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Sample records for relaxed clock model

  1. Simultaneous Buffer-sizing and Wire-sizing for Clock Trees Based on Lagrangian Relaxation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu-Min Lee

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available Delay, power, skew, area and sensitivity are the most important concerns in current clock-tree design. We present in this paper an algorithm for simultaneously optimizing the above objectives by sizing wires and buffers in clock trees. Our algorithm, based on Lagrangian relaxation method, can optimally minimize delay, power and area simultaneously with very low skew and sensitivity. With linear storage overall and linear runtime per iteration, our algorithm is extremely economical, fast and accurate; for example, our algorithm can solve a 6201-wire-segment clock-tree problem using about 1-minute runtime and 1.3-MB memory and still achieve pico-second precision on an IBM RS/6000 workstation.

  2. High Precision Clock Bias Prediction Model in Clock Synchronization System

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    Zan Liu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Time synchronization is a fundamental requirement for many services provided by a distributed system. Clock calibration through the time signal is the usual way to realize the synchronization among the clocks used in the distributed system. The interference to time signal transmission or equipment failures may bring about failure to synchronize the time. To solve this problem, a clock bias prediction module is paralleled in the clock calibration system. And for improving the precision of clock bias prediction, the first-order grey model with one variable (GM(1,1 model is proposed. In the traditional GM(1,1 model, the combination of parameters determined by least squares criterion is not optimal; therefore, the particle swarm optimization (PSO is used to optimize GM(1,1 model. At the same time, in order to avoid PSO getting stuck at local optimization and improve its efficiency, the mechanisms that double subgroups and nonlinear decreasing inertia weight are proposed. In order to test the precision of the improved model, we design clock calibration experiments, where time signal is transferred via radio and wired channel, respectively. The improved model is built on the basis of clock bias acquired in the experiments. The results show that the improved model is superior to other models both in precision and in stability. The precision of improved model increased by 66.4%~76.7%.

  3. A model of guarded recursion with clock synchronisation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bizjak, Aleš; Møgelberg, Rasmus Ejlers

    2015-01-01

    productivity to be captured in types. The calculus uses clocks representing time streams and clock quantifiers which allow limited and controlled elimination of modalities. The calculus has since been extended to dependent types by Møgelberg. Both works give denotational semantics but no rewrite semantics....... In previous versions of this calculus, different clocks represented separate time streams and clock synchronisation was prohibited. In this paper we show that allowing clock synchronisation is safe by constructing a new model of guarded recursion and clocks. This result will greatly simplify the type theory...... by removing freshness restrictions from typing rules, and is a necessary step towards defining rewrite semantics, and ultimately implementing the calculus....

  4. Clock synchronization by remote detection of correlated photon pairs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ho, Caleb; Lamas-Linares, AntIa; Kurtsiefer, Christian [Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 2, 117543 (Singapore)], E-mail: christian.kurtsiefer@gmail.com

    2009-04-15

    In this study, we present an algorithm to detect the time and frequency differences of independent clocks based on observation of time-correlated photon pairs. This enables remote coincidence identification in entanglement-based quantum key distribution schemes without dedicated coincidence hardware, pulsed sources with a timing structure or very stable reference clocks. We discuss the method for typical operating conditions and show that the requirement for reference clock accuracy can be relaxed by about five orders of magnitude in comparison with previous schemes.

  5. MTL-Model Checking of One-Clock Parametric Timed Automata is Undecidable

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    Karin Quaas

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Parametric timed automata extend timed automata (Alur and Dill, 1991 in that they allow the specification of parametric bounds on the clock values. Since their introduction in 1993 by Alur, Henzinger, and Vardi, it is known that the emptiness problem for parametric timed automata with one clock is decidable, whereas it is undecidable if the automaton uses three or more parametric clocks. The problem is open for parametric timed automata with two parametric clocks. Metric temporal logic, MTL for short, is a widely used specification language for real-time systems. MTL-model checking of timed automata is decidable, no matter how many clocks are used in the timed automaton. In this paper, we prove that MTL-model checking for parametric timed automata is undecidable, even if the automaton uses only one clock and one parameter and is deterministic.

  6. A new stochastic model considering satellite clock interpolation errors in precise point positioning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Shengli; Yang, Fanlin; Gao, Wang; Yan, Lizi; Ge, Yulong

    2018-03-01

    Precise clock products are typically interpolated based on the sampling interval of the observational data when they are used for in precise point positioning. However, due to the occurrence of white noise in atomic clocks, a residual component of such noise will inevitable reside within the observations when clock errors are interpolated, and such noise will affect the resolution of the positioning results. In this paper, which is based on a twenty-one-week analysis of the atomic clock noise characteristics of numerous satellites, a new stochastic observation model that considers satellite clock interpolation errors is proposed. First, the systematic error of each satellite in the IGR clock product was extracted using a wavelet de-noising method to obtain the empirical characteristics of atomic clock noise within each clock product. Then, based on those empirical characteristics, a stochastic observation model was structured that considered the satellite clock interpolation errors. Subsequently, the IGR and IGS clock products at different time intervals were used for experimental validation. A verification using 179 stations worldwide from the IGS showed that, compared with the conventional model, the convergence times using the stochastic model proposed in this study were respectively shortened by 4.8% and 4.0% when the IGR and IGS 300-s-interval clock products were used and by 19.1% and 19.4% when the 900-s-interval clock products were used. Furthermore, the disturbances during the initial phase of the calculation were also effectively improved.

  7. Lego clocks: building a clock from parts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brunner, Michael; Simons, Mirre J P; Merrow, Martha

    2008-06-01

    A new finding opens up speculation that the molecular mechanism of circadian clocks in Synechococcus elongatus is composed of multiple oscillator systems (Kitayama and colleagues, this issue, pp. 1513-1521), as has been described in many eukaryotic clock model systems. However, an alternative intepretation is that the pacemaker mechanism-as previously suggested-lies primarily in the rate of ATP hydrolysis by the clock protein KaiC.

  8. A simple electromagnetic model for the light clock of special relativity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, Glenn S

    2011-01-01

    Thought experiments involving a light clock are common in introductory treatments of special relativity, because they provide a simple way of demonstrating the non-intuitive phenomenon of time dilation. The properties of the ray or pulse of light that is continuously reflected between the parallel mirrors of the clock are often stated vaguely and sometimes involve implicitly other relativistic effects, such as aberration. While this approach is adequate for an introduction, it should be supplemented by a more accurate analysis of the light clock once the formulae for the Lorentz transformation and the transformation of the electromagnetic field have been developed. A simple yet accurate electromagnetic model for the light clock is presented for this purpose. In this model, the ray of light in the qualitative treatment is replaced by a guided wave in a parallel-plate waveguide. Expressions for the electromagnetic field and energy density within the waveguide are determined in the inertial frame in which the clock is at rest and the laboratory frame in which the clock is moving with constant velocity. The analytical expressions and graphical results obtained clearly demonstrate the operation of the clock and time dilation, as well as other interesting relativistic effects.

  9. A GPS Satellite Clock Offset Prediction Method Based on Fitting Clock Offset Rates Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WANG Fuhong

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available It is proposed that a satellite atomic clock offset prediction method based on fitting and modeling clock offset rates data. This method builds quadratic model or linear model combined with periodic terms to fit the time series of clock offset rates, and computes the model coefficients of trend with the best estimation. The clock offset precisely estimated at the initial prediction epoch is directly adopted to calculate the model coefficient of constant. The clock offsets in the rapid ephemeris (IGR provided by IGS are used as modeling data sets to perform certain experiments for different types of GPS satellite clocks. The results show that the clock prediction accuracies of the proposed method for 3, 6, 12 and 24 h achieve 0.43, 0.58, 0.90 and 1.47 ns respectively, which outperform the traditional prediction method based on fitting original clock offsets by 69.3%, 61.8%, 50.5% and 37.2%. Compared with the IGU real-time clock products provided by IGS, the prediction accuracies of the new method have improved about 15.7%, 23.7%, 27.4% and 34.4% respectively.

  10. A New Navigation Satellite Clock Bias Prediction Method Based on Modified Clock-bias Quadratic Polynomial Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Y. P.; Lu, Z. P.; Sun, D. S.; Wang, N.

    2016-01-01

    In order to better express the characteristics of satellite clock bias (SCB) and improve SCB prediction precision, this paper proposed a new SCB prediction model which can take physical characteristics of space-borne atomic clock, the cyclic variation, and random part of SCB into consideration. First, the new model employs a quadratic polynomial model with periodic items to fit and extract the trend term and cyclic term of SCB; then based on the characteristics of fitting residuals, a time series ARIMA ~(Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average) model is used to model the residuals; eventually, the results from the two models are combined to obtain final SCB prediction values. At last, this paper uses precise SCB data from IGS (International GNSS Service) to conduct prediction tests, and the results show that the proposed model is effective and has better prediction performance compared with the quadratic polynomial model, grey model, and ARIMA model. In addition, the new method can also overcome the insufficiency of the ARIMA model in model recognition and order determination.

  11. Relaxed Poisson cure rate models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodrigues, Josemar; Cordeiro, Gauss M; Cancho, Vicente G; Balakrishnan, N

    2016-03-01

    The purpose of this article is to make the standard promotion cure rate model (Yakovlev and Tsodikov, ) more flexible by assuming that the number of lesions or altered cells after a treatment follows a fractional Poisson distribution (Laskin, ). It is proved that the well-known Mittag-Leffler relaxation function (Berberan-Santos, ) is a simple way to obtain a new cure rate model that is a compromise between the promotion and geometric cure rate models allowing for superdispersion. So, the relaxed cure rate model developed here can be considered as a natural and less restrictive extension of the popular Poisson cure rate model at the cost of an additional parameter, but a competitor to negative-binomial cure rate models (Rodrigues et al., ). Some mathematical properties of a proper relaxed Poisson density are explored. A simulation study and an illustration of the proposed cure rate model from the Bayesian point of view are finally presented. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  12. Protecting Clock Synchronization: Adversary Detection through Network Monitoring

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    Elena Lisova

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays, industrial networks are often used for safety-critical applications with real-time requirements. Such applications usually have a time-triggered nature with message scheduling as a core property. Scheduling requires nodes to share the same notion of time, that is, to be synchronized. Therefore, clock synchronization is a fundamental asset in real-time networks. However, since typical standards for clock synchronization, for example, IEEE 1588, do not provide the required level of security, it raises the question of clock synchronization protection. In this paper, we identify a way to break synchronization based on the IEEE 1588 standard, by conducting a man-in-the-middle (MIM attack followed by a delay attack. A MIM attack can be accomplished through, for example, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP poisoning. Using the AVISPA tool, we evaluate the potential to perform a delay attack using ARP poisoning and analyze its consequences showing both that the attack can, indeed, break clock synchronization and that some design choices, such as a relaxed synchronization condition mode, delay bounding, and using knowledge of environmental conditions, can make the network more robust/resilient against these kinds of attacks. Lastly, a Configuration Agent is proposed to monitor and detect anomalies introduced by an adversary performing attacks targeting clock synchronization.

  13. Quantum kinematics of spacetime. II. A model quantum cosmology with real clocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hartle, J.B.

    1988-01-01

    Nonrelativistic model quantum cosmologies are studied in which the basic time variable is the position of a clock indicator and the time parameter of the Schroedinger equation is an unobservable label. Familiar Schroedinger-Heisenberg quantum mechanics emerges if the clock is ideal: arbitrarily accurate for arbitrarily long times. More realistically, however, the usual formulation emerges only as an approximation appropriate to states of this model universe in which part of the system functions approximately as an ideal clock. It is suggested that the quantum kinematics of spacetime theories such as general relativity may be analogous to those of this model. In particular it is suggested that our familiar notion of time in quantum mechanics is not an inevitable property of a general quantum framework but an approximate feature of specific initial conditions

  14. Prediction of GNSS satellite clocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Broederbauer, V.

    2010-01-01

    This thesis deals with the characterisation and prediction of GNSS-satellite-clocks. A prerequisite to develop powerful algorithms for the prediction of clock-corrections is the thorough study of the behaviour of the different clock-types of the satellites. In this context the predicted part of the IGU-clock-corrections provided by the Analysis Centers (ACs) of the IGS was compared to the IGS-Rapid-clock solutions to determine reasonable estimates of the quality of already existing well performing predictions. For the shortest investigated interval (three hours) all ACs obtain almost the same accuracy of 0,1 to 0,4 ns. For longer intervals the individual predictions results start to diverge. Thus, for a 12-hours- interval the differences range from nearly 10 ns (GFZ, CODE) until up to some 'tens of ns'. Based on the estimated clock corrections provided via the IGS Rapid products a simple quadratic polynomial turns out to be sufficient to describe the time series of Rubidium-clocks. On the other hand Cesium-clocks show a periodical behaviour (revolution period) with an amplitude of up to 6 ns. A clear correlation between these amplitudes and the Sun elevation angle above the orbital planes can be demonstrated. The variability of the amplitudes is supposed to be caused by temperature-variations affecting the oscillator. To account for this periodical behaviour a quadratic polynomial with an additional sinus-term was finally chosen as prediction model both for the Cesium as well as for the Rubidium clocks. The three polynomial-parameters as well as amplitude and phase shift of the periodic term are estimated within a least-square-adjustment by means of program GNSS-VC/static. Input-data are time series of the observed part of the IGU clock corrections. With the estimated parameters clock-corrections are predicted for various durations. The mean error of the prediction of Rubidium-clock-corrections for an interval of six hours reaches up to 1,5 ns. For the 12-hours

  15. GPS satellite clock determination in case of inter-frequency clock biases for triple-frequency precise point positioning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Jiang; Geng, Jianghui

    2017-12-01

    Significant time-varying inter-frequency clock biases (IFCBs) within GPS observations prevent the application of the legacy L1/L2 ionosphere-free clock products on L5 signals. Conventional approaches overcoming this problem are to estimate L1/L5 ionosphere-free clocks in addition to their L1/L2 counterparts or to compute IFCBs between the L1/L2 and L1/L5 clocks which are later modeled through a harmonic analysis. In contrast, we start from the undifferenced uncombined GNSS model and propose an alternative approach where a second satellite clock parameter dedicated to the L5 signals is estimated along with the legacy L1/L2 clock. In this manner, we do not need to rely on the correlated L1/L2 and L1/L5 ionosphere-free observables which complicates triple-frequency GPS stochastic models, or account for the unfavorable time-varying hardware biases in undifferenced GPS functional models since they can be absorbed by the L5 clocks. An extra advantage over the ionosphere-free model is that external ionosphere constraints can potentially be introduced to improve PPP. With 27 days of triple-frequency GPS data from globally distributed stations, we find that the RMS of the positioning differences between our GPS model and all conventional models is below 1 mm for all east, north and up components, demonstrating the effectiveness of our model in addressing triple-frequency observations and time-varying IFCBs. Moreover, we can combine the L1/L2 and L5 clocks derived from our model to calculate precisely the L1/L5 clocks which in practice only depart from their legacy counterparts by less than 0.006 ns in RMS. Our triple-frequency GPS model proves convenient and efficient in combating time-varying IFCBs and can be generalized to more than three frequency signals for satellite clock determination.

  16. Reverse Engineering the Inflammatory "Clock": From Computational Modeling to Rational Resetting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vodovotz, Yoram

    2016-01-01

    Properly-regulated inflammation is central to homeostasis. Traumatic injury, hemorrhagic shock, septic shock, and other injury-related processes such as wound healing are associated with dysregulated inflammation. Like many biological processes, inflammation is a dynamic, complex system whose function, like that of an analog clock, cannot be discerned simply from a laundry list of its parts (data). The advent of multiplexed platforms for gathering biological data, while providing an unprecedented level of detailed information about the inflammatory response, has paradoxically also proven to be overwhelming. This problem is especially acute when the datasets involve time courses, since typical statistical analyses and data-driven modeling are geared towards single time points. Various groups have addressed this problem using dynamic approaches to data-driven and mechanistic computational modeling. These modeling tools can be thought of as the "gears" and "hands" of the "clock," and have led to insights regarding principal drivers, dynamic networks, feedbacks, and regulatory switches that characterize and perhaps regulate the inflammatory response. In parallel, mechanistic computational models have given an abstracted sense of how the inflammatory "clock" works, leading to in silico models of critically ill individuals and populations. Integrating data-driven and mechanistic modeling may point the way to a rational "resetting" of inflammation via model-driven precision medicine.

  17. Influence of Tertiary paleoenvironmental changes on the diversification of South American mammals: a relaxed molecular clock study within xenarthrans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vizcaíno Sergio F

    2004-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Comparative genomic data among organisms allow the reconstruction of their phylogenies and evolutionary time scales. Molecular timings have been recently used to suggest that environmental global change have shaped the evolutionary history of diverse terrestrial organisms. Living xenarthrans (armadillos, anteaters and sloths constitute an ideal model for studying the influence of past environmental changes on species diversification. Indeed, extant xenarthran species are relicts from an evolutionary radiation enhanced by their isolation in South America during the Tertiary era, a period for which major climate variations and tectonic events are relatively well documented. Results We applied a Bayesian approach to three nuclear genes in order to relax the molecular clock assumption while accounting for differences in evolutionary dynamics among genes and incorporating paleontological uncertainties. We obtained a molecular time scale for the evolution of extant xenarthrans and other placental mammals. Divergence time estimates provide substantial evidence for contemporaneous diversification events among independent xenarthran lineages. This correlated pattern of diversification might possibly relate to major environmental changes that occurred in South America during the Cenozoic. Conclusions The observed synchronicity between planetary and biological events suggests that global change played a crucial role in shaping the evolutionary history of extant xenarthrans. Our findings open ways to test this hypothesis further in other South American mammalian endemics like hystricognath rodents, platyrrhine primates, and didelphid marsupials.

  18. The Clock mutant mouse is a novel experimental model for nocturia and nocturnal polyuria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ihara, Tatsuya; Mitsui, Takahiko; Nakamura, Yuki; Kira, Satoru; Miyamoto, Tatsuya; Nakagomi, Hiroshi; Sawada, Norifumi; Hirayama, Yuri; Shibata, Keisuke; Shigetomi, Eiji; Shinozaki, Yoichi; Yoshiyama, Mitsuharu; Andersson, Karl-Erik; Nakao, Atsuhito; Takeda, Masayuki; Koizumi, Schuichi

    2017-04-01

    The pathophysiologies of nocturia (NOC) and nocturnal polyuria (NP) are multifactorial and their etiologies remain unclear in a large number of patients. Clock genes exist in most cells and organs, and the products of Clock regulate circadian rhythms as representative clock genes. Clock genes regulate lower urinary tract function, and a newly suggested concept is that abnormalities in clock genes cause lower urinary tract symptoms. In the present study, we investigated the voiding behavior of Clock mutant (Clock Δ19/Δ19 ) mice in order to determine the effects of clock genes on NOC/NP. Male C57BL/6 mice aged 8-12 weeks (WT) and male C57BL/6 Clock Δ19/Δ19 mice aged 8 weeks were used. They were bred under 12 hr light/dark conditions for 2 weeks and voiding behavior was investigated by measuring water intake volume, urine volume, urine volume/void, and voiding frequency in metabolic cages in the dark and light periods. No significant differences were observed in behavior patterns between Clock Δ19/Δ19 and WT mice. Clock Δ19/Δ19 mice showed greater voiding frequencies and urine volumes during the sleep phase than WT mice. The diurnal change in urine volume/void between the dark and light periods in WT mice was absent in Clock Δ19/Δ19 mice. Additionally, functional bladder capacity was significantly lower in Clock Δ19/Δ19 mice than in WT mice. We demonstrated that Clock Δ19/Δ19 mice showed the phenotype of NOC/NP. The Clock Δ19/Δ19 mouse may be used as an animal model of NOC and NP. Neurourol. Urodynam. 36:1034-1038, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  19. Altered expression pattern of clock genes in a rat model of depression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christiansen, Sofie; Bouzinova, Elena; Fahrenkrug, Jan

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Abnormalities in circadian rhythms may be causal factors in development of major depressive disorder. The biology underlying a causal relationship between circadian rhythm disturbances and depression is slowly being unraveled. Although there is no direct evidence of dysregulation...... of clock gene expression in depressive patients many studies have reported single-nucleotide polymorphisms in clock genes in these patients. METHODS: In the present study we investigated whether a depression-like state in rats associates with alternations of the diurnal expression of clock genes....... The validated chronic mild stress (CMS) animal model of depression was used to investigate rhythmic expression of three clock genes; Per1, Per2 and Bmal1. Brain and liver tissue was collected from 96 animals after 3.5 weeks of CMS (48 control and 48 depression-like rats) at 4 h sampling interval within 24 h. We...

  20. State resolved vibrational relaxation modeling for strongly nonequilibrium flows

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyd, Iain D.; Josyula, Eswar

    2011-05-01

    Vibrational relaxation is an important physical process in hypersonic flows. Activation of the vibrational mode affects the fundamental thermodynamic properties and finite rate relaxation can reduce the degree of dissociation of a gas. Low fidelity models of vibrational activation employ a relaxation time to capture the process at a macroscopic level. High fidelity, state-resolved models have been developed for use in continuum gas dynamics simulations based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). By comparison, such models are not as common for use with the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. In this study, a high fidelity, state-resolved vibrational relaxation model is developed for the DSMC technique. The model is based on the forced harmonic oscillator approach in which multi-quantum transitions may become dominant at high temperature. Results obtained for integrated rate coefficients from the DSMC model are consistent with the corresponding CFD model. Comparison of relaxation results obtained with the high-fidelity DSMC model shows significantly less excitation of upper vibrational levels in comparison to the standard, lower fidelity DSMC vibrational relaxation model. Application of the new DSMC model to a Mach 7 normal shock wave in carbon monoxide provides better agreement with experimental measurements than the standard DSMC relaxation model.

  1. Physiological links of circadian clock and biological clock of aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Fang; Chang, Hung-Chun

    2017-07-01

    Circadian rhythms orchestrate biochemical and physiological processes in living organisms to respond the day/night cycle. In mammals, nearly all cells hold self-sustained circadian clocks meanwhile couple the intrinsic rhythms to systemic changes in a hierarchical manner. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus functions as the master pacemaker to initiate daily synchronization according to the photoperiod, in turn determines the phase of peripheral cellular clocks through a variety of signaling relays, including endocrine rhythms and metabolic cycles. With aging, circadian desynchrony occurs at the expense of peripheral metabolic pathologies and central neurodegenerative disorders with sleep symptoms, and genetic ablation of circadian genes in model organisms resembled the aging-related features. Notably, a number of studies have linked longevity nutrient sensing pathways in modulating circadian clocks. Therapeutic strategies that bridge the nutrient sensing pathways and circadian clock might be rational designs to defy aging.

  2. Effects of different per translational kinetics on the dynamics of a core circadian clock model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nieto, Paula S; Revelli, Jorge A; Garbarino-Pico, Eduardo; Condat, Carlos A; Guido, Mario E; Tamarit, Francisco A

    2015-01-01

    Living beings display self-sustained daily rhythms in multiple biological processes, which persist in the absence of external cues since they are generated by endogenous circadian clocks. The period (per) gene is a central player within the core molecular mechanism for keeping circadian time in most animals. Recently, the modulation PER translation has been reported, both in mammals and flies, suggesting that translational regulation of clock components is important for the proper clock gene expression and molecular clock performance. Because translational regulation ultimately implies changes in the kinetics of translation and, therefore, in the circadian clock dynamics, we sought to study how and to what extent the molecular clock dynamics is affected by the kinetics of PER translation. With this objective, we used a minimal mathematical model of the molecular circadian clock to qualitatively characterize the dynamical changes derived from kinetically different PER translational mechanisms. We found that the emergence of self-sustained oscillations with characteristic period, amplitude, and phase lag (time delays) between per mRNA and protein expression depends on the kinetic parameters related to PER translation. Interestingly, under certain conditions, a PER translation mechanism with saturable kinetics introduces longer time delays than a mechanism ruled by a first-order kinetics. In addition, the kinetic laws of PER translation significantly changed the sensitivity of our model to parameters related to the synthesis and degradation of per mRNA and PER degradation. Lastly, we found a set of parameters, with realistic values, for which our model reproduces some experimental results reported recently for Drosophila melanogaster and we present some predictions derived from our analysis.

  3. Charge carrier relaxation model in disordered organic semiconductors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu, Nianduan; Li, Ling; Sun, Pengxiao; Liu, Ming

    2013-01-01

    The relaxation phenomena of charge carrier in disordered organic semiconductors have been demonstrated and investigated theoretically. An analytical model describing the charge carrier relaxation is proposed based on the pure hopping transport theory. The relation between the material disorder, electric field and temperature and the relaxation phenomena has been discussed in detail, respectively. The calculated results reveal that the increase of electric field and temperature can promote the relaxation effect in disordered organic semiconductors, while the increase of material disorder will weaken the relaxation. The proposed model can explain well the stretched-exponential law by adopting the appropriate parameters. The calculation shows a good agreement with the experimental data for organic semiconductors

  4. Peeling mode relaxation ELM model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gimblett, C. G.

    2006-01-01

    This paper discusses an approach to modelling Edge Localised Modes (ELMs) in which toroidal peeling modes are envisaged to initiate a constrained relaxation of the tokamak outer region plasma. Relaxation produces both a flattened edge current profile (which tends to further destabilise a peeling mode), and a plasma-vacuum negative current sheet which has a counteracting stabilising influence; the balance that is struck between these two effects determines the radial extent (rE) of the ELM relaxed region. The model is sensitive to the precise position of the mode rational surfaces to the plasma surface and hence there is a 'deterministic scatter' in the results that has an accord with experimental data. The toroidal peeling stability criterion involves the edge pressure, and using this in conjunction with predictions of rE allows us to evaluate the ELM energy losses and compare with experiment. Predictions of trends with the edge safety factor and collisionality are also made

  5. Rooting and dating maples (Acer) with an uncorrelated-rates molecular clock: implications for north American/Asian disjunctions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Renner, Susanne S; Grimm, Guido W; Schneeweiss, Gerald M; Stuessy, Tod F; Ricklefs, Robert E

    2008-10-01

    Simulations suggest that molecular clock analyses can correctly identify the root of a tree even when the clock assumption is severely violated. Clock-based rooting of phylogenies may be particularly useful when outgroup rooting is problematic. Here, we explore relaxed-clock rooting in the Acer/Dipteronia clade of Sapindaceae, which comprises genera of highly uneven species richness and problematic mutual monophyly. Using an approach that does not presuppose rate autocorrelation between ancestral and descendant branches and hence does not require a rooted a priori topology, we analyzed data from up to seven chloroplast loci for some 50 ingroup species. For comparison, we used midpoint and outgroup rooting and dating methods that rely on rooted input trees, namely penalized likelihood, a Bayesian autocorrelated-rates model, and a strict clock. The chloroplast sequences used here reject a single global substitution rate, and the assumption of autocorrelated rates was also rejected. The root was placed between Acer and Dipteronia by all three rooting methods, albeit with low statistical support. Analyses of Acer diversification with a lineage-through-time plot and different survival models, although sensitive to missing data, suggest a gradual decrease in the average diversification rate. The nine North American species of Acer diverged from their nearest relatives at widely different times: eastern American Acer diverged in the Oligocene and Late Miocene; western American species in the Late Eocene and Mid Miocene; and the Acer core clade, including A. saccharum, dates to the Miocene. Recent diversification in North America is strikingly rare compared to diversification in eastern Asia.

  6. Molecular cogs of the insect circadian clock.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shirasu, Naoto; Shimohigashi, Yasuyuki; Tominaga, Yoshiya; Shimohigashi, Miki

    2003-08-01

    During the last five years, enormous progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis of circadian systems, mainly by molecular genetic studies using the mouse and fly. Extensive evidence has revealed that the core clock machinery involves "clock genes" and "clock proteins" functioning as molecular cogs. These participate in transcriptional/translational feedback loops and many homologous clock-components in the fruit fly Drosophila are also expressed in mammalian clock tissues with circadian rhythms. Thus, the mechanisms of the central clock seem to be conserved across animal kingdom. However, some recent studies imply that the present widely accepted molecular models of circadian clocks may not always be supported by the experimental evidence.

  7. Clock error models for simulation and estimation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meditch, J.S.

    1981-10-01

    Mathematical models for the simulation and estimation of errors in precision oscillators used as time references in satellite navigation systems are developed. The results, based on all currently known oscillator error sources, are directly implementable on a digital computer. The simulation formulation is sufficiently flexible to allow for the inclusion or exclusion of individual error sources as desired. The estimation algorithms, following from Kalman filter theory, provide directly for the error analysis of clock errors in both filtering and prediction

  8. Long-Term Clock Behavior of GPS IIR Satellites

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Epstein, Marvin; Dass, Todd; Rajan, John; Gilmour, Paul

    2007-01-01

    .... Rubidium clocks, as opposed to cesium clocks, have significant long-term drift. The current literature describes an initial model of drift aging for rubidium atomic clocks followed by a long-term characteristic...

  9. Testing the molecular clock using mechanistic models of fossil preservation and molecular evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warnock, Rachel C M; Yang, Ziheng; Donoghue, Philip C J

    2017-06-28

    Molecular sequence data provide information about relative times only, and fossil-based age constraints are the ultimate source of information about absolute times in molecular clock dating analyses. Thus, fossil calibrations are critical to molecular clock dating, but competing methods are difficult to evaluate empirically because the true evolutionary time scale is never known. Here, we combine mechanistic models of fossil preservation and sequence evolution in simulations to evaluate different approaches to constructing fossil calibrations and their impact on Bayesian molecular clock dating, and the relative impact of fossil versus molecular sampling. We show that divergence time estimation is impacted by the model of fossil preservation, sampling intensity and tree shape. The addition of sequence data may improve molecular clock estimates, but accuracy and precision is dominated by the quality of the fossil calibrations. Posterior means and medians are poor representatives of true divergence times; posterior intervals provide a much more accurate estimate of divergence times, though they may be wide and often do not have high coverage probability. Our results highlight the importance of increased fossil sampling and improved statistical approaches to generating calibrations, which should incorporate the non-uniform nature of ecological and temporal fossil species distributions. © 2017 The Authors.

  10. Regulation of circadian clock transcriptional output by CLOCK:BMAL1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trott, Alexandra J.

    2018-01-01

    The mammalian circadian clock relies on the transcription factor CLOCK:BMAL1 to coordinate the rhythmic expression of 15% of the transcriptome and control the daily regulation of biological functions. The recent characterization of CLOCK:BMAL1 cistrome revealed that although CLOCK:BMAL1 binds synchronously to all of its target genes, its transcriptional output is highly heterogeneous. By performing a meta-analysis of several independent genome-wide datasets, we found that the binding of other transcription factors at CLOCK:BMAL1 enhancers likely contribute to the heterogeneity of CLOCK:BMAL1 transcriptional output. While CLOCK:BMAL1 rhythmic DNA binding promotes rhythmic nucleosome removal, it is not sufficient to generate transcriptionally active enhancers as assessed by H3K27ac signal, RNA Polymerase II recruitment, and eRNA expression. Instead, the transcriptional activity of CLOCK:BMAL1 enhancers appears to rely on the activity of ubiquitously expressed transcription factors, and not tissue-specific transcription factors, recruited at nearby binding sites. The contribution of other transcription factors is exemplified by how fasting, which effects several transcription factors but not CLOCK:BMAL1, either decreases or increases the amplitude of many rhythmically expressed CLOCK:BMAL1 target genes. Together, our analysis suggests that CLOCK:BMAL1 promotes a transcriptionally permissive chromatin landscape that primes its target genes for transcription activation rather than directly activating transcription, and provides a new framework to explain how environmental or pathological conditions can reprogram the rhythmic expression of clock-controlled genes. PMID:29300726

  11. Using Integer Clocks to Verify the Timing-Sync Sensor Network Protocol

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Xiaowan; Singh, Anu; Smolka, Scott A.

    2010-01-01

    We use the UPPAAL model checker for Timed Automata to verify the Timing-Sync time-synchronization protocol for sensor networks (TPSN). The TPSN protocol seeks to provide network-wide synchronization of the distributed clocks in a sensor network. Clock-synchronization algorithms for sensor networks such as TPSN must be able to perform arithmetic on clock values to calculate clock drift and network propagation delays. They must be able to read the value of a local clock and assign it to another local clock. Such operations are not directly supported by the theory of Timed Automata. To overcome this formal-modeling obstacle, we augment the UPPAAL specification language with the integer clock derived type. Integer clocks, which are essentially integer variables that are periodically incremented by a global pulse generator, greatly facilitate the encoding of the operations required to synchronize clocks as in the TPSN protocol. With this integer-clock-based model of TPSN in hand, we use UPPAAL to verify that the protocol achieves network-wide time synchronization and is devoid of deadlock. We also use the UPPAAL Tracer tool to illustrate how integer clocks can be used to capture clock drift and resynchronization during protocol execution

  12. Models of Flux Tubes from Constrained Relaxation

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    tribpo

    J. Astrophys. Astr. (2000) 21, 299 302. Models of Flux Tubes from Constrained Relaxation. Α. Mangalam* & V. Krishan†, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangala,. Bangalore 560 034, India. *e mail: mangalam @ iiap. ernet. in. † e mail: vinod@iiap.ernet.in. Abstract. We study the relaxation of a compressible plasma to ...

  13. A survey of genomic studies supports association of circadian clock genes with bipolar disorder spectrum illnesses and lithium response.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael J McCarthy

    Full Text Available Circadian rhythm abnormalities in bipolar disorder (BD have led to a search for genetic abnormalities in circadian "clock genes" associated with BD. However, no significant clock gene findings have emerged from genome-wide association studies (GWAS. At least three factors could account for this discrepancy: complex traits are polygenic, the organization of the clock is more complex than previously recognized, and/or genetic risk for BD may be shared across multiple illnesses. To investigate these issues, we considered the clock gene network at three levels: essential "core" clock genes, upstream circadian clock modulators, and downstream clock controlled genes. Using relaxed thresholds for GWAS statistical significance, we determined the rates of clock vs. control genetic associations with BD, and four additional illnesses that share clinical features and/or genetic risk with BD (major depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit/hyperactivity. Then we compared the results to a set of lithium-responsive genes. Associations with BD-spectrum illnesses and lithium-responsiveness were both enriched among core clock genes but not among upstream clock modulators. Associations with BD-spectrum illnesses and lithium-responsiveness were also enriched among pervasively rhythmic clock-controlled genes but not among genes that were less pervasively rhythmic or non-rhythmic. Our analysis reveals previously unrecognized associations between clock genes and BD-spectrum illnesses, partly reconciling previously discordant results from past GWAS and candidate gene studies.

  14. Sound Clocks and Sonic Relativity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Todd, Scott L.; Menicucci, Nicolas C.

    2017-10-01

    Sound propagation within certain non-relativistic condensed matter models obeys a relativistic wave equation despite such systems admitting entirely non-relativistic descriptions. A natural question that arises upon consideration of this is, "do devices exist that will experience the relativity in these systems?" We describe a thought experiment in which `acoustic observers' possess devices called sound clocks that can be connected to form chains. Careful investigation shows that appropriately constructed chains of stationary and moving sound clocks are perceived by observers on the other chain as undergoing the relativistic phenomena of length contraction and time dilation by the Lorentz factor, γ , with c the speed of sound. Sound clocks within moving chains actually tick less frequently than stationary ones and must be separated by a shorter distance than when stationary to satisfy simultaneity conditions. Stationary sound clocks appear to be length contracted and time dilated to moving observers due to their misunderstanding of their own state of motion with respect to the laboratory. Observers restricted to using sound clocks describe a universe kinematically consistent with the theory of special relativity, despite the preferred frame of their universe in the laboratory. Such devices show promise in further probing analogue relativity models, for example in investigating phenomena that require careful consideration of the proper time elapsed for observers.

  15. Investigation of microwave transitions and nonlinear magneto-optical rotation in anti-relaxation-coated cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Budker, D.; Hollberg, L.; Kimball, D.F.; Kitching, J.; Pustclny, S.; Robinson, H.G.; Yashchuk, V.V.

    2004-01-01

    Using laser optical pumping, widths and frequency shifts are determined for microwave transitions between the components of the ground-state hyperfine structure for 85 Rb and 87 Rb atoms contained in vapor cells with alkane anti-relaxation coatings. The results are compared with data on Zeeman relaxation obtained in nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) experiments, a comparison important for quantitative understanding of spin-relaxation mechanisms in coated cells. By comparing cells manufactured over a forty-year period we demonstrate the long-term stability of coated cells, which may be useful for atomic clocks and magnetometers

  16. Investigation of microwave transitions and nonlinear magneto-optical rotation in anti-relaxation-coated cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Budker, Dmitry; Hollberg, Leo; Kimball, Derek F.; Kitching, J.; Pustelny, Szymon; Yashchuk, Valeriy V.

    2004-01-01

    Using laser optical pumping, widths and frequency shifts are determined for microwave transitions between ground-state hyperfine components of 85 Rb and 87 Rb atoms contained in vapor cells with alkane anti-relaxation coatings. The results are compared with data on Zeeman relaxation obtained in nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) experiments, a comparison important for quantitative understanding of spin-relaxation mechanisms in coated cells. By comparing cells manufactured over a forty-year period we demonstrate the long-term stability of coated cells, an important property for atomic clocks and magnetometers

  17. Relaxation model of radiation-induced conductivity in polymers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhutayeva, Yu. R.; Khatipov, S. A.

    1999-05-01

    The paper suggests a relaxation model of radiation-induced conductivity (RIC) in polymers. According to the model, the transfer of charges generated in the polymer volume by ionizing radiation takes place with the participation of molecular relaxation processes. The mechanism of electron transport consists in the transfer of the charge directly between traps when they draw close to one another due to the rotation of macromolecule segments. The numerical solutions of the corresponding kinetic equations for different distribution functions Q( τ) of the times of molecular relaxation and for different functions of the probability P( τ, τ') of charge transfer in the `overlapping' regions of the diffusion spheres of the segments are analyzed. The relaxation model provides an explanation of the non-Arrhenius behavior of the RIC temperature dependence, the power dependence of RIC on the dose rate with a power index in the interval 0.5-1.0, the appearance of maxima in the curves of the RIC temporal dependence and their irreversible character in the region of large dose rates (more than 1 Gy/s). The model can be used for interpreting polymer RIC in conditions of kinetic mobility of macromolecules.

  18. Atomic clocks for geodesy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehlstäubler, Tanja E.; Grosche, Gesine; Lisdat, Christian; Schmidt, Piet O.; Denker, Heiner

    2018-06-01

    We review experimental progress on optical atomic clocks and frequency transfer, and consider the prospects of using these technologies for geodetic measurements. Today, optical atomic frequency standards have reached relative frequency inaccuracies below 10‑17, opening new fields of fundamental and applied research. The dependence of atomic frequencies on the gravitational potential makes atomic clocks ideal candidates for the search for deviations in the predictions of Einstein’s general relativity, tests of modern unifying theories and the development of new gravity field sensors. In this review, we introduce the concepts of optical atomic clocks and present the status of international clock development and comparison. Besides further improvement in stability and accuracy of today’s best clocks, a large effort is put into increasing the reliability and technological readiness for applications outside of specialized laboratories with compact, portable devices. With relative frequency uncertainties of 10‑18, comparisons of optical frequency standards are foreseen to contribute together with satellite and terrestrial data to the precise determination of fundamental height reference systems in geodesy with a resolution at the cm-level. The long-term stability of atomic standards will deliver excellent long-term height references for geodetic measurements and for the modelling and understanding of our Earth.

  19. Dynamical relaxation in 2HDM models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lalak, Zygmunt; Markiewicz, Adam

    2018-03-01

    Dynamical relaxation provides an interesting solution to the hierarchy problem in face of the missing signatures of any new physics in recent experiments. Through a dynamical process taking place in the inflationary phase of the Universe it manages to achieve a small electroweak scale without introducing new states observable in current experiments. Appropriate approximation makes it possible to derive an explicit formula for the final vevs in the double-scanning scenario extended to a model with two Higgs doublets (2HDM). Analysis of the relaxation in the 2HDM confirms that in a general case it is impossible to keep vevs of both scalars small, unless fine-tuning is present or additional symmetries are cast upon the Lagrangian. Within the slightly constrained variant of the 2HDM, where odd powers of the fields’ expectation values are not present (which can be easily enforced by requiring that the doublets have different gauge transformations or by imposing a global symmetry) it is shown that the difference between the vevs of two scalars tends to be proportional to the cutoff. The analysis of the relaxation in 2HDM indicates that in a general case the relaxation would be stopped by the first doublet that gains a vev, with the other one remaining vevless with a mass of the order of the cutoff. This happens to conform with the inert doublet model.

  20. Relativistic Ideal Clock

    OpenAIRE

    Bratek, Łukasz

    2015-01-01

    Two particularly simple ideal clocks exhibiting intrinsic circular motion with the speed of light and opposite spin alignment are described. The clocks are singled out by singularities of an inverse Legendre transformation for relativistic rotators of which mass and spin are fixed parameters. Such clocks work always the same way, no matter how they move. When subject to high accelerations or falling in strong gravitational fields of black holes, the clocks could be used to test the clock hypo...

  1. Stochastic models of cellular circadian rhythms in plants help to understand the impact of noise on robustness and clock structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Luisa eGuerriero

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Rhythmic behavior is essential for plants; for example, daily (circadian rhythms control photosynthesis and seasonal rhythms regulate their life cycle. The core of the circadian clock is a genetic network that coordinates the expression of specific clock genes in a circadian rhythm reflecting the 24-hour day/night cycle.Circadian clocks exhibit stochastic noise due to the low copy numbers of clock genes and the consequent cell-to-cell variation: this intrinsic noise plays a major role in circadian clocks by inducing more robust oscillatory behavior. Another source of noise is the environment, which causes variation in temperature and light intensity: this extrinsic noise is part of the requirement for the structural complexity of clock networks.Advances in experimental techniques now permit single-cell measurements and the development of single-cell models. Here we present some modeling studies showing the importance of considering both types of noise in understanding how plants adapt to regular and irregular light variations. Stochastic models have proven useful for understanding the effect of regular variations. By contrast, the impact of irregular variations and the interaction of different noise sources are less studied.

  2. Toward a detailed computational model for the mammalian circadian clock

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leloup, Jean-Christophe; Goldbeter, Albert

    2003-06-01

    We present a computational model for the mammalian circadian clock based on the intertwined positive and negative regulatory loops involving the Per, Cry, Bmal1, Clock, and Rev-Erb genes. In agreement with experimental observations, the model can give rise to sustained circadian oscillations in continuous darkness, characterized by an antiphase relationship between Per/Cry/Rev-Erb and Bmal1 mRNAs. Sustained oscillations correspond to the rhythms autonomously generated by suprachiasmatic nuclei. For other parameter values, damped oscillations can also be obtained in the model. These oscillations, which transform into sustained oscillations when coupled to a periodic signal, correspond to rhythms produced by peripheral tissues. When incorporating the light-induced expression of the Per gene, the model accounts for entrainment of the oscillations by light-dark cycles. Simulations show that the phase of the oscillations can then vary by several hours with relatively minor changes in parameter values. Such a lability of the phase could account for physiological disorders related to circadian rhythms in humans, such as advanced or delayed sleep phase syndrome, whereas the lack of entrainment by light-dark cycles can be related to the non-24h sleep-wake syndrome. The model uncovers the possible existence of multiple sources of oscillatory behavior. Thus, in conditions where the indirect negative autoregulation of Per and Cry expression is inoperative, the model indicates the possibility that sustained oscillations might still arise from the negative autoregulation of Bmal1 expression.

  3. A Method for Estimating BeiDou Inter-frequency Satellite Clock Bias

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LI Haojun

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available A new method for estimating the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias is proposed, considering the shortage of the current methods. The constant and variable parts of the inter-frequency satellite clock bias are considered in the new method. The data from 10 observation stations are processed to validate the new method. The characterizations of the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias are also analyzed using the computed results. The results of the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias indicate that it is stable in the short term. The estimated BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias results are molded. The model results show that the 10 parameters of model for each satellite can express the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias well and the accuracy reaches cm level. When the model parameters of the first day are used to compute the BeiDou inter-frequency satellite clock bias of the second day, the accuracy also reaches cm level. Based on the stability and modeling, a strategy for the BeiDou satellite clock service is presented to provide the reference of our BeiDou.

  4. Comments On Clock Models In Hybrid Automata And Hybrid Control Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Virginia Ecaterina OLTEAN

    2001-12-01

    Full Text Available Hybrid systems have received a lot of attention in the past decade and a number of different models have been proposed in order to establish mathematical framework that is able to handle both continuous and discrete aspects. This contribution is focused on two models: hybrid automata and hybrid control systems with continuous-discrete interface and the importance of clock models is emphasized. Simple and relevant examples, some taken from the literature, accompany the presentation.

  5. A computational model clarifies the roles of positive and negative feedback loops in the Drosophila circadian clock

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang Junwei, E-mail: wangjunweilj@yahoo.com.c [Cisco School of Informatics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou 510006 (China); Zhou Tianshou [School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275 (China)

    2010-06-14

    Previous studies showed that a single negative feedback structure should be sufficient for robust circadian oscillations. It is thus pertinent to ask why current cellular clock models almost universally have interlocked negative feedback loop (NFL) and positive feedback loop (PFL). Here, we propose a molecular model that reflects the essential features of the Drosophila circadian clock to clarify the different roles of negative and positive feedback loops. In agreement with experimental observations, the model can simulate circadian oscillations in constant darkness, entrainment by light-dark cycles, as well as phenotypes of per{sup 01} and clk{sup Jrk} mutants. Moreover, sustained oscillations persist when the PFL is removed, implying the crucial role of NFL for rhythm generation. Through parameter sensitivity analysis, it is revealed that incorporation of PFL increases the robustness of the system to regulatory processes in PFL itself. Such reduced models can aid understanding of the design principles of circadian clocks in Drosophila and other organisms with complex transcriptional feedback structures.

  6. A computational model clarifies the roles of positive and negative feedback loops in the Drosophila circadian clock

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Junwei; Zhou Tianshou

    2010-01-01

    Previous studies showed that a single negative feedback structure should be sufficient for robust circadian oscillations. It is thus pertinent to ask why current cellular clock models almost universally have interlocked negative feedback loop (NFL) and positive feedback loop (PFL). Here, we propose a molecular model that reflects the essential features of the Drosophila circadian clock to clarify the different roles of negative and positive feedback loops. In agreement with experimental observations, the model can simulate circadian oscillations in constant darkness, entrainment by light-dark cycles, as well as phenotypes of per 01 and clk Jrk mutants. Moreover, sustained oscillations persist when the PFL is removed, implying the crucial role of NFL for rhythm generation. Through parameter sensitivity analysis, it is revealed that incorporation of PFL increases the robustness of the system to regulatory processes in PFL itself. Such reduced models can aid understanding of the design principles of circadian clocks in Drosophila and other organisms with complex transcriptional feedback structures.

  7. Clock Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks: A New Model and Analysis Approach Based on Networked Control Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Ting

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Motivated by the importance of the clock synchronization in wireless sensor networks (WSNs, this paper proposes a new research approach and model approach, which quantitatively analyzes clock synchronization from the perspective of modern control theory. Two kinds of control strategies are used as examples to analyze the effect of the control strategy on clock synchronization from different perspectives, namely, the single-step optimal control and the LQG global optimal control. The proposed method establishes a state space model for clock relationship, thus making dimension extension and parameter identification easier, and is robust to changes under the condition of node failures and new nodes. And through the design of different control strategies and performance index functions, the method can satisfy various requirements of the synchronization precision, convergence speed, energy consumption and the computational complexity, and so on. Finally, the simulations show that the synchronization accuracy of the proposed method is higher than that of the existing protocol, and the former convergence speed of the synchronization error is faster.

  8. Finite-size effects in the three-state quantum asymmetric clock model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gehlen, G. v.; Rittenberg, V.

    1983-04-01

    The one-dimensional quantum Hamiltonian of the asymmetric three-state clock model is studied using finite-size scaling. Various boundary conditions are considered on chains containing up to eight sites. We calculate the boundary of the commensurate phase and the mass gap index. The model shows an interesting finite-size dependence in connexion with the presence of the incommensurate phase indicating that for the infinite system there is no Lifshitz point. (orig.)

  9. Complementary approaches to understanding the plant circadian clock

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ozgur E. Akman

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Circadian clocks are oscillatory genetic networks that help organisms adapt to the 24-hour day/night cycle. The clock of the green alga Ostreococcus tauri is the simplest plant clock discovered so far. Its many advantages as an experimental system facilitate the testing of computational predictions. We present a model of the Ostreococcus clock in the stochastic process algebra Bio-PEPA and exploit its mapping to different analysis techniques, such as ordinary differential equations, stochastic simulation algorithms and model-checking. The small number of molecules reported for this system tests the limits of the continuous approximation underlying differential equations. We investigate the difference between continuous-deterministic and discrete-stochastic approaches. Stochastic simulation and model-checking allow us to formulate new hypotheses on the system behaviour, such as the presence of self-sustained oscillations in single cells under constant light conditions. We investigate how to model the timing of dawn and dusk in the context of model-checking, which we use to compute how the probability distributions of key biochemical species change over time. These show that the relative variation in expression level is smallest at the time of peak expression, making peak time an optimal experimental phase marker. Building on these analyses, we use approaches from evolutionary systems biology to investigate how changes in the rate of mRNA degradation impacts the phase of a key protein likely to affect fitness. We explore how robust this circadian clock is towards such potential mutational changes in its underlying biochemistry. Our work shows that multiple approaches lead to a more complete understanding of the clock.

  10. Clocks do not tick in unison: isolation of Clock and vrille shed new light on the clockwork model of the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gesto, João Silveira Moledo; Rivas, Gustavo Bueno da Silva; Pavan, Marcio Galvão; Meireles-Filho, Antonio Carlos Alves; Amoretty, Paulo Roberto de; Souza, Nataly Araújo de; Bruno, Rafaela Vieira; Peixoto, Alexandre Afranio

    2015-10-06

    Behavior rhythms of insect vectors directly interfere with the dynamics of pathogen transmission to humans. The sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis is the main vector of visceral leishmaniasis in America and concentrates its activity around dusk. Despite the accumulation of behavioral data, very little is known about the molecular bases of the clock mechanism in this species. This study aims to characterize, within an evolutionary perspective, two important circadian clock genes, Clock and vrille. We have cloned and isolated the coding sequence of L. longipalpis' genes Clock and vrille. The former is structured in eight exons and encodes a protein of 696 amino acids, and the latter comprises three exons and translates to a protein of 469 amino acids. When compared to other insects' orthologues, L. longipalpis CLOCK shows a high degree of conservation in the functional domains bHLH and PAS, but a much shorter glutamine-rich (poly-Q) C-terminal region. As for L. longipalpis VRILLE, a high degree of conservation was found in the bZIP domain. To support these observations and provide an elegant view of the evolution of both genes in insects, phylogenetic analyses based on maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inferences were performed, corroborating the previously known insect systematics. The isolation and phylogenetic analyses of Clock and vrille orthologues in L. longipalpis bring novel and important data to characterize this species' circadian clock. Interestingly, the poly-Q shortening observed in CLOCK suggests that its transcription activity might be impaired and we speculate if this effect could be compensated by other clock factors such as CYCLE.

  11. Stress relaxation analysis of single chondrocytes using porohyperelastic model based on AFM experiments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Trung Dung Nguyen

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on atomic force microscopytechnique, we found that the chondrocytes exhibits stress relaxation behavior. We explored the mechanism of this stress relaxation behavior and concluded that the intracellular fluid exuding out from the cells during deformation plays the most important role in the stress relaxation. We applied the inverse finite element analysis technique to determine necessary material parameters for porohyperelastic (PHE model to simulate stress relaxation behavior as this model is proven capable of capturing the non-linear behavior and the fluid-solid interaction during the stress relaxation of the single chondrocytes. It is observed that PHE model can precisely capture the stress relaxation behavior of single chondrocytes and would be a suitable model for cell biomechanics.

  12. Thermodynamic scaling of α-relaxation time and viscosity stems from the Johari-Goldstein β-relaxation or the primitive relaxation of the coupling model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ngai, K L; Habasaki, J; Prevosto, D; Capaccioli, S; Paluch, Marian

    2012-07-21

    By now it is well established that the structural α-relaxation time, τ(α), of non-associated small molecular and polymeric glass-formers obey thermodynamic scaling. In other words, τ(α) is a function Φ of the product variable, ρ(γ)/T, where ρ is the density and T the temperature. The constant γ as well as the function, τ(α) = Φ(ρ(γ)/T), is material dependent. Actually this dependence of τ(α) on ρ(γ)/T originates from the dependence on the same product variable of the Johari-Goldstein β-relaxation time, τ(β), or the primitive relaxation time, τ(0), of the coupling model. To support this assertion, we give evidences from various sources itemized as follows. (1) The invariance of the relation between τ(α) and τ(β) or τ(0) to widely different combinations of pressure and temperature. (2) Experimental dielectric and viscosity data of glass-forming van der Waals liquids and polymer. (3) Molecular dynamics simulations of binary Lennard-Jones (LJ) models, the Lewis-Wahnström model of ortho-terphenyl, 1,4 polybutadiene, a room temperature ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium nitrate, and a molten salt 2Ca(NO(3))(2)·3KNO(3) (CKN). (4) Both diffusivity and structural relaxation time, as well as the breakdown of Stokes-Einstein relation in CKN obey thermodynamic scaling by ρ(γ)/T with the same γ. (5) In polymers, the chain normal mode relaxation time, τ(N), is another function of ρ(γ)/T with the same γ as segmental relaxation time τ(α). (6) While the data of τ(α) from simulations for the full LJ binary mixture obey very well the thermodynamic scaling, it is strongly violated when the LJ interaction potential is truncated beyond typical inter-particle distance, although in both cases the repulsive pair potentials coincide for some distances.

  13. Relaxation model for extended magnetohydrodynamics: Comparison to magnetohydrodynamics for dense Z-pinches

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seyler, C. E.; Martin, M. R.

    2011-01-01

    It is shown that the two-fluid model under a generalized Ohm's law formulation and the resistive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) can both be described as relaxation systems. In the relaxation model, the under-resolved stiff source terms constrain the dynamics of a set of hyperbolic equations to give the correct asymptotic solution. When applied to the collisional two-fluid model, the relaxation of fast time scales associated with displacement current and finite electron mass allows for a natural transition from a system where Ohm's law determines the current density to a system where Ohm's law determines the electric field. This result is used to derive novel algorithms, which allow for multiscale simulation of low and high frequency extended-MHD physics. This relaxation formulation offers an efficient way to implicitly advance the Hall term and naturally simulate a plasma-vacuum interface without invoking phenomenological models. The relaxation model is implemented as an extended-MHD code, which is used to analyze pulsed power loads such as wire arrays and ablating foils. Two-dimensional simulations of pulsed power loads are compared for extended-MHD and MHD. For these simulations, it is also shown that the relaxation model properly recovers the resistive-MHD limit.

  14. Experimental model of human corpus cavernosum smooth muscle relaxation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rommel P. Regadas

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available PURPOSE: To describe a technique for en bloc harvesting of the corpus cavernosum, cavernous artery and urethra from transplant organ donors and contraction-relaxation experiments with corpus cavernosum smooth muscle. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The corpus cavernosum was dissected to the point of attachment with the crus penis. A 3 cm segment (corpus cavernosum and urethra was isolated and placed in ice-cold sterile transportation buffer. Under magnification, the cavernous artery was dissected. Thus, 2 cm fragments of cavernous artery and corpus cavernosum were obtained. Strips measuring 3 x 3 x 8 mm3 were then mounted vertically in an isolated organ bath device. Contractions were measured isometrically with a Narco-Biosystems force displacement transducer (model F-60, Narco-Biosystems, Houston, TX, USA and recorded on a 4-channel Narco-Biosystems desk model polygraph. RESULTS: Phenylephrine (1µM was used to induce tonic contractions in the corpus cavernosum (3 - 5 g tension and cavernous artery (0.5 - 1g tension until reaching a plateau. After precontraction, smooth muscle relaxants were used to produce relaxation-response curves (10-12M to 10-4 M. Sodium nitroprusside was used as a relaxation control. CONCLUSION: The harvesting technique and the smooth muscle contraction-relaxation model described in this study were shown to be useful instruments in the search for new drugs for the treatment of human erectile dysfunction.

  15. A clock network for geodesy and fundamental science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lisdat, C; Grosche, G; Quintin, N; Shi, C; Raupach, S M F; Grebing, C; Nicolodi, D; Stefani, F; Al-Masoudi, A; Dörscher, S; Häfner, S; Robyr, J-L; Chiodo, N; Bilicki, S; Bookjans, E; Koczwara, A; Koke, S; Kuhl, A; Wiotte, F; Meynadier, F; Camisard, E; Abgrall, M; Lours, M; Legero, T; Schnatz, H; Sterr, U; Denker, H; Chardonnet, C; Le Coq, Y; Santarelli, G; Amy-Klein, A; Le Targat, R; Lodewyck, J; Lopez, O; Pottie, P-E

    2016-08-09

    Leveraging the unrivalled performance of optical clocks as key tools for geo-science, for astronomy and for fundamental physics beyond the standard model requires comparing the frequency of distant optical clocks faithfully. Here, we report on the comparison and agreement of two strontium optical clocks at an uncertainty of 5 × 10(-17) via a newly established phase-coherent frequency link connecting Paris and Braunschweig using 1,415 km of telecom fibre. The remote comparison is limited only by the instability and uncertainty of the strontium lattice clocks themselves, with negligible contributions from the optical frequency transfer. A fractional precision of 3 × 10(-17) is reached after only 1,000 s averaging time, which is already 10 times better and more than four orders of magnitude faster than any previous long-distance clock comparison. The capability of performing high resolution international clock comparisons paves the way for a redefinition of the unit of time and an all-optical dissemination of the SI-second.

  16. An improved grey model for the prediction of real-time GPS satellite clock bias

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Z. Y.; Chen, Y. Q.; Lu, X. S.

    2008-07-01

    In real-time GPS precise point positioning (PPP), real-time and reliable satellite clock bias (SCB) prediction is a key to implement real-time GPS PPP. It is difficult to hold the nuisance and inenarrable performance of space-borne GPS satellite atomic clock because of its high-frequency, sensitivity and impressionable, it accords with the property of grey model (GM) theory, i. e. we can look on the variable process of SCB as grey system. Firstly, based on limits of quadratic polynomial (QP) and traditional GM to predict SCB, a modified GM (1,1) is put forward to predict GPS SCB in this paper; and then, taking GPS SCB data for example, we analyzed clock bias prediction with different sample interval, the relationship between GM exponent and prediction accuracy, precision comparison of GM to QP, and concluded the general rule of different type SCB and GM exponent; finally, to test the reliability and validation of the modified GM what we put forward, taking IGS clock bias ephemeris product as reference, we analyzed the prediction precision with the modified GM, It is showed that the modified GM is reliable and validation to predict GPS SCB and can offer high precise SCB prediction for real-time GPS PPP.

  17. A strontium lattice clock with reduced blackbody radiation shift

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Al-Masoudi, Ali Khalas Anfoos

    2016-09-30

    Optical clocks have been quickly moving to the forefront of the frequency standards field due to their high spectral resolution, and therefore the potential high stability and accuracy. The accuracy and stability of the optical clocks are nowadays two orders of magnitude better than microwave Cs clocks, which realize the SI second. Envisioned applications of highly accurate optical clocks are to perform tests of fundamental physics, for example, searching for temporal drifts of the fine structure constant α, violations of the Local Position Invariance (LPI), dark matter and dark energy, or to performance relativistic geodesy. In this work, the uncertainty of a strontium lattice clock, based on the {sup 1}S{sub 0}-{sup 3}P{sub 0} transition in {sup 87}Sr, due to the blackbody radiation (BBR) shift has been reduced to less than 1 x 10{sup -18} by more than one order of magnitude compared to the previous evaluation of the BBR shift uncertainty in this clock. The BBR shift has been reduced by interrogating the atoms in a cryogenic environment. The systematic uncertainty of the cryogenic lattice clock is evaluated to be 1.3 x 10{sup -17} which is dominated by the uncertainty of the AC Stark shift of the lattice laser and the uncertainty contribution of the BBR shift is negligible. Concerning the instability of the clock, the detection noise of the clock has been measured, and a model linking noise and clock instability has been developed. This noise model shows that, in our lattice clock, quantum projection noise is reached if more than 130 atoms are interrogated. By combining the noise model with the degradation due to the Dick effect reflecting the frequency noise of the interrogation laser, the instability of the clock is estimated to be 1.6 x 10{sup -16}/√(τ/s) in regular operation. During this work, several high-accuracy comparisons to other atomic clocks have been performed, including several absolute frequency measurements. The Sr clock transition frequency

  18. Cryptochrome mediates light-dependent magnetosensitivity of Drosophila's circadian clock.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taishi Yoshii

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Since 1960, magnetic fields have been discussed as Zeitgebers for circadian clocks, but the mechanism by which clocks perceive and process magnetic information has remained unknown. Recently, the radical-pair model involving light-activated photoreceptors as magnetic field sensors has gained considerable support, and the blue-light photoreceptor cryptochrome (CRY has been proposed as a suitable molecule to mediate such magnetosensitivity. Since CRY is expressed in the circadian clock neurons and acts as a critical photoreceptor of Drosophila's clock, we aimed to test the role of CRY in magnetosensitivity of the circadian clock. In response to light, CRY causes slowing of the clock, ultimately leading to arrhythmic behavior. We expected that in the presence of applied magnetic fields, the impact of CRY on clock rhythmicity should be altered. Furthermore, according to the radical-pair hypothesis this response should be dependent on wavelength and on the field strength applied. We tested the effect of applied static magnetic fields on the circadian clock and found that flies exposed to these fields indeed showed enhanced slowing of clock rhythms. This effect was maximal at 300 muT, and reduced at both higher and lower field strengths. Clock response to magnetic fields was present in blue light, but absent under red-light illumination, which does not activate CRY. Furthermore, cry(b and cry(OUT mutants did not show any response, and flies overexpressing CRY in the clock neurons exhibited an enhanced response to the field. We conclude that Drosophila's circadian clock is sensitive to magnetic fields and that this sensitivity depends on light activation of CRY and on the applied field strength, consistent with the radical pair mechanism. CRY is widespread throughout biological systems and has been suggested as receptor for magnetic compass orientation in migratory birds. The present data establish the circadian clock of Drosophila as a model system

  19. Theoretical model of intravascular paramagnetic tracers effect on tissue relaxation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjølby, Birgitte Fuglsang; Østergaard, Leif; Kiselev, Valerij G

    2006-01-01

    The concentration of MRI tracers cannot be measured directly by MRI and is commonly evaluated indirectly using their relaxation effect. This study develops a comprehensive theoretical model to describe the transverse relaxation in perfused tissue caused by intravascular tracers. The model takes...... into account a number of individual compartments. The signal dephasing is simulated in a semianalytical way by embedding Monte Carlo simulations in the framework of analytical theory. This approach yields a tool for fast, realistic simulation of the change in the transverse relaxation. The results indicate...... with bulk blood. The enhancement of relaxation in tissue is due to the contrast in magnetic susceptibility between blood vessels and parenchyma induced by the presence of paramagnetic tracer. Beyond the perfusion measurements, the results can be applied to quantitation of functional MRI and to vessel size...

