Electron-phonon induced spin relaxation in InAs quantum dots

We have calculated spin relaxation rates in parabolic quantum dots due to the phonon modulation of the spin-orbit interaction in presence of an external magnetic field. Both, deformation potential and piezoelectric electron-phonon coupling mechanisms are included within the Pavlov-Firsov spin-phonon Hamiltonian. Our results have demonstrated that, in narrow gap materials, the electron-phonon deformation potential and piezoelectric coupling give comparable contributions as spin relaxation processes. For large dots, the deformation potential interaction becomes dominant. This behavior is not observed in wide or intermediate gap semiconductors, where the piezoelectric coupling, in general, governs the spin relaxation processes. We also have demonstrated that spin relaxation rates are particularly sensitive to the Land\'e $g$-factor.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to be appear in Physica E: Proceedings of the 11 International Conference on Narrow Gap Semiconductor

Science with the EXTraS Project: Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky

The EXTraS project (Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky) will characterise the temporal behaviour of the largest ever sample of objects in the soft X-ray range (0.1-12 keV) with a complex, systematic and consistent analysis of all data collected by the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) instrument onboard the ESA XMM-Newton X-ray observatory since its launch. We will search for, and characterize variability (both periodic and aperiodic) in hundreds of thousands of sources spanning more than nine orders of magnitude in time scale and six orders of magnitude in flux. We will also search for fast transients, missed by standard image analysis. Our analysis will be completed by multiwavelength characterization of new discoveries and phenomenological classification of variable sources. All results and products will be made available to the community in a public archive, serving as a reference for a broad range of astrophysical investigations.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Refereed Proceeding of "The Universe of Digital Sky Surveys" conference held at the INAF - Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, on 25th-28th November 2014, to be published in the Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, edited by Longo, Napolitano, Marconi, Paolillo, Iodic

Bioresponsive hydrogels

We highlight recent developments in hydrogel materials with biological responsiveness built in. These ‘smart’ biomaterials change properties in response to selective biological recognition events. When exposed to a biological target (nutrient, growth factor, receptor, antibody, enzyme, or whole cell), molecular recognition events trigger changes in molecular interactions that translate into macroscopic responses, such as swelling/collapse or solution-to-gel transitions. The hydrogel transitions may be used directly as optical readouts for biosensing, linked to the release of actives for drug delivery, or instigate biochemical signaling events that control or direct cellular behavior. Accordingly, bioresponsive hydrogels have gained significant interest for application in diagnostics, drug delivery, and tissue regeneration/wound healing

Shifting a Quantum Wire through a Disordered Crystal: Observation of Conductance Fluctuations in Real Space

A quantum wire is spatially displaced by suitable electric fields with respect to the scatterers inside a semiconductor crystal. As a function of the wire position, the low-temperature resistance shows reproducible fluctuations. Their characteristic temperature scale is a few hundred millikelvin, indicating a phase-coherent effect. Each fluctuation corresponds to a single scatterer entering or leaving the wire. This way, scattering centers can be counted one by one.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Outpatient versus inpatient uterine polyp treatment for abnormal uterine bleeding: randomised controlled non-inferiority study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness and acceptability of outpatient polypectomy with inpatient polypectomy. DESIGN: Pragmatic multicentre randomised controlled non-inferiority study. SETTING: Outpatient hysteroscopy clinics in 31 UK National Health Service hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: 507 women who attended as outpatients for diagnostic hysteroscopy because of abnormal uterine bleeding and were found to have uterine polyps. INTERVENTIONS: Participants were randomly assigned to either outpatient uterine polypectomy under local anaesthetic or inpatient uterine polypectomy under general anaesthesia. Data were collected on women's self reported bleeding symptoms at baseline and at 6, 12, and 24 months. Data were also collected on pain and acceptability of the procedure at the time of polypectomy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was successful treatment, determined by the women's assessment of bleeding at six months, with a prespecified non-inferiority margin of 25%. Secondary outcomes included generic (EQ-5D) and disease specific (menorrhagia multi-attribute scale) quality of life, and feasibility and acceptability of the procedure. RESULTS: 73% (166/228) of women in the outpatient group and 80% (168/211) in the inpatient group reported successful treatment at six months (intention to treat relative risk 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.82 to 1.02; per protocol relative risk 0.92, 0.82 to 1.02). Failure to remove polyps was higher (19% v 7%; relative risk 2.5, 1.5 to 4.1) and acceptability of the procedure was lower (83% v 92%; 0.90, 0.84 to 0.97) in the outpatient group Quality of life did not differ significantly between the groups. Four uterine perforations, one of which necessitated bowel resection, all occurred in the inpatient group. CONCLUSIONS: Outpatient polypectomy was non-inferior to inpatient polypectomy. Failure to remove a uterine polyp was, however, more likely with outpatient polypectomy and acceptability of the procedure was slightly lower

