773 research outputs found
Annual Report for Gravity Collection Lysimeter Monitoring in ERDF Cells 5, 6, 7, an 8, CY 2009
The purpose of this annual report is to evaluate the conditions and identify trends to develop Hanford Site specific data on the performance of the lysimeter systems related to the vadose zone monitoring and potential future use of lysimeter systems
Evaluation of Iron as a Triggering Factor for Red Tide Blooms
We have examined the relationship between Fe and blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense (Balech) (formerly Gonyaulax tamarensis var. excavata (Lebour)) using a chemical method that estimates the biological availability of Fe in seawater. The Fe requirement for optimal growth of A. tamarense in sequential batch culture (ca 3 nM \u27available\u27 Fe) was compared with Fe concentrations in waters of the Gulf of Maine, USA. Results indicated that Fe did not limit growth of the organism in nearshore coastal waters or over Georges Bank, but that the organism may have been Fe-limited in Gulf of Maine basin waters. The distribution of A. tamarense in the Gulf of Maine is consistent with these Fe data. Red tide outbreaks in the nearshore environment did not correlate with changes in total Fe or the estimated Fe availability. Although Fe did not appear to trigger outbreaks of A. tamarense in Maine coastal waters, the findings are consistent with suggestions that pulsed inputs of Fe may be important for the development of toxic dinoflagellate blooms in regions (e.g. Florida) where outbreaks are initiated offshore
Dynamic Resonance of Light in Fabry-Perot Cavities
The dynamics of light in Fabry-Perot cavities with varying length and input
laser frequency are analyzed and the exact condition for resonance is derived.
This dynamic resonance depends on the light transit time in the cavity and the
Doppler effect due to the mirror motions. The response of the cavity to length
variations is very different from its response to laser frequency variations.
If the frequency of these variations is equal to multiples of the cavity free
spectral range, the response to length is maximized while the response to the
laser frequency is zero. Implications of these results for the detection of
gravitational waves using kilometer-scale Fabry-Perot cavities are discussed
WISP genes are members of the connective tissue growth factor family that are up-regulated in Wnt-1-transformed cells and aberrantly expressed in human colon tumors
Wnt family members are critical to many developmental processes, and components of the Wnt signaling pathway have been linked to tumorigenesis in familial and sporadic colon carcinomas. Here we report the identification of two genes, WISP-1 and WISP-2, that are up-regulated in the mouse mammary epithelial cell line C57MG transformed by Wnt-1, but not by Wnt-4. Together with a third related gene, WISP-3, these proteins define a subfamily of the connective tissue growth factor family. Two distinct systems demonstrated WISP induction to be associated with the expression of Wnt-1. These included (i) C57MG cells infected with a Wnt-1 retroviral vector or expressing Wnt-1 under the control of a tetracyline repressible promoter, and (ii) Wnt-1 transgenic mice. The WISP-1 gene was localized to human chromosome 8q24.1-8q24.3. WISP-1 genomic DNA was amplified in colon cancer cell lines and in human colon tumors and its RNA overexpressed (2- to >30-fold) in 84% of the tumors examined compared with patient-matched normal mucosa. WISP-3 mapped to chromosome 6q22-6q23 and also was overexpressed (4- to >40-fold) in 63% of the colon tumors analyzed. In contrast, WISP-2 mapped to human chromosome 20q12-20q13 and its DNA was amplified, but RNA expression was reduced (2- to >30-fold) in 79% of the tumors. These results suggest that the WISP genes may be downstream of Wnt-1 signaling and that aberrant levels of WISP expression in colon cancer may play a role in colon tumorigenesis
Optical control of nanoparticle catalysis influenced by photoswitch positioning in hybrid peptide capping ligands
YesHere we present an in-depth analysis of structural factors that modulate peptide-capped nanoparticle
catalytic activity via optically driven structural reconfiguration of the biointerface present at the particle surface.
