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A new nanomaterial or nano-filler in the form of multiwalled carbon nanotube-zinc oxide (MWCNT-ZnO) was synthesized for the purpose of modifying poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) and its derivative (modified PBAT or MPBAT) through a melt-blending method (MPBAT was obtained by introducing maleic anhydride groups into PBAT). The effect of the new nano-filler on the properties of resultant nanocomposites was determined from the characterization of mechanical properties, morphology, crystallinity, thermal stability, barrier properties, hydrophilicity, conductivity, antibacterial property, and biodegradability. The results showed that MPBAT nanocomposites had stronger mechanical properties, better barrier properties, and higher electrical conductivity than PBAT nanocomposites. Scanning electron microscopy illustrated that MWCNT-ZnO had better compatibility with MPBAT than with PBAT. At 0.2% MWCNT-ZnO, the MPBAT/MWCNT-ZnO nanocomposite film exhibited the greatest mechanical properties (17.74% increase in tensile strength, 22.17% in yield strength, and 14.29% in elongation at break). When the MWCNT-ZnO content was 0.4%, the nanocomposite film demonstrated the best water vapor barrier ability (an increase of 30.4%). The MPBAT/MWCNT-ZnO film with 0.6% MWCNT-ZnO turned out to have the best oxygen barrier performance (an increase of 130% relative to pure PBAT). It was shown from the results of antibacterial evaluation that the new nanomaterial could impart PBAT and MPBAT with antibacterial activity. The biodegradability tests indicated that an MWCNT-ZnO content of 0.2% could slightly reduce the biodegradability, and when the content was higher than 0.2%, the weight loss rate would increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complete discrimination system for polynomial method is applied to the long—short-wave interaction system to obtain the classifications of single traveling wave solutions. Compared with the solutions given by the (G′/G)-expansion method, we gain some new solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the experimental observation of a slow-light information conversion via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a rare-earthion- doped solid. Under the EIT-based slow-light regime, by manipulating the spectrum of the control fields, the slowed light pulse is transformed into two different frequency-spatial channels. The pulse shapes and energies in two output channels are further studied. This slow-light information conversion can be used as a controllable frequency-spatial multiplexing of the quantum state of the optical field and will be important in information processing and all-optical networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross-power spectrum is a quadratic estimator between two maps that can provide unbiased estimate of the underlying power spectrum of the correlated signals, which is therefore used for extracting the power spectrum in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data. In this paper, we discuss the limit of the cross-power spectrum and derive the residual from the uncorrelated signal, which is the source of error in power spectrum extraction. We employ the estimator to extract window functions by crossing pairs of extragalactic point sources. We demonstrate its usefulness in WMAP difference assembly maps where the window functions are measured via Jupiter and then extract the window functions of the five WMAP frequency band maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a fabrication process and characterization of the Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA) for the single-shot quantum state measurement of superconducting multiqubit system. The device is prepared using Nb film as its base layer, which is convenient in the sample patterning process like e-beam lithography and film etching. Our results show that the JPA has a bandwidth up to 600 MHz with gain above 15 dB and noise temperature approaching the quantum limit. The qubit state differentiation measurements demonstrate the signal-to-noise ratio around 3 and the readout fidelity above 97% and 91% for the ground and first-excited states, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entropy squeezing for a three-level atom interacting with a single-model field is studied. A general definition of entropy squeezing for three-level atom is given according to entropic uncertainty relation of three-level system, and the calculation formalism of entropy is derived for a cascade three-level atom. By using numerical calculation, the entropy squeezing properties of a cascade three-level atom are examined. Our results show that, three-level atom can generate obvious entropy squeezing effect via choosing appropriate superposition state of three-level atom. Our results are meaningful for preparing three-level system information resources with ultra-low quantum noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a fabrication process for the superconducting phase qubits in which Josephson junctions for both the qubit and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) detector are prepared by shadow evaporation with a