Griffiths phase of the Kondo insulator fixed point

Heavy fermion compounds have long been identified as systems which are extremely sensitive to the presence of impurities and other imperfections. In recent years, both experimental and theoretical work has demonstrated that such disorder can lead to unusual, non-Fermi liquid behavior for most physical quantities. In this paper, we show that this anomalous sensitivity to disorder, as well as the resulting Griffiths phase behavior, directly follow from the proximity of metallic heavy fermion systems to the Kondo insulator fixed point.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; Proceedings of the SCES, August 2000, to appear in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Material

An exploration of sex-specific linkage disequilibrium on chromosome X in Caucasians from the COGA study

This paper explores the decay of linkage disequilibrium (LD) on the autosomes and chromosome X. The extent of marker-marker LD is important for both linkage and association studies. The analysis of the Caucasian sample from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism study revealed the expected negative relationship between the magnitude of the marker-marker LD and distance (cM), with the male and female subgroups exhibiting similar patterns of LD. The observed extent of LD in females was less across the pseudoautosomal markers relative to the heterosomal region of chromosome X. Marked differences in LD patterns were also observed between chromosomes X and the 22 autosomes in both males and females

Critical role for p53-serine 15 phosphorylation in stimulating transactivation at p53-responsive promoters

The p53 tumour suppressor is induced by various stress stimuli and coordinates an adaptive gene expression programme leading to growth arrest or cell death. Some stimuli, such as DNA damage, lead to rapid and substantial multisite phosphorylation of p53, nucleated initially through phosphorylation of serine 15. Other stimuli, such as hyper-proliferation, do not stimulate p53-phosphorylation, raising questions regarding the physiological role for phosphorylation. Here, we show that a basal level of Ser15 phosphorylation occurs in both unstimulated cells and cells stimulated pharmacologically to induce p53. p53 in which Ser15 is substituted by alanine (S15A) fails to mediate p53-dependent transcription or growth arrest but can be rescued by substitution with aspartate (S15D: a phospho-mimic). Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analyses show that, while wt- and S15A-p53 are detectable on the CDKN1A (p21) promoter (as a representative p53-responsive promoter), S15A-p53 does not stimulate histone acetylation (a measure of chromatin relaxation), nor is its recruitment stimulated, in response to a DNA damage or pharmacological stimulus. These data demonstrate that Ser15 phosphorylation is required for p53 function in the physiological context of p53-responsive promoters and suggest a key and possibly universal role even for low levels of this modification in promoting p53-transcription function

Biosynthesis of 6-Hydroxymellein Requires a Collaborating Polyketide Synthase-like Enzyme

The polyketide synthase (PKS)-like protein TerB, consisting of inactive dehydratase, inactive C-methyltransferase, and functional ketoreductase domains collaborates with the iterative non reducing PKS TerA to produce 6-hydroxymellein, a key pathway intermediate during the biosynthesis of various fungal natural products. The catalytically inactive dehydratase domain of TerB appears to mediate productive interactions with TerA, demonstrating a new mode of trans-interaction between iterative PKS components

Patient and health professions student team perceptions of patient-centeredness in an inter-professional education home-visit program: An exploratory study

The purpose of this study was to compare patient and health professions student team perceptions of patient-centeredness in an inter-professional clinical education home-visit program. Following an inter-professional clinical education home-visit program, patient and health professions student team perceptions of patient-centeredness were compared using a modified version of the Patient Perception of Patient Centeredness Questionnaire. The results showed both patient and student team participants perceived that student teams focused on how much they cared about the patient as a person and the opportunity to discuss any questions. Patients, however, reported significantly higher levels of patient-centered clinical method used during the visits than did health professions and osteopathic medical/dental student participants. The study reveals more practice and focus on patient feedback and the patient’s central role in their healthcare decisions is recommended for this inter-professional clinical education program as well as for any program that includes team-based care. Patient-centeredness also requires instruction to the patient about their role in their own healthcare. Health and medical professions educators need to continue to motivate students through inter-professional education programs and activities to adopt a more patient-centered practice. For future research as a follow-up study, adding independent observations of the home visit interactions may allow for a better understanding of which specific behaviors contribute the most to the experienced patient-centeredness

Mordell-Weil Lattice via String Junctions

We analyze the structure of singularities, Mordell-Weil lattices and torsions of a rational elliptic surface using string junctions in the background of 12 7-branes. The classification of the Mordell-Weil lattices due to Oguiso-Shioda is reproduced in terms of the junction lattice. In this analysis an important role played by the global structure of the surface is observed. It is then found that the torsions in the Mordell-Weil group are generated by the fraction of loop junctions which represent the imaginary roots of the loop algebra $\hat E_9$. From the structure of the Mordell-Weil lattice we find 7-brane configurations which support non-BPS junctions carrying conserved Abelian charges.Comment: 35 pages, Latex, 3 figure

Greenwashing effect, attitudes, and beliefs in green consumption

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the perception of the influence of greenwashing and of attitudes and beliefs in the decisions of purchase of green products in the retail. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative research was carried out by means of a survey with a sample of 880 consumers living in São Paulo city, Brazil, who buy in supermarkets weekly or biweekly. Findings – It was possible to evaluate a model that analyzed the aspects that greenwashing carries and the aspects that the attitudes and beliefs of the consumer present. As a result, it is inferred that when greenwashing is identified in the product, it loses the aspects of loyalty, satisfaction and benefits, as well as becoming a product that causes confusion of consumption. Further, consumer attitudes and beliefs show that they are guided by the aspects of perceived loyalty, satisfaction and benefits and that the perceived risk aspect is practically ignored. Originality/value – The originality of this study is in evaluating consumer perception focusing on several aspects of purchase intention simultaneously, considering perception and behavior of consumer before greenwashing and green consumption and using all aspects together (satisfaction, loyalty, subjective and control forces, risk and benefits perception). Besides complementing with other determinants like consumer attitudes and beliefs, confusion of green consumption, behavior controlled in relation to green consumption and greenwashing. Thus, it contributes with an interdisciplinary study whose scale and methodology can be used by analogous studies

Dynamics of disordered heavy Fermion systems

Dynamics of the disordered heavy Fermion model of Dobrosavljevic et al. are calculated using an expression for the spectral function of the Anderson model which is consistent with quantum Monte Carlo results. We compute the self-energy for three distributions of Kondo scales including the distribution of Bernal et al. for UCu{5-x}Pd{x}. The corresponding low temperature optical conductivity shows a low-frequency pseudogap, a negative optical mass enhancement, and a linear in frequency transport scattering rate, consistent with results in Y{1-x}U{x}Pd{3} and UCu{5-x}Pd{x}.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX and 4 PS figure