9,763 research outputs found
Comment on ``Validity of Feynman's prescription of disregarding the Pauli principle in intermediate states''
In a recent paper Coutinho, Nogami and Tomio [Phys. Rev. A 59, 2624 (1999);
quant-ph/9812073] presented an example in which, they claim, Feynman's
prescription of disregarding the Pauli principle in intermediate states of
perturbation theory fails. We show that, contrary to their claim, Feynman's
prescription is consistent with the exact solution of their example.Comment: 1 pag
Doped AB_2 Hubbard Chain: Spiral, Nagaoka and RVB States, Phase Separation and Luttinger Liquid Behavior
We present an extensive numerical study of the Hubbard model on the doped
AB chain, both in the weak coupling and the infinite-U limit. Due to the
special unit cell topology, this system displays a rich variety of phases as
function of hole doping () away from half-filling. Near half-filling,
spiral states develop in the weak coupling regime, while Nagaoka itinerant
ferromagnetism is observed in the infinite-U limit. For higher doping the
system phase-separates before reaching a Mott insulating phase of short-range
RVB states at . Moreover, for we observe a crossover,
which anticipates the Luttinger liquid behavior for .Comment: 11 pages, 13 figure
Inducing energy gaps in graphene monolayer and bilayer
In this paper we propose a mechanism for the induction of energy gaps in the
spectrum of graphene and its bilayer, when both these materials are covered
with water and ammonia molecules. The energy gaps obtained are within the range
20-30 meV, values compatible to those found in experimental studies of graphene
bilayer. We further show that the binding energies are large enough for the
adsorption of the molecules to be maintained even at room temperature
Magnetism and Electronic Correlations in Quasi-One-Dimensional Compounds
In this contribution on the celebration of the 80th birthday anniversary of
Prof. Ricardo Ferreira, we present a brief survey on the magnetism of
quasi-one-dimensional compounds. This has been a research area of intense
activity particularly since the first experimental announcements of magnetism
in organic and organometallic polymers in the mid 80s. We review experimental
and theoretical achievements on the field, featuring chain systems of
correlated electrons in a special AB2 unit cell structure present in inorganic
and organic compounds
Protective role of new nitrogen compounds on ROS/RNS-mediated damage to PC12 cells
Reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen (RNS) species are known to be involved in many degenerative diseases. This study
reports four new nitrogen compounds from organic synthesis, identified as FMA4, FMA7, FMA762 and FMA796, which
differ mainly by the number of hydroxyl groups within their phenolic unit. Their potential role as antioxidants was evaluated
in PC12 cells by assessing their protection against oxidative and nitrosative insults. The four compounds, and particularly
FMA762 and FMA796, were able to protect cells against lipid peroxidation and intracellular ROS/RNS formation to a great
extent. Their protective effects were likely mediated by their free radicals scavenging ability, as they appeared to be involved
neither in the induction of natural antioxidant enzymes like GSH-PX and SOD, nor in the inhibition of NOS. Nevertheless,
these results suggest a promising potential for these compounds as ROS/RNS scavengers in pathologies where oxidative/
nitrosative stress are involved.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT
Entropy production and Kullback-Leibler divergence between stationary trajectories of discrete systems
The irreversibility of a stationary time series can be quantified using the
Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD) between the probability to observe the series
and the probability to observe the time-reversed series. Moreover, this KLD is
a tool to estimate entropy production from stationary trajectories since it
gives a lower bound to the entropy production of the physical process
generating the series. In this paper we introduce analytical and numerical
techniques to estimate the KLD between time series generated by several
stochastic dynamics with a finite number of states. We examine the accuracy of
our estimators for a specific example, a discrete flashing ratchet, and
investigate how close is the KLD to the entropy production depending on the
number of degrees of freedom of the system that are sampled in the
trajectories.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
Bone tissue engineering : state of the art and future trends
Although several major progresses have been introduced in the field of bone regenerative medicine during the years, current therapies, such as bone grafts, still have many limitations. Moreover, and in spite of the fact that material science technology has resulted in clear improvements in the field of bone substitution medicine, no adequate bone substitute has been developed and hence large bone defects/injuries still represent a major challenge for orthopaedic and reconstructive surgeons. It is in this context that TE has been emerging as a valid approach to the current therapies for bone regeneration/substitution. In contrast to classic biomaterial approach, TE is based on the understanding of tissue formation and regeneration, and aims to induce new functional tissues, rather than just to implant new spare parts. The present review pretends to give an exhaustive overview on all components needed for making bone tissue engineering a successful therapy. It begins by giving the reader a brief background on bone biology, followed by an exhaustive description of all the relevant components on bone TE, going from materials to scaffolds and from cells to tissue engineering strategies, that will lead to engineered bone.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through funds from POCTI and/or FEDER programs
Novel starch-based scaffolds for bone tissue engineering : cytotoxicity, cell culture, and protein expression
Starch-based biomaterials and scaffolds have been proposed for several biomedical applications. In the present work new scaffolds based on a 50/50 (wt%) blend of corn starch/ethylene-vinyl alcohol (SEVA-C) were studied. These scaffolds were processed by a melt-based technology, which has been used before with other starch-based materials but never with SEVA-C. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation showed that the developed porous structures were 60% porous with pore size between 200 and 900 μm and a reasonable degree of interconnectivity. Moreover, scaffolds presented a compressive modulus of 117.50 ± 3.7 MPa and a compressive strength of 20.8 ± 2.4 MPa. Cytotoxicity evaluation was performed according to ISO/EN 10993 part 5 guidelines, and revealed that the developed scaffolds were nontoxic and did not inhibit cell growth. Direct contact assays were also carried out by use of a cell line of human osteoblast-like cells (SaOS-2). Cells were seeded (3 × 105 per scaffold) and allowed to grow for 4 weeks at 37°C, in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2. Total protein assay showed that the cells were able to grow for the 4 weeks of the experiment. These data were further confirmed by SEM. Moreover, a cell viability assay (MTS test) demonstrated that cells were perfectly viable after the 4 weeks of culture, showing the adequacy of the developed structure in supporting them. Finally, Western blot analysis revealed that osteopontin was being actively expressed by the cells, which, in association with collagen deposition observed by SEM, seems to indicate that bone extracellular matrix was being deposited. Consequently it is believed that starch-based scaffolds should be considered as an alternative for bone tissue-engineering applications in the near future.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT
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