25,380 research outputs found
How is silicic acid transported in plants?
Plants accumulate silicon in their tissues as amorphous silica. The form of silicon taken up by plants is silicic acid, a neutral molecule that passes through membrane channels with water. After seminal work on rice identified an aquaporin that appeared to mediate the passage of silicic acid, several papers followed and classified similar channels (referred to as âtransportersâ) in a number of plant species. These channels have been described as essential for silicon uptake and specific for the metalloid. Herein, we critically review the published data on the characterisation of one channel in particular, Lsi1, and identify possible caveats in results and limitations in methods used. Our analysis does not support the suggestion that the identified channels are specific for silicic acid. Computational analyses of the size of the Lsi1 pore additionally suggest that it may not play a significant role in mediating the movement of silicic acid in planta. We suggest that to avoid further confusion, channels currently implicated in the transport of silicic acid in planta are not referred to as silicon-specific transporters. Future research including the use of molecular dynamics simulations will enable the unequivocal identification of channels involved in silicon transport in plants
The connection between entropy and the absorption spectra of Schwarzschild black holes for light and massless scalar fields
We present heuristic arguments suggesting that if EM waves with wavelengths
somewhat larger than the Schwarzschild radius of a black hole were fully
absorbed by it, the second law of thermodynamics would be violated, under the
Bekenstein interpretation of the area of a black hole as a measure of its
entropy. Thus, entropy considerations make the well known fact that large
wavelengths are only marginally absorbed by black holes, a natural consequence
of thermodynamics. We also study numerically the ingoing radial propagation of
a scalar field wave in a Schwarzschild metric, relaxing the standard assumption
which leads to the eikonal equation, that the wave has zero spatial extent. We
find that if these waves have wavelengths larger that the Schwarzschild radius,
they are very substantially reflected, fully to numerical accuracy.
Interestingly, this critical wavelength approximately coincides with the one
derived from entropy considerations of the EM field, and is consistent with
well known limit results of scattering in the Schwarzschild metric. The
propagation speed is also calculated and seen to differ from the value , for
wavelengths larger than , in the vicinity of . As in all
classical wave phenomena, whenever the wavelength is larger or comparable to
the physical size of elements in the system, in this case changes in the
metric, the zero extent 'particle' description fails, and the wave nature
becomes apparent.Comment: 14 Pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in the Journal Entrop
On the Incidence of C IV Absorbers Along the Sightlines to Gamma-Ray Bursts
We report on the statistics of strong (W_r > 0.15 A) C IV absorbers at
z=1.5-3.5 toward high-redshift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). In contrast with a
recent survey for strong Mg II absorption systems at z < 2, we find that the
number of C IV absorbers per unit redshift dN/dz does not show a significant
deviation from previous surveys using quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) as
background sources. We find that the number density of C IV toward GRBs is
dN/dz(z~1.5)= 2.2 +2.8/-1.4, dN/dz(z~2.5)= 2.3 +1.8/-1.1 and dN/dz(z~3.5)= 1.1
+2.6/-0.9. These numbers are consistent with previous C IV surveys using QSO
spectra. Binning the entire dataset, we set a 95% c.l. upper limit to the
excess of C IV absorbers along GRB sightlines at twice the incidence observed
along QSO sightlines. Furthermore, the distribution of equivalent widths of the
GRB and QSO samples are consistent with being drawn from the same parent
population. Although the results for Mg II and C IV absorbers along GRB
sightlines appear to contradict one another, we note that the surveys are
nearly disjoint: the C IV survey corresponds to higher redshift and more highly
ionized gas than the Mg II survey. Nevertheless, analysis on larger statistical
samples may constrain properties of the galaxies hosting these metals (e.g.
