8,861 research outputs found
Deformed two center shell model
A highly specialized two-center shell model has been developed accounting for
the splitting of a deformed parent nucleus into two ellipsoidaly deformed
fragments. The potential is based on deformed oscillator wells in direct
correspondance with the shape change of the nuclear system. For the first time
a potential responsible for the necking part between the fragments is
introduced on potential theory basis. As a direct consequence, spin-orbit {\bf
ls} and {\bf l} operators are calculated as shape dependent. Level scheme
evolution along the fission path for pairs of ellipsoidaly deformed fragments
is calculated. The Strutinsky method yields the shell corrections for different
mass asymmetries from the superheavy nucleus 122 and Cf all
along the splitting process.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figure
Doubly resonant optical nanoantenna arrays for polarization resolved measurements of surface-enhanced Raman scattering
We report that rhomb-shaped metal nanoantenna arrays support multiple
plasmonic resonances, making them favorable bio-sensing substrates. Besides the
two localized plasmonic dipole modes associated with the two principle axes of
the rhombi, the sample supports an additional grating-induced surface plasmon
polariton resonance. The plasmonic properties of all modes are carefully
studied by far-field measurements together with numerical and analytical
calculations. The sample is then applied to surface-enhanced Raman scattering
measurements. It is shown to be highly efficient since two plasmonic resonances
of the structure were simultaneously tuned to coincide with the excitation and
the emission wave- length in the SERS experiment. The analysis is completed by
measuring the impact of the polarization angle on the SERS signal.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Tertiary Treatment of Wastewater Using Oxidation Ponds
The purpose of the project was to determine the value of using lagoons as a supplemental process for treating the effluent from an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant.
Only tentative conclusions can be suggested since the project was not carried to completion. It appears that lagoons will have only minimal effect on the amounts of total nitrogen and phosphate in the plant effluent, although conversion of a portion of the ammonia to nitrate can be expected. However, the concentration of ammonia was never lower than that required by EPA guidelines. Some reduction of soluble BOD appears to occur, perhaps through conversion to new cell material. Suspended solids concentrations can be expected to increase during periods of algae growth.
The numbers of both fecal and total coliform bacteria decreased substantially during the detention period provided by the lagoon system. Although not confirmed, it was concluded that the most probable cause for the decrease was the intensity and duration of sunlight.
The lagoon served very effectively as a buffer between the treatment plant and the receiving stream, providing a considerable measure of protection to the stream even during those periods during which the plant was by-passing a portion of the inflow
Deep Eyes: Binocular Depth-from-Focus on Focal Stack Pairs
Human visual system relies on both binocular stereo cues and monocular
focusness cues to gain effective 3D perception. In computer vision, the two
problems are traditionally solved in separate tracks. In this paper, we present
a unified learning-based technique that simultaneously uses both types of cues
for depth inference. Specifically, we use a pair of focal stacks as input to
emulate human perception. We first construct a comprehensive focal stack
training dataset synthesized by depth-guided light field rendering. We then
construct three individual networks: a Focus-Net to extract depth from a single
focal stack, a EDoF-Net to obtain the extended depth of field (EDoF) image from
the focal stack, and a Stereo-Net to conduct stereo matching. We show how to
integrate them into a unified BDfF-Net to obtain high-quality depth maps.
Comprehensive experiments show that our approach outperforms the
state-of-the-art in both accuracy and speed and effectively emulates human
vision systems
Toward Open-Closed String Theoretical Description of Rolling Tachyon
We consider how the time-dependent decay process of an unstable D-brane
should be described in the full (quantum) open-closed string theory. It is
argued that the system, starting from the unstable D-brane configuration, will
evolve in time into the time-independent open string tachyon vacuum
configuration which we assume to be finite, with the total energy conserved. As
a concrete realization of this idea, we construct a toy model describing the
open and closed string tachyons which admits such a time-dependent solution.
The structure of our model has some resemblance to that of open-closed string
field theory.Comment: 1+10 pages, 6 figures. v2: a reference adde
Mechanisms of C5a and C3a complement fragment-induced [Ca2+]i signaling in mouse microglia
Microglial cells are activated in response to brain insults; the mechanisms of this process are not yet understood. One of the important signaling mechanisms that might be involved in microglia activation is related to changes in the intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i). Using fluo-3 microfluorimetry, we have found that external application of the complement fragment C5a (4-10 nM) induced [Ca2+]i elevation in microglial cells in situ in corpus callosum slices. Similarly, application of complement fragments C5a (0.1-10.0 nM) or C3a (100 nM) generates biphasic [Ca2+]i transients composed of an initial peak followed by a plateau in cultured microglia. Incubation of microglial cells for 30 min with pertussis toxin (PTX; 1 microgram/ml) inhibited both C5a- and C3a-triggered [Ca2+]i responses, suggesting the involvement of PTX-sensitive G-proteins in the signal transduction chain. Removal of Ca2+ ions from the extracellular solution eliminated the plateau phase and limited the response to the initial peak. The restoration of the extracellular Ca2+ concentration within 30-60 sec after the beginning of the complement fragment-induced [Ca2+]i elevation led to the recovery of the plateau phase. Inhibition of the endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ pumps with 500 nM thapsigargin transiently increased the [Ca2+]i and blocked the [Ca2+]i signals in response to subsequent complement fragment application. Our data suggest that complement factors induce [Ca2+]i responses by Ca2+ release from internal pools and subsequent activation of Ca2+ entry controlled by the filling state of the intracellular Ca2+ depots
Dual equivalence in models with higher-order derivatives
We introduce a class of higher-order derivative models in (2,1) space-time
dimensions. The models are described by a vector field, and contain a
Proca-like mass term which prevents gauge invariance. We use the gauge
embedding procedure to generate another class of higher-order derivative
models, gauge-invariant and dual to the former class. We show that the results
are valid in arbitrary (d,1) space-time dimensions when one discards the
Chern-Simons and Chern-Simons-like terms. We also investigate duality at the
quantum level, and we show that it is preserved in the quantum scenario. Other
results include investigations concerning the gauge embedding approach when the
vector field couples with fermionic matter, and when one adds nonlinearity.Comment: RevTex4, 14 pages; new version includes duality at the quantum level,
and new references. To be published in J. Phys.
Fundamental Strings in Open String Theory at the Tachyonic Vacuum
We show that the world-volume theory on a D-p-brane at the tachyonic vacuum
has solitonic string solutions whose dynamics is governed by the Nambu-Goto
action of a string moving in (25+1) dimensional space-time. This provides
strong evidence for the conjecture that at this vacuum the full (25+1)
dimensional Poincare invariance is restored. We also use this result to argue
that the open string field theory at the tachyonic vacuum must contain closed
string excitations.Comment: LaTeX file, 16 pages, references and clarification adde
On the CSFT approach to localized closed string tachyons
We compute the potential for localized closed string tachyons in bosonic
string theory on the orbifold C/Z_4 using level-truncated closed string field
theory. The critical points of the potential exhibit features which agree with
their conjectured identification as lower-order orbifolds. However this case
also raises some questions regarding the quantitative predictions associated
with these conjectures.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, v2: The relation between the flat space and
orbifold gravitational constants has been corrected. This resolves the puzzle
of multiple predictions, but worsens the agreement between the depth of the
potential and the change in the deficit angl
Noncommutative Solitons and Intersecting D-Branes
We construct intersecting D-branes as noncommutative solitons in bosonic and
type II string theory. ``Defect'' branes which are D-branes containing bubbles
of the closed string vacuum play an important role in the construction.Comment: 17 pages, harvmac; published version with added clarification
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