2,690 research outputs found
Infrared Optical Properties of Ferropericlase (Mg1-xFexO): Experiment and Theory
The temperature dependence of the reflectance spectra of magnesium oxide
(MgO) and ferropericlase (Mg1-xFexO, for x=0.06 and x=0.27) have been measured
over a wide frequency range (~50 to 32000 cm-1) at 295 and 6 K. The complex
dielectric function has been determined from a Kramers-Kronig analysis of the
reflectance. The spectra of the doped materials resembles pure MgO in the
infrared region, but with much broader resonances. We use a shell model to
calculate the dielectric function of ferropericlase, including both anharmonic
phonon-phonon interactions and disorder scattering. These data are relevant to
understanding the heat conductivity of ferropericlase in the earth's lower
mantle.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure
Exact Numerical Solution of the BCS Pairing Problem
We propose a new simulation computational method to solve the reduced BCS
Hamiltonian based on spin analogy and submatrix diagonalization. Then we
further apply this method to solve superconducting energy gap and the results
are well consistent with those obtained by Bogoliubov transformation method.
The exponential problem of 2^{N}-dimension matrix is reduced to the polynomial
problem of N-dimension matrix. It is essential to validate this method on a
real quantumComment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Age Differences in Central (Semantic) and Peripheral Processing: The importance of Considering Both Response Times and Errors
In this project we examined the effect of adult age on visual word recognition by using combined reaction time (RT) and accuracy methods based on the HickāHyman law. This was necessary because separate Brinley analyses of RT and errors resulted in contradicting results. We report the results of a lexical decision task experiment (with 96 younger adults and 97 older adults). We transformed the error data into entropy and then predicted RT by using entropy values separately for exposure duration (thought to influence peripheral processes) and word frequency (thought to influence central processes). For exposure duration, the entropyāRT functions indicate that older adults show higher intercepts and slopes than do younger adults, suggesting an encoding decrement for older adults. However, for word frequency, older adults show higher intercepts but not steeper slopes than younger adults. Older adults thus show a peripheral processing decrement but not a central processing decrement for lexical decision
Age Differences in Central (Semantic) and Peripheral Processing: The importance of Considering Both Response Times and Errors
In this project we examined the effect of adult age on visual word recognition by using combined reaction time (RT) and accuracy methods based on the HickāHyman law. This was necessary because separate Brinley analyses of RT and errors resulted in contradicting results. We report the results of a lexical decision task experiment (with 96 younger adults and 97 older adults). We transformed the error data into entropy and then predicted RT by using entropy values separately for exposure duration (thought to influence peripheral processes) and word frequency (thought to influence central processes). For exposure duration, the entropyāRT functions indicate that older adults show higher intercepts and slopes than do younger adults, suggesting an encoding decrement for older adults. However, for word frequency, older adults show higher intercepts but not steeper slopes than younger adults. Older adults thus show a peripheral processing decrement but not a central processing decrement for lexical decision
Temperature dependence of the resistance of metallic nanowires (diameter 15 nm): Applicability of Bloch-Gr\"{u}neisen theorem
We have measured the resistances (and resistivities) of Ag and Cu nanowires
of diameters ranging from 15nm to 200nm in the temperature range 4.2K-300K with
the specific aim to assess the applicability of the Bloch-Gr\"{u}neisen formula
for electron phonon resistivity in these nanowires. The wires were grown within
polymeric templates by electrodeposition. We find that in all the samples the
resistance reaches a residual value at T=4.2K and the temperature dependence of
resistance can be fitted to the Bloch-Gr\"{u}neisen formula in the entire
temperature range with a well defined transport Debye temperature
(). The value of Debye temperature obtained from the fits lie
within 8% of the bulk value for Ag wires of diameter 15nm while for Cu
nanowires of the same diameter the Debye temperature is significantly lesser
than the bulk value. The electron-phonon coupling constants (measured by
or ) in the nanowires were found to have the same
value as that of the bulk. The resistivities of the wires were seen to increase
as the wire diameter was decreased. This increase in the resistivity of the
wires may be attributed to surface scattering of conduction electrons. The
specularity p was estimated to be about 0.5. The observed results allow us to
obtain the resistivities exactly from the resistance and gives us a method of
