Lateral stress evolution in chromium sulfide cermets with varying excess chromium

The shock response of chromium sulfide-chromium, a cermet of potential interest as a matrix material for ballistic applications, has been investigated at two molar ratios. Using a combustion synthesis technique allowed for control of the molar ratio of the material, which was investigated under near-stoichiometric (cermet) and excess chromium (interpenetrating composite) conditions, representing chromium:sulfur molar ratios of 1.15:1 and 4:1, respectively. The compacts were investigated via the plate-impact technique, which allowed the material to be loaded under a onedimensional state of strain. Embedded manganin stress gauges were employed to monitor the temporal evolution of longitudinal and lateral components of stress in both materials. Comparison of these two components has allowed assessment of the variation of material shear strength both with impact pressure/strain-rate and time for the two molar ratio conditions. The two materials exhibited identical material strength despite variations in their excess chromium content

The Microcalorimeter Arrays for a Rhenium Experiment (MARE): a next-generation calorimetric neutrino mass experiment

Neutrino oscillation experiments have proved that neutrinos are massive particles, but can't determine their absolute mass scale. Therefore the neutrino mass is still an open question in elementary particle physics. An international collaboration is growing around the project of Microcalorimeter Arrays for a Rhenium Experiment (MARE) for directly measuring the neutrino mass with a sensitivity of about 0.2eV/c2. Many groups are joining their experiences and technical expertise in a common effort towards this challenging experiment. We discuss the different scenarios and the impact of MARE as a complement of KATRIN.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure Nucl. Instr. Meth. A, proceedings of LTD11 workshop, Tokyo 200

Retrospective analysis for detecting seismic precursors in groundwater argon content

We examined the groundwater Argon content data sampled from 1988 to 2001 at two wells in Kamchatka (Russia) and anomalous increases appeared clearly during June-July&nbsp;1996. On 21&nbsp;June, a shallow (1km) earthquake with <i>M</i>=7.1 occurred at a distance less than 250km from the wells and so the previous increases could be related to this earthquake and, in particular, could be considered premonitory anomalies. In order to support this raw interpretation, we analysed the data collected in details. At first we smoothed out the high frequency fluctuations arising from the errors in a single measurement. Next we considered the known external effects on the water of a well that are the slow tectonic re-adjustment processes, the meteorology and the gravity tides and we separated these effects applying band-pass filters to the Argon content raw trends. Then we identified the largest fluctuations in these trends applying the 3 σ criterion and we found three anomalies in a case and two anomalies in other case. Comparing the time occurrence of the anomalies at the two wells we found out that a coincidence exists only in the case of the premonitory anomalies we are studying. The simultaneous appearance of well definite anomalies in the residual trends of the same parameter at two different sites supports their meaning and the possibility that they are related to some large scale effect, as the occurrence of a strong earthquake. But, other earthquakes similar to the June&nbsp;1996 event took place during the Argon content measurements time and no anomaly appeared in this content. In the past, some of the authors of this paper studied the Helium content data collected in three natural springs of the Caucasus during seven years. A very similar result, that is the simultaneous appearance of clear premonitory anomalies only on the occasion of a strong (<i>M</i>=7.0) but shallow (2–4km) earthquake, was obtained. The correspondence with the case of the Caucasus validates the interpretation of the Kamchatkian anomalies as precursors

A possible preseismic anomaly in the ground wave of a radio broadcasting (216 kHz) during July-August 1998 (Italy)

International audienceOn February 1996, a receiver able to measure the electric field strength of LF radio broadcastings, with a sampling frequency of ten minutes, was put into operation in a site (AS) located in central Italy. One of the broadcasting stations selected is MCO (f=216 kHz), located in southeast France, 518 km far from the receiver. The MCO data collected since February 1996 up to September 2004 were examined and, at first, the night time data and the day time data (in winter and summer) were separated. Then, the wavelet analysis on the night and day time data was applied. The main result of the analysis was the appearance of a very clear anomaly during summer (July?August) 1998, at day time and at night time. The anomaly is a strong exaltation of the signal components with period in the 25?40 days range. Theoretical calculations of electric field strength were made and the only way to justify this anomaly seems to be the occurrence of an increase of the ground wave propagation mode of the radio signal. Such an increase could have been produced by an increase of the ground conductivity and by modifications of some parameter of the troposphere, mainly the refractive index. On 15 August 1998 a seismic sequence started with 17 earthquakes (M=2.2?4.6) on the Reatini mountains, a seismogenic zone located 30 km far from the AS receiver along the path MCO-AS. In this paper, the possibility that the previous radio anomaly can be a precursor of this seismic sequence is proposed. </p

