5,418 research outputs found
Male Partners' Involvement Towards Prenatal Screening and Diagnostic Testing for Down Syndrome
Introduction: Now, male partners' involvement in prenatal screening and diagnostic testing for Down syndrome is becoming increasingly recognized as well to ensure that parents are well informed of the risks and benefits of screening. The aim of study was to understand the degree of male partners' involvement during pregnancy in Singapore population. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of male partners' attending prenatal counseling was performed. The instrument used to measure the level of involvement is a self-assessment questionnaire that identifies the role of male partners with a Likert scale. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data gained. Result: A total of 107 participants completed the questionnaire. Sixty-seven percent of male partners were found to have a highlevel of involvement while 32.7% was found to have a medium level of involvement. Most of them stated that women can pursue prenatal testing without their permission. Male partners found it more important for them to accompany their spouse to amniocentesis or CVS than to the Down syndrome screening test. When participants were asked about how much information about Down syndrome they sought prior to the appointment, how much discussion they had with their spouse about Down syndrome testing, and about whether they or their spouse should be the first person to receive test results, most stated that they were undecided. Conclusion: These results revealed that male partners were very well involved in the Down syndrome testing during pregnancy and future studies should assess possible underlying factors that influence male partners' involvement
First-Order Transition and Critical End-Point in Vortex Liquids in Layered Superconductors
We calculate various thermodynamic quantities of vortex liquids in a layered
superconductor by using the nonperturbative parquet approximation method, which
was previously used to study the effect of thermal fluctuations in
two-dimensional vortex systems. We find there is a first-order transition
between two vortex liquid phases which differ in the magnitude of their
correlation lengths. As the coupling between the layers increases,the
first-order transition line ends at a critical point. We discuss the possible
relation between this critical end-point and the disappearance of the
first-order transition which is observed in experiments on high temperature
superconductors at low magnetic fields.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Pattern formation of indirect excitons in coupled quantum wells
Using a nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation including short-range two-body
attraction and three-body repulsion, we investigate the spatial distribution of
indirect excitons in semiconductor coupled quantum wells. The results obtained
can interpret the experimental phenomenon that annular exciton cloud first
contracts then expands when the number of confined excitons is increased in
impurity potential well, as observed by Lai \emph{et al.} [Lai ,
Science \textbf{303}, 503 (2004)]. In particular, the model reconciles the
patterns of exciton rings reported by Butov \emph{et al.} [Butov ,
Nature \textbf{418}, 751 (2002)]. At higher densities, the model predicts much
richer patterns, which could be tested by future experiments.Comment: 5 Revtex4 pages, 3 figure
Millisecond spin-flip times of donor-bound electrons in GaAs
We observe millisecond spin-flip relaxation times of donor-bound electrons in
high-purity n-GaAs . This is three orders of magnitude larger than previously
reported lifetimes in n-GaAs . Spin-flip times are measured as a function of
magnetic field and exhibit a strong power-law dependence for fields greater
than 4 T . This result is in qualitative agreement with previously reported
theory and measurements of electrons in quantum dots.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Motility induced changes in viscosity of suspensions of swimming microbes in extensional flows
Suspensions of motile cells are model systems for understanding the unique
mechanical properties of living materials which often consist of ensembles of
self-propelled particles. We present here a quantitative comparison of theory
against experiment for the rheology of such suspensions. The influence of
motility on viscosities of cell suspensions is studied using a novel
acoustically-driven microfluidic capillary-breakup extensional rheometer.
Motility increases the extensional viscosity of suspensions of algal pullers,
but decreases it in the case of bacterial or sperm pushers. A recent model
[Saintillan, Phys. Rev. E, 2010, 81:56307] for dilute active suspensions is
extended to obtain predictions for higher concentrations, after independently
obtaining parameters such as swimming speeds and diffusivities. We show that
details of body and flagellar shape can significantly determine macroscale
rheological behaviour.Comment: 12 pages, 1 appendix, 7 figures, submitted to Soft Matter - under
revie
John Chalmers DaCosta (1863-1933): restoration of the old operating table.
John Chalmers DaCosta was an influential chairman and the first Samuel D. Gross Professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He was well known throughout the field as a skilled surgeon, passionate speaker, and exceptional writer. In addition to countless accomplishments during his career, DaCosta was deeply dedicated to the preservation and commemoration of surgical history. This ideology was exemplified when he set out on a mission to recover the old wooden operating table used by many of his iconic mentors including Samuel D. Gross, Joseph Pancoast, and William W. Keen. This table was originally used for surgical demonstrations and anatomy lessons in a lecture room of the Ely Building and later in the great amphitheater of the Jefferson Sansom Street Hospital. It was found forgotten in the basement of the College Building and was promptly refurbished, donned with dedicatory plaques, and returned to its honored position in the medical college. Dr. DaCosta also contributed a detailed article recalling the history of the table and the notable leaders in surgery who taught and practiced on its surface. The old table currently stands proudly in the entranceway of the Department of Surgery where it will remain as a cherished symbol of the early beginnings of surgical practice and education
Targeted modulation of tropoelastin structure and assembly
Tropoelastin,
as the monomer unit of elastin, assembles into elastic
fibers that impart strength and resilience to elastic tissues. Tropoelastin
is also widely used to manufacture versatile materials with specific
mechanical and biological properties. The assembly of tropoelastin
into elastic fibers or biomaterials is crucially influenced by key
submolecular regions and specific residues within these domains. In
this work, we identify the functional contributions of two rarely
occurring negatively charged residues, glutamate 345 in domain 19
and glutamate 414 in domain 21, in jointly maintaining the native
conformation of the tropoelastin hinge, bridge and foot regions. Alanine
substitution of E345 and/or E414 variably alters the positioning and
interactive accessibility of these regions, as illustrated by nanostructural
studies and detected by antibody and cell probes. These structural
changes are associated with a lower propensity for monomer coacervation,
cross-linking into morphologically and functionally atypical hydrogels,
and markedly impaired and abnormal elastic fiber formation. Our work
indicates the crucial significance of both E345 and E414 residues
in modulating specific local structure and higher-order assembly of
human tropoelastin
Teleportation via thermally entangled state of a two-qubit Heisenberg XX chain
We find that quantum teleportation, using the thermally entangled state of
two-qubit Heisenberg XX chain as a resource, with fidelity better than any
classical communication protocol is possible. However, a thermal state with a
greater amount of thermal entanglement does not necessarily yield better
fidelity. It depends on the amount of mixing between the separable state and
maximally entangled state in the spectra of the two-qubit Heisenberg XX model.Comment: 5 pages, 1 tabl
The Stability of the Replica Symmetric State in Finite Dimensional Spin Glasses
According to the droplet picture of spin glasses, the low-temperature phase
of spin glasses should be replica symmetric. However, analysis of the stability
of this state suggested that it was unstable and this instability lends support
to the Parisi replica symmetry breaking picture of spin glasses. The
finite-size scaling functions in the critical region of spin glasses below T_c
in dimensions greater than 6 can be determined and for them the replica
symmetric solution is unstable order by order in perturbation theory.
Nevertheless the exact solution can be shown to be replica-symmetric. It is
suggested that a similar mechanism might apply in the low-temperature phase of
spin glasses in less than six dimensions, but that a replica symmetry broken
state might exist in more than six dimensions.Comment: 5 pages. Modified to include a paragraph on the relation of this work
to that of Newman and Stei
- …