2,230 research outputs found
Exact density-functional potentials for time-dependent quasiparticles
We calculate the exact Kohn-Sham potential that describes, within
time-dependent density-functional theory, the propagation of an electron
quasiparticle wavepacket of non-zero crystal momentum added to a ground-state
model semiconductor. The potential is observed to have a highly nonlocal
functional dependence on the charge density, in both space and time, giving
rise to features entirely lacking in local or adiabatic approximations. The
dependence of the non-equilibrium part of the Kohn-Sham electric field on the
local current and charge density is identified as a key element of the correct
Kohn-Sham functional.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Recommended from our members
Narrative in adolescent specific language impairment (SLI): a comparison with peers across two different narrative genres
Background: Narrative may provide a useful way in which to assess the language ability of adolescents with specific language impairment and may be more ecologically valid than standardized tests. However, the language of this age group is seldom studied and, furthermore, the effect of narrative genre has not been explored in detail.
Methods & Procedures: A total of 99 typically developing adolescents and 19 peers with specific language impairment were given two different types of narrative task: a story-telling condition and a conversational condition. Four areas of narrative (productivity, syntactic complexity, syntactic errors and performance) were assessed.
Outcomes & Results: The group with specific language impairment was poorer on most aspects of narrative confirming recent research that specific language impairment is a long-term disorder. A number of measures also showed interactions between group and genre, with story-telling proving to be a disproportionately more difficult task for the specific language impairment group. Error analysis also suggested that the specific language impairment group was making qualitatively different errors to the typically developing group, even within a genre.
Conclusions: Adolescents with specific language impairment are not only poorer at both types of narrative than peers, but also show different patterns of competence and error, and require more support from the narrative-partner.
Clinical Implications: Assessments of adolescents are less frequent than at younger ages. This is partly because of the sparsity of tests available in this age range. Qualitative analysis of narrative might prove a useful alternative. The findings suggest that in every-day conversation, young people with specific language impairment manage their difficulties more discreetly and this might make them harder to identify in a mainstream setting
Recommended from our members
Emotional health in adolescents with and without a history of specific language impairment (SLI)
Objective:  This study examined the emotional health of adolescents with and without specific language impairment (SLI).
Method:  One hundred and thirty-nine adolescents with a history of SLI (15;10 years) and a peer group of 124 adolescents with normal language development (NLD) (15;11 years) participated, who were in their final year of compulsory schooling. The risk of emotional difficulties was assessed using the Moods and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) and the Child Manifest Anxiety Scale-R (CMAS-R). Comprehensive language and cognition data were available for all participants (NLD and SLI) concurrently and also longitudinally for those with SLI.
Results:  A clear increased risk of emotional health symptoms was found for the SLI group on both self- and parental-report. Girls scored less favourably than boys when groups were combined, but these were due to the effect of the NLD group, with no gender differences found in the SLI group. Direct links with language and cognition were not obvious. Instead, more diffuse factors such as family history of emotional health difficulties may warrant further investigation.
Conclusion:  There is a marked higher rate of anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents with SLI. However, these do not appear to be a direct result of impoverished communicative experiences
Myelin basic protein peptide 45–89 induces the release of nitric oxide from microglial cells.
Continuous (24 h) exposure of mixed oligodendrocyte/microglial cells to peptides
45–89 derived from citrullinated C8 isoforms of myelin basic protein (MBP) induces
cell death. In contrast, MBP-C8 at the same molecular concentration is not
toxic to oligodendrocyte/microglial cells as detected by the MTT test and trypan
blue exclusion method. The loss of oligodendrocyte/microglial cells resulted in the
release of cytochrome c from mitochondria, suggesting MBP 45–89-induced
apoptosis. On the other hand, peptides 45–89 stimulated the secretion of nitric
oxide from microglial cells only via induction of iNOS. The addition of peptide
45–89 to the microglial cells led to a decrease of the level of the inhibitory protein
IkB, indicating that activation of the transcription factor NF-kB is involved in these
processes. We propose that the immunodominant peptide 45–89 induces damage of
oligodendrocytes by activation of microglial cells and subsequent generation of
nitric oxide, and that this may be the first step in the initiation of autoimmunity
Electron localisation in static and time-dependent one-dimensional model systems
Electron localization is the tendency of an electron in a many-body system to
exclude other electrons from its vicinity. Using a new natural measure of
localization based on the exact manyelectron wavefunction, we find that
localization can vary considerably between different ground-state systems, and
can also be strongly disrupted, as a function of time, when a system is driven
by an applied electric field. We use our new measure to assess the well-known
electron localization function (ELF), both in its approximate single-particle
form (often applied within density-functional theory) and its full
many-particle form. The full ELF always gives an excellent description of
localization, but the approximate ELF fails in time-dependent situations, even
when the exact Kohn-Sham orbitals are employed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
- …