870 research outputs found
Ternary and quaternary oxides of Bi, Sr, and Cu
Before the discovery of superconductivity in an oxide of Bi, Sr, and Cu, the system Bi-Sr-Cu-O had not been studied, although several solid phases had been identified in the two-component regions of the ternary system Bi2O3-SrO-CuO. The oxides Sr2CuO3, SrCu2O2, SrCuO2, and Bi2CuO4 were then well known and characterized, and the phase diagram of the binary system Bi2O3 -SrO had been established in the temperature range 620 to 1000 C. Besides nine solutions of compositions Bi(2-2x) Sr(x) O(3-2x) and different symmetries, this diagram includes three definite compounds of stoichiometries Bi(2)SrO4, Bi2Sr2O5, and Bi2Sr3O6 (x = 0.50, 0.67 and 0.75 respectively), only the second of which with known unit-cell of orthorhombic symmetry, dimensions (A) a = 14.293(2), b = 7.651(2), c = 6.172(1), and z = 4. The first superconducting oxide in the system Bi-Sr-Cu-O was initially formulated as Bi2Sr2Cu2O(7+x), with an orthorhombic unit-cell of parameters (A) a = 5.32, b = 26.6, c = 48.8. In a preliminary study the same oxide was formulated with half the copper content, Bi(2)Sr(2)CuO(6+x), and indexed its reflections assuming an orthorhombic unit-cell of dimensions (A) a = 5.390(2), b = 26.973(8), c = 24.69(4). Subsequent studies by diffraction techniques have confirmed the composition 2:2:1. A new family of oxygen-deficient perovskites, was characterized, after identifying by x ray diffraction the phases present in the products of thermal treatments of about 150 mixtures of analytical grade Bi2O3, Sr(OH)2-8H2O and CuO at different molar ratios. X ray diffraction data are presented for some other oxides of Bi and Sr, as well as for various quaternary oxides, among them an oxide of Bi, Sr, and Cu
Dynamical stability criterion for inhomogeneous quasi-stationary states in long-range systems
We derive a necessary and sufficient condition of linear dynamical stability
for inhomogeneous Vlasov stationary states of the Hamiltonian Mean Field (HMF)
model. The condition is expressed by an explicit disequality that has to be
satisfied by the stationary state, and it generalizes the known disequality for
homogeneous stationary states. In addition, we derive analogous disequalities
that express necessary and sufficient conditions of formal stability for the
stationary states. Their usefulness, from the point of view of linear dynamical
stability, is that they are simpler, although they provide only sufficient
criteria of linear stability. We show that for homogeneous stationary states
the relations become equal, and therefore linear dynamical stability and formal
stability become equivalent.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experimen
Antisense reduction of thylakoidal ascorbate peroxidase in Arabidopsis enhances Paraquat-induced photooxidative stress and Nitric Oxide-induced cell death
The production and characterization of Arabidopsis plants containing a transgene in which the Arabidopsis tAPX is inserted in antisense orientation, is described. tAPX activity in these transgenic tAPX plants is around 50% of control level. The tAPX antisense plants are phenotypically indistinguishable from control plants under normal growth conditions; they show, however, enhanced sensitivity to the O 2- -generating herbicide, Paraquat. Interestingly, the tAPX antisense plants show enhanced symptoms of damage when cell death is triggered through treatment with the nitric oxide-donor, SNP. These results are in accordance with the ones recently obtained with transgenic plants overexpressing tAPX; altogether, they suggest that tAPX, besides the known ROS scavenging role, is also involved in the fine changes of H 2O2 concentration during signaling events
An intrinsic timer specifies distal structures of the vertebrate limb
How the positional values along the proximo-distal axis (stylopod-zeugopod-autopod) of the limb are specified is intensely debated. Early work suggested that cells intrinsically change their proximo-distal positional values by measuring time. Recently, however, it is suggested that instructive extrinsic signals from the trunk and apical ectodermal ridge specify the stylopod and zeugopod/autopod, respectively. Here, we show that the zeugopod and autopod are specified by an intrinsic timing mechanism. By grafting green fluorescent protein-expressing cells from early to late chick wing buds, we demonstrate that distal mesenchyme cells intrinsically time Hoxa13 expression, cell cycle parameters and the duration of the overlying apical ectodermal ridge. In addition, we reveal that cell affinities intrinsically change in the distal mesenchyme, which we suggest results in a gradient of positional values along the proximo-distal axis. We propose a complete model in which a switch from extrinsic signalling to intrinsic timing patterns the vertebrate limb
Sound-propagation gap in fluid mixtures
We discuss the behavior of the extended sound modes of a dense binary
hard-sphere mixture. In a dense simple hard-sphere fluid the Enskog theory
predicts a gap in the sound propagation at large wave vectors. In a binary
mixture the gap is only present for low concentrations of one of the two
species. At intermediate concentrations sound modes are always propagating.
