528 research outputs found
Mode signature and stability for a Hamiltonian model of electron temperature gradient turbulence
Stability properties and mode signature for equilibria of a model of electron
temperature gradient (ETG) driven turbulence are investigated by Hamiltonian
techniques. After deriving the infinite families of Casimir invariants,
associated with the noncanonical Poisson bracket of the model, a sufficient
condition for stability is obtained by means of the Energy-Casimir method. Mode
signature is then investigated for linear motions about homogeneous equilibria.
Depending on the sign of the equilibrium "translated" pressure gradient, stable
equilibria can either be energy stable, i.e.\ possess definite linearized
perturbation energy (Hamiltonian), or spectrally stable with the existence of
negative energy modes (NEMs). The ETG instability is then shown to arise
through a Kre\u{\i}n-type bifurcation, due to the merging of a positive and a
negative energy mode, corresponding to two modified drift waves admitted by the
system. The Hamiltonian of the linearized system is then explicitly transformed
into normal form, which unambiguously defines mode signature. In particular,
the fast mode turns out to always be a positive energy mode (PEM), whereas the
energy of the slow mode can have either positive or negative sign
Reconstruction Mechanism of FCC Transition-Metal (001) Surfaces
The reconstruction mechanism of (001) fcc transition metal surfaces is
investigated using a full-potential all-electron electronic structure method
within density-functional theory. Total-energy supercell calculations confirm
the experimental finding that a close-packed quasi-hexagonal overlayer
reconstruction is possible for the late 5-metals Ir, Pt, and Au, while it is
disfavoured in the isovalent 4 metals (Rh, Pd, Ag). The reconstructive
behaviour is driven by the tensile surface stress of the unreconstructed
surfaces; the stress is significantly larger in the 5 metals than in 4
ones, and only in the former case it overcomes the substrate resistance to the
required geometric rearrangement. It is shown that the surface stress for these
systems is due to charge depletion from the surface layer, and that the
cause of the 4th-to-5th row stress difference is the importance of relativistic
effects in the 5 series.Comment: RevTeX 3.0, 12 pages, 1 PostScript figure available upon request] 23
May 199
On Krein-like theorems for noncanonical Hamiltonian systems with continuous spectra: application to Vlasov-Poisson
The notions of spectral stability and the spectrum for the Vlasov-Poisson
system linearized about homogeneous equilibria, f_0(v), are reviewed.
Structural stability is reviewed and applied to perturbations of the linearized
Vlasov operator through perturbations of f_0. We prove that for each f_0 there
is an arbitrarily small delta f_0' in W^{1,1}(R) such that f_0+delta f_0f_0$ is perturbed by an area preserving rearrangement, f_0 will
always be stable if the continuous spectrum is only of positive signature,
where the signature of the continuous spectrum is defined as in previous work.
If there is a signature change, then there is a rearrangement of f_0 that is
unstable and arbitrarily close to f_0 with f_0' in W^{1,1}. This result is
analogous to Krein's theorem for the continuous spectrum. We prove that if a
discrete mode embedded in the continuous spectrum is surrounded by the opposite
signature there is an infinitesimal perturbation in C^n norm that makes f_0
unstable. If f_0 is stable we prove that the signature of every discrete mode
is the opposite of the continuum surrounding it.Comment: Submitted to the journal Transport Theory and Statistical Physics. 36
pages, 12 figure
Absorbing boundary conditions for the Westervelt equation
The focus of this work is on the construction of a family of nonlinear
absorbing boundary conditions for the Westervelt equation in one and two space
dimensions. The principal ingredient used in the design of such conditions is
pseudo-differential calculus. This approach enables to develop high order
boundary conditions in a consistent way which are typically more accurate than
their low order analogs. Under the hypothesis of small initial data, we
establish local well-posedness for the Westervelt equation with the absorbing
boundary conditions. The performed numerical experiments illustrate the
efficiency of the proposed boundary conditions for different regimes of wave
propagation
Characteristic Evolution and Matching
I review the development of numerical evolution codes for general relativity
based upon the characteristic initial value problem. Progress in characteristic
evolution is traced from the early stage of 1D feasibility studies to 2D
axisymmetric codes that accurately simulate the oscillations and gravitational
collapse of relativistic stars and to current 3D codes that provide pieces of a
binary black hole spacetime. Cauchy codes have now been successful at
simulating all aspects of the binary black hole problem inside an artificially
constructed outer boundary. A prime application of characteristic evolution is
to extend such simulations to null infinity where the waveform from the binary
inspiral and merger can be unambiguously computed. This has now been
accomplished by Cauchy-characteristic extraction, where data for the
characteristic evolution is supplied by Cauchy data on an extraction worldtube
inside the artificial outer boundary. The ultimate application of
characteristic evolution is to eliminate the role of this outer boundary by
constructing a global solution via Cauchy-characteristic matching. Progress in
this direction is discussed.Comment: New version to appear in Living Reviews 2012. arXiv admin note:
updated version of arXiv:gr-qc/050809
Serum Calcium Levels Are Associated with Novel Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in the Population-Based CoLaus Study
