare distance from the flux-weighted AR center d FC) and the strength of the magnetic field in the corona above (via decay index n and flux ratio). We also present a first systematic study of the orientation of the coronal magnetic field, using the orientation φ of the flare-relevant polarity inversion line as a measure. We analyzed all quantities with respect to the size of the underlying dipole field, characterized by the distance between the opposite-polarity centers, d PC. Flares originating from underneath the AR dipole (d FC/d PC < 0.5) tend to be eruptive if launched from compact ARs (d PC ≤ 60 Mm) and confined if launched from extended ARs. Flares ejected from the periphery of ARs (d FC/d PC > 0.5) are predominantly eruptive. In confined events, the flare-relevant field adjusts its orientation quickly to that of the underlying dipole with height (Δφ ≳ 40° until the apex of the dipole field), in contrast to eruptive events where it changes more slowly with height. The critical height for torus instability, h crit = h(n = 1.5), discriminates best between confined (h crit ≳ 40 Mm) and eruptive flares (h crit ≲ 40 Mm). It discriminates better than Δφ, implying that the decay of the confining field plays a stronger role than its orientation at different heights.

Enhanced gas absorption in the ionic liquid 1-n-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ([hmim][Tf2N]) confined in silica slit pores: a molecular simulation study.

PubMed

Shi, Wei; Luebke, David R

2013-05-07

Two-dimensional NPxyT and isostress-osmotic (N2PxyTf1) Monte Carlo simulations were used to compute the density and gas absorption properties of the ionic liquid (IL) 1-n-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ([hmim][Tf2N]) confined in silica slit pores (25-45 Å). Self-diffusivity values for both gas and IL were calculated from NVE molecular dynamics simulations using both smooth and atomistic potential models for silica. The simulations showed that the molar volume of [hmim][Tf2N] confined in 25-45-Å silica slit pores is 12-31% larger than that of the bulk IL at 313-573 K and 1 bar. The amounts of CO2, H2, and N2 absorbed in the confined IL are 1.1-3 times larger than those in the bulk IL because of the larger molar volume of the confined IL compared to the bulk IL. The CO2, N2, and H2 molecules are generally absorbed close to the silica wall where the IL density is very low. This arrangement causes the self-diffusivities of these gases in the confined IL to be 2-8 times larger than those in the bulk IL at 298-573 K. The solubilities of water in the confined and bulk ILs are similar, which is likely due to strong water interactions with [hmim][Tf2N] through hydrogen bonding, so that the molar volume of the confined IL plays a less important role in determining the H2O solubility. Water molecules are largely absorbed in the IL-rich region rather than close to the silica wall. The self-diffusivities of water correlate with those of the confined IL. The confined IL exhibits self-diffusivities larger than those of the bulk IL at lower temperatures, but smaller than those of the bulk IL at higher temperatures. The findings from our simulations are consistent with available experimental data for similar confined IL systems.

Structure and morphology of magnetron sputter deposited ultrathin ZnO films on confined polymeric template

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Ajaib; Schipmann, Susanne; Mathur, Aakash; Pal, Dipayan; Sengupta, Amartya; Klemradt, Uwe; Chattopadhyay, Sudeshna

2017-08-01

The structure and morphology of ultra-thin zinc oxide (ZnO) films with different film thicknesses on confined polymer template were studied through X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS). Using magnetron sputter deposition technique ZnO thin films with different film thicknesses (<10 nm) were grown on confined polystyrene with ∼2Rg film thickness, where Rg ∼ 20 nm (Rg is the unperturbed radius of gyration of polystyrene, defined by Rg = 0.272 √M0, and M0 is the molecular weight of polystyrene). The detailed internal structure, along the surface/interfaces and the growth direction of the system were explored in this study, which provides insight into the growth procedure of ZnO on confined polymer and reveals that a thin layer of ZnO, with very low surface and interface roughness, can be grown by DC magnetron sputtering technique, with approximately full coverage (with bulk like electron density) even in nm order of thickness, in 2-7 nm range on confined polymer template, without disturbing the structure of the underneath template. The resulting ZnO-polystyrene hybrid systems show strong ZnO near band edge (NBE) and deep-level (DLE) emissions in their room temperature photoluminescence spectra, where the contribution of DLE gets relatively stronger with decreasing ZnO film thickness, indicating a significant enhancement of surface defects because of the greater surface to volume ratio in thinner films.

