RESUMO
In this work, the first proof of the principal of an in situ diagnostics of the heavy-ion beam intensity distribution in irradiation of solid targets is proposed. In this scheme, x-ray fluorescence that occurs in the interaction of heavy-ions with target atoms is used for imaging purposes. The x-ray conversion to optical radiation and a transport-system was developed, and its first test was performed in experiments at the Universal Linear Accelerator in Darmstadt, Germany. The Au-beam intensity distribution on thin foils and Cu-mesh targets was imaged using multiple x-ray pinholes (polychromatic imaging) and 2D monochromatic imaging of Cu Kα radiation by using a toroidally bent silicon crystal. The presented results are of importance for application in experiments on the investigation of the equation of states of high energy density matter using high intensity GeV/u heavy-ion beams of ≥1010 particles/100 ns.
RESUMO
In a recent experimental campaign, we used laser-accelerated relativistic hot electrons to ensure heating of thin titanium wire targets up to a warm dense matter (WDM) state [EPL114, 45002 (2016)10.1209/0295-5075/114/45002]. The WDM temperature profiles along several hundred microns of the wire were inferred by using spatially resolved X-ray emission spectroscopy looking at the Ti Kα characteristic lines. A maximum temperature of â¼30â eV was reached. Our study extends this work by discussing the influence of the laser parameters on temperature profiles and the optimisation of WDM wire-based generation. The depth of wire heating may reach several hundreds of microns and it is proven to be strictly dependent on the laser intensity. At the same time, it is quantitatively demonstrated that the maximum WDM temperature doesn't appear to be sensitive to the laser intensity and mainly depends on the deposited laser energy considering ranges of 6×1018-6×1020 W/cm2 and 50-200 J.
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A novel method to determine the total hydrogen density and, accordingly, a precise plasma temperature in a lowly ionized hydrogen plasma is described. The key to the method is to analyze the energy loss of swift heavy ions interacting with the respective bound and free electrons of the plasma. A slowly developing and lowly ionized hydrogen theta-pinch plasma is prepared. A Boltzmann plot of the hydrogen Balmer series and the Stark broadening of the H_{ß} line preliminarily defines the plasma with a free electron density of (1.9±0.1)×10^{16} cm^{-3} and a free electron temperature of 0.8-1.3 eV. The temperature uncertainty results in a wide hydrogen density, ranging from 2.3×10^{16} to 7.8×10^{18} cm^{-3}. A 108 MHz pulsed beam of ^{48}Ca^{10+} with a velocity of 3.652 MeV/u is used as a probe to measure the total energy loss of the beam ions. Subtracting the calculated energy loss due to free electrons, the energy loss due to bound electrons is obtained, which linearly depends on the bound electron density. The total hydrogen density is thus determined as (1.9±0.7)×10^{17} cm^{-3}, and the free electron temperature can be precisely derived as 1.01±0.04 eV. This method should prove useful in many studies, e.g., inertial confinement fusion or warm dense matter.
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The habitat of the critically endangered Devils Hole Pupfish, Cyprinodon diabolis is marked by constant high temperatures and low oxygen availability. In order to explore the effects of these conditions on development and recruitment of eggs in Devils Hole, we tested the effects of two ecologically relevant temperatures on the development, hatch success, and oxygen consumption of eggs from a refuge population of pupfish derived from C. diabolis and eggs from its close sister species, Cyprinodon nevadensis mionectes. We developed a simple method to measure oxygen consumption in a single egg. Parent acclimation temperature, rather than incubation temperature, was the most important factor influencing hatch success. Eggs incubated at 33°C hatched more quickly compared to those incubated at 28°C. Despite this accelerated development, larvae from both temperatures were of similar size at hatch. Unexpectedly, eggs incubated at 33°C experience lower than expected oxygen consumption rates compared to those incubated at 28°C. Oxygen consumption rates would be limited at PO2 values that are much higher than environmental oxygen tensions. Oxygen consumption increased dramatically upon hatch, indicating that low oxygen conditions such as those present in Devils Hole may limit developing eggs.
Assuntos
Meio Ambiente , Peixes Listrados/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Óvulo/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Consumo de Oxigênio , Temperatura , Aclimatação , Animais , Espécies em Perigo de Extinção , Peixes Listrados/metabolismo , Óvulo/metabolismoRESUMO
The CERN Axion Solar Telescope has finished its search for solar axions with (3)He buffer gas, covering the search range 0.64 eV â² ma â² 1.17 eV. This closes the gap to the cosmological hot dark matter limit and actually overlaps with it. From the absence of excess x rays when the magnet was pointing to the Sun we set a typical upper limit on the axion-photon coupling of gaγ â² 3.3 × 10(-10) GeV(-1) at 95% C.L., with the exact value depending on the pressure setting. Future direct solar axion searches will focus on increasing the sensitivity to smaller values of gaγ, for example by the currently discussed next generation helioscope International AXion Observatory.
