Techniques for high power microwave sources at high average power

Experiments on CLIA (compact linear induction accelerator), capable of generating 750 kV and 10 kA into a matched load using magnetic switching to produce 60 ns long pulses, are described. As a first application, the authors used CLIA to drive a water-cooled L-band magnetron at repetition rates as high as 250 Hz with no breakdown or pulse shortening. This gives an average power of 6.3 kW. A short burst at 1 kHz demonstrates operation that would translate to an average power of approximately 25 kW. In this regime operation is not limited by gas build-up, electrode erosion or microwhisker depletion. Currently, the authors are operating on CLIA with a high current relativistic klystron. Beams with modulated current powers of approximately 1 GW have been generated at 100 Hz for bursts as long as 5000 pulses. It is concluded that there are no apparent obstacles to much higher average powers at higher peak powers     

Proliferative reactive gliosis is compatible with glial metabolic support and neuronal function

Background

Trail-making tests, such as the Concept Shifting Task (CST), can be used to test the effects of treatment on cognitive performance over time in various neuropsychological disorders. However, cognitive performance in such experimental designs might improve as a result of the practice obtained during repeated testing rather than the treatment itself. The current study investigated if practice affects the accuracy and duration of performance on the repeatedly administered Concept Shifting Task modified to make it resistant to practice (mCST). The mCST was administered to 54 healthy participants twice a day, before and after a short break, for eight days. Results. The ANOVA and meta-analysis showed that there was no improvement in the mCST accuracy on the last vs. the first trial (Hedges' g = .14, p = .221) or within the session (after vs. before the break on all days; g = .01, p = .922). However, the participants performed the task faster on the last vs. the first trial (g = -.75, p < .001) and after vs. before the break on all days (g = -.12, p = .002). Conclusions. Repeated administration of the mCST does not affect the accuracy of performance on the test. However, practice might contribute to faster performance on the mCST over time and within each session.     

On the interpretation of fluorescence anisotropy decays from probe molecules in lipid vesicle systems

Measurements of fluorescence depolarization decays are widely used to obtain information about the molecular order and rotational dynamics of fluorescent probe molecules in membrane systems. This information is obtained by least-squares fits of the experimental data to the predictions of physical models for motion. Here we present a critical review of the ways and means of the data analysis and address the question how and why totally different models such as Brownian rotational diffusion and wobble-in-cone provide such convincing fits to the fluorescence anistropy decay curves. We show that while these models are useful for investigating the general trends in the behavior of the probe molecules, they fail to describe the underlying motional processes. We propose to remedy this situation with a model in which the probe molecules undergo fast, though restricted local motions within a slowly rotating cage in the lipid bilayer structure. The cage may be envisaged as a free volume cavity between the lipid molecules, so that its position and orientation change with the internal conformational motions of the lipid chains. This approach may be considered to be a synthesis of the wobble-in-cone and Brownian rotational diffusion models. Importantly, this compound motion model appears to provide a consistent picture of fluorescent probe behavior in both oriented lipid bilayers and lipid vesicle systems.     

Growth Rates and Explosions in Sandpiles

We study the abelian sandpile growth model, where n particles are added at the origin on a stable background configuration in ? ^d . Any site with at least 2d particles then topples by sending one particle to each neighbor. We find that with constant background height h≤2d?2, the diameter of the set of sites that topple has order n ^1/d . This was previously known only for h<d. Our proof uses a strong form of the least action principle for sandpiles, and a novel method of background modification. We can extend this diameter bound to certain backgrounds in which an arbitrarily high fraction of sites have height 2d?1. On the other hand, we show that if the background height 2d?2 is augmented by 1 at an arbitrarily small fraction of sites chosen independently at random, then adding finitely many particles creates an explosion (a sandpile that never stabilizes).     

Stress response function of a granular layer: Quantitative comparison between experiments and isotropic elasticity

We measured the vertical pressure response function of a layer of sand submitted to a localized normal force at its surface. We found that this response profile depends on the way the layer has been prepared: all profiles show a single centered peak whose width scales with the thickness of the layer, but a dense packing gives a wider peak than a loose one. We calculate the prediction of isotropic elastic theory in the presence of a bottom boundary and compare it to the data. We found that the theory gives the right scaling and the correct qualitative shape, but fails to really fit the data. Received 3 August 2001     

Whose Entropy: A Maximal Entropy Analysis of Phosphorylation Signaling

High throughput experiments, characteristic of studies in systems biology, produce large output data sets often at different time points or under a variety of related conditions or for different patients. In several recent papers the data is modeled by using a distribution of maximal information-theoretic entropy. We pose the question: ‘whose entropy’ meaning how do we select the variables whose distribution should be compared to that of maximal entropy. The point is that different choices can lead to different answers. Due to the technological advances that allow for the system-wide measurement of hundreds to thousands of events from biological samples, addressing this question is now part of the analysis of systems biology datasets. The analysis of the extent of phosphorylation in reference to the transformation potency of Bcr-Abl fusion oncogene mutants is used as a biological example. The approach taken seeks to use entropy not simply as a statistical measure of dispersion but as a physical, thermodynamic, state function. This highlights the dilemma of what are the variables that describe the state of the signaling network. Is what matters Boolean, spin-like, variables that specify whether a particular phosphorylation site is or is not actually phosphorylated. Or does the actual extent of phosphorylation matter. Last but not least is the possibility that in a signaling network some few specific phosphorylation sites are the key to the signal transduction even though these sites are not at any time abundantly phosphorylated in an absolute sense.