6,913 research outputs found
Imaging the Electrocyte of Torpedo Marmorata by Scanning Force Microscopy
Scanning force microscopy (SFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to examine the tissue structure of the electric organ of Torpedo marmorata in air and in liquid after applying fracturing and cryosectioning techniques and chemical fixation. The electric organ is organized in columns of stacked electrocytes, arranged in a honeycomb pattern. The columns were cut along a plane normal to the cell stack and thin sections were transferred to polylysine coated glass coverslips. The polarity of the electrocytes was made apparent by immunofluorescence microscopy directed to different domains of the acetylcholine receptor (AChR), thus revealing the innervated face of the cell. SFM and SEM both showed cell surfaces to be overlaid by a network of collagen fibers by their characteristic banding pattern with about 64 nm periodicity and about 2.5 nm corrugation amplitude. In liquid, significantly lower structural resolution was achieved by SFM, probably due to sample elasticity
A process for preparing an ultra-thin, adhesiveless, multi-layered, patterned polymer substrate
A process for preparing an ultra-thin, adhesiveless, multi-layered, patterned polymer substrate is disclosed. The process may be used to prepare both rigid and flexible cables and circuit boards. A substrate is provided and a polymeric solution comprising a self-bonding, soluble polymer and a solvent is applied to the substrate. Next, the polymer solution is dried to form a polymer coated substrate. The polymer coated substrate is metallized and patterned. At least one additional coating of the polymeric solution is applied to the metallized, patterned, polymer coated substrate and the steps of metallizing and patterning are repeated. Lastly, a cover coat is applied. When preparing a flexible cable and flexible circuit board, the polymer coating is removed from the substrate
A framework for distributed managing uncertain data in RFID traceability networks
The ability to track and trace individual items, especially through large-scale and distributed networks, is the key to realizing many important business applications such as supply chain management, asset tracking, and counterfeit detection. Networked RFID (radio frequency identification), which uses the Internet to connect otherwise isolated RFID systems and software, is an emerging technology to support traceability applications. Despite its promising benefits, there remains many challenges to be overcome before these benefits can be realized. One significant challenge centers around dealing with uncertainty of raw RFID data. In this paper, we propose a novel framework to effectively manage the uncertainty of RFID data in large scale traceability networks. The framework consists of a global object tracking model and a local RFID data cleaning model. In particular, we propose a Markov-based model for tracking objects globally and a particle filter based approach for processing noisy, low-level RFID data locally. Our implementation validates the proposed approach and the experimental results show its effectiveness.Jiangang Ma, Quan Z. Sheng, Damith Ranasinghe, Jen Min Chuah and Yanbo W
A nonlinear mechanism of charge qubit decoherence in a lossy cavity: the quasi normal mode approach
In the viewpoint of quasi normal modes, we describe a novel decoherence
mechanism of charge qubit of Josephson Junctions (JJ) in a lossy micro-cavity,
which can appear in the realistic experiment for quantum computation based on
JJ qubit. We show that the nonlinear coupling of a charge qubit to quantum
cavity field can result in an additional dissipation of resonant mode due to
its effective interaction between those non-resonant modes and a resonant mode,
which is induced by the charge qubit itself. We calculate the characterized
time of the novel decoherence by making use of the system plus bath method.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figur
Precise determination of stellar parameters of the ZZ Ceti and DAZ white dwarf GD 133 through asteroseismology
An increasing number of white dwarf stars show atmospheric chemical
composition polluted by heavy elements accreted from debris disk material. The
existence of such debris disks strongly suggests the presence of one or more
planet(s) whose gravitational interaction with rocky planetesimals is
responsible for their disruption by tidal effect. The ZZ Ceti pulsator and
polluted DAZ white dwarf GD 133 is a good candidate for searching for such a
potential planet. We started in 2011 a photometric follow-up of its pulsations.
