2,824 research outputs found
Exotic mitotic mechanisms
The emergence of eukaryotes around two billion years ago provided new challenges for the chromosome segregation machineries: the physical separation of multiple large and linear chromosomes from the microtubule-organizing centres by the nuclear envelope. In this review, we set out the diverse solutions that eukaryotic cells use to solve this problem, and show how stepping away from âmainstreamâ mitosis can teach us much about the mechanisms and mechanics that can drive chromosome segregation. We discuss the evidence for a close functional and physical relationship between membranes, nuclear pores and kinetochores in generating the forces necessary for chromosome segregation during mitosis
Background subtraction and transient timing with Bayesian Blocks
Aims: To incorporate background subtraction into the Bayesian Blocks
algorithm so that transient events can be timed accurately and precisely even
in the presence of a substantial, rapidly variable, background. Methods: We
developed several modifications to the algorithm and tested them on a simulated
XMM-Newton observation of a bursting and eclipsing object. Results: We found
that bursts can be found to good precision for almost all background
subtraction methods, but eclipse ingresses and egresses present problems for
most methods. We found one method that recovered these events with precision
comparable to the interval between individual photons, in which both source and
background region photons are combined into a single list and weighted
according to the exposure area. We have also found that adjusting the Bayesian
Blocks change points nearer to blocks with higher count rate removes a
systematic bias towards blocks of low count rate.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl
Liquid compressibility effects during the collapse of a single cavitating bubble
The effect of liquid compressibility on the dynamics of a single, spherical cavitating bubble is studied.
While it is known that compressibility damps the amplitude of bubble rebounds, the extent to which
this effect is accurately captured by weakly compressible versions of the RayleighâPlesset equation is
unclear. To clarify this issue, partial differential equations governing conservation of mass, momentum,
and energy are numerically solved both inside the bubble and in the surrounding compressible
liquid. Radiated pressure waves originating at the unsteady bubble interface are directly captured.
Results obtained with RayleighâPlesset type equations accounting for compressibility effects, proposed
by Keller and Miksis [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 68, 628â633 (1980)], Gilmore, and Tomita and
Shima [Bull. JSME 20, 1453â1460 (1977)], are compared with those resulting from the full model.
For strong collapses, the solution of the latter reveals that an important part of the energy concentrated
during the collapse is used to generate an outgoing pressure wave. For the examples considered in
this research, peak pressures are larger than those predicted by RayleighâPlesset type equations,
whereas the amplitudes of the rebounds are smaller
Revealing quantum statistics with a pair of distant atoms
Quantum statistics have a profound impact on the properties of systems
composed of identical particles. In this Letter, we demonstrate that the
quantum statistics of a pair of identical massive particles can be probed by a
direct measurement of the exchange symmetry of their wave function even in
conditions where the particles always remain spatially well separated and thus
the exchange contribution to their interaction energy is negligible. We present
two protocols revealing the bosonic or fermionic nature of a pair of particles
and discuss possible implementations with a pair of trapped atoms or ions.Comment: 4+13 pages, v2 corresponds to the version published by PR
A posteriori pointwise error computation for 2-D transport equations based on the variational multiscale method
This article presents a general framework to estimate the pointwise error of linear partial differential equations. The error estimator is based on the variational multiscale theory, in which the error is decomposed in two components according to the nature of the residuals: element interior residuals and inter-element jumps. The relationship between the residuals (coarse scales) and the error components (fine scales) is established, yielding to a very simple model. In particular, the pointwise error is modeled as a linear combination of bubble functions and Greenâs functions. If residual-free bubbles and the classical Greenâs function are employed, the technology leads to an exact explicit method for the pointwise error. If bubble functions and free-space Greenâs functions are employed, then a local projection problem must be solved within each element and a global boundary integral equation must be solved on the domain boundary. As a consequence, this gives a model for the so-called fine-scale Greenâs functions. The numerical error is studied for the standard Galerkin and SUPG methods with application to the heat equation, the reactionâdiffusion equation and the convectionâdiffusion equation. Numerical results show that stabilized methods minimize the propagation of pollution errors, which stay mostly locally
