3,222 research outputs found
Compressing nearly hard sphere fluids increases glass fragility
We use molecular dynamics to investigate the glass transition occurring at
large volume fraction, phi, and low temperature, T, in assemblies of soft
repulsive particles. We find that equilibrium dynamics in the (phi, T) plane
obey a form of dynamic scaling in the proximity of a critical point at T=0 and
phi=phi_0, which should correspond to the ideal glass transition of hard
spheres. This glass point, `point G', is distinct from athermal jamming
thresholds. A remarkable consequence of scaling behaviour is that the dynamics
at fixed phi passes smoothly from that of a strong glass to that of a very
fragile glass as phi increases beyond phi_0. Correlations between fragility and
various physical properties are explored.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; Version accepted at Europhys. Let
Association of a MET genetic variant with autism-associated maternal autoantibodies to fetal brain proteins and cytokine expression.
The contribution of peripheral immunity to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) risk is debated and poorly understood. Some mothers of children with ASD have autoantibodies that react to fetal brain proteins, raising the possibility that a subset of ASD cases may be associated with a maternal antibody response during gestation. The mechanism by which the maternal immune system breaks tolerance has not been addressed. We hypothesized that the mechanism may involve decreased expression of the MET receptor tyrosine kinase, an ASD risk gene that also serves as a key negative regulator of immune responsiveness. In a sample of 365 mothers, including 202 mothers of children with ASD, the functional MET promoter variant rs1858830 C allele was strongly associated with the presence of an ASD-specific 37+73-kDa band pattern of maternal autoantibodies to fetal brain proteins (P=0.003). To determine the mechanism of this genetic association, we measured MET protein and cytokine production in freshly prepared peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 76 mothers of ASD and typically developing children. The MET rs1858830 C allele was significantly associated with MET protein expression (P=0.025). Moreover, decreased expression of the regulatory cytokine IL-10 was associated with both the MET gene C allele (P=0.001) and reduced MET protein levels (P=0.002). These results indicate genetic distinction among mothers who produce ASD-associated antibodies to fetal brain proteins, and suggest a potential mechanism for how a genetically determined decrease in MET protein production may lead to a reduction in immune regulation
Tunneling dynamics of side chains and defects in proteins, polymer glasses, and OH-doped network glasses
Simulations on a Lennard-Jones computer glass are performed to study effects
arising from defects in glasses at low temperatures. The numerical analysis
reveals that already a low concentration of defects may dramatically change the
low temperature properties by giving rise to extrinsic double-well potentials
(DWP's). The main characteristics of these extrinsic DWP's are (i) high barrier
heights, (ii) high probability that a defect is indeed connected with an
extrinsic DWP, (iii) highly localized dynamics around this defect, and (iv)
smaller deformation potential coupling to phonons. Designing an extension of
the Standard Tunneling Model (STM) which parametrizes this picture and
comparing with ultrasound experiments on the wet network glass -BO
shows that effects of OH-impurities are accurately accounted for. This model is
then applied to organic polymer glasses and proteins. It is suggested that side
groups may act similarly like doped impurities inasmuch as extrinsic DWP's are
induced, which possess a distribution of barriers peaked around a high barrier
height. This compares with the structurlessly distributed barrier heights of
the intrinsic DWP's, which are associated with the backbone dynamics. It is
shown that this picture is consistent with elastic measurements on polymers,
and can explain anomalous nonlogarithmic line broadening recently observed in
hole burning experiments in PMMA.Comment: 34 pages, Revtex, 9 eps-figures, accepted for publication in J. Chem.
Phy
Brachial plexus injury mimicking a spinal-cord injury.
Objective High-energy impact to the head, neck, and shoulder can result in cervical spine as well as brachial plexus injuries. Because cervical spine injuries are more common, this tends to be the initial focus for management. We present a case in which the initial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was somewhat misleading and a detailed neurological exam lead to the correct diagnosis.Clinical presentation A 19-year-old man presented to the hospital following a shoulder injury during football practice. The patient immediately complained of significant pain in his neck, shoulder, and right arm and the inability to move his right arm. He was stabilized in the field for a presumed cervical-spine injury and transported to the emergency department.Intervention Initial radiographic assessment (C-spine CT, right shoulder x-ray) showed no bony abnormality. MRI of the cervical-spine showed T2 signal change and cord swelling thought to be consistent with a cord contusion. With adequate pain control, a detailed neurological examination was possible and was consistent with an upper brachial plexus avulsion injury that was confirmed by CT myelogram. The patient failed to make significant neurological recovery and he underwent spinal accessory nerve grafting to the suprascapular nerve to restore shoulder abduction and external rotation, while the phrenic nerve was grafted to the musculocutaneous nerve to restore elbow flexion.Conclusion Cervical spinal-cord injuries and brachial plexus injuries can occur by the same high energy mechanisms and can occur simultaneously. As in this case, MRI findings can be misleading and a detailed physical examination is the key to diagnosis. However, this can be difficult in polytrauma patients with upper extremity injuries, head injuries or concomitant spinal-cord injury. Finally, prompt diagnosis and early surgical renerveration have been associated with better long-term recovery with certain types of injury
Nonlinear Ionic Conductivity of Thin Solid Electrolyte Samples: Comparison between Theory and Experiment
Nonlinear conductivity effects are studied experimentally and theoretically
for thin samples of disordered ionic conductors. Following previous work in
this field the {\it experimental nonlinear conductivity} of sodium ion
conducting glasses is analyzed in terms of apparent hopping distances. Values
up to 43 \AA are obtained. Due to higher-order harmonic current density
detection, any undesired effects arising from Joule heating can be excluded.
Additionally, the influence of temperature and sample thickness on the
nonlinearity is explored. From the {\it theoretical side} the nonlinear
conductivity in a disordered hopping model is analyzed numerically. For the 1D
case the nonlinearity can be even handled analytically. Surprisingly, for this
model the apparent hopping distance scales with the system size. This result
shows that in general the nonlinear conductivity cannot be interpreted in terms
of apparent hopping distances. Possible extensions of the model are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Non Markovian persistence in the diluted Ising model at criticality
We investigate global persistence properties for the non-equilibrium critical
dynamics of the randomly diluted Ising model. The disorder averaged persistence
probability of the global magnetization is found to decay
algebraically with an exponent that we compute analytically in a
dimensional expansion in . Corrections to Markov process are
found to occur already at one loop order and is thus a novel
exponent characterizing this disordered critical point. Our result is
thoroughly compared with Monte Carlo simulations in , which also include a
measurement of the initial slip exponent. Taking carefully into account
corrections to scaling, is found to be a universal exponent,
independent of the dilution factor along the critical line at , and
in good agreement with our one loop calculation.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Energy landscape, two-level systems and entropy barriers in Lennard-Jones clusters
We develop an efficient numerical algorithm for the identification of a large
number of saddle points of the potential energy function of Lennard- Jones
clusters. Knowledge of the saddle points allows us to find many thousand
adjacent minima of clusters containing up to 80 argon atoms and to locate many
pairs of minima with the right characteristics to form two-level systems (TLS).
The true TLS are singled out by calculating the ground-state tunneling
splitting. The entropic contribution to all barriers is evaluated and
discussed.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 2 PostScript figure
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