1,359 research outputs found
Protein Never in Mitosis Gene A Interacting-1 regulates calpain activity and the degradation of cyclooxygenase-2 in endothelial cells
© 2009 Liu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens
Observation and absolute frequency measurements of the 1S0 - 3P0 optical clock transition in ytterbium
We report the direct excitation of the highly forbidden (6s^2) 1S0 - (6s6p)
3P0 optical transition in two odd isotopes of ytterbium. As the excitation
laser frequency is scanned, absorption is detected by monitoring the depletion
from an atomic cloud at ~70 uK in a magneto-optical trap. The measured
frequency in 171Yb (F=1/2) is 518,295,836,593.2 +/- 4.4 kHz. The measured
frequency in 173Yb (F=5/2) is 518,294,576,850.0 +/- 4.4 kHz. Measurements are
made with a femtosecond-laser frequency comb calibrated by the NIST cesium
fountain clock and represent nearly a million-fold reduction in uncertainty.
The natural linewidth of these J=0 to J=0 transitions is calculated to be ~10
mHz, making them well-suited to support a new generation of optical atomic
clocks based on confinement in an optical lattice.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
A new calibrated sunspot group series since 1749: statistics of active day fractions
Although the sunspot-number series have existed since the mid-19th century, they are still the subject of intense debate, with the largest uncertainty being related to the "calibration" of the visual acuity of individual observers in the past. Daisy-chain regression methods are applied to inter-calibrate the observers which may lead to significant bias and error accumulation. Here we present a novel method to calibrate the visual acuity of the key observers to the reference data set of Royal Greenwich Observatory sunspot groups for the period 1900-1976, using the statistics of the active-day fraction. For each observer we independently evaluate their observational thresholds [S_S] defined such that the observer is assumed to miss all of the groups with an area smaller than S_S and report all the groups larger than S_S. Next, using a Monte-Carlo method we construct, from the reference data set, a correction matrix for each observer. The correction matrices are significantly non-linear and cannot be approximated by a linear regression or proportionality. We emphasize that corrections based on a linear proportionality between annually averaged data lead to serious biases and distortions of the data. The correction matrices are applied to the original sunspot group records for each day, and finally the composite corrected series is produced for the period since 1748. The corrected series displays secular minima around 1800 (Dalton minimum) and 1900 (Gleissberg minimum), as well as the Modern grand maximum of activity in the second half of the 20th century. The uniqueness of the grand maximum is confirmed for the last 250 years. It is shown that the adoption of a linear relationship between the data of Wolf and Wolfer results in grossly inflated group numbers in the 18th and 19th centuries in some reconstructions
Phase-field crystal modelling of crystal nucleation, heteroepitaxy and patterning
We apply a simple dynamical density functional theory, the
phase-field-crystal (PFC) model, to describe homogeneous and heterogeneous
crystal nucleation in 2d monodisperse colloidal systems and crystal nucleation
in highly compressed Fe liquid. External periodic potentials are used to
approximate inert crystalline substrates in addressing heterogeneous
nucleation. In agreement with experiments in 2d colloids, the PFC model
predicts that in 2d supersaturated liquids, crystalline freezing starts with
homogeneous crystal nucleation without the occurrence of the hexatic phase. At
extreme supersaturations crystal nucleation happens after the appearance of an
amorphous precursor phase both in 2d and 3d. We demonstrate that contrary to
expectations based on the classical nucleation theory, corners are not
necessarily favourable places for crystal nucleation. Finally, we show that
adding external potential terms to the free energy, the PFC theory can be used
to model colloid patterning experiments.Comment: 21 pages, 16 figure
Records in a changing world
In the context of this paper, a record is an entry in a sequence of random
variables (RV's) that is larger or smaller than all previous entries. After a
brief review of the classic theory of records, which is largely restricted to
sequences of independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) RV's, new results
for sequences of independent RV's with distributions that broaden or sharpen
with time are presented. In particular, we show that when the width of the
distribution grows as a power law in time , the mean number of records is
asymptotically of order for distributions with a power law tail (the
\textit{Fr\'echet class} of extremal value statistics), of order
for distributions of exponential type (\textit{Gumbel class}), and of order
for distributions of bounded support (\textit{Weibull class}),
where the exponent describes the behaviour of the distribution at the
upper (or lower) boundary. Simulations are presented which indicate that, in
contrast to the i.i.d. case, the sequence of record breaking events is
correlated in such a way that the variance of the number of records is
asymptotically smaller than the mean.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
Volcanic forcing improves Atmosphere-Ocean Coupled General Circulation Model scaling performance
Recent Atmosphere-Ocean Coupled General Circulation Model (AOGCM) simulations
of the twentieth century climate, which account for anthropogenic and natural
forcings, make it possible to study the origin of long-term temperature
correlations found in the observed records. We study ensemble experiments
performed with the NCAR PCM for 10 different historical scenarios, including no
forcings, greenhouse gas, sulfate aerosol, ozone, solar, volcanic forcing and
various combinations, such as it natural, anthropogenic and all forcings. We
compare the scaling exponents characterizing the long-term correlations of the
observed and simulated model data for 16 representative land stations and 16
sites in the Atlantic Ocean for these scenarios. We find that inclusion of
volcanic forcing in the AOGCM considerably improves the PCM scaling behavior.
The scenarios containing volcanic forcing are able to reproduce quite well the
observed scaling exponents for the land with exponents around 0.65 independent
of the station distance from the ocean. For the Atlantic Ocean, scenarios with
the volcanic forcing slightly underestimate the observed persistence exhibiting
an average exponent 0.74 instead of 0.85 for reconstructed data.Comment: 4 figure
Analysis of Strong-Coupling Parameters for Superfluid 3He
Superfluid He experiments show strong deviation from the weak-coupling
limit of the Ginzburg-Landau theory, and this discrepancy grows with increasing
pressure. Strong-coupling contributions to the quasiparticle interactions are
known to account for this effect and they are manifest in the five
-coefficients of the fourth order Ginzburg-Landau free energy terms. The
Ginzburg-Landau free energy also has a coefficient to include magnetic
field coupling to the order parameter. From NMR susceptibility experiments, we
find the deviation of from its weak-coupling value to be negligible at
all pressures. New results for the pressure dependence of four different
combinations of -coefficients, _{345}, _{12},
_{245}, and _{5} are calculated and comparison is made with
theory.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Manuscript prepared for QFS200
Grand minima and maxima of solar activity: New observational constraints
Using a reconstruction of sunspot numbers stretching over multiple millennia,
we analyze the statistics of the occurrence of grand minima and maxima and set
new observational constraints on long-term solar and stellar dynamo models.
We present an updated reconstruction of sunspot number over multiple
millennia, from C data by means of a physics-based model, using an
updated model of the evolution of the solar open magnetic flux. A list of grand
minima and maxima of solar activity is presented for the Holocene (since 9500
BC) and the statistics of both the length of individual events as well as the
waiting time between them are analyzed.
The occurrence of grand minima/maxima is driven not by long-term cyclic
variability, but by a stochastic/chaotic process. The waiting time distribution
of the occurrence of grand minima/maxima deviates from an exponential
distribution, implying that these events tend to cluster together with long
event-free periods between the clusters. Two different types of grand minima
are observed: short (30--90 years) minima of Maunder type and long (110
years) minima of Sp\"orer type, implying that a deterministic behaviour of the
dynamo during a grand minimum defines its length. The duration of grand maxima
follows an exponential distribution, suggesting that the duration of a grand
maximum is determined by a random process.
These results set new observational constraints upon the long-term behaviour
of the solar dynamo.Comment: 10 Figure
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