1,203 research outputs found
Initial results of tests of depth markers as a surface diagnostic for fusion devices
The Accelerator-Based In Situ Materials Surveillance (AIMS) diagnostic was developed to perform in situ ion beam analysis (IBA) on Alcator C-Mod in August 2012 to study divertor surfaces between shots. These results were limited to studying low-Z surface properties, because the Coulomb barrier precludes nuclear reactions between high-Z elements and the ∼1 MeV AIMS deuteron beam. In order to measure the high-Z erosion, a technique using deuteron-induced gamma emission and a low-Z depth marker is being developed. To determine the depth of the marker while eliminating some uncertainty due to beam and detector parameters, the energy dependence of the ratio of two gamma yields produced from the same depth marker will be used to determine the ion beam energy loss in the surface, and thus the thickness of the high-Z surface. This paper presents the results of initial trials of using an implanted depth marker layer with a deuteron beam and the method of ratios. First tests of a lithium depth marker proved unsuccessful due to the production of conflicting gamma peaks, among other issues. However, successful trials with a boron depth marker show that it is possible to measure the depth of the marker layer with the method of gamma yield ratios.United States. Department of Energy. (grant number DE-FG02-94ER54235, cooperative agreement number DEFC02-99ER54512
An accelerator facility for intermediate energy proton irradiation and testing of nuclear materials
The bulk irradiation of materials with 10-30 MeV protons promises to advance
the study of radiation damage for fission and fusion power plants. Intermediate
energy proton beams can now be dedicated to materials irradiation within
university-scale laboratories. This paper describes the first such facility,
with an Ionetix ION-12SC cyclotron producing 12 MeV proton beams. Samples are
mm-scale tensile specimens with thicknesses up to 300 um, mounted to a cooled
beam target with control over temperature. A specialized tensile tester for
radioactive specimens at high temperature (500+ {\deg}C) and/or vacuum
represents the conditions in fission and fusion systems, while a digital image
correlation system remotely measures strain. Overall, the facility provides
university-scale irradiation and testing capability with intermediate energy
protons to complement traditional in-core fission reactor and micro-scale ion
irradiation. This facility demonstrates that bulk proton irradiation is a
scalable and effective approach for nuclear materials research, down-selection,
and qualification.Comment: Submitted to NIM B journa
The native cistrome and sequence motif families of the maize ear
Elucidating the transcriptional regulatory networks that underlie growth and development requires robust ways to define the complete set of transcription factor (TF) binding sites. Although TF-binding sites are known to be generally located within accessible chromatin regions (ACRs), pinpointing these DNA regulatory elements globally remains challenging. Current approaches primarily identify binding sites for a single TF (e.g. ChIP-seq), or globally detect ACRs but lack the resolution to consistently define TF-binding sites (e.g. DNAse-seq, ATAC-seq). To address this challenge, we developed MNase-defined cistrome-Occupancy Analysis (MOA-seq), a high-resolution (< 30 bp), high-throughput, and genome-wide strategy to globally identify putative TF-binding sites within ACRs. We used MOA-seq on developing maize ears as a proof of concept, able to define a cistrome of 145,000 MOA footprints (MFs). While a substantial majority (76%) of the known ATAC-seq ACRs intersected with the MFs, only a minority of MFs overlapped with the ATAC peaks, indicating that the majority of MFs were novel and not detected by ATAC-seq. MFs were associated with promoters and significantly enriched for TF-binding and long-range chromatin interaction sites, including for the well-characterized FASCIATED EAR4, KNOTTED1, and TEOSINTE BRANCHED1. Importantly, the MOA-seq strategy improved the spatial resolution of TF-binding prediction and allowed us to identify 215 motif families collectively distributed over more than 100,000 non-overlapping, putatively-occupied binding sites across the genome. Our study presents a simple, efficient, and high-resolution approach to identify putative TF footprints and binding motifs genome-wide, to ultimately define a native cistrome atlas
Measurement of the Positive Muon Lifetime and Determination of the Fermi Constant to Part-per-Million Precision
We report a measurement of the positive muon lifetime to a precision of 1.0
parts per million (ppm); it is the most precise particle lifetime ever
measured. The experiment used a time-structured, low-energy muon beam and a
segmented plastic scintillator array to record more than 2 x 10^{12} decays.
