8,047 research outputs found
Slowly modulated oscillations in nonlinear diffusion processes
It is shown here that certain systems of nonlinear (parabolic) reaction-diffusion equations have solutions which are approximated by oscillatory functions in the form R(ξ - cτ)P(t^*) where P(t^*) represents a sinusoidal oscillation on a fast time scale t* and R(ξ - cτ) represents a slowly-varying modulating amplitude on slow space (ξ) and slow time (τ) scales. Such solutions describe phenomena in chemical reactors, chemical and biological reactions, and in other media where a stable oscillation at each point (or site) undergoes a slow amplitude change due to diffusion
Discovery and Assessment of New Target Sites for Anti-HIV Therapies
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects cells by endocytosis and takes over parts of the cell’s reaction pathways in order to reproduce itself and spread the infection. One such pathway taken over by HIV becomes the inflammatory pathway which uses Nuclear Factor κB (NF-κB) as the principal transcription factor. Therefore, knocking out the NF-κB pathway would prevent HIV from reproducing itself. In this report, our goal is to produce a simple model for this pathway with which we can identify potential targets for anti-HIV therapies and test out various hypotheses. We present a very simple model with four coupled first-order ODEs and see what happens if we treat IκK concentration as a parameter that can be controlled (by some unspecified means). In Section 3, we augment this model to account for activation and deactivation of IκK, which is controlled (again, by some unspecified means) by TNF
The Magnetohydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability: A Three-Dimensional Study of Nonlinear Evolution
We investigate through high resolution 3D simulations the nonlinear evolution
of compressible magnetohydrodynamic flows subject to the Kelvin-Helmholtz
instability. We confirm in 3D flows the conclusion from our 2D work that even
apparently weak magnetic fields embedded in Kelvin-Helmholtz unstable plasma
flows can be fundamentally important to nonlinear evolution of the instability.
In fact, that statement is strengthened in 3D by this work, because it shows
how field line bundles can be stretched and twisted in 3D as the quasi-2D Cat's
Eye vortex forms out of the hydrodynamical motions. In our simulations twisting
of the field may increase the maximum field strength by more than a factor of
two over the 2D effect. If, by these developments, the Alfv\'en Mach number of
flows around the Cat's Eye drops to unity or less, our simulations suggest
magnetic stresses will eventually destroy the Cat's Eye and cause the plasma
flow to self-organize into a relatively smooth and apparently stable flow that
retains memory of the original shear. For our flow configurations the regime in
3D for such reorganization is , expressed in
terms of the Alfv\'en Mach number of the original velocity transition and the
initial Alfv\'en speed projected to the flow plan. For weaker fields the
instability remains essentially hydrodynamic in early stages, and the Cat's Eye
is destroyed by the hydrodynamic secondary instabilities of a 3D nature. Then,
the flows evolve into chaotic structures that approach decaying isotropic
turbulence. In this stage, there is considerable enhancement to the magnetic
energy due to stretching, twisting, and turbulent amplification, which is
retained long afterwards. The magnetic energy eventually catches up to the
kinetic energy, and the nature of flows become magnetohydrodynamic.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures in degraded jpg format (2 in color), paper with
original quality figures available via ftp at
ftp://ftp.msi.umn.edu/pub/users/twj/mhdkh3dd.ps.gz or
ftp://canopus.chungnam.ac.kr/ryu/mhdkh3dd.ps.gz, to appear in The
Astrophysical Journa
Measurement of Resonant Frequency and Quality Factor of Microwave Resonators: Comparison of Methods
Precise microwave measurements of sample conductivity, dielectric, and
magnetic properties are routinely performed with cavity perturbation
measurements. These methods require the accurate determination of quality
factor and resonant frequency of microwave resonators. Seven different methods
to determine the resonant frequency and quality factor from complex
transmission coefficient data are discussed and compared to find which is most
accurate and precise when tested using identical data. We find that the
nonlinear least-squares fit to the phase vs. frequency is the most accurate and
precise when the signal-to-noise ratio is greater than 65. For noisier data,
the nonlinear least squares fit to a Lorentzian curve is more accurate and
precise. The results are general and can be applied to the analysis of many
kinds of resonant phenomena.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figure
Magnetic Domain Patterns Depending on the Sweeping Rate of Magnetic Fields
The domain patterns in a thin ferromagnetic film are investigated in both
experiments and numerical simulations. Magnetic domain patterns under a zero
field are usually observed after an external magnetic field is removed. It is
demonstrated that the characteristics of the domain patterns depend on the
decreasing rate of the external field, although it can also depend on other
factors. Our numerical simulations and experiments show the following
properties of domain patterns: a sea-island structure appears when the field
decreases rapidly from the saturating field to the zero field, while a
labyrinth structure is observed for a slowly decreasing field. The mechanism of
the dependence on the field sweeping rate is discussed in terms of the concepts
