486 research outputs found
On an exact solution of the Thomas-Fermi equation for a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate with dipole-dipole interactions
We derive an exact solution to the Thomas-Fermi equation for a Bose-Einstein
condensate which has dipole-dipole interactions as well as the usual s-wave
contact interaction, in a harmonic trap. Remarkably, despite the non-local
anisotropic nature of the dipolar interaction the solution is an inverted
parabola, as in the pure s-wave case, but with a different aspect ratio.
Various properties such as electrostriction and stability are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Genome wide association analysis of agronomically relevant traits in an eggplant core collection representative of the worldwide genetic variation
Grafting vigour is associated with DNA de-methylation in eggplant.
In horticulture, grafting is a popular technique used to combine positive traits from two different plants. This is achieved by joining the plant top part (scion) onto a rootstock which contains the stem and roots. Rootstocks can provide resistance to stress and increase plant production, but despite their wide use, the biological mechanisms driving rootstock-induced alterations of the scion phenotype remain largely unknown. Given that epigenetics plays a relevant role during distance signalling in plants, we studied the genome-wide DNA methylation changes induced in eggplant (Solanum melongena) scion using two interspecific rootstocks to increase vigour. We found that vigour was associated with a change in scion gene expression and a genome-wide hypomethylation in the CHH context. Interestingly, this hypomethylation correlated with the downregulation of younger and potentially more active long terminal repeat retrotransposable elements (LTR-TEs), suggesting that graft-induced epigenetic modifications are associated with both physiological and molecular phenotypes in grafted plants. Our results indicate that the enhanced vigour induced by heterografting in eggplant is associated with epigenetic modifications, as also observed in some heterotic hybrids
Location of chlorogenic acid biosynthesis pathway and polyphenol oxidase genes in a new interspecific anchored linkage map of eggplant
Β© Gramazio et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2014. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated
Observation of Individual Josephson Vortices in YBCO Bicrystal Grain-boundary Junctions
The response of YBCO bicrystal grain-boundary junctions to small dc magnetic
fields (0 - 10 Oe) has been probed with a low-power microwave (rf) signal of
4.4 GHz in a microwave-resonator setup. Peaks in the microwave loss at certain
dc magnetic fields are observed that result from individual Josephson vortices
penetrating into the grain-boundary junctions under study. The system is
modeled as a long Josephson junction described by the sine-Gordon equation with
the appropriate boundary conditions. Excellent quantitative agreement between
the experimental data and the model has been obtained. Hysteresis effect of dc
magnetic field is also studied and the results of measurement and calculation
are compared.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Non-linear microwave impedance of short and long Josephson Junctions
The non-linear dependence on applied field () or current () of the microwave (ac) impedance of both
short and long Josephson junctions is calculated under a variety of excitation
conditions. The dependence on the junction width is studied, for both field
symmetric (current anti-symmetric) and field anti-symmetric (current symmetric)
excitation configurations.The resistance shows step-like features every time a
fluxon (soliton) enters the junction, with a corresponding phase slip seen in
the reactance. For finite widths the interference of fluxons leads to some
interesting effects which are described. Many of these calculated results are
observed in microwave impedance measurements on intrinsic and fabricated
Josephson junctions in the high temperature superconductors, and new effects
are suggested. When a field () or current () is applied,
interesting phase locking effects are observed in the ac impedance
. In particular an almost periodic dependence on the dc bias is
seen similar to that observed in microwave experiments at very low dc field
bias. These results are generic to all systems with a potential
in the overdamped limit and subjected to an ac drive.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figure
Critical State Flux Penetration and Linear Microwave Vortex Response in YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x} Films
The vortex contribution to the dc field (H) dependent microwave surface
impedance Z_s = R_s+iX_s of YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x} thin films was measured using
suspended patterned resonators. Z_s(H) is shown to be a direct measure of the
flux density B(H) enabling a very precise test of models of flux penetration.
Three regimes of field-dependent behavior were observed: (1) Initial flux
penetration occurs on very low field scales H_i(4.2K) 100Oe, (2) At moderate
fields the flux penetration into the virgin state is in excellent agreement
with calculations based upon the field-induced Bean critical state for thin
film geometry, parametrized by a field scale H_s(4.2K) J_c*d 0.5T, (3) for very
high fields H >>H_s, the flux density is uniform and the measurements enable
direct determination of vortex parameters such as pinning force constants
\alpha_p and vortex viscosity \eta. However hysteresis loops are in
disagreement with the thin film Bean model, and instead are governed by the low
field scale H_i, rather than by H_s. Geometric barriers are insufficient to
account for the observed results.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX type, Uses REVTeX style files, Submitted to Physical
Review B, 600 dpi PostScript file with high resolution figures available at
http://sagar.physics.neu.edu/preprints.htm
The Effect of Epstein-Barr Virus Latent Membrane Protein 2 Expression on the Kinetics of Early B Cell Infection
Infection of human B cells with wild-type Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in vitro leads to activation and proliferation that result in efficient production of lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). Latent Membrane Protein 2 (LMP2) is expressed early after infection and previous research has suggested a possible role in this process. Therefore, we generated recombinant EBV with knockouts of either or both protein isoforms, LMP2A and LMP2B (Ξ2A, Ξ2B, Ξ2A/Ξ2B) to study the effect of LMP2 in early B cell infection. Infection of B cells with Ξ2A and Ξ2A/Ξ2B viruses led to a marked decrease in activation and proliferation relative to wild-type (wt) viruses, and resulted in higher percentages of apoptotic B cells. Ξ2B virus infection showed activation levels comparable to wt, but fewer numbers of proliferating B cells. Early B cell infection with wt, Ξ2A and Ξ2B viruses did not result in changes in latent gene expression, with the exception of elevated LMP2B transcript in Ξ2A virus infection. Infection with Ξ2A and Ξ2B viruses did not affect viral latency, determined by changes in LMP1/Zebra expression following BCR stimulation. However, BCR stimulation of Ξ2A/Ξ2B cells resulted in decreased LMP1 expression, which suggests loss of stability in viral latency. Long-term outgrowth assays revealed that LMP2A, but not LMP2B, is critical for efficient long-term growth of B cells in vitro. The lowest levels of activation, proliferation, and LCL formation were observed when both isoforms were deleted. These results suggest that LMP2A appears to be critical for efficient activation, proliferation and survival of EBV-infected B cells at early times after infection, which impacts the efficient long-term growth of B cells in culture. In contrast, LMP2B did not appear to play a significant role in these processes, and long-term growth of infected B cells was not affected by the absence of this protein. Β© 2013 Wasil et al
Nuclear spin-spin coupling in La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} studied by stimulated echo decay
We have performed copper NQR experiments in high temperature superconductors
YBa_{2}Cu_{4}O_{8}, YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7}, and La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} (x=0.12 and
0.15), using the stimulated echo technique. The stimulated echo intensity is
analyzed by a model that includes the spin-lattice relaxation process (T_ {1
}-process) and the fluctuating local field due to nuclear spin-spin coupling.
The model gives quantitative account of the experimental results in Y-based
compounds using the known values of 1/T_{1} and 1/T_{2G}, the gaussian decay
rate of the spin echo intensity. The same model applied to LSCO enables us to
extract the value of T_{2G}. Our results indicate that T_{1}T/T_{2G} is
independent of temperature, implying that the dynamic exponent is one in
La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4}.Comment: 14 pages, 11 fugures, The bibliography field is correcte
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