Halogenation of microcapsule walls

Procedure for halogenation of confining walls of both gelatin and gelatin-phenolic resin capsules is similar to that used for microencapsulation. Ten percent halogen content renders capsule wall nonburning; any higher content enhances flame-retardant properties of selected internal phase material. Halogenation decreases permeability of wall material to encapsulated materials

A SILAC-based Approach Identifies Substrates of Caspase-dependent Cleavage upon TRAIL-induced Apoptosis

The extracellular ligand-induced extrinsic pathway of apoptosis is executed via caspase protease cascades that activate downstream effectors by means of site-directed proteolysis. Here we identify proteome changes upon the induction of apoptosis by the cytokine tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) in a Jurkat T cell line. We detected caspase-dependent cleavage substrates by quantifying protein intensities before and after TRAIL induction in SDS gel slices. Apoptotic protein cleavage events are identified by a characteristic stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) ratio pattern across gel slices that results from differential migration of the cleaved and uncleaved proteins. We applied a statistical test to define apoptotic substrates in the proteome. Our approach identified more than 650 of these cleaved proteins in response to TRAIL-induced apoptosis, including many previously unknown substrates and cleavage sites. Inhibitor treatment combined with triple SILAC demonstrated that the detected cleavage events were caspase dependent. Proteins located in the lumina of organelles such as mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum were significantly underrepresented in the substrate population. Interestingly, caspase cleavage is generally observed in not only one but several members of stable complexes, but often with lower stoichiometry. For instance, all five proteins of the condensin I complex were cleaved upon TRAIL treatment. The apoptotic substrate proteome data can be accessed and visualized in the MaxQB database and might prove useful for basic and clinical research into TRAIL-induced apoptosis. The technology described here is extensible to a wide range of other proteolytic cleavage events

Training Collaboration in a Network-Assisted Environment

Technology enabled non-face-to-face collaboration has the potential to enhance information sharing and shared situational awareness (SSA) by providing near real-time information to a wide audience. Collaborators require an awareness of what critical information should be shared to develop this SSA. Previous research suggested that participants, while reporting that they shared relevant information, in actuality did not. To explore this issue, the previous research was repeated with the addition of having half of the participants exposed to a short training video on how to collaborate. Participants who received training on how to collaborate located significantly more SCUDs during each of the five turns of the two games played. Similarly, participants who received collaboration training scored higher on shared situational awareness during every turn played. Overall, those receiving the training on collaboration shared information more often with their partners and these information exchanges were longer than those who had not received the training. As technology advances, there is an increased need to understand how humans collaborate at a distance. Findings from this research advance our knowledge of how to enhance non-face-to-face collaboration. SCUDHunt, an on-line game developed by Thoughtlink Inc., was selected for this research on collaboration because it provides a simplified model of the interplay of shared awareness and collaboration, while permitting independent manipulation of variables thought to affect them. SCUDHunt requires participants to do the following: (1) collaborate from distributed locations, and (2) share unique information from their intelligence assets for optimal game performance. The goal of the game is simple: locate three SCUD missile launchers on a map. The game requires geographically dispersed players to collaborate while executing digital tasks to achieve a shared goal

Performance in Non-Face-to-Face Collaborative Information Environments

Using technology to obtain and process information requires training not only in human-computer interaction but also in human-human-computer (collaborative) interaction. Warfighters must not only develop their own situational awareness (SA), they must understand each others’ SA (Pew, 1995). This common ground is what each collaboration participant assumes about the others to ensure effective interactions (Ross, 2003; Wellons, 1993). Communication is key. Collaborators must coordinate and share information. Collaboration influences military operations at all levels. Technical interoperability is not enough to produce the synchronization required

Contact-free mapping of electronic transport phenomena of polar domains in SrMnO3 films

Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license.-- et al.High-resolution mapping of electronic transport phenomena plays an increasingly important role for the characterization of ferroic domains and their functionality. At present, spatially resolved electronic transport data are commonly gained from local two-point measurements, collected in line-by-line scans with a conducting nanosized probe. Here, we introduce an innovative experimental approach based on low-energy electron microscopy. As a model case, we study polar domains of varying conductance in strained SrMnO3. By a direct comparison with conductive atomic force and electrostatic force microscopy, we reveal that the applied low-energy electron-microscopy experiment can be considered as an inverse I(V) measurement, providing access to the local electronic conductance with nanoscale resolution and short data-acquisition times in the order of 10-102 ms. Low-energy electrons thus hold yet unexplored application opportunities as a minimal-invasive probe for local electronic transport phenomena, opening a promising route towards spatially resolved, high-throughput sampling at the nanoscale.We thank HZB for the allocation of synchrotron beam time and we thankfully acknowledge financial support by HZB. Research at the ETH was financed in part by the SNF (Proposal No. 200021_149192). L. M., E. L., P. A. A., and J. A. P. acknowledge financial support from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Project No. MAT2014-51982-C2 and Gobierno de Aragón under Project No. E26.Peer Reviewe

