31,346 research outputs found
Design of two-dimensional particle assemblies using isotropic pair interactions with an attractive well
Using ground-state and relative-entropy based inverse design strategies,
isotropic interactions with an attractive well are determined to stabilize and
promote as- sembly of particles into two-dimensional square, honeycomb, and
kagome lattices. The design rules inferred from these results are discussed and
validated in the dis- covery of interactions that favor assembly of the highly
open truncated-square and truncated-hexagonal lattices.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures and supplemental materia
The Carboxyl-Terminal Segment of Apolipoprotein A-V Undergoes a Lipid-Induced Conformational Change
Apolipoprotein (apo) A-V is a 343-residue, multidomain protein that plays an important role in regulation of plasma triglyceride homeostasis. Primary sequence analysis revealed a unique tetraproline sequence (Pro293-Pro296) near the carboxyl terminus of the protein. A peptide corresponding to the 48-residue segment beyond the tetraproline motif was generated from a recombinant apoA-V precursor wherein Pro295 was replaced by Met. Cyanogen bromide cleavage of the precursor protein, followed by negative affinity chromatography, yielded a purified peptide. Nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis verified that apoA-V(296-343) solubilizes phospholipid vesicles, forming a relatively heterogeneous population of reconstituted high-density lipoprotein with Stokes’ diameters\u3e17 nm. At the same time, apoA-V(296-343) failed to bind a spherical lipoprotein substrate in vitro. Far-UV circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed the peptide is unstructured in buffer yet adopts significant R-helical secondary structure in the presence of the lipid mimetic solvent trifluoroethanol (TFE; 50% v/v). Heteronuclear multidemensional NMR spectroscopy experiments were conducted with uniformly 15N- and 15N/13C-labeled peptide in 50% TFE. Peptide backbone assignment and secondary structure prediction using TALOSþ reveal the peptide adopts R-helix secondary structure from residues 309 to 334. In TFE, apoA-V(296-343) adopts an extended amphipathic R-helix, consistent with a role in lipoprotein binding as a component of full-length apoA-V
The role of the quantum properties of gravitational radiation in the dete ction of gravitational waves
The role that the quantum properties of a gravitational wave could play in
the detection of gravitational radiation is analyzed. It is not only
corroborated that in the current laser-interferometric detectors the resolution
of the experimental apparatus could lie very far from the corresponding quantum
threshold (thus the backreaction effect of the measuring device upon the
gravitational wave is negligible), but it is also suggested that the
consideration of the quantum properties of the wave could entail the definition
of dispersion of the measurement outputs. This dispersion would be a function
not only of the sensitivity of the measuring device, but also of the
interaction time (between measuring device and gravitational radiation) and of
the arm length of the corresponding laser- interferometer. It would have a
minimum limit, and the introduction of the current experimental parameters
insinuates that the dispersion of the existing proposals could lie very far
from this minimum, which means that they would show a very large dispersion.Comment: 19 pages, Latex (use epsfig.sty
Dilute Bose gases interacting via power-law potentials
Neutral atoms interact through a van der Waals potential which asymptotically
falls off as r^{-6}. In ultracold gases, this interaction can be described to a
good approximation by the atom-atom scattering length. However, corrections
arise that depend on the characteristic length of the van der Waals potential.
We parameterize these corrections by analyzing the energies of two- and
few-atom systems under external harmonic confinement, obtained by numerically
and analytically solving the Schrodinger equation. We generalize our results to
particles interacting through a longer-ranged potential which asymptotically
falls off as r^{-4}.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
SONTRAC—A low background, large area solar neutron spectrometer
SONTRAC is a scintillating fiber neutron detector designed to measure solar flare neutrons from a balloon or spacecraft platform. The instrument is comprised of alternating orthogonal planes of scintillator fibers viewed by photomultiplier tubes and image intensifier/CCD camera optics. It operates by tracking the paths of recoil protons from the double scatter of 20 to 200 MeV neutrons off hydrogen in the plastic scintillator, thereby providing the necessary information to determine the incident neutron direction and energy. SONTRAC is also capable of detecting and measuring high-energy gamma rays \u3e20 MeV as a “solid-state spark chamber.” The self-triggering and track imaging features of a prototype for tracking in two dimensions have been demonstrated in calibrations with cosmic-ray muons, 14 to ∼65 MeV neutrons and ∼20 MeV protons
The US golf academy system and the twenty first century talent tourists! Future lines of research to understand this new golfing talent pathway
This paper addresses the rapid growth, popularity, and structure of US Golf Academies. Specifically, we highlight a phenomenon from a non-US golfing community’s perspective; namely, that of the “talent tourist” (i.e., youth golfer) seeking to develop their playing skills and academic ability within a foreign talent pathway. With so much of these golfers’ futures at stake (e.g., large financial costs and time dedicated), there is a surprising lack of research attention paid to these academies’ talent development environments; for instance, their structure, position in the overall talent pathway, the quality of the approaches used, or reasons why golfers strive to enroll onto them. By addressing these issues, this paper will present the case for greater research interest and the development of more effective talent development pathways
Nonequilibrium Casimir-Polder Force in Non-Stationary Systems
Recently the Casmir-Polder force felt by an atom near a substrate under
nonequilibrium stationary conditions has been studied theoretically with
macroscopic quantum electrodyanamics (MQED) and verified experimentally with
cold atoms. We give a quantum field theory derivation of the Langevin equation
describing the atom's motion based on the influence functional method valid for
fully nonequilibrium (nonstationary) conditions. The noise associated with the
quantum field derived from first principles is generally colored and nonlocal,
which is at variance with the `local source hypothesis' of MQED's
generalization to nonequilibrium conditions. Precision measurements on the
shape deformation of an atomic gas as a function of its distance from a mirror
would provide a direct check of our predictions based on this Langevin
equation.Comment: Rewritten Introduction and Abstract in v2 with a slightly altered
title to place a sharper focus of our goals and a clearer distinction of what
the influence functional method can achieve beyond the macroscopic QED
approach. The rest of the paper and the results remain the sam
Dynamics of Perfectly Wetting Drops under Gravity
We study the dynamics of small droplets of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)
silicone oil on a vertical, perfectly-wetting, silicon wafer. Interference
videomicroscopy allows us to capture the dynamics of these droplets. We use
droplets with a volumes typically ranging from 100 to 500 nanolitres
(viscosities from 10 to 1000 centistokes) to understand long time derivations
from classical solutions. Past researchers used one dimensional theory to
understand the typical scaling for the position of the tip of the
droplet in time . We observe this regime in experiment for intermediate
times and discover a two-dimensional, similarity solution of the shape of the
droplet. However, at long times our droplets start to move more slowly down the
plane than the scaling suggests and we observe deviations in droplet
shape from the similarity solution. We match experimental data with simulations
to show these deviations are consistent with retarded van der Waals forcing
which should become significant at the small heights observed
DESIGN FOR THE EXPERIMENTER
Three research problems, for which there was no obvious textbook design available, are presented. Each of the three involve constructing incomplete block designs for factorial treatment arrangements. While the designs are not likely optimal by any of the classical criteria, they meet the objectives of the research projects. The constructions involved confounding, with incomplete blocks, those effects which were of least interest. However, effects of interest were also allowed to be slightly non-orthogonal to blocks in order to be able to examine a larger number of effects of interest
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