2,489 research outputs found
Lethal effects of high intensity violet 405-nm light on saccharomyces cerevisiae, candida albicans and on dormant and germinating spores of aspergillus niger
This study assessed the effects of high-intensity violet light on selected yeast and mould fungi. Cell suspensions of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans, and dormant and germinating spores (conidia) of the mould Aspergillus niger were exposed to high-intensity narrow band violet light with peak output at 405 nm generated from a light-emitting diode (LED) array. All three fungal species were inactivated by the 405-nm light without a requirement for addition of exogenous photosensitiser chemicals. Of the fungal species tested, S. cerevisiae was most sensitive and dormant conidia of A. niger were most resistant to 405-nm light exposure. Five-log10 colony forming units per millilitre (CFU ml1) reductions of the tested species required exposure doses of 288 J cm2 for S. cerevisiae, 576 J cm2 for C. albicans, and a much higher value of 2.3 kJ cm2 for dormant conidia of A. niger. During germination, A. niger conidia became more sensitive to 405-nm light exposure and sensitivity increased as germination progressed over an 8 h test period. Light exposure under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, together with results obtained using ascorbic acid as a scavenger of reactive oxygen species, revealed that 405-nm light inactivation in fungi involved an oxygen-dependent mechanism, as previously described in bacteria. The inactivation results achieved with yeast cells and fungal spores together with operational advantages associated with the use of a visible (nonultraviolet (UV)) light source highlight the potential of 405-nm light for fungal decontamination applications
Flavour structure of low-energy hadron pair photoproduction
We consider the process where and
are either mesons or baryons. The experimental findings for such quantities as
the and differential cross sections, in the energy range
currently probed, are found often to be in disparity with the scaling behaviour
expected from hard constituent scattering. We discuss the long-distance
pole--resonance contribution in understanding the origin of these phenomena, as
well as the amplitude relations governing the short-distance contribution which
we model as a scaling contribution. When considering the latter, we argue that
the difference found for the and the integrated cross
sections can be attributed to the s-channel isovector component. This
corresponds to the subprocess in the VMD
(vector-meson-dominance) language. The ratio of the two cross sections is
enhanced by the suppression of the component, and is hence constrained.
We give similar constraints to a number of other hadron pair production
channels. After writing down the scaling and pole--resonance contributions
accordingly, the direct summation of the two contributions is found to
reproduce some salient features of the and data.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, revised version to be published in EPJ
Charmless Three-Body Baryonic B Decays
Motivated by recent data on B-> p pbar K decay, we study various charmless
three-body baryonic B decay modes, including Lambda pbar pi, Sigma0 pbar pi, p
pbar pi, p pbar Kbar0, in a factorization approach. These modes have rates of
order 10^{-6}. There are two mechanisms for the baryon pair production,
current-produced and transition. The behavior of decay spectra from these
baryon production mechanisms can be understood by using QCD counting rules.
Predictions on rates and decay spectra can be checked in the near future.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures; version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Renormalization Group and Decoupling in Curved Space: II. The Standard Model and Beyond
We continue the study of the renormalization group and decoupling of massive
fields in curved space, started in the previous article and analyse the higher
derivative sector of the vacuum metric-dependent action of the Standard Model.
