33,523 research outputs found
Laser heterodyne system for obtaining height profiles of minor species in the atmosphere
An infrared laser heterodyne system for obtaining height profiles of minor constituents of the atmosphere was developed and erected. A brief discription of the system is given. The system consists of a tunable CO2 waveguide laser in the 9 to 11 micrometer band, that is used as a local oscillator and a heliostat that follows the sun and brings in solar radiation, that is mixed with the laser beam in a high speed liquid nitrogen cooled mercury cadmium telluride detector. The detected signal is analysed in a RF spectrum analyser that allows tracing absorption line profiles. Absorption lines of a number of minor constituents in the troposphere and stratosphere, such as O3, NH3, H2O, SO2, ClO, N2O, are in the 9 to 11 micrometer band and overlap with that of CO2 laser range. The experimental system has been made operational and trial observations taken. Current measurements are limited to ozone height profiles. Results are presented
Dark Energy and the Statistical Study of the Observed Image Separations of the Multiply Imaged Systems in the CLASS Statistical Sample
The present day observations favour a universe which is flat, accelerated and
composed of matter (baryonic + dark) and of a negative
pressure component, usually referred to as dark energy or quintessence. The
Cosmic Lens All Sky Survey (CLASS), the largest radio-selected galactic mass
scale gravitational lens search project to date, has resulted in the largest
sample suitable for statistical analyses. In the work presented here, we
exploit observed image separations of the multiply imaged lensed radio sources
in the sample. We use two different tests: (1) image separation distribution
function of the lensed radio sources and (2)
{\dtheta}_{\mathrm{pred}} vs {\dtheta}_{\mathrm{obs}} as observational
tools to constrain the cosmological parameters and \Om. The results are
in concordance with the bounds imposed by other cosmological tests.Comment: 20 pages latex; Modified " Results and Discussion " section, new
references adde
Cumulative effect of Forbush decreases in the heliospheric modulation during the present solar cycle
A monthly Forbush decrease index (Fd-I) is generated and it is compared with the observed long term chnges in the cosmic ray intensity near earth at energies greater than or equal to 1 Gev over 1976-83. Significant correlation is observed between the two except for 1978. Such an effect is also seen in the correlation plot between the solar flare index (SFI) and Fd-I
Spin Transition in the Half-Filled Landau Level
The transition from partial to complete spin polarization of two-dimensional
electrons at half filling of the lowest Landau level has been studied using
resistively-detected nuclear magnetic resonance (RDNMR). The nuclear
spin-lattice relaxation time is observed to be density independent in the
partially polarized phase but to increase sharply at the transition to full
polarization. At low temperatures the RDNMR signal exhibits a strong maximum
near the critical density.Comment: 4 pages, 3 postscript figures. As published in Phys. Rev. Lett. 98,
086801 (2007
High throughput accelerator interface framework for a linear time-multiplexed FPGA overlay
Coarse-grained FPGA overlays improve design productivity through software-like programmability and fast compilation. However, the effectiveness of overlays as accelerators is dependent on suitable interface and programming integration into a typically processor-based computing system, an aspect which has often been neglected in evaluations of overlays. We explore the integration of a time-multiplexed FPGA overlay over a server-class PCI Express interface. We show how this integration can be optimised to maximise performance, and evaluate the area overhead. We also propose a user-friendly programming model for such an overlay accelerator system
Colossal electroresistance in ferromagnetic insulating state of single crystal NdPbMnO
Colossal electroresistance (CER) has been observed in the ferromagnetic
insulating (FMI) state of a manganite. Notably, the CER in the FMI state occurs
in the absence of magnetoresistance (MR). Measurements of electroresistance
(ER) and current induced resistivity switching have been performed in the
ferromagnetic insulating state of a single crystal manganite of composition
NdPbMnO (NPMO30). The sample has a paramagnetic to
ferromagnetic (Curie) transition temperature, Tc = 150 K and the ferromagnetic
insulating state is realized for temperatures, T <~ 130 K. The colossal
electroresistance, arising from a strongly nonlinear dependence of resistivity
() on current density (j), attains a large value () in the
ferromagnetic insulating state. The severity of this nonlinear behavior of
resistivity at high current densities is progressively enhanced with decreasing
temperature, resulting ultimately, in a regime of negative differential
resistivity (NDR, d/dj < 0) for temperatures <~ 25 K. Concomitant with
the build-up of the ER however, is a collapse of the MR to a small value (<
20%) even in magnetic field, H = 7 T. This demonstrates that the mechanisms
that give rise to ER and MR are effectively decoupled in the ferromagnetic
insulating phase of manganites. We establish that, the behavior of
ferromagnetic insulating phase is distinct from the ferromagnetic metallic
(FMM) phase as well as the charge ordered insulating (COI) phase, which are the
two commonly realized ground state phases of manganites.Comment: 24 pages (RevTeX4 preprint), 8 figures, submitted to PR
Evolutionary dynamics of the most populated genotype on rugged fitness landscapes
We consider an asexual population evolving on rugged fitness landscapes which
are defined on the multi-dimensional genotypic space and have many local
optima. We track the most populated genotype as it changes when the population
jumps from a fitness peak to a better one during the process of adaptation.
