2,888 research outputs found
Magnetization of a half-quantum vortex in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate
Magnetization dynamics of a half-quantum vortex in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein
condensate with a ferromagnetic interaction are investigated by mean-field and
Bogoliubov analyses. The transverse magnetization is shown to break the
axisymmetry and form threefold domains. This phenomenon originates from the
topological structure of the half-quantum vortex and spin conservation.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Million-atom molecular dynamics simulation by order-N electronic structure theory and parallel computation
Parallelism of tight-binding molecular dynamics simulations is presented by
means of the order-N electronic structure theory with the Wannier states,
recently developed (J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 69,3773 (2000)). An application is
tested for silicon nanocrystals of more than millions atoms with the
transferable tight-binding Hamiltonian. The efficiency of parallelism is
perfect, 98.8 %, and the method is the most suitable to parallel computation.
The elapse time for a system of atoms is 3.0 minutes by a
computer system of 64 processors of SGI Origin 3800. The calculated results are
in good agreement with the results of the exact diagonalization, with an error
of 2 % for the lattice constant and errors less than 10 % for elastic
constants.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Liability of a Surgeon for the Extension of an Authorized Operation
Polyunsaturated fatty acids modulate the voltage dependence of several voltage-gated ion channels, thereby being potent modifiers of cellular excitability. Detailed knowledge of this molecular mechanism can be used in designing a new class of small-molecule compounds against hyperexcitability diseases. Here, we show that arginines on one side of the helical K-channel voltage sensor S4 increased the sensitivity to docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), whereas arginines on the opposing side decreased this sensitivity. Glutamates had opposite effects. In addition, a positively charged DHA-like molecule, arachidonyl amine, had opposite effects to the negatively charged DHA. This suggests that S4 rotates to open the channel and that DHA electrostatically affects this rotation. A channel with arginines in positions 356, 359, and 362 was extremely sensitive to DHA: 70 mu M DHA at pH 9.0 increased the current greater than500 times at negative voltages compared with wild type (WT). The small-molecule compound pimaric acid, a novel Shaker channel opener, opened the WT channel. The 356R/359R/362R channel drastically increased this effect, suggesting it to be instrumental in future drug screening
Timesaving Double-Grid Method for Real-Space Electronic-Structure Calculations
We present a simple and efficient technique in ab initio electronic-structure
calculation utilizing real-space double-grid with a high density of grid points
in the vicinity of nuclei. This technique promises to greatly reduce the
overhead for performing the integrals that involves non-local parts of
pseudopotentials, with keeping a high degree of accuracy. Our procedure gives
rise to no Pulay forces, unlike other real-space methods using adaptive
coordinates. Moreover, we demonstrate the potential power of the method by
calculating several properties of atoms and molecules.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Coherent eta photoproduction on the deuteron in the resonance region
Coherent eta photoproduction on the deuteron is studied in the
resonance region neglecting eta rescattering and two-body processes. For the
elementary reaction on the nucleon, we have considered the dominant
resonance and as background the nucleon pole terms as well as
and meson exchange. We have studied the influence of different
choices for the neutron resonance amplitude, different prescriptions for fixing
the invariant mass of the resonance amplitude and different methods for
deriving the elementary production amplitude for an arbitrary reference frame.Comment: 33 pages revtex including 13 postscript figure
Elaboration and characterization of Fe1–xO thin films sputter deposited from magnetite target
Majority of the authors report elaboration of iron oxide thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering from an iron target with Ar–O2 gas mixture. Instead of using the reactive sputtering of a metallic target we report here the preparation of Fe1–xOthin films, directly sputtered froma magnetite target in a pure argon gas flow with a bias power applied. This oxide is generally obtained at very low partial oxygen pressure and high temperature.We showed that bias sputtering which can be controlled very easily can lead to reducing conditions during deposition of oxide thin film on simple glass substrates. The proportion of wustite was directly adjusted bymodifying the power of the substrate polarization. Atomic force microscopy was used to observe these nanostructured layers. Mössbauer measurements and electrical properties versus bias polarization and annealing temperature are also reported
Tissue-specific expression of high-voltage-activated dihydropyridine-sensitive L-type calcium channels
The cloning of the cDNA for the α1 subunit of L-type calcium channels revealed that at least two genes (CaCh1 and CaCh2) exist which give rise to several splice variants. The expression of mRNA for these α1 subunits and the skeletal muscle α2/δ, β and γ subunits was studied in rabbit tissues and BC3H1 cells. Nucleic-acid-hybridization studies showed that the mRNA of all subunits are expressed in skeletal muscle, brain, heart and aorta. However, the α1-, β- and γ-specific transcripts had different sizes in these tissues. Smooth muscle and heart contain different splice variants of the CaCh2 gene. The α1, β and γ mRNA are expressed together in differentiated but not in proliferating BC3H1 cells. A probe specific for the skeletal muscle α2/δ subunit did not hybridize to poly(A)-rich RNA from BC3H1 cells. These results suggest that different splice variants of the genes for the α1, β and γ subunits exist in tissues containing L-type calcium channels, and that their expression is regulated in a coordinate manner
Nemo: a computational tool for analyzing nematode locomotion
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans responds to an impressive range of
chemical, mechanical and thermal stimuli and is extensively used to investigate
the molecular mechanisms that mediate chemosensation, mechanotransduction and
thermosensation. The main behavioral output of these responses is manifested as
alterations in animal locomotion. Monitoring and examination of such
alterations requires tools to capture and quantify features of nematode
movement. In this paper, we introduce Nemo (nematode movement), a
computationally efficient and robust two-dimensional object tracking algorithm
for automated detection and analysis of C. elegans locomotion. This algorithm
enables precise measurement and feature extraction of nematode movement
components. In addition, we develop a Graphical User Interface designed to
facilitate processing and interpretation of movement data. While, in this
study, we focus on the simple sinusoidal locomotion of C. elegans, our approach
can be readily adapted to handle complicated locomotory behaviour patterns by
including additional movement characteristics and parameters subject to
quantification. Our software tool offers the capacity to extract, analyze and
measure nematode locomotion features by processing simple video files. By
allowing precise and quantitative assessment of behavioral traits, this tool
will assist the genetic dissection and elucidation of the molecular mechanisms
underlying specific behavioral responses.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. accepted by BMC Neuroscience 2007, 8:8
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