350 research outputs found
Tunable space-time crystal in room-temperature magnetodielectrics
We report the experimental realization of a space-time crystal with tunable
periodicity in time and space in the magnon Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC),
formed in a room-temperature Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) film by radio-frequency
space-homogeneous magnetic field. The magnon BEC is prepared to have a well
defined frequency and non-zero wavevector. We demonstrate how the crystalline
"density" as well as the time and space textures of the resulting crystal may
be tuned by varying the experimental parameters: external static magnetic
field, temperature, thickness of the YIG film and power of the radio-frequency
field. The proposed space-time crystals provide a new dimension for exploring
dynamical phases of matter and can serve as a model nonlinear Floquet system,
that brings in touch the rich fields of classical nonlinear waves, magnonics
and periodically driven systems
Long-distance supercurrent transport in a room-temperature Bose-Einstein magnon condensate
The term supercurrent relates to a macroscopic dissipation-free collective
motion of a quantum condensate and is commonly associated with such famous
low-temperature phenomena as superconductivity and superfluidity. Another type
of motion of quantum condensates is second sound - a wave of the density of a
condensate. Recently, we reported on an enhanced decay of a parametrically
induced Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of magnons caused by a supercurrent
outflow of the BEC phase from the locally heated area of a room temperature
magnetic film. Here, we present the direct experimental observation of a
long-distance spin transport in such a system. The condensed magnons being
pushed out from the potential well within the heated area form a density wave,
which propagates through the BEC many hundreds of micrometers in the form of a
specific second sound pulse - Bogoliubov waves - and is reflected from the
sample edge. The discovery of the long distance supercurrent transport in the
magnon BEC further advances the frontier of the physics of quasiparticles and
allows for the application of related transport phenomena for low-loss data
transfer in perspective magnon spintronics devices
Electroexcitation of the Roper resonance from CLAS data
The helicity amplitudes of the electroexcitation of the Roper resonance on
proton are extracted at 1.7 < Q2 < 4.2 GeV2 from recent high precision
JLab-CLAS cross sections data and longitudinally polarized beam asymmetry for
pi+ electroproduction on protons. The analysis is made using two approaches,
dispersion relations and unitary isobar model, which give consistent results.
It is found that the transverse helicity amplitude for the gamma* p -->
P11(1440) transition, which is large and negative at Q2=0, becomes large and
positive at Q2 ~ 2 GeV2, and then drops slowly with Q2. Longitudinal helicity
amplitude, that was previously found from CLAS data as large and positive at
Q2=0.4,0.65 GeV2, drops with Q2. These results rule out the presentation of
P11(1440) as a 3qG hybrid state, and provide strong evidence in favor of this
resonance as a first radial excitation of the 3q ground state.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, Talk on the Workshop on "The Physics of Excited
Nucleons", Bonn, Germany, October 200
Experimental observation of Josephson oscillations in a room-temperature Bose-Einstein magnon condensate
The alternating current (ac) Josephson effect in a time-independent
spatially-inhomogeneous setting is manifested by the occurrence of Josephson
oscillations - periodic macroscopic phase-induced collective motions of the
quantum condensate. So far, this phenomenon was observed at cryogenic
temperatures in superconductors, in superfluid helium, and in Bose-Einstein
condensates (BECs) of trapped atoms. Here, we report on the discovery of the ac
Josephson effect in a magnon BEC carried by a room-temperature ferrimagnetic
film. The BEC is formed in a parametrically populated magnon gas in the spatial
vicinity of a magnetic trench created by a dc electric current. The appearance
of the Josephson effect is manifested by oscillations of the magnon BEC density
in the trench, caused by a coherent phase shift between this BEC and the BEC in
the nearby regions. Our findings advance the physics of room-temperature
macroscopic quantum phenomena and will allow for their application for data
processing in magnon spintronics devices
The need for sustainability, equity, and international exchange: perspectives of early career environmental psychologists on the future of conferences
At the 2019 and 2021 International Conference on Environmental Psychology, discussions were held on the future of conferences in light of the enormous greenhouse gas emissions and inequities associated with conference travel. In this manuscript, we provide an early career researcher (ECR) perspective on this discussion. We argue that travel-intensive conference practices damage both the environment and our credibility as a discipline, conflict with the intrinsic values and motivations of our discipline, and are inequitable. As such, they must change. This change can be achieved by moving toward virtual and hybrid conferences, which can reduce researchers’ carbon footprints and promote equity, if employed carefully and with informal exchange as a priority. By acting collectively and with the support of institutional change, we can adapt conference travel norms in our field. To investigate whether our arguments correspond to views in the wider community of ECRs within environmental psychology, we conducted a community case study. By leveraging our professional networks and directly contacting researchers in countries underrepresented in those networks, we recruited 117 ECRs in 32 countries for an online survey in February 2022. The surveyed ECRs supported a change in conference travel practices, including flying less, and perceived the number of researchers wanting to reduce their travel emissions to be growing. Thirteen percent of respondents had even considered leaving academia due to travel requirements. Concerning alternative conference formats, a mixed picture emerged. Overall, participants had slightly negative evaluations of virtual conferences, but expected them to improve within the next 5 years. However, ECRs with health issues, facing visa challenges, on low funding, living in remote areas, with caretaking obligations or facing travel restrictions due to COVID-19 expected a switch toward virtual or hybrid conferences to positively affect their groups. Participants were divided about their ability to build professional relationships in virtual settings, but believed that maintaining relationships virtually is possible. We conclude by arguing that the concerns of ECRs in environmental psychology about current and alternative conference practices must be taken seriously. We call on our community to work on collective solutions and less travel-intensive conference designs using participatory methods. Copyright © 2022 Köhler, Kreil, Wenger, Darmandieu, Graves, Haugestad, Holzen, Keller, Lloyd, Marczak, Medugorac and Rosa
