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At least 703 records · Page 39Linked to original sources
PubMed2006

Gamma-ray bursts: huge explosion in the early Universe.

Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are bright flashes of high-energy photons that can last for tens of minutes; they are generally associated with galaxies that have a high rate of star formation and probably arise from the collapsing cores of massive stars, which produce highly relativistic jets (collapsar model). Here we describe gamma- and X-ray observations of the most distant GRB ever observed (GRB 050904): its redshift (z) of 6.29 means that this explosion happened 12.8 billion years ago, corresponding to a time when the Universe was just 890 million years old, close to the reionization era. This means that not only did stars form in this short period of time after the Big Bang, but also that enough time had elapsed for them to evolve and collapse into black holes.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Interplanetary dust from the explosive dispersal of hydrated asteroids by impacts.

The Earth accretes about 30,000 tons of dust particles per year, with sizes in the range of 20-400 microm (refs 1, 2). Those particles collected at the Earth's surface--termed micrometeorites--are similar in chemistry and mineralogy to hydrated, porous meteorites, but such meteorites comprise only 2.8% of recovered falls. This large difference in relative abundances has been attributed to 'filtering' by the Earth's atmosphere, that is, the porous meteorites are considered to be so friable that they do not survive the impact with the atmosphere. Here we report shock-recovery experiments on two porous meteorites, one of which is hydrated and the other is anhydrous. The application of shock to the hydrated meteorite reduces it to minute particles and explosive expansion results upon release of the pressure, through a much broader range of pressures than for the anhydrous meteorite. Our results indicate that hydrated asteroids will produce dust particles during collisions at a much higher rate than anhydrous asteroids, which explains the different relative abundances of the hydrated material in micrometeorites and meteorites: the abundances are established before contact with the Earth's atmosphere.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2006

Relativistic ejecta from X-ray flash XRF 060218 and the rate of cosmic explosions.

Over the past decade, long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)--including the subclass of X-ray flashes (XRFs)--have been revealed to be a rare variety of type Ibc supernova. Although all these events result from the death of massive stars, the electromagnetic luminosities of GRBs and XRFs exceed those of ordinary type Ibc supernovae by many orders of magnitude. The essential physical process that causes a dying star to produce a GRB or XRF, and not just a supernova, is still unknown. Here we report radio and X-ray observations of XRF 060218 (associated with supernova SN 2006aj), the second-nearest GRB identified until now. We show that this event is a hundred times less energetic but ten times more common than cosmological GRBs. Moreover, it is distinguished from ordinary type Ibc supernovae by the presence of 10(48) erg coupled to mildly relativistic ejecta, along with a central engine (an accretion-fed, rapidly rotating compact source) that produces X-rays for weeks after the explosion. This suggests that the production of relativistic ejecta is the key physical distinction between GRBs or XRFs and ordinary supernovae, while the nature of the central engine (black hole or magnetar) may distinguish typical bursts from low-luminosity, spherical events like XRF 060218.

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PubMed2003

Gas-phase reactions for selective detection of the explosives TNT and RDX.

Highly selective gas-phase reactions with ethyl vinyl ether (EVE) of major electron (EI) and chemical ionization (CI) fragment ions of the explosives TNT and RDX have been uncovered. The fragment ion of m/z 210 from TNT undergoes [4(+)+ 2] cycloaddition with EVE to form an oxo-iminium ion of m/z 282, which dissociates by acetaldehyde loss after a [1,5-H] shift to form a quinolynium ion of m/z 238. The fragment ion of m/z 149 from RDX reacts with EVE by a formal vinylation reaction, that is, the elusive cyclic adduct loses ethanol to yield a nitro-iminium ion of m/z 175, which reacts further with EVE to form a second cyclic product ion of m/z 247. Calculations and MS/MS experiments support the proposed structures. These highly characteristic reactions of diagnostic EI and CI fragment ions improve selectivity for TNT and RDX detection.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Sauna-induced rapid weight loss decreases explosive power in women but not in men.

