10,287 research outputs found
The Circadian Clock Gene Period1 Connects the Molecular Clock to Neural Activity in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus.
The neural activity patterns of suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) neurons are dynamically regulated throughout the circadian cycle with highest levels of spontaneous action potentials during the day. These rhythms in electrical activity are critical for the function of the circadian timing system and yet the mechanisms by which the molecular clockwork drives changes in the membrane are not well understood. In this study, we sought to examine how the clock gene Period1 (Per1) regulates the electrical activity in the mouse SCN by transiently and selectively decreasing levels of PER1 through use of an antisense oligodeoxynucleotide. We found that this treatment effectively reduced SCN neural activity. Direct current injection to restore the normal membrane potential partially, but not completely, returned firing rate to normal levels. The antisense treatment also reduced baseline [Ca(2+)]i levels as measured by Fura2 imaging technique. Whole cell patch clamp recording techniques were used to examine which specific potassium currents were altered by the treatment. These recordings revealed that the large conductance [Ca(2+)]i-activated potassium currents were reduced in antisense-treated neurons and that blocking this current mimicked the effects of the anti-sense on SCN firing rate. These results indicate that the circadian clock gene Per1 alters firing rate in SCN neurons and raise the possibility that the large conductance [Ca(2+)]i-activated channel is one of the targets
Conjugate photoelectron impact ionization
Exchange of photoelectrons between magnetically conjugate parts of ionospher
A new numerical method for obtaining gluon distribution functions , from the proton structure function
An exact expression for the leading-order (LO) gluon distribution function
from the DGLAP evolution equation for the proton structure
function for deep inelastic scattering has
recently been obtained [M. M. Block, L. Durand and D. W. McKay, Phys. Rev.
D{\bf 79}, 014031, (2009)] for massless quarks, using Laplace transformation
techniques. Here, we develop a fast and accurate numerical inverse Laplace
transformation algorithm, required to invert the Laplace transforms needed to
evaluate , and compare it to the exact solution. We obtain accuracies
of less than 1 part in 1000 over the entire and spectrum. Since no
analytic Laplace inversion is possible for next-to-leading order (NLO) and
higher orders, this numerical algorithm will enable one to obtain accurate NLO
(and NNLO) gluon distributions, using only experimental measurements of
.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Artificial Brains and Hybrid Minds
The paper develops two related thought experiments exploring variations on an ‘animat’ theme. Animats are hybrid devices with both artificial and biological components. Traditionally, ‘components’ have been construed in concrete terms, as physical parts or constituent material structures. Many fascinating issues arise within this context of hybrid physical organization. However, within the context of functional/computational theories of mentality, demarcations based purely on material structure are unduly narrow. It is abstract functional structure which does the key work in characterizing the respective ‘components’ of thinking systems, while the ‘stuff’ of material implementation is of secondary importance. Thus the paper extends the received animat paradigm, and investigates some intriguing consequences of expanding the conception of bio-machine hybrids to include abstract functional and semantic structure. In particular, the thought experiments consider cases of mind-machine merger where there is no physical Brain-Machine Interface: indeed, the material human body and brain have been removed from the picture altogether. The first experiment illustrates some intrinsic theoretical difficulties in attempting to replicate the human mind in an alternative material medium, while the second reveals some deep conceptual problems in attempting to create a form of truly Artificial General Intelligence
New physics, the cosmic ray spectrum knee, and cross section measurements
We explore the possibility that a new physics interaction can provide an
explanation for the knee just above GeV in the cosmic ray spectrum. We
model the new physics modifications to the total proton-proton cross section
with an incoherent term that allows for missing energy above the scale of new
physics. We add the constraint that the new physics must also be consistent
with published cross section measurements, using cosmic ray observations,
an order of magnitude and more above the knee. We find that the rise in cross
section required at energies above the knee is radical. The increase in cross
section suggests that it may be more appropriate to treat the scattering
process in the black disc limit at such high energies. In this case there may
be no clean separation between the standard model and new physics contributions
to the total cross section. We model the missing energy in this limit and find
a good fit to the Tibet III cosmic ray flux data. We comment on testing the new
physics proposal for the cosmic ray knee at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure
Morphological Classification of Galaxies by Shapelet Decomposition in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II: Multiwavelength Classification
We describe the application of the `shapelet' linear decomposition of galaxy
images to multi-wavelength morphological classification using the
and -band images of 1519 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We
utilize elliptical shapelets to remove to first-order the effect of inclination
on morphology. After decomposing the galaxies we perform a principal component
analysis on the shapelet coefficients to reduce the dimensionality of the
spectral morphological parameter space. We give a description of each of the
first ten principal component's contribution to a galaxy's spectral morphology.
