Ewald method for polytropic potentials in arbitrary dimensionality

The Ewald summation technique is generalised to power-law 1/|r|^k potentials in three-, two- and one-dimensional geometries with explicit formulae for all the components of the sums. The cases of short-range, long-range and "marginal" interactions are treated separately. The jellium model, as a particular case of a charge-neutral system, is discussed and the explicit forms of the Ewald sums for such system are presented. A generalised form of the Ewald sums for a noncubic (nonsquare) simulation cell for three- (two-) dimensional geometry is obtained and its possible field of application is discussed. A procedure for the optimisation of the involved parameters in actual simulations is developed and an example of its application is presented.Comment: 41 pages, 3 figure

From Forbidden Coronal Lines to Meaningful Coronal Magnetic Fields

We review methods to measure magnetic fields within the corona using the polarized light in magnetic-dipole (M1) lines. We are particularly interested in both the global magnetic-field evolution over a solar cycle, and the local storage of magnetic free energy within coronal plasmas. We address commonly held skepticisms concerning angular ambiguities and line-of-sight confusion. We argue that ambiguities are in principle no worse than more familiar remotely sensed photospheric vector-fields, and that the diagnosis of M1 line data would benefit from simultaneous observations of EUV lines. Based on calculations and data from eclipses, we discuss the most promising lines and different approaches that might be used. We point to the S-like [Fe {\sc XI}] line (J=2 to J=1) at 789.2nm as a prime target line (for ATST for example) to augment the hotter 1074.7 and 1079.8 nm Si-like lines of [Fe {\sc XIII}] currently observed by the Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter (CoMP). Significant breakthroughs will be made possible with the new generation of coronagraphs, in three distinct ways: (i) through single point inversions (which encompasses also the analysis of MHD wave modes), (ii) using direct comparisons of synthetic MHD or force-free models with polarization data, and (iii) using tomographic techniques.Comment: Accepted by Solar Physics, April 201

ASCA and RXTE Observations of Non-Thermal X-ray Emission from Galactic Supernova Remnants: G156.2+5.7

(Abridged) We are conducting a survey of Galactic shell-type supernova remnants (SNRs) known or suspected to possess non-thermal components to their X-ray emission using new and archived observations made with such X-ray satellites as ROSAT, ASCA, RXTE, Chandra and XMM-Newton. This research is intended to probe the phenomenon of cosmic-ray acceleration by Galactic SNRs and estimate the maximum energy of cosmic-ray electrons accelerated by these sources. To illustrate this work, we examine the X-ray spectrum of the northwestern rim of an SNR suspected to have a non-thermal component to its X-ray emission, G156.2+5.7 (RX J04591+5147), over the energy range of approximately 0.7-12.0 keV using observations made by the ASCA GIS and the RXTE PCA. We compare fits made to the non-thermal component using two models, a simple power law and SRCUT. Both models give acceptable fits: the photon index derived from the fit made with the power law model, 2.0 (+0.2, -0.5), is comparable to values obtained for the bright rims of other SNRs with hard X-ray spectra. Using the SRCUT model, we derive a value of 2.42 (+0.24, -0.23) x 10^17 Hz for the cutoff frequency: based on this value and assuming a mean magnetic field strength of 14 microGauss, we estimate the cutoff energy of cosmic-ray electrons accelerated by G156.2+5.7 to be approximately 32 TeV. This energy value is well short of the "knee" feature of the cosmic-ray spectrum.Comment: 6 pages with 2 figures. This tex file uses the style file cospar.sty from Elvesier Science Publishers. To be published in Advances in Space Research, Proceedings of 34th COSPAR Assembly (October 2002), Symposium E1.4, "High Energy Studies of Supernova Remnants and Neutron Stars," eds. W. Hermsen and W. Becker (2003

Untrained consumer assessment of the eating quality of European beef: 2. Demographic factors have only minor effects on consumer scores and willingness to pay

The beef industry must become more responsive to the changing market place and consumer demands. An essential part of this is quantifying a consumer’s perception of the eating quality of beef and their willingness to pay for that quality, across a broad range of demographics. Over 19 000 consumers from Northern Ireland, Poland, Ireland and France each tasted seven beef samples and scored them for tenderness, juiciness, flavour liking and overall liking. These scores were weighted and combined to create a fifth score, termed the Meat Quality 4 score (MQ4) (0.3×tenderness, 0.1×juiciness, 0.3×flavour liking and 0.3×overall liking). They also allocated the beef samples into one of four quality grades that best described the sample; unsatisfactory, good-every-day, better-than-every-day or premium. After the completion of the tasting panel, consumers were then asked to detail, in their own currency, their willingness to pay for these four categories which was subsequently converted to a proportion relative to the good-every-day category (P-WTP). Consumers also answered a short demographic questionnaire. The four sensory scores, the MQ4 score and the P-WTP were analysed separately, as dependant variables in linear mixed effects models. The answers from the demographic questionnaire were included in the model as fixed effects. Overall, there were only small differences in consumer scores and P-WTP between demographic groups. Consumers who preferred their beef cooked medium or well-done scored beef higher, except in Poland, where the opposite trend was found. This may be because Polish consumers were more likely to prefer their beef cooked well-done, but samples were cooked medium for this group. There was a small positive relationship with the importance of beef in the diet, increasing sensory scores by about 4% in Poland and Northern Ireland. Men also scored beef about 2% higher than women for most sensory scores in most countries. In most countries, consumers were willing to pay between 150 and 200% more for premium beef, and there was a 50% penalty in value for unsatisfactory beef. After quality grade, by far the greatest influence on P-WTP was country of origin. Consumer age also had a small negative relationship with P-WTP. The results indicate that a single quality score could reliably describe the eating quality experienced by all consumers. In addition, if reliable quality information is delivered to consumers they will pay more for better quality beef, which would add value to the beef industry and encourage improvements in quality