This study aimed at investigating to what extent sauna-induced dehydration is effective to rapidly decrease body weight and whether this practice alters strength and/or explosive power (jump capacity) in healthy athletes. We also investigated whether the observed changes could be rapidly reversed through rehydration. Six male (aged 21.6 +/- 1.8 y) and six female (aged 24.5 +/- 3.7 y) athletes who were not familiar with weight cutting procedures were tested on three occasions: 1) before sauna, 2) after three consecutive sauna sessions (3 x 20 min at 70 degrees C, with 5 min rest interval), and 3) after one hour rehydration period (2.5 ml/kg body weight every 15 min). For rehydration, a carbohydrate beverage (6.3 % glucose, 9.5 mmol/l Na (+), 10 degrees C) was used. Evaluation consisted of body composition, strength (row-strength, handgrip-strength) and jump capacity (squat jump, counter-movement jump and elastic capacity). Sauna-induced dehydration, significantly decreased body weight in men (- 1.8 +/- 0.5 %) and women (-1.4 +/- 0.6 %). This reduction could not be rapidly reversed through rehydration. This weight cutting scheme did not affect strength or jump capacity in men. In women, a statistically significant decrease in squat jump was manifested after rehydration compared to pre-sauna values 23.7 +/- 2.2 vs. 25.2 +/- 1.4 cm, p < 0.05). The squat jump decrease in women was linearly and directly related to the percent reduction of body weight.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Role of mono- and biarticular muscles in explosive movements.

From 24 vertical jumps (eight subjects, three jumps each), calculations of forces, torques, and power per joint were combined with EMG data of eight leg muscles and with estimations of their contraction velocities. In the second part of the push-off, a high power output of 3000-4000 W was delivered in the ankle joints during plantar flexion. This is attributed to a sequential energy flow from hip to knee and ankle joints. Through coordinated actions of both the m. gluteus maximus and the m. rectus femoris as well as the m. vastus med., intermedius and lat. (mm. vasti) and the m. gastrocnemius, power delivered by the monoarticular extensors of the hip and knee joints was transported distally via the biarticular muscles to the ankle joints. During the high plantar flexion velocity at the end of the push-off, hip and knee joints showed high extension velocities resulting in relatively low contraction velocities for the biarticular muscles. As a consequence they could deliver high forces, which allowed them to transport energy in a proximodistal direction and allowed them to decelerate the angular velocities of the hip and knee joints without losses due to eccentric contractions. It is concluded that this power transport is essential in the execution of explosive movements.

Ankle Joint↗
PubMed2000

Combinatorial explosion in model gene networks.

The explosive growth in knowledge of the genome of humans and other organisms leaves open the question of how the functioning of genes in interacting networks is coordinated for orderly activity. One approach to this problem is to study mathematical properties of abstract network models that capture the logical structures of gene networks. The principal issue is to understand how particular patterns of activity can result from particular network structures, and what types of behavior are possible. We study idealized models in which the logical structure of the network is explicitly represented by Boolean functions that can be represented by directed graphs on n-cubes, but which are continuous in time and described by differential equations, rather than being updated synchronously via a discrete clock. The equations are piecewise linear, which allows significant analysis and facilitates rapid integration along trajectories. We first give a combinatorial solution to the question of how many distinct logical structures exist for n-dimensional networks, showing that the number increases very rapidly with n. We then outline analytic methods that can be used to establish the existence, stability and periods of periodic orbits corresponding to particular cycles on the n-cube. We use these methods to confirm the existence of limit cycles discovered in a sample of a million randomly generated structures of networks of 4 genes. Even with only 4 genes, at least several hundred different patterns of stable periodic behavior are possible, many of them surprisingly complex. We discuss ways of further classifying these periodic behaviors, showing that small mutations (reversal of one or a few edges on the n-cube) need not destroy the stability of a limit cycle. Although these networks are very simple as models of gene networks, their mathematical transparency reveals relationships between structure and behavior, they suggest that the possibilities for orderly dynamics in such networks are extremely rich and they offer novel ways to think about how mutations can alter dynamics. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1996

The large-scale vortex structures in plasma-like media and the electric explosion of conductors.

Formation of large-scale hydrodynamic convective patterns in plasma-like current-carrying media is considered. This process is shown to be described by the same equations, as Benard rolls, except that a temperature field must be replaced by a magnetic field. A simple low-mode model of spatial pattern formation for a case of cylindrical liquid-metal conductor with current is proposed and investigated. Nonlinear interaction of perturbations of the magnetic field and the velocity field results in an increase of effective conductor resistance even when transport coefficients are constant. In our opinion, it is this instability, that is of first importance at the initial stages of the electric explosion of conductors. In particular, it leads to conductor stratification and electric current interruption. (c) 1996 American Institute of Physics.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Modeling of heat explosion with convection.

