3,101 research outputs found
Does femtosecond time-resolved second-harmonic generation probe electron temperatures at surfaces?
Femtosecond pump-probe second-harmonic generation (SHG) and transient linear
reflectivity measurements were carried out on polycrystalline Cu, Ag and Au in
air to analyze whether the electron temperature affects Fresnel factors or
nonlinear susceptibilities, or both. Sensitivity to electron temperatures was
attained by using photon energies near the interband transition threshold. We
find that the nonlinear susceptibility carries the electron temperature
dependence in case of Ag and Au, while for Cu the dependence is in the Fresnel
factors. This contrasting behavior emphasizes that SHG is not a priori
sensitive to electron dynamics at surfaces or interfaces, notwithstanding its
cause.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Two isoperimetric inequalities for the Sobolev constant
In this note we prove two isoperimetric inequalities for the sharp constant
in the Sobolev embedding and its associated extremal function. The first such
inequality is a variation on the classical Schwarz Lemma from complex analysis,
similar to recent inequalities of Burckel, Marshall, Minda, Poggi-Corradini,
and Ransford, while the second generalises an isoperimetric inequality for the
first eigenfunction of the Laplacian due to Payne and Rayner.Comment: 11 page
Identification of dfrA14 in two distinct plasmids conferring trimethoprim resistance in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the distribution and genetic basis of trimethoprim resistance in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae isolates from pigs in England. METHODS: Clinical isolates collected between 1998 and 2011 were tested for resistance to trimethoprim and sulphonamide. The genetic basis of trimethoprim resistance was determined by shotgun WGS analysis and the subsequent isolation and sequencing of plasmids. RESULTS: A total of 16 (out of 106) A. pleuropneumoniae isolates were resistant to both trimethoprim (MIC >32 mg/L) and sulfisoxazole (MIC â„256 mg/L), and a further 32 were resistant only to sulfisoxazole (MIC â„256 mg/L). Genome sequence data for the trimethoprim-resistant isolates revealed the presence of the dfrA14 dihydrofolate reductase gene. The distribution of plasmid sequences in multiple contigs suggested the presence of two distinct dfrA14-containing plasmids in different isolates, which was confirmed by plasmid isolation and sequencing. Both plasmids encoded mobilization genes, the sulphonamide resistance gene sul2, as well as dfrA14 inserted into strA, a streptomycin-resistance-associated gene, although the gene order differed between the two plasmids. One of the plasmids further encoded the strB streptomycin-resistance-associated gene. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first description of mobilizable plasmids conferring trimethoprim resistance in A. pleuropneumoniae and, to our knowledge, the first report of dfrA14 in any member of the Pasteurellaceae. The identification of dfrA14 conferring trimethoprim resistance in A. pleuropneumoniae isolates will facilitate PCR screens for resistance to this important antimicrobial
The Kondo lattice model with correlated conduction electrons
We investigate a Kondo lattice model with correlated conduction electrons.
