10,169 research outputs found
Tunable Double Negative Band Structure from Non-Magnetic Coated Rods
A system of periodic poly-disperse coated nano-rods is considered. Both the
coated nano-rods and host material are non-magnetic. The exterior nano-coating
has a frequency dependent dielectric constant and the rod has a high dielectric
constant. A negative effective magnetic permeability is generated near the Mie
resonances of the rods while the coating generates a negative permittivity
through a field resonance controlled by the plasma frequency of the coating and
the geometry of the crystal. The explicit band structure for the system is
calculated in the sub-wavelength limit. Tunable pass bands exhibiting negative
group velocity are generated and correspond to simultaneously negative
effective dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability. These can be
explicitly controlled by adjusting the distance between rods, the coating
thickness, and rod diameters
High rate locally-correctable and locally-testable codes with sub-polynomial query complexity
In this work, we construct the first locally-correctable codes (LCCs), and
locally-testable codes (LTCs) with constant rate, constant relative distance,
and sub-polynomial query complexity. Specifically, we show that there exist
binary LCCs and LTCs with block length , constant rate (which can even be
taken arbitrarily close to 1), constant relative distance, and query complexity
. Previously such codes were known to exist
only with query complexity (for constant ), and
there were several, quite different, constructions known.
Our codes are based on a general distance-amplification method of Alon and
Luby~\cite{AL96_codes}. We show that this method interacts well with local
correctors and testers, and obtain our main results by applying it to suitably
constructed LCCs and LTCs in the non-standard regime of \emph{sub-constant
relative distance}.
Along the way, we also construct LCCs and LTCs over large alphabets, with the
same query complexity , which additionally have
the property of approaching the Singleton bound: they have almost the
best-possible relationship between their rate and distance. This has the
surprising consequence that asking for a large alphabet error-correcting code
to further be an LCC or LTC with query
complexity does not require any sacrifice in terms of rate and distance! Such a
result was previously not known for any query complexity.
Our results on LCCs also immediately give locally-decodable codes (LDCs) with
the same parameters
Overexpression of HER2 modulates bcl-2, bcl-XL, and tamoxifen-induced apoptosis in human MCF-7 breast cancer cells
Overexpression of HER2 in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive human breast tumors has been associated with resistance to endocrine therapy. Here we investigated the effects of HER2 on expression of apoptotic pathways and modulation of tamoxifen-induced apoptosis in ER-positive MCF-7 breast cancer cells. We report that HER2 overexpression in MCF-7 cells is accompanied by up-regulation of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL proteins and suppression of tamoxifen-induced apoptosis. In addition, human tumor cell lines that are both ER positive and overexpress HER2 also express enhanced levels of Bcl-2 compared to cells that are either ER positive or overexpress HER2 alone. Our findings suggest that possible deregulation of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL may be associated with the enhanced survival of HER2-overexpressing and ER-positive breast cancer cells treated with antiestrogens
The Cop Number of the One-Cop-Moves Game on Planar Graphs
Cops and robbers is a vertex-pursuit game played on graphs. In the classical
cops-and-robbers game, a set of cops and a robber occupy the vertices of the
graph and move alternately along the graph's edges with perfect information
about each other's positions. If a cop eventually occupies the same vertex as
the robber, then the cops win; the robber wins if she can indefinitely evade
capture. Aigner and Frommer established that in every connected planar graph,
three cops are sufficient to capture a single robber. In this paper, we
consider a recently studied variant of the cops-and-robbers game, alternately
called the one-active-cop game, one-cop-moves game or the lazy-cops-and-robbers
game, where at most one cop can move during any round. We show that Aigner and
Frommer's result does not generalise to this game variant by constructing a
connected planar graph on which a robber can indefinitely evade three cops in
the one-cop-moves game. This answers a question recently raised by Sullivan,
Townsend and Werzanski.Comment: 32 page
Nuclear-spin relaxation of Pb in ferroelectric powders
Motivated by a recent proposal by O. P. Sushkov and co-workers to search for
a P,T-violating Schiff moment of the Pb nucleus in a ferroelectric
