17,470 research outputs found
Early detection of disease program: Evaluation of the cellular immune response
Surfaces of normal, cultured, and mitogen-stimulated mouse lymphoid cells were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Lymphocytes with smooth, highly villous and intermediate surfaces were observed in cell suspensions from both spleens and thymuses of normal mice and from spleens of congenitally athymic (nude) mice. Several strain-specific surface features were noted, including the spine-like appearance of microvilli on C57B1/6 lymphocytes. Although thymus cell suspensions contained somewhat more smooth cells than did spleen cell preparations, lymphocyte derivation could not be inferred from SEM examination. Studies of cells stimulated with mitogenic agents for thymus-derived lymphocytes (concanavalin A) or for bone marrow-derived lymphocytes (lipopolysaccharide) suggested that, in the mouse, development of a complex villous surface is a general concomitant of lymphocyte activation and transformation
Hot entanglement in a simple dynamical model
How mixed can one component of a bi-partite system be initially and still
become entangled through interaction with a thermalized partner? We address
this question here. In particular, we consider the question of how mixed a
two-level system and a field mode may be such that free entanglement arises in
the course of the time evolution according to a Jaynes-Cummings type
interaction. We investigate the situation for which the two-level system is
initially in mixed state taken from a one-parameter set, whereas the field has
been prepared in an arbitrary thermal state. Depending on the particular choice
for the initial state and the initial temperature of the quantised field mode,
three cases can be distinguished: (i) free entanglement will be created
immediately, (ii) free entanglement will be generated, but only at a later time
different from zero, (iii) the partial transpose of the joint state remains
positive at all times. It will be demonstrated that increasing the initial
temperature of the field mode may cause the joint state to become distillable
during the time evolution, in contrast to a non-distillable state at lower
initial temperatures. We further assess the generated entanglement
quantitatively, by evaluating the logarithmic negativity numerically, and by
providing an analytical upper bound.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the
'International Conference on Quantum Information', Oviedo, July 13-18, 2002.
Discusses sudden changes of entanglement properties in a dynamical quantum
mode
Critical issues in designing and implementing temporal analytics.
The importance of temporality in learning has been long established, but it is only recently that serious attention has begun to be paid to the precise identification, measurement, and analysis of the temporal features of learning. From 2009 to 2016, a series of temporality workshops explored temporal concepts and data types, analysis methods for exploiting temporal data, techniques for visualizing temporal information, and practical considerations for the use of temporal analyses in particular contexts of learning. Following from these efforts, this two-part Special Section serves to consolidate research working to progress conceptual, technical and practical tools for temporal analyses of learning data. In addition, in this second and final editorial we aim to make four contributions to the ongoing dialouge around temporal learning analytics to help us move towards a clearer mapping of the research space. First, the editorial presents an overview of the five papers in Part 2 of the Special Section on Temporal Analyses, highlighting the dimensions of data types, learning constructs, analysis approaches, and potential impact. Second, it draws on the fluid relationship between âanalyzed timeâ and âexperienced timeâ to highlight the need for caution and criticality in the purposes temporal analyses are mobilized to serve. Third it offers a guide for future work in this area by outlining important questions that all temporal analyses should intentionally address. Finally, it proposes next steps learning analytics researchers and practitioners can take collectively to advance work on the use of temporal analyses to support learning
Thermal convection in fluidized granular systems
Thermal convection is observed in molecular dynamic simulation of a fluidized
granular system of nearly elastic hard disks moving under gravity, inside a
rectangular box. Boundaries introduce no shearing or time dependence, but the
energy injection comes from a slip (shear-free) thermalizing base. The top wall
is perfectly elastic and lateral boundaries are either elastic or periodic. The
observed convection comes from the effect of gravity and the spontaneous
granular temperature gradient that the system dynamically develops.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Potassium, sulfur, zinc, copper, and iron uptake by four faba bean cultivars at four sites in Saskatchewan
Non-Peer Reviewe
Austral seabirds: challenges and opportunities for research and conservation
This paper draws together the themes of papers on procellariiform biology contained within this special issue of the Papers and Proceedings ofthe Royal Society ofTasmania which is a tribute to Irynej Skira. The role of these birds as generalised biomonitors of marine ecosystem health as well as their important interactions with commercial fisheries and human societies are major considerations. Seabird conservation
