A manipulator arm for zero-g simulations

A 12-ft counterbalanced Slave Manipulator Arm (SMA) was designed and fabricated to be used for resolving the questions of operational applications, capabilities, and limitations for such remote manned systems as the Payload Deployment and Retrieval Mechanism (PDRM) for the shuttle, the Free-Flying Teleoperator System, the Advanced Space Tug, and Planetary Rovers. As a developmental tool for the shuttle manipulator system (or PDRM), the SMA represents an approximate one-quarter scale working model for simulating and demonstrating payload handling, docking assistance, and satellite servicing. For the Free-Flying Teleoperator System and the Advanced Tug, the SMA provides a near full-scale developmental tool for satellite servicing, docking, and deployment/retrieval procedures, techniques, and support equipment requirements. For the Planetary Rovers, it provides an oversize developmental tool for sample handling and soil mechanics investigations. The design of the SMA was based on concepts developed for a 40-ft NASA technology arm to be used for zero-g shuttle manipulator simulations

Construction of nonlocal light-cone operators with definite twist

A systematic procedure is introduced to uniquely decompose nonlocal LC-operators into harmonic operators of well defined geometric twist. The method will be demonstrated for (pseudo)scalar, (axial) vector and skew tensor bilocal quark light-ray operatorsComment: 4 pages, AMSTeX, Contribution to 7th Int. Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scatterin and QCD, Zeuthen, April 1999 change of formulas 25 and 2

Optimum Drift Velocity for Single Molecule Fluorescence Bursts in Micro/Nano-Fluidic Channels

Photonic burst histograms can be used to identify single protein molecules in micro/nano-fluidic channels provided the width of the histogram is narrow. Photonic shot noise and residence time fluctuations, caused by longitudinal diffusion, are the major sources of the histogram width. This Communication is a sequel to an earlier Letter of ours [L. L. Kish et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 143121 (2011)] and demonstrates that, for a given diffusion coefficient, an increase of the drift velocity enhances the relative shot noise and decreases the relative residence time fluctuations. This leads to an optimum drift velocity which minimizes the histogram width and maximizes the ability to identify single molecules, which is an important result for applications.Comment: 4 page

Electromagnetic cyclotron instabilities in bi-Kappa distributed plasmas : a quasilinear approach

Anisotropic bi-Kappa distributed plasmas, as encountered in the solar wind and planetary magnetospheres,are susceptible to a variety of kinetic instabilities including the cyclotron instabilities driven by an excess ofperpendicular temperature T⊥ > T∥ (where ∥, ⊥ denote directions relative to the mean magnetic field). Theseinstabilities have been extensively investigated in the past, mainly limiting to a linear stability analysis. Abouttheir quasilinear (weakly nonlinear) development some insights have been revealed by numerical simulationsusing PIC and Vlasov solvers. This paper presents a self-consistent analytical approach, which provides forboth the electron and proton cyclotron instabilities an extended picture of the quasilinear time evolution ofthe anisotropic temperatures as well as the wave energy densities

Parton distribution functions from nonlocal light-cone operators with definite twist

We introduce the chiral-even and chiral-odd quark distributions as forward matrix elements of related bilocal quark operators with well-defined (geometric) twist. Thereby, we achieve a Lorentz invariant classification of these distributions which differ from the conventional ones by explicitly taking into account the necessary trace terms. The relations between both kinds of distribution functions are given and the mismatch between their different definition of twist is discussed. Wandzura-Wilczek--like relations between the conventional distributions (based on dynamical twist) are derived by means of geometric twist distribution functions.Comment: 17 pages, REVTEX, Extended version, The Introduction has been rewritten, Setion V "Wandzura-Wilczek--like relations" and App. B are added; Sign errors are correcte

Intrinsic protein disorder in histone lysine methylation

Histone lysine methyltransferases (HKMTs), catalyze mono-, di- and trimethylation of lysine residues, resulting in a regulatory pattern that controls gene expression. Their involvement in many different cellular processes and diseases makes HKMTs an intensively studied protein group, but scientific interest so far has been concentrated mostly on their catalytic domains. In this work we set out to analyze the structural heterogeneity of human HKMTs and found that many contain long intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) that are conserved through vertebrate species. Our predictions show that these IDRs contain several linear motifs and conserved putative binding sites that harbor cancer-related SNPs. Although there are only limited data available in the literature, some of the predicted binding regions overlap with interacting segments identified experimentally. The importance of a disordered binding site is illustrated through the example of the ternary complex between MLL1, menin and LEDGF/p75. Our suggestion is that intrinsic protein disorder plays an as yet unrecognized role in epigenetic regulation, which needs to be further elucidated through structural and functional studies aimed specifically at the disordered regions of HKMTs. Reviewers: This article was reviewed by Arne Elofsson and Piotr Zielenkiewicz. © 2016 The Author(s)

Investigation of 6TSWCNT by Cs-Corrected Transmission Electron Microscopy

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2009 in Richmond, Virginia, USA, July 26 - July 30, 200

Nitrogen and phosphorus limitation of oceanic microbial growth during spring in the Gulf of Aqaba

Bioassay experiments were performed to identify how growth of key groups within the microbial community was simultaneously limited by nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) availability during spring in the Gulf of Aqaba's oceanic waters. Measurements of chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration and fast repetition rate (FRR) fluorescence generally demonstrated that growth of obligate phototrophic phytoplankton was co-limited by N and P and growth of facultative aerobic anoxygenic photoheterotropic (AAP) bacteria was limited by N. Phytoplankton exhibited an increase in chl a biomass over 24 to 48 h upon relief of nutrient limitation. This response coincided with an increase in photosystem II (PSII) photochemical efficiency (F v /F m), but was preceded (within 24 h) by a decrease in effective absorption crosssection (σPSII) and electron turnover time (τ). A similar response for τ and bacterio-chl a was observed for the AAPs. Consistent with the up-regulation of PSII activity with FRR fluorescence were observations of newly synthesized PSII reaction centers via low temperature (77K) fluorescence spectroscopy for addition of N (and N + P). Flow cytometry revealed that the chl a and thus FRR fluorescence responses were partly driven by the picophytoplankton (æ10 μm) community, and in particular Synechococcus. Productivity of obligate heterotrophic bacteria exhibited the greatest increase in response to a natural (deep water) treatment, but only a small increase in response to N and P addition, demonstrating the importance of additional substrates (most likely dissolved organic carbon) in moderating the heterotrophs. These data support previous observations that the microbial community response (autotrophy relative to heterotrophy) is critically dependent upon the nature of transient nutrient enrichment. © Inter-Research 2009