392 research outputs found
Glitter and Glints on Water
We present new observations of glitter and glints using short and long time exposure photographs and high frame rate videos. Using the sun and moon as light sources to illuminate the ocean and laboratory water basins, we found that (1) most glitter takes place on capillary waves rather than on gravity waves, (2) certain aspects of glitter morphology depend on the presence or absence of thin clouds between the light source and the water, and (3) bent glitter paths are caused by asymmetric wave slope distributions We present computer simulations that are able to reproduce the observations and make predictions about the brightness, polarization, and morphology of glitter and glints. We demonstrate that the optical catastrophe represented by creation and annihilation of a glint can be understood using both ray optics and diffraction theory. (C) 2011 Optical Society of Americ
Comprehensive functional characterization of murine infantile Batten disease including Parkinson-like behavior and dopaminergic markers
Infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (INCL, Infantile Batten disease) is a neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disease caused by a deficiency in palmitoyl protein thioesterase-1 (PPT1). The PPT1-deficient mouse (Cln1â/â) is a useful phenocopy of human INCL. Cln1â/â mice display retinal dysfunction, seizures, motor deficits, and die at ~8 months of age. However, little is known about the cognitive and behavioral functions of Cln1â/â mice during disease progression. In the present study, younger (~1â2 months of age) Cln1â/â mice showed minor deficits in motor/sensorimotor functions while older (~5â6 months of age) Cln1â/â mice exhibited more severe impairments, including decreased locomotor activity, inferior cued water maze performance, decreased running wheel ability, and altered auditory cue conditioning. Unexpectedly, certain cognitive functions such as some learning and memory capabilities seemed intact in older Cln1â/â mice. Younger and older Cln1â/â mice presented with walking initiation defects, gait abnormalities, and slowed movements, which are analogous to some symptoms reported in INCL and parkinsonism. However, there was no evidence of alterations in dopaminergic markers in Cln1â/â mice. Results from this study demonstrate quantifiable changes in behavioral functions during progression of murine INCL and suggest that Parkinson-like motor/sensorimotor deficits in Cln1â/â mice are not mediated by dopamine deficiency
Reduction in Asthma Morbidity in Children as a Result of Home Remediation Aimed at Moisture Sources
OBJECTIVE: Home dampness and the presence of mold and allergens have been associated with asthma morbidity. We examined changes in asthma morbidity in children as a result of home remediation aimed at moisture sources. DESIGN: In this prospective, randomized controlled trial, symptomatic, asthmatic children (n = 62), 2â17 years of age, living in a home with indoor mold, received an asthma intervention including an action plan, education, and individualized problem solving. The remediation group also received household repairs, including reduction of water infiltration, removal of water-damaged building materials, and heating/ventilation/air-conditioning alterations. The control group received only home cleaning information. We measured childrenâs total and allergen-specific serum immuno-globulin E, peripheral blood eosinophil counts, and urinary cotinine. Environmental dust samples were analyzed for dust mite, cockroach, rodent urinary protein, endotoxin, and fungi. The follow-up period was 1 year. RESULTS: Children in both groups showed improvement in asthma symptomatic days during the preremediation portion of the study. The remediation group had a significant decrease in symptom days (p = 0.003, as randomized; p = 0.004, intent to treat) after remodeling, whereas these parameters in the control group did not significantly change. In the postremediation period, the remediation group had a lower rate of exacerbations compared with control asthmatics (as treated: 1 of 29 vs. 11 of 33, respectively, p = 0. 003; intent to treat: 28.1% and 10.0%, respectively, p = 0.11). CONCLUSION: Construction remediation aimed at the root cause of moisture sources and combined with a medical/behavioral intervention significantly reduces symptom days and health care use for asthmatic children who live in homes with a documented mold problem
Origin and evolution of the light nuclides
After a short historical (and highly subjective) introduction to the field, I
discuss our current understanding of the origin and evolution of the light
nuclides D, He-3, He-4, Li-6, Li-7, Be-9, B-10 and B-11. Despite considerable
observational and theoretical progress, important uncertainties still persist
for each and every one of those nuclides. The present-day abundance of D in the
local interstellar medium is currently uncertain, making it difficult to infer
the recent chemical evolution of the solar neighborhood. To account for the
observed quasi-constancy of He-3 abundance from the Big Bang to our days, the
stellar production of that nuclide must be negligible; however, the scarce
observations of its abundance in planetary nebulae seem to contradict this
