Emission and absorption noise in the fractional quantum Hall effect

We compute the high-frequency emission and absorption noise in a fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) sample at arbitrary temperature. We model the edges of the FQHE as chiral Luttinger liquids (LL) and we use the non-equilibrium perturbative Keldysh formalism. We find that the non-symmetrized high frequency noise contains important signatures of the electron-electron interactions that can be used to test the Luttinger liquid physics, not only in FQHE edge states, but possibly also in other one-dimensional systems such as carbon nanotubes. In particular we find that the emission and absorption components of the excess noise (defined as the difference between the noise at finite voltage and at zero voltage) are different in an interacting system, as opposed to the non-interacting case when they are identical. We study the resonance features which appear in the noise at the Josephson frequency (proportional to the applied voltage), and we also analyze the effect of the distance between the measurement point and the backscattering site. Most of our analysis is performed in the weak backscattering limit, but we also compute and discuss briefly the high-frequency noise in the tunneling regime.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figure

AC conductance and non-symmetrized noise at finite frequency in quantum wires and carbon nanotubes

We calculate the AC conductance and the finite-frequency non-symmetrized noise in interacting quantum wires and single-wall carbon nanotubes in the presence of an impurity. We observe a strong asymmetry in the frequency spectrum of the non-symmetrized excess noise, even in the presence of the metallic leads. We find that this asymmetry is proportional to the differential excess AC conductance of the system, defined as the difference between the AC differential conductances at finite and zero voltage, and thus disappears for a linear system. In the quantum regime, for temperatures much smaller than the frequency and the applied voltage, we find that the emission noise is exactly equal to the impurity partition noise. For the case of a weak impurity we expand our results for the AC conductance and the noise perturbatively. In particular, if the impurity is located in the middle of the wire or at one of the contacts, our calculations show that the noise exhibits oscillations with respect to frequency, whose period is directly related to the value of the interaction parameter $g$

Transport properties of single channel quantum wires with an impurity: Influence of finite length and temperature on average current and noise

The inhomogeneous Tomonaga Luttinger liquid model describing an interacting quantum wire adiabatically coupled to non-interacting leads is analyzed in the presence of a weak impurity within the wire. Due to strong electronic correlations in the wire, the effects of impurity backscattering, finite bias, finite temperature, and finite length lead to characteristic non-monotonic parameter dependencies of the average current. We discuss oscillations of the non-linear current voltage characteristics that arise due to reflections of plasmon modes at the impurity and quasi Andreev reflections at the contacts, and show how these oscillations are washed out by decoherence at finite temperature. Furthermore, the finite frequency current noise is investigated in detail. We find that the effective charge extracted in the shot noise regime in the weak backscattering limit decisively depends on the noise frequency $\omega$ relative to $v_F/gL$, where $v_F$ is the Fermi velocity, $g$ the Tomonaga Luttinger interaction parameter, and $L$ the length of the wire. The interplay of finite bias, finite temperature, and finite length yields rich structure in the noise spectrum which crucially depends on the electron-electron interaction. In particular, the excess noise, defined as the change of the noise due to the applied voltage, can become negative and is non-vanishing even for noise frequencies larger than the applied voltage, which are signatures of correlation effects.Comment: 28 pages, 19 figures, published version with minor change

Resonance in a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid

We study a homogeneous Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid with backscattering potential. A perturbative computation of the conductance at and near resonance is given. We find that the backscattering of one electron dominates that of two electrons for an interaction parameter $K\geq 1/3$ and that the resonance point depends on temperature. Our results may be relevant for recent experiments on shot-noise in FQHE, where the charge 1/3 and not $2*1/3$ is measured on resonance.Comment: 15 pages, three Figures. v2: Definite version, Citations added, presentation improved. To appear in Phys. Rev. B, Rapid Co

Antimicrobial silver-filled silica nanorattles with low immunotoxicity in dendritic cells

