837 research outputs found
Self-assembly of Nanometer-scale Magnetic Dots with Narrow Size Distributions on an Insulating Substrate
The self-assembly of iron dots on the insulating surface of NaCl(001) is
investigated experimentally and theoretically. Under proper growth conditions,
nanometer-scale magnetic iron dots with remarkably narrow size distributions
can be achieved in the absence of a wetting layer Furthermore, both the
vertical and lateral sizes of the dots can be tuned with the iron dosage
without introducing apparent size broadening, even though the clustering is
clearly in the strong coarsening regime. These observations are interpreted
using a phenomenological mean-field theory, in which a coverage-dependent
optimal dot size is selected by strain-mediated dot-dot interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Diversity and Contribution to Crop Growth in Agricultural Fields
Symposium Pape
Unusual Electrical Conductivity Driven by Localized Stoichiometry Modification at Vertical Epitaxial Interfaces
Precise control of lattice mismatch accommodation and cation interdiffusion
across the interface is critical to modulate correlated functionalities in
epitaxial heterostructures, particularly when the interface composition is
positioned near a compositional phase transition boundary. Here we select
La1-xSrxMnO3 (LSMO) as a prototypical phase transition material and establish
vertical epitaxial interfaces with NiO to explore the strong interplay between
strain accommodation, stoichiometry modification, and localized electron
transport across the interface. It is found that localized stoichiometry
modification overcomes the plaguing dead layer problem in LSMO and leads to
strongly directional conductivity, as manifested by more than three orders of
magnitude difference between out-of-plane to in-plane conductivity.
Comprehensive structural characterization and transport measurements reveal
that this emerging behavior is related to a compositional change produced by
directional cation diffusion that pushes the LSMO phase transition from
insulating into metallic within an ultrathin interface region. This study
explores the nature of unusual electric conductivity at vertical epitaxial
interfaces and establishes an effective route for engineering nanoscale
electron transport for oxide electronics
Fission barriers and asymmetric ground states in the relativistic mean field theory
The symmetric and asymmetric fission path for 240Pu, 232Th, and 226Ra is
investigated within the relativistic mean field model. Standard
parametrizations which are well fitted to nuclear ground state properties are
found to deliver reasonable qualitative and quantitative features of fission,
comparable to similar nonrelativstic calculations. Furthermore, stable octupole
deformations in the ground states of Radium isotopes are investigated. They are
found in a series of isotopes, qualitatively in agreement with nonrelativistic
models. But the quantitative details differ amongst the models and between the
various relativsitic parametrizations.Comment: 30 pages RevTeX, 7 tables, 12 low resolution Gif figures (high
resolution PostScript versions are available at
http://www.th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~bender/nucl_struct_publications.html
or at ftp://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/pub/bender
Carotenoids Play a Positive Role in the Degradation of Heterocycles by Sphingobium yanoikuyae
BACKGROUND: Microbial oxidative degradation is a potential way of removing pollutants such as heterocycles from the environment. During this process, reactive oxygen species or other oxidants are inevitably produced, and may cause damage to DNA, proteins, and membranes, thereby decreasing the degradation rate. Carotenoids can serve as membrane-integrated antioxidants, protecting cells from oxidative stress. FINDINGS: Several genes involved in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway were cloned and characterized from a carbazole-degrading bacterium Sphingobium yanoikuyae XLDN2-5. In addition, a yellow-pigmented carotenoid synthesized by strain XLDN2-5 was identified as zeaxanthin that was synthesized from β-carotene through β-cryptoxanthin. The amounts of zeaxanthin and hydrogen peroxide produced were significantly and simultaneously enhanced during the biodegradation of heterocycles (carbazole < carbazole + benzothiophene < carbazole + dibenzothiophene). These higher production levels were consistent with the transcriptional increase of the gene encoding phytoene desaturase, one of the key enzymes for carotenoid biosynthesis. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Sphingobium yanoikuyae XLDN2-5 can enhance the synthesis of zeaxanthin, one of the carotenoids, which may modulate membrane fluidity and defense against intracellular oxidative stress. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the positive role of carotenoids in the biodegradation of heterocycles, while elucidating the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway in the Sphingobium genus
Person-to-Person Transmission of Severe Fever With Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Bunyavirus Through Blood Contact
