Neutron resonances in the compound nucleus: Parity nonconservation to dynamic temperature measurements

Experiments using epithermal neutrons that interact to form compound-nuclear resonances serve a wide range of scientific applications. Changes in transmission which are correlated to polarization reversal in incident neutrons have been used to study parity nonconservation in the compound nucleus for a wide range of targets. The ensemble of measured parity asymmetries provides statistical information for the extraction of the rms parity-violating mean-square matrix element as a function of mass. Parity nonconservation in neutron resonances can also be used to determine the polarization of neutron beams. Finally the motion of target atoms results in an observed temperature-dependent Doppler broadening of resonance line widths. This broadening can be used to determine temperatures on a fast time scale of one microsecond or less

Parity Nonconservation in Neutron Resonances in 133Cs

Spatial parity nonconservation (PNC) has been studied in the compound-nuclear states of 134Cs by measuring the helicity dependence of the neutron total cross section. Transmission measurements on a thick 133Cs target were performed by the time-of-flight method at the Manuel Lujan Neutron Scattering Center with a longitudinally polarized neutron beam in the energy range from 5 to 400 eV. A total of 28 new p-wave resonances were found, their neutron widths determined, and the PNC longitudinal asymmetries of the resonance cross sections measured. The value obtained for the root-mean-square PNC element M=(0.06-0.02+0.25) meV in 133Cs is the smallest among all targets studied. This value corresponds to a weak spreading width Γw=(0.006-0.003+0.154)×10-7 eV

Characterisation of secondary metabolites associated with neutrophil apoptosis

We studied changes in secondary metabolites in human neutrophils undergoing constitutive or tumour necrosis factor (TNFalpha) stimulated apoptosis by a combination of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and NMR spectroscopy. Our results show that in contrast to freshly isolated neutrophils, neutrophil cells aged for 20 h in vitro had marked differences in the levels of a number of endogenous metabolites including lactate, amino acids and phosphocholine (PCho). There was no change in the concentration of taurine or glutamate and the ATP/ADP ratio was not affected. Levels of glutamine and lactate actually decreased. Identical changes were also observed in neutrophils stimulated to undergo apoptosis over a shorter time period (6 h) in the presence of TNFalpha and the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase inhibitor wortmannin (WM). The changes in the concentration of PCho suggest possible activation of phospholipase associated with apoptosis or a selective failure of phosphatidycholine synthesis. The increased levels of apoptosis obtained with WM+TNFalpha, compared to TNFalpha by itself, suggest a synergistic effect by these compounds. The acceleration in rate of apoptosis probably arises from suppression by WM of pathway(s) that normally delay the onset of apoptosis. Changes in PCho and other endogenous metabolites, if proven to be characteristic of apoptosis in other cell systems, may permit non-invasive quantification of apoptosis.

Generalized Inverse Participation Numbers in Metallic-Mean Quasiperiodic Systems

From the quantum mechanical point of view, the electronic characteristics of quasicrystals are determined by the nature of their eigenstates. A practicable way to obtain information about the properties of these wave functions is studying the scaling behavior of the generalized inverse participation numbers $Z_q \sim N^{-D_q(q-1)}$ with the system size $N$. In particular, we investigate $d$-dimensional quasiperiodic models based on different metallic-mean quasiperiodic sequences. We obtain the eigenstates of the one-dimensional metallic-mean chains by numerical calculations for a tight-binding model. Higher dimensional solutions of the associated generalized labyrinth tiling are then constructed by a product approach from the one-dimensional solutions. Numerical results suggest that the relation $D_q^{d\mathrm{d}} = d D_q^\mathrm{1d}$ holds for these models. Using the product structure of the labyrinth tiling we prove that this relation is always satisfied for the silver-mean model and that the scaling exponents approach this relation for large system sizes also for the other metallic-mean systems.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Mutation of Ser172 in Yeast β Tubulin Induces Defects in Microtubule Dynamics and Cell Division

Ser172 of β tubulin is an important residue that is mutated in a human brain disease and phosphorylated by the cyclin-dependent kinase Cdk1 in mammalian cells. To examine the role of this residue, we used the yeast S. cerevisiae as a model and produced two different mutations (S172A and S172E) of the conserved Ser172 in the yeast β tubulin Tub2p. The two mutants showed impaired cell growth on benomyl-containing medium and at cold temperatures, altered microtubule (MT) dynamics, and altered nucleus positioning and segregation. When cytoplasmic MT effectors Dyn1p or Kar9p were deleted in S172A and S172E mutants, cells were viable but presented increased ploidy. Furthermore, the two β tubulin mutations exhibited synthetic lethal interactions with Bik1p, Bim1p or Kar3p, which are effectors of cytoplasmic and spindle MTs. In the absence of Mad2p-dependent spindle checkpoint, both mutations are deleterious. These findings show the importance of Ser172 for the correct function of both cytoplasmic and spindle MTs and for normal cell division

Dynamic temperature and velocity measurements using neutron resonance spectroscopy

The use of Doppler broadening in neutron resonances as a quantitative way to measure temperatures has been proposed and investigated for cases of static or quasi-static temperature measurements. Neutrons are temperature probes that can penetrate a sample to view its interior. At the same time products that may shield a sample optically are not opaque to neutrons so that temperature measurements can be made in their presence. When neutrons are attenuated by a sample material, the time-of-flight (TOF) spectrum of the transmitted neutrons exhibits a series of characteristic dips or resonances. These resonances appear when neutrons are captured from the beam in the formation of excited states in the A + 1 nucleus (n + A {ge} (A + 1){sup *}). Subsequent de-excitation of these states, by gamma emission or particle emission into 4{pi} steradians, effectively eliminates the captured neutrons from the transmitted beam. The resonance locations and lineshapes which appear in the TOF spectrum are unique to each isotopic element, and temperature determinations can be localized through the positioning of resonant tags

PARITY VIOLATION IN 239U NEUTRON RESONANCES

La non conservation de la parité à été étudiée dans le 239U en mesurant la dépendance de la section efficace, résonante dans l'onde P, en fonction de l'hélicité de neutrons épithermiques diffusés par 238U. Une approche statistique donne l'écart type M=0.58+0.50-0.25meV pour l'élément de matrice violant la parité dans le mélange des ondes S et P. Ceci correspond à TPV=1.0x10-7eV. On déduit de cette largeur la valeur αp=4x10-7 du rapport de l'intensité ne conservant pas à celle conservant la parité dans l'interaction effective NN.Parity nonconservation was studied in 239U by measuring the helicity dependence of the p-wave resonance cross section for epithermal neutrons scattered from 238U. A statistical approach was used to determine the root-mean-squared parity-violating matrix element for the mixing of p-wave and s-wave states to be M=0.58+0.50-0.25 meV. This corresponds to a parity-violating spreading width of TPV=1.0·10-7 eV. This spreading width gives a value of 4. 10-7 for αp, the ratio of strengths of the parity-nonconserving and parity-conserving effective nucleon-nucleon interactions