303 research outputs found
Development of high temperature containerless processing equipment and the design and evaluation of associated systems required for microgravity materials processing and property measurements
The development of high temperature containerless processing equipment and the design and evaluation of associated systems required for microgravity materials processing and property measurements are discussed. Efforts were directed towards the following task areas: design and development of a High Temperature Acoustic Levitator (HAL) for containerless processing and property measurements at high temperatures; testing of the HAL module to establish this technology for use as a positioning device for microgravity uses; construction and evaluation of a brassboard hot wall Acoustic Levitation Furnace; construction and evaluation of a noncontact temperature measurement (NCTM) system based on AGEMA thermal imaging camera; construction of a prototype Division of Amplitude Polarimetric Pyrometer for NCTM of levitated specimens; evaluation of and recommendations for techniques to control contamination in containerless materials processing chambers; and evaluation of techniques for heating specimens to high temperatures for containerless materials experimentation
Some considerations for various positioning systems and their science capabilities
Containerless processing of materials at elevated temperatures is discussed with emphasis on high temperature chemistry, thermophysical properties, materials science, and materials processing. Acoustic and electromagnetic positioning of high temperature melts are discussed. Results from recent ground based experiments, including KC-135 testing of an acoustic levitator, are presented. Some current positioning technologies and the potential for enhancing them are considered. Further, a summary of these technologies and their science capabilities for the development of future experiments is given
Program for the feasibility of developing a high pressure acoustic levitator
This is the final report for the program for the feasibility of developing a high-pressure acoustic levitator (HPAL). It includes work performed during the period from February 15, 1987 to October 26, 1987. The program was conducted for NASA under contract number NAS3-25115. The HPAL would be used for containerless processing of materials in the 1-g Earth environment. Results show that the use of increased gas pressure produces higher sound pressure levels. The harmonics produced by the acoustic source are also reduced. This provides an improvement in the capabilities of acoustic levitation in 1-g. The reported processing capabilities are directly limited by the design of the Medium Pressure Acoustic Levitator used for this study. Data show that sufficient acoustic intensities can be obtained to levitate and process a specimen of density 5 g/cu cm at 1500 C. However, it is recommended that a working engineering model of the HPAL be developed. The model would be used to establish the maximum operating parameters of furnace temperature and sample density
Mean-field treatment of the damping of the oscillations of a 1D Bose gas in an optical lattice
We present a theoretical treatment of the surprisingly large damping observed
recently in one-dimensional Bose-Einstein atomic condensates in optical
lattices. We show that time-dependent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB)
calculations can describe qualitatively the main features of the damping
observed over a range of lattice depths. We also derive a formula of the
fluctuation-dissipation type for the damping, based on a picture in which the
coherent motion of the condensate atoms is disrupted as they try to flow
through the random local potential created by the irregular motion of
noncondensate atoms. We expect this irregular motion to result from the
well-known dynamical instability exhibited by the mean-field theory for these
systems. When parameters for the characteristic strength and correlation times
of the fluctuations, obtained from the HFB calculations, are substituted in the
damping formula, we find very good agreement with the experimentally-observed
damping, as long as the lattice is shallow enough for the fraction of atoms in
the Mott insulator phase to be negligible. We also include, for completeness,
the results of other calculations based on the Gutzwiller ansatz, which appear
to work better for the deeper lattices.Comment: Extended and revised version, August 200
Hanbury Brown-Twiss Interferometry for Fractional and Integer Mott Phases
Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry (HBTI) is used to study integer and
fractionally filled Mott Insulator (MI) phases in period-2 optical
superlattices. In contrast to the quasimomentum distribution, this second order
interferometry pattern exhibits high contrast fringes in the it insulating
phases. Our detailed study of HBTI suggests that this interference pattern
signals the various superfluid-insulator transitions and therefore can be used
as a practical method to determine the phase diagram of the system. We find
that in the presence of a confining potential the insulating phases become
robust as they exist for a finite range of atom numbers. Furthermore, we show
that in the trapped case the HBTI interferogram signals the formation of the MI
domains and probes the shell structure of the system.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figure
Pseudo-fermionization of 1-D bosons in optical lattices
We present a model that generalizes the Bose-Fermi mapping for strongly
correlated 1D bosons in an optical lattice, to cases in which the average
number of atoms per site is larger than one. This model gives an accurate
account of equilibrium properties of such systems, in parameter regimes
relevant to current experiments. The application of this model to
non-equilibrium phenomena is explored by a study of the dynamics of an atom
cloud subject to a sudden displacement of the confining potential. Good
agreement is found with results of recent experiments. The simplicity and
intuitive appeal of this model make it attractive as a general tool for
understanding bosonic systems in the strongly correlated regime.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Regulation of sonic hedgehog-GLI1 downstream target genes PTCH1, Cyclin D2, Plakoglobin, PAX6 and NKX2.2 and their epigenetic status in medulloblastoma and astrocytoma