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome bunyavirus is a newly discovered bunyavirus with high pathogenicity to human. The transmission model has been largely uncharacterized. Investigation on a cluster of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome cases provided evidence of person-to-person transmission through blood contact to the index patient with high serum virus load
Photoproduction of phi(1020) mesons on the proton at large momentum transfer
The cross section for meson photoproduction on the proton has been
measured for the first time up to a four-momentum transfer -t = 4 GeV^2, using
the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. At low
four-momentum transfer, the differential cross section is well described by
Pomeron exchange. At large four-momentum transfer, above -t = 1.8 GeV^2, the
data support a model where the Pomeron is resolved into its simplest component,
two gluons, which may couple to any quark in the proton and in the .Comment: 5 pages; 7 figure
Deeply virtual and exclusive electroproduction of omega mesons
The exclusive omega electroproduction off the proton was studied in a large
kinematical domain above the nucleon resonance region and for the highest
possible photon virtuality (Q2) with the 5.75 GeV beam at CEBAF and the CLAS
spectrometer. Cross sections were measured up to large values of the
four-momentum transfer (-t < 2.7 GeV2) to the proton. The contributions of the
interference terms sigma_TT and sigma_TL to the cross sections, as well as an
analysis of the omega spin density matrix, indicate that helicity is not
conserved in this process. The t-channel pi0 exchange, or more generally the
exchange of the associated Regge trajectory, seems to dominate the reaction
gamma* p -> omega p, even for Q2 as large as 5 GeV2. Contributions of handbag
diagrams, related to Generalized Parton Distributions in the nucleon, are
therefore difficult to extract for this process. Remarkably, the high-t
behaviour of the cross sections is nearly Q2-independent, which may be
interpreted as a coupling of the photon to a point-like object in this
kinematical limit.Comment: 15 pages,19 figure
Critical Epitopes in the Nucleocapsid Protein of SFTS Virus Recognized by a Panel of SFTS Patients Derived Human Monoclonal Antibodies
BACKGROUND: SFTS virus (SFTSV) is a newly discovered pathogen to cause severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) in human. Successful control of SFTSV epidemic requires better understanding of the antigen target in humoral immune responses to the new bunyavirus infection. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We have generated a combinatorial Fab antibody phage library from two SFTS patients recovered from SFTSV infection. To date, 94 unique human antibodies have been generated and characterized from over 1200 Fab antibody clones obtained by screening the library with SFTS purified virions. All those monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) recognized the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SFTSV while none of them were reactive to the viral glycoproteins Gn or Gc. Furthermore, over screening 1000 mouse monoclonal antibody clones derived from SFTSV virions immunization, 462 clones reacted with N protein, while only 16 clones were reactive to glycoprotein. Furthermore, epitope mapping of SFTSV N protein was performed through molecular simulation, site mutation and competitive ELISA, and we found that at least 4 distinct antigenic epitopes within N protein were recognized by those human and mouse MAbs, in particular mutation of Glu10 to Ala10 abolished or significantly reduced the binding activity of nearly most SFTS patients derived MAbs. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The large number of human recombinant MAbs derived from SFTS patients recognized the viral N protein indicated the important role of the N protein in humoral responses to SFTSV infection, and the critical epitopes we defined in this study provided molecular basis for detection and diagnosis of SFTSV infection
Measurement of Inclusive Spin Structure Functions of the Deuteron
We report the results of a new measurement of spin structure functions of the
deuteron in the region of moderate momentum transfer ( = 0.27 -- 1.3
(GeV/c)) and final hadronic state mass in the nucleon resonance region (
= 1.08 -- 2.0 GeV). We scattered a 2.5 GeV polarized continuous electron beam
at Jefferson Lab off a dynamically polarized cryogenic solid state target
(ND) and detected the scattered electrons with the CEBAF Large
Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS). From our data, we extract the longitudinal
double spin asymmetry and the spin structure function . Our
data are generally in reasonable agreement with existing data from SLAC where
they overlap, and they represent a substantial improvement in statistical
precision. We compare our results with expectations for resonance asymmetries
and extrapolated deep inelastic scaling results. Finally, we evaluate the first
moment of the structure function and study its approach to both the
deep inelastic limit at large and to the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rule
at the real photon limit (). We find that the first moment varies
rapidly in the range of our experiment and crosses zero at between
0.5 and 0.8 (GeV/c), indicating the importance of the resonance at
these momentum transfers.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, ReVTeX 4, final version as accepted by Phys.
Rev.
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