17,697 research outputs found
Causal Classical Theory of Radiation Damping
It is shown how initial conditions can be appropriately defined for the
integration of Lorentz-Dirac equations of motion. The integration is performed
\QTR{it}{forward} in time. The theory is applied to the case of the motion of
an electron in an intense laser pulse, relevant to nonlinear Compton
scattering.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
Altered muscarinic and nicotinic receptor densities in cortical and subcortical brain regions in Parkinson's disease
Muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic receptors and choline acetyltransferase activity were studied in postmortem brain tissue from patients with histopathologically confirmed Parkinson's disease and matched control subjects. Using washed membrane homogenates from the frontal cortex, hippocampus, caudate nucleus, and putamen, saturation analysis of specific receptor binding was performed for the total number of muscarinic receptors with [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate, for muscarinic M1 receptors with [3H]pirenzepine, for muscarinic M2 receptors with [3H]oxotremorine-M, and for nicotinic receptors with (-)-[3H]nicotine. In comparison with control tissues, choline acetyl-transferase activity was reduced in the frontal cortex and hippocampus and unchanged in the caudate nucleus and putamen of parkinsonian patients. In Parkinson's disease the maximal binding site density for [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate was increased in the frontal cortex and unaltered in the hippocampus, caudate nucleus, and putamen. Specific [3H]pirenzepine binding was increased in the frontal cortex, unaltered in the hippocampus, and decreased in the caudate nucleus and putamen. In parkinsonian patients Bmax values for specific [3H]oxotremorine-M binding were reduced in the cortex and unchanged in the hippocampus and striatum compared with controls. Maximal (-)-[3H]nicotine binding was reduced in both the cortex and hippocampus and unaltered in both the caudate nucleus and putamen. Alterations of the equilibrium dissociation constant were not observed for any ligand in any of the brain areas examined. The present results suggest that both the innominatocortical and the septohippocampal cholinergic systems degenerate in Parkinson's disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS
Development of dynamic calibration methods for POGO pressure transducers
Two dynamic pressure sources are described for the calibration of pogo pressure transducers used to measure oscillatory pressures generated in the propulsion system of the space shuttle. Rotation of a mercury-filled tube in a vertical plane at frequencies below 5 Hz generates sinusoidal pressures up to 48 kPa, peak-to-peak; vibrating the same mercury-filled tube sinusoidally in the vertical plane extends the frequency response from 5 Hz to 100 Hz at pressures up to 140 kPa, peak-to-peak. The sinusoidal pressure fluctuations can be generated by both methods in the presence of high pressures (bias) up to 55 MPa. Calibration procedures are given in detail for the use of both sources. The dynamic performance of selected transducers was evaluated using these procedures; the results of these calibrations are presented. Calibrations made with the two sources near 5 Hz agree to within 3% of each other
A dynamic pressure source for the calibration of pressure transducers
A dynamic pressure source is described for producing sinusoidally varying pressures of up to 34 kPa zero to peak, over the frequency range of approximately 50 Hz to 2 kHz. The source is intended for the dynamic calibration of pressure transducers. The transducer to be calibrated is mounted near the base of the thick walled aluminum tube forming the vessel so that the pressure sensitive element is in contact with the liquid in the tube. A section of the tube is filled with small steel balls to damp the motion of the 10-St dimethyl siloxane working fluid in order to extend the useful frquency range to higher frequencies than would be provided by an undamped system. The dynamic response of six transducers provided by the sponsor was evaluated using the pressure sources; the results of these calibrations are given
Flux pinning and phase separation in oxygen rich La2-xSrxCuO4+y system
We have studied the magnetic characteristics of a series of super-oxygenated
La2-xSrxCuO4+y samples. As shown in previous work, these samples spontaneously
phase separate into an oxygen rich superconducting phase with a TC near 40 K
and an oxygen poor magnetic phase that also orders near 40 K. All samples
studied are highly magnetically reversible even to low temperatures. Although
the internal magnetic regions of these samples might be expected to act as
pinning sites, our present study shows that they do not favor flux pinning.
Flux pinning requires a matching condition between the defect and the
superconducting coherence length. Thus, our results imply that the magnetic
regions are too large to act as pinning centers. This also implies that the
much greater flux pinning in typical La2-xSrxCuO4 materials is the result of
nanoscale inhomogeneities that grow to become the large magnetic regions in the
super-oxygenated materials. The superconducting regions of the phase separated
materials are in that sense cleaner and more homogenous than in the typical
cuprate superconductor.Comment: 4 figures 8 pages Submitted to PR
Transcutaneous measurement of volume blood flow
Blood flow velocity measurements, using Doppler velocimeter, are described. The ability to measure blood velocity using ultrasound is derived from the Doppler effect; the change in frequency which occurs when sound is reflected or transmitted from a moving target. When ultrasound of the appropriate frequency is transmitted through a moving blood stream, the blood cells act as point scatterers of ultrasonic energy. If this scattered ultrasonic energy is detected, it is found to be shifted in frequency according to the velocity of the blood cells, nu, the frequency of the incident sound, f sub o, the speed of sound in the medium, c, and the angle between the sound beam and the velocity vector, o. The relation describing this effect is known as the Doppler equation. Delta f = 2 f sub o x nu x cos alpha/c. The theoretical and experimental methods are evaluated
Simultaneous conduction and valence band quantisation in ultra-shallow, high density doping profiles in semiconductors
We demonstrate simultaneous quantisation of conduction band (CB) and valence
band (VB) states in silicon using ultra-shallow, high density, phosphorus
doping profiles (so-called Si:P -layers). We show that, in addition to
the well known quantisation of CB states within the dopant plane, the
confinement of VB-derived states between the sub-surface P dopant layer and the
Si surface gives rise to a simultaneous quantisation of VB states in this
narrow region. We also show that the VB quantisation can be explained using a
simple particle-in-a-box model, and that the number and energy separation of
the quantised VB states depend on the depth of the P dopant layer beneath the
Si surface. Since the quantised CB states do not show a strong dependence on
the dopant depth (but rather on the dopant density), it is straightforward to
exhibit control over the properties of the quantised CB and VB states
independently of each other by choosing the dopant density and depth
accordingly, thus offering new possibilities for engineering quantum matter.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures and supplementary materia
APECS - The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment Control System
APECS is the distributed control system of the new Atacama Pathfinder
EXperiment (APEX) telescope located on the Llano de Chajnantor at an altitude
of 5107 m in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. APECS is based on Atacama
Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) software and employs a modern, object-oriented
design using the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) as the
middleware. New generic device interfaces simplify adding instruments to the
control system. The Python based observer command scripting language allows
using many existing software libraries and facilitates creating more complex
observing modes. A new self-descriptive raw data format (Multi-Beam FITS or
MBFITS) has been defined to store the multi-beam, multi-frequency data. APECS
provides an online pipeline for initial calibration, observer feedback and a
quick-look display. APECS is being used for regular science observations in
local and remote mode since August 2005.Comment: 4 pages, A&A, accepte
- …