1,297 research outputs found
Reactant Jetting in Unstable Detonation
We note the common existence of a supersonic jet structure locally embedded within a surrounding transonic flow field in the hitherto unrelated phenomena of unstable gaseous
detonation and hypervelocity blunt body shock wave interaction. Extending prior results that demonstrate the consequences of reduced endothermic reaction rate for the supersonic jet fluid in the blunt body case, we provide an explanation for observations of locally reduced OH PLIF signal in images of the keystone reaction zone structure of weakly unstable detonations. Modeling these flow features as exothermically reacting jets with similarly reduced reaction rates, we demonstrate a mechanism for jetting of bulk pockets of unreacted fluid with potentially differing kinetic pathways into the region behind the primary detonation front of strongly unstable mixtures. We examine the impact of mono-atomic and diatomic diluents on transverse structure. The results yield insight into the mechanisms of transition and characteristic features of both weakly and strongly unstable mixtures
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A tillering inhibition gene influences root-shoot carbon partitioning and pattern of water use to improve wheat productivity in rainfed environments
Genetic modification of shoot and root morphology has potential to improve water and nutrient
19 uptake of wheat crops in rainfed environments. Near-isogenic lines (NILs) varying for a tillering
20 inhibition (tin) gene and representing multiple genetic backgrounds were investigated in contrasting
21 controlled environments for shoot and root growth. Leaf area, shoot and root biomass were similar
22 until tillering whereupon reduced tillering in tin-containing NILs produced reductions of up to 60% in
23 total leaf area and biomass, and increases in total root length of up to 120% and root biomass to
24 145%. Together, root-to-shoot ratio increased two-fold with the tin gene. The influence of tin on shoot
25 and root growth was greatest in the cv. Banks genetic background, particularly in the biculm-selected
26 NIL, and was typically strongest in cooler environments. A separate de-tillering study confirmed
27 greater root-to-shoot ratios with regular tiller removal in non-tin containing genotypes. In validating
28 these observations in a rainfed field study, the tin allele had a negligible effect on seedling growth but
29 was associated with significantly (P<0.05) reduced tiller number (-37%), leaf area index (-26%) and
30 spike number (-35%) to reduce plant biomass (-19%) at anthesis. Root biomass, root-to-shoot ratio at
31 early stem elongation and root depth at maturity were increased in tin-containing NILs. Soil water use
32 was slowed in tin-containing NILs resulting in greater water availability, greater stomatal
33 conductance, cooler canopy temperatures and maintenance of green leaf area during grain-filling.
34 Together these effects contributed to increases in harvest index and grain yield. In both the controlled
35 and field environments, the tin gene was commonly associated with increased root length and biomass
36 but the significant influence of genetic background and environment suggests careful assessment of
37 tin-containing progeny in selection for genotypic increases in root growth
On the gravitational, dilatonic and axionic radiative damping of cosmic strings
We study the radiation reaction on cosmic strings due to the emission of
dilatonic, gravitational and axionic waves. After verifying the (on average)
conservative nature of the time-symmetric self-interactions, we concentrate on
the finite radiation damping force associated with the half-retarded minus
half-advanced ``reactive'' fields. We revisit a recent proposal of using a
``local back reaction approximation'' for the reactive fields. Using
dimensional continuation as convenient technical tool, we find, contrary to
previous claims, that this proposal leads to antidamping in the case of the
axionic field, and to zero (integrated) damping in the case of the
gravitational field. One gets normal positive damping only in the case of the
dilatonic field. We propose to use a suitably modified version of the local
dilatonic radiation reaction as a substitute for the exact (non-local)
gravitational radiation reaction. The incorporation of such a local
approximation to gravitational radiation reaction should allow one to complete,
in a computationally non-intensive way, string network simulations and to give
better estimates of the amount and spectrum of gravitational radiation emitted
by a cosmologically evolving network of massive strings.Comment: 48 pages, RevTex, epsfig, 1 figure; clarification of the domain of
validity of the perturbative derivation of the string equations of motion,
and of their renormalizabilit
Non-linear Realizations of Conformal Symmetry and Effective Field Theory for the Pseudo-Conformal Universe
The pseudo-conformal scenario is an alternative to inflation in which the
early universe is described by an approximate conformal field theory on flat,
Minkowski space. Some fields acquire a time-dependent expectation value, which
breaks the flat space so(4,2) conformal algebra to its so(4,1) de Sitter
subalgebra. As a result, weight-0 fields acquire a scale invariant spectrum of
perturbations. The scenario is very general, and its essential features are
determined by the symmetry breaking pattern, irrespective of the details of the
underlying microphysics. In this paper, we apply the well-known coset technique
to derive the most general effective lagrangian describing the Goldstone field
and matter fields, consistent with the assumed symmetries. The resulting action
captures the low energy dynamics of any pseudo-conformal realization, including
the U(1)-invariant quartic model and the Galilean Genesis scenario. We also
derive this lagrangian using an alternative method of curvature invariants,
consisting of writing down geometric scalars in terms of the conformal mode.
