1,458 research outputs found
A computer program for the determination of the acoustic pressure signature of helicopter rotors due to blade thickness
A computer program is presented for the determination of the thickness noise of helicopter rotors. The results were obtained in the form of an acoutic pressure time history. The parameters of the program are the rotor geometry and the helicopter motion descriptors, and the formulation employed is valid in the near and far fields. The blade planform must be rectangular, but the helicopter motion is arbitrary; the observer position is fixed with respect to the ground with a maximum elevation of 45 deg above or below the rotor plane. With these restrictions, the program can also be used for the calculation of thickness noise of propellers
Application of advanced technologies to small, short-haul transport aircraft (STAT)
The benefits of selected advanced technologies for 19 and 30 passenger, short-haul aircraft were identified. Advanced technologies were investigated in four areas: aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, and ride quality. Configuration sensitivity studies were conducted to show design tradeoffs associated with passenger capacity, cabin comfort level, and design field length
Measuring Black Hole Spins through X-ray Reflection Spectroscopy and the Relativistic Precession Model: the case of XTE J1859+226
The development of techniques to measure accurately black hole spins is
crucial to study the physics and astrophysics of these objects. X-ray
reflection spectroscopy is currently the most popular method to estimate the
spins of accreting black holes; so far it has provided a spin measurement of
about 40 stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries and 40 supermassive black
holes in active galactic nuclei. The relativistic precession model is another
method to measure the spins of stellar-mass black holes: it requires the
measurement of the frequencies of three simultaneous quasi-periodic
oscillations and can potentially provide very precise estimates of the black
hole mass and spin. However, the two methods do not seem to provide consistent
results when applied to the same sources, which questions the actual
reliability and accuracy of these measurements. Recently, the relativistic
precession model has been applied to infer the spin of the black hole in XTE
J1859+226 (Motta et al. 2022). The authors found (68%
CL) and there are no other spin measurements of this source. We looked for
archived RXTE observations of XTE J1859+226 with blurred reflection features
and found 23 spectra suitable for measuring the black hole spin. We employed
two different models with relxill and relxillD and obtained a higher spin value
from all these fits. From the further simultaneous fitting performed on two
different subsets of the total set of 23 spectra, we infer the black hole spin
parameter and (90% CL,
statistical) with relxill and relxillD for the first set and, =
and (90% CL, statistical)
for the second set, respectively. This clearly confirms the discrepancy between
the black hole spin measurements inferred from the two techniques.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Cohomology of bundles on homological Hopf manifold
We discuss the properties of complex manifolds having rational homology of
including those constructed by Hopf, Kodaira and
Brieskorn-van de Ven. We extend certain previously known vanishing properties
of cohomology of bundles on such manifolds.As an application we consider
degeneration of Hodge-deRham spectral sequence in this non Kahler setting.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of 2007 conference on Several complex
variables and Complex Geometry. Xiamen. Chin
Origin of Ferroelectricity in Orthorhombic LuFeO
We demonstrate that small but finite ferroelectric polarization (0.01
C/cm) emerges in orthorhombic LuFeO () at (600
K) because of commensurate (k = 0) and collinear magnetic structure. The
synchrotron x-ray and neutron diffraction data suggest that the polarization
could originate from enhanced bond covalency together with subtle contribution
from lattice. The theoretical calculations indicate enhancement of bond
covalency as well as the possibility of structural transition to the polar
phase below . The phase, in fact, is found to be
energetically favorable below in orthorhombic LuFeO ( with
very small energy difference) than in isostructural and nonferroelectric
LaFeO or NdFeO. Application of electric field induces finite
piezostriction in LuFeO via electrostriction resulting in clear domain
contrast images in piezoresponse force microscopy.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
PANIC: the new panoramic NIR camera for Calar Alto
PANIC is a wide-field NIR camera, which is currently under development for
the Calar Alto observatory (CAHA) in Spain. It uses a mosaic of four Hawaii-2RG
detectors and covers the spectral range from 0.8-2.5 micron(z to K-band). The
field-of-view is 30x30 arcmin. This instrument can be used at the 2.2m
telescope (0.45arcsec/pixel, 0.5x0.5 degree FOV) and at the 3.5m telescope
(0.23arcsec/pixel, 0.25x0.25 degree FOV). The operating temperature is about
77K, achieved by liquid Nitrogen cooling. The cryogenic optics has three flat