  20. Clock Drawing in Spatial Neglect: A Comprehensive Analysis of Clock Perimeter, Placement, and Accuracy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Peii; Goedert, Kelly M.

    2012-01-01

    Clock drawings produced by right-brain-damaged (RBD) individuals with spatial neglect often contain an abundance of empty space on the left while numbers and hands are placed on the right. However, the clock perimeter is rarely compromised in neglect patients’ drawings. By analyzing clock drawings produced by 71 RBD and 40 healthy adults, this study investigated whether the geometric characteristics of the clock perimeter reveal novel insights to understanding spatial neglect. Neglect participants drew smaller clocks than either healthy or non-neglect RBD participants. While healthy participants’ clock perimeter was close to circular, RBD participants drew radially extended ellipses. The mechanisms for these phenomena were investigated by examining the relation between clock-drawing characteristics and performance on six subtests of the Behavioral Inattention Test (BIT). The findings indicated that the clock shape was independent of any BIT subtest or the drawing placement on the test sheet and that the clock size was significantly predicted by one BIT subtest: the poorer the figure and shape copying, the smaller the clock perimeter. Further analyses revealed that in all participants, clocks decreased in size as they were placed farther from the center of the paper. However, even when neglect participants placed their clocks towards the center of the page, they were smaller than those produced by healthy or non-neglect RBD participants. These results suggest a neglect-specific reduction in the subjectively available workspace for graphic production from memory, consistent with the hypothesis that neglect patients are impaired in the ability to enlarge the attentional aperture. PMID:22390278

  1. User-Defined Clocks in the Real-Time Specification for Java

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wellings, Andy; Schoeberl, Martin

    2011-01-01

    This paper analyses the new user-defined clock model that is to be supported in Version 1.1 of the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ). The model is a compromise between the current position, where there is no support for user-defined clocks, and a fully integrated model. The paper investigat...

  2. Escape time, relaxation, and sticky states of a softened Henon-Heiles model: Low-frequency vibrational mode effects and glass relaxation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toledo-Marín, J. Quetzalcóatl; Naumis, Gerardo G.

    2018-04-01

    Here we study the relaxation of a chain consisting of three masses joined by nonlinear springs and periodic conditions when the stiffness is weakened. This system, when expressed in their normal coordinates, yields a softened Henon-Heiles system. By reducing the stiffness of one low-frequency vibrational mode, a faster relaxation is enabled. This is due to a reduction of the energy barrier heights along the softened normal mode as well as for a widening of the opening channels of the energy landscape in configurational space. The relaxation is for the most part exponential, and can be explained by a simple flux equation. Yet, for some initial conditions the relaxation follows as a power law, and in many cases there is a regime change from exponential to power-law decay. We pinpoint the initial conditions for the power-law decay, finding two regions of sticky states. For such states, quasiperiodic orbits are found since almost for all components of the initial momentum orientation, the system is trapped inside two pockets of configurational space. The softened Henon-Heiles model presented here is intended as the simplest model in order to understand the interplay of rigidity, nonlinear interactions and relaxation for nonequilibrium systems such as glass-forming melts or soft matter. Our softened system can be applied to model β relaxation in glasses and suggest that local reorientational jumps can have an exponential and a nonexponential contribution for relaxation, the latter due to asymmetric molecules sticking in cages for certain orientations.

  3. Direct simulation Monte Carlo modeling of relaxation processes in polyatomic gases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pfeiffer, M.; Nizenkov, P.; Mirza, A.; Fasoulas, S.

    2016-02-01

    Relaxation processes of polyatomic molecules are modeled and implemented in an in-house Direct Simulation Monte Carlo code in order to enable the simulation of atmospheric entry maneuvers at Mars and Saturn's Titan. The description of rotational and vibrational relaxation processes is derived from basic quantum-mechanics using a rigid rotator and a simple harmonic oscillator, respectively. Strategies regarding the vibrational relaxation process are investigated, where good agreement for the relaxation time according to the Landau-Teller expression is found for both methods, the established prohibiting double relaxation method and the new proposed multi-mode relaxation. Differences and applications areas of these two methods are discussed. Consequently, two numerical methods used for sampling of energy values from multi-dimensional distribution functions are compared. The proposed random-walk Metropolis algorithm enables the efficient treatment of multiple vibrational modes within a time step with reasonable computational effort. The implemented model is verified and validated by means of simple reservoir simulations and the comparison to experimental measurements of a hypersonic, carbon-dioxide flow around a flat-faced cylinder.

  4. Direct simulation Monte Carlo modeling of relaxation processes in polyatomic gases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pfeiffer, M.; Nizenkov, P.; Mirza, A.; Fasoulas, S.

    2016-01-01

    Relaxation processes of polyatomic molecules are modeled and implemented in an in-house Direct Simulation Monte Carlo code in order to enable the simulation of atmospheric entry maneuvers at Mars and Saturn’s Titan. The description of rotational and vibrational relaxation processes is derived from basic quantum-mechanics using a rigid rotator and a simple harmonic oscillator, respectively. Strategies regarding the vibrational relaxation process are investigated, where good agreement for the relaxation time according to the Landau-Teller expression is found for both methods, the established prohibiting double relaxation method and the new proposed multi-mode relaxation. Differences and applications areas of these two methods are discussed. Consequently, two numerical methods used for sampling of energy values from multi-dimensional distribution functions are compared. The proposed random-walk Metropolis algorithm enables the efficient treatment of multiple vibrational modes within a time step with reasonable computational effort. The implemented model is verified and validated by means of simple reservoir simulations and the comparison to experimental measurements of a hypersonic, carbon-dioxide flow around a flat-faced cylinder

  5. Direct simulation Monte Carlo modeling of relaxation processes in polyatomic gases

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pfeiffer, M., E-mail: mpfeiffer@irs.uni-stuttgart.de; Nizenkov, P., E-mail: nizenkov@irs.uni-stuttgart.de; Mirza, A., E-mail: mirza@irs.uni-stuttgart.de; Fasoulas, S., E-mail: fasoulas@irs.uni-stuttgart.de [Institute of Space Systems, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 29, D-70569 Stuttgart (Germany)

    2016-02-15

    Relaxation processes of polyatomic molecules are modeled and implemented in an in-house Direct Simulation Monte Carlo code in order to enable the simulation of atmospheric entry maneuvers at Mars and Saturn’s Titan. The description of rotational and vibrational relaxation processes is derived from basic quantum-mechanics using a rigid rotator and a simple harmonic oscillator, respectively. Strategies regarding the vibrational relaxation process are investigated, where good agreement for the relaxation time according to the Landau-Teller expression is found for both methods, the established prohibiting double relaxation method and the new proposed multi-mode relaxation. Differences and applications areas of these two methods are discussed. Consequently, two numerical methods used for sampling of energy values from multi-dimensional distribution functions are compared. The proposed random-walk Metropolis algorithm enables the efficient treatment of multiple vibrational modes within a time step with reasonable computational effort. The implemented model is verified and validated by means of simple reservoir simulations and the comparison to experimental measurements of a hypersonic, carbon-dioxide flow around a flat-faced cylinder.

  6. A Simple Electromagnetic Model for the Light Clock of Special Relativity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Glenn S.

    2011-01-01

    Thought experiments involving a light clock are common in introductory treatments of special relativity, because they provide a simple way of demonstrating the non-intuitive phenomenon of time dilation. The properties of the ray or pulse of light that is continuously reflected between the parallel mirrors of the clock are often stated vaguely and…

  7. Research on the Method of Noise Error Estimation of Atomic Clocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, H. J.; Dong, S. W.; Li, W.; Zhang, J. H.; Jing, Y. J.

    2017-05-01

    The simulation methods of different noises of atomic clocks are given. The frequency flicker noise of atomic clock is studied by using the Markov process theory. The method for estimating the maximum interval error of the frequency white noise is studied by using the Wiener process theory. Based on the operation of 9 cesium atomic clocks in the time frequency reference laboratory of NTSC (National Time Service Center), the noise coefficients of the power-law spectrum model are estimated, and the simulations are carried out according to the noise models. Finally, the maximum interval error estimates of the frequency white noises generated by the 9 cesium atomic clocks have been acquired.

  8. Standard Clock in primordial density perturbations and cosmic microwave background

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, Xingang; Namjoo, Mohammad Hossein

    2014-01-01

    Standard Clocks in the primordial epoch leave a special type of features in the primordial perturbations, which can be used to directly measure the scale factor of the primordial universe as a function of time a(t), thus discriminating between inflation and alternatives. We have started to search for such signals in the Planck 2013 data using the key predictions of the Standard Clock. In this Letter, we summarize the key predictions of the Standard Clock and present an interesting candidate example in Planck 2013 data. Motivated by this candidate, we construct and compute full Standard Clock models and use the more complete prediction to make more extensive comparison with data. Although this candidate is not yet statistically significant, we use it to illustrate how Standard Clocks appear in Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and how they can be further tested by future data. We also use it to motivate more detailed theoretical model building

  9. Modeling the outflow of liquid with initial supercritical parameters using the relaxation model for condensation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lezhnin Sergey

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The two-temperature model of the outflow from a vessel with initial supercritical parameters of medium has been realized. The model uses thermodynamic non-equilibrium relaxation approach to describe phase transitions. Based on a new asymptotic model for computing the relaxation time, the outflow of water with supercritical initial pressure and super- and subcritical temperatures has been calculated.

  10. The Mechanics of Mechanical Watches and Clocks

    CERN Document Server

    Du, Ruxu

    2013-01-01

    "The Mechanics of Mechanical Watches and Clocks" presents historical views and mathematical models of mechanical watches and clocks. Although now over six hundred years old, mechanical watches and clocks are still popular luxury items that fascinate many people around the world. However few have examined the theory of how they work as presented in this book. The illustrations and computer animations are unique and have never been published before. It will be of significant interest to researchers in mechanical engineering, watchmakers and clockmakers, as well as people who have an engineering background and are interested in mechanical watches and clocks. It will also inspire people in other fields of science and technology, such as mechanical engineering and electronics engineering, to advance their designs. Professor Ruxu Du works at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China. Assistant Professor Longhan Xie works at the South China University of Technology, China.

  11. Initial atomic coherences and Ramsey frequency pulling in fountain clocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerginov, Vladislav; Nemitz, Nils; Weyers, Stefan

    2014-09-01

    In the uncertainty budget of primary atomic cesium fountain clocks, evaluations of frequency-pulling shifts of the hyperfine clock transition caused by unintentional excitation of its nearby transitions (Rabi and Ramsey pulling) have been based so far on an approach developed for cesium beam clocks. We re-evaluate this type of frequency pulling in fountain clocks and pay particular attention to the effect of initial coherent atomic states. We find significantly enhanced frequency shifts caused by Ramsey pulling due to sublevel population imbalance and corresponding coherences within the state-selected hyperfine component of the initial atom ground state. Such shifts are experimentally investigated in an atomic fountain clock and quantitative agreement with the predictions of the model is demonstrated.

  12. Clock Technology Development in the Laser Cooling and Atomic Physics (LCAP) Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seidel, Dave; Thompson, R. J.; Klipstein, W. M.; Kohel, J.; Maleki, L.

    2000-01-01

    This paper presents the Laser Cooling and Atomic Physics (LCAP) program. It focuses on clock technology development. The topics include: 1) Overview of LCAP Flight Projects; 2) Space Clock 101; 3) Physics with Clocks in microgravity; 4) Space Clock Challenges; 5) LCAP Timeline; 6) International Space Station (ISS) Science Platforms; 7) ISS Express Rack; 8) Space Qualification of Components; 9) Laser Configuration; 10) Clock Rate Comparisons: GPS Carrier Phase Frequency Transfer; and 11) ISS Model Views. This paper is presented in viewgraph form.

  13. Relativity theory and time perception: single or multiple clocks?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buhusi, Catalin V; Meck, Warren H

    2009-07-22

    Current theories of interval timing assume that humans and other animals time as if using a single, absolute stopwatch that can be stopped or reset on command. Here we evaluate the alternative view that psychological time is represented by multiple clocks, and that these clocks create separate temporal contexts by which duration is judged in a relative manner. Two predictions of the multiple-clock hypothesis were tested. First, that the multiple clocks can be manipulated (stopped and/or reset) independently. Second, that an event of a given physical duration would be perceived as having different durations in different temporal contexts, i.e., would be judged differently by each clock. Rats were trained to time three durations (e.g., 10, 30, and 90 s). When timing was interrupted by an unexpected gap in the signal, rats reset the clock used to time the "short" duration, stopped the "medium" duration clock, and continued to run the "long" duration clock. When the duration of the gap was manipulated, the rats reset these clocks in a hierarchical order, first the "short", then the "medium", and finally the "long" clock. Quantitative modeling assuming re-allocation of cognitive resources in proportion to the relative duration of the gap to the multiple, simultaneously timed event durations was used to account for the results. These results indicate that the three event durations were effectively timed by separate clocks operated independently, and that the same gap duration was judged relative to these three temporal contexts. Results suggest that the brain processes the duration of an event in a manner similar to Einstein's special relativity theory: A given time interval is registered differently by independent clocks dependent upon the context.

  14. Relativity theory and time perception: single or multiple clocks?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catalin V Buhusi

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available Current theories of interval timing assume that humans and other animals time as if using a single, absolute stopwatch that can be stopped or reset on command. Here we evaluate the alternative view that psychological time is represented by multiple clocks, and that these clocks create separate temporal contexts by which duration is judged in a relative manner. Two predictions of the multiple-clock hypothesis were tested. First, that the multiple clocks can be manipulated (stopped and/or reset independently. Second, that an event of a given physical duration would be perceived as having different durations in different temporal contexts, i.e., would be judged differently by each clock.Rats were trained to time three durations (e.g., 10, 30, and 90 s. When timing was interrupted by an unexpected gap in the signal, rats reset the clock used to time the "short" duration, stopped the "medium" duration clock, and continued to run the "long" duration clock. When the duration of the gap was manipulated, the rats reset these clocks in a hierarchical order, first the "short", then the "medium", and finally the "long" clock. Quantitative modeling assuming re-allocation of cognitive resources in proportion to the relative duration of the gap to the multiple, simultaneously timed event durations was used to account for the results.These results indicate that the three event durations were effectively timed by separate clocks operated independently, and that the same gap duration was judged relative to these three temporal contexts. Results suggest that the brain processes the duration of an event in a manner similar to Einstein's special relativity theory: A given time interval is registered differently by independent clocks dependent upon the context.

  15. The role of the mechanical clock in medieval science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Álvarez, Víctor Pérez

    2015-03-01

    The invention and spread of the mechanical clock is a complex and multifaceted historical phenomenon. Some of these facets, such as its social impact, have been widely studied, but their scientific dimensions have often been dismissed. The mechanical clock was probably born as a scientific instrument for driving a model of the universe, and not only natural philosophers but also kings, nobles and other members of the social elites showed an interest in clocks as scientific instruments. Public clocks later spread a new way of telling time based on equal hours, laying the foundations for changes in time consciousness that would accelerate scientific thinking. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. A novel approach to modelling non-exponential spin glass relaxation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pickup, R.M. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom)]. E-mail: r.cywinski@leeds.ac.uk; Cywinski, R. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Pappas, C. [Hahn-Meitner Institut, Glienicker Strasse 100, 14109 Berlin (Germany)

    2007-07-15

    A probabilistic cluster model, originally proposed by Weron to explain the universal power law of dielectric relaxation, is shown to account for the non-exponential relaxation in spin glasses above T {sub g}. Neutron spin echo spectra measured for the cluster glass compound Co{sub 55}Ga{sub 45} are well described by the Weron relaxation function, {phi}(t)={phi} {sub o}(1+k(t/{tau}) {sup {beta}}){sup -1/k}, with the interaction parameter k scaling linearly with the non-Curie-Weiss susceptibility.

  17. Entanglement of quantum clocks through gravity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castro Ruiz, Esteban; Giacomini, Flaminia; Brukner, Časlav

    2017-03-21

    In general relativity, the picture of space-time assigns an ideal clock to each world line. Being ideal, gravitational effects due to these clocks are ignored and the flow of time according to one clock is not affected by the presence of clocks along nearby world lines. However, if time is defined operationally, as a pointer position of a physical clock that obeys the principles of general relativity and quantum mechanics, such a picture is, at most, a convenient fiction. Specifically, we show that the general relativistic mass-energy equivalence implies gravitational interaction between the clocks, whereas the quantum mechanical superposition of energy eigenstates leads to a nonfixed metric background. Based only on the assumption that both principles hold in this situation, we show that the clocks necessarily get entangled through time dilation effect, which eventually leads to a loss of coherence of a single clock. Hence, the time as measured by a single clock is not well defined. However, the general relativistic notion of time is recovered in the classical limit of clocks.

  18. Test of Lorentz symmetry with a 3He/129Xe clock-comparison experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gemmel, Claudia

    2011-01-01

    The minimal Standard Model Extension (SME) of Kostelecky and coworkers, which parametrizes the general treatment of CPT- and Lorentz invariance violation, predicts sidereal modulations of atomic transition frequencies as the Earth rotates relative to a Lorentz-violating background field. One method to search for these modulations is the so-called clock-comparison experiment, where the frequencies of co-located clocks are compared as they rotate with respect to the fixed stars. In this work an experiment is presented where polarized 3 He and 129 Xe gas samples in a glass cell serve as clocks, whose nuclear spin precession frequencies are detected with the help of highly sensitive SQUID sensors inside a magnetically shielded room. The unique feature of this experiment is the fact that the spins are precessing freely, with transverse relaxation times T * 2 of up to 4.4 h for 129 Xe and 14.1 h for 3 He. To be sensitive to Lorentz-violating effects, the influence of external magnetic fields is canceled via the weighted 3 He/ 129 Xe phase difference, ΔΦ=Φ he -(γ he )/(γ xe ) Φ xe . The Lorentz-violating SME parameters for the neutron, b n X and b n Y , are determined out of a χ 2 fit on the phase difference data of 7 spin precession measurements of 12 to 16 hours length. The piecewise defined fit model contains a sine and a cosine term to describe the sidereal modulation, as well as 7 offset terms, 7 linear terms and 7 . 2 exponential terms decreasing with T * 2,he and T * 2,xe , which are assigned to the respective measurement. The linear term in the weighted phase difference mainly arises from deviations of the gyromagnetic ratios from their literature values due to chemical shifts, while the exponential terms reflect the phase shifts resulting from demagnetization fields in the non-ideally spherical sample cell. The result of the χ 2 fit constrains the parameter b n perpendicular to =√((b n X ) 2 +(b n Y ) 2 ) to be -32 GeV at the 95% confidence level. This

  19. Pre-relaxation in weakly interacting models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bertini, Bruno; Fagotti, Maurizio

    2015-07-01

    We consider time evolution in models close to integrable points with hidden symmetries that generate infinitely many local conservation laws that do not commute with one another. The system is expected to (locally) relax to a thermal ensemble if integrability is broken, or to a so-called generalised Gibbs ensemble if unbroken. In some circumstances expectation values exhibit quasi-stationary behaviour long before their typical relaxation time. For integrability-breaking perturbations, these are also called pre-thermalisation plateaux, and emerge e.g. in the strong coupling limit of the Bose-Hubbard model. As a result of the hidden symmetries, quasi-stationarity appears also in integrable models, for example in the Ising limit of the XXZ model. We investigate a weak coupling limit, identify a time window in which the effects of the perturbations become significant and solve the time evolution through a mean-field mapping. As an explicit example we study the XYZ spin-\\frac{1}{2} chain with additional perturbations that break integrability. One of the most intriguing results of the analysis is the appearance of persistent oscillatory behaviour. To unravel its origin, we study in detail a toy model: the transverse-field Ising chain with an additional nonlocal interaction proportional to the square of the transverse spin per unit length (2013 Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 197203). Despite being nonlocal, this belongs to a class of models that emerge as intermediate steps of the mean-field mapping and shares many dynamical properties with the weakly interacting models under consideration.

  20. Geometrical Model of Solar Radiation Pressure Based on High-Performing Galileo Clocks - First Geometrical Mapping of the Yarkowsky effect

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svehla, Drazen; Rothacher, Markus; Hugentobler, Urs; Steigenberger, Peter; Ziebart, Marek

    2014-05-01

    Solar radiation pressure is the main source of errors in the precise orbit determination of GNSS satellites. All deficiencies in the modeling of Solar radiation pressure map into estimated terrestrial reference frame parameters as well as into derived gravity field coefficients and altimetry results when LEO orbits are determined using GPS. Here we introduce a new approach to geometrically map radial orbit perturbations of GNSS satellites using highly-performing clocks on board the first Galileo satellites. Only a linear model (time bias and time drift) needs to be removed from the estimated clock parameters and the remaining clock residuals map all radial orbit perturbations along the orbit. With the independent SLR measurements, we show that a Galileo clock is stable enough to map radial orbit perturbations continuously along the orbit with a negative sign in comparison to SLR residuals. Agreement between the SLR residuals and the clock residuals is at the 1 cm RMS for an orbit arc of 24 h. Looking at the clock parameters determined along one orbit revolution over a period of one year, we show that the so-called SLR bias in Galileo and GPS orbits can be explained by the translation of the determined orbit in the orbital plane towards the Sun. This orbit translation is due to thermal re-radiation and not accounting for the Sun elevation in the parameterization of the estimated Solar radiation pressure parameters. SLR ranging to GNSS satellites takes place typically at night, e.g. between 6 pm and 6 am local time when the Sun is in opposition to the satellite. Therefore, SLR observes only one part of the GNSS orbit with a negative radial orbit error that is mapped as an artificial bias in SLR observables. The Galileo clocks clearly show orbit translation for all Sun elevations: the radial orbit error is positive when the Sun is in conjuction (orbit noon) and negative when the Sun is in opposition (orbit midnight). The magnitude of this artificial negative SLR bias

  1. Biological timing and the clock metaphor: oscillatory and hourglass mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rensing, L; Meyer-Grahle, U; Ruoff, P

    2001-05-01

    as relevant models, are briefly re viewed. Hourglass clocks are based on linear or exponential unidirectional processes that trigger events mainly in the course of development and aging. An important hourglass mechanism within the aging process is the limitation of cell division capacity by the length of telomeres. The mechanism of this clock is briefly reviewed. In all clock mechanisms, thresholds at which "dependent variables" are triggered play an important role.

  2. Interrelation of creep and relaxation: a modeling approach for ligaments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lakes, R S; Vanderby, R

    1999-12-01

    Experimental data (Thornton et al., 1997) show that relaxation proceeds more rapidly (a greater slope on a log-log scale) than creep in ligament, a fact not explained by linear viscoelasticity. An interrelation between creep and relaxation is therefore developed for ligaments based on a single-integral nonlinear superposition model. This interrelation differs from the convolution relation obtained by Laplace transforms for linear materials. We demonstrate via continuum concepts of nonlinear viscoelasticity that such a difference in rate between creep and relaxation phenomenologically occurs when the nonlinearity is of a strain-stiffening type, i.e., the stress-strain curve is concave up as observed in ligament. We also show that it is inconsistent to assume a Fung-type constitutive law (Fung, 1972) for both creep and relaxation. Using the published data of Thornton et al. (1997), the nonlinear interrelation developed herein predicts creep behavior from relaxation data well (R > or = 0.998). Although data are limited and the causal mechanisms associated with viscoelastic tissue behavior are complex, continuum concepts demonstrated here appear capable of interrelating creep and relaxation with fidelity.

  3. Neurogenetics of Drosophila circadian clock: expect the unexpected.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jarabo, Patricia; Martin, Francisco A

    2017-12-01

    Daily biological rhythms (i.e. circadian) are a fundamental part of animal behavior. Numerous reports have shown disruptions of the biological clock in neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. In the latter case, only recently we have gained insight into the molecular mechanisms. After 45 years of intense study of the circadian rhtythms, we find surprising similarities among species on the molecular clock that governs biological rhythms. Indeed, Drosophila is one of the most widely used models in the study of chronobiology. Recent studies in the fruit fly have revealed unpredicted roles for the clock machinery in different aspects of behavior and physiology. Not only the central pacemaker cells do have non-classical circadian functions but also circadian genes work in other cells and tissues different from central clock neurons. In this review, we summarize these new evidences. We also recapitulate the most basic features of Drosophila circadian clock, including recent data about the inputs and outputs that connect the central pacemaker with other regions of the brain. Finally, we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of using natural versus laboratory conditions.

  4. Sub-Shot-Noise Magnetometry with a Correlated Spin-Relaxation Dominated Alkali-Metal Vapor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kominis, I. K.

    2008-01-01

    Spin noise sets fundamental limits to the precision of measurements using spin-polarized atomic vapors, such as performed with sensitive atomic magnetometers. Spin squeezing offers the possibility to extend the measurement precision beyond the standard quantum limit of uncorrelated atoms. Contrary to current understanding, we show that, even in the presence of spin relaxation, spin squeezing can lead to a significant reduction of spin noise, and hence an increase in magnetometric sensitivity, for a long measurement time. This is the case when correlated spin relaxation due to binary alkali-atom collisions dominates independently acting decoherence processes, a situation realized in thermal high atom-density magnetometers and clocks

  5. A Light Clock Satisfying the Clock Hypothesis of Special Relativity

    Science.gov (United States)

    West, Joseph

    2007-01-01

    The design of the FMEL, a floor-mirrored Einstein-Langevin "light clock", is introduced. The clock provides a physically intuitive manner to calculate and visualize the time dilation effects for a spatially extended set of observers (an accelerated "frame") undergoing unidirectional acceleration or observers on a rotating cylinder of constant…

  6. Circadian clock, cell cycle and cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cansu Özbayer

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available There are a few rhythms of our daily lives that we are under the influence. One of them is characterized by predictable changes over a 24-hour timescale called circadian clock. This cellular clock is coordinated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the anterior hypothalamus. The clock consist of an autoregulatory transcription-translation feedback loop compose of four genes/proteins; BMAL1, Clock, Cyrptochrome, and Period. BMAL 1 and Clock are transcriptional factors and Period and Cyrptochrome are their targets. Period and Cyrptochrome dimerize in the cytoplasm to enter the nucleus where they inhibit Clock/BMAL activity.It has been demonstrate that circadian clock plays an important role cellular proliferation, DNA damage and repair mechanisms, checkpoints, apoptosis and cancer.

  7. Anomalous NMR Relaxation in Cartilage Matrix Components and Native Cartilage: Fractional-Order Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magin, Richard L.; Li, Weiguo; Velasco, M. Pilar; Trujillo, Juan; Reiter, David A.; Morgenstern, Ashley; Spencer, Richard G.

    2011-01-01

    We present a fractional-order extension of the Bloch equations to describe anomalous NMR relaxation phenomena (T1 and T2). The model has solutions in the form of Mittag-Leffler and stretched exponential functions that generalize conventional exponential relaxation. Such functions have been shown by others to be useful for describing dielectric and viscoelastic relaxation in complex, heterogeneous materials. Here, we apply these fractional-order T1 and T2 relaxation models to experiments performed at 9.4 and 11.7 Tesla on type I collagen gels, chondroitin sulfate mixtures, and to bovine nasal cartilage (BNC), a largely isotropic and homogeneous form of cartilage. The results show that the fractional-order analysis captures important features of NMR relaxation that are typically described by multi-exponential decay models. We find that the T2 relaxation of BNC can be described in a unique way by a single fractional-order parameter (α), in contrast to the lack of uniqueness of multi-exponential fits in the realistic setting of a finite signal-to-noise ratio. No anomalous behavior of T1 was observed in BNC. In the single-component gels, for T2 measurements, increasing the concentration of the largest components of cartilage matrix, collagen and chondroitin sulfate, results in a decrease in α, reflecting a more restricted aqueous environment. The quality of the curve fits obtained using Mittag-Leffler and stretched exponential functions are in some cases superior to those obtained using mono- and bi-exponential models. In both gels and BNC, α appears to account for microstructural complexity in the setting of an altered distribution of relaxation times. This work suggests the utility of fractional-order models to describe T2 NMR relaxation processes in biological tissues. PMID:21498095

  8. Differential maturation of rhythmic clock gene expression during early development in medaka (Oryzias latipes).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cuesta, Ines H; Lahiri, Kajori; Lopez-Olmeda, Jose Fernando; Loosli, Felix; Foulkes, Nicholas S; Vallone, Daniela

    2014-05-01

    One key challenge for the field of chronobiology is to identify how circadian clock function emerges during early embryonic development. Teleosts such as the zebrafish are ideal models for studying circadian clock ontogeny since the entire process of development occurs ex utero in an optically transparent chorion. Medaka (Oryzias latipes) represents another powerful fish model for exploring early clock function with, like the zebrafish, many tools available for detailed genetic analysis. However, to date there have been no reports documenting circadian clock gene expression during medaka development. Here we have characterized the expression of key clock genes in various developmental stages and in adult tissues of medaka. As previously reported for other fish, light dark cycles are required for the emergence of clock gene expression rhythms in this species. While rhythmic expression of per and cry genes is detected very early during development and seems to be light driven, rhythmic clock and bmal expression appears much later around hatching time. Furthermore, the maturation of clock function seems to correlate with the appearance of rhythmic expression of these positive elements of the clock feedback loop. By accelerating development through elevated temperatures or by artificially removing the chorion, we show an earlier onset of rhythmicity in clock and bmal expression. Thus, differential maturation of key elements of the medaka clock mechanism depends on the developmental stage and the presence of the chorion.

  9. Redox rhythm reinforces the circadian clock to gate immune response.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Mian; Wang, Wei; Karapetyan, Sargis; Mwimba, Musoki; Marqués, Jorge; Buchler, Nicolas E; Dong, Xinnian

    2015-07-23

    Recent studies have shown that in addition to the transcriptional circadian clock, many organisms, including Arabidopsis, have a circadian redox rhythm driven by the organism's metabolic activities. It has been hypothesized that the redox rhythm is linked to the circadian clock, but the mechanism and the biological significance of this link have only begun to be investigated. Here we report that the master immune regulator NPR1 (non-expressor of pathogenesis-related gene 1) of Arabidopsis is a sensor of the plant's redox state and regulates transcription of core circadian clock genes even in the absence of pathogen challenge. Surprisingly, acute perturbation in the redox status triggered by the immune signal salicylic acid does not compromise the circadian clock but rather leads to its reinforcement. Mathematical modelling and subsequent experiments show that NPR1 reinforces the circadian clock without changing the period by regulating both the morning and the evening clock genes. This balanced network architecture helps plants gate their immune responses towards the morning and minimize costs on growth at night. Our study demonstrates how a sensitive redox rhythm interacts with a robust circadian clock to ensure proper responsiveness to environmental stimuli without compromising fitness of the organism.

  10. Controllable clock circuit design in PEM system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sun Yunhua; Wang Peihua; Hu Tingting; Feng Baotong; Shuai Lei; Huang Huan; Wei Shujun; Li Ke; Zhao Jingwei; Wei Long

    2011-01-01

    A high-precision synchronized clock circuit design will be presented, which can supply steady, reliable and anti-jamming clock signal for the data acquirement (DAQ) system of Positron Emission Mammography (PEM). This circuit design is based on the Single-Chip Microcomputer and high-precision clock chip, and can achieve multiple controllable clock signals. The jamming between the clock signals can be reduced greatly with the differential transmission. Meanwhile, the adoption of CAN bus control in the clock circuit can prompt the clock signals to be transmitted or masked simultaneously when needed. (authors)

  11. Controllable clock circuit design in PEM system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sun Yunhua; Wang Peilin; Hu Tingting; Feng Baotong; Shuai Lei; Huang Huan; Wei Shujun; Li Ke; Zhao Jingwei; Wei Long

    2010-01-01

    A high-precision synchronized clock circuit design will be presented, which can supply steady, reliable and anti-jamming clock signal for the data acquirement (DAQ) system of Positron Emission Mammography (PEM). This circuit design is based on the Single-Chip Microcomputer and high-precision clock chip, and can achieve multiple controllable clock signals. The jamming between the clock signals can be reduced greatly with the differential transmission. Meanwhile, the adoption of CAN bus control in the clock circuit can prompt the clock signals to be transmitted or masked simultaneously when needed. (authors)

  12. Sandpile model for relaxation in complex systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vazquez, A.; Sotolongo-Costa, O.; Brouers, F.

    1997-10-01

    The relaxation in complex systems is, in general, nonexponential. After an initial rapid decay the system relaxes slowly following a long time tail. In the present paper a sandpile moderation of the relaxation in complex systems is analysed. Complexity is introduced by a process of avalanches in the Bethe lattice and a feedback mechanism which leads to slower decay with increasing time. In this way, some features of relaxation in complex systems: long time tails relaxation, aging, and fractal distribution of characteristic times, are obtained by simple computer simulations. (author)

  13. GPS Composite Clock Analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Wright, James R.

    2008-01-01

    The GPS composite clock defines GPS time, the timescale used today in GPS operations. GPS time is illuminated by examination of its role in the complete estimation and control problem relative to UTC/TAI. The phase of each GPS clock is unobservable from GPS pseudorange measurements, and the mean phase of the GPS clock ensemble (GPS time) is unobservable. A new and useful observability definition is presented, together with new observability theorems, to demonstrate explicitly that GPS time is...

  14. Central and peripheral circadian clocks and their role in Alzheimer's disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruchi Chauhan

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Molecular and cellular oscillations constitute an internal clock that tracks the time of day and permits organisms to optimize their behaviour and metabolism to suit the daily demands they face. The workings of this internal clock become impaired with age. In this review, we discuss whether such age-related impairments in the circadian clock interact with age-related neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. Findings from mouse and fly models of Alzheimer's disease have accelerated our understanding of the interaction between neurodegeneration and circadian biology. These models show that neurodegeneration likely impairs circadian rhythms either by damaging the central clock or by blocking its communication with other brain areas and with peripheral tissues. The consequent sleep and metabolic deficits could enhance the susceptibility of the brain to further degenerative processes. Thus, circadian dysfunction might be both a cause and an effect of neurodegeneration. We also discuss the primary role of light in the entrainment of the central clock and describe important, alternative time signals, such as food, that play a role in entraining central and peripheral circadian clocks. Finally, we propose how these recent insights could inform efforts to develop novel therapeutic approaches to re-entrain arrhythmic individuals with neurodegenerative disease.

  15. Automatic control of clock duty cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Xiaoxin (Inventor); Roper, Weston (Inventor); Seefeldt, James D. (Inventor)

    2010-01-01

    In general, this disclosure is directed to a duty cycle correction (DCC) circuit that adjusts a falling edge of a clock signal to achieve a desired duty cycle. In some examples, the DCC circuit may generate a pulse in response to a falling edge of an input clock signal, delay the pulse based on a control voltage, adjust the falling edge of the input clock signal based on the delayed pulse to produce an output clock signal, and adjust the control voltage based on the difference between a duty cycle of the output clock signal and a desired duty cycle. Since the DCC circuit adjusts the falling edge of the clock cycle to achieve a desired duty cycle, the DCC may be incorporated into existing PLL control loops that adjust the rising edge of a clock signal without interfering with the operation of such PLL control loops.

  16. Variational formulation of relaxed and multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dewar, R. L.; Yoshida, Z.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Hudson, S. R.

    2015-12-01

    > Ideal magnetohydrodynamics (IMHD) is strongly constrained by an infinite number of microscopic constraints expressing mass, entropy and magnetic flux conservation in each infinitesimal fluid element, the latter preventing magnetic reconnection. By contrast, in the Taylor relaxation model for formation of macroscopically self-organized plasma equilibrium states, all these constraints are relaxed save for the global magnetic fluxes and helicity. A Lagrangian variational principle is presented that leads to a new, fully dynamical, relaxed magnetohydrodynamics (RxMHD), such that all static solutions are Taylor states but also allows state with flow. By postulating that some long-lived macroscopic current sheets can act as barriers to relaxation, separating the plasma into multiple relaxation regions, a further generalization, multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamics (MRxMHD) is developed.

  17. NMR relaxation induced by iron oxide particles: testing theoretical models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gossuin, Y; Orlando, T; Basini, M; Henrard, D; Lascialfari, A; Mattea, C; Stapf, S; Vuong, Q L

    2016-04-15

    Superparamagnetic iron oxide particles find their main application as contrast agents for cellular and molecular magnetic resonance imaging. The contrast they bring is due to the shortening of the transverse relaxation time T 2 of water protons. In order to understand their influence on proton relaxation, different theoretical relaxation models have been developed, each of them presenting a certain validity domain, which depends on the particle characteristics and proton dynamics. The validation of these models is crucial since they allow for predicting the ideal particle characteristics for obtaining the best contrast but also because the fitting of T 1 experimental data by the theory constitutes an interesting tool for the characterization of the nanoparticles. In this work, T 2 of suspensions of iron oxide particles in different solvents and at different temperatures, corresponding to different proton diffusion properties, were measured and were compared to the three main theoretical models (the motional averaging regime, the static dephasing regime, and the partial refocusing model) with good qualitative agreement. However, a real quantitative agreement was not observed, probably because of the complexity of these nanoparticulate systems. The Roch theory, developed in the motional averaging regime (MAR), was also successfully used to fit T 1 nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion (NMRD) profiles, even outside the MAR validity range, and provided a good estimate of the particle size. On the other hand, the simultaneous fitting of T 1 and T 2 NMRD profiles by the theory was impossible, and this occurrence constitutes a clear limitation of the Roch model. Finally, the theory was shown to satisfactorily fit the deuterium T 1 NMRD profile of superparamagnetic particle suspensions in heavy water.

  18. Detecting an atomic clock frequency anomaly using an adaptive Kalman filter algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Huijie; Dong, Shaowu; Wu, Wenjun; Jiang, Meng; Wang, Weixiong

    2018-06-01

    The abnormal frequencies of an atomic clock mainly include frequency jump and frequency drift jump. Atomic clock frequency anomaly detection is a key technique in time-keeping. The Kalman filter algorithm, as a linear optimal algorithm, has been widely used in real-time detection for abnormal frequency. In order to obtain an optimal state estimation, the observation model and dynamic model of the Kalman filter algorithm should satisfy Gaussian white noise conditions. The detection performance is degraded if anomalies affect the observation model or dynamic model. The idea of the adaptive Kalman filter algorithm, applied to clock frequency anomaly detection, uses the residuals given by the prediction for building ‘an adaptive factor’ the prediction state covariance matrix is real-time corrected by the adaptive factor. The results show that the model error is reduced and the detection performance is improved. The effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by the frequency jump simulation, the frequency drift jump simulation and the measured data of the atomic clock by using the chi-square test.

  19. Atomic and gravitational clocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Canuto, V.M.; City Coll., New York; Goldman, I.

    1982-01-01

    Atomic and gravitational clocks are governed by the laws of electrodynamics and gravity respectively. While the strong equivalence principle (SEP) assumes that the two clocks have been synchronous at all times, recent planetary data seem to suggest a possible violation of the SEP. Past analysis of the implications of an SEP violation on different physical phenomena revealed no disagreement. However, these studies assumed that the two different clocks can be consistently constructed within the framework. The concept of scale invariance, and the physical meaning of different systems of units, are now reviewed and the construction of two clocks that do not remain synchronous-whose rates are related by a non-constant function βsub(a)-is demonstrated. The cosmological character of βsub(a) is also discussed. (author)

  20. Egyptian "Star Clocks"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Symons, Sarah

    Diagonal, transit, and Ramesside star clocks are tables of astronomical information occasionally found in ancient Egyptian temples, tombs, and papyri. The tables represent the motions of selected stars (decans and hour stars) throughout the Egyptian civil year. Analysis of star clocks leads to greater understanding of ancient Egyptian constellations, ritual astronomical activities, observational practices, and pharaonic chronology.

  1. Design and Construction of an Atomic Clock on an Atom Chip

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reinhard, Friedemann

    2009-01-01

    We describe the design and construction of an atomic clock on an atom chip, intended as a secondary standard, with a stability in the range of few 10 -13 at 1 s. This clock is based on a two-photon transition between the hyperfine states |F = 1; m F = -1> and |2; 1> of the electronic ground state of the 87 Rb atom. This transition is interrogated using a Ramsey scheme, operating on either a cloud of thermal atoms or a Bose-Einstein condensate. In contrast to atomic fountain clocks, this clock is magnetically trapped on an atom chip. We describe a theoretical model of the clock stability and the design and construction of a dedicated apparatus. It is able to control the magnetic field at the relative 10 -5 level and features a hybrid atom chip, containing DC conductors as well as a microwave transmission line for the clock interrogation. (author)

  2. "On Clocks and Clouds:" Confirming and Interpreting Climate Models as Scientific Hypotheses (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donner, L.

    2009-12-01

    The certainty of climate change projected under various scenarios of emissions using general circulation models is an issue of vast societal importance. Unlike numerical weather prediction, a problem to which general circulation models are also applied, projected climate changes usually lie outside of the range of external forcings for which the models generating these changes have been directly evaluated. This presentation views climate models as complex scientific hypotheses and thereby frames these models within a well-defined process of both advancing scientific knowledge and recognizing its limitations. Karl Popper's Logik der Forschung (The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1934) and 1965 essay “On Clocks and Clouds” capture well the methodologies and challenges associated with constructing climate models. Indeed, the process of a problem situation generating tentative theories, refined by error elimination, characterizes aptly the routine of general circulation model development. Limitations on certainty arise from the distinction Popper perceived in types of natural processes, which he exemplified by clocks, capable of exact measurement, and clouds, subject only to statistical approximation. Remarkably, the representation of clouds in general circulation models remains the key uncertainty in understanding atmospheric aspects of climate change. The asymmetry of hypothesis falsification by negation and much vaguer development of confidence in hypotheses consistent with some of their implications is an important practical challenge to confirming climate models. The presentation will discuss the ways in which predictions made by climate models for observable aspects of the present and past climate can be regarded as falsifiable hypotheses. The presentation will also include reasons why “passing” these tests does not provide complete confidence in predictions about the future by climate models. Finally, I will suggest that a “reductionist” view, in

  3. Model-based investigation of the circadian clock and cell cycle coupling in mouse embryonic fibroblasts: Prediction of RevErb-α up-regulation during mitosis

    OpenAIRE

    Traynard , Pauline; Feillet , Céline; Soliman , Sylvain; Delaunay , Franck; Fages , François

    2016-01-01

    International audience; Experimental observations have put in evidence autonomous self-sustained circadian oscillators in most mammalian cells, and proved the existence of molecular links between the circadian clock and the cell cycle. Some mathematical models have also been built to assess conditions of control of the cell cycle by the circadian clock. However, recent studies in individual NIH3T3 fibroblasts have shown an unexpected acceleration of the circadian clock together with the cell ...

  4. Modelling anelastic contribution to nuclear fuel cladding creep and stress relaxation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tulkki, Ville, E-mail: ville.tulkki@vtt.fi; Ikonen, Timo

    2015-10-15

    In fuel behaviour modelling accurate description of the cladding mechanical response is important for both operational and safety considerations. While accuracy is desired, a certain level of simplicity is needed as both computational resources and detailed information on properties of particular cladding may be limited. Most models currently used in the integral codes divide the mechanical response into elastic and viscoplastic contributions. These have difficulties in describing both creep and stress relaxation, and often separate models for the two phenomena are used. In this paper we implement anelastic contribution to the cladding mechanical model, thus enabling consistent modelling of both creep and stress relaxation. We show that the model based on assumption of viscoelastic behaviour can be used to explain several experimental observations in transient situations and compare the model to published set of creep and stress relaxation experiments performed on similar samples. Based on the analysis presented we argue that the inclusion of anelastic contribution to the cladding mechanical models provides a way to improve the simulation of cladding behaviour during operational transients.

  5. A VMEbus clock system for accelerator control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beechy, D.G.; McClure, C.R.

    1992-01-01

    Because an accelerator has many systems which must operate with a high degree of synchronization, a clock signal is typically generated which carries timing information to the various accelerator components. This paper discusses two VMEbus modules designed to generate and receive this clock signal. Together they implement a clock system which can generate timing markers with 200 nanosecond resolution and can generate timing delays of over one hour with one microsecond resolution. The Clock Generator module contains both a time line generator programmed to produce clock events at specific times and eight programmable input channels to produce clock events when externally triggered. Additional clock events are generated directly from the VMEbus. Generators can be cascaded for added capability. The Clock Timer module receives the signal from the generator. It can be programmed to recognize specific clock events which act as triggers to the eight timing channels on the module. Each timing channel is programmed with a 32-bit delay value. The channels are clocked at 1 MHz. At the end of the delay period, a timer channel produces an output pulse and optionally can generate a bus interrupt

  6. An analysis of clock-shift experiments: is scatter increased and deflection reduced in clock-shifted homing pigeons?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chappell

    1997-01-01

    Clock-shifting (altering the phase of the internal clock) in homing pigeons leads to a deflection in the vanishing bearing of the clock-shifted group relative to controls. However, two unexplained phenomena are common in clock-shift experiments: the vanishing bearings of the clock-shifted group are often more scattered (with a shorter vector length) than those of the control group, and the deflection of the mean bearing of the clock-shifted group from that of the controls is often smaller than expected theoretically. Here, an analysis of 55 clock-shift experiments performed in four countries over 21 years is reported. The bearings of the clock-shifted groups were significantly more scattered than those of controls and less deflected than expected, but these effects were not significantly different at familiar and unfamiliar sites. The possible causes of the effects are discussed and evaluated with reference to this analysis and other experiments. The most likely causes appear to be conflict between the directions indicated by the sun compass and either unshifted familiar visual landmarks (at familiar sites only) or the unshifted magnetic compass (possible at both familiar and unfamiliar sites).

  7. High Performance Clocks and Gravity Field Determination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Müller, J.; Dirkx, D.; Kopeikin, S. M.; Lion, G.; Panet, I.; Petit, G.; Visser, P. N. A. M.

    2018-02-01

    Time measured by an ideal clock crucially depends on the gravitational potential and velocity of the clock according to general relativity. Technological advances in manufacturing high-precision atomic clocks have rapidly improved their accuracy and stability over the last decade that approached the level of 10^{-18}. This notable achievement along with the direct sensitivity of clocks to the strength of the gravitational field make them practically important for various geodetic applications that are addressed in the present paper. Based on a fully relativistic description of the background gravitational physics, we discuss the impact of those highly-precise clocks on the realization of reference frames and time scales used in geodesy. We discuss the current definitions of basic geodetic concepts and come to the conclusion that the advances in clocks and other metrological technologies will soon require the re-definition of time scales or, at least, clarification to ensure their continuity and consistent use in practice. The relative frequency shift between two clocks is directly related to the difference in the values of the gravity potential at the points of clock's localization. According to general relativity the relative accuracy of clocks in 10^{-18} is equivalent to measuring the gravitational red shift effect between two clocks with the height difference amounting to 1 cm. This makes the clocks an indispensable tool in high-precision geodesy in addition to laser ranging and space geodetic techniques. We show how clock measurements can provide geopotential numbers for the realization of gravity-field-related height systems and can resolve discrepancies in classically-determined height systems as well as between national height systems. Another application of clocks is the direct use of observed potential differences for the improved recovery of regional gravity field solutions. Finally, clock measurements for space-borne gravimetry are analyzed along with

  8. Prediction of Navigation Satellite Clock Bias Considering Clock's Stochastic Variation Behavior with Robust Least Square Collocation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WANG Yupu

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In order to better express the characteristic of satellite clock bias (SCB and further improve its prediction precision, a new SCB prediction model is proposed, which can take the physical feature, cyclic variation and stochastic variation behaviors of the space-borne atomic clock into consideration by using a robust least square collocation (LSC method. The proposed model firstly uses a quadratic polynomial model with periodic terms to fit and abstract the trend term and cyclic terms of SCB. Then for the residual stochastic variation part and possible gross errors hidden in SCB data, the model employs a robust LSC method to process them. The covariance function of the LSC is determined by selecting an empirical function and combining SCB prediction tests. Using the final precise IGS SCB products to conduct prediction tests, the results show that the proposed model can get better prediction performance. Specifically, the results' prediction accuracy can enhance 0.457 ns and 0.948 ns respectively, and the corresponding prediction stability can improve 0.445 ns and 1.233 ns, compared with the results of quadratic polynomial model and grey model. In addition, the results also show that the proposed covariance function corresponding to the new model is reasonable.

  9. Multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model for compressible fluids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen Feng; Xu Aiguo; Zhang Guangcai; Li Yingjun

    2011-01-01

    We present an energy-conserving multiple-relaxation-time finite difference lattice Boltzmann model for compressible flows. The collision step is first calculated in the moment space and then mapped back to the velocity space. The moment space and corresponding transformation matrix are constructed according to the group representation theory. Equilibria of the nonconserved moments are chosen according to the need of recovering compressible Navier-Stokes equations through the Chapman-Enskog expansion. Numerical experiments showed that compressible flows with strong shocks can be well simulated by the present model. The new model works for both low and high speeds compressible flows. It contains more physical information and has better numerical stability and accuracy than its single-relaxation-time version. - Highlights: → We present an energy-conserving MRT finite-difference LB model. → The moment space is constructed according to the group representation theory. → The new model works for both low and high speeds compressible flows. → It has better numerical stability and wider applicable range than its SRT version.

  10. Circadian Clock Dysfunction and Psychiatric Disease: Could Fruit Flies have a Say?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zordan, Mauro Agostino; Sandrelli, Federica

    2015-01-01

    There is evidence of a link between the circadian system and psychiatric diseases. Studies in humans and mammals suggest that environmental and/or genetic disruption of the circadian system leads to an increased liability to psychiatric disease. Disruption of clock genes and/or the clock network might be related to the etiology of these pathologies; also, some genes, known for their circadian clock functions, might be associated to mental illnesses through clock-independent pleiotropy. Here, we examine the features which we believe make Drosophila melanogaster a model apt to study the role of the circadian clock in psychiatric disease. Despite differences in the organization of the clock system, the molecular architecture of the Drosophila and mammalian circadian oscillators are comparable and many components are evolutionarily related. In addition, Drosophila has a rather complex nervous system, which shares much at the cell and neurobiological level with humans, i.e., a tripartite brain, the main neurotransmitter systems, and behavioral traits: circadian behavior, learning and memory, motivation, addiction, social behavior. There is evidence that the Drosophila brain shares some homologies with the vertebrate cerebellum, basal ganglia, and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, the dysfunctions of which have been tied to mental illness. We discuss Drosophila in comparison to mammals with reference to the: organization of the brain and neurotransmitter systems; architecture of the circadian clock; clock-controlled behaviors. We sum up current knowledge on behavioral endophenotypes, which are amenable to modeling in flies, such as defects involving sleep, cognition, or social interactions, and discuss the relationship of the circadian system to these traits. Finally, we consider if Drosophila could be a valuable asset to understand the relationship between circadian clock malfunction and psychiatric disease.

  11. Circadian clock dysfunction and psychiatric disease: could fruit flies have a say?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mauro Agostino Zordan

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available There is evidence of a link between the circadian system and psychiatric diseases. Studies in humans and mammals suggest that environmental and/or genetic disruption of the circadian system lead to an increased liability to psychiatric disease. Disruption of clock genes and/or the clock network might be related to the etiology of these pathologies; also, some genes, known for their circadian clock functions, might be associated to mental illnesses through clock-independent pleiotropy. Here we examine the features which we believe make Drosophila melanogaster a model apt to study the role of the circadian clock in psychiatric disease. Despite differences in the organization of the clock system, the molecular architecture of the Drosophila and mammalian circadian oscillators are comparable and many components are evolutionarily related. In addition, Drosophila has a rather complex nervous system, which shares much at the cell and neurobiological level with humans, i.e. a tripartite brain, the main neurotransmitter systems, and behavioral traits: circadian behavior, learning and memory, motivation, addiction, social behavior. There is evidence that the Drosophila brain shares some homologies with the vertebrate cerebellum, basal ganglia and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, the dysfunctions of which have been tied to mental illness. We discuss Drosophila in comparison to mammals with reference to the: organization of the brain and neurotransmitter systems; architecture of the circadian clock; clock-controlled behaviors. We sum up current knowledge on behavioral endophenotypes which are amenable to modeling in flies, such as defects involving sleep, cognition, or social interactions and discuss the relationship of the circadian system to these traits. Finally, we consider if Drosophila could be a valuable asset to understand the relationship between circadian clock malfunction and psychiatric disease.

  12. Minimal tool set for a prokaryotic circadian clock.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmelling, Nicolas M; Lehmann, Robert; Chaudhury, Paushali; Beck, Christian; Albers, Sonja-Verena; Axmann, Ilka M; Wiegard, Anika

    2017-07-21

    Circadian clocks are found in organisms of almost all domains including photosynthetic Cyanobacteria, whereby large diversity exists within the protein components involved. In the model cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 circadian rhythms are driven by a unique KaiABC protein clock, which is embedded in a network of input and output factors. Homologous proteins to the KaiABC clock have been observed in Bacteria and Archaea, where evidence for circadian behavior in these domains is accumulating. However, interaction and function of non-cyanobacterial Kai-proteins as well as homologous input and output components remain mainly unclear. Using a universal BLAST analyses, we identified putative KaiC-based timing systems in organisms outside as well as variations within Cyanobacteria. A systematic analyses of publicly available microarray data elucidated interesting variations in circadian gene expression between different cyanobacterial strains, which might be correlated to the diversity of genome encoded clock components. Based on statistical analyses of co-occurrences of the clock components homologous to Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, we propose putative networks of reduced and fully functional clock systems. Further, we studied KaiC sequence conservation to determine functionally important regions of diverged KaiC homologs. Biochemical characterization of exemplary cyanobacterial KaiC proteins as well as homologs from two thermophilic Archaea demonstrated that kinase activity is always present. However, a KaiA-mediated phosphorylation is only detectable in KaiC1 orthologs. Our analysis of 11,264 genomes clearly demonstrates that components of the Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 circadian clock are present in Bacteria and Archaea. However, all components are less abundant in other organisms than Cyanobacteria and KaiA, Pex, LdpA, and CdpA are only present in the latter. Thus, only reduced KaiBC-based or even simpler, solely KaiC-based timing systems

  13. Noise in state of the art clocks and their impact for fundamental physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maleki, L.

    2001-01-01

    In this paper a review of the use of advanced atomic clocks in testing the fundamental physical laws will be presented. Noise sources of clocks will be discussed, together with an outline their characterization based on current models. The paper will conclude with a discussion of recent attempts to reduce the fundamental, as well as technical noise in atomic clocks.

  14. Model-based investigation of the circadian clock and cell cycle coupling in mouse embryonic fibroblasts: Prediction of RevErb-α up-regulation during mitosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Traynard, Pauline; Feillet, Céline; Soliman, Sylvain; Delaunay, Franck; Fages, François

    2016-11-01

    Experimental observations have put in evidence autonomous self-sustained circadian oscillators in most mammalian cells, and proved the existence of molecular links between the circadian clock and the cell cycle. Some mathematical models have also been built to assess conditions of control of the cell cycle by the circadian clock. However, recent studies in individual NIH3T3 fibroblasts have shown an unexpected acceleration of the circadian clock together with the cell cycle when the culture medium is enriched with growth factors, and the absence of such acceleration in confluent cells. In order to explain these observations, we study a possible entrainment of the circadian clock by the cell cycle through a regulation of clock genes around the mitosis phase. We develop a computational model and a formal specification of the observed behavior to investigate the conditions of entrainment in period and phase. We show that either the selective activation of RevErb-α or the selective inhibition of Bmal1 transcription during the mitosis phase, allow us to fit the experimental data on both period and phase, while a uniform inhibition of transcription during mitosis seems incompatible with the phase data. We conclude on the arguments favoring the RevErb-α up-regulation hypothesis and on some further predictions of the model. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Circadian rhythms and light responsiveness of mammalian clock gene, Clock and BMAL1, transcripts in the rat retina.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Namihira, M; Honma, S; Abe, H; Tanahashi, Y; Ikeda, M; Honma, K

    1999-08-13

    Circadian expression and light-responsiveness of the mammalian clock genes, Clock and BMAL1, in the rat retina were examined by in situ hydbribization under constant darkness. A small but significant daily variation was detected in the Clock transcript level, but not in BMAL1. Light increased the Clock and BMAL1 expressions significantly when examined 60 min after exposure. The light-induced gene expression was phase-dependent for Clock and peaked at ZT2, while rather constant throughout the day for BMAL1. These findings suggest that Clock and BMAL1 play different roles in the generation of circadian rhytm in the retina from those in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Different roles are also suggested between the two genes in the photic signal transduction in the retina.

  16. Causes and consequences of hyperexcitation in central clock neurons.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Casey O Diekman

    Full Text Available Hyperexcited states, including depolarization block and depolarized low amplitude membrane oscillations (DLAMOs, have been observed in neurons of the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN, the site of the central mammalian circadian (~24-hour clock. The causes and consequences of this hyperexcitation have not yet been determined. Here, we explore how individual ionic currents contribute to these hyperexcited states, and how hyperexcitation can then influence molecular circadian timekeeping within SCN neurons. We developed a mathematical model of the electrical activity of SCN neurons, and experimentally verified its prediction that DLAMOs depend on post-synaptic L-type calcium current. The model predicts that hyperexcited states cause high intracellular calcium concentrations, which could trigger transcription of clock genes. The model also predicts that circadian control of certain ionic currents can induce hyperexcited states. Putting it all together into an integrative model, we show how membrane potential and calcium concentration provide a fast feedback that can enhance rhythmicity of the intracellular circadian clock. This work puts forward a novel role for electrical activity in circadian timekeeping, and suggests that hyperexcited states provide a general mechanism for linking membrane electrical dynamics to transcription activation in the nucleus.

  17. Drosophila: An Emergent Model for Delineating Interactions between the Circadian Clock and Drugs of Abuse

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aliza K. De Nobrega

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Endogenous circadian oscillators orchestrate rhythms at the cellular, physiological, and behavioral levels across species to coordinate activity, for example, sleep/wake cycles, metabolism, and learning and memory, with predictable environmental cycles. The 21st century has seen a dramatic rise in the incidence of circadian and sleep disorders with globalization, technological advances, and the use of personal electronics. The circadian clock modulates alcohol- and drug-induced behaviors with circadian misalignment contributing to increased substance use and abuse. Invertebrate models, such as Drosophila melanogaster, have proven invaluable for the identification of genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying highly conserved processes including the circadian clock, drug tolerance, and reward systems. In this review, we highlight the contributions of Drosophila as a model system for understanding the bidirectional interactions between the circadian system and the drugs of abuse, alcohol and cocaine, and illustrate the highly conserved nature of these interactions between Drosophila and mammalian systems. Research in Drosophila provides mechanistic insights into the corresponding behaviors in higher organisms and can be used as a guide for targeted inquiries in mammals.

  18. Light and the human circadian clock

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roenneberg, Till; Kantermann, Thomas; Juda, Myriam; Vetter, Céline; Allebrandt, Karla V

    2013-01-01

    The circadian clock can only reliably fulfil its function if it is stably entrained. Most clocks use the light-dark cycle as environmental signal (zeitgeber) for this active synchronisation. How we think about clock function and entrainment has been strongly influenced by the early concepts of the

  19. A network of (autonomic) clock outputs

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kalsbeek, A.; Perreau-Lenz, S.; Buijs, R. M.

    2006-01-01

    The circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) is composed of thousands of oscillator neurons, each dependent on the cell-autonomous action of a defined set of circadian clock genes. A major question is still how these individual oscillators are organized into a biological clock that

  20. Towards Self-Clocked Gated OCDMA Receiver

    Science.gov (United States)

    Idris, S.; Osadola, T.; Glesk, I.

    2013-02-01

    A novel incoherent OCDMA receiver with incorporated all-optical clock recovery for self-synchronization of a time gate for the multi access interferences (MAI) suppression and minimizing the effect of data time jitter in incoherent OCDMA system was successfully developed and demonstrated. The solution was implemented and tested in a multiuser environment in an out of the laboratory OCDMA testbed with two-dimensional wavelength-hopping time-spreading coding scheme and OC-48 (2.5 Gbp/s) data rate. The self-clocked all-optical time gate uses SOA-based fibre ring laser optical clock, recovered all-optically from the received OCDMA traffic to control its switching window for cleaning the autocorrelation peak from the surrounding MAI. A wider eye opening was achieved when the all-optically recovered clock from received data was used for synchronization if compared to a static approach with the RF clock being generated by a RF synthesizer. Clean eye diagram was also achieved when recovered clock is used to drive time gating.

  1. Relaxation approximations to second-order traffic flow models by high-resolution schemes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nikolos, I.K.; Delis, A.I.; Papageorgiou, M.

