524 research outputs found
On the Spinning Motion of the Hovering Magnetic Top
In this paper we analyze the spinning motion of the hovering magnetic top. We
have observed that its motion looks different from that of a classical top. A
classical top rotates about its own axis which precesses around a vertical
fixed external axis. The hovering magnetic top, on the other hand, has its axis
slightly tilted and moves rigidly as a whole about the vertical axis. We call
this motion synchronous, because in a stroboscopic experiment we see that a
point at the rim of the top moves synchronously with the top axis. We show that
the synchronous motion may be attributed to a small deviation of the magnetic
moment from the symmetry axis of the top. We calculate the minimum angular
velocity required for stability in terms of the moments of inertia and magnetic
field and show that it is different from that of a classical top. We also give
experimental results that were taken with a top whose moment of inertia can be
changed. These results show very good agreement with our calculations.Comment: 19 pages (including 3 figures named fig1.eps-fig3.eps), uses amssymb,
epsf and amsbsy (AMSLaTeX
Blocking neutrophil integrin activation prevents ischemia-reperfusion injury.
Neutrophil recruitment, mediated by β2 integrins, combats pyogenic infections but also plays a key role in ischemia-reperfusion injury and other inflammatory disorders. Talin induces allosteric rearrangements in integrins that increase affinity for ligands (activation). Talin also links integrins to actin and other proteins that enable formation of adhesions. Structural studies have identified a talin1 mutant (L325R) that perturbs activation without impairing talin's capacity to link integrins to actin and other proteins. Here, we found that mice engineered to express only talin1(L325R) in myeloid cells were protected from renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. Dissection of neutrophil function in vitro and in vivo revealed that talin1(L325R) neutrophils had markedly impaired chemokine-induced, β2 integrin-mediated arrest, spreading, and migration. Surprisingly, talin1(L325R) neutrophils exhibited normal selectin-induced, β2 integrin-mediated slow rolling, in sharp contrast to the defective slow rolling of neutrophils lacking talin1 or expressing a talin1 mutant (W359A) that blocks talin interaction with integrins. These studies reveal the importance of talin-mediated activation of integrins for renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. They further show that neutrophil arrest requires talin recruitment to and activation of integrins. However, although neutrophil slow rolling requires talin recruitment to integrins, talin-mediated integrin activation is dispensable
Possible direct method to determine the radius of a star from the spectrum of gravitational wave signals
We computed the spectrum of gravitational waves from a dust disk star of
radius R inspiraling into a Kerr black hole of mass M and specific angular
momentum a. We found that when R is much larger than the wave length of the
quasinormal mode, the spectrum has several peaks and the separation of peaks
is proportional to irrespective of M and a. This
suggests that the radius of the star in coalescing binary black hole - star
systems may be determined directly from the observed spectrum of gravitational
wave. This also suggests that the spectrum of the radiation may give us
important information in gravitational wave astronomy as in optical astronomy.Comment: 4 pages with 3 eps figures, revtex.sty, accepted for publication in
Phys. Rev. Let
Improved numerical stability of stationary black hole evolution calculations
We experiment with modifications of the BSSN form of the Einstein field
equations (a reformulation of the ADM equations) and demonstrate how these
modifications affect the stability of numerical black hole evolution
calculations. We use excision to evolve both non-rotating and rotating
Kerr-Schild black holes in octant and equatorial symmetry, and without any
symmetry assumptions, and obtain accurate and stable simulations for specific
angular momenta J/M of up to about 0.9M.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, 1 typo in Eq. (20) correcte
Head-on collisions of black holes: the particle limit
We compute gravitational radiation waveforms, spectra and energies for a
point particle of mass falling from rest at radius into a
Schwarzschild hole of mass . This radiation is found to lowest order in
with the use of a Laplace transform. In contrast with numerical
relativity results for head-on collisions of equal-mass holes, the radiated
energy is found not to be a monotonically increasing function of initial
separation; there is a local radiated-energy maximum at . The
present results, along with results for infall from infinity, provide a
complete catalog of waveforms and spectra for particle infall. We give a
representative sample from that catalog and an interesting observation: Unlike
the simple spectra for other head-on collisions (either of particle and hole,
or of equal mass holes) the spectra for show a series of
evenly spaced bumps. A simple explanation is given for this. Lastly, our energy
vs. results are compared with approximation methods used elsewhere, for
small and for large initial separation.Comment: 15 pages, REVTeX, 25 figure