Within dynamical mean-field theory the model maps onto an impurity model where
the host has to be determined self-consistently. This impurity model can be
derived from an Anderson-Hubbard model both by equating the low-energy
excitations of the impurity and by a canonical transformation. On the level of
dynamical mean-field theory this establishes the connection of the two lattice
models. The impurity model is studied numerically by an extension of the
non-crossing approximation to a two-orbital impurity. We find that with
decreasing temperature the conduction electrons first form quasiparticles
unaffected by the presence of the lattice of localized spins. Then, reducing
the temperature further, the particle-hole symmetric model turns into an
insulator. The quasiparticle peak in the one-particle spectral density splits
and a gap opens. The size of the gap increases when the correlations of the
conduction electrons become stronger. These findings are similar to the
behavior of the Anderson-Hubbard model within dynamical mean-field theory and
are obtained with much less numerical effort.Comment: 7 pages RevTeX with 3 ps figures, accepted by PR
Extracts of Feijoa Inhibit Toll-Like Receptor 2 Signaling and Activate Autophagy Implicating a Role in Dietary Control of IBD
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a heterogeneous chronic inflammatory disease affecting the gut with limited treatment success for its sufferers. This suggests the need for better understanding of the different subtypes of the disease as well as nutritional interventions to compliment current treatments. In this study we assess the ability of a hydrophilic feijoa fraction (F3) to modulate autophagy a process known to regulate inflammation, via TLR2 using IBD cell lines
Initial Ionization of Compressible Turbulence
We study the effects of the initial conditions of turbulent molecular clouds
on the ionization structure in newly formed H_{ii} regions, using
three-dimensional, photon-conserving radiative transfer in a pre-computed
density field from three-dimensional compressible turbulence. Our results show
that the initial density structure of the gas cloud can play an important role
in the resulting structure of the H_{ii} region. The propagation of the
ionization fronts, the shape of the resulting H_{ii} region, and the total mass
ionized depend on the properties of the turbulent density field. Cuts through
the ionized regions generally show ``butterfly'' shapes rather than spherical
ones, while emission measure maps are more spherical if the turbulence is
driven on scales small compared to the size of the H_{ii} region. The
ionization structure can be described by an effective clumping factor , where is number density of the gas. The larger
the value of , the less mass is ionized, and the more irregular the
H_{ii} region shapes. Because we do not follow dynamics, our results apply only
to the early stage of ionization when the speed of the ionization fronts
remains much larger than the sound speed of the ionized gas, or Alfv\'en speed
in magnetized clouds if it is larger, so that the dynamical effects can be
negligible.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, version with high quality color images can be
found in http://research.amnh.org/~yuexing/astro-ph/0407249.pd
Periodic Anderson model with correlated conduction electrons
We investigate a periodic Anderson model with interacting conduction
electrons which are described by a Hubbard-type interaction of strength U_c.
Within dynamical mean-field theory the total Hamiltonian is mapped onto an
impurity model, which is solved by an extended non-crossing approximation. We
consider the particle-hole symmetric case at half-filling. Similar to the case
U_c=0, the low-energy behavior of the conduction electrons at high temperatures
is essentially unaffected by the f-electrons and for small U_c a quasiparticle
peak corresponding to the Hubbard model evolves first. These quasiparticles
screen the f-moments when the temperature is reduced further, and the system
turns into an insulator with a tiny gap and flat bands. The formation of the
quasiparticle peak is impeded by increasing either U_c or the c-f
hybridization. Nevertheless almost dispersionless bands emerge at low
temperature with an increased gap, even in the case of initially insulating
host electrons. The size of the gap in the one-particle spectral density at low
temperatures provides an estimate for the low-energy scale and increases as U_c
increases.Comment: 11 pages RevTeX with 13 ps figures, accepted by PR
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Technoeconomic and life-cycle analysis of single-step catalytic conversion of wet ethanol into fungible fuel blendstocks
Technoeconomic and life-cycle analyses are presented for catalytic conversion of ethanol to fungible hydrocarbon fuel blendstocks, informed by advances in catalyst and process development. Whereas prior work toward this end focused on 3-step processes featuring dehydration, oligomerization, and hydrogenation, the consolidated alcohol dehydration and oligomerization (CADO) approach described here results in 1-step conversion of wet ethanol vapor (40 wt% in water) to hydrocarbons and water over a metal-modified zeolite catalyst. A development project increased liquid hydrocarbon yields from 36% of theoretical to >80%, reduced catalyst cost by an order of magnitude, scaled up the process by 300-fold, and reduced projected costs of ethanol conversion 12-fold. Current CADO products conform most closely to gasoline blendstocks, but can be blended with jet fuel at low levels today, and could potentially be blended at higher levels in the future. Operating plus annualized capital costs for conversion of wet ethanol to fungible blendstocks are estimated at 1.44/GJ in the future, similar to the unit energy cost of producing anhydrous ethanol from wet ethanol (100 per barrel but not at 60 per barrel. Life-cycle greenhouse gas emission reductions for CADO-derived hydrocarbon blendstocks closely follow those for the ethanol feedstock
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