580 research outputs found
Inelastic quantum transport: the self-consistent Born approximation and correlated electron-ion dynamics
A dynamical method for inelastic transport simulations in nanostructures is
compared with a steady-state method based on non-equilibrium Green's functions.
A simplified form of the dynamical method produces, in the steady state in the
weak-coupling limit, effective self-energies analogous to those in the Born
Approximation due to electron-phonon coupling. The two methods are then
compared numerically on a resonant system consisting of a linear trimer weakly
embedded between metal electrodes. This system exhibits enhanced heating at
high biases and long phonon equilibration times. Despite the differences in
their formulation, the static and dynamical methods capture local
current-induced heating and inelastic corrections to the current with good
agreement over a wide range of conditions, except in the limit of very high
vibrational excitations, where differences begin to emerge.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
On the Whitehead spectrum of the circle
The seminal work of Waldhausen, Farrell and Jones, Igusa, and Weiss and
Williams shows that the homotopy groups in low degrees of the space of
homeomorphisms of a closed Riemannian manifold of negative sectional curvature
can be expressed as a functor of the fundamental group of the manifold. To
determine this functor, however, it remains to determine the homotopy groups of
the topological Whitehead spectrum of the circle. The cyclotomic trace of B
okstedt, Hsiang, and Madsen and a theorem of Dundas, in turn, lead to an
expression for these homotopy groups in terms of the equivariant homotopy
groups of the homotopy fiber of the map from the topological Hochschild
T-spectrum of the sphere spectrum to that of the ring of integers induced by
the Hurewicz map. We evaluate the latter homotopy groups, and hence, the
homotopy groups of the topological Whitehead spectrum of the circle in low
degrees. The result extends earlier work by Anderson and Hsiang and by Igusa
and complements recent work by Grunewald, Klein, and Macko.Comment: 52 page
Chiasma
Newspaper reporting on events at the Boston University School of Medicine in the 1960s
Effects of air pollution and the introduction of the London Low Emission Zone on the prevalence of respiratory and allergic symptoms in schoolchildren in East London: a sequential cross-sectional study
The adverse effects of traffic-related air pollution on children’s respiratory health have been widely reported, but few studies have evaluated the impact of traffic-control policies designed to reduce urban air pollution. We assessed associations between traffic-related air pollutants and respiratory/allergic symptoms amongst 8–9 year-old schoolchildren living within the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ). Information on respiratory/allergic symptoms was obtained using a parent-completed questionnaire and linked to modelled annual air pollutant concentrations based on the residential address of each child, using a multivariable mixed effects logistic regression analysis. Exposure to traffic-related air pollutants was associated with current rhinitis: NOx (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00–1.02), NO2 (1.03, 1.00–1.06), PM10 (1.16, 1.04–1.28) and PM2.5 (1.38, 1.08–1.78), all per μg/m3 of pollutant, but not with other respiratory/allergic symptoms. The LEZ did not reduce ambient air pollution levels, or affect the prevalence of respiratory/allergic symptoms over the period studied. These data confirm the previous association between traffic-related air pollutant exposures and symptoms of current rhinitis. Importantly, the London LEZ has not significantly improved air quality within the city, or the respiratory health of the resident population in its first three years of operation. This highlights the need for more robust measures to reduce traffic emissions
Systems analysis of bioenergetics and growth of the extreme halophile Halobacterium salinarum
Halobacterium salinarum is a bioenergetically flexible, halophilic microorganism that can generate energy by respiration, photosynthesis, and the fermentation of arginine. In a previous study, using a genome-scale metabolic model, we have shown that the archaeon unexpectedly degrades essential amino acids under aerobic conditions, a behavior that can lead to the termination of growth earlier than necessary. Here, we further integratively investigate energy generation, nutrient utilization, and biomass production using an extended methodology that accounts for dynamically changing transport patterns, including those that arise from interactions among the supplied metabolites. Moreover, we widen the scope of our analysis to include phototrophic conditions to explore the interplay between different bioenergetic modes. Surprisingly, we found that cells also degrade essential amino acids even during phototropy, when energy should already be abundant. We also found that under both conditions considerable amounts of nutrients that were taken up were neither incorporated into the biomass nor used as respiratory substrates, implying the considerable production and accumulation of several metabolites in the medium. Some of these are likely the products of forms of overflow metabolism. In addition, our results also show that arginine fermentation, contrary to what is typically assumed, occurs simultaneously with respiration and photosynthesis and can contribute energy in levels that are comparable to the primary bioenergetic modes, if not more. These findings portray a picture that the organism takes an approach toward growth that favors the here and now, even at the cost of longer-term concerns. We believe that the seemingly "greedy" behavior exhibited actually consists of adaptations by the organism to its natural environments, where nutrients are not only irregularly available but may altogether be absent for extended periods that may span several years. Such a setting probably predisposed the cells to grow as much as possible when the conditions become favorable
