805 research outputs found
Abundance of Cosmological Relics in Low-Temperature Scenarios
We investigate the relic density n_\chi of non-relativistic long-lived or
stable particles \chi in cosmological scenarios in which the temperature T is
too low for \chi to achieve full chemical equilibrium. The case with a heavier
particle decaying into \chi is also investigated. We derive approximate
solutions for n_\chi(T) which accurately reproduce numerical results when full
thermal equilibrium is not achieved. If full equilibrium is reached, our ansatz
no longer reproduces the correct temperature dependence of the \chi number
density. However, it does give the correct final relic density, to an accuracy
of about 3% or better, for all cross sections and initial temperatures.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, comments added, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Comparative Gene Expression Analysis in the Skeletal Muscles of Dysferlin-deficient SJL/J and A/J Mice
Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis was conducted to
determine whether or not there are interstrain or site-dependent differences in the gene
expression profiles of skeletal muscles in SJL/J and A/J mice as dysferlinopathy models.
Upon analysis by qRT-PCR, SJL/J mice showed a trend of increased gene expression level of
uncoupling protein 2 in the rectus femoris and longissimus lumborum at 30 weeks of age
when dystrophic lesions became histopathologically pronounced. Heme oxygenase 1 and S100
calcium binding protein A4 were upregulated in the rectus femoris, longissimus lumborum
and abdominal muscles, in which dystrophic lesions occur more commonly in SJL mice. The
gene expression levels of heat shock protein 70 in most muscles of A/J mice were lower
than those of BALB/c mice as control. SJL/J mice exhibited a marked lowering of
decay-accelerating factor 1/CD55 gene expression level in all studied muscles except for
the heart at all ages compared with that of BALB/c mice. This study showed that there were
some interstrain differences in the gene expres sion profiles of skeletal muscles between
SJL/J and A/J mice. Further investigation is required to reveal whether these alterations
of the expression levels are the cause of dystrophic changes or occur subsequent to muscle
damage
Transitive X-ray spectrum and PeV gamma-ray cutoff in the M87 jet: Electron "Pevatron"
We propose a modified version of the X-ray spectral index and an intrinsic
cutoff frequency of inverse Compton radiation from the brightest knot of the
M87 jet, in conjunction with an application of the new conceptions of injection
and diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) of electrons in magnetized filamentary
plasma to the specified source. The drop of the X-ray flux density in a
transitive frequency region is associated with the interplay of ordinary
synchrotron cooling and weaker magnetic fields concomitant with the smaller
scale filaments that allow the electron injection, while the radio-optical
synchrotron continuum is dominantly established by the major electrons that are
quasi-secularly bound to larger filaments. With reference to, particularly, the
updated external Compton model, we demonstrate that in the Klein-Nishina regime
fading inverse Comptonization, the injected electrons can be stochastically
energized up to a Lorentz factor as high as in the temporal
competition with diffuse synchrotron cooling; this value is larger than that
attainable for a simple DSA scenario based on the resonant scattering diffusion
of the gyrating electrons bound to a supposed magnetic field homogeneously
pervading the entire knot. The upper limits of the photon frequency boosted via
conceivable inverse Compton processes are predicted to be of the common order
of Hz. The variability of the broadband spectrum is also
discussed in comparison to the features of a blazar light curve. The present
scenario of a peta-eV (PeV; eV) electron accelerator, the "Pevatron,"
might provide some guidance for exploring untrod hard X-ray and gamma-ray bands
in forthcoming observations.Comment: 34 pages, 6 figures, matches version published in Ap
PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF LEFT VENTRICLE FUNCTION BY TISSUE DOPPLER STRAIN IMAGING IN PATIENTS WITH SEVERE SEPSIS OR SEPTIC SHOCK
Effect of extreme data loss on long-range correlated and anti-correlated signals quantified by detrended fluctuation analysis
We investigate how extreme loss of data affects the scaling behavior of
long-range power-law correlated and anti-correlated signals applying the DFA
method. We introduce a segmentation approach to generate surrogate signals by
randomly removing data segments from stationary signals with different types of
correlations. These surrogate signals are characterized by: (i) the DFA scaling
exponent of the original correlated signal, (ii) the percentage of
the data removed, (iii) the average length of the removed (or remaining)
data segments, and (iv) the functional form of the distribution of the length
of the removed (or remaining) data segments. We find that the {\it global}
scaling exponent of positively correlated signals remains practically unchanged
even for extreme data loss of up to 90%. In contrast, the global scaling of
anti-correlated signals changes to uncorrelated behavior even when a very small
fraction of the data is lost. These observations are confirmed on the examples
of human gait and commodity price fluctuations. We systematically study the
{\it local} scaling behavior of signals with missing data to reveal deviations
across scales. We find that for anti-correlated signals even 10% of data loss
leads to deviations in the local scaling at large scales from the original
anti-correlated towards uncorrelated behavior. In contrast, positively
correlated signals show no observable changes in the local scaling for up to
65% of data loss, while for larger percentage, the local scaling shows
overestimated regions (with higher local exponent) at small scales, followed by
underestimated regions (with lower local exponent) at large scales. Finally, we
