4,195 research outputs found
Characterization of Toxoplasma gondii isolates in free-range chickens from Chile, South America
The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in free-ranging chickens is a good indicator of the prevalence of T. gondii oocysts in the soil because chickens feed from the ground. The prevalence of T. gondii in 85 free-range chickens (Gallus domesticus) from Chile was determined. Antibodies to T. gondii were assayed by the modified agglutination test (MAT), and found in 47 of 85 (55.3.9%) chickens with titers of 1:5 in six, 1:10 in four, 1:20 in four 1: 40 in three, 1: 80 in nine, 1: 160 in four 1:320 in nine, and 1: 640 or higher in eight. Hearts and brains of 47 chickens with titers of 1:5 or higher were pooled for each chicken and bioassayed in mice. Tissues from 16 seronegative (MAT < 1:5) chickens were pooled and fed to one T. gondii-free cat. Feces of the cat were examined for oocysts but none was found based on bioassay of fecal floats in mice. Hearts and brains from seven seronegative (<1:5) were pooled and bioassayed in mice; T. gondii was not isolated. T. gondii was isolated by bioassay in mice from 22 chickens with MAT titers of 1:20 or higher. Genotyping of these 22 isolates using polymorphisms at the loci SAG1, SAG2, SAG3, BTUB and GRA6 revealed three genotypes. Seventeen isolates had type II alleles and four isolates had type III alleles at all loci. One isolate contained the combination of type I and III alleles. This is the first report of genetic characterization of T. gondii isolates from Chile, South America
Optically Thick Radio Cores of Narrow-Waist Bipolar Nebulae
We report our search for optically thick radio cores in sixteen narrow-waist
bipolar nebulae. Optically thick cores are a characteristic signature of
collimated ionized winds. Eleven northern nebulae were observed with the Very
Large Array (VLA) at 1.3 cm and 0.7 cm, and five southern nebulae were observed
with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at 6 cm and 3.6 cm. Two
northern objects, 19W32 and M 1-91, and three southern objects, He 2-25, He
2-84 and Mz 3, were found to exhibit a compact radio core with a rising
spectrum consistent with an ionized jet. Such jets have been seen in M 2-9 and
may be responsible for shaping bipolar structure in planetary nebulae.Comment: 29 pages, accepted for publication in Ap
Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy in MgB2
We present scanning tunneling microscopy measurements of the surface of
superconducting MgB2 with a critical temperature of 39K. In zero magnetic field
the conductance spectra can be analyzed in terms of the standard BCS theory
with a smearing parameter Gamma. The value of the superconducting gap is 5.2
meV at 4.2 K, with no experimentally significant variation across the surface
of the sample. The temperature dependence of the gap follows the BCS form,
fully consistent with phonon-mediated superconductivity in this novel
superconductor. The application of a magnetic field induces strong
pair-breaking as seen in the conductance spectra in fields up to 6 T.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Chaotic dynamics of electric-field domains in periodically driven superlattices
Self-sustained time-dependent current oscillations under dc voltage bias have
been observed in recent experiments on n-doped semiconductor superlattices with
sequential resonant tunneling. The current oscillations are caused by the
motion and recycling of the domain wall separating low- and high-electric-
field regions of the superlattice, as the analysis of a discrete drift model
shows and experimental evidence supports. Numerical simulation shows that
different nonlinear dynamical regimes of the domain wall appear when an
external microwave signal is superimposed on the dc bias and its driving
frequency and driving amplitude vary. On the frequency - amplitude parameter
plane, there are regions of entrainment and quasiperiodicity forming Arnol'd
tongues. Chaos is demonstrated to appear at the boundaries of the tongues and
in the regions where they overlap. Coexistence of up to four electric-field
domains randomly nucleated in space is detected under ac+dc driving.Comment: 9 pages, LaTex, RevTex. 12 uuencoded figures (1.8M) should be
requested by e-mail from the autho
Electrically tunable GHz oscillations in doped GaAs-AlAs superlattices
Tunable oscillatory modes of electric-field domains in doped semiconductor
superlattices are reported. The experimental investigations demonstrate the
realization of tunable, GHz frequencies in GaAs-AlAs superlattices covering the
temperature region from 5 to 300 K. The orgin of the tunable oscillatory modes
is determined using an analytical and a numerical modeling of the dynamics of