Genomic and transcriptional analysis of protein heterogeneity of the honeybee venom allergen Api m 6
Several components of honeybee venom are known to cause allergenic responses in humans and other vertebrates. One such component, the minor allergen Api m 6, has been known to show amino acid variation but the genetic mechanism for this variation is unknown. Here we show that Api m 6 is derived from a single locus, and that substantial protein-level variation has a simple genome-level cause, without the need to invoke multiple loci or alternatively spliced exons. Api m 6 sits near a misassembled section of the honeybee genome sequence, and we propose that a substantial number of indels at and near Api m 6 might be the root cause of this misassembly. We suggest that genes such as Api m 6 with coding-region or untranslated region indels might have had a strong effect on the assembly of this draft of the honeybee genome
Transport of Proteins into Mitochondria
The mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier is an integral transmembrane protein of the inner membrane. It is synthesized on cytoplasmic ribosomes. Kinetic data suggested that this protein is transferred into mitochondria in a posttranslational manner. The following results provide further evidence for such a mechanism and provide information on its details.
1. In homologous and heterologous translation systems the newly synthesized ADP/ATP carrier protein is present in the postribosomal supernatant.
2. Analysis by density gradient centrifugation and gel filtration shows, that the ADP/ATP carrier molecules in the postribosomal fraction are present as soluble complexes with apparent molecular weights of about 120000 and 500000 or larger. The carrier binds detergents such as Triton X-100 and deoxycholate forming mixed micelles with molecular weights of about 200000–400000.
3. Incubation of a postribosomal supernatant of a reticulocyte lysate containing newly synthesized ADP/ATP carrier with mitochondria isolated from Neurospora spheroplasts results in efficient transfer of the carrier into mitochondria. About 20–30% of the transferred carrier are resistant to proteinase in whole mitochondria. The authentic mature protein is also largely resistant to proteinase in whole mitochondria and sensitive after lysis of mitochondria with detergent. Integrity of mitochondria is a prerequisite for translocation into proteinase resistant position.
4. The transfer in vitro into a proteinase-resistant form is inhibited by the uncoupler carbonyl-cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone but not the proteinase-sensitive binding.
These observations suggest that the posttranslational transfer of ADP/ATP carrier occurs via the cytosolic space through a soluble oligomeric precursor form. This precursor is taken up by intact mitochondria into an integral position in the membrane. These findings are considered to be of general importance for the intracellular transfer of insoluble membrane proteins. They support the view that such proteins can exist in a water-soluble form its precursors and upon integration into the membrane undergo a conformational change. Uptake into the membrane may involve the cleavage of an additional sequence in some proteins, but this appears not to be a prerequisite as demonstrated by the ADP/ATP carrier protein
An analysis of single amino acid repeats as use case for application specific background models
Background
Sequence analysis aims to identify biologically relevant signals against a backdrop of functionally meaningless variation. Increasingly, it is recognized that the quality of the background model directly affects the performance of analyses. State-of-the-art approaches rely on classical sequence models that are adapted to the studied dataset. Although performing well in the analysis of globular protein domains, these models break down in regions of stronger compositional bias or low complexity. While these regions are typically filtered, there is increasing anecdotal evidence of functional roles. This motivates an exploration of more complex sequence models and application-specific approaches for the investigation of biased regions.
Results
Traditional Markov-chains and application-specific regression models are compared using the example of predicting runs of single amino acids, a particularly simple class of biased regions. Cross-fold validation experiments reveal that the alternative regression models capture the multi-variate trends well, despite their low dimensionality and in contrast even to higher-order Markov-predictors. We show how the significance of unusual observations can be computed for such empirical models. The power of a dedicated model in the detection of biologically interesting signals is then demonstrated in an analysis identifying the unexpected enrichment of contiguous leucine-repeats in signal-peptides. Considering different reference sets, we show how the question examined actually defines what constitutes the 'background'. Results can thus be highly sensitive to the choice of appropriate model training sets. Conversely, the choice of reference data determines the questions that can be investigated in an analysis.
Conclusions
Using a specific case of studying biased regions as an example, we have demonstrated that the construction of application-specific background models is both necessary and feasible in a challenging sequence analysis situation
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