solid, we have carried out a high-field nuclear magnetic resonance study of the
longitudinal and transverse spin relaxation of the lead nuclei from room
temperature down to 10 K for powder samples of lead titanate (PT), lead
zirconium titanate (PZT), and a PT monocrystal. For all powder samples and
independently of temperature, transverse relaxation times were found to be
ms, while the longitudinal relaxation times exhibited a
temperature dependence, with of over an hour at the lowest temperatures,
decreasing to s at room temperature. At high temperatures, the
observed behavior is consistent with a two-phonon Raman process, while in the
low temperature limit, the relaxation appears to be dominated by a
single-phonon (direct) process involving magnetic impurities. This is the first
study of temperature-dependent nuclear-spin relaxation in PT and PZT
ferroelectrics at such low temperatures. We discuss the implications of the
results for the Schiff-moment search.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Bond-Propagation Algorithm for Thermodynamic Functions in General 2D Ising Models
Recently, we developed and implemented the bond propagation algorithm for
calculating the partition function and correlation functions of random bond
Ising models in two dimensions. The algorithm is the fastest available for
calculating these quantities near the percolation threshold. In this paper, we
show how to extend the bond propagation algorithm to directly calculate
thermodynamic functions by applying the algorithm to derivatives of the
partition function, and we derive explicit expressions for this transformation.
We also discuss variations of the original bond propagation procedure within
the larger context of Y-Delta-Y-reducibility and discuss the relation of this
class of algorithm to other algorithms developed for Ising systems. We conclude
with a discussion on the outlook for applying similar algorithms to other
models.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures; submitte
Stranding of a rare marine dolphin at Vizhinjam
On sighting a dolphin struggling for survival In
the near shore area off Adimaithura (near Vizhinjam)
on 31-08-1998, the fishermen encircled it with a
shore seine. It was a rare marine Risso's dolphin,
Grampus griseus (Cuvier, 1812), measuring 250 cm
in length. In spite of the medical treatments given
for the injuries, it survived in the Marine Aquarium
at Vizhinjam for about 13 hrs only
Prevalence and correlates of mild cognitive impairment among diverse Hispanics/Latinos: Study of Latinos-Investigation of Neurocognitive Aging results.
IntroductionWe estimated the prevalence and correlates of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among middle-aged and older diverse Hispanics/Latinos.MethodsMiddle-aged and older diverse Hispanics/Latinos enrolled (n = 6377; 50-86 years) in this multisite prospective cohort study were evaluated for MCI using the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association diagnostic criteria.ResultsThe overall MCI prevalence was 9.8%, which varied between Hispanic/Latino groups. Older age, high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, and elevated depressive symptoms were significant correlates of MCI prevalence. Apolipoprotein E4 (APOE) and APOE2 were not significantly associated with MCI.DiscussionMCI prevalence varied among Hispanic/Latino backgrounds, but not as widely as reported in the previous studies. CVD risk and depressive symptoms were associated with increased MCI, whereas APOE4 was not, suggesting alternative etiologies for MCI among diverse Hispanics/Latinos. Our findings suggest that mitigating CVD risk factors may offer important pathways to understanding and reducing MCI and possibly dementia among diverse Hispanics/Latinos
The impact of board size on firm performance: evidence from the UK
We examine the impact of board size on firm performance for a large sample of 2746 UK listed firms over 1981-2002. The UK provides an interesting institutional setting, because UK boards play a weak monitoring role and therefore any negative effect of large board size is likely to reflect the malfunction of the board's advisory rather than monitoring role. We find that board size has a strong negative impact on profitability, Tobin's Q and share returns. This result is robust across econometric models that control for different types of endogeneity. We find no evidence that firm characteristics that determine board size in the UK lead to a more positive board size-firm performance relation. In contrast, we find that the negative relation is strongest for large firms, which tend to have larger boards. Overall, our evidence supports the argument that problems of poor communication and decision-making undermine the effectiveness of large boards
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