Self-organized Pattern Formation in Motor-Microtubule Mixtures

We propose and study a hydrodynamic model for pattern formation in mixtures of molecular motors and microtubules. The steady state patterns we obtain in different regimes of parameter space include arrangements of vortices and asters separately as well as aster-vortex mixtures and fully disordered states. Such stable steady states are observed in experiments in vitro. The sequence of patterns obtained in the experiments can be associated with smooth trajectories in a non-equilibrium phase diagram for our model.Comment: 11 pages Latex file, 2 figures include

Scientific validation of Vedic knowledge on 'Rajatam' and the convection current-assisted synthesis of silver nanoparticles

In the Vedic literature, one can see the mention of silver, 'Rajatam', for diversified day-to-day applications to lead a healthy life. The paper reports the scientific validation of traditional knowledge of synthesising chemical-free, stable metal nanoparticles (NPs), taking silver as an example. Here, silver nanoparticles (SNPs) are synthesised with the assistance of convection current in the water. The prolonged heating of double-distilled water in a silver vessel enables to get a colloidal solution of SNPs. The SNPs produced are characterised by UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy, Field-emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, High-resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy, and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy. Stability of SNPs is revealed through ageing studies with glucose as the surfactant. The method could synthesise stable SNPs of size 30-40 nm. This accounts for the possible reason for taking silver as the material for utensils for cooking food by the ancient Indians, Greek, Romans, Persians and Egyptians.

Accurate estimation of SNP-heritability from biobank-scale data irrespective of genetic architecture.

SNP-heritability is a fundamental quantity in the study of complex traits. Recent studies have shown that existing methods to estimate genome-wide SNP-heritability can yield biases when their assumptions are violated. While various approaches have been proposed to account for frequency- and linkage disequilibrium (LD)-dependent genetic architectures, it remains unclear which estimates reported in the literature are reliable. Here we show that genome-wide SNP-heritability can be accurately estimated from biobank-scale data irrespective of genetic architecture, without specifying a heritability model or partitioning SNPs by allele frequency and/or LD. We show analytically and through extensive simulations starting from real genotypes (UK Biobank, N = 337 K) that, unlike existing methods, our closed-form estimator is robust across a wide range of architectures. We provide estimates of SNP-heritability for 22 complex traits in the UK Biobank and show that, consistent with our results in simulations, existing biobank-scale methods yield estimates up to 30% different from our theoretically-justified approach

Effect of RF power on the structural and optical properties of zinc sulfide films.

Zinc sulfide (ZnS) films were prepared via a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique using different RF powers (100, 120, 150, and 180 W), and the effects of the RF power on the structural and optical properties of the films were studied using x-ray diffraction, micro-Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and laser photoluminescence spectroscopy. It was found that the RF power has an important impact on the predominant phase formation and crystallinity of the ZnS films. The film thickness, refractive index, and film to bulk relative density increase systematically with an increase in the RF power. Among the various RF power values investigated, 150 W was optimal for the growth of highly crystalline ZnS films with a predominance of the cubic phase and enhanced photoluminescence emissions

A Lattice-Boltzmann model for suspensions of self-propelling colloidal particles

We present a Lattice-Boltzmann method for simulating self-propelling (active) colloidal particles in two-dimensions. Active particles with symmetric and asymmetric force distribution on its surface are considered. The velocity field generated by a single active particle, changing its orientation randomly, and the different time scales involved are characterized in detail. The steady state speed distribution in the fluid, resulting from the activity, is shown to deviate considerably from the equilibrium distribution.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figure

GPU Accelerated Prognostics

Prognostic methods enable operators and maintainers to predict the future performance for critical systems. However, these methods can be computationally expensive and may need to be performed each time new information about the system becomes available. In light of these computational requirements, we have investigated the application of graphics processing units (GPUs) as a computational platform for real-time prognostics. Recent advances in GPU technology have reduced cost and increased the computational capability of these highly parallel processing units, making them more attractive for the deployment of prognostic software. We present a survey of model-based prognostic algorithms with considerations for leveraging the parallel architecture of the GPU and a case study of GPU-accelerated battery prognostics with computational performance results

Study on the structural, morphological and optical properties of RF-sputtered dysprosium-doped barium tungstate thin films.

Barium tungstate films with different Dy3+ doping concentrations, namely 0 wt.%, 1 wt.%, 3 wt.% and 5 wt.%, are deposited on cleaned quartz substrate by radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique and the prepared films are annealed at a temperature of 700{deg}C. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the annealed films are studied using techniques such as x-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. XRD analysis shows that all the films are well-crystallized in nature with a monoclinic barium tungstate phase. The presence of characteristic modes of the tungstate group in the Raman spectra supports the formation of the barium tungstate phase in the films. Scanning electron microscopic images of the films present a uniform dense distribution of well-defined grains with different sizes. All the doped films present a broad emission in the 390-500 nm region and its intensity increases up to 3 wt.% and thereafter decreases due to usual concentration quenching

Signal-to-noise measurements utilizing a novel dual-energy multimedia detector

Dual-energy measurements are presented utilizing a novel slot-scan digital radiographic imaging detector, operating on gaseous solid state ionization principles. The novel multimedia detector has two basic functional components: a noble gas-filled detector volume operating on gas microstrip principles, and a solid state detector volume. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential use of this multimedia detector for enhanced dual-energy imaging. The experimental results indicate that the multimedia detector exhibits a large subtracted signal-to-noise ratio. Although the intrinsic merit of this device is being explored for medical imaging, potential applications of the multimedia detector technology in other industrial areas, such as aerospace imaging, aviation security, and surveillance, are also very promising

Inference of locus-specific ancestry in closely related populations

A characterization of the genetic variation of recently admixed populations may reveal historical population events, and is useful for the detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with diseases through association studies and admixture mapping. Inference of locus-specific ancestry is key to our understanding of the genetic variation of such populations. While a number of methods for the inference of locus-specific ancestry are accurate when the ancestral populations are quite distant (e.g. African–Americans), current methods incur a large error rate when inferring the locus-specific ancestry in admixed populations where the ancestral populations are closely related (e.g. Americans of European descent)