55,277 research outputs found
Self-shadowing Effects of Slim Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei: Diverse Appearance of the Broad-line Region
Supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) undergo a wide
range of accretion rates, which lead to diversity of appearance. We consider
the effects of anisotropic radiation from accretion disks on the broad-line
region (BLR), from the Shakura-Sunyaev regime to slim disks with
super-Eddington accretion rates. The geometrically thick funnel of the inner
region of slim disks produces strong self-shadowing effects that lead to very
strong anisotropy of the radiation field. We demonstrate that the degree of
anisotropy of the radiation fields grows with increasing accretion rate. As a
result of this anisotropy, BLR clouds receive different spectral energy
distributions depending on their location relative to the disk, resulting in
diverse observational appearance of the BLR. We show that the self-shadowing of
the inner parts of the disk naturally produces two dynamically distinct regions
of the BLR, depending on accretion rate. These two regions manifest themselves
as kinematically distinct components of the broad H line profile with
different line widths and fluxes, which jointly account for the Lorentzian
profile generally observed in narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies. In the time
domain, these two components are expected reverberate with different time lags
with respect to the varying ionizing continuum, depending on the accretion rate
and the viewing angle of the observer. The diverse appearance of the BLR due to
the anisotropic ionizing energy source can be tested by reverberation mapping
of H and other broad emission lines (e.g., \feii), providing a new tool
to diagnose the structure and dynamics of the BLR. Other observational
consequences of our model are also explored.Comment: emulatapj style, 15 pages, 6 figures, in pres
The role of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of shell matrix proteins in shell formation : an in vivo and in vitro study
Protein phosphorylation is a fundamental mechanism regulating many aspects of cellular processes. Shell matrix proteins (SMPs) control crystal nucleation, polymorphism, morphology, and organization of calcium carbonate crystallites during shell formation. SMPs phosphorylation is suggested to be important in shell formation but the mechanism is largely unknown. Here, to investigate the mechanism of phosphorylation of SMPs in biomineralization, we performed in vivo and in vitro experiment. By injection of antibody against the anti-phosphoserine/threonine /tyrosine into the extrapallial fluid of the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata, phosphorylation of matrix proteins were significantly reduced after 6 days. Newly formed prismatic layers and nacre tablet were found to grow abnormally with reduced crystallinity and possibly changed crystal orientation shown by Raman spectroscopy. In addition, regeneration of shells is also inhibited in vivo. Then, protein phosphatase was used to dephosphorylate SMPs extracted from the shells. After dephosphorylation, the ability of SMPs to inhibiting calcium carbonate formation have been reduced. Surprisingly, the ability of SMPs to modulate crystal morphology have been largely compromised although phosphorylation extent remained to be at least half of the control. Furthermore, dephosphorylation of SMPs changed the distribution of protein occlusions and decreased the amount of protein occlusions inside crystals shown by confocal imaging, indicating interaction between phosphorylated SMPs and crystals. Taken together, this study provides insight into the mechanism of phosphorylation of SMPs during shell formation
Cosmology with Varying Constants
The idea of possible time or space variations of the `fundamental' constants
of nature, although not new, is only now beginning to be actively considered by
large numbers of researchers in the particle physics, cosmology and
astrophysics communities. This revival is mostly due to the claims of possible
detection of such variations, in various different contexts and by several
groups. Here, I present the current theoretical motivations and expectations
for such variations, review the current observational status, and discuss the
impact of a possible confirmation of these results in our views of cosmology
and physics as a whole.Comment: 14 pages, no figures. Essay to appear in Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond.
A Triennial Series (Christmas 2002 Issue
Characterization of Cre recombinase activity for in vivo targeting of adipocyte precursor cells.
