Detection of differential rotation in psi Cap with profile analysis

We report detection of differential rotation on the F5 dwarf psi Cap using line profile analysis. The Fourier transform of both FeI lambda 5775 and SiI lambda 5772 are used to obtain a projected rotational velocity of v sini = (42+-1)km/s. Modelling of the Fourier transformed profiles shows that the combined effects of equatorial velocity, inclination and differential rotation dominate the line profile while limb darkening and turbulence velocities have only minor effects. Rigid rotation is shown to be inconsistent with the measured profiles. Modelling the line profiles analogous to solar differential rotation we find a differential rotation parameter of alpha = 0.15+-0.1 (15+-10%) comparable to the solar case. To our knowledge this is the first successful measurement of differential rotation through line profile analysis.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Letter

Particle monolayer assembly in evaporating salty colloidal droplets

Ring-shaped deposits can be often found after a droplet evaporates on a substrate. If the fluid in the droplet is a pure liquid and its contact line remains pinned during the process, the mechanism behind such ring-shaped deposition is the well-known coffee-stain effect. However, adding small amounts of salt to such a droplet can change the internal flow dramatically and consequently change the deposition mechanism. Due to an increase of surface tension in the contact line region, a Marangoni flow arises which is directed from the apex of the droplet towards the contact line. As a result, particles arrive at the contact line following the liquid-air interface of the droplet. Interestingly, the deposit is also ring-shaped, as in the classical coffee-stain effect, but with a radically different morphology: particles form a monolayer along the liquid-air interface of the droplet, instead of a compact three-dimensional deposit. Using confocal microscopy, we study particle-per-particle how the assembly of the colloidal monolayer occurs during the evaporation of droplets for different initial concentration of sodium chloride and initial particle dilution. Our results are compared with classical diffusion-limited deposition models and open up an interesting scenario of deposits via interfacial particle assembly, which can easily yield homogeneous depositions by manipulating the initial salt and particle concentration in the droplet.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Turning drops into bubbles: Elastic cavitation by diffusion

Some members of the vegetal kingdom can achieve surprisingly fast movements making use of a clever combination of evaporation, elasticity and cavitation. In this process, enthalpic energy is transformed into elastic energy and suddenly released in a cavitation event which produces kinetic energy. Here we study this uncommon energy transformation by a model system: a droplet in an elastic medium shrinks slowly by diffusion and eventually transforms into a bubble by a rapid cavitation event. The experiments reveal the cavity dynamics over the extremely disparate timescales of the process, spanning 9 orders of magnitude. We model the initial shrinkage as a classical diffusive process, while the sudden bubble growth and oscillations are described using an inertial-(visco)elastic model, in excellent agreement with the experiments. Such a model system could serve as a new paradigm for motile synthetic materials.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Diffusion due to the Beam-Beam Interaction and Fluctuating Fields in Hadron Colliders

Random fluctuations in the tune, beam offsets and beam size in the presence of the beam-beam interaction are shown to lead to significant particle diffusion and emittance growth in hadron colliders. We find that far from resonances high frequency noise causes the most diffusion while near resonances low frequency noise is responsible for the large emittance growth observed. Comparison of different fluctuations shows that offset fluctuations between the beams causes the largest diffusion for particles in the beam core.Comment: 5 pages, 3 postscript figure

Renewable biocatalyst for swine manure treatment and mitigation of odorous VOCs, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions: Review

Comprehensive control of odors, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), ammonia (NH3), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with swine production is a critical need. The objective of this paper is to review the use of soybean peroxidase (SBP) and peroxides as a manure additive to mitigate emissions of odorous volatile organic compounds (VOC), NH3, H2S, and GHGs. Soybean peroxidase plus peroxide (SBPP) was tested as a mitigation technology for swine manure emissions on three scales (lab, pilot and farm). Several laboratory scale experiments were completed to assess SBPP dosages and type of oxygen source mixed into swine manure and surface application. A pilot scale experiment was done with surface application of SBPP and multiple dosages to observe scale up effects. Finally, a farm scale trial was completed to assess the SBPP treatment to a swine manure surface under a fully slatted barn floor. The ‘gated‘ approach to testing SBPP from lab- to pilot- and finally the farm-scale was appropriate and allowed for controlled experiments with sufficient replication. This approach resulted in gradual decrease of the dose of SBP, decreasing the cost of treatment, increase of treatment longevity, inclusion of many key gases of concern to the experimental protocol, and finally testing the treatment on farm-scale. To date, the farm-scale results indicate that SBPP can be effective in mitigating many important odorous gas emissions without increasing GHGs. Specifically, a 2.28 kg m-2 SBP dose mixed with 4.2% CaO2 added by weight and added to manure surface resulted in significant reductions in gaseous emissions of NH3(21.7%), H2S (79.7%), n-butyric acid (37.2%), valeric acid (47.7%), isovaleric acid (39.3%), indole (31.2%), and skatole (43.5%). Emissions of DMDS/MT increased by 30.6%. Emissions of p-cresol were reduced by 14.4% but were not statistically significant. There were no significant changes to the GHG emissions of CH4, CO2 and N2O. The treatment cost (SBP+CaO2) was $1.45 per marketed pig of which the cost of SBP was only ~40%. Thus, further research is needed to optimize the dose and the cost of catalysts

