1,034 research outputs found
Chemical Evolution of the Galactic Bulge as Derived from High-Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy of K and M Red Giants
We present chemical abundances in K and M red-giant members of the Galactic
bulge derived from high-resolution infrared spectra obtained with the Phoenix
spectrograph on Gemini-South. The elements studied are carbon, nitrogen,
oxygen, sodium, titanium, and iron. The evolution of C and N abundances in the
studied red-giants show that their oxygen abundances represent the original
values with which the stars were born. Oxygen is a superior element for probing
the timescale of bulge chemical enrichment via [O/Fe] versus [Fe/H]. The
[O/Fe]-[Fe/H] relation in the bulge does not follow the disk relation, with
[O/Fe] values falling above those of the disk. Titanium also behaves similarly
to oxygen with respect to iron. Based on these elevated values of [O/Fe] and
[Ti/Fe] extending to large Fe abundances, it is suggested that the bulge
underwent a more rapid chemical enrichment than the halo. In addition, there
are declines in both [O/Fe] and [Ti/Fe] in those bulge targets with the largest
Fe abundances, signifying another source affecting chemical evolution: perhaps
Supernovae of Type Ia. Sodium abundances increase dramatically in the bulge
with increasing metallicity, possibly reflecting the metallicity dependant
yields from supernovae of Type II, although Na contamination from H-burning in
intermediate mass stars cannot be ruled out.Comment: ApJ in pres
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Radiation shielding and patient organ dose study for an accelerator- based BNCT Facility at LBNL
This study considers the radiation safety aspects of several designs discussed in a previous report of an accelerator-based source of neutrons, based on the [sup 7]Li(p,n) reaction, for a Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). determines the optimal radiation shield thicknesses for the patient treatment room. Since this is an experimental facility no moderator or reflector is considered in the bulk wall shield design. This will allow the flexibility of using any postulated moderator/reflector design and assumes sufficient shielding even in the absence of a moderator/reflector. In addition the accelerator is assumed to be capable of producing 100 mA of 2.5 MeV proton beam current. The addition of 1% and 2% [sup 10]B (by weight) to the concrete is also investigated. The second part of this paper determines the radiation dose to the major organs of a patient during a treatment. Simulations use the MIRD 5 anthropomorphic phantom to calculate organ doses from a 20 mA proton beam assuming various envisioned moderator/reflector in place. Doses are tabulated by component and for a given uniform [sup 10]B loading in all organs. These are presented in for a BeO moderator and for an Al/AlF[sub 3] moderator. Dose estimates for different [sup 10]B loadings may be scaled
Exchange Interaction in Binuclear Complexes with Rare Earth and Copper Ions: A Many-Body Model Study
We have used a many-body model Hamiltonian to study the nature of the
magnetic ground state of hetero-binuclear complexes involving rare-earth and
copper ions. We have taken into account all diagonal repulsions involving the
rare-earth 4f and 5d orbitals and the copper 3d orbital. Besides, we have
included direct exchange interaction, crystal field splitting of the rare-earth
atomic levels and spin-orbit interaction in the 4f orbitals. We have identified
the inter-orbital repulsion, U and crystal field parameter,
as the key parameters involved in controlling the type of exchange
interaction between the rare earth and copper 3d spins. We have explored
the nature of the ground state in the parameter space of U, ,
spin-orbit interaction strength and the filling n. We find
that these systems show low-spin or high-spin ground state depending on the
filling of the levels of the rare-earth ion and ground state spin is
critically dependent on U and . In case of half-filling
(Gd(III)) we find a reentrant low-spin state as U is increased, for
small values of , which explains the recently reported apparent
anomalous anti-ferromagnetic behaviour of Gd(III)-radical complexes. By varying
U we also observe a switch over in the ground state spin for other
fillings . We have introduced a spin-orbit coupling scheme which goes beyond
L-S or j-j coupling scheme and we find that spin-orbit coupling does not
significantly alter the basic picture.Comment: 22 pages, 11 ps figure
