50,211 research outputs found
Note on generalised connections and affine bundles
We develop an alternative view on the concept of connections over a vector
bundle map, which consists of a horizontal lift procedure to a prolonged
bundle. We further focus on prolongations to an affine bundle and introduce the
concept of affineness of a generalised connection.Comment: 17 page
Acrylamide Production Using Encapsulated Nitrile Hydratase from \u3cem\u3ePseudonocardia thermophila\u3c/em\u3e in a Sol–gel Matrix
The cobalt-type nitrile hydratase from Pseudonocardia thermophila JCM 3095 (PtNHase) was successfully encapsulated in tetramethyl orthosilicate sol–gel matrices to produce a PtNHase:sol–gel biomaterial. The PtNHase:sol–gel biomaterial catalyzed the conversion of 600 mM acrylonitrile to acrylamide in 60 min at 35 °C with a yields of \u3e90%. Treatment of the biomaterial with proteases confirmed that the catalytic activity is due to the encapsulated enzyme and not surface bound NHase. The biomaterial retained 50% of its activity after being used for a total of 13 consecutive reactions for the conversion of acrylonitrile to acrylamide. The thermostability and long-term storage of the PtNHase:sol–gel are substantially improved compared to the soluble NHase. Additionally, the biomaterial is significantly more stable at high concentrations of methanol (50% and 70%, v/v) as a co-solvent for the hydration of acrylonitrile than native PtNHase. These data indicate that PtNHase:sol–gel biomaterials can be used to develop new synthetic avenues involving nitriles as starting materials given that the conversion of the nitrile moiety to the corresponding amide occurs under mild temperature and pH conditions
Terminal investment induced by a bacteriophage in a rhizosphere bacterium.
Despite knowledge about microbial responses to abiotic stress, few studies have investigated stress responses to antagonistic species, such as competitors, predators and pathogens. While it is often assumed that interacting populations of bacteria and phage will coevolve resistance and exploitation strategies, an alternative is that individual bacteria tolerate or evade phage predation through inducible responses to phage presence. Using the microbial model Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 and its lytic DNA phage SBW25Φ2, we demonstrate the existence of an inducible response in the form of a transient increase in population growth rate, and found that the response was induced by phage binding. This response was accompanied by a decrease in bacterial cell size, which we propose to be an associated cost. We discuss these results in the context of bacterial ecology and phage-bacteria co-evolution
The Nature of the Secondary Star in the Black Hole X-Ray Transient V616 Mon (=A0620-00)
We have used NIRSPEC on Keck II to obtain -band spectroscopy of the low
mass X-ray binary V616 Mon (= A062000). V616 Mon is the proto-typical soft
x-ray transient containing a black hole primary. As such it is important to
constrain the masses of the binary components. The modeling of the infrared
observations of ellipsoidal variations in this system lead to a derived mass of
11.0 M_{\sun} for the black hole. The validity of this derivation has been
called into question due to the possiblity that the secondary star's spectral
energy distribution is contaminated by accretion disk emission (acting to
dilute the variations). Our new -band spectrum of V616 Mon reveals a
late-type K dwarf secondary star, but one that has very weak CO
absorption features. Comparison of V616 Mon with SS Cyg leads us to estimate
that the accretion disk supplies only a small amount of -band flux, and the
ellipsoidal variations are not seriously contaminated. If true, the derived
orbital inclination of V616 Mon is not greatly altered, and the mass of the
black hole remains large. A preliminary stellar atmosphere model for the
-band spectrum of V616 Mon reveals that the carbon abundance is
approximately 50% of the solar value. We conclude that the secondary star in
V616 Mon has either suffered serious contamination from the accretion of
supernova ejecta that created the black hole primary, or it is the stripped
remains of a formerly more massive secondary star, one in which the CNO cycle
had been active.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure
Holographic Description of AdS Cosmologies
To gain insight in the quantum nature of the big bang, we study the dual
field theory description of asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions of
supergravity that have cosmological singularities. The dual theories do not
appear to have a stable ground state. One regularization of the theory causes
the cosmological singularities in the bulk to turn into giant black holes with
scalar hair. We interpret these hairy black holes in the dual field theory and
use them to compute a finite temperature effective potential. In our study of
the field theory evolution, we find no evidence for a "bounce" from a big
crunch to a big bang. Instead, it appears that the big bang is a rare
fluctuation from a generic equilibrium quantum gravity state.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures, v2: minor changes, references adde
Time-Energy coherent states and adiabatic scattering
Coherent states in the time-energy plane provide a natural basis to study
adiabatic scattering. We relate the (diagonal) matrix elements of the
scattering matrix in this basis with the frozen on-shell scattering data. We
describe an exactly solvable model, and show that the error in the frozen data
cannot be estimated by the Wigner time delay alone. We introduce the notion of
energy shift, a conjugate of Wigner time delay, and show that for incoming
state the energy shift determines the outgoing state.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur
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