The work is devoted to numerical simulations of the interaction of heat explosion with natural convection. The model consists of the heat equation with a nonlinear source term describing heat production due to an exothermic chemical reaction coupled with the Navier-Stokes equations under the Boussinesq approximation. We show how complex regimes appear through successive bifurcations leading from a stable stationary temperature distribution without convection to a stationary symmetric convective solution, stationary asymmetric convection, periodic in time oscillations, and finally aperiodic oscillations. A simplified model problem is suggested. It describes the main features of solutions of the complete problem.

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PubMed2006

Energy pooling in multiple ionization and Coulomb explosion of clusters by nanosecond-long, megawatt laser pulses.

We report the results of experiments that establish the possibility of bringing about multiple ionization and Coulomb explosion of molecular clusters with nanosecond laser pulses at intensities as small as 10(9) W cm(-2). We demonstrate several new facets of the laser-cluster interaction in the low-intensity, long-pulse domain: (i) The choice of laser wavelength for a given cluster species is very crucial. (ii) Excited electronic states play a very important role in the ionization dynamics. (iii) When field ionization is insignificant and ponderomotive energies are very small, it is energy pooling rather than inverse bremsstrahlung that determines how clusters absorb energy from the optical field.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2007

Coulomb explosion of K-shell ionized krypton clusters studied by multiple-ion coincidence momentum imaging.

The Coulomb explosion of K-shell ionized krypton clusters with an average size N of 160 has been studied by electron-multiple-ion-coincidence measurements in which the time-of-flight (TOF) of ions was measured by using a position sensitive detector. The authors have sorted the TOF spectra by the number of coincidence ion signals, Ncoin, and found that singly charged fragment ions such as Kr+, Kr2+, and Kr3+ are dominant for Ncoin>or=2, and that multiply charged ions are detected mainly for Ncoin=1. The Ncoin dependence of the peak widths in the TOF spectra reveals that the average momentum of the Kr+ ions increases with Ncoin, while those of Kr2+ and Kr3+ decrease. These results have been more directly confirmed by the momentum imaging measurements. The authors propose that the heavier ions are produced in the central part of clusters where the Coulomb interactions from the surrounding ions are more effectively canceled out due to the higher symmetry.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Regular multicharged transient soft matter in Coulomb explosion of heteroclusters.

Nanointerfaces of mobile, thin spherical shells of light ions that expand on the femtosecond time scale, can be produced by Coulomb explosion of extremely ionized molecular heteroclusters consisting of light and heavy ions, e.g., (D+Iq+)n (q = 7-35), which are generated in ultraintense laser fields (intensity, I, = 10(16) to 10(20) W.cm(-2)). Modeling, together with molecular dynamics simulations, reveals the expansion of 2D monolayers with high energies and narrow energy distributions [e.g., Eav approximately 23 keV and DeltaE/Eav = 0.16 for D+ from (D+I25+)(2171)] arising from kinematic run-over effects. The expanding regular, monoionic, spherical nanointerfaces manifest the attainment of transient self-organization in complex systems driven by repulsive Coulomb interactions.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1977

Free calcium increases explosively in activating medaka eggs.

We have used the calcium-specific light-emitting protein aequorin to follow changes in free calcium concentration during fertilization and cleavage of eggs from medaka, a fresh-water fish. Aequorin-injected medaka eggs show a very low resting glow before they are fertilized, indicating a low calcium concentration in the resting state. Upon activation by sperm, the calcium-mediated light emission increases to a level some 10,000 times the resting level with a 1 to 2 sec time constant for an e-fold increase, and then slowly retruns to the resting level. Upon activation by the ionophore A23187, the early rise in luminescence is much slower, but once a threshold has been reached the subsequent rise becomes as rapid as the normal sperm-induced response. We infer that the explosive rise in calcium involves calcium-stimulated calcium release, and that a sperm normally triggers this rise by somehow inducing a more modest and localized rise in calcium.

Aequorin↗