3,081 research outputs found
Studies of new media radiation induced laser
Various lasants were investigated especially, 2-iodohepafluoropropane (i-C3F7I) for the direct solar pumped lasers. Optical pumping of iodine laser was achieved using a small flashlamp. Using i-C3F7I as a laser gain medium, threshold inversion density, small signal gain, and laser performance at the elevated temperature were measured. The experimental results and analysis are presented. The iodine laser kinetics of the C3F7I and IBr system were numerically simulated. The concept of a direct solar-pumped laser amplifier using (i-C3F7I) as the laser material was evaluated and several kinetic coefficients for i-C3F7I laser system were reexamined. The results are discussed
Nitrate and ammonium lead to distinct global dynamic phosphorylation patterns when resupplied to nitrogen-starved Arabidopsis seedlings
Nitrogen is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. Inorganic nitrogen and its assimilation products control various metabolic, physiological and developmental processes. Although the transcriptional responses induced by nitrogen have been extensively studied in the past, our work here focused on the discovery of candidate proteins for regulatory events that are complementary to transcriptional changes. Most signaling pathways involve modulation of protein abundance and/or activity by protein phosphorylation. Therefore, we analyzed the dynamic changes in protein phosphorylation in membrane and soluble proteins from plants exposed to rapid changes in nutrient availability over a time course of 30 min. Plants were starved of nitrogen and subsequently resupplied with nitrogen in the form of nitrate or ammonium. Proteins with maximum change in their phosphorylation level at up to 5 min after nitrogen resupply (fast responses) included GPI-anchored proteins, receptor kinases and transcription factors, while proteins with maximum change in their phosphorylation level after 10 min of nitrogen resupply (late responses) included proteins involved in protein synthesis and degradation, as well as proteins with functions in central metabolism and hormone metabolism. Resupply of nitrogen in the form of nitrate or ammonium resulted in distinct phosphorylation patterns, mainly of proteins with signaling functions, transcription factors and transporters
Rapid Tunneling and Percolation in the Landscape
Motivated by the possibility of a string landscape, we reexamine tunneling of
a scalar field across single/multiple barriers. Recent investigations have
suggested modifications to the usual picture of false vacuum decay that lead to
efficient and rapid tunneling in the landscape when certain conditions are met.
This can be due to stringy effects (e.g. tunneling via the DBI action), or by
effects arising due to the presence of multiple vacua (e.g. resonance
tunneling). In this paper we discuss both DBI tunneling and resonance
tunneling. We provide a QFT treatment of resonance tunneling using the
Schr\"odinger functional approach. We also show how DBI tunneling for
supercritical barriers can naturally lead to conditions suitable for resonance
tunneling. We argue using basic ideas from percolation theory that tunneling
can be rapid in a landscape where a typical vacuum has multiple decay channels
and discuss various cosmological implications. This rapidity vacuum decay can
happen even if there are no resonance/DBI tunneling enhancements, solely due to
the presence of a large number of decay channels. Finally, we consider various
ways of circumventing a recent no-go theorem for resonance tunneling in quantum
field theory.Comment: 47 pages, 16 figures. Acknowledgements adde
Calibration and Irradiation Study of the BGO Background Monitor for the BEAST II Experiment
Beam commissioning of the SuperKEKB collider began in 2016. The Beam Exorcism
for A STable experiment II (BEAST II) project is particularly designed to
measure the beam backgrounds around the interaction point of the SuperKEKB
collider for the Belle II experiment. We develop a system using bismuth
germanium oxide (BGO) crystals with optical fibers connecting to a multianode
photomultiplier tube (MAPMT) and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)
embedded readout board for monitoring the real-time beam backgrounds in BEAST
II. The overall radiation sensitivity of this system is estimated to be
Gy/ADU (analog-to-digital unit) with the standard
10 m fibers for transmission and the MAPMT operating at 700 V. Our -ray
irradiation study of the BGO system shows that the exposure of BGO crystals to
Co -ray doses of 1 krad has led to immediate light output
reductions of 25--40%, and the light outputs further drop by 30--45% after the
crystals receive doses of 2--4 krad. Our findings agree with those of the
previous studies on the radiation hard (RH) BGO crystals grown by the low
thermal gradient Czochralski (LTG Cz) technology. The absolute dose from the
BGO system is also consistent with the simulation, and is estimated to be about
1.18 times the equivalent dose. These results prove that the BGO system is able
to monitor the background dose rate in real time under extreme high radiation
conditions. This study concludes that the BGO system is reliable for the beam
background study in BEAST II
Boundary Effective Field Theory and Trans-Planckian Perturbations: Astrophysical Implications
We contrast two approaches to calculating trans-Planckian corrections to the
inflationary perturbation spectrum: the New Physics Hypersurface [NPH] model,
in which modes are normalized when their physical wavelength first exceeds a
critical value, and the Boundary Effective Field Theory [BEFT] approach, where
the initial conditions for all modes are set at the same time, and modified by
higher dimensional operators enumerated via an effective field theory
calculation. We show that these two approaches -- as currently implemented --
lead to radically different expectations for the trans-Planckian corrections to
the CMB and emphasize that in the BEFT formalism we expect the perturbation
spectrum to be dominated by quantum gravity corrections for all scales shorter
than some critical value. Conversely, in the NPH case the quantum effects only
dominate the longest modes that are typically much larger than the present
horizon size. Furthermore, the onset of the breakdown in the standard
inflationary perturbation calculation predicted by the BEFT formalism is likely
to be associated with a feature in the perturbation spectrum, and we discuss
the observational signatures of this feature in both CMB and large scale
structure observations. Finally, we discuss possible modifications to both
calculational frameworks that would resolve the contradictions identified here.Comment: Reworded commentary, reference added (v2) References added (v3
The phylogenetically-related pattern recognition receptors EFR and XA21 recruit similar immune signaling components in monocots and dicots
During plant immunity, surface-localized pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). The transfer of PRRs between plant species is a promising strategy for engineering broad-spectrum disease resistance. Thus, there is a great interest in understanding the mechanisms of PRR-mediated resistance across different plant species. Two well-characterized plant PRRs are the leucine-rich repeat receptor kinases (LRR-RKs) EFR and XA21 from Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) and rice, respectively. Interestingly, despite being evolutionary distant, EFR and XA21 are phylogenetically closely related and are both members of the sub-family XII of LRR-RKs that contains numerous potential PRRs. Here, we compared the ability of these related PRRs to engage immune signaling across the monocots-dicots taxonomic divide. Using chimera between Arabidopsis EFR and rice XA21, we show that the kinase domain of the rice XA21 is functional in triggering elf18-induced signaling and quantitative immunity to the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pto) DC3000 and Agrobacterium tumefaciens in Arabidopsis. Furthermore, the EFR:XA21 chimera associates dynamically in a ligand-dependent manner with known components of the EFR complex. Conversely, EFR associates with Arabidopsis orthologues of rice XA21-interacting proteins, which appear to be involved in EFR-mediated signaling and immunity in Arabidopsis. Our work indicates the overall functional conservation of immune components acting downstream of distinct LRR-RK-type PRRs between monocots and dicots
- …