Movement of Trace Elements During Residence in the Antarctic Ice: a Laboratory Simulation

Recent work has determined that differences in the trace element distribution between Antarctic eucrites and non-Antarctic eucrites may be due to weathering during residence in the ice, and samples that demonstrate trace element disturbances do not necessarily correspond to eucrites that appear badly weathered to the naked eye. This study constitutes a preliminary test of the idea that long-term residence in the ice is the cause of the trace element disturbances observed in the eucrites. Samples of a non-Antarctic eucrite were leached in water at room temperature conditions. Liquid samples were analyzed for rare earth element abundances using ion chromatography. The results for the short-term study showed little or no evidence that leaching had occurred. However, there were tantalizing hints that something may be happening. The residual solid samples are currently being analyzed for the unleached trace metals using instrumental neutron activation analysis and should show evidence of disturbance if the chromatography clues were real. In addition, another set of samples continues to be intermittently sampled for later analysis. The results should give us information about the movement of trace elements under our conditions and allow us to make some tentative extrapolations to what we observe in actual Antarctic eucrite samples

Evaluation of the mean excitation energy of liquid argon

Current and future experiments need to know the stopping power of liquid argon. It is used directly in calibration, where commonly the minimum-ionizing portion of muon tracks is used as a standard candle. Similarly, muon range is used as a measure of muon energy. More broadly, the stopping power figures into the simulation of all charged particles, and so uncertainty propagates widely throughout data analysis of all sorts. The main parameter that controls stopping power is the mean excitation energy, or I-value. Experimental information for argon's I-value come primarily from measurements of gaseous argon, with a very limited amount of information from solid argon, and none from liquid argon. These measurements are reviewed, along with a discussion of the difference in central value and uncertainty incurred by the difference of phase. The values newly recommended by this note are $(188 \pm 6)$ eV for gaseous argon and $(197 \pm 8)$ eV for liquid argon (68% C.L. in each case).Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Does musical enrichment enhance the neural coding of syllables? Neuroscientific interventions and the importance of behavioral data

A commentary on: Music enrichment programs improve the neural encoding of speech in at-risk children by Kraus, N., Slater, J., Thompson, E. C., Hornickel, J., Strait, D. L., Nicol, T., et al. (2014). J. Neurosci. 34, 11913–11918. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1881-14.201

Observation of a multimode plasma response and its relationship to density pumpout and edge-localized mode suppression

Density pumpout and edge-localized mode (ELM) suppression by applied n=2 magnetic fields in low-collisionality DIII-D plasmas are shown to be correlated with the magnitude of the plasma response driven on the high-field side (HFS) of the magnetic axis but not the low-field side (LFS) midplane. These distinct responses are a direct measurement of a multimodal magnetic plasma response, with each structure preferentially excited by a different n=2 applied spectrum and preferentially detected on the LFS or HFS. Ideal and resistive magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) calculations find that the LFS measurement is primarily sensitive to the excitation of stable kink modes, while the HFS measurement is primarily sensitive to resonant currents (whether fully shielding or partially penetrated). The resonant currents are themselves strongly modified by kink excitation, with the optimal applied field pitch for pumpout and ELM suppression significantly differing from equilibrium field alignment.This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, using the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility, under Awards No. DE-FC02-04ER54698, No. DE-AC02-09CH11466, No. DE-FG02-04ER54761, No. DE-AC05-06OR23100, No. DE-SC0001961, and No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. S. R. H. was supported by AINSE and ANSTO

An Efficient Method of Modeling Material Properties Using a Thermal Diffusion Analogy: An Example Based on Craniofacial Bone

The ability to incorporate detailed geometry into finite element models has allowed researchers to investigate the influence of morphology on performance aspects of skeletal components. This advance has also allowed researchers to explore the effect of different material models, ranging from simple (e.g., isotropic) to complex (e.g., orthotropic), on the response of bone. However, bone's complicated geometry makes it difficult to incorporate complex material models into finite element models of bone. This difficulty is due to variation in the spatial orientation of material properties throughout bone. Our analysis addresses this problem by taking full advantage of a finite element program's ability to solve thermal-structural problems. Using a linear relationship between temperature and modulus, we seeded specific nodes of the finite element model with temperatures. We then used thermal diffusion to propagate the modulus throughout the finite element model. Finally, we solved for the mechanical response of the finite element model to the applied loads and constraints. We found that using the thermal diffusion analogy to control the modulus of bone throughout its structure provides a simple and effective method of spatially varying modulus. Results compare favorably against both experimental data and results from an FE model that incorporated a complex (orthotropic) material model. This method presented will allow researchers the ability to easily incorporate more material property data into their finite element models in an effort to improve the model's accuracy

Arterial stiffness and Vitamin D levels: the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging

CONTEXT: The importance of vitamin D for bone health has long been acknowledged. Recent evidence suggests that vitamin D can also play a role in reducing the risk of several other diseases, including cardiovascular disease. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH D) is an independent cross-sectional correlate of central arterial stiffness in a normative aging study population. DESIGN AND SETTINGS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis. SUBJECTS: We studied 1228 healthy volunteers (50% males; age, 70\ub112 yr) of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We measured carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) and 25-OH D levels. RESULTS: We found a significant inverse association between PWV and 25-OH D levels (adjusted r2=0.27; \u3b2=-0.43; P=0.001). After adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, season of blood draw, estimated glomerular filtration rate, physical activity level, cardiovascular risk factors score (smoking, visceral obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes), calcium/vitamin D supplementation, serum calcium, and PTH levels, the association between PWV and 25-OH D levels was only slightly reduced and remained statistically significant (adjusted r2=0.34; \u3b2=-0.34; P=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D levels are inversely associated with increased arterial stiffness in a normative aging population, irrespective of traditional risk factor burden. Further research is needed to understand the mechanism of this association and to test the hypothesis that vitamin D supplementation can reduce arterial stiffness

Observation and control of resistive wall modes

Two approaches to achieving long-time scale stabilization of the ideal kink mode with a real, finite conductivity wall are considered: plasma rotation and active feedback control, DIII-D experiments have demonstrated stabilization of the resistive wall mode (RWM) by sustaining beta greater than the no-wall limit for up to 200 ms, much longer than the wall penetration time of a few ms. These plasmas are typically terminated by an m = 3, n = 1 mode as the plasma rotation slows below a few kHz. Recent temperature profile data shows an ideal MHD mode structure, as expected for the resistive wall mode at beta above the no-wall limit. The critical rotation rate for stabilization is in qualitative agreement with recent theories for dissipative stabilization in the absence of magnetic islands. However, drag by small-amplitude RWMs or damping of stable RWMs may contribute to an observed slowing of rotation at high beta, rendering rotational stabilization more difficult. An initial open-loop active control experiment, using non-axisymmetric external coils and a new array of saddle loop detectors, has yielded encouraging results, delaying the onset of the RWM

Measurement of the Optical Absorption Spectra of Epitaxial Graphene from Terahertz to Visible

We present experimental results on the optical absorption spectra of epitaxial graphene from the visible to the terahertz (THz) frequency range. In the THz range, the absorption is dominated by intraband processes with a frequency dependence similar to the Drude model. In the near IR range, the absorption is due to interband processes and the measured optical conductivity is close to the theoretical value of $e^{2}/4\hbar$. We extract values for the carrier densities, the number of carbon atom layers, and the intraband scattering times from the measurements