    2015-01-01

    A relaxation-type approximation of second-order non-equilibrium traffic models, written in conservation or balance law form, is considered. Using the relaxation approximation, the nonlinear equations are transformed to a semi-linear diagonilizable problem with linear characteristic variables and stiff source terms with the attractive feature that neither Riemann solvers nor characteristic decompositions are in need. In particular, it is only necessary to provide the flux and source term functions and an estimate of the characteristic speeds. To discretize the resulting relaxation system, high-resolution reconstructions in space are considered. Emphasis is given on a fifth-order WENO scheme and its performance. The computations reported demonstrate the simplicity and versatility of relaxation schemes as numerical solvers

  2. Could Atomic clocks be affected by neutrinos?

    CERN Document Server

    Hanafi, Hanaa

    2016-01-01

    An atomic clock is a clock device that uses an electronic transition frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms as a frequency standard in order to derive a time standard since time is the reciprocal of frequency. If the electronic transition frequencies are in an "optical region", we are talking in this case about optical atomic clocks. If they are in an "microwave region" these atomic clocks are made of the metallic element cesium so they are called Cesium atomic clocks. Atomic clocks are the most accurate time and frequency standards known despite the different perturbations that can affect them, a lot of researches were made in this domain to show how the transitions can be different for different type of perturbations..Since atomic clocks are very sensitive devices, based on coherent states (A coherent state tends to loose coherence after interacting). One question can arise (from a lot of questions) which is why cosmic neutrinos are not affecting these clocks? The answer to this question requir...

  3. A network of (autonomic) clock outputs

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kalsbeek, A.; Perreau-Lenz, S.; Buijs, R. M.

    2006-01-01

    The circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) is composed of thousands of oscillator neurons, each of which is dependent on the cell-autonomous action of a defined set of circadian clock genes. A major question is still how these individual oscillators are organized into a biological clock

  4. Slow logarithmic relaxation in models with hierarchically constrained dynamics

    OpenAIRE

    Brey, J. J.; Prados, A.

    2000-01-01

    A general kind of models with hierarchically constrained dynamics is shown to exhibit logarithmic anomalous relaxation, similarly to a variety of complex strongly interacting materials. The logarithmic behavior describes most of the decay of the response function.

  5. Metabolic Rhythms of the Cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp ATCC 51142 Correlate with Modeled Dynamics of Circadian Clock

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Červený, Jan; Nedbal, Ladislav

    2009-01-01

    Roč. 4, č. 24 (2009), s. 295-303 ISSN 0748-7304 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA206/09/1284 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60870520 Keywords : circadian clock * cyanobacteria * model * photosynthesis * respiration Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry Impact factor: 4.418, year: 2009

  6. Biological Clocks & Circadian Rhythms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robertson, Laura; Jones, M. Gail

    2009-01-01

    The study of biological clocks and circadian rhythms is an excellent way to address the inquiry strand in the National Science Education Standards (NSES) (NRC 1996). Students can study these everyday phenomena by designing experiments, gathering and analyzing data, and generating new experiments. As students explore biological clocks and circadian…

  7. Diurnal oscillations of soybean circadian clock and drought responsive genes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juliana Marcolino-Gomes

    Full Text Available Rhythms produced by the endogenous circadian clock play a critical role in allowing plants to respond and adapt to the environment. While there is a well-established regulatory link between the circadian clock and responses to abiotic stress in model plants, little is known of the circadian system in crop species like soybean. This study examines how drought impacts diurnal oscillation of both drought responsive and circadian clock genes in soybean. Drought stress induced marked changes in gene expression of several circadian clock-like components, such as LCL1-, GmELF4- and PRR-like genes, which had reduced expression in stressed plants. The same conditions produced a phase advance of expression for the GmTOC1-like, GmLUX-like and GmPRR7-like genes. Similarly, the rhythmic expression pattern of the soybean drought-responsive genes DREB-, bZIP-, GOLS-, RAB18- and Remorin-like changed significantly after plant exposure to drought. In silico analysis of promoter regions of these genes revealed the presence of cis-elements associated both with stress and circadian clock regulation. Furthermore, some soybean genes with upstream ABRE elements were responsive to abscisic acid treatment. Our results indicate that some connection between the drought response and the circadian clock may exist in soybean since (i drought stress affects gene expression of circadian clock components and (ii several stress responsive genes display diurnal oscillation in soybeans.

  8. The retinal clock in mammals: role in health and disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Felder-Schmittbuhl MP

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Marie-Paule Felder-Schmittbuhl,1,* Hugo Calligaro,2 Ouria Dkhissi-Benyahya2,* 1Institute of Cellular and Integratives Neurosciences, UPR3212, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 2University of Lyon, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, INSERM U1208, Bron, France *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: The mammalian retina contains an extraordinary diversity of cell types that are highly organized into precise circuits to perceive and process visual information in a dynamic manner and transmit it to the brain. Above this builds up another level of complex dynamic, orchestrated by a circadian clock located within the retina, which allows retinal physiology, and hence visual function, to adapt to daily changes in light intensity. The mammalian retina is a remarkable model of circadian clock because it harbors photoreception, self-sustained oscillator function, and physiological outputs within the same tissue. However, the location of the retinal clock in mammals has been a matter of long debate. Current data have shown that clock properties are widely distributed among retinal cells and that the retina is composed of a network of circadian clocks located within distinct cellular layers. Nevertheless, the identity of the major pacemaker, if any, still warrants identification. In addition, the retina coordinates rhythmic behavior by providing visual input to the master hypothalamic circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN. This light entrainment of the SCN to the light/dark cycle involves a network of retinal photoreceptor cells: rods, cones, and intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs. Although it was considered that these photoreceptors synchronized both retinal and SCN clocks, new data challenge this view, suggesting that none of these photoreceptors is involved in photic entrainment of the retinal clock. Because circadian organization is a ubiquitous feature of the retina and controls

  9. Circadian clocks, epigenetics, and cancer

    KAUST Repository

    Masri, Selma; Kinouchi, Kenichiro; Sassone-Corsi, Paolo

    2015-01-01

    The interplay between circadian rhythm and cancer has been suggested for more than a decade based on the observations that shift work and cancer incidence are linked. Accumulating evidence implicates the circadian clock in cancer survival and proliferation pathways. At the molecular level, multiple control mechanisms have been proposed to link circadian transcription and cell-cycle control to tumorigenesis.The circadian gating of the cell cycle and subsequent control of cell proliferation is an area of active investigation. Moreover, the circadian clock is a transcriptional system that is intricately regulated at the epigenetic level. Interestingly, the epigenetic landscape at the level of histone modifications, DNA methylation, and small regulatory RNAs are differentially controlled in cancer cells. This concept raises the possibility that epigenetic control is a common thread linking the clock with cancer, though little scientific evidence is known to date.This review focuses on the link between circadian clock and cancer, and speculates on the possible connections at the epigenetic level that could further link the circadian clock to tumor initiation or progression.

  10. Stretched-exponential decay functions from a self-consistent model of dielectric relaxation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Milovanov, A.V.; Rasmussen, J.J.; Rypdal, K.

    2008-01-01

    There are many materials whose dielectric properties are described by a stretched exponential, the so-called Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW) relaxation function. Its physical origin and statistical-mechanical foundation have been a matter of debate in the literature. In this Letter we suggest a model of dielectric relaxation, which naturally leads to a stretched exponential decay function. Some essential characteristics of the underlying charge conduction mechanisms are considered. A kinetic description of the relaxation and charge transport processes is proposed in terms of equations with time-fractional derivatives

  11. Pitfalls of Insulin Pump Clocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reed, Amy J.

    2014-01-01

    The objective was to raise awareness about the importance of ensuring that insulin pumps internal clocks are set up correctly at all times. This is a very important safety issue because all commercially available insulin pumps are not GPS-enabled (though this is controversial), nor equipped with automatically adjusting internal clocks. Special attention is paid to how basal and bolus dose errors can be introduced by daylight savings time changes, travel across time zones, and am-pm clock errors. Correct setting of insulin pump internal clock is crucial for appropriate insulin delivery. A comprehensive literature review is provided, as are illustrative cases. Incorrect setting can potentially result in incorrect insulin delivery, with potential harmful consequences, if too much or too little insulin is delivered. Daylight saving time changes may not significantly affect basal insulin delivery, given the triviality of the time difference. However, bolus insulin doses can be dramatically affected. Such problems may occur when pump wearers have large variations in their insulin to carb ratio, especially if they forget to change their pump clock in the spring. More worrisome than daylight saving time change is the am-pm clock setting. If this setting is set up incorrectly, both basal rates and bolus doses will be affected. Appropriate insulin delivery through insulin pumps requires correct correlation between dose settings and internal clock time settings. Because insulin pumps are not GPS-enabled or automatically time-adjusting, extra caution should be practiced by patients to ensure correct time settings at all times. Clinicians and diabetes educators should verify the date/time of insulin pumps during patients’ visits, and should remind their patients to always verify these settings. PMID:25355713

  12. Effect of the initial stage of annealing on modeling of enthalpy relaxation in a hyperquenched glass

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhang, Yanfei; Guo, Xiaoju; Yue, Yuanzheng

    2013-01-01

    One of the major challenges in glass relaxation study is to establish a universal model describing the enthalpy relaxation in both the hyperquenched glass (HQG) (i.e., far from equilibrium) and the partially annealed hyperquenched glass(AHQG). In particular, the detailed features of the enthalpy ...... proposed composite relaxation function [L. Hornboell, et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 1-3 (2010) 37] is a reasonable approach for describing those features. In addition, our modeling results imply that the structural heterogeneity plays a crucial role in relaxation of HQG....

  13. Corroborative evidences of TV γ -scaling of the α-relaxation originating from the primitive relaxation/JG β relaxation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ngai, K. L.; Paluch, M.

    2017-12-01

    Successful thermodynamic scaling of the structural alpha-relaxation time or transport coefficients of glass-forming liquids determined at various temperatures T and pressures P means the data conform to a single function of the product variable TVgamma, where V is the specific volume and gamma is a material specific constant. In the past two decades we have witnessed successful TVgamma-scaling in many molecular, polymeric, and even metallic glass-formers, and gamma is related to the slope of the repulsive part of the intermolecular potential. The advances made indicate TVgamma-scaling is an important aspect of the dynamic and thermodynamic properties of glass-formers. In this paper we show the origin of TVgamma-scaling is not from the structural alpha-relaxation time. Instead it comes from its precursor, the Johari-Goldstein beta-relaxation or the primitive relaxation of the Coupling Model and their relaxation times or tau_0 respectively. It is remarkable that all relaxation times are functions of TVgamma with the same gama, as well as the fractional exponent of the Kohlrausch correlation function of the structural alpha-relaxation. We arrive at this conclusion convincingly based on corroborative evidences from a number of experiments and molecular dynamics simulations performed on a wide variety of glass-formers and in conjunction with consistency with the predictions of the Coupling Model.

  14. Decamp Clock Board Firmware

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vicente, J. de; Castilla, J.; Martinez, G.

    2007-09-27

    Decamp (Dark Energy Survey Camera) is a new instrument designed to explore the universe aiming to reveal the nature of Dark Energy. The camera consists of 72 CCDs and 520 Mpixels. The readout electronics of DECam is based on the Monsoon system. Monsoon is a new image acquisition system developed by the NOAO (National Optical Astronomical Observatory) for the new generation of astronomical cameras. The Monsoon system uses three types of boards inserted in a Eurocard format based crate: master control board, acquisition board and clock board. The direct use of the Monsoon system for DECam readout electronics requires nine crates mainly due to the high number of clock boards needed. Unfortunately, the available space for DECam electronics is constrained to four crates at maximum. The major drawback to achieve such desired compaction degree resides in the clock board signal density. This document describes the changes performed at CIEMAT on the programmable logic of the Monsoon clock board aiming to meet such restricted space constraints. (Author) 5 refs.

  15. Decamp Clock Board Firmware

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vicente, J. de; Castilla, J.; Martinez, G.

    2007-01-01

    Decamp (Dark Energy Survey Camera) is a new instrument designed to explore the universe aiming to reveal the nature of Dark Energy. The camera consists of 72 CCDs and 520 Mpixels. The readout electronics of DECam is based on the Monsoon system. Monsoon is a new image acquisition system developed by the NOAO (National Optical Astronomical Observatory) for the new generation of astronomical cameras. The Monsoon system uses three types of boards inserted in a Eurocard format based crate: master control board, acquisition board and clock board. The direct use of the Monsoon system for DECam readout electronics requires nine crates mainly due to the high number of clock boards needed. Unfortunately, the available space for DECam electronics is constrained to four crates at maximum. The major drawback to achieve such desired compaction degree resides in the clock board signal density. This document describes the changes performed at CIEMAT on the programmable logic of the Monsoon clock board aiming to meet such restricted space constraints. (Author) 5 refs

  16. Non-Metastatic Cutaneous Melanoma Induces Chronodisruption in Central and Peripheral Circadian Clocks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Assis, Leonardo Vinícius Monteiro; Moraes, Maria Nathália; Magalhães-Marques, Keila Karoline; Kinker, Gabriela Sarti; da Silveira Cruz-Machado, Sanseray; Castrucci, Ana Maria de Lauro

    2018-04-03

    The biological clock has received increasing interest due to its key role in regulating body homeostasis in a time-dependent manner. Cancer development and progression has been linked to a disrupted molecular clock; however, in melanoma, the role of the biological clock is largely unknown. We investigated the effects of the tumor on its micro- (TME) and macro-environments (TMaE) in a non-metastatic melanoma model. C57BL/6J mice were inoculated with murine B16-F10 melanoma cells and 2 weeks later the animals were euthanized every 6 h during 24 h. The presence of a localized tumor significantly impaired the biological clock of tumor-adjacent skin and affected the oscillatory expression of genes involved in light- and thermo-reception, proliferation, melanogenesis, and DNA repair. The expression of tumor molecular clock was significantly reduced compared to healthy skin but still displayed an oscillatory profile. We were able to cluster the affected genes using a human database and distinguish between primary melanoma and healthy skin. The molecular clocks of lungs and liver (common sites of metastasis), and the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) were significantly affected by tumor presence, leading to chronodisruption in each organ. Taken altogether, the presence of non-metastatic melanoma significantly impairs the organism's biological clocks. We suggest that the clock alterations found in TME and TMaE could impact development, progression, and metastasis of melanoma; thus, making the molecular clock an interesting pharmacological target.

  17. Non-Metastatic Cutaneous Melanoma Induces Chronodisruption in Central and Peripheral Circadian Clocks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leonardo Vinícius Monteiro de Assis

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The biological clock has received increasing interest due to its key role in regulating body homeostasis in a time-dependent manner. Cancer development and progression has been linked to a disrupted molecular clock; however, in melanoma, the role of the biological clock is largely unknown. We investigated the effects of the tumor on its micro- (TME and macro-environments (TMaE in a non-metastatic melanoma model. C57BL/6J mice were inoculated with murine B16-F10 melanoma cells and 2 weeks later the animals were euthanized every 6 h during 24 h. The presence of a localized tumor significantly impaired the biological clock of tumor-adjacent skin and affected the oscillatory expression of genes involved in light- and thermo-reception, proliferation, melanogenesis, and DNA repair. The expression of tumor molecular clock was significantly reduced compared to healthy skin but still displayed an oscillatory profile. We were able to cluster the affected genes using a human database and distinguish between primary melanoma and healthy skin. The molecular clocks of lungs and liver (common sites of metastasis, and the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN were significantly affected by tumor presence, leading to chronodisruption in each organ. Taken altogether, the presence of non-metastatic melanoma significantly impairs the organism’s biological clocks. We suggest that the clock alterations found in TME and TMaE could impact development, progression, and metastasis of melanoma; thus, making the molecular clock an interesting pharmacological target.

  18. Toward A Neutral Mercury Optical Lattice Clock: Determination of the Magic Wavelength for the Ultraviolet clock Transition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mejri, Sinda

    2012-01-01

    A lattice clock combines the advantages of ion and neutral atom based clocks, namely the recoil and first order Doppler free spectroscopy allowed by the Lamb-Dicke regime. This lattice light field shifts the energy levels of the clock transition. However a wavelength can be found where the light-shift of the clock states cancelled to first order. In this thesis, we present the latest advances in optical lattice clock with mercury atoms developed at LNE-SYRTE. After a review of the current performances of different optical clock are currently under development, we focus on the concept of optical lattice clock and the features of the mercury that make him an excellent candidate for the realization of an optical lattice clock achievement the uncertainty of the level of 10 -17 . The second part is devoted to the characterization of the mercury MOT, using a sensitive detection system, which allowed us to evaluate the temperature of different isotopes present in the MOT and have a good evidence of sub-Doppler cooling for the fermionic isotopes. The third part of this these, present the experimental aspects of the implementation and the development of the laser source required for trapping mercury atoms operating near the predicted magic wavelength. Finally, we report on the Lamb-Dicke spectroscopy of the 1S0 →3 P0 clock transition in the 199 Hg atoms confined in lattice trap. With use of the ultra-stable laser system, linked to LNE-SYRTE primary frequency reference, we have determined the center frequency of the transition for a range of lattice wavelengths and different lattice depths. Analyzing these measurement, we have carried out the first experimental determination of the magic wavelength, which is the crucial step towards achieving a highly accurate frequency standard using mercury. (author)

  19. Sumoylation of the Plant Clock Transcription Factor CCA1 Suppresses DNA Binding

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hansen, L.L.; Imrie, L.; Le Bihan, T.; van den Burg, H.A.; van Ooijen, G.

    2017-01-01

    In plants, the circadian clock regulates the expression of one-third of all transcripts and is crucial to virtually every aspect of metabolism and growth. We now establish sumoylation, a posttranslational protein modification, as a novel regulator of the key clock protein CCA1 in the model plant

  20. Models for Master-Slave Clock Distribution Networks with Third-Order Phase-Locked Loops

    OpenAIRE

    Piqueira, José Roberto Castilho; de Carvalho Freschi, Marcela

    2007-01-01

    The purpose of this work is to study the processing and transmission of clock signals in networks of geographically distributed nodes, in order to derive conditions for frequency and phase synchronization between the nodes. The focus is on the master-slave architecture, which presents a priority scheme of clock distribution. One-way master-slave (OWMS ) and two-way master-slave (TWMS) chains are studied, considering that the slave nodes are third-order phase-locked loops...

  1. Internal Clock Drift Estimation in Computer Clusters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hicham Marouani

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Most computers have several high-resolution timing sources, from the programmable interrupt timer to the cycle counter. Yet, even at a precision of one cycle in ten millions, clocks may drift significantly in a single second at a clock frequency of several GHz. When tracing the low-level system events in computer clusters, such as packet sending or reception, each computer system records its own events using an internal clock. In order to properly understand the global system behavior and performance, as reported by the events recorded on each computer, it is important to estimate precisely the clock differences and drift between the different computers in the system. This article studies the clock precision and stability of several computer systems, with different architectures. It also studies the typical network delay characteristics, since time synchronization algorithms rely on the exchange of network packets and are dependent on the symmetry of the delays. A very precise clock, based on the atomic time provided by the GPS satellite network, was used as a reference to measure clock drifts and network delays. The results obtained are of immediate use to all applications which depend on computer clocks or network time synchronization accuracy.

  2. Photoperiodic plasticity in circadian clock neurons in insects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sakiko eShiga

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Since Bünning’s observation of circadian rhythms and photoperiodism in the runner bean Phaseolus multiflorus in 1936, many studies have shown that photoperiodism is based on the circadian clock system. In insects, involvement of circadian clock genes or neurons has been recently shown in the photoperiodic control of developmental arrests, diapause. Based on molecular and neuronal studies in Drosophila melanogaster, photoperiodic changes have been reported for expression patterns of the circadian clock genes, subcellular distribution of clock proteins, fiber distribution, or the number of plausible clock neurons in different species. Photoperiod sets peaks of per or tim mRNA abundance at lights-off in Sarcophaga crassipalpis, Chymomyza costata and Protophormia terraenovae. Abundance of per and Clock mRNA changes by photoperiod in Pyrrhocoris apterus. Subcellular Per distribution in circadian clock neurons changes with photoperiod in P. terraenovae. Although photoperiodism is not known in Leucophaea maderae, under longer day length, more stomata and longer commissural fibers of circadian clock neurons have been found. These plastic changes in the circadian clock neurons could be an important constituent for photoperiodic clock mechanisms to integrate repetitive photoperiodic information and produce different outputs based on day length.

  3. Sleep Loss Reduces the DNA-Binding of BMAL1, CLOCK, and NPAS2 to Specific Clock Genes in the Mouse Cerebral Cortex

    OpenAIRE

    Mongrain, Valerie; La Spada, Francesco; Curie, Thomas; Franken, Paul

    2011-01-01

    We have previously demonstrated that clock genes contribute to the homeostatic aspect of sleep regulation. Indeed, mutations in some clock genes modify the markers of sleep homeostasis and an increase in homeostatic sleep drive alters clock gene expression in the forebrain. Here, we investigate a possible mechanism by which sleep deprivation (SD) could alter clock gene expression by quantifying DNA-binding of the core-clock transcription factors CLOCK, NPAS2, and BMAL1 to the cis-regulatory s...

  4. Test of Lorentz symmetry with a {sup 3}He/{sup 129}Xe clock-comparison experiment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gemmel, Claudia

    2011-01-28

    The minimal Standard Model Extension (SME) of Kostelecky and coworkers, which parametrizes the general treatment of CPT- and Lorentz invariance violation, predicts sidereal modulations of atomic transition frequencies as the Earth rotates relative to a Lorentz-violating background field. One method to search for these modulations is the so-called clock-comparison experiment, where the frequencies of co-located clocks are compared as they rotate with respect to the fixed stars. In this work an experiment is presented where polarized {sup 3}He and {sup 129}Xe gas samples in a glass cell serve as clocks, whose nuclear spin precession frequencies are detected with the help of highly sensitive SQUID sensors inside a magnetically shielded room. The unique feature of this experiment is the fact that the spins are precessing freely, with transverse relaxation times T{sup *}{sub 2} of up to 4.4 h for {sup 129}Xe and 14.1 h for {sup 3}He. To be sensitive to Lorentz-violating effects, the influence of external magnetic fields is canceled via the weighted {sup 3}He/{sup 129}Xe phase difference, {delta}{phi}={phi}{sub he}-({gamma}{sub he})/({gamma}{sub xe}) {phi}{sub xe}. The Lorentz-violating SME parameters for the neutron, b{sup n}{sub X} and b{sup n}{sub Y}, are determined out of a {chi}{sup 2} fit on the phase difference data of 7 spin precession measurements of 12 to 16 hours length. The piecewise defined fit model contains a sine and a cosine term to describe the sidereal modulation, as well as 7 offset terms, 7 linear terms and 7 . 2 exponential terms decreasing with T{sup *}{sub 2,he} and T{sup *}{sub 2,xe}, which are assigned to the respective measurement. The linear term in the weighted phase difference mainly arises from deviations of the gyromagnetic ratios from their literature values due to chemical shifts, while the exponential terms reflect the phase shifts resulting from demagnetization fields in the non-ideally spherical sample cell. The result of the {chi

  5. Clock gene variation in Tachycineta swallows.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dor, Roi; Cooper, Caren B; Lovette, Irby J; Massoni, Viviana; Bulit, Flor; Liljesthrom, Marcela; Winkler, David W

    2012-01-01

    Many animals use photoperiod cues to synchronize reproduction with environmental conditions and thereby improve their reproductive success. The circadian clock, which creates endogenous behavioral and physiological rhythms typically entrained to photoperiod, is well characterized at the molecular level. Recent work provided evidence for an association between Clock poly-Q length polymorphism and latitude and, within a population, an association with the date of laying and the length of the incubation period. Despite relatively high overall breeding synchrony, the timing of clutch initiation has a large impact on the fitness of swallows in the genus Tachycineta. We compared length polymorphism in the Clock poly-Q region among five populations from five different Tachycineta species that breed across a hemisphere-wide latitudinal gradient (Fig. 1). Clock poly-Q variation was not associated with latitude; however, there was an association between Clock poly-Q allele diversity and the degree of clutch size decline within breeding seasons. We did not find evidence for an association between Clock poly-Q variation and date of clutch initiation in for any of the five Tachycineta species, nor did we found a relationship between incubation duration and Clock genotype. Thus, there is no general association between latitude, breeding phenology, and Clock polymorphism in this clade of closely related birds.Figure 1Photos of Tachycineta swallows that were used in this study: A) T. bicolor from Ithaca, New York, B) T. leucorrhoa from Chascomús, Argentina, C) T. albilinea from Hill Bank, Belize, D) T. meyeni from Puerto Varas, Chile, and E) T. thalassina from Mono Lake, California, Photographers: B: Valentina Ferretti; A, C-E: David Winkler.

  6. Ultradian feeding in mice not only affects the peripheral clock in the liver, but also the master clock in the brain

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sen, Satish; Raingard, Hélène; Dumont, Stéphanie; Kalsbeek, A.; Vuillez, Patrick; Challet, Etienne

    2017-01-01

    Restricted feeding during the resting period causes pronounced shifts in a number of peripheral clocks, but not the central clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). By contrast, daily caloric restriction impacts also the light-entrained SCN clock, as indicated by shifted oscillations of clock

  7. Numerical modeling of bubble dynamics in viscoelastic media with relaxation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warnez, M. T.; Johnsen, E.

    2015-06-01

    Cavitation occurs in a variety of non-Newtonian fluids and viscoelastic materials. The large-amplitude volumetric oscillations of cavitation bubbles give rise to high temperatures and pressures at collapse, as well as induce large and rapid deformation of the surroundings. In this work, we develop a comprehensive numerical framework for spherical bubble dynamics in isotropic media obeying a wide range of viscoelastic constitutive relationships. Our numerical approach solves the compressible Keller-Miksis equation with full thermal effects (inside and outside the bubble) when coupled to a highly generalized constitutive relationship (which allows Newtonian, Kelvin-Voigt, Zener, linear Maxwell, upper-convected Maxwell, Jeffreys, Oldroyd-B, Giesekus, and Phan-Thien-Tanner models). For the latter two models, partial differential equations (PDEs) must be solved in the surrounding medium; for the remaining models, we show that the PDEs can be reduced to ordinary differential equations. To solve the general constitutive PDEs, we present a Chebyshev spectral collocation method, which is robust even for violent collapse. Combining this numerical approach with theoretical analysis, we simulate bubble dynamics in various viscoelastic media to determine the impact of relaxation time, a constitutive parameter, on the associated physics. Relaxation time is found to increase bubble growth and permit rebounds driven purely by residual stresses in the surroundings. Different regimes of oscillations occur depending on the relaxation time.

  8. Can We Efficiently Check Concurrent Programs Under Relaxed Memory Models in Maude?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arrahman, Yehia Abd; Andric, Marina; Beggiato, Alessandro

    2014-01-01

    to the state space explosion. Several techniques have been proposed to mitigate those problems so to make verification under relaxed memory models feasible. We discuss how to adopt some of those techniques in a Maude-based approach to language prototyping, and suggest the use of other techniques that have been......Relaxed memory models offer suitable abstractions of the actual optimizations offered by multi-core architectures and by compilers of concurrent programming languages. Using such abstractions for verification purposes is challenging in part due to their inherent non-determinism which contributes...

  9. Post-CHF heat transfer: a non-equilibrium, relaxation model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, O.C. Jr.; Zuber, N.

    1977-01-01

    Existing phenomenological models of heat transfer in the non-equilibrium, liquid-deficient, dispersed flow regime can sometimes predict the thermal behavior fairly well but are quite complex, requiring coupled simultaneous differential equations to describe the axial gradients of mass and energy along with those of droplet acceleration and size. In addition, empirical relations are required to express the droplet breakup and increased effective heat transfer due to holdup. This report describes the development of a different approach to the problem. It is shown that the non-equilibrium component of the total energy can be expressed as a first order, inhomogeneous relaxation equation in terms of one variable coefficient termed the Superheat Relaxation number. A demonstration is provided to show that this relaxation number can be correlated using local variables in such a manner to allow the single non-equilibrium equation to accurately calculate the effects of mass velocity and heat flux along with tube length, diameter, and critical quality for equilibrium qualities from 0.13 to over 3.0

  10. An optical clock to go

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludlow, Andrew D.

    2018-05-01

    Bringing next-generation atomic clocks out of the lab is not an easy task, but doing so will unlock many new possibilities. As a crucial first step, a portable atomic clock has now been deployed for relativistic geodesy measurements in the Alps.

  11. Processing of visually presented clock times.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goolkasian, P; Park, D C

    1980-11-01

    The encoding and representation of visually presented clock times was investigated in three experiments utilizing a comparative judgment task. Experiment 1 explored the effects of comparing times presented in different formats (clock face, digit, or word), and Experiment 2 examined angular distance effects created by varying positions of the hands on clock faces. In Experiment 3, encoding and processing differences between clock faces and digitally presented times were directly measured. Same/different reactions to digitally presented times were faster than to times presented on a clock face, and this format effect was found to be a result of differences in processing that occurred after encoding. Angular separation also had a limited effect on processing. The findings are interpreted within the framework of theories that refer to the importance of representational codes. The applicability to the data of Bank's semantic-coding theory, Paivio's dual-coding theory, and the levels-of-processing view of memory are discussed.

  12. Robustness of circadian clocks to daylight fluctuations: hints from the picoeucaryote Ostreococcus tauri.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Quentin Thommen

    Full Text Available The development of systemic approaches in biology has put emphasis on identifying genetic modules whose behavior can be modeled accurately so as to gain insight into their structure and function. However, most gene circuits in a cell are under control of external signals and thus, quantitative agreement between experimental data and a mathematical model is difficult. Circadian biology has been one notable exception: quantitative models of the internal clock that orchestrates biological processes over the 24-hour diurnal cycle have been constructed for a few organisms, from cyanobacteria to plants and mammals. In most cases, a complex architecture with interlocked feedback loops has been evidenced. Here we present the first modeling results for the circadian clock of the green unicellular alga Ostreococcus tauri. Two plant-like clock genes have been shown to play a central role in the Ostreococcus clock. We find that their expression time profiles can be accurately reproduced by a minimal model of a two-gene transcriptional feedback loop. Remarkably, best adjustment of data recorded under light/dark alternation is obtained when assuming that the oscillator is not coupled to the diurnal cycle. This suggests that coupling to light is confined to specific time intervals and has no dynamical effect when the oscillator is entrained by the diurnal cycle. This intriguing property may reflect a strategy to minimize the impact of fluctuations in daylight intensity on the core circadian oscillator, a type of perturbation that has been rarely considered when assessing the robustness of circadian clocks.

  13. Three-dimensional simulations of Bingham plastic flows with the multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model

    OpenAIRE

    Song-Gui Chen; Chuan-Hu Zhang; Yun-Tian Feng; Qi-Cheng Sun; Feng Jin

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) parallel multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model (MRT-LBM) for Bingham plastics which overcomes numerical instabilities in the simulation of non-Newtonian fluids for the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) model. The MRT-LBM and several related mathematical models are briefly described. Papanastasiou’s modified model is incorporated for better numerical stability. The impact of the relaxation parameters of the model is studied in detail. The MRT-L...

  14. Circadian Clock genes Per2 and clock regulate steroid production, cell proliferation, and luteinizing hormone receptor transcription in ovarian granulosa cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shimizu, Takashi; Hirai, Yuko; Murayama, Chiaki; Miyamoto, Akio; Miyazaki, Hitoshi; Miyazaki, Koyomi

    2011-01-01

    Highlights: → Treatment with Per2 and Clock siRNAs decreased the number of granulosa cells and LHr expression. →Per2 siRNA treatment did not stimulate the production of estradiol and expression of P450arom. → Clock siRNA treatment inhibited the production of estradiol and expression of P450arom mRNA. →Per2 and Clock siRNA treatment increased and unchanged, respectively, progesterone production in FSH-treated granulosa cells. → The expression of StAR mRNA was increased by Per2 siRNA and unchanged by Clock siRNA. -- Abstract: Circadian Clock genes are associated with the estrous cycle in female animals. Treatment with Per2 and Clock siRNAs decreased the number of granulosa cells and LHr expression in follicle-stimulating hormone FSH-treated granulosa cells. Per2 siRNA treatment did not stimulate the production of estradiol and expression of P450arom, whereas Clock siRNA treatment inhibited the production of estradiol and expression of P450arom mRNA. Per2 and Clock siRNA treatment increased and unchanged, respectively, progesterone production in FSH-treated granulosa cells. Similarly, expression of StAR mRNA was increased by Per2 siRNA and unchanged by Clock siRNA. Our data provide a new insight that Per2 and Clock have different action on ovarian granulosa cell functions.

  15. Circadian Clock genes Per2 and clock regulate steroid production, cell proliferation, and luteinizing hormone receptor transcription in ovarian granulosa cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shimizu, Takashi, E-mail: shimizut@obihiro.ac.jp [Graduate School of Animal and Food Hygiene, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555 (Japan); Hirai, Yuko; Murayama, Chiaki; Miyamoto, Akio [Graduate School of Animal and Food Hygiene, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555 (Japan); Miyazaki, Hitoshi [Gene Research Center, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572 (Japan); Miyazaki, Koyomi [Biomedical Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Central 6, 1-1-1, Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8566 (Japan)

    2011-08-19

    Highlights: {yields} Treatment with Per2 and Clock siRNAs decreased the number of granulosa cells and LHr expression. {yields}Per2 siRNA treatment did not stimulate the production of estradiol and expression of P450arom. {yields} Clock siRNA treatment inhibited the production of estradiol and expression of P450arom mRNA. {yields}Per2 and Clock siRNA treatment increased and unchanged, respectively, progesterone production in FSH-treated granulosa cells. {yields} The expression of StAR mRNA was increased by Per2 siRNA and unchanged by Clock siRNA. -- Abstract: Circadian Clock genes are associated with the estrous cycle in female animals. Treatment with Per2 and Clock siRNAs decreased the number of granulosa cells and LHr expression in follicle-stimulating hormone FSH-treated granulosa cells. Per2 siRNA treatment did not stimulate the production of estradiol and expression of P450arom, whereas Clock siRNA treatment inhibited the production of estradiol and expression of P450arom mRNA. Per2 and Clock siRNA treatment increased and unchanged, respectively, progesterone production in FSH-treated granulosa cells. Similarly, expression of StAR mRNA was increased by Per2 siRNA and unchanged by Clock siRNA. Our data provide a new insight that Per2 and Clock have different action on ovarian granulosa cell functions.

  16. The Implementation of E1 Clock Recovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Ziyu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Clock transform and recovery is of significant importance in microwave TDM service, and it is always extracted from the E1 line data stream in most cases. However, intrinsically uncertain delay and jitter caused by packet transmission of E1 data information, may lead to the indexes of the data recovery clock exceed the clock performance template. Through analysis of the E1 clock indexes and measuring methods, this paper proposes a new clock recovery method. The method employs two buffers, the first RAM is used as a buffer to deduct excess information, and the second FIFO is used as a buffer to recovery the clock and data. The first buffer has a feedback from the second one, and is able to actively respond to changes in the data link and requests from the second one. The test results validate the effectiveness of the method, and the corresponding scheme is also valuable for the other communication systems.

  17. Robustness from flexibility in the fungal circadian clock

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Akman Ozgur E

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Robustness is a central property of living systems, enabling function to be maintained against environmental perturbations. A key challenge is to identify the structures in biological circuits that confer system-level properties such as robustness. Circadian clocks allow organisms to adapt to the predictable changes of the 24-hour day/night cycle by generating endogenous rhythms that can be entrained to the external cycle. In all organisms, the clock circuits typically comprise multiple interlocked feedback loops controlling the rhythmic expression of key genes. Previously, we showed that such architectures increase the flexibility of the clock's rhythmic behaviour. We now test the relationship between flexibility and robustness, using a mathematical model of the circuit controlling conidiation in the fungus Neurospora crassa. Results The circuit modelled in this work consists of a central negative feedback loop, in which the frequency (frq gene inhibits its transcriptional activator white collar-1 (wc-1, interlocked with a positive feedback loop in which FRQ protein upregulates WC-1 production. Importantly, our model reproduces the observed entrainment of this circuit under light/dark cycles with varying photoperiod and cycle duration. Our simulations show that whilst the level of frq mRNA is driven directly by the light input, the falling phase of FRQ protein, a molecular correlate of conidiation, maintains a constant phase that is uncoupled from the times of dawn and dusk. The model predicts the behaviour of mutants that uncouple WC-1 production from FRQ's positive feedback, and shows that the positive loop enhances the buffering of conidiation phase against seasonal photoperiod changes. This property is quantified using Kitano's measure for the overall robustness of a regulated system output. Further analysis demonstrates that this functional robustness is a consequence of the greater evolutionary flexibility conferred on

  18. Global synchronization of parallel processors using clock pulse width modulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Dong; Ellavsky, Matthew R.; Franke, Ross L.; Gara, Alan; Gooding, Thomas M.; Haring, Rudolf A.; Jeanson, Mark J.; Kopcsay, Gerard V.; Liebsch, Thomas A.; Littrell, Daniel; Ohmacht, Martin; Reed, Don D.; Schenck, Brandon E.; Swetz, Richard A.

    2013-04-02

    A circuit generates a global clock signal with a pulse width modification to synchronize processors in a parallel computing system. The circuit may include a hardware module and a clock splitter. The hardware module may generate a clock signal and performs a pulse width modification on the clock signal. The pulse width modification changes a pulse width within a clock period in the clock signal. The clock splitter may distribute the pulse width modified clock signal to a plurality of processors in the parallel computing system.

  19. Relaxation creep model of impending earthquake

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Morgounov, V. A. [Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics of the Earth, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2001-04-01

    The alternative view of the current status and perspective of seismic prediction studies is discussed. In the problem of the ascertainment of the uncertainty relation Cognoscibility-Unpredictability of Earthquakes, priorities of works on short-term earthquake prediction are defined due to the advantage that the final stage of nucleation of earthquake is characterized by a substantial activation of the process while its strain rate increases by the orders of magnitude and considerably increased signal-to-noise ratio. Based on the creep phenomenon under stress relaxation conditions, a model is proposed to explain different images of precursors of impending tectonic earthquakes. The onset of tertiary creep appears to correspond to the onset of instability and inevitably fails unless it unloaded. At this stage, the process acquires the self-regulating character to the greatest extent the property of irreversibility, one of the important components of prediction reliability. Data in situ suggest a principal possibility to diagnose the process of preparation by ground measurements of acoustic and electromagnetic emission in the rocks under constant strain in the condition of self-relaxed stress until the moment of fracture are discussed in context. It was obtained that electromagnetic emission precedes but does not accompany the phase of macrocrak development.

  20. Space experiments with high stability clocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vessot, R.F.C.

    1993-01-01

    Modern metrology depends increasingly on the accuracy and frequency stability of atomic clocks. Applications of such high-stability oscillators (or clocks) to experiments performed in space are described and estimates of the precision of these experiments are made in terms of clock performance. Methods using time-correlation to cancel localized disturbances in very long signal paths and a proposed space borne four station VLBI system are described. (TEC). 30 refs., 14 figs., 1 tab

  1. Modelling of loading, stress relaxation and stress recovery in a shape memory polymer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sweeney, J; Bonner, M; Ward, I M

    2014-09-01

    A multi-element constitutive model for a lactide-based shape memory polymer has been developed that represents loading to large tensile deformations, stress relaxation and stress recovery at 60, 65 and 70°C. The model consists of parallel Maxwell arms each comprising neo-Hookean and Eyring elements. Guiu-Pratt analysis of the stress relaxation curves yields Eyring parameters. When these parameters are used to define the Eyring process in a single Maxwell arm, the resulting model yields at too low a stress, but gives good predictions for longer times. Stress dip tests show a very stiff response on unloading by a small strain decrement. This would create an unrealistically high stress on loading to large strain if it were modelled by an elastic element. Instead it is modelled by an Eyring process operating via a flow rule that introduces strain hardening after yield. When this process is incorporated into a second parallel Maxwell arm, there results a model that fully represents both stress relaxation and stress dip tests at 60°C. At higher temperatures a third arm is required for valid predictions. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Relaxation of entangled model H-shaped polymers a SANS investigation

    CERN Document Server

    Heinrich, M; Richter, D; Straube, E; Wiedenmann, A

    2002-01-01

    This study is related to the understanding of rheology of long-chain branched polymers. A model compound for long-chain branching (H-shaped architecture) was investigated in elongational flow as a function of time after a step strain to lambda=2. The experiments were performed in a strain rig with temperature and strain-rate control. The structure factor was measured after specific relaxation times intimately connected to the microscopic hierarchy of the polymer structure. The correlation hole effect and the quenched disorder in the scattering were described in a random phase approximation approach. This approach, already used for permanent rubber-elastic networks, has been modified to permit the observation of strain locally along the faster-relaxing arms. The data roughly follow the time scale of linear-shear rheology from which shift factors were derived. They confirm that bridge and arm relaxations can be treated in a decoupled, hierarchical way in time, although details of the analysis remain unsolved. (...

  3. Geodesy and metrology with a transportable optical clock

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grotti, Jacopo; Koller, Silvio; Vogt, Stefan; Häfner, Sebastian; Sterr, Uwe; Lisdat, Christian; Denker, Heiner; Voigt, Christian; Timmen, Ludger; Rolland, Antoine; Baynes, Fred N.; Margolis, Helen S.; Zampaolo, Michel; Thoumany, Pierre; Pizzocaro, Marco; Rauf, Benjamin; Bregolin, Filippo; Tampellini, Anna; Barbieri, Piero; Zucco, Massimo; Costanzo, Giovanni A.; Clivati, Cecilia; Levi, Filippo; Calonico, Davide

    2018-05-01

    Optical atomic clocks, due to their unprecedented stability1-3 and uncertainty3-6, are already being used to test physical theories7,8 and herald a revision of the International System of Units9,10. However, to unlock their potential for cross-disciplinary applications such as relativistic geodesy11, a major challenge remains: their transformation from highly specialized instruments restricted to national metrology laboratories into flexible devices deployable in different locations12-14. Here, we report the first field measurement campaign with a transportable 87Sr optical lattice clock12. We use it to determine the gravity potential difference between the middle of a mountain and a location 90 km away, exploiting both local and remote clock comparisons to eliminate potential clock errors. A local comparison with a 171Yb lattice clock15 also serves as an important check on the international consistency of independently developed optical clocks. This campaign demonstrates the exciting prospects for transportable optical clocks.

  4. Phase noise analysis of clock recovery based on an optoelectronic phase-locked loop

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zibar, Darko; Mørk, Jesper; Oxenløwe, Leif Katsuo

    2007-01-01

    A detailed theoretical analysis of a clock-recovery (CR) scheme based on an optoelectronic phase-locked loop is presented. The analysis emphasizes the phase noise performance, taking into account the noise of the input data signal, the local voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), and the laser....... It is shown that a large loop length results in a higher timing jitter of the recovered clock signal. The impact of the loop length on the clock signal jitter can be reduced by using a low-noise VCO and a low loop filter bandwidth. Using the model, the timing jitter of the recovered optical and electrical...... clock signal can be evaluated. We numerically investigate the timing jitter requirements for combined electrical/optical local oscillators, in order for the recovered clock signal to have less jitter than that of the input signal. The timing jitter requirements for the free-running laser and the VCO...

  5. Discrete gene replication events drive coupling between the cell cycle and circadian clocks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paijmans, Joris; Bosman, Mark; Ten Wolde, Pieter Rein; Lubensky, David K

    2016-04-12

    Many organisms possess both a cell cycle to control DNA replication and a circadian clock to anticipate changes between day and night. In some cases, these two rhythmic systems are known to be coupled by specific, cross-regulatory interactions. Here, we use mathematical modeling to show that, additionally, the cell cycle generically influences circadian clocks in a nonspecific fashion: The regular, discrete jumps in gene-copy number arising from DNA replication during the cell cycle cause a periodic driving of the circadian clock, which can dramatically alter its behavior and impair its function. A clock built on negative transcriptional feedback either phase-locks to the cell cycle, so that the clock period tracks the cell division time, or exhibits erratic behavior. We argue that the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus has evolved two features that protect its clock from such disturbances, both of which are needed to fully insulate it from the cell cycle and give it its observed robustness: a phosphorylation-based protein modification oscillator, together with its accompanying push-pull read-out circuit that responds primarily to the ratios of different phosphoform concentrations, makes the clock less susceptible to perturbations in protein synthesis; the presence of multiple, asynchronously replicating copies of the same chromosome diminishes the effect of replicating any single copy of a gene.

  6. Assessing the Validity of the Simplified Potential Energy Clock Model for Modeling Glass-Ceramics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jamison, Ryan Dale [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Grillet, Anne M. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Stavig, Mark E. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Strong, Kevin [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Dai, Steve Xunhu [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2017-10-01

    Glass-ceramic seals may be the future of hermetic connectors at Sandia National Laboratories. They have been shown capable of surviving higher temperatures and pressures than amorphous glass seals. More advanced finite-element material models are required to enable model-based design and provide evidence that the hermetic connectors can meet design requirements. Glass-ceramics are composite materials with both crystalline and amorphous phases. The latter gives rise to (non-linearly) viscoelastic behavior. Given their complex microstructures, glass-ceramics may be thermorheologically complex, a behavior outside the scope of currently implemented constitutive models at Sandia. However, it was desired to assess if the Simplified Potential Energy Clock (SPEC) model is capable of capturing the material response. Available data for SL 16.8 glass-ceramic was used to calibrate the SPEC model. Model accuracy was assessed by comparing model predictions with shear moduli temperature dependence and high temperature 3-point bend creep data. It is shown that the model can predict the temperature dependence of the shear moduli and 3- point bend creep data. Analysis of the results is presented. Suggestions for future experiments and model development are presented. Though further calibration is likely necessary, SPEC has been shown capable of modeling glass-ceramic behavior in the glass transition region but requires further analysis below the transition region.

  7. Solute induced relaxation in glassy polymers: Experimental measurements and nonequilibrium thermodynamic model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Minelli, Matteo; Doghieri, Ferruccio

    2014-01-01

    Data for kinetics of mass uptake from vapor sorption experiments in thin glassy polymer samples are here interpreted in terms of relaxation times for volume dilation. To this result, both models from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and from mechanics of volume relaxation contribute. Different kind of sorption experiments have been considered in order to facilitate the direct comparison between kinetics of solute induced volume dilation and corresponding data from process driven by pressure or temperature jumps

  8. The Effects of Progressive Relaxation and Music on Attention, Relaxation, and Stress Responses: An Investigation of the Cognitive-Behavioral Model of Relaxation

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Scheufele, Peter

    1999-01-01

    ...) suggested that stress management techniques have specific effects A compromise position suggests that the specific effects of relaxation techniques are superimposed upon a general relaxation response...

  9. Evaluating the Autonomy of the Drosophila Circadian Clock in Dissociated Neuronal Culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabado, Virginie; Vienne, Ludovic; Nagoshi, Emi

    2017-01-01

    Circadian behavioral rhythms offer an excellent model to study intricate interactions between the molecular and neuronal mechanisms of behavior. In mammals, pacemaker neurons in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) generate rhythms cell-autonomously, which are synchronized by the network interactions within the circadian circuit to drive behavioral rhythms. However, whether this principle is universal to circadian systems in animals remains unanswered. Here, we examined the autonomy of the Drosophila circadian clock by monitoring transcriptional and post-transcriptional rhythms of individual clock neurons in dispersed culture with time-lapse microscopy. Expression patterns of the transcriptional reporter show that CLOCK/CYCLE (CLK/CYC)-mediated transcription is constantly active in dissociated clock neurons. In contrast, the expression profile of the post-transcriptional reporter indicates that PERIOD (PER) protein levels fluctuate and ~10% of cells display rhythms in PER levels with periods in the circadian range. Nevertheless, PER and TIM are enriched in the cytoplasm and no periodic PER nuclear accumulation was observed. These results suggest that repression of CLK/CYC-mediated transcription by nuclear PER is impaired, and thus the negative feedback loop of the molecular clock is incomplete in isolated clock neurons. We further demonstrate that, by pharmacological assays using the non-amidated form of neuropeptide pigment-dispersing factor (PDF), which could be specifically secreted from larval LNvs and adult s-LNvs, downstream events of the PDF signaling are partly impaired in dissociated larval clock neurons. Although non-amidated PDF is likely to be less active than the amidated one, these results point out the possibility that alteration in PDF downstream signaling may play a role in dampening of molecular rhythms in isolated clock neurons. Taken together, our results suggest that Drosophila clocks are weak oscillators that need to be in the intact circadian

  10. Evaluating the Autonomy of the Drosophila Circadian Clock in Dissociated Neuronal Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Virginie Sabado

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Circadian behavioral rhythms offer an excellent model to study intricate interactions between the molecular and neuronal mechanisms of behavior. In mammals, pacemaker neurons in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN generate rhythms cell-autonomously, which are synchronized by the network interactions within the circadian circuit to drive behavioral rhythms. However, whether this principle is universal to circadian systems in animals remains unanswered. Here, we examined the autonomy of the Drosophila circadian clock by monitoring transcriptional and post-transcriptional rhythms of individual clock neurons in dispersed culture with time-lapse microscopy. Expression patterns of the transcriptional reporter show that CLOCK/CYCLE (CLK/CYC-mediated transcription is constantly active in dissociated clock neurons. In contrast, the expression profile of the post-transcriptional reporter indicates that PERIOD (PER protein levels fluctuate and ~10% of cells display rhythms in PER levels with periods in the circadian range. Nevertheless, PER and TIM are enriched in the cytoplasm and no periodic PER nuclear accumulation was observed. These results suggest that repression of CLK/CYC-mediated transcription by nuclear PER is impaired, and thus the negative feedback loop of the molecular clock is incomplete in isolated clock neurons. We further demonstrate that, by pharmacological assays using the non-amidated form of neuropeptide pigment-dispersing factor (PDF, which could be specifically secreted from larval LNvs and adult s-LNvs, downstream events of the PDF signaling are partly impaired in dissociated larval clock neurons. Although non-amidated PDF is likely to be less active than the amidated one, these results point out the possibility that alteration in PDF downstream signaling may play a role in dampening of molecular rhythms in isolated clock neurons. Taken together, our results suggest that Drosophila clocks are weak oscillators that need to be in the

  11. Sleep loss reduces the DNA-binding of BMAL1, CLOCK, and NPAS2 to specific clock genes in the mouse cerebral cortex.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valérie Mongrain

    Full Text Available We have previously demonstrated that clock genes contribute to the homeostatic aspect of sleep regulation. Indeed, mutations in some clock genes modify the markers of sleep homeostasis and an increase in homeostatic sleep drive alters clock gene expression in the forebrain. Here, we investigate a possible mechanism by which sleep deprivation (SD could alter clock gene expression by quantifying DNA-binding of the core-clock transcription factors CLOCK, NPAS2, and BMAL1 to the cis-regulatory sequences of target clock genes in mice. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP, we first showed that, as reported for the liver, DNA-binding of CLOCK and BMAL1 to target clock genes changes in function of time-of-day in the cerebral cortex. Tissue extracts were collected at ZT0 (light onset, -6, -12, and -18, and DNA enrichment of E-box or E'-box containing sequences was measured by qPCR. CLOCK and BMAL1 binding to Cry1, Dbp, Per1, and Per2 depended on time-of-day, with maximum values reached at around ZT6. We then observed that SD, performed between ZT0 and -6, significantly decreased DNA-binding of CLOCK and BMAL1 to Dbp, consistent with the observed decrease in Dbp mRNA levels after SD. The DNA-binding of NPAS2 and BMAL1 to Per2 was also decreased by SD, although SD is known to increase Per2 expression in the cortex. DNA-binding to Per1 and Cry1 was not affected by SD. Our results show that the sleep-wake history can affect the clock molecular machinery directly at the level of chromatin binding thereby altering the cortical expression of Dbp and Per2 and likely other targets. Although the precise dynamics of the relationship between DNA-binding and mRNA expression, especially for Per2, remains elusive, the results also suggest that part of the reported circadian changes in DNA-binding of core clock components in tissues peripheral to the suprachiasmatic nuclei could, in fact, be sleep-wake driven.

  12. Sleep loss reduces the DNA-binding of BMAL1, CLOCK, and NPAS2 to specific clock genes in the mouse cerebral cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mongrain, Valérie; La Spada, Francesco; Curie, Thomas; Franken, Paul

    2011-01-01

    We have previously demonstrated that clock genes contribute to the homeostatic aspect of sleep regulation. Indeed, mutations in some clock genes modify the markers of sleep homeostasis and an increase in homeostatic sleep drive alters clock gene expression in the forebrain. Here, we investigate a possible mechanism by which sleep deprivation (SD) could alter clock gene expression by quantifying DNA-binding of the core-clock transcription factors CLOCK, NPAS2, and BMAL1 to the cis-regulatory sequences of target clock genes in mice. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), we first showed that, as reported for the liver, DNA-binding of CLOCK and BMAL1 to target clock genes changes in function of time-of-day in the cerebral cortex. Tissue extracts were collected at ZT0 (light onset), -6, -12, and -18, and DNA enrichment of E-box or E'-box containing sequences was measured by qPCR. CLOCK and BMAL1 binding to Cry1, Dbp, Per1, and Per2 depended on time-of-day, with maximum values reached at around ZT6. We then observed that SD, performed between ZT0 and -6, significantly decreased DNA-binding of CLOCK and BMAL1 to Dbp, consistent with the observed decrease in Dbp mRNA levels after SD. The DNA-binding of NPAS2 and BMAL1 to Per2 was also decreased by SD, although SD is known to increase Per2 expression in the cortex. DNA-binding to Per1 and Cry1 was not affected by SD. Our results show that the sleep-wake history can affect the clock molecular machinery directly at the level of chromatin binding thereby altering the cortical expression of Dbp and Per2 and likely other targets. Although the precise dynamics of the relationship between DNA-binding and mRNA expression, especially for Per2, remains elusive, the results also suggest that part of the reported circadian changes in DNA-binding of core clock components in tissues peripheral to the suprachiasmatic nuclei could, in fact, be sleep-wake driven.

  13. Novel transcriptional networks regulated by CLOCK in human neurons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fontenot, Miles R; Berto, Stefano; Liu, Yuxiang; Werthmann, Gordon; Douglas, Connor; Usui, Noriyoshi; Gleason, Kelly; Tamminga, Carol A; Takahashi, Joseph S; Konopka, Genevieve

    2017-11-01

    The molecular mechanisms underlying human brain evolution are not fully understood; however, previous work suggested that expression of the transcription factor CLOCK in the human cortex might be relevant to human cognition and disease. In this study, we investigated this novel transcriptional role for CLOCK in human neurons by performing chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing for endogenous CLOCK in adult neocortices and RNA sequencing following CLOCK knockdown in differentiated human neurons in vitro. These data suggested that CLOCK regulates the expression of genes involved in neuronal migration, and a functional assay showed that CLOCK knockdown increased neuronal migratory distance. Furthermore, dysregulation of CLOCK disrupts coexpressed networks of genes implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders, and the expression of these networks is driven by hub genes with human-specific patterns of expression. These data support a role for CLOCK-regulated transcriptional cascades involved in human brain evolution and function. © 2017 Fontenot et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

  14. The relaxation time approximation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gairola, R.P.; Indu, B.D.

    1991-01-01

    A plausible approximation has been made to estimate the relaxation time from a knowledge of the transition probability of phonons from one state (r vector, q vector) to other state (r' vector, q' vector), as a result of collision. The relaxation time, thus obtained, shows a strong dependence on temperature and weak dependence on the wave vector. In view of this dependence, relaxation time has been expressed in terms of a temperature Taylor's series in the first Brillouin zone. Consequently, a simple model for estimating the thermal conductivity is suggested. the calculations become much easier than the Callaway model. (author). 14 refs

  15. Study on a High-frequency Multi-GNSS Real-time Precise Clock Estimation Algorithm and Application in GNSS Augment System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CHEN Liang

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available GNSS satellite-based differential augment system is based on real-time orbit and clock augment message. The multi-GNSS real-time precise clock error estimation model is studied, and then the parameters estimated in traditional un-difference model are optimized and a high-efficient real-time clock simplified model is proposed and realized. The real-time orbit data processing based on PANDA is also analyzed. The results indicate that the real-time orbit radial accuracy of GPS, BeiDou MEO and Galileo is 1~5 cm, and the radial accuracy of the BeiDou GEO/IGSO satellite is about 10 cm. It is found that the optimized real-time clock simplified model is more efficient in one epoch than un-difference model and can be applied to high-frequency (such as 1 Hz updating of real-time clock augment message. The results show that the real-time clock error obtained by this model is absolute value and there is no constant bias. Based on the real-time orbit, the GPS real-time clock precision of the simplified model is about 0.24 ns, BeiDou GEO is about 0.50 ns, IGSO/MEO is about 0.22 ns and Galileo is about 0.32 ns. Using the multi-GNSS real-time data stream in GFZ, a multi-GNSS real-time augment prototype system is built and the real-time augment message is being broadcasted on the Internet. The real-time PPP centimeter-level service and meter-level navigation service based on pseudorange are realized based on this prototype system.

  16. RAPID COMMUNICATION: Improving prediction accuracy of GPS satellite clocks with periodic variation behaviour

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heo, Youn Jeong; Cho, Jeongho; Heo, Moon Beom

    2010-07-01

    The broadcast ephemeris and IGS ultra-rapid predicted (IGU-P) products are primarily available for use in real-time GPS applications. The IGU orbit precision has been remarkably improved since late 2007, but its clock products have not shown acceptably high-quality prediction performance. One reason for this fact is that satellite atomic clocks in space can be easily influenced by various factors such as temperature and environment and this leads to complicated aspects like periodic variations, which are not sufficiently described by conventional models. A more reliable prediction model is thus proposed in this paper in order to be utilized particularly in describing the periodic variation behaviour satisfactorily. The proposed prediction model for satellite clocks adds cyclic terms to overcome the periodic effects and adopts delay coordinate embedding, which offers the possibility of accessing linear or nonlinear coupling characteristics like satellite behaviour. The simulation results have shown that the proposed prediction model outperforms the IGU-P solutions at least on a daily basis.

  17. Naming analog clocks conceptually facilitates naming digital clocks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meeuwissen, M.H.W.; Roelofs, A.P.A.; Levelt, W.J.M.

    2004-01-01

    Naming digital clocks (e.g., 2:45, say "quarter to three") requires conceptual operations on the minute and hour information displayed in the input for producing the correct relative time expression. The interplay of these conceptual operations was investigated using a repetition priming paradigm.

  18. Optical lattice clock with Strontium atoms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baillard, X.

    2008-01-01

    This thesis presents the latest achievements regarding the optical lattice clock with Strontium atoms developed at LNE-SYRTE. After a review of the different types of optical clocks that are currently under development, we stress on the concept of optical lattice clock which was first imagined for Sr 87 using the 1 S 0 → 3 P 0 transition. We exhibit the features of this atom, in particular the concept of magic wavelength for the trap, and the achievable performances for this kind of clock. The second part presents the experimental aspects, insisting particularly on the ultra-stable laser used for the interrogation of the atoms which is a central part of the experiment. Among the latest improvements, an optical pumping phase and an interrogation phase using a magnetic field have been added in order to refine the evaluation of the Zeeman effect. Finally, the last part presents the experimental results. The last evaluation of the clock using Sr 87 atoms allowed us to reach a frequency accuracy of 2.6*10 -15 and a measurement in agreement with the one made at JILA (Tokyo university) at the 10 -15 level. On another hand, thanks to recent theoretical proposals, we made a measurement using the bosonic isotope Sr 88 by adapting the experimental setup. This measurement represents the first evaluation for this type of clock, with a frequency accuracy of 7*10 -14 . (author)

  19. A modified homogeneous relaxation model for CO2 two-phase flow in vapour ejector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haida, M.; Palacz, M.; Smolka, J.; Nowak, A. J.; Hafner, A.; Banasiak, K.

    2016-01-01

    In this study, the homogenous relaxation model (HRM) for CO 2 flow in a two-phase ejector was modified in order to increase the accuracy of the numerical simulations The two- phase flow model was implemented on the effective computational tool called ejectorPL for fully automated and systematic computations of various ejector shapes and operating conditions. The modification of the HRM was performed by a change of the relaxation time and the constants included in the relaxation time equation based on the experimental result under the operating conditions typical for the supermarket refrigeration system. The modified HRM was compared to the HEM results, which were performed based on the comparison of motive nozzle and suction nozzle mass flow rates. (paper)

  20. A modified homogeneous relaxation model for CO2 two-phase flow in vapour ejector

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haida, M.; Palacz, M.; Smolka, J.; Nowak, A. J.; Hafner, A.; Banasiak, K.

    2016-09-01

    In this study, the homogenous relaxation model (HRM) for CO2 flow in a two-phase ejector was modified in order to increase the accuracy of the numerical simulations The two- phase flow model was implemented on the effective computational tool called ejectorPL for fully automated and systematic computations of various ejector shapes and operating conditions. The modification of the HRM was performed by a change of the relaxation time and the constants included in the relaxation time equation based on the experimental result under the operating conditions typical for the supermarket refrigeration system. The modified HRM was compared to the HEM results, which were performed based on the comparison of motive nozzle and suction nozzle mass flow rates.

  1. Transcripts from the Circadian Clock: Telling Time and Season

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    K. Brand (Karl)

    2011-01-01

    textabstractWe all know it when we wake mere moments before an alarm clock is scheduled to wake us: our body clock made the alarm clock redundant. This phenomenon is driven by an endogenous timer known as the biological, or circadian clock. Each revolution of the Earth about its own axis produces

  2. The Square Light Clock and Special Relativity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galli, J. Ronald; Amiri, Farhang

    2012-01-01

    A thought experiment that includes a square light clock is similar to the traditional vertical light beam and mirror clock, except it is made up of four mirrors placed at a 45[degree] angle at each corner of a square of length L[subscript 0], shown in Fig. 1. Here we have shown the events as measured in the rest frame of the square light clock. By…

  3. A precise clock distribution network for MRPC-based experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, S.; Cao, P.; Shang, L.; An, Q.

