657 research outputs found
Degradation of adhesion molecules of G361 melanoma cells by a non-thermal atmospheric pressure microplasma
Increased expression of integrins and focal adhesion kinase (FAK)
is important for the survival, growth and metastasis of melanoma cells. Based on
this well-established observation in oncology, we propose to use degradation of
integrin and FAK proteins as a potential strategy for melanoma cancer therapy. A
low-temperature radio-frequency atmospheric microplasma jet is used to study
their effects on the adhesion molecules of G361 melanoma cells. Microplasma
treatment is shown to (1) cause significant cell detachment from the bottom of
microtiter plates coated with collagen, (2) induce the death of human melanoma
cells, (3) inhibit the expression of integrin 2, integrin 4 and FAK on the cell
surface and finally (4) change well-stretched actin filaments to a diffuse pattern.
These results suggest that cold atmospheric pressure plasmas can strongly inhibit
the adhesion of melanoma cells by reducing the activities of adhesion proteins
such as integrins and FAK, key biomolecules that are known to be important in
malignant transformation and acquisition of metastatic phenotypes
Can one extract the electron-phonon-interaction from tunneling data in case of the multigap superconductor MgB?
In the present work we calculate the tunneling density of states (DOS) of
MgB% for different tunneling directions by directly solving the two-band
Eliashberg equations (EE) in the real-axis formulation. This procedure reveals
the fine structures of the DOS due to the optical phonons. Then we show that
the numeric inversion of the standard \emph{single-band} EE (the only available
method), when applied to the \emph{two-band} DOS of MgB, may lead to
wrong estimates of the strength of certain phonon branches (e.g. the )
in the extracted electron-phonon spectral function . The
fine structures produced by the two-band interaction at energies between 20 and
100 meV turn out to be clearly observable only for tunneling along the
planes, when the extracted contains the combination
\textbf{+}, together with a minor \textbf{+} component. Only in this case
it is possible to extract information on the -band contribution to the
spectral functions. For any other tunneling direction, the -band
contribution (which does not determine the superconducting properties of
MgB) is dominant and almost coincides with the whole
for tunneling along the c axis. Our results are compared with recent
experimental tunneling and point-contact data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. B (Brief Reports
Upper critical field in dirty two-band superconductors: breakdown of the anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau theory
We investigate the upper critical field in a dirty two-band superconductor
within quasiclassical Usadel equations. The regime of very high anisotropy in
the quasi-2D band, relevant for MgB, is considered. We show that strong
disparities in pairing interactions and diffusion constant anisotropies for two
bands influence the in-plane in a different way at high and low
temperatures. This causes temperature-dependent anisotropy, in
accordance with recent experimental data in MgB. The three-dimensional
band most strongly influences the in-plane near , in the
Ginzburg-Landau (GL) region. However, due to a very large difference between
the c-axis coherence lengths in the two bands, the GL theory is applicable only
in an extremely narrow temperature range near . The angular dependence of
deviates from a simple effective-mass law even near .Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.
Extreme Electron-Phonon Coupling in Boron-based Layered Superconductors
The phonon-mode decomposition of the electron-phonon coupling in the
MgB2-like system Li_{1-x}BC is explored using first principles calculations. It
is found that the high temperature superconductivity of such systems results
from extremely strong coupling to only ~2% of the phonon modes. Novel
characteristics of E_2g branches include (1) ``mode lambda'' values of 25 and
greater compared to a mean of for other modes, (2) a precipitous
Kohn anomaly, and (3) E_2g phonon linewidths within a factor of ~2 of the
frequency itself, indicating impending breakdown of linear electron-phonon
theory. This behavior in borne out by recent inelastic x-ray scattering studies
of MgB2 by Shukla et al.Comment: 4 two-column pages, 4 figures. Equations simplified. Figure 4
changed. Comparison with new data include
Generic properties of a quasi-one dimensional classical Wigner crystal
We studied the structural, dynamical properties and melting of a
quasi-one-dimensional system of charged particles, interacting through a
screened Coulomb potential. The ground state energy was calculated and,
depending on the density and the screening length, the system crystallizes in a
number of chains. As a function of the density (or the confining potential),
the ground state configurations and the structural transitions between them
were analyzed both by analytical and Monte Carlo calculations. The system
exhibits a rich phase diagram at zero temperature with continuous and
discontinuous structural transitions. We calculated the normal modes of the
Wigner crystal and the magneto-phonons when an external constant magnetic field
is applied. At finite temperature the melting of the system was studied via
Monte Carlo simulations using the (MLC). The
melting temperature as a function of the density was obtained for different
screening parameters. Reentrant melting as a function of the density was found
as well as evidence of directional dependent melting. The single chain regime
exhibits anomalous melting temperatures according to the MLC and as a check we
study the pair correlation function at different densities and different
temperatures, formulating a different criterion. Possible connection with
recent theoretical and experimental results are discussed and experiments are
proposed.Comment: 13 pages text, 21 picture
Multiband model for penetration depth in MgB2
The results of first principles calculations of the electronic structure and
the electron-phonon interaction in MgB2 are used to study theoretically the
temperature dependence and anisotropy of the magnetic field penetration depth.
