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Temperature dependent stiffness and visco-elastic behaviour of lipid coated microbubbles using atomic force microscopy.
yesThe compression stiffness of a phospholipid microbubble was determined using force-spectroscopy as a function of temperature. The stiffness was found to decrease by approximately a factor of three from 0.08 N m 1, at 10 C, down to 0.03 N m 1 at 37 C. This temperature dependence indicates that the surface tension of lipid coating is the dominant contribution to the microbubble stiffness. The timedependent material properties, e.g. creep, increased non-linearly with temperature, showing a factor of two increase in creep-displacement, from 24 nm, at 10 C, to 50 nm, at 37 C. The standard linear solid model was used to extract the visco-elastic parameters and their determination at different temperatures allowed the first determination of the activation energy for creep, for a microbubble, to be determined.EPSR
Seismic Response to Injection Well Stimulation in a High-Temperature, High-Permeability Reservoir
Fluid injection into the Earth's crust can induce seismic events that cause damage to local infrastructure but also offer valuable insight into seismogenesis. The factors that influence the magnitude, location, and number of induced events remain poorly understood but include injection flow rate and pressure as well as reservoir temperature and permeability. The relationship between injection parameters and injection-induced seismicity in high-temperature, high-permeability reservoirs has not been extensively studied. Here we focus on the Ngatamariki geothermal field in the central Taupō Volcanic Zone, New Zealand, where three stimulation/injection tests have occurred since 2012. We present a catalog of seismicity from 2012 to 2015 created using a matched-filter detection technique. We analyze the stress state in the reservoir during the injection tests from first motion-derived focal mechanisms, yielding an average direction of maximum horizontal compressive stress (SHmax) consistent with the regional NE-SW trend. However, there is significant variation in the direction of maximum compressive stress (σ1), which may reflect geological differences between wells. We use the ratio of injection flow rate to overpressure, referred to as injectivity index, as a proxy for near-well permeability and compare changes in injectivity index to spatiotemporal characteristics of seismicity accompanying each test. Observed increases in injectivity index are generally poorly correlated with seismicity, suggesting that the locations of microearthquakes are not coincident with the zone of stimulation (i.e., increased permeability). Our findings augment a growing body of work suggesting that aseismic opening or slip, rather than seismic shear, is the active process driving well stimulation in many environments
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A fixed-target platform for serial femtosecond crystallography in a hydrated environment.
For serial femtosecond crystallography at X-ray free-electron lasers, which entails collection of single-pulse diffraction patterns from a constantly refreshed supply of microcrystalline sample, delivery of the sample into the X-ray beam path while maintaining low background remains a technical challenge for some experiments, especially where this methodology is applied to relatively low-ordered samples or those difficult to purify and crystallize in large quantities. This work demonstrates a scheme to encapsulate biological samples using polymer thin films and graphene to maintain sample hydration in vacuum conditions. The encapsulated sample is delivered into the X-ray beam on fixed targets for rapid scanning using the Roadrunner fixed-target system towards a long-term goal of low-background measurements on weakly diffracting samples. As a proof of principle, we used microcrystals of the 24 kDa rapid encystment protein (REP24) to provide a benchmark for polymer/graphene sandwich performance. The REP24 microcrystal unit cell obtained from our sandwiched in-vacuum sample was consistent with previously established unit-cell parameters and with those measured by us without encapsulation in humidified helium, indicating that the platform is robust against evaporative losses. While significant scattering from water was observed because of the sample-deposition method, the polymer/graphene sandwich itself was shown to contribute minimally to background scattering
Simultaneous solution of Kompaneets equation and Radiative Transfer equation in the photon energy range 1 - 125 KeV
Radiative transfer equation in plane parallel geometry and Kompaneets
equation is solved simultaneously to obtain theoretical spectrum of 1-125 KeV
photon energy range. Diffuse radiation field is calculated using
time-independent radiative transfer equation in plane parallel geometry, which
is developed using discrete space theory (DST) of radiative transfer in a
homogeneous medium for different optical depths. We assumed free-free emission
and absorption and emission due to electron gas to be operating in the medium.