    2016-01-01

    In high energy physics experiments, the MRPC (Multi-Gap Resistive Plate Chamber) detectors are widely used recently which can provide higher-resolution measurement for particle identification. However, the application of MRPC detectors leads to a series of challenges in electronics design with large number of front-end electronic channels, especially for distributing clock precisely. To deal with these challenges, this paper presents a universal scheme of clock transmission network for MRPC-based experiments with advantages of both precise clock distribution and global command synchronization. For precise clock distributing, the clock network is designed into a tree architecture with two stages: the first one has a point-to-multipoint long range bidirectional distribution with optical channels and the second one has a fan-out structure with copper link inside readout crates. To guarantee the precision of clock frequency or phase, the r-PTP (reduced Precision Time Protocol) and the DDMTD (digital Dual Mixer Time Difference) methods are used for frequency synthesis, phase measurement and adjustment, which is implemented by FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) in real-time. In addition, to synchronize global command execution, based upon this clock distribution network, synchronous signals are coded with clock for transmission. With technique of encoding/decoding and clock data recovery, signals such as global triggers or system control commands, can be distributed to all front-end channels synchronously, which greatly simplifies the system design. The experimental results show that both the clock jitter (RMS) and the clock skew can be less than 100 ps.

  4. General anesthesia alters time perception by phase shifting the circadian clock.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheeseman, James F; Winnebeck, Eva C; Millar, Craig D; Kirkland, Lisa S; Sleigh, James; Goodwin, Mark; Pawley, Matt D M; Bloch, Guy; Lehmann, Konstantin; Menzel, Randolf; Warman, Guy R

    2012-05-01

    Following general anesthesia, people are often confused about the time of day and experience sleep disruption and fatigue. It has been hypothesized that these symptoms may be caused by general anesthesia affecting the circadian clock. The circadian clock is fundamental to our well-being because it regulates almost all aspects of our daily biochemistry, physiology, and behavior. Here, we investigated the effects of the most common general anesthetic, isoflurane, on time perception and the circadian clock using the honeybee (Apis mellifera) as a model. A 6-h daytime anesthetic systematically altered the time-compensated sun compass orientation of the bees, with a mean anticlockwise shift in vanishing bearing of 87° in the Southern Hemisphere and a clockwise shift in flight direction of 58° in the Northern Hemisphere. Using the same 6-h anesthetic treatment, time-trained bees showed a delay in the start of foraging of 3.3 h, and whole-hive locomotor-activity rhythms were delayed by an average of 4.3 h. We show that these effects are all attributable to a phase delay in the core molecular clockwork. mRNA oscillations of the central clock genes cryptochrome-m and period were delayed by 4.9 and 4.3 h, respectively. However, this effect is dependent on the time of day of administration, as is common for clock effects, and nighttime anesthesia did not shift the clock. Taken together, our results suggest that general anesthesia during the day causes a persistent and marked shift of the clock effectively inducing "jet lag" and causing impaired time perception. Managing this effect in humans is likely to help expedite postoperative recovery.

  5. A Novel Method of Clock Synchronization in Distributed Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Gun; Niu, Meng-jie; Chai, Yang-shun; Chen, Xin; Ren, Yan-qiu

    2017-04-01

    Time synchronization plays an important role in the spacecraft formation flight and constellation autonomous navigation, etc. For the application of clock synchronization in a network system, it is not always true that all the observed nodes in the network are interconnected, therefore, it is difficult to achieve the high-precision time synchronization of a network system in the condition that a certain node can only obtain the measurement information of clock from a single neighboring node, but cannot obtain it from other nodes. Aiming at this problem, a novel method of high-precision time synchronization in a network system is proposed. In this paper, each clock is regarded as a node in the network system, and based on the definition of different topological structures of a distributed system, the three control algorithms of time synchronization under the following three cases are designed: without a master clock (reference clock), with a master clock (reference clock), and with a fixed communication delay in the network system. And the validity of the designed clock synchronization protocol is proved by both stability analysis and numerical simulation.

  6. Physical Layer Ethernet Clock Synchronization

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-11-01

    42 nd Annual Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting 77 PHYSICAL LAYER ETHERNET CLOCK SYNCHRONIZATION Reinhard Exel, Georg...oeaw.ac.at Nikolaus Kerö Oregano Systems, Mohsgasse 1, 1030 Wien, Austria E-mail: nikolaus.keroe@oregano.at Abstract Clock synchronization ...is a service widely used in distributed networks to coordinate data acquisition and actions. As the requirement to achieve tighter synchronization

  7. Mechanisms of relaxation and spin decoherence in nanomagnets

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Tol, Johan

    Relaxation in spin systems is of great interest with respect to various possible applications like quantum information processing and storage, spintronics, and dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). The implementation of high frequencies and fields is crucial in the study of systems with large zero-field splitting or large interactions, as for example molecular magnets and low dimensional magnetic materials. Here we will focus on the implementation of pulsed Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (ERP) at multiple frequencies of 10, 95, 120, 240, and 336 GHz, and the relaxation and decoherence processes as a function of magnetic field and temperature. Firstly, at higher frequencies the direct single-phonon spin-lattice relaxation (SLR) is considerably enhanced, and will more often than not be the dominant relaxation mechanism at low temperatures, and can be much faster than at lower fields and frequencies. In principle the measurement of the SLR rates as a function of the frequency provides a means to map the phonon density of states. Secondly, the high electron spin polarization at high fields has a strong influence on the spin fluctuations in relatively concentrated spin systems, and the contribution of the electron-electron dipolar interactions to the coherence rate can be partially quenched at low temperatures. This not only allows the study of relatively concentrated spin systems by pulsed EPR (as for example magnetic nanoparticles and molecular magnets), it enables the separation of the contribution of the fluctuations of the electron spin system from other decoherence mechanisms. Besides choice of temperature and field, several strategies in sample design, pulse sequences, or clock transitions can be employed to extend the coherence time in nanomagnets. A review will be given of the decoherence mechanisms with an attempt at a quantitative comparison of experimental rates with theory.

  8. Altered cellular redox status, sirtuin abundance and clock gene expression in a mouse model of developmentally primed NASH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruce, Kimberley D; Szczepankiewicz, Dawid; Sihota, Kiran K; Ravindraanandan, Manoj; Thomas, Hugh; Lillycrop, Karen A; Burdge, Graham C; Hanson, Mark A; Byrne, Christopher D; Cagampang, Felino R

    2016-07-01

    We have previously shown that high fat (HF) feeding during pregnancy primes the development of non-alcoholic steatohepatits (NASH) in the adult offspring. However, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Since the endogenous molecular clock can regulate hepatic lipid metabolism, we investigated whether exposure to a HF diet during development could alter hepatic clock gene expression and contribute to NASH onset in later life. Female mice were fed either a control (C, 7%kcal fat) or HF (45%kcal fat) diet. Offspring were fed either a C or HF diet resulting in four offspring groups: C/C, C/HF, HF/C and HF/HF. NAFLD progression, cellular redox status, sirtuin expression (Sirt1, Sirt3), and the expression of core clock genes (Clock, Bmal1, Per2, Cry2) and clock-controlled genes involved in lipid metabolism (Rev-Erbα, Rev-Erbβ, RORα, and Srebp1c) were measured in offspring livers. Offspring fed a HF diet developed NAFLD. However HF fed offspring of mothers fed a HF diet developed NASH, coupled with significantly reduced NAD(+)/NADH (pNASH in adulthood, involving altered cellular redox status, reduced sirtuin abundance, and desynchronized clock gene expression. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Programmable Clock Waveform Generation for CCD Readout

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vicente, J. de; Castilla, J.; Martinez, G.; Marin, J.

    2006-07-01

    Charge transfer efficiency in CCDs is closely related to the clock waveform. In this paper, an experimental framework to explore different FPGA based clock waveform generator designs is described. Two alternative design approaches for controlling the rise/fall edge times and pulse width of the CCD clock signal have been implemented: level-control and time-control. Both approaches provide similar characteristics regarding the edge linearity and noise. Nevertheless, dissimilarities have been found with respect to the area and frequency range of application. Thus, while the time-control approach consumes less area, the level control approach provides a wider range of clock frequencies since it does not suffer capacitor discharge effect. (Author) 8 refs.

  10. Analytic treatment of nuclear spin-lattice relaxation for diffusion in a cone model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sitnitsky, A. E.

    2011-12-01

    We consider nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate resulted from a diffusion equation for rotational wobbling in a cone. We show that the widespread point of view that there are no analytical expressions for correlation functions for wobbling in a cone model is invalid and prove that nuclear spin-lattice relaxation in this model is exactly tractable and amenable to full analytical description. The mechanism of relaxation is assumed to be due to dipole-dipole interaction of nuclear spins and is treated within the framework of the standard Bloemberger, Purcell, Pound-Solomon scheme. We consider the general case of arbitrary orientation of the cone axis relative the magnetic field. The BPP-Solomon scheme is shown to remain valid for systems with the distribution of the cone axes depending only on the tilt relative the magnetic field but otherwise being isotropic. We consider the case of random isotropic orientation of cone axes relative the magnetic field taking place in powders. Also we consider the cases of their predominant orientation along or opposite the magnetic field and that of their predominant orientation transverse to the magnetic field which may be relevant for, e.g., liquid crystals. Besides we treat in details the model case of the cone axis directed along the magnetic field. The latter provides direct comparison of the limiting case of our formulas with the textbook formulas for free isotropic rotational diffusion. The dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate on the cone half-width yields results similar to those predicted by the model-free approach.

  11. A study of internal energy relaxation in shocks using molecular dynamics based models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Zheng; Parsons, Neal; Levin, Deborah A.

    2015-01-01

    Recent potential energy surfaces (PESs) for the N 2 + N and N 2 + N 2 systems are used in molecular dynamics (MD) to simulate rates of vibrational and rotational relaxations for conditions that occur in hypersonic flows. For both chemical systems, it is found that the rotational relaxation number increases with the translational temperature and decreases as the rotational temperature approaches the translational temperature. The vibrational relaxation number is observed to decrease with translational temperature and approaches the rotational relaxation number in the high temperature region. The rotational and vibrational relaxation numbers are generally larger in the N 2 + N 2 system. MD-quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) with the PESs is also used to calculate the V-T transition cross sections, the collision cross section, and the dissociation cross section for each collision pair. Direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) results for hypersonic flow over a blunt body with the total collision cross section from MD/QCT simulations, Larsen-Borgnakke with new relaxation numbers, and the N 2 dissociation rate from MD/QCT show a profile with a decreased translational temperature and a rotational temperature close to vibrational temperature. The results demonstrate that many of the physical models employed in DSMC should be revised as fundamental potential energy surfaces suitable for high temperature conditions become available

  12. Cellular Clocks : Coupled Circadian Dispatch and Cell Division Cycles

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Merrow, Martha; Roenneberg, Till

    2004-01-01

    Gating of cell division by the circadian clock is well known, yet its mechanism is little understood. Genetically tractable model systems have led to new hypotheses and questions concerning the coupling of these two cellular cycles.

  13. Experiments and Modeling of Si-Ge Interdiffusion with Partial Strain Relaxation in Epitaxial SiGe Heterostructures

    KAUST Repository

    Dong, Y.

    2014-07-26

    Si-Ge interdiffusion and strain relaxation were studied in a metastable SiGe epitaxial structure. With Ge concentration profiling and ex-situ strain analysis, it was shown that during thermal anneals, both Si-Ge interdiffusion and strain relaxation occurred. Furthermore, the time evolutions of both strain relaxation and interdiffusion were characterized. It showed that during the ramp-up stage of thermal anneals at higher temperatures (800°C and 840°C), the degree of relaxation, R, reached a “plateau”, while interdiffusion was negligible. With the approximation that the R value is constant after the ramp-up stage, a quantitative interdiffusivity model was built to account for both the effect of strain relaxation and the impact of the relaxation induced dislocations, which gave good agreement with the experiment data.

  14. The Plant Circadian Clock: From a Simple Timekeeper to a Complex Developmental Manager.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanchez, Sabrina E; Kay, Steve A

    2016-12-01

    The plant circadian clock allows organisms to anticipate the predictable changes in the environment by adjusting their developmental and physiological traits. In the last few years, it was determined that responses known to be regulated by the oscillator are also able to modulate clock performance. These feedback loops and their multilayer communications create a complex web, and confer on the clock network a role that exceeds the measurement of time. In this article, we discuss the current knowledge of the wiring of the clock, including the interplay with metabolism, hormone, and stress pathways in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana We outline the importance of this system in crop agricultural traits, highlighting the identification of natural alleles that alter the pace of the timekeeper. We report evidence supporting the understanding of the circadian clock as a master regulator of plant life, and we hypothesize on its relevant role in the adaptability to the environment and the impact on the fitness of most organisms. Copyright © 2016 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved.

  15. Dynamics of the Drosophila circadian clock: theoretical anti-jitter network and controlled chaos.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hassan M Fathallah-Shaykh

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Electronic clocks exhibit undesirable jitter or time variations in periodic signals. The circadian clocks of humans, some animals, and plants consist of oscillating molecular networks with peak-to-peak time of approximately 24 hours. Clockwork orange (CWO is a transcriptional repressor of Drosophila direct target genes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Theory and data from a model of the Drosophila circadian clock support the idea that CWO controls anti-jitter negative circuits that stabilize peak-to-peak time in light-dark cycles (LD. The orbit is confined to chaotic attractors in both LD and dark cycles and is almost periodic in LD; furthermore, CWO diminishes the Euclidean dimension of the chaotic attractor in LD. Light resets the clock each day by restricting each molecular peak to the proximity of a prescribed time. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The theoretical results suggest that chaos plays a central role in the dynamics of the Drosophila circadian clock and that a single molecule, CWO, may sense jitter and repress it by its negative loops.

  16. Relaxed Bell inequalities and Kochen-Specker theorems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hall, Michael J. W. [Theoretical Physics, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 (Australia)

    2011-08-15

    The combination of various physically plausible properties, such as no signaling, determinism, and experimental free will, is known to be incompatible with quantum correlations. Hence, these properties must be individually or jointly relaxed in any model of such correlations. The necessary degrees of relaxation are quantified here via natural distance and information-theoretic measures. This allows quantitative comparisons between different models in terms of the resources, such as the number of bits of randomness, communication, and/or correlation, that they require. For example, measurement dependence is a relatively strong resource for modeling singlet-state correlations, with only 1/15 of one bit of correlation required between measurement settings and the underlying variable. It is shown how various ''relaxed'' Bell inequalities may be obtained, which precisely specify the complementary degrees of relaxation required to model any given violation of a standard Bell inequality. The robustness of a class of Kochen-Specker theorems, to relaxation of measurement independence, is also investigated. It is shown that a theorem of Mermin remains valid unless measurement independence is relaxed by 1/3. The Conway-Kochen ''free will'' theorem and a result of Hardy are less robust, failing if measurement independence is relaxed by only 6.5% and 4.5%, respectively. An appendix shows that existence of an outcome-independent model is equivalent to existence of a deterministic model.

  17. NPAS2 Compensates for Loss of CLOCK in Peripheral Circadian Oscillators.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dominic Landgraf

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Heterodimers of CLOCK and BMAL1 are the major transcriptional activators of the mammalian circadian clock. Because the paralog NPAS2 can substitute for CLOCK in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN, the master circadian pacemaker, CLOCK-deficient mice maintain circadian rhythms in behavior and in tissues in vivo. However, when isolated from the SCN, CLOCK-deficient peripheral tissues are reportedly arrhythmic, suggesting a fundamental difference in circadian clock function between SCN and peripheral tissues. Surprisingly, however, using luminometry and single-cell bioluminescence imaging of PER2 expression, we now find that CLOCK-deficient dispersed SCN neurons and peripheral cells exhibit similarly stable, autonomous circadian rhythms in vitro. In CLOCK-deficient fibroblasts, knockdown of Npas2 leads to arrhythmicity, suggesting that NPAS2 can compensate for loss of CLOCK in peripheral cells as well as in SCN. Our data overturn the notion of an SCN-specific role for NPAS2 in the molecular circadian clock, and instead indicate that, at the cellular level, the core loops of SCN neuron and peripheral cell circadian clocks are fundamentally similar.

  18. FUNCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE CLOCK 3111T/C SINGLE-NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela Renee Ozburn

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Circadian rhythm disruptions are prominently associated with Bipolar Disorder (BD. Circadian rhythms are regulated by the molecular clock, a family of proteins that function together in a transcriptional-translational feedback loop. The CLOCK protein is a key transcription factor of this feedback loop, and previous studies have found that manipulations of the Clock gene are sufficient to produce manic-like behavior in mice (Roybal et al., 2007. The Clock 3111T/C single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs1801260 is a genetic variation of the human Clock gene that is significantly associated with increased frequency of manic episodes in BD patients (Benedetti et al., 2003. The 3111T/C SNP is located in the 3’ untranslated region of the Clock gene. In this study, we sought to examine the functional implications of the human Clock 3111T/C SNP by transfecting a mammalian cell line (mouse embryonic fibroblasts isolated from Clock -/- knockout mice with pcDNA plasmids containing the human Clock gene with either the T or C SNP at position 3111. We then measured circadian gene expression over a 24 hour time period. We found that the Clock3111C SNP resulted in higher mRNA levels than the Clock 3111T SNP. Further, we found that Per2, a transcriptional target of CLOCK, was also more highly expressed with Clock 3111C expression, indicating the 3’UTR SNP affects the expression, function and stability of Clock mRNA.

  19. Combined orbits and clocks from IGS second reprocessing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffiths, Jake

    2018-05-01

    The Analysis Centers (ACs) of the International GNSS Service (IGS) have reprocessed a large global network of GPS tracking data from 1994.0 until 2014.0 or later. Each AC product time series was extended uniformly till early 2015 using their weekly operational IGS contributions so that the complete combined product set covers GPS weeks 730 through 1831. Three ACs also included GLONASS data from as early as 2002 but that was insufficient to permit combined GLONASS products. The reprocessed terrestrial frame combination procedures and results have been reported already, and those were incorporated into the ITRF2014 multi-technique global frame released in 2016. This paper describes the orbit and clock submissions and their multi-AC combinations and assessments. These were released to users in early 2017 in time for the adoption of IGS14 for generating the operational IGS products. While the reprocessing goal was to enable homogeneous modeling, consistent with the current operational procedures, to be applied retrospectively to the full history of observation data in order to achieve a more suitable reference for geophysical studies, that objective has only been partially achieved. Ongoing AC analysis changes and a lack of full participation limit the consistency and precision of the finished IG2 products. Quantitative internal measures indicate that the reprocessed orbits are somewhat less precise than current operational orbits or even the later orbits from the first IGS reprocessing campaign. That is even more apparent for the clocks where a lack of robust AC participation means that it was only possible to form combined 5-min clocks but not the 30-s satellite clocks published operationally. Therefore, retrospective precise point positioning solutions by users are not recommended using the orbits and clocks. Nevertheless, the orbits do support long-term stable user solutions when used with network processing with either double differencing or explicit clock

  20. The Importance of the Circadian Clock in Regulating Plant Metabolism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin A Kim

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Carbohydrates are the primary energy source for plant development. Plants synthesize sucrose in source organs and transport them to sink organs during plant growth. This metabolism is sensitive to environmental changes in light quantity, quality, and photoperiod. In the daytime, the synthesis of sucrose and starch accumulates, and starch is degraded at nighttime. The circadian clock genes provide plants with information on the daily environmental changes and directly control many developmental processes, which are related to the path of primary metabolites throughout the life cycle. The circadian clock mechanism and processes of metabolism controlled by the circadian rhythm were studied in the model plant Arabidopsis and in the crops potato and rice. However, the translation of molecular mechanisms obtained from studies of model plants to crop plants is still difficult. Crop plants have specific organs such as edible seed and tuber that increase the size or accumulate valuable metabolites by harvestable metabolic components. Human consumers are interested in the regulation and promotion of these agriculturally significant crops. Circadian clock manipulation may suggest various strategies for the increased productivity of food crops through using environmental signal or overcoming environmental stress.

  1. Fast Clock Recovery for Digital Communications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tell, R. G.

    1985-01-01

    Circuit extracts clock signal from random non-return-to-zero data stream, locking onto clock within one bit period at 1-gigabitper-second data rate. Circuit used for synchronization in opticalfiber communications. Derives speed from very short response time of gallium arsenide metal/semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFET's).

  2. Do Caucasian and Asian clocks tick differently?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.A. Barbosa

    Full Text Available The Period 3 and Clock genes are important components of the mammalian molecular circadian system. Studies have shown association between polymorphisms in these clock genes and circadian phenotypes in different populations. Nevertheless, differences in the pattern of allele frequency and genotyping distribution are systematically observed in studies with different ethnic groups. To investigate and compare the pattern of distribution in a sample of Asian and Caucasian populations living in Brazil, we evaluated two well-studied polymorphisms in the clock genes: a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR in PER3 and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP in CLOCK. The aim of this investigation was to search for clues about human evolutionary processes related to circadian rhythms. We selected 109 Asian and 135 Caucasian descendants. The frequencies of the shorter allele (4 repeats in the PER3 gene and the T allele in the CLOCK gene among Asians (0.86 and 0.84, respectively were significantly higher than among Caucasians (0.69 and 0.71, respectively. Our results directly confirmed the different distribution of these polymorphisms between the Asian and Caucasian ethnic groups. Given the genetic differences found between groups, two points became evident: first, ethnic variations may have implications for the interpretation of results in circadian rhythm association studies, and second, the question may be raised about which evolutionary conditions shaped these genetic clock variations.

  3. Extended Smoluchowski models for interpreting relaxation phenomena in liquids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Polimeno, A.; Frezzato, D.; Saielli, G.; Moro, G.J.; Nordio, P.L.

    1998-01-01

    Interpretation of the dynamical behaviour of single molecules or collective modes in liquids has been increasingly centered, in the last decade, on complex liquid systems, including ionic solutions, polymeric liquids, supercooled fluids and liquid crystals. This has been made necessary by the need of interpreting dynamical data obtained by advanced experiments, like optical Kerr effect, time dependent fluorescence shift experiments, two-dimensional Fourier-transform and high field electron spin resonance and scattering experiments like quasi-elastic neutron scattering. This communication is centered on the definition, treatment and application of several extended stochastic models, which have proved to be very effective tools for interpreting and rationalizing complex relaxation phenomena in liquids structures. First, applications of standard Fokker-Planck equations for the orientational relaxation of molecules in isotropic and ordered liquid phase are reviewed. In particular attention will be focused on the interpretation of neutron scattering in nematics. Next, an extended stochastic model is used to interpret time-domain resolved fluorescence emission experiments. A two-body stochastic model allows the theoretical interpretation of dynamical Stokes shift effects in fluorescence emission spectra, performed on probes in isotropic and ordered polar phases. Finally, for the case of isotropic fluids made of small rigid molecules, a very detailed model is considered, which includes as basic ingredients a Fokker-Planck description of the molecular vibrational motion and the slow diffusive motion of a persistent cage structure together with the decay processes related to the changing structure of the cage. (author)

  4. Transmission delays in hardware clock synchronization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Kang G.; Ramanathan, P.

    1988-01-01

    Various methods, both with software and hardware, have been proposed to synchronize a set of physical clocks in a system. Software methods are very flexible and economical but suffer an excessive time overhead, whereas hardware methods require no time overhead but are unable to handle transmission delays in clock signals. The effects of nonzero transmission delays in synchronization have been studied extensively in the communication area in the absence of malicious or Byzantine faults. The authors show that it is easy to incorporate the ideas from the communication area into the existing hardware clock synchronization algorithms to take into account the presence of both malicious faults and nonzero transmission delays.

  5. Relative clock verifies endogenous bursts of human dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Tao; Zhao, Zhi-Dan; Yang, Zimo; Zhou, Changsong

    2012-01-01

    Temporal bursts are widely observed in many human-activated systems, which may result from both endogenous mechanisms like the highest-priority-first protocol and exogenous factors like the seasonality of activities. To distinguish the effects from different mechanisms is thus of theoretical significance. This letter reports a new timing method by using a relative clock, namely the time length between two consecutive events of an agent is counted as the number of other agents' events appeared during this interval. We propose a model, in which agents act either in a constant rate or with a power-law inter-event time distribution, and the global activity either keeps unchanged or varies periodically vs. time. Our analysis shows that the bursts caused by the heterogeneity of global activity can be eliminated by setting the relative clock, yet the bursts from real individual behaviors still exist. We perform extensive experiments on four large-scale systems, the search engine by AOL, a social bookmarking system —Delicious, a short-message communication network, and a microblogging system —Twitter. Seasonality of global activity is observed, yet the bursts cannot be eliminated by using the relative clock.

  6. Comparisons of mental clocks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paivio, A

    1978-02-01

    Subjects in three experiments were presented with pairs of clock times and were required to choose the one in which the hour and minute hand formed the smaller angle. In Experiments 1 and 2, the times were presented digitally, necessitating a transformation into symbolic representations from which the angular size difference could be inferred. The results revealed orderly symbolic distance effects so that comparison reaction time increased as the angular size difference decreased. Moreover, subjects generally reported using imagery to make the judgment, and subjects scoring high on test of imagery ability were faster than those scoring low on such tests. Experiment 3 added a direct perceptual condition in which subjects compared angles between pairs of hands on two drawn (analog) clocks, as well as a mixed condition involving one digital and one analog clock time. The results showed comparable distance effects for all conditions. In addition, reaction time increased from the perceptual, to the mixed, to the pure-digital condition. These results are consistent with predictions from an image-based dual-coding theory.

  7. A New Trapped Ion Clock Based on Hg-201(+)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taghavi-Larigani, S.; Burt, E. A.; Lea, S. N.; Prestage, J. D.; Tjoelker, R. L.

    2009-01-01

    There are two stable odd isotopes of mercury with singly ionized hyperfine structure suitable for a microwave clock: Hg-199(+) and Hg-201(+). Virtually all trapped mercury ion clocks to date have used the 199 isotope. We have begun to investigate the viability of a trapped ion clock based on Hg-201(+). We have measured the unperturbed frequency of the (S-2)(sub 1/2) F = 1, m(sub F) = 0 to (S-2)(sub 1/2) F = 2, m(sub F) = 0 clock transition to be 29.9543658211(2) GHz. In this paper we describe initial measurements with Hg-201(+) and new applications to clocks and fundamental physics.

  8. Magneto-dependent stress relaxation of magnetorheological gels

    KAUST Repository

    Xu, Yangguang; Liu, Taixiang; Liao, G J; Lubineau, Gilles

    2017-01-01

    The stress relaxation behaviors of magnetorheological (MR) gels under stepwise shear loading are systematically investigated. The particle-enhanced effect, the magneto-induced effect, and the temperature-enhanced effect on the stress relaxation of MR gels are discussed. For further analysis of the magneto-induced stress relaxation mechanism in MR gels, a phenomenological model is established to describe the stress relaxation behavior of the matrix and the magnetic particle chains. All characteristic parameters introduced in the model, i.e. relaxation time, instantaneous modulus, and stable modulus, have well-defined physical meanings and are fitted based on the experimental results. The influence of each parameter on the macroscopic response is discussed and it is found that the relaxation stress induced by the magneto-mechanical coupling effect plays an important role in the stress relaxation process of MR gels.

  9. Magneto-dependent stress relaxation of magnetorheological gels

    KAUST Repository

    Xu, Yangguang

    2017-09-01

    The stress relaxation behaviors of magnetorheological (MR) gels under stepwise shear loading are systematically investigated. The particle-enhanced effect, the magneto-induced effect, and the temperature-enhanced effect on the stress relaxation of MR gels are discussed. For further analysis of the magneto-induced stress relaxation mechanism in MR gels, a phenomenological model is established to describe the stress relaxation behavior of the matrix and the magnetic particle chains. All characteristic parameters introduced in the model, i.e. relaxation time, instantaneous modulus, and stable modulus, have well-defined physical meanings and are fitted based on the experimental results. The influence of each parameter on the macroscopic response is discussed and it is found that the relaxation stress induced by the magneto-mechanical coupling effect plays an important role in the stress relaxation process of MR gels.

  10. Explaining the imperfection of the molecular clock of hominid mitochondria.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eva-Liis Loogväli

    Full Text Available The molecular clock of mitochondrial DNA has been extensively used to date various genetic events. However, its substitution rate among humans appears to be higher than rates inferred from human-chimpanzee comparisons, limiting the potential of interspecies clock calibrations for intraspecific dating. It is not well understood how and why the substitution rate accelerates. We have analyzed a phylogenetic tree of 3057 publicly available human mitochondrial DNA coding region sequences for changes in the ratios of mutations belonging to different functional classes. The proportion of non-synonymous and RNA genes substitutions has reduced over hundreds of thousands of years. The highest mutation ratios corresponding to fast acceleration in the apparent substitution rate of the coding sequence have occurred after the end of the Last Ice Age. We recalibrate the molecular clock of human mtDNA as 7990 years per synonymous mutation over the mitochondrial genome. However, the distribution of substitutions at synonymous sites in human data significantly departs from a model assuming a single rate parameter and implies at least 3 different subclasses of sites. Neutral model with 3 synonymous substitution rates can explain most, if not all, of the apparent molecular clock difference between the intra- and interspecies levels. Our findings imply the sluggishness of purifying selection in removing the slightly deleterious mutations from the human as well as the Neandertal and chimpanzee populations. However, for humans, the weakness of purifying selection has been further exacerbated by the population expansions associated with the out-of Africa migration and the end of the Last Ice Age.

  11. Experiments and Modeling of Si-Ge Interdiffusion with Partial Strain Relaxation in Epitaxial SiGe Heterostructures

    KAUST Repository

    Dong, Y.; Mooney, P. M.; Cai, F.; Anjum, Dalaver H.; Ur-Rehman, N.; Zhang, Xixiang; Xia, G. (Maggie)

    2014-01-01

    ”, while interdiffusion was negligible. With the approximation that the R value is constant after the ramp-up stage, a quantitative interdiffusivity model was built to account for both the effect of strain relaxation and the impact of the relaxation induced

  12. Evidence for widespread dysregulation of circadian clock progression in human cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jarrod Shilts

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The ubiquitous daily rhythms in mammalian physiology are guided by progression of the circadian clock. In mice, systemic disruption of the clock can promote tumor growth. In vitro, multiple oncogenes can disrupt the clock. However, due to the difficulties of studying circadian rhythms in solid tissues in humans, whether the clock is disrupted within human tumors has remained unknown. We sought to determine the state of the circadian clock in human cancer using publicly available transcriptome data. We developed a method, called the clock correlation distance (CCD, to infer circadian clock progression in a group of samples based on the co-expression of 12 clock genes. Our method can be applied to modestly sized datasets in which samples are not labeled with time of day and coverage of the circadian cycle is incomplete. We used the method to define a signature of clock gene co-expression in healthy mouse organs, then validated the signature in healthy human tissues. By then comparing human tumor and non-tumor samples from twenty datasets of a range of cancer types, we discovered that clock gene co-expression in tumors is consistently perturbed. Subsequent analysis of data from clock gene knockouts in mice suggested that perturbed clock gene co-expression in human cancer is not caused solely by the inactivation of clock genes. Furthermore, focusing on lung cancer, we found that human lung tumors showed systematic changes in expression in a large set of genes previously inferred to be rhythmic in healthy lung. Our findings suggest that clock progression is dysregulated in many solid human cancers and that this dysregulation could have broad effects on circadian physiology within tumors. In addition, our approach opens the door to using publicly available data to infer circadian clock progression in a multitude of human phenotypes.

  13. Vane clocking effects in an embedded compressor stage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Key, Nicole Leanne

    The objective of this research was to experimentally investigate the effects of vane clocking, the circumferential indexing of adjacent vane rows with similar vane counts, in an embedded compressor stage. Experiments were performed in the Purdue 3-Stage Compressor, which consists of an IGV followed by three stages. The IGV, Stator 1, and Stator 2 have identical vane counts of 44, and the effects of clocking were studied on Stage 2. The clocking configuration that located the upstream vane wake on the Stator 2 leading edge was identified with total pressure measurements at the inlet to Stator 2 and confirmed with measurements at the exit of Stator 2. For both loading conditions, the total temperature results showed that there was no measurable change associated with vane clocking in the amount of work done on the flow. At design loading, the change in stage efficiency with vane clocking was 0.27 points between the maximum and minimum efficiency clocking configurations. The maximum efficiency configuration was the case where the Stator 1 wake impinged on the Stator 2 leading edge. This condition produced a shallower and thinner Stator 2 wake compared to the clocking configuration that located the wake in the middle of the Stator 2 passage. By locating the Stator 1 wake at the leading edge, it dampened the Stator 2 boundary layer response to inlet fluctuations associated with the Rotor 2 wakes. At high loading, the change in Stage 2 efficiency increased to 1.07 points; however, the maximum efficiency clocking configuration was the case where the Stator 1 wake passed through the middle of the downstream vane passage. At high loading, the flow physics associated with vane clocking were different than at design loading because the location of the Stator 1 wake fluid on the Stator 2 leading edge triggered a boundary layer separation on the suction side of Stator 2 producing a wider and deeper wake. Vane clocking essentially affects the amount of interaction between the

  14. Disruption of the Circadian Clock Alters Antioxidative Defense via the SIRT1-BMAL1 Pathway in 6-OHDA-Induced Models of Parkinson’s Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yali Wang

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Parkinson’s disease (PD is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and is known to involve circadian dysfunction and oxidative stress. Although antioxidative defense is regulated by the molecular circadian clock, few studies have examined their function in PD and their regulation by silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1. We hypothesize that reduced antioxidative activity in models of PD results from dysfunction of the molecular circadian clock via the SIRT1 pathway. We treated rats and SH-SY5Y cells with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA and measured the expression of core circadian clock and associated nuclear receptor genes using real-time quantitative PCR as well as levels of SIRT1, brain and muscle Arnt-like protein 1 (BMAL1, and acetylated BMAL1 using Western blotting. We found that 6-OHDA treatment altered the expression patterns of clock and antioxidative molecules in vivo and in vitro. We also detected an increased ratio of acetylated BMAL1:BMAL1 and a decreased level of SIRT1. Furthermore, resveratrol, an activator of SIRT1, decreased the acetylation of BMAL1 and inhibited its binding with CRY1, thereby reversing the impaired antioxidative activity induced by 6-OHDA. These results suggest that a dysfunctional circadian clock contributes to an abnormal antioxidative response in PD via a SIRT1-dependent BMAL1 pathway.

  15. Math Clock: Perangkat Penunjuk Waktu Kreatif untuk Olahraga Otak

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Galuh Boy Hertantyo

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Brain is one of the most vital parts for humans, with the number of brain function that is needed for the body, the brain becomes a very important part of the human body. If there is damage to the brain will certainly cause the performance of the human body will not run properly. Because of that, it’s very important to maintain brain health. There is a way to maintain brain health, for example is by doing brain exercise. Examples of brain exercise is to do simple math calculations or doing brain games like sudoku. Because of that, created a tool that can help the brain to maintain brain exercise. The tool is called math clock. Making math clock tool consists of hardware and software. The hardware consists of RTC as real time data input, ATmega328 as microcontroller and dot matrix 32x16 as a tool to display the output that has been processed by the microcontroller. The software is built using C with Arduino IDE. Math clock will process the data from RTC then processed it, in microcontroller so when output displayed on dot matrix, output will be simple mathematical operation with real time clock data on it. Test results show that, math clock is capable of displaying a simple mathematical calculation operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The mathematical operation that display on math clock, appears to be random, so it’s not triggered by same mathematical operation. In math clock the display will change every 20 second, so in 1 minute there are 3 different kinds of mathematical operations. The results of questionnaires of 10 different students, showed 9 out of 10 students said math clock is a tool that easy to use as a clock. Math clock will be alternative for doing brain exercise every day.

  16. Electromagnetic synchronisation of clocks with finite separation in a rotating system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cohen, J.M.; Moses, H.E.; Rosenblum, A.; Temple Univ., Philadelphia, PA

    1984-01-01

    For clocks on the vertices of a triangle, it is shown that clock synchronisation using electromagnetic signals between finitely spaced clocks in a rotating frame leads to the same synchronisation error as a closely spaced band of clocks along the same light path. In addition, the above result is generalised to n equally spaced clocks. (author)

  17. Synthesizing genetic sequential logic circuit with clock pulse generator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chuang, Chia-Hua; Lin, Chun-Liang

    2014-05-28

    Rhythmic clock widely occurs in biological systems which controls several aspects of cell physiology. For the different cell types, it is supplied with various rhythmic frequencies. How to synthesize a specific clock signal is a preliminary but a necessary step to further development of a biological computer in the future. This paper presents a genetic sequential logic circuit with a clock pulse generator based on a synthesized genetic oscillator, which generates a consecutive clock signal whose frequency is an inverse integer multiple to that of the genetic oscillator. An analogous electronic waveform-shaping circuit is constructed by a series of genetic buffers to shape logic high/low levels of an oscillation input in a basic sinusoidal cycle and generate a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) output with various duty cycles. By controlling the threshold level of the genetic buffer, a genetic clock pulse signal with its frequency consistent to the genetic oscillator is synthesized. A synchronous genetic counter circuit based on the topology of the digital sequential logic circuit is triggered by the clock pulse to synthesize the clock signal with an inverse multiple frequency to the genetic oscillator. The function acts like a frequency divider in electronic circuits which plays a key role in the sequential logic circuit with specific operational frequency. A cascaded genetic logic circuit generating clock pulse signals is proposed. Based on analogous implement of digital sequential logic circuits, genetic sequential logic circuits can be constructed by the proposed approach to generate various clock signals from an oscillation signal.

  18. Lattice-induced nonadiabatic frequency shifts in optical lattice clocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beloy, K.

    2010-01-01

    We consider the frequency shift in optical lattice clocks which arises from the coupling of the electronic motion to the atomic motion within the lattice. For the simplest of three-dimensional lattice geometries this coupling is shown to affect only clocks based on blue-detuned lattices. We have estimated the size of this shift for the prospective strontium lattice clock operating at the 390-nm blue-detuned magic wavelength. The resulting fractional frequency shift is found to be on the order of 10 -18 and is largely overshadowed by the electric quadrupole shift. For lattice clocks based on more complex geometries or other atomic systems, this shift could potentially be a limiting factor in clock accuracy.

  19. Improvement of an Atomic Clock using Squeezed Vacuum

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kruse, I.; Lange, K; Peise, Jan

    2016-01-01

    , the vacuum noise restricts the precision of the interferometer to the standard quantum limit (SQL). Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel clock configuration that surpasses the SQL by squeezing the vacuum in the empty input state. We create a squeezed vacuum state containing an average of 0.......75 atoms to improve the clock sensitivity of 10000 atoms by 2.05+0.34−0.37  dB. The SQL poses a significant limitation for today’s microwave fountain clocks, which serve as the main time reference. We evaluate the major technical limitations and challenges for devising a next generation of fountain clocks...

  20. Using Higher-Order Dynamic Bayesian Networks to Model Periodic Data from the Circadian Clock of Arabidopsis Thaliana

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daly, Rónán; Edwards, Kieron D.; O'Neill, John S.; Aitken, Stuart; Millar, Andrew J.; Girolami, Mark

    Modelling gene regulatory networks in organisms is an important task that has recently become possible due to large scale assays using technologies such as microarrays. In this paper, the circadian clock of Arabidopsis thaliana is modelled by fitting dynamic Bayesian networks to luminescence data gathered from experiments. This work differs from previous modelling attempts by using higher-order dynamic Bayesian networks to explicitly model the time lag between the various genes being expressed. In order to achieve this goal, new techniques in preprocessing the data and in evaluating a learned model are proposed. It is shown that it is possible, to some extent, to model these time delays using a higher-order dynamic Bayesian network.

  1. The mammalian retina as a clock

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tosini, Gianluca; Fukuhara, Chiaki

    2002-01-01

    Many physiological, cellular, and biochemical parameters in the retina of vertebrates show daily rhythms that, in many cases, also persist under constant conditions. This demonstrates that they are driven by a circadian pacemaker. The presence of an autonomous circadian clock in the retina of vertebrates was first demonstrated in Xenopus laevis and then, several years later, in mammals. In X. laevis and in chicken, the retinal circadian pacemaker has been localized in the photoreceptor layer, whereas in mammals, such information is not yet available. Recent advances in molecular techniques have led to the identification of a group of genes that are believed to constitute the molecular core of the circadian clock. These genes are expressed in the retina, although with a slightly different 24-h profile from that observed in the central circadian pacemaker. This result suggests that some difference (at the molecular level) may exist between the retinal clock and the clock located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of hypothalamus. The present review will focus on the current knowledge of the retinal rhythmicity and the mechanisms responsible for its control.

  2. Models for multiple relaxation processes in collagen fiber

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    ... originate from stress strain induced changes in hydrogen bond network whereas the other seems to be more strongly coupled to salt like bridges and electrostatic interactions. Urea alters the activation energy for one relaxation step while pH and solvent dielectric constant alter the relaxation behavior one set of processes.

  3. Pseudopotential multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model for cavitation bubble collapse with high density ratio

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shan Ming-Lei; Zhu Chang-Ping; Yao Cheng; Yin Cheng; Jiang Xiao-Yan

    2016-01-01

    The dynamics of the cavitation bubble collapse is a fundamental issue for the bubble collapse application and prevention. In the present work, the modified forcing scheme for the pseudopotential multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model developed by Li Q et al. [Li Q, Luo K H and Li X J 2013 Phys. Rev. E 87 053301] is adopted to develop a cavitation bubble collapse model. In the respects of coexistence curves and Laplace law verification, the improved pseudopotential multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model is investigated. It is found that the thermodynamic consistency and surface tension are independent of kinematic viscosity. By homogeneous and heterogeneous cavitation simulation, the ability of the present model to describe the cavitation bubble development as well as the cavitation inception is verified. The bubble collapse between two parallel walls is simulated. The dynamic process of a collapsing bubble is consistent with the results from experiments and simulations by other numerical methods. It is demonstrated that the present pseudopotential multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model is applicable and efficient, and the lattice Boltzmann method is an alternative tool for collapsing bubble modeling. (paper)

  4. High-precision multi-node clock network distribution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xing; Cui, Yifan; Lu, Xing; Ci, Cheng; Zhang, Xuesong; Liu, Bo; Wu, Hong; Tang, Tingsong; Shi, Kebin; Zhang, Zhigang

    2017-10-01

    A high precision multi-node clock network for multiple users was built following the precise frequency transmission and time synchronization of 120 km fiber. The network topology adopts a simple star-shaped network structure. The clock signal of a hydrogen maser (synchronized with UTC) was recovered from a 120 km telecommunication fiber link and then was distributed to 4 sub-stations. The fractional frequency instability of all substations is in the level of 10 -15 in a second and the clock offset instability is in sub-ps in root-mean-square average.

  5. Hierarchical relaxation dynamics in a tilted two-band Bose-Hubbard model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cosme, Jayson G.

    2018-04-01

    We numerically examine slow and hierarchical relaxation dynamics of interacting bosons described by a tilted two-band Bose-Hubbard model. The system is found to exhibit signatures of quantum chaos within the spectrum and the validity of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis for relevant physical observables is demonstrated for certain parameter regimes. Using the truncated Wigner representation in the semiclassical limit of the system, dynamics of relevant observables reveal hierarchical relaxation and the appearance of prethermalized states is studied from the perspective of statistics of the underlying mean-field trajectories. The observed prethermalization scenario can be attributed to different stages of glassy dynamics in the mode-time configuration space due to dynamical phase transition between ergodic and nonergodic trajectories.

  6. Crystal Structure of the CLOCK Transactivation Domain Exon19 in Complex with a Repressor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hou, Zhiqiang; Su, Lijing; Pei, Jimin; Grishin, Nick V.; Zhang, Hong (UTSMC)

    2017-08-01

    In the canonical clock model, CLOCK:BMAL1-mediated transcriptional activation is feedback regulated by its repressors CRY and PER and, in association with other coregulators, ultimately generates oscillatory gene expression patterns. How CLOCK:BMAL1 interacts with coregulator(s) is not well understood. Here we report the crystal structures of the mouse CLOCK transactivating domain Exon19 in complex with CIPC, a potent circadian repressor that functions independently of CRY and PER. The Exon19:CIPC complex adopts a three-helical coiled-coil bundle conformation containing two Exon19 helices and one CIPC. Unique to Exon19:CIPC, three highly conserved polar residues, Asn341 of CIPC and Gln544 of the two Exon19 helices, are located at the mid-section of the coiled-coil bundle interior and form hydrogen bonds with each other. Combining results from protein database search, sequence analysis, and mutagenesis studies, we discovered for the first time that CLOCK Exon19:CIPC interaction is a conserved transcription regulatory mechanism among mammals, fish, flies, and other invertebrates.

  7. A high-precision synchronization circuit for clock distribution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu Chong; Tan Hongzhou; Duan Zhikui; Ding Yi

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, a novel structure of a high-precision synchronization circuit, HPSC, using interleaved delay units and a dynamic compensation circuit is proposed. HPSCs are designed for synchronization of clock distribution networks in large-scale integrated circuits, where high-quality clocks are required. The application of a hybrid structure of a coarse delay line and dynamic compensation circuit performs roughly the alignment of the clock signal in two clock cycles, and finishes the fine tuning in the next three clock cycles with the phase error suppressed under 3.8 ps. The proposed circuit is implemented and fabricated using a SMIC 0.13 μm 1P6M process with a supply voltage at 1.2 V. The allowed operation frequency ranges from 200 to 800 MHz, and the duty cycle ranges between [20%, 80%]. The active area of the core circuits is 245 × 134 μm 2 , and the power consumption is 1.64 mW at 500 MHz. (paper)

  8. [Elevated expression of CLOCK is associated with poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Bo; Yang, Xiliang; Li, Jiaqi; Yang, Yi; Yan, Zhaoyong; Zhang, Hongxin; Mu, Jiao

    2018-02-01

    Objective To evaluate the expression of circadian locomotor output cycles kaput (CLOCK) and its effects on cell growth in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods The expression of CLOCK in 158 pairs of human HCC tissues and matched noncancerous samples was detected by immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. The expression of CLOCK in HCC patients was also verified using the data from GEO and TCGA (a total of 356 cases). The relationship between CLOCK expression and clinicopathological features of HCC patients was analyzed by single factor statistical analysis. Kaplan-Meier survival curves of HCC patients were drawn to study the relationship between the expression level of CLOCK and the survival state. The effect of CLOCK on the growth of HepG2 cells was detected by MTS assay. Results The expression of CLOCK in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the adjacent tissues, and the up-regulation of CLOCK expression in HCC tissue was also confirmed in the public data of HCC (356 cases). HCC patients were divided into low CLOCK expression group and high CLOCK expression group. Univariate analysis showed that the expression of CLOCK was related to tumor size, TNM stage, and portal vein invasion in HCC patients. HCC patients with low CLOCK expression had longer overall survival time and relapse-free survival time than those with high CLOCK expression. The proliferation of cells significantly decreased after the expression of CLOCK was knocked down in HepG2 cells. Conclusion The expression of CLOCK in HCC tissues was much higher than that in normal liver tissues, and the high expression of CLOCK indicated the poor prognosis. The knockdown of CLOCK in HCC cells could inhibit the proliferation of HepG2 cells.

  9. Automatic Clock and Time Signal System of the Astronomical Agency in East Asia Area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Yong Sam

    2009-09-01

    We analysed the old automatic clock and time signal system that was used by the national astronomical agency in East Asian Area. Jagyeongnu is a kind of water clock that was operated by the flowing water in Joseon Dynasty. Seowoongwan managed the water clock so as to keep the standard time system in the dynasty from the 16th year (1434) of King Sejong's reign. In 1438 the Okru that was invented in the period. Such kind of clock system already was used in China, which was Shui yun i hsiang t'ai (?) in 1092. During the period Joseon Dynasty, China and Japan had been kept the time system that one day is divided into 12 shin (?2?) or 100 gak (?). However detailed part of the system had a little difference among the three countries. Though the whole system of water clock in Joseon had manufactured on the basis of Chinese, it had been gradually developed by own method and idea. In this study we show the historical records of the standard time keeping system in East Asian history. And then we can inform materials on the structure and functional devises for the purpose of new restoration models about the automatic clock and time system.

  10. Phase locking and multiple oscillating attractors for the coupled mammalian clock and cell cycle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feillet, Céline; Krusche, Peter; Tamanini, Filippo; Janssens, Roel C; Downey, Mike J; Martin, Patrick; Teboul, Michèle; Saito, Shoko; Lévi, Francis A; Bretschneider, Till; van der Horst, Gijsbertus T J; Delaunay, Franck; Rand, David A

    2014-07-08

    Daily synchronous rhythms of cell division at the tissue or organism level are observed in many species and suggest that the circadian clock and cell cycle oscillators are coupled. For mammals, despite known mechanistic interactions, the effect of such coupling on clock and cell cycle progression, and hence its biological relevance, is not understood. In particular, we do not know how the temporal organization of cell division at the single-cell level produces this daily rhythm at the tissue level. Here we use multispectral imaging of single live cells, computational methods, and mathematical modeling to address this question in proliferating mouse fibroblasts. We show that in unsynchronized cells the cell cycle and circadian clock robustly phase lock each other in a 1:1 fashion so that in an expanding cell population the two oscillators oscillate in a synchronized way with a common frequency. Dexamethasone-induced synchronization reveals additional clock states. As well as the low-period phase-locked state there are distinct coexisting states with a significantly higher period clock. Cells transition to these states after dexamethasone synchronization. The temporal coordination of cell division by phase locking to the clock at a single-cell level has significant implications because disordered circadian function is increasingly being linked to the pathogenesis of many diseases, including cancer.

  11. A model of magnetic and relaxation properties of the mononuclear [Pc2Tb](-)TBA+ complex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reu, O S; Palii, A V; Ostrovsky, S M; Tregenna-Piggott, P L W; Klokishner, S I

    2012-10-15

    The present work is aimed at the elaboration of the model of magnetic properties and magnetic relaxation in the mononuclear [Pc(2)Tb](-)TBA(+) complex that displays single-molecule magnet properties. We calculate the Stark structure of the ground (7)F(6) term of the Tb(3+) ion in the exchange charge model of the crystal field, taking account for covalence effects. The ground Stark level of the complex possesses the maximum value of the total angular momentum projection, while the energies of the excited Stark levels increase with decreasing |M(J)| values, thus giving rise to a barrier for the reversal of magnetization. The one-phonon transitions between the Stark levels of the Tb(3+) ion induced by electron-vibrational interaction are shown to lead to magnetization relaxation in the [Pc(2)Tb](-)TBA(+) complex. The rates of all possible transitions between the low-lying Stark levels are calculated in the temperature range 14 Krelaxation time of magnetization, we solve the set of master equations for the populations of the Stark levels. The relaxation time is shown to diminish from 3.2 × 10(-2) s to 1.52 × 10(-4) s as the temperature increases from 27 K to 40 K. The obtained values of the relaxation time are in satisfactory agreement with the observed ones. The developed model also provides satisfactory description of the dc-magnetic data and paramagnetic shifts.

  12. A clock synchronization skeleton based on RTAI

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huang, Y.; Visser, P.M.; Broenink, Johannes F.

    2006-01-01

    This paper presents a clock synchronization skeleton based on RTAI (Real Time Application Interface). The skeleton is a thin layer that provides unified but extendible interfaces to the underlying operating system, the synchronization algorithms and the upper level applications in need of clock

  13. Shining a light on the Arabidopsis circadian clock.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oakenfull, Rachael J; Davis, Seth J

    2017-11-01

    The circadian clock provides essential timing information to ensure optimal growth to prevailing external environmental conditions. A major time-setting mechanism (zeitgeber) in clock synchronization is light. Differing light wavelengths, intensities, and photoperiodic duration are processed for the clock-setting mechanism. Many studies on light-input pathways to the clock have focused on Arabidopsis thaliana. Photoreceptors are specific chromic proteins that detect light signals and transmit this information to the central circadian oscillator through a number of different signalling mechanisms. The most well-characterized clock-mediating photoreceptors are cryptochromes and phytochromes, detecting blue, red, and far-red wavelengths of light. Ultraviolet and shaded light are also processed signals to the oscillator. Notably, the clock reciprocally generates rhythms of photoreceptor action leading to so-called gating of light responses. Intermediate proteins, such as Phytochrome interacting factors (PIFs), constitutive photomorphogenic 1 (COP1) and EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3), have been established in signalling pathways downstream of photoreceptor activation. However, the precise details for these signalling mechanisms are not fully established. This review highlights both historical and recent efforts made to understand overall light input to the oscillator, first looking at how each wavelength of light is detected, this is then related to known input mechanisms and their interactions. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. Time without clocks - an attempt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karpman, G.

    1978-01-01

    A definition of time intervals separating two states of systems of elementary particles and observers is attempted. The definition is founded on the notion of instant state of the system and uses no information connected with the use of a clock. Applying the definition to a classical clock and to a sample of unstable particles, results are obtained in agreement with experiment. However, if the system contains 'few' elementary particles, the properties of the time interval present some different features. (author)

  15. The mammalian circadian clock and its entrainment by stress and exercise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tahara, Yu; Aoyama, Shinya; Shibata, Shigenobu

    2017-01-01

    The mammalian circadian clock regulates day-night fluctuations in various physiological processes. The circadian clock consists of the central clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus and peripheral clocks in peripheral tissues. External environmental cues, including light/dark cycles, food intake, stress, and exercise, provide important information for adjusting clock phases. This review focuses on stress and exercise as potent entrainment signals for both central and peripheral clocks, especially in regard to the timing of stimuli, types of stressors/exercises, and differences in the responses of rodents and humans. We suggest that the common signaling pathways of clock entrainment by stress and exercise involve sympathetic nervous activation and glucocorticoid release. Furthermore, we demonstrate that physiological responses to stress and exercise depend on time of day. Therefore, using exercise to maintain the circadian clock at an appropriate phase and amplitude might be effective for preventing obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

  16. Model Checking a Self-Stabilizing Distributed Clock Synchronization Protocol for Arbitrary Digraphs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malekpour, Mahyar R.

    2011-01-01

    This report presents the mechanical verification of a self-stabilizing distributed clock synchronization protocol for arbitrary digraphs in the absence of faults. This protocol does not rely on assumptions about the initial state of the system, other than the presence of at least one node, and no central clock or a centrally generated signal, pulse, or message is used. The system under study is an arbitrary, non-partitioned digraph ranging from fully connected to 1-connected networks of nodes while allowing for differences in the network elements. Nodes are anonymous, i.e., they do not have unique identities. There is no theoretical limit on the maximum number of participating nodes. The only constraint on the behavior of the node is that the interactions with other nodes are restricted to defined links and interfaces. This protocol deterministically converges within a time bound that is a linear function of the self-stabilization period.

  17. Precision Clock Evaluation Facility

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Laboratory Consortium — FUNCTION: Tests and evaluates high-precision atomic clocks for spacecraft, ground, and mobile applications. Supports performance evaluation, environmental testing,...

  18. The clock paradox as a cosmological problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fu, K.Y.

    1975-01-01

    In this paper the clock paradox is discussed within the framework of the general theory of relativity. It is shown that in general the aging asymmetry exists. It is also argued that the clock paradox, according to Mach's principle, is essentially a cosmological problem. (author)

  19. Circadian clocks, rhythmic synaptic plasticity and the sleep-wake cycle in zebrafish.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elbaz, Idan; Foulkes, Nicholas S; Gothilf, Yoav; Appelbaum, Lior

    2013-01-01

    The circadian clock and homeostatic processes are fundamental mechanisms that regulate sleep. Surprisingly, despite decades of research, we still do not know why we sleep. Intriguing hypotheses suggest that sleep regulates synaptic plasticity and consequently has a beneficial role in learning and memory. However, direct evidence is still limited and the molecular regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. The zebrafish provides a powerful vertebrate model system that enables simple genetic manipulation, imaging of neuronal circuits and synapses in living animals, and the monitoring of behavioral performance during day and night. Thus, the zebrafish has become an attractive model to study circadian and homeostatic processes that regulate sleep. Zebrafish clock- and sleep-related genes have been cloned, neuronal circuits that exhibit circadian rhythms of activity and synaptic plasticity have been studied, and rhythmic behavioral outputs have been characterized. Integration of this data could lead to a better understanding of sleep regulation. Here, we review the progress of circadian clock and sleep studies in zebrafish with special emphasis on the genetic and neuroendocrine mechanisms that regulate rhythms of melatonin secretion, structural synaptic plasticity, locomotor activity and sleep.

  20. Clock-Controlled Prey-Predator Dynamics : Temporal Segregation of Activities

    OpenAIRE

    Hiroaki, DAIDO; Department of Mathematical Sciences, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Osaka Prefecture

    2003-01-01

    A new type of mathematical model of prey-predator dynamics is proposed. This model takes into account the fact that the daily activities of animals are governed by their body clocks. On the basis of it, we investigate the conditions under which the prey and predator can segregate into diurnal and nocturnal habits on a timescale that is short compared to evolutionary timescales.

  1. Phylogenetic footprint of the plant clock system in angiosperms: evolutionary processes of Pseudo-Response Regulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saito Shigeru

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Plant circadian clocks regulate many photoperiodic and diurnal responses that are conserved among plant species. The plant circadian clock system has been uncovered in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, using genetics and systems biology approaches. However, it is still not clear how the clock system had been organized in the evolutionary history of plants. We recently revealed the molecular phylogeny of LHY/CCA1 genes, one of the essential components of the clock system. The aims of this study are to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of angiosperm clock-associated PRR genes, the partner of the LHY/CCA1 genes, and to clarify the evolutionary history of the plant clock system in angiosperm lineages. Results In the present study, to investigate the molecular phylogeny of PRR genes, we performed two approaches: reconstruction of phylogenetic trees and examination of syntenic relationships. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that PRR genes had diverged into three clades prior to the speciation of monocots and eudicots. Furthermore, copy numbers of PRR genes have been independently increased in monocots and eudicots as a result of ancient chromosomal duplication events. Conclusions Based on the molecular phylogenies of both PRR genes and LHY/CCA1 genes, we inferred the evolutionary process of the plant clock system in angiosperms. This scenario provides evolutionary information that a common ancestor of monocots and eudicots had retained the basic components required for reconstructing a clock system and that the plant circadian clock may have become a more elaborate mechanism after the speciation of monocots and eudicots because of the gene expansion that resulted from polyploidy events.

  2. Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Temperature Compensation of the Circadian Clock.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narasimamurthy, Rajesh; Virshup, David M

    2017-01-01

    An approximately 24-h biological timekeeping mechanism called the circadian clock is present in virtually all light-sensitive organisms from cyanobacteria to humans. The clock system regulates our sleep-wake cycle, feeding-fasting, hormonal secretion, body temperature, and many other physiological functions. Signals from the master circadian oscillator entrain peripheral clocks using a variety of neural and hormonal signals. Even centrally controlled internal temperature fluctuations can entrain the peripheral circadian clocks. But, unlike other chemical reactions, the output of the clock system remains nearly constant with fluctuations in ambient temperature, a phenomenon known as temperature compensation. In this brief review, we focus on recent advances in our understanding of the posttranslational modifications, especially a phosphoswitch mechanism controlling the stability of PER2 and its implications for the regulation of temperature compensation.

  3. Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Temperature Compensation of the Circadian Clock

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David M. Virshup

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available An approximately 24-h biological timekeeping mechanism called the circadian clock is present in virtually all light-sensitive organisms from cyanobacteria to humans. The clock system regulates our sleep–wake cycle, feeding–fasting, hormonal secretion, body temperature, and many other physiological functions. Signals from the master circadian oscillator entrain peripheral clocks using a variety of neural and hormonal signals. Even centrally controlled internal temperature fluctuations can entrain the peripheral circadian clocks. But, unlike other chemical reactions, the output of the clock system remains nearly constant with fluctuations in ambient temperature, a phenomenon known as temperature compensation. In this brief review, we focus on recent advances in our understanding of the posttranslational modifications, especially a phosphoswitch mechanism controlling the stability of PER2 and its implications for the regulation of temperature compensation.

  4. The Molecular Circadian Clock and Alcohol-Induced Liver Injury

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Uduak S. Udoh

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Emerging evidence from both experimental animal studies and clinical human investigations demonstrates strong connections among circadian processes, alcohol use, and alcohol-induced tissue injury. Components of the circadian clock have been shown to influence the pathophysiological effects of alcohol. Conversely, alcohol may alter the expression of circadian clock genes and the rhythmic behavioral and metabolic processes they regulate. Therefore, we propose that alcohol-mediated disruption in circadian rhythms likely underpins many adverse health effects of alcohol that cut across multiple organ systems. In this review, we provide an overview of the circadian clock mechanism and showcase results from new studies in the alcohol field implicating the circadian clock as a key target of alcohol action and toxicity in the liver. We discuss various molecular events through which alcohol may work to negatively impact circadian clock-mediated processes in the liver, and contribute to tissue pathology. Illuminating the mechanistic connections between the circadian clock and alcohol will be critical to the development of new preventative and pharmacological treatments for alcohol use disorders and alcohol-mediated organ diseases.

  5. A Self-Stabilizing Distributed Clock Synchronization Protocol for Arbitrary Digraphs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malekpour, Mahyar R.

    2011-01-01

    This report presents a self-stabilizing distributed clock synchronization protocol in the absence of faults in the system. It is focused on the distributed clock synchronization of an arbitrary, non-partitioned digraph ranging from fully connected to 1-connected networks of nodes while allowing for differences in the network elements. This protocol does not rely on assumptions about the initial state of the system, other than the presence of at least one node, and no central clock or a centrally generated signal, pulse, or message is used. Nodes are anonymous, i.e., they do not have unique identities. There is no theoretical limit on the maximum number of participating nodes. The only constraint on the behavior of the node is that the interactions with other nodes are restricted to defined links and interfaces. We present an outline of a deductive proof of the correctness of the protocol. A model of the protocol was mechanically verified using the Symbolic Model Verifier (SMV) for a variety of topologies. Results of the mechanical proof of the correctness of the protocol are provided. The model checking results have verified the correctness of the protocol as they apply to the networks with unidirectional and bidirectional links. In addition, the results confirm the claims of determinism and linear convergence. As a result, we conjecture that the protocol solves the general case of this problem. We also present several variations of the protocol and discuss that this synchronization protocol is indeed an emergent system.

