5,924 research outputs found
Diffusion behavior of water confined in deformed carbon nanotubes
We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the diffusion of water inside
deformed carbon nanotubes, with different degrees of eccentricity at 300K. We
found a water structural transition between tubular-like to single-file for the
(7,7) nanotubes associated with a change from a high to low mobility regimes.
The water which in the undeformed (9,9) nanotubes is frozen, becomes liquid for
the distortion above a certain threshold. These water diffusion enhancement
(suppresion) is related to a reduction (increase) in the number of hydrogen
bonds. This suggests that the shape of the nanotube is a particularly important
ingredient when considering the dynamical and structural properties of confined
water.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure
Thermal diffusion by Brownian motion induced fluid stress
The Ludwig-Soret effect, the migration of a species due to a temperature
gradient, has been extensively studied without a complete picture of its cause
emerging. Here we investigate the dynamics of DNA and spherical particles sub
jected to a thermal gradient using a combination of Brownian dynamics and the
lattice Boltzmann method. We observe that the DNA molecules will migrate to
colder regions of the channel, an observation also made in the experiments of
Duhr, et al[1]. In fact, the thermal diffusion coefficient found agrees
quantitatively with the experimental value. We also observe that the thermal
diffusion coefficient decreases as the radius of the studied spherical
particles increases. Furthermore, we observe that the thermal
fluctuations-fluid momentum flux coupling induces a gradient in the stress
which leads to thermal migration in both systems.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figue
The Nucleon Spectral Function at Finite Temperature and the Onset of Superfluidity in Nuclear Matter
Nucleon selfenergies and spectral functions are calculated at the saturation
density of symmetric nuclear matter at finite temperatures. In particular, the
behaviour of these quantities at temperatures above and close to the critical
temperature for the superfluid phase transition in nuclear matter is discussed.
It is shown how the singularity in the thermodynamic T-matrix at the critical
temperature for superfluidity (Thouless criterion) reflects in the selfenergy
and correspondingly in the spectral function. The real part of the on-shell
selfenergy (optical potential) shows an anomalous behaviour for momenta near
the Fermi momentum and temperatures close to the critical temperature related
to the pairing singularity in the imaginary part. For comparison the selfenergy
derived from the K-matrix of Brueckner theory is also calculated. It is found,
that there is no pairing singularity in the imaginary part of the selfenergy in
this case, which is due to the neglect of hole-hole scattering in the K-matrix.
From the selfenergy the spectral function and the occupation numbers for finite
temperatures are calculated.Comment: LaTex, 23 pages, 21 PostScript figures included (uuencoded), uses
prc.sty, aps.sty, revtex.sty, psfig.sty (last included
Extraction of the electron mass from factor measurements on light hydrogenlike ions
The determination of the electron mass from Penning-trap measurements with
C ions and from theoretical results for the bound-electron
factor is described in detail. Some recently calculated contributions slightly
shift the extracted mass value. Prospects of a further improvement of the
electron mass are discussed both from the experimental and from the theoretical
point of view. Measurements with He ions will enable a consistency
check of the electron mass value, and in future an improvement of the He
nuclear mass and a determination of the fine-structure constant
The spectrum of phenotypes associated with mutations in steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1, NR5A1, Ad4BP) includes severe penoscrotal hypospadias in 46,XY males without adrenal insufficiency
OBJECTIVE. Hypospadias is a frequent congenital anomaly but in most cases an underlying cause is not found. Steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1, NR5A1, Ad4BP) is a key regulator of human sex development and an increasing number of SF-1 (NR5A1) mutations are reported in 46,XY disorders of sex development (DSD). We hypothesized that NR5A1 mutations could be identified in boys with hypospadias.
DESIGN AND METHODS. Mutational analysis of NR5A1 in 60 individuals with varying degrees of hypospadias from the German DSD network.