The effects of impurity scattering are essential for a proper description of
the experimental results. We compare our results with experimental data and we
argue that the two-band model describes the data rather well.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.
Ginzburg-Landau theory of vortices in a multi-gap superconductor
The Ginzburg-Landau functional for a two-gap superconductor is derived within
the weak-coupling BCS model. The two-gap Ginzburg-Landau theory is, then,
applied to investigate various magnetic properties of MgB2 including an upturn
temperature dependence of the transverse upper critical field and a core
structure of an isolated vortex. Orientation of vortex lattice relative to
crystallographic axes is studied for magnetic fields parallel to the c-axis. A
peculiar 30-degree rotation of the vortex lattice with increasing strength of
an applied field observed by neutron scattering is attributed to the multi-gap
nature of superconductivity in MgB2.Comment: 11 page
Comparing benefits from many possible computed tomography lung cancer screening programs: Extrapolating from the National Lung Screening Trial using comparative modeling
Background: The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) demonstrated that in current and former smokers aged 55 to 74 years, with at least 30 pack-years of cigarette smoking history and who had quit smoking no more than 15 years ago, 3 annual computed tomography (CT) screens reduced lung cancer-specific mortality by 20% relative to 3 annual chest X-ray screens. We compared the benefits achievable with 576 lung cancer screening programs that varied CT screen number and frequency, ages of screening, and eligibility based on smoking. Methods and Findings: We used five independent microsimulation models with lung cancer natural history parameters previously calibrated to the NLST to simulate life histories of the US cohort born in 1950 under all 576 programs. 'Efficient' (within model) programs prevented the greatest number of lung cancer deaths, compared to no screening, for a given number of CT screens. Among 120 'consensus efficient' (identified as efficient across models) programs, the average starting age was 55 years, the stopping age was 80 or 85 years, the average minimum pack-years was 27, and the maximum years since quitting was 20. Among consensus efficient programs, 11% to 40% of the cohort was screened, and 153 to 846 lung cancer deaths were averted per 100,000 people. In all models, annual screening based on age and smoking eligibility in NLST was not efficient; continuing screening to age 80 or 85 years was more efficient. Conclusions: Consensus results from five models identified a set of efficient screening programs that include annual CT lung cancer screening using criteria like NLST eligibility but extended to older ages. Guidelines for screening should also consider harms of screening and individual patient characteristics
Measurements of the Mass and Full-Width of the Meson
In a sample of 58 million events collected with the BES II detector,
the process J/ is observed in five different decay
channels: , , (with ), (with
) and . From a combined fit of all five
channels, we determine the mass and full-width of to be
MeV/ and
MeV/.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures and 4 table. Submitted to Phys. Lett.
A Measurement of Psi(2S) Resonance Parameters
Cross sections for e+e- to hadons, pi+pi- J/Psi, and mu+mu- have been
measured in the vicinity of the Psi(2S) resonance using the BESII detector
operated at the BEPC. The Psi(2S) total width; partial widths to hadrons,
pi+pi- J/Psi, muons; and corresponding branching fractions have been determined
to be Gamma(total)= (264+-27) keV; Gamma(hadron)= (258+-26) keV, Gamma(mu)=
(2.44+-0.21) keV, and Gamma(pi+pi- J/Psi)= (85+-8.7) keV; and Br(hadron)=
(97.79+-0.15)%, Br(pi+pi- J/Psi)= (32+-1.4)%, Br(mu)= (0.93+-0.08)%,
respectively.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
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