Six different sets of peptide-capped Au nanoparticles were prepared, in which an azobenzene photoswitch was incorporated
into one of two well-studied peptide sequences with known affinity for Au, each at one of three different
positions: The N- or C-terminus, or mid-sequence. Changes in the photoswitch isomerization state induce a reversible
structural change in the surface-bound peptide, which modulates the catalytic activity of the material. This
control of reactivity is attributed to changes in the amount of accessible metallic surface area available to drive the
reaction. This research specifically focuses on the effect of the peptide sequence and photoswitch position in the
biomolecule, from which potential target systems for on/off reactivity have been identified. Additionally, trends
associated with photoswitch position for a peptide sequence (Pd4) have been identified. Integrating the azobenzene
at the N-terminus or central region results in nanocatalysts with greater reactivity in the trans and cis conformations,
respectively; however, positioning the photoswitch at the C-terminus gives rise to a unique system that is
reactive in the trans conformation and partially deactivated in the cis conformation. These results provide a fundamental
basis for new directions in nanoparticle catalyst development to control activity in real time, which could
have significant implications in the design of catalysts for multistep reactions using a single catalyst. Additionally,
such a fine level of interfacial structural control could prove to be important for applications beyond catalysis, including
biosensing, photonics, and energy technologies that are highly dependent on particle surface structures.Air Office of Scientific Research, grant number FA9550-12- 1-0226
Thermal diffusion of supersonic solitons in an anharmonic chain of atoms
We study the non-equilibrium diffusion dynamics of supersonic lattice
solitons in a classical chain of atoms with nearest-neighbor interactions
coupled to a heat bath. As a specific example we choose an interaction with
cubic anharmonicity. The coupling between the system and a thermal bath with a
given temperature is made by adding noise, delta-correlated in time and space,
and damping to the set of discrete equations of motion. Working in the
continuum limit and changing to the sound velocity frame we derive a
Korteweg-de Vries equation with noise and damping. We apply a collective
coordinate approach which yields two stochastic ODEs which are solved
approximately by a perturbation analysis. This finally yields analytical
expressions for the variances of the soliton position and velocity. We perform
Langevin dynamics simulations for the original discrete system which fully
confirm the predictions of our analytical calculations, namely noise-induced
superdiffusive behavior which scales with the temperature and depends strongly
on the initial soliton velocity. A normal diffusion behavior is observed for
very low-energy solitons where the noise-induced phonons also make a
significant contribution to the soliton diffusion.Comment: Submitted to PRE. Changes made: New simulations with a different
method of soliton detection. The results and conclusions are not different
from previous version. New appendixes containing information about the system
energy and soliton profile
Current-carrying cosmic string loops 3D simulation: towards a reduction of the vorton excess problem
The dynamical evolution of superconducting cosmic string loops with specific
equations of state describing timelike and spacelike currents is studied
numerically. This analysis extends previous work in two directions: first it
shows results coming from a fully three dimensional simulation (as opposed to
the two dimensional case already studied), and it now includes fermionic as
well as bosonic currents. We confirm that in the case of bosonic currents,
shocks are formed in the magnetic regime and kinks in the electric regime. For
a loop endowed with a fermionic current with zero-mode carriers, we show that
only kinks form along the string worldsheet, therefore making these loops
slightly more stable against charge carrier radiation, the likely outcome of
either shocks or kinks. All these combined effects tend to reduce the number
density of stable loops and contribute to ease the vorton excess problem. As a
bonus, these effects also may provide new ways of producing high energy cosmic
rays.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX 4 format, 8 figures, submitted to PR
Extending the lifetime of 3D black hole computations with a new hyperbolic system of evolution equations
We present a new many-parameter family of hyperbolic representations of
Einstein's equations, which we obtain by a straightforward generalization of
previously known systems. We solve the resulting evolution equations
numerically for a Schwarzschild black hole in three spatial dimensions, and
find that the stability of the simulation is strongly dependent on the form of
the equations (i.e. the choice of parameters of the hyperbolic system),
independent of the numerics. For an appropriate range of parameters we can
evolve a single 3D black hole to -- , and are
apparently limited by constraint-violating solutions of the evolution
equations. We expect that our method should result in comparable times for
evolutions of a binary black hole system.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR
Failing boys and moral panics: perspectives on the underachievement debate
The paper re-examines the underachievement debate from the perspective of the ‘discourse of derision’ that surrounds much writing in this area. It considers the contradictions and inconsistencies which underpin much of the discourse – from a reinterpretation of examination scores, to the conflation of the concepts of ‘under’ and ‘low’ achievement and finally to the lack of consensus on a means of defining and measuring the term underachievement. In doing so, this paper suggests a more innovative approach for understanding, re-evaluating and perhaps rejecting the notion of underachievement
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