23,984 research outputs found
Statistical Mechanics of Relativistic One-Dimensional Self-Gravitating Systems
We consider the statistical mechanics of a general relativistic
one-dimensional self-gravitating system. The system consists of -particles
coupled to lineal gravity and can be considered as a model of
relativistically interacting sheets of uniform mass. The partition function and
one-particle distitrubion functions are computed to leading order in
where is the speed of light; as results for the
non-relativistic one-dimensional self-gravitating system are recovered. We find
that relativistic effects generally cause both position and momentum
distribution functions to become more sharply peaked, and that the temperature
of a relativistic gas is smaller than its non-relativistic counterpart at the
same fixed energy. We consider the large-N limit of our results and compare
this to the non-relativistic case.Comment: latex, 60 pages, 22 figure
Prototype Detector for Ultrahigh Energy Neutrino Detection
Necessary technical experience is being gained from successful construction
and deployment of current prototype detectors to search for UHE neutrinos in
Antarctica, Lake Baikal in Russia, and the Mediterranean. The prototype
detectors have also the important central purpose of determining whether or not
UHE neutrinos do in fact exist in nature by observation of at least a few UHE
neutrino-induced leptons with properties that are not consistent with expected
backgrounds. We discuss here the criteria for a prototype detector to
accomplish that purpose in a convincing way even if the UHE neutrino flux is
substantially lower than predicted at present.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic
Dynamical N-body Equlibrium in Circular Dilaton Gravity
We obtain a new exact equilibrium solution to the N-body problem in a
one-dimensional relativistic self-gravitating system. It corresponds to an
expanding/contracting spacetime of a circle with N bodies at equal proper
separations from one another around the circle. Our methods are
straightforwardly generalizable to other dilatonic theories of gravity, and
provide a new class of solutions to further the study of (relativistic)
one-dimensional self-gravitating systems.Comment: 4 pages, latex, reference added, minor changes in wordin
Research and development at ORNL/CESAR towards cooperating robotic systems for hazardous environments
One of the frontiers in intelligent machine research is the understanding of how constructive cooperation among multiple autonomous agents can be effected. The effort at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) focuses on two problem areas: (1) cooperation by multiple mobile robots in dynamic, incompletely known environments; and (2) cooperating robotic manipulators. Particular emphasis is placed on experimental evaluation of research and developments using the CESAR robot system testbeds, including three mobile robots, and a seven-axis, kinematically redundant mobile manipulator. This paper summarizes initial results of research addressing the decoupling of position and force control for two manipulators holding a common object, and the path planning for multiple robots in a common workspace
Chaos in an Exact Relativistic 3-body Self-Gravitating System
We consider the problem of three body motion for a relativistic
one-dimensional self-gravitating system. After describing the canonical
decomposition of the action, we find an exact expression for the 3-body
Hamiltonian, implicitly determined in terms of the four coordinate and momentum
degrees of freedom in the system. Non-relativistically these degrees of freedom
can be rewritten in terms of a single particle moving in a two-dimensional
hexagonal well. We find the exact relativistic generalization of this
potential, along with its post-Newtonian approximation. We then specialize to
the equal mass case and numerically solve the equations of motion that follow
from the Hamiltonian. Working in hexagonal-well coordinates, we obtaining
orbits in both the hexagonal and 3-body representations of the system, and plot
the Poincare sections as a function of the relativistic energy parameter . We find two broad categories of periodic and quasi-periodic motions that we
refer to as the annulus and pretzel patterns, as well as a set of chaotic
motions that appear in the region of phase-space between these two types.
Despite the high degree of non-linearity in the relativistic system, we find
that the the global structure of its phase space remains qualitatively the same
as its non-relativisitic counterpart for all values of that we could
study. However the relativistic system has a weaker symmetry and so its
Poincare section develops an asymmetric distortion that increases with
increasing . For the post-Newtonian system we find that it experiences a
KAM breakdown for : above which the near integrable regions
degenerate into chaos.Comment: latex, 65 pages, 36 figures, high-resolution figures available upon
reques
Standardized field testing of assistant robots in a Mars-like environment
Controlled testing on standard tasks and within standard environments can provide meaningful performance comparisons between robots of heterogeneous design. But because they must perform practical tasks in unstructured, and therefore non-standard, environments, the benefits of this approach have barely begun to accrue for field robots. This work describes a desert trial of six student prototypes of astronaut-support robots using a set of standardized engineering tests developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), along with three operational tests in natural Mars-like terrain. The results suggest that standards developed for emergency response robots are also applicable to the astronaut support domain, yielding useful insights into the differences in capabilities between robots and real design improvements. The exercise shows the value of combining repeatable engineering tests with task-specific application-testing in the field
Interaction of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) and Asialo-hCG with Recombinant Human Thyrotropin Receptor.
