Production of proton-rich nuclei around Z=84-90 in fusion-evaporation reactions

Within the framework of the dinuclear system model, production cross sections of proton-rich nuclei with charged numbers of Z=84-90 are investigated systematically. Possible combinations with the $^{28}$Si, $^{32}$S, $^{40}$Ar bombarding the target nuclides $^{165}$Ho, $^{169}$Tm, $^{170-174}$Yb, $^{175,176}$Lu, $^{174,176-180}$Hf and $^{181}$Ta are analyzed thoroughly. The optimal excitation energies and evaporation channels are proposed to produce the proton-rich nuclei. The systems are feasible to be constructed in experiments. It is found that the neutron shell closure of N=126 is of importance during the evaporation of neutrons. The experimental excitation functions in the $^{40}$Ar induced reactions can be nicely reproduced. The charged particle evaporation is comparable with neutrons in cooling the excited proton-rich nuclei, in particular for the channels with $\alpha$ and proton evaporation. The production cross section increases with the mass asymmetry of colliding systems because of the decrease of the inner fusion barrier. The channels with pure neutron evaporation depend on the isotopic targets. But it is different for the channels with charged particles and more sensitive to the odd-even effect.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0803.1117, arXiv:0707.258

The Implication of Climate Signal for Precipitation in the Heihe River Basin, Northwest China

This paper studies the stochastic dynamic variability of precipitation, for the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Heihe River basin in Northwest China, by employing Mann-Kendall statistic, Pettitt test, and wavelet transform methods. The possible associations with three prominent climatic patterns, El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Artic Oscillation (AO), and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), are examined by using multiscale wavelet coherence method. No significant trend is identified for the interannual precipitation variability. However, about 2-year significant variability is detected for the lower reach of the Heihe River basin, and this dominating precipitation variability is essentially depicted by AO. The possible influences of ENSO are exerted on long-term timescale, 8–16 years. The obtained knowledge is helpful for the predications of extreme hydroclimatological events and better reservoir operations for regional water resources

Evidence against the energetic cost hypothesis for the short introns in highly expressed genes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In animals, the moss <it>Physcomitrella patens </it>and the pollen of <it>Arabidopsis thaliana</it>, highly expressed genes have shorter introns than weakly expressed genes. A popular explanation for this is selection for transcription efficiency, which includes two sub-hypotheses: to minimize the energetic cost or to minimize the time cost.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In an individual human, different organs may differ up to hundreds of times in cell number (for example, a liver versus a hypothalamus). Considered at the individual level, a gene specifically expressed in a large organ is actually transcribed tens or hundreds of times more than a gene with a similar expression level (a measure of mRNA abundance per cell) specifically expressed in a small organ. According to the energetic cost hypothesis, the former should have shorter introns than the latter. However, in humans and mice we have not found significant differences in intron length between large-tissue/organ-specific genes and small-tissue/organ-specific genes with similar expression levels. Qualitative estimation shows that the deleterious effect (that is, the energetic burden) of long introns in highly expressed genes is too negligible to be efficiently selected against in mammals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The short introns in highly expressed genes should not be attributed to energy constraint. We evaluated evidence for the time cost hypothesis and other alternatives.</p

Why eukaryotic cells use introns to enhance gene expression: Splicing reduces transcription-associated mutagenesis by inhibiting topoisomerase I cutting activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The costs and benefits of spliceosomal introns in eukaryotes have not been established. One recognized effect of intron splicing is its known enhancement of gene expression. However, the mechanism regulating such splicing-mediated expression enhancement has not been defined. Previous studies have shown that intron splicing is a time-consuming process, indicating that splicing may not reduce the time required for transcription and processing of spliced pre-mRNA molecules; rather, it might facilitate the later rounds of transcription. Because the densities of active RNA polymerase II on most genes are less than one molecule per gene, direct interactions between the splicing apparatus and transcriptional complexes (from the later rounds of transcription) are infrequent, and thus unlikely to account for splicing-mediated gene expression enhancement.</p> <p>Presentation of the hypothesis</p> <p>The serine/arginine-rich protein SF2/ASF can inhibit the DNA topoisomerase I activity that removes negative supercoiling of DNA generated by transcription. Consequently, splicing could make genes more receptive to RNA polymerase II during the later rounds of transcription, and thus affect the frequency of gene transcription. Compared with the transcriptional enhancement mediated by strong promoters, intron-containing genes experience a lower frequency of cut-and-paste processes. The cleavage and religation activity of DNA strands by DNA topoisomerase I was recently shown to account for transcription-associated mutagenesis. Therefore, intron-mediated enhancement of gene expression could reduce transcription-associated genome instability.</p> <p>Testing the hypothesis</p> <p>Experimentally test whether transcription-associated mutagenesis is lower in intron-containing genes than in intronless genes. Use bioinformatic analysis to check whether exons flanking lost introns have higher frequencies of short deletions.</p> <p>Implications of the hypothesis</p> <p>The mechanism of intron-mediated enhancement proposed here may also explain the positive correlation observed between intron size and gene expression levels in unicellular organisms, and the greater number of intron containing genes in higher organisms.</p> <p>Reviewers</p> <p>This article was reviewed by Dr Arcady Mushegian, Dr Igor B Rogozin (nominated by Dr I King Jordan) and Dr Alexey S Kondrashov. For the full reviews, please go to the Reviewer's Reports section.</p

Vanishing Porosity Limit of the Coupled Stokes-Brinkman System

We investigate the small porosity asymptotic behavior of the coupled Stokes-Brinkman system in the presence of a curved interface between the Stokes region and the Brinkman region. in particular, we derive a set of approximate solutions, validated via rigorous analysis, to the coupled Stokes-Brinkman system. of particular interest is that the approximate solution satisfies a generalized Beavers-Joseph-Saffman-Jones interface condition (1.9) with the constant of proportionality independent of the curvature of the interface

Data-Driven Moving Horizon Estimation Using Bayesian Optimization

In this work, an innovative data-driven moving horizon state estimation is proposed for model dynamic-unknown systems based on Bayesian optimization. As long as the measurement data is received, a locally linear dynamics model can be obtained from one Bayesian optimization-based offline learning framework. Herein, the learned model is continuously updated iteratively based on the actual observed data to approximate the actual system dynamic with the intent of minimizing the cost function of the moving horizon estimator until the desired performance is achieved. Meanwhile, the characteristics of Bayesian optimization can guarantee the closest approximation of the learned model to the actual system dynamic. Thus, one effective data-driven moving horizon estimator can be designed further on the basis of this learned model. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed state estimation algorithm is demonstrated by several numerical simulations.Comment: 12 pages,3 figure