RESULTS. Heterozygous NR5A1 mutations were found in three out of 60 cases. These three individuals represented the most severe end of the spectrum studied as they presented with penoscrotal hypospadias, variable androgenization of the phallus and undescended testes (three out of 20 cases (15%) with this phenotype). Testosterone was low in all three patients and inhibin B/anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) were low in two patients. Two patients had a clear male gender assignment. Gender re-assignment to male occurred in the third case. Two patients harbored heterozygous nonsense mutations (p.Q107X/WT, p.E11X/WT). One patient had a heterozygous splice site mutation in intron 2 (c.103-3A/WT) predicted to disrupt the main DNA-binding motif. Functional studies of the nonsense mutants showed impaired transcriptional activation of an SF-1-responsive promoter (Cyp11a). To date, adrenal insufficiency has not occurred in any of the patients.
CONCLUSIONS. SF-1 (NR5A1) mutations should be considered in 46,XY individuals with severe (penoscrotal) hypospadias, especially if undescended testes, low testosterone, or low inhibin B/AMH levels are present. SF-1 mutations in milder forms of idiopathic hypospadias are unlikely to be common
Field and Temperature Dependence of the Superfluid Density in LaO_{1-x}F_xFeAs Superconductors: A Muon Spin Relaxation Study
We present zero field and transverse field \muSR experiments on the recently
discovered electron doped Fe-based superconductor LaO_{1-x}F_xFeAs. The zero
field experiments on underdoped (x=0.075) and optimally doped (x=0.1) samples
rule out any static magnetic order above 1.6 K in these superconducting
samples. From transverse field experiments in the vortex phase we deduce the
temperature and field dependence of the superfluid density. Whereas the
temperature dependence is consistent with a weak coupling BCS s-wave or a dirty
d-wave gap function scenario, the field dependence strongly evidences
unconventional superconductivity. We obtain the in-plane penetration depth of
\lambda_{ab} (0) = 254(2)nm for LaO_{0.9}F_{0.1}FeAs and \lambda_{ab} (0) =
364(8)nm for LaO_{0.925}F_{0.075}FeAs. Further evidence for unconventional
superconductivity is provided by the ratio of T_c versus the superfluid
density, which is close to the Uemura line of hole doped high-T_c cuprates.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Triggering up states in all-to-all coupled neurons
Slow-wave sleep in mammalians is characterized by a change of large-scale
cortical activity currently paraphrased as cortical Up/Down states. A recent
experiment demonstrated a bistable collective behaviour in ferret slices, with
the remarkable property that the Up states can be switched on and off with
pulses, or excitations, of same polarity; whereby the effect of the second
pulse significantly depends on the time interval between the pulses. Here we
present a simple time discrete model of a neural network that exhibits this
type of behaviour, as well as quantitatively reproduces the time-dependence
found in the experiments.Comment: epl Europhysics Letters, accepted (2010
Self-consistent treatment of the self-energy in nuclear matter
The influence of hole-hole propagation in addition to the conventional
particle-particle propagation, on the energy per nucleon and the momentum
distribution is investigated. The results are compared to the
Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) calculations with a continuous choice and
conventional choice for the single-particle spectrum. The Bethe-Goldstone
equation has been solved using realistic interactions. Also, the structure
of nucleon self-energy in nuclear matter is evaluated. All the self-energies
are calculated self-consistently. Starting from the BHF approximation without
the usual angle-average approximation, the effects of hole-hole contributions
and a self-consistent treatment within the framework of the Green function
approach are investigated. Using the self-consistent self-energy, the hole and
particle self-consistent spectral functions including the particle-particle and
hole-hole ladder contributions in nuclear matter are calculated using realistic
interactions. We found that, the difference in binding energy between both
results, i.e. BHF and self-consistent Green function, is not large. This
explains why is the BHF ignored the 2h1p contribution.Comment: Preprint 20 pages including 15 figures and one tabl
Monte Carlo study of Si(111) homoepitaxy
An attempt is made to simulate the homoepitaxial growth of a Si(111) surface
by the kinetic Monte Carlo method in which the standard Solid-on-Solid model
and the planar model of the (7x7) surface reconstruction are used in
combination.
By taking account of surface reconstructions as well as atomic deposition and
migrations, it is shown that the effect of a coorparative stacking
transformation is necessary for a layer growth.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. For Fig.1 of this article, please see Fig.2 of
Phys.Rev. B56, 3583 (1997). To appear in Phys.Rev.B. (June 1998
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