A possible role of ground-based microorganisms on cloud formation in the atmosphere

The formation of clouds is an important process for the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle, and climate, but some aspects of it are not completely understood. In this work, we show that microorganisms might affect cloud formation without leaving the Earth's surface by releasing biological surfactants (or biosurfactants) in the environment, that make their way into atmospheric aerosols and could significantly enhance their activation into cloud droplets. <br><br> In the first part of this work, the cloud-nucleating efficiency of standard biosurfactants was characterized and found to be better than that of any aerosol material studied so far, including inorganic salts. These results identify molecular structures that give organic compounds exceptional cloud-nucleating properties. In the second part, atmospheric aerosols were sampled at different locations: a temperate coastal site, a marine site, a temperate forest, and a tropical forest. Their surface tension was measured and found to be below 30 mN/m, the lowest reported for aerosols, to our knowledge. This very low surface tension was attributed to the presence of biosurfactants, the only natural substances able to reach to such low values. <br><br> The presence of strong microbial surfactants in aerosols would be consistent with the organic fractions of exceptional cloud-nucleating efficiency recently found in aerosols, and with the correlations between algae bloom and cloud cover reported in the Southern Ocean. The results of this work also suggest that biosurfactants might be common in aerosols and thus of global relevance. If this is confirmed, a new role for microorganisms on the atmosphere and climate could be identified

Dynamical Instability of a Doubly Quantized Vortex in a Bose-Einstein condensate

Doubly quantized vortices were topologically imprinted in $|F=1>$ $^{23}$Na condensates, and their time evolution was observed using a tomographic imaging technique. The decay into two singly quantized vortices was characterized and attributed to dynamical instability. The time scale of the splitting process was found to be longer at higher atom density.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Effects of nuclear re-interactions in quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

The effects of nuclear re-interactions in the quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering are investigated with a phenomenological model. We found that the nuclear responses are lowered and their maxima are shifted towards higher excitation energies. This is reflected on the total neutrino-nucleus cross section in a general reduction of about 15% for neutrino energies above 300 MeV.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to AstroParticle Physic

Nitrogen in ruminant nutrition: a review of measurement techniques

Nitrogen (N) is a component of essential nutrients critical for the productivity of ruminants. If excreted in excess, N is also an important environmental pollutant contributing to acid deposition, eutrophication, human respiratory problems, and climate change. The complex microbial metabolic activity in the rumen and the impact on subsequent processes in the intestines and body tissues make the study of N metabolism in ruminants challenging compared to non-ruminants. Therefore, using accurate and precise measurement techniques is imperative for obtaining reliable experimental results on N utilization by ruminants and evaluating the environmental impacts of N emission mitigation techniques. Changeover design experiments are as suitable as continuous ones for studying protein metabolism in ruminant animals, except when changes in body weight or carryover effects due to treatment are expected. Adaptation following a dietary change should be allowed for at least 2 (preferably 3) weeks, and extended adaptation periods may be required if body pools can temporarily supply the nutrients studied. Dietary protein degradability in the rumen and intestines are feed characteristics determining the primary amino acids available to the host animal. They can be estimated using in situ, in vitro, or in vivo techniques with each having inherent advantages and disadvantages. There is still a need for accurate, precise, and inexpensive laboratory assays for feed protein availability. Techniques used for direct determination of rumen microbial protein synthesis are laborious, expensive, and data variability can be unacceptably large; indirect approaches have not shown the level of accuracy required for widespread adoption. Techniques for studying postruminal digestion and absorption of nitrogenous compounds, urea recycling, and mammary amino acid metabolism are also laborious, expensive (especially the methods that utilize isotopes), and results can be variable, especially the methods based on measurements of digesta or blood flow. Volatile loss of N from feces and urine can be substantial during collection, processing, and analysis of excreta, compromising the accuracy of measurements of total tract N digestion and body N balance. In studying ruminant N metabolism, nutritionists should consider the longer-term fate of manure N as well. Various techniques used to determine the effects of animal nutrition on total N, ammonia- or nitrous oxide-emitting potentials, as well as plant fertilizer value, of manure are available. Overall, over 150 years of animal nutrition research have developed methods to study ruminant N metabolism, but many of them are laborious and impractical for application on a large number of animals. The increasing environmental concerns associated with livestock production systems necessitate a more accurate and reliable methods to determine manure N emissions in the context of feed composition and ruminant N metabolism

d_{x^2-y^2}-Wave Pairing Fluctuations and Pseudo Spin Gap in Two-Dimensional Electron Systems

Pseudogap phenomena of high-T_c cuprates are examined. In terms of AFM (antiferromagnetic) and dSC (d_{x^2-y^2}-wave superconducting) auxiliary fields introduced to integrate out the fermions, the effective action for 2D electron systems with AFM and dSC fluctuations is considered. By the self-consistent renormalization (SCR), the NMR relaxation rate T_1^{-1}, the spin correlation length \xi_\sigma and the pairing correlation length \xi_d are calculated. From this calculation, a mechanism of the pseudogap formation emerges as the region of dominant d-wave short-range order (SRO) over AFM-SRO. When damping for the AFM fluctuation strongly depends on the dSC correlation length through the formation of precursor singlets around (\pi,0) and (0,\pi) points in the momentum space, the pseudogap appears in a region of the normal state characterized by decreasing 1/T_1T and increasing AFM correlation length with decrease in temperature. This reproduces a characteristic feature of the pseudogap phenomena in many underdoped cuprates. When the damping becomes insensitive to the dSC correlation length, the pseudogap region shrinks as in the overdoped cuprates.Comment: 13 pages with 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jpn.; figure inclusion correcte