321 research outputs found
A laminar flow model of aerosol survival of epidemic and non-epidemic strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from people with cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited multi-system disorder characterised by chronic airway infection with pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Acquisition of P. aeruginosa by patients with CF is usually from the environment, but recent studies have demonstrated patient to patient transmission of certain epidemic strains, possibly via an airborne route. This study was designed to examine the survival of P. aeruginosa within artificially generated aerosols.
Survival was effected by the solution used for aerosol generation. Within the aerosols it was adversely affected by an increase in air temperature. Both epidemic and non-epidemic strains of P. aeruginosa were able to survive within the aerosols, but strains expressing a mucoid phenotype had a survival advantage.
This would suggest that segregating individuals free of P. aeruginosa from those with chronic P. aeruginosa infection who are more likely to be infected with mucoid strains may help reduce the risk of cross-infection. Environmental factors also appear to influence bacterial survival. Warming and drying the air within clinical areas and avoidance of humidification devices may also be beneficial in reducing the risk of cross-infection
Novel Josephson effects between multi-gap and single-gap superconductors
Multi-gap superconductors can exhibit qualitatively new phenomena due to
existence of multiple order parameters. Repulsive electronic interactions may
give rise to a phase difference of between the phases of the order
parameters. Collective modes due to the oscillation of the relative phases of
these order parameters are also possible. Here we show that both these
phenomena are observable in Josephson junctions between a single-gap and a
multi-gap superconductor. In particular, a non-monotonic temperature dependence
of the Josephson current through the junction reveals the existence of the
phase differences in the multi-gap superconductor. This mechanism may be
relevant for understanding several experiments on the Josephson junctions with
unconventional superconductors. We also discuss how the presence of the
collective mode resonantly enhances the DC Josephson current when the voltage
across the junction matches the mode frequency. We suggest that our results may
apply to MgB, 2H-NbSe, spin ladder and bilayer cuprates.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Phonon-drag effects on thermoelectric power
We carry out a calculation of the phonon-drag contribution to the
thermoelectric power of bulk semiconductors and quantum well structures for the
first time using the balance equation transport theory extended to the weakly
nonuniform systems. Introducing wavevector and phonon-mode dependent relaxation
times due to phonon-phonon interactions, the formula obtained can be used not
only at low temperatures where the phonon mean free path is determined by
boundary scattering, but also at high temperatures. In the linear transport
limit, is equivalent to the result obtained from the Boltzmann equation
with a relaxation time approximation. The theory is applied to experiments and
agreement is found between the theoretical predictions and experimental
results. The role of hot-electron effects in is discussed. The importance
of the contribution of to thermoelectric power in the hot-electron
transport condition is emphasized.Comment: 8 pages, REVTEX 3.0, 7 figures avilable upon reques
Thermoelectric power of nondegenerate Kane semiconductors under the conditions of mutual electron-phonon drag in a high electric field
The thermoelectric power of nondegenerate Kane semiconductors with due regard
for the electron and phonon heating, and their thermal and mutual drags is
investigated. The electron spectrum is taken in the Kane two-band form. It is
shown that the nonparabolicity of electron spectrum significantly influences
the magnitude of the thermoelectric power and leads to a change of its sign and
dependence on the heating electric field. The field dependence of the
thermoelectric power is determined analytically under various drag conditions.Comment: 25 pages, RevTex formatted, 3 table
Observations of the post shock break-out emission of SN 2011dh with XMM-Newton
After the occurrence of the type cIIb SN 2011dh in the nearby spiral galaxy M
51 numerous observations were performed with different telescopes in various
bands ranging from radio to gamma-rays. We analysed the XMM-Newton and Swift
observations taken 3 to 30 days after the SN explosion to study the X-ray
spectrum of SN 2011dh. We extracted spectra from the XMM-Newton observations,
which took place ~7 and 11 days after the SN. In addition, we created
integrated Swift/XRT spectra of 3 to 10 days and 11 to 30 days. The spectra are
well fitted with a power-law spectrum absorbed with Galactic foreground
absorption. In addition, we find a harder spectral component in the first
XMM-Newton spectrum taken at t ~ 7 d. This component is also detected in the
first Swift spectrum of t = 3 - 10 d. While the persistent power-law component
can be explained as inverse Compton emission from radio synchrotron emitting
electrons, the harder component is most likely bremsstrahlung emission from the
shocked stellar wind. Therefore, the harder X-ray emission that fades away
after t ~ 10 d can be interpreted as emission from the shocked circumstellar
wind of SN 2011dh.Comment: Accepted for publication as a Research Note in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
A parallel implementation of an off-lattice individual-based model of multicellular populations
As computational models of multicellular populations include ever more detailed descriptions of biophysical and biochemical processes, the computational cost of simulating such models limits their ability to generate novel scientific hypotheses and testable predictions. While developments in microchip technology continue to increase the power of individual processors, parallel computing offers an immediate increase in available processing power. To make full use of parallel computing technology, it is necessary to develop specialised algorithms. To this end, we present a parallel algorithm for a class of off-lattice individual-based models of multicellular populations. The algorithm divides the spatial domain between computing processes and comprises communication routines that ensure the model is correctly simulated on multiple processors. The parallel algorithm is shown to accurately reproduce the results of a deterministic simulation performed using a pre-existing serial implementation. We test the scaling of computation time, memory use and load balancing as more processes are used to simulate a cell population of fixed size. We find approximate linear scaling of both speed-up and memory consumption on up to 32 processor cores. Dynamic load balancing is shown to provide speed-up for non-regular spatial distributions of cells in the case of a growing population
New Insights into White-Light Flare Emission from Radiative-Hydrodynamic Modeling of a Chromospheric Condensation
(abridged) The heating mechanism at high densities during M dwarf flares is
poorly understood. Spectra of M dwarf flares in the optical and
near-ultraviolet wavelength regimes have revealed three continuum components
during the impulsive phase: 1) an energetically dominant blackbody component
with a color temperature of T 10,000 K in the blue-optical, 2) a smaller
amount of Balmer continuum emission in the near-ultraviolet at lambda 3646
Angstroms and 3) an apparent pseudo-continuum of blended high-order Balmer
lines. These properties are not reproduced by models that employ a typical
"solar-type" flare heating level in nonthermal electrons, and therefore our
understanding of these spectra is limited to a phenomenological interpretation.
