3,295 research outputs found
Modern mechanisms make manless Martian mission mobile: Spin-off spells stairclimbing self-sufficiency for earthbound handicapped
Concepts were developed for three wheel chairs from progressively improving designs of a proposed unmanned roving vehicle for the surface exploration of Mars; as a spin-off, a concept for a stair-climbing wheel chair was generated. The mechanisms employed in these are described. The Mars mission is envisioned using the booster rockets and aeroshell of the Viking missions
Experimental Testbeds for ECOSEL: A Market Framework for Private Provision of Forest Ecosystem Services
We attempt to design a market framework (which we call ECOSEL) for private provision of forest ecosystem services. ECOSEL is a non-regulatory framework that uses a voluntary public good provision mechanism (in a form of an auction) in conjunction with a multiobjective optimization algorithm to create a market for forest ecosystem services. It is expected to be attractive to the demand side of the ecosystem service market since only Pareto-efficient bundles of services are offered for auction, and it is expected to be attractive to the supply side as well by creating a source of non-timber income for forest landowners. ECOSEL is capable of flexible response to demand for other relevant dimensions of forest-related environmental amenities such as biodiversity, viewshed or recreational services. Following Rothâs (2002) advice on behavior of economists as âmarket engineersâ, we use both experimental economics to improve the design of the ecosystem services market. Concurrently, we provide experimental evidence on the efficiency and revenue-generating properties of a multi-good subscription game of incomplete information.Environmental Economics and Policy, Marketing,
The equation of state in lattice QCD: with physical quark masses towards the continuum limit
The equation of state of QCD at vanishing chemical potential as a function of
temperature is determined for two sets of lattice spacings. Coarser lattices
with temporal extension of N_t=4 and finer lattices of N_t=6 are used. Symanzik
improved gauge and stout-link improved staggered fermionic actions are applied.
The results are given for physical quark masses both for the light quarks and
for the strange quark. Pressure, energy density, entropy density, quark number
susceptibilities and the speed of sound are presented.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Version published in JHEP: discussions added in
Sects. 1, 2. Fig. 1 changed and a new figure for the interaction measure
added. Information on statistics added in Table 1. Raw values of the pressure
added in Table 3. A few references adde
Motor Deficits Are Produced By Removing Some Cortical Transplants Grafted Into Injured Sensorimotor Cortex of Neonatal Rats
Fetal frontal cortex was transplanted into cavities formed in the right, motor cortex of neonatal rats. As adults, the animals were trained to press two levers in rapid succession with their left forelimb to receive food rewards. Once they had reached an optimal level of performance, the effect of removing their transplants was assessed. Surgical removal of transplants significantly impaired the performance of 2 of 4 subjects. Placing a crossstrain skin graft to induce the immunological rejection of the transplants produced a behavioral deficit in 1 of 2 subjects with complete transplant removal. Skin grafts produced no behavioral effects in four subjects that had surviving transplants. Since the motor deficit produced by transplant removal resembled those observed following the removal of normal motor cortex, we propose that these three transplants functioned within the host brain
High Resolution He-like Argon And Sulfur Spectra From The PSI ECRIT
We present new results on the X-ray spectroscopy of multicharged argon,
sulfur and chlorine obtained with the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Trap
(ECRIT) in operation at the Paul Scherrer Institut (Villigen, Switzerland). We
used a Johann-type Bragg spectrometer with a spherically-bent crystal, with an
energy resolution of about 0.4 eV. The ECRIT itself is of a hybrid type, with a
superconducting split coil magnet, special iron inserts which provides the
mirror field, and a permanent magnetic hexapole. The high frequency was
provided by a 6.4 GHz microwave emitter. We obtained high intensity X-ray
spectra of multicharged F-like to He-like argon, sulfur and chlorine with one
1s hole. In particular, we observed the 1s2s^{3}S_1 \to 1s^2^{1}S_0 M1 and
1s2p^{3}P_2 \to 1s^2^{1}S_0 M2 transitions in He-like argon, sulfur and
chlorine with unprecedented statistics and resolution. The energies of the
observed lines are being determined with good accuracy using the He-like M1
line as a reference
Lattice determination of the critical point of QCD at finite T and \mu