The Role of Ejecta in the Small Crater Populations on the Mid-Sized Saturnian Satellites
We find evidence that crater ejecta play an important role in the small
crater populations on the Saturnian satellites, and more broadly, on cratered
surfaces throughout the Solar System. We measure crater populations in Cassini
images of Enceladus, Rhea, and Mimas, focusing on image data with scales less
than 500 m/pixel. We use recent updates to crater scaling laws and their
constants to estimate the amount of mass ejected in three different velocity
ranges: (i) greater than escape velocity, (ii) less than escape velocity and
faster than the minimum velocity required to make a secondary crater (v_min),
and (iii) velocities less than v_min. Although the vast majority of mass on
each satellite is ejected at speeds less than v_min, our calculations
demonstrate that the differences in mass available in the other two categories
should lead to observable differences in the small crater populations; the
predictions are borne out by the measurements we have made to date. Rhea,
Tethys, and Dione have sufficient surface gravities to retain ejecta moving
fast enough to make secondary crater populations. The smaller satellites, such
as Enceladus but especially Mimas, are expected to have little or no
traditional secondary populations because their escape velocities are near the
threshold velocity necessary to make a secondary crater. Our work clarifies why
the Galilean satellites have extensive secondary crater populations relative to
the Saturnian satellites. The presence, extent, and sizes of sesquinary craters
(craters formed by ejecta that escape into temporary orbits around Saturn
before re-impacting the surface) is not yet well understood. Finally, our work
provides further evidence for a "shallow" size-frequency distribution (slope
index of ~2 for a differential power-law) for comets a few km diameter and
smaller. [slightly abbreviated]Comment: Submitted to Icarus. 77 double-spaced pages, including 25 figures and
5 table
Reading, Trauma and Literary Caregiving 1914-1918: Helen Mary Gaskell and the War Library
This article is about the relationship between reading, trauma and responsive literary caregiving in Britain during the First World War. Its analysis of two little-known documents describing the history of the War Library, begun by Helen Mary Gaskell in 1914, exposes a gap in the scholarship of war-time reading; generates a new narrative of "how," "when," and "why" books went to war; and foregrounds gender in its analysis of the historiography. The Library of Congress's T. W. Koch discovered Gaskell's ground-breaking work in 1917 and reported its successes to the American Library Association. The British Times also covered Gaskell's library, yet researchers working on reading during the war have routinely neglected her distinct model and method, skewing the research base on war-time reading and its association with trauma and caregiving. In the article's second half, a literary case study of a popular war novel demonstrates the extent of the "bitter cry for books." The success of Gaskell's intervention is examined alongside H. G. Wells's representation of textual healing. Reading is shown to offer sick, traumatized and recovering combatants emotional and psychological caregiving in ways that she could not always have predicted and that are not visible in the literary/historical record
Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K is over expressed, aberrantly localised and is associated with poor prognosis in colorectal cancer
Heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K) is a member of the hnRNP family which has several different cellular roles including transcription, mRNA shuttling, RNA editing and translation. Several reports implicate hnRNP K having a role in tumorigenesis, for instance hnRNP K increases transcription of the oncogene c-myc and hnRNP K expression is regulated by the p53/MDM 2 pathway. In this study comparing normal colon to colorectal cancer by proteomics, hnRNP K was identified as being overexpressed in this type of cancer. Immunohistochemistry with a monoclonal antibody to hnRNP K (which we developed) on colorectal cancer tissue microarray, confirmed that hnRNP K was overexpressed in colorectal cancer (P<0.001) and also showed that hnRNP K had an aberrant subcellular localisation in cancer cells. In normal colon hnRNP K was exclusively nuclear whereas in colorectal cancer the protein localised both in the cytoplasm and the nucleus. There were significant increases in both nuclear (P=0.007) and cytoplasmic (P=0.001) expression of hnRNP K in Dukes C tumours compared with early stage tumours. In Dukes C patient's good survival was associated with increased hnRNP K nuclear expression (P=0.0093). To elaborate on the recent observation that hnRNP K is regulated by p53, the expression profiles of these two proteins were also analysed. There was no correlation between hnRNP K and p53 expression, however, patients who presented tumours that were positive for hnRNP K and p53 had a poorer survival outcome (P=0.045)
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