Planning the Future of U.S. Particle Physics (Snowmass 2013): Chapter 6: Accelerator Capabilities

These reports present the results of the 2013 Community Summer Study of the APS Division of Particles and Fields ("Snowmass 2013") on the future program of particle physics in the U.S. Chapter 6, on Accelerator Capabilities, discusses the future progress of accelerator technology, including issues for high-energy hadron and lepton colliders, high-intensity beams, electron-ion colliders, and necessary R&D for future accelerator technologies.Comment: 26 page

New insights into the evolutionary history of plant sorbitol dehydrogenase

BACKGROUND: Sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH, EC 1.1.1.14) is the key enzyme involved in sorbitol metabolism in higher plants. SDH genes in some Rosaceae species could be divided into two groups. L-idonate-5-dehydrogenase (LIDH, EC 1.1.1.264) is involved in tartaric acid (TA) synthesis in Vitis vinifera and is highly homologous to plant SDHs. Despite efforts to understand the biological functions of plant SDH, the evolutionary history of plant SDH genes and their phylogenetic relationship with the V. vinifera LIDH gene have not been characterized RESULTS: A total of 92 SDH genes were identified from 42 angiosperm species. SDH genes have been highly duplicated within the Rosaceae family while monocot, Brassicaceae and most Asterid species exhibit singleton SDH genes. Core Eudicot SDHs have diverged into two phylogenetic lineages, now classified as SDH Class I and SDH Class II. V. vinifera LIDH was identified as a Class II SDH. Tandem duplication played a dominant role in the expansion of plant SDH family and Class II SDH genes were positioned in tandem with Class I SDH genes in several plant genomes. Protein modelling analyses of V. vinifera SDHs revealed 19 putative active site residues, three of which exhibited amino acid substitutions between Class I and Class II SDHs and were influenced by positive natural selection in the SDH Class II lineage. Gene expression analyses also demonstrated a clear transcriptional divergence between Class I and Class II SDH genes in V. vinifera and Citrus sinensis (orange) CONCLUSIONS: Phylogenetic, natural selection and synteny analyses provided strong support for the emergence of SDH Class II by positive natural selection after tandem duplication in the common ancestor of core Eudicot plants. The substitutions of three putative active site residues might be responsible for the unique enzyme activity of V. vinifera LIDH, which belongs to SDH Class II and represents a novel function of SDH in V. vinifera that may be true also of other Class II SDHs. Gene expression analyses also supported the divergence of SDH Class II at the expression level. This study will facilitate future research into understanding the biological functions of plant SDH

SigWinR; the SigWin-detector updated and ported to R

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Our SigWin-detector discovers significantly enriched windows of (genomic) elements in any sequence of values (genes or other genomic elements in a DNA sequence) in a fast and reproducible way. However, since it is grid based, only (life) scientists with access to the grid can use this tool. Therefore and on request, we have developed the SigWinR package which makes the SigWin-detector available to a much wider audience. At the same time, we have introduced several improvements to its algorithm as well as its functionality, based on the feedback of SigWin-detector end users.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>To allow usage of the SigWin-detector on a desktop computer, we have rewritten it as a package for R: SigWinR. R is a free and widely used multi platform software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The package can be installed and used on all platforms for which R is available. The improvements involve: a visualization of the input-sequence values supporting the interpretation of Ridgeograms; a visualization allowing for an easy interpretation of enriched or depleted regions in the sequence using windows of pre-defined size; an option that allows the analysis of circular sequences, which results in rectangular Ridgeograms; an application to identify regions of co-altered gene expression (ROCAGEs) with a real-life biological use-case; adaptation of the algorithm to allow analysis of non-regularly sampled data using a constant window size in physical space without resampling the data. To achieve this, support for analysis of windows with an even number of elements was added.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>By porting the SigWin-detector as an R package, SigWinR, improving its algorithm and functionality combined with adequate performance, we have made SigWin-detector more useful as well as more easily accessible to scientists without a grid infrastructure.</p