hCG is a putative thyroid stimulator. The present studies were undertaken to examine its interaction and that of its desialylated variant asialo-hCG with recombinant human TSH (hTSH) receptor (hTSHr). To this end, we transfected a human thyroid carcinoma cell line (HTC) lacking endogenous TSHr with the full-length cDNA of the hTSHr. Unlike the wild type, the transfected cells, termed HTC-TSHr cells, were able to bind bovine TSH (bTSH) with high affinity and increase cAMP production in response to bTSH stimulation. Of the hCG forms, intact hCG displayed a weak activity to inhibit [125I] bTSH binding to HTC-TSHr cells, with 100 mg/L (2.6 x 10(-6) mol/L) producing maximally a 20% inhibition, whereas asialo-hCG achieved half-maximum binding inhibition at a concentration of 8 mg/L (2.3 x 10(-7) mol/L). The inhibitory constant (Ki) of asialo-hCG for recombinant hTSHr was calculated from saturation experiments in the presence of variable doses of bTSH and a fixed concentration of asialo-hCG to be approximately 8 x 10(-8) mol/L. The interaction of asialo-hCG with TSHr was further assessed by studies of the direct binding of the radioactively labeled hormone to both HTC and HTC-TSHr cells. [125I]Asialo-hCG binding to HTC-TSHr cells was 4.7%, compared to 1.5% in the wild-type cells lacking TSHr and was displaceable by bTSH (0.1-100 IU/L), indicating specific binding of the tracer to TSHr. Functionally, hCG (up to 100 mg/L; 2.6 x 10(-6) mol/L) proved unable to evoke any significant cAMP response over basal values in HTC-TSHr cells, as did asialo-hCG. Asialo-hCG, but not hCG, inhibited bTSH-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity in the cells in a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, the present data show that intact hCG binds only weakly to HTC-TSHr cells and produces no significant cAMP stimulation, which is at variance with data obtained in FRTL-5 and Chinese hamster ovary-TSHr cells, but in good accord with previous findings in human thyroid membranes. Asialo-hCG, on the other hand, strongly binds to recombinant TSHr and inhibits the cAMP response to bTSH in HTC-TSHr cells, indicating that the desialylated hCG variant directly interacts with the receptor and truly is an antagonist of the hTSHr
Variation in the Thyrotropic Activity of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin in Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells Arises from Differential Expression of the Human Thyrotropin Receptor and Microheterogeneity of the Hormone.
The role of hCG as a stimulator of the human thyroid has been a subject of controversy, because discrepant results have been obtained in different in vitro assays. In an attempt to explain the variation observed in the thyroid response to hCG, we investigated the ability of hCG and that of its isoforms and glycosylation variants to inhibit [125I]bovine (b) TSH binding and stimulate adenylate cyclase in two clones, JP09 and JP26, of Chinese hamster ovary cells stably transfected with the human TSH receptor (hTSHr). The two clones differed with respect to the number of hTSHr expressed per cell (34,000 in JP09 and 2,000 in JP26 cells). Both responded extremely well to bTSH; the cAMP response to 0.001 IU/L bTSH was distinguishable from basal values. Interestingly, JP09 cells were readily stimulated by hCG (20-100 mg/L; 0.52-2.6 x 10(-6) mol/L) to release cAMP, whereas JP26 cells showed little if any response. Also, cAMP stimulation produced by asialo-hCG was 12-fold in JP09 cells and only 4-fold in JP26 cells compared to 45- and 67-fold stimulations by bTSH, respectively. Stimulation by asialo-hCG was approximately 30% that of bTSH in JP09 cells, but less than 6% in JP26 cells. When assessing the thyrotropic activity of the microheterogeneous isoforms of hCG, more alkaline pI forms were found to be more active than those of a more acidic pI regardless of whether they were derived from normal or molar pregnancy urine. Further studies with hCG, asialo-hCG, asialoagalacto-hCG, and deglycosylated hCG revealed that removal of sialic acid caused a marked increase in both its affinity for hTSHr and its cAMP-releasing potency, whereas removal of further carbohydrate, although it slightly enhanced receptor binding, was detrimental to adenylate cyclase activation. In conclusion, differences in hTSHr expression may cause a variation in the cAMP response to hCG or its glycosylation variants, as does the microheterogeneity of the hormone itself. These mechanisms may be responsible at least in part for the divergent responses of different cell types to hCG and render interpretation of the physiological meaning of the data obtained in recombinant receptor systems difficult
Intermediate left-right gauge symmetry, unification of couplings and fermion masses in SUSY
If left-right gauge theory occurs as an intermediate symmetry in a GUT then,
apart from other advantages, it is possible to obtain the see-saw scale
necessary to understand small neutrino masses with Majorana coupling of order
unity. Barring threshold or non-renormalizable gravitational effects, or
assumed presence of additional light scalar particles of unprescribed origin,
all other attempts to achieve manifest one-loop gauge coupling unification in
SUSY SO(10) with left-right intermediate symmetry have not been successful so
far. Attributing this failure to lack of flavor symmetry in the GUT, we show
how the spontaneous symmetry breaking of leads to such
intermediate scale extending over a wide range, GeV
to GeV. All the charged fermion masses are fitted at the see-saw
scale, GeV which is obtained with
Majorana coupling . Using a constrained parametrization in which
CP-violation originates only from quark sector, besides other predictions made
in the neutrino sector, the reactor mixing angle is found to be which is in the range accessible to ongoing and
planned experiments. The leptonic Dirac phase turns out to be radians with Jarlskog invariant .Comment: Minor clarification and few references added to match the published
versio
Reactor antineutrino spectra and their application to antineutrino-induced reactions. II
The antineutrino and electron spectra associated with various nuclear fuels are calculated. While there are substantial differences between the spectra of different uranium and plutonium isotopes, the dependence on the energy and flux of the fission-inducing neutrons is very weak. The resulting spectra can be used for the calculation of the antineutrino and electron spectra of an arbitrary nuclear reactor at various stages of its refueling cycle. The sources of uncertainties in the spectrum are identified and analyzed in detail. The exposure time dependence of the spectrum is also discussed. The averaged cross sections of the inverse neutron β decay, weak charged and neutral-current-induced deuteron disintegration, and the antineutrino-electron scattering are then evaluated using the resulting ν̅_e spectra.
[RADIOACTIVITY, FISSION 235U, 238U, (^239)Pu, (^240)Pu, (^241)Pu, antineutrino and electron spectra calculated. σ for ν̅ induced reactions analyzed.
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