Gyroscopic analogy of a rotating stratified flow confined in a tilted spheroid and its implication to stability of a heavy symmetrical top

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukumoto, Yasuhide; Miyachi, Yuki

2017-11-01

We address the suppression of the gravitational instability of rotating stratified flows in a confined geometry in two ways, continuous and discontinuous stratification. A rotating flow of a stratified fluid confined in an ellipsoid, subject to gravity force, whose velocity and density fields are linear in coordinates, bears an analogy with a mechanical system of finite degrees of freedom, that is, a heavy rigid body. An insight is gained into the mechanism of system rotation for the ability of a lighter fluid of sustaining, on top of it, a heavier fluid when the angular velocity is greater than a critical value. The sleeping top corresponds to such a state. First we show that a rotating stratified flow confined in a tilted spheroid is equivalent to a heavy symmetrical top with the symmetric axis tilted from the top axis. This tilting effect of the symmetric axis on the linear stability of the sleeping top and its bifurcation is investigated in some detail. Second, we explore the incompressible two-layer RTI of a discontinuously stratified fluid confined in the lower-half of an upright spheroid rotating about the axis of symmetry oriented parallel to the vertical direction. The gyroscopic analogy accounts for decrease of the critical rotation rate with oblateness. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant No. 16K05476).

Vapor-liquid phase behavior of a size-asymmetric model of ionic fluids confined in a disordered matrix: The collective-variables-based approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patsahan, O. V.; Patsahan, T. M.; Holovko, M. F.

2018-02-01

We develop a theory based on the method of collective variables to study the vapor-liquid equilibrium of asymmetric ionic fluids confined in a disordered porous matrix. The approach allows us to formulate the perturbation theory using an extension of the scaled particle theory for a description of a reference system presented as a two-component hard-sphere fluid confined in a hard-sphere matrix. Treating an ionic fluid as a size- and charge-asymmetric primitive model (PM) we derive an explicit expression for the relevant chemical potential of a confined ionic system which takes into account the third-order correlations between ions. Using this expression, the phase diagrams for a size-asymmetric PM are calculated for different matrix porosities as well as for different sizes of matrix and fluid particles. It is observed that general trends of the coexistence curves with the matrix porosity are similar to those of simple fluids under disordered confinement, i.e., the coexistence region gets narrower with a decrease of porosity and, simultaneously, the reduced critical temperature Tc* and the critical density ρi,c * become lower. At the same time, our results suggest that an increase in size asymmetry of oppositely charged ions considerably affects the vapor-liquid diagrams leading to a faster decrease of Tc* and ρi,c * and even to a disappearance of the phase transition, especially for the case of small matrix particles.

Water in Inhomogeneous Nanoconfinement: Coexistence of Multilayered Liquid and Transition to Ice Nanoribbons.

PubMed

Qiu, Hu; Zeng, Xiao Cheng; Guo, Wanlin

2015-10-27

Phase behavior and the associated phase transition of water within inhomogeneous nanoconfinement are investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. The nanoconfinement is constructed by a flat bottom plate and a convex top plate. At 300 K, the confined water can be viewed as a coexistence of monolayer, bilayer, and trilayer liquid domains to accommodate the inhomogeneous confinement. With increasing liquid density, the confined water with uneven layers transforms separately into two-dimensional ice crystals with unchanged layer number and rhombic in-plane symmetry for oxygen atoms. The monolayer water undergoes the transition first into a puckered ice nanoribbon, and the bilayer water transforms into a rhombic ice nanoribbon next, followed by the transition of trilayer water into a trilayer ice nanoribbon. The sequential localized liquid-to-solid transition within the inhomogeneous confinement can also be achieved by gradually decreasing the temperature at low liquid densities. These findings of phase behaviors of water under the inhomogeneous nanoconfinement not only extend the phase diagram of confined water but also have implications for realistic nanofluidic systems and microporous materials.

Structural integrity of a confinement vessel for testing nuclear fuels for space propulsion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergmann, V. L.

Nuclear propulsion systems for rockets could significantly reduce the travel time to distant destinations in space. However, long before such a concept can become reality, a significant effort must be invested in analysis and ground testing to guide the development of nuclear fuels. Any testing in support of development of nuclear fuels for space propulsion must be safely contained to prevent the release of radioactive materials. This paper describes analyses performed to assess the structural integrity of a test confinement vessel. The confinement structure, a stainless steel pressure vessel with bolted flanges, was designed for operating static pressures in accordance with the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. In addition to the static operating pressures, the confinement barrier must withstand static overpressures from off-normal conditions without releasing radioactive material. Results from axisymmetric finite element analyses are used to evaluate the response of the confinement structure under design and accident conditions. For the static design conditions, the stresses computed from the ASME code are compared with the stresses computed by the finite element method.

Mesoscale simulations of confined Nafion thin films.

