Production of SO2 Binding Compounds and SO2 by Saccharomyces during Alcoholic Fermentation and the Impact on Malolactic Fermentation

The objective of this study was to investigate the production of SO2 and SO2 binding compounds by wineyeast and the impact of the production of these compounds on the MLF at various time points duringalcoholic fermentation. Fermentations were observed for a number of commercial wine yeasts in a syntheticgrape juice and Pinot gris juice and SO2, acetaldehyde, pyruvic acid and α-ketoglutarate. Measurementswere taken at multiple time points during the fermentation. Samples were taken from the fermentationsat weekly intervals, sterile filtered, and inoculated with O. oeni strain VFO to induce MLF. Significantdifferences between the amount of SO2, acetaldehyde and pyruvic acid produced by the various yeaststrains were noted. Some yeast strains such as FX10, CK S102, F15 and M69, produced significantly higherSO2 concentrations than other yeast strains and MLF was inhibited in these wines. Insignificant free SO2was measured, indicating that bound SO2 rather than free SO2 was responsible for inhibition. At almostall time points of the alcoholic fermentation, acetaldehyde bound SO2 was determined to be the dominantspecies of bound SO2 present, suggesting that MLF inhibition by bound SO2 was due to acetaldehydebound SO2

Influence of Must Supplementation on Growth of Pediococcus spp. after Alcoholic Fermentation

One factor potentially affecting growth of wine spoilage microbes (e.g., Pediococcus spp.) is the presence of nutrients not consumed during alcoholic fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To assess the impactof must nutrient supplementation on Pediococcus spp., synthetic grape musts containing low (55.2 mg N/L), medium (250 mg N/L), or high (530 mg N/L) concentrations of yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) were fermented by S. cerevisiae. Upon cessation of fermentative activity P. damnosus OW-2, P. inopinatus OW-8, P. parvulus WS-7C, WS-29A, OW-1, or P. pentosaceus ATCC 33316 were inoculated at 104 to 105 cfu/mL. With the exceptions of OW-1 and OW-2, none of the other species or strains grew in the synthetic wines unless yeast extract or peptone was added, suggesting the absence of an essential nutrient.  Experiments were replicated using Cabernet Sauvignon musts containing low (66.9 mg N/L), medium(219 mg N/L), and high (438 mg N/L) YAN. In general, wines containing the greatest residual amino acid concentrations (high YAN) supported better growth of the aforementioned Pediococcus spp. However, low YAN wines containing negligible residual nitrogen achieved similar populations after a short period of initial inhibition, suggesting that ‘excessive’ nitrogen supplementation to musts does not have a large impact on growth of pediococci post alcoholic fermentation

Mammary blood flow and metabolic activity are linked by a feedback mechanism involving nitric oxide synthesis

To test which, if any, of the major milk precursors can elicit a rapid change in the rate of mammary blood flow (MBF) and to define the time course and magnitude of such changes, 4 lactating cows were infused with glucose, amino acids, or triacylglycerol into the external iliac artery feeding one udder half while iliac plasma flow (IPF) was monitored continuously by dye dilution. Adenosine and saline were infused as positive and negative controls, respectively, and insulin was infused to characterize the response to a centrally produced anabolic hormone. To test the roles of cyclooxygenase, NO synthase and ATP-sensitive K (K) channels in nutrient-mediated changes in blood flow, their respective inhibitors-indomethacin, N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (L-NAME), and glibenclamide-were infused simultaneously with glucose. Each day, 1 infusate was given twice to each cow, over a 20-min period each time, separated by a 20-min washout period. In addition, each treatment protocol was administered on 2 separate days. A 73% increase in IPF during adenosine infusion showed that the mammary vasodilatory response was quadratic in time, with most changes occurring in the first 5min. Glucose infusion decreased IPF by 9% in a quadratic manner, most rapidly in the first 5min, indicating that a feedback mechanism of local blood flow control, likely through adenosine release, was operative in the mammary vasculature. Amino acid infusion increased IPF 9% in a linear manner, suggesting that mammary ATP utilization was stimulated more than ATP production. This could reflect a stimulation of protein synthesis. Triacylglycerol only tended to decrease IPF and insulin did not affect IPF. A lack of IPF response to glibenclamide indicates that K channels are not involved in MBF regulation. Indomethacin and L-NAME both depressed IPF. In the presence of indomethacin, glucose infusion caused a quadratic 9% increase in IPF. Indomethacin is an inhibitor of mitochondrial function, so the glucose-induced increase in IPF was interpreted as feedback on mammary adenosine release from an anabolic response to glucose. Because NO synthase was not inhibited during indomethacin infusion, the feedback system is postulated to act through endothelial NO synthase. In the presence of L-NAME, glucose infusion had no effect on IPF, indicating that endothelial cyclooxygenase is not involved in glucose-induced changes in MBF

Lord of the Rings – Return of the King: Swift-XRT observations of dust scattering rings around V404 Cygni

On 2015 June 15, the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cygni went into outburst, exhibiting extreme X-ray variability which culminated in a final flare on June 26. Over the following days, the Swift-X-ray Telescope detected a series of bright rings, comprising five main components that expanded and faded with time, caused by X-rays scattered from the otherwise unobservable dust layers in the interstellar medium in the direction of the source. Simple geometrical modelling of the rings’ angular evolution reveals that they have a common temporal origin, coincident with the final, brightest flare seen by INTEGRAL's JEM X-1, which reached a 3–10 keV flux of ~25 Crab. The high quality of the data allows the dust properties and density distribution along the line of sight to the source to be estimated. Using the Rayleigh–Gans approximation for the dust scattering cross-section and a power-law distribution of grain sizes a, ∝ a-q, the average dust emission is well modelled by q = 3.90+0.09-0.08 and maximum grain size of a+ = 0.147+0.024-0.004 μm, though significant variations in q are seen between the rings. The recovered dust density distribution shows five peaks associated with the dense sheets responsible for the rings at distances ranging from 1.19 to 2.13 kpc, with thicknesses of ~40 – 80 pc and a maximum density occurring at the location of the nearest sheet. We find a dust column density of Ndust ~ (2.0–2.5) × 1011 cm-2, consistent with the optical extinction to the source. Comparison of the inner rings’ azimuthal X-ray evolution with archival Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mid-IR data suggests that the second most distant ring follows the general IR emission trend, which increases in brightness towards the Galactic north side of the source