Phenotypic variability of Leptosphaeria lindquistii (anamorph: Phoma macdonaldii), a fungal pathogen of sunflower
Growth of 17 isolates of Phoma macdonaldii , the causal agent of sunflower black stem, was investigated for response to pH and temperature, and for morphology and asexual morphogenesis (pycnidiogenesis and pycnidium size). For all isolates, the optimum pH for growth was between 4 and 5, and the optimum temperature varied between 20 and 30°C and radial growth was slowest at 5 and 35°C. Significant differences in the number and size of pycnidia were observed between isolates. Pycniospore germination was investigated under various conditions in five isolates chosen for their geographical origins, pigmentation, optimum growth temperature and pycnidiogenesis. Increasing the concentration from 106 to 107 pycniospores per mL decreased the germination rate. The optimum temperature for pycniospore germination varied between 15 and 30°C, depending on the isolate, and the optimum and maximum pH values were 5 and 7, respectively. The optimum and minimum relative humidities allowing pycniospore germination were 100 and 95%, respectively. Pycniospore germination was photo‐independent. An artificial inoculation method was developed and the aggressiveness of the pathogen was assessed on a susceptible sunflower cultivar, using a 1–9 scale that integrated the percentage of necrotic area on the cotyledon petiole at the stage when the first pair of leaves was fully developed. Significant differences in aggressiveness were observed among the 17 isolates. The parameters investigated clearly suggest the occurrence of a wide phenotypic variability in Phoma macdonaldii
Magnetic and thermal properties of 4f-3d ladder-type molecular compounds
We report on the low-temperature magnetic susceptibilities and specific heats
of the isostructural spin-ladder molecular complexes L[M(opba)]_{3\cdot
xDMSOHO, hereafter abbreviated with LM (where L =
La, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho and M = Cu, Zn). The results show that the Cu containing
complexes (with the exception of LaCu) undergo long range magnetic
order at temperatures below 2 K, and that for GdCu this ordering is
ferromagnetic, whereas for TbCu and DyCu it is probably
antiferromagnetic. The susceptibilities and specific heats of TbCu
and DyCu above have been explained by means of a model
taking into account nearest as well as next-nearest neighbor magnetic
interactions. We show that the intraladder L--Cu interaction is the predominant
one and that it is ferromagnetic for L = Gd, Tb and Dy. For the cases of Tb, Dy
and Ho containing complexes, strong crystal field effects on the magnetic and
thermal properties have to be taken into account. The magnetic coupling between
the (ferromagnetic) ladders is found to be very weak and is probably of dipolar
origin.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Proteasomal degradation of the histone acetyl transferase p300 contributes to beta-cell injury in a diabetes environment
In type 2 diabetes, amyloid oligomers, chronic hyperglycemia, lipotoxicity, and pro-inflammatory cytokines are detrimental to beta-cells, causing apoptosis and impaired insulin secretion. The histone acetyl transferase p300, involved in remodeling of chromatin structure by epigenetic mechanisms, is a key ubiquitous activator of the transcriptional machinery. In this study, we report that loss of p300 acetyl transferase activity and expression leads to beta-cell apoptosis, and most importantly, that stress situations known to be associated with diabetes alter p300 levels and functional integrity. We found that proteasomal degradation is the mechanism subserving p300 loss in beta-cells exposed to hyperglycemia or pro-inflammatory cytokines. We also report that melatonin, a hormone produced in the pineal gland and known to play key roles in beta-cell health, preserves p300 levels altered by these toxic conditions. Collectively, these data imply an important role for p300 in the pathophysiology of diabetes
Persistent Phenotypic Responses of Human Mammary Epithelial Cells Induced by Ionizing Radiation