Abstract Background The Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway is critical for cell growth and differentiation. Impairment of this pathway can result in both birth defects and cancer. Despite its importance in cancer development, the Shh pathway has not been thoroughly investigated in tumorigenesis of brain tumors. In this study, we sought to understand the regulatory roles of GLI1, the immediate downstream activator of the Shh signaling pathway on its downstream target genes PTCH1, Cyclin D2, Plakoglobin, NKX2.2 and PAX6 in medulloblastoma and astrocytic tumors. Methods We silenced GLI1 expression in medulloblastoma and astrocytic cell lines by transfection of siRNA against GLI1. Subsequently, we performed RT-PCR and quantitative real time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) to assay the expression of downstream target genes PTCH1, Cyclin D2, Plakoglobin, NKX2.2 and PAX6. We also attempted to correlate the pattern of expression of GLI1 and its regulated genes in 14 cell lines and 41 primary medulloblastoma and astrocytoma tumor samples. We also assessed the methylation status of the Cyclin D2 and PTCH1 promoters in these 14 cell lines and 58 primary tumor samples. Results Silencing expression of GLI1 resulted up-regulation of all target genes in the medulloblastoma cell line, while only PTCH1 was up-regulated in astrocytoma. We also observed methylation of the cyclin D2 promoter in a significant number of astrocytoma cell lines (63%) and primary astrocytoma tumor samples (32%), but not at all in any medulloblastoma samples. PTCH1 promoter methylation was less frequently observed than Cyclin D2 promoter methylation in astrocytomas, and not at all in medulloblastomas. Conclusions Our results demonstrate different regulatory mechanisms of Shh-GLI1 signaling. These differences vary according to the downstream target gene affected, the origin of the tissue, as well as epigenetic regulation of some of these genes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78313/1/1471-2407-10-614.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78313/2/1471-2407-10-614.pdfPeer Reviewe
Noise Correlations of Hard-core Bosons: Quantum Coherence and Symmetry Breaking
Noise correlations, such as those observable in the time of flight images of
a released cloud, are calculated for hard-core bosonic (HCB) atoms. We find
that the standard mapping of HCB systems onto spin-1/2 XY models fails in
application to computation of noise correlations due to the contribution of
multiply occupied virtual states in HCB systems. Such states do not exist in
spin models. An interesting manifestation of such states is the breaking of
particle-hole symmetry in HCB. We use noise correlations to explore quantum
coherence of strongly correlated bosons in the fermionized regime with and
without external parabolic confinement. Our analysis points to distinctive new
experimental signatures of the Mott phase.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. This is a detailed revised version of
quant-ph/0507153. It has been submitted to Journal of Physics B: the special
edition for the Cortona BEC worksho
Characterization of a Structural Intermediate of Flavivirus Membrane Fusion
Viral membrane fusion proceeds through a sequence of steps that are driven by triggered conformational changes of viral envelope glycoproteins, so-called fusion proteins. Although high-resolution structural snapshots of viral fusion proteins in their prefusion and postfusion conformations are available, it has been difficult to define intermediate structures of the fusion pathway because of their transient nature. Flaviviruses possess a class II viral fusion protein (E) mediating fusion at acidic pH that is converted from a dimer to a trimer with a hairpin-like structure during the fusion process. Here we show for tick-borne encephalitis virus that exposure of virions to alkaline instead of acidic pH traps the particles in an intermediate conformation in which the E dimers dissociate and interact with target membranes via the fusion peptide without proceeding to the merger of the membranes. Further treatment to low pH, however, leads to fusion, suggesting that these monomers correspond to an as-yet-elusive intermediate required to convert the prefusion dimer into the postfusion trimer. Thus, the use of nonphysiological conditions allows a dissection of the flavivirus fusion process and the identification of two separate steps, in which membrane insertion of multiple copies of E monomers precedes the formation of hairpin-like trimers. This sequence of events provides important new insights for understanding the dynamic process of viral membrane fusion
Spectral Modelling of Star-Forming Regions in the Ultraviolet: Stellar Metallicity Diagnostics for High Redshift Galaxies
The chemical composition of high redshift galaxies is an important property
which gives clues to their past history and future evolution and yet is
difficult to measure with current techniques. In this paper we investigate new
metallicity indicators, based upon the strengths of stellar photospheric
features at rest-frame ultraviolet wavelengths. By combining the evolutionary
spectral synthesis code Starburst99 with the output from the non-LTE model
atmosphere code WM-basic, we have developed a code that can model the
integrated ultraviolet stellar spectra of star-forming regions at metallicities
between 1/20 and twice solar. We use our models to explore a number of spectral
regions that are sensitive to metallicity and clean of other spectral features.
The most promising metallicity indicator is an absorption feature between 1935
A and 2020 A, which arises from the blending of numerous Fe III transitions. We
compare our model spectra to observations of two well studied high redshift
star-forming galaxies, MS1512-cB58 (a Lyman break galaxy at z = 2.7276), and
Q1307-BM1163 (a UV-bright galaxy at z = 1.411). The profiles of the
photospheric absorption features observed in these galaxies are well reproduced
by the models. In addition, the metallicities inferred from their equivalent
widths are in good agreement with previous determinations based on interstellar
absorption and nebular emission lines. Our new technique appears to be a
promising alternative, or complement, to established methods which have only a
limited applicability at high redshifts.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
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