7,721 research outputs found
Real space first-principles derived semiempirical pseudopotentials applied to tunneling magnetoresistance
In this letter we present a real space density functional theory (DFT)
localized basis set semi-empirical pseudopotential (SEP) approach. The method
is applied to iron and magnesium oxide, where bulk SEP and local spin density
approximation (LSDA) band structure calculations are shown to agree within
approximately 0.1 eV. Subsequently we investigate the qualitative
transferability of bulk derived SEPs to Fe/MgO/Fe tunnel junctions. We find
that the SEP method is particularly well suited to address the tight binding
transferability problem because the transferability error at the interface can
be characterized not only in orbital space (via the interface local density of
states) but also in real space (via the system potential). To achieve a
quantitative parameterization, we introduce the notion of ghost semi-empirical
pseudopotentials extracted from the first-principles calculated Fe/MgO bonding
interface. Such interface corrections are shown to be particularly necessary
for barrier widths in the range of 1 nm, where interface states on opposite
sides of the barrier couple effectively and play a important role in the
transmission characteristics. In general the results underscore the need for
separate tight binding interface and bulk parameter sets when modeling
conduction through thin heterojunctions on the nanoscale.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Applied Physic
A Comparative Study of Some Cellular Manufacturing Techniques
Cellular manufacturing (CM) is a concept that involves processing of similar parts on
dedicated cluster (or cells) of dissimilar machines or manufacturing processes. This
paper concentrated on seven cell formation techniques used in Cellular Manufacturing
(CM). The techniques were used to develop cells for matrices from various sizes of parts
and machines. By randomly rearranging the sequence of the machines in the reference
matrices (cited from published journals), 12 new matrices were developed. This paper
also concentrated on performing the treatments for bottleneck, exceptional elements or
voids using part subcontracting or machine duplication for the developed cells. The
performance of each technique was measured using Grouping Measures (GM), where
high percentage of GM indicates that the technique has high machine utilization (MU)
and low percentage of exceptional elements (EE). Overall, Bond Energy Algorithm
(BEA) was found to be the best cell formation technique
Ototoxicity from Combined Cisplatin and Radiation Treatment: An In Vitro Study
Objective. Combined cisplatin (CDDP) and radiotherapy is increasingly being used to treat advanced head and neck cancers. As both CDDP and radiation can cause hearing loss, it is important to have a better understanding of the cellular and molecular ototoxic mechanisms involved in combined therapy. Procedure.
The effects of CDDP, radiation, and combined CDDP-radiation on the OC-k3 cochlear cell line were studied using MTS assay, flow cytometry, Western blotting, and microarray analysis. Results. Compared to using CDDP or radiation alone, its combined use resulted in enhanced apoptotic cell death and apoptotic-related gene expression, including that of FAS. Phosphorylation of p53 at Ser15 (a marker for p53 pathway activation in response to DNA damage) was observed after treatment with either CDDP or radiation. However, posttreatment activation of p53 occurred earlier in radiation than in CDDP which corresponded to the timings of MDM2 and TP53INP1 expression. Conclusion. Enhanced apoptotic-related gene expressions leading to increased apoptotic cell deaths could explain the synergistic ototoxicity seen clinically in combined CDDP-radiation therapy. CDDP and radiation led to differential temporal activation of p53 which suggests that their activation is the result of different upstream processes. These have implications in future antiapoptotic treatments for ototoxicity
Constraints and Strategies for the Development of the Seed System in Mozambique
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Directorate of Economics, Republic of Mozambiquefood security, food policy, Mozambique, seed system, Crop Production/Industries, Q18,
Programmability and Performance of Parallel ECS-based Simulation of Multi-Agent Exploration Models
While the traditional objective of parallel/distributed simulation techniques has been mainly in improving performance and making very large models tractable, more recent research trends targeted complementary aspects, such as the “ease of programming”. Along this line, a recent proposal called Event and Cross State (ECS) synchronization, stands as a solution allowing to break the traditional programming rules proper of Parallel Discrete Event Simulation (PDES) systems, where the application code processing a specific event is only allowed to access the state (namely the memory image) of the target simulation object. In fact with ECS, the programmer is allowed to write ANSI-C event-handlers capable of accessing (in either read or write mode) the state of whichever simulation object included in the simulation model. Correct concurrent execution of events, e.g., on top of multi-core machines, is guaranteed by ECS with no intervention by the programmer, who is in practice exposed to a sequential-style programming model where events are processed one at a time, and have the ability to access the current memory image of the whole simulation model, namely the collection of the states of any involved object. This can strongly simplify the development of specific models, e.g., by avoiding the need for passing state information across concurrent objects in the form of events. In this article we investigate on both programmability and performance aspects related to developing/supporting a multi-agent exploration model on top of the ROOT-Sim PDES platform, which supports ECS
