Quartz crystal microbalance use in biological studies

Design, development, and applications of quartz crystal microbalance are discussed. Two types of crystals are used. One serves as reference and other senses changes in mass. Specific application to study of bacterial spores is described

Estimation of non-linear site response in a deep Alpine valley

We simulate non-linear behaviour of soils during strong ground motion in the Rhône valley in southern Switzerland. Previous studies of the site response using weak ground motion, ambient noise and linear 3-D FD simulations suggest that the 2-D structure of the basin will lead to amplification factors of up to 12 in the frequency band between 0.5 and 10 Hz. To estimate the importance of non-linear soil behaviour during strong ground motion in the Rhône valley we simulate the response of a superficial soft layer with a fully non-linear 1-D finite difference code. The non-linear wave propagator is based on an effective stress constitutive soil model capable of predicting pore pressure evolution due to shear. We determine the required dilatancy parameters from laboratory analysis of soil samples using cyclic triaxial tests. In order to include the effect of the strong 2-D structure in our non-linear analysis synthetic seismograms are convolved with the transfer function of the basin and then propagated through a 1-D non-linear layer. We find that reduced amplification due to soil non-linearity can be expected at rock accelerations above 0.5 ms−2, and that de-amplification occurs at ground motion levels of approximately 2 ms−2. Nevertheless, the spectral accelerations simulated for the valley centre are still exceeding the design spectra at about 0.5 Hz for magnitudes above 6.0, which reflects the strong amplification of ground motion by the deep 2-D resonance of the basin. For frequencies above 1 Hz the design spectra are generally in agreement with the strongest simulated accelerations. We evaluate the occurrence of soil failure using the 5 per cent strain criterion as a function of hypocentral distance and magnitude. Results confirm observations of liquefaction reported after the 1855 Mw 6.4 earthquake of Visp, and they suggest that soil liquefaction may occur at distances beyond those predicted by empirical relations in the valley. Near the basin edge, however, the simulated liquefaction occurrence agrees with the empirical relations. These results suggest that the response of the whole structure needs to be simulated in order to estimate the non-linear seismic response of complex basins like the Rhône valle

Imported lassa fever in Germany: molecular characterization of a new lassa virus strain.

We describe the isolation and characterization of a new Lassa virus strain imported into Germany by a traveler who had visited Ghana, Côte D'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. This strain, designated "AV," originated from a region in West Africa where Lassa fever has not been reported. Viral S RNA isolated from the patient's serum was amplified and sequenced. A long-range reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction allowed amplification of the full-length (3.4 kb) S RNA. The coding sequences of strain AV differed from those of all known Lassa prototype strains (Josiah, Nigeria, and LP) by approximately 20%, mainly at third codon positions. Phylogenetically, strain AV appears to be most closely related to strain Josiah from Sierra Leone. Lassa viruses comprise a group of genetically highly diverse strains, which has implications for vaccine development. The new method for full-length S RNA amplification may facilitate identification and molecular analysis of new arenaviruses or arenavirus strains

A Convergent Method for Calculating the Properties of Many Interacting Electrons

A method is presented for calculating binding energies and other properties of extended interacting systems using the projected density of transitions (PDoT) which is the probability distribution for transitions of different energies induced by a given localized operator, the operator on which the transitions are projected. It is shown that the transition contributing to the PDoT at each energy is the one which disturbs the system least, and so, by projecting on appropriate operators, the binding energies of equilibrium electronic states and the energies of their elementary excitations can be calculated. The PDoT may be expanded as a continued fraction by the recursion method, and as in other cases the continued fraction converges exponentially with the number of arithmetic operations, independent of the size of the system, in contrast to other numerical methods for which the number of operations increases with system size to maintain a given accuracy. These properties are illustrated with a calculation of the binding energies and zone-boundary spin- wave energies for an infinite spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain, which is compared with analytic results for this system and extrapolations from finite rings of spins.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, corrected pd

Pressure as a Source of Gravity

The active mass density in Einstein's theory of gravitation in the analog of Poisson's equation in a local inertial system is proportional to $\rho+3p/c^2$. Here $\rho$ is the density of energy and $p$ its pressure for a perfect fluid. By using exact solutions of Einstein's field equations in the static case we study whether the pressure term contributes towards the mass

On a modified-Lorentz-transformation based gravity model confirming basic GRT experiments