Based on universal arguments it is believed that there is a critical point
(E) in QCD on the temperature (T) versus chemical potential (\mu) plane, which
is of extreme importance for heavy-ion experiments. Using finite size scaling
and a recently proposed lattice method to study QCD at finite \mu we determine
the location of E in QCD with n_f=2+1 dynamical staggered quarks with
semi-realistic masses on lattices. Our result is T_E=160 \pm 3.5 MeV
and \mu_E= 725 \pm 35 MeV. For the critical temperature at \mu=0 we obtained
T_c=172 \pm 3 MeV.Comment: misprints corrected, version to appear in JHE
Down-regulation of cell surface CXCR4 by HIV-1
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4), a member of the G-protein-coupled chemokine receptor family, can serve as a co-receptor along with CD4 for entry into the cell of T-cell tropic X4 human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) strains. Productive infection of T-lymphoblastoid cells by X4 HIV-1 markedly reduces cell-surface expression of CD4, but whether or not the co-receptor CXCR4 is down-regulated has not been conclusively determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Infection of human T-lymphoblastoid cell line RH9 with HIV-1 resulted in down-regulation of cell surface CXCR4 expression. Down-regulation of surface CXCR4 correlated temporally with the increase in HIV-1 protein expression. CXCR4 was concentrated in intracellular compartments in H9 cells after HIV-1 infection. Immunofluorescence microscopy studies showed that CXCR4 and HIV-1 glycoproteins were co-localized in HIV infected cells. Inducible expression of HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins also resulted in down-regulation of CXCR4 from the cell surface.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results indicated that cell surface CXCR4 was reduced in HIV-1 infected cells, whereas expression of another membrane antigen, CD3, was unaffected. CXCR4 down-regulation may be due to intracellular sequestering of HIV glycoprotein/CXCR4 complexes.</p
3D multi-agent models for protein release from PLGA spherical particles with complex inner morphologies
In order to better understand and predict the release of proteins from bioerodible micro- or nanospheres, it is important to know the influences of different initial factors on the release mechanisms. Often though it is difficult to assess what exactly is at the origin of a certain dissolution profile. We propose here a new class of fine-grained multi-agent models built to incorporate
increasing complexity, permitting the exploration of the role of different parameters, especially that of the internal morphology of the spheres, in the exhibited release profile. This approach, based on Monte-Carlo (MC) and Cellular Automata (CA) techniques, has permitted the testing of various assumptions and hypotheses about several experimental systems of nanospheres encapsulating proteins. Results have confirmed that this modelling approach
has increased the resolution over the complexity involved, opening promising perspectives for future developments, especially complementing in vitro experimentation
Performance of ALICE pixel prototypes in high energy beams
The two innermost layers of the ALICE inner tracking system are instrumented
with silicon pixel detectors. Single chip assembly prototypes of the ALICE
pixels have been tested in high energy particle beams at the CERN SPS.
Detection efficiency and spatial precision have been studied as a function of
the threshold and the track incidence angle. The experimental method, data
analysis and main results are presented.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, contribution to PIX2005 Workshop, Bonn
(Germany), 5-8 September 200
Beam Test Performance and Simulation of Prototypes for the ALICE Silicon Pixel Detector
The silicon pixel detector (SPD) of the ALICE experiment in preparation at
the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is designed to provide the precise
vertex reconstruction needed for measuring heavy flavor production in heavy ion
collisions at very high energies and high multiplicity. The SPD forms the
innermost part of the Inner Tracking System (ITS) which also includes silicon
drift and silicon strip detectors. Single assembly prototypes of the ALICE SPD
have been tested at the CERN SPS using high energy proton/pion beams in 2002
and 2003. We report on the experimental determination of the spatial precision.
We also report on the first combined beam test with prototypes of the other ITS
silicon detector technologies at the CERN SPS in November 2004. The issue of
SPD simulation is briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, prepared for proceedings of 7th International
Position Sensitive Detectors Conference, Liverpool, Sept. 200
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