suspended bridge. Al junctions with areas as small as are fabricated for the qubit, in which the number of the decoherence-causing two-level systems (TLS) residing in the tunnel barrier and proportional to the junction area are greatly reduced. The measured energy spectrum shows no avoided crossing arising from coherent TLS in the experimentally reachable flux bias range of the phase qubit, which demonstrates the energy relaxation time T1 and dephasing time on the order of 100 ns and 50 ns, respectively. We discuss several possible origins of decoherence from incoherent or weakly-coupled coherent TLS and further improvements of the qubit performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated dissolution processes of cavitation bubbles generated during in vivo shock wave (SW)-induced treatments. Both active cavitation detection (ACD) and the B-mode imaging technique were applied to measure the dissolution procedure of biSpheres contrast agent bubbles by in vitro experiments. Besides, the simulation of SW-induced cavitation bubbles dissolution behaviors detected by the B-mode imaging system during in vivo SW treatments, including extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) and extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT), were carried out based on calculating the integrated scattering cross-section of dissolving gas bubbles with employing gas bubble dissolution equations and Gaussian bubble size distribution. The results showed that (i) B-mode imaging technology is an effective tool to monitor the temporal evolution of cavitation bubbles dissolution procedures after the SW pulses ceased, which is important for evaluation and controlling the cavitation activity generated during subsequent SW treatments within a treatment period; (ii) the characteristics of the bubbles, such as the bubble size distribution and gas diffusion, can be estimated by simulating the experimental data properly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transdermal drug delivery (TDD) can effectively bypass the first-pass effect. In this paper, ultrasound-facilitated TDD on fresh porcine skin was studied under various acoustic parameters, including frequency, amplitude, and exposure time. The delivery of yellow–green fluorescent nanoparticles and high molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HA) in the skin samples was observed by laser confocal microscopy and ultraviolet spectrometry, respectively. The results showed that, with the application of ultrasound exposures, the permeability of the skin to these markers (e.g., their penetration depth and concentration) could be raised above its passive diffusion permeability. Moreover, ultrasound-facilitated TDD was also tested with/without the presence of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs). When the ultrasound was applied without UCAs, low ultrasound frequency will give a better drug delivery effect than high frequency, but the penetration depth was less likely to exceed 200 μm. However, with the help of the ultrasound-induced microbubble cavitation effect, both the penetration depth and concentration in the skin were significantly enhanced even more. The best ultrasound-facilitated TDD could be achieved with a drug penetration depth of over 600 μm, and the penetration concentrations of fluorescent nanoparticles and HA increased up to about 4–5 folds. In order to get better understanding of ultrasound-facilitated TDD, scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the surface morphology of skin samples, which showed that the skin structure changed greatly under the treatment of ultrasound and UCA. The present work suggests that, for TDD applications (e.g., nanoparticle drug carriers, transdermal patches and cosmetics), protocols and methods presented in this paper are potentially useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent work by Sun et al., the color variation of quasars, namely the bluer-when-brighter trend, was found to be timescale dependent using the SDSS band light curves in Stripe 82. Such timescale dependence, i.e., bluer variation at shorter timescales, supports the thermal fluctuation origin of the UV/optical variation in quasars, and can be modeled well with the inhomogeneous accretion disk model. In this paper, we extend the study to much shorter wavelengths in the rest frame (down to extreme UV) using GALaxy Evolution eXplorer (GALEX) photometric data of quasars collected in two ultraviolet bands (near-UV and far-UV). We develop Monte Carlo simulations to correct for possible biases due to the considerably larger photometric uncertainties in the GALEX light curves (particularly in the far-UV, compared with the SDSS bands), which otherwise could produce artificial results. We securely confirm the previously discovered timescale dependence of the color variability with independent data sets and at shorter wavelengths. We further find that the slope of the correlation between the amplitude of the color variation and timescale appears even steeper than predicted by the inhomogeneous disk model, which assumes that disk fluctuations follow a damped random walk (DRW) process. The much flatter structure function observed in the far-UV compared