PubMed

Vanya, P; Sharman, J; Elliott, J A

2017-12-07

The morphology and transport properties of thin films of the ionomer Nafion, with thicknesses on the order of the bulk cluster size, have been investigated as a model system to explain the anomalous behaviour of catalyst/electrode-polymer interfaces in membrane electrode assemblies. We have employed dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) to investigate the interaction of water and fluorocarbon chains, with carbon and quartz as confining materials, for a wide range of operational water contents and film thicknesses. We found confinement-induced clustering of water perpendicular to the thin film. Hydrophobic carbon forms a water depletion zone near the film interface, whereas hydrophilic quartz results in a zone with excess water. There are, on average, oscillating water-rich and fluorocarbon-rich regions, in agreement with experimental results from neutron reflectometry. Water diffusivity shows increasing directional anisotropy of up to 30% with decreasing film thickness, depending on the hydrophilicity of the confining material. A percolation analysis revealed significant differences in water clustering and connectivity with the confining material. These findings indicate the fundamentally different nature of ionomer thin films, compared to membranes, and suggest explanations for increased ionic resistances observed in the catalyst layer.

Molecular dynamics study of the isotropic-nematic quench.

PubMed

Bradac, Z; Kralj, S; Zumer, S

2002-02-01

Effects of cylindrical and spherical confinement on the kinetics of the isotropic-nematic quench is studied numerically. The nematic liquid crystal structure was modeled by a modified induced-dipole--induced-dipole interaction. Molecules were allowed to wander around points of a hexagonal lattice. Brownian molecular dynamics was used in order to access macroscopic time scales. In the bulk we distinguish between the early, domain, and late stage regime. The early regime is characterized by the exponential growth of the nematic uniaxial order parameter. In the domain regime domains are clearly visible and the average nematic domain size xi(d) obeys the dynamical scaling law xi(d)-t(gamma). The late stage evolution is dominated by dynamics of individual defects. In a confined system the qualitative change of the scaling behavior appears when xi(d) becomes comparable to a typical linear dimension R of the confinement. In the confining regime (xi(d)>or=R) the scaling coefficient gamma depends on the details of the confinement and also the final equilibrium nematic structure. The domain growth is well described with the Kibble-Zurek mechanism.

Mesoscale simulations of confined Nafion thin films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanya, P.; Sharman, J.; Elliott, J. A.

2017-12-01

The morphology and transport properties of thin films of the ionomer Nafion, with thicknesses on the order of the bulk cluster size, have been investigated as a model system to explain the anomalous behaviour of catalyst/electrode-polymer interfaces in membrane electrode assemblies. We have employed dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) to investigate the interaction of water and fluorocarbon chains, with carbon and quartz as confining materials, for a wide range of operational water contents and film thicknesses. We found confinement-induced clustering of water perpendicular to the thin film. Hydrophobic carbon forms a water depletion zone near the film interface, whereas hydrophilic quartz results in a zone with excess water. There are, on average, oscillating water-rich and fluorocarbon-rich regions, in agreement with experimental results from neutron reflectometry. Water diffusivity shows increasing directional anisotropy of up to 30% with decreasing film thickness, depending on the hydrophilicity of the confining material. A percolation analysis revealed significant differences in water clustering and connectivity with the confining material. These findings indicate the fundamentally different nature of ionomer thin films, compared to membranes, and suggest explanations for increased ionic resistances observed in the catalyst layer.

Study of the confinement properties in a reversed-field pinch with mode rotation and gas fuelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cecconello, M.; Malmberg, J.-A.; Nielsen, P.; Pasqualotto, R.; Drake, J. R.

2002-08-01

An extensive investigation of the global confinement properties in different operating scenarios in the rebuilt EXTRAP T2R reversed-field pinch (RFP) experiment is reported here. In particular, the role of a fast gas puff valve system, used to control plasma density, on confinement is studied. Without gas puffing, the electron density decays below 0.5×1019 m-3. The poloidal beta varies between 5% and 15%, decreasing at large I/N. The energy confinement time ranges from 70 to 225 μs. With gas puffing, the density is sustained at ne≈1.5×1019 m-3. However, a general slight deterioration of the plasma performances is observed for the same values of I/N: the plasma becomes cooler and more radiative. The poloidal beta is comparable to that in the scenarios without puff but the energy confinement time drops ranging from 60 to 130 μs. The fluctuation level and the energy confinement time have been found to scale with the Lundquist number as S-0.05+/-0.07 and S0.5+/-0.1, respectively. Mode rotation is typical for all the discharges and rotation velocity is observed to increase with increasing electron diamagnetic velocity.

High-Energy Electron Confinement in a Magnetic Cusp Configuration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Jaeyoung; Krall, Nicholas A.; Sieck, Paul E.; Offermann, Dustin T.; Skillicorn, Michael; Sanchez, Andrew; Davis, Kevin; Alderson, Eric; Lapenta, Giovanni

2015-04-01

We report experimental results validating the concept that plasma confinement is enhanced in a magnetic cusp configuration when β (plasma pressure/magnetic field pressure) is of order unity. This enhancement is required for a fusion power reactor based on cusp confinement to be feasible. The magnetic cusp configuration possesses a critical advantage: the plasma is stable to large scale perturbations. However, early work indicated that plasma loss rates in a reactor based on a cusp configuration were too large for net power production. Grad and others theorized that at high β a sharp boundary would form between the plasma and the magnetic field, leading to substantially smaller loss rates. While not able to confirm the details of Grad's work, the current experiment does validate, for the first time, the conjecture that confinement is substantially improved at high β . This represents critical progress toward an understanding of the plasma dynamics in a high-β cusp system. We hope that these results will stimulate a renewed interest in the cusp configuration as a fusion confinement candidate. In addition, the enhanced high-energy electron confinement resolves a key impediment to progress of the Polywell fusion concept, which combines a high-β cusp configuration with electrostatic fusion for a compact, power-producing nuclear fusion reactor.

