The laser propagation and energy absorption of an argon spark induced by a laser at different pressures is investigated. 8 ns pulses from a frequency-doubled Q-switched Nd:YAG laser are used to create the spark. The pressure of the argon is varied from 1 atm to 10 Torr. Significant energy absorption by the plasma is observed at high pressures (.100 Torr) while there is negligible absorption whe...

Debugging data processing logic in Data-Intensive Scalable Computing (DISC) systems is a difficult and time consuming effort. Today's DISC systems offer very little tooling for debugging programs, and as a result programmers spend countless hours collecting evidence (e.g., from log files) and performing trial and error debugging. To aid this effort, we built Titian, a library that enables data ...

Next Generation Sequencing has resulted in the generation of large number of omics data at a faster speed that was not possible before. This data is only useful if it can be stored and analyzed at the same speed. Big Data platforms and tools like Apache Hadoop and Spark has solved this problem. However, most of the algorithms used in bioinformatics for Pairwise alignment, Multiple Alignment and...

To trigger action potentials in neurons, most investigators use electrical or chemical stimulation. Here we describe an optical stimulation method based on semi-synthetic light-activated ion channels. These SPARK (synthetic photoisomerizable azobenzene-regulated K(+)) channels consist of a synthetic azobenzene-containing photoswitch and a genetically modified Shaker K(+) channel protein. SPARK ...

A difficulty of using confocal microscopy to study Ca2+ sparks is the uncertainty of the linescan position with respect to the source of Ca2+ release. Random placement of the linescan is expected to result in a broad distribution of measured Ca2+ spark amplitudes (a) even if all Ca2+ sparks were generated identically. Thus variations in Ca2+ spark amplitude due to positional differences between...

Conventional tests for investigating the minimum ignition energy (MIE) of dust clouds are restricted to energies above a few mJ, due to the challenges of producing sparks of very low energies that can be synchronised with a transient dust cloud. In this paper, a new circuit for generating capacitive sparks of significantly lower energies than 1mJ is presented. A measurement system for capturing...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of SPARK Physical Education (PE) program on fundamental motor skills in 4-6 year children. SPARK (Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids) is an evidence based PE program designed in order to promote the lifelong wellbeing. METHODS In total, 90 children aged 4 to 6 years were selected randomly. The children were allocated ...

In cardiac muscle, Ca2+ is released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) in units called Ca2+ sparks. Ca2+ spark characteristics have been studied almost entirely at room temperature. This study compares characteristics of spontaneous sparks detected with fluo 3 in resting mouse ventricular myocytes at 22 and 37 degrees C. The incidence and frequency of Ca2+ sparks decreased dramatically at 37 ...