The increased incidence of obesity and metabolic disease underscores the importance of elucidating the biology of adipose tissue development. The recent discovery of cell surface markers for prospective identification of adipose precursor cells (APCs) in vivo will greatly facilitate these studies, yet tools for specifically targeting these cells in vivo have not been identified. Here, we survey three transgenic mouse lines, Fabp4-Cre, PdgfRα-Cre, and Prx1-Cre, precisely assessing Cre-mediated recombination in adipose stromal populations and mature tissues. Our data provide key insights into the utility of these tools to modulate gene expression in adipose tissues. In particular, Fabp4-Cre is not effective to target APCs, nor is its activity restricted to these cells. PdgfRα-Cre directs recombination in the vast majority of APCs, but also targets other populations. In contrast, adipose expression of Prx1-Cre is chiefly limited to subcutaneous inguinal APCs, which will be valuable for dissection of APC functions among adipose depots
Comment on "Self-Purification in Semiconductor Nanocrystals"
In a recent Letter [PRL 96, 226802 (2006)], Dalpian and Chelikowsky claimed
that formation energies of Mn impurities in CdSe nanocrystals increase as the
size of the nanocrystal decreases, and argued that this size dependence leads
to "self-purification" of small nanocrystals. They presented
density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations showing a strong size dependence
for Mn impurity formation energies, and proposed a general explanation. In this
Comment we show that several different DFT codes, pseudopotentials, and
exchange-correlation functionals give a markedly different result: We find no
such size dependence. More generally, we argue that formation energies are not
relevant to substitutional doping in most colloidally grown nanocrystals.Comment: 1 page, 1 figur
Carrier Sense Random Packet CDMA Protocol in Dual-Channel Networks
Code resource wastage is caused by the reason that many hopping frequency (FH) sequences are unused, which occurs under the condition that the number of the actual subnets needed for the tactical network is far smaller than the networking capacity of code division net¬working. Dual-channel network (DCN), consisting of one single control channel and multiple data channels, can solve the code resource wastage effectively. To improve the anti-jamming capability of the control channel of DCN, code division multiple access (CDMA) technology was introduced, and a carrier sense random packet (CSRP) CDMA protocol based on random packet CDMA (RP-CDMA) was proposed. In CSRP-CDMA, we provide a carrier sensing random packet mechanism and a packet-segment acknowledgement policy. Furthermore, an analytical model was developed to evaluate the performance of CSRP-CDMA networks. In this model, the impacts of multi-access interference from both inter-clusters and intra-clusters were analyzed, and the mathematical expressions of packet transmission success probability, normalized network throughput and signal interference to noise ratio, were also derived. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the normalized network throughput of CSRP-CDMA outperforms traditional RP-CDMA by 10%, which can guarantee the resource utilization efficiency of the control channel in DCNs
Semiclassical Green Function in Mixed Spaces
A explicit formula on semiclassical Green functions in mixed position and
momentum spaces is given, which is based on Maslov's multi-dimensional
semiclassical theory. The general formula includes both coordinate and momentum
representations of Green functions as two special cases of the form.Comment: 8 pages, typeset by Scientific Wor
Opaque Service Virtualisation: A Practical Tool for Emulating Endpoint Systems
Large enterprise software systems make many complex interactions with other
services in their environment. Developing and testing for production-like
conditions is therefore a very challenging task. Current approaches include
emulation of dependent services using either explicit modelling or
record-and-replay approaches. Models require deep knowledge of the target
services while record-and-replay is limited in accuracy. Both face
developmental and scaling issues. We present a new technique that improves the
accuracy of record-and-replay approaches, without requiring prior knowledge of
the service protocols. The approach uses Multiple Sequence Alignment to derive
message prototypes from recorded system interactions and a scheme to match
incoming request messages against prototypes to generate response messages. We
use a modified Needleman-Wunsch algorithm for distance calculation during
message matching. Our approach has shown greater than 99% accuracy for four
evaluated enterprise system messaging protocols. The approach has been
successfully integrated into the CA Service Virtualization commercial product
to complement its existing techniques.Comment: In Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software
Engineering Companion (pp. 202-211). arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1510.0142
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