Using this general effective action, we compute the two-point function for the
Goldstone and a fiducial weight-0 field, as well as some sample three-point
functions involving these fields.Comment: 49 pages. v2: minor corrections, added references. v3: minor edits,
version appearing in JCA
Universal Correlations of Coulomb Blockade Conductance Peaks and the Rotation Scaling in Quantum Dots
We show that the parametric correlations of the conductance peak amplitudes
of a chaotic or weakly disordered quantum dot in the Coulomb blockade regime
become universal upon an appropriate scaling of the parameter. We compute the
universal forms of this correlator for both cases of conserved and broken time
reversal symmetry. For a symmetric dot the correlator is independent of the
details in each lead such as the number of channels and their correlation. We
derive a new scaling, which we call the rotation scaling, that can be computed
directly from the dot's eigenfunction rotation rate or alternatively from the
conductance peak heights, and therefore does not require knowledge of the
spectrum of the dot. The relation of the rotation scaling to the level velocity
scaling is discussed. The exact analytic form of the conductance peak
correlator is derived at short distances. We also calculate the universal
distributions of the average level width velocity for various values of the
scaled parameter. The universality is illustrated in an Anderson model of a
disordered dot.Comment: 35 pages, RevTex, 6 Postscript figure
The ancient evolutionary history of polyomaviruses
Author Summary: Polyomaviruses are a family of DNA-based viruses that are known to infect various terrestrial vertebrates, including humans. In this report, we describe our discovery of highly divergent polyomaviruses associated with various marine fish. Searches of public deep sequencing databases unexpectedly revealed the existence of polyomavirus-like sequences in scorpion and spider datasets. Our analysis of these new sequences suggests that polyomaviruses have slowly co-evolved with individual host animal lineages through an established mechanism known as intrahost divergence. The proposed model is similar to the mechanisms through with other DNA viruses, such as papillomaviruses, are thought to have evolved. Our analysis also suggests that distantly related polyomaviruses sometimes recombine to produce new chimeric lineages. We propose a possible taxonomic scheme that can account for these inferred ancient recombination events
Nonequilibrium Evolution of Correlation Functions: A Canonical Approach
We study nonequilibrium evolution in a self-interacting quantum field theory
invariant under space translation only by using a canonical approach based on
the recently developed Liouville-von Neumann formalism. The method is first
used to obtain the correlation functions both in and beyond the Hartree
approximation, for the quantum mechanical analog of the model. The
technique involves representing the Hamiltonian in a Fock basis of annihilation
and creation operators. By separating it into a solvable Gaussian part
involving quadratic terms and a perturbation of quartic terms, it is possible
to find the improved vacuum state to any desired order. The correlation
functions for the field theory are then investigated in the Hartree
approximation and those beyond the Hartree approximation are obtained by
finding the improved vacuum state corrected up to . These
correlation functions take into account next-to-leading and
next-to-next-to-leading order effects in the coupling constant. We also use the
Heisenberg formalism to obtain the time evolution equations for the equal-time,
connected correlation functions beyond the leading order. These equations are
derived by including the connected 4-point functions in the hierarchy. The
resulting coupled set of equations form a part of infinite hierarchy of coupled
equations relating the various connected n-point functions. The connection with
