Flow-induced Agitations Create a Granular Fluid

We fluidize a granular medium through localized stirring and probe the mechanical response of quiescent regions far away from the main flow. In these regions the material behaves like a liquid: high-density probes sink, low-density probes float at the depth given by Archimedes' law, and drag forces on moving probes scale linearly with the velocity. The fluid-like character of the material is set by agitations generated in the stirred region, suggesting a non-local rheology: the relation between applied stress and observed strain rate in one location depends on the strain rate in another location

Phase-resolved Crab pulsar measurements from 25 to 400 GeV with the MAGIC telescopes

We report on observations of the Crab pulsar with the MAGIC telescopes. Our data were taken in both monoscopic (> 25GeV) and stereoscopic (> 50GeV) observation modes. Two peaks were detected with both modes and phase-resolved energy spectra were calculated. By comparing with Fermi- LAT measurements, we find that the energy spectrum of the Crab pulsar does not follow a power law with an exponential cutoff, but has an additional hard component, extending up to at least 400 GeV. This suggests that the emission above 25 GeV is not dominated by curvature radiation, as suggested in the standard scenarios of the OG and SG models.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proc. TAUP 2011, submitted for publication in JCP

Observations of microquasars with the MAGIC telescope

We report on the results from the observations in very high energy band (VHE, E_gamma > 100GeV) of the black hole X-ray binary (BHXB) Cygnus X-1. The observations were performed with the MAGIC telescope, for a total of 40 hours during 26 nights, spanning the period between June and November 2006. We report on the results of the searches for steady and variable gamma-ray signals, including the first experimental evidence for an intense flare, of duration between 1.5 and 24 hours.Comment: Contribution to the 30th ICRC, Merida Mexico, July 2007 on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboratio

Short-term responses to salinity of soybean and chenopodium album grown in single and mixed-species hydroponic systems

Weeds account for losses in crop yields, and this event might be exacerbated by salinity. Therefore, we investigated the responses of Chenopodium album L. and soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) to salt stress, as well as interferences between species. Ten-day old plants were grown for 1 week in a single- or mixed-species set-up, either with or without 100 mM of NaCl. C. album reduced the biomass of soybean similarly to salt stress, while its growth was unaffected under any condition. C. album decreased the crop protein content when salinity was applied. This effect was ascribed to altered protein metabolism and/or N usage to produce other N metabolites, including osmolytes. The two species did not reciprocally affect the capacity to accumulate Na+, but the weed contained two-fold more Na+ in the leaves. Elevated initial K+ concentration and high K+ delivery to the shoot likely explained the better acclimation of C. album to salinity. C. album produced more phenolics and proline and exhibited greater antioxidant activity, but low lipid peroxidation, in the mixed set-up under salinity. Thus, it is possible that the weed could become more resilient to salinity when growing in a soybean field. In the long term, this might cause significant losses in soybean productivity as expected by the dramatic decline in crop protein content