9,925 research outputs found
Fluid flow at the interface between elastic solids with randomly rough surfaces
I study fluid flow at the interface between elastic solids with randomly
rough surfaces. I use the contact mechanics model of Persson to take into
account the elastic interaction between the solid walls and the Bruggeman
effective medium theory to account for the influence of the disorder on the
fluid flow. I calculate the flow tensor which determines the pressure flow
factor and, e.g., the leak-rate of static seals. I show how the perturbation
treatment of Tripp can be extended to arbitrary order in the ratio between the
root-mean-square roughness amplitude and the average interfacial surface
separation. I introduce a matrix D(Zeta), determined by the surface roughness
power spectrum, which can be used to describe the anisotropy of the surface at
any magnification Zeta. I present results for the asymmetry factor Gamma(Zeta)
(generalized Peklenik number) for grinded steel and sandblasted PMMA surfaces.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figure
Optimisation of the Swift X-ray follow-up of Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave triggers in 2015--16
One of the most exciting near-term prospects in physics is the potential
discovery of gravitational waves by the advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors. To
maximise both the confidence of the detection and the science return, it is
essential to identify an electromagnetic counterpart. This is not trivial, as
the events are expected to be poorly localised, particularly in the near-term,
with error regions covering hundreds or even thousands of square degrees. In
this paper we discuss the prospects for finding an X-ray counterpart to a
gravitational wave trigger with the Swift X-ray Telescope, using the assumption
that the trigger is caused by a binary neutron star merger which also produces
a short gamma-ray burst. We show that it is beneficial to target galaxies
within the GW error region, highlighting the need for substantially complete
galaxy catalogues out to distances of 300 Mpc. We also show that nearby,
on-axis short GRBs are either extremely rare, or are systematically less
luminous than those detected to date. We consider the prospects for detecting
afterglow emission from an an off-axis GRB which triggered the GW facilities,
finding that the detectability, and the best time to look, are strongly
dependent on the characteristics of the burst such as circumburst density and
our viewing angle.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Timing accuracy of the Swift X-Ray Telescope in WT mode
The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) on board Swift was mainly designed to provide
detailed position, timing and spectroscopic information on Gamma-Ray Burst
(GRB) afterglows. During the mission lifetime the fraction of observing time
allocated to other types of source has been steadily increased. In this paper,
we report on the results of the in-flight calibration of the timing
capabilities of the XRT in Windowed Timing read-out mode. We use observations
of the Crab pulsar to evaluate the accuracy of the pulse period determination
by comparing the values obtained by the XRT timing analysis with the values
derived from radio monitoring. We also check the absolute time reconstruction
measuring the phase position of the main peak in the Crab profile and comparing
it both with the value reported in literature and with the result that we
obtain from a simultaneous Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observation. We
find that the accuracy in period determination for the Crab pulsar is of the
order of a few picoseconds for the observation with the largest data time span.
The absolute time reconstruction, measured using the position of the Crab main
peak, shows that the main peak anticipates the phase of the position reported
in literature for RXTE by ~270 microseconds on average (~150 microseconds when
data are reduced with the attitude file corrected with the UVOT data). The
analysis of the simultaneous Swift-XRT and RXTE Proportional Counter Array
(PCA) observations confirms that the XRT Crab profile leads the PCA profile by
~200 microseconds. The analysis of XRT Photodiode mode data and BAT event data
shows a main peak position in good agreement with the RXTE, suggesting the
discrepancy observed in XRT data in Windowed Timing mode is likely due to a
systematic offset in the time assignment for this XRT read out mode.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication on
Astronomy&Astrophysic
Contact mechanics: contact area and interfacial separation from small contact to full contact
We present a molecular dynamics study of the contact between a rigid solid
with a randomly rough surface and an elastic block with a flat surface. The
numerical calculations mainly focus on the contact area and the interfacial
separation from small contact (low load) to full contact (high load). For small
load the contact area varies linearly with the load and the interfacial
separation depends logarithmically on the load. For high load the contact area
approaches the nominal contact area (i.e., complete contact), and the
interfacial separation approaches zero. The numerical results have been
compared with analytical theory and experimental results. They are in good
agreement with each other. The present findings may be very important for soft
solids, e.g., rubber, or for very smooth surfaces, where complete contact can
