New results for virial coefficients of hard spheres in D dimensions

We present new results for the virial coefficients B_k with k <= 10 for hard spheres in dimensions D=2,...,8.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to appear in conference proceedings of STATPHYS 2004 in Pramana - Journal of Physic

Particle-wall collision statistics in the open circular billiard

In the open circular billiard particles are placed initially with a uniform distribution in their positions inside a planar circular vesicle. They all have velocities of the same magnitude, whose initial directions are also uniformly distributed. No particle-particle interactions are included, only specular elastic collisions of the particles with the wall of the vesicle. The particles may escape through an aperture with an angle $2\delta$. The collisions of the particles with the wall are characterized by the angular position and the angle of incidence. We study the evolution of the system considering the probability distributions of these variables at successive times $n$ the particle reaches the border of the vesicle. These distributions are calculated analytically and measured in numerical simulations. For finite apertures $\delta<\pi/2$, a particular set of initial conditions exists for which the particles are in periodic orbits and never escape the vesicle. This set is of zero measure, but the selection of angular momenta close to these orbits is observed after some collisions, and thus the distributions of probability have a structure formed by peaks. We calculate the marginal distributions up to $n=4$, but for $\delta>\pi/2$ a solution is found for arbitrary $n$. The escape probability as a function of $n^{-1}$ decays with an exponent 4 for $\delta>\pi/2$ and evidences for a power law decay are found for lower apertures as well.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures. Typos corrected and two new figures added, figure captions changed and additional discussions added. Version accepted for publication in Physica

Clean and Green Urban Water Bodies Benefit Nocturnal Flying Insects and Their Predators, Insectivorous Bats

Nocturnal arthropods form the prey base for many predators and are an integral part of complex food webs. However, there is limited understanding of the mechanisms influencing invertebrates at urban water bodies and the potential flow-on effects to their predators. This study aims to: (i) understand the importance of standing water bodies for nocturnal flying insect orders, including the landscape- and local-scale factors driving these patterns; and (ii) quantify the relationship between insects and insectivorous bats. We investigated nocturnal flying insects and insectivorous bats simultaneously at water bodies (n = 58) and non-water body sites (n = 35) using light traps and acoustic recorders in Melbourne, Australia. At the landscape scale, we found that the presence of water and high levels of surrounding greenness were important predictors for some insect orders. At the water body scale, low levels of sediment pollutants, increased riparian tree cover and water body size supported higher insect order richness and a greater abundance of Coleopterans and Trichopterans, respectively. Most bat species had a positive response to a high abundance of Lepidopterans, confirming the importance of this order in the diet of insectivorous bats. Fostering communities of nocturnal insects in urban environments can provide opportunities for enhancing the prey base of urban nocturnal insectivores.DFG, 414044773, Open Access Publizieren 2019 - 2020 / Technische Universität Berli

Molecular and immunological characterization of profilin from mugwort pollen

In late summer in Europe, pollen of mugwort is one of the major sources of atopic allergens. No information about the complete molecular structure of any mugwort allergen has been published so far. Here we report the isolation and characterization of mugwort pollen cDNA clones coding for two isoforms of the panallergen profilin. Thirtysix percent of the mugwort allergic patients tested displayed IgE antibodies against natural and recombinant profilin, and no significant differences were observed in the IgEbinding properties of the isoforms. One profilin isoform was purified to homogeneity and detailed structural analysis indicated that the protein exists in solution as dimers and tetramers stabilized by sulfydryl and/or ionic interactions. Profilin monomers were detectable only after exposure of multimers to harsh denaturing conditions. Dimers and tetramers did not significantly differ in their ability to bind serum IgE from mugwort pollenallergic patients. However, oligomeric forms might have a higher allergenic potential than monomers because larger molecules would have additional epitopes for IgEmediated histamine release. Profilin isolated from mugwort pollen also formed multimers. Thus, oligomerization is not an artifact resulting from the recombinant production of the allergen. Inhibition experiments showed extensive IgE crossreactivity of recombinant mugwort profilin and profilin from various pollen and food extracts

Scattering properties of a cut-circle billiard waveguide with two conical leads

We examine a two-dimensional electron waveguide with a cut-circle cavity and conical leads. By considering Wigner delay times and the Landauer-B\"{u}ttiker conductance for this system, we probe the effects of the closed billiard energy spectrum on scattering properties in the limit of weakly coupled leads. We investigate how lead placement and cavity shape affect these conductance and time delay spectra of the waveguide.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. E (Jan. 2001

The effect of phylogeny, environment and morphology on communities of a lianescent clade (Bignonieae-Bignoniaceae) in neotropical biomes