The three terms and where is photon phase density and , in Kompaneets equation and those due to
free-free emission are utilized to calculate the change in the photon phase
density in a hot electron gas. Two types of incident radiation are considered:
(1) isotropic radiation with the modified black body radiation [1] and
(2) anisotropic radiation which is angle dependent. The emergent radiation at
and reflected radiation are calculated by using the
diffuse radiation from the medium. The emergent and reflected radiation contain
the free-free emission and emission from the hot electron gas. Kompaneets
equation gives the changes in photon phase densities in different types of
media. Although the initial spectrum is angle dependent, the Kompaneets
equation gives a spectrum which is angle independent after several Compton
scattering times.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures, Accepte
Effects of hyperlinks on navigation in virtual environments
Hyperlinks introduce discontinuities of movement to 3-D virtual environments (VEs). Nine independent attributes of hyperlinks are defined and their likely effects on navigation in VEs are discussed. Four experiments are described in which participants repeatedly navigated VEs that were either conventional (i.e. obeyed the laws of Euclidean space), or contained hyperlinks. Participants learned spatial knowledge slowly in both types of environment, echoing the findings of previous studies that used conventional VEs. The detrimental effects on participants' spatial knowledge of using hyperlinks for movement were reduced when a time-delay was introduced, but participants still developed less accurate knowledge than they did in the conventional VEs. Visual continuity had a greater influence on participants' rate of learning than continuity of movement, and participants were able to exploit hyperlinks that connected together disparate regions of a VE to reduce travel time
SNP-based genotyping and whole-genome sequencing reveal previously unknown genetic diversity in Xanthomonas vasicola pv. musacearum, causal agent of banana xanthomonas wilt, in its presumed Ethiopian origin
For decades, Xanthomonas vasicola pv. musacearum (Xvm) has been an economically important bacterial pathogen on enset in Ethiopia. Since 2001, Xvm has also been responsible for significant losses to banana crops in several East and Central African countries, with devastating consequences for smallholder farmers. Understanding the genetic diversity within Xvm populations is essential for the smart design of transnationally reasoned, durable, and effective management practices. Previous studies have revealed limited genetic diversity in Xvm, with East African isolates from banana each falling into one of two closely related clades previously designated as sublineages SL 1 and SL 2, the former of which had also been detected on banana and enset in Ethiopia. Given the presumed origin of Xvm in Ethiopia, we hypothesized that both clades might be found in that country, along with additional genotypes not seen in Central and East African bananas. Genotyping of 97 isolates and whole-genome sequencing of 15 isolates revealed not only the presence of SL 2 in Ethiopia, but additional diversity beyond SL 1 and SL 2 in four new clades. Moreover, SL 2 was detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where previously SL 1 was the only clade reported. These results demonstrate a greater range of genetic diversity among Xvm isolates than previously reported, especially in Ethiopia, and further support the hypothesis that the East/Central Africa xanthomonas wilt epidemic has been caused by a restricted set of genotypes drawn from a highly diverse pathogen pool in Ethiopia
Freshwater umbrella - the effects of nitrogen deposition on freshwaters in the UK
In upland areas of the UK located away from direct human disturbance through
agriculture, industrial activities and urban pollution, atmospheric pollution poses one
of the major threats to the chemical and biological quality of lakes and streams. One
of the most important groups of pollutants is nitrogen (N) compounds, including
oxidised forms of N called NO_{x}, generated mainly by fossil fuel combustion
especially in motor vehicles, and reduced forms of N (ammonia gas or dissolved
ammonium compounds) generated mainly from agricultural activities and livestock.
These nitrogen compounds may dissolve in rain or soilwater to form acids, or may be
taken up as nutrients by plants and soil microbes in upland catchments, and then
subsequently released in acid form associated with nitrate leaching at a later date. It is
well established that nitrate leaching contributes to acidification of upland waters,
with damage to aquatic ecosystems including plants, invertebrates and fish. However
it has recently been suggested that nitrate leaching may also be associated with
nutrient enrichment of upland waters that contain biological communities adapted to
very low nutrient levels. Furthermore, important interactions have been found
elsewhere between acid deposition and leaching of dissolved organic carbon (DOC)
which has been found to be increasing in many upland waters of the northern
hemisphere
Localization of N=4 Superconformal Field Theory on S^1 x S^3 and Index
We provide the geometrical meaning of the superconformal index.
With this interpretation, the superconformal index can be realized
as the partition function on a Scherk-Schwarz deformed background. We apply the
localization method in TQFT to compute the deformed partition function since
the deformed action can be written as a -exact form. The
critical points of the deformed action turn out to be the space of flat
connections which are, in fact, zero modes of the gauge field. The one-loop
evaluation over the space of flat connections reduces to the matrix integral by
which the superconformal index is expressed.Comment: 42+1 pages, 2 figures, JHEP style: v1.2.3 minor corrections, v4 major
revision, conclusions essentially unchanged, v5 published versio
Molecular weight effects on chain pull-out fracture of reinforced polymeric interfaces
Using Brownian dynamics, we simulate the fracture of polymer interfaces
reinforced by diblock connector chains. We find that for short chains the
interface fracture toughness depends linearly on the degree of polymerization
of the connector chains, while for longer chains the dependence becomes
. Based on the geometry of initial chain configuration, we propose a
scaling argument that accounts for both short and long chain limits and
crossover between them.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
A randomised feasibility study to investigate the impact of education and the addition of prompts on the sedentary behaviour of office workers
Abstract Background Office workers have been identified as being at risk of accumulating high amounts of sedentary time in prolonged events during work hours, which has been associated with increased risk of a number of long-term health conditions. There is some evidence that providing advice to stand at regular intervals during the working day, and using computer-based prompts, can reduce sedentary behaviour in office workers. However, evidence of effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability for these types of intervention is currently limited. Methods A 2-arm, parallel group, cluster-randomised feasibility trial to assess the acceptability of prompts to break up sedentary behaviour was conducted with office workers in a commercial bank (n = 21). Participants were assigned to an education only group (EG) or prompt and education group (PG). Both groups received education on reducing and breaking up sitting at work, and the PG also received hourly prompts, delivered by Microsoft Outlook over 10 weeks, reminding them to stand. Objective measurements of sedentary behaviour were made using activPAL monitors worn at three time points: baseline, in the last 2 weeks of the intervention period and 12 weeks after the intervention. Focus groups were conducted to explore the acceptability of the intervention and the motivations and barriers to changing sedentary behaviour. Results Randomly generated, customised prompts, delivered by Microsoft Outlook, with messages about breaking up sitting, proved to be a feasible and acceptable way of delivering prompts to office workers. Participants in both groups reduced their sitting, but changes were not maintained at follow-up. The education session seemed to increase outcome expectations of the benefits of changing sedentary behaviour and promote self-regulation of behaviour in some participants. However, low self-efficacy and a desire to conform to cultural norms were barriers to changing behaviour. Conclusions Prompts delivered by Microsoft Outlook were a feasible, low-cost way of prompting office workers to break up their sedentary behaviour, although further research is needed to determine whether this has an additional impact on sedentary behaviour, to education alone. The role of cultural norms, and promoting self-efficacy, should be considered in the design of future interventions. Trial registration This study was registered retrospectively as a clinical trial on ClinicalTrials.gov (ID no. NCT02609282 ) on 23 March 2015
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