Density functional theory study of the nematic-isotropic transition in an hybrid cell

We have employed the Density Functional Theory formalism to investigate the nematic-isotropic capillary transitions of a nematogen confined by walls that favor antagonist orientations to the liquid crystal molecules (hybrid cell). We analyse the behavior of the capillary transition as a function of the fluid-substrate interactions and the pore width. In addition to the usual capillary transition between isotropic-like to nematic-like states, we find that this transition can be suppressed when one substrate is wet by the isotropic phase and the other by the nematic phase. Under this condition the system presents interface-like states which allow to continuously transform the nematic-like phase to the isotropic-like phase without undergoing a phase transition. Two different mechanisms for the disappearance of the capillary transition are identified. When the director of the nematic-like state is homogeneously planar-anchored with respect to the substrates, the capillary transition ends up in a critical point. This scenario is analogous to the observed in Ising models when confined in slit pores with opposing surface fields which have critical wetting transitions. When the nematic-like state has a linearly distorted director field, the capillary transition continuously transforms in a transition between two nematic-like states.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, submitted to J. Chem. Phy

Edge helicons and repulsion of fundamental edge magnetoplasmons in the quantum Hall regime

A quasi-microscopic treatment of edge magnetoplasmons (EMP) is presented for very low temperatures and confining potentials smooth on the scale of the magnetic length $\ell_{0}$ but sufficiently steep at the edges such that Landau level (LL) flattening can be discarded. The profile of the unperturbed electron density is sharp and the dissipation taken into account comes only from electron intra-edge and intra-LL transitions due to scattering by acoustic phonons. For wide channels and filling factors $\nu =1$ and 2, there exist independent EMP modes spatially symmetric and antisymmetric with respect to the edge. Some of these modes, named edge helicons, can propagate nearly undamped even when the dissipation is strong. Their density profile changes qualitatively during propagation and is given by a rotation of a complex vector function. For $\nu >2,$ the Coulomb coupling between the LLs leads to a repulsion of the uncoupled fundamental LL modes: the new modes have very different group velocities and are nearly undamped. The theory accounts well for the experimentally observed plateau structure of the delay times as well as for the EMP's period and decay rates.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Gas Streaming and Dynamical M/L in Rotationally Supported Systems

Line-of-sight velocities of gas and stars can constrain dark matter (DM) within rotationally supported galaxies if they trace circular orbits extensively. Photometric asymmetries may signify non-circular motions, requiring spectra with dense spatial coverage. Our integral-field spectroscopy of 178 galaxies spanned the mass range of the SAMI Galaxy Survey. We derived circular speed curves (CSCs) of gas and stars from non-parametric Diskfit fits out to $r\sim2r_e$. For 12/14 with measured H I profiles, ionized gas and H I maximum velocities agreed. We fitted mass-follows-light models to 163 galaxies by approximating the radial starlight profile as nested, very flattened mass homeoids viewed as a S\'ersic form. Fitting broad-band SEDs to SDSS images gave median stellar mass/light 1.7 assuming a Kroupa IMF vs. 2.6 dynamically. Two-thirds of the dynamical mass/light measures were consistent with star+remnant IMFs. One-fifth required upscaled starlight to fit, hence comparable mass of unobserved baryons and/or DM distributed similarly across the SAMI aperture that came to dominate motions as the starlight CSC declined rapidly. The rest had mass distributed differently from starlight. Subtracting fits of S\'ersic profiles to 13 VIKING Z-band images revealed residual weak bars. Near the bar PA, we assessed m = 2 streaming velocities, and found deviations usually <30 km/s from the CSC; three showed no deviation. Thus, asymmetries rarely influenced our CSCs despite co-located shock-indicating, emission-line flux ratios in more than 2/3.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures. Accepted to MNRA

Genetic diversity of the 2013–14 human isolates of influenza H7N9 in China

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Vortex waves in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

We have theoretically studied vortex waves of Bose-Einstein condensates in elongated harmonic traps. Our focus is on the axisymmetric varicose waves and helical Kelvin waves of singly quantized vortex lines. Growth and decay dynamics of both types of vortex waves are discussed. We propose a method to experimentally create these vortex waves on demand.Comment: minor changes, 7 pages, 7 figure

Abundance of unknots in various models of polymer loops

A veritable zoo of different knots is seen in the ensemble of looped polymer chains, whether created computationally or observed in vitro. At short loop lengths, the spectrum of knots is dominated by the trivial knot (unknot). The fractional abundance of this topological state in the ensemble of all conformations of the loop of $N$ segments follows a decaying exponential form, $\sim \exp (-N/N_0)$, where $N_0$ marks the crossover from a mostly unknotted (ie topologically simple) to a mostly knotted (ie topologically complex) ensemble. In the present work we use computational simulation to look closer into the variation of $N_0$ for a variety of polymer models. Among models examined, $N_0$ is smallest (about 240) for the model with all segments of the same length, it is somewhat larger (305) for Gaussian distributed segments, and can be very large (up to many thousands) when the segment length distribution has a fat power law tail.Comment: 13 pages, 6 color figure

From one cell to the whole froth: a dynamical map

We investigate two and three-dimensional shell-structured-inflatable froths, which can be constructed by a recursion procedure adding successive layers of cells around a germ cell. We prove that any froth can be reduced into a system of concentric shells. There is only a restricted set of local configurations for which the recursive inflation transformation is not applicable. These configurations are inclusions between successive layers and can be treated as vertices and edges decorations of a shell-structure-inflatable skeleton. The recursion procedure is described by a logistic map, which provides a natural classification into Euclidean, hyperbolic and elliptic froths. Froths tiling manifolds with different curvature can be classified simply by distinguishing between those with a bounded or unbounded number of elements per shell, without any a-priori knowledge on their curvature. A new result, associated with maximal orientational entropy, is obtained on topological properties of natural cellular systems. The topological characteristics of all experimentally known tetrahedrally close-packed structures are retrieved.Comment: 20 Pages Tex, 11 Postscript figures, 1 Postscript tabl

Kelvin Modes of a fast rotating Bose-Einstein Condensate

Using the concept of diffused vorticity and the formalism of rotational hydrodynamics we calculate the eigenmodes of a harmonically trapped Bose-Einstein condensate containing an array of quantized vortices. We predict the occurrence of a new branch of anomalous excitations, analogous to the Kelvin modes of the single vortex dynamics. Special attention is devoted to the excitation of the anomalous scissors mode.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

A bayesian meta-analysis of multiple treatment comparisons of systemic regimens for advanced pancreatic cancer

© 2014 Chan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: For advanced pancreatic cancer, many regimens have been compared with gemcitabine (G) as the standard arm in randomized controlled trials. Few regimens have been directly compared with each other in randomized controlled trials and the relative efficacy and safety among them remains unclear