32,583 research outputs found
A mini-array for large air showers
A mini-array that utilizes the Linsley effect is proposed for the measurement of large air showers. An estimate of the detectable shower rates for various shower sizes is made. Details of the detection and data collection systems are also described
Influence of aerosol acidity on the chemical composition of secondary organic aerosol from β-caryophyllene
The secondary organic aerosol (SOA) yield of β-caryophyllene photooxidation is enhanced by aerosol acidity. In the present study, the influence of aerosol acidity on the chemical composition of β-caryophyllene SOA is investigated using ultra performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI-TOFMS). A number of first-, second- and higher-generation gas-phase products having carbonyl and carboxylic acid functional groups are detected in the particle phase. Particle-phase reaction products formed via hydration and organosulfate formation processes are also detected. Increased acidity leads to different effects on the abundance of individual products; significantly, abundances of organosulfates are correlated with aerosol acidity. To our knowledge, this is the first detection of organosulfates and nitrated organosulfates derived from a sesquiterpene. The increase of certain particle-phase reaction products with increased acidity provides chemical evidence to support the acid-enhanced SOA yields. Based on the agreement between the chromatographic retention times and accurate mass measurements of chamber and field samples, three β-caryophyllene products (i.e., β-nocaryophyllon aldehyde, β-hydroxynocaryophyllon aldehyde, and β-dihydroxynocaryophyllon aldehyde) are suggested as chemical tracers for β-caryophyllene SOA. These compounds are detected in both day and night ambient samples collected in downtown Atlanta, GA and rural Yorkville, GA during the 2008 August Mini-Intensive Gas and Aerosol Study (AMIGAS)
Supersolid Helium at High Pressure
We have measured the pressure dependence of the supersolid fraction by a
torsional oscillator technique. Superflow is found from 25.6 bar up to 136.9
bar. The supersolid fraction in the low temperature limit increases from 0.6 %
at 25.6 bar near the melting boundary up to a maximum of 1.5% near 55 bar
before showing a monotonic decrease with pressure extrapolating to zero near
170 bar.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Gas adsorption/desorption in silica aerogels: a theoretical study of scattering properties
We present a numerical study of the structural correlations associated to gas
adsorption/desorption in silica aerogels in order to provide a theoretical
interpretation of scattering experiments. Following our earlier work, we use a
coarse-grained lattice-gas description and determine the nonequilibrium
behavior of the adsorbed gas within a local mean-field analysis.
We focus on the differences between the adsorption and desorption mechanisms
and their signature in the fluid-fluid and gel-fluid structure factors as a
function of temperature. At low temperature, but still in the regime where the
isotherms are continuous, we find that the adsorbed fluid density, during both
filling and draining, is correlated over distances that may be much larger than
the gel correlation length. In particular, extended fractal correlations may
occur during desorption, indicating the existence of a ramified cluster of
vapor filled cavities. This also induces an important increase of the
scattering intensity at small wave vectors. The similarity and differences with
the scattering of fluids in other porous solids such as Vycor are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure
Dispersive force between dissimilar materials: geometrical effects
We calculate the Casimir force or dispersive van der Waals force between a
spherical nanoparticle and a planar substrate, both with arbitrary dielectric
properties. We show that the force between a sphere and a plane can be
calculated through the interacting surface plasmons of the bodies. Using a
Spectral Representation formalism, we show that the force of a sphere made of a
material A and a plane made of a material B, differ from the case when the
sphere is made of B, and the plane is made of A. We found that the difference
depends on the plasma frequency of the materials, the geometry, and the
distance of separation between sphere and plane. The differences show the
importance of the geometry, and make evident the necessity of realistic
descriptions of the sphere-plane system beyond the Derjaguin Approximation or
Proximity Theorem Approximation
The Dynamics of Charges Induced by a Charged Particle Traversing a Dielectric Slab
We studied the dynamics of surfacea and wake charges induced by a charged
particle traversing a dielectric slab. It is shown that after the crossing of
the slab first boundary, the induced on the slab surface charge (image charge)
is transformed into the wake charge, which overflows to the second boundary
when the particle crosses it. It is also shown, that the polarization of the
slab is of an oscillatory nature, and the net induced charge in a slab remains
zero at all stages of the motion.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur
Mapping of serotype-specific, immunodominant epitopes in the NS-4 region of hepatitis C virus (HCV):use of type-specific peptides to serologically differentiate infections with HCV types 1, 2, and 3
The effect of sequence variability between different types of hepatitis C virus (HCV) on the antigenicity of the NS-4 protein was investigated by epitope mapping and by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with branched oligopeptides. Epitope mapping of the region between amino acid residues 1679 and 1768 in the HCV polyprotein revealed two major antigenic regions (1961 to 1708 and 1710 to 1728) that were recognized by antibody elicited upon natural infection of HCV. The antigenic regions were highly variable between variants of HCV, with only 50 to 60% amino acid sequence similarity between types 1, 2, and 3. Although limited serological cross-reactivity between HCV types was detected between peptides, particularly in the first antigenic region of NS-4, type-specific reactivity formed the principal component of the natural humoral immune response to NS-4. Type-specific antibody to particular HCV types was detected in 89% of the samples from anti-HCV-positive blood donors and correlated almost exactly with genotypic analysis of HCV sequences amplified from the samples by polymerase chain reaction. Whereas almost all blood donors appeared to be infected with a single virus type (97%), a higher proportion of samples (40%) from hemophiliacs infected from transfusion of non-heat-inactivated clotting factor contained antibody to two or even all three HCV types, providing evidence that long-term exposure may lead to multiple infection with different variants of HCV
Stochastic effects at ripple formation processes in anisotropic systems with multiplicative noise
We study pattern formation processes in anisotropic system governed by the
Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation with multiplicative noise as a generalization of
the Bradley-Harper model for ripple formation induced by ion bombardment. For
both linear and nonlinear systems we study noise induced effects at ripple
formation and discuss scaling behavior of the surface growth and roughness
characteristics. It was found that the secondary parameters of the ion beam
(beam profile and variations of an incidence angle) can crucially change the
topology of patterns and the corresponding dynamics
Origins of Chevron Rollovers in Non-Two-State Protein Folding Kinetics
Chevron rollovers of some proteins imply that their logarithmic folding rates
are nonlinear in native stability. This is predicted by lattice and continuum
G\=o models to arise from diminished accessibilities of the ground state from
transiently populated compact conformations under strongly native conditions.
Despite these models' native-centric interactions, the slowdown is due partly
to kinetic trapping caused by some of the folding intermediates' nonnative
topologies. Notably, simple two-state folding kinetics of small single-domain
proteins are not reproduced by common G\=o-like schemes.Comment: 10 pages, 4 Postscript figures (will appear on PRL
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