Infrared properties of exotic superconductors

The infrared spectra of the non-traditional superconductors share certain common features. The lack of a gap signature at $2\Delta$ and the residual conductivity are the consequence of a d-wave order parameter. The high $T_c$ materials, the organic conductors and the heavy Fermion materials have a strong mid-infrared absorption band which can be interpreted as strong coupling of the carriers to electronic degrees of freedom which leads to a breakdown of the Fermi liquid picture. The cuprates and the organic charge transfer salts are unique in possessing an intrinsic low dimensionality. The charge transport normal to the highly conducting direction is incoherent down to the lowest temperatures and frequencies.Comment: 10 pages 11 figures, From the proceedings of the First Euroconference on Anomalous Complex Superconductors, Heraklion, Crete. Sept 1998, to be published in Physica

Vortex-antivortex wavefunction of a degenerate quantum gas

A mechanism of a pinning of the quantized matter wave vortices by optical vortices in a specially arranged optical dipole traps is discussed. The vortex-antivortex optical arrays of rectangular symmetry are shown to transfer angular orbital momentum and form the "antiferromagnet"-like matter waves. The separable Hamiltonian for matter waves in pancake trapping geometry is proposed and 3D-wavefunction is factorized in a product of wavefunctions of the 1D harmonic oscillator and 2D vortex-antivortex quantum state. The 2D wavefunction's phase gradient field associated via Madelung transform with the field of classical velocities forms labyrinth-like structure. The macroscopic quantum state composed of periodically spaced counter-rotating BEC superfluid vortices has zero angular momentum and nonzero rotational energy.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Active Adenoviral Vascular Penetration by Targeted Formation of Heterocellular Endothelial–epithelial Syncytia

The endothelium imposes a structural barrier to the extravasation of systemically delivered oncolytic adenovirus (Ad). Here, we introduced a transendothelial route of delivery in order to increase tumor accumulation of virus particles (vp) beyond that resulting from convection-dependent extravasation alone. This was achieved by engineering an Ad encoding a syncytium-forming protein, gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) fusogenic membrane glycoprotein (FMG). The expression of GALV was regulated by a hybrid viral enhancer-human promoter construct comprising the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) immediate-early enhancer and the minimal human endothelial receptor tyrosine kinase promoter (“eTie1”). Endothelial cell-selectivity of the resulting Ad-eTie1-GALV vector was demonstrated by measuring GALV mRNA transcript levels. Furthermore, Ad-eTie1-GALV selectively induced fusion between infected endothelial cells and uninfected epithelial cells in vitro and in vivo, allowing transendothelial virus penetration. Heterofusion of infected endothelium to human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK 293) cells, in mixed in vitro cultures or in murine xenograft models, permitted fusion-dependent transactivation of the replication-deficient Ad-eTie1-GALV, due to enabled access to viral E1 proteins derived from the HEK 293 cytoplasm. These data provide evidence to support our proposed use of GALV to promote Ad penetration through tumor-associated vasculature, an approach that may substantially improve the efficiency of systemic delivery of oncolytic viruses to disseminated tumors

For the Progress of “Faustus and Helen”: Crane, Whitman, and the Metropolitan Progress Poem

This essay is meant to invigorate a critical discussion of the progress poem—a genre that, while prevalent in American literature, has been virtually ignored by critics and scholars. In lieu of tackling the genre in its entirety, a project too large for just one article, the author focuses the argument through the well-known alignment between Walt Whitman and Hart Crane on the subject of the modern city. It is through the progress poem genre that Crane and Whitman’s peculiar place in metropolitan poetics can best be understood, and it is through their poetry that scholars can begin to approach the broader issue of the progress poem’s place in American literature. Cet article vise à soulever un débat critique au sujet de la poésie du progrès, un genre courant dans la littérature étatsunienne, mais pratiquement ignoré par les critiques et les commentateurs. Plutôt que d’aborder le genre dans son entièreté – un projet qui déborde du cadre d’un article –, l’auteur resserre l’argumentation autour du parallèle bien connu entre Walt Whitman et Hart Crane concernant le traitement de la ville moderne. C’est la poésie du progrès en tant que genre qui permet le mieux de comprendre la place particulière qu’occupent ces deux auteurs dans la poésie métropolitaine, et c’est par leurs poèmes que les chercheurs peuvent aborder la question plus vaste de la place du poème sur le progrès dans la littérature étatsunienne