RESUMO
Mucor miehei lipase (Mm-L) covalently bind on a hexagonally ordered silica SBA-15 (Santa Barbara Amorphous), previously functionalized with isocyanate moieties, was examined as biocatalyst for transesterification of colza oil with methanol. The isocyanate-mesoporous silica (NCO-SBA-15) was obtained by condensation of silanol with triethoxysilane propyl isocyanate (TPI). The efficiency of the functionalization has been evidenced by infrared, (29)Si and (13)C NMR spectroscopies. The substrate provided a moderate hydrophobic microenvironment together with reactive sites for chemical immobilization of the enzyme. The biocatalyst containing 0.28 g of Mm-L per gram of support afforded a high level of transesterification activity (yield up to 80%) while using 1:1 molar ratio of methanol/colza oil and small amount of water. The biocatalyst showed higher operational stability than the corresponding physisorbed enzyme since it can be reused 6 times against 2 consecutive runs for the physisorbed enzyme.
Assuntos
Enzimas Imobilizadas/metabolismo , Lipase/metabolismo , Adsorção , Enzimas Imobilizadas/química , Esterificação , Isocianatos , Lipase/química , Espectroscopia de Ressonância Magnética , Mucor/enzimologia , Espalhamento a Baixo Ângulo , Dióxido de Silício , Espectroscopia de Infravermelho com Transformada de Fourier , Propriedades de Superfície , Difração de Raios XRESUMO
The CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) has extended its search for solar axions by using (3)He as a buffer gas. At T=1.8 K this allows for larger pressure settings and hence sensitivity to higher axion masses than our previous measurements with (4)He. With about 1 h of data taking at each of 252 different pressure settings we have scanned the axion mass range 0.39 eVâ²m(a)â²0.64 eV. From the absence of excess x rays when the magnet was pointing to the Sun we set a typical upper limit on the axion-photon coupling of g(aγ)â²2.3×10(-10) GeV(-1) at 95% C.L., the exact value depending on the pressure setting. Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov axions are excluded at the upper end of our mass range, the first time ever for any solar axion search. In the future we will extend our search to m(a)â²1.15 eV, comfortably overlapping with cosmological hot dark matter bounds.
RESUMO
In this paper, the design, construction, and test procedure of a closing switch prototype based on thyristors is described. In particular, details are given about the design criteria and about the triggering board architecture, which is a high side biased, self supplied unit using the electrical energy derived from a local snubber network for the gate drive. The structure guarantees a hard firing gate pulse for the required high dI/dt application. Further, the results of the prototype tests are presented and discussed. The stack assembly has a holding voltage of 6.5 kV and is used for switching a series resonant circuit with a ringing frequency of 12 kHz for a pulsed inductive vacuum ultraviolet source. Maximum current amplitudes of 13 kA and pulse energies of more than 600 J were switched during the test procedure.
RESUMO
A thyristor stack for pulsed inductive plasma generation has been developed and tested. The stack design includes a free wheeling diode assembly for current reversal. Triggering of the device is achieved by a high side biased, self supplied gate driver unit using gating energy derived from a local snubber network. The structure guarantees a hard firing gate pulse for the required high dI/dt application. A single fiber optic command is needed to achieve a simultaneous turn on of the thyristors. The stack assembly is used for switching a series resonant circuit with a ringing frequency of 30 kHz. In the prototype pulsed power system described here an inductive discharge has been generated with a pulse duration of 120 micros and a pulse energy of 50 J. A maximum power transfer efficiency of 84% and a peak power of 480 kW inside the discharge were achieved. System tests were performed with a purely inductive load and an inductively generated plasma acting as a load through transformer action at a voltage level of 4.1 kV, a peak current of 5 kA, and a current switching rate of 1 kA/micros.
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Modified gum acacia, produced from acacia gum by a process analogous to the production of modified food starch, was tested for mutagenicity in the microbial reverse mutation assay. The assay employed a wide range of dose levels, both with and without metabolic activation. Test results gave no indication that modified gum acacia possessed any mutagenic potential. The acute oral toxicity of modified gum acacia was determined in two studies employing Sprague-Dawley rats, and the LD50 values were found to be >2000 mg/kg. The primary dermal irritation potential of modified gum acacia was evaluated in rabbits by the Draize method. Test results indicated that modified gum acacia was slightly irritating by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classification but not a primary irritant by Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) guidelines. The subchronic toxicity of modified gum acacia was examined in Sprague-Dawley rats fed diets containing 0%, 1%, 2.5%, and 5% modified gum acacia for 13 weeks. No dose-related effects on survival, growth, hematology, blood chemistry, organ weights, or pathologic lesions were observed. Results of these studies indicate that modified gum acacia does not possess mutagenic potential and that animals are not adversely affected by acute or subchronic exposure to modified gum acacia.