Prognostic implications of the extent of downstaging after neoadjuvant therapy for oesophageal adenocarcinoma and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Background: There are few data evaluating the extent of downstaging in patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma and the difference in outcomes for a similar pathological stage in neoadjuvant-naive patients. The aim of this study was to characterize the prognostic value of downstaging extent in patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy for oesophageal cancer.Methods: Oesophageal adenocarcinoma and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients receiving either neoadjuvant chemotherapy or neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy between 2004 and 2017 were identified from the National Cancer Database. The extent of downstaging was defined as the extent of migration between groups (for example stage IVa to IIIb = one stage). Cox multivariable regression was used to produce adjusted models for downstaging extent.Results: Of 13 594 patients, 11 355 with oesophageal adenocarcinoma and 2239 with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma were included. In oesophageal adenocarcinoma, patients with downstaged disease by three or more stages (hazards ratio (HR) 0.40, 95 per cent c.i. 0.36 to 0.44, P < 0.001), two stages (HR 0.43, 95 per cent c.i. 0.39 to 0.48, P < 0.001), or one stage (HR 0.57, 95 per cent c.i. 0.52 to 0.62, P < 0.001) had significantly longer survival than those with upstaged disease in adjusted analyses. In oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, patients with downstaged disease by three or more stages had significantly longer survival than those with less downstaged disease, no change, or upstaged disease. Patients with downstaged disease by three or more stages (HR 0.55, 95 per cent c.i. 0.43 to 0.71, P < 0.001), two stages (HR 0.58, 95 per cent c.i. 0.46 to 0.73, P < 0.001), or one stage (HR 0.69, 95 per cent c.i. 0.55 to 0.86, P = 0.001) had significantly longer survival than those with upstaged disease in adjusted analyses.Conclusion: The extent of downstaging is an important prognosticator, whereas the optimal neoadjuvant therapy remains controversial. Identifying biomarkers associated with response to neoadjuvant regimens may permit individualized treatment
Rhythm and Vowel Quality in Accents of English
In a sample of 27 speakers of Scottish Standard English two notoriously variable consonantal features are investigated: the contrast of /m/ and /w/ and non-prevocalic /r/, the latter both in terms of its presence or absence and the phonetic form it takes, if present. The pattern of realisation of non-prevocalic /r/ largely confirms previously reported findings. But there are a number of surprising results regarding the merger of /m/ and /w/ and the loss of non-prevocalic /r/: While the former is more likely to happen in younger speakers and females, the latter seems more likely in older speakers and males. This is suggestive of change in progress leading to a loss of the /m/ - /w/ contrast, while the variation found in non-prevocalic /r/ follows an almost inverse sociolinguistic pattern that does not suggest any such change and is additionally largely explicable in language-internal terms. One phenomenon requiring further investigation is the curious effect direct contact with Southern English accents seems to have on non-prevocalic /r/: innovation on the structural level (i.e. loss) and conservatism on the realisational level (i.e. increased incidence of [r] and [r]) appear to be conditioned by the same sociolinguistic factors
On the rate of black hole binary mergers in galactic nuclei due to dynamical hardening
We assess the contribution of dynamical hardening by direct three-body
scattering interactions to the rate of stellar-mass black hole binary (BHB)
mergers in galactic nuclei. We derive an analytic model for the single-binary
encounter rate in a nucleus with spherical and disk components hosting a
super-massive black hole (SMBH). We determine the total number of encounters
needed to harden a BHB to the point that inspiral due to
gravitational wave emission occurs before the next three-body scattering event.
This is done independently for both the spherical and disk components. Using a
Monte Carlo approach, we refine our calculations for to include
gravitational wave emission between scattering events. For astrophysically
plausible models we find that typically 10.
We find two separate regimes for the efficient dynamical hardening of BHBs:
(1) spherical star clusters with high central densities, low velocity
dispersions and no significant Keplerian component; and (2) migration traps in
disks around SMBHs lacking any significant spherical stellar component in the
vicinity of the migration trap, which is expected due to effective orbital
inclination reduction of any spherical population by the disk. We also find a
weak correlation between the ratio of the second-order velocity moment to
velocity dispersion in galactic nuclei and the rate of BHB mergers, where this
ratio is a proxy for the ratio between the rotation- and dispersion-supported
components. Because disks enforce planar interactions that are efficient in
hardening BHBs, particularly in migration traps, they have high merger rates
that can contribute significantly to the rate of BHB mergers detected by the
advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Precise nondivergent analytic formulas for the radiative corrections to the beta energy spectrum in hyperon semileptonic decays over the entire Dalitz plot
Very accurate analytical expressions for the radiative corrections of
unpolarized hyperons semileptonic decays of charged and neutral baryons have
been obtained in the recent past. Some of these formulas contain logarithmic
singularities at the edges of the Dalitz plot for the three- and four-body
decays. These singularities are analyzed and integrated analytically to obtain
new divergentless formulas for the energy spectrum of the produced beta
particle. The new equations contain terms of the order alpha times the momentum
transfer, are applicable to any beta decay process and are suitable for a
model-independent experimental analysis.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure
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