  6. Investigation of Seasonal and Latitudinal Effects on the Expression of Clock Genes in Drosophila

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hosseini, Seyede Sanaz; Nazarimehr, Fahimeh; Jafari, Sajad

    The primary goal in this work is to develop a dynamical model capturing the influence of seasonal and latitudinal variations on the expression of Drosophila clock genes. To this end, we study a specific dynamical system with strange attractors that exhibit changes of Drosophila activity in a range of latitudes and across different seasons. Bifurcations of this system are analyzed to peruse the effect of season and latitude on the behavior of clock genes. Existing experimental data collected from the activity of Drosophila melanogaster corroborate the dynamical model.

  7. Evidence for an Overlapping Role of CLOCK and NPAS2 Transcription Factors in Liver Circadian Oscillators▿

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bertolucci, Cristiano; Cavallari, Nicola; Colognesi, Ilaria; Aguzzi, Jacopo; Chen, Zheng; Caruso, Pierpaolo; Foá, Augusto; Tosini, Gianluca; Bernardi, Francesco; Pinotti, Mirko

    2008-01-01

    The mechanisms underlying the circadian control of gene expression in peripheral tissues and influencing many biological pathways are poorly defined. Factor VII (FVII), the protease triggering blood coagulation, represents a valuable model to address this issue in liver since its plasma levels oscillate in a circadian manner and its promoter contains E-boxes, which are putative DNA-binding sites for CLOCK-BMAL1 and NPAS2-BMAL1 heterodimers and hallmarks of circadian regulation. The peaks of FVII mRNA levels in livers of wild-type mice preceded those in plasma, indicating a transcriptional regulation, and were abolished in Clock−/−; Npas2−/− mice, thus demonstrating a role for CLOCK and NPAS2 circadian transcription factors. The investigation of Npas2−/− and ClockΔ19/Δ19 mice, which express functionally defective heterodimers, revealed robust rhythms of FVII expression in both animal models, suggesting a redundant role for NPAS2 and CLOCK. The molecular bases of these observations were established through reporter gene assays. FVII transactivation activities of the NPAS2-BMAL1 and CLOCK-BMAL1 heterodimers were (i) comparable (a fourfold increase), (ii) dampened by the negative circadian regulators PER2 and CRY1, and (iii) abolished upon E-box mutagenesis. Our data provide the first evidence in peripheral oscillators for an overlapping role of CLOCK and NPAS2 in the regulation of circadianly controlled genes. PMID:18316400

  8. Reduced Kalman Filters for Clock Ensembles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenhall, Charles A.

    2011-01-01

    This paper summarizes the author's work ontimescales based on Kalman filters that act upon the clock comparisons. The natural Kalman timescale algorithm tends to optimize long-term timescale stability at the expense of short-term stability. By subjecting each post-measurement error covariance matrix to a non-transparent reduction operation, one obtains corrected clocks with improved short-term stability and little sacrifice of long-term stability.

  9. The role of biological clock in glucose homeostasis 

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piotr Chrościcki

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The mechanism of the biological clock is based on a rhythmic expression of clock genes and clock-controlled genes. As a result of their transcripto-translational associations, endogenous rhythms in the synthesis of key proteins of various physiological and metabolic processes are created. The major timekeeping mechanism for these rhythms exists in the central nervous system. The master circadian clock, localized in suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN, regulates multiple metabolic pathways, while feeding behavior and metabolite availability can in turn regulate the circadian clock. It is also suggested that in the brain there is a food entrainable oscillator (FEO or oscillators, resulting in activation of both food anticipatory activity and hormone secretion that control digestion processes. Moreover, most cells and tissues express autonomous clocks. Maintenance of the glucose homeostasis is particularly important for the proper function of the body, as this sugar is the main source of energy for the brain, retina, erythrocytes and skeletal muscles. Thus, glucose production and utilization are synchronized in time. The hypothalamic excited orexin neurons control energy balance of organism and modulate the glucose production and utilization. Deficiency of orexin action results in narcolepsy and weight gain, whereas glucose and amino acids can affect activity of the orexin cells. Large-scale genetic studies in rodents and humans provide evidence for the involvement of disrupted clock gene expression rhythms in the pathogenesis of obesity and type 2 diabetes. In general, the current lifestyle of the developed modern societies disturbs the action of biological clock

  10. Clock face drawing test performance in children with ADHD.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghanizadeh, Ahmad; Safavi, Salar; Berk, Michael

    2013-01-01

    The utility and discriminatory pattern of the clock face drawing test in ADHD is unclear. This study therefore compared Clock Face Drawing test performance in children with ADHD and controls. 95 school children with ADHD and 191 other children were matched for gender ratio and age. ADHD symptoms severities were assessed using DSM-IV ADHD checklist and their intellectual functioning was assessed. The participants completed three clock-drawing tasks, and the following four functions were assessed: Contour score, Numbers score, Hands setting score, and Center score. All the subscales scores of the three clock drawing tests of the ADHD group were lower than that of the control group. In ADHD children, inattention and hyperactivity/ impulsivity scores were not related to free drawn clock test scores. When pre-drawn contour test was performed, inattentiveness score was statistically associated with Number score while none of the other variables of age, gender, intellectual functioning, and hand use preference were associated with that kind of score. In pre-drawn clock, no association of ADHD symptoms with any CDT subscales found significant. In addition, more errors are observed with free drawn clock and Pre-drawn contour than pre-drawn clock. Putting Numbers and Hands setting are more sensitive measures to screen ADHD than Contour and Center drawing. Test performance, except Hands setting, may have already reached a developmental plateau. It is probable that Hand setting deficit in children with ADHD may not decrease from age 8 to 14 years. Performance of children with ADHD is associated with complexity of CDT.

  11. An inversion-relaxation approach for sampling stationary points of spin model Hamiltonians

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hughes, Ciaran; Mehta, Dhagash; Wales, David J.

    2014-01-01

    Sampling the stationary points of a complicated potential energy landscape is a challenging problem. Here, we introduce a sampling method based on relaxation from stationary points of the highest index of the Hessian matrix. We illustrate how this approach can find all the stationary points for potentials or Hamiltonians bounded from above, which includes a large class of important spin models, and we show that it is far more efficient than previous methods. For potentials unbounded from above, the relaxation part of the method is still efficient in finding minima and transition states, which are usually the primary focus of attention for atomistic systems

  12. The central molecular clock is robust in the face of behavioural arrhythmia in a Drosophila model of Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Ko-Fan; Possidente, Bernard; Lomas, David A; Crowther, Damian C

    2014-04-01

    Circadian behavioural deficits, including sleep irregularity and restlessness in the evening, are a distressing early feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have investigated these phenomena by studying the circadian behaviour of transgenic Drosophila expressing the amyloid beta peptide (Aβ). We find that Aβ expression results in an age-related loss of circadian behavioural rhythms despite ongoing normal molecular oscillations in the central clock neurons. Even in the absence of any behavioural correlate, the synchronised activity of the central clock remains protective, prolonging lifespan, in Aβ flies just as it does in control flies. Confocal microscopy and bioluminescence measurements point to processes downstream of the molecular clock as the main site of Aβ toxicity. In addition, there seems to be significant non-cell-autonomous Aβ toxicity resulting in morphological and probably functional signalling deficits in central clock neurons.

  13. Circadian clock components in the rat neocortex

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rath, Martin Fredensborg; Rohde, Kristian; Fahrenkrug, Jan

    2013-01-01

    in the rat neocortex. Among these, Per1, Per2, Per3, Cry1, Bmal1, Nr1d1 and Dbp were found to exhibit daily rhythms. The amplitude of circadian oscillation in neocortical clock gene expression was damped and the peak delayed as compared with the SCN. Lesions of the SCN revealed that rhythmic clock gene...... expression in the neocortex is dependent on the SCN. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry showed that products of the canonical clock gene Per2 are located in perikarya throughout all areas of the neocortex. These findings show that local circadian oscillators driven by the SCN reside within...... neurons of the neocortex....

  14. Divergence time estimates of mammals from molecular clocks and ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Prakash

    2009-10-30

    Oct 30, 2009 ... Keywords. Cretaceous; Eocene; Indian Plate; molecular clocks; placental mammals ... variation is known to occur among loci on a gene, between branches on a tree, ... been proposed to explain placental mammal diversification with respect .... Figure 1. Three models (a, explosive, b, long fuse, c, short fuse).

  15. F-center mechanism of long-term relaxation in lead zirconate-titanate-based piezoelectric ceramics. 1. After-heating relaxation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. M. Ishchuk

    2015-12-01

    The oxygen vacancies-based model for description of the long-time relaxation processes is suggested. The model takes into account oxygen vacancies on the sample’s surface ends, their conversion into F+- and F0-centers under external effects (due to the liberation of the pyroelectric charge and subsequent relaxation of these centers into the simple oxygen vacancies after the actions termination. The initial sample’s state is electroneutrality one. F-center formation leads to the violation of the original sample’s electroneutrality, and generates DC electric field into the sample. Relaxation of F-centers is accompanied by decreasing of electric field, induced by them, and dielectric constant relaxation as consequent effect.

  16. CRY Drives Cyclic CK2-Mediated BMAL1 Phosphorylation to Control the Mammalian Circadian Clock.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teruya Tamaru

    Full Text Available Intracellular circadian clocks, composed of clock genes that act in transcription-translation feedback loops, drive global rhythmic expression of the mammalian transcriptome and allow an organism to anticipate to the momentum of the day. Using a novel clock-perturbing peptide, we established a pivotal role for casein kinase (CK-2-mediated circadian BMAL1-Ser90 phosphorylation (BMAL1-P in regulating central and peripheral core clocks. Subsequent analysis of the underlying mechanism showed a novel role of CRY as a repressor for protein kinase. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments and real-time monitoring of protein-protein interactions revealed that CRY-mediated periodic binding of CK2β to BMAL1 inhibits BMAL1-Ser90 phosphorylation by CK2α. The FAD binding domain of CRY1, two C-terminal BMAL1 domains, and particularly BMAL1-Lys537 acetylation/deacetylation by CLOCK/SIRT1, were shown to be critical for CRY-mediated BMAL1-CK2β binding. Reciprocally, BMAL1-Ser90 phosphorylation is prerequisite for BMAL1-Lys537 acetylation. We propose a dual negative-feedback model in which a CRY-dependent CK2-driven posttranslational BMAL1-P-BMAL1 loop is an integral part of the core clock oscillator.

  17. Clock Face Drawing Test Performance in Children with ADHD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmad Ghanizadeh

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available  Introduction: The utility and discriminatory pattern of the clock face drawing test in ADHD is unclear. This study therefore compared Clock Face Drawing test performance in children with ADHD and controls.   Material & methods: 95 children with ADHD and 191 school children were matched for gender ratio and age. ADHD symptoms severities were assessed using DSM-IV ADHD checklist and their intellectual functioning was assessed. The participants completed three clock-drawing tasks, and the following four functions were assessed: Contour score, Numbers score, Hands setting score, and Center score    Results: All the subscales scores of the three clock drawing tests of the ADHD group were lower than that of the control group. In ADHD children, inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity scores were not related with free drawn clock test scores. When pre-drawn contour test was performed, inattentiveness score was statistically associated with Number score. None of the other variables of age, gender, intellectual functioning, and hand use preference were associated with Numbers score. In pre-drawn clock, no association of ADHD symptoms with any CDT subscales was significant. In addition, more errors are observed with free drawn clock and Pre-drawn contour than pre-drawn clock.    Conclusion: Putting Numbers and Hands setting are more sensitive measures to screen ADHD than Contour and Center drawing. Test performance, except Hands setting, may have already reached a developmental plateau. It is probable that Hand setting deficit in children with ADHD may not decrease from age 8 to 14 years. Performance of children with ADHD is associated with the complexity of CDT.

  18. Modeling of the mechanical behavior of austenitic stainless steels under pure fatigue and fatigue relaxation loadings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hajjaji-Rachdi, Fatima

    2015-01-01

    Austenitic stainless steels are potential candidates for structural components of sodium-cooled fast neutron reactors. Many of these components will be subjected to cyclic loadings including long hold times (1 month) under creep or relaxation at high temperature. These hold times are unattainable experimentally. The aim of the present study is to propose mechanical models which take into account the involved mechanisms and their interactions during such complex loadings. First, an experimental study of the pure fatigue and fatigue-relaxation behavior of 316L(N) at 500 C has been carried out with very long hold times (10 h and 50 h) compared with the ones studied in literature. Tensile tests at 600 C with different applied strain rates have been undertaken in order to study the dynamic strain ageing phenomenon. Before focusing on more complex loadings, the mean field homogenization approach has been used to predict the mechanical behavior of different FCC metals and alloys under low cycle fatigue at room temperature. Both Hill-Hutchinson and Kroener models have been used. Next, a physically-based model based on dislocation densities has been developed and its parameters measured. The model allows predictions in a qualitative agreement with experimental data for tensile loadings. Finally, this model has been enriched to take into account visco-plasticity, dislocation climb and interaction between dislocations and solute atoms, which are influent during creep-fatigue or fatigue relaxation at high temperature. The proposed model uses three adjustable parameters only and allows rather accurate prediction of the behavior of 316L(N) steel under tensile loading and relaxation. (author) [fr

  19. A central role for ubiquitination within a circadian clock protein modification code

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katarina eStojkovic

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Circadian rhythms, endogenous cycles of about 24 h in physiology, are generated by a master clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus and other clocks located in the brain and peripheral tissues. Circadian disruption is known to increase the incidence of various illnesses, such as mental disorders, metabolic syndrome and cancer. At the molecular level, periodicity is established by a set of clock genes via autoregulatory translation-transcription feedback loops. This clock mechanism is regulated by post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation and ubiquitination, which set the pace of the clock. Ubiquitination in particular has been found to regulate the stability of core clock components, but also other clock protein functions. Mutation of genes encoding ubiquitin ligases can cause either elongation or shortening of the endogenous circadian period. Recent research has also started to uncover roles for deubiquitination in the molecular clockwork. Here we review the role of the ubiquitin pathway in regulating the circadian clock and we propose that ubiquitination is a key element in a clock protein modification code that orchestrates clock mechanisms and circadian behavior over the daily cycle.

  20. Dynamics of a model of two delay-coupled relaxation oscillators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruelas, R. E.; Rand, R. H.

    2010-08-01

    This paper investigates the dynamics of a new model of two coupled relaxation oscillators. The model replaces the usual DDE (differential-delay equation) formulation with a discrete-time approach with jumps. Existence, bifurcation and stability of in-phase periodic motions is studied. Simple periodic motions, which involve exactly two jumps per period, are found to have large plateaus in parameter space. These plateaus are separated by regions of complicated dynamics, reminiscent of the Devil's Staircase. Stability of motions in the in-phase manifold are contrasted with stability of motions in the full phase space.

  1. Two Clock Transitions in Neutral Yb for the Highest Sensitivity to Variations of the Fine-Structure Constant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Safronova, Marianna S.; Porsev, Sergey G.; Sanner, Christian; Ye, Jun

    2018-04-01

    We propose a new frequency standard based on a 4 f146 s 6 p P0 3 -4 f136 s25 d (J =2 ) transition in neutral Yb. This transition has a potential for high stability and accuracy and the advantage of the highest sensitivity among atomic clocks to variation of the fine-structure constant α . We find its dimensionless α -variation enhancement factor to be K =-15 , in comparison to the most sensitive current clock (Yb+ E 3 , K =-6 ), and it is 18 times larger than in any neutral-atomic clocks (Hg, K =0.8 ). Combined with the unprecedented stability of an optical lattice clock for neutral atoms, this high sensitivity opens new perspectives for searches for ultralight dark matter and for tests of theories beyond the standard model of elementary particles. Moreover, together with the well-established 1S0-3P0 transition, one will have two clock transitions operating in neutral Yb, whose interleaved interrogations may further reduce systematic uncertainties of such clock-comparison experiments.

  2. Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Temperature Compensation of the Circadian Clock

    OpenAIRE

    David M. Virshup; Rajesh Narasimamurthy

    2017-01-01

    An approximately 24-h biological timekeeping mechanism called the circadian clock is present in virtually all light-sensitive organisms from cyanobacteria to humans. The clock system regulates our sleep–wake cycle, feeding–fasting, hormonal secretion, body temperature, and many other physiological functions. Signals from the master circadian oscillator entrain peripheral clocks using a variety of neural and hormonal signals. Even centrally controlled internal temperature fluctuations can entr...

  3. Viscosity of bound water and model of proton relaxation in fine-dispersed substances at the presence of adsorbed paramagnetic ions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fedodeev, V.I.

    1975-01-01

    A microviscosity model of proton relaxation in pure liquids and in solutions of paramagnetic ions is examined. It is shown that the influence of adsorbed paramagnetic centers on proton relaxation in finely dispersed substances is significantly weaker than in solutions. A 'two-phase' relaxation model is used in determining the parameters of the bound liquid (water) using nuclear magnetic resonance data. The relations obtained with the model are used to compute the viscosity of water in clay. The value is of the same order of magnitude as that obtained by other methods

  4. Viscosity of bound water and model of proton relaxation in fine-dispersed substances at the presence of adsorbed paramagnetic ions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fedodeev, V I

    1975-09-01

    A microviscosity model of proton relaxation in pure liquids and in solutions of paramagnetic ions is examined. It is shown that the influence of adsorbed paramagnetic centers on proton relaxation in finely dispersed substances is significantly weaker than in solutions. A 'two-phase' relaxation model is used in determining the parameters of the bound liquid (water) using nuclear magnetic resonance data. The relations obtained with the model are used to compute the viscosity of water in clay. The value is of the same order of magnitude as that obtained by other methods.

  5. Gaussian free turbulence: structures and relaxation in plasma models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gruzinov, A.V.

    1993-01-01

    Free-turbulent relaxation in two-dimensional MHD, the degenerate Hasegawa-Mima equation and a two-dimensional microtearing model are studied. The Gibbs distributions of these three systems can be completely analyzed, due to the special structure of their invariants and due to the existence of ultraviolet catastrophe. The free-turbulent field is seen to be a sum of a certain coherent structure (statistical attractor) and Gaussian random noise. Two-dimensional current layers are shown to be statistical attractors in 2D MHD. (author)

  6. Hanle Detection for Optical Clocks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaogang Zhang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Considering the strong inhomogeneous spatial polarization and intensity distribution of spontaneous decay fluorescence due to the Hanle effect, we propose and demonstrate a universe Hanle detection configuration of electron-shelving method for optical clocks. Experimental results from Ca atomic beam optical frequency standard with electron-shelving method show that a designed Hanle detection geometry with optimized magnetic field direction, detection laser beam propagation and polarization direction, and detector position can improve the fluorescence collection rate by more than one order of magnitude comparing with that of inefficient geometry. With the fixed 423 nm fluorescence, the improved 657 nm optical frequency standard signal intensity is presented. The potential application of the Hanle detection geometry designed for facilitating the fluorescence collection for optical lattice clock with a limited solid angle of the fluorescence collection has been discussed. The Hanle detection geometry is also effective for ion detection in ion optical clock and quantum information experiments. Besides, a cylinder fluorescence collection structure is designed to increase the solid angle of the fluorescence collection in Ca atomic beam optical frequency standard.

  7. Time measurement - technical importance of most exact clocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goebel, E.O.; Riehle, F.

    2004-01-01

    The exactness of the best atomic clocks currently shows a temporal variation of 1 second in 30 million years. This means that we have reached the point of the most exact frequency and time measurement ever. In the past, there was a trend towards increasing the exactness in an increasingly fast sequence. Will this trend continue? And who will profit from it? This article is meant to give answers to these questions. This is done by presenting first the level reached currently with the best atomic clocks and describing the research activities running worldwide with the aim of achieving even more exact clocks. In the second part, we present examples of various areas of technical subjects and research in which the most exact clocks are being applied presently and even more exact ones will be needed in the future [de

  8. Fault-Tolerant Self-Stabilizing Distributed Clock Synchronization Protocol for Arbitrary Digraphs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malekpour, Mahyar R. (Inventor)

    2014-01-01

    A self-stabilizing network in the form of an arbitrary, non-partitioned digraph includes K nodes having a synchronizer executing a protocol. K-1 monitors of each node may receive a Sync message transmitted from a directly connected node. When the Sync message is received, the logical clock value for the receiving node is set to between 0 and a communication latency value (gamma) if the clock value is less than a minimum event-response delay (D). A new Sync message is also transmitted to any directly connected nodes if the clock value is greater than or equal to both D and a graph threshold (T(sub S)). When the Sync message is not received the synchronizer increments the clock value if the clock value is less than a resynchronization period (P), and resets the clock value and transmits a new Sync message to all directly connected nodes when the clock value equals or exceeds P.

  9. The Clock gene clone and its circadian rhythms in Pelteobagrus vachelli

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Chuanjie; Shao, Ting

    2015-05-01

    The Clock gene, a key molecule in circadian systems, is widely distributed in the animal kingdom. We isolated a 936-bp partial cDNA sequence of the Clock gene ( Pva-clock) from the darkbarbel catfish Pelteobagrus vachelli that exhibited high identity with Clock genes of other species of fish and animals (65%-88%). The putative domains included a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) domain and two period-ARNT-single-minded (PAS) domains, which were also similar to those in other species of fish and animals. Pva-Clock was primarily expressed in the brain, and was detected in all of the peripheral tissues sampled. Additionally, the pattern of Pva-Clock expression over a 24-h period exhibited a circadian rhythm in the brain, liver and intestine, with the acrophase at zeitgeber time 21:35, 23:00, and 23:23, respectively. Our results provide insight into the function of the molecular Clock of P. vachelli.

  10. Model and prediction of stress relaxation of polyurethane fiber

    Science.gov (United States)

    You, Gexin; Wang, Chunyan; Mei, Shuqin; Yang, Bo; Zhou, Xiuwen

    2018-03-01

    In this study, the effect of small strain (less than 10%) on hydrogen bond (H-bond) and crystallinity of dry-spun polyurethane fiber was investigated with fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray diffractometer, respectively. The results showed that the H-bond of hard segments hardly broke and its degree of crystallinity scarcely varied below strain of 10%. The fiber stress relaxation behavior at 25 °C under small strain was researched using dynamic mechanical analyzer. The stress relaxation modulus constitutive equation was obtained by transforming the non-linear relationship between stress and time into the linear relationship between stress and strain. The stress relaxation modulus master curve at 25 °C was established in terms of short-term stress relaxation tests at elevated temperatures (35 °C, 45 °C, 65 °C and 75 °C) according to time-temperature superposition principle (TTS) to predict long-term behavior within 353 year.

  11. Intact interval timing in circadian CLOCK mutants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cordes, Sara; Gallistel, C R

    2008-08-28

    While progress has been made in determining the molecular basis for the circadian clock, the mechanism by which mammalian brains time intervals measured in seconds to minutes remains a mystery. An obvious question is whether the interval-timing mechanism shares molecular machinery with the circadian timing mechanism. In the current study, we trained circadian CLOCK +/- and -/- mutant male mice in a peak-interval procedure with 10 and 20-s criteria. The mutant mice were more active than their wild-type littermates, but there were no reliable deficits in the accuracy or precision of their timing as compared with wild-type littermates. This suggests that expression of the CLOCK protein is not necessary for normal interval timing.

  12. A self-interfering clock as a "which path" witness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Margalit, Yair; Zhou, Zhifan; Machluf, Shimon; Rohrlich, Daniel; Japha, Yonathan; Folman, Ron

    2015-09-11

    In Einstein's general theory of relativity, time depends locally on gravity; in standard quantum theory, time is global-all clocks "tick" uniformly. We demonstrate a new tool for investigating time in the overlap of these two theories: a self-interfering clock, comprising two atomic spin states. We prepare the clock in a spatial superposition of quantum wave packets, which evolve coherently along two paths into a stable interference pattern. If we make the clock wave packets "tick" at different rates, to simulate a gravitational time lag, the clock time along each path yields "which path" information, degrading the pattern's visibility. In contrast, in standard interferometry, time cannot yield "which path" information. This proof-of-principle experiment may have implications for the study of time and general relativity and their impact on fundamental effects such as decoherence and the emergence of a classical world. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  13. The quantum beat principles and applications of atomic clocks

    CERN Document Server

    Major, F

    2007-01-01

    This work attempts to convey a broad understanding of the physical principles underlying the workings of these quantum-based atomic clocks, with introductory chapters placing them in context with the early development of mechanical clocks and the introduction of electronic time-keeping as embodied in the quartz-controlled clocks. While the book makes no pretense at being a history of atomic clocks, it nevertheless takes a historical perspective in its treatment of the subject. Intended for nonspecialists with some knowledge of physics or engineering, The Quantum Beat covers a wide range of salient topics relevant to atomic clocks, treated in a broad intuitive manner with a minimum of mathematical formalism. Detailed descriptions are given of the design principles of the rubidium, cesium, hydrogen maser, and mercury ion standards; the revolutionary changes that the advent of the laser has made possible, such as laser cooling, optical pumping, the formation of "optical molasses," and the cesium "fountain" stand...

  14. Buckling Transitions and Clock Order of Two-Dimensional Coulomb Crystals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Podolsky

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Crystals of repulsively interacting ions in planar traps form hexagonal lattices, which undergo a buckling instability towards a multilayer structure as the transverse trap frequency is reduced. Numerical and experimental results indicate that the new structure is composed of three planes, whose separation increases continuously from zero. We study the effects of thermal and quantum fluctuations by mapping this structural instability to the six-state clock model. A prominent implication of this mapping is that at finite temperature, fluctuations split the buckling instability into two thermal transitions, accompanied by the appearance of an intermediate critical phase. This phase is characterized by quasi-long-range order in the spatial tripartite pattern. It is manifested by broadened Bragg peaks at new wave vectors, whose line shape provides a direct measurement of the temperature-dependent exponent η(T characteristic of the power-law correlations in the critical phase. A quantum phase transition is found at the largest value of the critical transverse frequency: Here, the critical intermediate phase shrinks to zero. Moreover, within the ordered phase, we predict a crossover from classical to quantum behavior, signifying the emergence of an additional characteristic scale for clock order. We discuss experimental realizations with trapped ions and polarized dipolar gases, and propose that within accessible technology, such experiments can provide a direct probe of the rich phase diagram of the quantum clock model, not easily observable in condensed matter analogues. Therefore, this work highlights the potential for ionic and dipolar systems to serve as simulators for complex models in statistical mechanics and condensed matter physics.

  15. Circadian clocks, rhythmic synaptic plasticity and the sleep-wake cycle in zebrafish

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Idan eElbaz

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available The circadian clock and homeostatic processes are fundamental mechanisms that regulate sleep. Surprisingly, despite decades of research, we still do not know why we sleep. Intriguing hypotheses suggest that sleep regulates synaptic plasticity and consequently has a beneficial role in learning and memory. However, direct evidence is still limited and the molecular regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. The zebrafish provides a powerful vertebrate model system that enables simple genetic manipulation, imaging of neuronal circuits and synapses in living animals, and the monitoring of behavioral performance during day and night. Thus, the zebrafish has become an attractive model to study circadian and homeostatic processes that regulate sleep. Zebrafish clock- and sleep-related genes have been cloned, neuronal circuits that exhibit circadian rhythms of activity and synaptic plasticity have been studied, and rhythmic behavioral outputs have been characterized. Integration of this data could lead to a better understanding of sleep regulation. Here, we review the progress of circadian clock and sleep studies in zebrafish with special emphasis on the genetic and neuroendocrine mechanisms that regulate rhythms of melatonin secretion, structural synaptic plasticity, locomotor activity and sleep.

  16. Thermomechanical Modeling of Laser-Induced Structural Relaxation and Deformation of Glass: Volume Changes in Fused Silica at High Temperatures [Thermo-mechanical modeling of laser-induced structural relaxation and deformation of SiO2 glass

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vignes, Ryan M. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). National Ignition Facility and Photon Sciences; Soules, Thomas F. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). National Ignition Facility and Photon Sciences; Stolken, James S. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). National Ignition Facility and Photon Sciences; Settgast, Randolph R. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). National Ignition Facility and Photon Sciences; Elhadj, Selim [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). National Ignition Facility and Photon Sciences; Matthews, Manyalibo J. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). National Ignition Facility and Photon Sciences; Mauro, J.

    2012-12-17

    In a fully coupled thermomechanical model of the nanoscale deformation in amorphous SiO2 due to laser heating is presented. Direct measurement of the transient, nonuniform temperature profiles was used to first validate a nonlinear thermal transport model. Densification due to structural relaxation above the glass transition point was modeled using the Tool-Narayanaswamy (TN) formulation for the evolution of structural relaxation times and fictive temperature. TN relaxation parameters were derived from spatially resolved confocal Raman scattering measurements of Si–O–Si stretching mode frequencies. These thermal and microstructural data were used to simulate fictive temperatures which are shown to scale nearly linearly with density, consistent with previous measurements from Shelby et al. Volumetric relaxation coupled with thermal expansion occurring in the liquid-like and solid-like glassy states lead to residual stresses and permanent deformation which could be quantified. But, experimental surface deformation profiles between 1700 and 2000 K could only be reconciled with our simulation by assuming a roughly 2 × larger liquid thermal expansion for a-SiO2 with a temperature of maximum density ~150 K higher than previously estimated by Bruckner et al. Calculated stress fields agreed well with recent laser-induced critical fracture measurements, demonstrating accurate material response prediction under processing conditions of practical interest.

  17. Byzantine-fault tolerant self-stabilizing protocol for distributed clock synchronization systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malekpour, Mahyar R. (Inventor)

    2010-01-01

    A rapid Byzantine self-stabilizing clock synchronization protocol that self-stabilizes from any state, tolerates bursts of transient failures, and deterministically converges within a linear convergence time with respect to the self-stabilization period. Upon self-stabilization, all good clocks proceed synchronously. The Byzantine self-stabilizing clock synchronization protocol does not rely on any assumptions about the initial state of the clocks. Furthermore, there is neither a central clock nor an externally generated pulse system. The protocol converges deterministically, is scalable, and self-stabilizes in a short amount of time. The convergence time is linear with respect to the self-stabilization period.

  18. The endogenous circadian clock programs animals to eat at certain times of the 24-hour day: What if we ignore the clock?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Peng; Turek, Fred W

    2018-04-16

    The discovery of the molecular mechanisms underlying the circadian clock, which functions in virtually every cell throughout the body to coordinate biological processes to anticipate and better adapt to daily rhythmic changes in the environment, is one of the major biomedical breakthroughs in the 20th century. Twenty years after this breakthrough, the biomedical community is now at a new frontier to incorporate the circadian clock mechanisms into many areas of biomedical research, as studies continue to reveal an important role of the circadian clock in a wide range of biological functions and diseases. A forefront of this exciting area is the research of interactions between the clock and energy metabolism. In this review, we summarize animal and human studies linking disruptions of the circadian clock, either environmental or genetic, to metabolic dysfunctions associated with obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic disorders. We also discuss how these advances in circadian biology may pave the way to revolutionize clinical practice in the era of precision medicine. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Animal clocks: when science meets nature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kronfeld-Schor, Noga; Bloch, Guy; Schwartz, William J

    2013-08-22

    Daily rhythms of physiology and behaviour are governed by an endogenous timekeeping mechanism (a circadian 'clock'), with the alternation of environmental light and darkness synchronizing (entraining) these rhythms to the natural day-night cycle. Our knowledge of the circadian system of animals at the molecular, cellular, tissue and organismal levels is remarkable, and we are beginning to understand how each of these levels contributes to the emergent properties and increased complexity of the system as a whole. For the most part, these analyses have been carried out using model organisms in standard laboratory housing, but to begin to understand the adaptive significance of the clock, we must expand our scope to study diverse animal species from different taxonomic groups, showing diverse activity patterns, in their natural environments. The seven papers in this Special Feature of Proceedings of the Royal Society B take on this challenge, reviewing the influences of moonlight, latitudinal clines, evolutionary history, social interactions, specialized temporal niches, annual variation and recently appreciated post-transcriptional molecular mechanisms. The papers emphasize that the complexity and diversity of the natural world represent a powerful experimental resource.

  20. Expression conservation within the circadian clock of a monocot: natural variation at barley Ppd-H1 affects circadian expression of flowering time genes, but not clock orthologs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campoli, Chiara; Shtaya, Munqez; Davis, Seth J; von Korff, Maria

    2012-06-21

    The circadian clock is an endogenous mechanism that coordinates biological processes with daily changes in the environment. In plants, circadian rhythms contribute to both agricultural productivity and evolutionary fitness. In barley, the photoperiod response regulator and flowering-time gene Ppd-H1 is orthologous to the Arabidopsis core-clock gene PRR7. However, relatively little is known about the role of Ppd-H1 and other components of the circadian clock in temperate crop species. In this study, we identified barley clock orthologs and tested the effects of natural genetic variation at Ppd-H1 on diurnal and circadian expression of clock and output genes from the photoperiod-response pathway. Barley clock orthologs HvCCA1, HvGI, HvPRR1, HvPRR37 (Ppd-H1), HvPRR73, HvPRR59 and HvPRR95 showed a high level of sequence similarity and conservation of diurnal and circadian expression patterns, when compared to Arabidopsis. The natural mutation at Ppd-H1 did not affect diurnal or circadian cycling of barley clock genes. However, the Ppd-H1 mutant was found to be arrhythmic under free-running conditions for the photoperiod-response genes HvCO1, HvCO2, and the MADS-box transcription factor and vernalization responsive gene Vrn-H1. We suggest that the described eudicot clock is largely conserved in the monocot barley. However, genetic differentiation within gene families and differences in the function of Ppd-H1 suggest evolutionary modification in the angiosperm clock. Our data indicates that natural variation at Ppd-H1 does not affect the expression level of clock genes, but controls photoperiodic output genes. Circadian control of Vrn-H1 in barley suggests that this vernalization responsive gene is also controlled by the photoperiod-response pathway. Structural and functional characterization of the barley circadian clock will set the basis for future studies of the adaptive significance of the circadian clock in Triticeae species.

  1. TURNING BACK THE CLOCK: INFERRING THE HISTORY OF THE EIGHT O'CLOCK ARC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Finkelstein, Steven L.; Papovich, Casey; Rudnick, Gregory; Egami, Eiichi; Rieke, Marcia J.; Willmer, Christopher N. A.; Le Floc'h, Emeric; Rigby, Jane R.

    2009-01-01

    We present the results from an optical and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic study of the ultraviolet-luminous z = 2.73 galaxy, the 8 o'clock arc. Due to gravitational lensing, this galaxy is magnified by a factor of μ > 10, allowing in-depth measurements which are usually unfeasible at such redshifts. In the optical spectra, we measured the systemic redshift of the galaxy, z = 2.7322± 0.0012, using stellar photospheric lines. This differs from the redshift of absorption lines in the interstellar medium, z = 2.7302 ± 0.0006, implying gas outflows on the order of 160 km s -1 . With H- and K-band NIR spectra, we have measured nebular emission lines of Hα, Hβ, Hγ, [N II], and [O III], which have a redshift z = 2.7333 ± 0.0001, consistent with the derived systemic redshift. From the Balmer decrement, we measured the dust extinction in this galaxy to be A 5500 = 1.17 ± 36 mag. Correcting the Hα line flux for dust extinction as well as the assumed lensing factor, we measure a star formation rate (SFR) of ∼270 M sun yr -1 , which is higher than ∼85% of star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 2-3. Using combinations of all detected emission lines, we find that the 8 o'clock arc has a gas-phase metallicity of ∼0.8 Z sun , showing that enrichment at high redshift is not rare, even in blue, star-forming galaxies. Studying spectra from two of the arc components separately, we find that one component dominates both the dust extinction and SFR, although the metallicities between the two components are similar. We derive the mass via stellar population modeling, and find that the arc has a total stellar mass of ∼4.2 x 10 11 M sun , which falls on the mass-metallicity relation at z ∼ 2. Finally, we estimate the total gas mass, and find it to be only ∼12% of the stellar mass, implying that the 8 o'clock arc is likely nearing the end of a starburst.

  2. The Chip-Scale Atomic Clock - Recent Development Progress

    Science.gov (United States)

    2004-09-01

    35th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting 467 THE CHIP-SCALE ATOMIC CLOCK – RECENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS R. Lutwak ...1] R. Lutwak , et al., 2003, “The Chip-Scale Atomic Clock – Coherent Population Trapping vs. Conventional Interrogation,” in

  3. IRT models with relaxed assumptions in eRm: A manual-like instruction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    REINHOLD HATZINGER

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available Linear logistic models with relaxed assumptions (LLRA as introduced by Fischer (1974 are a flexible tool for the measurement of change for dichotomous or polytomous responses. As opposed to the Rasch model, assumptions on dimensionality of items, their mutual dependencies and the distribution of the latent trait in the population of subjects are relaxed. Conditional maximum likelihood estimation allows for inference about treatment, covariate or trend effect parameters without taking the subjects' latent trait values into account. In this paper we will show how LLRAs based on the LLTM, LRSM and LPCM can be used to answer various questions about the measurement of change and how they can be fitted in R using the eRm package. A number of small didactic examples is provided that can easily be used as templates for real data sets. All datafiles used in this paper are available from http://eRm.R-Forge.R-project.org/

  4. Probing many-body interactions in an optical lattice clock

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rey, A.M., E-mail: arey@jilau1.colorado.edu [JILA, NIST and University of Colorado, Department of Physics, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States); Gorshkov, A.V. [Joint Quantum Institute, NIST and University of Maryland, Department of Physics, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Kraus, C.V. [Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-6020 Innsbruck (Austria); Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck (Austria); Martin, M.J. [JILA, NIST and University of Colorado, Department of Physics, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States); Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Bishof, M.; Swallows, M.D.; Zhang, X.; Benko, C.; Ye, J. [JILA, NIST and University of Colorado, Department of Physics, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States); Lemke, N.D.; Ludlow, A.D. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80305 (United States)

    2014-01-15

    We present a unifying theoretical framework that describes recently observed many-body effects during the interrogation of an optical lattice clock operated with thousands of fermionic alkaline earth atoms. The framework is based on a many-body master equation that accounts for the interplay between elastic and inelastic p-wave and s-wave interactions, finite temperature effects and excitation inhomogeneity during the quantum dynamics of the interrogated atoms. Solutions of the master equation in different parameter regimes are presented and compared. It is shown that a general solution can be obtained by using the so called Truncated Wigner Approximation which is applied in our case in the context of an open quantum system. We use the developed framework to model the density shift and decay of the fringes observed during Ramsey spectroscopy in the JILA {sup 87}Sr and NIST {sup 171}Yb optical lattice clocks. The developed framework opens a suitable path for dealing with a variety of strongly-correlated and driven open-quantum spin systems. -- Highlights: •Derived a theoretical framework that describes many-body effects in a lattice clock. •Validated the analysis with recent experimental measurements. •Demonstrated the importance of beyond mean field corrections in the dynamics.

  5. Clock synchronization and dispersion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Giovannetti, Vittorio; Lloyd, Seth; Maccone, Lorenzo; Wong, Franco N C

    2002-01-01

    We present a method to defeat effects of dispersion of timing signals when synchronizing clocks. It is based on the recently proposed 'conveyor belt synchronization' scheme and on the quantum dispersion cancellation effect

  6. Epigenetic and Posttranslational Modifications in Light Signal Transduction and the Circadian Clock in Neurospora crassa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco Proietto

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Blue light, a key abiotic signal, regulates a wide variety of physiological processes in many organisms. One of these phenomena is the circadian rhythm presents in organisms sensitive to the phase-setting effects of blue light and under control of the daily alternation of light and dark. Circadian clocks consist of autoregulatory alternating negative and positive feedback loops intimately connected with the cellular metabolism and biochemical processes. Neurospora crassa provides an excellent model for studying the molecular mechanisms involved in these phenomena. The White Collar Complex (WCC, a blue-light receptor and transcription factor of the circadian oscillator, and Frequency (FRQ, the circadian clock pacemaker, are at the core of the Neurospora circadian system. The eukaryotic circadian clock relies on transcriptional/translational feedback loops: some proteins rhythmically repress their own synthesis by inhibiting the activity of their transcriptional factors, generating self-sustained oscillations over a period of about 24 h. One of the basic mechanisms that perpetuate self-sustained oscillations is post translation modification (PTM. The acronym PTM generically indicates the addition of acetyl, methyl, sumoyl, or phosphoric groups to various types of proteins. The protein can be regulatory or enzymatic or a component of the chromatin. PTMs influence protein stability, interaction, localization, activity, and chromatin packaging. Chromatin modification and PTMs have been implicated in regulating circadian clock function in Neurospora. Research into the epigenetic control of transcription factors such as WCC has yielded new insights into the temporal modulation of light-dependent gene transcription. Here we report on epigenetic and protein PTMs in the regulation of the Neurospora crassa circadian clock. We also present a model that illustrates the molecular mechanisms at the basis of the blue light control of the circadian clock.

  7. Elastic models for the non-Arrhenius relaxation time of glass-forming liquids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dyre, Jeppe

    We first review the phenomenology of viscous liquids and the standard models used for explaining the non-Arrhenius average relaxation time. Then the focus is turned to the so-called elastic models, arguing that these models are all equivalent in the Einstein approximation (where the short-time...... elastic properties are all determined by just one effective, temperature-dependent force constant). We finally discuss the connection between the elastic models and two well-established research fields of condensed-matter physics: point defects in crystals and solid-state diffusion....

  8. Elastic models for the Non-Arrhenius Relaxation Time of Glass-Forming Liquids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dyre, J. C.

    2006-01-01

    We first review the phenomenology of viscous liquids and the standard models used for explaining the non-Arrhenius average relaxation time. Then the focus is turned to the so-called elastic models, arguing that these models are all equivalent in the Einstein approximation (where the short-time...... elastic properties are all determined by just one effective, temperature-dependent force constant). We finally discuss the connection between the elastic models and two well-established research fields of condensed-matter physics: point defects in crystals and solid-state diffusion....

  9. Association between circadian clock genes and diapause incidence in Drosophila triauraria.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hirokazu Yamada

    Full Text Available Diapause is an adaptive response triggered by seasonal photoperiodicity to overcome unfavorable seasons. The photoperiodic clock is a system that controls seasonal physiological processes, but our knowledge about its physiological mechanisms and genetic architecture remains incomplete. The circadian clock is another system that controls daily rhythmic physiological phenomena. It has been argued that there is a connection between the two clocks. To examine the genetic connection between them, we analyzed the associations of five circadian clock genes (period, timeless, Clock, cycle and cryptochrome with the occurrence of diapause in Drosophila triauraria, which shows a robust reproductive diapause with clear photoperiodicity. Non-diapause strains found in low latitudes were compared in genetic crosses with the diapause strain, in which the diapause trait is clearly dominant. Single nucleotide polymorphism and deletion analyses of the five circadian clock genes in backcross progeny revealed that allelic differences in timeless and cryptochrome between the strains were additively associated with the differences in the incidence of diapause. This suggests that there is a molecular link between certain circadian clock genes and the occurrence of diapause.

  10. Application of radioisotope for radio-luminous watch and clock industry in Japan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murayama, Yoshihiko

    1981-01-01

    In 1979, Japan became No. 1 watch and clock production country in the world, and has produced 88 million watches and 59 million clocks in 1980. About 65% of them were exported. The production of radio-luminous watches and clocks in 1980 was estimated as 13 million and 11 million, respectively, and has increased by 40% as compared with the previous year. In Japan, the law concerning the prevention of radiation injuries due to radioisotopes and others is applied to radio-luminous watches and clocks, because radioactive substances are contained in luminous paint, and the production is regulated by the law as unsealed RI-using establishments. The permitted establishments engaging in radio-luminous watches and clocks are 3 luminous paint makers, 9 painting works and 35 watch and clock assembling plants. The RI utilized for radio-luminous watches and clocks is limited to Pm-147 at present, and 3788 Ci was used in 1980. About 70 years have elapsed since luminous paint was used for watches and clocks for the first time. The ISO instituted the international standard on radio-luminous paint for watches and clocks in 1975. The beta-ray emitted by Pm-147 is shielded perfectly by glasses and cases, and only the dose of brems-strahlung X-ray is the problem. The radiation control in radio-luminous watch and clock plants is described. (Kako, I.)

  11. Mining for novel candidate clock genes in the circadian regulatory network

    OpenAIRE

    Bhargava, Anuprabha; Herzel, Hanspeter; Ananthasubramaniam, Bharath

    2015-01-01

    Background Most physiological processes in mammals are temporally regulated by means of a master circadian clock in the brain and peripheral oscillators in most other tissues. A transcriptional-translation feedback network of clock genes produces near 24 h oscillations in clock gene and protein expression. Here, we aim to identify novel additions to the clock network using a meta-analysis of public chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq), proteomics and protein-protein interaction...

  12. Clocking Scheme for Switched-Capacitor Circuits

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Steensgaard-Madsen, Jesper

    1998-01-01

    A novel clocking scheme for switched-capacitor (SC) circuits is presented. It can enhance the understanding of SC circuits and the errors caused by MOSFET (MOS) switches. Charge errors, and techniques to make SC circuits less sensitive to them are discussed.......A novel clocking scheme for switched-capacitor (SC) circuits is presented. It can enhance the understanding of SC circuits and the errors caused by MOSFET (MOS) switches. Charge errors, and techniques to make SC circuits less sensitive to them are discussed....

  13. A (201)Hg+ Comagnetometer for (199)Hg+ Trapped Ion Space Atomic Clocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burt, Eric A.; Taghavi, Shervin; Tjoelker, Robert L.

    2011-01-01

    A method has been developed for unambiguously measuring the exact magnetic field experienced by trapped mercury ions contained within an atomic clock intended for space applications. In general, atomic clocks are insensitive to external perturbations that would change the frequency at which the clocks operate. On a space platform, these perturbative effects can be much larger than they would be on the ground, especially in dealing with the magnetic field environment. The solution is to use a different isotope of mercury held within the same trap as the clock isotope. The magnetic field can be very accurately measured with a magnetic-field-sensitive atomic transition in the added isotope. Further, this measurement can be made simultaneously with normal clock operation, thereby not degrading clock performance. Instead of using a conventional magnetometer to measure ambient fields, which would necessarily be placed some distance away from the clock atoms, first order field-sensitive atomic transition frequency changes in the atoms themselves determine the variations in the magnetic field. As a result, all ambiguity over the exact field value experienced by the atoms is removed. Atoms used in atomic clocks always have an atomic transition (often referred to as the clock transition) that is sensitive to magnetic fields only in second order, and usually have one or more transitions that are first-order field sensitive. For operating parameters used in the (199)Hg(+) clock, the latter can be five orders of magnitude or more sensitive to field fluctuations than the clock transition, thereby providing an unambiguous probe of the magnetic field strength.

  14. British domestic synchronous clocks 1930-1980 the rise and fall of a technology

    CERN Document Server

    Pook, Leslie Philip

    2015-01-01

    This book complements available one-make books on domestic synchronous clocks. It is also a history of science book that sets British domestic synchronous clocks, their manufacturers and technology in their social context. Part I covers the historical background, British domestic synchronous clock manufacturers and brands, how synchronous clocks work, domestic synchronous clock cases, practical advice on the servicing of domestic synchronous clocks, and analysis of the marketing and reliability of British domestic synchronous clocks. This analysis provides an explanation of the rise and eventual fall of their technology. Part II contains galleries of a selection of British domestic synchronous clocks, and of the movements with which they are fitted. There is a front and back view of each clock, together with a brief description. Views of each movement include views with the movement partly dismantled, together with a brief technical description of the movement. This profusely illustrated book is primarily fo...

  15. Dual-Mode Operation of an Optical Lattice Clock Using Strontium and Ytterbium Atoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akamatsu, Daisuke; Kobayashi, Takumi; Hisai, Yusuke; Tanabe, Takehiko; Hosaka, Kazumoto; Yasuda, Masami; Hong, Feng-Lei

    2018-06-01

    We have developed an optical lattice clock that can operate in dual modes: a strontium (Sr) clock mode and an ytterbium (Yb) clock mode. Dual-mode operation of the Sr-Yb optical lattice clock is achieved by alternately cooling and trapping 87 Sr and 171 Yb atoms inside the vacuum chamber of the clock. Optical lattices for Sr and Yb atoms were arranged with horizontal and vertical configurations, respectively, resulting in a small distance of the order of between the trapped Sr and Yb atoms. The 1 S 0 - 3 P 0 clock transitions in the trapped atoms were interrogated in turn and the clock lasers were stabilized to the transitions. We demonstrated the frequency ratio measurement of the Sr and Yb clock transitions by using the dual-mode operation of the Sr-Yb optical lattice clock. The dual-mode operation can reduce the uncertainty of the blackbody radiation shift in the frequency ratio measurement, because both Sr and Yb atoms share the same blackbody radiation.

  16. Z n clock models and chains of so(n)2 non-Abelian anyons: symmetries, integrable points and low energy properties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finch, Peter E.; Flohr, Michael; Frahm, Holger

    2018-02-01

    We study two families of quantum models which have been used previously to investigate the effect of topological symmetries in one-dimensional correlated matter. Various striking similarities are observed between certain {Z}n quantum clock models, spin chains generalizing the Ising model, and chains of non-Abelian anyons constructed from the so(n)2 fusion category for odd n, both subject to periodic boundary conditions. In spite of the differences between these two types of quantum chains, e.g. their Hilbert spaces being spanned by tensor products of local spin states or fusion paths of anyons, the symmetries of the lattice models are shown to be closely related. Furthermore, under a suitable mapping between the parameters describing the interaction between spins and anyons the respective Hamiltonians share part of their energy spectrum (although their degeneracies may differ). This spin-anyon correspondence can be extended by fine-tuning of the coupling constants leading to exactly solvable models. We show that the algebraic structures underlying the integrability of the clock models and the anyon chain are the same. For n  =  3,5,7 we perform an extensive finite size study—both numerical and based on the exact solution—of these models to map out their ground state phase diagram and to identify the effective field theories describing their low energy behaviour. We observe that the continuum limit at the integrable points can be described by rational conformal field theories with extended symmetry algebras which can be related to the discrete ones of the lattice models.

  17. Characterization of a clock based on coherent population trapping in a thermal cesium vapor. Main effects that may affect its mid- and long-term frequency stability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kozlova, Olga

    2013-01-01

    This thesis describes a Cs - buffer gas vapor cell atomic clock based on coherent population trapping (CPT), and the main frequency shifts affecting its mid- and long-term stability. The developed atomic clock based on CPT uses two original techniques: a so-called double-Λ scheme for the CPT-resonance excitation and a temporal Ramsey interrogation technique, which produce a high contrast and narrow resonances with reduced light shift dependence. Generally, the mid and long term stability of the vapor cell atomic clock is limited by the collisional shift induced by alkali-buffer gas collisions and the light shift (or the effects depending on the laser intensity). We report on the study of the collisional shift of Cs clock frequency in the presence of Ne, N 2 or Ar buffer gas, and its temperature dependence. The coefficient values of this dependence for these three buffer gases were revealed (some of them for the first time), allowing us to realise a cell with optimal combination of buffer gases to cancel the temperature dependence around the working temperature. Following the study of the signal amplitude and the coherence relaxation rate the optimal values for such parameters as interrogation cycle, magnetic field, cell temperature, pressure of the buffer gas mixture, etc. were found for the chosen cell. The investigation on the light shift and the effects depending on the laser intensity allowed us to determine the most sensitive parameters (laser intensity ratio, temperature) and to implement the required stabilizations in order to better control them. Finally, the mid- and long-term clock frequency stability was improved by a factor 40, reaching 2.5 10 -14 at 1 hour. (author)

  18. Convex Relaxations for a Generalized Chan-Vese Model

    KAUST Repository

    Bae, Egil

    2013-01-01

    We revisit the Chan-Vese model of image segmentation with a focus on the encoding with several integer-valued labeling functions. We relate several representations with varying amount of complexity and demonstrate the connection to recent relaxations for product sets and to dual maxflow-based formulations. For some special cases, it can be shown that it is possible to guarantee binary minimizers. While this is not true in general, we show how to derive a convex approximation of the combinatorial problem for more than 4 phases. We also provide a method to avoid overcounting of boundaries in the original Chan-Vese model without departing from the efficient product-set representation. Finally, we derive an algorithm to solve the associated discretized problem, and demonstrate that it allows to obtain good approximations for the segmentation problem with various number of regions. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

  19. Collisionless relaxation in spiral galaxy models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hohl, F.

    1974-01-01

    The increase in random kinetic energy of stars by rapidly fluctuating gravitational fields (collisionless or violent relaxation) in disk galaxy models is investigated for three interaction potentials of the stars corresponding to (1) point stars, (2) rod stars of length 2 kpc, and (3) uniform density spherical stars of radius 2 kpc. To stabilize the galaxy against the large scale bar forming instability, a fixed field corresponding to a central core or halo component of stars was added with the stars containing at most 20 percent of the total mass of the galaxy. Considerable heating occurred for both the point stars and the rod stars, whereas the use of spherical stars resulted in a very low heating rate. The use of spherical stars with the resulting low heating rate will be desirable for the study of large scale galactic stability or density wave propagation, since collective heating effects will no longer mask the phenomena under study.

  20. A bunch clock for the Advanced Photon Source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lenkszus, F.R.; Laird, R.J.

    1997-01-01

    A bunch clock timing module has been developed for use by Advanced Photon Source beamlines. The module provides bunch pattern and timing information that can be used to trigger beamline data collection equipment. The module is fully integrated into the control system software (EPICS) which automatically loads it with the storage ring fill pattern at injection time. Fast timing outputs (1 ns FWHM) for each stored bunch are generated using the storage ring low-level rf and revolution clock as input references. Fiber-optic-based transmitters and receivers are used to transmit a 352-MHz low-level rf reference to distributed bunch clock modules. The bunch clock module is a single-width VME module and may be installed in a VME crate located near beamline instrumentation. A prototype has been in use on the SRI CAT beamline for over a year. The design and integration into the control system timing software along with measured performance results are presented

  1. Mini Screening of Kinase Inhibitors Affecting Period-length of Mammalian Cellular Circadian Clock

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yagita, Kazuhiro; Yamanaka, Iori; Koinuma, Satoshi; Shigeyoshi, Yasufumi; Uchiyama, Yasuo

    2009-01-01

    In mammalian circadian rhythms, the transcriptional-translational feedback loop (TTFL) consisting of a set of clock genes is believed to elicit the circadian clock oscillation. The TTFL model explains that the accumulation and degradation of mPER and mCRY proteins control the period-length (tau) of the circadian clock. Although recent studies revealed that the Casein Kinase Iεδ (CKIεδ) regurates the phosphorylation of mPER proteins and the circadian period-length, other kinases are also likely to contribute the phosphorylation of mPER. Here, we performed small scale screening using 84 chemical compounds known as kinase inhibitors to identify candidates possibly affecting the circadian period-length in mammalian cells. Screening by this high-throughput real-time bioluminescence monitoring system revealed that the several chemical compounds apparently lengthened the cellular circadian clock oscillation. These compounds are known as inhibitors against kinases such as Casein Kinase II (CKII), PI3-kinase (PI3K) and c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK) in addition to CKIεδ. Although these kinase inhibitors may have some non-specific effects on other factors, our mini screening identified new candidates contributing to period-length control in mammalian cells

  2. Stability of relaxed Lennard-Jones models made of 500 to 6000 atoms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raoult, B.; Farges, J.; Feraudy, M.F. de; Torchet, G.

    1989-01-01

    We present a study of the stability of clusters models made of a number N of atoms in the range 500 to 6000 atoms, freely interacting through the Lennard-Jones potential. The potential energy per atom, calculated for relaxed models, shows that stable models belong to an icosahedral sequence when N<1600 and to a decahedral sequence beyond. A coexistence size range of both structures is discussed in connection with experimental results on argon clusters in free jet expansions. (orig.)

  3. Fish Oil Accelerates Diet-Induced Entrainment of the Mouse Peripheral Clock via GPR120

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itokawa, Misa; Nagahama, Hiroki; Ohtsu, Teiji; Furutani, Naoki; Kamagata, Mayo; Yang, Zhi-Hong; Hirasawa, Akira; Tahara, Yu; Shibata, Shigenobu

    2015-01-01

    The circadian peripheral clock is entrained by restricted feeding (RF) at a fixed time of day, and insulin secretion regulates RF-induced entrainment of the peripheral clock in mice. Thus, carbohydrate-rich food may be ideal for facilitating RF-induced entrainment, although the role of dietary oils in insulin secretion and RF-induced entrainment has not been described. The soybean oil component of standard mouse chow was substituted with fish or soybean oil containing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and/or eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Tuna oil (high DHA/EPA), menhaden oil (standard), and DHA/EPA dissolved in soybean oil increased insulin secretion and facilitated RF-induced phase shifts of the liver clock as represented by the bioluminescence rhythms of PER2::LUCIFERASE knock-in mice. In this model, insulin depletion blocked the effect of tuna oil and fish oil had no effect on mice deficient for GPR120, a polyunsaturated fatty acid receptor. These results suggest food containing fish oil or DHA/EPA is ideal for adjusting the peripheral clock. PMID:26161796

  4. Relativistic theory for syntonization of clocks in the vicinity of the Earth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, Peter; Petit, G.

    1995-01-01

    A well known prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity states that two ideal clocks that move with a relative velocity, and are submitted to different gravitational fields will, in general, be observed to run at different rates. Similarly the rate of a clock with respect to the coordinate time of some spacetime reference system is dependent on the velocity of the clock in that reference system and on the gravitational fields it is submitted to. For the syntonization of clocks and the realization of coordinate times (like TAI) this rate shift has to be taken into account at an accuracy level which should be below the frequency stability of the clocks in question, i.e. all terms that are larger than the instability of the clocks should be corrected for. We present a theory for the calculation of the relativistic rate shift for clocks in the vicinity of the Earth, including all terms larger than one part in 10(exp 18). This, together with previous work on clock synchronization (Petit & Wolf 1993, 1994), amounts to a complete relativistic theory for the realization of coordinate time scales at picosecond synchronization and 10(exp -18) syntonization accuracy, which should be sufficient to accommodate future developments in time transfer and clock technology.

  5. On the Volterra integral equation relating creep and relaxation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anderssen, R S; De Hoog, F R; Davies, A R

    2008-01-01

    The evolving stress–strain response of a material to an applied deformation is causal. If the current response depends on the earlier history of the stress–strain dynamics of the material (i.e. the material has memory), then Volterra integral equations become the natural framework within which to model the response. For viscoelastic materials, when the response is linear, the dual linear Boltzmann causal integral equations are the appropriate model. The choice of one rather than the other depends on whether the applied deformation is a stress or a strain, and the associated response is, respectively, a creep or a relaxation. The duality between creep and relaxation is known explicitly and is referred to as the 'interconversion equation'. Rheologically, its importance relates to the fact that it allows the creep to be determined from knowledge of the relaxation and vice versa. Computationally, it has been known for some time that the recovery of the relaxation from the creep is more problematic than the creep from the relaxation. Recent research, using discrete models for the creep and relaxation, has confirmed that this is an essential feature of interconversion. In this paper, the corresponding result is generalized for continuous models of the creep and relaxation

  6. Realization of a scenario with two relaxation rates in the Hubbard Falicov-Kimball model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barman, H.; Laad, M. S.; Hassan, S. R.

    2018-02-01

    A single transport relaxation rate governs the decay of both longitudinal and Hall currents in Landau Fermi liquids (FL). Breakdown of this fundamental feature, first observed in two-dimensional cuprates and subsequently in other three-dimensional correlated systems close to the Mott metal-insulator transition, played a pivotal role in emergence of a non-FL (NFL) paradigm in higher dimensions D (>1 ) . Motivated hereby, we explore the emergence of this "two relaxation rates" scenario in the Hubbard Falicov-Kimball model (HFKM) using the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). Specializing to D =3 , we find, beyond a critical Falicov-Kimball (FK) interaction, that two distinct relaxation rates governing distinct temperature (T ) dependence of the longitudinal and Hall currents naturally emerges in the NFL metal. Our results show good accord with the experiment in V2 -yO3 near the metal-to-insulator transition (MIT). We rationalize this surprising finding by an analytical analysis of the structure of charge and spin Hamiltonians in the underlying impurity problem, specifically through a bosonization method applied to the Wolff model and connecting it to the x-ray edge problem.

  7. A three-dimensional relaxation model for calculation of atomic mixing and topography changes induces by ion beams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Collins, R.; Perez-Martin, A.M.C.; Dominguez-Vazquez, J.; Jimenez-Rodriguez, J.J.

    1994-01-01

    A simple model for three-dimensional material relaxation associated with atomic mixing is presented. The relaxation of the solid to accommodate the extra effective displacement volume Ω of an implanted or relocated atom is modelled by treating the surrounding solid as an incompressible medium. This leads to a tractable general formalism which can be used to predict implant distribution and changes in surface topography induced by ion beams, both in monatomic and multicomponent targets. The two-component case is discussed in detail. (orig.)

  8. Master Clock and Time-Signal-Distribution System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tjoelker, Robert; Calhoun, Malcolm; Kuhnle, Paul; Sydnor, Richard; Lauf, John

    2007-01-01

    A timing system comprising an electronic master clock and a subsystem for distributing time signals from the master clock to end users is undergoing development to satisfy anticipated timing requirements of NASA s Deep Space Network (DSN) for the next 20 to 30 years. This system has a modular, flexible, expandable architecture that is easier to operate and maintain than the present frequency and timing subsystem (FTS).

