A Deformable Model for Magnetic Vortex Pinning

A two-parameter analytical model of the magnetic vortex in a thin disk of soft magnetic material is constructed. The model is capable of describing the change in evolution of net vortex state magnetization and of core position when the vortex core interacts with a magnetic pinning site. The model employs a piecewise, physically continuous, magnetization distribution obtained by the merger of two extensively used one-parameter analytical models of the vortex state in a disk. Through comparison to numerical simulations of ideal disks with and without pinning sites, the model is found to accurately predict the magnetization, vortex position, hysteretic transitions, and 2-D displacement of the vortex in the presence of pinning sites. The model will be applicable to the quantitative determination of vortex pinning energies from measurements of magnetization.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, including supplementary information, ancillary files:3 supplementary movie

Response of rat hindlimb muscles to 12 hours recovery from tail-cast suspension

Previous work has shown a number of biochemical changes which accompany atrophy or reduced muscle growth in hindlimb of tail-casted, suspended rats. These results clearly show that altered muscle growth was due to changes in protein turnover. Accordingly, the rise in soleus tyrosine following unloading reflects the more negative protein balance. Other major changes we found included slower synthesis of glutamine as indicated by lower ratios of glutamine/glutamate and reduced levels of aspartate which coincide with slower aspartate and ammonia metabolism in vitro. In conjunction with the study of SL-3 rats, which were subjected to 12 h of post-flight gravity, a study of the effects of 12 h eight bearing on metabolism of 6-day unloaded hindlimb muscles was carried out

Muscle protein and glycogen responses to recovery from hypogravity and unloading by tail-cast suspension

Previous studies in this laboratory using the tail-bast hindlimb suspension model have shown that there are specific changes in protein and carbohydrate metabolism in the soleus muscle due to unloading. For example, 6 days of unloading caused a 27% decrease in mass and a 60% increase in glycogen content in the soleus muscle, while the extensor digitorum longus muscle was unaffected. Also, fresh tissue tyrosine and its in vitro release from the muscle are increased in the unloaded soleus, indicating that this condition causes a more negative protein balance. With these results in mind, studies to investigate the effect of hypogravity on protein and carbohydrate metabolism in a number of rat hindlimb muscles were carried out

Responses of skeletal muscle to unloading, a review

Suspension models were used to study muscle response to reduced activity. During 6 days of tail casting, the soleus (SOL) atrophies while the extensor digitorum longus grows relatively normally. After discounting those changes in both muscles due primarily to increased secretion of adrenal hormones, the following conclusions regarding the specific responses of the SOL could be drawn: (1) Atrophy is probably due primarily to increased protein degradation; (2) Decreased synthesis of glutamine may result from reduced availability of ammonia due to diminished use of ATP; (3) Greater muscle glycogen seems to reflect an increased response to insulin of glucose uptake which leads to greater glucose metabolism; and (4) Faster catabolism of branched-chain amino acids can be attributed to enhanced flux through ketoacid dehydrogenase. Studies by others using tail casted suspended rats showed in the SOL: (1) a gradual switch from type 1 to type 2 fibers; (2) increased acid protease activity; and (3) altered muscle function and contractile duration. Using harness suspended rats, others showed in the SOL: (1) significant atrophy; (2) increased numbers of glucocorticoid receptors; and (3) no change in muscle fatigability

SM(2,4k) fermionic characters and restricted jagged partitions

A derivation of the basis of states for the $SM(2,4k)$ superconformal minimal models is presented. It relies on a general hypothesis concerning the role of the null field of dimension $2k-1/2$. The basis is expressed solely in terms of $G_r$ modes and it takes the form of simple exclusion conditions (being thus a quasi-particle-type basis). Its elements are in correspondence with $(2k-1)$-restricted jagged partitions. The generating functions of the latter provide novel fermionic forms for the characters of the irreducible representations in both Ramond and Neveu-Schwarz sectors.Comment: 12 page

New path description for the M(k+1,2k+3) models and the dual Z_k graded parafermions

We present a new path description for the states of the non-unitary M(k+1,2k+3) models. This description differs from the one induced by the Forrester-Baxter solution, in terms of configuration sums, of their restricted-solid-on-solid model. The proposed path representation is actually very similar to the one underlying the unitary minimal models M(k+1,k+2), with an analogous Fermi-gas interpretation. This interpretation leads to fermionic expressions for the finitized M(k+1,2k+3) characters, whose infinite-length limit represent new fermionic characters for the irreducible modules. The M(k+1,2k+3) models are also shown to be related to the Z_k graded parafermions via a (q to 1/q) duality transformation.Comment: 43 pages (minor typo corrected and minor rewording in the introduction

Aggregation Patterns in Stressed Bacteria

We study the formation of spot patterns seen in a variety of bacterial species when the bacteria are subjected to oxidative stress due to hazardous byproducts of respiration. Our approach consists of coupling the cell density field to a chemoattractant concentration as well as to nutrient and waste fields. The latter serves as a triggering field for emission of chemoattractant. Important elements in the proposed model include the propagation of a front of motile bacteria radially outward form an initial site, a Turing instability of the uniformly dense state and a reduction of motility for cells sufficiently far behind the front. The wide variety of patterns seen in the experiments is explained as being due the variation of the details of the initiation of the chemoattractant emission as well as the transition to a non-motile phase.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX with 4 postscript figures (uuencoded) Figures 1a and 1b are available from the authors; paper submitted to PRL

Air-snow exchange of HNO3 and NOy at Summit, Greenland

Ice core records of NO3− deposition to polar glaciers could provide unrivaled information on past photochemical status and N cycling dynamics of the troposphere, if the ice core records could be inverted to yield concentrations of reactive N oxides in the atmosphere at past times. Limited previous investigations at Summit, Greenland, have suggested that this inversion may be difficult, since the levels of HNO3 and aerosol-associated NO3− over the snow are very low in comparison with those of NO3− in the snow. In addition, it appears that some fraction of the NO3− in snow may be reemitted to the atmosphere after deposition. Here we report on extensive measurements of HNO3, including vertical gradients between 1.5 and 7 m above the snow, made during the summers of 1994 and 1995 at Summit. These HNO3 data are compared with NO3− concentrations in surface snow and the first measurements of the concentrations and fluxes of total reactive nitrogen oxides (Ny) on a polar glacier. Our results confirm that HNO3 concentrations are quite low (mean 0.5 nmol m−3) during the summer, while NO3− is the dominant ion in snow. Daytime peaks in HNO3− appear to be due at least partly to emissions from the snow, an assertion supported by gradients indicating a surface source for HNO3− on many days. Observed short-term increases in NO3− inventory in the snow can be too large to be readily attributed to deposition of HNO3− suggesting that deposition of one or more other N oxides must be considered. We found that the apparent fluxes of HNO3 and NOy were in opposite directions during about half the intervals when both were measured, with more cases of HNO3 leaving the snow, against an NOy flux into the snow, than the reverse. The concentrations of NOy are generally about 2 orders of magnitude greater than those of HNO3; hence deposition of only a small, non-HNO3, fraction of this pool could dominate NO3− in snow, if the depositing species converted to NO3−, either in the snowpack or upon melting for analysis