The utility of surface magnetic field measurements in the MAGSAT program

To take full advantage of the global, vector, survey by the Magsat satellite, and international program of augmented surface measurements was proposed. For secular variation and upper mantle conductivity the proposed measurements are global. The repeat station measurements for secular variation should be occupied at 2-3 year intervals. A special observing period in November and December of 1979 is proposed during which simultaneous, continuous, global measurements for upper mantle conductivity studies are to be gathered. Finally, it is recommended that the networks in operation during the IMS extend their operation through the Fall of 1980 to provide correlative data useful for high latitude disturbance studies and for crustal conductivity studies

Geometric field-line calculations

Procedure for calculating three components of vector field from spherical harmonic using either geocentric or geodetic coordinates as input and output is described. Three subroutines of computer program are explained. Program is written in FORTRAN for IBM 360 computer

Initial geomagnetic field model from MAGSAT

Magsat data from magnetically quiet days were used to derive a thirteenth degree and order spherical harmonic geomagnetic field model, MGST(3/80). The model utilized both scalar and vector data and fit that data with standard deviations of 8, 52, 55 and 97 nT for the scalar magnitude, B sub r, B sub theta and B sub phi respectively. When compared with earlier models, the Earth's dipole moment continues to decrease at a rate of about 26 nT/year. Evaluation of earlier models with Magsat data shows that the scalar field at the Magsat epoch is best predicted by the POGO(2/72) model but that the AWC/75 and IGS/75 are better for predicting vector fields

Modelling and simulation of biased agonism dynamics at a G protein-coupled receptor.

Theoretical models of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) concentration-response relationships often assume an agonist producing a single functional response via a single active state of the receptor. These models have largely been analysed assuming steady-state conditions. There is now much experimental evidence to suggest that many GPCRs can exist in multiple receptor conformations and elicit numerous functional responses, with ligands having the potential to activate different signalling pathways to varying extents-a concept referred to as biased agonism, functional selectivity or pluri-dimensional efficacy. Moreover, recent experimental results indicate a clear possibility for time-dependent bias, whereby an agonist's bias with respect to different pathways may vary dynamically. Efforts towards understanding the implications of temporal bias by characterising and quantifying ligand effects on multiple pathways will clearly be aided by extending current equilibrium binding and biased activation models to include G protein activation dynamics. Here, we present a new model of time-dependent biased agonism, based on ordinary differential equations for multiple cubic ternary complex activation models with G protein cycle dynamics. This model allows simulation and analysis of multi-pathway activation bias dynamics at a single receptor for the first time, at the level of active G protein (αGTP), towards the analysis of dynamic functional responses. The model is generally applicable to systems with NG G proteins and N* active receptor states. Numerical simulations for NG=N*=2 reveal new insights into the effects of system parameters (including cooperativities, and ligand and receptor concentrations) on bias dynamics, highlighting new phenomena including the dynamic inter-conversion of bias direction. Further, we fit this model to 'wet' experimental data for two competing G proteins (Gi and Gs) that become activated upon stimulation of the adenosine A1 receptor with adenosine derivative compounds. Finally, we show that our model can qualitatively describe the temporal dynamics of this competing G protein activation

Optical and Radio monitoring of S5 1803+74

The optical (BVRI) and radio (8.4 GHz) light curves of S5 1803+784 on a time span of nearly 6 years are presented and discussed. The optical light curve showed an overall variation greater than 3 mag, and the largest changes occured in three strong flares. No periodicity was found in the light curve on time scales up to a year. The variability in the radio band is very different, and shows moderate oscillations around an average constant flux density rather than relevant flares, with a maximum amplitude of $\sim$30%, without a simultaneous correspondence between optical and radio luminosity. The optical spectral energy distribution was always well fitted by a power law. The spectral index shows small variations and there is indication of a positive correlation with the source luminosity. Possible explanations of the source behaviour are discussed in the framework of current models.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figure