folding mirrors with diameters up to 282 mm and nine lenses with diameters
between 130 mm and 255 mm. A compact filter unit can carry up to 19 filters
distributed over four filter wheels. Narrow band (1%) filters can be used. The
instrument has a diameter of 1.1 m and it is about 1 m long. The weight limit
of 400 kg at the 2.2m telescope requires a light-weight cryostat design. The
aluminium vacuum vessel and radiation shield have wall thicknesses of only 6 mm
and 3 mm respectively.Comment: This paper has been presented in the SPIE of Astronomical Telescopes
and Instrumentation 2008 in Marseille (France
On the stability problem in the O(N) nonlinear sigma model
The stability problem for the O(N) nonlinear sigma model in the 2+\epsilon
dimensions is considered. We present the results of the 1/N^{2} order
calculations of the critical exponents (in the 2<d<4 dimensions) of the
composite operators relevant for this problem. The arguments in the favor of
the scenario with the conventional fixed point are given.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, 1 Postscript figur
Investigation of the effect of PD-L1 blockade on triple negative breast cancer cells using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
Interactions between programmed death-1 (PD-1) with its ligand PD-L1 on tumor cells can antagonize T cell responses. Inhibiting these interactions using immune checkpoint inhibitors has shown promise in cancer immunotherapy. MDA-MB-231 is a triple negative breast cancer cell line that expresses PD-L1. In this study, we investigated the biochemical changes in MDA-MB-231 cells following treatment with atezolizumab, a specific PD-L1 blocker. Our readouts were Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and flow cytometric analyses. Chemometrical analysis, such as principal component analysis (PCA), was applied to delineate the spectral differences. We were able to identify the chemical alterations in both protein and lipid structure of the treated cells. We found that there was a shift from random coil and ?-helical structure to ?-sheet conformation of PD-L1 on tumor cells due to atezolizumab treatment, which could hinder binding with its receptors on immune cells, ensuring sustained T cell activation for potent immune responses. This work provides novel information about the effects of atezolizumab at molecular and cellular levels. FTIR bio-spectroscopy, in combination with chemometric analyses, may expedite research and offer new approaches for cancer immunology. - 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Diabetes Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar Foundation (QF), P.O. Box 34110 Doha, Qatar Cancer Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar Foundation (QF), P.O. Box 34110 Doha, Qatar Department of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, Qatar University (QU), P.O. Box 2713 Doha, Qatar Qatar Computing Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar Foundation (QF), P.O. Box 34110 Doha, Qatar Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute (QEERI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar Foundation (QF), P.O. Box 34110 Doha, Qatar Correspondence: [email protected] (M.H.M.A.); [email protected] (E.E.
The K+ Channel Opener 1-EBIO Potentiates Residual Function of Mutant CFTR in Rectal Biopsies from Cystic Fibrosis Patients
BACKGROUND: The identification of strategies to improve mutant CFTR function remains a key priority in the development of new treatments for cystic fibrosis (CF). Previous studies demonstrated that the K⁺ channel opener 1-ethyl-2-benzimidazolone (1-EBIO) potentiates CFTR-mediated Cl⁻ secretion in cultured cells and mouse colon. However, the effects of 1-EBIO on wild-type and mutant CFTR function in native human colonic tissues remain unknown. METHODS: We studied the effects of 1-EBIO on CFTR-mediated Cl⁻ secretion in rectal biopsies from 47 CF patients carrying a wide spectrum of CFTR mutations and 57 age-matched controls. Rectal tissues were mounted in perfused micro-Ussing chambers and the effects of 1-EBIO were compared in control tissues, CF tissues expressing residual CFTR function and CF tissues with no detectable Cl⁻ secretion. RESULTS: Studies in control tissues demonstrate that 1-EBIO activated CFTR-mediated Cl⁻ secretion in the absence of cAMP-mediated stimulation and potentiated cAMP-induced Cl⁻ secretion by 39.2±6.7% (P<0.001) via activation of basolateral Ca²⁺-activated and clotrimazole-sensitive KCNN4 K⁺ channels. In CF specimens, 1-EBIO potentiated cAMP-induced Cl⁻ secretion in tissues with residual CFTR function by 44.4±11.5% (P<0.001), but had no effect on tissues lacking CFTR-mediated Cl⁻ conductance. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that 1-EBIO potentiates Cl⁻secretion in native CF tissues expressing CFTR mutants with residual Cl⁻ channel function by activation of basolateral KCNN4 K⁺ channels that increase the driving force for luminal Cl⁻ exit. This mechanism may augment effects of CFTR correctors and potentiators that increase the number and/or activity of mutant CFTR channels at the cell surface and suggests KCNN4 as a therapeutic target for CF
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