  9. GNSS global real-time augmentation positioning: Real-time precise satellite clock estimation, prototype system construction and performance analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Liang; Zhao, Qile; Hu, Zhigang; Jiang, Xinyuan; Geng, Changjiang; Ge, Maorong; Shi, Chuang

    2018-01-01

    Lots of ambiguities in un-differenced (UD) model lead to lower calculation efficiency, which isn't appropriate for the high-frequency real-time GNSS clock estimation, like 1 Hz. Mixed differenced model fusing UD pseudo-range and epoch-differenced (ED) phase observations has been introduced into real-time clock estimation. In this contribution, we extend the mixed differenced model for realizing multi-GNSS real-time clock high-frequency updating and a rigorous comparison and analysis on same conditions are performed to achieve the best real-time clock estimation performance taking the efficiency, accuracy, consistency and reliability into consideration. Based on the multi-GNSS real-time data streams provided by multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) and Wuhan University, GPS + BeiDou + Galileo global real-time augmentation positioning prototype system is designed and constructed, including real-time precise orbit determination, real-time precise clock estimation, real-time Precise Point Positioning (RT-PPP) and real-time Standard Point Positioning (RT-SPP). The statistical analysis of the 6 h-predicted real-time orbits shows that the root mean square (RMS) in radial direction is about 1-5 cm for GPS, Beidou MEO and Galileo satellites and about 10 cm for Beidou GEO and IGSO satellites. Using the mixed differenced estimation model, the prototype system can realize high-efficient real-time satellite absolute clock estimation with no constant clock-bias and can be used for high-frequency augmentation message updating (such as 1 Hz). The real-time augmentation message signal-in-space ranging error (SISRE), a comprehensive accuracy of orbit and clock and effecting the users' actual positioning performance, is introduced to evaluate and analyze the performance of GPS + BeiDou + Galileo global real-time augmentation positioning system. The statistical analysis of real-time augmentation message SISRE is about 4-7 cm for GPS, whlile 10 cm for Beidou IGSO/MEO, Galileo and about 30 cm

  10. THE MATHEMATIC MODEL OF POTENTIAL RELAXATION IN COULOSTATIC CONDITIONS FOR LIMITING DIFFUSION CURRENT CASE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. H. Kapitonov

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available A mathematical model of coulostatic relaxation of the potential for solid metallic electrode was presented. The solution in the case of limiting diffusion current was obtained. On the basis of this model the technique of concentration measurements for heavy metal ions in diluted solutions was suggested. The model adequacy was proved by experimental data.

  11. System-wide power management control via clock distribution network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coteus, Paul W.; Gara, Alan; Gooding, Thomas M.; Haring, Rudolf A.; Kopcsay, Gerard V.; Liebsch, Thomas A.; Reed, Don D.

    2015-05-19

    An apparatus, method and computer program product for automatically controlling power dissipation of a parallel computing system that includes a plurality of processors. A computing device issues a command to the parallel computing system. A clock pulse-width modulator encodes the command in a system clock signal to be distributed to the plurality of processors. The plurality of processors in the parallel computing system receive the system clock signal including the encoded command, and adjusts power dissipation according to the encoded command.

  12. Two-phase modeling of DDT: Structure of the velocity-relaxation zone

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kapila, A.K.; Son, S.F.; Bdzil, J.B.; Menikoff, R.; Stewart, D.S.

    1997-01-01

    The structure of the velocity relaxation zone in a hyperbolic, nonconservative, two-phase model is examined in the limit of large drag, and in the context of the problem of deflagration-to-detonation transition in a granular explosive. The primary motivation for the study is the desire to relate the end states across the relaxation zone, which can then be treated as a discontinuity in a reduced, equivelocity model, that is computationally more efficient than its parent. In contrast to a conservative system, where end states across thin zones of rapid variation are determined principally by algebraic statements of conservation, the nonconservative character of the present system requires an explicit consideration of the structure. Starting with the minimum admissible wave speed, the structure is mapped out as the wave speed increases. Several critical wave speeds corresponding to changes in the structure are identified. The archetypal structure is partly dispersed, monotonic, and involves conventional hydrodynamic shocks in one or both phases. The picture is reminiscent of, but more complex than, what is observed in such (simpler) two-phase media as a dusty gas. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

  13. Relaxation-phenomena in LiAl/FeS-cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borger, W.; Kappus, W.; Panesar, H. S.

    A theoretical model of the capacity of strongly relaxing electrochemical systems is applied to the LiAl/FeS system. Relaxation phenomena in LiAl and FeS electrodes can be described by this model. Experimental relaxation data indicate that lithium transport through the alpha-LiAl layer to the particle surface is the capacity limiting process at high discharge current density in the LiAl electrode in LiCl-KCl and LiF-LiCl-LiBr mixtures. Strong relaxation is observed in the FeS electrode with LiCl-KCl electrolyte caused by lithium concentration gradients and precipitation of KCl in the pores.

  14. Fractional calculus model of articular cartilage based on experimental stress-relaxation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smyth, P. A.; Green, I.

    2015-05-01

    Articular cartilage is a unique substance that protects joints from damage and wear. Many decades of research have led to detailed biphasic and triphasic models for the intricate structure and behavior of cartilage. However, the models contain many assumptions on boundary conditions, permeability, viscosity, model size, loading, etc., that complicate the description of cartilage. For impact studies or biomimetic applications, cartilage can be studied phenomenologically to reduce modeling complexity. This work reports experimental results on the stress-relaxation of equine articular cartilage in unconfined loading. The response is described by a fractional calculus viscoelastic model, which gives storage and loss moduli as functions of frequency, rendering multiple advantages: (1) the fractional calculus model is robust, meaning that fewer constants are needed to accurately capture a wide spectrum of viscoelastic behavior compared to other viscoelastic models (e.g., Prony series), (2) in the special case where the fractional derivative is 1/2, it is shown that there is a straightforward time-domain representation, (3) the eigenvalue problem is simplified in subsequent dynamic studies, and (4) cartilage stress-relaxation can be described with as few as three constants, giving an advantage for large-scale dynamic studies that account for joint motion or impact. Moreover, the resulting storage and loss moduli can quantify healthy, damaged, or cultured cartilage, as well as artificial joints. The proposed characterization is suited for high-level analysis of multiphase materials, where the separate contribution of each phase is not desired. Potential uses of this analysis include biomimetic dampers and bearings, or artificial joints where the effective stiffness and damping are fundamental parameters.

  15. Comparison of Vibrational Relaxation Modeling for Strongly Non-Equilibrium Flows

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    important pro- cess in a wide range of high speed flows. High temperature shock layers that form in front of hypersonic vehicles can lead to significant...continuum flows for use in traditional Computational Fluid Dynamics ( CFD ) and non-continuum flows for use with rarefied flow de- scriptions, such as the...145 .98 4396 V. Summary and Conclusions The form of two vibrational relaxation models that are commonly used in DSMC and CFD simula- tions have been

  16. ClockWork: a Real-Time Feasibility Analysis Tool

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jansen, P.G.; Hanssen, F.T.Y.; Mullender, Sape J.

    ClockWork shows that we can improve the flexibility and efficiency of real-time kernels. We do this by proposing methods for scheduling based on so-called Real-Time Transactions. ClockWork uses Real-Time Transactions which allow scheduling decisions to be taken by the system. A programmer does not

  17. One-liter Hg ion clock for space and ground applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prestage, John D.; Chung, Sang; Le, Thanh; Beach, Maggie; Maleki, Lute; Tjoelker, Robert L.

    2003-01-01

    We describe the development of a small Hg ion clock suitable for space use. A small clock occupying 1-2 liters volume and producing stability of 10 to the power negative twelve, divided by square root pi would significantly advance the state of space-qualified atomic clocks. Based on recent measurements, this technology should produce long-term stability as good as 10 to the power negative fifteen.

  18. Stochastic model prediction of the Kovacs' ``expansion gap'' effect for volume relaxation in glassy polymers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Medvedev, Grigori; Caruthers, James

    2015-03-01

    The classic series of experiments by A. Kovacs on volume relaxation following temperature jumps for poly(vinyl acetate), PVAc, in the Tg region revealed the richness and complexity of the viscoelastic behavior of glassy materials. Over the years no theoretical model has been able to predict all the features of the Kovacs data, where the so-called ``expansion gap'' effect proved to be particularly challenging. Specifically, for a series of up-jump experiments with different initial temperatures, Ti, but with the same final temperature, as the relaxation approaches equilibrium it would be expected that the effective relaxation time would be the same regardless of Ti; however, Kovacs observed that the dependence on Ti persisted seemingly all the way to equilibrium. In this communication we will show that a recently developed Stochastic Constitutive Model (SCM) that explicitly acknowledges the nano-scale dynamic heterogeneity of glasses can capture the ``expansion gap'' as well as the rest of the Kovacs data set for PVAc. It will be shown that the success of the SCM is due to its inherent thermo-rheological complexity.

  19. Telling time from analog and digital clocks: A multiple-route account

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Korvorst, M.H.W.; Roelofs, A.P.A.; Levelt, W.J.M.

    2007-01-01

    Does the naming of clocks always require conceptual preparation? To examine this question, speakers were presented with analog and digital clocks that had to be named in Dutch using either a relative (e.g., "quarter to four") or an absolute (e.g., "three forty-five") clock time expression format.

  20. Clocks around Sgr A*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angélil, Raymond; Saha, Prasenjit

    2014-11-01

    The S stars near the Galactic Centre and any pulsars that may be on similar orbits can be modelled in a unified way as clocks orbiting a black hole, and hence are potential probes of relativistic effects, including black hole spin. The high eccentricities of many S stars mean that relativistic effects peak strongly around pericentre; for example, orbit precession is not a smooth effect but almost a kick at pericentre. We argue that concentration around pericentre will be an advantage when analysing redshift or pulse-arrival data to measure relativistic effects, because cumulative precession will be drowned out by Newtonian perturbations from other mass in the Galactic Centre region. Wavelet decomposition may be a way to disentangle relativistic effects from Newton perturbations. Assuming a plausible model for Newtonian perturbations on S2, relativity appears to be strongest in a two-year interval around pericentre, in wavelet modes of time-scale ≈6 months.

  1. Design and simulation of a fast Josephson junction on-chip gated clock for frequency and time analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruby, R.C.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports that as the sophistication and speed of digital communication systems increase, there is a corresponding demand for more sophisticated and faster measurement instruments. One such instrument new on the market is the HP 5371A Frequency and Time Interval Analyzer (FTIA). Such an instrument is analogous to a conventional oscilloscope. Whereas the oscilloscope measures waveform amplitudes as a function of time, the FTIA measures phase, frequency, or timing events as functions of time. These applications are useful in such diverse areas as spread-spectrum radar, chirp filter designs, disk-head evaluation, and timing jitter analysis. The on-chip clock designed for this application uses a single Josephson Junction as the clock and a resonator circuit to fix the frequency. A zero-crossing detector is used to start and stop the clock. A SFQ counter is used to count the pulses generated by the clock and a reset circuit is used to reset the clock. Extensive simulations and modeling have been done based on measured values obtained from our Nb/Al 2 O 3 /Al/Nb process

  2. Optical lattice clock with strontium atoms: a second generation of cold atom clocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Le Targat, R.

    2007-07-01

    Atomic fountains, based on a microwave transition of Cesium or Rubidium, constitute the state of the art atomic clocks, with a relative accuracy close to 10 -16 . It nevertheless appears today that it will be difficult to go significantly beyond this level with this kind of device. The use of an optical transition, the other parameters being unchanged, gives hope for a 4 or 5 orders of magnitude improvement of the stability and of the relative uncertainty on most systematic effects. As for motional effects on the atoms, they can be controlled on a very different manner if they are trapped in an optical lattice instead of experiencing a free ballistic flight stage, characteristic of fountains. The key point of this approach lies in the fact that the trap can be operated in such a way that a well chosen, weakly allowed, J=0 → J=0 clock transition can be free from light shift effects. In this respect, the strontium atom is one of the most promising candidate, the 1S 0 → 3P 0 transition has a natural width of 1 mHz, and several other easily accessible transitions can be used to efficiently laser cool atoms down to 10 μK. This thesis demonstrates the experimental feasibility of an optical lattice clock based on the strontium atom, and reports on a preliminary evaluation of the relative accuracy with the fermionic isotope 87 Sr, at a level of a few 10 -15 . (author)

  3. Photosynthetic Entrainment of the Circadian Clock Facilitates Plant Growth under Environmental Fluctuations: Perspectives from an Integrated Model of Phase Oscillator and Phloem Transportation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takayuki Ohara

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Plants need to avoid carbon starvation and resultant growth inhibition under fluctuating light environments to ensure optimal growth and reproduction. As diel patterns of carbon metabolism are influenced by the circadian clock, appropriate regulation of the clock is essential for plants to properly manage their carbon resources. For proper adjustment of the circadian phase, higher plants utilize environmental signals such as light or temperature and metabolic signals such as photosynthetic products; the importance of the latter as phase regulators has been recently elucidated. A mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana that is deficient in phase response to sugar has been shown, under fluctuating light conditions, to be unable to adjust starch turnover and to realize carbon homeostasis. Whereas, the effects of light entrainment on growth and survival of higher plants are well studied, the impact of phase regulation by sugar remains unknown. Here we show that endogenous sugar entrainment facilitates plant growth. We integrated two mathematical models, one describing the dynamics of carbon metabolism in A. thaliana source leaves and the other growth of sink tissues dependent on sucrose translocation from the source. The integrated model predicted that sugar-sensitive plants grow faster than sugar-insensitive plants under constant as well as changing photoperiod conditions. We found that sugar entrainment enables efficient carbon investment for growth by stabilizing sucrose supply to sink tissues. Our results highlight the importance of clock entrainment by both exogenous and endogenous signals for optimizing growth and increasing fitness.

  4. Clock synchronisation experiment in India using symphonie satellite

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somayajulu, Y. V.; Mathur, B. S.; Banerjee, P.; Garg, S. C.; Singh, L.; Sood, P. C.; Tyagi, T. R.; Jain, C. L.; Kumar, K.

    1979-01-01

    A recent clock synchronization experiment between the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi and Space Applications Center (SAC), Ahemedabad, in India via geostationary satellite symphonie 2, stationed at 49 E longitude, is reported. A two-way transmission using a microwave transponder considered to provide the greatest precision in synchronization of two remote clocks is described.

  5. Sugars, the clock and transition to flowering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Reza eBolouri Moghaddam

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Sugars do not only act as source of energy, but they also act as signals in plants. This mini review summarizes the emerging links between sucrose-mediated signaling and the cellular networks involved in flowering time control and defense. Cross-talks with gibberellin (GA and jasmonate (JA signaling pathways are highlighted. The circadian clock fulfills a crucial role at the heart of cellular networks and the bilateral relation between sugar signaling and the clock is discussed. It is proposed that important factors controlling plant growth (DELLAs, PIFs, invertases and trehalose- 6-phosphate or T6P might fulfill central roles in the transition to flowering as well. The emerging concept of ‘sweet immunity’, modulated by the clock, might at least partly rely on a sucrose-specific signaling pathway that needs further exploration.

  6. A Faster Algorithm for Solving One-Clock Priced Timed Games

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Thomas Dueholm; Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus; Miltersen, Peter Bro

    2013-01-01

    previously known time bound for solving one-clock priced timed games was 2O(n2+m) , due to Rutkowski. For our improvement, we introduce and study a new algorithm for solving one-clock priced timed games, based on the sweep-line technique from computational geometry and the strategy iteration paradigm from......One-clock priced timed games is a class of two-player, zero-sum, continuous-time games that was defined and thoroughly studied in previous works. We show that one-clock priced timed games can be solved in time m 12 n n O(1), where n is the number of states and m is the number of actions. The best...

  7. A Faster Algorithm for Solving One-Clock Priced Timed Games

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Thomas Dueholm; Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus; Miltersen, Peter Bro

    2012-01-01

    previously known time bound for solving one-clock priced timed games was 2^(O(n^2+m)), due to Rutkowski. For our improvement, we introduce and study a new algorithm for solving one-clock priced timed games, based on the sweep-line technique from computational geometry and the strategy iteration paradigm from......One-clock priced timed games is a class of two-player, zero-sum, continuous-time games that was defined and thoroughly studied in previous works. We show that one-clock priced timed games can be solved in time m 12^n n^(O(1)), where n is the number of states and m is the number of actions. The best...

  8. Modelling of Creep and Stress Relaxation Test of a Polypropylene Microfibre by Using Fraction-Exponential Kernel

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Sorzia

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available A tensile test until breakage and a creep and relaxation test on a polypropylene fibre are carried out and the resulting creep and stress relaxation curves are fit by a model adopting a fraction-exponential kernel in the viscoelastic operator. The models using fraction-exponential functions are simpler than the complex ones obtained from combination of dashpots and springs and, furthermore, are suitable for fitting experimental data with good approximation allowing, at the same time, obtaining inverse Laplace transform in closed form. Therefore, the viscoelastic response of polypropylene fibres can be modelled straightforwardly through analytical methods. Addition of polypropylene fibres greatly improves the tensile strength of composite materials with concrete matrix. The proposed analytical model can be employed for simulating the mechanical behaviour of composite materials with embedded viscoelastic fibres.

  9. Clock transport synchronisation and the dragging of inertial frames

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosenblum, Arnold

    1987-01-01

    It is shown that it is possible, by using the lack of synchronisation of clocks by clock transport synchronisation in circular orbits, to test for the dragging of inertial frames in Einstein's theory of general relativity. Possible experiments are discussed. (author)

  10. Fractional derivatives of constant and variable orders applied to anomalous relaxation models in heat transfer problems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Xiao-Jun

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we address a class of the fractional derivatives of constant and variable orders for the first time. Fractional-order relaxation equations of constants and variable orders in the sense of Caputo type are modeled from mathematical view of point. The comparative results of the anomalous relaxation among the various fractional derivatives are also given. They are very efficient in description of the complex phenomenon arising in heat transfer.

  11. Determination of global positioning system (GPS) receiver clock errors: impact on positioning accuracy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yeh, Ta-Kang; Hwang, Cheinway; Xu, Guochang; Wang, Chuan-Sheng; Lee, Chien-Chih

    2009-01-01

    Enhancing the positioning precision is the primary pursuit of global positioning system (GPS) users. To achieve this goal, most studies have focused on the relationship between GPS receiver clock errors and GPS positioning precision. This study utilizes undifferentiated phase data to calculate GPS clock errors and to compare with the frequency of cesium clock directly, to verify estimated clock errors by the method used in this paper. The frequency stability calculated from this paper (the indirect method) and measured from the National Standard Time and Frequency Laboratory (NSTFL) of Taiwan (the direct method) match to 1.5 × 10 −12 (the value from this study was smaller than that from NSTFL), suggesting that the proposed technique has reached a certain level of quality. The built-in quartz clocks in the GPS receivers yield relative frequency offsets that are 3–4 orders higher than those of rubidium clocks. The frequency stability of the quartz clocks is on average two orders worse than that of the rubidium clock. Using the rubidium clock instead of the quartz clock, the horizontal and vertical positioning accuracies were improved by 26–78% (0.6–3.6 mm) and 20–34% (1.3–3.0 mm), respectively, for a short baseline. These improvements are 7–25% (0.3–1.7 mm) and 11% (1.7 mm) for a long baseline. Our experiments show that the frequency stability of the clock, rather than relative frequency offset, is the governing factor of positioning accuracy

  12. Impacts of Satellite Orbit and Clock on Real-Time GPS Point and Relative Positioning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Junbo; Wang, Gaojing; Han, Xianquan; Guo, Jiming

    2017-06-12

    Satellite orbit and clock corrections are always treated as known quantities in GPS positioning models. Therefore, any error in the satellite orbit and clock products will probably cause significant consequences for GPS positioning, especially for real-time applications. Currently three types of satellite products have been made available for real-time positioning, including the broadcast ephemeris, the International GNSS Service (IGS) predicted ultra-rapid product, and the real-time product. In this study, these three predicted/real-time satellite orbit and clock products are first evaluated with respect to the post-mission IGS final product, which demonstrates cm to m level orbit accuracies and sub-ns to ns level clock accuracies. Impacts of real-time satellite orbit and clock products on GPS point and relative positioning are then investigated using the P3 and GAMIT software packages, respectively. Numerical results show that the real-time satellite clock corrections affect the point positioning more significantly than the orbit corrections. On the contrary, only the real-time orbit corrections impact the relative positioning. Compared with the positioning solution using the IGS final product with the nominal orbit accuracy of ~2.5 cm, the real-time broadcast ephemeris with ~2 m orbit accuracy provided <2 cm relative positioning error for baselines no longer than 216 km. As for the baselines ranging from 574 to 2982 km, the cm-dm level positioning error was identified for the relative positioning solution using the broadcast ephemeris. The real-time product could result in <5 mm relative positioning accuracy for baselines within 2982 km, slightly better than the predicted ultra-rapid product.

  13. Impacts of Satellite Orbit and Clock on Real-Time GPS Point and Relative Positioning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junbo Shi

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Satellite orbit and clock corrections are always treated as known quantities in GPS positioning models. Therefore, any error in the satellite orbit and clock products will probably cause significant consequences for GPS positioning, especially for real-time applications. Currently three types of satellite products have been made available for real-time positioning, including the broadcast ephemeris, the International GNSS Service (IGS predicted ultra-rapid product, and the real-time product. In this study, these three predicted/real-time satellite orbit and clock products are first evaluated with respect to the post-mission IGS final product, which demonstrates cm to m level orbit accuracies and sub-ns to ns level clock accuracies. Impacts of real-time satellite orbit and clock products on GPS point and relative positioning are then investigated using the P3 and GAMIT software packages, respectively. Numerical results show that the real-time satellite clock corrections affect the point positioning more significantly than the orbit corrections. On the contrary, only the real-time orbit corrections impact the relative positioning. Compared with the positioning solution using the IGS final product with the nominal orbit accuracy of ~2.5 cm, the real-time broadcast ephemeris with ~2 m orbit accuracy provided <2 cm relative positioning error for baselines no longer than 216 km. As for the baselines ranging from 574 to 2982 km, the cm–dm level positioning error was identified for the relative positioning solution using the broadcast ephemeris. The real-time product could result in <5 mm relative positioning accuracy for baselines within 2982 km, slightly better than the predicted ultra-rapid product.

  14. Strontium Optical Lattice Clock: In Quest of the Ultimate Performance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Westergaard, Ph.G.

    2010-10-01

    This thesis presents the latest achievements regarding the Sr optical lattice clock experiment at LNESYRTE, Observatoire de Paris. After having described the general principles for optical lattice clocks and the operation of the clock in question, the emphasis is put on the features that have been added to the experiment since 2007. The most important new elements are an ultra-stable reference cavity for the clock laser, the development of a non-destructive detection technique, and the construction of a second Sr lattice clock. The ultra-stable cavity is constructed from a ULE spacer and fused silica mirrors and has shown a thermal noise floor at 6.5 * 10 -16 , placing it among the best in the world. The non-destructive detection is effectuated by a phase measurement of a weak probe beam that traverses the atoms placed in one arm of a Mach-Zender interferometer. The non-destructive aspect enables a recycling of the atoms from cycle to cycle which consequently increases the duty cycle, allowing for an increase of the stability of the clock. With these new tools the frequency stability is expected to be 2.2 * 10 -16 /√τ for an optimized sequence. The most recent comparisons between the two Sr clocks reach an accuracy level of 10 -16 after about 1000 s, and this way we have been able to characterize lattice related frequency shifts with an unprecedented accuracy. The measurements ensure a control of lattice related effects at the 10 -18 level even for trap depths as large as 50E r . (authors)

  15. A hierarchy of functionally important relaxations within myoglobin based on solvent effects, mutations and kinetic model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dantsker, David; Samuni, Uri; Friedman, Joel M; Agmon, Noam

    2005-06-01

    Geminate CO rebinding in myoglobin is studied for two viscous solvents, trehalose and sol-gel (bathed in 100% glycerol) at several temperatures. Mutations in key distal hemepocket residues are used to eliminate or enhance specific relaxation modes. The time-resolved data are analyzed with a modified Agmon-Hopfield model which is capable of providing excellent fits in cases where a single relaxation mode is dominant. Using this approach, we determine the relaxation rate constants of specific functionally important modes, obtaining also their Arrhenius activation energies. We find a hierarchy of distal pocket modes controlling the rebinding kinetics. The "heme access mode" (HAM) is responsible for the major slow-down in rebinding. It is a solvent-coupled cooperative mode which restricts ligand return from the xenon cavities. Bulky side-chains, like those His64 and Trp29 (in the L29W mutant), operate like overdamped pendulums which move over and block the binding site. They may be either unslaved (His64) or moderately slaved (Trp29) to the solvent. Small side-chain relaxations, most notably of leucines, are revealed in some mutants (V68L, V68A). They are conjectured to facilitate inter-cavity ligand motion. When all relaxations are arrested (H64L in trehalose), we observe pure inhomogeneous kinetics with no temperature dependence, suggesting that proximal relaxation is not a factor on the investigated timescale.

  16. Light and the human circadian clock.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roenneberg, Till; Kantermann, Thomas; Juda, Myriam; Vetter, Céline; Allebrandt, Karla V

    2013-01-01

    The circadian clock can only reliably fulfil its function if it is stably entrained. Most clocks use the light-dark cycle as environmental signal (zeitgeber) for this active synchronisation. How we think about clock function and entrainment has been strongly influenced by the early concepts of the field's pioneers, and the astonishing finding that circadian rhythms continue a self-sustained oscillation in constant conditions has become central to our understanding of entrainment.Here, we argue that we have to rethink these initial circadian dogmas to fully understand the circadian programme and how it entrains. Light is also the prominent zeitgeber for the human clock, as has been shown experimentally in the laboratory and in large-scale epidemiological studies in real life, and we hypothesise that social zeitgebers act through light entrainment via behavioural feedback loops (zeitnehmer). We show that human entrainment can be investigated in detail outside of the laboratory, by using the many 'experimental' conditions provided by the real world, such as daylight savings time, the 'forced synchrony' imposed by the introduction of time zones, or the fact that humans increasingly create their own light environment. The conditions of human entrainment have changed drastically over the past 100 years and have led to an increasing discrepancy between biological and social time (social jetlag). The increasing evidence that social jetlag has detrimental consequences for health suggests that shift-work is only an extreme form of circadian misalignment, and that the majority of the population in the industrialised world suffers from a similarly 'forced synchrony'.

  17. Coordination of the maize transcriptome by a conserved circadian clock

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harmon Frank G

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The plant circadian clock orchestrates 24-hour rhythms in internal physiological processes to coordinate these activities with daily and seasonal changes in the environment. The circadian clock has a profound impact on many aspects of plant growth and development, including biomass accumulation and flowering time. Despite recent advances in understanding the circadian system of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the contribution of the circadian oscillator to important agronomic traits in Zea mays and other cereals remains poorly defined. To address this deficit, this study investigated the transcriptional landscape of the maize circadian system. Results Since transcriptional regulation is a fundamental aspect of circadian systems, genes exhibiting circadian expression were identified in the sequenced maize inbred B73. Of the over 13,000 transcripts examined, approximately 10 percent displayed circadian expression patterns. The majority of cycling genes had peak expression at subjective dawn and dusk, similar to other plant circadian systems. The maize circadian clock organized co-regulation of genes participating in fundamental physiological processes, including photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, cell wall biogenesis, and phytohormone biosynthesis pathways. Conclusions Circadian regulation of the maize genome was widespread and key genes in several major metabolic pathways had circadian expression waveforms. The maize circadian clock coordinated transcription to be coincident with oncoming day or night, which was consistent with the circadian oscillator acting to prepare the plant for these major recurring environmental changes. These findings highlighted the multiple processes in maize plants under circadian regulation and, as a result, provided insight into the important contribution this regulatory system makes to agronomic traits in maize and potentially other C4 plant species.

  18. Susceptibility of Redundant Versus Singular Clock Domains Implemented in SRAM-Based FPGA TMR Designs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berg, Melanie D.; LaBel, Kenneth A.; Pellish, Jonathan

    2016-01-01

    We present the challenges that arise when using redundant clock domains due to their clock-skew. Radiation data show that a singular clock domain (DTMR) provides an improved TMR methodology for SRAM-based FPGAs over redundant clocks.

  19. Actuality the process of relaxation on the lessons of physical training on the current stage of higher education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vankova A.U.

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Facilities are considered of making healthy for the improvement of ability to resist stress situations of students. Engaged in a physical culture in the net of educational clock must be conducted in the institute of higher before and after the special disciplines. Application of method of relaxation together with musical accompaniment promote claim of higher type of pedagogical organization of employments. A chronic mental overstrain without the sufficient physical discharging results in a nervous overstrain, negative emotions, deficit of time, violation of the mode of labour and rest, reduction of possibility of physical activity.

  20. Aging studies on micro-fabricated alkali buffer-gas cells for miniature atomic clocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdullah, S.; Affolderbach, C.; Gruet, F.; Mileti, G.

    2015-01-01

    We report an aging study on micro-fabricated alkali vapor cells using neon as a buffer gas. An experimental atomic clock setup is used to measure the cell's intrinsic frequency, by recording the clock frequency shift at different light intensities and extrapolating to zero intensity. We find a drift of the cell's intrinsic frequency of (−5.2 ± 0.6) × 10 −11 /day and quantify deterministic variations in sources of clock frequency shifts due to the major physical effects to identify the most probable cause of the drift. The measured drift is one order of magnitude stronger than the total frequency variations expected from clock parameter variations and corresponds to a slow reduction of buffer gas pressure inside the cell, which is compatible with the hypothesis of loss of Ne gas from the cell due to its permeation through the cell windows. A negative drift on the intrinsic cell frequency is reproducible for another cell of the same type. Based on the Ne permeation model and the measured cell frequency drift, we determine the permeation constant of Ne through borosilicate glass as (5.7 ± 0.7) × 10 −22 m 2 s −1  Pa −1 at 81 °C. We propose this method based on frequency metrology in an alkali vapor cell atomic clock setup based on coherent population trapping for measuring permeation constants of inert gases

  1. Negative magnetic relaxation in superconductors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krasnoperov E.P.

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available It was observed that the trapped magnetic moment of HTS tablets or annuli increases in time (negative relaxation if they are not completely magnetized by a pulsed magnetic field. It is shown, in the framework of the Bean critical-state model, that the radial temperature gradient appearing in tablets or annuli during a pulsed field magnetization can explain the negative magnetic relaxation in the superconductor.

  2. Modeling relaxation length and density of acacia mangium wood using gamma - ray attenuation technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tamer A Tabet; Fauziah Abdul Aziz

    2009-01-01

    Wood density measurement is related to the several factors that influence wood quality. In this paper, density, relaxation length and half-thickness value of eight ages, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13 and 15 year-old of Acacia mangium wood were determined using gamma radiation from 137 Cs source. Results show that Acacia mangium tree of age 3 year has the highest relaxation length of 83.33 cm and least density of 0.43 gcm -3 , while the tree of age 15 year has the least Relaxation length of 28.56 cm and highest density of 0.76 gcm -3 . Results also show that the 3 year-old Acacia mangium wood has the highest half thickness value of 57.75 cm and 15 year-old tree has the least half thickness value of 19.85 cm. Two mathematical models have been developed for the prediction of density, variation with relaxation length and half-thickness value of different age of tree. A good agreement (greater than 85% in most cases) was observed between the measured values and predicted ones. Very good linear correlation was found between measured density and the age of tree (R2 = 0.824), and between estimated density and Acacia mangium tree age (R2 = 0.952). (Author)

  3. Dynamics of helicity transport and Taylor relaxation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Diamond, P.H.; Malkov, M.

    2003-01-01

    A simple model of the dynamics of Taylor relaxation is derived using symmetry principles alone. No statistical closure approximations are invoked or detailed plasma model properties assumed. Notably, the model predicts several classes of nondiffusive helicity transport phenomena, including traveling nonlinear waves and superdiffusive turbulent pulses. A universal expression for the scaling of the effective magnetic Reynolds number of a system undergoing Taylor relaxation is derived. Some basic properties of intermittency in helicity transport are examined

  4. From two competing oscillators to one coupled-clock pacemaker cell system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yaniv, Yael; Lakatta, Edward G.; Maltsev, Victor A.

    2015-01-01

    At the beginning of this century, debates regarding “what are the main control mechanisms that ignite the action potential (AP) in heart pacemaker cells” dominated the electrophysiology field. The original theory which prevailed for over 50 years had advocated that the ensemble of surface membrane ion channels (i.e., “M-clock”) is sufficient to ignite rhythmic APs. However, more recent experimental evidence in a variety of mammals has shown that the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) acts as a “Ca2+-clock” rhythmically discharges diastolic local Ca2+ releases (LCRs) beneath the cell surface membrane. LCRs activate an inward current (likely that of the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger) that prompts the surface membrane “M-clock” to ignite an AP. Theoretical and experimental evidence has mounted to indicate that this clock “crosstalk” operates on a beat-to-beat basis and determines both the AP firing rate and rhythm. Our review is focused on the evolution of experimental definition and numerical modeling of the coupled-clock concept, on how mechanisms intrinsic to pacemaker cell determine both the heart rate and rhythm, and on future directions to develop further the coupled-clock pacemaker cell concept. PMID:25741284

  5. History of early atomic clocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ramsey, N.F.

    2005-01-01

    This review of the history of early atomic clocks includes early atomic beam magnetic resonance, methods of separated and successive oscillatory fields, microwave absorption, optical pumping and atomic masers. (author)

  6. Crime clocks and target performance maps

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Cooper, Antony K

    1999-12-01

    Full Text Available the period of analysis. Each segment of a pie chart represents a selected part of the day (eg: a two- or three-hour period) or a day of the week. The first and last segments in the day or week are then adjacent, ensuring that there is no artificial break... clocks We have also used crime clocks to map the proportion of crimes that occur during normal police working hours (07:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday, in the case of the Johannesburg Area), against those that occur outside these hours. 3. Target...

  7. Cycling of clock genes entrained to the solar rhythm enables plants to tell time: data from arabidopsis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeang, Hoong-Yeet

    2015-01-01

    Background and Aims An endogenous rhythm synchronized to dawn cannot time photosynthesis-linked genes to peak consistently at noon since the interval between sunrise and noon changes seasonally. In this study, a solar clock model that circumvents this limitation is proposed using two daily timing references synchronized to noon and midnight. Other rhythmic genes that are not directly linked to photosynthesis, and which peak at other times, also find an adaptive advantage in entrainment to the solar rhythm. Methods Fourteen datasets extracted from three published papers were used in a meta-analysis to examine the cyclic behaviour of the Arabidopsis thaliana photosynthesis-related gene CAB2 and the clock oscillator genes TOC1 and LHY in T cycles and N–H cycles. Key Results Changes in the rhythms of CAB2, TOC1 and LHY in plants subjected to non-24-h light:dark cycles matched the hypothesized changes in their behaviour as predicted by the solar clock model, thus validating it. The analysis further showed that TOC1 expression peaked ∼5·5 h after mid-day, CAB2 peaked close to noon, while LHY peaked ∼7·5 h after midnight, regardless of the cycle period, the photoperiod or the light:dark period ratio. The solar clock model correctly predicted the zeitgeber timing of these genes under 11 different lighting regimes comprising combinations of seven light periods, nine dark periods, four cycle periods and four light:dark period ratios. In short cycles that terminated before LHY could be expressed, the solar clock correctly predicted zeitgeber timing of its expression in the following cycle. Conclusions Regulation of gene phases by the solar clock enables the plant to tell the time, by which means a large number of genes are regulated. This facilitates the initiation of gene expression even before the arrival of sunrise, sunset or noon, thus allowing the plant to ‘anticipate’ dawn, dusk or mid-day respectively, independently of the photoperiod. PMID:26070640

  8. A Group Neighborhood Average Clock Synchronization Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Lin; Ma, Shiwei; Ma, Maode

    2014-01-01

    Clock synchronization is a very important issue for the applications of wireless sensor networks. The sensors need to keep a strict clock so that users can know exactly what happens in the monitoring area at the same time. This paper proposes a novel internal distributed clock synchronization solution using group neighborhood average. Each sensor node collects the offset and skew rate of the neighbors. Group averaging of offset and skew rate value are calculated instead of conventional point-to-point averaging method. The sensor node then returns compensated value back to the neighbors. The propagation delay is considered and compensated. The analytical analysis of offset and skew compensation is presented. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the protocol and reveal that the protocol allows sensor networks to quickly establish a consensus clock and maintain a small deviation from the consensus clock. PMID:25120163

  9. Daily rhythmicity of clock gene transcripts in atlantic cod fast skeletal muscle.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlo C Lazado

    Full Text Available The classical notion of a centralized clock that governs circadian rhythmicity has been challenged with the discovery of peripheral oscillators that enable organisms to cope with daily changes in their environment. The present study aimed to identify the molecular clock components in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua and to investigate their daily gene expression in fast skeletal muscle. Atlantic cod clock genes were closely related to their orthologs in teleosts and tetrapods. Synteny was conserved to varying degrees in the majority of the 18 clock genes examined. In particular, aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator-like 2 (arntl2, RAR-related orphan receptor A (rora and timeless (tim displayed high degrees of conservation. Expression profiling during the early ontogenesis revealed that some transcripts were maternally transferred, namely arntl2, cryptochrome 1b and 2 (cry1b and cry2, and period 2a and 2b (per2a and per2b. Most clock genes were ubiquitously expressed in various tissues, suggesting the possible existence of multiple peripheral clock systems in Atlantic cod. In particular, they were all detected in fast skeletal muscle, with the exception of neuronal PAS (Per-Arnt-Single-minded domain-containing protein (npas1 and rora. Rhythmicity analysis revealed 8 clock genes with daily rhythmic expression, namely arntl2, circadian locomotor output cycles kaput (clock, npas2, cry2, cry3 per2a, nuclear receptor subfamily 1, group D, member 1 (nr1d1, and nr1d2a. Transcript levels of the myogenic genes myogenic factor 5 (myf5 and muscleblind-like 1 (mbnl1 strongly correlated with clock gene expression. This is the first study to unravel the molecular components of peripheral clocks in Atlantic cod. Taken together, our data suggest that the putative clock system in fast skeletal muscle of Atlantic cod has regulatory implications on muscle physiology, particularly in the expression of genes related to myogenesis.

  10. A quantum analogy to the classical gravitomagnetic clock effect

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faruque, S. B.

    2018-06-01

    We present an approximation to the solution of Dirac equation in Schwarzschild field found through the use of Foldy-Wouthuysen Hamiltonian. We solve the equation for the positive energy states and found the frequencies by which the states oscillate. Difference of the periods of oscillation of the two states with two different total angular momentum quantum number j has an analogical form of the classical clock effect found in general relativity. But unlike the term that appears as clock effect in classical physics, here the term is quantized. Thus, we find a quantum analogue of the classical gravitomagnetic clock effect.

  11. Clock-transport synchronisation for neutrino time-of-flight measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Field, J.H.

    2012-01-01

    A method to synchronise, at the sub-nanosecond level, clocks used for neutrino time-of-flight measurements is proposed. Clocks situated near the neutrino source and target are compared with a moveable clock that is transported between them. The general-relativistic theory of the procedure was tested and verified in an experiment performed by Hafele and Keating in 1972. It is suggested that use of such a synchronisation method may contribute to a precise test of the Sagnac effect - a measured velocity greater than c - for neutrinos of the proposed LBNE beam between Fermilab and the Homestake mine. (orig.)

  12. A method of high accuracy clock synchronization by frequency following with VCXO

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ma Yichao; Wu Jie; Zhang Jie; Song Hongzhi; Kong Yang

    2011-01-01

    In this paper, the principle of the synchronous protocol of the IEEE1588 is analyzed, and the factors that affect the accuracy of synchronization is summarized. Through the hardware timer in a microcontroller, we give the exactly the time when a package is sent or received. So synchronization of the distributed clocks can reach 1 μs in this way. Another method to improve precision of the synchronization is to replace the traditional fixed frequency crystal of the slave device, which needs to follow up the master clock, by an adjustable VCXO. So it is possible to fine tune the frequency of the distributed clocks, and reduce the drift of clock, which shows great benefit for the clock synchronization. A test measurement shows the synchronization of distribute clocks can be better than 10 ns using this method, which is more accurate than the method realized by software. (authors)

  13. The Circadian Clock-controlled Transcriptome of Developing Soybean Seeds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karen A. Hudson

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available A number of metabolic and physiological processes in plants are controlled by the circadian clock, which enables a plant to anticipate daily changes in the environment. Relatively little is known about circadian rhythms in developing seeds, which may be important for determining the extent and timing of nutrient storage in grain. Microarray expression profiling was used to identify genes expressed in developing soybean ( seeds that are controlled by the circadian clock. Genes with predicted functions in protein synthesis, fatty acid metabolism, and photosynthesis totaling 1.8% of the mRNAs detected in seed were found to be expressed in a circadian rhythm. Known circadian and light-controlled promoter elements were identified as over-represented in the promoters of clock-controlled seed genes, with the over-represented elements varying according to the phase of circadian expression. A subset of circadian-regulated genes were found to be expressed in different phases in developing seeds with respect to leaves from the same plants, many of which have roles in photosynthesis and carbon metabolism. These results help to characterize the genes and processes in seeds that may be regulated by the circadian clock, and provide some insight into organ-specific phasing of clock controlled gene expression.

  14. Anomalous relaxation and self-organization in nonequilibrium processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fatkullin, Ibrahim; Kladko, Konstantin; Mitkov, Igor; Bishop, A. R.

    2001-01-01

    We study thermal relaxation in ordered arrays of coupled nonlinear elements with external driving. We find that our model exhibits dynamic self-organization manifested in a universal stretched-exponential form of relaxation. We identify two types of self-organization, cooperative and anticooperative, which lead to fast and slow relaxation, respectively. We give a qualitative explanation for the behavior of the stretched exponent in different parameter ranges. We emphasize that this is a system exhibiting stretched-exponential relaxation without explicit disorder or frustration

  15. Transportable Optical Lattice Clock with 7×10^{-17} Uncertainty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koller, S B; Grotti, J; Vogt, St; Al-Masoudi, A; Dörscher, S; Häfner, S; Sterr, U; Lisdat, Ch

    2017-02-17

    We present a transportable optical clock (TOC) with ^{87}Sr. Its complete characterization against a stationary lattice clock resulted in a systematic uncertainty of 7.4×10^{-17}, which is currently limited by the statistics of the determination of the residual lattice light shift, and an instability of 1.3×10^{-15}/sqrt[τ] with an averaging time τ in seconds. Measurements confirm that the systematic uncertainty can be reduced to below the design goal of 1×10^{-17}. To our knowledge, these are the best uncertainties and instabilities reported for any transportable clock to date. For autonomous operation, the TOC has been installed in an air-conditioned car trailer. It is suitable for chronometric leveling with submeter resolution as well as for intercontinental cross-linking of optical clocks, which is essential for a redefinition of the International System of Units (SI) second. In addition, the TOC will be used for high precision experiments for fundamental science that are commonly tied to precise frequency measurements and its development is an important step to space-borne optical clocks.

  16. Transportable Optical Lattice Clock with 7 ×10-17 Uncertainty

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koller, S. B.; Grotti, J.; Vogt, St.; Al-Masoudi, A.; Dörscher, S.; Häfner, S.; Sterr, U.; Lisdat, Ch.

    2017-02-01

    We present a transportable optical clock (TOC) with Sr 87 . Its complete characterization against a stationary lattice clock resulted in a systematic uncertainty of 7.4 ×10-17, which is currently limited by the statistics of the determination of the residual lattice light shift, and an instability of 1.3 ×10-15/√{τ } with an averaging time τ in seconds. Measurements confirm that the systematic uncertainty can be reduced to below the design goal of 1 ×10-17. To our knowledge, these are the best uncertainties and instabilities reported for any transportable clock to date. For autonomous operation, the TOC has been installed in an air-conditioned car trailer. It is suitable for chronometric leveling with submeter resolution as well as for intercontinental cross-linking of optical clocks, which is essential for a redefinition of the International System of Units (SI) second. In addition, the TOC will be used for high precision experiments for fundamental science that are commonly tied to precise frequency measurements and its development is an important step to space-borne optical clocks.

  17. Irradiation creep, stress relaxation and a mechanical equation of state

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Foster, J.P.

    1976-01-01

    Irradiation creep and stress relaxation data are available from the United Kingdom for 20 percent CW M316, 20 percent CW FV 548 and FHT PE16 using pure torsion in the absence of swelling at 300 0 C. Irradiation creep models were used to calculate the relaxation and permanent deflection of the stress relaxation tests. Two relationships between irradiation creep and stress relaxation were assessed by comparing the measured and calculated stress relaxation and permanent deflection. The results show that for M316 and FV548, the stress relaxation and deflection may be calculated using irradiation creep models when the stress rate term arising from the irradiation creep model is set equal to zero. In the case of PE16, the inability to calculate the stress relaxation and permanent deflection from the irradiation creep data was attributed to differences in creep behavior arising from lot-to-lot variations in alloying elements and impurity content. A modification of the FV548 and PE16 irradiation creep coefficients was necessary in order to calculate the stress relaxation and deflection. The modifications in FV548 and PE16 irradiation creep properties reduces the large variation in the transient or incubation parameter predicted by irradiation creep tests for M316, FV548 and PE16

  18. Altered Clock and Lipid Metabolism-Related Genes in Atherosclerotic Mice Kept with Abnormal Lighting Condition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhu Zhu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. The risk of atherosclerosis is elevated in abnormal lipid metabolism and circadian rhythm disorder. We investigated whether abnormal lighting condition would have influenced the circadian expression of clock genes and clock-controlled lipid metabolism-related genes in ApoE-KO mice. Methods. A mouse model of atherosclerosis with circadian clock genes expression disorder was established using ApoE-KO mice (ApoE-KO LD/DL mice by altering exposure to light. C57 BL/6J mice (C57 mice and ApoE-KO mice (ApoE-KO mice exposed to normal day and night and normal diet served as control mice. According to zeitgeber time samples were acquired, to test atheromatous plaque formation, serum lipids levels and rhythmicity, clock genes, and lipid metabolism-related genes along with Sirtuin 1 (Sirt1 levels and rhythmicity. Results. Atherosclerosis plaques were formed in the aortic arch of ApoE-KO LD/DL mice. The serum lipids levels and oscillations in ApoE-KO LD/DL mice were altered, along with the levels and diurnal oscillations of circadian genes, lipid metabolism-associated genes, and Sirt1 compared with the control mice. Conclusions. Abnormal exposure to light aggravated plaque formation and exacerbated disorders of serum lipids and clock genes, lipid metabolism genes and Sirt1 levels, and circadian oscillation.

  19. On a two-relaxation-time D2Q9 lattice Boltzmann model for the Navier-Stokes equations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Weifeng; Wang, Liang; Yong, Wen-An

    2018-02-01

    In this paper, we are concerned with the stability of some lattice kinetic schemes. First, we show that a recently proposed lattice kinetic scheme is a two-relaxation-time model different from those in the literature. Second, we analyze the stability of the model by verifying the Onsager-like relation. In addition, a necessary stability criterion for hyperbolic relaxation systems is adapted to the lattice Boltzmann method. As an application of this criterion, we find some necessary stability conditions for a previously proposed lattice kinetic scheme. Numerical experiments are conducted to validate the necessary stability conditions.

  20. A Group Neighborhood Average Clock Synchronization Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lin Lin

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Clock synchronization is a very important issue for the applications of wireless sensor networks. The sensors need to keep a strict clock so that users can know exactly what happens in the monitoring area at the same time. This paper proposes a novel internal distributed clock synchronization solution using group neighborhood average. Each sensor node collects the offset and skew rate of the neighbors. Group averaging of offset and skew rate value are calculated instead of conventional point-to-point averaging method. The sensor node then returns compensated value back to the neighbors. The propagation delay is considered and compensated. The analytical analysis of offset and skew compensation is presented. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the protocol and reveal that the protocol allows sensor networks to quickly establish a consensus clock and maintain a small deviation from the consensus clock.

  1. Non-equilibrium relaxation in a stochastic lattice Lotka-Volterra model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Sheng; Täuber, Uwe C.

    2016-04-01

    We employ Monte Carlo simulations to study a stochastic Lotka-Volterra model on a two-dimensional square lattice with periodic boundary conditions. If the (local) prey carrying capacity is finite, there exists an extinction threshold for the predator population that separates a stable active two-species coexistence phase from an inactive state wherein only prey survive. Holding all other rates fixed, we investigate the non-equilibrium relaxation of the predator density in the vicinity of the critical predation rate. As expected, we observe critical slowing-down, i.e., a power law dependence of the relaxation time on the predation rate, and algebraic decay of the predator density at the extinction critical point. The numerically determined critical exponents are in accord with the established values of the directed percolation universality class. Following a sudden predation rate change to its critical value, one finds critical aging for the predator density autocorrelation function that is also governed by universal scaling exponents. This aging scaling signature of the active-to-absorbing state phase transition emerges at significantly earlier times than the stationary critical power laws, and could thus serve as an advanced indicator of the (predator) population’s proximity to its extinction threshold.

  2. Micro Mercury Ion Clock (MMIC)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Demonstrate micro clock based on trapped Hg ions with more than 10x size reduction and power; Fractional frequency stability at parts per 1014 level, adequate for...

  3. Vibrational relaxation in liquids: Comparisons between gas phase and liquid phase theories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Russell, D.J.

    1990-12-01

    The vibrational relaxation of iodine in liquid xenon was studied to understand what processes are important in determining the density dependence of the vibrational relaxation. This examination will be accomplished by taking simple models and comparing the results to both experimental outcomes and the predictions of molecular dynamics simulations. The vibration relaxation of iodine is extremely sensitive to the iodine potential. The anharmonicity of iodine causes vibrational relaxation to be much faster at the top of the iodine well compared to the vibrational relaxation at the bottom. A number of models are used in order to test the ability of the Isolated Binary Collision theory's ability to predict the density dependence of the vibrational relaxation of iodine in liquid xenon. The models tested vary from the simplest incorporating only the fact that the solvent occupies volume to models that incorporate the short range structure of the liquid in the radial distribution function. None of the models tested do a good job of predicting the actual relaxation rate for a given density. This may be due to a possible error in the choice of potentials to model the system

  4. Dielectric Relaxation of Water: Theory and Experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adhikari, Narayan Prasad; Paudyal, Harihar; Johri, Manoj

    2010-06-01

    We have studied the hydrogen bond dynamics and methods for evaluation of probability and relaxation time for hydrogen bond network. Further, dielectric relaxation time has been calculated by using a diagonalization procedure by obtaining eigen values (inverse of relaxation time) of a master equation framed on the basis of Fokker-Planck equations. Microwave cavity spectrometer has been described to make measurements of relaxation time. Slater's perturbation equations are given for the analysis of the data. A comparison of theoretical and experimental data shows that there is a need for improvements in the theoretical model and experimental techniques to provide exact information about structural properties of water. (author)

  5. The Satellite Clock Bias Prediction Method Based on Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Neural Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, C. L.; Yu, H. G.; Wei, Z. C.; Pan, J. D.

    2017-05-01

    The continuous improvement of the prediction accuracy of Satellite Clock Bias (SCB) is the key problem of precision navigation. In order to improve the precision of SCB prediction and better reflect the change characteristics of SCB, this paper proposes an SCB prediction method based on the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy neural network. Firstly, the SCB values are pre-treated based on their characteristics. Then, an accurate Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy neural network model is established based on the preprocessed data to predict SCB. This paper uses the precise SCB data with different sampling intervals provided by IGS (International Global Navigation Satellite System Service) to realize the short-time prediction experiment, and the results are compared with the ARIMA (Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average) model, GM(1,1) model, and the quadratic polynomial model. The results show that the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy neural network model is feasible and effective for the SCB short-time prediction experiment, and performs well for different types of clocks. The prediction results for the proposed method are better than the conventional methods obviously.

  6. Molecular clock in neutral protein evolution

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wilke Claus O

    2004-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A frequent observation in molecular evolution is that amino-acid substitution rates show an index of dispersion (that is, ratio of variance to mean substantially larger than one. This observation has been termed the overdispersed molecular clock. On the basis of in silico protein-evolution experiments, Bastolla and coworkers recently proposed an explanation for this observation: Proteins drift in neutral space, and can temporarily get trapped in regions of substantially reduced neutrality. In these regions, substitution rates are suppressed, which results in an overall substitution process that is not Poissonian. However, the simulation method of Bastolla et al. is representative only for cases in which the product of mutation rate μ and population size Ne is small. How the substitution process behaves when μNe is large is not known. Results Here, I study the behavior of the molecular clock in in silico protein evolution as a function of mutation rate and population size. I find that the index of dispersion decays with increasing μNe, and approaches 1 for large μNe . This observation can be explained with the selective pressure for mutational robustness, which is effective when μNe is large. This pressure keeps the population out of low-neutrality traps, and thus steadies the ticking of the molecular clock. Conclusions The molecular clock in neutral protein evolution can fall into two distinct regimes, a strongly overdispersed one for small μNe, and a mostly Poissonian one for large μNe. The former is relevant for the majority of organisms in the plant and animal kingdom, and the latter may be relevant for RNA viruses.

  7. A proportional integral estimator-based clock synchronization protocol for wireless sensor networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Wenlun; Fu, Minyue

    2017-11-01

    Clock synchronization is an issue of vital importance in applications of WSNs. This paper proposes a proportional integral estimator-based protocol (EBP) to achieve clock synchronization for wireless sensor networks. As each local clock skew gradually drifts, synchronization accuracy will decline over time. Compared with existing consensus-based approaches, the proposed synchronization protocol improves synchronization accuracy under time-varying clock skews. Moreover, by restricting synchronization error of clock skew into a relative small quantity, it could reduce periodic re-synchronization frequencies. At last, a pseudo-synchronous implementation for skew compensation is introduced as synchronous protocol is unrealistic in practice. Numerical simulations are shown to illustrate the performance of the proposed protocol. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Momentum constraint relaxation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marronetti, Pedro

    2006-01-01

    Full relativistic simulations in three dimensions invariably develop runaway modes that grow exponentially and are accompanied by violations of the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints. Recently, we introduced a numerical method (Hamiltonian relaxation) that greatly reduces the Hamiltonian constraint violation and helps improve the quality of the numerical model. We present here a method that controls the violation of the momentum constraint. The method is based on the addition of a longitudinal component to the traceless extrinsic curvature A ij -tilde, generated by a vector potential w i , as outlined by York. The components of w i are relaxed to solve approximately the momentum constraint equations, slowly pushing the evolution towards the space of solutions of the constraint equations. We test this method with simulations of binary neutron stars in circular orbits and show that it effectively controls the growth of the aforementioned violations. We also show that a full numerical enforcement of the constraints, as opposed to the gentle correction of the momentum relaxation scheme, results in the development of instabilities that stop the runs shortly

  9. Direct Repression of Evening Genes by CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED1 in the Arabidopsis Circadian Clock.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamioka, Mari; Takao, Saori; Suzuki, Takamasa; Taki, Kyomi; Higashiyama, Tetsuya; Kinoshita, Toshinori; Nakamichi, Norihito

    2016-03-01

    The circadian clock is a biological timekeeping system that provides organisms with the ability to adapt to day-night cycles. Timing of the expression of four members of the Arabidopsis thaliana PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATOR(PRR) family is crucial for proper clock function, and transcriptional control of PRRs remains incompletely defined. Here, we demonstrate that direct regulation of PRR5 by CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED1 (CCA1) determines the repression state of PRR5 in the morning. Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing (ChIP-seq) analyses indicated that CCA1 associates with three separate regions upstream of PRR5 CCA1 and its homolog LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY) suppressed PRR5 promoter activity in a transient assay. The regions bound by CCA1 in the PRR5 promoter gave rhythmic patterns with troughs in the morning, when CCA1 and LHY are at high levels. Furthermore,ChIP-seq revealed that CCA1 associates with at least 449 loci with 863 adjacent genes. Importantly, this gene set contains genes that are repressed but upregulated incca1 lhy double mutants in the morning. This study shows that direct binding by CCA1 in the morning provides strong repression of PRR5, and repression by CCA1 also temporally regulates an evening-expressed gene set that includes PRR5. © 2016 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.

  10. Stress Relaxation in Entangled Polymer Melts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hou, Ji-Xuan; Svaneborg, Carsten; Everaers, Ralf

    2010-01-01

    We present an extensive set of simulation results for the stress relaxation in equilibrium and step-strained bead-spring polymer melts. The data allow us to explore the chain dynamics and the shear relaxation modulus, G(t), into the plateau regime for chains with Z=40 entanglements...... and into the terminal relaxation regime for Z=10. Using the known (Rouse) mobility of unentangled chains and the melt entanglement length determined via the primitive path analysis of the microscopic topological state of our systems, we have performed parameter-free tests of several different tube models. We find...

  11. Fault-tolerant clock synchronization in distributed systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramanathan, Parameswaran; Shin, Kang G.; Butler, Ricky W.

    1990-01-01

    Existing fault-tolerant clock synchronization algorithms are compared and contrasted. These include the following: software synchronization algorithms, such as convergence-averaging, convergence-nonaveraging, and consistency algorithms, as well as probabilistic synchronization; hardware synchronization algorithms; and hybrid synchronization. The worst-case clock skews guaranteed by representative algorithms are compared, along with other important aspects such as time, message, and cost overhead imposed by the algorithms. More recent developments such as hardware-assisted software synchronization and algorithms for synchronizing large, partially connected distributed systems are especially emphasized.

  12. Test of Special Relativity Using a Fiber Network of Optical Clocks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delva, P; Lodewyck, J; Bilicki, S; Bookjans, E; Vallet, G; Le Targat, R; Pottie, P-E; Guerlin, C; Meynadier, F; Le Poncin-Lafitte, C; Lopez, O; Amy-Klein, A; Lee, W-K; Quintin, N; Lisdat, C; Al-Masoudi, A; Dörscher, S; Grebing, C; Grosche, G; Kuhl, A; Raupach, S; Sterr, U; Hill, I R; Hobson, R; Bowden, W; Kronjäger, J; Marra, G; Rolland, A; Baynes, F N; Margolis, H S; Gill, P

    2017-06-02

    Phase compensated optical fiber links enable high accuracy atomic clocks separated by thousands of kilometers to be compared with unprecedented statistical resolution. By searching for a daily variation of the frequency difference between four strontium optical lattice clocks in different locations throughout Europe connected by such links, we improve upon previous tests of time dilation predicted by special relativity. We obtain a constraint on the Robertson-Mansouri-Sexl parameter |α|≲1.1×10^{-8}, quantifying a violation of time dilation, thus improving by a factor of around 2 the best known constraint obtained with Ives-Stilwell type experiments, and by 2 orders of magnitude the best constraint obtained by comparing atomic clocks. This work is the first of a new generation of tests of fundamental physics using optical clocks and fiber links. As clocks improve, and as fiber links are routinely operated, we expect that the tests initiated in this Letter will improve by orders of magnitude in the near future.

  13. Cell-permeable Circadian Clock Proteins

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Johnson, Carl

    2002-01-01

    .... These 'biological clocks' are important to human physiology. For example, psychiatric and medical studies have shown that circadian rhythmicity is involved in some forms of depressive illness, 'jet lag', drug tolerance/efficacy, memory, and insomnia...

  14. Pittendrigh: The Darwinian Clock-Watcher

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    to our current understanding of how timing systems work in living organisms. .... to periodic factors in the geophysical environment. He postulated .... clocks against temperature, nutrition and light, while the latter needs maintenance of a stable.

  15. Correction of clock errors in seismic data using noise cross-correlations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hable, Sarah; Sigloch, Karin; Barruol, Guilhem; Hadziioannou, Céline

    2017-04-01

    Correct and verifiable timing of seismic records is crucial for most seismological applications. For seismic land stations, frequent synchronization of the internal station clock with a GPS signal should ensure accurate timing, but loss of GPS synchronization is a common occurrence, especially for remote, temporary stations. In such cases, retrieval of clock timing has been a long-standing problem. The same timing problem applies to Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS), where no GPS signal can be received during deployment and only two GPS synchronizations can be attempted upon deployment and recovery. If successful, a skew correction is usually applied, where the final timing deviation is interpolated linearly across the entire operation period. If GPS synchronization upon recovery fails, then even this simple and unverified, first-order correction is not possible. In recent years, the usage of cross-correlation functions (CCFs) of ambient seismic noise has been demonstrated as a clock-correction method for certain network geometries. We demonstrate the great potential of this technique for island stations and OBS that were installed in the course of the Réunion Hotspot and Upper Mantle - Réunions Unterer Mantel (RHUM-RUM) project in the western Indian Ocean. Four stations on the island La Réunion were affected by clock errors of up to several minutes due to a missing GPS signal. CCFs are calculated for each day and compared with a reference cross-correlation function (RCF), which is usually the average of all CCFs. The clock error of each day is then determined from the measured shift between the daily CCFs and the RCF. To improve the accuracy of the method, CCFs are computed for several land stations and all three seismic components. Averaging over these station pairs and their 9 component pairs reduces the standard deviation of the clock errors by a factor of 4 (from 80 ms to 20 ms). This procedure permits a continuous monitoring of clock errors where small clock

  16. Clock domain crossing modules for OCP-style read/write interfaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Herlev, Mathias; Sparsø, Jens

    The open core protocol (OCP) is an openly licensed, configurable, and scalable interface protocol for on-chip subsystem communications. The protocol defines read and write transactions from a master towards a slave across a point-to-point connection and the protocol assumes a single common clock....... This paper presents the design of two OCP clock domain crossing interface modules, that can be used to construct systems with multiple clock domains. One module (called OCPio) supports a single word read-write interface and the other module (called OCPburst) supports a four word burst read-write interface......-style read-write transaction interfaces. An OCP interface typically has control signals related to both the master issuing a read or write request and the slave producing a response. If all these control signals are passed across the clock domain boundary and synchronized it may add significant latency...

  17. Circadian expression of clock genes and clock-controlled genes in the rat retina

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kamphuis, Willem; Cailotto, Cathy; Dijk, Frederike; Bergen, Arthur; Buijs, Ruud M.

    2005-01-01

    The circadian expression patterns of genes encoding for proteins that make up the core of the circadian clock were measured in rat retina using real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). Transcript levels of several genes previously used for normalization of qPCR assays were determined and the effect of

  18. Highly Accurate Timestamping for Ethernet-Based Clock Synchronization

    OpenAIRE

    Loschmidt, Patrick; Exel, Reinhard; Gaderer, Georg

    2012-01-01

    It is not only for test and measurement of great importance to synchronize clocks of networked devices to timely coordinate data acquisition. In this context the seek for high accuracy in Ethernet-based clock synchronization has been significantly supported by enhancements to the Network Time Protocol (NTP) and the introduction of the Precision Time Protocol (PTP). The latter was even applied to instrumentation and measurement applications through the introduction of LXI....

