Peripheral thresholds and Regge asymptotic expansions

Multiperipheral models are used to show how the Regge expansion, while lacking threshold branch points, may nevertheless approximate the localized physical effects of “peripheral” thresholds. Examples are given to demonstrate that a single pair of complex poles is capable of representing even the lowest inelastic thresholds in both total and single-particle inclusive cross sections. The Regge mechanism that allows the position of a threshold to depend sensibly on the masses of incoming and outgoing particles is elucidated.     

A study of 3He capture in light nuclei

Excitation functions at θ = 90° have been measured for ${}^{16}\text{O}\text{(}{}^3\text{He}\text{, γ}{}_{\mathrm{0?2,\; 3?5,\; 6}}\text{)}{}^{19}\text{Ne}$, ${}^{15}\text{N}\text{(}{}^3\text{He}\text{, γ}{}_{\mathrm{0,\; 1?4}}\text{)}{}^{18}\text{F}\text{,}{}^{14}\text{N}\text{(}{}^3\text{He}\text{, γ}{}_{\mathrm{0,\; 1,2,3}}\text{)}{}^{17}\text{F}$, and ${}^{20}\text{Ne}\text{(}{}^3\text{He}\text{, γ}{}_{\mathrm{0\; +\; 1}}\text{)}{}^{23}\text{Mg}$, in the range E_{3He = 3–19 MeV}. The first reaction has also been studied at θ = 40°. Excitation functions at 90° have also been measured for and ${}^4\text{He}\text{(}{}^3\text{He}\text{, γ}{}_{\mathrm{0\; +\; 1}}\text{)}{}^7\text{Be}$ for E_3He = 19–26 MeV. Angular distributions have been measured for the first four reactions.For the most excitation functions, a broad peak is observed, several MeV wide, centred at about E_x≈ 20 MeV. Superimposed on this, in some cases, are narrower peaks, with width ≈ 1 MeV. Energies and widths have been extracted for all resonances.Cluster-model calculations have been carried out, using methods similar to those which have proved successful for low-lying states in A= 18–19 nuclei. No satisfactory correspondence with the present results was found. The shell model has been used to calculate Γ_3He and Γ_γ for 1?ω excitations in the final nuclei. These generally show good agreement with the trends of the experimental data. The results are consistent with the excitation of the giant dipole resonance in ³He capture, but much more weakly than in proton capture.     

Utilization of spectral vector properties in multivariate chemometrics analysis of hyperspectral infrared imaging data for cellular studies

A suite of numerical techniques was utilized in a concerted fashion for the efficacious multivariate chemometrics analysis of hyperspectral infrared imaging data of exfoliated oral mucosa cells. Based on the vector representation of infrared spectrum a1xnu), spectral vector properties (SVP) are demonstrated to possess underpinning spectral information that was exploited in crucial chemometrics analyses; which include outlier spectra identification, selection for a subset of imaged mid-infrared spectra that contain good oral mucosa cell signals, and, for the first time, obtain major biochemical constituent spectra via the band-target entropy minimization (BTEM) curve resolution algorithm. The relative concentration spatial distribution of the major biochemical constituents observed, namely membrane lipids and various cellular protein structures (alpha-helix, beta-sheet, turns and bends), were subsequently acquired through multi-linear regression and were displayed as chemical contour maps. Amongst the set of numerical algorithms employed, two novel unsupervised clustering algorithms were developed and tested. One is useful for outlier spectra detection, and the other aids the selection of pertinent spatially distributed spectra that possess oral mucosa cell mid-infrared spectra with good signal-to-noise ratio. It is anticipated that this developed numerical suite will serve as an effective multivariate chemometrics protocol for cellular studies and biomedical diagnostics via infrared imaging.     

A Designed Inhibitor of a CLC Antiporter Blocks Function through a Unique Binding Mode

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Highlights? OADS is a known small-molecule inhibitor of a CLC antiporter ? OADS specifically inhibits the ClC-ec1 antiporter but not the ClC-1 channel ? Photoaffinity labeling and mass spectrometry have localized OADS binding to two discrete sites ? The unique binding mode and lipid dependence of OADS suggest potential mechanisms of action     

Biomimicking polysaccharide nanofibers promote vascular phenotypes: a potential application for vascular tissue engineering

The potential of electrospun pullulan/dextran (P/D) nanofibers (average diameter = 323 nm) for vascular tissue engineering applications is explored. The mechanical properties of the nanofibers are of the same order of magnitude as that of human arteries (Young's modulus ≈0.88 MPa; tensile strength ≈0.35 MPa). It is demonstrated that the nanofiber topography enables cell adhesion and that the endothelial phenotype is maintained on the nanofibers. Moreover, P/D nanofibers support a stable confluent monolayer of endothelial cells over 14 d. SMCs seeded on nanofibers display similar levels of alpha smooth muscle actin and a lower proliferation rate than cells on 2D cultures. The observations suggest that nanofibers promote a shift to a quiescent contractile phenotype in SMCs.

