5,186 research outputs found
Decay Phase Cooling and Inferred Heating of M- and X-class Solar Flares
In this paper, the cooling of 72 M- and X-class flares is examined using
GOES/XRS and SDO/EVE. The observed cooling rates are quantified and the
observed total cooling times are compared to the predictions of an analytical
0-D hydrodynamic model. It is found that the model does not fit the
observations well, but does provide a well defined lower limit on a flare's
total cooling time. The discrepancy between observations and the model is then
assumed to be primarily due to heating during the decay phase. The decay phase
heating necessary to account for the discrepancy is quantified and found be
~50% of the total thermally radiated energy as calculated with GOES. This decay
phase heating is found to scale with the observed peak thermal energy. It is
predicted that approximating the total thermal energy from the peak is
minimally affected by the decay phase heating in small flares. However, in the
most energetic flares the decay phase heating inferred from the model can be
several times greater than the peak thermal energy.Comment: Published in the Astrophysical Journal, 201
Radiation-reaction-induced evolution of circular orbits of particles around Kerr Black Holes
It is demonstrated that, in the adiabatic approximation, non-Equatorial
circular orbits of particles in the Kerr metric (i.e. orbits of constant
Boyer-Lindquist radius) remain circular under the influence of gravitational
radiation reaction. A brief discussion is given of conditions for breakdown of
adiabaticity and of whether slightly non-circular orbits are stable against the
growth of eccentricity.Comment: 23 pages. Revtex 3.0. Inquiries to [email protected]
Analysis of β-globin chromatin micro-environment using a novel 3C variant, 4Cv
Copyright: © 2010 Pink et al.Higher order chromatin folding is critical to a number of developmental processes, including the regulation of gene expression. Recently developed biochemical techniques such as RNA TRAP and chromosome conformation capture (3C) have provided us with the tools to probe chromosomal structures. These techniques have been applied to the β-globin locus, revealing a complex pattern of interactions with regions along the chromosome that the gene resides on. However, biochemical and microscopy data on the nature of β-globin interactions with other chromosomes is contradictory. Therefore we developed a novel 4C variant, Complete-genome 3C by vectorette amplification (4Cv), which allows an unbiased and quantitative method to examine chromosomal structure. We have used 4Cv to study the microenvironment of the β-globin locus in mice and show that a significant proportion of the interactions of β-globin are inter-chromosomal. Furthermore, our data show that in the liver, where the gene is active, β-globin is more likely to interact with other chromosomes, compared to the brain where the gene is silent and is more likely to interact with other regions along the same chromosome. Our data suggest that transcriptional activation of the β-globin locus leads to a change in nuclear position relative to the chromosome territory.Ryan Pink is supported by a grant from Action Medical Research; Daniel Caley is supported by a grant from The Dunhill Medical Trust; David Carter is supported by a grant from the British Society for Haematology
Differential Effects of Buffer pH On Ca\u3csup\u3e2+\u3c/sup\u3e-Induced ROS Emission with Inhibited Mitochondrial Complexes I and III
Excessive mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) emission is a critical component in the etiology of ischemic injury. Complex I and complex III of the electron transport chain are considered the primary sources of ROS emission during cardiac ischemia and reperfusion (IR) injury. Several factors modulate ischemic ROS emission, such as an increase in extra-matrix Ca2+, a decrease in extra-matrix pH, and a change in substrate utilization. Here we examined the combined effects of these factors on ROS emission from respiratory complexes I and III under conditions of simulated IR injury. Guinea pig heart mitochondria were suspended in experimental buffer at a given pH and incubated with or without CaCl2. Mitochondria were then treated with either pyruvate, a complex I substrate, followed by rotenone, a complex I inhibitor, or succinate, a complex II substrate, followed by antimycin A, a complex III inhibitor. H2O2 release rate and matrix volume were compared with and without adding CaCl2 and at pH 7.15, 6.9, or 6.5 with pyruvate + rotenone or succinate + antimycin A to simulate conditions that may occur during in vivo cardiac IR injury. We found a large increase in H2O2 release with high [CaCl2] and pyruvate + rotenone at pH 6.9, but not at pHs 7.15 or 6.5. Large increases in H2O2 release rate also occurred at each pH with high [CaCl2] and succinate + antimycin A, with the highest levels observed at pH 7.15. The increases in H2O2 release were associated with significant mitochondrial swelling, and both H2O2 release and swelling were abolished by cyclosporine A, a desensitizer of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP). These results indicate that ROS production by complex I and by complex III is differently affected by buffer pH and Ca2+ loading with mPTP opening. The study suggests that changes in the levels of cytosolic Ca2+ and pH during IR alter the relative amounts of ROS produced at mitochondrial respiratory complex I and complex III
Quasi-Periodic Pulsations during the Impulsive and Decay phases of an X-class Flare
Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) are often observed in X-ray emission from
solar flares. To date, it is unclear what their physical origins are. Here, we
present a multi-instrument investigation of the nature of QPP during the
impulsive and decay phases of the X1.0 flare of 28 October 2013. We focus on
the character of the fine structure pulsations evident in the soft X-ray time
derivatives and compare this variability with structure across multiple
wavelengths including hard X-ray and microwave emission. We find that during
the impulsive phase of the flare, high correlations between pulsations in the
thermal and non-thermal emissions are seen. A characteristic timescale of ~20s
is observed in all channels and a second timescale of ~55s is observed in the
non-thermal emissions. Soft X-ray pulsations are seen to persist into the decay
phase of this flare, up to 20 minutes after the non-thermal emission has
ceased. We find that these decay phase thermal pulsations have very small
amplitude and show an increase in characteristic timescale from ~40s up to
~70s. We interpret the bursty nature of the co-existing multi-wavelength QPP
during the impulsive phase in terms of episodic particle acceleration and
plasma heating. The persistent thermal decay phase QPP are most likely
connected with compressive MHD processes in the post-flare loops such as the
fast sausage mode or the vertical kink mode.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
A geometrical approach to the dynamics of spinor condensates I: Hydrodynamics
In this work, we derive the equations of motion governing the hydrodynamics
of spin-F spinor condensates. We pursue a description based on standard
physical variables (total density and superfluid velocity), alongside 2F
`spin-nodes': unit vectors that describe the spin F state, and also exhibit the
point-group symmetry of a spinor condensate's mean-field ground state. The
hydrodynamic equations of motion consist of a mass continuity equation, 2F
Landau-Lifshitz equations for the spin-nodes, and a modified Euler equation. In
particular, we provide a generalization of the Mermin-Ho relation to spin one,
and find an analytic solution for the skyrmion texture in the incompressible
regime of a spin-half condensate. These results exhibit a beautiful geometrical
structure that underlies the dynamics of spinor condensates.Comment: 12 pages. First paper in two-part serie
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Active Transport of Peptides Across the Intact Human Tympanic Membrane.
We previously identified peptides that are actively transported across the intact tympanic membrane (TM) of rats with infected middle ears. To assess the possibility that this transport would also occur across the human TM, we first developed and validated an assay to evaluate transport in vitro using fragments of the TM. Using this assay, we demonstrated the ability of phage bearing a TM-transiting peptide to cross freshly dissected TM fragments from infected rats or from uninfected rats, guinea pigs and rabbits. We then evaluated transport across fragments of the human TM that were discarded during otologic surgery. Human trans-TM transport was similar to that seen in the animal species. Finally, we found that free peptide, unconnected to phage, was transported across the TM at a rate comparable to that seen for peptide-bearing phage. These studies provide evidence supporting the concept of peptide-mediated drug delivery across the intact TM and into the middle ears of patients
The Thermal Properties of Solar Flares Over Three Solar Cycles Using GOES X-ray Observations
Solar flare X-ray emission results from rapidly increasing temperatures and
emission measures in flaring active region loops. To date, observations from
the X-Ray Sensor (XRS) onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite (GOES) have been used to derive these properties, but have been
limited by a number of factors, including the lack of a consistent background
subtraction method capable of being automatically applied to large numbers of
flares. In this paper, we describe an automated temperature and emission
measure-based background subtraction method (TEBBS), which builds on the
methods of Bornmann (1990). Our algorithm ensures that the derived temperature
is always greater than the instrumental limit and the pre-flare background
temperature, and that the temperature and emission measure are increasing
during the flare rise phase. Additionally, TEBBS utilizes the improved
estimates of GOES temperatures and emission measures from White et al. (2005).
TEBBS was successfully applied to over 50,000 solar flares occurring over
nearly three solar cycles (1980-2007), and used to create an extensive catalog
of the solar flare thermal properties. We confirm that the peak emission
measure and total radiative losses scale with background subtracted GOES X-ray
flux as power-laws, while the peak temperature scales logarithmically. As
expected, the peak emission measure shows an increasing trend with peak
temperature, although the total radiative losses do not. While these results
are comparable to previous studies, we find that flares of a given GOES class
have lower peak temperatures and higher peak emission measures than previously
reported. The resulting TEBBS database of thermal flare plasma properties is
publicly available on Solar Monitor (www.solarmonitor.org/TEBBS/) and will be
available on Heliophysics Integrated Observatory (www.helio-vo.eu)
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