  19. Reciprocal cholinergic and GABAergic modulation of the small ventrolateral pacemaker neurons of Drosophila's circadian clock neuron network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lelito, Katherine R; Shafer, Orie T

    2012-04-01

    The relatively simple clock neuron network of Drosophila is a valuable model system for the neuronal basis of circadian timekeeping. Unfortunately, many key neuronal classes of this network are inaccessible to electrophysiological analysis. We have therefore adopted the use of genetically encoded sensors to address the physiology of the fly's circadian clock network. Using genetically encoded Ca(2+) and cAMP sensors, we have investigated the physiological responses of two specific classes of clock neuron, the large and small ventrolateral neurons (l- and s-LN(v)s), to two neurotransmitters implicated in their modulation: acetylcholine (ACh) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Live imaging of l-LN(v) cAMP and Ca(2+) dynamics in response to cholinergic agonist and GABA application were well aligned with published electrophysiological data, indicating that our sensors were capable of faithfully reporting acute physiological responses to these transmitters within single adult clock neuron soma. We extended these live imaging methods to s-LN(v)s, critical neuronal pacemakers whose physiological properties in the adult brain are largely unknown. Our s-LN(v) experiments revealed the predicted excitatory responses to bath-applied cholinergic agonists and the predicted inhibitory effects of GABA and established that the antagonism of ACh and GABA extends to their effects on cAMP signaling. These data support recently published but physiologically untested models of s-LN(v) modulation and lead to the prediction that cholinergic and GABAergic inputs to s-LN(v)s will have opposing effects on the phase and/or period of the molecular clock within these critical pacemaker neurons.

  20. System and method for clock synchronization and position determination using entangled photon pairs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shih, Yanhua (Inventor)

    2010-01-01

    A system and method for clock synchronization and position determination using entangled photon pairs is provided. The present invention relies on the measurement of the second order correlation function of entangled states. Photons from an entangled photon source travel one-way to the clocks to be synchronized. By analyzing photon registration time histories generated at each clock location, the entangled states allow for high accuracy clock synchronization as well as high accuracy position determination.

  1. Motion and gravity effects in the precision of quantum clocks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindkvist, Joel; Sabín, Carlos; Johansson, Göran; Fuentes, Ivette

    2015-05-19

    We show that motion and gravity affect the precision of quantum clocks. We consider a localised quantum field as a fundamental model of a quantum clock moving in spacetime and show that its state is modified due to changes in acceleration. By computing the quantum Fisher information we determine how relativistic motion modifies the ultimate bound in the precision of the measurement of time. While in the absence of motion the squeezed vacuum is the ideal state for time estimation, we find that it is highly sensitive to the motion-induced degradation of the quantum Fisher information. We show that coherent states are generally more resilient to this degradation and that in the case of very low initial number of photons, the optimal precision can be even increased by motion. These results can be tested with current technology by using superconducting resonators with tunable boundary conditions.

  2. Simple point vortex model for the relaxation of 2D superfluid turbulence in a Bose-Einstein condensate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Joon Hyun; Kwon, Woo Jin; Shin, Yong-Il

    2016-05-01

    In a recent experiment, it was found that the dissipative evolution of a corotating vortex pair in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate is well described by a point vortex model with longitudinal friction on the vortex motion and the thermal friction coefficient was determined as a function of sample temperature. In this poster, we present a numerical study on the relaxation of 2D superfluid turbulence based on the dissipative point vortex model. We consider a homogeneous system in a cylindrical trap having randomly distributed vortices and implement the vortex-antivortex pair annihilation by removing a pair when its separation becomes smaller than a certain threshold value. We characterize the relaxation of the turbulent vortex states with the decay time required for the vortex number to be reduced to a quarter of initial number. We find the vortex decay time is inversely proportional to the thermal friction coefficient. In particular, we observe the decay times obtained from this work show good quantitative agreement with the experimental results in, indicating that in spite of its simplicity, the point vortex model reasonably captures the physics in the relaxation dynamics of the real system.

  3. Vibrational and Rotational Energy Relaxation in Liquids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Jakob

    Vibrational and rotational energy relaxation in liquids are studied by means of computer simulations. As a precursor for studying vibrational energy relaxation of a solute molecule subsequent to the formation of a chemical bond, the validity of the classical Bersohn-Zewail model for describing......, the vibrational energy relaxation of I2 subsequent to photodissociation and recombination in CCl4 is studied using classical Molecular Dynamics simulations. The vibrational relaxation times and the time-dependent I-I pair distribution function are compared to new experimental results, and a qualitative agreement...... is found in both cases. Furthermore, the rotational energy relaxation of H2O in liquid water is studied via simulations and a power-and-work analysis. The mechanism of the energy transfer from the rotationally excited H2O molecule to its water neighbors is elucidated, i.e. the energy-accepting degrees...

  4. Daily changes in temperature, not the circadian clock, regulate growth rate in Brachypodium distachyon.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dominick A Matos

    Full Text Available Plant growth is commonly regulated by external cues such as light, temperature, water availability, and internal cues generated by the circadian clock. Changes in the rate of growth within the course of a day have been observed in the leaves, stems, and roots of numerous species. However, the relative impact of the circadian clock on the growth of grasses has not been thoroughly characterized. We examined the influence of diurnal temperature and light changes, and that of the circadian clock on leaf length growth patterns in Brachypodium distachyon using high-resolution time-lapse imaging. Pronounced changes in growth rate were observed under combined photocyles and thermocycles or with thermocycles alone. A considerably more rapid growth rate was observed at 28°C than 12°C, irrespective of the presence or absence of light. In spite of clear circadian clock regulated gene expression, plants exhibited no change in growth rate under conditions of constant light and temperature, and little or no effect under photocycles alone. Therefore, temperature appears to be the primary cue influencing observed oscillations in growth rate and not the circadian clock or photoreceptor activity. Furthermore, the size of the leaf meristem and final cell length did not change in response to changes in temperature. Therefore, the nearly five-fold difference in growth rate observed across thermocycles can be attributed to proportionate changes in the rate of cell division and expansion. A better understanding of the growth cues in B. distachyon will further our ability to model metabolism and biomass accumulation in grasses.

  5. Chaotic map based key agreement with/out clock synchronization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han, S.; Chang, E.

    2009-01-01

    In order to address Bergamo et al.'s attack, Xiao et al. proposed a key agreement protocol using chaotic maps. Han then presented three attacks on Xiao et al.'s protocol. To enhance the security of key agreement based on chaotic maps, Chang et al. proposed a new key agreement using passphrase, which works in clock synchronization environment. However, their protocol still has some issues: one is its passphrase is not easy to remember and much longer than password; the second one is it cannot resist guessing attack if the constructed passphrase is easy to remember and also has already existed in some rational dictionaries; the third one is it cannot work without clock synchronization. In this paper, we will present two different key agreement protocols, which can resist guessing attack. The first one works in clock synchronization environment. The second one can work without clock synchronization. They both use authenticated password for secure communications. The protocols are secure against replaying attacks and a shared session key can be established.

  6. Asymptotic representation of relaxation oscillations in lasers

    CERN Document Server

    Grigorieva, Elena V

    2017-01-01

    In this book we analyze relaxation oscillations in models of lasers with nonlinear elements controlling light dynamics. The models are based on rate equations taking into account periodic modulation of parameters, optoelectronic delayed feedback, mutual coupling between lasers, intermodal interaction and other factors. With the aim to study relaxation oscillations we present the special asymptotic method of integration for ordinary differential equations and differential-difference equations. As a result, they are reduced to discrete maps. Analyzing the maps we describe analytically such nonlinear phenomena in lasers as multistability of large-amplitude relaxation cycles, bifurcations of cycles, controlled switching of regimes, phase synchronization in an ensemble of coupled systems and others. The book can be fruitful for students and technicians in nonlinear laser dynamics and in differential equations.

  7. Theoretical Modeling and Simulation of Phase-Locked Loop (PLL for Clock Data Recovery (CDR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zainab Mohamad Ashari

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Modern communication and computer systems require rapid (Gbps, efficient  and large bandwidth data transfers. Agressive scaling of digital integrated systems  allow buses and communication controller circuits to be integrated with the microprocessor on the same chip. The  Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe protocol handles all communcation between the central processing unit (CPU and hardware devices. PCIe buses require efficient clock data recovery circuits (CDR to recover clock signals embedded in data during transmission. This paper describes the theoretical modeling and simulation of a phase-locked loop (PLL used in a CDR circuit. A simple PLL architecture for a 5 GHz CDR circuit is proposed  and elaborated in this work. Simulations were carried out using a Hardware Description Language, Verilog-AMS. The effect of jitter on the proposed design is also simulated and evaluated in this work. It was found that the proposed design is robust against both input and VCO jitter.ABSTRAK: Sistem komunikasi dan komputer moden memerlukan pemindahan data yang cekap (Gbps, dan bandwidth yang besar. Pengecilan agresif menggunakan teknik sistem digital bersepadu membenarkan bas dan litar pengawal komunikasi disatukan dengan  mikroprocessor dalam cip yang sama. Protokol persisian komponen sambung tara ekspres (PCIe mengendalikan semua komunikasi antara unit pemprosesan pusat (CPU dan peranti perkakasan. Bas PCIe memerlukan litar jam pemulihan data (CDR yang cekap untuk mendapatkan kembali isyarat jam yang tertanam dalam data semasa transmisi. Karya ini menerangkan teori pemodelan dan simulasi gelung fasa terkunci (PLL untuk CDR. Rekabentuk 5 GHz PLL yang mudah telah dicadangkan dalm kertas kerja ini. Simulasi telah dijalankan menggunakan perisian verilog-AMS. Simulasi mengunnakan kesan ketar dalam reka bentuk yang dicadangkan telah dinilai. Reka bentuk yang dicadangkan terbukti teguh mengatasi ganguan ketar di input dan VCO.KEY WORDS

  8. All-optical clock recovery of NRZ-DPSK signals using optical resonator-type filters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Peucheret, Christophe; Seoane, Jorge; Ji, Hua

    2009-01-01

    It is shown how introducing a limited rise time to the driving signal enables all-optical clock recovery of NRZ-DPSK signals generated using a phase modulator. A Fabry-Perot filter is used to generate the optical clock.......It is shown how introducing a limited rise time to the driving signal enables all-optical clock recovery of NRZ-DPSK signals generated using a phase modulator. A Fabry-Perot filter is used to generate the optical clock....

  9. 29 CFR 778.204 - “Clock pattern” premium pay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false âClock patternâ premium pay. 778.204 Section 778.204 Labor... Excluded From the âRegular Rateâ Extra Compensation Paid for Overtime § 778.204 “Clock pattern” premium pay... pursuance of an applicable employment contract or collective bargaining agreement,” and the rates of pay and...

  10. Regulation of behavioral circadian rhythms and clock protein PER1 by the deubiquitinating enzyme USP2

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yaoming Yang

    2012-06-01

    Endogenous 24-hour rhythms are generated by circadian clocks located in most tissues. The molecular clock mechanism is based on feedback loops involving clock genes and their protein products. Post-translational modifications, including ubiquitination, are important for regulating the clock feedback mechanism. Previous work has focused on the role of ubiquitin ligases in the clock mechanism. Here we show a role for the rhythmically-expressed deubiquitinating enzyme ubiquitin specific peptidase 2 (USP2 in clock function. Mice with a deletion of the Usp2 gene (Usp2 KO display a longer free-running period of locomotor activity rhythms and altered responses of the clock to light. This was associated with altered expression of clock genes in synchronized Usp2 KO mouse embryonic fibroblasts and increased levels of clock protein PERIOD1 (PER1. USP2 can be coimmunoprecipitated with several clock proteins but directly interacts specifically with PER1 and deubiquitinates it. Interestingly, this deubiquitination does not alter PER1 stability. Taken together, our results identify USP2 as a new core component of the clock machinery and demonstrate a role for deubiquitination in the regulation of the circadian clock, both at the level of the core pacemaker and its response to external cues.

  11. Nuclear magnetic relaxation in picolines solutions in carbon tetrachloride

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jurga, J.; Pajak, Z.; Jurga, K.; Jurga, S.

    1973-01-01

    Spin-lattice relaxation times of the ring and CH 3 group have been measured in order to establish the temperature dependence of the longitudinal relaxation times for picolins in carbon tetrachloride solutions. The information concerning the intramolecular contribution to the relaxation times have been obtained. The high resolution NPR spectrometer operating at 25 MHz has been used. The measurements have been performed in the temperature range from -60degC to 80degC. The experimental results are compared to the predictions given by the Nora Hill and Debye models and it has been found that the Nora Hill model fits the experimental data better than the Debye model. (S.B.)

  12. Circadian rhythmicity of active GSK3 isoforms modulates molecular clock gene rhythms in the suprachiasmatic nucleus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Besing, Rachel C; Paul, Jodi R; Hablitz, Lauren M; Rogers, Courtney O; Johnson, Russell L; Young, Martin E; Gamble, Karen L

    2015-04-01

    The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) drives and synchronizes daily rhythms at the cellular level via transcriptional-translational feedback loops comprising clock genes such as Bmal1 and Period (Per). Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3), a serine/threonine kinase, phosphorylates at least 5 core clock proteins and shows diurnal variation in phosphorylation state (inactivation) of the GSK3β isoform. Whether phosphorylation of the other primary isoform (GSK3α) varies across the subjective day-night cycle is unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine if the endogenous rhythm of GSK3 (α and β) phosphorylation is critical for rhythmic BMAL1 expression and normal amplitude and periodicity of the molecular clock in the SCN. Significant circadian rhythmicity of phosphorylated GSK3 (α and β) was observed in the SCN from wild-type mice housed in constant darkness for 2 weeks. Importantly, chronic activation of both GSK3 isoforms impaired rhythmicity of the GSK3 target BMAL1. Furthermore, chronic pharmacological inhibition of GSK3 with 20 µM CHIR-99021 enhanced the amplitude and shortened the period of PER2::luciferase rhythms in organotypic SCN slice cultures. These results support the model that GSK3 activity status is regulated by the circadian clock and that GSK3 feeds back to regulate the molecular clock amplitude in the SCN. © 2015 The Author(s).

  13. Cycling of clock genes entrained to the solar rhythm enables plants to tell time: data from Arabidopsis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeang, Hoong-Yeet

    2015-07-01

    An endogenous rhythm synchronized to dawn cannot time photosynthesis-linked genes to peak consistently at noon since the interval between sunrise and noon changes seasonally. In this study, a solar clock model that circumvents this limitation is proposed using two daily timing references synchronized to noon and midnight. Other rhythmic genes that are not directly linked to photosynthesis, and which peak at other times, also find an adaptive advantage in entrainment to the solar rhythm. Fourteen datasets extracted from three published papers were used in a meta-analysis to examine the cyclic behaviour of the Arabidopsis thaliana photosynthesis-related gene CAB2 and the clock oscillator genes TOC1 and LHY in T cycles and N-H cycles. Changes in the rhythms of CAB2, TOC1 and LHY in plants subjected to non-24-h light:dark cycles matched the hypothesized changes in their behaviour as predicted by the solar clock model, thus validating it. The analysis further showed that TOC1 expression peaked ∼5·5 h after mid-day, CAB2 peaked close to noon, while LHY peaked ∼7·5 h after midnight, regardless of the cycle period, the photoperiod or the light:dark period ratio. The solar clock model correctly predicted the zeitgeber timing of these genes under 11 different lighting regimes comprising combinations of seven light periods, nine dark periods, four cycle periods and four light:dark period ratios. In short cycles that terminated before LHY could be expressed, the solar clock correctly predicted zeitgeber timing of its expression in the following cycle. Regulation of gene phases by the solar clock enables the plant to tell the time, by which means a large number of genes are regulated. This facilitates the initiation of gene expression even before the arrival of sunrise, sunset or noon, thus allowing the plant to 'anticipate' dawn, dusk or mid-day respectively, independently of the photoperiod. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the

  14. Clock gene modulates roles of OXTR and AVPR1b genes in prosociality.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haipeng Ci

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The arginine vasopressin receptor (AVPR and oxytocin receptor (OXTR genes have been demonstrated to contribute to prosocial behavior. Recent research has focused on the manner by which these simple receptor genes influence prosociality, particularly with regard to the AVP system, which is modulated by the clock gene. The clock gene is responsible for regulating the human biological clock, affecting sleep, emotion and behavior. The current study examined in detail whether the influences of the OXTR and AVPR1b genes on prosociality are dependent on the clock gene. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study assessed interactions between the clock gene (rs1801260, rs6832769 and the OXTR (rs1042778, rs237887 and AVPR1b (rs28373064 genes in association with individual differences in prosociality in healthy male Chinese subjects (n = 436. The Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM-R was used to assess prosociality. Participants carrying both the GG/GA variant of AVPR1b rs28373064 and the AA variant of clock rs6832769 showed the highest scores on the Emotional PTM. Carriers of both the T allele of OXTR rs1042778 and the C allele of clock rs1801260 showed the lowest total PTM scores compared with the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: The observed interaction effects provide converging evidence that the clock gene and OXT/AVP systems are intertwined and contribute to human prosociality.

  15. Clock gene modulates roles of OXTR and AVPR1b genes in prosociality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ci, Haipeng; Wu, Nan; Su, Yanjie

    2014-01-01

    The arginine vasopressin receptor (AVPR) and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) genes have been demonstrated to contribute to prosocial behavior. Recent research has focused on the manner by which these simple receptor genes influence prosociality, particularly with regard to the AVP system, which is modulated by the clock gene. The clock gene is responsible for regulating the human biological clock, affecting sleep, emotion and behavior. The current study examined in detail whether the influences of the OXTR and AVPR1b genes on prosociality are dependent on the clock gene. This study assessed interactions between the clock gene (rs1801260, rs6832769) and the OXTR (rs1042778, rs237887) and AVPR1b (rs28373064) genes in association with individual differences in prosociality in healthy male Chinese subjects (n = 436). The Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM-R) was used to assess prosociality. Participants carrying both the GG/GA variant of AVPR1b rs28373064 and the AA variant of clock rs6832769 showed the highest scores on the Emotional PTM. Carriers of both the T allele of OXTR rs1042778 and the C allele of clock rs1801260 showed the lowest total PTM scores compared with the other groups. The observed interaction effects provide converging evidence that the clock gene and OXT/AVP systems are intertwined and contribute to human prosociality.

  16. Noise-Induced Synchronization among Sub-RF CMOS Analog Oscillators for Skew-Free Clock Distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Utagawa, Akira; Asai, Tetsuya; Hirose, Tetsuya; Amemiya, Yoshihito

    We present on-chip oscillator arrays synchronized by random noises, aiming at skew-free clock distribution on synchronous digital systems. Nakao et al. recently reported that independent neural oscillators can be synchronized by applying temporal random impulses to the oscillators [1], [2]. We regard neural oscillators as independent clock sources on LSIs; i. e., clock sources are distributed on LSIs, and they are forced to synchronize through the use of random noises. We designed neuron-based clock generators operating at sub-RF region (CMOS implementation with 0.25-μm CMOS parameters. Through circuit simulations, we demonstrate that i) the clock generators are certainly synchronized by pseudo-random noises and ii) clock generators exhibited phase-locked oscillations even if they had small device mismatches.

  17. Clock distribution system for digital computers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loomis, H.H.; Wyman, R.H.

    1981-01-01

    An apparatus is disclosed for eliminating, in each clock distribution amplifier of a clock distribution system, sequential pulse catch-up error due to one pulse ''overtaking'' a prior clock pulse. The apparatus includes timing means to produce a periodic electromagnetic signal with a fundamental frequency having a fundamental frequency component v'01(T); an array of N signal characteristic detector means, with detector means no. 1 receiving the timing means signal and producing a change-of-state signal v1(T) in response to receipt of a signal above a predetermined threshold; N substantially identical filter means, one filter means being operatively associated with each detector means, for receiving the change-of-state signal vn(T) and producing a modified change-of-state signal v'n(T) (N 1, . . . , n) having a fundamental frequency component that is substantially proportional to v'01(T- theta n(T) with a cumulative phase shift theta n(T) having a time derivative that may be made uniformly and arbitrarily small; and with the detector means n+1 (1 < or = n< n) receiving a modified change-of-state signal vn(T) from filter means no. N and, in response to receipt of such a signal above a predetermined threshold, producing a change-of-state signal vn+1

  18. Association between genetic variants of the clock gene and obesity and sleep duration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valladares, Macarena; Obregón, Ana María; Chaput, Jean-Philippe

    2015-12-01

    Obesity is a multifactorial disease caused by the interaction of genetic and environmental factors related to lifestyle aspects. It has been shown that reduced sleep is associated with increased body mass index (BMI). Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput (CLOCK) gene variants have also been associated with obesity. The objective of this mini-review was to discuss the available literature related to CLOCK gene variants associated with adiposity and sleep duration in humans. In total, 16 articles complied with the terms of the search that reported CLOCK variants associated with sleep duration, energy intake, and BMI. Overall, six CLOCK single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been associated with sleep duration, and three variants have been associated with energy intake variables. Overall, the most studied area has been the association of CLOCK gene with obesity; close to eight common variants have been associated with obesity. The most studied CLOCK SNP in different populations is rs1801260, and most of these populations correspond to European populations. Collectively, identifying at risk CLOCK genotypes is a new area of research that may help identify individuals who are more susceptible to overeating and gaining weight when exposed to short sleep durations.

  19. A model problem for estimation of moving-film time relaxation at sudden change of boundary conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smirnovsky, Alexander A.; Eliseeva, Viktoria O.

    2018-05-01

    The study of the film flow occurred under the influence of a gas slug flow is of definite interest in heat and mass transfer during the motion of a coolant in the second circuit of a nuclear water-water reactor. Thermohydraulic codes are usually used for analysis of the such problems in which the motion of the liquid film and the vapor is modeled on the basis of a one-dimensional balance equations. Due to a greater inertia of the liquid film motion, film flow parameters changes with a relaxation compared with gas flow. We consider a model problem of film flow under the influence of friction from gas slug flow neglecting such effects as wave formation, droplet breakage and deposition on the film surface, evaporation and condensation. Such a problem is analogous to the well-known problems of Couette and Stokes flows. An analytical solution has been obtained for laminar flow. Numerical RANS-based simulation of turbulent flow was performed using OpenFOAM. It is established that the relaxation process is almost self-similar. This fact opens a possibility of obtaining valuable correlations for the relaxation time.

  20. Plant circadian clocks increase photosynthesis, growth, survival, and competitive advantage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dodd, Antony N; Salathia, Neeraj; Hall, Anthony; Kévei, Eva; Tóth, Réka; Nagy, Ferenc; Hibberd, Julian M; Millar, Andrew J; Webb, Alex A R

    2005-07-22

    Circadian clocks are believed to confer an advantage to plants, but the nature of that advantage has been unknown. We show that a substantial photosynthetic advantage is conferred by correct matching of the circadian clock period with that of the external light-dark cycle. In wild type and in long- and short-circadian period mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana, plants with a clock period matched to the environment contain more chlorophyll, fix more carbon, grow faster, and survive better than plants with circadian periods differing from their environment. This explains why plants gain advantage from circadian control.

  1. Data and clock transmission interface for the WCDA in LHAASO

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chu, S.P.; Zhao, L.; Jiang, Z.Y.; Ma, C.; Gao, X.S.; Yang, Y.F.; Liu, S.B.; An, Q.

    2016-01-01

    The Water Cherenkov Detector Array (WCDA) is one of the major components of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). In the WCDA, 3600 Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs) and the Front End Electronics (FEEs) are scattered over a 90000 m 2 area, while high precision time measurements (0.5 ns RMS) are required in the readout electronics. To meet this requirement, the clock has to be distributed to the FEEs with high precision. Due to the ''triggerless'' architecture, high speed data transfer is required based on the TCP/IP protocol. To simplify the readout electronics architecture and be consistent with the whole LHAASO readout electronics, the White Rabbit (WR) switches are used to transfer clock, data, and commands via a single fiber of about 400 meters. In this paper, a prototype of data and clock transmission interface for LHAASO WCDA is developed. The performance tests are conducted and the results indicate that the clock synchronization precision of the data and clock transmission is better than 50 ps. The data transmission throughput can reach 400 Mbps for one FEE board and 180 Mbps for 4 FEE boards sharing one up link port in WR switch, which is better than the requirement of the LHAASO WCDA.

  2. The Circadian Molecular Clock Regulates Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis by Controlling the Timing of Cell-Cycle Entry and Exit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pascale Bouchard-Cannon

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The subgranular zone (SGZ of the adult hippocampus contains a pool of quiescent neural progenitor cells (QNPs that are capable of entering the cell cycle and producing newborn neurons. The mechanisms that control the timing and extent of adult neurogenesis are not well understood. Here, we show that QNPs of the adult SGZ express molecular-clock components and proliferate in a rhythmic fashion. The clock proteins PERIOD2 and BMAL1 are critical for proper control of neurogenesis. The absence of PERIOD2 abolishes the gating of cell-cycle entrance of QNPs, whereas genetic ablation of bmal1 results in constitutively high levels of proliferation and delayed cell-cycle exit. We use mathematical model simulations to show that these observations may arise from clock-driven expression of a cell-cycle inhibitor that targets the cyclin D/Cdk4-6 complex. Our findings may have broad implications for the circadian clock in timing cell-cycle events of other stem cell populations throughout the body.

  3. Three-dimensional simulations of Bingham plastic flows with the multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Song-Gui Chen

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D parallel multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model (MRT-LBM for Bingham plastics which overcomes numerical instabilities in the simulation of non-Newtonian fluids for the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK model. The MRT-LBM and several related mathematical models are briefly described. Papanastasiou’s modified model is incorporated for better numerical stability. The impact of the relaxation parameters of the model is studied in detail. The MRT-LBM is then validated through a benchmark problem: a 3D steady Poiseuille flow. The results from the numerical simulations are consistent with those derived analytically which indicates that the MRT-LBM effectively simulates Bingham fluids but with better stability. A parallel MRT-LBM framework is introduced, and the parallel efficiency is tested through a simple case. The MRT-LBM is shown to be appropriate for parallel implementation and to have high efficiency. Finally, a Bingham fluid flowing past a square-based prism with a fixed sphere is simulated. It is found the drag coefficient is a function of both Reynolds number (Re and Bingham number (Bn. These results reveal the flow behavior of Bingham plastics.

  4. Relaxation properties in classical diamagnetism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carati, A.; Benfenati, F.; Galgani, L.

    2011-06-01

    It is an old result of Bohr that, according to classical statistical mechanics, at equilibrium a system of electrons in a static magnetic field presents no magnetization. Thus a magnetization can occur only in an out of equilibrium state, such as that produced through the Foucault currents when a magnetic field is switched on. It was suggested by Bohr that, after the establishment of such a nonequilibrium state, the system of electrons would quickly relax back to equilibrium. In the present paper, we study numerically the relaxation to equilibrium in a modified Bohr model, which is mathematically equivalent to a billiard with obstacles, immersed in a magnetic field that is adiabatically switched on. We show that it is not guaranteed that equilibrium is attained within the typical time scales of microscopic dynamics. Depending on the values of the parameters, one has a relaxation either to equilibrium or to a diamagnetic (presumably metastable) state. The analogy with the relaxation properties in the Fermi Pasta Ulam problem is also pointed out.

  5. Paramagnetic relaxation effects in perturbed angular correlations for arbitrary electronic relaxation time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chopin, C.; Spanjaard, D.; Hartmann-Boutron, F.

    1975-01-01

    Previous perturbation treatments of paramagnetic relaxation effects in γγ PAC were limited to the case of very short electronic relaxation times. This limitation is circumvented by invoking a new perturbation theory recently elaborated by Hirst and others for handling relaxation effects in Moessbauer spectra. Under the assumption of spherical electronic relaxation the perturbation factors are computed as functions of certain relaxation parameters which are directly related to the microscopic relaxation Hamiltonian. The results are compared to those of the stochastic theory of Scherer and Blume [fr

  6. DNA Replication Is Required for Circadian Clock Function by Regulating Rhythmic Nucleosome Composition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xiao; Dang, Yunkun; Matsu-Ura, Toru; He, Yubo; He, Qun; Hong, Christian I; Liu, Yi

    2017-07-20

    Although the coupling between circadian and cell cycles allows circadian clocks to gate cell division and DNA replication in many organisms, circadian clocks were thought to function independently of cell cycle. Here, we show that DNA replication is required for circadian clock function in Neurospora. Genetic and pharmacological inhibition of DNA replication abolished both overt and molecular rhythmicities by repressing frequency (frq) gene transcription. DNA replication is essential for the rhythmic changes of nucleosome composition at the frq promoter. The FACT complex, known to be involved in histone disassembly/reassembly, is required for clock function and is recruited to the frq promoter in a replication-dependent manner to promote replacement of histone H2A.Z by H2A. Finally, deletion of H2A.Z uncoupled the dependence of the circadian clock on DNA replication. Together, these results establish circadian clock and cell cycle as interdependent coupled oscillators and identify DNA replication as a critical process in the circadian mechanism. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  7. Searching for dilaton dark matter with atomic clocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arvanitaki, Asimina; Huang, Junwu; Van Tilburg, Ken

    2015-01-01

    We propose an experiment to search for ultralight scalar dark matter (DM) with dilatonic interactions. Such couplings can arise for the dilaton as well as for moduli and axion-like particles in the presence of C P violation. Ultralight dilaton DM acts as a background field that can cause tiny but coherent oscillations in Standard Model parameters such as the fine-structure constant and the proton-electron mass ratio. These minute variations can be detected through precise frequency comparisons of atomic clocks. Our experiment extends current searches for drifts in fundamental constants to the well-motivated high-frequency regime. Our proposed setups can probe scalars lighter than 1 0-15 eV with a discovery potential of dilatonic couplings as weak as 1 0-11 times the strength of gravity, improving current equivalence principle bounds by up to 8 orders of magnitude. We point out potential 1 04 sensitivity enhancements with future optical and nuclear clocks, as well as possible signatures in gravitational-wave detectors. Finally, we discuss cosmological constraints and astrophysical hints of ultralight scalar DM, and show they are complimentary to and compatible with the parameter range accessible to our proposed laboratory experiments.

  8. Multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamics with flow

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dennis, G. R., E-mail: graham.dennis@anu.edu.au; Dewar, R. L.; Hole, M. J. [Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, ACT 0200 (Australia); Hudson, S. R. [Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, PO Box 451, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)

    2014-04-15

    We present an extension of the multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamics (MRxMHD) equilibrium model that includes plasma flow. This new model is a generalization of Woltjer's model of relaxed magnetohydrodynamics equilibria with flow. We prove that as the number of plasma regions becomes infinite, our extension of MRxMHD reduces to ideal MHD with flow. We also prove that some solutions to MRxMHD with flow are not time-independent in the laboratory frame, and instead have 3D structure which rotates in the toroidal direction with fixed angular velocity. This capability gives MRxMHD potential application to describing rotating 3D MHD structures such as 'snakes' and long-lived modes.

  9. Mechanical disequilibria in two-phase flow models: approaches by relaxation and by a reduced model; Modelisation des desequilibres mecaniques dans les ecoulements diphasiques: approches par relaxation et par modele reduit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Labois, M

    2008-10-15

    This thesis deals with hyperbolic models for the simulation of compressible two-phase flows, to find alternatives to the classical bi-fluid model. We first establish a hierarchy of two-phase flow models, obtained according to equilibrium hypothesis between the physical variables of each phase. The use of Chapman-Enskog expansions enables us to link the different existing models to each other. Moreover, models that take into account small physical unbalances are obtained by means of expansion to the order one. The second part of this thesis focuses on the simulation of flows featuring velocity unbalances and pressure balances, in two different ways. First, a two-velocity two-pressure model is used, where non-instantaneous velocity and pressure relaxations are applied so that a balancing of these variables is obtained. A new one-velocity one-pressure dissipative model is then proposed, where the arising of second-order terms enables us to take into account unbalances between the phase velocities. We develop a numerical method based on a fractional step approach for this model. (author)

  10. Verge and Foliot Clock Escapement: A Simple Dynamical System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denny, Mark

    2010-01-01

    The earliest mechanical clocks appeared in Europe in the 13th century. From about 1250 CE to 1670 CE, these simple clocks consisted of a weight suspended from a rope or chain that was wrapped around a horizontal axle. To tell time, the weight must fall with a slow uniform speed, but, under the action of gravity alone, such a suspended weight would…

  11. Relaxations in spin glasses: Similarities and differences from ordinary glasses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ngai, K.L.; Rajagopal, A.K.; Huang, C.Y.

    1984-01-01

    Relaxation phenomena have become a major concern in the physics of spin glasses. There are certain resemblances of these relaxation properties to those of ordinary glasses. In this work, we compare the relaxation properties of spin glasses near the freezing temperature with those of glasses near the glass transition temperature. There are similarities between the two types of glasses. Moreover, the relaxation properties of many glasses and spin glasses are in conformity with two coupled ''universality'' relations predicted by a recent model of relaxations in condensed matter

  12. Thermally induced magnetic relaxation in square artificial spin ice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andersson, M. S.; Pappas, S. D.; Stopfel, H.; Östman, E.; Stein, A.; Nordblad, P.; Mathieu, R.; Hjörvarsson, B.; Kapaklis, V.

    2016-11-01

    The properties of natural and artificial assemblies of interacting elements, ranging from Quarks to Galaxies, are at the heart of Physics. The collective response and dynamics of such assemblies are dictated by the intrinsic dynamical properties of the building blocks, the nature of their interactions and topological constraints. Here we report on the relaxation dynamics of the magnetization of artificial assemblies of mesoscopic spins. In our model nano-magnetic system - square artificial spin ice - we are able to control the geometrical arrangement and interaction strength between the magnetically interacting building blocks by means of nano-lithography. Using time resolved magnetometry we show that the relaxation process can be described using the Kohlrausch law and that the extracted temperature dependent relaxation times of the assemblies follow the Vogel-Fulcher law. The results provide insight into the relaxation dynamics of mesoscopic nano-magnetic model systems, with adjustable energy and time scales, and demonstrates that these can serve as an ideal playground for the studies of collective dynamics and relaxations.

  13. Development and entrainment of the colonic circadian clock during ontogenesis

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Polidarová, Lenka; Olejníková, Lucie; Paušlyová, Lucia; Sládek, Martin; Soták, Matúš; Pácha, Jiří; Sumová, Alena

    2014-01-01

    Roč. 306, č. 4 (2014), G346-G356 ISSN 0193-1857 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP303/12/1108 Institutional support: RVO:67985823 Keywords : circadian clock * clock gene * ontogenesis * circadian entrainment Subject RIV: ED - Physiology Impact factor: 3.798, year: 2014

  14. Interdependence of nutrient metabolism and the circadian clock system: Importance for metabolic health

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ribas-Latre, Aleix; Eckel-Mahan, Kristin

    2016-01-01

    Background While additional research is needed, a number of large epidemiological studies show an association between circadian disruption and metabolic disorders. Specifically, obesity, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, and other signs of metabolic syndrome all have been linked to circadian disruption in humans. Studies in other species support this association and generally reveal that feeding that is not in phase with the external light/dark cycle, as often occurs with night or rotating shift workers, is disadvantageous in terms of energy balance. As food is a strong driver of circadian rhythms in the periphery, understanding how nutrient metabolism drives clocks across the body is important for dissecting out why circadian misalignment may produce such metabolic effects. A number of circadian clock proteins as well as their accessory proteins (such as nuclear receptors) are highly sensitive to nutrient metabolism. Macronutrients and micronutrients can function as zeitgebers for the clock in a tissue-specific way and can thus impair synchrony between clocks across the body, or potentially restore synchrony in the case of circadian misalignment. Circadian nuclear receptors are particularly sensitive to nutrient metabolism and can alter tissue-specific rhythms in response to changes in the diet. Finally, SNPs in human clock genes appear to be correlated with diet-specific responses and along with chronotype eventually may provide valuable information from a clinical perspective on how to use diet and nutrition to treat metabolic disorders. Scope of review This article presents a background of the circadian clock components and their interrelated metabolic and transcriptional feedback loops, followed by a review of some recent studies in humans and rodents that address the effects of nutrient metabolism on the circadian clock and vice versa. We focus on studies in which results suggest that nutrients provide an opportunity to restore or, alternatively

  15. The rhythm of feeding : Effect of nutrients on metabolism and the molecular clock

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oosterman, J.E.

    2017-01-01

    This thesis describes studies we performed to assess the relationship between nutrients and the circadian clock. We assessed the effects of sugar and fatty acids on the daily rhythmicity of hepatic clock genes and whole-body metabolism in vivo, and on circadian rhythmicity of clock genes in vitro.

  16. PHARAO space atomic clock: new developments on the laser source

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saccoccio, Muriel; Loesel, Jacques; Coatantiec, Claude; Simon, Eric; Laurent, Philippe; Lemonde, Pierre; Maksimovic, I.; Abgrall, M.

    2017-11-01

    The PHARAO project purpose is to open the way for a new atomic clock generation in space, where laser cooling techniques and microgravity allow high frequency stability and accuracy. The French space agency, CNES is funding and managing the clock construction. The French SYRTE and LKB laboratories are scientific and technical advisers for the clock requirements and the follow-up of subsystem development in industrial companies. EADS SODERN is developing two main subsystems of the PHARAO clock: the Laser Source and the Cesium Tube where atoms are cooled, launched, selected and detected by laser beams. The Laser Source includes an optical bench and electronic devices to generate the laser beams required. This paper describes PHARAO and the role laser beams play in its principle of operation. Then we present the Laser Source design, the technologies involved, and the status of development. Lastly, we focus of a key equipment to reach the performances expected, which is the Extended Cavity Laser Diode.

  17. Practical security analysis of continuous-variable quantum key distribution with jitter in clock synchronization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Cailang; Guo, Ying; Liao, Qin; Zhao, Wei; Huang, Duan; Zhang, Ling; Zeng, Guihua

    2018-03-01

    How to narrow the gap of security between theory and practice has been a notoriously urgent problem in quantum cryptography. Here, we analyze and provide experimental evidence of the clock jitter effect on the practical continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) system. The clock jitter is a random noise which exists permanently in the clock synchronization in the practical CV-QKD system, it may compromise the system security because of its impact on data sampling and parameters estimation. In particular, the practical security of CV-QKD with different clock jitter against collective attack is analyzed theoretically based on different repetition frequencies, the numerical simulations indicate that the clock jitter has more impact on a high-speed scenario. Furthermore, a simplified experiment is designed to investigate the influence of the clock jitter.

  18. Glucocorticoids affect 24 h clock genes expression in human adipose tissue explant cultures.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Purificación Gómez-Abellán

    Full Text Available to examine firstly whether CLOCK exhibits a circadian expression in human visceral (V and subcutaneous (S adipose tissue (AT in vitro as compared with BMAL1 and PER2, and secondly to investigate the possible effect of the glucocorticoid analogue dexamethasone (DEX on positive and negative clock genes expression.VAT and SAT biopsies were obtained from morbid obese women (body mass index ≥ 40 kg/m(2 (n = 6. In order to investigate rhythmic expression pattern of clock genes and the effect of DEX on CLOCK, PER2 and BMAL1 expression, control AT (without DEX and AT explants treated with DEX (2 hours were cultured during 24 h and gene expression was analyzed at the following times: 10:00 h, 14:00 h, 18:00 h, 22:00 h, 02:00 h and 06:00 h, using qRT-PCR.CLOCK, BMAL1 and PER2 expression exhibited circadian patterns in both VAT and SAT explants that were adjusted to a typical 24 h sinusoidal curve. PER2 expression (negative element was in antiphase with respect to CLOCK and in phase with BMAL1 expression (both positive elements in the SAT (situation not present in VAT. A marked effect of DEX exposure on both positive and negative clock genes expression patterns was observed. Indeed, DEX treatment modified the rhythmicity pattern towards altered patterns with a period lower than 24 hours in all genes and in both tissues.24 h patterns in CLOCK and BMAL1 (positive clock elements and PER2 (negative element mRNA levels were observed in human adipose explants. These patterns were altered by dexamethasone exposure.

  19. Multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamics with anisotropy and flow

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dennis, G. R., E-mail: graham.dennis@anu.edu.au; Dewar, R. L.; Hole, M. J. [Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200 (Australia); Hudson, S. R. [Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, PO Box 451, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)

    2014-07-15

    We present an extension of the multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamics (MRxMHD) equilibrium model that includes pressure anisotropy and general plasma flows. This anisotropic extension to our previous isotropic model is motivated by Sun and Finn's model of relaxed anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic equilibria. We prove that as the number of plasma regions becomes infinite, our anisotropic extension of MRxMHD reduces to anisotropic ideal MHD with flow. The continuously nested flux surface limit of our MRxMHD model is the first variational principle for anisotropic plasma equilibria with general flow fields.

  20. Relaxation and transport properties of liquid n-triacontane

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kondratyuk, N D; Lankin, A V; Norman, G E; Stegailov, V V

    2015-01-01

    Molecular modelling is used to calculate transport properties and to study relaxation of liquid n-triacontane (C 30 H 62 ). The problem is important in connection with the behavior of liquid isolators in a pre-breakdown state. Two all-atom models and a united-atom model are used. Shear viscosity is calculated using the Green-Kubo formula. The force fields are compared with each other using the following criteria: the required time for one molecular dynamics step, the compliance of the main physical and transport properties with experimental values. The problem of the system equilibration is considered. The united-atom potential is used to model the n-triacontane liquid with an initial directional orientation. The time of relaxation to the disordered state, when all molecules orientations are randomized, are obtained. The influence of the molecules orientations on the shear viscosity value and the shear viscosity relaxation are treated. (paper)

  1. Clock ambiguity and the emergence of physical laws

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Albrecht, Andreas; Iglesias, Alberto

    2008-01-01

    The process of identifying a time variable in time-reparameterization invariant theories results in great ambiguities about the actual laws of physics described by a given theory. A theory set up to describe one set of physical laws can equally well be interpreted as describing any other laws of physics by making a different choice of time variable or clock. In this article we demonstrate how this 'clock ambiguity' arises and then discuss how one might still hope to extract specific predictions about the laws of physics even when the clock ambiguity is present. We argue that a requirement of quasiseparability should play a critical role in such an analysis. As a step in this direction, we compare the Hamiltonian of a local quantum field theory with a completely random Hamiltonian. We find that any random Hamiltonian (constructed in a sufficiently large space) can yield a 'good enough' approximation to a local field theory. Based on this result we argue that theories that suffer from the clock ambiguity may in the end provide a viable fundamental framework for physics in which locality can be seen as a strongly favored (or predicted) emergent behavior. We also speculate on how other key aspects of known physics such as gauge symmetries and Poincare invariance might be predicted to emerge in this framework.

  2. Relaxation and Numerical Approximation of a Two-Fluid Two-Pressure Diphasic Model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ambroso, A.; Chalons, Ch.; Galie, Th.; Chalons, Ch.; Coquel, F.; Coquel, F.

    2009-01-01

    This paper is concerned with the numerical approximation of the solutions of a two-fluid two-pressure model used in the modelling of two-phase flows. We present a relaxation strategy for easily dealing with both the nonlinearities associated with the pressure laws and the nonconservative terms that are inherently present in the set of convective equations and that couple the two phases. In particular, the proposed approximate Riemann solver is given by explicit formulas, preserves the natural phase space, and exactly captures the coupling waves between the two phases. Numerical evidences are given to corroborate the validity of our approach. (authors)

  3. Relaxation Dynamics of a Granular Pile on a Vertically Vibrating Plate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsuji, Daisuke; Otsuki, Michio; Katsuragi, Hiroaki

    2018-03-01

    Nonlinear relaxation dynamics of a vertically vibrated granular pile is experimentally studied. In the experiment, the flux and slope on the relaxing pile are measured by using a high-speed laser profiler. The relation of these quantities can be modeled by the nonlinear transport law assuming the uniform vibrofluidization of an entire pile. The fitting parameter in this model is only the relaxation efficiency, which characterizes the energy conversion rate from vertical vibration into horizontal transport. We demonstrate that this value is a constant independent of experimental conditions. The actual relaxation is successfully reproduced by the continuity equation with the proposed model. Finally, its specific applicability toward an astrophysical phenomenon is shown.

  4. Molecular clock on a neutral network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raval, Alpan

    2007-09-28

    The number of fixed mutations accumulated in an evolving population often displays a variance that is significantly larger than the mean (the overdispersed molecular clock). By examining a generic evolutionary process on a neutral network of high-fitness genotypes, we establish a formalism for computing all cumulants of the full probability distribution of accumulated mutations in terms of graph properties of the neutral network, and use the formalism to prove overdispersion of the molecular clock. We further show that significant overdispersion arises naturally in evolution when the neutral network is highly sparse, exhibits large global fluctuations in neutrality, and small local fluctuations in neutrality. The results are also relevant for elucidating aspects of neutral network topology from empirical measurements of the substitution process.

  5. Theory of nuclear spin relaxation in disordered systems: comparison of Bloembergen-Purcell-Pound models and Monte Carlo simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Luo Xinjun; Sholl, C.A.

    2002-01-01

    Two Bloembergen-Purcell-Pound (BPP) models for analysing nuclear spin relaxation data for translational diffusion in disordered systems are compared with Monte Carlo simulations. One model (the a-BPP model, 'a' standing for average) is commonly used for disordered systems and the other (the Cameron-Sholl BPP model) is more rigorously based and can distinguish between site-and barrier-energy disorder. Simulated relaxation data produced using Gaussian distributions of energy disorder are analysed using the models, and the parameters obtained from the fits are compared with the values used for the simulations. It is found that both models can give reasonable fits to the data. Both models also give reasonable agreement with the simulation parameters provided that the standard deviation of the energy distribution for the a-BPP model is interpreted as the average of the site-and barrier-energy standard deviations. Quantitative estimates are given of the accuracy of the parameters from the fits. (author)

  6. Alternative splicing and nonsense-mediated decay of circadian clock genes under environmental stress conditions in Arabidopsis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwon, Young-Ju; Park, Mi-Jeong; Kim, Sang-Gyu; Baldwin, Ian T; Park, Chung-Mo

    2014-05-19

    The circadian clock enables living organisms to anticipate recurring daily and seasonal fluctuations in their growth habitats and synchronize their biology to the environmental cycle. The plant circadian clock consists of multiple transcription-translation feedback loops that are entrained by environmental signals, such as light and temperature. In recent years, alternative splicing emerges as an important molecular mechanism that modulates the clock function in plants. Several clock genes are known to undergo alternative splicing in response to changes in environmental conditions, suggesting that the clock function is intimately associated with environmental responses via the alternative splicing of the clock genes. However, the alternative splicing events of the clock genes have not been studied at the molecular level. We systematically examined whether major clock genes undergo alternative splicing under various environmental conditions in Arabidopsis. We also investigated the fates of the RNA splice variants of the clock genes. It was found that the clock genes, including EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3) and ZEITLUPE (ZTL) that have not been studied in terms of alternative splicing, undergo extensive alternative splicing through diverse modes of splicing events, such as intron retention, exon skipping, and selection of alternative 5' splice site. Their alternative splicing patterns were differentially influenced by changes in photoperiod, temperature extremes, and salt stress. Notably, the RNA splice variants of TIMING OF CAB EXPRESSION 1 (TOC1) and ELF3 were degraded through the nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) pathway, whereas those of other clock genes were insensitive to NMD. Taken together, our observations demonstrate that the major clock genes examined undergo extensive alternative splicing under various environmental conditions, suggesting that alternative splicing is a molecular scheme that underlies the linkage between the clock and environmental stress

  7. Alternative splicing and nonsense-mediated decay of circadian clock genes under environmental stress conditions in Arabidopsis

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background The circadian clock enables living organisms to anticipate recurring daily and seasonal fluctuations in their growth habitats and synchronize their biology to the environmental cycle. The plant circadian clock consists of multiple transcription-translation feedback loops that are entrained by environmental signals, such as light and temperature. In recent years, alternative splicing emerges as an important molecular mechanism that modulates the clock function in plants. Several clock genes are known to undergo alternative splicing in response to changes in environmental conditions, suggesting that the clock function is intimately associated with environmental responses via the alternative splicing of the clock genes. However, the alternative splicing events of the clock genes have not been studied at the molecular level. Results We systematically examined whether major clock genes undergo alternative splicing under various environmental conditions in Arabidopsis. We also investigated the fates of the RNA splice variants of the clock genes. It was found that the clock genes, including EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3) and ZEITLUPE (ZTL) that have not been studied in terms of alternative splicing, undergo extensive alternative splicing through diverse modes of splicing events, such as intron retention, exon skipping, and selection of alternative 5′ splice site. Their alternative splicing patterns were differentially influenced by changes in photoperiod, temperature extremes, and salt stress. Notably, the RNA splice variants of TIMING OF CAB EXPRESSION 1 (TOC1) and ELF3 were degraded through the nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) pathway, whereas those of other clock genes were insensitive to NMD. Conclusion Taken together, our observations demonstrate that the major clock genes examined undergo extensive alternative splicing under various environmental conditions, suggesting that alternative splicing is a molecular scheme that underlies the linkage between the clock

  8. Immersed Boundary-Lattice Boltzmann Method Using Two Relaxation Times

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kosuke Hayashi

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available An immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method (IB-LBM using a two-relaxation time model (TRT is proposed. The collision operator in the lattice Boltzmann equation is modeled using two relaxation times. One of them is used to set the fluid viscosity and the other is for numerical stability and accuracy. A direct-forcing method is utilized for treatment of immersed boundary. A multi-direct forcing method is also implemented to precisely satisfy the boundary conditions at the immersed boundary. Circular Couette flows between a stationary cylinder and a rotating cylinder are simulated for validation of the proposed method. The method is also validated through simulations of circular and spherical falling particles. Effects of the functional forms of the direct-forcing term and the smoothed-delta function, which interpolates the fluid velocity to the immersed boundary and distributes the forcing term to fixed Eulerian grid points, are also examined. As a result, the following conclusions are obtained: (1 the proposed method does not cause non-physical velocity distribution in circular Couette flows even at high relaxation times, whereas the single-relaxation time (SRT model causes a large non-physical velocity distortion at a high relaxation time, (2 the multi-direct forcing reduces the errors in the velocity profile of a circular Couette flow at a high relaxation time, (3 the two-point delta function is better than the four-point delta function at low relaxation times, but worse at high relaxation times, (4 the functional form of the direct-forcing term does not affect predictions, and (5 circular and spherical particles falling in liquids are well predicted by using the proposed method both for two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases.

  9. Detecting a Multi-Homed Device Using Clock Skew

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-09-01

    15]. The TCP timestamp value is determined by a virtual “timestamp clock” that is based on the frequency of operation of the device’s system clock...received [16]. Figure 8. TCP Timestamp Options Field. Source: [16]. The value of the timestamp comes from a virtual internal clock that is known as...Testing 18 One of the Raspberry Pis had an added USB 2.0 Gigabit LAN adapter that was used as its second connection to the network. The connections for

  10. Oscillating perceptions: the ups and downs of the CLOCK protein in ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    2008-12-31

    Dec 31, 2008 ... A functional mouse CLOCK protein has long been thought to be essential for mammalian circadian ... ordinated actions of the Ror families of transcriptional acti- ..... CLOCK-deficient mice expressing the mPER2::LUC fusion.

  11. Performance Evaluation of Clock Recovery for Coherent Mode Division Multiplexed Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Medeiros Diniz, Júlio César; Piels, Molly; Zibar, Darko

    2017-01-01

    The impact of mode mixing and group delay spread on clock tone quality of a 6-mode 32 GBd NRZ-QPSK MDM system is investigated. Even for low group delay spread, strong coupling causes clock tone disappearance....

  12. Local lattice relaxations in random metallic alloys: Effective tetrahedron model and supercell approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ruban, Andrei; Simak, S.I.; Shallcross, S.

    2003-01-01

    We present a simple effective tetrahedron model for local lattice relaxation effects in random metallic alloys on simple primitive lattices. A comparison with direct ab initio calculations for supercells representing random Ni0.50Pt0.50 and Cu0.25Au0.75 alloys as well as the dilute limit of Au-ri......-rich CuAu alloys shows that the model yields a quantitatively accurate description of the relaxtion energies in these systems. Finally, we discuss the bond length distribution in random alloys....

  13. Regulation of behavioral circadian rhythms and clock protein PER1 by the deubiquitinating enzyme USP2

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yang, Yaoming; Duguay, David; Bédard, Nathalie

    2012-01-01

    Endogenous 24-hour rhythms are generated by circadian clocks located in most tissues. The molecular clock mechanism is based on feedback loops involving clock genes and their protein products. Post-translational modifications, including ubiquitination, are important for regulating the clock...

  14. Finite magnetic relaxation in x-space magnetic particle imaging: Comparison of measurements and ferrohydrodynamic models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhavalikar, R; Hensley, D; Maldonado-Camargo, L; Croft, L R; Ceron, S; Goodwill, P W; Conolly, S M; Rinaldi, C

    2016-08-03

    Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is an emerging tomographic imaging technology that detects magnetic nanoparticle tracers by exploiting their non-linear magnetization properties. In order to predict the behavior of nanoparticles in an imager, it is possible to use a non-imaging MPI relaxometer or spectrometer to characterize the behavior of nanoparticles in a controlled setting. In this paper we explore the use of ferrohydrodynamic magnetization equations for predicting the response of particles in an MPI relaxometer. These include a magnetization equation developed by Shliomis (Sh) which has a constant relaxation time and a magnetization equation which uses a field-dependent relaxation time developed by Martsenyuk, Raikher and Shliomis (MRSh). We compare the predictions from these models with measurements and with the predictions based on the Langevin function that assumes instantaneous magnetization response of the nanoparticles. The results show good qualitative and quantitative agreement between the ferrohydrodynamic models and the measurements without the use of fitting parameters and provide further evidence of the potential of ferrohydrodynamic modeling in MPI.

  15. Does the combination of the MMSE and clock drawing test (mini-clock) improve the detection of mild Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cacho, Jesús; Benito-León, Julián; García-García, Ricardo; Fernández-Calvo, Bernardino; Vicente-Villardón, José Luis; Mitchell, Alex J

    2010-01-01

    There is currently a need to develop tools to identify patients with mild AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We determined the validity and reliability of a brief, easily administered cognitive screening battery consisting of fusion of two well-known brief tests (Mini-Mental Status Examination [MMSE] and Clock Drawing Test [CDT]) (Mini-clock) to differentiate between patients with mild AD, MCI, and healthy control subjects. 66 consecutive patients with mild AD, 21 with MCI, and 66 healthy controls seen in a memory clinic setting were compared. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to calculate the cut-off value permitting discrimination between mild AD, MCI, and healthy control subjects. Interrater and test-retest reliability were also assessed. Mean cognitive scores for patients with AD, MCI, and control subjects on all two individual tests were significantly different (for each, p Mini-clock was higher than that obtained with MMSE or CDT in differentiating mild AD from controls (0.973 vs. 0.952 and 0.881, respectively) and MCI from controls (0.855 vs. 0.821 and 0.779, respectively). Test-retest reliability for the Mini-clock was 0.99, meanwhile interrater reliability was 0.87. The mean time to complete the test for all subjects was 8 min and 50 s. The Mini-clock is highly sensitive and specific in the detection of mild AD and reasonably accurate when attempting to separate MCI from health controls. It has a high interrater and test-retest reliability, can be quickly administered, and does not require major training.

  16. Rapid resetting of human peripheral clocks by phototherapy during simulated night shift work.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cuesta, Marc; Boudreau, Philippe; Cermakian, Nicolas; Boivin, Diane B

    2017-11-24

    A majority of night shift workers have their circadian rhythms misaligned to their atypical schedule. While bright light exposure at night is known to reset the human central circadian clock, the behavior of peripheral clocks under conditions of shift work is more elusive. The aim of the present study was to quantify the resetting effects of bright light exposure on both central (plasma cortisol and melatonin) and peripheral clocks markers (clock gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, PBMCs) in subjects living at night. Eighteen healthy subjects were enrolled to either a control (dim light) or a bright light group. Blood was sampled at baseline and on the 4 th day of simulated night shift. In response to a night-oriented schedule, the phase of PER1 and BMAL1 rhythms in PBMCs was delayed by ~2.5-3 h (P shift was observed for the other clock genes and the central markers. Three cycles of 8-h bright light induced significant phase delays (P night-oriented schedule and a rapid resetting effect of nocturnal bright light exposure on peripheral clocks.

  17. A Pseudo Fractional-N Clock Generator with 50% Duty Cycle Output

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Wei-Bin; Lo, Yu-Lung; Chao, Ting-Sheng

    A proposed pseudo fractional-N clock generator with 50% duty cycle output is presented by using the pseudo fractional-N controller for SoC chips and the dynamic frequency scaling applications. The different clock frequencies can be generated with the particular phase combinations of a four-stage voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). It has been fabricated in a 0.13µm CMOS technology, and work with a supply voltage of 1.2V. According to measured results, the frequency range of the proposed pseudo fractional-N clock generator is from 71.4MHz to 1GHz and the peak-to-peak jitter is less than 5% of the output period. Duty cycle error rates of the output clock frequencies are from 0.8% to 2% and the measured power dissipation of the pseudo fractional-N controller is 146µW at 304MHz.

  18. Food-Anticipatory Behavior in Neonatal Rabbits and Rodents: An Update on the Role of Clock Genes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mario Caba

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available In mammals, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN, the master circadian clock, is mainly synchronized to the environmental light/dark cycle. SCN oscillations are maintained by a molecular clockwork in which certain genes, Period 1–2, Cry1–2, Bmal1, and Clock, are rhythmically expressed. Disruption of these genes leads to a malfunctioning clockwork and behavioral and physiological rhythms are altered. In addition to synchronization of circadian rhythms by light, when subjects are exposed to food for a few hours daily, behavioral and physiological rhythms are entrained to anticipate mealtime, even in the absence of the SCN. The presence of anticipatory rhythms synchronized by food suggests the existence of an SCN-independent circadian pacemaker that might be dependent on clock genes. Interestingly, rabbit pups, unable to perceive light, suckle milk once a day, which entrains behavioral rhythms to anticipate nursing time. Mutations of clock genes, singly or in combination, affect diverse rhythms in brain activity and physiological processes, but anticipatory behavior and physiology to feeding time remains attenuated or unaffected. It had been suggested that compensatory upregulation of paralogs or subtypes genes, or even non-transcriptional mechanisms, are able to maintain circadian oscillations entrained to mealtime. In the present mini-review, we evaluate the current state of the role played by clock genes in meal anticipation and provide evidence for rabbit pups as a natural model of food-anticipatory circadian behavior.

  19. Technology development for laser-cooled clocks on the International Space Station

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klipstein, W. M.

    2003-01-01

    The PARCS experiment will use a laser-cooled cesium atomic clock operating in the microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station to provide both advanced tests of gravitational theory to demonstrate a new cold-atom clock technology for space.

  20. Three-way modelling of NMR relaxation profiles from thawed cod muscle

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Kristina Nedenskov; Guldager, Helle Skov; Jørgensen, Bo Munk

    2002-01-01

    Low-field 1H nuclear magnetic resonance transverse relaxation was used to measure water mobility and distribution in cod stored at -20°C or -30°C for up to 12 months and subsequently from 0 to 21 days in modified atmosphere at +2°C. The relaxation profiles were decomposed by parallel factor analy...

  1. Multiphase region of helimagnetic superlattices at low temperature in an extended six-state clock model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lovelady, D. C.; Harper, H. M.; Brodsky, I. E.; Rabson, D. A.

    2006-05-01

    The variety of magnetic phases observed in rare-earth heterostructures at low temperatures (Jehan et al 1993 Phys. Rev. B 48 5594-606), such as Ho/Y, may be elucidated by an ANNNI-like model Hamiltonian. In previous work modelling bulk Ho (Seno, Rabson and Yeomans 1993 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 26 4887-905), such a Hamiltonian with a one-dimensional parameter space produced a single multiphase point. In contrast, the parameter space of the heterostructure model is three dimensional, and instead of an isolated multiphase point, we find two-dimensional multiphase regions. In an example of Villain's 'order from disorder' (Villain, Bidaux, Carton and Conte 1980 J. Physique 41 1263-72 Pimpinelli, Uimin and Villain 1991 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 3 4693-719), an infinitesimal temperature breaks the ground-state degeneracy. In first order of a low-temperature expansion, we find that the degeneracy is broken everywhere in a multiphase region except on a line. A segment of the line appears to remain multiphase to all orders in a low-temperature expansion when the number L of magnetic layers between non-magnetic spacers is 4 but not for other values of L. For L = 4, the hierarchy of phases more closely resembles that in the ANNNI model than in the bulk six-state clock model on which the present model is based.

  2. Multiphase region of helimagnetic superlattices at low temperature in an extended six-state clock model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lovelady, D C; Harper, H M; Brodsky, I E; Rabson, D A

    2006-01-01

    The variety of magnetic phases observed in rare-earth heterostructures at low temperatures (Jehan et al 1993 Phys. Rev. B 48 5594-606), such as Ho/Y, may be elucidated by an ANNNI-like model Hamiltonian. In previous work modelling bulk Ho (Seno, Rabson and Yeomans 1993 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 26 4887-905), such a Hamiltonian with a one-dimensional parameter space produced a single multiphase point. In contrast, the parameter space of the heterostructure model is three dimensional, and instead of an isolated multiphase point, we find two-dimensional multiphase regions. In an example of Villain's 'order from disorder' (Villain, Bidaux, Carton and Conte 1980 J. Physique 41 1263-72; Pimpinelli, Uimin and Villain 1991 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 3 4693-719), an infinitesimal temperature breaks the ground-state degeneracy. In first order of a low-temperature expansion, we find that the degeneracy is broken everywhere in a multiphase region except on a line. A segment of the line appears to remain multiphase to all orders in a low-temperature expansion when the number L of magnetic layers between non-magnetic spacers is 4 but not for other values of L. For L = 4, the hierarchy of phases more closely resembles that in the ANNNI model than in the bulk six-state clock model on which the present model is based

  3. C-Lock: An online system to standardize the estimation of agricultural carbon sequestration credits

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Updegraff, Karen; Zimmerman, Patrick R.; Capehart, William J. [Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, 501 E. St. Joseph Street, Rapid City, SD 57701-3995 (United States); Price, Maribeth [Department of Geology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, 501 E. St. Joseph Street, Rapid City, SD 57701-3995 (United States)

    2005-10-15

    C-Lock (patent pending) is a system that has been designed to produce standardized carbon emission reduction credits (CERCs) that minimize litigation risks to purchasers and maximize the potential value to agricultural producers. C-Lock provides a web-based user interface linking producer-supplied, verifiable, management data, a detailed regional-scale GIS, and a biogeochemical model (CENTURY). Output includes historical incremental carbon sequestration since 1990 and predictions of future sequestration, packaged to satisfy evolving regulatory standards. C-Lock incorporates a unique uncertainty analysis and a three-level verification system to produce certified CERCs for specific land parcels in a way that is reproducible, equitable, and regionally defensible. Using a South Dakota farm as an example, the authors show how, by avoiding reliance on field sampling, this system can minimize measurement and monitoring costs. It allows individual producers a high degree of control over contract design and marketing, thereby reducing transaction costs. The transparent, standardized, and auditable procedure produces CERCs of maximum value to those seeking emission offsets. (author)

  4. Reference clock parameters for digital communications systems applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kartaschoff, P.