Dynamics of aqueous binary glass-formers confined in MCM-41.

PubMed

Elamin, Khalid; Jansson, Helén; Swenson, Jan

2015-05-21

Dielectric permittivity measurements were performed on water solutions of propylene glycol (PG) and propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PGME) confined in 21 Å pores of the silica matrix MCM-41 C10 in wide frequency (10(-2)-10(6) Hz) and temperature (130-250 K) ranges. The aim was to elucidate how the formation of large hydrogen bonded structural entities, found in bulk solutions of PGME, was affected by the confined geometry, and to make comparisons with the dynamic behavior of the PG-water system. For all solutions the measurements revealed four almost concentration independent relaxation processes. The intensity of the fastest process is low compared to the other relaxation processes and might be caused by both hydroxyl groups of the pore surfaces and by local motions of water and solute molecules. The second fastest process contains contributions from both the main water relaxation as well as the intrinsic β-relaxation of the solute molecules. The third fastest process is the viscosity related α-relaxation. Its concentration independency is very different compared to the findings for the corresponding bulk systems, particularly for the PGME-water system. The experimental data suggests that the surface interactions induce a micro-phase separation of the two liquids, resulting in a full molecular layer of water molecules coordinating to the hydrophilic hydroxyl groups on the surfaces of the silica pores. This, in turn, increases the geometrical confinement effect for the remaining solution even more and prevents the building up of the same type of larger structural entities in the PGME-water system as in the corresponding bulk solutions. The slowest process is mainly hidden in the high conductivity contribution at low frequencies, but its temperature dependence can be extracted for the PGME-water system. However, its origin is not fully clear, as will be discussed.

A wearable multiplexed silicon nonvolatile memory array using nanocrystal charge confinement

PubMed Central

Kim, Jaemin; Son, Donghee; Lee, Mincheol; Song, Changyeong; Song, Jun-Kyul; Koo, Ja Hoon; Lee, Dong Jun; Shim, Hyung Joon; Kim, Ji Hoon; Lee, Minbaek; Hyeon, Taeghwan; Kim, Dae-Hyeong

2016-01-01

Strategies for efficient charge confinement in nanocrystal floating gates to realize high-performance memory devices have been investigated intensively. However, few studies have reported nanoscale experimental validations of charge confinement in closely packed uniform nanocrystals and related device performance characterization. Furthermore, the system-level integration of the resulting devices with wearable silicon electronics has not yet been realized. We introduce a wearable, fully multiplexed silicon nonvolatile memory array with nanocrystal floating gates. The nanocrystal monolayer is assembled over a large area using the Langmuir-Blodgett method. Efficient particle-level charge confinement is verified with the modified atomic force microscopy technique. Uniform nanocrystal charge traps evidently improve the memory window margin and retention performance. Furthermore, the multiplexing of memory devices in conjunction with the amplification of sensor signals based on ultrathin silicon nanomembrane circuits in stretchable layouts enables wearable healthcare applications such as long-term data storage of monitored heart rates. PMID:26763827

Emergent patterns of collective cell migration under tubular confinement.

PubMed

Xi, Wang; Sonam, Surabhi; Beng Saw, Thuan; Ladoux, Benoit; Teck Lim, Chwee

2017-11-15

Collective epithelial behaviors are essential for the development of lumens in organs. However, conventional assays of planar systems fail to replicate cell cohorts of tubular structures that advance in concerted ways on out-of-plane curved and confined surfaces, such as ductal elongation in vivo. Here, we mimic such coordinated tissue migration by forming lumens of epithelial cell sheets inside microtubes of 1-10 cell lengths in diameter. We show that these cell tubes reproduce the physiological apical-basal polarity, and have actin alignment, cell orientation, tissue organization, and migration modes that depend on the extent of tubular confinement and/or curvature. In contrast to flat constraint, the cell sheets in a highly constricted smaller microtube demonstrate slow motion with periodic relaxation, but fast overall movement in large microtubes. Altogether, our findings provide insights into the emerging migratory modes for epithelial migration and growth under tubular confinement, which are reminiscent of the in vivo scenario.

Self-confinement of finite dust clusters in isotropic plasmas.

