2,737 research outputs found
Multichannel pulse height analyzer is inexpensive, features low power requirements
Consumption multichannel pulse height analyzer performs balloon and rocket investigations of solar neutrons with energies greater than 10 MeV. The lightweight unit can operate in a temperature range of minus 30 degrees to plus 70 degrees C and withstand storage temperatures from minus 50 degrees to plus 90 degrees C
Dynamical Diffraction Theory for Wave Packet Propagation in Deformed Crystals
We develop a theory for the trajectory of an x ray in the presence of a
crystal deformation. A set of equations of motion for an x-ray wave packet
including the dynamical diffraction is derived, taking into account the Berry
phase as a correction to geometrical optics. The trajectory of the wave packet
has a shift of the center position due to a crystal deformation. Remarkably, in
the vicinity of the Bragg condition, the shift is enhanced by a factor (: frequency of an x ray, : gap frequency
induced by the Bragg reflection). Comparison with the conventional dynamical
diffraction theory is also made.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Title change
Mitofusins Mfn1 and Mfn2 coordinately regulate mitochondrial fusion and are essential for embryonic development
Mitochondrial morphology is determined by a dynamic equilibrium between organelle fusion and fission, but the significance of these processes in vertebrates is unknown. The mitofusins, Mfn1 and Mfn2, have been shown to affect mitochondrial morphology when overexpressed. We find that mice deficient in either Mfn1 or Mfn2 die in midgestation. However, whereas Mfn2 mutant embryos have a specific and severe disruption of the placental trophoblast giant cell layer, Mfn1-deficient giant cells are normal. Embryonic fibroblasts lacking Mfn1 or Mfn2 display distinct types of fragmented mitochondria, a phenotype we determine to be due to a severe reduction in mitochondrial fusion. Moreover, we find that Mfn1 and Mfn2 form homotypic and heterotypic complexes and show, by rescue of mutant cells, that the homotypic complexes are functional for fusion. We conclude that Mfn1 and Mfn2 have both redundant and distinct functions and act in three separate molecular complexes to promote mitochondrial fusion. Strikingly, a subset of mitochondria in mutant cells lose membrane potential. Therefore, mitochondrial fusion is essential for embryonic development, and by enabling cooperation between mitochondria, has protective effects on the mitochondrial population
Systematic {\it ab initio} study of the magnetic and electronic properties of all 3d transition metal linear and zigzag nanowires
It is found that all the zigzag chains except the nonmagnetic (NM) Ni and
antiferromagnetic (AF) Fe chains which form a twisted two-legger ladder, look
like a corner-sharing triangle ribbon, and have a lower total energy than the
corresponding linear chains. All the 3d transition metals in both linear and
zigzag structures have a stable or metastable ferromagnetic (FM) state. The
electronic spin-polarization at the Fermi level in the FM Sc, V, Mn, Fe, Co and
Ni linear chains is close to 90% or above. In the zigzag structure, the AF
state is more stable than the FM state only in the Cr chain. It is found that
the shape anisotropy energy may be comparable to the electronic one and always
prefers the axial magnetization in both the linear and zigzag structures. In
the zigzag chains, there is also a pronounced shape anisotropy in the plane
perpendicular to the chain axis. Remarkably, the axial magnetic anisotropy in
the FM Ni linear chain is gigantic, being ~12 meV/atom. Interestingly, there is
a spin-reorientation transition in the FM Fe and Co linear chains when the
chains are compressed or elongated. Large orbital magnetic moment is found in
the FM Fe, Co and Ni linear chains
Linear Toric Fibrations
These notes are based on three lectures given at the 2013 CIME/CIRM summer
school. The purpose of this series of lectures is to introduce the notion of a
toric fibration and to give its geometrical and combinatorial
characterizations. Polarized toric varieties which are birationally equivalent
to projective toric bundles are associated to a class of polytopes called
Cayley polytopes. Their geometry and combinatorics have a fruitful interplay
leading to fundamental insight in both directions. These notes will illustrate
geometrical phenomena, in algebraic geometry and neighboring fields, which are
characterized by a Cayley structure. Examples are projective duality of toric
varieties and polyhedral adjunction theory
Field-induced structure transformation in electrorheological solids
We have computed the local electric field in a body-centered tetragonal (BCT)
lattice of point dipoles via the Ewald-Kornfeld formulation, in an attempt to
examine the effects of a structure transformation on the local field strength.
