775 research outputs found
An assessment of the antibacterial activity in larval excretion/secretion of four species of insects recorded in association with corpses, using Lucilia sericata Meigen as the marker species
The relative antibacterial activities of excretion/secretion (ES) from two carrion-feeding
insects, Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy and Dermestes maculatus
DeGeer, and a detritivore, Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus, were compared to that of
Lucilia sericata Meigen, a species with ES of known antibacterial capacity, in order
to explore the antimicrobial potential of other carrion and detritivore species.
Viable counts were used to assess time-kill of ES against five bacterial species,
Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and
Proteus mirabilis. Antibacterial activity was recorded in all four insect species
although T. molitor and D. maculatus were the most effective in controlling growth
of P. mirabilis. The blowflies were more effective in controlling a wider range of
both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The larval ES from all species was
shown to reduce bacterial growth rate although differences in antibacterial
spectrum were noted and the degree of potency varied between the four species.
These differences may be explained ecologically by the different colonisation times
of each insect species on the corpse. Overall, this study demonstrates that research
into other carrion-feeding insect species has potential to provide an increased
source of antimicrobial chemicals to broaden the range of bacterial species beyond
that currently controlled using L. sericata
Short-range repulsion and isospin dependence in the KN system
The short-range properties of the KN interaction are studied within the
meson-exchange model of the Juelich group. Specifically, dynamical explanations
for the phenomenological short-range repulsion, required in this model for
achieving agreement with the empirical KN data, are explored. Evidence is found
that contributions from the exchange of a heavy scalar-isovector meson
(a_0(980)) as well as from genuine quark-gluon exchange processes are needed.
Taking both mechanisms into account a satisfactory description of the KN phase
shifts can be obtained without resorting to phenomenological pieces.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure
Hadronic Probes of the Polarized Intrinsic Strangeness of the Nucleon
We have previously interpreted the various large apparent violations of the
naive Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka (OZI) rule found in many channels in
annihilation at LEAR as evidence for an intrinsic polarized
component of the nucleon wave function. The model is further supported by new
data from LEAR and elsewhere. Here we discuss in more detail the possible form
of the component of the nucleon wave function, interpret the new
data and clarify the relative roles of strangeness shake-out and rearrangement,
discuss whether alternative interpretations are still allowed by the new data,
and propose more tests of the model.Comment: LaTeX, 31 page
Finite one dimensional impenetrable Bose systems: Occupation numbers
Bosons in the form of ultra cold alkali atoms can be confined to a one
dimensional (1d) domain by the use of harmonic traps. This motivates the study
of the ground state occupations of effective single particle states
, in the theoretical 1d impenetrable Bose gas. Both the system on a
circle and the harmonically trapped system are considered. The and
are the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions respectively of the one body
density matrix. We present a detailed numerical and analytic study of this
problem. Our main results are the explicit scaled forms of the density
matrices, from which it is deduced that for fixed the occupations
are asymptotically proportional to in both the circular
and harmonically trapped cases.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures (.eps), uses REVTeX
A Quantitative Model of Energy Release and Heating by Time-dependent, Localized Reconnection in a Flare with a Thermal Loop-top X-ray Source
We present a quantitative model of the magnetic energy stored and then
released through magnetic reconnection for a flare on 26 Feb 2004. This flare,
well observed by RHESSI and TRACE, shows evidence of non-thermal electrons only
for a brief, early phase. Throughout the main period of energy release there is
a super-hot (T>30 MK) plasma emitting thermal bremsstrahlung atop the flare
loops. Our model describes the heating and compression of such a source by
localized, transient magnetic reconnection. It is a three-dimensional
generalization of the Petschek model whereby Alfven-speed retraction following
reconnection drives supersonic inflows parallel to the field lines, which form
shocks heating, compressing, and confining a loop-top plasma plug. The
confining inflows provide longer life than a freely-expanding or
conductively-cooling plasma of similar size and temperature. Superposition of
successive transient episodes of localized reconnection across a current sheet
produces an apparently persistent, localized source of high-temperature
emission. The temperature of the source decreases smoothly on a time scale
consistent with observations, far longer than the cooling time of a single
plug. Built from a disordered collection of small plugs, the source need not
have the coherent jet-like structure predicted by steady-state reconnection
models. This new model predicts temperatures and emission measure consistent
with the observations of 26 Feb 2004. Furthermore, the total energy released by
the flare is found to be roughly consistent with that predicted by the model.
Only a small fraction of the energy released appears in the super-hot source at
any one time, but roughly a quarter of the flare energy is thermalized by the
reconnection shocks over the course of the flare. All energy is presumed to
ultimately appear in the lower-temperature T<20 MK, post-flare loops
Analysis of the radiative decays among the charmonium states
In this article, we study the radiative decays among the charmonium states
with the heavy quark effective theory, and make predictions for the ratios
among the radiative decay widths of an special multiplet to another multiplet.
The predictions can be confronted with the experimental data in the future and
put additional constraints in identifying the , , charmonium-like
mesons.Comment: 12 pages, revised revisio
Radiative Scalar Meson Decays in the Light-Front Quark Model
We construct a relativistic wavefunction for scalar mesons within the
framework of light-front quark model(LFQM). This scalar wavefunction is used to
perform relativistic calculations of absolute widths for the radiative decay
processes, and
which incorporate the effects of glueball-
mixing. The mixed physical states are assumed to be ,and
for which the flavor-glue content is taken from the mixing
calculations of other works. Since experimental data for these processes are
poor, our results are compared with those of a recent non-relativistic model
calculation. We find that while the relativistic corrections introduced by the
LFQM reduce the magnitudes of the decay widths by 50-70%, the relative
strengths between different decay processes are fairly well preserved. We also
calculate decay widths for the processes and
(0^{++})\to\gamma\gamm involving the light scalars and
to test the simple model of these mesons. Our results of
model for these processes are not quite consistent with well-established data,
further supporting the idea that and are not conventional
states.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
The new analysis of the KLOE data on the phi->eta pi0 gamma decay
In this paper we present the fit to the recent high-statistical KLOE data on
the phi -> eta pi^0 gamma decay. This decay mainly goes through the a_0 gamma
intermediate state. The obtained results differ from those of the previous
fits: data prefer a high a_0 mass and a considerably large a_0 coupling to the
K\bar K}.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Engineering the Photonic Density of States with metamaterials
The photonic density of states (PDOS), like its' electronic coun- terpart, is
one of the key physical quantities governing a variety of phenom- ena and hence
PDOS manipulation is the route to new photonic devices. The PDOS is
conventionally altered by exploiting the resonance within a device such as a
microcavity or a bandgap structure like a photonic crystal. Here we show that
nanostructured metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion can dramatically
enhance the photonic density of states paving the way for metamaterial based
PDOS engineering
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