1,247 research outputs found
Temperature behavior of the magnon modes of the square lattice antiferromagnet
A spin-wave theory of short-range order in the square lattice Heisenberg
antiferromagnet is formulated. With growing temperature from T=0 a gapless mode
is shown to arise simultaneously with opening a gap in the conventional
spin-wave mode. The spectral intensity is redistributed from the latter mode to
the former. For low temperatures the theory reproduces results of the modified
spin-wave theory by M.Takahashi, J.E.Hirsch et al. and without fitting
parameters gives values of observables in good agreement with Monte Carlo
results in the temperature range 0 <= T < 0.8J where J is the exchange
constant.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
One-loop approximation for the Heisenberg antiferromagnet
We use the diagram technique for spin operators to calculate Green's
functions and observables of the spin-1/2 quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on
a square lattice. The first corrections to the self-energy and interaction are
taken into account in the chain diagrams. The approximation reproduces main
results of Takahashi's modified spin-wave theory [Phys. Rev. B 40, 2494 (1989)]
and is applicable in a wider temperature range. The energy per spin calculated
in this approximation is in good agreement with the Monte Carlo and
small-cluster exact-diagonalization calculations in the range 0 <= T < 1.2J
where J is the exchange constant. For the static uniform susceptibility the
agreement is good for T < 0.6J and becomes somewhat worse for higher
temperatures. Nevertheless the approximation is able to reproduce the maximum
in the temperature dependence of the susceptibility near T = 0.9J.Comment: 15 pages, 6 ps figure
Quality of Life in Chronic Pancreatitis is Determined by Constant Pain, Disability/Unemployment, Current Smoking, and Associated Co-Morbidities
OBJECTIVES: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) has a profound independent effect on quality of life (QOL). Our aim was to identify factors that impact the QOL in CP patients. METHODS: We used data on 1,024 CP patients enrolled in the three NAPS2 studies. Information on demographics, risk factors, co-morbidities, disease phenotype, and treatments was obtained from responses to structured questionnaires. Physical and mental component summary (PCS and MCS, respectively) scores generated using responses to the Short Form-12 (SF-12) survey were used to assess QOL at enrollment. Multivariable linear regression models determined independent predictors of QOL. RESULTS: Mean PCS and MCS scores were 36.7+/-11.7 and 42.4+/-12.2, respectively. Significant (P \u3c 0.05) negative impact on PCS scores in multivariable analyses was noted owing to constant mild-moderate pain with episodes of severe pain or constant severe pain (10 points), constant mild-moderate pain (5.2), pain-related disability/unemployment (5.1), current smoking (2.9 points), and medical co-morbidities. Significant (P \u3c 0.05) negative impact on MCS scores was related to constant pain irrespective of severity (6.8-6.9 points), current smoking (3.9 points), and pain-related disability/unemployment (2.4 points). In women, disability/unemployment resulted in an additional 3.7 point reduction in MCS score. Final multivariable models explained 27% and 18% of the variance in PCS and MCS scores, respectively. Etiology, disease duration, pancreatic morphology, diabetes, exocrine insufficiency, and prior endotherapy/pancreatic surgery had no significant independent effect on QOL. CONCLUSIONS: Constant pain, pain-related disability/unemployment, current smoking, and concurrent co-morbidities significantly affect the QOL in CP. Further research is needed to identify factors impacting QOL not explained by our analyses
DoubleMod and SingleMod: Simple Randomized Secret-Key Encryption with Bounded Homomorphicity
An encryption relation f Z Z with decryption function f 1 is “group-homomorphic”
if, for any suitable plaintexts x1 and x2, x1+x2 = f 1( f (x1)+f (x2)). It is “ring-homomorphic”
if furthermore x1x2 = f 1( f (x1) f (x2)); it is “field-homomorphic” if furthermore 1=x1 =
f 1( f (1=x1)). Such relations would support oblivious processing of encrypted data.
We propose a simple randomized encryption relation f over the integers, called
DoubleMod, which is “bounded ring-homomorphic” or what some call ”somewhat homomorphic.”
Here, “bounded” means that the number of additions and multiplications that can
be performed, while not allowing the encrypted values to go out of range, is limited (any
pre-specified bound on the operation-count can be accommodated). Let R be any large integer.
For any plaintext x 2 ZR, DoubleMod encrypts x as f (x) = x + au + bv, where a
and b are randomly chosen integers in some appropriate interval, while (u; v) is the secret
key. Here u > R2 is a large prime and the smallest prime factor of v exceeds u. With
knowledge of the key, but not of a and b, the receiver decrypts the ciphertext by computing
f 1(y) = (y mod v) mod u.