Two different stopping target configurations were employed in independent
data-taking periods. The combined results give tau_{mu^+}(MuLan) =
2196980.3(2.2) ps, more than 15 times as precise as any previous experiment.
The muon lifetime gives the most precise value for the Fermi constant:
G_F(MuLan) = 1.1663788 (7) x 10^-5 GeV^-2 (0.6 ppm). It is also used to extract
the mu^-p singlet capture rate, which determines the proton's weak induced
pseudoscalar coupling g_P.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
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Platelet actin nodules are podosome-like structures dependent on Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein and ARP2/3 complex
The actin nodule is a novel F-actin structure present in platelets during early spreading. However, only limited detail is known regarding nodule organization and function. Here we use electron microscopy, SIM and dSTORM super-resolution, and live-cell TIRF microscopy to characterize the structural organization and signalling pathways associated with nodule formation. Nodules are composed of up to four actin-rich structures linked together by actin bundles. They are enriched in the adhesion-related proteins talin and vinculin, have a central core of tyrosine phosphorylated proteins and are depleted of integrins at the plasma membrane. Nodule formation is dependent on Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASp) and the ARP2/3 complex. WASp(-/-) mouse blood displays impaired platelet aggregate formation at arteriolar shear rates. We propose actin nodules are platelet podosome-related structures required for platelet-platelet interaction and their absence contributes to the bleeding diathesis of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome
Ordered phase in the two-dimensional randomly coupled ferromagnet
True ground states are evaluated for a 2d Ising model with random near
neighbor interactions and ferromagnetic second neighbor interactions (the
Randomly Coupled Ferromagnet). The spin glass stiffness exponent is positive
when the absolute value of the random interaction is weaker than the
ferromagnetic interaction. This result demonstrates that in this parameter
domain the spin glass like ordering temperature is non-zero for these systems,
in strong contrast to the 2d Edwards-Anderson spin glass.Comment: 7 pages; 9 figures; revtex; new version much extende
Brd1 Gene in Maize Encodes a Brassinosteroid C-6 Oxidase
The role of brassinosteroids in plant growth and development has been well-characterized in a number of plant species. However, very little is known about the role of brassinosteroids in maize. Map-based cloning of a severe dwarf mutant in maize revealed a nonsense mutation in an ortholog of a brassinosteroid C-6 oxidase, termed brd1, the gene encoding the enzyme that catalyzes the final steps of brassinosteroid synthesis. Homozygous brd1–m1 maize plants have essentially no internode elongation and exhibit no etiolation response when germinated in the dark. These phenotypes could be rescued by exogenous application of brassinolide, confirming the molecular defect in the maize brd1-m1 mutant. The brd1-m1 mutant plants also display alterations in leaf and floral morphology. The meristem is not altered in size but there is evidence for differences in the cellular structure of several tissues. The isolation of a maize mutant defective in brassinosteroid synthesis will provide opportunities for the analysis of the role of brassinosteroids in this important crop system
Hom-quantum groups I: quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebras
We introduce a Hom-type generalization of quantum groups, called
quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebras. They are non-associative and non-coassociative
analogues of Drinfel'd's quasi-triangular bialgebras, in which the
non-(co)associativity is controlled by a twisting map. A family of
quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebras can be constructed from any quasi-triangular
bialgebra, such as Drinfel'd's quantum enveloping algebras. Each
quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebra comes with a solution of the quantum
Hom-Yang-Baxter equation, which is a non-associative version of the quantum
Yang-Baxter equation. Solutions of the Hom-Yang-Baxter equation can be obtained
from modules of suitable quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebras.Comment: 21 page
Ground-state behavior of the 3d +/-J random-bond Ising model
Large numbers of ground states of the three-dimensional random-bond
Ising model are calculated for sizes up to using a combination of a
genetic algorithm and Cluster-Exact Approximation. Several quantities are
calculated as function of the concentration of the antiferromagnetic bonds.
The critical concentration where the ferromagnetic order disappears is
determined using the Binder cumulant of the magnetization. A value of
is obtained. From the finite-size behavior of the Binder
cumulant and the magnetization critical exponents and
are calculated.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, revte
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