4,083 research outputs found
Assaying locomotor activity to study circadian rhythms and sleep parameters in Drosophila.
Most life forms exhibit daily rhythms in cellular, physiological and behavioral phenomena that are driven by endogenous circadian (≡24 hr) pacemakers or clocks. Malfunctions in the human circadian system are associated with numerous diseases or disorders. Much progress towards our understanding of the mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms has emerged from genetic screens whereby an easily measured behavioral rhythm is used as a read-out of clock function. Studies using Drosophila have made seminal contributions to our understanding of the cellular and biochemical bases underlying circadian rhythms. The standard circadian behavioral read-out measured in Drosophila is locomotor activity. In general, the monitoring system involves specially designed devices that can measure the locomotor movement of Drosophila. These devices are housed in environmentally controlled incubators located in a darkroom and are based on using the interruption of a beam of infrared light to record the locomotor activity of individual flies contained inside small tubes. When measured over many days, Drosophila exhibit daily cycles of activity and inactivity, a behavioral rhythm that is governed by the animal's endogenous circadian system. The overall procedure has been simplified with the advent of commercially available locomotor activity monitoring devices and the development of software programs for data analysis. We use the system from Trikinetics Inc., which is the procedure described here and is currently the most popular system used worldwide. More recently, the same monitoring devices have been used to study sleep behavior in Drosophila. Because the daily wake-sleep cycles of many flies can be measured simultaneously and only 1 to 2 weeks worth of continuous locomotor activity data is usually sufficient, this system is ideal for large-scale screens to identify Drosophila manifesting altered circadian or sleep properties
Misalignment factors to affect the fatigue of welded load-carrying joints
To assess the effects of misalignment on the weld fatigue, we present experimental fatigue test results of load- carrying cruciform joints which are subjected to axial variable amplitude loading. The welds were produced from steel AH36 grade and fatigue strength improved by high-frequently mechanical impact treatment. We identify several misalignment factors affecting the fatigue by considering the real and reference welded joint geometries. Our methodology includes proposals for the empirical calibration functions and local stress analyses by using the Structural Hot Spot Stress, Effective Notch Stress and Peak Stress Method. Additionally, we apply our methodology to other sixteen data sets which are extracted from the literature for load-carrying cruciform and butt welded joints subjected to constant amplitude loading. Finally, we present the resultant calibration functions with respect to corresponding fatigue test data
Bound-state third-order optical nonlinearities of germanium nanocrystals embedded in a silica host matrix
Embedded germanium nanocrystals (NCs) in a silica host matrix are theoretically analyzed to identify their third-order bound-state nonlinearities. A rigorous atomistic pseudopotential approach is used for determining the electronic structure and the nonlinear optical susceptibilities. This study characterizing the two-photon absorption, nonlinear refractive index, and optical switching parameters reveals the full wavelength dependence from static up to the ultraviolet spectrum, and the size dependence up to a diameter of 3.5 nm. Similar to Si NCs, the intensity-dependent refractive index increases with decreasing NC diameter. On the other hand, Ge NCs possess about an order of magnitude smaller nonlinear susceptibility compared to Si NCs of the same size. It is observed that the two-photon absorption threshold extends beyond the half band-gap value. This enables nonlinear refractive index tunability over a much wider wavelength range free from two-photon absorption. © 2008 The American Physical Society
Tunable adsorption on carbon nanotubes
We investigated the adsorption of a single atom, hydrogen and aluminum, on
single wall carbon nanotubes from first-principles. The adsorption is
exothermic, and the associated binding energy varies inversely as the radius of
the zigzag tube. We found that the adsorption of a single atom and related
properties can be modified continuously and reversibly by the external radial
deformation. The binding energy on the high curvature site of the deformed tube
increases with increasing radial deformation. The effects of curvature and
radial deformation depend on the chirality of the tube.Comment: To be appear in Physical Review Letter
Anisotropic Spin Hamiltonians due to Spin-Orbit and Coulomb Exchange Interactions
This paper contains the details of Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 2919 (1994) and, to a
lesser extent, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 3710 (1994). We treat a Hubbard model which
includes all the 3d states of the Cu ions and the 2p states of the O ions. We
also include spin-orbit interactions, hopping between ground and excited
crystal field states of the Cu ions, and rather general Coulomb interactions.