The QCD sector at low-energies is described in terms of the composite effective
fields. For fermions and scalars the massless limit shows perfect
correspondence with the conformal anomaly, but similar limit in a massive
vector case requires an extra compensating scalar. In all three cases the
decoupling goes smoothly and monotonic. A particularly interesting case is the
renormalization group flow in the theory with broken supersymmetry, where the
sign of one of the beta-functions changes on the way from the UV to IR.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure
Interpolatory methods for model reduction of multi-input/multi-output systems
We develop here a computationally effective approach for producing
high-quality -approximations to large scale linear
dynamical systems having multiple inputs and multiple outputs (MIMO). We extend
an approach for model reduction introduced by Flagg,
Beattie, and Gugercin for the single-input/single-output (SISO) setting, which
combined ideas originating in interpolatory -optimal model
reduction with complex Chebyshev approximation. Retaining this framework, our
approach to the MIMO problem has its principal computational cost dominated by
(sparse) linear solves, and so it can remain an effective strategy in many
large-scale settings. We are able to avoid computationally demanding
norm calculations that are normally required to monitor
progress within each optimization cycle through the use of "data-driven"
rational approximations that are built upon previously computed function
samples. Numerical examples are included that illustrate our approach. We
produce high fidelity reduced models having consistently better
performance than models produced via balanced truncation;
these models often are as good as (and occasionally better than) models
produced using optimal Hankel norm approximation as well. In all cases
considered, the method described here produces reduced models at far lower cost
than is possible with either balanced truncation or optimal Hankel norm
approximation
Charmless Two-body Baryonic B Decays
We study charmless two-body baryonic B decays in a diagramatic approach.
Relations on decay amplitudes are obtained. In general there are more than one
tree and more than one penguin amplitudes. The number of independent amplitudes
can be reduced in the large m_B limit. It leads to more predictive results.
Some prominent modes for experimental searches are pointed out.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Coulomb correlations effects on localized charge relaxation in the coupled quantum dots
We analyzed localized charge time evolution in the system of two interacting
quantum dots (QD) (artificial molecule) coupled with the continuous spectrum
states. We demonstrated that Coulomb interaction modifies relaxation rates and
is responsible for non-monotonic time evolution of the localized charge. We
suggested new mechanism of this non-monotonic charge time evolution connected
with charge redistribution between different relaxation channels in each QD.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Non-Extremal D-instantons and the AdS/CFT Correspondence
We investigate non-extremal D-instantons in an asymptotically background and the role they play in the correspondence.
We find that the holographic dual operators of non-extremal D-instanton
configurations do not correspond to self-dual Yang-Mills instantons, and we
compute explicitly the deviation from self-duality. Furthermore, a class of
non-extremal D-instantons yield Euclidean axionic wormhole solutions with two
asymptotic boundaries. After Wick rotating, this provides a playground for
investigating holography in the presence of cosmological singularities in a
closed universe.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figure
The Baryon asymmetry in the Standard Model with a low cut-off
We study the generation of the baryon asymmetry in a variant of the standard
model, where the Higgs field is stabilized by a dimension-six interaction.
Analyzing the one-loop potential, we find a strong first order electroweak
phase transition for Higgs masses up to at least 170 GeV. Dimension-six
operators induce also new sources of CP violation. We compute the baryon
asymmetry in the WKB approximation. Novel source terms in the transport
equations enhance the generated baryon asymmetry. For a wide range of
parameters the model predicts a baryon asymmetry close to the observed value.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 6 figure
What are communities of practice? A comparative review of four seminal works
This paper is a comparative review of four seminal works on communities of practice. It is argued that the ambiguities of the terms community and practice are a source of the concept's reusability allowing it to be reappropriated for different purposes, academic and practical. However, it is potentially confusing that the works differ so markedly in their conceptualizations of community, learning, power and change, diversity and informality. The three earlier works are underpinned by a common epistemological view, but Lave and Wenger's 1991 short monograph is often read as primarily about the socialization of newcomers into knowledge by a form of apprenticeship, while the focus in Brown and Duguid's article of the same year is, in contrast, on improvising new knowledge in an interstitial group that forms in resistance to management. Wenger's 1998 book treats communities of practice as the informal relations and understandings that develop in mutual engagement on an appropriated joint enterprise, but his focus is the impact on individual identity. The applicability of the concept to the heavily individualized and tightly managed work of the twenty-first century is questionable. The most recent work by Wenger – this time with McDermott and Snyder as coauthors – marks a distinct shift towards a managerialist stance. The proposition that managers should foster informal horizontal groups across organizational boundaries is in fact a fundamental redefinition of the concept. However it does identify a plausible, if limited, knowledge management (KM) tool. This paper discusses different interpretations of the idea of 'co-ordinating' communities of practice as a management ideology of empowerment
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