168 research outputs found
Segregation of Polymers in Confined Spaces
We investigate the motion of two overlapping polymers with self-avoidance
confined in a narrow 2d box. A statistical model is constructed using blob
free-energy arguments. We find spontaneous segregation under the condition: , and mixing under , where L is the length of the box, and
the polymer extension in an infinite slit. Segregation time scales are
determined by solving a mean first-passage time problem, and by performing
Monte Carlo simulations. Predictions of the two methods show good agreement.
Our results may elucidate a driving force for chromosomes segregation in
bacteria
Mesophase formation in two-component cylindrical bottle-brush polymers
When two types of side chains (A,B) are densely grafted to a (stiff) backbone
and the resulting bottle-brush polymer is in a solution under poor solvent
conditions, an incompatibility between A and B leads to microphase separation
in the resulting cylindrical brush. The possible types of ordering are
reminiscent of the ordering of block copolymers in cylindrical confinement.
Starting from this analogy, Leibler's theory of microphase separation in block
copolymer melts is generalized to derive a description of the system in the
weak segregation limit. Also molecular dynamics simulation results of a
corresponding coarse-grained bead-spring model are presented. Using side chain
lengths up to N = 50 effective monomers, the ratio of the Lennard-Jones energy
parameter between unlike monomers and monomers of the same
kind is varied. Various correlation
functions are analyzed to study the conditions when (local) Janus cylinder-type
ordering and when (local) microphase separation in the direction along the
cylinder axis occurs. Both the analytical theory and the simulations give
evidence for short range order due to a tendency towards microphase separation
in the axial direction, with a wavelength proportional to the side chain
gyration radius, irrespective of temperature and grafting density, for a wide
range of these parameters.Comment: 26 pages, 19 figure
Simulation of fluid-solid coexistence in finite volumes: A method to study the properties of wall-attached crystalline nuclei
The Asakura-Oosawa model for colloid-polymer mixtures is studied by Monte
Carlo simulations at densities inside the two-phase coexistence region of fluid
and solid. Choosing a geometry where the system is confined between two flat
walls, and a wall-colloid potential that leads to incomplete wetting of the
crystal at the wall, conditions can be created where a single nanoscopic
wall-attached crystalline cluster coexists with fluid in the remainder of the
simulation box. Following related ideas that have been useful to study
heterogeneous nucleation of liquid droplets at the vapor-liquid coexistence, we
estimate the contact angles from observations of the crystalline clusters in
thermal equilibrium. We find fair agreement with a prediction based on Young's
equation, using estimates of interface and wall tension from the study of flat
surfaces. It is shown that the pressure versus density curve of the finite
system exhibits a loop, but the pressure maximum signifies the "droplet
evaporation-condensation" transition and thus has nothing in common with a van
der Waals-like loop. Preparing systems where the packing fraction is deep
inside the two-phase coexistence region, the system spontaneously forms a "slab
state", with two wall-attached crystalline domains separated by (flat)
interfaces from liquid in full equilibrium with the crystal in between;
analysis of such states allows a precise estimation of the bulk equilibrium
properties at phase coexistence
A functional variant in the serotonin receptor 7 gene (HTR7), rs7905446, is associated with good response to SSRIs in bipolar and unipolar depression.
Predicting antidepressant response has been a clinical challenge for mood disorder. Although several genome-wide association studies have suggested a number of genetic variants to be associated with antidepressant response, the sample sizes are small and the results are difficult to replicate. Previous animal studies have shown that knockout of the serotonin receptor 7 gene (HTR7) resulted in an antidepressant-like phenotype, suggesting it was important to antidepressant action. In this report, in the first stage, we used a cost-effective pooled-sequencing strategy to sequence the entire HTR7 gene and its regulatory regions to investigate the association of common variants in HTR7 and clinical response to four selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs: citalopram, paroxetine, fluoxetine and sertraline) in a retrospective cohort mainly consisting of subjects with bipolar disorder (n = 359). We found 80 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with false discovery rate < 0.05 associated with response to paroxetine. Among the significant SNPs, rs7905446 (T/G), which is located at the promoter region, also showed nominal significance (P < 0.05) in fluoxetine group. GG/TG genotypes for rs7905446 and female gender were associated with better response to two SSRIs (paroxetine and fluoxetine). In the second stage, we replicated this association in two independent prospective samples of SSRI-treated patients with major depressive disorder: the MARS (n = 253, P = 0.0169) and GENDEP studies (n = 432, P = 0.008). The GG/TG genotypes were consistently associated with response in all three samples. Functional study of rs7905446 showed greater activity of the G allele in regulating expression of HTR7. The G allele displayed higher luciferase activity in two neuronal-related cell lines, and estrogen treatment decreased the activity of only the G allele. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay suggested that the G allele interacted with CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta transcription factor (TF), while the T allele did not show any interaction with any TFs. Our results provided novel pharmacogenomic evidence to support the role of HTR7 in association with antidepressant response
SURFACE INDUCED FINITE-SIZE EFFECTS FOR FIRST ORDER PHASE TRANSITIONS
We consider classical lattice models describing first-order phase
transitions, and study the finite-size scaling of the magnetization and
susceptibility. In order to model the effects of an actual surface in systems
like small magnetic clusters, we consider models with free boundary conditions.