PubMed

Miloshevsky, G V; Hassanein, A

2012-05-01

Finite two-dimensional dust clusters are systems of a small number of charged grains. The self-confinement of dust clusters in isotropic plasmas is studied using the particle-in-cell method. The energetically favorable configurations of grains in plasma are found that are due to the kinetic effects of plasma ions and electrons. The self-confinement phenomenon is attributed to the change in the plasma composition within a dust cluster resulting in grain attraction mediated by plasma ions. This is a self-consistent state of a dust cluster in which grain's repulsion is compensated by the reduced charge and floating potential on grains, overlapped ion clouds, and depleted electrons within a cluster. The common potential well is formed trapping dust clusters in the confined state. These results provide both valuable insights and a different perspective to the classical view on the formation of boundary-free dust clusters in isotropic plasmas.

A wearable multiplexed silicon nonvolatile memory array using nanocrystal charge confinement.

PubMed

Kim, Jaemin; Son, Donghee; Lee, Mincheol; Song, Changyeong; Song, Jun-Kyul; Koo, Ja Hoon; Lee, Dong Jun; Shim, Hyung Joon; Kim, Ji Hoon; Lee, Minbaek; Hyeon, Taeghwan; Kim, Dae-Hyeong

2016-01-01

Strategies for efficient charge confinement in nanocrystal floating gates to realize high-performance memory devices have been investigated intensively. However, few studies have reported nanoscale experimental validations of charge confinement in closely packed uniform nanocrystals and related device performance characterization. Furthermore, the system-level integration of the resulting devices with wearable silicon electronics has not yet been realized. We introduce a wearable, fully multiplexed silicon nonvolatile memory array with nanocrystal floating gates. The nanocrystal monolayer is assembled over a large area using the Langmuir-Blodgett method. Efficient particle-level charge confinement is verified with the modified atomic force microscopy technique. Uniform nanocrystal charge traps evidently improve the memory window margin and retention performance. Furthermore, the multiplexing of memory devices in conjunction with the amplification of sensor signals based on ultrathin silicon nanomembrane circuits in stretchable layouts enables wearable healthcare applications such as long-term data storage of monitored heart rates.

The Pressure induced by salt crystallization in confinement.

PubMed

Desarnaud, J; Bonn, D; Shahidzadeh, N

2016-08-05

Salt crystallization is a major cause of weathering of rocks, artworks and monuments. Damage can only occur if crystals continue to grow in confinement, i.e. within the pore space of these materials, thus generating mechanical stress. We report the direct measurement, at the microscale, of the force exerted by growing alkali halide salt crystals while visualizing their spontaneous nucleation and growth. The experiments reveal the crucial role of the wetting films between the growing crystal and the confining walls for the development of the pressure. Our results suggest that the measured force originates from repulsion between the similarly charged confining wall and the salt crystal separated by a ~1.5 nm liquid film. Indeed, if the walls are made hydrophobic, no film is observed and no repulsive forces are detected. We also show that the magnitude of the induced pressure is system specific explaining why different salts lead to different amounts of damage to porous materials.

Modification of the coil-stretch transition by confinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doyle, Patick; Tang, Jing; Jones, Jeremy

2010-03-01

Large double stranded DNA are both a powerful system to study polymer dynamics at the single molecule level and also important molecules for genomic applications. While homogenous electric fields are routinely used to separate DNA in gels, DNA deformation in more complex fields has been less widely studied. We will demonstrate how micro/nanofluidic devices allow for the generation of electric fields with well-defined kinematics for trapping, stretching and then watching DNA relax back to equilibrium. The dimensions of the devices highly confine DNA and subsequently change both their conformation and dynamics. We will show how these confinements effects change the coil-stretch transition of a DNA being electrophoretically stretched in a purely elongational electrical field. We experimentally show that a two-stage coil stretch transition occurs and develop a simple dumbbell model which captures most of the relevant physics. We trace the origin of this phenomena to the modification of the effective spring law due to confinement.

Control of a laser inertial confinement fusion-fission power plant

DOEpatents

Moses, Edward I.; Latkowski, Jeffery F.; Kramer, Kevin J.

2015-10-27

A laser inertial-confinement fusion-fission energy power plant is described. The fusion-fission hybrid system uses inertial confinement fusion to produce neutrons from a fusion reaction of deuterium and tritium. The fusion neutrons drive a sub-critical blanket of fissile or fertile fuel. A coolant circulated through the fuel extracts heat from the fuel that is used to generate electricity. The inertial confinement fusion reaction can be implemented using central hot spot or fast ignition fusion, and direct or indirect drive. The fusion neutrons result in ultra-deep burn-up of the fuel in the fission blanket, thus enabling the burning of nuclear waste. Fuels include depleted uranium, natural uranium, enriched uranium, spent nuclear fuel, thorium, and weapons grade plutonium. LIFE engines can meet worldwide electricity needs in a safe and sustainable manner, while drastically shrinking the highly undesirable stockpiles of depleted uranium, spent nuclear fuel and excess weapons materials.