Rearrangement of the Fermi Surface of Dense Neutron Matter and Direct Urca Cooling of Neutron Stars

It is proposed that a rearrangement of single-particle degrees of freedom may occur in a portion of the quantum fluid interior of a neutron star. Such a rearrangement is associated with the pronounced softening of the spin-isospin collective mode which, under increasing density, leads to pion condensation. Arguments and estimates based on fundamental relations of many-body theory show that one realization of this phenomenon could produce very rapid cooling of the star via a direct nucelon Urca process displaying a $T^5$ dependence on temperature.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Electronic bulk and domain wall properties in B-site doped hexagonal ErMnO3_3

Acceptor and donor doping is a standard for tailoring semiconductors. More recently, doping was adapted to optimize the behavior at ferroelectric domain walls. In contrast to more than a century of research on semiconductors, the impact of chemical substitutions on the local electronic response at domain walls is largely unexplored. Here, the hexagonal manganite ErMnO$_3$ is donor doped with Ti$^{4+}$. Density functional theory calculations show that Ti$^{4+}$ goes to the B-site, replacing Mn$^{3+}$. Scanning probe microscopy measurements confirm the robustness of the ferroelectric domain template. The electronic transport at both macro- and nanoscopic length scales is characterized. The measurements demonstrate the intrinsic nature of emergent domain wall currents and point towards Poole-Frenkel conductance as the dominant transport mechanism. Aside from the new insight into the electronic properties of hexagonal manganites, B-site doping adds an additional degree of freedom for tuning the domain wall functionality

S-wave Pairing of Λ\Lambda Hyperons in Dense Matter

In this work we calculate the $^1S_0$ gap energies of $\Lambda$ hyperons in neutron star matter. The calculation is based on a solution of the BCS gap equation for an effective G-matrix parameterization of the $\Lambda-\Lambda$ interaction with a nuclear matter background, presented recently by Lanskoy and Yamamoto. We find that a gap energy of a few tenths of MeV is expected for $\Lambda$ Fermi momenta up to about 1.3 fm$^{-1}$. Implications for neutron star matter are examined, and suggest the existence of a $\Lambda$ $^1S_0$ superfluid between the threshold baryon density for $\Lambda$ formation and the baryon density where the $\Lambda$ fraction reaches $15-20$.Comment: 16 pages, Revtex, 9 figures, 33 reference

Diquark Condensates and Compact Star Cooling

The effect of color superconductivity on the cooling of quark stars and neutron stars with large quark cores is investigated. Various known and new quark-neutrino processes are studied. As a result, stars being in the color flavor locked (CFL) color superconducting phase cool down extremely fast. Quark stars with no crust cool down too rapidly in disagreement with X-ray data. The cooling of stars being in the N_f =2 color superconducting (2SC) phase with a crust is compatible with existing X-ray data. Also the cooling history of stars with hypothetic pion condensate nuclei and a crust does not contradict the data.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Cooling of Neutron Stars: Two Types of Triplet Neutron Pairing

We consider cooling of neutron stars (NSs) with superfluid cores composed of neutrons, protons, and electrons (assuming singlet-state pairing of protons, and triplet-state pairing of neutrons). We mainly focus on (nonstandard) triplet-state pairing of neutrons with the $|m_J| = 2$ projection of the total angular momentum of Cooper pairs onto quantization axis. The specific feature of this pairing is that it leads to a power-law (nonexponential) reduction of the emissivity of the main neutrino processes by neutron superfluidity. For a wide range of neutron critical temperatures $T_{cn}$, the cooling of NSs with the $|m_J| = 2$ superfluidity is either the same as the cooling with the $m_J = 0$ superfluidity, considered in the majority of papers, or much faster. The cooling of NSs with density dependent critical temperatures $T_{cn}(\rho)$ and $T_{cp}(\rho)$ can be imitated by the cooling of the NSs with some effective critical temperatures $T_{cn}$ and $T_{cp}$ constant over NS cores. The hypothesis of strong neutron superfluidity with $|m_J| = 2$ is inconsistent with current observations of thermal emission from NSs, but the hypothesis of weak neutron superfluidity of any type does not contradict to observations.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure