Beyond the random phase approximation in the Singwi-Sj\"olander theory of the half-filled Landau level

We study the $\nu=1/2$ Chern-Simons system and consider a self-consistent field theory of the Singwi-Sj\"olander type which goes beyond the random phase approximation (RPA). By considering the Heisenberg equation of motion for the longitudinal momentum operator, we are able to show that the zero-frequency density-density response function vanishes linearly in long wavelength limit independent of any approximation. From this analysis, we derive a consistency condition for a decoupling of the equal time density-density and density-momentum correlation functions. By using the Heisenberg equation of motion of the Wigner distribution function with a decoupling of the correlation functions which respects this consistency condition, we calculate the response functions of the $\nu=1/2$ system. In our scheme, we get a density-density response function which vanishes linearly in the Coulomb case for zero-frequency in the long wavelength limit. Furthermore, we derive the compressibility, and the Landau energy as well as the Coulomb energy. These energies are in better agreement to numerical and exact results, respectively, than the energies calculated in the RPA.Comment: 9 Revtex pages, 4 eps figures, typos correcte

Secondary structure in the target as a confounding factor in synthetic oligomer microarray design

BACKGROUND: Secondary structure in the target is a property not usually considered in software applications for design of optimal custom oligonucleotide probes. It is frequently assumed that eliminating self-complementarity, or screening for secondary structure in the probe, is sufficient to avoid interference with hybridization by stable secondary structures in the probe binding site. Prediction and thermodynamic analysis of secondary structure formation in a genome-wide set of transcripts from Brucella suis 1330 demonstrates that the properties of the target molecule have the potential to strongly influence the rate and extent of hybridization between transcript and tethered oligonucleotide probe in a microarray experiment. RESULTS: Despite the relatively high hybridization temperatures and 1M monovalent salt imposed in the modeling process to approximate hybridization conditions used in the laboratory, we find that parts of the target molecules are likely to be inaccessible to intermolecular hybridization due to the formation of stable intramolecular secondary structure. For example, at 65°C, 28 ± 7% of the average cDNA target sequence is predicted to be inaccessible to hybridization. We also analyzed the specific binding sites of a set of 70mer probes previously designed for Brucella using a freely available oligo design software package. 21 ± 13% of the nucleotides in each probe binding site are within a double-stranded structure in over half of the folds predicted for the cDNA target at 65°C. The intramolecular structures formed are more stable and extensive when an RNA target is modeled rather than cDNA. When random shearing of the target is modeled for fragments of 200, 100 and 50 nt, an overall destabilization of secondary structure is predicted, but shearing does not eliminate secondary structure. CONCLUSION: Secondary structure in the target is pervasive, and a significant fraction of the target is found in double stranded conformations even at high temperature. Stable structure in the target has the potential to interfere with hybridization and should be a factor in interpretation of microarray results, as well as an explicit criterion in array design. Inclusion of this property in an oligonucleotide design procedure would change the definition of an optimal oligonucleotide significantly

Wind measurements from an array of oceanographic moorings and from F/SMeteor during JASIN 1978

During the Joint Air-Sea Interaction (JASIN) experiment conducted in the northern Rockall Trough in the summer of 1978, oceanographic moorings with surface buoys carrying wind recorders were deployed in an array designed to investigate the variability of the near-surface wind field at scales of from 2 to 200 km. The wind records together with observations taken on board the research vessels participating in JASIN have provided ground truth measurements for the sea surface wind velocity sensors on the Seasat satellite. During most of the experiment the wind field was characterized by spatial scales large in comparison with the separations between the buoys. On several occasions, spatial differences associated with cold fronts were identified, and it was possible to track the passage of the front through the array. However, quantitative analysis of the variability of the wind field was complicated both by a lack of data due to mechanical failures of some instruments and by significant differences in the performance of the diverse types of wind recorders. Reevaluation of the instruments used in JASIN and recent comparison of some of these instruments with more conventional sets of wind sensors confirm the possibility that there is significant error in the JASIN wind measurements made from the buoys. In particular, the vector-averaging wind recorder on W2, which was one of the few instruments to recover a full length record and which was chosen during a Seasat-JASIN workshop as the JASIN standard, had performance characteristics that were among the most difficult to explain

Nontargeted biomonitoring of halogenated organic compounds in two ecotypes of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from the Southern California Bight.

