Correction function in the Lidar equation and the solution techniques for CO2 Lidar date reduction

For lidar systems with long laser pulses the unusual behavior of the near-range signals causes serious difficulties and large errors in reduction. The commonly used lidar equation is no longer applicable since the convolution of the laser pulse with the atmospheric parameter distributions should be taken into account. It is important to give more insight into this problem and find the solution techniques. Starting from the original equation, a general form is suggested for the single scattering lidar equation where a correction function Cr is introduced. The correction Function Cr(R) derived from the original equation indicates the departure from the normal lidar equation. Examples of Cr(R) for a coaxial CO2 lidar system are presented. The Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) errors caused by the differences of Cr(R) for H2O measurements are plotted against height

Increased DNA Copy Number Variation Mosaicism in Elderly Human Brain.

Aging is a complex process strongly determined by genetics. Previous reports have shown that the genome of neuronal cells displays somatic genomic mosaicism including DNA copy number variations (CNVs). CNVs represent a significant source of genetic variation in the human genome and have been implicated in several disorders and complex traits, representing a potential mechanism that contributes to neuronal diversity and the etiology of several neurological diseases and provides new insights into the normal, complex functions of the brain. Nonetheless, the features of somatic CNV mosaicism in nondiseased elderly brains have not been investigated. In the present study, we demonstrate a highly significant increase in the number of CNVs in nondiseased elderly brains compared to the blood. In two neural tissues isolated from paired postmortem samples (same individuals), we found a significant increase in the frequency of deletions in both brain areas, namely, the frontal cortex and cerebellum. Also, deletions were found to be significantly larger when present only in the cerebellum. The sizes of the variants described here were in the 150-760 kb range, and importantly, nearly all of them were present in the Database of Genomic Variants (common variants). Nearly all evidence of genome structural variation in human brains comes from studies detecting changes in single cells which were interpreted as derived from independent, isolated mutational events. The observations based on array-CGH analysis indicate the existence of an extensive clonal mosaicism of CNVs within and between the human brains revealing a different type of variation that had not been previously characterized

Quadrupole Susceptibility of Gd-Based Filled Skutterudite Compounds

It is shown that quadrupole susceptibility can be detected in Gd compounds contrary to our textbook knowledge that Gd$^{3+}$ ion induces pure spin moment due to the Hund's rules in an $LS$ coupling scheme. The ground-state multiplet of Gd$^{3+}$ is always characterized by $J$=7/2, where $J$ denotes total angular momentum, but in a $j$-$j$ coupling scheme, one $f$ electron in $j$=7/2 octet carries quadrupole moment, while other six electrons fully occupy $j$=5/2 sextet, where $j$ denotes one-electron total angular momentum. For realistic values of Coulomb interaction and spin-orbit coupling, the ground-state wavefunction is found to contain significant amount of the $j$-$j$ coupling component. From the evaluation of quadrupole susceptibility in a simple mean-field approximation, we point out a possibility to detect the softening of elastic constant in Gd-based filled skutterudites.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Effective Crystalline Electric Field Potential in a j-j Coupling Scheme

We propose an effective model on the basis of a $j$-$j$ coupling scheme to describe local $f$-electron states for realistic values of Coulomb interaction $U$ and spin-orbit coupling $\lambda$, for future development of microscopic theory of magnetism and superconductivity in $f^n$-electron systems, where $n$ is the number of local $f$ electrons. The effective model is systematically constructed by including the effect of a crystalline electric field (CEF) potential in the perturbation expansion in terms of $1/\lambda$. In this paper, we collect all the terms up to the first order of $1/\lambda$. Solving the effective model, we show the results of the CEF states for each case of $n$=2$\sim$5 with $O_{\rm h}$ symmetry in comparison with those of the Stevens Hamiltonian for the weak CEF. In particular, we carefully discuss the CEF energy levels in an intermediate coupling region with $\lambda/U$ in the order of 0.1 corresponding to actual $f$-electron materials between the $LS$ and $j$-$j$ coupling schemes. Note that the relevant energy scale of $U$ is the Hund's rule interaction. It is found that the CEF energy levels in the intermediate coupling region can be quantitatively reproduced by our modified $j$-$j$ coupling scheme, when we correctly take into account the corrections in the order of $1/\lambda$ in addition to the CEF terms and Coulomb interactions which remain in the limit of $\lambda$=$\infty$. As an application of the modified $j$-$j$ coupling scheme, we discuss the CEF energy levels of filled skutterudites with $T_{\rm h}$ symmetry.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Typeset with jpsj2.cl