Structure and catalytic activities of ferrous centers confined on the interface between carbon nanotubes and humic acid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Bing; Zhou, Xiaoyan; Wang, Dongqi; Yin, Jun-Jie; Chen, Hanqing; Gao, Xingfa; Zhang, Jing; Ibrahim, Kurash; Chai, Zhifang; Feng, Weiyue; Zhao, Yuliang

2015-01-01

Preparation of heterogeneous catalysts with active ferrous centers is of great significance for industrial and environmental catalytic processes. Nanostructured carbon materials (NCM), which possess free-flowing π electrons, can coordinate with transition metals, provide a confinement environment for catalysis, and act as potential supports or ligands to construct analogous complexes. However, designing such catalysts using NCM is still seldom studied to date. Herein, we synthesized a sandwich structured ternary complex via the coordination of Fe-loaded humic acid (HA) with C&z.dbd;C bonds in the aromatic rings of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), in which the O/N-Fe-C interface configuration provides the confinement environment for the ferrous sites. The experimental and theoretical results revealed octahedrally/tetrahedrally coordinated geometry at Fe centers, and the strong hybridization between CNT C π* and Fe 3d orbitals induces discretization of the atomic charges on aromatic rings of CNTs, which facilitates O2 adsorption and electron transfer from carbon to O2, which enhances O2 activation. The O2 activation by the novel HA/Fe-CNT complex can be applied in the oxidative degradation of phenol red (PR) and bisphenol A (BPA) in aqueous media.Preparation of heterogeneous catalysts with active ferrous centers is of great significance for industrial and environmental catalytic processes. Nanostructured carbon materials (NCM), which possess free-flowing π electrons, can coordinate with transition metals, provide a confinement environment for catalysis, and act as potential supports or ligands to construct analogous complexes. However, designing such catalysts using NCM is still seldom studied to date. Herein, we synthesized a sandwich structured ternary complex via the coordination of Fe-loaded humic acid (HA) with C&z.dbd;C bonds in the aromatic rings of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), in which the O/N-Fe-C interface configuration provides the confinement environment for the ferrous sites. The experimental and theoretical results revealed octahedrally/tetrahedrally coordinated geometry at Fe centers, and the strong hybridization between CNT C π* and Fe 3d orbitals induces discretization of the atomic charges on aromatic rings of CNTs, which facilitates O2 adsorption and electron transfer from carbon to O2, which enhances O2 activation. The O2 activation by the novel HA/Fe-CNT complex can be applied in the oxidative degradation of phenol red (PR) and bisphenol A (BPA) in aqueous media. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Optimization of the mass ratios of HA to CNTs and the reaction pH conditions for Fe loading; scanning electron microscope (SEM), UV-Vis-near-infrared, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for CNT-HA; EPR experiment and UPLC-ESI-MS analysis; and DFT calculation. See DOI: 10.1039/c4nr06665k

Fast particle confinement with optimized coil currents in the W7-X stellarator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drevlak, M.; Geiger, J.; Helander, P.; Turkin, Y.

2014-07-01

One of the principal goals of the W7-X stellarator is to demonstrate good confinement of energetic ions at finite β. This confinement, however, is sensitive to the magnetic field configuration and is thus vulnerable to design modifications of the coil geometry. The collisionless drift orbit losses for 60 keV protons in W7-X are studied using the ANTS code. Particles in this energy range will be produced by the neutral beam injection (NBI) system being constructed for W7-X, and are particularly important because protons at this energy accurately mimick the behaviour of 3.5 MeV α-particles in a HELIAS reactor. To investigate the possibility of improved fast particle confinement, several approaches to adjust the coil currents (5 main field coil currents +2 auxiliary coil currents) were explored. These strategies include simple rules of thumb as well as computational optimization of various properties of the magnetic field. It is shown that significant improvement of collisionless fast particle confinement can be achieved in W7-X for particle populations similar to α particles produced in fusion reactions. Nevertheless, the experimental goal of demonstrating confinement improvement with rising plasma pressure using an NBI-generated population appears to be difficult based on optimization of the coil currents only. The principal reason for this difficulty is that the NBI deposition profile is broader than the region of good fast-ion confinement around the magnetic axis.

Stochastic and superharmonic stochastic resonances of a confined overdamped harmonic oscillator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Lu; Lai, Li; Peng, Hao; Tu, Zhe; Zhong, Suchuan

2018-01-01

The dynamics of many soft condensed matter and biological systems is affected by space limitations, which produce some peculiar effects on the systems' stochastic resonance (SR) behavior. In this study, we propose a model where SR can be observed: a confined overdamped harmonic oscillator that is subjected to a sinusoidal driving force and is under the influence of a multiplicative white noise. The output response of the system is a periodic signal with harmonic frequencies that are odd multiples of the driving frequency. We verify the amplitude resonances at the driving frequencies and superharmonic frequencies that are equal to three, five, and seven times the driving frequency, using a numerical method based on the stochastic Taylor expansion. The synergistic effect of the multiplicative white noise, constant boundaries, and periodic driving force that can induce a SR in the output amplitude at the driving and superharmonic frequencies is found. The SR phenomenon found in this paper is sensitive to the driving amplitude and frequency, inherent potential parameter, and boundary width, thus leading to various resonance conditions. Therefore, the mechanism found could be beneficial for the characterization of these confined systems and could constitute an important tool for controlling their basic properties.