Targeted environmental monitoring reveals contamination by known chemicals, but may exclude potentially pervasive but unknown compounds. Marine mammals are sentinels of persistent and bioaccumulative contaminants due to their longevity and high trophic position. Using nontargeted analysis, we constructed a mass spectral library of 327 persistent and bioaccumulative compounds identified in blubber from two ecotypes of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) sampled in the Southern California Bight. This library of halogenated organic compounds (HOCs) consisted of 180 anthropogenic contaminants, 41 natural products, 4 with mixed sources, 8 with unknown sources, and 94 with partial structural characterization and unknown sources. The abundance of compounds whose structures could not be fully elucidated highlights the prevalence of undiscovered HOCs accumulating in marine food webs. Eighty-six percent of the identified compounds are not currently monitored, including 133 known anthropogenic chemicals. Compounds related to dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) were the most abundant. Natural products were, in some cases, detected at abundances similar to anthropogenic compounds. The profile of naturally occurring HOCs differed between ecotypes, suggesting more abundant offshore sources of these compounds. This nontargeted analytical framework provided a comprehensive list of HOCs that may be characteristic of the region, and its application within monitoring surveys may suggest new chemicals for evaluation

APO010, a synthetic hexameric CD95 ligand, induces human glioma cell death in vitro and in vivo

Death receptor targeting has emerged as one of the promising novel approaches of cancer therapy. The activation of one such prototypic death receptor, CD95 (Fas/APO-1), has remained controversial because CD95 agonistic molecules have exhibited either too strong toxicity or too little activity. The natural CD95 ligand (CD95L) is a cytokine, which needs to trimerize to mediate a cell death signal. Mega-Fas-Ligand, now referred to as APO010, is a synthetic hexameric CD95 agonist that exhibits strong antitumor activity in various tumor models. Here, we studied the effects of APO010 in human glioma models in vitro and in vivo. Compared with a cross-linked soluble CD95L or a CD95-agonistic antibody, APO010 exhibited superior activity in glioma cell lines expressing CD95 and triggered caspase-dependent cell death. APO010 reduced glioma cell viability in synergy when combined with temozolomide. The locoregional administration of APO010 induced glioma cell death in vivo and prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice. A further exploration of APO010 as a novel antiglioma agent is warranted

Regulating Clothing Outwork: A Sceptic's View

By applying the strategies of international anti-sweatshop campaigns to the Australian context, recent regulations governing home-based clothing production hold retailers responsible for policing the wages and employment conditions of clothing outworkers who manufacture clothing on their behalf. This paper argues that the new approach oversimplifies the regulatory challenge by assuming (1) that Australian clothing production is organised in a hierarchical ‘buyer-led’ linear structure in which core retail firms have the capacity to control their suppliers’ behaviour; (2) that firms act as unitary moral agents; and (3) that interventions imported from other times and places are applicable to the contemporary Australian context. After considering some alternative regulatory approaches, the paper concludes that the new regulatory strategy effectively privatises responsibility for labour market conditions – a development that cries out for further debate

Optimizing tuning masses for helicopter rotor blade vibration reduction including computed airloads and comparison with test data

The development and validation of an optimization procedure to systematically place tuning masses along a rotor blade span to minimize vibratory loads are described. The masses and their corresponding locations are the design variables that are manipulated to reduce the harmonics of hub shear for a four-bladed rotor system without adding a large mass penalty. The procedure incorporates a comprehensive helicopter analysis to calculate the airloads. Predicting changes in airloads due to changes in design variables is an important feature of this research. The procedure was applied to a one-sixth, Mach-scaled rotor blade model to place three masses and then again to place six masses. In both cases the added mass was able to achieve significant reductions in the hub shear. In addition, the procedure was applied to place a single mass of fixed value on a blade model to reduce the hub shear for three flight conditions. The analytical results were compared to experimental data from a wind tunnel test performed in the Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel. The correlation of the mass location was good and the trend of the mass location with respect to flight speed was predicted fairly well. However, it was noted that the analysis was not entirely successful at predicting the absolute magnitudes of the fixed system loads

Parity assignments in 172,174Yb using polarized photons and the K quantum number in rare earth nuclei

The 100 % polarized photon beam at the High Intensity gamma-ray Source (HIgS) at Duke University has been used to determine the parity of six dipole excitations between 2.9 and 3.6 MeV in the deformed nuclei 172,174 Yb in photon scattering (g,g') experiments. The measured parities are compared with previous assignments based on the K quantum number that had been assigned in Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence (NRF) experiments by using the Alaga rules. A systematic survey of the relation between gamma-decay branching ratios and parity quantum numbers is given for the rare earth nuclei.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.