5,906 research outputs found
Time-resolved photoluminescence of the size-controlled ZnO nanorods
Size dependence of the time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) has been investigated for the ZnO nanorods fabricated by catalyst-free metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The nanorods have a diameter of 35 nm and lengths in the range of 150 nm to 1.1 mum. The TRPL decay rate decreases monotonically as the length of the nanorods increases in the range of 150 to 600 nm. Decrease of the radiative decay rate of the exciton-polariton has been invoked to account for the results. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.X11100sciescopu
Symptomatic treatment of children with anti-NMDAR encephalitis.
Abstract
AIM:
We performed the first study on the perceived benefit and adverse effects of symptomatic management in children with anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis.
METHOD:
A retrospective chart review was undertaken at two tertiary paediatric hospitals in Australia and New Zealand. We included 27 children (12 males, 15 females; mean age at admission 7y 1mo) with anti-NMDAR antibodies in serum or cerebrospinal fluid with a typical clinical syndrome.
RESULTS:
Only two out of 27 patients were white, whereas 16 out of 27 patients were from the Pacific Islands/New Zealand Maori. The mean duration of admission was 69 days (10-224d) and 48% of patients (13/27) needed treatment in an intensive care setting. A mean of eight medications per patient was used for symptomatic management. Symptoms treated were agitation (n=25), seizures (n=24), movement disorders (n=23), sleep disruption (n=17), psychiatric symptoms (n=10), and dysautonomia (n=four). The medications used included five different benzodiazepines (n=25), seven anticonvulsants (n=25), eight sedatives and sleep medications (n=23), five antipsychotics (n=12), and five medications for movement disorders (n=10). Sedative and sleep medications other than benzodiazepines were the most effective, with a mean benefit of 67.4% per medication and a mean adverse effect-benefit ratio of 0.04 per medication. Antipsychotic drugs were used for a short duration (median 9d), and had the poorest mean benefit per medication of 35.4% and an adverse effect-benefit ratio of 2.0 per medication.
INTERPRETATION:
Long-acting benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants, and clonidine can treat multiple symptoms. Patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis appear vulnerable to antipsychotic-related adverse effects. Pacific Islanders appear to have a vulnerability to anti-NMDAR encephalitis in our region
Protein crystals in adenovirus type 5-infected cells: requirements for intranuclear crystallogenesis, structural and functional analysis
Intranuclear crystalline inclusions have been observed in the nucleus of epithelial cells infected with Adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) at late steps of the virus life cycle. Using immuno-electron microscopy and confocal microscopy of cells infected with various Ad5 recombinants modified in their penton base or fiber domains, we found that these inclusions represented crystals of penton capsomers, the heteromeric capsid protein formed of penton base and fiber subunits. The occurrence of protein crystals within the nucleus of infected cells required the integrity of the fiber knob and part of the shaft domain. In the knob domain, the region overlapping residues 489–492 in the FG loop was found to be essential for crystal formation. In the shaft, a large deletion of repeats 4 to 16 had no detrimental effect on crystal inclusions, whereas deletion of repeats 8 to 21 abolished crystal formation without altering the level of fiber protein expression. This suggested a crucial role of the five penultimate repeats in the crystallisation process. Chimeric pentons made of Ad5 penton base and fiber domains from different serotypes were analyzed with respect to crystal formation. No crystal was found when fiber consisted of shaft (S) from Ad5 and knob (K) from Ad3 (heterotypic S5-K3 fiber), but occurred with homotypic S3K3 fiber. However, less regular crystals were observed with homotypic S35-K35 fiber. TB5, a monoclonal antibody directed against the Ad5 fiber knob was found by immunofluorescence microscopy to react with high efficiency with the intranuclear protein crystals in situ. Data obtained with Ad fiber mutants indicated that the absence of crystalline inclusions correlated with a lower infectivity and/or lower yields of virus progeny, suggesting that the protein crystals might be involved in virion assembly. Thus, we propose that TB5 staining of Ad-infected 293 cells can be used as a prognostic assay for the viability and productivity of fiber-modified Ad5 vectors
Baryon charge from embedding topology and a continuous meson spectrum in a new holographic gauge theory
We study a new holographic gauge theory based on probe D4-branes in the
background dual to D4-branes on a circle with antiperiodic boundary conditions
for fermions. Field theory configurations with baryons correspond to smooth
embeddings of the probe D4-branes with nontrivial winding around an S^4 in the
geometry. As a consequence, physics of baryons and nuclei can be studied
reliably in this model using the abelian Born-Infeld action. However,
surprisingly, we find that the meson spectrum is not discrete. This is related
to a curious result that the action governing small fluctuations of the gauge
