148 research outputs found
Symmetries and Elasticity of Nematic Gels
A nematic liquid-crystal gel is a macroscopically homogeneous elastic medium
with the rotational symmetry of a nematic liquid crystal. In this paper, we
develop a general approach to the study of these gels that incorporates all
underlying symmetries. After reviewing traditional elasticity and clarifying
the role of broken rotational symmetries in both the reference space of points
in the undistorted medium and the target space into which these points are
mapped, we explore the unusual properties of nematic gels from a number of
perspectives. We show how symmetries of nematic gels formed via spontaneous
symmetry breaking from an isotropic gel enforce soft elastic response
characterized by the vanishing of a shear modulus and the vanishing of stress
up to a critical value of strain along certain directions. We also study the
phase transition from isotropic to nematic gels. In addition to being fully
consistent with approaches to nematic gels based on rubber elasticity, our
description has the important advantages of being independent of a microscopic
model, of emphasizing and clarifying the role of broken symmetries in
determining elastic response, and of permitting easy incorporation of spatial
variations, thermal fluctuations, and gel heterogeneity, thereby allowing a
full statistical-mechanical treatment of these novel materials.Comment: 21 pages, 4 eps figure
Strong Decays of Light Vector Mesons
The vector meson strong decays rho-->pi pi, phi-->KK, and K^star-->pi K are
studied within a covariant approach based on the ladder-rainbow truncation of
the QCD Dyson--Schwinger equation for the quark propagator and the
Bethe--Salpeter equation for the mesons. The model preserves the one-loop
behavior of QCD in the ultraviolet, has two infrared parameters, and implements
quark confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. The 3-point decay
amplitudes are described in impulse approximation. The Bethe--Salpeter study
motivates a method for estimating the masses for heavier mesons within this
model without continuing the propagators into the complex plane. We test the
accuracy via the rho, phi and K^{star} masses and then produce estimates of the
model results for the a_1 and b_1 masses as well as the mass of the proposed
exotic vector pi_1(1400).Comment: Submitted for publication; 10x2-column pages, REVTEX 4, 3 .eps files
making 3fig
Parity Violation in Proton-Proton Scattering at 221 MeV
TRIUMF experiment 497 has measured the parity violating longitudinal
analyzing power, A_z, in pp elastic scattering at 221.3 MeV incident proton
energy. This paper includes details of the corrections, some of magnitude
comparable to A_z itself, required to arrive at the final result. The largest
correction was for the effects of first moments of transverse polarization. The
addition of the result, A_z=(0.84 \pm 0.29 (stat.) \pm 0.17 (syst.)) \times
10^{-7}, to the pp parity violation experimental data base greatly improves the
experimental constraints on the weak meson-nucleon coupling constants
h^{pp}_\rho and h^{pp}_\omega, and has implications for the interpretation of
electron parity violation experiments.Comment: 17 pages RevTeX, 14 PostScript figures. Revised version with
additions suggested by Phys. Rev.
TRY plant trait database â enhanced coverage and open access
Plant traitsâthe morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plantsâdetermine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of traitâbased plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traitsâalmost complete coverage for âplant growth formâ. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and traitâenvironmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives
Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas
Although the MYC oncogene has been implicated in cancer, a systematic assessment of alterations of MYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatory proteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN), across human cancers is lacking. Using computational approaches, we define genomic and proteomic features associated with MYC and the PMN across the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas. Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one of the MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYC antagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequently mutated or deleted members, proposing a role as tumor suppressors. MYC alterations were mutually exclusive with PIK3CA, PTEN, APC, or BRAF alterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct oncogenic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such as immune response and growth factor signaling; chromatin, translation, and DNA replication/repair were conserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insights into MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkers and therapeutics for cancers with alterations of MYC or the PMN. We present a computational study determining the frequency and extent of alterations of the MYC network across the 33 human cancers of TCGA. These data, together with MYC, positively correlated pathways as well as mutually exclusive cancer genes, will be a resource for understanding MYC-driven cancers and designing of therapeutics
Research, development, and demonstration of lead-acid batteries for electric-vehicle propulsion. Annual report for 1982
Research programs on lead-acid batteries are reported that cover active materials utilization, active material integrity, and some technical support projects. Processing problems were encountered and corrected. Components and materials, a lead-plastic composite grid, cell designs, and deliverables are described. Cell testing is discussed, as well as battery subsystems, including fuel gage, thermal management, and electrolyte circulation. (LEW
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