We present a new 1D radiative-hydrodynamic model of an M dwarf flare from
precipitating nonthermal electrons with a large energy flux of erg
cm s. The simulation produces bright continuum emission from a
dense, hot chromospheric condensation. For the first time, the observed color
temperature and Balmer jump ratio are produced self-consistently in a
radiative-hydrodynamic flare model. We find that a T 10,000 K
blackbody-like continuum component and a small Balmer jump ratio result from
optically thick Balmer and Paschen recombination radiation, and thus the
properties of the flux spectrum are caused by blue light escaping over a larger
physical depth range compared to red and near-ultraviolet light. To model the
near-ultraviolet pseudo-continuum previously attributed to overlapping Balmer
lines, we include the extra Balmer continuum opacity from Landau-Zener
transitions that result from merged, high order energy levels of hydrogen in a
dense, partially ionized atmosphere. This reveals a new diagnostic of ambient
charge density in the densest regions of the atmosphere that are heated during
dMe and solar flares.Comment: 50 pages, 2 tables, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in the Solar
Physics Topical Issue, "Solar and Stellar Flares". Version 2 (June 22, 2015):
updated to include comments by Guest Editor. The final publication is
available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11207-015-0708-
Observation of excited states in the near-drip-line nucleus 125Pr
High-spin states have been observed in the near-drip-line nucleus 125Pr following the reaction 64Zn(64Zn, p2n). The detection of charged particles and neutrons evaporated from the compound system, along with the M/q of the recoiling nucleus, have allowed the identification of excited states in 125Pr and the unambiguous assignment of five rotational structures to this nucleus. This is the most neutron-deficient Pr isotope in which excited states have been observed. The strongest band is identified as the h11/2 single-quasiproton configuration, and is observed to a maximum spin of I = (67/2hℏ). Another structure is interpreted as the g9/2 proton hole state, which is associated with bands of enhanced deformation observed in several nuclei in this mass region. These two bands are compared with analogous bands in the heavier odd-A Pr isotopes and changes in deformation are discussed
The primary cosmic ray composition between 10**15 and 10**16 eV from Extensive Air Showers electromagnetic and TeV muon data
The cosmic ray primary composition in the energy range between 10**15 and
10**16 eV, i.e., around the "knee" of the primary spectrum, has been studied
through the combined measurements of the EAS-TOP air shower array (2005 m
a.s.l., 10**5 m**2 collecting area) and the MACRO underground detector (963 m
a.s.l., 3100 m w.e. of minimum rock overburden, 920 m**2 effective area) at the
National Gran Sasso Laboratories. The used observables are the air shower size
(Ne) measured by EAS-TOP and the muon number (Nmu) recorded by MACRO. The two
detectors are separated on average by 1200 m of rock, and located at a
respective zenith angle of about 30 degrees. The energy threshold at the
surface for muons reaching the MACRO depth is approximately 1.3 TeV. Such muons
are produced in the early stages of the shower development and in a kinematic
region quite different from the one relevant for the usual Nmu-Ne studies. The
measurement leads to a primary composition becoming heavier at the knee of the
primary spectrum, the knee itself resulting from the steepening of the spectrum
of a primary light component (p, He). The result confirms the ones reported
from the observation of the low energy muons at the surface (typically in the
GeV energy range), showing that the conclusions do not depend on the production
region kinematics. Thus, the hadronic interaction model used (CORSIKA/QGSJET)
provides consistent composition results from data related to secondaries
produced in a rapidity region exceeding the central one. Such an evolution of
the composition in the knee region supports the "standard" galactic
acceleration/propagation models that imply rigidity dependent breaks of the
different components, and therefore breaks occurring at lower energies in the
spectra of the light nuclei.Comment: Submitted to Astroparticle Physic
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