other approaches based on the path integral formalism is established and the
physical implications of the set of equations are discussed with particular
emphasis on thermalization.Comment: Revtex, 32 pages; substantial new material dealing with
non-equilibrium evolution beyond Hartree approx. based on the LvN formalism,
has been adde
Quantification of pulmonary perfusion in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with first pass dynamic contrast-enhanced perfusion MRI
Introduction Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal disease of lung scarring. Many patients later develop raised pulmonary vascular pressures, sometimes disproportionate to the interstitial disease. Previous therapeutic approaches that have targeted pulmonary vascular changes have not demonstrated clinical efficacy, and quantitative assessment of regional pulmonary vascular involvement using perfusion imaging may provide a biomarker for further therapeutic insights.
Methods We studied 23 participants with IPF, using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and pulmonary function tests, including forced vital capacity (FVC), transfer factor (TLCO) and coefficient (KCO) of the lungs for carbon monoxide. DCE-MRI parametric maps were generated including the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the bolus transit time through the lungs. Key metrics used were mean (FWHMmean) and heterogeneity (FWHMIQR). Nineteen participants returned at 6âmonths for repeat assessment.
Results Spearman correlation coefficients were identified between TLCO and FWHMIQR (r=â0.46; p=0.026), KCO and FWHMmean (r=â0.42; p=0.047) and KCO and FWHMIQR (r=â0.51; p=0.013) at baseline. No statistically significant correlations were seen between FVC and DCE-MRI metrics. Follow-up at 6âmonths demonstrated statistically significant decline in FVC (p=0.040) and KCO (p=0.014), with an increase in FWHMmean (p=0.040), but no significant changes in TLCO (p=0.090) nor FWHMIQR (p=0.821).
Conclusions DCE-MRI first pass perfusion demonstrates correlations with existing physiological gas exchange metrics, suggesting that capillary perfusion deficit (as well as impaired interstitial diffusion) may contribute to gas exchange limitation in IPF. FWHMmean showed a significant increase over a 6-month period and has potential as a quantitative biomarker of pulmonary vascular disease progression in IPF
LENDA, a Low Energy Neutron Detector Array for experiments with radioactive beams in inverse kinematics
The Low Energy Neutron Detector Array (LENDA) is a neutron time-of-flight
(TOF) spectrometer developed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab-
oratory (NSCL) for use in inverse kinematics experiments with rare isotope
beams. Its design has been motivated by the need to study the spin-isospin
response of unstable nuclei using (p, n) charge-exchange reactions at
intermediate energies (> 100 MeV/u). It can be used, however, for any reaction
study that involves emission of low energy neutrons (150 keV - 10 MeV). The
array consists of 24 plastic scintillator bars and is capable of registering
the recoiling neutron energy and angle with high detection efficiency. The
neutron energy is determined by the time-of-flight technique, while the
position of interaction is deduced using the timing and energy information from
the two photomultipliers of each bar. A simple test setup utilizing radioactive
sources has been used to characterize the array. Results of test measurements
are compared with simulations. A neutron energy threshold of < 150 keV, an
intrinsic time (position) resolution of \sim 400 ps (\sim 6 cm) and an
efficiency > 20 % for neutrons below 4 MeV have been obtained.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Nucl. Instr. Methods A. Revised
text, 2 new figures added (one in section 4 and one in section 7
Late breaking abstract - Hyperpolarised gas MRI demonstrates sub-clinical progression in IPF over 6 months
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