530 research outputs found
Imaging X-ray spectrometer
An X-ray spectrometer for providing imaging and energy resolution of an X-ray source is described. This spectrometer is comprised of a thick silicon wafer having an embedded matrix or grid of aluminum completely through the wafer fabricated, for example, by thermal migration. The aluminum matrix defines the walls of a rectangular array of silicon X-ray detector cells or pixels. A thermally diffused aluminum electrode is also formed centrally through each of the silicon cells with biasing means being connected to the aluminum cell walls and causes lateral charge carrier depletion between the cell walls so that incident X-ray energy causes a photoelectric reaction within the silicon producing collectible charge carriers in the form of electrons which are collected and used for imaging
Testing the Hydrogen Peroxide-Water Hypothesis for Life on Mars with the TEGA instrument on the Phoenix Lander
Since Viking has conducted its life detection experiments on Mars, many
missions have enhanced our knowledge about the environmental conditions on the
Red Planet. However, the Martian surface chemistry and the Viking lander
results remain puzzling. Non-biological explanations that favor a strong
inorganic oxidant are currently favored (e.g., Mancinelli, 1989; Quinn and
Zent, 1999; Klein, 1999, Yen et al., 2000), but problems remain regarding the
life time, source, and abundance of that oxidant to account for the Viking
observations (Zent and McKay, 1994). Alternatively, a hypothesis favoring the
biological origin of a strong oxidizer has recently been advanced (Houtkooper
and Schulze-Makuch, 2007). Here, we report about laboratory experiments that
simulate the experiments to be conducted by the Thermal and Evolved Gas
Analyzer (TEGA) instrument of the Phoenix lander, which is to descend on Mars
in May 2008. Our experiments provide a baseline for an unbiased test for
chemical versus biological responses, which can be applied at the time the
Phoenix Lander transmits its first results from the Martian surface.Comment: 11 pages and 3 figure
Towards a grapho-phonologically parsed corpus of medieval Scots:Database design and technical solutions
This paper presents a newly constructed corpus of sound-to-spelling mappings in medieval Scots, which stems from the work of the From Inglis to Scots (FITS) project. We have developed a systematic approach to the relationships between individual spellings and proposed sound values, and recorded these mutual links in a relational database. In this paper, we introduce the theoretical underpinnings of sound-to-spelling and spelling-to-sound mappings, and show how a Scots root morpheme undergoes grapho-phonological parsing, the analytical procedure that is employed to break down spelling sequences into sound units. We explain the data collection and annotation for the FITS Corpus (Alcorn et al., forthcoming), drawing attention to the extensive meta-data which accompany each analysed unit of spelling and sound. The database records grammatical and lexical information about the root, the positional arrangement of segments within the root, labels for the nuclei, vowels and consonants, the morphological context, and extra-linguistic detail of the text a given root was taken from (date, place and text type). With this wealth of information, the FITS corpus is capable of answering complex queries about the sound and spelling systems of medieval Scots. We also suggest how our methodology can be transferred to other non-standardised spelling systems
Environmental stress in the Gulf of Mexico and its potential impact on public health
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest maritime oil spill in history resulting in the accumulation of genotoxic substances in the air, soil, and water. This has potential far-reaching health impacts on cleanup field workers and on the populations living in the contaminated coastal areas. We have employed portable airborne particulate matter samplers (SKC Biosampler Impinger) and a genetically engineered bacterial reporter system (umu-ChromoTest from EBPI) to determine levels of genotoxicity of air samples collected from highly contaminated areas of coastal Louisiana including Grand Isle, Port Fourchon, and Elmer\u27s Island in the spring, summer and fall of 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Air samples collected from a non-contaminated area, Sea Rim State Park, Texas, served as a control for background airborne genotoxic particles. In comparison to controls, air samples from the contaminated areas demonstrated highly significant increases in genotoxicity with the highest values registered during the month of July in 2011, 2013, and 2014, in all three locations. This seasonal trend was disrupted in 2012, when the highest genotoxicity values were detected in October, which correlated with hurricane Isaac landfall in late August of 2012, about five weeks before a routine collection of fall air samples. Our data demonstrate: (i) high levels of air genotoxicity in the monitored areas over last four years post DWH oil spill; (ii) airborne particulate genotoxicity peaks in summers and correlates with high temperatures and high humidity; and (iii) this seasonal trend was disrupted by the hurricane Isaac landfall, which further supports the concept of a continuous negative impact of the oil spill in this region
An Electron Fixed Target Experiment to Search for a New Vector Boson A' Decaying to e+e-
We describe an experiment to search for a new vector boson A' with weak
coupling alpha' > 6 x 10^{-8} alpha to electrons (alpha=e^2/4pi) in the mass
range 65 MeV < m_A' < 550 MeV. New vector bosons with such small couplings
arise naturally from a small kinetic mixing of the "dark photon" A' with the
photon -- one of the very few ways in which new forces can couple to the
Standard Model -- and have received considerable attention as an explanation of
various dark matter related anomalies. A' bosons are produced by radiation off