Ionizing radiation (IR) is a known human breast carcinogen. Although the mutagenic capacity of IR is widely acknowledged as the basis for its action as a carcinogen, we and others have shown that IR can also induce growth factors and extracellular matrix remodeling. We have shown that irradiating human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) cultured with that transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ) can generate a persistent phenotype in daughter cells characterized by spindle cell morphology, increased mesenchymal markers, decreased epithelial markers and increased cellular motility and invasion, which are hallmarks of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Neither radiation nor TGFβ alone elicited EMT, although IR increased chronic TGFβ signaling and activity. Gene expression profiling revealed that double-treated cells exhibit a specific 10-gene signature associated with Erk/MAPK signaling. We hypothesized that IR-induced MAPK activation primes nonmalignant HMEC to undergo TGFβ-mediated EMT. Consistent with this, Erk phosphorylation was transiently induced by irradiation and persisted in irradiated cells treated with TGFβ, and inhibition of Erk activation, blocked the EMT phenotype. Preliminary studies suggest that eqi-toxic doses of sparsely and densely ionizing radiation resulted in comparable EMT when cells were cultivated in the presence of TGFβ, Furthermore radiation dose response studies show that this effect has a very low threshold in that a single exposure of 3-200 cGy radiation elicits the ‘same’ phenotypic switch, which is consistent with non-targeted effects. Together, these data show that the interactions between radiation-induced signaling pathways elicit heritable phenotypes that could contribute to radiation carcinogenesis
Persistence of Gamma-H2AX Foci in Irradiated Bronchial Cells Correlates with Susceptibility to Radiation Associated Lung Cancer in Mice
The risk of developing radiation-induced lung cancer differs between different strains of mice, but the underlying cause of the strain differences is unknown. Strains of mice also differ in their ability to efficiently repair DNA double strand breaks resulting from radiation exposure. We phenotyped mouse strains from the CcS/Dem recombinant congenic strain set for their efficacy in repairing DNA double strand breaks during protracted radiation exposures. We monitored persistent gamma-H2AX radiation induced foci (RIF) 24 hours after exposure to chronic gamma-rays as a surrogate marker for repair deficiency in bronchial epithelial cells for 17 of the CcS/Dem strains and the BALB/cHeN founder strain. We observed a very strong correlation R2 = 79.18%, P < 0.001) between the level of persistent RIF and radiogenic lung cancer percent incidence measured in the same strains. Interestingly, spontaneous levels of foci in non-irradiated strains also showed good correlation with lung cancer incidence (R2=32.74%, P =0.013). These results suggest that genetic differences in DNA repair capacity largely account for differing susceptibilities to radiation-induced lung cancer among CcS/Dem mouse strains and that high levels of spontaneous DNA damage is also a relatively good marker of cancer predisposition. In a smaller pilot study, we found that the repair capacity measured in peripheral blood leucocytes also correlated well with radiogenic lung cancer susceptibility, raising the possibility that such phenotyping assay could be used to detect radiogenic lung cancer susceptibility in humans
High-field magnetization study of the S = 1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain [PM Cu(NO)(HO)] with a field-induced gap
We present a high-field magnetization study of the = 1/2
antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain [PM Cu(NO)(HO)]. For
this material, as result of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and a
staggered tensor, the ground state is characterized by an anisotropic
field-induced spin excitation gap and a staggered magnetization. Our data
reveal the qualitatively different behavior in the directions of maximum and
zero spin excitation gap. The data are analyzed via exact diagonalization of a
linear spin chain with up to 20 sites and on basis of the Bethe ansatz
equations, respectively. For both directions we find very good agreement
between experimental data and theoretical calculations. We extract the magnetic
coupling strength along the chain direction to 36.3(5) K and determine
the field dependence of the staggered magnetization component .Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures (minor changes to manuscript and figures
Genetic and molecular characterization of bud dormancy in apple: deciphering candidate gene roles in dormancy regulation.
Dormancy is an adaptive mechanism that enables plants to survive unfavorable climatic conditions, for example during winter, and allows flowering to occur only when the conditions are more permissive, typically in spring
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