XSIL: Extensible Scientific Interchange Language

We motivate and define the XSIL language as a flexible, hierarchical, extensible transport language for scientific data objects. The entire object may be represented in the file, or there may be metadata in the XSIL file, with a powerful, fault-tolerant linking mechanism to external data. The language is based on XML, and is designed not only for parsing and processing by machines, but also for presentation to humans through web browsers and web-database technology. There is a natural mapping between the elements of the XSIL language and the object model into which they are translated by the parser. As well as common objects (Parameter, Array, Time, Table), we have extended XSIL to include the IGWDFrame, used by gravitational-wave observatories

The Polyakov action on the supertorus

A consistent method for obtaining a well-defined Polyakov action on the supertorus is presented. This method uses the covariantization of derivative operators and enables us to construct a Polyakov action which is globally defined.Comment: 15 pages LaTe

A Virtual Data Grid for LIGO

GriPhyN (Grid Physics Network) is a large US collaboration to build grid services for large physics experiments, one of which is LIGO, a gravitational-wave observatory. This paper explains the physics and computing challenges of LIGO, and the tools that GriPhyN will build to address them. A key component needed to implement the data pipeline is a virtual data service; a system to dynamically create data products requested during the various stages. The data could possibly be already processed in a certain way, it may be in a file on a storage system, it may be cached, or it may need to be created through computation. The full elaboration of this system will al-low complex data pipelines to be set up as virtual data objects, with existing data being transformed in diverse ways

Induced Polyakov supergravity on Riemann surfaces of higher genus

An effective action is obtained for the $N=1$, $2D-$induced supergravity on a compact super Riemann surface (without boundary) $\hat\Sigma$ of genus $g>1$, as the general solution of the corresponding superconformal Ward identity. This is accomplished by defining a new super integration theory on $\hat\Sigma$ which includes a new formulation of the super Stokes theorem and residue calculus in the superfield formalism. Another crucial ingredient is the notion of polydromic fields. The resulting action is shown to be well-defined and free of singularities on \sig. As a by-product, we point out a morphism between the diffeomorphism symmetry and holomorphic properties.Comment: LPTB 93-10, Latex file 20 page

W-algebras from symplectomorphisms

It is shown how $W$-algebras emerge from very peculiar canonical transformations with respect to the canonical symplectic structure on a compact Riemann surface. The action of smooth diffeomorphisms of the cotangent bundle on suitable generating functions is written in the BRS framework while a $W$-symmetry is exhibited. Subsequently, the complex structure of the symmetry spaces is studied and the related BRS properties are discussed. The specific example of the so-called $W_3$-algebra is treated in relation to some other different approaches.Comment: LaTex, 25 pages, no figures, to appear in Journ. Math. Phy

Large Chiral Diffeomorphisms on Riemann Surfaces and W-algebras

The diffeomorphism action lifted on truncated (chiral) Taylor expansion of a complex scalar field over a Riemann surface is presented in the paper under the name of large diffeomorphisms. After an heuristic approach, we show how a linear truncation in the Taylor expansion can generate an algebra of symmetry characterized by some structure functions. Such a linear truncation is explicitly realized by introducing the notion of Forsyth frame over the Riemann surface with the help of a conformally covariant algebraic differential equation. The large chiral diffeomorphism action is then implemented through a B.R.S. formulation (for a given order of truncation) leading to a more algebraic set up. In this context the ghost fields behave as holomorphically covariant jets. Subsequently, the link with the so called W-algebras is made explicit once the ghost parameters are turned from jets into tensorial ghost ones. We give a general solution with the help of the structure functions pertaining to all the possible truncations lower or equal to the given order. This provides another contribution to the relationship between KdV flows and W-diffeomorphimsComment: LaTeX file, 31 pages, no figure. Version to appear in J. Math. Phys. Work partly supported by Region PACA and INF

Serum deprivation alters lipid profile in HN9.10e embryonic hippocampal cells

The understanding of the mechanism of apoptosis is important to improve the use of stem cells for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. Sphingolipids are bioactive molecules involved in the regulation of cell fate. In HN9.10e embryonic hippocampal cells, serum deprivation induces apoptosis preceded by sphingomyelinase activation and raise of ceramide levels. Increasing evidence indicates that individual ceramide species regulated by specific pathways in distinct subcellular compartments might carry out distinct cellular functions, but the ceramides species involved in embryonic hippocampal cell death induced by growth factor deprivation are unknown. In the present paper, by using the UFLC-MS/MS methodology, we have investigated the effect of serum deprivation on the lipid profile in HN9.10e cells. At 48h of serum deprivation, we detected a decrease in cholesterol and increase in sphingosine-1-phoshate 18:1, phosphatidylcholine 18:1 18:0, sphingomyelin 18:1 16:0 and in ceramides 18:1 16:0; we also found an increase in saturated/unsaturated fatty acid ratio in sphingomyelin. We hypothesize that the rearrangement of sphingo- and glycerolipids with increase of saturated fatty acids in serum-deprivated, neural cells might represent a cellular response aimed at holding cholesterol inside the cells

Characterization of multilayer stack parameters from X-ray reflectivity data using the PPM program: measurements and comparison with TEM results

Future hard (10 -100 keV) X-ray telescopes (SIMBOL-X, Con-X, HEXIT-SAT, XEUS) will implement focusing optics with multilayer coatings: in view of the production of these optics we are exploring several deposition techniques for the reflective coatings. In order to evaluate the achievable optical performance X-Ray Reflectivity (XRR) measurements are performed, which are powerful tools for the in-depth characterization of multilayer properties (roughness, thickness and density distribution). An exact extraction of the stack parameters is however difficult because the XRR scans depend on them in a complex way. The PPM code, developed at ERSF in the past years, is able to derive the layer-by-layer properties of multilayer structures from semi-automatic XRR scan fittings by means of a global minimization procedure in the parameters space. In this work we will present the PPM modeling of some multilayer stacks (Pt/C and Ni/C) deposited by simple e-beam evaporation. Moreover, in order to verify the predictions of PPM, the obtained results are compared with TEM profiles taken on the same set of samples. As we will show, PPM results are in good agreement with the TEM findings. In addition, we show that the accurate fitting returns a physically correct evaluation of the variation of layers thickness through the stack, whereas the thickness trend derived from TEM profiles can be altered by the superposition of roughness profiles in the sample image

Induced quantum gravity on a Riemann Surface

Induced quantum gravity dynamics built over a Riemann surface is studied in arbitrary dimension. Local coordinates on the target space are given by means of the Laguerre-Forsyth construction. A simple model is proposed and pertubatively quantized. In doing so, the classical W-symmetry turns out to be preserved on-shell at any order of the $\hbar$ perturbative expansion. As a main result, due to quantum corrections, the target coordinates acquire a non-trivial character.Comment: LaTex, 32 pages, no figures, submitted to Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Spectral Line Removal in the LIGO Data Analysis System (LDAS)

High power in narrow frequency bands, spectral lines, are a feature of an interferometric gravitational wave detector's output. Some lines are coherent between interferometers, in particular, the 2 km and 4 km LIGO Hanford instruments. This is of concern to data analysis techniques, such as the stochastic background search, that use correlations between instruments to detect gravitational radiation. Several techniques of `line removal' have been proposed. Where a line is attributable to a measurable environmental disturbance, a simple linear model may be fitted to predict, and subsequently subtract away, that line. This technique has been implemented (as the command oelslr) in the LIGO Data Analysis System (LDAS). We demonstrate its application to LIGO S1 data.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, to be published in CQG GWDAW02 proceeding