1,618 research outputs found
Symptomatic adrenal insufficiency during inhaled corticosteroid treatment
Symptomatic adrenal insufficiency, presenting
as hypoglycaemia or poor weight
gain, may occur on withdrawal of corticosteroid
treatment but has not previously
been reported during inhaled corticosteroid
treatment. This case series illustrates
the occurence of clinically
significant adrenal insufficiency in asthmatic
children while patients were on
inhaled corticosteroid treatment and the
unexpected modes of presentation. General
practitioners and paediatricians need
to be aware that this unusual but acute
serious complication may occur in patients
treated
The Index Distribution of Gaussian Random Matrices
We compute analytically, for large N, the probability distribution of the
number of positive eigenvalues (the index N_{+}) of a random NxN matrix
belonging to Gaussian orthogonal (\beta=1), unitary (\beta=2) or symplectic
(\beta=4) ensembles. The distribution of the fraction of positive eigenvalues
c=N_{+}/N scales, for large N, as Prob(c,N)\simeq\exp[-\beta N^2 \Phi(c)] where
the rate function \Phi(c), symmetric around c=1/2 and universal (independent of
), is calculated exactly. The distribution has non-Gaussian tails, but
even near its peak at c=1/2 it is not strictly Gaussian due to an unusual
logarithmic singularity in the rate function.Comment: 4 pages Revtex, 4 .eps figures include
A Doubly Nudged Elastic Band Method for Finding Transition States
A modification of the nudged elastic band (NEB) method is presented that
enables stable optimisations to be run using both the limited-memory
quasi-Newton (L-BFGS) and slow-response quenched velocity Verlet (SQVV)
minimisers. The performance of this new `doubly nudged' DNEB method is analysed
in conjunction with both minimisers and compared with previous NEB
formulations. We find that the fastest DNEB approach (DNEB/L-BFGS) can be
quicker by up to two orders of magnitude. Applications to permutational
rearrangements of the seven-atom Lennard-Jones cluster (LJ7) and highly
cooperative rearrangements of LJ38 and LJ75 are presented. We also outline an
updated algorithm for constructing complicated multi-step pathways using
successive DNEB runs.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 2 table
The Origins of Phase Transitions in Small Systems
The identification and classification of phases in small systems, e.g.
nuclei, social and financial networks, clusters, and biological systems, where
the traditional definitions of phase transitions are not applicable, is
important to obtain a deeper understanding of the phenomena observed in such
systems. Within a simple statistical model we investigate the validity and
applicability of different classification schemes for phase transtions in small
systems. We show that the whole complex temperature plane contains necessary
information in order to give a distinct classification.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, revtex 4 beta 5, for further information see
http://www.smallsystems.d
Energy Landscape and Global Optimization for a Frustrated Model Protein
The three-color (BLN) 69-residue model protein was designed to exhibit frustrated folding. We investigate the energy landscape of this protein using disconnectivity graphs and compare it to a Go model, which is designed to reduce the frustration by removing all non-native attractive interactions. Finding the global minimum on a frustrated energy landscape is a good test of global optimization techniques, and we present calculations evaluating the performance of basin-hopping and genetic algorithms for this system.Comparisons are made with the widely studied 46-residue BLN protein.We show that the energy landscape of the 69-residue BLN protein contains several deep funnels, each of which corresponds to a different β-barrel structure
How glassy are orientational dynamics of rodlike molecules near the isotropic-nematic transition?
In an attempt to quantitatively characterize the recently observed slow
dynamics in the isotropic and nematic phase of liquid crystals, we investigate
the single-particle orientational dynamics of rodlike molecules across the
isotropic-nematic transition in computer simulations of a family of model
systems of thermotropic liquid crystals. Several remarkable features of glassy
dynamics are on display including non-exponential relaxation, dynamical
heterogeneity, and non-Arrhenius temperature dependence of the orientational
relaxation time. In order to obtain a quantitative measure of glassy dynamics
in line with the estbalished methods in supercooled liquids, we construct a
relaxation time versus scaled inverse temperature plot, and demonstrate that
one can indeed define a 'fragility index' for thermotropic liquid crystals,
that depends on density and aspect ratio. The values of the fragility parameter
are surprisingly in the range one observed for glass forming liquids. A
plausible correlation between the energy landscape features and the observed
fragility is discussed.Comment: 7 figures and 8 page
Hysteretic Optimization For Spin Glasses
The recently proposed Hysteretic Optimization (HO) procedure is applied to
the 1D Ising spin chain with long range interactions. To study its
effectiveness, the quality of ground state energies found as a function of the
distance dependence exponent, , is assessed. It is found that the
transition from an infinite-range to a long-range interaction at
is accompanied by a sharp decrease in the performance . The transition is
signaled by a change in the scaling behavior of the average avalanche size
observed during the hysteresis process. This indicates that HO requires the
system to be infinite-range, with a high degree of interconnectivity between
variables leading to large avalanches, in order to function properly. An
analysis of the way auto-correlations evolve during the optimization procedure
confirm that the search of phase space is less efficient, with the system
becoming effectively stuck in suboptimal configurations much earlier. These
observations explain the poor performance that HO obtained for the
Edwards-Anderson spin glass on finite-dimensional lattices, and suggest that
its usefulness might be limited in many combinatorial optimization problems.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures. To appear in JSTAT. Author website:
http://www.bgoncalves.co
Nonstatistical dynamics on potentials exhibiting reaction path bifurcations and valley-ridge inflection points
We study reaction dynamics on a model potential energy surface exhibiting
post-transition state bifurcation in the vicinity of a valley ridge inflection
point. We compute fractional yields of products reached after the VRI region is
traversed, both with and without dissipation. It is found that apparently minor
variations in the potential lead to significant changes in the reaction
dynamics. Moreover, when dissipative effects are incorporated, the product
ratio depends in a complicated and highly non-monotonic fashion on the
dissipation parameter. Dynamics in the vicinity of the VRI point itself play
essentially no role in determining the product ratio, except in the highly
dissipative regime.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figures, corrected the author name in reference [6
Structural Transitions and Global Minima of Sodium Chloride Clusters
In recent experiments on sodium chloride clusters structural transitions
between nanocrystals with different cuboidal shapes were detected. Here we
determine reaction pathways between the low energy isomers of one of these
clusters, (NaCl)35Cl-. The key process in these structural transitions is a
highly cooperative rearrangement in which two parts of the nanocrystal slip
past one another on a {110} plane in a direction. In this way the
nanocrystals can plastically deform, in contrast to the brittle behaviour of
bulk sodium chloride crystals at the same temperatures; the nanocrystals have
mechanical properties which are a unique feature of their finite size. We also
report and compare the global potential energy minima for (NaCl)NCl- using two
empirical potentials, and comment on the effect of polarization.Comment: extended version, 13 pages, 8 figures, revte
Pi-/Pi+ ratio from deuterium in photoproduction at 500-1000 Mev
The ratio of charged pions photoproduced from deuterium has been studied using the brems-strahlung photon beam from the electron synchrotron at the California Institute of Technology. The ratio yields of negative and positive pions gives directly the ratio of the cross sections of the two processes, γ+p=n+π+, and γ+n=p+ π-, assuming deuteron structure effects to be negligible
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