Entanglement entropy in quantum spin chains with finite range interaction

We study the entropy of entanglement of the ground state in a wide family of one-dimensional quantum spin chains whose interaction is of finite range and translation invariant. Such systems can be thought of as generalizations of the XY model. The chain is divided in two parts: one containing the first consecutive L spins; the second the remaining ones. In this setting the entropy of entanglement is the von Neumann entropy of either part. At the core of our computation is the explicit evaluation of the leading order term as L tends to infinity of the determinant of a block-Toeplitz matrix whose symbol belongs to a general class of 2 x 2 matrix functions. The asymptotics of such determinant is computed in terms of multi-dimensional theta-functions associated to a hyperelliptic curve of genus g >= 1, which enter into the solution of a Riemann-Hilbert problem. Phase transitions for thes systems are characterized by the branch points of the hyperelliptic curve approaching the unit circle. In these circumstances the entropy diverges logarithmically. We also recover, as particular cases, the formulae for the entropy discovered by Jin and Korepin (2004) for the XX model and Its, Jin and Korepin (2005,2006) for the XY model.Comment: 75 pages, 10 figures. Revised version with minor correction

ASCA X-ray observations of the disk wind in the dwarf nova Z Camelopardalis

We present ASCA observations of the dwarf nova Z Camelopardalis during outburst and during a transition from quiescence to another outburst. At the beginning of the transition the X-ray count rate was an order of magnitude higher and the spectrum much harder than during the outburst. As the transition progressed, the spectrum remained hard as the X-ray flux decreased by a factor of 3, with no spectral softening. Spectral modelling reveals an optically-thin, high-temperature component (kT$\approx$10 keV) which dominates the transition observation and is also observed during outburst. This is expected from material accreting onto the white dwarf surface. The outburst spectra require additional emission at lower temperatures, either through an additional discrete temperature component, or a combination of a cooling flow model and an ionised absorber. Fits to both observations show large amounts of absorption ($N_H=8-9\times10^{21}$cm$^{-2}$), two orders of magnitude greater than the measured interstellar value, and consistent with UV measurements of the outburst. This suggests that a disk wind is present even in the earliest stages of outburst, possibly before the outburst heating wave has reached the boundary layer.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, MNRAS Accepte

Evidence of the Exponential Decay Emission in the Swift Gamma-ray Bursts

We present a systematic study of the steep decay emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by the Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT). In contrast to the analysis in recent literature, instead of extrapolating the data of Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) down into the XRT energy range, we extrapolated the XRT data up to the BAT energy range, 15-25 keV, to produce the BAT and XRT composite light curve. Based on our composite light curve fitting, we have confirmed the existence of an exponential decay component which smoothly connects the BAT prompt data to the XRT steep decay for several GRBs. We also find that the XRT steep decay for some of the bursts can be well fitted by a combination of a power-law with an exponential decay model. We discuss that this exponential component may be the emission from an external shock and a sign of the deceleration of the outflow during the prompt phase

The remarkable outburst of the highly-evolved post period-minimum dwarf nova SSS J122221.7−311525

We report extensive 3-yr multiwavelength observations of the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova SSS J122221.7−311525 during its unusual double superoutburst, the following decline and in quiescence. The second segment of the superoutburst had a long duration of 33 d and a very gentle decline with a rate of 0.02 mag d−1, and it displayed an extended post-outburst decline lasting at least 500 d. Simultaneously with the start of the rapid fading from the superoutburst plateau, the system showed the appearance of a strong near-infrared excess resulting in very red colours, which reached extreme values (B − I ≃ 1.4) about 20 d later. The colours then became bluer again, but it took at least 250 d to acquire a stable level. Superhumps were clearly visible in the light curve from our very first time-resolved observations until at least 420 d after the rapid fading from the superoutburst. The spectroscopic and photometric data revealed an orbital period of 109.80 min and a fractional superhump period excess ≲0.8 per cent, indicating a very low mass ratio q ≲ 0.045. With such a small mass ratio the donor mass should be below the hydrogen-burning minimum mass limit. The observed infrared flux in quiescence is indeed much lower than is expected from a cataclysmic variable with a near-main-sequence donor star. This strongly suggests a brown-dwarf-like nature for the donor and that SSS J122221.7−311525 has already evolved away from the period minimum towards longer periods, with the donor now extremely dim

Block Spin Density Matrix of the Inhomogeneous AKLT Model

We study the inhomogeneous generalization of a 1-dimensional AKLT spin chain model. Spins at each lattice site could be different. Under certain conditions, the ground state of this AKLT model is unique and is described by the Valence-Bond-Solid (VBS) state. We calculate the density matrix of a contiguous block of bulk spins in this ground state. The density matrix is independent of spins outside the block. It is diagonalized and shown to be a projector onto a subspace. We prove that for large block the density matrix behaves as the identity in the subspace. The von Neumann entropy coincides with Renyi entropy and is equal to the saturated value.Comment: 20 page