with that at longer wavelengths implies deviation from the DRW process in the inner disk, where rest-frame extreme UV radiation is produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies is one of the most important characteristics in cosmology that can shed light on the properties of the universe such as its geometry and total density. Using flat sky approximation and Fourier analysis, we estimate the angular power spectrum from an ensemble of the least foreground-contaminated square patches from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy ProbeW and V frequency band map. This method circumvents the issue of foreground cleaning and that of breaking orthogonality in spherical harmonic analysis because we are able to mask out the bright Galactic plane region, thereby rendering a direct measurement of the angular power spectrum. We test and confirm the Gaussian statistical characteristic of the selected patches, from which the first and second acoustic peaks of the power spectrum are reproduced, and the third peak is clearly visible, albeit with some noise residual at the tail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An epitaxial BiFeO3/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (BFO/LSMO) multiferroic heterostructure is grown on an LaAlO3 (001) substrate by laser molecular beam epitaxy, and its photovoltaic properties are investigated. It is found that the photocurrent is significantly increased under illumination, and the short-circuit photocurrent has a linear relationship with the laser intensity. Furthermore, when the ferroelectric polarization of the BFO layer is switched, the short-circuit photocurrent and open-circuit voltage can be switched. These results are discussed by considering the contributions from the ferroelectric polarization and the electrode/film interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a transmissive metalens utilizing graphene for highly efficient dynamic focusing at terahertz frequencies. The subwavelength metaatom of the metalens consists of a metallic grating layer, dielectric spacer and a graphene patch. Rigorous design of the space-dependent graphene patches allows the desired phase discontinuity for focusing the orthogonal linear polarization component relative to the excitation. Furthermore, due to the different sensitivities of the constitutive metaatoms to the variation of graphene chemical potential, the focusing dynamics are designable. By simply changing the arrangement of the metaatoms in a metalens, the focal length can be designed to vary in a large dynamic range or to remain still as the chemical potential changes from 0.5 eV to 0.8 eV. Therefore, the metalens can either be used for dynamic or stable imaging regardless of the fluctuations of graphene conductivity, which allows the metalens to meet the needs of different application systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variation in the high-energy cutoff, Ec, in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) uniquely probes the corona physics. In this work, we show that the ratio of two NuSTAR spectra (analogous to the difference-imaging technique widely used in astronomy) is uniquely useful in studying Ec variations. The spectra ratio could directly illustrate potential Ec variation between two spectra. By comparing with the ratio of two spectral-fitting models, it also examines the reliability of the spectral fitting measured Ec variation. Assisted with this technique, we revisit the five AGNs in the literature (MCG-5-23-16, 3C 382, NGC 4593, NGC 5548, and Mrk 335), for which Ec (kTe) variations have been claimed with NuSTAR observations. We show that the claimed Ec variations appear inconsistent with the spectra ratios in three of them, thus they need to be revised, demonstrating the striking usefulness of spectra ratio. We present thereby improved spectral-fitting results and Ec variations. We also report a new source with Ec variations based on NuSTAR observations (radio galaxy 4C+74.26). We find the corona tends to be hotter when it brightens (hotter-when-brighter) in 3C 382, NGC 5548, Mrk 335, and 4C+74.27, but MCG-5-23-16 and NGC 4593 show no evidence of significant Ec variations. Meanwhile, all six sources in this small sample appear softer when brighter. Changes in corona geometry are required to explain the observed hotter-when-brighter trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tight interband correlation and the lag–wavelength relation among UV/optical continua of active galactic nuclei have been firmly established. They are usually understood within the widespread reprocessing scenario; however, the implied interband lags are generally too small. Furthermore, it is challenged by new evidence, such as that the X-ray reprocessing yields too much high-frequency UV/optical variation and that it fails to reproduce the observed timescale-dependent color variations among the Swift light curves of NGC 5548. In a different manner, we demonstrate that an upgraded inhomogeneous accretion disk model, whose local independent temperature fluctuations are subject to a speculated common large-scale temperature fluctuation, can intrinsically generate the tight interband correlation and lag