domain formation. Three different oscillatory modes are found. Their presence
depends on the actual shape of the drift velocity curve, the doping density,
the boundary condition, and the length of the superlattice. For most bias
regions, the self-sustained oscillations are due to the formation, motion, and
recycling of the domain boundary inside the superlattice. For some biases, the
strengths of the low and high field domain change periodically in time with the
domain boundary being pinned within a few quantum wells. The dependency of the
frequency on the coupling leads to the prediction of a new type of tunable GHz
oscillator based on semiconductor superlattices.Comment: Tex file (20 pages) and 16 postscript figure
Ground-state fidelity of Luttinger liquids: A wave functional approach
We use a wave functional approach to calculate the fidelity of ground states
in the Luttinger liquid universality class of one-dimensional gapless quantum
many-body systems. The ground-state wave functionals are discussed using both
the Schrodinger (functional differential equation) formulation and a path
integral formulation. The fidelity between Luttinger liquids with Luttinger
parameters K and K' is found to decay exponentially with system size, and to
obey the symmetry F(K,K')=F(1/K,1/K') as a consequence of a duality in the
bosonization description of Luttinger liquids.Comment: 13 pages, IOP single-column format. Sec. 3 expanded with discussion
of short-distance cut-off. Some typos corrected. Ref. 44 in v2 is now
footnote 2 (moved by copy editor). Published versio
Vortex dynamics in layered superconductors with correlated defects: influence of interlayer coupling
We report a detailed study of the vortex dynamics and vortex phase diagrams
of two amorphous Ta_0.3Ge_0.7/Ge multilayered films with intrinsic coplanar
defects, but different interlayer coupling. A pinned Bose-glass phase in the
more weakly coupled sample exists only below a cross-over field H* in striking
contrast to the strongly coupled film. Above H* the flux lines are thought to
break up into pancake vortices and the cross-over field is significantly
increased when the field is aligned along the extended defects. The two films
show different vortex creep excitations in the Bose-glass phase.Comment: zip file: 1 RevTex, 5 figures (png
Plasticity and memory effects in the vortex solid phase of twinned YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals
We report on marked memory effects in the vortex system of twinned YBa2Cu3O7
single crystals observed in ac susceptibility measurements. We show that the
vortex system can be trapped in different metastable states with variable
degree of order arising in response to different system histories. The pressure
exerted by the oscillating ac field assists the vortex system in ordering,
locally reducing the critical current density in the penetrated outer zone of
the sample. The robustness of the ordered and disordered states together with
the spatial profile of the critical current density lead to the observed memory
effects
Chaos in resonant-tunneling superlattices
Spatio-temporal chaos is predicted to occur in n-doped semiconductor
superlattices with sequential resonant tunneling as their main charge transport
mechanism. Under dc voltage bias, undamped time-dependent oscillations of the
current (due to the motion and recycling of electric field domain walls) have
been observed in recent experiments. Chaos is the result of forcing this
natural oscillation by means of an appropriate external microwave signal.Comment: 3 pages, LaTex, RevTex, 3 uuencoded figures (1.2M) are available upon
request from [email protected], to appear in Phys.Rev.
Gamma rays and neutrinos from the Crab Nebula produced by pulsar accelerated nuclei
We investigate the consequences of the acceleration of heavy nuclei (e.g.
iron nuclei) by the Crab pulsar. Accelerated nuclei can photodisintegrate in
collisions with soft photons produced in the pulsar's outer gap, injecting
energetic neutrons which decay either inside or outside the Crab Nebula. The
protons from neutron decay inside the nebula are trapped by the Crab Nebula
magnetic field, and accumulate inside the nebula producing gamma-rays and
neutrinos in collisions with the matter in the nebula. Neutrons decaying
outside the Crab Nebula contribute to the Galactic cosmic rays. We compute the
expected fluxes of gamma-rays and neutrinos, and find that our model could
account for the observed emission at high energies and may be tested by
searching for high energy neutrinos with future neutrino telescopes currently
in the design stage.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX uses revtex.sty, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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