Alfven Eigenmode Control in DIII-D

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, W.; Olofsson, E.; Welander, A.; van Zeeland, M.; Collins, C.; Heidbrink, W.

2017-10-01

Alfven eigenmodes (AE) driven by fast ions from neutral beam and ion cyclotron heating are common in present day tokamak plasmas and are expected to be destabilized by alpha particles in future burning plasma experiments. Because these waves have been shown to cause loss and redistribution of fast ions which can impact plasma performance and potentially device integrity, developing control techniques for AEs is of paramount importance. In the DIII-D plasma control system, spectral analysis of real-time ECE data is used as a monitor of AE amplitude, frequency, and location. These values are then used for feedback control of the neutral beam power to control Alfven waves and reduce fast ion loss. This work describes tests of AE control experiments in the current ramp up phase, during which multiple Alfven eigenmodes are typically unstable and fast ion confinement is degraded significantly. Comparisons of neutron emission and confined fast ion profiles with and without active AE control will be made. Work supported by the U.S. Dept. of Energy under Award Number DE-FC02-04ER54698.

Simultaneous 3D tracking of passive tracers and microtubule bundles in an active gel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Yi; Breuer, Kenneth S.; Fluids Team

Kinesin-driven microtubule bundles generate a spontaneous flow in unconfined geometries. They exhibit properties of active matter, including the emergence of collective motion, reduction of apparent viscosity and consumption of local energy. Here we present results from 3D tracking of passive tracers (using Airy rings and 3D scanning) synchronized with 3D measurement of the microtubule bundles motion. This technique is applied to measure viscosity variation and collective flow in a confined geometry with particular attention paid to the self-pumping system recently reported by Wu et al. (2016). Results show that the viscosity in an equilibrium microtubule network is around half that of the isotropic unbundled microtubule solution. Cross-correlations of the active microtubule network and passive tracers define a neighborhood around microtubule bundles in which passive tracers are effectively transported. MRSEC NSF.

Radiocarbon dating of dissolved inorganic carbon in groundwater from confined parts of the Upper Floridan aquifer, Florida, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Plummer, Niel; Sprinkle, C.L.

2001-01-01

Geochemical reaction models were evaluated to improve radiocarbon dating of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in groundwater from confined parts of the Upper Floridan aquifer in central and northeastern Florida, USA. The predominant geochemical reactions affecting the 14C activity of DIC include (1) dissolution of dolomite and anhydrite with calcite precipitation (dedolomitization), (2) sulfate reduction accompanying microbial degradation of organic carbon, (3) recrystallization of calcite (isotopic exchange), and (4) mixing of fresh water with as much as 7% saline water in some coastal areas. The calculated cumulative net mineral transfers are negligibly small in upgradient parts of the aquifer and increase significantly in downgradient parts of the aquifer, reflecting, at least in part, upward leakage from the Lower Floridan aquifer and circulation that contacted middle confining units in the Floridan aquifer system. The adjusted radiocarbon ages are independent of flow path and represent travel times of water from the recharge area to the sample point in the aquifer. Downgradient from Polk City (adjusted age 1.7 ka) and Keystone Heights (adjusted age 0.4 ka), 14 of the 22 waters have adjusted 14C ages of 20-30 ka, indicating that most of the fresh-water resource in the Upper Floridan aquifer today was recharged during the last glacial period. All of the paleowaters are enriched in 18O and 2H relative to modern infiltration, with maximum enrichment in ??18O of approximately 2.0%o.

Fluid flows created by swimming bacteria drive self-organization in confined suspensions

PubMed Central

Lushi, Enkeleida; Wioland, Hugo; Goldstein, Raymond E.

2014-01-01

Concentrated suspensions of swimming microorganisms and other forms of active matter are known to display complex, self-organized spatiotemporal patterns on scales that are large compared with those of the individual motile units. Despite intensive experimental and theoretical study, it has remained unclear the extent to which the hydrodynamic flows generated by swimming cells, rather than purely steric interactions between them, drive the self-organization. Here we use the recent discovery of a spiral-vortex state in confined suspensions of Bacillus subtilis to study this issue in detail. Those experiments showed that if the radius of confinement in a thin cylindrical chamber is below a critical value, the suspension will spontaneously form a steady single-vortex state encircled by a counter-rotating cell boundary layer, with spiral cell orientation within the vortex. Left unclear, however, was the flagellar orientation, and hence the cell swimming direction, within the spiral vortex. Here, using a fast simulation method that captures oriented cell–cell and cell–fluid interactions in a minimal model of discrete particle systems, we predict the striking, counterintuitive result that in the presence of collectively generated fluid motion, the cells within the spiral vortex actually swim upstream against those flows. This prediction is then confirmed by the experiments reported here, which include measurements of flagella bundle orientation and cell tracking in the self-organized state. These results highlight the complex interplay between cell orientation and hydrodynamic flows in concentrated suspensions of microorganisms. PMID:24958878

Random walk on a leash: a simple single-molecule diffusion model for surface-tethered redox molecules with flexible linkers.