Outpatient versus inpatient uterine polyp treatment for abnormal uterine bleeding: randomised controlled non-inferiority study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness and acceptability of outpatient polypectomy with inpatient polypectomy. DESIGN: Pragmatic multicentre randomised controlled non-inferiority study. SETTING: Outpatient hysteroscopy clinics in 31 UK National Health Service hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: 507 women who attended as outpatients for diagnostic hysteroscopy because of abnormal uterine bleeding and were found to have uterine polyps. INTERVENTIONS: Participants were randomly assigned to either outpatient uterine polypectomy under local anaesthetic or inpatient uterine polypectomy under general anaesthesia. Data were collected on women's self reported bleeding symptoms at baseline and at 6, 12, and 24 months. Data were also collected on pain and acceptability of the procedure at the time of polypectomy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was successful treatment, determined by the women's assessment of bleeding at six months, with a prespecified non-inferiority margin of 25%. Secondary outcomes included generic (EQ-5D) and disease specific (menorrhagia multi-attribute scale) quality of life, and feasibility and acceptability of the procedure. RESULTS: 73% (166/228) of women in the outpatient group and 80% (168/211) in the inpatient group reported successful treatment at six months (intention to treat relative risk 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.82 to 1.02; per protocol relative risk 0.92, 0.82 to 1.02). Failure to remove polyps was higher (19% v 7%; relative risk 2.5, 1.5 to 4.1) and acceptability of the procedure was lower (83% v 92%; 0.90, 0.84 to 0.97) in the outpatient group Quality of life did not differ significantly between the groups. Four uterine perforations, one of which necessitated bowel resection, all occurred in the inpatient group. CONCLUSIONS: Outpatient polypectomy was non-inferior to inpatient polypectomy. Failure to remove a uterine polyp was, however, more likely with outpatient polypectomy and acceptability of the procedure was slightly lower

Evidence for orbital ordering in LaCoO3

We present powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction data as evidence for a monoclinic distortion in the low spin (S=0) and intermediate spin state (S=1) of LaCoO3. The alternation of short and long bonds in the ab plane indicates the presence of eg orbital ordering induced by a cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion. We observe an increase of the Jahn-Teller distortion with temperature in agreement with a thermally activated behavior of the Co3+ ions from a low-spin ground state to an intermediate-spin excited state.Comment: Accepted to Phys. Rev.

Solar Magnetic Carpet I: Simulation of Synthetic Magnetograms

This paper describes a new 2D model for the photospheric evolution of the magnetic carpet. It is the first in a series of papers working towards constructing a realistic 3D non-potential model for the interaction of small-scale solar magnetic fields. In the model, the basic evolution of the magnetic elements is governed by a supergranular flow profile. In addition, magnetic elements may evolve through the processes of emergence, cancellation, coalescence and fragmentation. Model parameters for the emergence of bipoles are based upon the results of observational studies. Using this model, several simulations are considered, where the range of flux with which bipoles may emerge is varied. In all cases the model quickly reaches a steady state where the rates of emergence and cancellation balance. Analysis of the resulting magnetic field shows that we reproduce observed quantities such as the flux distribution, mean field, cancellation rates, photospheric recycle time and a magnetic network. As expected, the simulation matches observations more closely when a larger, and consequently more realistic, range of emerging flux values is allowed (4e16 - 1e19 Mx). The model best reproduces the current observed properties of the magnetic carpet when we take the minimum absolute flux for emerging bipoles to be 4e16 Mx. In future, this 2D model will be used as an evolving photospheric boundary condition for 3D non-potential modeling.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures, 5 gif movies included: movies may be viewed at http://www-solar.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/~karen/movies_paper1

Fertility, Living Arrangements, Care and Mobility

There are four main interconnecting themes around which the contributions in this book are based. This introductory chapter aims to establish the broad context for the chapters that follow by discussing each of the themes. It does so by setting these themes within the overarching demographic challenge of the twenty-first century – demographic ageing. Each chapter is introduced in the context of the specific theme to which it primarily relates and there is a summary of the data sets used by the contributors to illustrate the wide range of cross-sectional and longitudinal data analysed

Admixture mapping identifies an amerindian ancestry locus associated with albuminuria in hispanics in the United States

Increased urine albumin excretion is highly prevalent in Hispanics/Latinos. Previous studies have found an association between urine albumin excretion and Amerindian ancestry in Hispanic/Latino populations. Admixture between racial/ ethnic groups creates long-range linkage disequilibrium between variants with different allelic frequencies in the founding populations and it can be used to localize genes. Hispanic/Latino genomes are an admixture of European, African, and Amerindian ancestries. We leveraged this admixture to identify associations between urine albumin excretion (urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio [UACR]) and genomic regions harboring variants with highly differentiated allele frequenciesamongtheancestralpopulations.Admixturemappinganalysis of 12,212HispanicCommunityHealth Study/Study of Latinos participants, using a linearmixedmodel, identified three novel genome-wide significant signals on chromosomes 2, 11, and 16. The admixture mapping signal identified on chromosome2, spanning q11.2-14.1 and notpreviously reported forUACR,isdrivenby a differencebetween Amerindian ancestry and theother twoancestries (P<5.7 × 10-5). Within this locus, two common variants located at the proapoptotic BCL2L11 gene associated with UACR: rs116907128 (allele frequency=0.14;P=1.531027) and rs586283 (Callele frequency=0.35;P=4.2×10-7). In a secondary analysis, rs116907128 accounted for most of the admixture mapping signal observed in the region. The rs116907128 variant is commonamong full-heritage Pima Indians (A allele frequency=0.54) but ismonomorphic in the 1000Genomes European and African populations. In a replication analysis using a sample of full-heritage Pima Indians, rs116907128 significantly associated with UACR (P=0.01; n=1568).Our findingsprovideevidence for thepresenceof Amerindian-specific variants influencing the variation of urine albumin excretion in Hispanics/Latinos