faces challenges from introduced pest loss of habitat to urban development, marine pollution and climate and oceanographic changes. Studies are hampered by the difficulties of dealing with birds in remote areas (that are therefore expensive to study), a paucity of funds and problems of overlapping national and international jurisdictions in their individual home ranges or on their migration routes. There is a real need for long-term studies ofseabirds because they have delayed breeding systems, a slow rate ofreproduction, long life-spans and high adult survival. Such knowledge is important in understanding their population dynamics, the effects of changing climate, the impacts of commercial fishing, pollution, breeding habitat loss and the harvesting of chicks. The value of the long-term studies of Shorttailed Shearwaters, Puffinus tenuirostris on Fisher Island, Tasmania, is considered in the light of the importance of research investment in basic curiosity-driven research. Neglect of long-term studies and the diminishing role of local scientific journals in the dissemination of baseline data on which to build generalities are the result of changing priorities of government and other funding agencies towards shortterm output-based assessment models. Our present inability to answer the basic question of what determines seabird population abundance and distribution highlights a lack of fundamental population data in Austral seabird research. This must be addressed so that a mixture of comparative, experimental and modelling studies can be mobilised to complement descriptive studies
Perceptual prioritization of self-associated voices
Information associated with the self is prioritized relative to information associated with others and is therefore processed more quickly and accurately. Across three experiments, we examined whether a new externallyâgenerated voice could become associated with the self and thus be prioritized in perception. In the first experiment, participants learned associations between three unfamiliar voices and three identities (self, friend, stranger). Participants then made speeded judgements of whether voiceâidentity pairs were correctly matched, or not. A clear selfâprioritization effect was found, with participants showing quicker and more accurate responses to the newly selfâassociated voice relative to either the friendâ or strangerâ voice. In two further experiments, we tested whether this prioritization effect increased if the selfâvoice was genderâmatched to the identity of the participant (Experiment 2) or if the selfâvoice was chosen by the participant (Experiment 3). Genderâmatching did not significantly influence prioritization; the selfâvoice was similarly prioritized when it matched the gender identity of the listener as when it did not. However, we observed that choosing the selfâvoice did interact with prioritization (Experiment 3); the selfâvoice became more prominent, via lesser prioritization of the other identities, when the selfâvoice was chosen relative to when it was not. Our findings have implications for the design and selection of individuated synthetic voices used for assistive communication devices, suggesting that agency in choosing a new vocal identity may modulate the distinctiveness of that voice relative to others
Chalcogenide phase change materials for nanoscale switching
Since the demonstration of threshold switching in chalcogenide alloys over forty five years ago, phase change materials have been extensively investigated for switching and data storage applications. Phase change switching is based on the reversible change between crystalline and amorphous states of a material and in many chalcogenides this change of state takes place in nanoseconds
The Design and Validation of the Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey
The Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey (QMCS) is a 12-question survey of
students' conceptual understanding of quantum mechanics. It is intended to be
used to measure the relative effectiveness of different instructional methods
in modern physics courses. In this paper we describe the design and validation
of the survey, a process that included observations of students, a review of
previous literature and textbooks and syllabi, faculty and student interviews,
and statistical analysis. We also discuss issues in the development of specific
questions, which may be useful both for instructors who wish to use the QMCS in
their classes and for researchers who wish to conduct further research of
student understanding of quantum mechanics. The QMCS has been most thoroughly
tested in, and is most appropriate for assessment of (as a posttest only),
sophomore-level modern physics courses. We also describe testing with students
in junior quantum courses and graduate quantum courses, from which we conclude
that the QMCS may be appropriate for assessing junior quantum courses, but is
not appropriate for assessing graduate courses. One surprising result of our
faculty interviews is a lack of faculty consensus on what topics should be
taught in modern physics, which has made designing a test that is valued by a
majority of physics faculty more difficult than expected.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education
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