obtaining the exact numbers of wires within the measured array (grown within
the template).Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure
Black Holes in Galaxy Mergers: Evolution of Quasars
Based on numerical simulations of gas-rich galaxy mergers, we discuss a model
in which quasar activity is tied to the self-regulated growth of supermassive
black holes in galaxies. Nuclear inflow of gas attending a galaxy collision
triggers a starburst and feeds black hole growth, but for most of the duration
of the starburst, the black hole is heavily obscured by surrounding gas and
dust which limits the visibility of the quasar, especially at optical and UV
wavelengths. Eventually, feedback energy from accretion heats the gas and
expels it in a powerful wind, leaving a 'dead quasar'. Between buried and dead
phases there is a window during which the galaxy would be seen as a luminous
quasar. Because the black hole mass, radiative output, and distribution of
obscuring gas and dust all evolve strongly with time, the duration of this
phase of observable quasar activity depends on both the waveband and imposed
luminosity threshold. We determine the observed and intrinsic lifetimes as a
function of luminosity and frequency, and calculate observable lifetimes ~10
Myr for bright quasars in the optical B-band, in good agreement with empirical
estimates and much smaller than the black hole growth timescales ~100 Myr,
naturally producing a substantial population of 'buried' quasars. However,
observed and intrinsic energy outputs converge in the IR and hard X-ray bands
as attenuation becomes weaker and chances of observation greatly increase. We
obtain the distribution of column densities along sightlines in which the
quasar is seen above a given luminosity, and find that our result agrees
remarkably well with observed estimates of the column density distribution from
the SDSS for appropriate luminosity thresholds. (Abridged)Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ (September
2005). Replacement with minor revisions from referee repor
Long-Range Periodic Patterns in Microbial Genomes Indicate Significant Multi-Scale Chromosomal Organization
Genome organization can be studied through analysis of chromosome position-dependent patterns in sequence-derived parameters. A comprehensive analysis of such patterns in prokaryotic sequences and genome-scale functional data has yet to be performed. We detected spatial patterns in sequence-derived parameters for 163 chromosomes occurring in 135 bacterial and 16 archaeal organisms using wavelet analysis. Pattern strength was found to correlate with organism-specific features such as genome size, overall GC content, and the occurrence of known motility and chromosomal binding proteins. Given additional functional data for Escherichia coli, we found significant correlations among chromosome position dependent patterns in numerous properties, some of which are consistent with previously experimentally identified chromosome macrodomains. These results demonstrate that the large-scale organization of most sequenced genomes is significantly nonrandom, and, moreover, that this organization is likely linked to genome size, nucleotide composition, and information transfer processes. Constraints on genome evolution and design are thus not solely dependent upon information content, but also upon an intricate multi-parameter, multi-length-scale organization of the chromosome
Phospholipase DĪ¶ Enhances Diacylglycerol Flux Into Triacylglycerol
Plant seeds are the primary source of triacylglycerols (TAG) for food, feed, fuel, and industrial applications. As TAG is produced from diacylglycerol (DAG), successful engineering strategies to enhance TAG levels have focused on the conversion of DAG to TAG. However, the production of TAG can be limited by flux through the enzymatic reactions that supply DAG. In this study, two Arabidopsis phospholipase DĪ¶ genes (AtPLDĪ¶1 and AtPLDĪ¶2) were coexpressed in Camelina sativa to test whether the conversion of phosphatidylcholine to DAG impacts TAG levels in seeds. The resulting transgenic plants produced 2% to 3% more TAG as a component of total seed biomass and had increased 18:3 and 20:1 fatty acid levels relative to wild type. Increased DAG and decreased PC levels were examined through the kinetics of lipid assembly by [14C]acetate and [14C]glycerol incorporation into glycerolipids. [14C]acetate was rapidly incorporated into TAG in both wild-type and overexpression lines, indicating a significant flux of nascent and elongated acyl-CoAs into the sn-3 position of TAG. Stereochemical analysis revealed that newly synthesized fatty acids were preferentially incorporated into the sn-2 position of PC, but the sn-1 position of de novo DAG and indicated similar rates of nascent acyl groups into the Kennedy pathway and acyl editing. [14C]glycerol studies demonstrated PC-derived DAG is the major source of DAG for TAG synthesis in both tissues. The results emphasize that the interconversions of DAG and PC pools can impact oil production and composition
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