43,655 research outputs found
REDUCING TRANSPORTATION DAMAGE TO GRAPES AND STRAWBERRIES
In-transit vibration damage to grapes and strawberries results in reduced quality for the consumer and reduced profits for the produce industry. To solve this problem, the first step is to determine which vibrational frequencies are causing the damage. In various tests, grapes and strawberries were subjected to different frequencies at constant force levels. The effects of the vibration treatments were evaluated on the basis of grading, color analysis, firmness, respiration rate and ethylene production rate. The critical frequency was found to lie between 7.5 and 10 Hertz for both commodities. Color change and respiration rate were shown to be good indicators of damage in grapes. Strawberries did not show a significant effect due to color. Firmness was not affected by vibration in either commodity.Agribusiness,
Young-type interference in projectile-electron loss in energetic ion-molecule collisions
Under certain conditions an electron bound in a fast projectile-ion,
colliding with a molecule, interacts mainly with the nuclei and inner shell
electrons of atoms forming the molecule. Due to their compact localization in
space and distinct separation from each other these molecular centers play in
such collisions a role similar to that of optical slits in light scattering
leading to pronounced interference in the spectra of the electron emitted from
the projectile.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Identifying strongly correlated supersolid states on the optical lattice by quench-induced \pi-states
We consider the rapid quench of a one-dimensional strongly correlated
supersolid to a localized density wave (checkerboard) phase, and calculate the
first-order coherence signal following the quench. It is shown that unique
coherence oscillations between the even and odd sublattice sites of the
checkerboard are created by the quench, which are absent when the initial state
is described by a Gutzwiller product state. This is a striking manifestation of
the versatility of the far-from-equilbrium and nonperturbative collapse and
revival phenomenon as a microscope for quantum correlations in complex
many-body states. For the present example, this opens up the possibility to
discriminate experimentally between mean-field and many-body origins of
supersolidity.Comment: 6 pages of EPL2 style, 5 figure
Determination of Wave Function Functionals: The Constrained-Search--Variational Method
In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{93}, 130401 (2004)], we proposed
the idea of expanding the space of variations in variational calculations of
the energy by considering the approximate wave function to be a
functional of functions rather than a function. The
space of variations is expanded because a search over the functions can
in principle lead to the true wave function. As the space of such variations is
large, we proposed the constrained-search-- variational method whereby a
constrained search is first performed over all functions such that the
wave function functional satisfies a physical constraint such as
normalization or the Fermi-Coulomb hole sum rule, or leads to the known value
of an observable such as the diamagnetic susceptibility, nuclear magnetic
constant or Fermi contact term. A rigorous upper bound to the energy is then
obtained by application of the variational principle. A key attribute of the
method is that the wave function functional is accurate throughout space, in
contrast to the standard variational method for which the wave function is
accurate only in those regions of space contributing principally to the energy.
In this paper we generalize the equations of the method to the determination of
arbitrary Hermitian single-particle operators as applied to two-electron atomic
and ionic systems. The description is general and applicable to both ground and
excited states. A discussion on excited states in conjunction with the theorem
of Theophilou is provided.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, 5 table
Eluate derived by extracorporal antibody-based immunoadsorption elevates the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration in podocytes via B-2 kinin receptors
Background/Aim: Patients with idiopathic focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) often develop a recurrence of the disease after kidney transplantation. In a number of FSGS patients, plasmapheresis and immunoadsorption procedures have been shown to transiently reduce proteinuria and are thought to do this by eliminating a circulating factor. Direct cellular effects of eluates from immunoadsorption procedures on podocytes, the primary target of injury in FSGS, have not yet been reported. Methods: Eluates were derived from antibody-based immunoadsorption of a patient suffering from primary FSGS, a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus, and a healthy volunteer. The cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration ({[}Ca2+](i)) of differentiated podocytes was measured by single-cell fura-2 microfluorescence measurements. Free and total immunoreactive kinin levels were measured by radioimmunoassay. Results: FSGS eluates increased the {[}Ca2+](i) levels concentration dependently (EC50 0.14 mg/ml; n = 3-19). 1 mg/ml eluate increased the {[}Ca2+](i) values reversibly from 82 +/- 12 to 1,462 +/- 370 nmol/l, and then they returned back to 100 16 nmol/l (n = 19). The eluate-induced increase of {[}Ca2+](i) consisted of an initial Ca2+ peak followed by a Ca2+ plateau which depended on the extracellular Ca2+ concentration. The eluate-induced increase of {[}Ca2+](i) was inhibited by the specific B-2 kinin receptor antagonist Hoe 140 in a concentration-dependent manner (IC50 2.47 nmol/l). In addition, prior repetitive application of bradykinin desensitized the effect of eluate on {[}Ca2+](i). A colonic epithelial cell line not reacting to bradykinin did not respond to eluate either (n = 6). Similar to FSGS eluates, the eluate preparations of both the systemic lupus patient and the healthy volunteer led to a biphasic, concentration-dependent {[}Ca2+](i) increase in poclocytes which again was inhibited by Hoe 140. Free kinins were detected in all eluate preparations. Conclusion: The procedure of antibody-based immunoadsorption leads to kinin in the eluate which elevates the {[}Ca2+](i) level of podocytes via B-2 kinin receptors. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel
Predicted Colors and Flux Densities of Protostars in the Herschel PACS and SPIRE Filters
Upcoming surveys with the Herschel Space Observatory will yield far-IR
photometry of large samples of young stellar objects, which will require
careful interpretation. We investigate the color and luminosity diagnostics
based on Herschel broad-band filters to identify and discern the properties of
low-mass protostars. We compute a grid of 2,016 protostars in various physical
congurations, present the expected flux densities and flux density ratios for
this grid of protostars, and compare Herschel observations of three protostars
to the model results. These provide useful constraints on the range of colors
and fluxes of protostar in the Herschel filters. We find that Herschel data
alone is likely a useful diagnostic of the envelope properties of young starsComment: Part of HOPS KP papers to the Herschel special A&A issu
Barriers in the p-spin interacting spin-glass model. The dynamical approach
We investigate the barriers separating metastable states in the spherical
p-spin glass model using the instanton method. We show that the problem of
finding the barrier heights can be reduced to the causal two-real-replica
dynamics. We find the probability for the system to escape one of the highest
energy metastable states and the energy barrier corresponding to this process.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Exchange-assisted tunneling in the classical limit
The exchange interaction and correlations may produce a power-law decay
instead of the usual exponential decrease of the wave function under potential
barrier. The exchange-assisted tunneling vanishes in the classical limit,
however, the dependence on the Planck constant h is different from that for a
conventional single-particle tunneling
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