A study of the chemiionization reactions of Ca, Sr and Ba with O2(X 3Σ- g)

Chemielectron and chemiion spectra resulting from the reactions of effusive beams of Ca, and Sr and Ba (in their ground 1S states) with ground state molecular oxygen O2(X 3Σ- g) have been recorded using electron spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The chemielectron spectra are similar for all three reactions exhibiting a strong near-zero energy band and another band at higher electron energies. The chemiion spectra show O+ 2, M+ and M2O+ 2 as the major ions. The total ion current as well as the individual ion intensities, have been recorded as a function of the extraction potential on the reaction cell. The results obtained indicate that the metal oxide dimer ion is the primary chemiion, formed via an associative ionization reaction of a metal atom with a long-lived metal superoxide intermediate MO*2. A two state potential energy curve model is proposed for the M+MO*2 reaction to explain the shape of the experimental electron distribution. © 1994

Liquid racism and the Danish Prophet Muhammad cartoons

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 The Author.This article examines reactions to the October 2005 publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. It does so by using the concept of ‘liquid racism’. While the controversy arose because it is considered blasphemous by many Muslims to create images of the Prophet Muhammad, the article argues that the meaning of the cartoons is multidimensional, that their analysis is significantly more complex than most commentators acknowledge, and that this complexity can best be addressed via the concept of liquid racism. The article examines the liquidity of the cartoons in relation to four readings. These see the cartoons as: (1) a criticism of Islamic fundamentalism; (2) blasphemous images; (3) Islamophobic and racist; and (4) satire and a defence of freedom of speech. Finally, the relationship between postmodernity and the rise of fundamentalism is discussed because the cartoons, reactions to them, and Islamic fundamentalism, all contain an important postmodern dimension.ESR

On the origin of plankton patchiness

Plankton is the productive base of aquatic ecosystems and plays a major role in the global control of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, after intensive study, the factors that drive its spatial distribution are still far from being clear. The models proposed so far show very limited agreement with actual data as many of their results are not consistent with field observations. Here we show that fluctuations and turbulent diffusion in standard prey-predator models are able to accurately and consistently explain plankton field observations at mesoscales (1-100 km). This includes not only the spatial pattern but also its temporal evolution. We explicitly elucidate the interplay between physical and biological factors, suggesting that the form in which small scale biotic fluctuations are transferred to larger scales may constitute one of the key elements in determining the spatial distribution of plankton in the sea.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Altered myogenesis and premature senescence underlie human TRIM32-related myopathy

TRIM32 is a E3 ubiquitin -ligase containing RING, B-box, coiled-coil and six C-terminal NHL domains. Mutations involving NHL and coiled-coil domains result in a pure myopathy (LGMD2H/STM) while the only described mutation in the B-box domain is associated with a multisystemic disorder without myopathy (Bardet-Biedl syndrome type11), suggesting that these domains are involved in distinct processes. Knock-out (T32KO) and knockin mice carrying the c.1465G > A (p.D489N) involving the NHL domain (T32KI) show alterations in muscle regrowth after atrophy and satellite cells senescence. Here, we present phenotypical description and functional characterization of mutations in the RING, coiled-coil and NHL domains of TRIM32 causing a muscle dystrophy. Reduced levels of TRIM32 protein was observed in all patient muscle studied, regardless of the type of mutation (missense, single amino acid deletion, and frameshift) or the mutated domain. The affected patients presented with variable phenotypes but predominantly proximal weakness. Two patients had symptoms of both muscular dystrophy and Bardet-Biedl syndrome. The muscle magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pattern is highly variable among patients and families. Primary myoblast culture from these patients demonstrated common findings consistent with reduced proliferation and differentiation, diminished satellite cell pool, accelerated senescence of muscle, and signs of autophagy activation.Health Institute Carlos III PI16-01843 JR15/00042FEDER PI16-01843 JR15/00042Fundación Progreso y Salud, Junta de Andalucía PI-0085-2016Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) APP1122952 APP111751

Altered myogenesis and premature senescence underlie human TRIM32-related myopathy