The Clustering Of Galaxies Around Radio-Loud AGNs
We examine the hypothesis that mergers and close encounters between galaxies
can fuel AGNs by increasing the rate at which gas accretes towards the central
black hole. We compare the clustering of galaxies around radio-loud AGNs with
the clustering around a population of radio-quiet galaxies with similar masses,
colors and luminosities. Our catalog contains 2178 elliptical radio galaxies
with flux densities greater than 2.8 mJy at 1.4 GHz from the 6dFGS survey. We
find that radio AGNs with more than 200 times the median radio power have, on
average, more close (r<160 kpc) companions than their radio-quiet counterparts,
suggestive that mergers play a role in forming the most powerful radio
galaxies. For ellipticals of fixed stellar mass, the radio power is not a
function of large-scale environment nor halo mass, consistent with the radio
powers of ellipticals varying by orders of magnitude over billions of years.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Enhanced photoluminescence emission from two-dimensional silicon photonic crystal nanocavities
We present a temperature dependent photoluminescence study of silicon optical
nanocavities formed by introducing point defects into two-dimensional photonic
crystals. In addition to the prominent TO phonon assisted transition from
crystalline silicon at ~1.10 eV we observe a broad defect band luminescence
from ~1.05-1.09 eV. Spatially resolved spectroscopy demonstrates that this
defect band is present only in the region where air-holes have been etched
during the fabrication process. Detectable emission from the cavity mode
persists up to room-temperature, in strong contrast the background emission
vanishes for T > 150 K. An Ahrrenius type analysis of the temperature
dependence of the luminescence signal recorded either in-resonance with the
cavity mode, or weakly detuned, suggests that the higher temperature stability
may arise from an enhanced internal quantum efficiency due to the
Purcell-effect
Developmental differences in the control of action selection by social information
Our everyday actions are often performed in the context of a social interaction. We previously showed that, in adults, selecting an action on the basis of either social or symbolic cues was associated with activations in the fronto-parietal cognitive control network, whereas the presence and use of social versus symbolic cues was in addition associated with activations in the temporal and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) social brain network. Here we investigated developmental changes in these two networks. Fourteen adults (21â30 years of age) and 14 adolescents (11â16 years) followed instructions to move objects in a set of shelves. Interpretation of the instructions was conditional on the point of view of a visible âdirectorâ or the meaning of a symbolic cue (Director Present vs. Director Absent) and the number of potential referent objects in the shelves (3-object vs. 1-object). 3-object trials elicited increased fronto-parietal and temporal activations, with greater left lateral prefrontal cortex and parietal activations in adults than adolescents. Social versus symbolic information led to activations in superior dorsal MPFC, precuneus, and along the superior/middle temporal sulci. Both dorsal MPFC and left temporal clusters exhibited a Director Ă Object interaction, with greater activation when participants needed to consider the directors' viewpoints. This effect differed with age in dorsal MPFC. Adolescents showed greater activation whenever social information was present, whereas adults showed greater activation only when the directors' viewpoints were relevant to task performance. This study thus shows developmental differences in domain-general and domain-specific PFC activations associated with action selection in a social interaction context
Phonon-assisted transitions from quantum dot excitons to cavity photons
For a single semiconductor quantum dot embedded in a microcavity, we
theoretically and experimentally investigate phonon-assisted transitions
between excitons and the cavity mode. Within the framework of the independent
boson model we find that such transitions can be very efficient, even for
relatively large exciton-cavity detunings of several millielectron volts.
Furthermore, we predict a strong detuning asymmetry for the exciton lifetime
that vanishes for elevated lattice temperature. Our findings are corroborated
by experiment, which turns out to be in good quantitative and qualitative
agreement with theory
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