64,212 research outputs found
Coordinated oscillations in cortical actin and Ca2+ correlate with cycles of vesicle secretion.
The actin cortex both facilitates and hinders the exocytosis of secretory granules. How cells consolidate these two opposing roles was not well understood. Here we show that antigen activation of mast cells induces oscillations in Ca(2+) and PtdIns(4,5)P(2) lipid levels that in turn drive cyclic recruitment of N-WASP and cortical actin level oscillations. Experimental and computational analysis argues that vesicle fusion correlates with the observed actin and Ca(2+) level oscillations. A vesicle secretion cycle starts with the capture of vesicles by actin when cortical F-actin levels are high, followed by vesicle passage through the cortex when F-actin levels are low, and vesicle fusion with the plasma membrane when Ca(2+) levels subsequently increase. Thus, cells employ oscillating levels of Ca(2+), PtdIns(4,5)P(2) and cortical F-actin to increase secretion efficiency, explaining how the actin cortex can function as a carrier as well as barrier for vesicle secretion
Real-time pilot guidance system for improved flight test maneuvers
The Dryden Flight Research Facility of the NASA Ames Research Center has developed a pilot trajectory guidance system that increases the accuracy of flight-test data and decreases the time required to achieve and maintain desired test conditions. The system usually presented to the pilot computed differences between reference or desired and actual flight state conditions. The pilot then used a cockpit display as an aid to acquire and hold desired test conditions. This paper discusses various flight-test maneuvers and the quality of data obtained using the guidance system. Some comparisons are made between the quality of maneuvers obtained with and without the system. Limited details of the guidance system and algorithms used are included. In general, the guidance system improved the quality of the maneuvers and trajectories flown, as well as allowing trajectories to be flown that would not have been possible without the system. This system has moved from the developmental stage to full operational use in various Dryden research and test aircraft
Properties of Intercalated 2H-NbSe2, 4Hb-TaS2 and 1T-TaS2
The layered compounds 2H-NbSe, 24Hb-TaS, 2and 1T-TaS2 have been intercalated with organic molecules; and the resulting crystal structure, heat capacity, conductivity, and superconductivity have been studied. The coordination in the disulfide layers was found to be unchanged in the product phase. Resistance minima appear and the superconducting transition temperature is reduced in the NbSe2 complex. Conversely, superconductivity is induced in the 4Hb-TaS2 complex. Corresponding evidence of a large change of the density of states, negative for 2H-NbSe2 and positive for 4Hb-TaS2, was also observed upon intercalation. The transport properties of all the intercalation complexes show a pronounced dependence upon the coordination of the transition metal
An Electronic Mach-Zehnder Quantum Eraser
We propose an electronic quantum eraser in which the electrons are injected
into a mesoscopic conductor at the quantum Hall regime. The conductor is
composed of a two-path interferometer which is an electronic analogue of the
optical Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and a quantum point contact detector
capacitively coupled to the interferometer. While the interference of the
output current at the interferometer is shown to be suppressed by the
which-path information, we show that the which-path information is erased by
the zero-frequency cross correlation measurement between the interferometer and
the detector output leads. We also investigate a modified setup in which the
detector is replaced by a two-path interferometer.We show that the path
distinguishability and the visibility of the joint detection can be controlled
in a continuous manner, and satisfy a complementarity relation for the
entangled electrons.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Adaptive Optics Observations of the Galactic Center Young Stars
Adaptive Optics observations have dramatically improved the quality and
versatility of high angular resolution measurements of the center of our
Galaxy. In this paper, we quantify the quality of our Adaptive Optics
observations and report on the astrometric precision for the young stellar
population that appears to reside in a stellar disk structure in the central
parsec. We show that with our improved astrometry and a 16 year baseline,
including 10 years of speckle and 6 years of laser guide star AO imaging, we
reliably detect accelerations in the plane of the sky as small as 70
microarcsec/yr/yr (~2.5 km/s/yr) and out to a projected radius from the
supermassive black hole of 1.5" (~0.06 pc). With an increase in sensitivity to
accelerations by a factor of ~6 over our previous efforts, we are able to
directly probe the kinematic structure of the young stellar disk, which appears
to have an inner radius of 0.8". We find that candidate disk members are on
eccentric orbits, with a mean eccentricity of = 0.30 +/- 0.07. Such
eccentricities cannot be explained by the relaxation of a circular disk with a
normal initial mass function, which suggests the existence of a top-heavy IMF
or formation in an initially eccentric disk.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation
201
Admissible and Restrained Revision
As partial justification of their framework for iterated belief revision
Darwiche and Pearl convincingly argued against Boutiliers natural revision and
provided a prototypical revision operator that fits into their scheme. We show
that the Darwiche-Pearl arguments lead naturally to the acceptance of a smaller
class of operators which we refer to as admissible. Admissible revision ensures
that the penultimate input is not ignored completely, thereby eliminating
natural revision, but includes the Darwiche-Pearl operator, Nayaks
lexicographic revision operator, and a newly introduced operator called
restrained revision. We demonstrate that restrained revision is the most
conservative of admissible revision operators, effecting as few changes as
possible, while lexicographic revision is the least conservative, and point out
that restrained revision can also be viewed as a composite operator, consisting
of natural revision preceded by an application of a "backwards revision"
operator previously studied by Papini. Finally, we propose the establishment of
a principled approach for choosing an appropriate revision operator in
different contexts and discuss future work
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