The influence of ecological traits to the distribution and abundance of species is a prevalent issue in biodiversity science. Most studies of plant community assembly have focused on traits related to abiotic aspects or direct interactions among plants, with less attention paid to ignore indirect interactions, as those mediated by pollinators. Here, we assessed the influence of phylogeny, habitat, and floral morphology on ecological community structure in a clade of Neotropical lianas (tribe Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae). Our investigation was guided by the long-standing hypothesis that habitat specialization has promoted speciation in Bignonieae, while competition for shared pollinators influences species co-occurrence within communities. We analyzed a geo-referenced database for 94 local communities occurring across the Neotropics. The effect of floral morphological traits and abiotic variables on species co-occurrence was investigated, taking into account phylogenetic relationships. Habitat filtering seems to be the main process driving community assembly in Bignonieae, with environmental conditions limiting species distributions. Differing specialization to abiotic conditions might have evolved recently, in contrast to the general pattern of phylogenetic clustering found in communities of other diverse regions. We find no evidence that competition for pollinators affects species co-occurrence; instead, pollinator occurrence seems to have acted as an "environmental filter'' in some habitats93FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP2006/59916-0CCSD-Missouri Botanical Garden: Elizabeth E. Bascom Fellowships for Latin American Female Botanist

Properties of planetary fluids at high pressure and temperature

In order to derive models of the interiors of Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter and Saturn, researchers studied equations of state and electrical conductivities of molecules at high dynamic pressures and temperatures. Results are given for shock temperature measurements of N2 and CH4. Temperature data allowed demonstration of shock induced cooling in the the transition region and the existence of crossing isotherms in P-V space

Aharonov-Bohm effect and resonances in the circular quantum billiard with two leads

We calculate the conductance through a circular quantum billiard with two leads and a point magnetic flux at the center. The boundary element method is used to solve the Schrodinger equation of the scattering problem, and the Landauer formula is used to calculate the conductance from the transmission coefficients. We use two different shapes of leads, straight and conic, and find that the conductance is affected by lead geometry, the relative positions of the leads and the magnetic flux. The Aharonov-Bohm effect can be seen from shifts and splittings of fluctuations. When the flux is equal to (h/2e) and the angle between leads is 180 degree, the conductance tends to be suppressed to zero in the low energy range due to the Aharonov-Bohm effect.Comment: LaTeX2e, 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B (Two references added. A discussion on discrete symmetries removed.

Characterization of Catalyst Materials for Production of Aerospace Fuels

Due to environmental, economic, and security issues, there is a greater need for cleaner alternative fuels. There will undoubtedly be a shift from crude oil to non-petroleum sources as a feedstock for aviation (and other transportation) fuels. Additionally, efforts are concentrated on reducing costs coupled with fuel production from non-conventional sources. One solution to this issue is Fischer-Tropsch gas-to-liquid technology. Fischer-Tropsch processing of synthesis gas (CO/H2) produces a complex product stream of paraffins, olefins, and oxygenated compounds such as alcohols and aldehydes. The Fisher-Tropsch process can produce a cleaner diesel oil fraction with a high cetane number (typically above 70) without any sulfur or aromatic compounds. This process is most commonly catalyzed by heterogeneous (in this case, silver and platinum) catalysts composed of cobalt supported on alumina or unsupported alloyed iron powders. Physisorption, chemisorptions, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) are described to better understand the potential performance of Fischer-Tropsch cobalt on alumina catalysts promoted with silver and platinum. The overall goal is to preferentially produce C8 to C18 paraffin compounds for use as aerospace fuels. Progress towards this goal will eventually be updated and achieved by a more thorough understanding of the characterization of catalyst materials. This work was supported by NASA s Subsonic Fixed Wing and In-situ Resource Utilization projects

Thermodynamic and structural properties of strongly coupled plasma mixtures from the perturbative HNC-equation

Recently, we developed the perturbative hypernetted-chain (PHNC) integral equation which can predict reliable thermodynamic and structural data for a system of particles interacting with either short range or long range (Coulomb) potential. The present work extends this earlier work to mixtures. This is done by employing a reference potential which is designed to satisfy a thermodynamic consistency on the isothermal compressibility as described in the next section. We test the present theory in Sec. III by applying it to plasma mixtures interacing with either an unscreened or a screened Coulomb potential. We made comparisons of results from the present theory with those from the best available theory, i.e., Rosenfeld`s density functional theory (DFT). The DFT was shown to give internal energy with three to five fignre accuracy compared to a wide range of Monte Carlo data. Meanwhile, small deviations of excess internal energy from the so-called ``liner mixing rule`` (LMR) are better predicted by a less sophiscated theory like the hypernetted- chain (HNC) equation. This rule relates thermodynamics of an unscreened mixture to those for individual components in a strongly coupled regime where the potential energy of a constituent particle is much larger than its kinetic energy. We also apply the present theory to a H{sub 2} + H mixture interacting with Morse potentials. For this sytem, comparison of thermodynamic properties and radial distribution functions from the present theory will be made with those from another successful theory of dense fluid, i.e., the HMSA equation of Zerah and Hansen