idea. The observed Be and B evolution as primaries suggests that the source
composition of cosmic rays has remained quasi-constant since the early days of
the Galaxy, a suggestion with far reaching implications for the origin of
cosmic rays; however, the main idea proposed to account for that constancy,
namely that superbubbles are at the source of cosmic rays, encounters some
serious difficulties. The best explanation for the mismatch between primordial
Li and the observed "Spite-plateau" in halo stars appears to be depletion of Li
in stellar envelopes, by some yet poorly understood mechanism. But this
explanation impacts on the level of the recently discovered early ``Li-6
plateau'', which (if confirmed), seriously challenges current ideas of cosmic
ray nucleosynthesis.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figs. Invited Review in "Symposium on the Composition of
Matter", honoring Johannes Geiss on the occasion of his 80th birthday
(Grindelwald, Switzerland, Sept. 2006), to be published in Space Science
Series of ISS
Effect of Finite Mass on Primordial Nucleosynthesis
We have calculated the small effect of finite nucleon mass on the
weak-interaction rates that interconvert protons and neutrons in the early
Universe. We have modified the standard code for primordial nucleosynthesis to
include these corrections and find a small, systematic increase in the 4He
yield, , depending slightly on the
baryon-to-photon ratio. The fractional changes in the abundances of the other
light elements are a few percent or less for interesting values of the
baryon-to-photon ratio.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, uses psfig.st
Effect of Neutrino Heating on Primordial Nucleosynthesis
We have modified the standard code for primordial nucleosynthesis to include
the effect of the slight heating of neutrinos by annihilations. There
is a small, systematic change in the He yield, , which is insensitive to the value of the baryon-to-photon ratio
for 10^{-10}\la \eta \la 10^{-9}. We also find that the
baryon-to-photon ratio decreases by about 0.5\% less than the canonical factor
of 4/11 because some of the entropy in pairs is transferred to
neutrinos. These results are in accord with recent analytical estimates.Comment: 14 pages/4 Figs (upon request
Djehuty: A Code for Modeling Whole Stars in Three Dimensions
The DJEHUTY project is an intensive effort at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) to produce a general purpose 3-D stellar structure and
evolution code to study dynamic processes in whole stars.Comment: 2 pages, IAU coll. 18
Particle Physics Approach to Dark Matter
We review the main proposals of particle physics for the composition of the
cold dark matter in the universe. Strong axion contribution to cold dark matter
is not favored if the Peccei-Quinn field emerges with non-zero value at the end
of inflation and the inflationary scale is superheavy since, under these
circumstances, it leads to unacceptably large isocurvature perturbations. The
lightest neutralino is the most popular candidate constituent of cold dark
matter. Its relic abundance in the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard
model can be reduced to acceptable values by pole annihilation of neutralinos
or neutralino-stau coannihilation. Axinos can also contribute to cold dark
matter provided that the reheat temperature is adequately low. Gravitinos can
constitute the cold dark matter only in limited regions of the parameter space.
We present a supersymmetric grand unified model leading to violation of Yukawa
unification and, thus, allowing an acceptable b-quark mass within the
constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model with mu>0. The model
possesses a wide range of parameters consistent with the data on the cold dark
matter abundance as well as other phenomenological constraints. Also, it leads
to a new version of shifted hybrid inflation.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figures, uses svmult.cls, some clarifications
added, lectures given at the Third Aegean Summer School "The Invisible
Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy", 26 September-1 October 2005, Karfas,
Island of Chios, Greece (to appear in the proceedings
A complete 3D numerical study of the effects of pseudoscalar-photon mixing on quasar polarizations
We present the results of three-dimensional simulations of quasar
polarizations in the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing in the
intergalactic medium. The intergalactic magnetic field is assumed to be
uncorrelated in wave vector space but correlated in real space. Such a field
may be obtained if its origin is primordial. Furthermore we assume that the
quasars, located at cosmological distances, have negligible initial
polarization. In the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing we show, through a
direct comparison with observations, that this may explain the observed large
scale alignments in quasar polarizations within the framework of big bang
cosmology. We find that the simulation results give a reasonably good fit to
the observed data.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, significant changes, to appear in EPJ
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