A guanosine 5′-triphosphate-dependent protein kinase is localized in the outer envelope membrane of pea chloroplasts

A guanosine 5-triphosphate (GTP)-dependent protein kinase was detected in preparations of outer chloroplast envelope membranes of pea (Pisum sativum L.) chloroplasts. The protein-kinase activity was capable of phosphorylating several envelope-membrane proteins. The major phosphorylated products were 23- and 32.5-kilo-dalton proteins of the outer envelope membrane. Several other envelope proteins were labeled to a lesser extent. Following acid hydrolysis of the labeled proteins, most of the label was detected as phosphoserine with only minor amounts detected as phosphothreonine. Several criteria were used to distinguish the GTP-dependent protein kinase from an ATP-dependent kinase also present in the outer envelope membrane. The ATP-dependent kinase phosphorylated a very different set of envelope-membrane proteins. Heparin inhibited the GTP-dependent kinase but had little effect upon the ATP-dependent enzyme. The GTP-dependent enzyme accepted phosvitin as an external protein substrate whereas the ATP-dependent enzyme did not. The outer membrane of the chloroplast envelope also contained a phosphotransferase capable of transferring labeled phosphate from [-32P]GTP to ADP to yield (-32P]ATP. Consequently, addition of ADP to a GTP-dependent protein-kinase assay resulted in a switch in the pattern of labeled products from that seen with GTP to that typically seen with ATP

Review: The variability of the eating quality of beef can be reduced by predicting consumer satisfaction

Publication history: Accepted - 22 February 2018; Published online - 2 April 2018The Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grading scheme has the ability to predict beef eating quality for each ‘cut×cooking method combination’ from animal and carcass traits such as sex, age, breed, marbling, hot carcass weight and fatness, ageing time, etc. Following MSA testing protocols, a total of 22 different muscles, cooked by four different cooking methods and to three different degrees of doneness, were tasted by over 19 000 consumers from Northern Ireland, Poland, Ireland, France and Australia. Consumers scored the sensory characteristics (tenderness, flavor liking, juiciness and overall liking) and then allocated samples to one of four quality grades: unsatisfactory, good-every-day, better-than-every-day and premium. We observed that 26% of the beef was unsatisfactory. As previously reported, 68% of samples were allocated to the correct quality grades using the MSA grading scheme. Furthermore, only 7% of the beef unsatisfactory to consumers was misclassified as acceptable. Overall, we concluded that an MSA-like grading scheme could be used to predict beef eating quality and hence underpin commercial brands or labels in a number of European countries, and possibly the whole of Europe. In addition, such an eating quality guarantee system may allow the implementation of an MSA genetic index to improve eating quality through genetics as well as through management. Finally, such an eating quality guarantee system is likely to generate economic benefits to be shared along the beef supply chain from farmers to retailors, as consumers are willing to pay more for a better quality product.This research was supported by Meat and Livestock Australia and Murdoch University. Data were obtained through the financial contributions of the European research project ProSafeBeef (contract no. FOOD-CT-2006-36241), the Polish ProOptiBeef Farm to Fork project funded by the EU Innovative (POIG.01.03.01-00-204/09), the French ‘Direction Générale de l’Alimentation’ and FranceAgriMer. For the Irish data, the authors acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Agriculture and the Marine (DAFM) under the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM). Furthermore, this project would not have been possible without the practical support of the Association Institut du Charolais, the Syndicat de Défense et du promotion de la Viande de Boeuf de Charolles and the gourmet restaurants ‘Jean Denaud’ and representatives of the beef industry across Europe. The international travel required for this project has been funded by ‘Egide/Fast’ funds from the French and Australian governments, respectively (project no. FR090054) and by ‘Egide/Polonium’ funds from the French and Polish governments, respectively. The assistance and participation of the Beef CRC and Janine Lau (MLA, Australia), Alan Gee (Cosign, Australia), Ray Watson (Melbourne University, Australia) and John Thompson (UNE) are also gratefully acknowledged

Towards a unified theory of Sobolev inequalities

We discuss our work on pointwise inequalities for the gradient which are connected with the isoperimetric profile associated to a given geometry. We show how they can be used to unify certain aspects of the theory of Sobolev inequalities. In particular, we discuss our recent papers on fractional order inequalities, Coulhon type inequalities, transference and dimensionless inequalities and our forthcoming work on sharp higher order Sobolev inequalities that can be obtained by iteration.Comment: 39 pages, made some changes to section 1