15,336 research outputs found
Production of single-domain magnetite throughout life by sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka
Although single-domain particles of biogenic magnetite have been found in different species of pelagic fishes, nothing is known about when it is synthesized, or about whether the time during life when it is produced is correlated with the
development of responses to magnetic field stimuli. We have investigated production of biogenic magnetite suitable for use in magnetoreception in different life stages of the sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka (Walbaum). Sockeye
salmon were chosen because responses in orientation arenas to magnetic field stimuli have been demonstrated in both fry and smolt stages of this species.
We found significant quantities of single-domain magnetite in connective tissue from the ethmoid region of the skull of adult (4-year-old) sockeye salmon. The ontogenetic study revealed an orderly increase in the amount of magnetic material in the same region of the skull but not in other tissues of sockeye salmon fry, yearlings and smolts. The physical properties of this material closely matched
those of magnetite particles extracted from the ethmoid tissue of the adult fish. We suggest that single-domain magnetite particles suitable for use in magnetoreception
are produced throughout life in the ethmoid region of the skull in sockeye salmon. Based on theoretical calculations, we conclude that there are enough particles present in the skulls of the fry to mediate their responses to magnetic field direction. By the smolt stage, the amount of magnetite present in the front of the skull is sufficient to provide the fish with a magnetoreceptor capable of detecting small changes in the intensity of the geomagnetic field.
Other tissues of the salmon, such as the eye and skin, often contained ferromagnetic material, although the magnetizations of these tissues were usually more variable than in the ethmoid tissue. These deposits of unidentified magnetic material, some of which may be magnetite, appear almost exclusively in adults and so would not be useful in magnetoreception by young fish. We suggest that tissue from within the ethmoid region of the skull in pelagic fishes is the only site yet identified where magnetite suitable for use in magnetoreception is concentrated
Nonpolar resistive switching in Cu/SiC/Au non-volatile resistive memory devices
Amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) based resistive memory (RM) Cu/a-SiC/Au devices were fabricated and their resistive switching characteristics investigated. All four possible modes of nonpolar resistive switching were achieved with ON/OFF ratio in the range 10 6-10 8. Detailed current-voltage I-V characteristics analysis suggests that the conduction mechanism in low resistance state is due to the formation of metallic filaments. Schottky emission is proven to be the dominant conduction mechanism in high resistance state which results from the Schottky contacts between the metal electrodes and SiC. ON/OFF ratios exceeding 10 7 over 10 years were also predicted from state retention characterizations. These results suggest promising application potentials for Cu/a-SiC/Au RM
Bose-stimulated scattering off a cold atom trap
The angle and temperature dependence of the photon scattering rate for
Bose-stimulated atom recoil transitions between occupied states is compared to
diffraction and incoherent Rayleigh scattering near the Bose-Einstein
transition for an optically thin trap in the limit of large particle number, N.
Each of these processes has a range of angles and temperatures for which it
dominates over the others by a divergent factor as N->oo.Comment: 18 pages (REVTeX), no figure
Mechanisms of kinetic trapping in self-assembly and phase transformation
In self-assembly processes, kinetic trapping effects often hinder the
formation of thermodynamically stable ordered states. In a model of viral
capsid assembly and in the phase transformation of a lattice gas, we show how
simulations in a self-assembling steady state can be used to identify two
distinct mechanisms of kinetic trapping. We argue that one of these mechanisms
can be adequately captured by kinetic rate equations, while the other involves
a breakdown of theories that rely on cluster size as a reaction coordinate. We
discuss how these observations might be useful in designing and optimising
self-assembly reactions
Half-metallic ferromagnets: From band structure to many-body effects
A review of new developments in theoretical and experimental electronic
structure investigations of half-metallic ferromagnets (HMF) is presented.
Being semiconductors for one spin projection and metals for another ones, these
substances are promising magnetic materials for applications in spintronics
(i.e., spin-dependent electronics). Classification of HMF by the peculiarities
of their electronic structure and chemical bonding is discussed. Effects of
electron-magnon interaction in HMF and their manifestations in magnetic,
spectral, thermodynamic, and transport properties are considered. Especial
attention is paid to appearance of non-quasiparticle states in the energy gap,
which provide an instructive example of essentially many-body features in the
electronic structure. State-of-art electronic calculations for correlated
-systems is discussed, and results for specific HMF (Heusler alloys,
zinc-blende structure compounds, CrO FeO) are reviewed.Comment: to be published in Reviews of Modern Physics, vol 80, issue
Photometric Variability in the Faint Sky Variability Survey
The Faint Sky Variability Survey (FSVS) is aimed at finding photometric
and/or astrometric variable objects between 16th and 24th mag on time-scales
between tens of minutes and years with photometric precisions ranging from 3
millimag to 0.2 mag. An area of 23 deg, located at mid and high Galactic
latitudes, was covered using the Wide Field Camera (WFC) on the 2.5-m Isaac
Newton Telescope (INT) on La Palma. Here we present some preliminary results on
the variability of sources in the FSVS.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in 14th European Workshop on White
Dwarfs, ASP Conference Series, eds. D. Koester, S. Moehle
Stability of the Higgs mass in theories with extra dimensions
We analyze the ultraviolet stability of the Higgs mass in recently proposed
Kaluza-Klein models compactified on S_1/Z_2 or S_1/(Z_2\times Z_2'), both at
the field theory and string theory level. Fayet-Iliopoulos terms of U(1)
hypercharge are shown to be of vital importance for this discussion. Models
with a single Higgs doublet seem to be generically affected by quadratic
divergences.Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of Durham IPPP meeting May 2001.(12
pages, LaTeX
A first--order irreversible thermodynamic approach to a simple energy converter
Several authors have shown that dissipative thermal cycle models based on
Finite-Time Thermodynamics exhibit loop-shaped curves of power output versus
efficiency, such as it occurs with actual dissipative thermal engines. Within
the context of First-Order Irreversible Thermodynamics (FOIT), in this work we
show that for an energy converter consisting of two coupled fluxes it is also
possible to find loop-shaped curves of both power output and the so-called
ecological function against efficiency. In a previous work Stucki [J.W. Stucki,
Eur. J. Biochem. vol. 109, 269 (1980)] used a FOIT-approach to describe the
modes of thermodynamic performance of oxidative phosphorylation involved in
ATP-synthesis within mithochondrias. In that work the author did not use the
mentioned loop-shaped curves and he proposed that oxidative phosphorylation
operates in a steady state simultaneously at minimum entropy production and
maximum efficiency, by means of a conductance matching condition between
extreme states of zero and infinite conductances respectively. In the present
work we show that all Stucki's results about the oxidative phosphorylation
energetics can be obtained without the so-called conductance matching
condition. On the other hand, we also show that the minimum entropy production
state implies both null power output and efficiency and therefore this state is
not fulfilled by the oxidative phosphorylation performance. Our results suggest
that actual efficiency values of oxidative phosphorylation performance are
better described by a mode of operation consisting in the simultaneous
maximization of the so-called ecological function and the efficiency.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Energy and entropy of relativistic diffusing particles
We discuss energy-momentum tensor and the second law of thermodynamics for a
system of relativistic diffusing particles. We calculate the energy and entropy
flow in this system. We obtain an exact time dependence of energy, entropy and
free energy of a beam of photons in a reservoir of a fixed temperature.Comment: 14 pages,some formulas correcte
Deriving Boltzmann Equations from Kadanoff-Baym Equations in Curved Space-Time
To calculate the baryon asymmetry in the baryogenesis via leptogenesis
scenario one usually uses Boltzmann equations with transition amplitudes
computed in vacuum. However, the hot and dense medium and, potentially, the
expansion of the universe can affect the collision terms and hence the
generated asymmetry. In this paper we derive the Boltzmann equation in the
curved space-time from (first-principle) Kadanoff-Baym equations. As one
expects from general considerations, the derived equations are covariant
generalizations of the corresponding equations in Minkowski space-time. We find
that, after the necessary approximations have been performed, only the
left-hand side of the Boltzmann equation depends on the space-time metric. The
amplitudes in the collision term on the right--hand side are independent of the
metric, which justifies earlier calculations where this has been assumed
implicitly. At tree level, the matrix elements coincide with those computed in
vacuum. However, the loop contributions involve additional integrals over the
the distribution function.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, extended discussion of the constraint equations
and the solution for the spectral functio
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