Experimental evidence of reduced sticking of nanoparticles on a metal grid

Filtering of NaCl, CaCl2, (NH4)2SO4 and NiSO4 aerosol particles 7–20 nm in diameter by a stainless steel grid was studied in order to find out if there is perfect sticking or partial rebound. Our experiment used particles from a spray-drying process, the majority of which were electrically neutral. Penetration through the grid was measured by comparing the concentration downstream of the grid with the upstream concentration under otherwise identical conditions. Size selection was done with a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS). Filter penetration P as function of the particle diameter dp was expressed by View the MathML source . The values of x determined were smaller than the theoretical value of 1.29, indicating enhanced penetration of small particles and deviation from the classical filtration model. Because of possible systematic errors in the size selection, we focus on the differences of x from material to material, which indicate different sticking probabilities. We apply a statistical test, which yields a 90% confidence level for the result. There is a sticking probability of <100% at least for NaCl particles and even more so for NiSO4. This result is in contrast to former findings using metal and/or charged particles, and we speculate that the discrepancy is due to the smaller Hamaker constant of salts and that particle charge is important for the sticking probability

The Information Content of the 1999 Announcement of Funds from Operations (FFO) Changes for Real Estate Investment Trusts

This study examines the market response to the 1999 announcement of a change in accounting for Funds from Operations (FFO) for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). This change provides an increase in transparency in the accounting statements of REITs regarding the calculation of FFO. An analysis of this announcement finds that shareholder wealth increases but the significance of that increase is questionable. Additionally, an analysis of the adverse selection component of the bid-ask spread finds weak evidence to support the conjecture that the amount of information asymmetry in REIT prices declines after the announcement of the FFO accounting change.

Evolution of YidC/Oxa1/Alb3 insertases: three independent gene duplications followed by functional specialization in bacteria, mitochondria and chloroplasts

Members of the YidC/Oxa1/Alb3 protein family facilitate the insertion, folding and assembly of proteins of the inner membranes of bacteria and mitochondria and the thylakoid membrane of plastids. All homologs share a conserved hydrophobic core region comprising five transmembrane domains. On the basis of phylogenetic analyses, six subgroups of the family can be distinguished which presumably arose from three independent gene duplications followed by functional specialization. During evolution of bacteria, mitochondria and chloroplasts, subgroup-specific regions were added to the core domain to facilitate the association with ribosomes or other components contributing to the substrate spectrum of YidC/Oxa1/Alb3 proteins

Impact of chronic somatoform and osteoarthritis pain on conscious and preconscious cognitive processing

The study investigates the impact of chronic pain (CP) on conscious and preconscious cognitive processes and on guessing behavior, and examines the mediating effect of a depressive state. Twenty-eight patients with CP due to hip osteoarthritis, 32 patients with a somatoform disorder including pain symptoms, and 31 participants who did not have CP were examined within the framework of a modified Process-Dissociation-Procedure. Neutral, health threatening and general threatening stimuli were presented acoustically in a lexical decision task. Parameters of conscious processing, preconscious processing, and of chance were estimated by a multinomial modelling procedure. CP-patients with osteoarthritis showed the lowest level of conscious processing and the highest level of guessing behavior. Patients with somatoform pain tended to react preconsciously to health threatening stimuli but overall showed a profile similar to that of controls who did not have CP. The impact of the threatening quality of stimuli on different levels of cognitive processing was weak. Depression did not mediate between the experience of pain and estimates of conscious and preconscious processing. Perspective: The impact of CP on preconscious and conscious cognitive processing depends on types and causes of pain. The experience of CP caused by inflammation or physical damage tends to reduce the probability of conscious processing and to provoke memory biases. CP in the context of a somatoform disorder seems to have less impact on cognitive functions

Silica-clay complexes

The present invention relates to intercalated clay compositions wherein the interlayers of said clay have been intercalated with three-dimensional silicon oxide pillars whereby the pillars comprise at least two silicon atom layers parallel to the clay interlayers. These materials have useful catalytic and adsorbent properties

