Fission fragment angular distributions in 16O+181Ta

Time of flight and energy of fission fragments were measured using pulsed beam. Fission fragment mass and energy integrated angular distributions were extracted. Fission fragment anisotropy was explained in the framework of saddle point model.     

Delocalized 2-magnons eigenstates in long-range correlated random Heisenberg chains

We consider the one-dimensional quantum disordered Heisenberg ferromagnetic chain model with long-range correlated exchange couplings and study the nature of collective two-spin excitations. By using an exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian in the two-spin flip subspace, we compute the spin wave participation number to characterize the localized or delocalized nature of the two-magnon states. For strongly correlated random exchange couplings, extended two-spin excitations with finite energy appear. Integrating the time-dependent Schroedinger equation, we follow the time-evolution of an initially localized two-spin state. We find that, associated with the emergence of extended spin waves, the wave-packet mean-square displacement develops a ballistic spread. Further, the single-spin wave-packet acquires an asymmetric profile due to the kinematic interaction between the excited spins.     

Universal non-monotonic smectic fluctuations of liquid crystal films in a magnetic field

Free-standing liquid crystal films with positive diamagnetic susceptibility can have the smectic ordering enhanced by an external field applied perpendicular to the plane layers. Within a quadratic functional integral approach, we investigate the interplay between the smectic order induced by an external field H and that due to the surface tension γ between the film and the surrounding gas. We find that the average smectic fluctuation is a non-monotonic function of film thickness, with a characteristic thickness scale ξ _H delimiting the predominance of surface tension and magnetic field effects. This characteristic thickness obeys simple asymptotic power-law relations as a function of the ordering terms which allows us to represent the average smectic fluctuations in a universal scaling form. Received 7 January 2003 Published online 1st April 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: marcelo@ising.fis.ufal.br     

Phase coexistence induced by a defensive reaction in a cellular automaton traffic flow model

Traffic flow modeling is an elusive example for the emergence of complexity in dynamical systems of interacting objects. In this work, we introduce an extension of the Nagel-Schreckenberg (NaSch) model of vehicle traffic flow that takes into account a defensive driver’s reaction. Such a mechanism acts as an additional nearest-neighbor coupling. The defensive reaction dynamical rule consists in reducing the driver’s velocity in response to deceleration of the vehicle immediately in front of it whenever the distance is smaller than a security minimum. This new mechanism, when associated with the random deceleration rule due to fluctuations, considerably reduces the mean velocity by adjusting the distance between the vehicles. It also produces the emergence of bottlenecks along the road on which the velocity is much lower than the road mean velocity. Besides the two standard phases of the NaSch model corresponding to the free flow and jammed flow, the present model also exhibits an intermediate phase on which these two flow regimes coexist, as it indeed occurs in real traffics. These findings are consistent with empirical results as well as with the general three-phase traffic theory.     

Onset of power-law scaling behavior in idiotypic random and scale-free networks

We numerically study the dynamics of model immune networks with random and scale-free topologies. We observe that a memory state is reached when the antigen is attached to the most connected sites of the network, whereas a percolation state may occur when the antigen attaches to the less connected sites. For increasing values of the connectivity of the antibody directly binded to the antigen, its population converges exponentially to the asymptotic value of the memory state. On the other hand, the next-nearest populations evolve slowly as power-laws towards the virgin-like state.     

Chemical screens against a reconstituted multiprotein complex: myricetin blocks DnaJ regulation of DnaK through an allosteric mechanism

DnaK is a molecular chaperone responsible for multiple aspects of bacterial proteostasis. The intrinsically slow ATPase activity of DnaK is stimulated by its co-chaperone, DnaJ, and these proteins often work in concert. To identify inhibitors we screened plant-derived extracts against a reconstituted mixture of DnaK and DnaJ. This approach resulted in the identification of flavonoids, including myricetin, which inhibited activity by up to 75%. Interestingly, myricetin prevented DnaJ-mediated stimulation of ATPase activity, with minimal impact on either DnaK's intrinsic turnover rate or its stimulation by another co-chaperone, GrpE. Using NMR, we found that myricetin binds DnaK at an unanticipated site between the IB and IIB subdomains and that it allosterically blocked binding of DnaK to DnaJ. Together, these results highlight a "gray box" screening approach, which might facilitate the identification of inhibitors of other protein-protein interactions.     

A digital image-based method for determining of total acidity in red wines using acid-base titration without indicator

This work proposes the use of digital image-based method for determination of total acidity in red wines by means of acid-base titration without using an external indicator or any pre-treatment of the sample. Digital images present the colour of the emergent radiation which is complementary to the radiation absorbed by anthocyanines present in wines. Anthocyanines change colour depending on the pH of the medium, and from the variation of colour in the images obtained during titration, the end point can be localized with accuracy and precision. RGB-based values were employed to build titration curves, and end points were localized by second derivative curves. The official method recommends potentiometric titration with a NaOH standard solution, and sample dilution until the pH reaches 8.2-8.4. In order to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method, titrations of ten red wines were carried out. Results were compared with the reference method, and no statistically significant difference was observed between the results by applying the paired t-test at the 95% confidence level. The proposed method yielded more precise results than the official method. This is due to the trivariate nature of the measurements (RGB), associated with digital images.