Assuntos
Goma Arábica/toxicidade , Animais , Peso Corporal/efeitos dos fármacos , Comportamento Alimentar/efeitos dos fármacos , Feminino , Irritantes/toxicidade , Masculino , Testes de Mutagenicidade , Coelhos , Ratos , Ratos Sprague-Dawley , Pele/efeitos dos fármacosRESUMO
High-energy heavy ions are an ideal tool to generate homogeneously excited, extended volumes of nonthermal plasmas. Here, the high-energy loss (dE/dx) and absolute power deposition of heavy ions interacting with matter has been used to pump an ultraviolet laser. A pulsed 70 MeV/u 238U beam with up to 2.5 x 10(9) particles in approximately 100 ns beam bunches was stopped in a 1.2 m long laser cell filled with a 1.6 bar Ar-Kr-F2 mixture (typically 50%:49.9%:0.1%). Laser effect on the 248 nm KrF* excimer transition is clearly demonstrated.
RESUMO
Hypothetical axionlike particles with a two-photon interaction would be produced in the sun by the Primakoff process. In a laboratory magnetic field ("axion helioscope"), they would be transformed into x-rays with energies of a few keV. Using a decommissioned Large Hadron Collider test magnet, the CERN Axion Solar Telescope ran for about 6 months during 2003. The first results from the analysis of these data are presented here. No signal above background was observed, implying an upper limit to the axion-photon coupling g(agamma)<1.16x10(-10) GeV-1 at 95% C.L. for m(a) less, similar 0.02 eV. This limit, assumption-free, is comparable to the limit from stellar energy-loss arguments and considerably more restrictive than any previous experiment over a broad range of axion masses.
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The insecticidal Cry toxins produced by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis are comprised of three structural domains. Domain I, a seven-helix bundle, is thought to penetrate the insect epithelial cell plasma membrane through a hairpin composed of alpha-helices 4 and 5, followed by the oligomerization of four hairpin monomers. The alpha-helix 4 has been proposed to line the lumen of the pore, whereas some residues in alpha-helix 5 have been shown to be responsible for oligomerization. Mutation of the Cry1Ac1 alpha-helix 4 amino acid Asn135 to Gln resulted in the loss of toxicity to Manduca sexta, yet binding was still observed. In this study, the equivalent mutation was made in the Cry1Ab5 toxin, and the properties of both wild-type and mutant toxin counterparts were analyzed. Both mutants appeared to bind to M. sexta membrane vesicles, but they were not able to form pores. The ability of both N135Q mutants to oligomerize was also disrupted, providing the first evidence that a residue in alpha-helix 4 can contribute to toxin oligomerization.
Assuntos
Bacillus thuringiensis/metabolismo , Toxinas Bacterianas/química , Toxinas Bacterianas/metabolismo , Permeabilidade da Membrana Celular/efeitos dos fármacos , Mutação , Animais , Bacillus thuringiensis/química , Bacillus thuringiensis/genética , Toxinas de Bacillus thuringiensis , Proteínas de Bactérias/química , Proteínas de Bactérias/genética , Proteínas de Bactérias/metabolismo , Proteínas de Bactérias/toxicidade , Toxinas Bacterianas/genética , Toxinas Bacterianas/toxicidade , Membrana Celular/efeitos dos fármacos , Membrana Celular/metabolismo , Endotoxinas/química , Endotoxinas/genética , Endotoxinas/metabolismo , Endotoxinas/toxicidade , Proteínas Hemolisinas , Manduca/efeitos dos fármacosRESUMO
In a screen designed to identify new upstream components of the Pkc1p-MAP kinase signal transduction pathway that responds to cell wall damage in yeast, we identified a new mutant allele of the ROM2 gene, which encodes a GDP/GTP exchange factor that acts on Rho1p. This allele, originally termed ubk1 (upstream of Bck1p) encodes a truncated protein that lacks the putative PH domain. Complementation experiments showed that genes coding for several known components of the pathway are able to suppress the ubk1 mutation to various degrees when introduced on low- or high-copy-number vectors. Analysis of several rom2 mutants showed that mutants in which the PH domain is deleted result in a phenotype indistinguishable from that of a strain deleted for the entire gene, indicating that this domain fulfills an essential function in vivo. Furthermore, we found that the growth phenotype of rom2 mutants is highly dependent on the strain background. Surprisingly, analysis of the phosphorylation status of Mpk1p in these mutants showed an elevated level of doubly phosphorylated Mpk1 protein, indicating that the growth defect of rom2 mutants is not due to an inability to activate the MAP kinase module, but rather to lack of a function of the Rom2 protein that has yet to be identified precisely.