Silica intercalated crystalline zirconium phosphate-type materials

The present invention relates to intercalated crystalline zirconium phosphate-types compositions wherein the interlayers of said composition have been intercalated with three-dimensional silicon oxide pillars whereby the pillars comprise at least two silicon atom layers parallel to the clay interlayers

A Herschel study of Planetary Nebulae

We present Herschel PACS and SPIRE images of the dust shells around the planetary nebulae NGC 650, NGC 6853, and NGC 6720, as well as images showing the dust temperature in their shells. The latter shows a rich structure, which indicates that internal extinction in the UV is important despite the highly evolved status of the nebulae.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, 2012, proceedings IAU Symposium 283 Planetary Nebulae: An Eye to the Futur

Modeling delay in genetic networks: From delay birth-death processes to delay stochastic differential equations

Delay is an important and ubiquitous aspect of many biochemical processes. For example, delay plays a central role in the dynamics of genetic regulatory networks as it stems from the sequential assembly of first mRNA and then protein. Genetic regulatory networks are therefore frequently modeled as stochastic birth-death processes with delay. Here we examine the relationship between delay birth-death processes and their appropriate approximating delay chemical Langevin equations. We prove that the distance between these two descriptions, as measured by expectations of functionals of the processes, converges to zero with increasing system size. Further, we prove that the delay birth-death process converges to the thermodynamic limit as system size tends to infinity. Our results hold for both fixed delay and distributed delay. Simulations demonstrate that the delay chemical Langevin approximation is accurate even at moderate system sizes. It captures dynamical features such as the spatial and temporal distributions of transition pathways in metastable systems, oscillatory behavior in negative feedback circuits, and cross-correlations between nodes in a network. Overall, these results provide a foundation for using delay stochastic differential equations to approximate the dynamics of birth-death processes with delay

Spontaneous synchronization of coupled oscillator systems with frequency adaptation

We study the synchronization of Kuramoto oscillators with all-to-all coupling in the presence of slow, noisy frequency adaptation. In this paper we develop a new model for oscillators which adapt both their phases and frequencies. It is found that this model naturally reproduces some observed phenomena that are not qualitatively produced by the standard Kuramoto model, such as long waiting times before the synchronization of clapping audiences. By assuming a self-consistent steady state solution, we find three stability regimes for the coupling constant k, separated by critical points k1 and k2: (i) for k<k1, only the stable incoherent state exists; (ii) for k>k2, the incoherent state becomes unstable and only the synchronized state exists; (iii) for k1<k<k2, both the incoherent and synchronized states are stable. In the bistable regime spontaneous transitions between the incoherent and synchronized states are observed for finite ensembles. These transitions are well described as a stochastic process on the order parameter r undergoing fluctuations due to the system's finite size, leading to the following conclusions: (a) in the bistable regime, the average waiting time of an incoherent-to-coherent transition can be predicted by using Kramer's escape time formula and grows exponentially with the number of oscillators; (b) when the incoherent state is unstable (k>k2), the average waiting time grows logarithmically with the number of oscillators.Comment: 8 page Tex file, 6 figure

Extreme host galaxy growth in powerful early-epoch radio galaxies

During the first half of the universe's age, a heyday of star-formation must have occurred because many massive galaxies are in place after that epoch in cosmic history. Our observations with the revolutionary Herschel Space Observatory reveal vigorous optically obscured star-formation in the ultra-massive hosts of many powerful high-redshift 3C quasars and radio galaxies. This symbiotic occurrence of star-formation and black hole driven activity is in marked contrast to recent results dealing with Herschel observations of X-ray selected active galaxies. Three archetypal radio galaxies, at redshifts 1.132,1.575, and 2.474 are presented here, with inferred star-formation rates of hundreds of solar masses per year. A series of spectacular coeval AGN/starburst events may have formed these ultra-massive galaxies and their massive central black holes during their relatively short lifetimes.Comment: To appear in Astrophysical Journal Letter