    1981-01-01

    The basic parameters relevant to the design of network timing systems describe the random and systematic time departures of the system elements, i.e., master (or reference) clocks, transmission links, and other clocks controlled over the links. The quantitative relations between these parameters were established and illustrated by means of numerical examples based on available measured data. The examples were limited to a simple PLL control system but the analysis can eventually be applied to more sophisticated systems at the cost of increased computational effort.

  5. Rigorously modeling self-stabilizing fault-tolerant circuits: An ultra-robust clocking scheme for systems-on-chip☆

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolev, Danny; Függer, Matthias; Posch, Markus; Schmid, Ulrich; Steininger, Andreas; Lenzen, Christoph

    2014-01-01

    We present the first implementation of a distributed clock generation scheme for Systems-on-Chip that recovers from an unbounded number of arbitrary transient faults despite a large number of arbitrary permanent faults. We devise self-stabilizing hardware building blocks and a hybrid synchronous/asynchronous state machine enabling metastability-free transitions of the algorithm's states. We provide a comprehensive modeling approach that permits to prove, given correctness of the constructed low-level building blocks, the high-level properties of the synchronization algorithm (which have been established in a more abstract model). We believe this approach to be of interest in its own right, since this is the first technique permitting to mathematically verify, at manageable complexity, high-level properties of a fault-prone system in terms of its very basic components. We evaluate a prototype implementation, which has been designed in VHDL, using the Petrify tool in conjunction with some extensions, and synthesized for an Altera Cyclone FPGA. PMID:26516290

  6. Rigorously modeling self-stabilizing fault-tolerant circuits: An ultra-robust clocking scheme for systems-on-chip.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolev, Danny; Függer, Matthias; Posch, Markus; Schmid, Ulrich; Steininger, Andreas; Lenzen, Christoph

    2014-06-01

    We present the first implementation of a distributed clock generation scheme for Systems-on-Chip that recovers from an unbounded number of arbitrary transient faults despite a large number of arbitrary permanent faults. We devise self-stabilizing hardware building blocks and a hybrid synchronous/asynchronous state machine enabling metastability-free transitions of the algorithm's states. We provide a comprehensive modeling approach that permits to prove, given correctness of the constructed low-level building blocks, the high-level properties of the synchronization algorithm (which have been established in a more abstract model). We believe this approach to be of interest in its own right, since this is the first technique permitting to mathematically verify, at manageable complexity, high-level properties of a fault-prone system in terms of its very basic components. We evaluate a prototype implementation, which has been designed in VHDL, using the Petrify tool in conjunction with some extensions, and synthesized for an Altera Cyclone FPGA.

  7. Structure of the two-dimensional relaxation spectra seen within the eigenmode perturbation theory and the two-site exchange model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bytchenkoff, Dimitri; Rodts, Stéphane

    2011-01-01

    The form of the two-dimensional (2D) NMR-relaxation spectra--which allow to study interstitial fluid dynamics in diffusive systems by correlating spin-lattice (T(1)) and spin-spin (T(2)) relaxation times--has given rise to numerous conjectures. Herein we find analytically a number of fundamental structural properties of the spectra: within the eigen-modes formalism, we establish relationships between the signs and intensities of the diagonal and cross-peaks in spectra obtained by various 1 and 2D NMR-relaxation techniques, reveal symmetries of the spectra and uncover interdependence between them. We investigate more specifically a practically important case of porous system that has sets of T(1)- and T(2)-eigenmodes and eigentimes similar to each other by applying the perturbation theory. Furthermore we provide a comparative analysis of the application of the, mathematically more rigorous, eigen-modes formalism and the, rather more phenomenological, first-order two-site exchange model to diffusive systems. Finally we put the results that we could formulate analytically to the test by comparing them with computer-simulations for 2D porous model systems. The structural properties, in general, are to provide useful clues for assignment and analysis of relaxation spectra. The most striking of them--the presence of negative peaks--underlines an urgent need for improvement of the current 2D Inverse Laplace Transform (ILT) algorithm used for calculation of relaxation spectra from NMR raw data. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Dynamics of relaxed inflation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tangarife, Walter; Tobioka, Kohsaku; Ubaldi, Lorenzo; Volansky, Tomer

    2018-02-01

    The cosmological relaxation of the electroweak scale has been proposed as a mechanism to address the hierarchy problem of the Standard Model. A field, the relaxion, rolls down its potential and, in doing so, scans the squared mass parameter of the Higgs, relaxing it to a parametrically small value. In this work, we promote the relaxion to an inflaton. We couple it to Abelian gauge bosons, thereby introducing the necessary dissipation mechanism which slows down the field in the last stages. We describe a novel reheating mechanism, which relies on the gauge-boson production leading to strong electro-magnetic fields, and proceeds via the vacuum production of electron-positron pairs through the Schwinger effect. We refer to this mechanism as Schwinger reheating. We discuss the cosmological dynamics of the model and the phenomenological constraints from CMB and other experiments. We find that a cutoff close to the Planck scale may be achieved. In its minimal form, the model does not generate sufficient curvature perturbations and additional ingredients, such as a curvaton field, are needed.

  9. Dynamics of interacting fermions under spin-orbit coupling in an optical lattice clock

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bromley, S. L.; Kolkowitz, S.; Bothwell, T.; Kedar, D.; Safavi-Naini, A.; Wall, M. L.; Salomon, C.; Rey, A. M.; Ye, J.

    2018-04-01

    Quantum statistics and symmetrization dictate that identical fermions do not interact via s-wave collisions. However, in the presence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC), fermions prepared in identical internal states with distinct momenta become distinguishable. The resulting strongly interacting system can exhibit exotic topological and pairing behaviours, many of which are yet to be observed in condensed matter systems. Ultracold atomic gases offer a promising pathway for simulating these rich phenomena, but until recently have been hindered by heating and losses. Here we enter a new regime of many-body interacting SOC in a fermionic optical lattice clock (OLC), where the long-lived electronic clock states mitigate unwanted dissipation. Using clock spectroscopy, we observe the precession of the collective magnetization and the emergence of spin-locking effects arising from an interplay between p-wave and SOC-induced exchange interactions. The many-body dynamics are well captured by a collective XXZ spin model, which describes a broad class of condensed matter systems ranging from superconductors to quantum magnets. Furthermore, our work will aid in the design of next-generation OLCs by offering a route for avoiding the observed large density shifts caused by SOC-induced exchange interactions.

  10. The Fermilab D0 Master Clock System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rotolo, C.; Fachin, M.; Chappa, S.; Rauch, M.; Needles, C.; Dyer, A.

    1991-11-01

    The Clock System provides bunch crossing related timing signals to various detector subsystems. Accelerator synchronization and monitoring as well as timing signal generation and distribution are discussed. The system is built using three module types implemented in Eurostandard hardware with a VME communications interface. The first two types of modules are used to facilitate synchronization with the accelerator and to generate 23 timing signals that are programmable with one RF bucket (18.8 ns) resolution and 1 ns accuracy. Fifty-four of the third module type are used to distribute the timing signals and two synchronous 53 MHz and 106 MHz clocks to various detector subsystems. 6 refs., 5 figs

  11. Entropic multiple-relaxation-time multirange pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann model for two-phase flow

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Feifei; Mazloomi Moqaddam, Ali; Kang, Qinjun; Derome, Dominique; Carmeliet, Jan

    2018-03-01

    An entropic multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann approach is coupled to a multirange Shan-Chen pseudopotential model to study the two-phase flow. Compared with previous multiple-relaxation-time multiphase models, this model is stable and accurate for the simulation of a two-phase flow in a much wider range of viscosity and surface tension at a high liquid-vapor density ratio. A stationary droplet surrounded by equilibrium vapor is first simulated to validate this model using the coexistence curve and Laplace's law. Then, two series of droplet impact behavior, on a liquid film and a flat surface, are simulated in comparison with theoretical or experimental results. Droplet impact on a liquid film is simulated for different Reynolds numbers at high Weber numbers. With the increase of the Sommerfeld parameter, onset of splashing is observed and multiple secondary droplets occur. The droplet spreading ratio agrees well with the square root of time law and is found to be independent of Reynolds number. Moreover, shapes of simulated droplets impacting hydrophilic and superhydrophobic flat surfaces show good agreement with experimental observations through the entire dynamic process. The maximum spreading ratio of a droplet impacting the superhydrophobic flat surface is studied for a large range of Weber numbers. Results show that the rescaled maximum spreading ratios are in good agreement with a universal scaling law. This series of simulations demonstrates that the proposed model accurately captures the complex fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interfacial physical processes for a wide range of Reynolds and Weber numbers at high density ratios.

  12. relaxGUI: a new software for fast and simple NMR relaxation data analysis and calculation of ps-ns and μs motion of proteins

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bieri, Michael; D’Auvergne, Edward J.; Gooley, Paul R.

    2011-01-01

    Investigation of protein dynamics on the ps-ns and μs-ms timeframes provides detailed insight into the mechanisms of enzymes and the binding properties of proteins. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an excellent tool for studying protein dynamics at atomic resolution. Analysis of relaxation data using model-free analysis can be a tedious and time consuming process, which requires good knowledge of scripting procedures. The software relaxGUI was developed for fast and simple model-free analysis and is fully integrated into the software package relax. It is written in Python and uses wxPython to build the graphical user interface (GUI) for maximum performance and multi-platform use. This software allows the analysis of NMR relaxation data with ease and the generation of publication quality graphs as well as color coded images of molecular structures. The interface is designed for simple data analysis and management. The software was tested and validated against the command line version of relax.

  13. relaxGUI: a new software for fast and simple NMR relaxation data analysis and calculation of ps-ns and μs motion of proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bieri, Michael; d'Auvergne, Edward J; Gooley, Paul R

    2011-06-01

    Investigation of protein dynamics on the ps-ns and μs-ms timeframes provides detailed insight into the mechanisms of enzymes and the binding properties of proteins. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an excellent tool for studying protein dynamics at atomic resolution. Analysis of relaxation data using model-free analysis can be a tedious and time consuming process, which requires good knowledge of scripting procedures. The software relaxGUI was developed for fast and simple model-free analysis and is fully integrated into the software package relax. It is written in Python and uses wxPython to build the graphical user interface (GUI) for maximum performance and multi-platform use. This software allows the analysis of NMR relaxation data with ease and the generation of publication quality graphs as well as color coded images of molecular structures. The interface is designed for simple data analysis and management. The software was tested and validated against the command line version of relax.

  14. Expression of core clock genes in colorectal tumour cells compared with normal mucosa

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fonnes, S; Donatsky, A M; Gögenur, I

    2015-01-01

    AIM: Experimental studies have shown that some circadian core clock genes may act as tumour suppressors and have an important role in the response to oncological treatment. This study investigated the evidence regarding modified expression of core clock genes in colorectal cancer and its...... expression of colorectal cancer cells compared with healthy mucosa cells from specimens analysed by real-time or quantitative real-time polymer chain reaction. The expression of the core clock genes Period, Cryptochrome, Bmal1 and Clock in colorectal tumours were compared with healthy mucosa and correlated...... with clinicopathological features and survival. RESULTS: Seventy-four articles were identified and 11 studies were included. Overall, gene expression of Period was significantly decreased in colorectal cancer cells compared with healthy mucosa cells. This tendency was also seen in the gene expression of Clock. Other core...

  15. Stress relaxation and hillock growth in thin films

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jackson, M.S.; Li, C.Y.

    1978-01-01

    The relaxation of thermal stress in a thin film adhering to a substrate of differing expansion coefficient is discussed. Good agreement is found between literature data on relaxation during isothermal anneals of Pb films at up to 350 0 K and model calculations based on a state variable description of plastic flow. The stress system during relaxation is explored, and the absence of diffusional creep is explained. The plasticity-dominated relaxation process suggested by this analysis is shown to be in good qualitative agreement with data on rapid relaxation over the course of a cycle between room and cryogenic temperatures. The implications of this for long-range material transport in the film are discussed. It is shown that hillock volume should increase over the course of a temperature cycle. Finally, a mechanism for hillock nucleation based on grain boundary sliding is suggested

  16. The nonlinear Maxwell-type model for viscoelastoplastic materials: simulation of temperature influence on creep, relaxation and strain-stress curves

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew V. Khokhlov

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The nonlinear Maxwell-type constitutive relation with two arbitrary material functions for viscoelastoplastic multi-modulus materials is studied analytically in uniaxial isothermic case to reveal the model abilities and applicability scope and to develop techniques of its identification, tuning and fitting. The constitutive equation is aimed at adequate modeling of the rheological phenomena set which is typical for reonomic materials exhibiting non-linear hereditary properties, strong strain rate sensitivity, secondary creep, yielding at constant stress, tension compression asymmetry and such temperature effects as increase of material compliance, strain rate sensitivity and rates of dissipation, relaxation, creep and plastic strain accumulation with temperature growth. The model is applicable for simulation of mechanical behaviour of various polymers, their solutions and melts, solid propellants, sand-asphalt concretes, composite materials, titanium and aluminum alloys, ceramics at high temperature and so on. To describe the influence of temperature on material mechanical behavior (under isothermic conditions, two scalar material parameters of the model (viscosity coefficient and “modulus of elasticity” are considered as a functions of temperature level. The general restrictions on their properties which are necessary and sufficient for adequate qualitative description of the basic thermomechanical phenomena related to typical temperature influence on creep and relaxation curves, creep recovery curves, creep curves under step-wise loading and quasi-static stress-strain curves of viscoelastoplastic materials are obtained. The restrictions are derived using systematic analytical study of general qualitative features of the theoretic creep and relaxation curves, creep curves under step-wise loading, long-term strength curves and stress-strain curves at constant strain or stress rates generated by the constitutive equation (under minimal

  17. Abrupt relaxation in high-spin molecules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chang, C.-R.; Cheng, T.C.

    2000-01-01

    Mean-field model suggests that the rate of resonant quantum tunneling in high-spin molecules is not only field-dependent but also time-dependent. The relaxation-assisted resonant tunneling in high-spin molecules produces an abrupt magnetization change during relaxation. When the applied field is very close to the resonant field, a time-dependent interaction field gradually shifts the energies of different collective spin states, and magnetization tunneling is observed as two energies of the spin states coincide

  18. Turning Back the Clock: Inferring the History of the Eight O'clock Arc

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finkelstein, Steven L.; Papovich, Casey; Rudnick, Gregory; Egami, Eiichi; Le Floc'h, Emeric; Rieke, Marcia J.; Rigby, Jane R.; Willmer, Christopher N. A.

    2009-07-01

    We present the results from an optical and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic study of the ultraviolet-luminous z = 2.73 galaxy, the 8 o'clock arc. Due to gravitational lensing, this galaxy is magnified by a factor of μ > 10, allowing in-depth measurements which are usually unfeasible at such redshifts. In the optical spectra, we measured the systemic redshift of the galaxy, z = 2.7322± 0.0012, using stellar photospheric lines. This differs from the redshift of absorption lines in the interstellar medium, z = 2.7302 ± 0.0006, implying gas outflows on the order of 160 km s-1. With H- and K-band NIR spectra, we have measured nebular emission lines of Hα, Hβ, Hγ, [N II], and [O III], which have a redshift z = 2.7333 ± 0.0001, consistent with the derived systemic redshift. From the Balmer decrement, we measured the dust extinction in this galaxy to be A 5500 = 1.17 ± 36 mag. Correcting the Hα line flux for dust extinction as well as the assumed lensing factor, we measure a star formation rate (SFR) of ~270 M sun yr-1, which is higher than ~85% of star-forming galaxies at z ~ 2-3. Using combinations of all detected emission lines, we find that the 8 o'clock arc has a gas-phase metallicity of ~0.8 Z sun, showing that enrichment at high redshift is not rare, even in blue, star-forming galaxies. Studying spectra from two of the arc components separately, we find that one component dominates both the dust extinction and SFR, although the metallicities between the two components are similar. We derive the mass via stellar population modeling, and find that the arc has a total stellar mass of ~4.2 × 1011 M sun, which falls on the mass-metallicity relation at z ~ 2. Finally, we estimate the total gas mass, and find it to be only ~12% of the stellar mass, implying that the 8 o'clock arc is likely nearing the end of a starburst. Based partly on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy

  19. A 1D thermomechanical network transition constitutive model coupled with multiple structural relaxation for shape memory polymers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Hao; Xie, Zhimin; Gu, Jianping; Sun, Huiyu

    2018-03-01

    A new thermomechanical network transition constitutive model is proposed in the study to describe the viscoelastic behavior of shape memory polymers (SMPs). Based on the microstructure of semi-crystalline SMPs, a new simplified transformation equation is proposed to describe the transform of transient networks. And the generalized fractional Maxwell model is introduced in the paper to estimate the temperature-dependent storage modulus. In addition, a neo-KAHR theory with multiple discrete relaxation processes is put forward to study the structural relaxation of the nonlinear thermal strain in cooling/heating processes. The evolution equations of the time- and temperature-dependent stress and strain response are developed. In the model, the thermodynamical and mechanical characteristics of SMPs in the typical thermomechanical cycle are described clearly and the irreversible deformation is studied in detail. Finally, the typical thermomechanical cycles are simulated using the present constitutive model, and the simulation results agree well with the experimental results.

  20. Method and apparatus to debug an integrated circuit chip via synchronous clock stop and scan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bellofatto, Ralph E [Ridgefield, CT; Ellavsky, Matthew R [Rochester, MN; Gara, Alan G [Mount Kisco, NY; Giampapa, Mark E [Irvington, NY; Gooding, Thomas M [Rochester, MN; Haring, Rudolf A [Cortlandt Manor, NY; Hehenberger, Lance G [Leander, TX; Ohmacht, Martin [Yorktown Heights, NY

    2012-03-20

    An apparatus and method for evaluating a state of an electronic or integrated circuit (IC), each IC including one or more processor elements for controlling operations of IC sub-units, and each the IC supporting multiple frequency clock domains. The method comprises: generating a synchronized set of enable signals in correspondence with one or more IC sub-units for starting operation of one or more IC sub-units according to a determined timing configuration; counting, in response to one signal of the synchronized set of enable signals, a number of main processor IC clock cycles; and, upon attaining a desired clock cycle number, generating a stop signal for each unique frequency clock domain to synchronously stop a functional clock for each respective frequency clock domain; and, upon synchronously stopping all on-chip functional clocks on all frequency clock domains in a deterministic fashion, scanning out data values at a desired IC chip state. The apparatus and methodology enables construction of a cycle-by-cycle view of any part of the state of a running IC chip, using a combination of on-chip circuitry and software.

  1. A computational study of inviscid hypersonic flows using energy relaxation method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagdewe, Suryakant; Kim, H. D.; Shevare, G. R.

    2008-01-01

    Reasonable analysis of hypersonic flows requires a thermodynamic non-equilibrium model to properly simulate strong shock waves or high pressure and temperature states in the flow field. The energy relaxation method (ERM) has been used to model such a non-equilibrium effect which is generally expressed as a hyperbolic system of equations with a stiff relaxation source term. Relaxation time that is multiplied with source terms is responsible for nonequilibrium in the system. In the present study, a numerical analysis has been carried out with varying values of relaxation time for several hypersonic flows with AUSM (advection upstream splitting method) as a numerical scheme. Vibration modes of thermodynamic nonequilibrium effects are considered. The results obtained showed that, as the relaxation time reduces to zero, the solution marches toward equilibrium, while it shows non-equilibrium effects, as the relaxation time increases. The present computations predicted the experiment results of hypersonic flows with good accuracy. The work carried out suggests that the present energy relaxation method can be robust for analysis of hypersonic flows

  2. Direct regulation of myocardial triglyceride metabolism by the cardiomyocyte circadian clock

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maintenance of circadian alignment between an organism and its environment is essential to ensure metabolic homeostasis. Synchrony is achieved by cell autonomous circadian clocks. Despite a growing appreciation of the integral relation between clocks and metabolism, little is known regarding the dir...

  3. How do you manage early or late clock-ins? .

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marlowe, Cathy L

    2013-08-01

    My current practice has historically been very strict with hourly employees. The workday is 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for most employees. They are to clock in and out at exactly those times unless overtime has been approved. (Staff working with late patients are exempt.) My business manager is constantly fighting over clock-ins 15 to 20 minutes early or late, with similar clock-outs. Staff may have a stop to make and would like to make up those 15 minutes. We do grant paid time off in an initial minimum block of 30 minutes to assist with some of this. ... The issue is not overtime, as we're well aware that we have to pay for it when appropriate. It's simply to streamline our policy and make it fair. ... I'm looking for practice policies that deal with employee variances from the 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. clock-ins. For example, someone wants to come in 30 minutes early in order to leave 30 minutes early for an appointment. Or someone comes in 22 minutes late due to traffic and wants either to make it up or to take the minimal half-hour paid-time-off time.

  4. Mechanical disequilibria in two-phase flow models: approaches by relaxation and by a reduced model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Labois, M.

    2008-10-01

    This thesis deals with hyperbolic models for the simulation of compressible two-phase flows, to find alternatives to the classical bi-fluid model. We first establish a hierarchy of two-phase flow models, obtained according to equilibrium hypothesis between the physical variables of each phase. The use of Chapman-Enskog expansions enables us to link the different existing models to each other. Moreover, models that take into account small physical unbalances are obtained by means of expansion to the order one. The second part of this thesis focuses on the simulation of flows featuring velocity unbalances and pressure balances, in two different ways. First, a two-velocity two-pressure model is used, where non-instantaneous velocity and pressure relaxations are applied so that a balancing of these variables is obtained. A new one-velocity one-pressure dissipative model is then proposed, where the arising of second-order terms enables us to take into account unbalances between the phase velocities. We develop a numerical method based on a fractional step approach for this model. (author)

  5. The circadian molecular clock regulates adult hippocampal neurogenesis by controlling the timing of cell-cycle entry and exit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouchard-Cannon, Pascale; Mendoza-Viveros, Lucia; Yuen, Andrew; Kærn, Mads; Cheng, Hai-Ying M

    2013-11-27

    The subgranular zone (SGZ) of the adult hippocampus contains a pool of quiescent neural progenitor cells (QNPs) that are capable of entering the cell cycle and producing newborn neurons. The mechanisms that control the timing and extent of adult neurogenesis are not well understood. Here, we show that QNPs of the adult SGZ express molecular-clock components and proliferate in a rhythmic fashion. The clock proteins PERIOD2 and BMAL1 are critical for proper control of neurogenesis. The absence of PERIOD2 abolishes the gating of cell-cycle entrance of QNPs, whereas genetic ablation of bmal1 results in constitutively high levels of proliferation and delayed cell-cycle exit. We use mathematical model simulations to show that these observations may arise from clock-driven expression of a cell-cycle inhibitor that targets the cyclin D/Cdk4-6 complex. Our findings may have broad implications for the circadian clock in timing cell-cycle events of other stem cell populations throughout the body. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Using Lunar Impact Basin Relaxation to Test Impact Flux Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nimmo, F.; Conrad, J. W.; Neumann, G. A.; Kamata, S.; Fassett, C.

    2017-12-01

    Gravity data obtained by the GRAIL mission [1] has constrained the number and distribution of lunar impact basins [2]. We analyzed crater densities for newly-proposed basins to assign relative ages. The extent to which a basin is relaxed is calculated using GRAIL-derived crustal thickness models [3] by comparing the mantle uplift under basins to the surrounding region. With our catalog we can investigate the distribution of basin properties through relative time. We identify a relaxation state transition (RT) around the pre-Nectarian 4 relative age group for basins with diameters > 450 km, similar to previous results using a pre-GRAIL basin catalog [4]. This RT likely signals a change in the global thermal state of the crust, representing the time at which the lunar moho temperature fell below 1400 K [4]. This transition happens 50-100 million years (Myr) after the lunar magma ocean (LMO) solidifies [4]. Based on models and inferences of LMO solidification [5, 6] the RT is expected to occur at 4.25-4.50 Ga, depending on the rate of cooling once a crustal lid has formed [5] and the amount of tidal heating in the early crust [6]. Monotonically declining impact flux models, such as [7] and [8] predict a younger RT; 4.07-4.08 and 4.24-4.27 Ga respectively. A scaled-down version of [8] can fit the RT but fails to match the observed number of younger, unrelaxed basins. Models that invoke a later transient increase in impact flux can reproduce the inferred RT time; for instance, the model of [9] gives a RT age of 4.43-4.46 Ga. This model matches the number of younger basins and implies that basin preservation started at 4.49 Ga, likely before the LMO completely solidified. [1] Zuber M.T. et al. (2013) Science, 339, 668-671. [2] Neumann G.A. et al. (2015) Science Advances, 1, e1500852. [3] Wieczorek M.A. (2013) Science, 339, 671-675. [4] Kamata S. et al. (2015) Icarus, 250, 492-504. [5] Elkins-Tanton L.T. et al. (2011) Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 304, 326-336. [6] Meyer, J

  7. A model of anelastic relaxation associated with polygonization boundary

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yan, S.C.

    1990-01-01

    A model of anelastic relaxation associated with polygonization boundary is proposed in order to explain internal friction peaks and other experimental phenomena observed recently. The model, which is referred to as vacancy-thermal jog model, shows that under conditions of high temperature and low applied stress with lower frequencies of vibration, thermal jog pairs are generated on dislocation segments of the boundaries. These jogs are in saturation with vacancies in the vicinity of them, and the vacancy current due to the concentration gradient of vacancy drifts among the boundaries. As a result, a diffusional creep is produced and a part of energy is dissipated. For vacancy drift, it is required that the thermal jogs emit (absorb) vacancies, which brings climbing bow of segments into operation, and another part of energy is dissipated so that there are two parts of energy dissipated in the strain process connected with polygonization boundary. Based on this point of view, the mathematical expressions of internal friction and modulus defect associated with polygonization boundary were subsequently derived and found to be in satisfactory agreement with experiments. (author). 13 refs, 6 figs

  8. Electron spin relaxation in cryptochrome-based magnetoreception

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kattnig, Daniel R; Solov'yov, Ilia A; Hore, P J

    2016-01-01

    The magnetic compass sense of migratory birds is thought to rely on magnetically sensitive radical pairs formed photochemically in cryptochrome proteins in the retina. An important requirement of this hypothesis is that electron spin relaxation is slow enough for the Earth's magnetic field to have...... this question for a structurally characterized model cryptochrome expected to share many properties with the putative avian receptor protein. To this end we combine all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, Bloch-Redfield relaxation theory and spin dynamics calculations to assess the effects of spin relaxation...... on the performance of the protein as a compass sensor. Both flavin-tryptophan and flavin-Z˙ radical pairs are studied (Z˙ is a radical with no hyperfine interactions). Relaxation is considered to arise from modulation of hyperfine interactions by librational motions of the radicals and fluctuations in certain...

  9. Theory of vibrational relaxation in mixtures of ortho- and para-hydrogen

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moise, A.; Pritchard, H.O.

    1981-01-01

    A numerical study of the vibrational relaxation at 500 K of a mixture of ortho-H 2 and para-H 2 is described. The required state-to-state rate constants were calculated and missing pieces of data were estimated by interpolation. It is concluded that only one relaxation time will be observed in any mixture of orth-H 2 and para-H 2 and that (except at very high dilutions in a third inert gas) the relaxation rate constant will be close to the mean of the individual rate constants for relaxation, weighted according to the respective mole fractions of ortho-H 2 and para-H 2 present in the mixture. The relaxation process can be modelled as an electrical RC network, whose time constants can be written down as sums of the appropriate microscopic rate constants. By using this model the conditions required for a mixture of two gases to exhibit two distinct vibrational relaxation times can be explored

  10. Factors reducing the expected deflection in initial orientation in clock-shifted homing pigeons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gagliardo, Anna; Odetti, Francesca; Ioalè, Paolo

    2005-02-01

    To orient from familiar sites, homing pigeons can rely on both an olfactory map and visual familiar landmarks. The latter can in principle be used in two different ways: either within a topographical map exploited for piloting or in a so-called mosaic map associated with a compass bearing. One way to investigate the matter is to put the compass and the topographical information in conflict by releasing clock-shifted pigeons from familiar locations. Although the compass orientation is in general dominant over a piloting strategy, a stronger or weaker tendency to correct towards the home direction by clock-shifted pigeons released from very familiar sites has often been observed. To investigate which factors are involved in the reduction of the deviation due to clock-shift, we performed a series of releases with intact and anosmic pigeons from familiar sites in unshifted and clock-shifted conditions and a series of releases from the same sites with naive clock-shifted birds. Our data suggest that the following factors have a role in reducing deviation due to the clock-shift: familiarity with the release site, the lack of olfactory information and some unknown site-dependent features.

  11. Frequency comparison of lattice clocks toward the redefinition of the second

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ido, T

    2014-01-01

    Strontium is the most popular species for optical lattice clocks. Recent reports of the accuracies from Boulder, U.S. and Tokyo reach 10 −18 level, which is better than state-of-the-art caesium clocks more than one order of magnitude. While this achievement accelerates the discussion to redefine the second, the agreement of frequencies in separate laboratories is of critical importance. For this context, intercontinental comparison of Sr lattice clocks were demonstrated between Japan and Germany using a satellite-based technique. The frequency difference was consistent with zero with an uncertainty of 1.6 × 10 −15

  12. Multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann modeling of the acoustic field generated by focused transducer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shan, Feng; Guo, Xiasheng; Tu, Juan; Cheng, Jianchun; Zhang, Dong

    The high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has become an attractive therapeutic tool for the noninvasive tumor treatment. The ultrasonic transducer is the key component in HIFU treatment to generate the HIFU energy. The dimension of focal region generated by the transducer is closely relevant to the safety of HIFU treatment. Therefore, it is essential to numerically investigate the focal region of the transducer. Although the conventional acoustic wave equations have been used successfully to describe the acoustic field, there still exist some inherent drawbacks. In this work, we presented an axisymmetric isothermal multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method (MRT-LBM) model with the Bouzidi-Firdaouss-Lallemand (BFL) boundary condition in cylindrical coordinate system. With this model, some preliminary simulations were firstly conducted to determine a reasonable value of the relaxation parameter. Then, the validity of the model was examined by comparing the results obtained with the LBM results with the Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov (KZK) equation and the Spheroidal beam equation (SBE) for the focused transducers with different aperture angles, respectively. In addition, the influences of the aperture angle on the focal region were investigated. The proposed model in this work will provide significant references for the parameter optimization of the focused transducer for applications in the HIFU treatment or other fields, and provide new insights into the conventional acoustic numerical simulations.

  13. Anomalous relaxation and self-organization in non-equilibrium processes

    OpenAIRE

    Fatkullin, Ibrahim; Kladko, Konstantin; Mitkov, Igor; Bishop, A. R.

    2000-01-01

    We study thermal relaxation in ordered arrays of coupled nonlinear elements with external driving. We find, that our model exhibits dynamic self-organization manifested in a universal stretched-exponential form of relaxation. We identify two types of self-organization, cooperative and anti-cooperative, which lead to fast and slow relaxation, respectively. We give a qualitative explanation for the behavior of the stretched exponent in different parameter ranges. We emphasize that this is a sys...

  14. Analytical approximations for the amplitude and period of a relaxation oscillator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Golkhou Vahid

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Analysis and design of complex systems benefit from mathematically tractable models, which are often derived by approximating a nonlinear system with an effective equivalent linear system. Biological oscillators with coupled positive and negative feedback loops, termed hysteresis or relaxation oscillators, are an important class of nonlinear systems and have been the subject of comprehensive computational studies. Analytical approximations have identified criteria for sustained oscillations, but have not linked the observed period and phase to compact formulas involving underlying molecular parameters. Results We present, to our knowledge, the first analytical expressions for the period and amplitude of a classic model for the animal circadian clock oscillator. These compact expressions are in good agreement with numerical solutions of corresponding continuous ODEs and for stochastic simulations executed at literature parameter values. The formulas are shown to be useful by permitting quick comparisons relative to a negative-feedback represillator oscillator for noise (10× less sensitive to protein decay rates, efficiency (2× more efficient, and dynamic range (30 to 60 decibel increase. The dynamic range is enhanced at its lower end by a new concentration scale defined by the crossing point of the activator and repressor, rather than from a steady-state expression level. Conclusion Analytical expressions for oscillator dynamics provide a physical understanding for the observations from numerical simulations and suggest additional properties not readily apparent or as yet unexplored. The methods described here may be applied to other nonlinear oscillator designs and biological circuits.

  15. Modulation of learning and memory by the targeted deletion of the circadian clock gene Bmal1 in forebrain circuits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snider, Kaitlin H; Dziema, Heather; Aten, Sydney; Loeser, Jacob; Norona, Frances E; Hoyt, Kari; Obrietan, Karl

    2016-07-15

    A large body of literature has shown that the disruption of circadian clock timing has profound effects on mood, memory and complex thinking. Central to this time keeping process is the master circadian pacemaker located within the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Of note, within the central nervous system, clock timing is not exclusive to the SCN, but rather, ancillary oscillatory capacity has been detected in a wide range of cell types and brain regions, including forebrain circuits that underlie complex cognitive processes. These observations raise questions about the hierarchical and functional relationship between the SCN and forebrain oscillators, and, relatedly, about the underlying clock-gated synaptic circuitry that modulates cognition. Here, we utilized a clock knockout strategy in which the essential circadian timing gene Bmal1 was selectively deleted from excitatory forebrain neurons, whilst the SCN clock remained intact, to test the role of forebrain clock timing in learning, memory, anxiety, and behavioral despair. With this model system, we observed numerous effects on hippocampus-dependent measures of cognition. Mice lacking forebrain Bmal1 exhibited deficits in both acquisition and recall on the Barnes maze. Notably, loss of forebrain Bmal1 abrogated time-of-day dependent novel object location memory. However, the loss of Bmal1 did not alter performance on the elevated plus maze, open field assay, and tail suspension test, indicating that this phenotype specifically impairs cognition but not affect. Together, these data suggest that forebrain clock timing plays a critical role in shaping the efficiency of learning and memory retrieval over the circadian day. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Timing Jitter Analysis for Clock recovery Circuits Based on an Optoelectronic Phase-Locked Loop (OPLL)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zibar, Darko; Mørk, Jesper; Oxenløwe, Leif Katsuo

    2005-01-01

    Timing jitter of an OPLL based clock recovery is investigated. We demonstrate how loop gain, input and VCO signal jitter, loop filter bandwidth and a loop time delay influence jitter of the extracted clock signal......Timing jitter of an OPLL based clock recovery is investigated. We demonstrate how loop gain, input and VCO signal jitter, loop filter bandwidth and a loop time delay influence jitter of the extracted clock signal...

  17. An association between clock genes and clock-controlled cell cycle genes in murine colorectal tumors

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Soták, Matúš; Polidarová, Lenka; Ergang, Peter; Sumová, Alena; Pácha, Jiří

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 132, č. 5 (2013), s. 1032-1041 ISSN 0020-7136 R&D Projects: GA MZd(CZ) NS9982 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z50110509 Keywords : cancer * circadian rhythm * peripheral circadian clock Subject RIV: FE - Other Internal Medicine Disciplines Impact factor: 5.007, year: 2013

  18. Universal binding energy relation for cleaved and structurally relaxed surfaces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srirangarajan, Aarti; Datta, Aditi; Gandi, Appala Naidu; Ramamurty, U; Waghmare, U V

    2014-02-05

    The universal binding energy relation (UBER), derived earlier to describe the cohesion between two rigid atomic planes, does not accurately capture the cohesive properties when the cleaved surfaces are allowed to relax. We suggest a modified functional form of UBER that is analytical and at the same time accurately models the properties of surfaces relaxed during cleavage. We demonstrate the generality as well as the validity of this modified UBER through first-principles density functional theory calculations of cleavage in a number of crystal systems. Our results show that the total energies of all the relaxed surfaces lie on a single (universal) energy surface, that is given by the proposed functional form which contains an additional length-scale associated with structural relaxation. This functional form could be used in modelling the cohesive zones in crack growth simulation studies. We find that the cohesive law (stress-displacement relation) differs significantly in the case where cracked surfaces are allowed to relax, with lower peak stresses occurring at higher displacements.

  19. First-order finite-Larmor-radius fluid modeling of tearing and relaxation in a plasma pinch

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    King, J. R. [Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1150 University Ave., Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States); Tech-X Corporation, 5621 Arapahoe Ave., Suite A Boulder, Colorado 80303 (United States); Sovinec, C. R. [Department of Engineering-Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Engineering Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States); Mirnov, V. V. [Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1150 University Ave., Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)

    2012-05-15

    Drift and Hall effects on magnetic tearing, island evolution, and relaxation in pinch configurations are investigated using a non-reduced first-order finite-Larmor-radius (FLR) fluid model with the nonideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) with rotation, open discussion (NIMROD) code [C.R. Sovinec and J. R. King, J. Comput. Phys. 229, 5803 (2010)]. An unexpected result with a uniform pressure profile is a drift effect that reduces the growth rate when the ion sound gyroradius ({rho}{sub s}) is smaller than the tearing-layer width. This drift is present only with warm-ion FLR modeling, and analytics show that it arises from {nabla}B and poloidal curvature represented in the Braginskii gyroviscous stress. Nonlinear single-helicity computations with experimentally relevant {rho}{sub s} values show that the warm-ion gyroviscous effects reduce saturated-island widths. Computations with multiple nonlinearly interacting tearing fluctuations find that m = 1 core-resonant-fluctuation amplitudes are reduced by a factor of two relative to single-fluid modeling by the warm-ion effects. These reduced core-resonant-fluctuation amplitudes compare favorably to edge coil measurements in the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) reversed-field pinch [R. N. Dexter et al., Fusion Technol. 19, 131 (1991)]. The computations demonstrate that fluctuations induce both MHD- and Hall-dynamo emfs during relaxation events. The presence of a Hall-dynamo emf implies a fluctuation-induced Maxwell stress, and the simulation results show net transport of parallel momentum. The computed magnitude of force densities from the Maxwell and competing Reynolds stresses, and changes in the parallel flow profile, are qualitatively and semi-quantitatively similar to measurements during relaxation in MST.

  20. Communication: High pressure specific heat spectroscopy reveals simple relaxation behavior of glass forming molecular liquid

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Roed, Lisa Anita; Niss, Kristine; Jakobsen, Bo

    2015-01-01

    The frequency dependent specific heat has been measured under pressure for the molecular glass forming liquid 5-polyphenyl-4-ether in the viscous regime close to the glass transition. The temperature and pressure dependences of the characteristic time scale associated with the specific heat...... is compared to the equivalent time scale from dielectric spectroscopy performed under identical conditions. It is shown that the ratio between the two time scales is independent of both temperature and pressure. This observation is non-trivial and demonstrates the existence of specially simple molecular...... liquids in which different physical relaxation processes are both as function of temperature and pressure/density governed by the same underlying “inner clock.” Furthermore, the results are discussed in terms of the recent conjecture that van der Waals liquids, like the measuredliquid, comply...

  1. Relaxation characteristics of hastelloy X

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suzuki, Kazuhiko

    1980-02-01

    Relaxation diagrams of Hastelloy X (relaxation curves, relaxation design diagrams, etc.) were generated from the creep constitutive equation of Hastelloy X, using inelastic stress analysis code TEPICC-J. These data are in good agreement with experimental relaxation data of ORNL-5479. Three typical inelastic stress analyses were performed for various relaxation behaviors of the high-temperature structures. An attempt was also made to predict these relaxation behaviors by the relaxation curves. (author)

  2. Stress Relaxation Effects in TiNi SMA During Superelastic Deformation: Experiment and Constitutive Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pieczyska, Elżbieta A.; Kowalewski, Zbigniew L.; Dunić, Vladimir Lj.

    2017-12-01

    This paper presents an investigation of thermomechanical effects related to the phenomena of stress relaxation occurring in TiNi SMA subjected to modified program of displacement-controlled tension. The deformation data were taken from testing machine, whereas the temperature changes accompanying the exothermic/endothermic martensite forward/reverse transformation were measured by infrared camera. At the advanced stages of the transformations, the strain was kept constant for a few minutes and the SMA load and temperature were recorded continuously. As a consequence, the stress and temperature changed significantly during the loading stops. A large stress drop, caused by the transformation, was observed during the relaxation stage in both courses of the SMA loading and unloading. Moreover, the non-uniform temperature distribution, reflecting macroscopically inhomogeneous transformation, lapsed while the strain was kept constant, yet restarted at the end of the relaxation stop and developed at the reloading stage. Along with the experimental results, the mechanical and thermal responses induced by the transformation were obtained by 3D coupled thermomechanical numerical analysis, realized in partitioned approach. Latent heat production was correlated with an amount of the martensitic volume fraction. The stress and temperature drops recorded during the experiment were satisfactorily reproduced by the model proposed for the SMA thermomechanical coupling.

  3. The expression of melanopsin and clock genes in Xenopus laevis melanophores and their modulation by melatonin

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bluhm, A.P.C.; Obeid, N.N.; Castrucci, A.M.L.; Visconti, M.A. [Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP (Brazil)

    2012-05-25

    Vertebrates have a central clock and also several peripheral clocks. Light responses might result from the integration of light signals by these clocks. The dermal melanophores of Xenopus laevis have a photoreceptor molecule denominated melanopsin (OPN4x). The mechanisms of the circadian clock involve positive and negative feedback. We hypothesize that these dermal melanophores also present peripheral clock characteristics. Using quantitative PCR, we analyzed the pattern of temporal expression of Opn4x and the clock genes Per1, Per2, Bmal1, and Clock in these cells subjected to a 14-h light:10-h dark (14L:10D) regime or constant darkness (DD). Also, in view of the physiological role of melatonin in the dermal melanophores of X. laevis, we determined whether melatonin modulates the expression of these clock genes. These genes show a time-dependent expression pattern when these cells are exposed to 14L:10D, which differs from the pattern observed under DD. Cells kept in DD for 5 days exhibited overall increased mRNA expression for Opn4x and Clock, and a lower expression for Per1, Per2, and Bmal1. When the cells were kept in DD for 5 days and treated with melatonin for 1 h, 24 h before extraction, the mRNA levels tended to decrease for Opn4x and Clock, did not change for Bmal1, and increased for Per1 and Per2 at different Zeitgeber times (ZT). Although these data are limited to one-day data collection, and therefore preliminary, we suggest that the dermal melanophores of X. laevis might have some characteristics of a peripheral clock, and that melatonin modulates, to a certain extent, melanopsin and clock gene expression.

  4. The expression of melanopsin and clock genes in Xenopus laevis melanophores and their modulation by melatonin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bluhm, A.P.C.; Obeid, N.N.; Castrucci, A.M.L.; Visconti, M.A.

    2012-01-01

    Vertebrates have a central clock and also several peripheral clocks. Light responses might result from the integration of light signals by these clocks. The dermal melanophores of Xenopus laevis have a photoreceptor molecule denominated melanopsin (OPN4x). The mechanisms of the circadian clock involve positive and negative feedback. We hypothesize that these dermal melanophores also present peripheral clock characteristics. Using quantitative PCR, we analyzed the pattern of temporal expression of Opn4x and the clock genes Per1, Per2, Bmal1, and Clock in these cells subjected to a 14-h light:10-h dark (14L:10D) regime or constant darkness (DD). Also, in view of the physiological role of melatonin in the dermal melanophores of X. laevis, we determined whether melatonin modulates the expression of these clock genes. These genes show a time-dependent expression pattern when these cells are exposed to 14L:10D, which differs from the pattern observed under DD. Cells kept in DD for 5 days exhibited overall increased mRNA expression for Opn4x and Clock, and a lower expression for Per1, Per2, and Bmal1. When the cells were kept in DD for 5 days and treated with melatonin for 1 h, 24 h before extraction, the mRNA levels tended to decrease for Opn4x and Clock, did not change for Bmal1, and increased for Per1 and Per2 at different Zeitgeber times (ZT). Although these data are limited to one-day data collection, and therefore preliminary, we suggest that the dermal melanophores of X. laevis might have some characteristics of a peripheral clock, and that melatonin modulates, to a certain extent, melanopsin and clock gene expression

  5. Viscous relaxation as a prerequisite for tectonic resurfacing on Ganymede: Insights from numerical models of lithospheric extension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bland, Michael T.; McKinnon, William B.

    2018-05-01

    Ganymede's bright terrain formed during a near-global resurfacing event (or events) that produced both heavily tectonized and relatively smooth terrains. The mechanism(s) by which resurfacing occurred on Ganymede (e.g., cryovolcanic or tectonic), and the relationship between the older, dark and the younger, bright terrain are fundamental to understanding the geological evolution of the satellite. Using a two-dimensional numerical model of lithospheric extension that has previously been used to successfully simulate surface deformation consistent with grooved terrain morphologies, we investigate whether large-amplitude preexisting topography can be resurfaced (erased) by extension (i.e., tectonic resurfacing). Using synthetically produced initial topography, we show that when the total relief of the initial topography is larger than 25-50 m, periodic groove-like structures fail to form. Instead, extension is localized in a few individual, isolated troughs. These results pose a challenge to the tectonic resurfacing hypothesis. We further investigate the effects of preexisting topography by performing suites of simulations initialized with topography derived from digital terrain models of Ganymede's surface. These include dark terrain, fresh (relatively deep) impact craters, smooth bright terrain, and a viscously relaxed impact crater. The simulations using dark terrain and fresh impact craters are consistent with our simulations using synthetic topography: periodic groove-like deformation fails to form. In contrast, when simulations were initialized with bright smooth terrain topography, groove-like deformation results from a wide variety of heat flow and surface temperature conditions. Similarly, when a viscously relaxed impact crater was used, groove-like structures were able to form during extension. These results suggest that tectonic resurfacing may require that the amplitude of the initial topography be reduced before extension begins. We emphasize that viscous

  6. Bayesian view of single-qubit clocks, and an energy versus accuracy tradeoff

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gopalkrishnan, Manoj; Kandula, Varshith; Sriram, Praveen; Deshpande, Abhishek; Muralidharan, Bhaskaran

    2017-09-01

    We bring a Bayesian approach to the analysis of clocks. Using exponential distributions as priors for clocks, we analyze how well one can keep time with a single qubit freely precessing under a magnetic field. We find that, at least with a single qubit, quantum mechanics does not allow exact timekeeping, in contrast to classical mechanics, which does. We find the design of the single-qubit clock that leads to maximum accuracy. Further, we find an energy versus accuracy tradeoff—the energy cost is at least kBT times the improvement in accuracy as measured by the entropy reduction in going from the prior distribution to the posterior distribution. We propose a physical realization of the single-qubit clock using charge transport across a capacitively coupled quantum dot.

  7. Age-associated disruption of molecular clock expression in skeletal muscle of the spontaneously hypertensive rat.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mitsunori Miyazaki

    Full Text Available It is well known that spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR develop muscle pathologies with hypertension and heart failure, though the mechanism remains poorly understood. Woon et al. (2007 linked the circadian clock gene Bmal1 to hypertension and metabolic dysfunction in the SHR. Building on these findings, we compared the expression pattern of several core-clock genes in the gastrocnemius muscle of aged SHR (80 weeks; overt heart failure compared to aged-matched control WKY strain. Heart failure was associated with marked effects on the expression of Bmal1, Clock and Rora in addition to several non-circadian genes important in regulating skeletal muscle phenotype including Mck, Ttn and Mef2c. We next performed circadian time-course collections at a young age (8 weeks; pre-hypertensive and adult age (22 weeks; hypertensive to determine if clock gene expression was disrupted in gastrocnemius, heart and liver tissues prior to or after the rats became hypertensive. We found that hypertensive/hypertrophic SHR showed a dampening of peak Bmal1 and Rev-erb expression in the liver, and the clock-controlled gene Pgc1α in the gastrocnemius. In addition, the core-clock gene Clock and the muscle-specific, clock-controlled gene Myod1, no longer maintained a circadian pattern of expression in gastrocnemius from the hypertensive SHR. These findings provide a framework to suggest a mechanism whereby chronic heart failure leads to skeletal muscle pathologies; prolonged dysregulation of the molecular clock in skeletal muscle results in altered Clock, Pgc1α and Myod1 expression which in turn leads to the mis-regulation of target genes important for mechanical and metabolic function of skeletal muscle.

  8. Circadian Clocks and the Interaction between Stress Axis and Adipose Function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Isa Kolbe

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Many physiological processes and most endocrine functions show fluctuations over the course of the day. These so-called circadian rhythms are governed by an endogenous network of cellular clocks and serve as an adaptation to daily and, thus, predictable changes in the organism’s environment. Circadian clocks have been described in several tissues of the stress axis and in adipose cells where they regulate the rhythmic and stimulated release of stress hormones, such as glucocorticoids, and various adipokine factors. Recent work suggests that both adipose and stress axis clock systems reciprocally influence each other and adrenal-adipose rhythms may be key players in the development and therapy of metabolic disorders. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of adrenal and adipose tissue rhythms and clocks and how they might interact to regulate energy homoeostasis and stress responses under physiological conditions. Potential chronotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of metabolic and stress disorders are discussed.

  9. Biochemical Frequency Control by Synchronisation of Coupled Repressilators: An In Silico Study of Modules for Circadian Clock Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinze, Thomas; Schumann, Mathias; Bodenstein, Christian; Heiland, Ines; Schuster, Stefan

    2011-01-01

    Exploration of chronobiological systems emerges as a growing research field within bioinformatics focusing on various applications in medicine, agriculture, and material sciences. From a systems biological perspective, the question arises whether biological control systems for regulation of oscillatory signals and their technical counterparts utilise similar mechanisms. If so, modelling approaches and parameterisation adopted from building blocks can help to identify general components for frequency control in circadian clocks along with gaining insight into mechanisms of clock synchronisation to external stimuli like the daily rhythm of sunlight and darkness. Phase-locked loops could be an interesting candidate in this context. Both, biology and engineering, can benefit from a unified view resulting from systems modularisation. In a first experimental study, we analyse a model of coupled repressilators. We demonstrate its ability to synchronise clock signals in a monofrequential manner. Several oscillators initially deviate in phase difference and frequency with respect to explicit reaction and diffusion rates. Accordingly, the duration of the synchronisation process depends on dedicated reaction and diffusion parameters whose settings still lack to be sufficiently captured analytically. PMID:22046179

  10. Dielectric and shear mechanical relaxations in glass-forming liquids: A test of the Gemant-DiMarzio-Bishop model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Niss, K.; Jakobsen, B.; Olsen, N.B.

    2005-01-01

    that the Gemant-DiMarzio-Bishop model is correct on a qualitative level. The quantitative agreement between the model and the data is on the other hand moderate to poor. It is discussed if a model-free comparison between the dielectric and shear mechanical relaxations is relevant, and it is concluded...

  11. Supporting Family Awareness with the Whereabouts Clock

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sellen, Abigail; Taylor, Alex S.; Kaye, Joseph ‘Jofish'; Brown, Barry; Izadi, Shahram

    We report the results of a field trial of a situated awareness device for families called the “Whereabouts Clock”. The Clock displays the location of family members using cellphone data as one of four privacy-preserving, deliberately coarse-grained categories ( HOME, WORK, SCHOOL or ELSEWHERE). The results show that awareness of others through the Clock supports not only family communication and coordination but also more emotive aspects of family life such as reassurance, connectedness, identity and social touch. We discuss how the term “awareness” means many things in practice and highlight the importance of designing not just for family activities, but in order to support the emotional, social and even moral aspects of family life.

  12. Interstitial relaxations due to hydrostatic stress in niobium--oxygen alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tewari, S.N.

    1974-01-01

    Experimental investigations of the anelastic relaxation induced by hydrostatic stress in the range from ambient to 81 ksi were made for niobium--oxygen alloys. The anelastic responses, both for the pressurization and the pressure release experiments, were followed by measuring the relative length change between the oxygenated niobium sample and a pure niobium frame with a precision of about 2 A. The relaxation spectrum observed was shown to be made up of three distinct relaxations with unique relaxation times and strengths. The pressure dependence of the relaxation times gave the apparent activation volume for these relaxations of the order of 4 cm 3 /mole. The relaxations were observed to have relaxation strengths of the order of 10 -4 which were found to be independent of pressure up to 81 ksi. The relaxation times for these relaxations were found to occur in the same general temperature range as those for the Snoek relaxations of oxygen clusters in niobium. The temperature dependence of the relaxation times, however, gave activation energies of about 11 to 15 kcal/mole, as compared with roughly 27 to 29 kcal/mole for the Snoek relaxation of oxygen clusters in niobium. Several possible models for these relaxations were developed, however, none could predict the observed temperature dependence. The best interpretation of the data is that due to some anomalous competing relaxation the actual temperature dependence of these relaxations could not be observed. A completely self-consistent analysis is found which is based upon this assumption. (U.S.)

  13. The Chip-Scale Atomic Clock - Low-Power Physics Package

    Science.gov (United States)

    2004-12-01

    36th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting 339 THE CHIP-SCALE ATOMIC CLOCK – LOW-POWER PHYSICS PACKAGE R. Lutwak ...pdf/documents/ds-x72.pdf [2] R. Lutwak , D. Emmons, W. Riley, and R. M. Garvey, 2003, “The Chip-Scale Atomic Clock – Coherent Population Trapping vs...2002, Reston, Virginia, USA (U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C.), pp. 539-550. [3] R. Lutwak , D. Emmons, T. English, and W. Riley, 2004

  14. Remote atomic clock synchronization via satellites and optical fibers

    OpenAIRE

    Piester, D.; Rost, M.; Fujieda, M.; Feldmann, T.; Bauch, A.

    2011-01-01

    In the global network of institutions engaged with the realization of International Atomic Time (TAI), atomic clocks and time scales are compared by means of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and by employing telecommunication satellites for two-way satellite time and frequency transfer (TWSTFT). The frequencies of the state-of-the-art primary caesium fountain clocks can be compared at the level of 10−15 (relative, 1 day averaging) and time scales can be synchronized...

  15. Performance of a 229Thorium solid-state nuclear clock

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kazakov, G A; Schreitl, M; Winkler, G; Schumm, T; Litvinov, A N; Romanenko, V I; Yatsenko, L P; Romanenko, A V

    2012-01-01

    The 7.8 eV nuclear isomer transition in 229 thorium has been suggested as a clock transition in a new type of optical frequency standard. Here we discuss the construction of a ‘solid-state nuclear clock’ from thorium nuclei implanted into single crystals transparent in the vacuum ultraviolet range. We investigate crystal-induced line shifts and broadening effects for the specific system of calcium fluoride. At liquid nitrogen temperatures, the clock performance will be limited by decoherence due to magnetic coupling of the thorium nuclei to neighboring nuclear moments, ruling out the commonly used Rabi or Ramsey interrogation schemes. We propose clock stabilization based on a fluorescence spectroscopy method and present optimized operation parameters. Taking advantage of the large number of quantum oscillators under continuous interrogation, a fractional instability level of 10 −19 might be reached within the solid-state approach. (paper)

  16. CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED 1 Inhibits Leaf Senescence in Arabidopsis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi Song

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Leaf senescence is an integral part of plant development, and the timing and progressing rate of senescence could substantially affect the yield and quality of crops. It has been known that a circadian rhythm synchronized with external environmental cues is critical for the optimal coordination of various physiological and metabolic processes. However, the reciprocal interactions between the circadian clock and leaf senescence in plants remain unknown. Here, through measuring the physiological and molecular senescence related markers of several circadian components mutants, we found that CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED 1 inhibits leaf senescence. Further molecular and genetic studies revealed that CCA1 directly activates GLK2 and suppresses ORE1 expression to counteract leaf senescence. As plants age, the expression and periodic amplitude of CCA1 declines and thus weakens the inhibition of senescence. Our findings reveal an age-dependent circadian clock component of the process of leaf senescence.

  17. Faraday-Shielded dc Stark-Shift-Free Optical Lattice Clock

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beloy, K.; Zhang, X.; McGrew, W. F.; Hinkley, N.; Yoon, T. H.; Nicolodi, D.; Fasano, R. J.; Schäffer, S. A.; Brown, R. C.; Ludlow, A. D.

    2018-05-01

    We demonstrate the absence of a dc Stark shift in an ytterbium optical lattice clock. Stray electric fields are suppressed through the introduction of an in-vacuum Faraday shield. Still, the effectiveness of the shielding must be experimentally assessed. Such diagnostics are accomplished by applying high voltage to six electrodes, which are grounded in normal operation to form part of the Faraday shield. Our measurements place a constraint on the dc Stark shift at the 10-20 level, in units of the clock frequency. Moreover, we discuss a potential source of error in strategies to precisely measure or cancel nonzero dc Stark shifts, attributed to field gradients coupled with the finite spatial extent of the lattice-trapped atoms. With this consideration, we find that Faraday shielding, complemented with experimental validation, provides both a practically appealing and effective solution to the problem of dc Stark shifts in optical lattice clocks.

  18. Capturing molecular multimode relaxation processes in excitable gases based on decomposition of acoustic relaxation spectra

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Ming; Liu, Tingting; Wang, Shu; Zhang, Kesheng

    2017-08-01

    Existing two-frequency reconstructive methods can only capture primary (single) molecular relaxation processes in excitable gases. In this paper, we present a reconstructive method based on the novel decomposition of frequency-dependent acoustic relaxation spectra to capture the entire molecular multimode relaxation process. This decomposition of acoustic relaxation spectra is developed from the frequency-dependent effective specific heat, indicating that a multi-relaxation process is the sum of the interior single-relaxation processes. Based on this decomposition, we can reconstruct the entire multi-relaxation process by capturing the relaxation times and relaxation strengths of N interior single-relaxation processes, using the measurements of acoustic absorption and sound speed at 2N frequencies. Experimental data for the gas mixtures CO2-N2 and CO2-O2 validate our decomposition and reconstruction approach.

  19. Determination of the thermal radiation effect on an optical strontium lattice clock; Bestimmung des Einflusses thermischer Strahlung auf eine optische Strontium-Gitteruhr

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Middelmann, Thomas

    2013-05-31

    Optical clocks have the potential to be 100 times more accurate than current best cesium atomic clocks within a fraction of the averaging time. This corresponds to a fractional uncertainty of the clock frequency on the level of 10{sup -18} and requires highaccuracy knowledge of systematic frequency shifts, such that they can be avoided or corrected for. In strontium optical lattice clocks an ensemble of ultracold strontium atoms is confined in an optical lattice, to allow for spectroscopy of the reference transition 5s{sup 2} {sup 1}S{sub 0}-5s5p {sup 3}P{sub 0} in the Lamb-Dicke regime. The by far largest systematic frequency shift of the strontium clock transition is caused by its high sensitivity to blackbody radiation (BBR). The knowledge of the resulting frequency shift limited the achievable clock uncertainty to about 1 x 10{sup -16}. In this thesis for the first time an experimental approach was followed, to determine the sensitivity of the strontium clock transition to blackbody radiation. At an environmental temperature of 300 K the resulting frequency shift corresponds to 2.277 8(23) Hz. The achieved uncertainty contributes with 5 x 10{sup -18} to the fractional systematic uncertainty of the clock frequency. The determination is based on a precision measurement of the difference of static polarizabilities of the two clock states {Delta}{alpha}{sub dc} = {alpha}(5s5p {sup 3}P{sub 0})-{alpha}(5s{sup 2} {sup 1}S{sub 0}) = 4.078 73(11) x 10{sup -39} Cm{sup 2} /V. For this the de Stark shift of the clock transition has been measured in the accurately known electric field of a precision plate capacitor, which has been developed in this work. The attained static polarizability difference {Delta}{alpha}{sub dc} corresponds to the first term of a power series of the sensitivity to BBR. Higher orders are accumulated as dynamic part of the BBR shift. Which has been modelled using {Delta}{alpha}{sub dc} and experimental data for other atomic properties. To

  20. PDF and cAMP enhance PER stability in Drosophila clock neurons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yue; Guo, Fang; Shen, James; Rosbash, Michael

    2014-01-01

    The neuropeptide PDF is important for Drosophila circadian rhythms: pdf01 (pdf-null) animals are mostly arrhythmic or short period in constant darkness and have an advanced activity peak in light–dark conditions. PDF contributes to the amplitude, synchrony, as well as the pace of circadian rhythms within clock neurons. PDF is known to increase cAMP levels in PDR receptor (PDFR)-containing neurons. However, there is no known connection of PDF or of cAMP with the Drosophila molecular clockworks. We discovered that the mutant period gene perS ameliorates the phenotypes of pdf-null flies. The period protein (PER) is a well-studied repressor of clock gene transcription, and the perS protein (PERS) has a markedly short half-life. The result therefore suggests that the PDF-mediated increase in cAMP might lengthen circadian period by directly enhancing PER stability. Indeed, increasing cAMP levels and cAMP-mediated protein kinase A (PKA) activity stabilizes PER, in S2 tissue culture cells and in fly circadian neurons. Adding PDF to fly brains in vitro has a similar effect. Consistent with these relationships, a light pulse causes more prominent PER degradation in pdf01 circadian neurons than in wild-type neurons. The results indicate that PDF contributes to clock neuron synchrony by increasing cAMP and PKA, which enhance PER stability and decrease clock speed in intrinsically fast-paced PDFR-containing clock neurons. We further suggest that the more rapid degradation of PERS bypasses PKA regulation and makes the pace of clock neurons more uniform, allowing them to avoid much of the asynchrony caused by the absence of PDF. PMID:24707054