DoubleMod generalizes an independent idea of van Dijk et al. 2010. We present and
refine a new CCA1 chosen-ciphertext attack that finds the secret key of both systems (ours
and van Dijk et al.’s) in linear time in the bit length of the security parameter. Under a
known-plaintext attack, breaking DoubleMod is at most as hard as solving the Approximate
GCD (AGCD) problem. The complexity of AGCD is not known.
We also introduce the SingleMod field-homomorphic cryptosystems. The simplest
SingleMod system based on the integers can be broken trivially. We had hoped, that if
SingleMod is implemented inside non-Euclidean quadratic or higher-order fields with large
discriminants, where GCD computations appear di cult, it may be feasible to achieve a
desired level of security. We show, however, that a variation of our chosen-ciphertext attack
works against SingleMod even in non-Euclidean fields
DNA repair systems and the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: varying activities at different stages of infection
Mycobacteria, including most of all MTB (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), cause pathogenic infections in humans and, during the infectious process, are exposed to a range of environmental insults, including the host's immune response. From the moment MTB is exhaled by infected individuals, through an active and latent phase in the body of the new host, until the time they reach the reactivation stage, MTB is exposed to many types of DNA-damaging agents. Like all cellular organisms, MTB has efficient DNA repair systems, and these are believed to play essential roles in mycobacterial pathogenesis. As different stages of infection have great variation in the conditions in which mycobacteria reside, it is possible that different repair systems are essential for progression to specific phases of infection. MTB possesses homologues of DNA repair systems that are found widely in other species of bacteria, such as nucleotide excision repair, base excision repair and repair by homologous recombination. MTB also possesses a system for non-homologous end-joining of DNA breaks, which appears to be widespread in prokaryotes, although its presence is sporadic within different species within a genus. However, MTB does not possess homologues of the typical mismatch repair system that is found in most bacteria. Recent studies have demonstrated that DNA repair genes are expressed differentially at each stage of infection. In the present review, we focus on different DNA repair systems from mycobacteria and identify questions that remain in our understanding of how these systems have an impact upon the infection processes of these important pathogens
Beneficial autoimmunity at body surfaces – immune surveillance and rapid type 2 immunity regulate tissue homeostasis and cancer
Epithelial cells line body surface tissues and provide a physicochemical barrier to the external environment. Frequent microbial and non-microbial challenges such as those imposed by mechanical disruption, injury or exposure to noxious environmental substances including chemicals, carcinogens, ultraviolet-irradiation or toxins cause activation of epithelial cells with release of cytokines and chemokines as well as alterations in the expression of cell surface ligands. Such display of epithelial stress is rapidly sensed by tissue resident immunocytes, which can directly interact with self-moieties on epithelial cells and initiate both local and systemic immune responses. Epithelial cells are thus key drivers of immune surveillance at body surface tissues. However, epithelial cells have a propensity to drive type 2 immunity (rather than type 1) upon non-invasive challenge or stress – a type of immunity whose regulation and function still remain enigmatic. Here we review the induction and possible role of type 2 immunity in epithelial tissues and propose that rapid immune surveillance and type 2 immunity are key regulators of tissue homeostasis and carcinogenesis
The yeast P5 type ATPase, Spf1, regulates manganese transport into the endoplasmic reticulum
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a large, multifunctional and essential organelle. Despite intense research, the function of more than a third of ER proteins remains unknown even in the well-studied model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. One such protein is Spf1, which is a highly conserved, ER localized, putative P-type ATPase. Deletion of SPF1 causes a wide variety of phenotypes including severe ER stress suggesting that this protein is essential for the normal function of the ER. The closest homologue of Spf1 is the vacuolar P-type ATPase Ypk9 that influences Mn2+ homeostasis. However in vitro reconstitution assays with Spf1 have not yielded insight into its transport specificity. Here we took an in vivo approach to detect the direct and indirect effects of deleting SPF1. We found a specific reduction in the luminal concentration of Mn2+ in ∆spf1 cells and an increase following it’s overexpression. In agreement with the observed loss of luminal Mn2+ we could observe concurrent reduction in many Mn2+-related process in the ER lumen. Conversely, cytosolic Mn2+-dependent processes were increased. Together, these data support a role for Spf1p in Mn2+ transport in the cell. We also demonstrate that the human sequence homologue, ATP13A1, is a functionally conserved orthologue. Since ATP13A1 is highly expressed in developing neuronal tissues and in the brain, this should help in the study of Mn2+-dependent neurological disorders
Spin dynamics in semiconductors
This article reviews the current status of spin dynamics in semiconductors
which has achieved a lot of progress in the past years due to the fast growing
field of semiconductor spintronics. The primary focus is the theoretical and
experimental developments of spin relaxation and dephasing in both spin
precession in time domain and spin diffusion and transport in spacial domain. A
fully microscopic many-body investigation on spin dynamics based on the kinetic
spin Bloch equation approach is reviewed comprehensively.Comment: a review article with 193 pages and 1103 references. To be published
in Physics Reports
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