The Evolutionary Origins of Autism Associated Genes and Their Role in Great Ape Socio-communication

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) play a major role in socio-communicative behavior. For this study, the focus is on autism associated OXTR, AVPR1A, and FOXP2 SNPs, and the role they play in great apes. Prior research on the OXTR, AVPR1A, and FOXP2 SNPs show that they affect behavior skills such as understanding and controlling emotion, understanding the emotions of others, and communications skills. Great apes, such as bonobos, chimpanzees, and gorillas are the model, since they are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom capable of understanding complex communication. Each gene has at least two SNPS that are investigated in the three species. One of the aims for this study is to locate and align these SNPs between the three great apes and humans. The purpose of this aim was to assess what the reference and alternate alleles are for humans and see if the reference allele is shared amongst all four species. The aim was conducted using the UCSC browser. Each SNP was found in the alignment by using their rs numbers, and the reference and alternate alleles were documented. Initial results have revealed that humans can share the same reference allele as bonobos, chimpanzees, and gorillas; however, there are locations where humans differ from the great apes. More specifically, the human alternate allele is the reference allele for great apes. Research on how these genes affect the great apes would provide insight on how the SNPs affect socio-communicative behavior and genetic factors that influence great ape species differences

Quantum interference between non-magnetic impurities in d_x2-y2-wave superconductors

We study quantum interference of electronic waves that are scattered by multiple non-magnetic impurities in a d_x2-y2-wave superconductor. We show that the number of resonance states in the density-of-states (DOS), as well as their frequency and spatial dependence change significantly as the distance between the impurities or their orientation relative to the crystal lattice is varied. Since the latter effect arises from the momentum dependence of the superconducting gap, we argue that quantum interference is a novel tool to identify the symmetry of unconventional superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Imaging Spectroscopy of a White-Light Solar Flare

We report observations of a white-light solar flare (SOL2010-06-12T00:57, M2.0) observed by the Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). The HMI data give us the first space-based high-resolution imaging spectroscopy of a white-light flare, including continuum, Doppler, and magnetic signatures for the photospheric FeI line at 6173.34{\AA} and its neighboring continuum. In the impulsive phase of the flare, a bright white-light kernel appears in each of the two magnetic footpoints. When the flare occurred, the spectral coverage of the HMI filtergrams (six equidistant samples spanning \pm172m{\AA} around nominal line center) encompassed the line core and the blue continuum sufficiently far from the core to eliminate significant Doppler crosstalk in the latter, which is otherwise a possibility for the extreme conditions in a white-light flare. RHESSI obtained complete hard X-ray and \Upsilon-ray spectra (this was the first \Upsilon-ray flare of Cycle 24). The FeI line appears to be shifted to the blue during the flare but does not go into emission; the contrast is nearly constant across the line profile. We did not detect a seismic wave from this event. The HMI data suggest stepwise changes of the line-of-sight magnetic field in the white-light footpoints.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, Accepted by Solar Physic

The behavior, quantity, and location of undissolved gas in Tank 241-SY-101

Mitigation of episodic flammable gas releases from Hanford Waste Tank 241-SY-101 was accomplished in July 1993 with the installation of a mixer pump that prevents gas retention. But is has not been possible until recently to measure the effects of mixing on the waste or how much gas remains and where it is located. Direct measurements of the void fraction and rheology of the mixed waste by the void fraction instrument (VFI) and ball rheometer along with previous data provide estimates of the location, quantity, and behavior of undissolved gas in the tank. This report documents the compilation and integration of the information that enables this understanding

Zeeman effects on the impurity-induced resonances in d-wave superconductors

It is shown how the resonant states induced by a single spinless impurity in a d-wave superconductor evolve under the effect of an applied Zeeman magnetic field. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the spin-orbit coupling to the impurity potential can have important and characteristic effects on the resonant states and their response to the Zeeman field, especially when the impurity is close to the unitary limit. For zero or very small spin-orbit interaction, the resonant states becomes Zeeman splitted by the magnetic field while when the spin-orbit coupling is important, new low-lying resonances arise which do not show any Zeeman splitting.Comment: 5 pages with 5 eps figures embedded. To appear on Phys. Rev.

