Theory of flux anisotropies in a guiding center plasma

The one particle distribution function f on the scale of the bounce motion of particles in a magnetic field B is considered. The Vlasov equation is expanded through O(epsilon) in the adiabatic parameter which is the ratio of particle gyroradius to scale length of the magnetic field. Because f is directly proportional to particle flux differential in kinetic energy and solid angle, f is in principle measurable in space experiments, and the analysis is tailored to be explicitly applicable to space problems. To O(1), f is gyrotropic; its first velocity moment is (if non-vanishing) parallel to B, and hence macroscopic parallel flow is included in this term. The O(epsilon) contribution is non-gyrotropic and macroscopic flow parallel to B plus additional parallel flow results from these terms. The degree of non-gyrotropy and the amount of cross-field macroscopic flow depend on the perpendicular component of the electric field, on curvature and shear in the magnetic field, and on the spatial gradient, pitch angle derivative, and speed derivative of the lowest order distribution function

The Effects of Preovulatory Estradiol on the Uterine Environment and Conceptus Survival From Fertilization to Maternal Recognition of Pregnancy

Preovulatory estradiol has been reported to play a critical role in pregnancy establishment and embryonic survival, but the mechanism by which estradiol exerts its effects has not been well characterized. The objective of this thesis is to determine the effects of preovulatory estradiol on the uterine environment and conceptus survival from fertilization to maternal recognition of pregnancy. Beef cows/heifers were synchronized with the CO-Synch protocol and AIed (d 0). Cows were classified by estrus expression (estrus and no estrus), and uteri were flushed to collect d16 conceptuses nonsurgically (Rep 1; n = 29), or following slaughter (Rep 2; n = 37). Uterine luminal fluid (ULF) was analyzed for protein, glucose, and interferon tau (IFNT) concentrations. For replicate 1, total cellular RNA was extracted from blood leukocytes (d 16) to determine expression of interferon-stimulated genes (ISG): ISG-15, OAS-1, and MX2. For replicate 2, total cellular RNA was extracted from caruncular (CAR) and intercaruncular (INCAR) endometrial tissue to determine relative abundance of select glucose transporters (SLC2A1, SLC2A4, SLC2A5, and SLC5A1). There was no difference in conceptus recovery rate between estrus and no estrus cows (P = 0.20; 48% vs 29%) or between replicates (P = 0.46; 44% vs 33%). There were no differences between estrus and no estrus cows for ULF protein concentration (P = 0.36; 2222 ± 513 vs 1547 ± 525 mg/mL). There was no difference (P \u3e 0.20) in d 16 expression of ISG-15, OAS-1, or MX2 between estrus and no estrus cows, nor a difference between cows in which a conceptus was or was not recovered. In addition, there were no differences in IFNT concentrations in the ULF among estrus and no estrus cows (P = 0.42), nor a difference among cows that did and did not have a conceptus recovered from them (P = 0.71). Cows that exhibited estrus had greater glucose concentrations in ULF (P = 0.05; 51 ± 1.86 vs 45 ± 1.92 mg/dL) compared to no estrus cows, but there was no difference in protein concentration in the ULF (P = 0.36; 2222 ± 513 vs 1547 ± 525 mg/mL). Cows in which a conceptus was recovered had greater concentrations of protein in the ULF (P = 0.05; 2643 ± 585 mg/mL) compared to cows in which a conceptus was not recovered (1126 ± 463 mg/mL), glucose concentration was similar between groups (P = 0.29; 47 ± 2.12 vs 50 ± 1.70 mg/dL). For replicate 2, in both CAR and INCAR endometria, cows that exhibited estrus had greater abundance of SLC2A1 (P = 0.05) and SLC5A1 (P \u3c 0.04) mRNA. Presence of a conceptus tended to increase (P = 0.10) abundance of SLC5A1 mRNA in INCAR tissue, but had no effect (P \u3e 0.13) on abundance of SLC2A1 mRNA in either tissues or SLC5A1 mRNA in CAR tissue. In CAR tissue, cows from which a conceptus was recovered had decreased SLC2A4 mRNA abundance (P = 0.04), but there was no effect of estrus (P = 0.14) and no effect of estrus or conceptus in INCAR tissue. There was no difference in SLC2A5 mRNA abundance between estrus and no estrus cows (P \u3e 0.20), nor between conceptus and no conceptus cows (P \u3e 0.58) in CAR or INCAR tissue. In summary, conceptus recovery rates, IFNT, and protein concentration in ULF did not differ between cows that did or did not exhibit estrus, but ULF glucose content was greater in cows that exhibited estrus. There was no difference in ULF glucose concentration or IFNT between cows that did and did not have a conceptus, but ULF protein concentration was greater in cows from which a conceptus was recovered. Thus, there was no indication of increased conceptus survival to d 16 of pregnancy based on estrus expression, but ULF glucose and protein concentration changed based on estrus expression and conceptus presence