investigate how the scaling is affected by the statistics of the remaining data
segments in comparison to the removed segments
Model Predictive Control Tailored to Epidemic Models
We propose a model predictive control (MPC) approach for minimising the
social distancing and quarantine measures during a pandemic while maintaining a
hard infection cap. To this end, we study the admissible and the maximal robust
positively invariant set (MRPI) of the standard SEIR compartmental model with
control inputs. Exploiting the fact that in the MRPI all restrictions can be
lifted without violating the infection cap, we choose a suitable subset of the
MRPI to define terminal constraints in our MPC routine and show that the number
of infected people decays exponentially within this set. Furthermore, under
mild assumptions we prove existence of a uniform bound on the time required to
reach this terminal region (without violating the infection cap) starting in
the admissible set. The findings are substantiated based on a numerical case
study.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure
Effect of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Colonization on Early Growth and Nutrient Content of Two Peat Swamp Forest Tree Species Seedlings, Calophyllum Hosei and Ploiarium Alternifolium
Tropical peat-swamp forests are one of the largest near-surface reserves of terrestrial organic carbon, but rnany peat-swamp forest tree species decreased due over-exploitation, forest fire and conversion of natural forests into agricultural lands. Among those species are slow-growing Calophyllum hoseiand Ploiarium alternifolium, two species are good for construction of boats, furniture, house building and considerable attention from pharmacological viewpoint for human healthly. This study was aimed at understanding the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi on early growth of C. hosei and P.alternifoliumunder greenhouse condition. Seedlings of C. hosei and P.alternifoliumwere inoculated with AM fungi: Glomus clarum and Glomus aggregatum ,or uninoculated under greenhouse condition during 6 months. AM colonization, plant growth, survival rate and nutrient content (P, Zn and B) were measured. The percentage of C. hoseiand P.alternifolium ranged from 27-32% and 18-19%, respectively. Both inoculated seedling species had greater plant height, diameter, leaf number, shoot and root dry weight than control seedlings. Nutrient content of inoculated plants were increased with AM colonization- Survival rates of inoculated plants were higher (100%) than those of control plants (67%). The results suggested that inoculation of AM fungi could improve the early growth of C. hoseiand P.alternifolium grown in tropical peat-swamp forest therefore this finding has greater potential impact if this innovative technology applied in field scales which are socially acceptable, commercially profitable and environmentally friendly
Filamentary jets as a cosmic-ray "Zevatron"
Strong, anisotropic turbulence reflecting magnetized filaments is considered,
to model the diffusive acceleration of particles by shock waves in active
galactic nucleus jets. We address that at knot A of the nearby M87 jet, the
shock involving the filamentary turbulence can accelerate an iron nucleus to
zetta-eV (ZeV; 10^{21} eV) ranges. A smaller value of the particle diffusion
coefficient is found to be essential to achieve a ZeV cosmic-ray accelerator, a
"Zevatron."Comment: 5 pages, 2 color figures, emulateap
Particle Diffusion and Acceleration by Shock Wave in Magnetized Filamentary Turbulence
We expand the off-resonant scattering theory for particle diffusion in
magnetized current filaments that can be typically compared to astrophysical
jets, including active galactic nucleus jets. In a high plasma beta region
where the directional bulk flow is a free-energy source for establishing
turbulent magnetic fields via current filamentation instabilities, a novel
version of quasi-linear theory to describe the diffusion of test particles is
proposed. The theory relies on the proviso that the injected energetic
particles are not trapped in the small-scale structure of magnetic fields
wrapping around and permeating a filament but deflected by the filaments, to
open a new regime of the energy hierarchy mediated by a transition compared to
the particle injection. The diffusion coefficient derived from a quasi-linear
type equation is applied to estimating the timescale for the stochastic
acceleration of particles by the shock wave propagating through the jet. The
generic scalings of the achievable highest energy of an accelerated ion and
electron, as well as of the characteristic time for conceivable energy
restrictions, are systematically presented. We also discuss a feasible method
of verifying the theoretical predictions. The strong, anisotropic turbulence
reflecting cosmic filaments might be the key to the problem of the acceleration
mechanism of the highest energy cosmic rays exceeding 100 EeV (10^{20} eV),
detected in recent air shower experiments.Comment: 39 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Study of Field-Induced Magnetic Order in Singlet-Ground-State Magnet CsFeCl
The field-induced magnetic order in the singlet-ground-state system
CsFeCl has been studied by measuring magnetization and neutron diffraction.
The field dependence of intensity for the neutron magnetic reflection has
clearly demonstrated that the field-induced ordered phase is described by the
order parameter . A condensate growth of magnons is investigated through
the temperature dependence of and , and this ordering is
discussed in the context of a magnon Bose-Einstein condensation. Development of
the coherent state and the static correlation length has been observed in the
incommensurate phase in the field region of , a satellite peak was found in coexistence with the commensurate
peak at the phase boundary around 10 T, which indicates that the tilt of the
c-axis would be less than in the whole experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
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