an electron beam, and could appear as narrow resonances with small production
cross-section in the trident e+e- spectrum. We summarize the experimental
approach described in a proposal submitted to Jefferson Laboratory's PAC35,
PR-10-009. This experiment, the A' Experiment (APEX), uses the electron beam of
the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at Jefferson Laboratory
(CEBAF) at energies of ~1-4 GeV incident on 0.5-10% radiation length Tungsten
wire mesh targets, and measures the resulting e+e- pairs to search for the A'
using the High Resolution Spectrometer and the septum magnet in Hall A. With a
~1 month run, APEX will achieve very good sensitivity because the statistics of
e+e- pairs will be ~10,000 times larger in the explored mass range than any
previous search for the A' boson. These statistics and the excellent mass
resolution of the spectrometers allow sensitivity to alpha'/alpha one to three
orders of magnitude below current limits, in a region of parameter space of
great theoretical and phenomenological interest. Similar experiments could also
be performed at other facilities, such as the Mainz Microtron.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, 2 table
Differential Requirement for c-Jun N-terminal Kinase 1 in Lung Inflammation and Host Defense
The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) - 1 pathway has been implicated in the cellular response to stress in many tissues and models. JNK1 is known to play a role in a variety of signaling cascades, including those involved in lung disease pathogenesis. Recently, a role for JNK1 signaling in immune cell function has emerged. The goal of the present study was to determine the role of JNK1 in host defense against both bacterial and viral pneumonia, as well as the impact of JNK1 signaling on IL-17 mediated immunity. Wild type (WT) and JNK1 −/− mice were challenged with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, or Influenza A. In addition, WT and JNK1 −/− mice and epithelial cells were stimulated with IL-17A. The impact of JNK1 deletion on pathogen clearance, inflammation, and histopathology was assessed. JNK1 was required for clearance of E. coli, inflammatory cell recruitment, and cytokine production. Interestingly, JNK1 deletion had only a small impact on the host response to S. aureus. JNK1 −/− mice had decreased Influenza A burden in viral pneumonia, yet displayed worsened morbidity. Finally, JNK1 was required for IL-17A mediated induction of inflammatory cytokines and antimicrobial peptides both in epithelial cells and the lung. These data identify JNK1 as an important signaling molecule in host defense and demonstrate a pathogen specific role in disease. Manipulation of the JNK1 pathway may represent a novel therapeutic target in pneumonia
Capturing Desire: Rhetorical Strategies and the Affectivity of Discourse
In this article I argue that psychoanalytical theory can help us understand the emotional force of political rhetoric. I undertake a theoretical enquiry into the method of interpreting political speeches as strategies of affective persuasion. Both rhetorical and psychoanalytical studies converge in their concern with the production of ‘plausible stories’ that aim to fold psychic investments into political judgements. To capture desire, I claim, political rhetoric must articulate ‘symptomatic beliefs’ in relation to wider situational exigencies. I sketch three distinct psychoanalytical approaches, each of which emphasises a different scenario of unconscious organisation where rhetorical strategies are pertinent: namely Freudian, Kleinian, and Lacanian approaches. These are then applied to the example of a controversial rhetorical intervention – Enoch Powell’s infamous Birmingham speech of 1968 – to demonstrate the various potential focii when undertaking analysis
Electromagnetic Meson Production in the Nucleon Resonance Region
Recent experimental and theoretical advances in investigating electromagnetic
meson production reactions in the nucleon resonance region are reviewed.Comment: 75 pages, 42 figure
Highlights and Perspectives of the JLab Spin Physics Program
Nucleon spin structure has been an active and exciting subject of interest
for the last three decades. Recent precision spin-structure data from Jefferson
Lab have significantly advanced our knowledge of nucleon structure in the
valence quark (high-x) region and improved our understanding of higher-twist
effects, spin sum rules and quark-hadron duality. First, results of spin sum
rules and polarizabilities in the low to intermediate Q^2 region are presented.
Comparison with theoretical calculations are discussed. Surprising
disagreements of Chiral Perturbation Theory calculations with experimental
results on the generalized spin polarizability, \delta_{LT}, were found. Then,
precision measurements of the spin asymmetry in the high-x region are
presented. They provide crucial input for global fits to world data to extract
polarized parton distribution functions. The up and down quark spin
distributions in the nucleon were extracted. The results for \Delta d/d
disagree with the leading-order pQCD prediction assuming hadron helicity
conservation. Results of precision measurements of the g_2 structure function
to study higher-twist effects are presented. The data indicate a significant
higher-twist (twist-3 or higher) effect. The second moment of the spin
structure functions and the twist-3 matrix element d_2 results were extracted.
The high Q^2 result was compared with a Lattice QCD calculation. Results on the
resonance spin-structure functions in the intermediate Q^2 range are presented,
which, in combination with DIS data, enable a detailed study of quark-hadron
duality in spin-structure functions. Finally, an experiment to study neutron
transversity and transverse spin asymmetries is discussed. A future plan with
the 12 GeV energy upgrade at JLab is briefly outlined.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Proceedings of
Prague-Spin200
- …