Stepping On Fall Prevention Project

Background: Falls are a major problem in the United States among the older adult population and provide opportunity for community outreach via student-led physical therapy projects. Objective: The purpose of this project was to investigate the relationship between fall related outcome measures and questionnaires with the completion of the Stepping On Fall Prevention program along with evaluating the benefits of Physical Therapy student development with participation in service learning projects. Methods: The research quantified the fall risk of 13 participants with assessment of: gait speed (Timed Up and Go), lower extremity strength (30-Second Chair Stand), balance (4-Stage Balance Test), and psychological factors (Stay Independent Questionnaire, Falls Efficacy Scale-International, and Geriatric Depression Scale). Results: Of the functional measures, significant improvements were observed in the Timed up and Go (TUG) (∆1.72s ± 1.66, p=0.003), the 30-second chair stand (∆4.54 ± 4.27, p= 0.002), Stage 4 of the 4-Stage Balance Test (∆3.37s ± 3.26, p= 0.003), and the Stay Independent questionnaire (∆1.77 ± 2.52, p=0.026). Conclusion: Stepping On demonstrated improvements in gait speed, strength, and balance. These improvements allow older adults to improve their overall safety in both their own homes and the community. More research is needed to evaluate the psychological benefits of completing Stepping On. Furthermore, service learning project opportunities should become more of a standard practice across physical therapy programs

Multipole as ff-Electron Spin-Charge Density in Filled Skutterudites

It is shown that $f$-electron multipole is naturally defined as spin-charge one-electron density operator in the second-quantized form with the use of tensor operator on the analogy of multipole expansion of electromagnetic potential from charge distribution in electromagnetism. Due to this definition of multipole, it is possible to determine multipole state from a microscopic viewpoint on the basis of the standard linear response theory for multipole susceptibility. In order to discuss multipole properties of filled skutterudites, we analyze a seven-orbital impurity Anderson model by employing a numerical renormalization group method. We show our results on possible multipole states of filled skutterudite compounds.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of International Conference on "New Quantum Phenomena in Skutterudite and Related Systems" (September 2007, Kobe, Japan

Multipole State of Heavy Lanthanide Filled Skutterudites

We discuss multipole properties of filled skutterudites containing heavy lanthanide Ln from a microscopic viewpoint on the basis of a seven-orbital Anderson model. For Ln=Gd, in contrast to naive expectation, quadrupole moments remain in addition to main dipole ones. For Ln=Ho, we find an exotic state governed by octupole moment. For Ln=Tb and Tm, no significant multipole moments appear at low temperatures, while for Ln=Dy, Er, and Yb, dipole and higher-order multipoles are dominant. We briefly discuss possible relevance of these multipole states with actual materials.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Studies on X-ray Thomson Scattering from Antiferroquadrupolar Order in TmTe

We study Thomson scattering from the antiferroquadrupole ordering phase in TmTe. On the basis of the group theoretical treatment, we classify the selection rules of the scattering intensity governed by the orientation of the scattering vector G. Then, numerical verification is performed by invoking the ground states which are deduced from a J=7/2 multiplet model. The obtained intensity varies drastically depending on the magnitude and direction of G. We also calculate the scattering intensities under the applied field for H//(001) and (110). Their results behave differently when the orientation of G is changed, which is ascribed to the difference of their primary order parameters; O_{2}^{0} and O_{2}^{2} for H // (001) and (110), respectively. We make critical comparisons between our results for TmTe and the experimental ones for CeB_6. First, we assert that the intensities expected from TmTe at several forbidden Bragg spots are sufficient enough to be experimentally detected. Second, their intensities at (7/2,1/2,1/2) differ significantly and may be attributed to the difference of the order parametersbetween the \Gamma_3-type (O_{2}^{2} and O_{2}^{0}) and \Gamma_5-type (O_{yz}, O_{zx}, and O_{xy}) components, respectively.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Single electron magneto-conductivity of a nondegenerate 2D electron system in a quantizing magnetic field

We study transport properties of a non-degenerate two-dimensional system of non-interacting electrons in the presence of a quantizing magnetic field and a short-range disorder potential. We show that the low-frequency magnetoconductivity displays a strongly asymmetric peak at a nonzero frequency. The shape of the peak is restored from the calculated 14 spectral moments, the asymptotic form of its high-frequency tail, and the scaling behavior of the conductivity for omega -> 0. We also calculate 10 spectral moments of the cyclotron resonance absorption peak and restore the corresponding (non-singular) frequency dependence using the continuous fraction expansion. Both expansions converge rapidly with increasing number of included moments, and give numerically accurate results throughout the region of interest. We discuss the possibility of experimental observation of the predicted effects for electrons on helium.Comment: RevTeX 3.0, 14 pages, 8 eps figures included with eps