812 research outputs found

    Deterministically Driven Avalanche Models of Solar Flares

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    We develop and discuss the properties of a new class of lattice-based avalanche models of solar flares. These models are readily amenable to a relatively unambiguous physical interpretation in terms of slow twisting of a coronal loop. They share similarities with other avalanche models, such as the classical stick--slip self-organized critical model of earthquakes, in that they are driven globally by a fully deterministic energy loading process. The model design leads to a systematic deficit of small scale avalanches. In some portions of model space, mid-size and large avalanching behavior is scale-free, being characterized by event size distributions that have the form of power-laws with index values, which, in some parameter regimes, compare favorably to those inferred from solar EUV and X-ray flare data. For models using conservative or near-conservative redistribution rules, a population of large, quasiperiodic avalanches can also appear. Although without direct counterparts in the observational global statistics of flare energy release, this latter behavior may be relevant to recurrent flaring in individual coronal loops. This class of models could provide a basis for the prediction of large solar flares.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Solar Physic

    Functional chromatin features are associated with structural mutations in cancer.

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    BACKGROUND: Structural mutations (SMs) play a major role in cancer development. In some cancers, such as breast and ovarian, DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) occur more frequently in transcribed regions, while in other cancer types such as prostate, there is a consistent depletion of breakpoints in transcribed regions. Despite such regularity, little is understood about the mechanisms driving these effects. A few works have suggested that protein binding may be relevant, e.g. in studies of androgen receptor binding and active chromatin in specific cell types. We hypothesized that this behavior might be general, i.e. that correlation between protein-DNA binding (and open chromatin) and breakpoint locations is common across divergent cancers. RESULTS: We investigated this hypothesis by comprehensively analyzing the relationship among 457 ENCODE protein binding ChIP-seq experiments, 125 DnaseI and 24 FAIRE experiments, and 14,600 SMs from 8 diverse cancer datasets covering 147 samples. In most cancers, including breast and ovarian, we found enrichment of protein binding and open chromatin in the vicinity of SM breakpoints at distances up to 200 kb. Furthermore, for all cancer types we observed an enhanced enrichment in regions distant from genes when compared to regions proximal to genes, suggesting that the SM-induction mechanism is independent from the bias of DSBs to occur near transcribed regions. We also observed a stronger effect for sites with more than one protein bound. CONCLUSIONS: Protein binding and open chromatin state are associated with nearby SM breakpoints in many cancer datasets. These observations suggest a consistent mechanism underlying SM locations across different cancers

    Minimizing interfacial losses in inverted organic solar cells comprising Al-doped ZnO

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    We demonstrated a 35% enhancement in the efficiency of inverted solar cells as a result of increased open-circuit voltage and fill factor by adsorbing an ultrathin layer of a ruthenium dye N719 on an aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO-Al) electron collecting interfacial layer. The interface modification with N719 changes the charge injection levels as indicated by ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy. The efficiency of inverted solar cells comprising a bulk heterojunction photo-active film of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and phenyl-C 61-butyric acid methyl ester has increased from ∼2.80% to 3.80% upon employing the dye modification of the electrode interface

    Local disorder and optical properties in V-shaped quantum wires : towards one-dimensional exciton systems

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    The exciton localization is studied in GaAs/GaAlAs V-shaped quantum wires (QWRs) by high spatial resolution spectroscopy. Scanning optical imaging of different generations of samples shows that the localization length has been enhanced as the growth techniques were improved. In the best samples, excitons are delocalized in islands of length of the order of 1 micron, and form a continuum of 1D states in each of them, as evidenced by the sqrt(T) dependence of the radiative lifetime. On the opposite, in the previous generation of QWRs, the localization length is typically 50 nm and the QWR behaves as a collection of quantum boxes. These localization properties are compared to structural properties and related to the progresses of the growth techniques. The presence of residual disorder is evidenced in the best samples and explained by the separation of electrons and holes due to the large in-built piezo-electric field present in the structure.Comment: 8 figure

    Minority carrier transport length of electrodeposited Cu2O in ZnO/Cu2O heterojunction solar cells

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    The minority carrier transport length is a critical parameter limiting the performance of inexpensive Cu2 O-ZnO photovoltaic devices. In this letter, this length is estimated to be ∼430 nm for electrochemically deposited Cu2 O by linking the cell's carrier generation profile with back and front incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency measurements to a one-dimensional transport model. This critical length explains the losses typically presented by these devices and appears to correlate well with the microcrystalline film structure. The consequences of the magnitude of the length on device design with the aim of improving solar cell performance are described

    Anomaly analysis of Hawking radiation from Kaluza-Klein black hole with squashed horizon

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    Considering gravitational and gauge anomalies at the horizon, a new method that to derive Hawking radiations from black holes has been developed by Wilczek et al. In this paper, we apply this method to non-rotating and rotating Kaluza-Klein black holes with squashed horizon, respectively. For the rotating case, we found that, after the dimensional reduction, an effective U(1) gauge field is generated by an angular isometry. The results show that the gauge current and energy-momentum tensor fluxes are exactly equivalent to Hawking radiation from the event horizon.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, the improved version, accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

    A Field-theoretical Interpretation of the Holographic Renormalization Group

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    A quantum-field theoretical interpretation is given to the holographic RG equation by relating it to a field-theoretical local RG equation which determines how Weyl invariance is broken in a quantized field theory. Using this approach we determine the relation between the holographic C theorem and the C theorem in two-dimensional quantum field theory which relies on the Zamolodchikov metric. Similarly we discuss how in four dimensions the holographic C function is related to a conjectured field-theoretical C function. The scheme dependence of the holographic RG due to the possible presence of finite local counterterms is discussed in detail, as well as its implications for the holographic C function. We also discuss issues special to the situation when mass deformations are present. Furthermore we suggest that the holographic RG equation may also be obtained from a bulk diffeomorphism which reduces to a Weyl transformation on the boundary.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, no figures; references added, typos corrected, paragraph added to section

    Four Dimensional Conformal Supergravity From AdS Space

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    Exploring the role of conformal theories of gravity in string theory, we show that the minimal (N=2) gauged supergravities in five dimensions induce the multiplets and transformations of N=1 four dimensional conformal supergravity on the spacetime boundary. N=1 Poincare supergravity can be induced by explicitly breaking the conformal invariance via a radial cutoff in the 5d space. The AdS/CFT correspondence relates the maximal gauged supergravity in five dimensions to N=4 super Yang-Mills on the 4d spacetime boundary. In this context we show that the conformal anomaly of the gauge theory induces conformal gravity on the boundary of the space and that this theory, via the renormalization group, encapsulates the gravitational dynamics of the skin of asymptotically AdS spacetimes. Our results have several applications to the AdS/CFT correspondence and the Randall-Sundrum scenario.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX. v3. references and minor comments adde
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