2,736 research outputs found
Chemical analysis of charged Li/SO(sub)2 cells
The initial focus of the program was to confirm that charging can indeed result in explosions and constitute a significant safety problem. Results of this initial effort clearly demonstrated that cells do indeed explode on charge and that charging does indeed constitute a real and severe safety problem. The results of the effort to identify the chemical reactions involved in and responsible for the observed behavior are described
Spectra of Harmonium in a magnetic field using an initial value representation of the semiclassical propagator
For two Coulombically interacting electrons in a quantum dot with harmonic
confinement and a constant magnetic field, we show that time-dependent
semiclassical calculations using the Herman-Kluk initial value representation
of the propagator lead to eigenvalues of the same accuracy as WKB calculations
with Langer correction. The latter are restricted to integrable systems,
however, whereas the time-dependent initial value approach allows for
applications to high-dimensional, possibly chaotic dynamics and is extendable
to arbitrary shapes of the potential.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur
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Reduction of Radiation Loss in a Curved Dielectric Slab Waveguide
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Surface Wave Mode Coupling of Straight and Curved Dielectric Optical Waveguides
Differential Impact of Stress Reduction Programs upon Ambulatory Blood Pressure among African American Adolescents: Influences of Endothelin-1 Gene and Chronic Stress Exposure
Stress-activated gene × environment interactions may contribute to individual variability in blood pressure reductions from behavioral interventions. We investigated effects of endothelin-1 (ET-1) LYS198ASN SNP and discriminatory stress exposure upon impact of 12-week behavioral interventions upon ambulatory BP (ABP) among 162 prehypertensive African American adolescents. Following genotyping, completion of questionnaire battery, and 24-hour ABP monitoring, participants were randomized to health education control (HEC), life skills training (LST), or breathing awareness meditation (BAM). Postintervention ABP was obtained. Significant three-way interactions on ABP changes indicated that among ET-1 SNP carriers, the only group to show reductions was BAM from low chronic stress environments. Among ET-1 SNP noncarriers, under low chronic stress exposure, all approaches worked, especially BAM. Among high stress exposure noncarriers, only BAM resulted in reductions. If these preliminary findings are replicated via ancillary analyses of archival databases and then via efficacy trials, selection of behavioral prescriptions for prehypertensives will be edging closer to being guided by individual's underlying genetic and environmental factors incorporating the healthcare model of personalized preventive medicine
Cell wall glycans and soluble factors determine the interactions between the hyphae of Candida albicans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa
The fungus, Candida albicans, and the bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, are opportunistic human pathogens that have been coisolated from diverse body sites. Pseudomonas aeruginosa suppresses C. albicans proliferation in vitro and potentially in vivo but it is the C. albicans hyphae that are killed while yeast cells are not. We show that hyphal killing involves both contact-mediated and soluble factors. Bacterial culture filtrates contained heat-labile soluble factors that killed C. albicans hyphae. In cocultures, localized points of hyphal lysis were observed, suggesting that adhesion and subsequent bacteria-mediated cell wall lysis is involved in the killing of C. albicans hyphae. The glycosylation status of the C. albicans cell wall affected the rate of contact-dependent killing because mutants with severely truncated O-linked, but not N-linked, glycans were hypersensitive to Pseudomonas-mediated killing. Deletion of HWP1, ALS3 or HYR1, which encode major hypha-associated cell wall proteins, had no effect on fungal susceptibility
Synthesis of the elements in stars: forty years of progress
Forty years ago Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle combined what we would now call fragmentary evidence from nuclear physics, stellar evolution and the abundances of elements and isotopes in the solar system as well as a few stars into a synthesis of remarkable ingenuity. Their review provided a foundation for forty years of research in all of the aspects of low energy nuclear experiments and theory, stellar modeling over a wide range of mass and composition, and abundance studies of many hundreds of stars, many of which have shown distinct evidence of the processes suggested by B2FH. In this review we summarize progress in each of these fields with emphasis on the most recent developments
Validation of the Human Ozone Challenge Model as a Tool for Assessing Anti-Inflammatory Drugs in Early Development
This study aimed to test the utility of the ozone challenge model for profiling novel compounds designed to reduce airway inflammation. The authors used a randomized, doubledummy, double-blind, placebo-controlled 3-period crossover design alternating single orally inhaled doses of fluticasone propionate (inhaled corticosteroids, 2mg), oral prednisolone (oral corticosteroids, 50mg), ormatched placebo. At a 2-week interval, 18 healthy ozone responders (>10% increase in sputum neutrophils) underwent a 3-hour ozone (250 ppb)/intermittent exercise challenge starting 1 hour after drug treatment. Airway inflammation was assessed at 2 hours (breath condensate) and 3 hours (induced sputum) after ozone challenge. Compared to placebo, pretreatment with inhaled corticosteroids or oral corticosteroids resulted in a significant reduction (mean [95% confidence interval]) of sputum neutrophils by 62% (35%, 77%) and 64% (39%, 79%) and of sputum supernatant myeloperoxidase by 55% (41%, 66%) and 42% (25%, 56%), respectively. The authors conclude that an optimized ozone challenge model (including ozone responders and ensuring adequate drug levels during exposure) may be useful for testing novel anti-inflammatory compounds in early development
Detection of Crab Giant Pulses Using the Mileura Widefield Array Low Frequency Demonstrator Field Prototype System
We report on the detection of giant pulses from the Crab Nebula pulsar at a
frequency of 200 MHz using the field deployment system designed for the Mileura
Widefield Array's Low Frequency Demonstrator (MWA-LFD). Our observations are
among the first high-quality detections at such low frequencies. The measured
pulse shapes are deconvolved for interstellar pulse broadening, yielding a
pulse-broadening time of 670100 s, and the implied strength of
scattering (scattering measure) is the lowest that is estimated towards the
Crab nebula from observations made so far. The sensitivity of the system is
largely dictated by the sky background, and our simple equipment is capable of
detecting pulses that are brighter than 9 kJy in amplitude. The brightest
giant pulse detected in our data has a peak amplitude of 50 kJy, and the
implied brightness temperature is K. We discuss the giant pulse
detection prospects with the full MWA-LFD system. With a sensitivity over two
orders of magnitude larger than the prototype equipment, the full system will
be capable of detecting such bright giant pulses out to a wide range of
Galactic distances; from 8 to 30 kpc depending on the frequency.
The MWA-LFD will thus be a highly promising instrument for the studies of giant
pulses and other fast radio transients at low frequencies.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
On the Origins of the High-Latitude H-alpha Background
The diffuse high-latitude H-alpha background is widely believed to be
predominantly the result of in-situ recombination of ionized hydrogen in the
warm interstellar medium of the Galaxy. Instead, we show that both a
substantial fraction of the diffuse high-latitude H-alpha intensity in regions
dominated by Galactic cirrus dust and much of the variance in the high-latitude
H-alpha background are the result of scattering by interstellar dust of H-alpha
photons originating elsewhere in the Galaxy. We provide an empirical relation,
which relates the expected scattered H-alpha intensity to the IRAS 100um
diffuse background intensity, applicable to about 81% of the entire sky. The
assumption commonly made in reductions of CMB observations, namely that the
observed all-sky map of diffuse H-alpha light is a suitable template for
Galactic free-free foreground emission, is found to be in need of
reexamination.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap
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