Photometric redshifts and clustering of emission line galaxies selected jointly by DES and eBOSS

We present the results of the first test plates of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. This paper focuses on the emission line galaxies (ELG) population targetted from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) photometry. We analyse the success rate, efficiency, redshift distribution, and clustering properties of the targets. From the 9000 spectroscopic redshifts targetted, 4600 have been selected from the DES photometry. The total success rate for redshifts between 0.6 and 1.2 is 71\% and 68\% respectively for a bright and faint, on average more distant, samples including redshifts measured from a single strong emission line. We find a mean redshift of 0.8 and 0.87, with 15 and 13\% of unknown redshifts respectively for the bright and faint samples. In the redshift range 0.6<z<1.2, for the most secure spectroscopic redshifts, the mean redshift for the bright and faint sample is 0.85 and 0.9 respectively. Star contamination is lower than 2\%. We measure a galaxy bias averaged on scales of 1 and 10~Mpc/h of 1.72 \pm 0.1 for the bright sample and of 1.78 \pm 0.12 for the faint sample. The error on the galaxy bias have been obtained propagating the errors in the correlation function to the fitted parameters. This redshift evolution for the galaxy bias is in agreement with theoretical expectations for a galaxy population with MB-5\log h < -21.0. We note that biasing is derived from the galaxy clustering relative to a model for the mass fluctuations. We investigate the quality of the DES photometric redshifts and find that the outlier fraction can be reduced using a comparison between template fitting and neural network, or using a random forest algorithm

Characterization of a new trabectedin-resistant myxoid liposarcoma cell line that shows collateral sensitivity to methylating agents

Myxoid Liposarcomas (MLS), characterized by the expression of FUS-CHOP fusion gene are clinically very sensitive to the DNA binding antitumor agent, trabectedin. However, resistance eventually occurs, preventing disease eradication. To investigate the mechanisms of resistance, a trabectedin resistant cell line, 402-91/ET, was developed. The resistance to trabectedin was not related to the expression of MDR related proteins, uptake/efflux of trabectedin or GSH levels that were similar in parental and resistant cells. The 402-91/ET cells were hypersensitive to UV light because of a nucleotide excision repair defect: XPG complementation decreased sensitivity to UV rays, but only partially to trabectedin. 402-91/ET cells showed collateral sensitivity to temozolomide due to the lack of O(6) -methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) activity, related to the hypermethylation of MGMT promoter. In 402-91 cells chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays showed that FUS-CHOP was bound to the PTX3 and FN1 gene promoters, as previously described, and trabectedin caused FUS-CHOP detachment from DNA. Here we report that, in contrast, in 402-91/ET cells, FUS-CHOP was not bound to these promoters. Differences in the modulation of transcription of genes involved in different pathways including signal transduction, apoptosis and stress response between the two cell lines were found. Trabectedin activates the transcription of genes involved in the adipogenic-program such as c/EBPα and β, in 402-91 but not in 402-91/ET cell lines. The collateral sensitivity of 402-91/ET to temozolomide provides the rationale to investigate the potential use of methylating agents in MLS patients resistant to trabectedin

DNA content of a functioning chicken kinetochore

© The Author(s) 2014. In order to understand the three-dimensional structure of the functional kinetochore in vertebrates, we require a complete list and stoichiometry for the protein components of the kinetochore, which can be provided by genetic and proteomic experiments. We also need to know how the chromatin-containing CENP-A, which makes up the structural foundation for the kinetochore, is folded, and how much of that DNA is involved in assembling the kinetochore. In this MS, we demonstrate that functioning metaphase kinetochores in chicken DT40 cells contain roughly 50 kb of DNA, an amount that corresponds extremely closely to the length of chromosomal DNA associated with CENP-A in ChIP-seq experiments. Thus, during kinetochore assembly, CENP-A chromatin is compacted into the inner kinetochore plate without including significant amounts of flanking pericentromeric heterochromatin. © 2014 The Author(s).Wellcome Trust [grant number 073915]; Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology (core grant numbers 077707 and 092076); Darwin Trust of Edinburg