707 research outputs found
Mechanochemical enzymes and protein machines as hydrodynamic force dipoles: The active dimer model
Mechanochemically active enzymes change their shapes within every turnover cycle. Therefore, they induce circulating flows in the solvent around them and behave as oscillating hydrodynamic force dipoles. Because of non-equilibrium fluctuating flows collectively generated by the enzymes, mixing in the solution and diffusion of passive particles within it are expected to get enhanced. Here, we investigate the intensity and statistical properties of such force dipoles in the minimal active dimer model of a mechanochemical enzyme. In the framework of this model, novel estimates for hydrodynamic collective effects in solution and in lipid bilayers under rapid rotational diffusion are derived, and available experimental and computational data is examined
Enhanced Parallel Generation of Tree Structures for the Recognition of 3D Images
Segmentations of a digital object based on a connectivity
criterion at n-xel or sub-n-xel level are useful tools in image topological
analysis and recognition. Working with cell complex analogous of digital
objects, an example of this kind of segmentation is that obtained from
the combinatorial representation so called Homological Spanning Forest
(HSF, for short) which, informally, classifies the cells of the complex as
belonging to regions containing the maximal number of cells sharing the
same homological (algebraic homology with coefficient in a field) information.
We design here a parallel method for computing a HSF (using
homology with coefficients in Z/2Z) of a 3D digital object. If this object
is included in a 3D image of m1 × m2 × m3 voxels, its theoretical time
complexity order is near O(log(m1 + m2 + m3)), under the assumption
that a processing element is available for each voxel. A prototype implementation
validating our results has been written and several synthetic,
random and medical tridimensional images have been used for testing.
The experiments allow us to assert that the number of iterations in which
the homological information is found varies only to a small extent from
the theoretical computational time.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MTM2016-81030-
Chromium at High Pressures: Weak Coupling and Strong Fluctuations in an Itinerant Antiferromagnet
The spin- and charge-density-wave order parameters of the itinerant
antiferromagnet chromium are measured directly with non-resonant x-ray
diffraction as the system is driven towards its quantum critical point with
high pressure using a diamond anvil cell. The exponential decrease of the spin
and charge diffraction intensities with pressure confirms the harmonic scaling
of spin and charge, while the evolution of the incommensurate ordering vector
provides important insight into the difference between pressure and chemical
doping as means of driving quantum phase transitions. Measurement of the charge
density wave over more than two orders of magnitude of diffraction intensity
provides the clearest demonstration to date of a weakly-coupled, BCS-like
ground state. Evidence for the coexistence of this weakly-coupled ground state
with high-energy excitations and pseudogap formation above the ordering
temperature in chromium, the charge-ordered perovskite manganites, and the blue
bronzes, among other such systems, raises fundamental questions about the
distinctions between weak and strong coupling.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures (8 in color
Viscoelasticity of two-layer-vesicles in solution
The dynamic shape relaxation of the two-layer-vesicle is calculated. In
additional to the undulation relaxation where the two bilayers move in the same
direction, the squeezing mode appears when the gap between the two bilayers is
small. At large gap, the inner vesicle relaxes much faster, whereas the slow
mode is mainly due to the outer layer relaxation. We have calculated the
viscoelasticity of the dilute two-layer-vesicle suspension. It is found that
for small gap, the applied shear drives the undulation mode strongly while the
slow squeezing mode is not much excited. In this limit the complex viscosity is
dominated by the fast mode contribution. On the other hand, the slow mode is
strongly driven by shear for larger gap. We have determined the crossover gap
which depends on the interaction between the two bilayers. For a series of
samples where the gap is changed systematically, it is possible to observe the
two amplitude switchings
Elasticity of smectic liquid crystals with focal conic domains
We study the elastic properties of thermotropic smectic liquid crystals with
focal conic domains (FCDs). After the application of the controlled preshear at
different temperatures, we independently measured the shear modulus G' and the
FCD size L. We find out that these quantities are related by the scaling
relation G' ~ \gamma_{eff}/L where \gamma_{eff} is the effective surface
tension of the FCDs. The experimentally obtained value of \gamma_{\rm eff}
shows the same scaling as the effective surface tension of the layered systems
\sqrt{KB} where K and B are the bending modulus and the layer compression
modulus, respectively. The similarity of this scaling relation to that of the
surfactant onion phase suggests an universal rheological behavior of the
layered systems with defects.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in JPC
Three different mechanisms of energy dissipation of a desiccation-tolerant moss serve one common purpose: to protect reaction centres against photo-oxidation*
Three different types of non-photochemical de-excitation of absorbed light energy protect photosystem II of the sun- and desiccation-tolerant moss Rhytidium rugosum against photo-oxidation. The first mechanism, which is light-induced in hydrated thalli, is sensitive to inhibition by dithiothreitol. It is controlled by the protonation of a thylakoid protein. Other mechanisms are activated by desiccation. One of them permits exciton migration towards a far-red band in the antenna pigments where fast thermal deactivation takes place. This mechanism appears to be similar to a mechanism detected before in desiccated lichens. A third mechanism is based on the reversible photo-accumulation of a radical that acts as a quencher of excitation energy in reaction centres of photosystem II. On the basis of absorption changes around 800 nm, the quencher is suggested to be an oxidized chlorophyll. The data show that desiccated moss is better protected against photo-oxidative damage than hydrated moss. Slow drying of moss thalli in the light increases photo-protection more than slow drying in darkness
An Electron-Tracking Compton Telescope for a Survey of the Deep Universe by MeV gamma-rays
Photon imaging for MeV gammas has serious difficulties due to huge
backgrounds and unclearness in images, which are originated from incompleteness
in determining the physical parameters of Compton scattering in detection,
e.g., lack of the directional information of the recoil electrons. The recent
major mission/instrument in the MeV band, Compton Gamma Ray
Observatory/COMPTEL, which was Compton Camera (CC), detected mere
persistent sources. It is in stark contrast with 2000 sources in the GeV
band. Here we report the performance of an Electron-Tracking Compton Camera
(ETCC), and prove that it has a good potential to break through this stagnation
in MeV gamma-ray astronomy. The ETCC provides all the parameters of
Compton-scattering by measuring 3-D recoil electron tracks; then the Scatter
Plane Deviation (SPD) lost in CCs is recovered. The energy loss rate (dE/dx),
which CCs cannot measure, is also obtained, and is found to be indeed helpful
to reduce the background under conditions similar to space. Accordingly the
significance in gamma detection is improved severalfold. On the other hand, SPD
is essential to determine the point-spread function (PSF) quantitatively. The
SPD resolution is improved close to the theoretical limit for multiple
scattering of recoil electrons. With such a well-determined PSF, we demonstrate
for the first time that it is possible to provide reliable sensitivity in
Compton imaging without utilizing an optimization algorithm. As such, this
study highlights the fundamental weak-points of CCs. In contrast we demonstrate
the possibility of ETCC reaching the sensitivity below erg
cm s at 1 MeV.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, Accepted to the Astrophysical Journa
Non-linear Rheology of Lyotropic Lamellar Phases
この論文は国立情報学研究所の電子図書館事業により電子化されました。研究会報告スメクティック液晶やリオトロピック系のラメラ相のような一次元周期構造を有する系のレオロジーを議論する。我々は転位ループの運動が散逸に寄与すると仮定し、そのダイナミクスを考察することにより、ずり速度と応力の関係を与えるスケーリング則を導いた。さらに非イオン界面活性剤(C_E_5)水溶液におけるラメラ相のレオロジー測定を行い、理論的な予測の検証を行った。その結果、予測に近いスケーリング則を確認するとともに、ずり速度の揺らぎが平均のずり速度に比例するという興味深い現象を発見した
Improvement of 137Cs analysis in small volume seawater samples using the Ogoya underground facility
137Cs in seawater is one of the most powerful tracers of water motion. Large volumes of samples have been required for determination of 137Cs in seawater. This paper describes improvement of separation and purification processes of 137Cs in seawater, which includes purification of 137Cs using hexachloroplatinic acid in addition to ammonium phosphomolybdate (AMP) precipitation. As a result, we succeeded the 137Cs determination in seawater with a smaller sample volume of 10 liter by using ultra-low background gamma-spectrometry in the Ogoya underground facility. 137Cs detection limit was about 0.1 mBq (counting time: 106 s). This method is applied to determine 137Cs in small samples of the South Pacific deep waters. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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