The Born Oppenheimer wave function near level crossing

The standard Born Oppenheimer theory does not give an accurate description of the wave function near points of level crossing. We give such a description near an isotropic conic crossing, for energies close to the crossing energy. This leads to the study of two coupled second order ordinary differential equations whose solution is described in terms of the generalized hypergeometric functions of the kind 0F3(;a,b,c;z). We find that, at low angular momenta, the mixing due to crossing is surprisingly large, scaling like \mu^(1/6), where \mu is the electron to nuclear mass ratio.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Berry's Phase in the Presence of a Stochastically Evolving Environment: A Geometric Mechanism for Energy-Level Broadening

The generic Berry phase scenario in which a two-level system is coupled to a second system whose dynamical coordinate is slowly-varying is generalized to allow for stochastic evolution of the slow system. The stochastic behavior is produced by coupling the slow system to a heat resevoir which is modeled by a bath of harmonic oscillators initially in equilibrium at temperature T, and whose spectral density has a bandwidth which is small compared to the energy-level spacing of the fast system. The well-known energy-level shifts produced by Berry's phase in the fast system, in conjunction with the stochastic motion of the slow system, leads to a broadening of the fast system energy-levels. In the limit of strong damping and sufficiently low temperature, we determine the degree of level-broadening analytically, and show that the slow system dynamics satisfies a Langevin equation in which Lorentz-like and electric-like forces appear as a consequence of geometrical effects. We also determine the average energy-level shift produced in the fast system by this mechanism.Comment: 29 pages, RevTex, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Born-Oppenheimer Approximation near Level Crossing

We consider the Born-Oppenheimer problem near conical intersection in two dimensions. For energies close to the crossing energy we describe the wave function near an isotropic crossing and show that it is related to generalized hypergeometric functions 0F3. This function is to a conical intersection what the Airy function is to a classical turning point. As an application we calculate the anomalous Zeeman shift of vibrational levels near a crossing.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, Lette

Phenotypic heterogeneity and genetic modification of P102L inherited prion disease in an international series

The largest kindred with inherited prion disease P102L, historically Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, originates from central England, with émigrés now resident in various parts of the English-speaking world. We have collected data from 84 patients in the large UK kindred and numerous small unrelated pedigrees to investigate phenotypic heterogeneity and modifying factors. This collection represents by far the largest series of P102L patients so far reported. Microsatellite and genealogical analyses of eight separate European kindreds support multiple distinct mutational events at a cytosine-phosphate diester-guanidine dinucleotide mutation hot spot. All of the smaller P102L kindreds were linked to polymorphic human prion protein gene codon 129M and were not connected by genealogy or microsatellite haplotype background to the large kindred or each other. While many present with classical Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, a slowly progressive cerebellar ataxia with later onset cognitive impairment, there is remarkable heterogeneity. A subset of patients present with prominent cognitive and psychiatric features and some have met diagnostic criteria for sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. We show that polymorphic human prion protein gene codon 129 modifies age at onset: the earliest eight clinical onsets were all MM homozygotes and overall age at onset was 7 years earlier for MM compared with MV heterozygotes (P = 0.02). Unexpectedly, apolipoprotein E4 carriers have a delayed age of onset by 10 years (P = 0.02). We found a preponderance of female patients compared with males (54 females versus 30 males, P = 0.01), which probably relates to ascertainment bias. However, these modifiers had no impact on a semi-quantitative pathological phenotype in 10 autopsied patients. These data allow an appreciation of the range of clinical phenotype, modern imaging and molecular investigation and should inform genetic counselling of at-risk individuals, with the identification of two genetic modifiers

A Geophysical Atlas for Interpretation of Satellite-derived Data

A compilation of maps of global geophysical and geological data plotted on a common scale and projection is presented. The maps include satellite gravity, magnetic, seismic, volcanic, tectonic activity, and mantle velocity anomaly data. The Bibliographic references for all maps are included