7,080 research outputs found
Plasma Physics
Contains reports on two research projects.U. S. Atomic Energy Commission under Contract AT(30-1)-184
Temperature sensitivity of the pyloric neuromuscular system and its modulation by dopamine
We report here the effects of temperature on the p1 neuromuscular system of the stomatogastric system of the lobster (Panulirus interruptus). Muscle force generation, in response to both the spontaneously rhythmic in vitro pyloric network neural activity and direct, controlled motor nerve stimulation, dramatically decreased as temperature increased, sufficiently that stomach movements would very unlikely be maintained at warm temperatures. However, animals fed in warm tanks showed statistically identical food digestion to those in cold tanks. Applying dopamine, a circulating hormone in crustacea, increased muscle force production at all temperatures and abolished neuromuscular system temperature dependence. Modulation may thus exist not only to increase the diversity of produced behaviors, but also to maintain individual behaviors when environmental conditions (such as temperature) vary
Plasma Physics
Contains reports on two research projects.United States Atomic Energy Commission (Contract AT(30-1)-1842
The Indirect Search for Dark Matter with IceCube
We revisit the prospects for IceCube and similar kilometer-scale telescopes
to detect neutrinos produced by the annihilation of weakly interacting massive
dark matter particles (WIMPs) in the Sun. We emphasize that the astrophysics of
the problem is understood; models can be observed or, alternatively, ruled out.
In searching for a WIMP with spin-independent interactions with ordinary
matter, IceCube is only competitive with direct detection experiments if the
WIMP mass is sufficiently large. For spin-dependent interactions IceCube
already has improved the best limits on spin-dependent WIMP cross sections by
two orders of magnitude. This is largely due to the fact that models with
significant spin-dependent couplings to protons are the least constrained and,
at the same time, the most promising because of the efficient capture of WIMPs
in the Sun. We identify models where dark matter particles are beyond the reach
of any planned direct detection experiments while being within reach of
neutrino telescopes. In summary, we find that, even when contemplating recent
direct detection results, neutrino telescopes have the opportunity to play an
important as well as complementary role in the search for particle dark matter.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, published in the New Journal of Physics 11
105019 http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1367-2630/11/10/105019, new version
submitted to correct Abstract in origina
CT dose reduction factors in the thousands using X-ray phase contrast
Phase-contrast X-ray imaging can improve the visibility of weakly absorbing
objects (e.g. soft tissues) by an order of magnitude or more compared to
conventional radiographs. Previously, it has been shown that combining phase
retrieval with computed tomography (CT) can increase the signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR) by up to two orders of magnitude over conventional CT at the same
radiation dose, without loss of image quality. Our experiments reveal that as
radiation dose decreases, the relative improvement in SNR increases. We
discovered this enhancement can be traded for a reduction in dose greater than
the square of the gain in SNR. Upon reducing the dose 300 fold, the
phase-retrieved SNR was still almost 10 times larger than the absorption
contrast data. This reveals the potential for dose reduction factors in the
tens of thousands without loss in image quality, which would have a profound
impact on medical and industrial imaging applications
Plasma Physics
Contains reports on three research projects.U. S. Atomic Energy Commission (Contract AT(30- 1)- 1842
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