Response of selected microorganisms to experimental planetary environments

The anaerobic utilization of phosphite or phosphine and the significance of this conversion to potential contamination of Jupiter were investigated. A sporeforming organism was isolated from Cape Canaveral soil which anaerobically converts hypophosphite to phosphate. This conversion coincides with an increase in turbidity of the culture and with phosphate accumulation in the medium. Investigations of omnitherms (organisms which grow over a broad temperature range, i.e. 3 -55 C were also conducted. The cellular morphology of 28 of these isolates was investigated, and all were demonstrated to be sporeformers. Biochemical characterizations are also presented. Procedures for replicate plating were evaluated, and those results are also presented. The procedures for different replicate-plating techniques are presented, and these are evaluated on the basis of reproducibility, percentage of viable transfer, and ease of use. Standardized procedures for the enumeration of microbial populations from ocean-dredge samples from Cape Canaveral are also presented

The gluon field of a fast moving nucleus and the effective langrangian for QCD at high energy

Starting from the effective lagrangian for QCD at high energy we calculate the lowest perturbative contributions to the potential of a relativistic nucleus and compare our results to those derived by Kovchegov (see Y.V. Kovchegov, Phys. Rev. {\bf D55}, 5445 (1997)). The results differ already at order g^3 which can be traced to the fact that the meaning of the underlying gluon fields is different. (The effective gluon field we use is a gauge invariant object.) Both approaches should therefore be seen as alternatives, the relative merits of which have to be judged by their phenomenological success.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. v2: eq. 18 corrected, modified discussion of the relation between the standard and the effective lagrangian approac

The BFKL Pomeron in 2+1 Dimensional QCD

We investigate the high-energy scattering in the spontaneously broken Yang - Mills gauge theory in 2+1 space--time dimensions and present the exact solution of the leading $\ln s$ BFKL equation. The solution is constructed in terms of special functions using the earlier results of two of us (L.N.L. and L.S.). The analytic properties of the $t$-channel partial wave as functions of the angular momentum and momentum transfer have been studied. We find in the angular momentum plane: (i) a Regge pole whose trajectory has an intercept larger than 1 and (ii) a fixed cut with the rightmost singularity located at $j=1$. The massive Yang - Mills theory can be considered as a theoretical model for the (non-perturbative) Pomeron. We study the main structure and property of the solution including the Pomeron trajectory at momentum transfer different from zero. The relation to the results of M. Li and C-I. Tan for the massless case is discussed.Comment: 28 pages LATEX, 3 EPS figures include

Factorization of R-matrix and Baxter's Q-operator

The general rational solution of the Yang-Baxter equation with the symmetry algebra sl(2) can be represented as the product of the simpler building blocks denoted as R-operators. The R-operators are constructed explicitly and have simple structure. Using the R-operators we construct the two-parametric Baxter's Q-operator for the generic inhomogeneous periodic XXX spin chain. In the case of homogeneous XXX spin chain it is possible to reduce the general Q-operator to the much simpler one-parametric operator.Comment: 17 page

Three-dimensional magnetic flux-closure patterns in mesoscopic Fe islands

We have investigated three-dimensional magnetization structures in numerous mesoscopic Fe/Mo(110) islands by means of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism combined with photoemission electron microscopy (XMCD-PEEM). The particles are epitaxial islands with an elongated hexagonal shape with length of up to 2.5 micrometer and thickness of up to 250 nm. The XMCD-PEEM studies reveal asymmetric magnetization distributions at the surface of these particles. Micromagnetic simulations are in excellent agreement with the observed magnetic structures and provide information on the internal structure of the magnetization which is not accessible in the experiment. It is shown that the magnetization is influenced mostly by the particle size and thickness rather than by the details of its shape. Hence, these hexagonal samples can be regarded as model systems for the study of the magnetization in thick, mesoscopic ferromagnets.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Symmetry Properties of the Effective Action for High-Energy Scattering in QCD

We study the effective action describing high-energy scattering processes in the multi-Regge limit of QCD, which should provide the starting point for a new attempt to overcome the limitations of the leading logarithmic and the eikonal approximations. The action can be obtained via simple graphical rules or by integrating in the QCD functional integral over momentum modes of gluon and quark fields that do not appear explicitely as scattering or exchanged particles in the considered processes. The supersymmetry is used to obtain the terms in the action involving quarks fields from the pure gluonic ones. We observe a Weizs\"acker - Williams type relations between terms describing scattering and production of particles.Comment: 37 pages LATEX, 1 Table and 7 figures using package FEYNMA

Direct and Constructivist Instructional Design: A Comparison of Efficiency Using Mental Workload and Task Performance

This paper investigates the efficiency of two instructional design conditions: a traditional design based on the direct instruction approach to learning and its extension with a collaborative activity based upon the community of inquiry approach to learning. This activity was built upon a set of textual trigger questions to elicit cognitive abilities and support knowledge formation. A total of 115 students participated in the experiments and a number of third-level computer science classes where divided in two groups. A control group of learners received the former instructional design while an experimental group also received the latter design. Subsequently, learners of each group individually answered a multiple-choice questionnaire, from which a performance measure was extracted for the evaluation of the acquired factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge. Two measures of mental workload were acquired through self-reporting questionnaires: one unidimensional and one multidimensional. These, in conjunction with the performance measure, contributed to the definition of a measure of efficiency. Evidence showed the positive impact of the added collaborative activity on efficiency