3,003 research outputs found
Relationship of Weed Control and Soil pH to No-Tillage Corn Yields
Atrazine and simazine are used for selective control of a broad spectrum of weeds in corn. Over 80% of the U.S. corn production is treated with one or the other of these two s-triazine herbicides. In Kentucky they are used annually on over 800,000 acres of corn, including over 200,000 acres of no-tillage corn. When added to the soil these compounds are ultimately degraded to non-phytotoxic compounds. The rate of degradation is dependent upon the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil. Although atrazine and simazine are chemically similar, simazine is considered to degrade slightly slower than atrazine after application to the soil and as a result will remain in the soil for a longer period of time
A Two-dimensional Superconductor in a Tilted Magnetic Field - new states with finite Cooper-pair momentum
Varying the angle Theta between applied field and the conducting planes of a
layered superconductor in a small interval close to the plane-parallel field
direction, a large number of superconducting states with unusual properties may
be produced. For these states, the pair breaking effect of the magnetic field
affects both the orbital and the spin degree of freedom. This leads to pair
wave functions with finite momentum, which are labeled by Landau quantum
numbers 0<n<\infty. The stable order parameter structure and magnetic field
distribution for these states is found by minimizing the quasiclassical free
energy near H_{c2} including nonlinear terms. One finds states with coexisting
line-like and point-like order parameter zeros and states with coexisting
vortices and antivortices. The magnetic response may be diamagnetic or
paramagnetic depending on the position within the unit cell. The structure of
the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states at Theta=0 is reconsidered.
The transition n->\infty of the paramagnetic vortex states to the FFLO-limit is
analyzed and the physical reason for the occupation of higher Landau levels is
pointed out.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figure
Competing effects of mass anisotropy and spin Zeeman coupling on the upper critical field of a mixed - and s-wave superconductor
Based on the linearized Eilenberger equations, the upper critical field
of mixed d- and s-wave superconductors has been microscopically
studied with an emphasis on the competing effects of mass anisotropy and spin
Zeeman coupling. We find the mass anisotropy always enhance while the
Zeeman interaction suppresses . As required by the thermodynamics, we
find is saturated at zero temperature. We compare the theoretical
calculations with recent experimental data of
YBaCuO.Comment: To appear in PRB in Feb. 200
Cf NEUTRON ACTIVATION FOR TERRESTRIAL, SEA FLOOR, AND POSSIBLE PLANETARY SURFACE ANALYSIS.
T Cells Contain an RNase-Insensitive Inhibitor of APOBEC3G Deaminase Activity
The deoxycytidine deaminase APOBEC3G (A3G) is expressed in human T cells and inhibits HIV-1 replication. When transfected into A3G-deficient epithelial cell lines, A3G induces catastrophic hypermutation by deaminating the HIV-1 genome. Interestingly, studies suggest that endogenous A3G in T cells induces less hypermutation than would be expected. However, to date, the specific deaminase activity of endogenous A3G in human CD4+ T cells has not been examined directly. Here, we compared deaminase activity of endogenous and exogenous A3G in various human cell lines using a standard assay and a novel, quantitative, high-throughput assay. Exogenous A3G in epithelial cell lysates displayed deaminase activity only following RNase treatment, as expected given that A3G is known to form an enzymatically inactive RNA-containing complex. Surprisingly, comparable amounts of endogenous A3G from T cell lines or from resting or activated primary CD4+ T cells exhibited minimal deaminase activity, despite RNase treatment. Specific deaminase activity of endogenous A3G in H9, CEM, and other T cell lines was up to 36-fold lower than specific activity of exogenous A3G in epithelial-derived cell lines. Furthermore, RNase-treated T cell lysates conferred a dose-dependent inhibition to epithelial cell lysates expressing enzymatically active A3G. These studies suggest that T cells, unlike epithelial-derived cell lines, express an unidentified RNase-resistant factor that inhibits A3G deaminase activity. This factor could be responsible for reduced levels of hypermutation in T cells, and its identification and blockade could offer a means for increasing antiretroviral intrinsic immunity of T cells
Analytical Formulation of the Local Density of States around a Vortex Core in Unconventional Superconductors