As a result of this work in progress, we used the data gathered from 2011 to
2015 to make an asteroseismological analysis of GD 133, providing the star
parameters from a best fit model with / = 0.630 0.002,
= 12400 K 70 K, log() = -2.00 0.02,
log() = -4.50 0.02 and determining a rotation period of
7 days.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, accepted by MNRA
Introduced birds in urban remnant vegetation : does remnant size really matter?
Introduced birds are a pervasive and dominant element of urban ecosystems. We examined the richness and relative abundance of introduced bird species in small (1–5 ha) medium (6–15 ha) and large (>15 ha) remnants of native vegetation within an urban matrix. Transects were surveyed during breeding and non-breeding seasons. There was a significant relationship between introduced species richness and remnant size with larger remnants supporting more introduced species. There was no significant difference in relative abundance of introduced species in remnants of different sizes. Introduced species, as a proportion of the relative abundance of the total avifauna (native and introduced species), did not vary significantly between remnants of differing sizes. There were significant differences in the composition of introduced bird species between the different remnant sizes, with large remnants supporting significantly different assemblages than medium and small remnants. Other variables also have substantial effects on the abundance of introduced bird species. The lack of significant differences in abundance between remnant sizes suggests they were all equally susceptible to invasion. No patches in the urban matrix are likely to be unaffected by introduced species. The effective long-term control of introduced bird species is difficult and resources may be better spent managing habitat in a way which renders it less suitable for introduced species (e.g. reducing areas of disturbed ground and weed dominated areas).<br /
ATIC and PAMELA Results on Cosmic e^\pm Excesses and Neutrino Masses
Recently the ATIC and PAMELA collaborations released their results which show
the abundant e^\pm excess in cosmic rays well above the background, but not for
the \bar{p}. Their data if interpreted as the dark matter particles'
annihilation imply that the new physics with the dark matter is closely related
to the lepton sector. In this paper we study the possible connection of the new
physics responsible for the cosmic e^\pm excesses to the neutrino mass
generation. We consider a class of models and do the detailed numerical
calculations. We find that these models can natually account for the ATIC and
PAMELA e^\pm and \bar{p} data and at the same time generate the small neutrino
masses.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Published version with minor corrections and more
reference
Anomalous diffusion and the first passage time problem
We study the distribution of first passage time (FPT) in Levy type of
anomalous diffusion. Using recently formulated fractional Fokker-Planck
equation we obtain three results. (1) We derive an explicit expression for the
FPT distribution in terms of Fox or H-functions when the diffusion has zero
drift. (2) For the nonzero drift case we obtain an analytical expression for
the Laplace transform of the FPT distribution. (3) We express the FPT
distribution in terms of a power series for the case of two absorbing barriers.
The known results for ordinary diffusion (Brownian motion) are obtained as
special cases of our more general results.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure
Highly Sensitive Blocker Displacement Amplification and Droplet Digital PCR Reveal Low-Level Parental FOXF1 Somatic Mosaicism in Families with Alveolar Capillary Dysplasia with Misalignment of Pulmonary Veins.
Detection of low-level somatic mosaicism [alternate allele fraction (AAF) ≤ 10%] in parents of affected individuals with the apparent de novo pathogenic variants enables more accurate estimate of recurrence risk. To date, only a few systematic analyses of low-level parental somatic mosaicism have been performed. Herein, highly sensitive blocker displacement amplification, droplet digital PCR, quantitative PCR, long-range PCR, and array comparative genomic hybridization were applied in families with alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins. We screened 18 unrelated families with the FOXF1 variant previously determined to be apparent de novo (n = 14), of unknown parental origin (n = 1), or inherited from a parent suspected to be somatic and/or germline mosaic (n = 3). We identified four (22%) families with FOXF1 parental somatic mosaic single-nucleotide variants (n = 3) and copy number variant deletion (n = 1) detected in parental blood samples and an AAF ranging between 0.03% and 19%. In one family, mosaic allele ratio in tissues originating from three germ layers ranged betwee
- …