be reached at moderate high loads without plastic deformation of the solids.Comment: 15 pages, 23 figure
GRB 050911: a black hole - neutron star merger or a naked GRB
GRB 050911, discovered by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope, was not seen 4.6
hr later by the Swift X-ray Telescope, making it one of the very few X-ray
non-detections of a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) afterglow at early times. The
gamma-ray light-curve shows at least three peaks, the first two of which (~T_0
- 0.8 and T_0 + 0.2 s, where T_0 is the trigger time) were short, each lasting
0.5 s. This was followed by later emission 10-20 s post-burst. The upper limit
on the unabsorbed X-ray flux was 1.7 x 10^-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (integrating 46 ks
of data taken between 11 and 18 September), indicating that the decay must have
been rapid. All but one of the long bursts detected by Swift were above this
limit at ~4.6 hr, whereas the afterglows of short bursts became undetectable
more rapidly. Deep observations with Gemini also revealed no optical afterglow
12 hr after the burst, down to r=24.0 (5-sigma limit). We speculate that GRB
050911 may have been formed through a compact object (black hole-neutron star)
merger, with the later outbursts due to a longer disc lifetime linked to a
large mass ratio between the merging objects. Alternatively, the burst may have
occured in a low density environment, leading to a weak, or non-existent,
forward shock - the so-called 'naked GRB' model.Comment: 4 pages using emulateapj; 2 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Letter
Theory of high-energy emission from the pulsar/Be-star system PSR 125963 I: radiation mechanisms and interaction geometry
We study the physical processes of the PSR B1259-63 system containing a 47 ms
pulsar orbiting around a Be star in a highly eccentric orbit. Motivated by the
results of a multiwavelength campaign during the January 1994 periastron
passage of PSR B1259-63, we discuss several issues regarding the mechanism of
high-energy emission. Unpulsed power law emission from the this system was
detected near periastron in the energy range 1-200 keV. We find that the
observed high energy emission from the PSR B1259-63 system is not compatible
with accretion or propeller-powered emission. Shock-powered high-energy
emission produced by the pulsar/outflow interaction is consistent with all high
energy observations. By studying the evolution of the pulsar cavity we
constrain the magnitude and geometry of the mass outflow outflow of the Be
star. The pulsar/outflow interaction is most likely mediated by a collisionless
shock at the internal boundary of the pulsar cavity. The system shows all the
characteristics of a {\it binary plerion} being {\it diffuse} and {\it compact}
near apastron and periastron, respectively. The PSR B1259-63 cavity is subject
to different radiative regimes depending on whether synchrotron or inverse
Compton (IC) cooling dominates the radiation of electron/positron pairs
advected away from the inner boundary of the pulsar cavity. The highly
non-thermal nature of the observed X-ray/gamma-ray emission near periastron
establishes the existence of an efficient particle acceleration mechanism
within a timescale shown to be less than s. A synchrotron/IC
model of emission of e\pm-pairs accelerated at the inner shock front of the
pulsar cavity and adiabatically expanding in the MHD flow provides an excellent
explanation of the observed time variableX-ray flux and spectrum from the PSRComment: 68 pages, accepted for publication in the Astrophys. J. on Aug. 26,
199
Searching for supergiant fast X-ray transients with Swift
Supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs) are high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs)
hosting a neutron star and an OB supergiant companion. We examine the available
Swift data, as well as other new or archival/serendipitous data, on three
sources: IGR J17407-2808, 2XMM J185114.3-000004, and IGR J18175-2419, whose
X-ray characteristics qualify them as candidate SFXT, in order to explore their
properties and test whether they are consistent with an SFXT nature. As IGR
J17407-2808 and 2XMM J185114.3-000004 triggered the Burst Alert Telescope on
board Swift, the Swift data allow us to provide their first arcsecond
localisations, leading to an unequivocal identification of the source CXOU
J174042.0-280724 as the soft X-ray counterpart of IGR J17407-2808, as well as
their first broadband spectra, which can be fit with models generally
describing accreting neutron stars in HMXBs. While still lacking optical
spectroscopy to assess the spectral type of the companion, we propose 2XMM
J185114.3-000004 as a very strong SFXT candidate. The nature of IGR J17407-2808
remains, instead, more uncertain. Its broad band properties cannot exclude that
the emission originates from either a HMXB (and in that case, a SFXT) or, more
likely, a low mass X-ray binary. Finally, based on the deep non-detection in
our XRT monitoring campaign and a careful reanalysis of the original Integral
data in which the discovery of the source was first reported, we show that IGR
J18175-2419 is likely a spurious detection.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 12 pages, 11
figures, 6 table
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Assessing Neuronal and Astrocyte Derived Exosomes From Individuals With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury for Markers of Neurodegeneration and Cytotoxic Activity.