     

The mechanism of antiparallel <Emphasis Type="Italic">β</Emphasis>-sheet formation based on conditioned self-avoiding walk

By introducing an additional hydrogen bond to hydrogen bond interaction in the force field of the CSAW (Conditioned Self-Avoiding Walk) model, we investigate into the mechanism of antiparallel β-sheet formation based on the folding of a short polyalanine in gas phase. Through our numerical simulation, we detect the possible presence of a transient helix during β-sheet formation, whose presence is shown to have slowed the formation of β-sheets by an order of magnitude. While we observe the mechanisms of nucleation, zipping and induction that drives the formation of a β-sheet, we uncover a new mechanism that involves transient β-turns and short β-sheets during the formation of long β-sheets. Our results have enabled us to provide an overview on the mechanisms of β-sheet formation via two main folding pathways: slow folding through the intermediate state of transient helix, and fast folding from the nucleation of β-turn.     

On near-wall hot-wire measurements

A specially constructed hot-wire probe was used to obtain very near-wall velocity measurements in both a fully developed turbulent channel flow and flat plate boundary layer flow. The near-wall hot-wire probe, having been calibrated in a specially constructed laminar flow calibration rig, was used to measure the mean streamwise velocity profile, distributions of streamwise and spanwise intensities of turbulence and turbulence kinetic energy k in the viscous sublayer and beyond; these distributions compare very favorably with available DNS results obtained for channel flow. While low Reynolds number effects were clearly evident for the channel flow, these effects are much less distinct for the boundary layer flow. By assuming the dissipating range of eddy sizes to be statistically isotropic and the validity of Taylor's hypothesis, the dissipation rate ɛ _iso in the very near-wall viscous sublayer region and beyond was determined for both the channel and boundary layer flows. It was found that if the convective velocity U _c in Taylor's hypothesis was assumed to be equal to the mean velocity Uˉ at the point of measurement, the value of (ɛ⁺ _iso)₁ thus obtained agrees well with that of (ɛ ⁺)_DNS for y ⁺ ≥ 80 for channel flow; this suggests the validity of assuming U _c=Uˉ and local isotropy for large values of y ⁺. However, if U _c was assumed to be 10.6u _τ , the value of (ɛ⁺ _iso)₂ thus obtained was found to compare reasonably well with the distribution of (ɛ⁺ _iso)_DNS for y ⁺≤ 15. Received: 31 May 1999/Accepted: 20 December 1999     

A single-sheet classical surface for electroweak hadronic currents

Recent modifications in the topology of chirality and “color” are incorporated into a representation of electroweak hadron interactions. It is shown that a connected oriented thickened momentum graph, housed in a single sheet of the classical surface, can represent a minimal electroweak hadronic vertex.     

Information‐theoretic chemometric analyses of Raman data for chemical reaction studies

A methodology of multivariate chemometric techniques based on the information‐theoretic approach was applied for elucidating chemical reaction information from a Raman data array R _m×ν that arises from in situ reaction monitoring. This reaction‐induced dynamic dataset R _m×ν can be contaminated by random cosmic ray spikes found in the midst of characteristic spectral variations associated with the disappearance or emergence of Raman active reactants, intermediates and products. Such spurious cosmic spikes were identified and removed using a novel and fast numerical approach based on maximum and minimum spectral entropy principles while preserving the genuine reaction‐induced spectral variations. Subsequently, the band‐target entropy minimization (BTEM) algorithm, a minimum spectral entropy based self‐modeling curve resolution technique, was applied to recover the pure component spectra of Raman active chemical species. Information gain through the chemometric analyses was calculated using information entropies with base 2 logarithm. This sequence of information‐theoretic chemometric analyses (or transinformations) was successfully tested on the reaction spectral data obtained from alcoholysis of acetic anhydride, which contains four Raman active chemical species. It is envisioned that this series of multivariate statistical analyses will be useful in chemical reaction studies and process analytical technology (PAT) applications that utilize in situ Raman spectroscopy to monitor transient dynamic changes in chemical concentrations, and also in Raman microscopy/imaging data containing spatial variations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Lattice Boltzmann Kinetic Model for Microflow and Heat Transfer

In this paper, we propose a lattice Boltzmann BGK model for simulation of micro flows with heat transfer based on kinetic theory and the thermal lattice Boltzmann method (He et al., J. Comp. Phys. 146:282, 1998). The relaxation times are redefined in terms of the Knudsen number and a diffuse scattering boundary condition (DSBC) is adopted to consider the velocity slip and temperature jump at wall boundaries. To check validity and potential of the present model in modelling the micro flows, two two-dimensional micro flows including thermal Couette flow and thermal developing channel flow are simulated and numerical results obtained compare well with previous studies of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), molecular dynamics (MD) approaches and the Maxwell theoretical analysis