For a field driven transition with two coexisting phases at the infinite volume
transition point , we prove that the low temperature finite volume
magnetization m_{\free}(L,h) per site in a cubic volume of size behaves
like
m_\free(L,h)=\frac{m_++m_-}2 + \frac{m_+-m_-}2
\tanh \bigl(\frac{m_+-m_-}2\,L^d\, (h-h_\chi(L))\bigr)+O(1/L),
where is the position of the maximum of the (finite volume)
susceptibility and are the infinite volume magnetizations at
and , respectively. We show that is shifted by an amount
proportional to with respect to the infinite volume transitions point
provided the surface free energies of the two phases at the transition
point are different. This should be compared with the shift for periodic boun\-
dary conditons, which for an asymmetric transition with two coexisting phases
is proportional only to . One also consider the position of
the maximum of the so called Binder cummulant U_\free(L,h). While it is again
shifted by an amount proportional to with respect to the infinite volume
transition point , its shift with respect to is of the much
smaller order . We give explicit formulas for the proportionality
factors, and show that, in the leading term, the relative shift is
the same as that for periodic boundary conditions.Comment: 65 pages, amstex, 1 PostScript figur
Long-range Effects on the Pyroelectric Coefficient and Dielectric Susceptibility of a Ferroelectric Bilayer
Long-range effects on the pyroelectric coefficient and susceptibility of a
ferroelectric bilayer with a ferroelectric interfacial coupling are
investigated by use of the transverse Ising model within the framework of
mean-field theory. The effects of the interfacial coupling and the transverse
field on the pyroelectric coefficient and susceptibility of the bilayer are
investigated by taking into account the long-range interaction. It is found
that the pyroelectric coefficient and susceptibility increase with the decrease
of the magnitude of the long-range interaction and the interfacial coupling
when the temperature is lower than the phase transition temperature. We also
find that the strong long-range interaction, the large transverse field and
weak interfacial coupling can lead to the disappearance of some of the peaks of
the pyroelectric coefficient and susceptibility of the ferroelectric bilayer.
The phase transition temperature increases with the increase of the strength of
the long-range interaction, which is similar to the results obtained in
ferroelectric multi-layers or superlattice.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figure
Non-equlibrium effects in transport through quantum dots
The role of non-equilibrium effects in the conductance through quantum dots
is investigated. Associated with single-electron tunneling are shake-up
processes and the formation of excitonic-like resonances. They change
qualitatively the low temperature properties of the system. We analyze by
quantum Monte Carlo methods the renormalization of the effective capacitance
and the gate-voltage dependent conductance. Experimental relevance is
discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 8 postscript figure
A DNA methylation biomarker of alcohol consumption.
The lack of reliable measures of alcohol intake is a major obstacle to the diagnosis and treatment of alcohol-related diseases. Epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation may provide novel biomarkers of alcohol use. To examine this possibility, we performed an epigenome-wide association study of methylation of cytosine-phosphate-guanine dinucleotide (CpG) sites in relation to alcohol intake in 13 population-based cohorts (ntotal=13 317; 54% women; mean age across cohorts 42-76 years) using whole blood (9643 European and 2423 African ancestries) or monocyte-derived DNA (588 European, 263 African and 400 Hispanic ancestry) samples. We performed meta-analysis and variable selection in whole-blood samples of people of European ancestry (n=6926) and identified 144 CpGs that provided substantial discrimination (area under the curve=0.90-0.99) for current heavy alcohol intake (⩾42 g per day in men and ⩾28 g per day in women) in four replication cohorts. The ancestry-stratified meta-analysis in whole blood identified 328 (9643 European ancestry samples) and 165 (2423 African ancestry samples) alcohol-related CpGs at Bonferroni-adjusted P<1 × 10-7. Analysis of the monocyte-derived DNA (n=1251) identified 62 alcohol-related CpGs at P<1 × 10-7. In whole-blood samples of people of European ancestry, we detected differential methylation in two neurotransmitter receptor genes, the γ-Aminobutyric acid-A receptor delta and γ-aminobutyric acid B receptor subunit 1; their differential methylation was associated with expression levels of a number of genes involved in immune function. In conclusion, we have identified a robust alcohol-related DNA methylation signature and shown the potential utility of DNA methylation as a clinically useful diagnostic test to detect current heavy alcohol consumption.Medical Research Council (Grant IDs: MC_UU_12015/1, MC_UU_12015/2), Wellcome Trust. Detailed acknowledgements are included in the Supplementary Information that accompanies the paper on the Molecular Psychiatry website
Phase transitions in quantum chromodynamics
The current understanding of finite temperature phase transitions in QCD is
reviewed. A critical discussion of refined phase transition criteria in
numerical lattice simulations and of analytical tools going beyond the
mean-field level in effective continuum models for QCD is presented.
Theoretical predictions about the order of the transitions are compared with
possible experimental manifestations in heavy-ion collisions. Various places in
phenomenological descriptions are pointed out, where more reliable data for
QCD's equation of state would help in selecting the most realistic scenario
among those proposed. Unanswered questions are raised about the relevance of
calculations which assume thermodynamic equilibrium. Promising new approaches
to implement nonequilibrium aspects in the thermodynamics of heavy-ion
collisions are described.Comment: 156 pages, RevTex. Tables II,VIII,IX and Fig.s 1-38 are not included
as postscript files. I would like to ask the requestors to copy the missing
tables and figures from the corresponding journal-referenc
SPARC 2018 Internationalisation and collaboration : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts
Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2018 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the launch of our Doctoral School, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 100 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to take up this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas from your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers
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