4,663 research outputs found
Critical depinning force and vortex lattice order in disordered superconductors
We simulate the ordering of vortices and its effects on the critical current
in superconductors with varied vortex-vortex interaction strength and varied
pinning strengths for a two-dimensional system. For strong pinning the vortex
lattice is always disordered and the critical depinning force only weakly
increases with decreasing vortex-vortex interactions. For weak pinning the
vortex lattice is defect free until the vortex-vortex interactions have been
reduced to a low value, when defects begin to appear with a simultaneous rapid
increase in the critical depinning force. In each case the depinning force
shows a maximum for non-interacting vortices. The relative height of the peak
increases and the peak width decreases for decreasing pinning strength in
excellent agreement with experimental trends associated with the peak effect.
We show that scaling relations exist between the distance between defects in
the vortex lattice and the critical depinning force.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Cascaded two-photon nonlinearity in a one-dimensional waveguide with multiple two-level emitters
We propose and theoretically investigate a model to realize cascaded optical
nonlinearity with few atoms and photons in one-dimension (1D). The optical
nonlinearity in our system is mediated by resonant interactions of photons with
two-level emitters, such as atoms or quantum dots in a 1D photonic waveguide.
Multi-photon transmission in the waveguide is nonreciprocal when the emitters
have different transition energies. Our theory provides a clear physical
understanding of the origin of nonreciprocity in the presence of cascaded
nonlinearity. We show how various two-photon nonlinear effects including
spatial attraction and repulsion between photons, background fluorescence can
be tuned by changing the number of emitters and the coupling between emitters
(controlled by the separation).Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Stimulation of Na<sup>+</sup>/H<sup>+</sup> Exchanger Isoform 1 Promotes Microglial Migration
Regulation of microglial migration is not well understood. In this study, we proposed that Na+/H+ exchanger isoform 1 (NHE-1) is important in microglial migration. NHE-1 protein was co-localized with cytoskeletal protein ezrin in lamellipodia of microglia and maintained its more alkaline intracellular pH (pHi). Chemoattractant bradykinin (BK) stimulated microglial migration by increasing lamellipodial area and protrusion rate, but reducing lamellipodial persistence time. Interestingly, blocking NHE-1 activity with its potent inhibitor HOE 642 not only acidified microglia, abolished the BK-triggered dynamic changes of lamellipodia, but also reduced microglial motility and microchemotaxis in response to BK. In addition, NHE-1 activation resulted in intracellular Na+ loading as well as intracellular Ca2+ elevation mediated by stimulating reverse mode operation of Na+/Ca2+ exchange (NCXrev). Taken together, our study shows that NHE-1 protein is abundantly expressed in microglial lamellipodia and maintains alkaline pHi in response to BK stimulation. In addition, NHE-1 and NCXrev play a concerted role in BK-induced microglial migration via Na+ and Ca2+ signaling. © 2013 Shi et al
Common Origin for the Solar and Atmospheric Neutrino Deficits
Some typos corrected, slightly different abstract, same plots, results and
conclusions.Comment: 14 Latex pages, 3 figures attached as postscript files, IFP-472-UNC,
PRL-TH-93/1
Renewable Energy (RE): Bioenergy -Feedstocks and Pretreatment-
The Department for Pulsed Power Technology is focusing on research and development of pulsed power technologies and related applications. The applications involves the electroporation of biological cells for extraction of cell contents (PEF- process), dewatering and drying of green biomass, pre-treatment of micro algae for energetic use and sustainable reduction of bacteria in contaminated effluents. Another key research topic is devoted to the development of corrosion barriers and materials for improved compatibility of structural materials in contact with liquid metal coolants. This year\u27s report focuses primarily on the activities and results of ongoing third-party funded projects of the department
Development of a LAMP assay for detection of Leishmania infantum infection in dogs using conjunctival swab samples
Background: Leishmania infantum infections in dogs play a crucial role in the transmission of pathogens causing visceral leishmaniasis to humans in the Gansu province, northwest China. To be able to control zoonotic transmission of the parasite to humans, a non-invasive loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay to specifically detect L. infantum infections in dogs was developed. Methods: The primers used in the LAMP assay were designed to target kinetoplast DNA minicircle sequences of the L. infantum isolate MCAN/CN/90/SC and tested using DNA isolated from promastigotes of different Leishmania species. The LAMP assay was evaluated with conjunctional swab samples obtained from 111 and 33 dogs living in an endemic and a non-endemic region of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis in the Gansu province, respectively. The LAMP assay was also compared with conventional PCR, ELISA and microscopy using conjunctional swab, serum and bone marrow samples from the dogs, respectively. Results: The LAMP assay detected 1 fg of L. infantum DNA purified from cultured promastigotes which was 10-fold more sensitive than a conventional PCR test using Leishmania genus-specific primers. No cross reaction was observed with DNA isolated from promastigotes of L. donovani, L. major, L. tropica, and L. braziliensis, and the L. infantum reference strain MHOM/TN/80/IPT1. The L. infantum-positive rates obtained for field-collected samples were 61.3%, 58.6%, 40.5% and 10.8% by LAMP, PCR, ELISA and microscopy, respectively. As only one out of the 33 samples from control dogs from the non-endemic region of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis was positive by the LAMP assay and the PCR test, the observed true negative rate (specificity) was 97% for both methods. Conclusion: This study has shown that the non-invasive, conjunctional swab-based LAMP assay developed was more sensitive in the detection of leishmaniasis in dogs than PCR, ELISA and microscopy. The findings indicate that the LAMP assay is a sensitive and specific method for the field surveillance of domestic dogs, particularly of asymptomatic canines, in ZVL-endemic areas in western China
Development of an eight-band theory for quantum-dot heterostructures
We derive a nonsymmetrized 8-band effective-mass Hamiltonian for quantum-dot
heterostructures (QDHs) in Burt's envelope-function representation. The 8x8
radial Hamiltonian and the boundary conditions for the Schroedinger equation
are obtained for spherical QDHs. Boundary conditions for symmetrized and
nonsymmetrized radial Hamiltonians are compared with each other and with
connection rules that are commonly used to match the wave functions found from
the bulk kp Hamiltonians of two adjacent materials. Electron and hole energy
spectra in three spherical QDHs: HgS/CdS, InAs/GaAs, and GaAs/AlAs are
calculated as a function of the quantum dot radius within the approximate
symmetrized and exact nonsymmetrized 8x8 models. The parameters of dissymmetry
are shown to influence the energy levels and the wave functions of an electron
and a hole and, consequently, the energies of both intraband and interband
transitions.Comment: 36 pages, 10 figures, E-mail addresses: [email protected],
[email protected]
Implications of mirror neutrinos for early universe cosmology
The Exact Parity Model (EPM) is, in part, a theory of neutrino mass and
mixing that can solve the atmospheric, solar and LSND anomalies. The central
feature of the neutrino sector is three pairs of maximally mixed ordinary and
mirror neutrinos. It has been shown that ordinary-mirror neutrino oscillations
can generate large neutrino asymmetries in the epoch of the early universe
immediately prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). The large neutrino
asymmetries generically suppress the production of mirror neutrinos, and a
sufficiently large asymmetry can directly affect light element
synthesis through nuclear reaction rates. In this paper we present a detailed
calculation of neutrino asymmetry evolution driven by the six-flavour EPM
neutrino sector, focusing on implications for BBN.Comment: Latex, about 55 pages long with some figure
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