1,084 research outputs found
REMOVED: Preparation of Nanofiltration Membranes using Sol–gel Transition of Organic Molecular Networks in their Phase–separating Mixtures with Linear Polymers
This article has been removed: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).This article has been removed at the request of the Executive Publisher.This article has been removed because it was published without the permission of the author(s)
Seasonal Evolution of the Arctic Sea Ice Thickness Distribution
The Thorndike et al. (1975, https://doi.org/10.1029/jc080i033p04501) theory of the ice thickness distribution, g(h), treats the dynamic and thermodynamic aggregate properties of the ice pack in a novel and physically self-consistent manner. Therefore, it has provided the conceptual basis of the treatment of sea-ice thickness categories in climate models. The approach, however, is not mathematically closed due to the treatment of mechanical deformation using the redistribution function ψ, the authors noting “The present theory suffers from a burdensome and arbitrary redistribution function ψ.” Toppaladoddi and Wettlaufer (2015, https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.115.148501) showed how ψ can be written in terms of g(h), thereby solving the mathematical closure problem and writing the theory in terms of a Fokker-Planck equation, which they solved analytically to quantitatively reproduce the observed winter g(h). Here, we extend this approach to include open water by formulating a new boundary condition for their Fokker-Planck equation, which is then coupled to the observationally consistent sea-ice growth model of Semtner (1976, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(1976)0062.0.co;2) to study the seasonal evolution of g(h). We find that as the ice thins, g(h) transitions from a single- to a double-peaked distribution, which is in agreement with observations. To understand the cause of this transition, we construct a simpler description of the system using the equivalent Langevin equation formulation and solve the resulting stochastic ordinary differential equation numerically. Finally, we solve the Fokker-Planck equation for g(h) under different climatological conditions to study the evolution of the open-water fraction
Velocity Fluctuations in Electrostatically Driven Granular Media
We study experimentally the particle velocity fluctuations in an
electrostatically driven dilute granular gas. The experimentally obtained
velocity distribution functions have strong deviations from Maxwellian form in
a wide range of parameters. We have found that the tails of the distribution
functions are consistent with a stretched exponential law with typical
exponents of the order 3/2. Molecular dynamic simulations shows qualitative
agreement with experimental data. Our results suggest that this non-Gaussian
behavior is typical for most inelastic gases with both short and long range
interactions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Persistent Currents and Dissipation in Narrow Bilayer Quantum Hall Bars
Bilayer quantum Hall states support a flow of nearly dissipationless
staggered current which can only decay through collective channels. We study
the dominant finite-temperature dissipation mechanism which in narrow bars is
driven by thermal nucleation of pseudospin solitons. We find the
finite-temperature resistivity, predict the resulting staggered current-voltage
characteristics, and calculate the associated zero-temperature critical
staggered current and gate voltage.Comment: 4 pgs. REVTeX, 3 eps figure
Maternal pregnancy vitamin D supplementation increases offspring bone formation in response to mechanical loading : findings from a MAVIDOS trial sub-study
The Maternal Vitamin D Osteoporosis (MAVIDOS) trial reported higher total body bone mineral content in winter-born infants of mothers receiving vitamin D supplementation [1000 IU/day cholecalciferol] compared with placebo from 14 weeks gestation until delivery. This sub-study aimed to determine whether antenatal vitamin D supplementation altered postnatal bone formation in response to mechanical stimulation. Thirty-one children born to MAVIDOS participants randomised to either placebo (n=19) or cholecalciferol (n=12) were recruited at age 4-5 years.
Children received whole body vibration (WBV) for 10 minutes on 5 consecutive days. Fasting blood samples for bone homeostasis, 25 hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), parathyroid hormone (PTH), and bone turnover markers (Pro-collagen Type 1 N-terminal propeptide, P1NP; Cross-linked C-telopeptide of Type I Collagen, CTX) were collected pre-WBV and on day 8 (D8). Mean changes (D) in P1NP (ng/ml) between baseline and D8 in the vitamin-D intervention and placebo groups were 40.6 and -92.6 respectively and mean changes (Δ) in CTX (ng/ml) were 0.034 (intervention) and -0.084 (placebo) respectively. Between-group DP1NP difference was 133.2ng/ml [95% CI 0.4, 266.0; p=0.049] and ΔCTX 0.05ng/ml (95% CI -0.159, 0.26ng/mL; p=0.62). Antenatal vitamin-D supplementation resulted in increased P1NP in response to WBV, suggesting early life vitamin D supplementation increases the anabolic response of bone to mechanical loading in children
On the topological classification of binary trees using the Horton-Strahler index
The Horton-Strahler (HS) index has been shown to
be relevant to a number of physical (such at diffusion limited aggregation)
geological (river networks), biological (pulmonary arteries, blood vessels,
various species of trees) and computational (use of registers) applications.
