10,704 research outputs found
Spin relaxation and spin Hall transport in 5d transition-metal ultrathin films
The spin relaxation induced by the Elliott-Yafet mechanism and the extrinsic
spin Hall conductivity due to the skew-scattering are investigated in 5d
transition-metal ultrathin films with self-adatom impurities as scatterers. The
values of the Elliott-Yafet parameter and of the spin-flip relaxation rate
reveal a correlation with each other that is in agreement with the Elliott
approximation. At 10-layer thickness, the spin-flip relaxation time in 5d
transition-metal films is quantitatively reported about few hundred nanoseconds
at atomic percent which is one and two orders of magnitude shorter than that in
Au and Cu thin films, respectively. The anisotropy effect of the Elliott-Yafet
parameter and of the spin-flip relaxation rate with respect to the direction of
the spin-quantization axis in relation to the crystallographic axes is also
analyzed. We find that the anisotropy of the spin-flip relaxation rate is
enhanced due to the Rashba surface states on the Fermi surface, reaching values
as high as 97% in 10-layer Hf(0001) film or 71% in 10-layer W(110) film.
Finally, the spin Hall conductivity as well as the spin Hall angle due to the
skew-scattering off self-adatom impurities are calculated using the Boltzmann
approach. Our calculations employ a relativistic version of the
first-principles full-potential Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green function method
Strong spin-orbit fields and Dyakonov-Perel spin dephasing in supported metallic films
Spin dephasing by the Dyakonov-Perel mechanism in metallic films deposited on
insulating substrates is revealed, and quantitatively examined by means of
density functional calculations combined with a kinetic equation. The
surface-to-substrate asymmetry, probed by the metal wave functions in thin
films, is found to produce strong spin-orbit fields and a fast Larmor
precession, giving a dominant contribution to spin decay over the Elliott-Yafet
spin relaxation up to a thickness of 70 nm. The spin dephasing is oscillatory
in time with a rapid (sub-picosecond) initial decay. However, parts of the
Fermi surface act as spin traps, causing a persistent tail signal lasting 1000
times longer than the initial decay time. It is also found that the decay
depends on the direction of the initial spin polarization, resulting in a
spin-dephasing anisotropy of 200% in the examined cases
Another derivation of the geometrical KPZ relations
We give a physicist's derivation of the geometrical (in the spirit of
Duplantier-Sheffield) KPZ relations, via heat kernel methods. It gives a
covariant way to define neighborhoods of fractals in 2d quantum gravity, and
shows that these relations are in the realm of conformal field theory
Conjugative transfer of ICESde3396 between three β-hemolytic streptococcal species
Background:
Integrative conjugative elements (ICEs) are mobile genetic elements (MGEs) that possess all genes necessary for excision, transfer and integration into recipient genome. They also carry accessory genes that impart new phenotypic features to recipient strains. ICEs therefore play an important role in genomic plasticity and population structure. We previously characterised ICESde 3396, the first ICE identified in the β-hemolytic Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp equisimilis (SDSE) and demonstrated its transfer to single isolates of Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus, GAS) and Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococcus, GBS). While molecular studies found the ICE in multiple SDSE and GBS isolates, it was absent in all GAS isolates examined.
Results:
Here we demonstrate that ICESde 3396:km is transferable from SDSE to multiple SDSE, GAS and GBS isolates. However not all strains of these species were successful recipients under the same growth conditions. To address the role that host factors may have in conjugation we also undertook conjugation experiments in the presence of A549 epithelial cells and DMEM. While Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) occurred, conjugation efficiencies were no greater than when similar experiments were conducted in DMEM. Additionally transfer to GAS NS235 was successful in the presence of DMEM but not in Todd Hewitt Broth suggesting that nutritional factors may also influence HGT. The GAS and GBS transconjugants produced in this study are also able to act as donors of the ICE.
Conclusion:
We conclude that ICEs are major sources of interspecies HGT between β-hemolytic streptococci, and by introducing accessory genes imparting novel phenotypic characteristics, have the potential to alter the population structure of these species
Efficiency of a Brownian information machine
A Brownian information machine extracts work from a heat bath through a
feedback process that exploits the information acquired in a measurement. For
the paradigmatic case of a particle trapped in a harmonic potential, we
determine how power and efficiency for two variants of such a machine operating
cyclically depend on the cycle time and the precision of the positional
measurements. Controlling only the center of the trap leads to a machine that
has zero efficiency at maximum power whereas additional optimal control of the
stiffness of the trap leads to an efficiency bounded between 1/2, which holds
for maximum power, and 1 reached even for finite cycle time in the limit of
perfect measurements.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Reinstatement of reflex testing of stool samples for Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE) resulted in decreased incidence of hospital-associated VRE
Extending Bauer's corollary to fractional derivatives
We comment on the method of Dreisigmeyer and Young [D. W. Dreisigmeyer and P.
M. Young, J. Phys. A \textbf{36}, 8297, (2003)] to model nonconservative
systems with fractional derivatives. It was previously hoped that using
fractional derivatives in an action would allow us to derive a single retarded
equation of motion using a variational principle. It is proven that, under
certain reasonable assumptions, the method of Dreisigmeyer and Young fails.Comment: Accepted Journal of Physics A at www.iop.org/EJ/journal/JPhys
Salicylaldehyde hydrazones: buttressing of outer sphere hydrogen-bonding and copper-extraction properties
Salicylaldehyde hydrazones are weaker copper extractants than their oxime derivatives, which are used in hydrometallurgical processes to recover ~20 % of the world’s copper. Their strength, based on the extraction equilibrium constant Ke, can be increased by nearly three orders of magnitude by incorporating electron-withdrawing or hydrogen-bond acceptor groups (X) ortho to the phenolic OH group of the salicylaldehyde unit. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the effects of the 3-X substituents arise from a combination of their influence on the acidity of the phenol in the pH-dependent equilibrium, Cu2+ + 2Lorg ⇌ [Cu(L–H)2]org + 2H+, and on their ability to ‘buttress’ interligand hydrogen bonding by interacting with the hydrazone N–H donor group. X-ray crystal structure determination and computed structures indicate that in both the solid state and the gas phase, coordinated hydrazone groups are less planar than coordinated oximes and this has an adverse effect on intramolecular hydrogen-bond formation to the neighbouring phenolate oxygen atoms
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