On the basis of the quasiclassical theory of superconductivity, we obtain a
formula for the local density of states (LDOS) around a vortex core of
superconductors with anisotropic pair-potential and Fermi surface in arbitrary
directions of magnetic fields. Earlier results on the LDOS of d-wave
superconductors and NbSe are naturally interpreted within our theory
geometrically; the region with high intensity of the LDOS observed in numerical
calculations turns out to the enveloping curve of the trajectory of Andreev
bound states. We discuss experimental results on YNiBC within the
quasiclassical theory of superconductivity.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figure
Anisotropy of the upper critical field in superconductors with anisotropic gaps. Anisotropy parameters of MgB2
The upper critical field Hc2 is evaluated for weakly-coupled two-band
superconductors. By modeling the actual bands and the gap distribution of MgB2
by two Fermi surface spheroids with average parameters of the real material, we
show that H_{c2,ab}/H_{c2,c} increases with decreasing temperature in agreement
with available data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Hierarchies and Ranks for Persistence Pairs
We develop a novel hierarchy for zero-dimensional persistence pairs, i.e.,
connected components, which is capable of capturing more fine-grained spatial
relations between persistence pairs. Our work is motivated by a lack of spatial
relationships between features in persistence diagrams, leading to a limited
expressive power. We build upon a recently-introduced hierarchy of pairs in
persistence diagrams that augments the pairing stored in persistence diagrams
with information about which components merge. Our proposed hierarchy captures
differences in branching structure. Moreover, we show how to use our hierarchy
to measure the spatial stability of a pairing and we define a rank function for
persistence pairs and demonstrate different applications.Comment: Topology-based Methods in Visualization 201
Topological Machine Learning with Persistence Indicator Functions
Techniques from computational topology, in particular persistent homology,
are becoming increasingly relevant for data analysis. Their stable metrics
permit the use of many distance-based data analysis methods, such as
multidimensional scaling, while providing a firm theoretical ground. Many
modern machine learning algorithms, however, are based on kernels. This paper
presents persistence indicator functions (PIFs), which summarize persistence
diagrams, i.e., feature descriptors in topological data analysis. PIFs can be
calculated and compared in linear time and have many beneficial properties,
such as the availability of a kernel-based similarity measure. We demonstrate
their usage in common data analysis scenarios, such as confidence set
estimation and classification of complex structured data.Comment: Topology-based Methods in Visualization 201
Glucose-induced down regulation of thiamine transporters in the kidney proximal tubular epithelium produces thiamine insufficiency in diabetes
Increased renal clearance of thiamine (vitamin B1) occurs in experimental and clinical diabetes producing thiamine insufficiency mediated by impaired tubular re-uptake and linked to the development of diabetic nephropathy. We studied the mechanism of impaired renal re-uptake of thiamine in diabetes. Expression of thiamine transporter proteins THTR-1 and THTR-2 in normal human kidney sections examined by immunohistochemistry showed intense polarised staining of the apical, luminal membranes in proximal tubules for THTR-1 and THTR-2 of the cortex and uniform, diffuse staining throughout cells of the collecting duct for THTR-1 and THTR-2 of the medulla. Human primary proximal tubule epithelial cells were incubated with low and high glucose concentration, 5 and 26 mmol/l, respectively. In high glucose concentration there was decreased expression of THTR-1 and THTR-2 (transporter mRNA: −76% and −53% respectively, p<0.001; transporter protein −77% and −83% respectively, p<0.05), concomitant with decreased expression of transcription factor specificity protein-1. High glucose concentration also produced a 37% decrease in apical to basolateral transport of thiamine transport across cell monolayers. Intensification of glycemic control corrected increased fractional excretion of thiamine in experimental diabetes. We conclude that glucose-induced decreased expression of thiamine transporters in the tubular epithelium may mediate renal mishandling of thiamine in diabetes. This is a novel mechanism of thiamine insufficiency linked to diabetic nephropathy
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