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) disproportionately affects military service members and is very difficult to diagnose. To-date, there is currently no blood-based, diagnostic biomarker for mTBI cases with persistent post concussive symptoms. To examine the potential of neuronally-derived (NDE) and astrocytic-derived (ADE) exosome cargo proteins as biomarkers of chronic mTBI in younger adults, we examined plasma exosomes from a prospective longitudinal study of combat-related risk and resilience, marine resiliency study II (MRSII). After return from a combat-deployment participants were interviewed to assess TBI exposure while on deployment. Plasma exosomes from military service members with mTBI (mean age, 21.7 years, n = 19, avg. days since injury 151), and age-matched, controls (deployed service members who did not endorse a deployment-related TBI or a pre-deployment history of TBI; mean age, 21.95 years, n = 20) were precipitated and enriched against a neuronal adhesion protein, L1-CAM, and an astrocyte marker, glutamine aspartate transporter (GLAST) using magnetic beads to immunocapture the proteins and subsequently selected by fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS). Extracted protein cargo from NDE and ADE preparations were quantified for protein levels implicated in TBI neuropathology by standard ELISAs and on the ultra-sensitive single molecule assay (Simoa) platform. Plasma NDE and ADE levels of Aβ42 were significantly higher while plasma NDE and ADE levels of the postsynaptic protein, neurogranin (NRGN) were significantly lower in participants endorsing mTBI exposure compared to controls with no TBI history. Plasma NDE and ADE levels of Aβ40, total tau, and neurofilament light (NFL), P-T181-tau, P-S396-tau were either undetectable or not significantly different between the two groups. In an effort to understand the pathogenetic potential of NDE and ADE cargo proteins, neuron-like cultures were treated with NDE and ADE preparations from TBI and non-TBI groups. Lastly, we determined that plasma NDE but not ADE cargo proteins from mTBI samples were found to be toxic to neuron-like recipient cells in vitro. These data support the presence of markers of neurodegeneration in NDEs of mTBI and suggest that these NDEs can be used as tools to identify pathogenic mechanisms of TBI
Avaliação da eficiência agronômica do resíduo Amiorgan® como fonte de fertilizante nitrogenado alternativa para pastagens.
O uso de subprodutos como fontes alternativas de nitrogênio, além da vantagem econômica pelo menor custo do insumo, ainda contribuem para eliminação de problemas ambientais. A indústria do glutamato monossódio gera alguns subprodutos que podem ser usados como fonte de N, um deles, o Amiorgan®. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar o uso de Amiorgan®, como fonte de fertilizante nitrogenado alternativa em pastagens de capim- piatã. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos casualizados com quatro repetições. Os tratamentos avaliados foram combinações de três doses de N (200, 400 e 600 kg ha-1 ano-1 de N) e três fontes de fertilizantes (uréia, sulfato de amônio + uréia, amiorgan + uréia) e um tratamento adicional testemunha, que recebeu todos os nutrientes exceto N. A fertilização nitrogenada proporcionou aumento de produção de forragem para todas as fontes e doses avaliadas em relação à testemunha (sem N). Quanto à extração de nitrogênio pela parte-aérea da forragem (acima da altura do resíduo), dentro da mesma dose de nitrogênio, também não houve diferença para as fontes avaliadas. A maior extração de nitrogênio ocorreu para as doses mais altas. Na dose mais alta (600 kg ha-1 N), a mistura Amiorgan® mais uréia apresentou bons resultados quanto à produção de massa de forragem e consequentemente quanto aos índices de RAN e IEA.O fertilizante Amiorgan®, um resíduo da indústria do glutamato monosódico, é recomendando para a fertilização de pastagen
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