DNA Renaturation at the Water-Phenol Interface

We study DNA adsorption and renaturation in a water-phenol two-phase system, with or without shaking. In very dilute solutions, single-stranded DNA is adsorbed at the interface in a salt-dependent manner. At high salt concentrations the adsorption is irreversible. The adsorption of the single-stranded DNA is specific to phenol and relies on stacking and hydrogen bonding. We establish the interfacial nature of a DNA renaturation at a high salt concentration. In the absence of shaking, this reaction involves an efficient surface diffusion of the single-stranded DNA chains. In the presence of a vigorous shaking, the bimolecular rate of the reaction exceeds the Smoluchowski limit for a three-dimensional diffusion-controlled reaction. DNA renaturation in these conditions is known as the Phenol Emulsion Reassociation Technique or PERT. Our results establish the interfacial nature of PERT. A comparison of this interfacial reaction with other approaches shows that PERT is the most efficient technique and reveals similarities between PERT and the renaturation performed by single-stranded nucleic acid binding proteins. Our results lead to a better understanding of the partitioning of nucleic acids in two-phase systems, and should help design improved extraction procedures for damaged nucleic acids. We present arguments in favor of a role of phenol and water-phenol interface in prebiotic chemistry. The most efficient renaturation reactions (in the presence of condensing agents or with PERT) occur in heterogeneous systems. This reveals the limitations of homogeneous approaches to the biochemistry of nucleic acids. We propose a heterogeneous approach to overcome the limitations of the homogeneous viewpoint

Electronic structure of the Sr0.4Ca13.6Cu24O41Sr_{0.4}Ca_{13.6}Cu_{24}O_{41} incommensurate compound

We extracted, from strongly-correlated ab-initio calculations, a complete model for the chain subsystem of the $Sr_{0.4}Ca_{13.6}Cu_{24}O_{41}$ incommensurate compound. A second neighbor $t-J+V$ model has been determined as a function of the fourth crystallographic parameter $\tau$, for both low and room temperature crystallographic structures. The analysis of the obtained model shows the crucial importance of the structural modulations on the electronic structure through the on-site energies and the magnetic interactions. The structural distortions are characterized by their long range effect on the cited parameters that hinder the reliability of analyses such as BVS. One of the most striking results is the existence of antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor interactions for metal-ligand-metal angles of $90^\circ$. A detailed analysis of the electron localization and spin arrangement is presented as a function of the chain to ladder hole transfer and of the temperature. The obtained spin arrangement is in agreement with antiferromagnetic correlations in the chain direction at low temperature

Sr_14Cu_24O_41Sr\_{14}Cu\_{24}O\_{41} : a complete model for the chain sub-system

A second neighbor $t-J+V$ model for the chain subsystem of the $Sr\_{14}Cu\_{24}O\_{41}$ has been extracted from ab-initio calculations. This model does not use periodic approximation but describes the entire chain through the use of the four-dimensional crystallographic description. Second neighbors interactions are found to be of same order than the first neighbors ones. The computed values of the second neighbors magnetic interaction are coherent with experimental estimations of the intra-dimer magnetic interactions, even if slightly smaller. The reasons of this underestimation are detailed. The computed model allowed us to understand the origin of the chain dimerisation and predicts correctly the relative occurrence of dimers and free spins. The orbitals respectively supporting the magnetic electrons and the holes have been found to be essentially supported by the copper 3d orbitals (spins) and the surrounding oxygen $2p$ orbitals (holes), thus giving a strong footing to the existence of Zhang-Rice singlets

Bragg spectroscopy of discrete axial quasiparticle modes in a cigar-shaped degenerate Bose gas

We propose an experiment in which long wavelength discrete axial quasiparticle modes can be imprinted in a 3D cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate by using two-photon Bragg scattering experiments, similar to the experiment at the Weizmann Institute [J. Steinhauer {\em et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 90}, 060404 (2003)] where short wavelength axial phonons with different number of radial modes have been observed. We provide values of the momentum, energy and time duration of the two-photon Bragg pulse and also the two-body interaction strength which are needed in the Bragg scattering experiments in order to observe the long wavelength discrete axial modes. These discrete axial modes can be observed when the system is dilute and the time duration of the Bragg pulse is long enough.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, title, abstract, results changed, references added. to appear in The European Physical Journal