field on the probe brane is the five-dimensional Maxwell action in Minkowski
space despite the non-trivial embedding of the probe brane in the curved
background geometry.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, 10 figures, v4: previously ignored effects of
coupling to RR-fields included, meson spectrum qualitatively changed, v5:
journal versio
Controlled selective growth of ZnO nanorod and microrod arrays on Si substrates by a wet chemical method
The use of a wet chemical method to selectively grow ZnO microrod and nanorod arrays on Si substrates is described. To control the size and position of the ZnO microrods and nanorods, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) submicron patterns were prepared on the Si substrates with an intermediate ZnO layer using e-beam lithography. Selective growth of the ZnO structures was achieved by the absence of ZnO nucleation sites on the PMMA mask, resulting in position-controlled growth of ZnO structures only on patterned holes where the ZnO layer was exposed. In addition, the diameters of the ZnO microrods were determined by the patterned hole size, and the diameters as small as 250 nm were obtained when a hole diameter of 250 nm was employed. The structural and optical characteristics of the ZnO microrods were further investigated using x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.open11107109sciescopu
Bulk spectral function sum rule in QCD-like theories with a holographic dual
We derive the sum rule for the spectral function of the stress-energy tensor
in the bulk (uniform dilatation) channel in a general class of strongly coupled
field theories. This class includes theories holographically dual to a theory
of gravity coupled to a single scalar field, representing the operator of the
scale anomaly. In the limit when the operator becomes marginal, the sum rule
coincides with that in QCD. Using the holographic model, we verify explicitly
the cancellation between large and small frequency contributions to the
spectral integral required to satisfy the sum rule in such QCD-like theories.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
Semi-local quantum liquids
Gauge/gravity duality applied to strongly interacting systems at finite
density predicts a universal intermediate energy phase to which we refer as a
semi-local quantum liquid. Such a phase is characterized by a finite spatial
correlation length, but an infinite correlation time and associated nontrivial
scaling behavior in the time direction, as well as a nonzero entropy density.
For a holographic system at a nonzero chemical potential, this unstable phase
sets in at an energy scale of order of the chemical potential, and orders at
lower energies into other phases; examples include superconductors and
antiferromagnetic-type states. In this paper we give examples in which it also
orders into Fermi liquids of "heavy" fermions. While the precise nature of the
lower energy state depends on the specific dynamics of the individual system,
we argue that the semi-local quantum liquid emerges universally at intermediate
energies through deconfinement (or equivalently fractionalization). We also
discuss the possible relevance of such a semi-local quantum liquid to heavy
electron systems and the strange metal phase of high temperature cuprate
superconductors.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figure
A Matrix Model for Baryons and Nuclear Forces
We propose a new matrix model describing multi-baryon systems. We derive the
action from open string theory on the wrapped baryon vertex D-branes embedded
in the D4-D8 model of large N holographic QCD. The positions of k baryons are
unified into k x k matrices, with spin/isospin of the baryons encoded in a set
of k-vectors. Holographic baryons are known to be very small in the large 't
Hooft coupling limit, and our model offers a better systematic approach to
dynamics of such baryons at short distances. We compute energetics and spectra
(k=1), and also short-distance nuclear force (k=2). In particular, we obtain a
new size of the holographic baryon and find a precise form of the repulsive
core of nucleons. This matrix model complements the instanton soliton picture
of holographic baryons, whose small size turned out to be well below the
natural length scale of the approximation involved there. Our results show
that, nevertheless, the basic properties of holographic baryons obtained there
are robust under stringy corrections within a few percents.Comment: 30 pages. v3: more comments added, published versio
Analytical study on holographic superconductors in external magnetic field
We investigate the holographic superconductors immersed in an external
magnetic field by using the analytical approach. We obtain the spatially
dependent condensate solutions in the presence of the magnetism and find
analytically that the upper critical magnetic field satisfies the relation
given in the Ginzburg-Landau theory. We observe analytically the reminiscent of
the Meissner effect where the magnetic field expels the condensate. Extending
to the D-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet AdS black holes, we examine the influence
given by the Gauss-Bonnet coupling on the condensation. Different from the
positive coupling, we find that the negative Gauss-Bonnet coupling enhances the
condensation when the external magnetism is not strong enough.Comment: revised version, to appear in JHE
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