"Catalytic Microreactors for Portable Power Generation" addresses a problem of high relevance and increased complexity in energy technology. This thesis outlines an investigation into catalytic and gas-phase combustion characteristics in channel-flow, platinum-coated microreactors. The emphasis of the study is on microreactor/microturbine concepts for portable power generation and the fuels of interest are methane and propane. The author carefully describes numerical and experimental techniques, providing a new insight into the complex interactions between chemical kinetics and molecular...
"Catalytic Microreactors for Portable Power Generation" addresses a problem of high relevance and increased complexity in energy technology. This thes...
This volume explores the computational modelling of transition metal bimetallic (nanoalloy) clusters. The author uses a combination of global optimization techniques and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study structures, bonding and chemical ordering.
This volume explores the computational modelling of transition metal bimetallic (nanoalloy) clusters. The author uses a combination of global optimiza...
The development and application of bioactive nano-structured constructs for tissue regeneration is the focus of the research summarised in this thesis. Moreover, a particular focus is the rational use of supercritical carbon dioxide foaming and electrospinning technologies which can lead to innovative polymeric bioresorbable scaffolds made of hydrolysable (both commercial and 'ad-hoc' synthesized) polyesters. Mainly, the author discusses the manipulation of polymer chemical structure and composition to tune scaffold physical properties, and optimization of scaffold 3D architecture by a smart...
The development and application of bioactive nano-structured constructs for tissue regeneration is the focus of the research summarised in this thesis...
Large mass bolometers are used in particle physics experiments to search for rare processes, like neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter interactions. In the next years the CUORE experiment (a 1 Ton detector composed by 1000 crystals of TeO2 operated as bolometers in a large cryostat at 10mK) will be the particle physics experiment with the highest chance of discovering the Majorana neutrino, a long standing and yet fundamental question of particle physics. The study presented in this book was performed on the bolometers of the CUORE experiment. The response function of...
Large mass bolometers are used in particle physics experiments to search for rare processes, like neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter in...
This thesis covers the few-cycle laser-driven acceleration of electrons in a laser-generated plasma. This so-called laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) relies on strongly driven plasma waves for the generation of accelerating gradients in the range of several 100 GV/m, a value four orders of magnitude larger than that attainable by conventional accelerators. This thesis demonstrates that laser pulses with an ultrashort duration of 8 fs and a peak power of 6 TW allow the production of electron energies up to 50 MeV via LWFA. The special properties of laser accelerated electron pulses, namely...
This thesis covers the few-cycle laser-driven acceleration of electrons in a laser-generated plasma. This so-called laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA...
This work addresses time-delay in complex nonlinear systems and, in particular, its applications in complex networks; its role in control theory and nonlinear optics are also investigated. Delays arise naturally in networks of coupled systems due to finite signal propagation speeds and are thus a key issue in many areas of physics, biology, medicine, and technology. Synchronization phenomena in these networks play an important role, e.g., in the context of learning, cognitive and pathological states in the brain, for secure communication with chaotic lasers or for gene regulation. The thesis...
This work addresses time-delay in complex nonlinear systems and, in particular, its applications in complex networks; its role in control theory and n...
This book shows how transiting planets may be used to infer the presence of exomoons through deviations in time and duration of planetary eclipses. It shows that habitable-zone exomoons above 0.2 Earth-masses can be detected with the Kepler space telescope.
This book shows how transiting planets may be used to infer the presence of exomoons through deviations in time and duration of planetary eclipses. It...
At extremely low temperatures, clouds of bosonic atoms form what is known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. Recently, it has become clear that many different types of condensates -- so called fragmented condensates -- exist. In order to tell whether fragmentation occurs or not, it is necessary to solve the full many-body Schrodinger equation, a task that remained elusive for experimentally relevant conditions for many years. In this thesis the first numerically exact solutions of the time-dependent many-body Schrodinger equation for a bosonic Josephson junction are provided and compared to...
At extremely low temperatures, clouds of bosonic atoms form what is known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. Recently, it has become clear that many di...
Jason Woolford's thesis describes for the first time, a double 3]2] photocycloaddition of alkenes onto aromatic rings. Modern synthetic chemistry relies on the ability of researchers to uncover new and more efficient ways of creating highly complex structures. This work describes a novel, environmentally friendly photochemical step that converts in one pot, trivial starting materials into otherwise difficult to construct fenstrane frameworks. The rigid cores of these frameworks have significant potential in drug design. Moreover, the novelty of this work overtakes many other methods for the...
Jason Woolford's thesis describes for the first time, a double 3]2] photocycloaddition of alkenes onto aromatic rings. Modern synthetic chemistry rel...
With the aim of providing a deeper insight into possible mechanisms of biological self-organization, this thesis presents new approaches to describe the process of self-assembly and the impact of spatial organization on the function of membrane proteins, from a statistical physics point of view. It focuses on three important scenarios: the assembly of membrane proteins, the collective response of mechanosensitive channels and the function of the twin arginine translocation (Tat) system. Using methods from equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, general conclusions were drawn...
With the aim of providing a deeper insight into possible mechanisms of biological self-organization, this thesis presents new approaches to describe t...