This behavior is not affected by the mass difference of the two species, but it
only depends on the packing fractions. The gap is absent when the packing
fractions are comparable and the mixture structurally resembles a metallic
glass.Comment: Published; withdrawn since ordering in archive gives misleading
impression of new publicatio
Influence of hydrodynamics on many-particle diffusion in 2D colloidal suspensions
We study many-particle diffusion in 2D colloidal suspensions with full
hydrodynamic interactions through a novel mesoscopic simulation technique. We
focus on the behaviour of the effective scaled tracer and collective diffusion
coefficients and , where is the
single-particle diffusion coefficient, as a function of the density of the
colloids . At low Schmidt numbers , we find that
hydrodynamics has essentially no effect on the behaviour of . At
larger , is enhanced at all densities, although the
differences compared to the case without hydrodynamics are minor. The
collective diffusion coefficient, on the other hand, is much more strongly
coupled to hydrodynamical conservation laws and is distinctly different from
the purely dissipative case
Ensemble Inequivalence in Mean-field Models of Magnetism
Mean-field models, while they can be cast into an {\it extensive}
thermodynamic formalism, are inherently {\it non additive}. This is the basic
feature which leads to {\it ensemble inequivalence} in these models. In this
paper we study the global phase diagram of the infinite range
Blume-Emery-Griffiths model both in the {\it canonical} and in the {\it
microcanonical} ensembles. The microcanonical solution is obtained both by
direct state counting and by the application of large deviation theory. The
canonical phase diagram has first order and continuous transition lines
separated by a tricritical point. We find that below the tricritical point,
when the canonical transition is first order, the phase diagrams of the two
ensembles disagree. In this region the microcanonical ensemble exhibits energy
ranges with negative specific heat and temperature jumps at transition
energies. These two features are discussed in a general context and the
appropriate Maxwell constructions are introduced. Some preliminary extensions
of these results to weakly decaying nonintegrable interactions are presented.Comment: Chapter of the forthcoming "Lecture Notes in Physics" volume:
``Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Systems with Long Range Interactions'', T.
Dauxois, S. Ruffo, E. Arimondo, M. Wilkens Eds., Lecture Notes in Physics
Vol. 602, Springer (2002). (see http://link.springer.de/series/lnpp/
High-fidelity simulations of CdTe vapor deposition from a new bond-order potential-based molecular dynamics method
CdTe has been a special semiconductor for constructing the lowest-cost solar
cells and the CdTe-based Cd1-xZnxTe alloy has been the leading semiconductor
for radiation detection applications. The performance currently achieved for
the materials, however, is still far below the theoretical expectations. This
is because the property-limiting nanoscale defects that are easily formed
during the growth of CdTe crystals are difficult to explore in experiments.
Here we demonstrate the capability of a bond order potential-based molecular
dynamics method for predicting the crystalline growth of CdTe films during
vapor deposition simulations. Such a method may begin to enable defects
generated during vapor deposition of CdTe crystals to be accurately explored
Role of OPRM1, clinical and anthropometric variants in neonatal pain reduction
An increased awareness on neonatal pain-associated complications has led to the development of pain scales adequate to assess the level of pain experienced by newborns such as the ABC score. A commonly used analgesic procedure is to administer a 33% oral dextrose solution to newborns prior to the painful intervention. Although this procedure is very successful, not in all subjects it reaches complete efficacy. A possible explanation for the different response to the treatment could be genetic variability. We have investigated the genetic variability of the OPRM1 gene in 1077 newborns in relation to non-pharmacologic pain relief treatment. We observed that the procedure was successful in 966 individuals and there was no association between the genotypes and the analgesic efficacy when comparing individuals that had an ABC score = 0 and ABC score >0. However, considering only the individuals with ABC score>0, we found that the homozygous carriers of the G allele of the missense variant SNP rs1799971 (A118G) showed an interesting association with higher ABC score. We also observed that individuals fed with formula milk were more likely to not respond to the analgesic treatment compared to those that had been breastfed
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