We find that galaxies of different broad Hubble type separate cleanly in the
principal component space. We apply a mixture of Gaussians model to the
2-dimensional space spanned by the first two principal components and use the
results as a basis for classification. Using the mixture model, we separate
galaxies into three classes and give a description of each class's physical and
morphological properties. We find that the two dominant mixture model classes
correspond to early and late type galaxies, respectively. The third class has,
on average, a blue, extended core surrounded by a faint red halo, and typically
exhibits some asymmetry. We compare our method to a simple cut on color
and find the shapelet method to be superior in separating galaxies.
Furthermore, we find evidence that the decision boundary may not be
optimal for separation between early and late type galaxies, and suggest that
the optimal cut may be .Comment: 42 pages, 18 figs, revised version in press at AJ. Some modification
to the technique, more discussion, addition/deletion/modification of several
figures, color figures have been added. A high resolution version may be
obtained at
http://bllac.as.arizona.edu/~bkelly/shapelets/shapelets_ugriz.ps.g
Spin Bose-Metal and Valence Bond Solid phases in a spin-1/2 model with ring exchanges on a four-leg triangular ladder
We study a spin-1/2 system with Heisenberg plus ring exchanges on a four-leg
triangular ladder using the density matrix renormalization group and Gutzwiller
variational wave functions. Near an isotropic lattice regime, for moderate to
large ring exchanges we find a spin Bose-metal phase with a spinon Fermi sea
consisting of three partially filled bands. Going away from the triangular
towards the square lattice regime, we find a staggered dimer phase with dimers
in the transverse direction, while for small ring exchanges the system is in a
featureless rung phase. We also discuss parent states and a possible phase
diagram in two dimensions.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, v3 is the print versio
A Dust-Penetrated Classification Scheme for Bars as Inferred from their Gravitational Force Fields
The division of galaxies into ``barred'' (SB) and ``normal'' (S) spirals is a
fundamental aspect of the Hubble galaxy classification system. This ``tuning
fork'' view was revised by de Vaucouleurs, whose classification volume
recognized apparent ``bar strength'' (SA, SAB, SB) as a continuous property of
galaxies called the ``family''. However, the SA, SAB, and SB families are
purely visual judgments that can have little bearing on the actual bar strength
in a given galaxy. Until very recently, published bar judgments were based
exclusively on blue light images, where internal extinction or star formation
can either mask a bar completely or give the false impression of a bar in a
nonbarred galaxy. Near-infrared camera arrays, which principally trace the old
stellar populations in both normal and barred galaxies, now facilitate a
quantification of bar strength in terms of their gravitational potentials and
force fields. In this paper, we show that the maximum value, Qb, of the ratio
of the tangential force to the mean radial force is a quantitative measure of
the strength of a bar. Qb does not measure bar ellipticity or bar shape, but
rather depends on the actual forcing due to the bar embedded in its disk. We
show that a wide range of true bar strengths characterizes the category ``SB'',
while de Vaucouleurs category ``SAB'' corresponds to a much narrower range of
bar strengths. We present Qb values for 36 galaxies, and we incorporate our bar
classes into a dust-penetrated classification system for spiral galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (LaTex, 30
pages + 3 figures); Figs. 1 and 3 are in color and are also available at
http://bama.ua.edu/~rbuta/bars
Low frequency m=1 normal mode oscillations of a self-gravitating disc
A continuous system such as a galactic disc is shown to be well approximated
by an N-ring differentially rotating self-gravitating system. Lowest order
(m=1) non-axisymmetric features such as lopsidedness and warps are global in
nature and quite common in the discs of spiral galaxies. Apparently these two
features of the galactic discs have been treated like two completely disjoint
phenomena. The present analysis based on an eigenvalue approach brings out
clearly that these two features are fundamentally similar in nature and they
are shown to be very Low frequency Normal Mode (LNM) oscillations manifested in
different symmetry planes of the galactic disc. Our analysis also show that
these features are actually long-lived oscillating pattern of the N-ring
self-gravitating system.Comment: 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
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