97 research outputs found
Optical measurement of random-sized particles in wing tip wake vortices
Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1992.Title as it appears in the June, 1992 MIT Graduate List: Optical measurement of random size water droplets in wing-tip wake vortices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-122).by Damon J. Phillips.M.S
Transforming Water: Social Influence Moderates Psychological, Physiological, and Functional Response to a Placebo Product
This paper investigates how social influence can alter physiological, psychological, and functional responses to a placebo product and how such responses influence the ultimate endorsement of the product. Participants consumed a product, “AquaCharge Energy Water,” falsely-labeled as containing 200 mg of caffeine but which was actually plain spring water, in one of three conditions: a no social influence condition, a disconfirming social influence condition, and a confirming social influence condition. Results demonstrated that the effect of the product labeling on physiological alertness (systolic blood pressure), psychological alertness (self-reported alertness), functional alertness (cognitive interference), and product endorsement was moderated by social influence: participants experienced more subjective, physiological and functional alertness and stronger product endorsement when they consumed the product in the confirming social influence condition than when they consumed the product in the disconfirming social influence condition. These results suggest that social influence can alter subjective, physiological, and functional responses to a faux product, in this case transforming the effects of plain water
Light storage protocols in Tm:YAG
We present two quantum memory protocols for solids: A stopped light approach
based on spectral hole burning and the storage in an atomic frequency comb.
These procedures are well adapted to the rare-earth ion doped crystals. We
carefully clarify the critical steps of both. On one side, we show that the
slowing-down due to hole-burning is sufficient to produce a complete mapping of
field into the atomic system. On the other side, we explain the storage and
retrieval mechanism of the Atomic Frequency Comb protocol. This two important
stages are implemented experimentally in Tm- doped
yttrium-aluminum-garnet crystal
Is the Shroud of Turin in Relation to the Old Jerusalem Historical Earthquake?
Phillips and Hedges suggested, in the scientific magazine Nature (1989), that
neutron radiation could be liable of a wrong radiocarbon dating, while proton
radiation could be responsible of the Shroud body image formation. On the other
hand, no plausible physical reason has been proposed so far to explain the
radiation source origin, and its effects on the linen fibres. However, some
recent studies, carried out by the first author and his Team at the Laboratory
of Fracture Mechanics of the Politecnico di Torino, found that it is possible
to generate neutron emissions from very brittle rock specimens in compression
through piezonuclear fission reactions. Analogously, neutron flux increments,
in correspondence to seismic activity, should be a result of the same
reactions. A group of Russian scientists measured a neutron flux exceeding the
background level by three orders of magnitude in correspondence to rather
appreciable earthquakes (4th degree in Richter Scale). The authors consider the
possibility that neutron emissions by earthquakes could have induced the image
formation on Shroud linen fibres, trough thermal neutron capture by Nitrogen
nuclei, and provided a wrong radiocarbon dating due to an increment in
C(14,6)content. Let us consider that, although the calculated integral flux of
10^13 neutrons per square centimetre is 10 times greater than the cancer
therapy dose, nevertheless it is100 times smaller than the lethal dose.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur
Band-width control in a perovskite-type 3d^1 correlated metal Ca_{1-x}Sr_xVO_3. I. Evolution of the electronic properties and effective mass
Single crystals of the perovskite-type metallic alloy system
CaSrVO were synthesized in order to investigate metallic
properties near the Mott transition. The substitution of a Ca ion for a
Sr ion reduces the band width due to a buckling of the V-O-V bond
angle from for SrVO to for CaVO. Thus,
the value of can be systematically controlled without changing the number
of electrons making CaSrVO: one of the most ideal systems for
studying band-width effects. The Sommerfeld-Wilson's ratio (), the
Kadowaki-Woods ratio (in the same region as heavy Fermion systems), and a large
term in the electric resistivity, even at 300 K, substantiate a large
electron correlation in this system, though the effective mass, obtained by
thermodynamic and magnetic measurements, shows only a systematic but moderate
increase in going from SrVO to CaVO, in contrast to the critical
enhancement expected from the Brinkmann-Rice picture. It is proposed that the
metallic properties observed in this system near the Mott transition can be
explained by considering the effect of a non-local electron correlation.Comment: 14 pages in a Phys. Rev. B camera-ready format with 10 EPS figures
embedded. LaTeX 2.09 source file using "camera.sty" and "prbplug.sty"
provided by N. Shirakawa. For OzTeX (Macintosh), use "ozfig.sty" instead of
"psfig.sty". "ozfig.sty" can be also obtained by e-mail request to N.
Shirakawa: . Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Reduced conditioned fear response in mice that lack Dlx1 and show subtype-specific loss of interneurons
The inhibitory GABAergic system has been implicated in multiple neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and autism. The Dlx homeobox transcription factor family is essential for development and function of GABAergic interneurons. Mice lacking the Dlx1 gene have postnatal subtype-specific loss of interneurons and reduced IPSCs in their cortex and hippocampus. To ascertain consequences of these changes in the GABAergic system, we performed a battery of behavioral assays on the Dlx1 mutant mice, including zero maze, open field, locomotor activity, food intake, rotarod, tail suspension, fear conditioning assays (context and trace), prepulse inhibition, and working memory related tasks (spontaneous alteration task and spatial working memory task). Dlx1 mutant mice displayed elevated activity levels in open field, locomotor activity, and tail suspension tests. These mice also showed deficits in contextual and trace fear conditioning, and possibly in prepulse inhibition. Their learning deficits were not global, as the mutant mice did not differ from the wild-type controls in tests of working memory. Our findings demonstrate a critical role for the Dlx1 gene, and likely the subclasses of interneurons that are affected by the lack of this gene, in behavioral inhibition and associative fear learning. These observations support the involvement of particular components of the GABAergic system in specific behavioral phenotypes related to complex neuropsychiatric diseases
Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome
The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead
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