University of Maryland, Baltimore County

About: University of Maryland, Baltimore County is a education organization based out in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Aerosol. The organization has 8749 authors who have published 20843 publications receiving 795706 citations. The organization is also known as: UMBC.

Absorptivity of brown carbon in fresh and photo-chemically aged biomass-burning emissions

Abstract: . Experiments were conducted to investigate light absorption of organic aerosol (OA) in fresh and photo-chemically aged biomass-burning emissions. The experiments considered residential hardwood fuel (oak) and fuels commonly consumed in wild-land and prescribed fires in the United States (pocosin pine and gallberry). Photo-chemical aging was performed in an environmental chamber. We constrained the effective light-absorption properties of the OA using conservative limiting assumptions, and found that both primary organic aerosol (POA) in the fresh emissions and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) produced by photo-chemical aging contain brown carbon, and absorb light to a significant extent. This work presents the first direct evidence that SOA produced in aged biomass-burning emissions is absorptive. For the investigated fuels, SOA is less absorptive than POA in the long visible, but exhibits stronger wavelength-dependence and is more absorptive in the short visible and near-UV. Light absorption by SOA in biomass-burning emissions might be an important contributor to the global radiative forcing budget.

X-Ray Fluctuation Power Spectral Densities of Seyfert 1 Galaxies

Abstract: By combining complementary monitoring observations spanning long, medium and short time scales, we have constructed power spectral densities (PSDs) of six Seyfert 1 galaxies. These PSDs span approx. greater than 4 orders of magnitude in temporal frequency, sampling variations on time scales ranging from tens of minutes to over a year. In at least four cases, the PSD shows a "break," a significant departure from a power law, typically on time scales of order a few days. This is similar to the behavior of Galactic X-ray binaries (XRBs), lower mass compact systems with breaks on time scales of seconds. NGC 3783 shows tentative evidence for a doubly-broken power law, a feature that until now has only been seen in the (much better-defined) PSDs of low-state XRBs. It is also interesting that (when one previously-observed object is added to make a small sample of seven), an apparently significant correlation is seen between the break time scale T and the putative black hole mass M(sub BH), while none is seen between break time scale and luminosity. The data are consistent with the linear relation T = M(sub BH) /10(exp 6.5) solar mass; extrapolation over 6-7 orders of magnitude is in reasonable agreement with XRBs. All of this strengthens the case for a physical similarity between Seyfert 1s and XRBs.

Optimal configuration of a class of irreversible heat engines. I

Abstract: In a previous paper we analyzed a class of irreversible cyclic heat engines to find their optimal operating configuration for specific performance goals. In that paper the thermodynamic variables of the working fluid were not treated as dynamical variables, instead the dynamics was replaced by an integral constraint. In this paper we reanalyze the same class of heat engines treating the thermodynamic variables of the working fluid as dynamical variables, and we obtain the optimal configuration of the engine when the performance goal is to maximize the average power output per cycle or, alternatively, to maximize the efficiency of the engine. To carry through this program it is necessary to use mathematical techniques from optimal-control theory. Since this subject is unfamiliar to most physicists and chemists, we briefly introduce some of the central ideas of the theory.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Transformation of Time-Discounted Rewards in Orbitofrontal Cortex and Associated Brain Circuits

Abstract: Animals prefer a small, immediate reward over a larger delayed reward (time discounting). Lesions of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) can either increase or decrease the breakpoint at which animals abandon the large delayed reward for the more immediate reward as the delay becomes longer. Here we argue that the varied effects of OFC lesions on delayed discounting reflect two different patterns of activity in OFC; one that bridges the gap between a response and an outcome and another that discounts delayed reward. These signals appear to reflect the spatial location of the reward and/or the action taken to obtain it, and are encoded independently from representations of absolute value. We suggest a dual role for output from OFC in both discounting delayed reward, while at the same time supporting new learning for them.

Braiding operators are universal quantum gates

Abstract: This paper explores the role of unitary braiding operators in quantum computing. We show that a single specific solution R (the Bell basis change matrix)oftheYang-Baxterequationisauniversalgateforquantumcomputing,in thepresenceoflocalunitarytransformations.Weshowthatthissame Rgeneratesa new non-trivial invariant of braids, knots and links. Other solutions of theYang- Baxter equation are also shown to be universal for quantum computation. The paperdiscussestheseresultsinthecontextofcomparingquantumandtopological points of view. In particular, we discuss quantum computation of link invariants, the relationship between quantum entanglement and topological entanglement, and the structure of braiding in a topological quantum field theory.