455 research outputs found
Experimental time-resolved photoemission and ab initio study of lifetimes of excited electrons in Mo and Rh
We have studied the relaxation dynamics of optically excited electrons in
molybdenum and rhodium by means of time resolved two-photon photoemission
spectroscopy (TR-2PPE) and ab initio electron self-energy calculations
performed within the GW and GW+T approximations. Both theoretical approaches
reproduce qualitatively the experimentally observed trends and differences in
the lifetimes of excited electrons in molybdenum and rhodium. For excitation
energies exceeding the Fermi energy by more than 1 eV, the GW+T theory yields
lifetimes in quantitative agreement with the experimental results. As one of
the relevant mechanisms causing different excited state lifetime in Mo and Rh
we identify the occupation of the 4d bands. An increasing occupation of the 4d
bands results in an efficient decrease of the lifetime even for rather small
excitation energies of a few 100 meV.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure
Responsiveness of five condition-specific and generic outcome assessment instruments for chronic pain
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Changes of health and quality-of-life in chronic conditions are mostly small and require specific and sensitive instruments. The aim of this study was to determine and compare responsiveness, i.e. the sensitivity to change of five outcome instruments for effect measurement in chronic pain.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a prospective cohort study, 273 chronic pain patients were assessed on the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for pain, the Short Form 36 (SF-36), the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ). Responsiveness was quantified by effect size (ES) and standardized response mean (SRM) before and after a four week in-patient interdisciplinary pain program and compared by the modified Jacknife test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The MPI measured pain more responsively than the SF-36 (ES: 0.85 vs 0.72, p = 0.053; SRM: 0.72 vs 0.60, p = 0.027) and the pain NRS (ES: 0.85 vs 0.62, p < 0.001; SRM: 0.72 vs 0.57, p = 0.001). Similar results were found for the dimensions of role and social interference with pain. Comparison in function was limited due to divergent constructs. The responsiveness of the MPI and the SF-36 was equal for affective health but both were better than the HADS (e.g. MPI vs HADS depression: ES: 0.61 vs 0.43, p = 0.001; SF-36 vs HADS depression: ES: 0.54 vs 0.43, p = 0.004). In the "ability to control pain" coping dimension, the MPI was more responsive than the CSQ (ES: 0.46 vs 0.30, p = 0.011).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The MPI was most responsive in all comparable domains followed by the SF-36. The pain-specific MPI and the generic SF-36 can be recommended for comprehensive and specific bio-psycho-social effect measurement of health and quality-of-life in chronic pain.</p
Love kills: Simulations in Penna Ageing Model
The standard Penna ageing model with sexual reproduction is enlarged by
adding additional bit-strings for love: Marriage happens only if the male love
strings are sufficiently different from the female ones. We simulate at what
level of required difference the population dies out.Comment: 14 pages, including numerous figure
Structure and electronic properties of the () SnAu/Au(111) surface alloy
We have investigated the atomic and electronic structure of the
() SnAu/Au(111) surface alloy. Low
energy electron diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy measurements show
that the native herringbone reconstruction of bare Au(111) surface remains
intact after formation of a long range ordered () SnAu2/Au(111) surface alloy. Angle-resolved
photoemission and two-photon photoemission spectroscopy techniques reveal
Rashba-type spin-split bands in the occupied valence band with comparable
momentum space splitting as observed for the Au(111) surface state, but with a
hole-like parabolic dispersion. Our experimental findings are compared with
density functional theory (DFT) calculation that fully support our experimental
findings. Taking advantage of the good agreement between our DFT calculations
and the experimental results, we are able to extract that the occupied Sn-Au
hybrid band is of (s, d)-orbital character while the unoccupied Sn-Au hybrid
bands are of (p, d)-orbital character. Hence, we can conclude that the
Rashba-type spin splitting of the hole-like Sn-Au hybrid surface state is
caused by the significant mixing of Au d- to Sn s-states in conjunction with
the strong atomic spin-orbit coupling of Au, i.e., of the substrate.Comment: Copyright:
https://journals.aps.org/authors/transfer-of-copyright-agreement; All
copyrights by AP
Deterministic spatio-temporal control of nano-optical fields in optical antennas and nano transmission lines
We show that pulse shaping techniques can be applied to tailor the ultrafast
temporal response of the strongly confined and enhanced optical near fields in
the feed gap of resonant optical antennas (ROAs). Using finite-difference
time-domain (FDTD) simulations followed by Fourier transformation, we obtain
the impulse response of a nano structure in the frequency domain, which allows
obtaining its temporal response to any arbitrary pulse shape. We apply the
method to achieve deterministic optimal temporal field compression in ROAs with
reduced symmetry and in a two-wire transmission line connected to a symmetric
dipole antenna. The method described here will be of importance for experiments
involving coherent control of field propagation in nanophotonic structures and
of light-induced processes in nanometer scale volumes.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Comparison in the immunological properties of Borrelia burgdorferi isolates from Ixodes ricinus derived from three endemic areas in Switzerland
Borrelia burgdorferi isolates were obtained from Ixodes ricinus from three sites in Switzerland. They were examined by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting. The phenotypes, in respect of three outer surface proteins (Osp), differed between the sites of collection. In site 1, most isolates had an OspA of 31 kDa and an OspB of 34 kDa: in site 2, isolates presenting an OspA of 33 kDa dominated and in site 3, the isolates with an OspA of 32 kDa and an OspB of 35 kDa were most frequent. This distribution differed significantly. About half of the isolates from sites 1 and 3 reacted with anti-OspA monoclonal antibody H5332 compared to 29% from site 2. Site 1 isolates reacted significantly more frequently (81 %) with another anti-OspA monoclonal antibody LA-31 than isolates from site 3 (P < 0·0001). These findings have implications for the epidemiology of Lyme borreliosis, for the further development of serodiagnostic reagents and for the development of a vaccin
Dynamics of Excited Electrons in Copper and Ferromagnetic Transition Metals: Theory and Experiment
Both theoretical and experimental results for the dynamics of photoexcited
electrons at surfaces of Cu and the ferromagnetic transition metals Fe, Co, and
Ni are presented. A model for the dynamics of excited electrons is developed,
which is based on the Boltzmann equation and includes effects of
photoexcitation, electron-electron scattering, secondary electrons (cascade and
Auger electrons), and transport of excited carriers out of the detection
region. From this we determine the time-resolved two-photon photoemission
(TR-2PPE). Thus a direct comparison of calculated relaxation times with
experimental results by means of TR-2PPE becomes possible. The comparison
indicates that the magnitudes of the spin-averaged relaxation time \tau and of
the ratio \tau_\uparrow/\tau_\downarrow of majority and minority relaxation
times for the different ferromagnetic transition metals result not only from
density-of-states effects, but also from different Coulomb matrix elements M.
Taking M_Fe > M_Cu > M_Ni = M_Co we get reasonable agreement with experiments.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, added a figure and an appendix, updated
reference
Energy-resolved electron-spin dynamics at surfaces of p-doped GaAs
Electron-spin relaxation at different surfaces of p-doped GaAs is
investigated by means of spin, time and energy resolved 2-photon photoemission.
These results are contrasted with bulk results obtained by time-resolved
Faraday rotation measurements as well as calculations of the Bir-Aronov-Pikus
spin-flip mechanism. Due to the reduced hole density in the band bending region
at the (100) surface the spin-relaxation time increases over two orders of
magnitude towards lower energies. At the flat-band (011) surface a constant
spin relaxation time in agreement with our measurements and calculations for
bulk GaAs is obtained.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
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