4,412 research outputs found
AUSSAT battery life test program
AUSSAT Pty. Ltd., the Australian National Satellite organization, has contracted with the Hughes Aircraft Company (HAC) for the construction of 3 satellites based on the now familiar HS-376 product line. As part of the AUSSAT contract, HAC is conducting an extensive NiCd battery life test program. The life test program, objectives and test results to date are described. Particular emphasis is given to the evaluation of the FS2117 separator as a future replacement for the Pellon 2505 separator of which only a very limited quantity remains
Superconductor-insulator transition in granular Pb films near a superconducting ground plane
We report observations of the zero-field superconductor-insulator transition in granular quench-condensed Pb for samples within 10-15 nm of relatively thick superconducting ground planes. Resistance vs temperature measurements of sufficiently thick Pb samples exhibit broadened superconductor transitions consistent with previous results on clean dielectric substrates. The lack of any measurable influence by the superconducting planes on the Pb film resistance is discussed within the context of zero-field vortex-antivortex unbinding explanations for the transition broadening
Statistical Communication Theory
Contains reports on seven research projects.National Science Foundation under Grant G-1390
Graded Poisson-Sigma Models and Dilaton-Deformed 2D Supergravity Algebra
Fermionic extensions of generic 2d gravity theories obtained from the graded
Poisson-Sigma model (gPSM) approach show a large degree of ambiguity. In
addition, obstructions may reduce the allowed range of fields as given by the
bosonic theory, or even prohibit any extension in certain cases. In our present
work we relate the finite W-algebras inherent in the gPSM algebra of
constraints to algebras which can be interpreted as supergravities in the usual
sense (Neuveu-Schwarz or Ramond algebras resp.), deformed by the presence of
the dilaton field. With very straightforward and natural assumptions on them
--like demanding rigid supersymmetry in a certain flat limit, or linking the
anti-commutator of certain fermionic charges to the Hamiltonian constraint-- in
the ``genuine'' supergravity obtained in this way the ambiguities disappear, as
well as the obstructions referred to above. Thus all especially interesting
bosonic models (spherically reduced gravity, the Jackiw-Teitelboim model etc.)\
under these conditions possess a unique fermionic extension and are free from
new singularities. The superspace supergravity model of Howe is found as a
special case of this supergravity action. For this class of models the relation
between bosonic potential and prepotential does not introduce obstructions as
well.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, JHEP class. v3: Final version, to appear in JHE
Genome-scale gene/reaction essentiality and synthetic lethality analysis
Synthetic lethals are to pairs of non-essential genes whose simultaneous deletion prohibits growth. One can extend the concept of synthetic lethality by considering gene groups of increasing size where only the simultaneous elimination of all genes is lethal, whereas individual gene deletions are not. We developed optimization-based procedures for the exhaustive and targeted enumeration of multi-gene (and by extension multi-reaction) lethals for genome-scale metabolic models. Specifically, these approaches are applied to iAF1260, the latest model of Escherichia coli, leading to the complete identification of all double and triple gene and reaction synthetic lethals as well as the targeted identification of quadruples and some higher-order ones. Graph representations of these synthetic lethals reveal a variety of motifs ranging from hub-like to highly connected subgraphs providing a birds-eye view of the avenues available for redirecting metabolism and uncovering complex patterns of gene utilization and interdependence. The procedure also enables the use of falsely predicted synthetic lethals for metabolic model curation. By analyzing the functional classifications of the genes involved in synthetic lethals, we reveal surprising connections within and across clusters of orthologous group functional classifications
The Effect of Transposable Element Insertions on Gene Expression Evolution in Rodents
Background:Many genomes contain a substantial number of transposable elements (TEs), a few of which are known to be involved in regulating gene expression. However, recent observations suggest that TEs may have played a very important role in the evolution of gene expression because many conserved non-genic sequences, some of which are know to be involved in gene regulation, resemble TEs. Results:Here we investigate whether new TE insertions affect gene expression profiles by testing whether gene expression divergence between mouse and rat is correlated to the numbers of new transposable elements inserted near genes. We show that expression divergence is significantly correlated to the number of new LTR and SINE elements, but not to the numbers of LINEs. We also show that expression divergence is not significantly correlated to the numbers of ancestral TEs in most cases, which suggests that the correlations between expression divergence and the numbers of new TEs are causal in nature. We quantify the effect and estimate that TE insertion has accounted for ~20% (95% confidence interval: 12% to 26%) of all expression profile divergence in rodents. Conclusions:We conclude that TE insertions may have had a major impact on the evolution of gene expression levels in rodents
The Earth Effect in the MSW Analysis of the Solar Neutrino Experiments
We consider the Earth effect in the MSW analysis of the Homestake,
Kamiokande, GALLEX, and SAGE solar neutrino experiments. Using the
time-averaged data and assuming two-flavor oscillations, the large-angle region
of the combined fit extends to much smaller angles (to ) than when the Earth effect is ignored. However, the additional constraint
from the Kamiokande II day-night data excludes most of the parameter space
sensitive to the Earth effect independent of astrophysical uncertainties, and
leaves only a small large-angle region close to maximal mixing at 90\% C.L. The
nonadiabatic solution remains unaffected by the Earth effect and is still
preferred. Both theoretical and experimental uncertainties are included in the
analysis.Comment: (11 pages, Revtex 3.0 (can be changed to Latex), 3 postscript figures
included, UPR-0570T
2d Stringy Black Holes and Varying Constants
Motivated by the recent interest on models with varying constants and whether
black hole physics can constrain such theories, two-dimensional charged stringy
black holes are considered. We exploit the role of two-dimensional stringy
black holes as toy models for exploring paradoxes which may lead to constrains
on a theory. A two-dimensional charged stringy black hole is investigated in
two different settings. Firstly, the two-dimensional black hole is treated as
an isolated object and secondly, it is contained in a thermal environment. In
both cases, it is shown that the temperature and the entropy of the
two-dimensional charged stringy black hole are decreased when its electric
charge is increased in time. By piecing together our results and previous ones,
we conclude that in the context of black hole thermodynamics one cannot derive
any model independent constraints for the varying constants. Therefore, it
seems that there aren't any varying constant theories that are out of favor
with black hole thermodynamics.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, to appear in JHE
A Computational Approach for Designing Tiger Corridors in India
Wildlife corridors are components of landscapes, which facilitate the
movement of organisms and processes between intact habitat areas, and thus
provide connectivity between the habitats within the landscapes. Corridors are
thus regions within a given landscape that connect fragmented habitat patches
within the landscape. The major concern of designing corridors as a
conservation strategy is primarily to counter, and to the extent possible,
mitigate the effects of habitat fragmentation and loss on the biodiversity of
the landscape, as well as support continuance of land use for essential local
and global economic activities in the region of reference. In this paper, we
use game theory, graph theory, membership functions and chain code algorithm to
model and design a set of wildlife corridors with tiger (Panthera tigris
tigris) as the focal species. We identify the parameters which would affect the
tiger population in a landscape complex and using the presence of these
identified parameters construct a graph using the habitat patches supporting
tiger presence in the landscape complex as vertices and the possible paths
between them as edges. The passage of tigers through the possible paths have
been modelled as an Assurance game, with tigers as an individual player. The
game is played recursively as the tiger passes through each grid considered for
the model. The iteration causes the tiger to choose the most suitable path
signifying the emergence of adaptability. As a formal explanation of the game,
we model this interaction of tiger with the parameters as deterministic finite
automata, whose transition function is obtained by the game payoff.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 6 tables, NGCT conference 201
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