Our analytic results for the spin Hamiltonian, H, are corroborated by numerical
evaluations of the energy splitting of the ground manifold for two holes on
either a pair of Cu ions or a Cu-O-Cu complex. In the tetragonal symmetry case
and for the model considered, we prove that H is rotationally invariant in the
absence of Coulomb exchange. When Coulomb exchange is present, each bond
Hamiltonian has full biaxial anisotropy, as expected for this symmetry. For
lower symmetry situations, the single bond spin Hamiltonian is anisotropic at
order t**6 for constant U and at order t**2 for nonconstant U. (Constant U
means that the Coulomb interaction between orbitals does not depend on which
orbitals are involved.)Comment: 50 pages, ILATEX Version 2.09 <13 Jun 1989
Structural and superconducting properties in LaFeAs1-xSbxO1-yFy
We report the antimony (Sb) doping effect in a prototype system of iron-based
supercon-ductors LaFeAsO1-yFy (y=0, 0.1, 0.15). X-ray powder diffraction
indicates that the lattice pa-rameters increase with Sb content within the
doping limit. Rietveld structural refinements show that, with the partial
substitution of Sb for As, while the thickness of the Fe2As2 layers increases
significantly, that of the La2O2 layers shrinks simultaneously. So a negative
chemical pressure is indeed "applied" to the superconducting-active Fe2As2
layers, in con-trast to the effect of positive chemical pressure by the
phosphorus doping. Electrical resis-tance and magnetic susceptibility
measurements indicate that, while the Sb doping hardly influences the SDW
anomaly in LaFeAsO, it recovers SDW order for the optimally-doped sample of
y=0.1. In the meantime, the superconducting transition temperature can be
raised up to 30 K in LaFeAs1-xSbxO1-yFy with x=0.1 and y=0.15. The Sb doping
effects are discussed in term of both J1-J2 model and Fermi Surface (FS)
nesting scenario.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. to be published in Science in China
Series
Interplay of Superconductivity and Fermi-Liquid Transport in Rh-Doped CaFe2As2 with Lattice-Collapse Transition
Ca(FeRh)As undergoes successive phase transitions with
increasing Rh doping in the 0 limit. The antiferromagnetic-metal phase
with orthorhombic structure at 0.00 0.020 is driven to a
superconducting phase with uncollapsed-tetragonal (ucT) structure at 0.020
0.024; a non-superconducting collapsed-tetragonal (cT) phase
takes over at 0.024. The breakdown of Fermi-liquid transport is
observed in the ucT phase above . In the adjacent cT phase,
Fermi-liquid transport is restored along with a disappearance of
superconductivity. This interplay of superconductivity and Fermi-liquid
transport suggests the essential role of magnetic fluctuations in the emergence
of superconductivity in doped CaFeAs.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Pressure-Induced Interlinking of Carbon Nanotubes
We predict new forms of carbon consisting of one and two dimensional networks
of interlinked single wall carbon nanotubes, some of which are energetically
more stable than van der Waals packing of the nanotubes on a hexagonal lattice.
These interlinked nanotubes are further transformed with higher applied
external pressures to more dense and complicated stable structures, in which
curvature-induced carbon sp re-hybridizations are formed. We also discuss
the energetics of the bond formation between nanotubes and the electronic
properties of these predicted novel structures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figures; To be appear in PR
High resolution Compton scattering as a Probe of the Fermi surface in the Iron-based superconductor
We have carried out first principles all-electron calculations of the
(001)-projected 2D electron momentum density and the directional Compton
profiles along the [100], [001] and [110] directions in the Fe-based
superconductor LaOFeAs within the framework of the local density approximation.
We identify Fermi surface features in the 2D electron momentum density and the
directional Compton profiles, and discuss issues related to the observation of
these features via Compton scattering experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Association between frontal sinus development and persistent metopic suture
Background: Frontal sinuses are 2 irregular cavities, placed between 2 lamina of frontal bone. Expansion continues during childhood and reaches full size after puberty. Persistent metopic suture is one of the factors that are related to abnormal frontal sinus development. In this study, we want to discuss about the coexistence of persistent metopic suture and abnormal frontal sinus development using radiological techniques.Materials and methods: In this retrospectively planned study, images of 631 patients were examined, 217 (34.4%) of them were men and 414 (65.6%) of them were women. Brain computed tomography and magnetic resonance images were retrieved from the electronic archive for analysis.Results: In this study, frontal sinus development is categorised as right side atrophy, left side atrophy, bilateral atrophy and bilaterally developed sinuses. The presence of metopic suture was accepted as persistent metopic suture. Frontal sinus atrophy was found in 22.7% and persistent metopic sutures were found in 9.7% of overall.Conclusions: In this study, no significant results were detected that were relatedto the frontal sinus agenesis or dismorphism associated with persistent metopicsuture. We conclude that, although publications propounding metopism thatleads to abnormal frontal sinus development are present in the literature, noreasonable explanation has been mentioned in these articles; and we believe thatthese findings are all incidental.
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