PubMed

Huang, Kuan-Chun; White, Ryan J

2013-08-28

We develop a random walk model to simulate the Brownian motion and the electrochemical response of a single molecule confined to an electrode surface via a flexible molecular tether. We use our simple model, which requires no prior knowledge of the physics of the molecular tether, to predict and better understand the voltammetric response of surface-confined redox molecules when motion of the redox molecule becomes important. The single molecule is confined to a hemispherical volume with a maximum radius determined by the flexible molecular tether (5-20 nm) and is allowed to undergo true three-dimensional diffusion. Distance- and potential-dependent electron transfer probabilities are evaluated throughout the simulations to generate cyclic voltammograms of the model system. We find that at sufficiently slow cyclic voltammetric scan rates the electrochemical reaction behaves like an adsorbed redox molecule with no mass transfer limitation; thus, the peak current is proportional to the scan rate. Conversely, at faster scan rates the diffusional motion of the molecule limits the simulated peak current, which exhibits a linear dependence on the square root of the scan rate. The switch between these two limiting regimes occurs when the diffusion layer thickness, (2Dt)(1/2), is ~10 times the tether length. Finally, we find that our model predicts the voltammetric behavior of a redox-active methylene blue tethered to an electrode surface via short flexible single-stranded, polythymine DNAs, allowing the estimation of diffusion coefficients for the end-tethered molecule.

Simulation of ground-water flow and movement of the freshwater-saltwater interface in the New Jersey coastal plain

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pope, Daryll A.; Gordon, Alison D.

1999-01-01

The confined aquifers of the New Jersey Coastal Plain are sands that range in thickness from 50 to 600 feet and are separated by confining units. The confining units are composed of silts and clays that range in thickness from 500 to 1,000 feet. The aquifers are recharged by precipitation on their outcrop areas. This water then flows laterally downdip and vertically to the deeper confined aquifers. The confined aquifers ultimately discharge to the Raritan and Delaware Bays and to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1988, ground-water withdrawals from confined and unconfined New Jersey Coastal Plain aquifers were approximately 345 million gallons per day, more than 75 percent of which was pumped from the confined aquifers. These withdrawals have created large cones of depression in several Coastal Plain aquifers near populated areas, particularly in Camden and Monmouth Counties. The continued decline of water levels in confined aquifers can cause saltwater intrusion, reduce stream discharge near the outcrop areas, and threaten the quality of the ground-water supply. SHARP, a quasi-three-dimensional finite-difference computer model that can simulate freshwater and saltwater flow, was used to simulate the ground-water flow system in the New Jersey Coastal Plain, including the location and movement of the freshwater-saltwater interface in nine aquifers and eight intervening confining units. The freshwater-saltwater interface is defined as the hypothetical line seaward of which the chloride concentration is equal to or greater than 10,000 milligrams per liter. Model simulations were used to estimate the location and movement of the freshwater-saltwater interface resulting from (1) eustatic sea-level changes over the past 84,000 years, (2) ground-water withdrawals from 1896 through 1988, (3) and future ground-water withdrawals from 1988 to 2040 from Coastal Plain aquifers. Simultion results showed that the location and movement of the freshwater-saltwater interface are more dependent on the historical sea level than on the stresses imposed on the flow system by ground-water withdrawals from the Coastal Plain aquifers from 1896 to 1988. Results of a predictive simulation in which pumpage from existing wells was increased by 30 percent indicate that additional withdrawals from each of the eight confined aquifers in the Coastal Plain would broaden and deepen the existing cones of depression and result in significant drawdowns from the 1988 potentiometric surfaces. Drawdowns of 30 feet were simulated at the center of the cone of depression in the Upper, Middle, and Lower Potomac-Raritan-Magothy aquifers in Camden and Ocean Counties. Simulated drawdowns exceeded 80 feet at the center of the cone of depression in the Wenonah-Mount Laurel and Englishtown aquifers in Monmouth County. Drawdowns of 30 feet were simulated in the lower Kirkwood-Cohansey and confined Kirkwood aquifers in Cape May County. Simulation results showed that the increase in ground-water withdrawals would result in only minimal movement of the freshwater-saltwater interface by 2040, despite large drawdowns.