of crystallization.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Recent advances in femtosecond laser writing inside transparent materials
Modification of transparent materials with ultrafast lasers has attracted considerable interest due to a wide range of applications including laser surgery, integrated optics, optical data storage, 3D microand nano-structuring [1].T Three different types of material modifications can be induced with ultrafast laser irradiation in the bulk of a transparent material, silica glass in particular: an isotropic refractive index change (type 1); a form birefringence associated with self-assembled nanogratings and negative refractive index change (type 2) [2,3]; and a void (type 3). In fused silica the transition from type 1 to type 2 and finally to type 3 modification is observed with an increase of fluence. Recently, a remarkable phenomenon in ultrafast laser processing of transparent materials has been reported manifesting itself as a change in material modification by reversing the writing direction [4]. The phenomenon has been interpreted in terms of anisotropic plasma heating by a tilted front of the ultrashort laser pulse. Moreover a change in structural modification has been demonstrated in glass by controlling the direction of pulse front tilt, achieving a calligraphic style of laser writing which is similar in appearance to that inked with the bygone quill pen [5]. It has also been a common belief that in a homogeneous medium, the photosensitivity and corresponding light-induced material modifications do not change on the reversal of light propagation direction. More recently it have observed that in a non-centrosymmetric medium, modification of the material can be different when light propagates in opposite directions (KaYaSo effect) [6]. Moreover a new phenomenon of ultrafast light blade, representing itself the first evidence of anisotropic sensitivity of isotropic medium to femtosecond laser radiation has been recently discovered [7]. We attribute these new phenomena to the anisotropy of the light-matter interaction caused by space-time couplings in ultrashort light pulses. We anticipate that the observed phenomena will open new opportunities in laser material processing, laser surgery, optical manipulation and data storage
Sigma Exchange in the Nonmesonic Decays of Light Hypernuclei and Violation of the Delta I=1/2 Rule
Nonmesonic weak decays of s-shell hypernuclei are analyzed in microscopic
models for the Lambda N to NN weak interaction. A scalar-isoscalar meson,
sigma, is introduced and its importance in accounting the decay rates, n/p
ratios and proton asymmetry is demonstrated. Possible violation of the Delta
I=1/2 rule in the nonmesonic weak decay of Lambda is discussed in a
phenomenological analysis and several useful constraints are presented. The
microscopic calculation shows that the current experimental data indicate a
large violation of the Delta I=1/2 rule, although no definite conclusion can be
derived due to large ambiguity of the decay rate of {^4_Lambda H}.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Tests of star formation metrics in the low metallicity galaxy NGC 5253 using ALMA observations of H30 line emission
We use Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of
H30 (231.90 GHz) emission from the low metallicity dwarf galaxy NGC
5253 to measure the star formation rate (SFR) within the galaxy and to test the
reliability of SFRs derived from other commonly-used metrics. The H30
emission, which originates mainly from the central starburst, yields a
photoionizing photon production rate of (1.90.3)10 s
and an SFR of 0.0870.013 M yr based on conversions that
account for the low metallicity of the galaxy and for stellar rotation. Among
the other star formation metrics we examined, the SFR calculated from the total
infrared flux was statistically equivalent to the values from the H30
data. The SFR based on previously-published versions of the H flux that
were extinction corrected using Pa and Pa lines were lower than
but also statistically similar to the H30 value. The mid-infrared (22
m) flux density and the composite star formation tracer based on H
and mid-infrared emission give SFRs that were significantly higher because the
dust emission appears unusually hot compared to typical spiral galaxies.
Conversely, the 70 and 160 m flux densities yielded SFR lower than the
H30 value, although the SFRs from the 70 m and H30 data
were within 1-2 of each other. While further analysis on a broader
range of galaxies are needed, these results are instructive of the best and
worst methods to use when measuring SFR in low metallicity dwarf galaxies like
NGC 5253.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
HLA-Associated viral mutations are common in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 elite controllers
Elite controllers (EC) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HTV-1) maintain viremia below the limit of detection without antiretroviral treatment. Virus-specific cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes are believed to play a crucial role in viral containment, but the degree of immune imprinting and compensatory mutations in EC is unclear. We obtained plasma gag, pol, and nef sequences from HLA-diverse subjects and found that 30 to 40% of the predefined HLA-associated polymorphic sites show evidence of immune selection pressure in EC., compared to approximately 50% of the sites in chronic progressors. These data indicate ongoing viral replication and escape from cytotoxic T lymphocytes are present even in strictly controlled HTV-1 infection
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