11,931 research outputs found
A Mesolithic settlement site at Howick, Northumberland: a preliminary report
Excavations at a coastal site at Howick during 2000 and 2002 have revealed evidence for a substantial Mesolithic settlement and a Bronze Age cist cemetery. Twenty one radiocarbon determinations of the earlier eighth millennium BP (Cal.) indicate that the Mesolithic site is one of the earliest known in northern Britain. An 8m core of sediment was recovered from stream deposits adjacent to the archaeological site which provides information on local environmental conditions. Howick offers a unique opportunity to understand aspects of hunter-gatherer colonisation and settlement during a period of rapid palaeogeographical change around the margins of the North Sea basin, at a time when it was being progressively inundated by the final stages of the postglacial marine transgression. The cist cemetery will add to the picture of Bronze Age occupation of the coastal strip and again reveals a correlation between the location of Bronze Age and Mesolithic sites which has been observed elsewhere in the region
A mapping approach to synchronization in the "Zajfman trap": stability conditions and the synchronization mechanism
We present a two particle model to explain the mechanism that stabilizes a
bunch of positively charged ions in an "ion trap resonator" [Pedersen etal,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 055001]. The model decomposes the motion of the two
ions into two mappings for the free motion in different parts of the trap and
one for a compressing momentum kick. The ions' interaction is modelled by a
time delay, which then changes the balance between adjacent momentum kicks.
Through these mappings we identify the microscopic process that is responsible
for synchronization and give the conditions for that regime.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures; submitted to Phys Rev
High-field vortices in Josephson junctions with alternating critical current density
We study long Josephson junctions with the critical current density
alternating along the junction. New equilibrium states, which we call the field
synchronized or FS states, are shown to exist if the applied field is from
narrow intervals centered around equidistant series of resonant fields, .
The values of are much higher than the flux penetration field, . The
flux per period of the alternating critical current density, , is fixed
for each of the FS states. In the -th FS state the value of is
equal to an integer amount of flux quanta, . Two types of
single Josephson vortices carrying fluxes or/and can exist
in the FS states. Specific stepwise resonances in the current-voltage
characteristics are caused by periodic motion of these vortices between the
edges of the junction.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Tur\'an Graphs, Stability Number, and Fibonacci Index
The Fibonacci index of a graph is the number of its stable sets. This
parameter is widely studied and has applications in chemical graph theory. In
this paper, we establish tight upper bounds for the Fibonacci index in terms of
the stability number and the order of general graphs and connected graphs.
Tur\'an graphs frequently appear in extremal graph theory. We show that Tur\'an
graphs and a connected variant of them are also extremal for these particular
problems.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Trees with Given Stability Number and Minimum Number of Stable Sets
We study the structure of trees minimizing their number of stable sets for
given order and stability number . Our main result is that the
edges of a non-trivial extremal tree can be partitioned into stars,
each of size or , so that every vertex is included in at most two
distinct stars, and the centers of these stars form a stable set of the tree.Comment: v2: Referees' comments incorporate
Volume-energy correlations in the slow degrees of freedom of computer-simulated phospholipid membranes
Constant-pressure molecular-dynamics simulations of phospholipid membranes in
the fluid phase reveal strong correlations between equilibrium fluctuations of
volume and energy on the nanosecond time-scale. The existence of strong
volume-energy correlations was previously deduced indirectly by Heimburg from
experiments focusing on the phase transition between the fluid and the ordered
gel phases. The correlations, which are reported here for three different
membranes (DMPC, DMPS-Na, and DMPSH), have volume-energy correlation
coefficients ranging from 0.81 to 0.89. The DMPC membrane was studied at two
temperatures showing that the correlation coefficient increases as the phase
transition is approached
Inheritance of acid-soil tolerance in sorghum (\u3ci\u3eSorghum bicolor\u3c/i\u3e) grown on an Ultisol
Inheritance of acid-soil tolerance (generally considered AI-toxicity tolerance) i.n sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is not clear. Forty F1 sorghum hybrids and their 14 parents were grown two seasons in the field at relatively high (67 and 71%) and low (43 and 42%) Al saturations on an acid Ultisol in Colombia, South America to evaluate the effects of acid soil on agronomic component traits and to better understand inheritance of acid-soil tolerance of sorghum. For plants grown at the high Al saturation levels, hybrids from acid-soil tolerant [AS-T] x acid soil-sensitive [AS-S] crosses were as tolerant as hybrids from AS-T x AS-T crosses which were as tolerant as their AS-T parents. Hybrids from AS-S x AS-S crosses were all sensitive to the acid-soil stress conditions. General combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effects were significant for acid-soil tolerance, and GCA effects were more important than SCA effects. Significant GCA and SCA effects were detected for grain yield and number of roots at the low Al saturation level. Additive genetic effects in these genotypes were important for acid-soil tolerance rating, grain yield, and number of roots at the high Al saturation level
Inheritance of acid-soil tolerance in sorghum (\u3ci\u3eSorghum bicolor\u3c/i\u3e) grown on an Ultisol
Inheritance of acid-soil tolerance (generally considered AI-toxicity tolerance) i.n sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is not clear. Forty F1 sorghum hybrids and their 14 parents were grown two seasons in the field at relatively high (67 and 71%) and low (43 and 42%) Al saturations on an acid Ultisol in Colombia, South America to evaluate the effects of acid soil on agronomic component traits and to better understand inheritance of acid-soil tolerance of sorghum. For plants grown at the high Al saturation levels, hybrids from acid-soil tolerant [AS-T] x acid soil-sensitive [AS-S] crosses were as tolerant as hybrids from AS-T x AS-T crosses which were as tolerant as their AS-T parents. Hybrids from AS-S x AS-S crosses were all sensitive to the acid-soil stress conditions. General combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effects were significant for acid-soil tolerance, and GCA effects were more important than SCA effects. Significant GCA and SCA effects were detected for grain yield and number of roots at the low Al saturation level. Additive genetic effects in these genotypes were important for acid-soil tolerance rating, grain yield, and number of roots at the high Al saturation level
Combined local and systemic immunization is essential for durable T-cell mediated heterosubtypic immunity against influenza A virus
The threat from unpredictable influenza virus pandemics necessitates the development of a new type of influenza vaccine. Since the internal proteins are highly conserved, induction of T cells targeting these antigens may provide the solution. Indeed, adenoviral (Ad) vectors expressing flu nucleoprotein have previously been found to induce short-term protection in mice. In this study we confirm that systemic (subcutaneous (s.c.) immunization rapidly induced heterosubtypic protection predominantly mediated by CD8 T cells, but within three months clinical protection completely disappeared. Local (intranasal (i.n.)) immunization elicited delayed, but more lasting protection despite relatively inefficient immunization. However, by far, the most robust protection was induced by simultaneous, combined (i.n. + s.c.) vaccination, and, notably, in this case clinical protection lasted at least 8 months without showing any evidence of fading. Interestingly, the superior ability of the latter group to resist reinfection correlated with a higher number of antigen-specific CD8 T cells in the spleen. Thus, detailed analysis of the underlying CD8 T cell responses highlights the importance of T cells already positioned in the lungs prior to challenge, but at the same time underscores an important back-up role for circulating antigen-specific cells with the capacity to expand and infiltrate the infected lungs
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