Interplay of quantum magnetic and potential scattering around Zn or Ni impurity ions in superconducting cuprates

To describe the scattering of superconducting quasiparticles from non-magnetic (Zn) or magnetic (Ni) impurities in optimally doped high T$_c$ cuprates, we propose an effective Anderson model Hamiltonian of a localized electron hybridizing with $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave BCS type superconducting quasiparticles with an attractive scalar potential at the impurity site. Due to the strong local antiferromagnetic couplings between the original Cu ions and their nearest neighbors, the localized electron in the Ni-doped materials is assumed to be on the impurity sites, while in the Zn-doped materials the localized electron is distributed over the four nearest neighbor sites of the impurities with a dominant $d_{x^2-y^2}$ symmetric form of the wave function. With Ni impurities, two resonant states are formed above the Fermi level in the local density of states at the impurity site, while for Zn impurities a sharp resonant peak below the Fermi level dominates in the local density of states at the Zn site, accompanied by a small and broad resonant state above the Fermi level mainly induced by the potential scattering. In both cases, there are no Kondo screening effects. The local density of states and their spatial distribution at the dominant resonant energy around the substituted impurities are calculated for both cases, and they are in good agreement with the experimental results of scanning tunneling microscopy in Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ with Zn or Ni impurities, respectively.Comment: 24 pages, Revtex, 8 figures, submitted to Physical Review B for publication. Sub-ject Class: Superconductivity; Strongly Correlated Electron

Impurity induced resonant state in a pseudogap state of a high temperature superconductor

We predict a resonance impurity state generated by the substitution of one Cu atom with a nonmagnetic atom, such as Zn, in the pseudogap state of a high-T_c superconductor. The precise microscopic origin of the pseudogap is not important for this state to be formed, in particular this resonance will be present even in the absence of superconducting fluctuations in the normal state. In the presence of superconducting fluctuations, we predict the existence of a counterpart impurity peak on a symmetric bias. The nature of impurity resonance is similar to the previously studied resonance in the d-wave superconducting state.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Surface and capillary transitions in an associating binary mixture model

We investigate the phase diagram of a two-component associating fluid mixture in the presence of selectively adsorbing substrates. The mixture is characterized by a bulk phase diagram which displays peculiar features such as closed loops of immiscibility. The presence of the substrates may interfere the physical mechanism involved in the appearance of these phase diagrams, leading to an enhanced tendency to phase separate below the lower critical solution point. Three different cases are considered: a planar solid surface in contact with a bulk fluid, while the other two represent two models of porous systems, namely a slit and an array on infinitely long parallel cylinders. We confirm that surface transitions, as well as capillary transitions for a large area/volume ratio, are stabilized in the one-phase region. Applicability of our results to experiments reported in the literature is discussed.Comment: 12 two-column pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review E; corrected versio

Localized surface states in HTSC: Alternative mechanism of zero-bias conductance peaks

It is shown that the quasiparticle states localized in the vicinity of surface imperfections of atomic size can be responsible for the zero-bias tunneling conductance peaks in high-Tc superconductors. The contribution from these states can be easily separated from other mechanisms using their qualitatively different response on an external magnetic field.Comment: REVTeX, 4 pages, 2 figs; to be published in PR

Impurity state in the vortex core of d-wave superconductors: Anderson impurity model versus unitary impurity model

Using an extended Anderson/Kondo impurity model to describe the magnetic moments around an impurity doped in high-$T_{\text{c}}$ d-wave cuprates and in the framework of the slave-boson meanfield approach, we study numerically the impurity state in the vortex core by exact diagonalization of the well-established Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. The low-energy impurity state is found to be good agreement with scanning tunnelingmicroscopy observation. After pinning a vortex on the impurity site, we compare the unitary impurity model with the extended Anderson impurity model by examining the effect of the magnetic field on the impurity state. We find that the impurity resonance in the unitary impurity model is strongly suppressed by the vortex; while it is insensitive to the field in the extended Anderson impurity model.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure