Lubricating Bacteria Model for Branching growth of Bacterial Colonies

Various bacterial strains (e.g. strains belonging to the genera Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Serratia and Salmonella) exhibit colonial branching patterns during growth on poor semi-solid substrates. These patterns reflect the bacterial cooperative self-organization. Central part of the cooperation is the collective formation of lubricant on top of the agar which enables the bacteria to swim. Hence it provides the colony means to advance towards the food. One method of modeling the colonial development is via coupled reaction-diffusion equations which describe the time evolution of the bacterial density and the concentrations of the relevant chemical fields. This idea has been pursued by a number of groups. Here we present an additional model which specifically includes an evolution equation for the lubricant excreted by the bacteria. We show that when the diffusion of the fluid is governed by nonlinear diffusion coefficient branching patterns evolves. We study the effect of the rates of emission and decomposition of the lubricant fluid on the observed patterns. The results are compared with experimental observations. We also include fields of chemotactic agents and food chemotaxis and conclude that these features are needed in order to explain the observations.Comment: 1 latex file, 16 jpeg files, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Global distributed evolution of L-systems fractals

Internet based parallel genetic programming (GP) creates fractal patterns like Koch’s snow flake. Pfeiffer, http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/W.Langdon/pfeiffer.html, by analogy with seed/embryo development, uses Lindenmayer grammars and LOGO style turtle graphics written in Javascript and Perl. 298 novel pictures were produced. Images are placed in animated snow globes (computerised snowstorms) by www web browsers anywhere on the planet. We discuss artificial life (Alife) evolving autonomous agents and virtual creatures in higher dimensions from a free format representation in the context of neutral networks, gene duplication and the evolution of higher order genetic operators

Surface morphology and structural types of natural impact apographitic diamonds

External and internal morphologies of natural impact apographitic diamonds (paramorphoses) have been studied.Вивчено зовнішню і внутрішню морфологію природного імпактного апографітового алмазу – параморфоз.Изучена внешняя и внутреняя морфология природного импактного апографитового алмаза – параморфоз

Planktic foraminifera form their shells via metastable carbonate phases

The calcium carbonate shells of planktic foraminifera provide our most valuable geochemical archive of ocean surface conditions and climate spanning the last 100 million years, and play an important role in the ocean carbon cycle. These shells are preserved in marine sediments as calcite, the stable polymorph of calcium carbonate. Here, we show that shells of living planktic foraminifers Orbulina universa and Neogloboquadrina dutertrei originally form from the unstable calcium carbonate polymorph vaterite, implying a non-classical crystallisation pathway involving metastable phases that transform ultimately to calcite. The current understanding of how planktic foraminifer shells record climate, and how they will fare in a future high-CO 2 world is underpinned by analogy to the precipitation and dissolution of inorganic calcite. Our findings require a re-evaluation of this paradigm to consider the formation and transformation of metastable phases, which could exert an influence on the geochemistry and solubility of the biomineral calcite

Angular Conditions,Relations between Breit and Light-Front Frames, and Subleading Power Corrections

We analyze the current matrix elements in the general collinear (Breit) frames and find the relation between the ordinary (or canonical) helicity amplitudes and the light-front helicity amplitudes. Using the conservation of angular momentum, we derive a general angular condition which should be satisfied by the light-front helicity amplitudes for any spin system. In addition, we obtain the light-front parity and time-reversal relations for the light-front helicity amplitudes. Applying these relations to the spin-1 form factor analysis, we note that the general angular condition relating the five helicity amplitudes is reduced to the usual angular condition relating the four helicity amplitudes due to the light-front time-reversal condition. We make some comments on the consequences of the angular condition for the analysis of the high-$Q^2$ deuteron electromagnetic form factors, and we further apply the general angular condition to the electromagnetic transition between spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 systems and find a relation useful for the analysis of the N-$\Delta$ transition form factors. We also discuss the scaling law and the subleading power corrections in the Breit and light-front frames.Comment: 24 pages,2 figure

The magmatic to hydrothermal evolution of the intrusive Mont Saint-Hilaire Complex: Insights into the late-stage evolution of peralkaline rocks

The Cretaceous Mont Saint-Hilaire complex (Quebec, Canada) comprises three major rock units that were emplaced in the following sequence: (I) gabbros; (II) diorites; (III) diverse partly agpaitic foid syenites. The major element compositions of the rock-forming minerals, age-corrected Nd and oxygen isotope data for mineral separates and trace element data of Fe-Mg silicates from the various lithologies imply a common source for all units. The distribution of the rare earth elements in clinopyroxene from the gabbros indicates an ocean island basalt type composition for the parental magma. Gabbros record temperatures of 1200 to 800 degrees C, variable silica activities between 0 center dot 7 and 0 center dot 3, and f(O2) values between -0 center dot 5 and +0 center dot 7 (log delta FMQ, where FMQ is fayalite-magnetite-quartz). The diorites crystallized under uniform a(SiO2) (a(SiO2) = 0 center dot 4-0 center dot 5) and more reduced f(O2) conditions (log delta FMQ similar to-1) between similar to 1100 and similar to 800 degrees C. Phase equilibria in various foid syenites indicate that silica activities decrease from 0 center dot 6-0 center dot 3 at similar to 1000 degrees C to < 0 center dot 3 at similar to 550 degrees C. Release of an aqueous fluid during the transition to the hydrothermal stage caused a(SiO2) to drop to very low values, which results from reduced SiO(2) solubilities in aqueous fluids compared with silicate melts. During the hydrothermal stage, high water activities stabilized zeolite-group minerals. Fluid inclusions record a complex post-magmatic history, which includes trapping of an aqueous fluid that unmixed from the restitic foid syenitic magma. Cogenetic aqueous and carbonic fluid inclusions reflect heterogeneous trapping of coexisting immiscible external fluids in the latest evolutionary stage. The O and C isotope characteristics of fluid-inclusion hosted CO(2) and late-stage carbonates imply that the surrounding limestones were the source of the external fluids. The mineral-rich syenitic rocks at Mont Saint-Hilaire evolved as follows: first, alkalis, high field strength and large ion lithophile elements were pre-enriched in the (late) magmatic and subsequent hydrothermal stages; second, percolation of external fluids in equilibrium with the carbonate host-rocks and mixing processes with internal fluids as well as fluid-rock interaction governed dissolution of pre-existing minerals, element transport and precipitation of mineral assemblages determined by locally variable parameters. It is this hydrothermal interplay between internal and external fluids that is responsible for the mineral wealth found at Mont Saint-Hilaire

Modeling the observed tropospheric BrO background: Importance of multiphase chemistry and implications for ozone, OH, and mercury

Aircraft and satellite observations indicate the presence of ppt (ppt ≡ pmol/mol) levels of BrO in the free troposphere with important implications for the tropospheric budgets of ozone, OH, and mercury. We can reproduce these observations with the GEOS-Chem global tropospheric chemistry model by including a broader consideration of multiphase halogen (Br–Cl) chemistry than has been done in the past. Important reactions for regenerating BrO from its non-radical reservoirs include HOBr+Br−/Cl− in both aerosols and clouds, and oxidation of Br− by ClNO3 and ozone. Most tropospheric BrO in the model is in the free troposphere, consistent with observations, and originates mainly from the photolysis and oxidation of ocean-emitted CHBr3. Stratospheric input is also important in the upper troposphere. Including production of gas phase inorganic bromine from debromination of acidified sea salt aerosol increases free tropospheric Bry by about 30 %. We find HOBr to be the dominant gas-phase reservoir of inorganic bromine. Halogen (Br-Cl) radical chemistry as implemented here in GEOS-Chem drives 14 % and 11 % decreases in the global burdens of tropospheric ozone and OH, respectively, a 16 % increase in the atmospheric lifetime of methane, and an atmospheric lifetime of 6 months for elemental mercury. The dominant mechanism for the Br-Cl driven tropospheric ozone decrease is oxidation of NOx by formation and hydrolysis of BrNO3 and ClNO3

Engineering the Photonic Density of States with metamaterials

The photonic density of states (PDOS), like its' electronic coun- terpart, is one of the key physical quantities governing a variety of phenom- ena and hence PDOS manipulation is the route to new photonic devices. The PDOS is conventionally altered by exploiting the resonance within a device such as a microcavity or a bandgap structure like a photonic crystal. Here we show that nanostructured metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion can dramatically enhance the photonic density of states paving the way for metamaterial based PDOS engineering

Vector meson production and nucleon resonance analysis in a coupled-channel approach for energies m_N < sqrt(s) < 2 GeV I: pion-induced results and hadronic parameters

We present a nucleon resonance analysis by simultaneously considering all pion- and photon-induced experimental data on the final states gamma N, pi N, 2 pi N, eta N, K Lambda, K Sigma, and omega N for energies from the nucleon mass up to sqrt(s) = 2 GeV. In this analysis we find strong evidence for the resonances P_{31}(1750), P_{13}(1900), P_{33}(1920), and D_{13}(1950). The omega N production mechanism is dominated by large P_{11}(1710) and P_{13}(1900) contributions. In this first part, we present the results of the pion-induced reactions and the extracted resonance and background properties with emphasis on the difference between global and purely hadronic fits.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, discussion extended, typos corrected, references updated, to appear in Phys. Rev.