across the UV/optical and be in nice agreement with several observational properties of NGC 5548, including the timescale-dependent color variation. The emergent lag is a result of the differential regression capability of local temperature fluctuations when responding to the large-scale fluctuation. An average speed of propagations as large as ≳15% of the speed of light may be required by this common fluctuation. Several potential physical mechanisms for such propagations are discussed. Our interesting phenomenological scenario may shed new light on comprehending the UV/optical continuum variations of active galactic nuclei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We experimentally study the controllable generation of a beating signal using stored light pulses based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a solid medium. The beating signal relies on an asymmetric procedure of light storage and retrieval. After storing the probe pulse into the spin coherence under the EIT condition, two-color control fields with opposite detunings instead of the initial control field are used to scatter the stored spin coherence. The controllable beating signal is generated due to alternative constructive and destructive interferences in the retrieved signal intensities. The beating of the two-color control fields is mapped into the beating of weak probe fields by using atomic spin coherence. This beating signal will be important in precise atomic spectroscopy and fast quantum limited measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observations have shown that the UV/optical variation amplitude of quasars depends on several physical parameters including luminosity, Eddington ratio, and possibly black hole mass. Identifying new factors which correlate with the variation is essential to probing the underlying physical processes. Combining around 10 years of quasar light curves from SDSS stripe 82 and X-ray data from Stripe 82X, we build a sample of X-ray-detected quasars to investigate the relation between UV/optical variation amplitude () and X-ray loudness. We find that quasars with more intense X-ray radiation (compared to bolometric luminosity) are more variable in the UV/optical. This correlation remains highly significant after excluding the effect of other parameters including luminosity, black hole mass, Eddington ratio, redshift, and rest frame wavelength (i.e., through partial correlation analyses). We further find that the intrinsic link between X-ray loudness and UV/optical variation is gradually more prominent on longer timescales (up to 10 yr in the observed frame), but tends to disappear at timescales <100 days. This suggests a slow and long-term underlying physical process. The X-ray reprocessing paradigm, in which the UV/optical variation is produced by variable central X-ray emission illuminating the accretion disk, is thus disfavored. This discovery points to an interesting scenario in which both the X-ray coronal heating and UV/optical variation in quasars are closely associated with magnetic disc turbulence, and the innermost disc turbulence (where coronal heating occurs) correlates with slow turbulence at larger radii (where UV/optical emission is produced). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hard X-ray emission in radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is believed to be produced via inverse Compton scattering by hot and compact coronae near the supermassive black hole. However, the origin and physical properties of the coronae, including geometry, kinematics, and dynamics, remain poorly known. In this work, taking [O IV] 25.89 μm emission line as an isotropic indicator of AGNs' intrinsic luminosity, we compare the intrinsic corona X-ray emission between Seyfert 1 and Compton-thin Seyfert 2 galaxies, which are viewed at different inclinations according to the unification scheme. We compile a sample of 130 Compton-thin Seyfert galaxies with both [O IV] 25.89 μm line luminosities measured with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrometer and X-ray spectra observed by XMM-Newton, Chandra, Suzaku, or Swift. Known radio-loud sources are excluded. We fit the X-ray spectra to obtain the absorption-corrected 2-10 keV continuum luminosities. We find that Seyfert 1 galaxies are intrinsically brighter in intrinsic 2-10 keV emission by a factor of ( in Swift Burst Alert Telescope 14-195 keV emission), compared with Compton-thin Seyfert 2 galaxies. The Seyfert 1 and Compton-thin Seyfert 2 galaxies follow a statistically identical correlation between the absorption-corrected 2-10 keV luminosity and the 14-195 keV luminosity, indicating that our absorption correction to the 2-10 keV flux is sufficient. The difference in X-ray emission between the two populations is thus unlikely to be due to X-ray absorption, and instead implies an intrinsic anisotropy in the corona X-ray emission. This striking anisotropy of X-ray emission can be explained by a bipolar outflowing corona with a bulk velocity of ∼0.3-0.5c. This would provide a natural link between the so-called coronae and weak jets in these systems. Other consequences of outflowing coronae are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]