1,531 research outputs found
Oral Transmission in Arabic Music, Past and Present
George D. Sawa studied music at the Higher Institute for the Studies of Arabic Music in Alexandria, Egypt between 1966 and 1970, and received his Ph.D. in 1983 from the University of Toronto. He as a joint appointment at the Department of Music and Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies at Toronto, where he teaches the history of Arabic music
Novel Orbital Ordering induced by Anisotropic Stress in a Manganite Thin Film
We performed resonant and nonresonant x-ray diffraction studies of a
Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 thin film that exhibits a clear first-order transition. Lattice
parameters vary drastically at the metal-insulator transition at 170K (=T_MI),
and superlattice reflections appear below 140K (=T_CO). The electronic
structure between T_MI and T_CO is identified as A-type antiferromagnetic with
the d_{x2-y2} ferroorbital ordering. Below T_CO, a new type of antiferroorbital
ordering emerges. The accommodation of the large lattice distortion at the
first-order phase transition and the appearance of the novel orbital ordering
are brought about by the anisotropy in the substrate, a new parameter for the
phase control.Comment: 4pages, 4figure
Crystallographic and superconducting properties of the fully-gapped noncentrosymmetric 5d-electron superconductors CaMSi3 (M=Ir, Pt)
We report crystallographic, specific heat, transport, and magnetic properties
of the recently discovered noncentrosymmetric 5d-electron superconductors
CaIrSi3 (Tc = 3.6 K) and CaPtSi3 (Tc = 2.3 K). The specific heat suggests that
these superconductors are fully gapped. The upper critical fields are less than
1 T, consistent with limitation by conventional orbital depairing. High,
non-Pauli-limited {\mu}0 Hc2 values, often taken as a key signature of novel
noncentrosymmetric physics, are not observed in these materials because the
high carrier masses required to suppress orbital depairing and reveal the
violated Pauli limit are not present.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
A quantitative model for IcR product in d-wave Josephson junctions
We study theoretically the Josephson effect in d-wave superconductor /
diffusive normal metal /insulator/ diffusive normal metal/ d-wave
superconductor (D/DN/I/DN/D) junctions. This model is aimed to describe
practical junctions in high- cuprate superconductors, in which the product
of the critical Josephson current () and the normal state resistance ()
(the so-called product) is very small compared to the prediction
of the standard theory. We show that the product in D/DN/I/DN/D
junctions can be much smaller than that in d-wave superconductor / insulator /
d-wave superconductor junctions and formulate the conditions necessary to
achieve large product in D/DN/I/DN/D junctions. The proposed
theory describes the behavior of products quantitatively in
high- cuprate junctions.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
On the Bohnenblust-Hille inequality and a variant of Littlewood's 4/3 inequality
The search for sharp constants for inequalities of the type Littlewood's 4/3
and Bohnenblust-Hille, besides its pure mathematical interest, has shown
unexpected applications in many different fields, such as Analytic Number
Theory, Quantum Information Theory, or (for instance) in deep results on the
-dimensional Bohr radius. The recent estimates obtained for the multilinear
Bohnenblust-Hille inequality (in the case of real scalars) have been recently
used, as a crucial step, by A. Montanaro in order to solve problems in the
theory of quantum XOR games. Here, among other results, we obtain new upper
bounds for the Bohnenblust-Hille constants in the case of complex scalars. For
bilinear forms, we obtain the optimal constants of variants of Littlewood's 4/3
inequality (in the case of real scalars) when the exponent 4/3 is replaced by
any As a consequence of our estimates we show that the optimal
constants for the real case are always strictly greater than the constants for
the complex case
Hypervelocity Stars from the Andromeda Galaxy
Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) discovered in the Milky Way (MW) halo are thought
to be ejected from near the massive black hole (MBH) at the galactic centre. In
this paper we investigate the spatial and velocity distributions of the HVSs
which are expected to be similarly produced in the Andromeda galaxy (M31). We
consider three different HVS production mechanisms: (i) the disruption of
stellar binaries by the galactocentric MBH; (ii) the ejection of stars by an
in-spiraling intermediate mass black hole; and (iii) the scattering of stars
off a cluster of stellar-mass black holes orbiting around the MBH. While the
first two mechanisms would produce large numbers of HVSs in M31, we show that
the third mechanism would not be effective in M31. We numerically calculate
1.2*10^6 trajectories of HVSs from M31 within a simple model of the Local Group
and hence infer the current distribution of these stars. Gravitational focusing