Assuntos
Proteínas de Ligação ao GTP/metabolismo , Saccharomyces cerevisiae/metabolismo , Proteínas rho de Ligação ao GTP/metabolismo , Alelos , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Sequência de Bases , Sítios de Ligação , Cafeína/farmacologia , DNA Fúngico/análise , Proteínas de Ligação ao GTP/genética , Fatores de Troca do Nucleotídeo Guanina , Óperon Lac/fisiologia , Ligantes , Sistema de Sinalização das MAP Quinases , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Mutagênese , Mutação , Osmose , Fenótipo , Fosforilação , Ligação Proteica , Proteína Quinase C/metabolismo , Proteínas de Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Transdução de Sinais , Raios UltravioletaRESUMO
In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the ROM2 gene encodes a GDP/GTP exchange factor for the small G-protein Rho1p, a known activator of protein kinase C. In a screen designed to isolate suppressors of a rom2 mutant allele, we identified a mutant defective in the gene coding for the putative GTPase-activating protein Lrg1p. This protein was previously suggested to be involved in sporulation and mating. Here we provide evidence for its role in Pkc1p-mediated signal transduction based on the following results. (1) Deletion of LRG1 suppresses the growth phenotypes associated with mutations in SLG1 (which codes for a putative sensor of cell wall damage). (2) Using two-hybrid assays an interaction between the GAP domain of Lrg1p and Rho1p was demonstrated. (3) The lrg1 mutant shows enhanced activity of the Pkc1p pathway. (4) Overexpression of LRG1 leads to a cell lysis defect that can be suppressed by the addition of osmotic stabilizers. Phenotypic comparison of lrg1 mutants with mutants defective in other GTPase-activating proteins (Sac7p, Bem2p, Bag7p) presumed to act on Rho1p revealed that deletion of SAC7, but not BEM2 or BAG7, suppresses the phenotype of rom2 mutants. Pairwise combination of mutations in all these genes showed that the simultaneous deletion of SAC7 and LRG1 is synthetically lethal. We therefore suggest that Lrg1p acts as a negative regulator of the Pkc1p pathway in conjunction with its known homologue Sac7p.
Assuntos
Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/metabolismo , Proteínas de Drosophila , Proteínas Fúngicas/metabolismo , Proteínas Ativadoras de GTPase/metabolismo , Proteína Quinase C , Proteínas Tirosina Fosfatases , Proteínas de Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Saccharomyces cerevisiae/metabolismo , Sequência de Bases , Proteínas de Ciclo Celular , Elementos de DNA Transponíveis , Regulação Fúngica da Expressão Gênica , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Mutagênese , Mutação , Fenótipo , Fosfoproteínas Fosfatases/metabolismo , Fosforilação , Plasmídeos , Técnicas do Sistema de Duplo-HíbridoRESUMO
Employing a two-dimensional simulation model, this paper presents a suitable design for an experiment to study metallization of hydrogen in a heavy-ion beam imploded multilayered cylindrical target that contains a layer of frozen hydrogen. Such an experiment will be carried out at the upgraded heavy-ion synchrotron facility (SIS-18) at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt by the end of the year 2001. In these calculations we consider a uranium beam that will be available at the upgraded SIS-18. Our calculations show that it may be possible to achieve theoretically predicted physical conditions necessary to create metallic hydrogen in such experiments. These include a density of about 1 g/cm(3), a pressure of 3-5 Mbar, and a temperature of a few 0.1 eV.
Assuntos
Arte , Doença , Medicina Tradicional , Religião e Medicina , Arte/história , Doença/economia , Doença/etnologia , Doença/história , Doença/psicologia , Alemanha/etnologia , História do Século XV , História do Século XVI , Comportamento de Doença/fisiologia , Medicina Tradicional/história , Pinturas/educação , Pinturas/história , Pinturas/psicologia , Religião/história , Infecções Sexualmente Transmissíveis/etnologia , Infecções Sexualmente Transmissíveis/história , Infecções Sexualmente Transmissíveis/psicologiaRESUMO
A specifically tailored plasma lens could shape a high-energy, heavy-ion beam into the form of a hollow cylinder without loss of beam intensity. It has been experimentally confirmed that both a positive as well as a negative radial gradient of the current density in the active plasma lens can be the underlying principle. Calculations were performed that yield the ideal current density distribution for both cases. A numerical simulation of an experiment with an intense ion beam highlights that the shaping of the beam increases the achievable compression in a lead sample.