3,998 research outputs found
A Theory on the Convective Origins of Active Longitudes on Solar-like Stars
Using a thin flux tube model in a rotating spherical shell of turbulent,
solar-like convective flows, we find that the distribution of emerging flux
tubes in our simulation is inhomogeneous in longitude, with properties similar
to those of active longitudes on the Sun and other solar-like stars. The
large-scale pattern of flux emergence our simulations produce exhibits
preferred longitudinal modes of low order, drift with respect to a fixed
reference system, and alignment across the Equator at low latitudes between 15
degrees. We suggest that these active-longitude-like emergence patterns are the
result of columnar, rotationally aligned giant cells present in our convection
simulation at low latitudes. If giant convecting cells exist in the bulk of the
solar convection zone, this phenomenon, along with differential rotation, could
in part provide an explanation for the behavior of active longitudes.Comment: This paper was accepted to The Astrophysical Journal on May 6, 201
Restricted Opportunities, Personal Choices, Ineffective Policies: What Explains Food Insecurity in Oregon?
This study examines the extent to which household demographics, local economic and social conditions, and federal food security programs explain the likelihood of household food insecurity in Oregon. Between 1999 and 2001, Oregon had the highest average rate of hunger in the nation and ranked in the top five states with respect to food insecurity. Statistical analyses using a multivariate logit model reveal that food insecurity is influenced by much more than demographics and individual choices. County-level factors such as residential location (urban versus rural) and housing costs significantly affect the likelihood that families will be food insecure.food insecurity, food stamps, hunger, rural residence, Food Security and Poverty,
Metal-insulator transition in copper oxides induced by apex displacements
High temperature superconductivity has been found in many kinds of compounds
built from planes of Cu and O, separated by spacer layers. Understanding why
critical temperatures are so high has been the subject of numerous
investigations and extensive controversy. To realize high temperature
superconductivity, parent compounds are either hole-doped, such as
{LaCuO} (LCO) with Sr (LSCO), or electron doped, such as
{NdCuO} (NCO) with Ce (NCCO). In the electron doped cuprates, the
antiferromagnetic phase is much more robust than the superconducting phase.
However, it was recently found that the reduction of residual out-of-plane
apical oxygens dramatically affects the phase diagram, driving those compounds
to a superconducting phase. Here we use a recently developed first principles
method to explore how displacement of the apical oxygen (A-O) in LCO affects
the optical gap, spin and charge susceptibilities, and superconducting order
parameter. By combining quasiparticle self-consistent GW (QS\emph{GW}) and
dynamical mean field theory (DMFT), that LCO is a Mott insulator; but small
displacements of the apical oxygens drive the compound to a metallic state
through a localization/delocalization transition, with a concomitant maximum
-wave order parameter at the transition. We address the question whether NCO
can be seen as the limit of LCO with large apical displacements, and elucidate
the deep physical reasons why the behaviour of NCO is so different than the
hole doped materials. We shed new light on the recent correlation observed
between T and the charge transfer gap, while also providing a guide towards
the design of optimized high-Tc superconductors. Further our results suggest
that strong correlation, enough to induce Mott gap, may not be a prerequisite
for high-Tc superconductivity
Impact of tumor-specific targeting on the biodistribution and efficacy of siRNA nanoparticles measured by multimodality in vivo imaging
Targeted delivery represents a promising approach for the development of safer and more effective therapeutics for oncology applications. Although macromolecules accumulate nonspecifically in tumors through the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, previous studies using nanoparticles to deliver chemotherapeutics or siRNA demonstrated that attachment of cell-specific targeting ligands to the surface of nanoparticles leads to enhanced potency relative to nontargeted formulations. Here, we use positron emission tomography (PET) and bioluminescent imaging to quantify the in vivo biodistribution and function of nanoparticles formed with cyclodextrin-containing polycations and siRNA. Conjugation of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid to the 5' end of the siRNA molecules allows labeling with 64Cu for PET imaging. Bioluminescent imaging of mice bearing luciferase-expressing Neuro2A s.c. tumors before and after PET imaging enables correlation of functional efficacy with biodistribution data. Although both nontargeted and transferrin-targeted siRNA nanoparticles exhibit similar biodistribution and tumor localization by PET, transferrin-targeted siRNA nanoparticles reduce tumor luciferase activity by {approx}50% relative to nontargeted siRNA nanoparticles 1 d after injection. Compartmental modeling is used to show that the primary advantage of targeted nanoparticles is associated with processes involved in cellular uptake in tumor cells rather than overall tumor localization. Optimization of internalization may therefore be key for the development of effective nanoparticle-based targeted therapeutics
Propagation of optical excitations by dipolar interactions in metal nanoparticle chains
Dispersion relations for dipolar modes propagating along a chain of metal
nanoparticles are calculated by solving the full Maxwell equations, including
radiation damping. The nanoparticles are treated as point dipoles, which means
the results are valid only for a/d <= 1/3, where a is the particle radius and d
the spacing. The discrete modes for a finite chain are first calculated, then
these are mapped onto the dispersion relations appropriate for the infinite
chain. Computed results are given for a chain of 50-nm diameter Ag spheres
spaced by 75 nm. We find large deviations from previous quasistatic results:
Transverse modes interact strongly with the light line. Longitudinal modes
develop a bandwidth more than twice as large, resulting in a group velocity
that is more than doubled. All modes for which k_mode <= w/c show strongly
enhanced decay due to radiation damping.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. to appear in Phys. Rev.
Comparing Simulations of Rising Flux Tubes Through the Solar Convection Zone with Observations of Solar Active Regions: Constraining the Dynamo Field Strength
We study how active-region-scale flux tubes rise buoyantly from the base of
the convection zone to near the solar surface by embedding a thin flux tube
model in a rotating spherical shell of solar-like turbulent convection. These
toroidal flux tubes that we simulate range in magnetic field strength from 15
kG to 100 kG at initial latitudes of 1 degree to 40 degrees in both
hemispheres. This article expands upon Weber, Fan, and Miesch (Astrophys. J.,
741, 11, 2011) (Article 1) with the inclusion of tubes with magnetic flux of
10^20 Mx and 10^21 Mx, and more simulations of the previously investigated case
of 10^22 Mx, sampling more convective flows than the previous article, greatly
improving statistics. Observed properties of active regions are compared to
properties of the simulated emerging flux tubes, including: the tilt of active
regions in accordance with Joy's Law as in Article 1, and in addition the
scatter of tilt angles about the Joy's Law trend, the most commonly occurring
tilt angle, the rotation rate of the emerging loops with respect to the
surrounding plasma, and the nature of the magnetic field at the flux tube apex.
We discuss how these diagnostic properties constrain the initial field strength
of the active region flux tubes at the bottom of the solar convection zone, and
suggest that flux tubes of initial magnetic field strengths of \geq 40 kG are
good candidates for the progenitors of large (10^21 Mx to 10^22 Mx) solar
active regions, which agrees with the results from Article 1 for flux tubes of
10^22 Mx. With the addition of more magnetic flux values and more simulations,
we find that for all magnetic field strengths, the emerging tubes show a
positive Joy's Law trend, and that this trend does not show a statistically
significant dependence on the magnetic flux.Comment: Accepted to Solar Physics Topical Issue: Solar Dynamics and Magnetism
from the Interior to the Atmospher
Morphology Of A Hot Prominence Cavity Observed with Hinode/XRT and SDO/AIA
Prominence cavities appear as circularly shaped voids in coronal emission over polarity inversion lines where a prominence channel is straddling the solar limb. The presence of chromospheric material suspended at coronal altitudes is a common but not necessary feature within these cavities. These voids are observed to change shape as a prominence feature rotates around the limb. We use a morphological model projected in cross-sections to fit the cavity emission in Hinode/XRT passbands, and then apply temperature diagnostics to XRT and SDO/AIA data to investigate the thermal structure. We find significant evidence that the prominence cavity is hotter than the corona immediately outside the cavity boundary. This investigation follows upon "Thermal Properties of A Solar Coronal Cavity Observed with the X-ray Telescope on Hinode" by Reeves et al., 2012, ApJ, in press
Incorporating Uncertainties in Atomic Data Into the Analysis of Solar and Stellar Observations: A Case Study in Fe XIII
Information about the physical properties of astrophysical objects cannot be
measured directly but is inferred by interpreting spectroscopic observations in
the context of atomic physics calculations. Ratios of emission lines, for
example, can be used to infer the electron density of the emitting plasma.
Similarly, the relative intensities of emission lines formed over a wide range
of temperatures yield information on the temperature structure. A critical
component of this analysis is understanding how uncertainties in the underlying
atomic physics propagates to the uncertainties in the inferred plasma
parameters. At present, however, atomic physics databases do not include
uncertainties on the atomic parameters and there is no established methodology
for using them even if they did. In this paper we develop simple models for the
uncertainties in the collision strengths and decay rates for Fe XIII and apply
them to the interpretation of density sensitive lines observed with the EUV
Imagining spectrometer (EIS) on Hinode. We incorporate these uncertainties in a
Bayesian framework. We consider both a pragmatic Bayesian method where the
atomic physics information is unaffected by the observed data, and a fully
Bayesian method where the data can be used to probe the physics. The former
generally increases the uncertainty in the inferred density by about a factor
of 5 compared with models that incorporate only statistical uncertainties. The
latter reduces the uncertainties on the inferred densities, but identifies
areas of possible systematic problems with either the atomic physics or the
observed intensities.Comment: in press at Ap
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