of the HVSs by the MW and the diffuse Local Group medium leads to high
densities of low mass (~ solar mass) M31 HVSs near the MW. Within the
virialized MW halo, we expect there to be of order 1000 HVSs for the first
mechanism and a few hundred HVSs for the second mechanism; many of these stars
should have distinctively large approach velocities (< -500 km/s). In addition,
we predict ~5 hypervelocity RGB stars within the M31 halo which could be
identified observationally. Future MW astrometric surveys or searches for
distant giants could thus find HVSs from M31.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, changed to match version accepted by MNRA
SUMOylation of DISC1: a potential role in neural progenitor proliferation in the developing cortex
DISC1 is a multifunctional, intracellular scaffold protein. At the cellular level, DISC1 plays a pivotal role in neural progenitor proliferation, migration, and synaptic maturation. Perturbation of the biological pathways involving DISC1 is known to lead to behavioral changes in rodents, which supports a clinical report of a Scottish pedigree in which the majority of family members with disruption of the DISC1 gene manifest depression, schizophrenia, and related mental conditions. The discrepancy between modest evidence in genetics and strong biological support for the role of DISC1 in mental conditions suggests a working hypothesis that regulation of DISC1 at the protein level, such as posttranslational modification, may play a role in the pathology of mental conditions. In this study, we report on the SUMOylation of DISC1. This posttranslational modification occurs on lysine residues where the small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) and its homologs are conjugated to a large number of cellular proteins, which in turn regulates their subcellular distribution and protein stability. By using in silico, biochemical, and cell-biological approaches, we now demonstrate that human DISC1 is SUMOylated at one specific lysine 643 (K643). We also show that this residue is crucial for proper neural progenitor proliferation in the developing cortex
Identification of the plague reservoir in an endemic area of Zambia
Yersinia pestis, the bacterial agent of plague, is primarily a parasite of wild rodents that persists in permanent, discrete enzootic foci throughout the world. The disease is transmitted in humans by bites from fleas of wildlife rodent species. Therefore surveillance is the ultimate public health solution through plague detection in domestic dogs, other carnivores and wild rodents. The investigations of die-offs amongst plague-susceptible colonial rodents are also significant to determine the presence of Y. pestis in a susceptible population.This study details the identification of the plague reservoir in a suspected endemic area of Zambia. The study was undertaken through rodent investigation for the presence of Y. pestis. A total of 105 rodents were sampled routinely and during a suspected plague period. On dissection 4 (3.81%, 95% CI: 1.23â10.0) rodents sampled during an outbreak showed signs of spleen enlargement. The blood, liver, lymph nodes and spleen of each rodent were subjected to culture on 6% sheep blood agar and MaCconkey agar. Colonies obtained were identified as Y. pestis by colony morphologic features, biochemical profiles, mouse inoculation assay and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR primers used targeted the Y. pestis plasminogen activator gene, chromosomal ferric iron uptake regulation gene and the outer membrane protein B gene.The isolates were also subjected to antibiotic sensitivity tests using the disk diffusion method on Mueller-Hinton agar with sensitivity being observed with ampicillin, amoxicillin, chloramphenicol, gentamycin, streptomycin, tetracycline and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. The findings, identifies a natural reservoir of Y. pestis in Zambia providing the public health officials with a definite host for the control strategy.</jats:p
Order parameter oscillations in Fe/Ag/Bi2Sr2CaCu2O{8+delta} tunnel junctions
We have performed temperature dependent tunneling conductance spectroscopy on
Fe/Ag/Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (BSCCO) planar junctions. The multilayered Fe
counterelectrode was designed to probe the proximity region of the ab-plane of
BSCCO. The spectra manifested a coherent oscillatory behavior with magnitude
and sign dependent on the energy, decaying with increasing distance from the
junction barrier, in conjunction with the theoretical predictions involving
d-wave superconductors coupled with ferromagnets. The conductance oscillates in
antiphase at E = 0 and E = +/-Delta. Spectral features characteristic to a
broken time-reversal pairing symmetry are detected and they do not depend on
the geometrical characteristics of the ferromagnetic film.Comment: 4 pages and 4 figures Submitted to Physical Review Letter
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