Here we revisit the enumeration problem of the HS index on the rooted,
unlabeled, plane binary set of trees, and enumerate the same index on the
ambilateral set of rooted, plane binary set of trees of leaves. The
ambilateral set is a set of trees whose elements cannot be obtained from each
other via an arbitrary number of reflections with respect to vertical axes
passing through any of the nodes on the tree. For the unlabeled set we give an
alternate derivation to the existing exact solution. Extending this technique
for the ambilateral set, which is described by an infinite series of non-linear
functional equations, we are able to give a double-exponentially converging
approximant to the generating functions in a neighborhood of their convergence
circle, and derive an explicit asymptotic form for the number of such trees.Comment: 14 pages, 7 embedded postscript figures, some minor changes and typos
correcte
Collision statistics of driven granular materials
We present an experimental investigation of the statistical properties of
spherical granular particles on an inclined plane that are excited by an
oscillating side-wall. The data is obtained by high-speed imaging and particle
tracking techniques. We identify all particles in the system and link their
positions to form trajectories over long times. Thus, we identify particle
collisions to measure the effective coefficient of restitution and find a broad
distribution of values for the same impact angles. We find that the energy
inelasticity can take on values greater than one, which implies that the
rotational degrees play an important role in energy transfer. We also measure
the distance and the time between collision events in order to directly
determine the distribution of path lengths and the free times. These
distributions are shown to deviate from expected theoretical forms for elastic
spheres, demonstrating the inherent clustering in this system. We describe the
data with a two-parameter fitting function and use it to calculated the mean
free path and collision time. We find that the ratio of these values is
consistent with the average velocity. The velocity distribution are observed to
be strongly non-Gaussian and do not demonstrate any apparent universal
behavior. We report the scaling of the second moment, which corresponds to the
granular temperature, and higher order moments as a function of distance from
the driving wall. Additionally, we measure long time correlation functions in
both space and in the velocities to probe diffusion in a dissipative gas.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, uses revtex
Topological self-similarity on the random binary-tree model
Asymptotic analysis on some statistical properties of the random binary-tree
model is developed. We quantify a hierarchical structure of branching patterns
based on the Horton-Strahler analysis. We introduce a transformation of a
binary tree, and derive a recursive equation about branch orders. As an
application of the analysis, topological self-similarity and its generalization
is proved in an asymptotic sense. Also, some important examples are presented
Quantum railroads and directed localization at the juncture of quantum Hall systems
The integer quantum Hall effect (QHE) and one-dimensional Anderson
localization (AL) are limiting special cases of a more general phenomenon,
directed localization (DL), predicted to occur in disordered one-dimensional
wave guides called "quantum railroads" (QRR). Here we explain the surprising
results of recent measurements by Kang et al. [Nature 403, 59 (2000)] of
electron transfer between edges of two-dimensional electron systems and
identify experimental evidence of QRR's in the general, but until now entirely
theoretical, DL regime that unifies the QHE and AL. We propose direct
experimental tests of our theory.Comment: 11 pages revtex + 3 jpeg figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Actin Cytoskeleton and Golgi Involvement in Barley stripe mosaic virus Movement and Cell Wall Localization of Triple Gene Block Proteins
Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) induces massive actin filament thickening at the infection front of infected Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. To determine the mechanisms leading to actin remodeling, fluorescent protein fusions of the BSMV triple gene block (TGB) proteins were coexpressed in cells with the actin marker DsRed: Talin. TGB ectopic expression experiments revealed that TGB3 is a major elicitor of filament thickening, that TGB2 resulted in formation of intermediate DsRed:Talin filaments, and that TGB1 alone had no obvious effects on actin filament structure. Latrunculin B (LatB) treatments retarded BSMV cell-to-cell movement, disrupted actin filament organization, and dramatically decreased the proportion of paired TGB3 foci appearing at the cell wall (CW). BSMV infection of transgenic plants tagged with GFP-KDEL exhibited membrane proliferation and vesicle formation that were especially evident around the nucleus. Similar membrane proliferation occurred in plants expressing TGB2 and/or TGB3, and DsRed: Talin fluorescence in these plants colocalized with the ER vesicles. TGB3 also associated with the Golgi apparatus and overlapped with cortical vesicles appearing at the cell periphery. Brefeldin A treatments disrupted Golgi and also altered vesicles at the CW, but failed to interfere with TGB CW localization. Our results indicate that actin cytoskeleton interactions are important in BSMV cell-to-cell movement and for CW localization of TGB3
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