TRIM32 is a E3 ubiquitin -ligase containing RING, B-box, coiled-coil and six C-terminal NHL domains. Mutations involving NHL and coiled-coil domains result in a pure myopathy (LGMD2H/STM) while the only described mutation in the B-box domain is associated with a multisystemic disorder without myopathy (Bardet-Biedl syndrome type11), suggesting that these domains are involved in distinct processes. Knock-out (T32KO) and knockin mice carrying the c.1465G > A (p.D489N) involving the NHL domain (T32KI) show alterations in muscle regrowth after atrophy and satellite cells senescence. Here, we present phenotypical description and functional characterization of mutations in the RING, coiled-coil and NHL domains of TRIM32 causing a muscle dystrophy. Reduced levels of TRIM32 protein was observed in all patient muscle studied, regardless of the type of mutation (missense, single amino acid deletion, and frameshift) or the mutated domain. The affected patients presented with variable phenotypes but predominantly proximal weakness. Two patients had symptoms of both muscular dystrophy and Bardet-Biedl syndrome. The muscle magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pattern is highly variable among patients and families. Primary myoblast culture from these patients demonstrated common findings consistent with reduced proliferation and differentiation, diminished satellite cell pool, accelerated senescence of muscle, and signs of autophagy activation.Health Institute Carlos III PI16-01843 JR15/00042FEDER PI16-01843 JR15/00042Fundación Progreso y Salud, Junta de Andalucía PI-0085-2016Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) APP1122952 APP111751

Multidimensional Conservation Laws: Overview, Problems, and Perspective

Some of recent important developments are overviewed, several longstanding open problems are discussed, and a perspective is presented for the mathematical theory of multidimensional conservation laws. Some basic features and phenomena of multidimensional hyperbolic conservation laws are revealed, and some samples of multidimensional systems/models and related important problems are presented and analyzed with emphasis on the prototypes that have been solved or may be expected to be solved rigorously at least for some cases. In particular, multidimensional steady supersonic problems and transonic problems, shock reflection-diffraction problems, and related effective nonlinear approaches are analyzed. A theory of divergence-measure vector fields and related analytical frameworks for the analysis of entropy solutions are discussed.Comment: 43 pages, 3 figure

A photoelectron spectroscopic study of the second ionisation of the CF(X²?) radical

The CF(X²?) radical has been re-investigated with vacuum ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. Two bands were observed and assigned to the ionisations CF+(X(1)? (+)?CF(X(2)?) and CF+(a(3)?)?CF(X(2)?). The first band, which has been observed previously, has an adiabatic ionisation energy of (9.11 +/-0.02) eV and a vertical ionisation energy of (9.55 +/-0.02) eV. For the second band, three vibrational components were observed with the first, the most intense, at an ionisation energy of (13.94 +/-0.02) eV. Analysis of the vibrational structure in the two observed bands allowed omega (c) and re to be determined as 1810 +/- 30 cm(-1) and 1.154 +/-0.005 Å, respectively for the first ionic state, CF+(X(1)Sigma (-)), and 1614 +/- 30 cm(-1) and 1.213 +/-0.005 Å, respectively for the second ionic state, CF+(a(3)?). Comparison of the ionisation energies and spectroscopic constants obtained has been made with values obtained from recent multi-reference configuration interaction calculations

Ab initio molecular orbital calculations on NO+(H2O)(n) cluster ions. 2. Thermodynamic values for stepwise hydration and nitrous acid formation

Ab initio molecular orbital calculations have been used to compute thermodynamic constants (?H°, ?S°, ?G°) for the stepwise hydration reactions of NO+(H2O)(n), and for the competing rearrangement reaction which produces HONO and H+(H2O)(n) (for n less than or equal to 4). Geometry optimizations and harmonic frequency calculations were performed at the MP2/6-311++G(2d,p) level, and relative energies were computed at the MP2/augcc-pVTZ level with MP2/6-311++G(2d,p) optimized geometries. The geometry changes and energetics of these competing solvation and rearrangement reactions have been studied, and reasons are proposed to explain why NO+(H2O)(n+1) formation is the dominant process for n = 1 and n = 2 but HONO + H+(H2O)(n) formation contributes for n = 3 and becomes more important for n = 4