Femtosecond Time-Resolved Reflectivity of Ge

We have measured the transient reflectivity changes of bulk Ge after excitation with 140 fs laser pulses at 1.5 eV. The electron and hole carrier dynamics arc calculated using an ensemble Monte Carlo method. The observed reflectivity changes are due to three mechanisms: Diffusion, band gap renormalization, and carrier dynamics, particularly scattering of light holes to the heavy hole band via optical phonons

Si-based n-type THz Quantum Cascade Emitter

Employing electronic transitions in the conduction band of semiconductor heterostructures paves a way to integrate a light source into silicon-based technology. To date all electroluminescence demonstrations of Si-based heterostructures have been p-type using hole-hole transitions. In the pathway of realizing an n-type Ge/SiGe terahertz quantum cascade laser, we present electroluminescence measurements of quantum cascade structures with top diffraction gratings. The devices for surface emission have been fabricated out of a 4-well quantum cascade laser design with 30 periods. An optical signal was observed with a maximum between 8-9 meV and full width at half maximum of roughly 4 meV

Macroscopic superposition states of ultracold bosons in a double-well potential

We present a thorough description of the physical regimes for ultracold bosons in double wells, with special attention paid to macroscopic superpositions (MSs). We use a generalization of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick Hamiltonian of up to eight single particle modes to study these MSs, solving the Hamiltonian with a combination of numerical exact diagonalization and high-order perturbation theory. The MS is between left and right potential wells; the extreme case with all atoms simultaneously located in both wells and in only two modes is the famous NOON state, but our approach encompasses much more general MSs. Use of more single particle modes brings dimensionality into the problem, allows us to set hard limits on the use of the original two-mode LMG model commonly treated in the literature, and also introduces a new mixed Josephson-Fock regime. Higher modes introduce angular degrees of freedom and MS states with different angular properties.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Mini-review prepared for the special issue of Frontiers of Physics "Recent Progresses on Quantum Dynamics of Ultracold Atoms and Future Quantum Technologies", edited by Profs. Lee, Ueda, and Drummon

Decreased expression of breast cancer resistance protein in the duodenum in patients with obstructive cholestasis

Background/Aims: The expression of transporters involved in bile acid homeostasis is differentially regulated during obstructive cholestasis. Since the drug efflux transporter breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) is known to transport bile acids, we investigated whether duodenal BCRP expression could be altered during cholestasis. Methods: Using real-time RT-PCR analysis we determined mRNA expression levels in duodenal tissue of 19 cholestatic patients. Expression levels were compared to 14 healthy subjects. BCRP protein staining was determined in biopsies of 6 cholestatic and 6 healthy subjects by immunohistochemistry. Results: We found that in patients with obstructive cholestasis mean duodenal BCRP mRNA levels were significantly reduced to 53% and mean protein staining was reduced to 57%. Conclusions: BCRP, a transporter for bile acids and numerous drugs, appears to be down-regulated in the human duodenum during cholestasis. The clinical impact of these results has to be investigated in further studies. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Improved kinetics of rIX-FP, a recombinant fusion protein linking factor IX with albumin, in cynomolgus monkeys and hemophilia B dogs: Improved kinetics of rIX-FP

Prophylaxis of hemophilia B, at present, requires multiple infusions of human factor IX (FIX) concentrates per week. A FIX molecule with a prolonged half-life has the potential to greatly improve convenience of, and adherence to, prophylaxis

Improving the forecast for biodiversity under climate change

Acknowledgments: This paper originates from the “Ecological Interactions and Range Evolution Under Environmental Change” and “RangeShifter” working groups, supported by the Synthesis Centre of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (DFG-FZT-118), DIVERSITAS, and its core projects bioDISCOVERY and bioGENESIS. Supported by the Canada Research Chair, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science (A.G.); the University of Florida Foundation (R.D.H.); KU Leuven Research Fund grant PF/2010/07, ERA-Net BiodivERsA TIPPINGPOND, and Belspo IAP SPEEDY (L.D.M.); European Union Biodiversity Observation Network grant EU-BON-FP7-308454 (J.-B.M. and G.P.); KU Leuven Research Fund (J.P.); and NSF grants DEB-1119877 and PLR-1417754 and the McDonnell Foundation (M.C.U.).Peer reviewedPostprin

Emergent Properties of Patch Shapes Affect Edge Permeability to Animals

Animal travel between habitat patches affects populations, communities and ecosystems. There are three levels of organization of edge properties, and each of these can affect animals. At the lowest level are the different habitats on each side of an edge, then there is the edge itself, and finally, at the highest level of organization, is the geometry or structure of the edge. This study used computer simulations to (1) find out whether effects of edge shapes on animal behavior can arise as emergent properties solely due to reactions to edges in general, without the animals reacting to the shapes of the edges, and to (2) generate predictions to allow field and experimental studies to test mechanisms of edge shape response. Individual animals were modeled traveling inside a habitat patch that had different kinds of edge shapes (convex, concave and straight). When animals responded edges of patches, this created an emergent property of responding to the shape of the edge. The response was mostly to absolute width of the shapes, and not the narrowness of them. When animals were attracted to edges, then they tended to collect in convexities and disperse from concavities, and the opposite happened when animals avoided edges. Most of the responses occurred within a distance of 40% of the perceptual range from the tip of the shapes. Predictions were produced for directionality at various locations and combinations of treatments, to be used for testing edge behavior mechanisms. These results suggest that edge shapes tend to either concentrate or disperse animals, simply because the animals are either attracted to or avoid edges, with an effect as great as 3 times the normal density. Thus edge shape could affect processes like pollination, seed predation and dispersal and predator abundance

In vivo imaging of systemic transport and elimination of xenobiotics and endogenous molecules in mice

We describe a two-photon microscopy-based method to evaluate the in vivo systemic transport of compounds. This method comprises imaging of the intact liver, kidney and intestine, the main organs responsible for uptake and elimination of xenobiotics and endogenous molecules. The image quality of the acquired movies was sufficient to distinguish subcellular structures like organelles and vesicles. Quantification of the movement of fluorescent dextran and fluorescent cholic acid derivatives in different organs and their sub-compartments over time revealed significant dynamic differences. Calculated half-lives were similar in the capillaries of all investigated organs but differed in the specific sub-compartments, such as parenchymal cells and bile canaliculi of the liver, glomeruli, proximal and distal tubules of the kidney and lymph vessels (lacteals) of the small intestine. Moreover, tools to image immune cells, which can influence transport processes in inflamed tissues, are described. This powerful approach provides new possibilities for the analysis of compound transport in multiple organs and can support physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling, in order to obtain more precise predictions at the whole body scale