10 research outputs found
Smooth vortex precession in superfluid 4He
We have measured a precessing superfluid vortex line, stretched from a wire
to the wall of a cylindrical cell. By contrast to previous experiments with a
similar geometry, the motion along the wall is smooth. The key difference is
probably that our wire is substantially off center. We verify several numerical
predictions about the motion, including an asymmetry in the precession
signature, the behavior of pinning events, and the temperature dependence of
the precession.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Depinning of a superfluid vortex line by Kelvin waves
We measure the interaction of a single superfluid vortex with surface
irregularities. While vortex pinning in superconductors usually becomes weaker
at higher temperatures, we find the opposite behavior. The pinning steadily
increases throughout our measurement range, from 0.15Tc to over 0.5Tc. We also
find that moving the other end of the vortex decreases the pinning, so we
propose Kelvin waves along the vortex as a depinning mechanism.Comment: 5 figures; substantial revision including 2 new figure
Internal avalanches in a pile of superconducting vortices
Using an array of miniature Hall probes, we monitored the spatiotemporal
variation of the internal magnetic induction in a superconducting niobium
sample during a slow sweep of external magnetic field. We found that a sizable
fraction of the increase in the local vortex population occurs in abrupt jumps.
The size distribution of these avalanches presents a power-law collapse on a
limited range. In contrast, at low temperatures and low fields, huge avalanches
with a typical size occur and the system does not display a well-defined
macroscopic critical current.Comment: 5 pages including 5 figure
Cytoplasmic assembly of snRNP core proteins from 6S and 20S snRNA-free intermediates and nuclear exchange of the U1 and U2 snRNP specific proteins
?1?4-galactosyltransferase gene expression is regulated during entry into the cell cycle and during the cell cycle
Nestin Promotes the Phosphorylation-dependent Disassembly of Vimentin Intermediate Filaments During Mitosis
The expression of the intermediate filament (IF) protein nestin is closely associated with rapidly proliferating progenitor cells during neurogenesis and myogenesis, but little is known about its function. In this study, we examine the effects of nestin expression on the assembly state of vimentin IFs in nestin-free cells. Nestin is introduced by transient transfection and is positively correlated with the disassembly of vimentin IFs into nonfilamentous aggregates or particles in mitotic but not interphase cells. This nestin-mediated disassembly of IFs is dependent on the phosphorylation of vimentin by the maturation/M-phase–promoting factor at ser-55 in the amino-terminal head domain. In addition, the disassembly of vimentin IFs during mitosis appears to be a unique feature of nestin-expressing cell types. Furthermore, when the expression of nestin is downregulated by the nestin-specific small interfering RNA in nestin-expressing cells, vimentin IFs remain assembled throughout all stages of mitosis. Previous studies suggest that nonfilamentous vimentin particles are IF precursors and can be transported rapidly between different cytoplasmic compartments along microtubule tracks. On the basis of these observations, we speculate that nestin may play a role in the trafficking and distribution of IF proteins and potentially other cellular factors to daughter cells during progenitor cell division