The Influence of Preovulatory Estradiol on Uterine Transcriptomics and Proteomics Around Maternal Recognition of Pregnancy in Beef Cattle

Preovulatory estradiol has been reported to play a crucial role in pregnancy establishment and maintenance, but the mechanism by which estradiol exerts its effects has not been well characterized. Specifically, the interactions between the maternal uterine environment and the developing conceptus can greatly impact pregnancy success or loss. The objective of this dissertation is to determine the effects of preovulatory estradiol exposure on uterine and trophectoderm transcriptomes, and uterine luminal fluid (ULF) protein composition. Beef cows/heifers were synchronized, artificially inseminated (d 0), and grouped into either high (highE2) or low (lowE2) preovulatory estradiol. Uteri were flushed to collect d16 conceptuses either nonsurgically or following slaughter, and endometrial biopsies (n=29) were collected from the ipsilateral uterine horn. Real-Time PCR (RT-PCR) was performed on trophectoderm (TE; n=21) RNA to measure the relative abundance of IFNT, PTGS2, TM4SF1, C3, FGFR2, and GAPDH. Total cellular RNA was extracted from endometrium for RNA sequencing. ULF pools (n=28) for the following groups: highE2/noconceptus, highE2/conceptus, lowE2/noconceptus, and lowE2/conceptus were analyzed using a 2D LC-MS/MS based 8plex iTRAQ method. RT-PCR data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure in SAS. Transcript abundances in the endometrium were quantified using kallisto, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were determined using DESeq2 (FDR2), and IPA was used for pathway analysis. Scaffold Q+ was used to quantitate peptide and protein identifications in the ULF. There were no differences in mRNA abundances in TE, but there were 432 DEGs among the highE2/conceptus versus lowE2/conceptus groups, 253 were downregulated (CR2, CDH4, TROAP, COL1A2) and 179 were upregulated (PRSS8, FABP3, IDO1, MUC13, CXCL10) in the highE2/conceptus group. There were 48 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) among the highE2/conceptus and lowE2/conceptus groups (19 upregulated, 29 downregulated in the highE2/conceptus group), 6 of these were differentially expressed (FD

2014 Fed Challenge Script: Current State of the Economy

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for having us here today. Though the recession began in 2007 and officially ended in 2009, recovery has been painfully slow. GDP growth has been insufficient to close the output gap, there continues to be slack in the labor market and inflation has stabilized below the Federal Reserve percent target. We are not meeting our dual mandate of full employment and stable prices even 6 years after the end of the recession. Despite some signs of strengthening in the economy during the past year, we do not believe that economy is on a self-sustaining path of recovery. Furthermore, the monetary policy actions taken by the Fed thus far to pull us out of the Great Recession have been insufficient. We propose a substantial strengthening of the our forward guidance; specifically, a commitment not to raise the federal funds rate until nominal GDP has returned to a path that we consider consistent with the dual mandate. [excerpt

Hamiltonian Theory of Adiabatic Motion of Relativistic Charged Particles

A general Hamiltonian theory for the adiabatic motion of relativistic charged particles confined by slowly-varying background electromagnetic fields is presented based on a unified Lie-transform perturbation analysis in extended phase space (which includes energy and time as independent coordinates) for all three adiabatic invariants. First, the guiding-center equations of motion for a relativistic particle are derived from the particle Lagrangian. Covariant aspects of the resulting relativistic guiding-center equations of motion are discussed and contrasted with previous works. Next, the second and third invariants for the bounce motion and drift motion, respectively, are obtained by successively removing the bounce phase and the drift phase from the guiding-center Lagrangian. First-order corrections to the second and third adiabatic invariants for a relativistic particle are derived. These results simplify and generalize previous works to all three adiabatic motions of relativistic magnetically-trapped particles.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX, to appear in Physics of Plasmas (Aug, 2007

Perturbation analysis of trapped-particle dynamics in axisymmetric dipole geometry

The perturbation analysis of the bounce action-angle coordinates $(J,\zeta)$ for charged particles trapped in an axisymmetric dipole magnetic field is presented. First, the lowest-order bounce action-angle coordinates are derived for deeply-trapped particles in the harmonic-oscillator approximation. Next, the Lie-transform perturbation method is used to derive higher-order anharmonic action-angle corrections. Explicit expressions (with anharmonic corrections) for the canonical parallel coordinates $s(J,\zeta)$ and $p_{\|}(J,\zeta)$ are presented, which satisfy the canonical identity $\{s,\; p_{\|}\}(J,\zeta) \equiv 1$. Lastly, analytical expressions for the bounce and drift frequencies (which include anharmonic corrections) yield excellent agreement with exact numerical results.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure