1,355 research outputs found
Orbital current mode in elliptical quantum dots
An orbital current mode peculiar to deformed quantum dots is theoretically
investigated; first by using a simple model that allows to interpret
analytically its main characteristics, and second, by numerically solving the
microscopic equations of time evolution after an initial perturbation within
the time-dependent local-spin-density approximation. Results for different
deformations and sizes are shown.Comment: 4 REVTEX pages, 4 PDF figures, accepted in PRB:R
Algorithms to automatically quantify the geometric similarity of anatomical surfaces
We describe new approaches for distances between pairs of 2-dimensional
surfaces (embedded in 3-dimensional space) that use local structures and global
information contained in inter-structure geometric relationships. We present
algorithms to automatically determine these distances as well as geometric
correspondences. This is motivated by the aspiration of students of natural
science to understand the continuity of form that unites the diversity of life.
At present, scientists using physical traits to study evolutionary
relationships among living and extinct animals analyze data extracted from
carefully defined anatomical correspondence points (landmarks). Identifying and
recording these landmarks is time consuming and can be done accurately only by
trained morphologists. This renders these studies inaccessible to
non-morphologists, and causes phenomics to lag behind genomics in elucidating
evolutionary patterns. Unlike other algorithms presented for morphological
correspondences our approach does not require any preliminary marking of
special features or landmarks by the user. It also differs from other seminal
work in computational geometry in that our algorithms are polynomial in nature
and thus faster, making pairwise comparisons feasible for significantly larger
numbers of digitized surfaces. We illustrate our approach using three datasets
representing teeth and different bones of primates and humans, and show that it
leads to highly accurate results.Comment: Changes with respect to v1, v2: an Erratum was added, correcting the
references for one of the three datasets. Note that the datasets and code for
this paper can be obtained from the Data Conservancy (see Download column on
v1, v2
Characterization of Spatiooral Cardiac Action Potential Variability at Baseline and under ß-Adrenergic Stimulation by Combined Unscented Kalman Filter and Double Greedy Dimension Reduction
Objective: Elevated spatiooral variability of human ventricular repolarization has been related to increased risk for ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death, particularly under ß-adrenergic stimulation (ß-AS). This work presents a methodology for theoretical characterization of temporal and spatial repolarization variability at baseline conditions and in response to ß-AS. For any measured voltage trace, the proposed methodology estimates the parameters and state variables of an underlying human ventricular action potential (AP) model by combining Double Greedy Dimension Reduction (DGDR) with automatic selection of biomarkers and the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). Such theoretical characterization can facilitate subsequent characterization of underlying variability mechanisms.
Material and Methods: Given an AP trace, initial estimates for the ionic conductances in a stochastic version of the baseline human ventricular O'Hara et al. model were obtained by DGDR. Those estimates served to initialize and update model parameter estimates by the UKF method based on formulation of an associated nonlinear state-space representation and joint estimation of model parameters and state variables. Similarly, ß-AS-induced phosphorylation levels of cellular substrates were estimated by the DGDR-UKF methodology. Performance was tested by building an experimentally-calibrated population of virtual cells, from which synthetic AP traces were generated for baseline and ß-AS conditions.
Results: The combined DGDR-UKF methodology led to 25% reduction in the error associated with estimation of ionic current conductances at baseline conditions and phosphorylation levels under ß-AS with respect to individual DGDR and UKF methods. This improvement was not at the expense of higher computational load, which was diminished by 90% with respect to the individual UKF method. Both temporal and spatial AP variability of repolarization were accurately characterized by the DGDR-UKF methodology. Conclusions: A combined DGDR-UKF methodology is proposed for parameter and state variable estimation of human ventricular cell models from available AP traces at baseline and under ß-AS. This methodology improves the estimation performance and reduces the convergence time with respect to individual DGDR and UKF methods and renders a suitable approach for computational characterization of spatiooral repolarization variability to be used for ascertainment of variability mechanisms and its relation to arrhythmogenesis
Electronic spin precession in semiconductor quantum dots with spin-orbit coupling
The electronic spin precession in semiconductor dots is strongly affected by
the spin-orbit coupling. We present a theory of the electronic spin resonance
at low magnetic fields that predicts a strong dependence on the dot occupation,
the magnetic field and the spin-orbit coupling strength. Coulomb interaction
effects are also taken into account in a numerical approach.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Oscillation modes of two-dimensional nanostructures within the time-dependent local-spin-density approximation
We apply the time-dependent local-spin-density approximation as general
theory to describe ground states and spin-density oscillations in the linear
response regime of two-dimensional nanostructures of arbitrary shape. For this
purpose, a frequency analysis of the simulated real-time evolution is
performed. The effect on the response of the recently proposed spin-density
waves in the ground state of certain parabolic quantum dots is considered. They
lead to the prediction of a new class of excitations, soft spin-twist modes,
with energies well below that of the spin dipole oscillation.Comment: 4 RevTex pages and 4 GIF figures, accepted in PR
Quantum dots based on spin properties of semiconductor heterostructures
The possibility of a novel type of semiconductor quantum dots obtained by
spatially modulating the spin-orbit coupling intensity in III-V
heterostructures is discussed. Using the effective mass model we predict
confined one-electron states having peculiar spin properties. Furthermore, from
mean field calculations (local-spin-density and Hartree-Fock) we find that even
two electrons could form a bound state in these dots.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Accepted in PRB (Brief Report) (2004
Symmetry breaking and the random-phase approximation in small quantum dots
The random-phase approximation has been used to compute the properties of
parabolic two-dimensional quantum dots beyond the mean-field approximation.
Special emphasis is put on the ground state correlation energy, the symmetry
restoration and the role of the spurious modes within the random-phase
approximation. A systematics with the Coulombic interaction strength is
presented for the 2-electron dot, while for the 6- and 12-electron dots
selected cases are discussed. The validity of the random-phase approximation is
assessed by comparison with available exact results.Comment: 9 pages, 4 embedded + 6 gif Figs. Published versio
Assessment of discretely measured indicators and maximum daily trunk shrinkage for detecting water stress in pomegranate trees
Measurements obtained by the continuous monitoring of trunk diameter fluctuations were comparedwith discrete measurements of midday stem water potential and midday leaf conductance (gl)in adult pomegranate trees (Punica granatum L. cv. Mollar de Elche). Control plants (T0) were irrigateddaily above their crop water requirements in order to attain non-limiting soil water conditions in 2009 and 2010, while T1 plants were subjected to water stress by depriving them of irrigation water for34 days in 2010, after which time irrigation was restored and plant recovery was studied for 7 days.T1 plants showed a substantial degree of water stress, which developed slowly. Maximum daily trunkshrinkage (MDS) was identified to be the most suitable plant-based indicator for irrigation scheduling inadult pomegranate trees, because its signal:noise ((T1/T0):coefficient of variation) ratio was higher thanthat for midday stem water potential((T1/T0):coefficient of variation) and gl((T0/T1):coefficient of variation). MDS increasedin response to water stress, but when the stemfell below ¿1.67 MPa, the MDS values decreased. Fornon-limiting water conditions, MDS could be predicted from mean daily air temperature (Tm) throughexponential equations fitted to pooled data across several seasons. First-order equations were alsoobtained by pooling data across several seasons to predict MDS from crop reference evapotranspira-tion (ETo), mean daily air vapour pressure deficit (VPDm), Tmand solar radiation (Rs), but these should beused only within a certain range of values (ETo, 2.1¿7.4 mm; VPDm, 0.64¿2.96 kPa; Tm, 12.1¿28.3¿C; Rs,119.4¿331.3 Wm¿2). Hence, automated MDS measurements have the potential to be used in irrigationscheduling of pomegranate, and these values can be normalized to non-limiting water conditions bylocally derived empirical relationships with meteorological variables.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CICYT/FEDER) AGL2010-19201-C04-01AGRAgencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID
Spin-Orbit induced semiconductor spin guides
The tunability of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling allows to build
semiconductor heterostructures with space modulated coupling intensities. We
show that a wire-shaped spin-orbit modulation in a quantum well can support
propagating electronic states inside the wire only for a certain spin
orientation and, therefore, it acts as an effective spin transmission guide for
this particular spin orientation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. e-mail contact: [email protected], to appear
in Nanotechnology (2003
Complete genome sequence of Mesorhizobium ciceri strain R30, a Rhizobium used as a commercial inoculant for Chickpea in Argentina
We report the complete genome sequence of Mesorhizobium ciceri strain R30, a rhizobium strain recommended and used as a commercial inoculant for chickpea in Argentina. The genome consists of almost 7 Mb, distributed into two circular replicons: a chromosome of 6.49 Mb and a plasmid of 0.46 Mb.This work was supported by grants from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT) (PID2020-113207GBI00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033); by “ERDF: A Way of Making Europe” (P20_0047), funded by the Junta de Andalucía PAIDI/FEDER/EU; and by the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council (BBSRC). We are grateful to Plateforme de Microbiologie Mutualisée (P2M) and the Pasteur International Bioresources network (PIBnet) and to Institut Pasteur Paris for providing the resources for Illumina sequencing.
We thank O.G.C. at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics for the sequencing data and B.M.R.C. for processing (supported by Wellcome Trust Core Award grant 203141/Z/16/Z and the NIHR Oxford BRC). We are also grateful to Vincent Enouf from Unité de Génétique Moléculaire des Virus à ARN-UMR3569 CNRS, Université de Paris, Centre National de Référence Virus des Infections Respiratoires (dont la grippe) and to F. Sgarlatta for proofreading the manuscript
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