383 research outputs found
The fickle Mutation of a Cytoplasmic Tyrosine Kinase Effects Sensitization but not Dishabituation in Drosophila Melanogaster
fickle is a P-element mutation identified from a screen for defects in courtship behavior and disrupts the fly homolog of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) gene (Baba et al., 1999). Here, we show that habituation of the olfactory jump reflex also is defective in fickle. Unlike, the prototypical memory mutants, rutabaga and dunce, which habituate more slowly than normal, fickle flies habituate faster than normal. fickle's faster-than-normal response decrement did not appear to be due to sensorimotor fatigue, and dishabituation of the jump response was normal. Based on a long-standing âtwo opponent processâ theory of habituation, these data suggested that behavioral sensitization might be defective in fickle. To test this hypothesis, we designed a olfactory sensitization procedure, using the same stimuli to habituate (odor) and dishabituate (vortexing) flies. Mutant flies failed to show any sensitization with this procedure. Our study reveals a âgenetic dissectionâ of sensitization and dishabituation and, for the first time, provides a biological confirmation of the two opponent process theory of habituation
A Search for Scalar Chameleons with ADMX
Scalar fields with a "chameleon" property, in which the effective particle
mass is a function of its local environment, are common to many theories beyond
the standard model and could be responsible for dark energy. If these fields
couple weakly to the photon, they could be detectable through the "afterglow"
effect of photon-chameleon-photon transitions. The ADMX experiment was used in
the first chameleon search with a microwave cavity to set a new limit on scalar
chameleon-photon coupling excluding values between 2*10^9 and 5*10^14 for
effective chameleon masses between 1.9510 and 1.9525 micro-eV.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
A SQUID-based microwave cavity search for dark-matter axions
Axions in the micro eV mass range are a plausible cold dark matter candidate
and may be detected by their conversion into microwave photons in a resonant
cavity immersed in a static magnetic field. The first result from such an axion
search using a superconducting first-stage amplifier (SQUID) is reported. The
SQUID amplifier, replacing a conventional GaAs field-effect transistor
amplifier, successfully reached axion-photon coupling sensitivity in the band
set by present axion models and sets the stage for a definitive axion search
utilizing near quantum-limited SQUID amplifiers.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR
Move of a large but delicate apparatus on a trailer with air-ride suspension
When valuable delicate goods are shipped by truck, attention must be paid to
vibrations that may cause damage. We present a case study of moving an
extremely delicate 6230-kg superconducting magnet, immersed in liquid nitrogen,
from Livermore, CA to Seattle, WA showing the steps of fatigue analysis of the
load, a test move, and acceleration monitoring of the final move to ensure a
successful damage-free transport
Superdeformation in Po
The Yb(Si,5n) reaction at 148 MeV with thin targets was used
to populate high-angular momentum states in Po. Resulting rays
were observed with Gammasphere. A weakly-populated superdeformed band of 10
-ray transitions was found and has been assigned to Po. This is
the first observation of a SD band in the region in a nucleus
with . The of the new band is very similar to those of
the yrast SD bands in Hg and Pb. The intensity profile suggests
that this band is populated through states close to where the SD band crosses
the yrast line and the angular momentum at which the fission process dominates.Comment: 10 pages, revtex, 2 figs. available on request, submitted to Phys.
Rev. C. (Rapid Communications
Distributed flow optimization and cascading effects in weighted complex networks
We investigate the effect of a specific edge weighting scheme on distributed flow efficiency and robustness to cascading
failures in scale-free networks. In particular, we analyze a simple, yet
fundamental distributed flow model: current flow in random resistor networks.
By the tuning of control parameter and by considering two general cases
of relative node processing capabilities as well as the effect of bandwidth, we
show the dependence of transport efficiency upon the correlations between the
topology and weights. By studying the severity of cascades for different
control parameter , we find that network resilience to cascading
overloads and network throughput is optimal for the same value of over
the range of node capacities and available bandwidth
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