Implementing Poincar\'e's `geometric conventionalism' a scalar Lorentz-covariant gravity model is obtained based on gravitationally modified Lorentz transformations (or GMLT). The modification essentially consists of an appropriate space-time and momentum-energy scaling ("normalization") relative to a nondynamical flat background geometry according to an isotropic, nonsingular gravitational `affecting' function Phi(r). Elimination of the gravitationally `unaffected' S_0 perspective by local composition of space-time GMLT recovers the local Minkowskian metric and thus preserves the invariance of the locally observed velocity of light. The associated energy-momentum GMLT provides a covariant Hamiltonian description for test particles and photons which, in a static gravitational field configuration, endorses the four `basic' experiments for testing General Relativity Theory: gravitational i) deflection of light, ii) precession of perihelia, iii) delay of radar echo, iv) shift of spectral lines. The model recovers the Lagrangian of the Lorentz-Poincar\'e gravity model by Torgny Sj\"odin and integrates elements of the precursor gravitational theories, with spatially Variable Speed of Light (VSL) by Einstein and Abraham, and gravitationally variable mass by Nordstr\"om.Comment: v1: 14 pages, extended version of conf. paper PIRT VIII, London, 2002. v2: section added on effective tensorial rank, references added, appendix added, WEP issue deleted, abstract and other parts rewritten, same results (to appear in Found. Phys.

Axiomatic geometric formulation of electromagnetism with only one axiom: the field equation for the bivector field F with an explanation of the Trouton-Noble experiment

In this paper we present an axiomatic, geometric, formulation of electromagnetism with only one axiom: the field equation for the Faraday bivector field F. This formulation with F field is a self-contained, complete and consistent formulation that dispenses with either electric and magnetic fields or the electromagnetic potentials. All physical quantities are defined without reference frames, the absolute quantities, i.e., they are geometric four dimensional (4D) quantities or, when some basis is introduced, every quantity is represented as a 4D coordinate-based geometric quantity comprising both components and a basis. The new observer independent expressions for the stress-energy vector T(n)(1-vector), the energy density U (scalar), the Poynting vector S and the momentum density g (1-vectors), the angular momentum density M (bivector) and the Lorentz force K (1-vector) are directly derived from the field equation for F. The local conservation laws are also directly derived from that field equation. The 1-vector Lagrangian with the F field as a 4D absolute quantity is presented; the interaction term is written in terms of F and not, as usual, in terms of A. It is shown that this geometric formulation is in a full agreement with the Trouton-Noble experiment.Comment: 32 pages, LaTex, this changed version will be published in Found. Phys. Let

K+ and K- production in heavy-ion collisions at SIS-energies

The production and the propagation of K+ and of K- mesons in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies of 1 to 2 AGeV have systematically been investigated with the Kaon Spectrometer KaoS at the SIS at the GSI. The ratio of the K+ production excitation function for Au+Au and for C+C reactions increases with decreasing beam energy, which is expected for a soft nuclear equation-of-state. At 1.5 AGeV a comprehensive study of the K+ and of the K- emission as a function of the size of the collision system, of the collision centrality, of the kaon energy, and of the polar emission angle has been performed. The K-/K+ ratio is found to be nearly constant as a function of the collision centrality. The spectral slopes and the polar emission patterns are different for K- and for K+. These observations indicate that K+ mesons decouple earlier from the reaction zone than K- mesons.Comment: invited talk given at the SQM2003 conference in Atlantic Beach, USA (March 2003), to be published in Journal of Physics G, 10pages, 7 figure

A fully relativistic radial fall

Radial fall has historically played a momentous role. It is one of the most classical problems, the solutions of which represent the level of understanding of gravitation in a given epoch. A {\it gedankenexperiment} in a modern frame is given by a small body, like a compact star or a solar mass black hole, captured by a supermassive black hole. The mass of the small body itself and the emission of gravitational radiation cause the departure from the geodesic path due to the back-action, that is the self-force. For radial fall, as any other non-adiabatic motion, the instantaneous identity of the radiated energy and the loss of orbital energy cannot be imposed and provide the perturbed trajectory. In the first part of this letter, we present the effects due to the self-force computed on the geodesic trajectory in the background field. Compared to the latter trajectory, in the Regge-Wheeler, harmonic and all others smoothly related gauges, a far observer concludes that the self-force pushes inward (not outward) the falling body, with a strength proportional to the mass of the small body for a given large mass; further, the same observer notes an higher value of the maximal coordinate velocity, this value being reached earlier on during infall. In the second part of this letter, we implement a self-consistent approach for which the trajectory is iteratively corrected by the self-force, this time computed on osculating geodesics. Finally, we compare the motion driven by the self-force without and with self-consistent orbital evolution. Subtle differences are noticeable, even if self-force effects have hardly the time to accumulate in such a short orbit.Comment: To appear in Int. J. Geom. Meth. Mod. Phy