mass, dust content) and/or the coherence-length of the gas giving rise to the
metal-line absorption.Comment: Accepted version (for publication in ApJ), results unchanged, 18
pages, 3 tables, 5 figure
Modelling Defect Cavities Formed in Inverse Three-Dimensional Rod-Connected Diamond Photonic Crystals
Defect cavities in 3D photonic crystal can trap and store light in the
smallest volumes allowable in dielectric materials, enhancing non-linearities
and cavity QED effects. Here, we study inverse rod-connected diamond (RCD)
crystals containing point defect cavities using plane-wave expansion and
finite-difference time domain methods. By optimizing the dimensions of the
crystal, wide photonic band gaps are obtained. Mid-bandgap resonances can then
be engineered by introducing point defects in the crystal. We investigate a
variety of single spherical defects at different locations in the unit cell
focusing on high-refractive-index contrast (3.3:1) inverse RCD structures;
quality factors (Q-factors) and mode volumes of the resonant cavity modes are
calculated. By choosing a symmetric arrangement, consisting of a single sphere
defect located at the center of a tetrahedral arrangement, mode volumes < 0.06
cubic wavelengths are obtained, a record for high index cavities.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
Non-equilibrium tunneling into general quantum Hall edge states
In this paper we formulate the theory of tunneling into general Abelian
fractional quantum Hall edge states. In contrast to the simple Laughlin states,
a number of charge transfer processes must be accounted for. Nonetheless, it is
possible to identify a unique value corresponding to dissipationless transport
as the asymptotic large- conductance through a tunneling junction, and find
fixed points (CFT boundary conditions) corresponding to this value. The
symmetries of a given edge tunneling problem determine the appropriate boundary
condition, and the boundary condition determines the strong-coupling operator
content and current noise.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; published versio
Nutritional Evaluation and Optimisation in Neonates (NEON): a randomised double-blind controlled trial of amino-acid regimen and intravenous lipid composition in preterm parenteral nutrition
GU Boo: A New 0.6 Msun Detached Eclipsing Binary
We have found a new low-mass, double-lined, detached eclipsing binary, GU
Boo, among a sample of new variables from the ROTSE-I database. The binary has
an orbital period of 0.488728 +/- 0.000002 days, and estimated apparent
magnitudes Vrotse = 13.7 and I = 11.8. Our analysis of the light and radial
velocity curves of the system yields individual masses and radii of M1= 0.610
+/- 0.007 Msun, M2 = 0.599 +/- 0.006 Msun, R1= 0.623 +/- 0.016 Rsun, R2= 0.620
+/- 0.020 Rsun. The stars in GU Boo are therefore very similar to the
components of the eclipsing binary YY Gem. For this study we have adopted a
mean effective temperature for the binary of Teff = 3870 +/- 130 K. Based on
its space velocities we suggest that GU Boo is a main sequence binary, possibly
with an age of several Gyr. The metallicity of the binary is not well
constrained at this point but we speculate that it should not be very different
from solar. We have compared the physical parameters of GU Boo with current
low-mass stellar models, where we accounted for uncertainties in age and
metallicity by considering a wide range of values for those parameters. Our
comparisons reveal that all the models underestimate the radii of the
components of GU Boo by at least 10-15%. This result is in agreement with the
recent studies of YY Gem and CU Cnc.Comment: 41 pages, 10 figures, 11 tables; accepted by Ap
Infinite Symmetry in the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect
We have generalized recent results of Cappelli, Trugenberger and Zemba on the
integer quantum Hall effect constructing explicitly a for
the fractional quantum Hall effect such that the negative modes annihilate the
Laughlin wave functions. This generalization has a nice interpretation in
Jain's composite fermion theory. Furthermore, for these models we have
calculated the wave functions of the edge excitations viewing them as area
preserving deformations of an incompressible quantum droplet, and have shown
that the is the underlying symmetry of the edge
excitations in the fractional quantum Hall effect. Finally, we have applied
this method to more general wave functions.Comment: 15pp. LaTeX, BONN-HE-93-2
From the Chern-Simons theory for the fractional quantum Hall effect to the Luttinger model of its edges
The chiral Luttinger model for the edges of the fractional quantum Hall
effect is obtained as the low energy limit of the Chern-Simons theory for the
two dimensional system. In particular we recover the Kac-Moody algebra for the
creation and annihilation operators of the edge density waves and the
bosonization formula for the electronic operator at the edge.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, 1 Postscript figure include
- âŠ