Structure of Titan ’ s induced magnetosphere under varying background magnetic fi eld conditions: Survey of Cassini magnetometer data from fl ybys TA – T85

Cassini magnetic field observations between 2004 and 2012 suggest the ambient field conditions near Titan’s orbit to differ significantly from the frequently applied pre-Cassini picture (background magnetic field homogeneous and perpendicular to Titan’s orbital plane, stationary upstream conditions). In this study, we analyze the impact of these varying background field conditions on the structure of Titan’s induced magnetosphere by conducting a systematic survey of Cassini magnetic field observations in the interaction region during flybys TA–T85 (July 2004–July 2012). We introduce a set of criteria that allow to identify deviations in the structure of Titan’s induced magnetosphere—as seen by the Cassini magnetometer (MAG)—from the picture of steady-state field line draping. These disruptions are classified as “weak”, “moderate”, or “strong”. After applying this classification scheme to all available Titan encounters, we survey the data for a possible correlation between the disruptions of the draping pattern and the ambient magnetospheric field conditions, as characterized by Simon et al. [2010a]. Our major findings are: (1) When Cassini is embedded in the northern or southern lobe of Saturn’s magnetodisk within a ` 3 h interval around closest approach, Titan’s induced magnetosphere shows little or no deviations at all from the steady-state draping picture. (2) Even when Titan is embedded in perturbed current sheet fields during an encounter, the notion of draping the average background field around the moon’s ionosphere is still applicable to explain MAG observations from numerous Titan flybys. (3) Only when Titan is exposed to intense north- south oscillations of Saturn’s current sheet at the time of an encounter, the signatures of the moon’s induced magnetosphere may be completely obscured by the ambient field perturbations. (4) So far, T70 is the only flyby that fully meets the idealized pre-Cassini picture of the Titan interaction (steady background field perpendicular to Titan’s orbital plane, steady upstream flow, unperturbed induced magnetosphere).Fil: Simon, Sven. University of Cologne. Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology; AlemaniaFil: van Treeck, Shari C.. University of Cologne. Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology; AlemaniaFil: Wennmacher, Alexandre. University of Cologne. Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology; AlemaniaFil: Saur, Joachim. University of Cologne. Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology; AlemaniaFil: Neubauer, Fritz M.. University of Cologne. Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology; AlemaniaFil: Bertucci, Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio(i); ArgentinaFil: Dougherty, Michele K.. Imperial College Of Science And Technology. Space and Atmospheric Physics Group; Reino Unid

Probing the Superfluid to Mott Insulator Transition at the Single Atom Level

Quantum gases in optical lattices offer an opportunity to experimentally realize and explore condensed matter models in a clean, tunable system. We investigate the Bose-Hubbard model on a microscopic level using single atom-single lattice site imaging; our technique enables space- and time-resolved characterization of the number statistics across the superfluid-Mott insulator quantum phase transition. Site-resolved probing of fluctuations provides us with a sensitive local thermometer, allows us to identify microscopic heterostructures of low entropy Mott domains, and enables us to measure local quantum dynamics, revealing surprisingly fast transition timescales. Our results may serve as a benchmark for theoretical studies of quantum dynamics, and may guide the engineering of low entropy phases in a lattice

Diversification and hybridization in firm knowledge bases in nanotechnologies

The paper investigates the linkages between the characteristics of technologies and the structure of a firms' knowledge base. Nanotechnologies have been defined as converging technologies that operate at the nanoscale, and which require integration to fulfill their economic promises. Based on a worldwide database of nanofirms, the paper analyses the degree of convergence and the convergence mechanisms within firms. It argues that the degree of convergence in a firm's nano-knowledge base is relatively independent from the size of the firm's nano-knowledge base. However, while firms with small nano-knowledge bases tend to exploit convergence in each of their patents/publications, firms with large nano-knowledge bases tend to separate their nano-R&D activities in the different established fields and achieve diversity through the juxtaposition of the output of these independent activities For more informations http://www.nanoeconomics.eu/

Quarter-Flux Hofstadter Lattice in Qubit-Compatible Microwave Cavity Array

Topological- and strongly-correlated- materials are exciting frontiers in condensed matter physics, married prominently in studies of the fractional quantum hall effect [1]. There is an active effort to develop synthetic materials where the microscopic dynamics and ordering arising from the interplay of topology and interaction may be directly explored. In this work we demonstrate a novel architecture for exploration of topological matter constructed from tunnel-coupled, time-reversalbroken microwave cavities that are both low loss and compatible with Josephson junction-mediated interactions [2]. Following our proposed protocol [3] we implement a square lattice Hofstadter model at a quarter flux per plaquette ({\alpha} = 1/4), with time-reversal symmetry broken through the chiral Wannier-orbital of resonators coupled to Yttrium-Iron-Garnet spheres. We demonstrate site-resolved spectroscopy of the lattice, time-resolved dynamics of its edge channels, and a direct measurement of the dispersion of the edge channels. Finally, we demonstrate the flexibility of the approach by erecting a tunnel barrier investigating dynamics across it. With the introduction of Josephson-junctions to mediate interactions between photons, this platform is poised to explore strongly correlated topological quantum science for the first time in a synthetic system.Comment: 11 pages, 9 Figure

What Will You Do If I Say 'I Do'?: The Effect of the Sex Ratio on Time Use within Taiwanese Married Couples

This paper uses the natural experiment of a large imbalance between men and women of marriageable age in Taiwan in the 1960s to test the hypothesis that higher sex ratios lead to husbands (wives) having a lower (higher) share of couple's time in leisure and higher (lower) share of the couple's total work time (employment, commuting and housework). A large sample of Taiwanese couples' time diaries from 1987, 1990, and 1994 is used. The analysis finds evidence of the predicted effects of the county-level sex ratio on husbands' and wives' share of leisure and total work time. In addition, the age difference between husbands and wives is shown to be positively correlated with heightened county-level sex ratio a result which is also consistent with the theory that marriage market participants' choices are affected by the prevailing sex ratio

In vitro identification and in silico utilization of interspecies sequence similarities using GeneChip(® )technology

BACKGROUND: Genomic approaches in large animal models (canine, ovine etc) are challenging due to insufficient genomic information for these species and the lack of availability of corresponding microarray platforms. To address this problem, we speculated that conserved interspecies genetic sequences can be experimentally detected by cross-species hybridization. The Affymetrix platform probe redundancy offers flexibility in selecting individual probes with high sequence similarities between related species for gene expression analysis. RESULTS: Gene expression profiles of 40 canine samples were generated using the human HG-U133A GeneChip (U133A). Due to interspecies genetic differences, only 14 ± 2% of canine transcripts were detected by U133A probe sets whereas profiling of 40 human samples detected 49 ± 6% of human transcripts. However, when these probe sets were deconstructed into individual probes and examined performance of each probe, we found that 47% of human probes were able to find their targets in canine tissues and generate a detectable hybridization signal. Therefore, we restricted gene expression analysis to these probes and observed the 60% increase in the number of identified canine transcripts. These results were validated by comparison of transcripts identified by our restricted analysis of cross-species hybridization with transcripts identified by hybridization of total lung canine mRNA to new Affymetrix Canine GeneChip(®). CONCLUSION: The experimental identification and restriction of gene expression analysis to probes with detectable hybridization signal drastically increases transcript detection of canine-human hybridization suggesting the possibility of broad utilization of cross-hybridizations of related species using GeneChip technology

Price Convergence and Market Integration in China

Whether China has successfully transformed from a formally centrally-controlled economy to a market economy is an issue of immense interest and considerable debate. The current study complements the received literature by testing price movements in China using panel data of monthly price indexes across 36 major Chinese cities over a thirteen-year period. By so doing, it extends the early work by Fan and Wei (2006) and thereby adds to the literature in four main aspects. First, price index data provide a wider coverage of all goods traded in the market than a group of individual commodity prices. Thus, it has more relevant implications for monetary and other macroeconomic policies. Second, as Taylor (2001) notes, there are crucial differences of methodologies in the study of price convergence between individual commodity data and index data. Thus, the present study not only further examines market integration in China, but also provides a comparative study of price index movements in a major transitional economy with for example the study for the US by Cecchetti, Mark, and Sonora (2002). Third, a recently developed new nonlinear unit root test is applied in this paper, which is more relevant to our study than other traditional linear unit root tests. Fourth, we developed a new nonlinear half-life estimation procedure that is consistent with the concept of the linear counterpart. We find that not only price indexes do converge to the law of one price in China but also the half life of price index convergence is relatively quick (about 5 to 16 months in the linear cases, and 7 to 24 months in the nonlinear situation)