From Labyrinthine Patterns to Spiral Turbulence
A new mechanism for spiral vortex nucleation in nongradient reaction
diffusion systems is proposed. It involves two key ingredients: An Ising-Bloch
type front bifurcation and an instability of a planar front to transverse
perturbations. Vortex nucleation by this mechanism plays an important role in
inducing a transition from labyrinthine patterns to spiral turbulence. PACS
numbers: 05.45.+b, 82.20.MjComment: 4 pages uuencoded compressed postscrip
Robust Trajectory Planning for Autonomous Parafoils under Wind Uncertainty
A key challenge facing modern airborne delivery systems, such as parafoils, is the ability to accurately and consistently deliver supplies into di cult, complex terrain. Robustness is a primary concern, given that environmental wind disturbances are often highly uncertain and time-varying, coupled with under-actuated dynamics and potentially narrow drop zones. This paper presents a new on-line trajectory planning algorithm that enables a large, autonomous parafoil to robustly execute collision avoidance and precision landing on mapped terrain, even with signi cant wind uncertainties. This algorithm is designed to handle arbitrary initial altitudes, approach geometries, and terrain surfaces, and is robust to wind disturbances which may be highly dynamic throughout the terminal approach. Explicit, real-time wind modeling and classi cation is used to anticipate future disturbances, while a novel uncertainty-sampling technique ensures that robustness to possible future variation is e ciently maintained. The designed cost-to-go function enables selection of partial paths which intelligently trade o between current and reachable future states. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm reduces the worst-case impact of wind disturbances relative to state-of-the-art approaches.Charles Stark Draper Laborator
The Effect of Natural Mulches on Crop Performance, Weed Suppression and Biochemical Constituents of Catnip and St. John\u27s Wort
Because of expanding markets for high-value niche crops, opportunities have increased for the production of medicinal herbs in the USA. An experiment was conducted in 2001 and 2002 near Gilbert, IA, to study crop performance, weed suppression, and environmental conditions associated with the use of several organic mulches in the production of two herbs, catnip (Nepeta cataria L.) and St. John\u27s wort (Hypericum perforatum L. ‘Helos’). Treatments were arranged in a completely randomized design and included a positive (hand-weeded) control, a negative (nonweeded) control, oat straw, a flax straw mat, and a nonwoven wool mat. Catnip plant height was significantly greater in the oat straw than the other treatments at 4 wk through 6 wk in 2001; at 4 to 8 wk in 2002, catnip plant height and width was significantly lower in the negative control compared with the other treatments. Catnip yield was significantly higher in the flax straw mat than all other treatments in 2001. In 2002, St. John\u27s wort yields were not statistically different in any treatments. All weed management treatments had significantly fewer weeds than the non-weeded rows in 2002. Total weed density comparisons in each crop from 2 yr showed fewer weeds present in the flax straw and wool mat treatments compared with positive control plots. There was no significant weed management treatment effect on the concentration of the target compounds, nepetalactone in catnip and pseudohypericin–hypericin in St. John\u27s wort, although there was a trend toward higher concentrations in the flax straw treatment
F-regular semigroups
A semigroup S is called F-regular if S is regular and if there exists a group congruence rho on S such that every rho-class contains a greatest element with respect to the natural partial order of S (see [K.S. Nambooripad, Proc. Edinburgh Math. Soc. 23 (1980) 249-260]). These semigroups were investigated in [C.C. Edwards, Semigroup Forum 19 (1980) 331-345] where a description similar to the F-inverse case (see [R. McFadden, L. O'Carroll, Proc. London Math. Soc. 22 (1971) 652-666]) is given. Further characterizations of F-regular semigroups, including an axiomatic one, are provided. The main objective is to give a new representation of such semigroups by means of Szendrei triples (see [M. Szendrei, Acta Sci. Math. 51 (1987) 229-249]). The particular case of F-regular semigroups S satisfying the identity (xy)* = y*x*, where x* epsilon S denotes the greatest element of the rho-class containing x epsilon S, is considered. Also the F-inversive semigroups, for which this identity holds, are characterized. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - POCTI
All-optical runaway evaporation to Bose-Einstein condensation
We demonstrate runaway evaporative cooling directly with a tightly confining
optical dipole trap and achieve fast production of condensates of 1.5x10^5 87Rb
atoms. Our scheme is characterized by an independent control of the optical
trap confinement and depth, permitting forced evaporative cooling without
reducing the trap stiffness. Although our configuration is particularly well
suited to the case of 87Rb atoms in a 1565nm optical trap, where an efficient
initial loading is possible, our scheme is general and should allow all-optical
evaporative cooling at constant stiffness for most species
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