Mesons and Flavor on the Conifold

We explore the addition of fundamental matter to the Klebanov-Witten field theory. We add probe D7-branes to the ${\cal N}=1$ theory obtained from placing D3-branes at the tip of the conifold and compute the meson spectrum for the scalar mesons. In the UV limit of massless quarks we find the exact dimensions of the associated operators, which exhibit a simple scaling in the large-charge limit. For the case of massive quarks we compute the spectrum of scalar mesons numerically.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, v2: typos fixe

Monte Carlo simulation of melting transition on DNA nanocompartment

DNA nanocompartment is a typical DNA-based machine whose function is dependent of molecular collective effect. Fundamental properties of the device have been addressed via electrochemical analysis, fluorescent microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Interesting and novel phenomena emerged during the switching of the device. We have found that DNAs in this system exhibit a much steep melting transition compared to ones in bulk solution or conventional DNA array. To achieve an understanding to this discrepancy, we introduced DNA-DNA interaction potential to the conventional Ising-like Zimm-Bragg theory and Peyrard-Bishop model of DNA melting. To avoid unrealistic numerical calculation caused by modification of the Peyrard-Bishop nonlinear Hamiltonian with the DNA-DNA interaction, we established coarse-gained Monte Carlo recursion relations by elucidation of five components of energy change during melting transition. The result suggests that DNA-DNA interaction potential accounts for the observed steep transition.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Design of a low-noise aeroacoustic wind tunnel facility at Brunel University

This paper represents the design principle of a quiet, low turbulence and moderately high speed aeroacoustic wind tunnel which was recently commissioned at Brunel University. A new hemi-anechoic chamber was purposely built to facilitate aeroacoustic measurements. The wind tunnel can achieve a maximum speed of about 80 ms-1. The turbulence intensity of the free jet in the potential core is between 0.1–0.2%. The noise characteristic of the aeroacoustic wind tunnel was validated by three case studies. All of which can demonstrate a very low background noise produced by the bare jet in comparison to the noise radiated from the cylinder rod/flat plate/airfoil in the air stream.The constructions of the aeroacoustic wind tunnel and the hemi-anechoic chamber are financially supported by the School of Engineering and Design at Brunel University

Coupling curvature to a uniform magnetic field; an analytic and numerical study

The Schrodinger equation for an electron near an azimuthally symmetric curved surface $\Sigma$ in the presence of an arbitrary uniform magnetic field $\mathbf B$ is developed. A thin layer quantization procedure is implemented to bring the electron onto $\Sigma$, leading to the well known geometric potential $V_C \propto h^2-k$ and a second potential that couples $A_N$, the component of $\mathbf A$ normal to $\Sigma$ to mean surface curvature, as well as a term dependent on the normal derivative of $A_N$ evaluated on $\Sigma$. Numerical results in the form of ground state energies as a function of the applied field in several orientations are presented for a toroidal model.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Dynamics of Turing patterns under spatio-temporal forcing

We study, both theoretically and experimentally, the dynamical response of Turing patterns to a spatio-temporal forcing in the form of a travelling wave modulation of a control parameter. We show that from strictly spatial resonance, it is possible to induce new, generic dynamical behaviors, including temporally-modulated travelling waves and localized travelling soliton-like solutions. The latter make contact with the soliton solutions of P. Coullet Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 56}, 724 (1986) and provide a general framework which includes them. The stability diagram for the different propagating modes in the Lengyel-Epstein model is determined numerically. Direct observations of the predicted solutions in experiments carried out with light modulations in the photosensitive CDIMA reaction are also reported.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Vectored immunoprophylaxis protects humanized mice from mucosal HIV transmission

Background: Recently, a number of antibodies capable of broadly neutralizing HIV have been isolated from HIV infected patients, stimulating efforts to develop vaccines capable of eliciting their production in naive individuals. As an alternative to vaccination, we recently described vectored immunoprophylaxis (VIP) as an approach capable of generating high serum concentrations of a desired monoclonal antibody in mice following a single intramuscular injection of a specialized adeno associated viral vector (AAV). Mice that received VIP encoding b12 and VRC01 antibodies demonstrated long-term circulating antibody expression in serum, and VIP-treated humanized mice exhibited remarkable protection against high dose, intravenous challenge with CXCR4-tropic HIV. However, most human infections are initiated by transmission of CCR5- tropic strains through mucosal tissues. Methods: To measure the efficacy of VIP against clinically relevant strains, we humanized VIP-treated mice by adoptive transfer of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and challenged these animals with CCR5-tropic HIV strains including JR-CSF, as well as REJO.c, a transmitted molecular founder. To determine the ability of VIP to prevent mucosal transmission of HIV, we developed a repetitive intravaginal challenge model in VIP-treated BLT humanized mice that were challenged weekly with JR-CSF and monitored for infection. Results: PBMC humanized mice expressing either b12 or VRC01 were protected from intravenous challenge with JR-CSF. In contrast, the b12-resistant REJO.c strain readily infected PBMC humanized mice expressing b12 antibody, while mice expressing VRC01 demonstrated nearly complete protection following challenge. Intravaginally challenged BLT animals expressing a luciferase negative control protein all became infected over the study period while a majority of animals expressing VRC01 had no detectable HIV infection despite fourteen intravaginal challenges with JR-CSF. Conclusion: VIP is capable of protecting humanized mice from challenge by diverse HIV strains and can substantially inhibit mucosal transmission. These findings warrant continued development of VIP as a novel approach for HIV prevention in humans

Extending ballistic graphene FET lumped element models to diffusive devices

In this work, a modified, lumped element graphene field effect device model is presented. The model is based on the "Top-of-the-barrier" approach which is usually valid only for ballistic graphene nanotransistors. Proper modifications are introduced to extend the model's validity so that it accurately describes both ballistic and diffusive graphene devices. The model is compared to data already presented in the literature. It is shown that a good agreement is obtained for both nano-sized and large area graphene based channels. Accurate prediction of drain current and transconductance for both cases is obtained

Turing Instability in a Boundary-fed System

The formation of localized structures in the chlorine dioxide-idodine-malonic acid (CDIMA) reaction-diffusion system is investigated numerically using a realistic model of this system. We analyze the one-dimensional patterns formed along the gradients imposed by boundary feeds, and study their linear stability to symmetry-breaking perturbations (Turing instability) in the plane transverse to these gradients. We establish that an often-invoked simple local linear analysis which neglects longitudinal diffusion is inappropriate for predicting the linear stability of these patterns. Using a fully nonuniform analysis, we investigate the structure of the patterns formed along the gradients and their stability to transverse Turing pattern formation as a function of the values of two control parameters: the malonic acid feed concentration and the size of the reactor in the dimension along the gradients. The results from this investigation are compared with existing experiments.Comment: 41 pages, 18 figures, to be published in Physical Review