This is done using the dynamics of the shell model which is a simplified
version of the quasispecies model for infinite populations and standard
Wright-Fisher dynamics for large finite populations. We show that the
population fraction of a genotype obtained within the quasispecies model and
the shell model match for fit genotypes and at short times, but the dynamics of
the two models are identical for questions related to the most populated
genotype. We calculate exactly several properties of the jumps in infinite
populations some of which were obtained numerically in previous works. We also
present our preliminary simulation results for finite populations. In
particular, we measure the jump distribution in time and find that it decays as
as in the quasispecies problem.Comment: Minor changes. To appear in Phys Rev
Sphingomyelin and GM1 Influence Huntingtin Binding to, Disruption of, and Aggregation on Lipid Membranes
Huntington disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by the expansion beyond a critical threshold of a polyglutamine (polyQ) tract near the N-terminus of the huntingtin (htt) protein. Expanded polyQ promotes the formation of a variety of oligomeric and fibrillar aggregates of htt that accumulate into the hallmark proteinaceous inclusion bodies associated with HD. htt is also highly associated with numerous cellular and subcellular membranes that contain a variety of lipids. As lipid homeostasis and metabolism abnormalities are observed in HD patients, we investigated how varying both the sphingomyelin (SM) and ganglioside (GM1) contents modifies the interactions between htt and lipid membranes. SM composition is altered in HD, and GM1 has been shown to have protective effects in animal models of HD. A combination of Langmuir trough monolayer techniques, vesicle permeability and binding assays, and in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to directly monitor the interaction of a model, synthetic htt peptide and a full-length htt-exon1 recombinant protein with model membranes comprised of total brain lipid extract (TBLE) and varying amounts of exogenously added SM or GM1. The addition of either SM or GM1 decreased htt insertion into the lipid monolayers. However, TBLE vesicles with an increased SM content were more susceptible to htt-induced permeabilization, whereas GM1 had no effect on permeablization. Pure TBLE bilayers and TBLE bilayers enriched with GM1 developed regions of roughened, granular morphologies upon exposure to htt-exon1, but plateau-like domains with a smoother appearance formed in bilayers enriched with SM. Oligomeric aggregates were observed on all bilayer systems regardless of induced morphology. Collectively, these observations suggest that the lipid composition and its subsequent effects on membrane material properties strongly influence htt binding and aggregation on lipid membranes
Standard Model with Cosmologically Broken Quantum Scale Invariance
We argue that scale invariance is not anomalous in quantum field theory,
provided it is broken cosmologically. We consider a locally scale invariant
extension of the Standard Model of particle physics and argue that it fits both
the particle and cosmological observations. The model is scale invariant both
classically and quantum mechanically. The scale invariance is broken
cosmologically producing all the dimensionful parameters. The cosmological
constant or dark energy is a prediction of the theory and can be calculated
systematically order by order in perturbation theory. It is expected to be
finite at all orders. The model does not suffer from the hierarchy problem due
to absence of scalar particles, including the Higgs, from the physical
spectrum.Comment: 13 pages, no figures significant revisions, no change in results or
conclusion
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