98 research outputs found
Sulfur reduction in sediments of marine and evaporite environments
Transformations of sulfur in sediments of ponds ranging in salinities from that of normal seawater to those of brines saturated with sodium chloride were examined. The chemistry of the sediment and pore waters were focused on with emphasis on the fate of sulfate reduction. The effects of increasing salinity on both forms of sulfur and microbial activity were determined. A unique set of chemical profiles and sulfate-reducing activity was found for the sediments of each of the sites examined. The quantity of organic matter in the salt pond sediments was significantly greater than that occurring in the adjacent intertidal site. The total quantitative and qualitative distribution of volatile fatty acids was also greater in the salt ponds. Volatile fatty acids increased with salinity
Single-Gate Accumulation-Mode InGaAs Quantum Dot with a Vertically Integrated Charge Sensor
We report on the fabrication and characterization of a few-electron quantum
dot controlled by a single gate electrode. Our device has a double-quantum-well
design, in which the doping controls the occupancy of the lower well while the
upper well remains empty under the free surface. A small air-bridged gate
contacts the surface, and is positively biased to draw laterally confined
electrons into the upper well. Electrons tunneling between this
accumulation-mode dot and the lower well are detected using a quantum point
contact (QPC), located slightly offset from the dot gate. The charge state of
the dot is measured by monitoring the differential transconductance of the QPC
near pinch-off. Addition spectra starting with N=0 were observed as a function
of gate voltage. DC sensitivity to single electrons was determined to be as
high as 8.6%, resulting in a signal-to-noise ratio of ~9:1 with an equivalent
noise bandwidth of 12.1 kHz. Analysis of random telegraph signals associated
with the zero to one electron transition allowed a measurement of the lifetimes
for the filled and empty states of the one-electron dot: 0.38 ms and 0.22 ms,
respectively, for a device with a 10 nm AlInAs tunnel barrier between the two
wells.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Stress-free Spatial Anisotropy in Phase-Ordering
We find spatial anisotropy in the asymptotic correlations of two-dimensional
Ising models under non-equilibrium phase-ordering. Anisotropy is seen for
critical and off-critical quenches and both conserved and non-conserved
dynamics. We argue that spatial anisotropy is generic for scalar systems
(including Potts models) with an anisotropic surface tension. Correlation
functions will not be universal in these systems since anisotropy will depend
on, e.g., temperature, microscopic interactions and dynamics, disorder, and
frustration.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures include
Transition from damage to fragmentation in collision of solids
We investigate fracture and fragmentation of solids due to impact at low
energies using a two-dimensional dynamical model of granular solids. Simulating
collisions of two solid discs we show that, depending on the initial energy,
the outcome of a collision process can be classified into two states: a damaged
and a fragmented state with a sharp transition in between. We give numerical
evidence that the transition point between the two states behaves as a critical
point, and we discuss the possible mechanism of the transition.Comment: Revtex, 12 figures included. accepted by Phys. Rev.
Scaling in Late Stage Spinodal Decomposition with Quenched Disorder
We study the late stages of spinodal decomposition in a Ginzburg-Landau mean
field model with quenched disorder. Random spatial dependence in the coupling
constants is introduced to model the quenched disorder. The effect of the
disorder on the scaling of the structure factor and on the domain growth is
investigated in both the zero temperature limit and at finite temperature. In
particular, we find that at zero temperature the domain size, , scales
with the amplitude, , of the quenched disorder as with and in two
dimensions. We show that , where is the
Lifshitz-Slyosov exponent. At finite temperature, this simple scaling is not
observed and we suggest that the scaling also depends on temperature and .
We discuss these results in the context of Monte Carlo and cell dynamical
models for phase separation in systems with quenched disorder, and propose that
in a Monte Carlo simulation the concentration of impurities, , is related to
by .Comment: RevTex manuscript 5 pages and 5 figures (obtained upon request via
email [email protected]
Lattice-gas simulations of Domain Growth, Saturation and Self-Assembly in Immiscible Fluids and Microemulsions
We investigate the dynamical behavior of both binary fluid and ternary
microemulsion systems in two dimensions using a recently introduced
hydrodynamic lattice-gas model of microemulsions. We find that the presence of
amphiphile in our simulations reduces the usual oil-water interfacial tension
in accord with experiment and consequently affects the non-equilibrium growth
of oil and water domains. As the density of surfactant is increased we observe
a crossover from the usual two-dimensional binary fluid scaling laws to a
growth that is {\it slow}, and we find that this slow growth can be
characterized by a logarithmic time scale. With sufficient surfactant in the
system we observe that the domains cease to grow beyond a certain point and we
find that this final characteristic domain size is inversely proportional to
the interfacial surfactant concentration in the system.Comment: 28 pages, latex, embedded .eps figures, one figure is in colour, all
in one uuencoded gzip compressed tar file, submitted to Physical Review
Primary vaginal Ewing's sarcoma or primitive neuroectodermal tumor in a 17-year-old woman: a case report
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Primary Ewing's sarcoma or primitive neuroectodermal tumor of the genital tract of women is uncommon. Rarer still is its occurrence in the vagina, with only five cases described so far. Out of these, only one case was confirmed using molecular analysis.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present an extremely rare case of Ewing's sarcoma or primitive neuroectodermal tumor in a 17-year-old Indian girl. She presented with a vaginal mass that was initially diagnosed as a malignant round cell tumor. Immunohistochemistry showed diffuse positivity for vimentin, membranous positivity for MIC2, and positivity for BCL2 and FLI-1. On the other hand, she was negative for cytokeratin, epithelial membrane antigen, desmin, Myo D-1, myogenin and smooth muscle actin. A diagnosis of primitive neuroectodermal tumor was thus offered. Furthermore, a molecular analysis of our patient using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction technique showed positivity for t(11; 22) (q24; q12) (EWSR1-FLI1), thus confirming the diagnosis of a Ewing's sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumor. Our patient was offered chemotherapy on Institutional protocol EFT 2001.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is a rare case of primary vaginal Ewing's sarcoma or primitive neuroectodermal tumor, which was confirmed with molecular analysis, in the youngest patient known so far. This study reinforces the value of integrating morphological features with membranous MIC2 positivity, along with application of molecular techniques in objective identification of an Ewing's sarcoma or primitive neuroectodermal tumor at uncommon sites.</p
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