BACKGROUND: Associations of serum calcium levels with the metabolic syndrome and other novel cardio-metabolic risk factors not classically included in the metabolic syndrome, such as those involved in oxidative stress, are largely unexplored. We analyzed the association of albumin-corrected serum calcium levels with conventional and non-conventional cardio-metabolic risk factors in a general adult population.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The CoLaus study is a population-based study including Caucasians from Lausanne, Switzerland. The metabolic syndrome was defined using the Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Non-conventional cardio-metabolic risk factors considered included: fat mass, leptin, LDL particle size, apolipoprotein B, fasting insulin, adiponectin, ultrasensitive CRP, serum uric acid, homocysteine, and gamma-glutamyltransferase. We used adjusted standardized multivariable regression to compare the association of each cardio-metabolic risk factor with albumin-corrected serum calcium. We assessed associations of albumin-corrected serum calcium with the cumulative number of non-conventional cardio-metabolic risk factors. We analyzed 4,231 subjects aged 35 to 75 years. Corrected serum calcium increased with both the number of the metabolic syndrome components and the number of non-conventional cardio-metabolic risk factors, independently of the metabolic syndrome and BMI. Among conventional and non-conventional cardio-metabolic risk factors, the strongest positive associations were found for factors related to oxidative stress (uric acid, homocysteine and gamma-glutamyltransferase). Adiponectin had the strongest negative association with corrected serum calcium.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Serum calcium was associated with the metabolic syndrome and with non-conventional cardio-metabolic risk factors independently of the metabolic syndrome. Associations with uric acid, homocysteine and gamma-glutamyltransferase were the strongest. These novel findings suggest that serum calcium levels may be associated with cardiovascular risk via oxidative stress
Criticality Analysis of Activity Networks under Interval Uncertainty
Dedicated to the memory of Professor Stefan Chanas - The extended abstract version of this paper has appeared in Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP2005) ("Interval Analysis in Scheduling", Fortin et al. 2005)International audienceThis paper reconsiders the Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) scheduling problem when information about task duration is incomplete. We model uncertainty on task durations by intervals. With this problem formulation, our goal is to assert possible and necessary criticality of the different tasks and to compute their possible earliest starting dates, latest starting dates, and floats. This paper combines various results and provides a complete solution to the problem. We present the complexity results of all considered subproblems and efficient algorithms to solve them
Mathematical Models of Incompressible Fluids as Singular Limits of Complete Fluid Systems
A rigorous justification of several well-known mathematical models of incompressible fluid flows can be given in terms of singular limits of the scaled Navier-Stokes-Fourier system, where some of the characteristic numbers become small or large enough. We discuss the problem in the framework of global-in-time solutions for both the primitive and the target system. © 2010 Springer Basel AG
A study of relationships between bone-related vitamins and minerals, related risk markers, and subsequent mortality in older British people: the National Diet and Nutrition Survey of People Aged 65 Years and Over
Follow-up of a British national survey of older people found that in men, all-cause mortality was predicted by baseline plasma concentrations of phosphorus, albumin, creatinine and alpha 1-antichymotrypsin, and food energy intake and in women by plasma alkaline phosphatase, creatinine, alpha 1-antichymotrypsin, 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (marginally), and phosphorus intake
RAD21 Cooperates with Pluripotency Transcription Factors in the Maintenance of Embryonic Stem Cell Identity
For self-renewal, embryonic stem cells (ESCs) require the expression of specific transcription factors accompanied by a particular chromosome organization to maintain a balance between pluripotency and the capacity for rapid differentiation. However, how transcriptional regulation is linked to chromosome organization in ESCs is not well understood. Here we show that the cohesin component RAD21 exhibits a functional role in maintaining ESC identity through association with the pluripotency transcriptional network. ChIP-seq analyses of RAD21 reveal an ESC specific cohesin binding pattern that is characterized by CTCF independent co-localization of cohesin with pluripotency related transcription factors Oct4, Nanog, Sox2, Esrrb and Klf4. Upon ESC differentiation, most of these binding sites disappear and instead new CTCF independent RAD21 binding sites emerge, which are enriched for binding sites of transcription factors implicated in early differentiation. Furthermore, knock-down of RAD21 causes expression changes that are similar to expression changes after Nanog depletion, demonstrating the functional relevance of the RAD21 - pluripotency transcriptional network association. Finally, we show that Nanog physically interacts with the cohesin or cohesin interacting proteins STAG1 and WAPL further substantiating this association. Based on these findings we propose that a dynamic placement of cohesin by pluripotency transcription factors contributes to a chromosome organization supporting the ESC expression program
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