Strong Coulomb effects in hole-doped Heisenberg chains

Substances such as the ``telephone number compound'' Sr14Cu24O41 are intrinsically hole-doped. The involved interplay of spin and charge dynamics is a challenge for theory. In this article we propose to describe hole-doped Heisenberg spin rings by means of complete numerical diagonalization of a Heisenberg Hamiltonian that depends parametrically on hole positions and includes the screened Coulomb interaction among the holes. It is demonstrated that key observables like magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, and inelastic neutron scattering cross section depend sensitively on the dielectric constant of the screened Coulomb potential.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Eur. Phys. J.

The Construction of Gauge-Links in Arbitrary Hard Processes

Transverse momentum dependent parton distribution and fragmentation functions are described by hadronic matrix elements of bilocal products of field operators off the light-cone. These bilocal products contain gauge-links, as required by gauge-invariance. The gauge-links are path-ordered exponentials connecting the field operators along a certain integration path. This integration path is process-dependent, depending specifically on the short-distance partonic subprocess. In this paper we present the technical details needed in the calculation of the gauge-links and a calculational scheme is provided to obtain the gauge-invariant distribution and fragmentation correlators corresponding to a given partonic subprocess

Time evolution of the classical and quantum mechanical versions of diffusive anharmonic oscillator: an example of Lie algebraic techniques

We present the general solutions for the classical and quantum dynamics of the anharmonic oscillator coupled to a purely diffusive environment. In both cases, these solutions are obtained by the application of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff (BCH) formulas to expand the evolution operator in an ordered product of exponentials. Moreover, we obtain an expression for the Wigner function in the quantum version of the problem. We observe that the role played by diffusion is to reduce or to attenuate the the characteristic quantum effects yielded by the nonlinearity, as the appearance of coherent superpositions of quantum states (Schr\"{o}dinger cat states) and revivals.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

Elliptic flow of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

We report the first measurement of charged particle elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region (|$\eta$|<0.8) and transverse momentum range 0.2< $p_{\rm T}$< 5.0 GeV/$c$. The elliptic flow signal v$_2$, measured using the 4-particle correlation method, averaged over transverse momentum and pseudorapidity is 0.087 $\pm$ 0.002 (stat) $\pm$ 0.004 (syst) in the 40-50% centrality class. The differential elliptic flow v$_2(p_{\rm T})$ reaches a maximum of 0.2 near $p_{\rm T}$ = 3 GeV/$c$. Compared to RHIC Au-Au collisions at 200 GeV, the elliptic flow increases by about 30%. Some hydrodynamic model predictions which include viscous corrections are in agreement with the observed increase.Comment: 10 pages, 4 captioned figures, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/389

Circular 77

A comparative yield trial with 45 named varieties and numbered selections of potatoes was conducted during the 1989 growing season at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station's (AFES) Palmer Research Center, Matanuska Research Farm, located six miles west of Palmer on Trunk Road. Nonirrigated trials have been conducted annually since 1982 and irrigated trials were begun in 1985. Results of previous trials are recorded in AFES Circulars 49, 54, 58, 65 and 71. These circulars are available at the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station offices in Fairbanks and Palmer. Also included in this report are the results of abbreviated versions of the AFES potato yield trial that were conducted by cooperating individuals and agencies at six locations in Alaska. Varieties with a history of commercial production in the Matanuska Valley (including Alaska 114, Bake-King, Green Mountain and Superior) are included and serve as a comparative base for newly developed varieties, numbered selections or older varieties that have not been tested at this location. Varieties that compare favorably with the above listed standards may warrant consideration by commercial growers.Introduction -- Matanuska Farm Yield Trials: Cultural Practices and Environmental Conditions, Results and Discussion -- Trials at Other Locations in Alaska: General Procedures, Specific Site Information: Delta Junction, Fairbanks, Homer, Kenai - Soldotna, Kodiak, Kotzebue -- List of Table

EFRC Bulletin 77

EFRC's regular newletter covering policy, agricutlural research, policy and advisory wor