For the ground state of an electrorheological solid of hard spheres, we
identified a novel structure transformation from the BCT to the face-centered
cubic (FCC) lattices by changing the uniaxial lattice constant c under the hard
sphere constraint. In contrast to the previous results, the local field
exhibits a non-monotonic transition from BCT to FCC. As c increases from the
BCT ground state, the local field initially decreases rapidly towards the
isotropic value at the body-centered cubic lattice, decreases further, reaching
a minimum value and increases, passing through the isotropic value again at an
intermediate lattice, reaches a maximum value and finally decreases to the FCC
value. An experimental realization of the structure transformation is
suggested. Moreover, the change in the local field can lead to a generalized
Clausius-Mossotti equation for the BCT lattices.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Boundary conditions for interfaces of electromagnetic (photonic) crystals and generalized Ewald-Oseen extinction principle
The problem of plane-wave diffraction on semi-infinite orthorhombic
electromagnetic (photonic) crystals of general kind is considered. Boundary
conditions are obtained in the form of infinite system of equations relating
amplitudes of incident wave, eigenmodes excited in the crystal and scattered
spatial harmonics. Generalized Ewald-Oseen extinction principle is formulated
on the base of deduced boundary conditions. The knowledge of properties of
infinite crystal's eigenmodes provides option to solve the diffraction problem
for the corresponding semi-infinite crystal numerically. In the case when the
crystal is formed by small inclusions which can be treated as point dipolar
scatterers with fixed direction the problem admits complete rigorous analytical
solution. The amplitudes of excited modes and scattered spatial harmonics are
expressed in terms of the wave vectors of the infinite crystal by closed-form
analytical formulae. The result is applied for study of reflection properties
of metamaterial formed by cubic lattice of split-ring resonators.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, submitted to PR
Gene expression profiling to study racial differences after heart transplantation.
BackgroundThe basis for increased mortality after heart transplantation in African Americans and other non-Caucasian racial groups is poorly defined. We hypothesized that increased risk of adverse events is driven by biologic factors. To test this hypothesis in the Invasive Monitoring Attenuation through Gene Expression (IMAGE) study, we determined whether the event rate of the primary outcome of acute rejection, graft dysfunction, death, or retransplantation varied by race as a function of calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) levels and gene expression profile (GEP) scores.MethodsWe determined the event rate of the primary outcome, comparing racial groups, stratified by time after transplant. Logistic regression was used to compute the relative risk across racial groups, and linear modeling was used to measure the dependence of CNI levels and GEP score on race.ResultsIn 580 patients monitored for a median of 19 months, the incidence of the primary end point was 18.3% in African Americans, 22.2% in other non-Caucasians, and 8.5% in Caucasians (p < 0.001). There were small but significant correlations of race and tacrolimus trough levels to the GEP score. Tacrolimus levels were similar among the races. Of patients receiving tacrolimus, other non-Caucasians had higher GEP scores than the other racial groups. African American recipients demonstrated a unique decrease in expression of the FLT3 gene in response to higher tacrolimus levels.ConclusionsAfrican Americans and other non-Caucasian heart transplant recipients were 2.5-times to 3-times more likely than Caucasians to experience outcome events in the Invasive Monitoring Attenuation through Gene Expression study. The increased risk of adverse outcomes may be partly due to the biology of the alloimmune response, which is less effectively inhibited at similar tacrolimus levels in minority racial groups
Effects of geometric anisotropy on local field distribution: Ewald-Kornfeld formulation
We have applied the Ewald-Kornfeld formulation to a tetragonal lattice of
point dipoles, in an attempt to examine the effects of geometric anisotropy on
the local field distribution. The various problems encountered in the
computation of the conditionally convergent summation of the near field are
addressed and the methods of overcoming them are discussed. The results show
that the geometric anisotropy has a significant impact on the local field
distribution. The change in the local field can lead to a generalized
Clausius-Mossotti equation for the anisotropic case.Comment: Accepted for publications, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte
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