2,463 research outputs found
Soot formation and burnout in flames
The amount of soot formed when burning a benzene/hexane mixture in a turbulent combustor was examined. Soot concentration profiles in the same combustor for kerosene fuel are given. The chemistry of the formation of soot precursors, the nucleation, growth and subsequent burnout of soot particles, and the effect of mixing on the previous steps were considered
Ising spins coupled to a four-dimensional discrete Regge skeleton
Regge calculus is a powerful method to approximate a continuous manifold by a
simplicial lattice, keeping the connectivities of the underlying lattice fixed
and taking the edge lengths as degrees of freedom. The discrete Regge model
employed in this work limits the choice of the link lengths to a finite number.
To get more precise insight into the behavior of the four-dimensional discrete
Regge model, we coupled spins to the fluctuating manifolds. We examined the
phase transition of the spin system and the associated critical exponents. The
results are obtained from finite-size scaling analyses of Monte Carlo
simulations. We find consistency with the mean-field theory of the Ising model
on a static four-dimensional lattice.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure
Graph hypersurfaces and a dichotomy in the Grothendieck ring
The subring of the Grothendieck ring of varieties generated by the graph
hypersurfaces of quantum field theory maps to the monoid ring of stable
birational equivalence classes of varieties. We show that the image of this map
is the copy of Z generated by the class of a point. Thus, the span of the graph
hypersurfaces in the Grothendieck ring is nearly killed by setting the
Lefschetz motive L to zero, while it is known that graph hypersurfaces generate
the Grothendieck ring over a localization of Z[L] in which L becomes
invertible. In particular, this shows that the graph hypersurfaces do not
generate the Grothendieck ring prior to localization. The same result yields
some information on the mixed Hodge structures of graph hypersurfaces, in the
form of a constraint on the terms in their Deligne-Hodge polynomials.Comment: 8 pages, LaTe
Molecular Aspects of Secretory Granule Exocytosis by Neurons and Endocrine Cells
Neuronal communication and endocrine signaling are fundamental for integrating
the function of tissues and cells in the body. Hormones released by endocrine
cells are transported to the target cells through the circulation. By contrast, transmitter
release from neurons occurs at specialized intercellular junctions, the synapses.
Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which signal molecules are synthesized,
stored, and eventually secreted by neurons and endocrine cells are very similar.
Neurons and endocrine cells have in common two different types of secretory
organelles, indicating the presence of two distinct secretory pathways. The synaptic
vesicles of neurons contain excitatory or inhibitory neurotransmitters, whereas the
secretory granules (also referred to as dense core vesicles, because of their electron
dense content) are filled with neuropeptides and amines. In endocrine cells, peptide
hormones and amines predominate in secretory granules. The function and content
of vesicles, which share antigens with synaptic vesicles, are unknown for most
endocrine cells. However, in B cells of the pancreatic islet, these vesicles contain
GABA, which may be involved in intrainsular signaling.'
Exocytosis of both synaptic vesicles and secretory granules is controlled by
cytoplasmic calcium. However, the precise mechanisms of the subsequent steps,
such as docking of vesicles and fusion of their membranes with the plasma membrane,
are still incompletely understood. This contribution summarizes recent observations
that elucidate components in neurons and endocrine cells involved in
exocytosis. Emphasis is put on the intracellular aspects of the release of secretory
granules that recently have been analyzed in detail
Magnetic Breakdown in the electron-doped cuprate superconductor NdCeCuO: the reconstructed Fermi surface survives in the strongly overdoped regime
We report on semiclassical angle-dependent magnetoresistance oscillations
(AMRO) and the Shubnikov-de Haas effect in the electron-overdoped cuprate
superconductor NdCeCuO. Our data provide convincing evidence
for magnetic breakdown in the system. This shows that a reconstructed
multiply-connected Fermi surface persists, at least at strong magnetic fields,
up to the highest doping level of the superconducting regime. Our results
suggest an intimate relation between translational symmetry breaking and the
superconducting pairing in the electron-doped cuprate superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Experimental Test of a Two-dimensional Approximation for Dielectric Microcavities
Open dielectric resonators of different shapes are widely used for the
manufacture of microlasers. A precise determination of their resonance
frequencies and widths is crucial for their design. Most microlasers have a
flat cylindrical geometry, and a two-dimensional approximation, the so-called
method of the effective index of refraction, is commonly employed for numerical
calculations. Our aim has been an experimental test of the precision and
applicability of a model based on this approximation. We performed very
thorough and accurate measurements of the resonance frequencies and widths of
two passive circular dielectric microwave resonators and found significant
deviations from the model predictions. From this we conclude that the model
generally fails in the quantitative description of three-dimensional dielectric
resonators.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figure
Spin-dependent Bohm trajectories associated with an electronic transition in hydrogen
The Bohm causal theory of quantum mechanics with spin-dependence is used to
determine electron trajectories when a hydrogen atom is subjected to
(semi-classical) radiation. The transition between the 1s ground state and the
2p0 state is examined. It is found that transitions can be identified along
Bohm trajectories. The trajectories lie on invariant hyperboloid surfaces of
revolution in R^3. The energy along the trajectories is also discussed in
relation to the hydrogen energy eigenvalues.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure
VZV-associated acute retinal necrosis in a patient with MS treated with natalizumab
Natalizumab (NTZ) was the first approved humanized monoclonal antibody in highly active relapsing remitting MS (RRMS). Because of the mechanism of inhibiting the migration of immune cells through the blood-brain barrier into the CNS, NTZ is associated with an increased risk of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) by the John Cunningham virus (JCV). Infections with other neurotropic viruses are rarely reported. We present a case of rapid retinal necrosis induced by varicella zoster virus (VZV) in a patient with RRMS under long-term NTZ treatment
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Cortical oscillatory activity is critical for working memory as revealed by deficits in early-onset schizophrenia
Impairments in working memory (WM) are a core cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. Neurophysiological models suggest that deficits during WM maintenance in schizophrenia may be explained by abnormalities in the GABAergic system, which will lead to deficits in high-frequency oscillations. However, it is not yet clear which of the three WM phases (encoding, maintenance, retrieval) are affected by dysfunctional oscillatory activity. We investigated the relationship between impairments in oscillatory activity in a broad frequency range (3–100 Hz) and WM load in the different phases of WM in 14 patients with early-onset schizophrenia and 14 matched control participants using a delayed matching to sample paradigm.
During encoding, successful memorization was predicted by evoked theta, alpha, and beta oscillatory activity in controls. Patients showed severe reductions in the evoked activity in these frequency bands. During early WM maintenance, patients showed a comparable WM load-dependent increase in induced alpha and gamma activity to controls. In contrast, during the later maintenance phase, patients showed a shift in the peak of induced gamma activity to the lower WM load conditions. Finally, induced theta and gamma activity were reduced in patients during retrieval.
Our findings suggest that the WM deficit in schizophrenia is associated with impaired oscillatory activity during all phases of the task and that the cortical storage system reaches its capacity limit at lower loads. Inability to maintain oscillatory activity in specific frequency bands could thus result in the information overload that may underlie both cognitive deficits and psychopathological symptoms of schizophrenia
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