The progression in the use of orthopedic implants has led to an increase in the absolute number of implant infections, triggering a search for more effective antibacterial coatings. Nanorattles have recently gained interest in biomedical applications such as drug delivery, as encapsulation of the cargo inside the hollow structure provides a physical protection from the surrounding environment. Here, silver-containing silica nanorattles (Ag@SiO2) were evaluated for their antimicrobial potential and for their impact on cells of the immune system. We show that Ag@SiO2 nanorattles exhibited a clear antibacterial effect against Escherichia coli as well as Staphylococcus aureus found in post-operative infections. Immunotoxicological analyses showed that the particles were taken up through an active phagocytic process by dendritic cells of the immune system and did not affect their viability nor induce unwanted immunological effects. Silver-containing silica nanorattles thus fulfill several prerequisites for an antibacterial coating on surgical implants

Inflammation-associated Cell Cycle–independent Block of Apoptosis by Survivin in Terminally Differentiated Neutrophils

Survivin has received great attention due to its expression in many human tumors and its potential as a therapeutic target in cancer. Survivin expression has been described to be cell cycle–dependent and restricted to the G2-M checkpoint, where it inhibits apoptosis in proliferating cells. In agreement with this current view, we found that survivin expression was high in immature neutrophils, which proliferate during differentiation. In contrast with immature cells, mature neutrophils contained only little or no survivin protein. Strikingly, these cells reexpressed survivin upon granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF) or granulocyte CSF stimulation in vitro and under inflammatory conditions in vivo. Moreover, survivin-deficient mature neutrophils were unable to increase their lifespan after survival factor exposure. Together, our findings demonstrate the following: (a) overexpression of survivin occurs in primary, even terminally differentiated cells and is not restricted to proliferating cells; and (b) survivin acts as an inhibitor of apoptosis protein in a cell cycle–independent manner. Therefore, survivin plays distinct and independent roles in the maintenance of the G2-M checkpoint and in apoptosis control, and its overexpression is not restricted to proliferating cells. These data provide new insights into the regulation and function of survivin and have important implications for the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancer

Advances on antiviral activity of Morus spp. plant extracts: Human coronavirus and virus-related respiratory tract infections in the spotlight

(1) Background: Viral respiratory infections cause life-threatening diseases in millions of people worldwide every year. Human coronavirus and several picornaviruses are responsible for worldwide epidemic outbreaks, thus representing a heavy burden to their hosts. In the absence of specific treatments for human viral infections, natural products offer an alternative in terms of innovative drug therapies. (2) Methods: We analyzed the antiviral properties of the leaves and stem bark of the mulberry tree (Morus spp.). We compared the antiviral activity of Morus spp. on enveloped and nonenveloped viral pathogens, such as human coronavirus (HCoV 229E) and different members of the Picornaviridae family—human poliovirus 1, human parechovirus 1 and 3, and human echovirus 11. The antiviral activity of 12 water and water–alcohol plant extracts of the leaves and stem bark of three different species of mulberry—Morus alba var. alba, Morus alba var. rosa, and Morus rubra—were evaluated. We also evaluated the antiviral activities of kuwanon G against HCoV-229E. (3) Results: Our results showed that several extracts reduced the viral titer and cytopathogenic effects (CPE). Leaves’ water-alcohol extracts exhibited maximum antiviral activity on human coronavirus, while stem bark and leaves’ water and water-alcohol extracts were the most effective on picornaviruses. (4) Conclusions: The analysis of the antiviral activities of Morus spp. offer promising applications in antiviral strategies

Substrate interaction defects in histidylâ tRNA synthetase linked to dominant axonal peripheral neuropathy

Histidylâ tRNA synthetase (HARS) ligates histidine to cognate tRNA molecules, which is required for protein translation. Mutations in HARS cause the dominant axonal peripheral neuropathy Charcotâ Marieâ Tooth disease type 2W (CMT2W); however, the precise molecular mechanism remains undefined. Here, we investigated three HARS missense mutations associated with CMT2W (p.Tyr330Cys, p.Ser356Asn, and p.Val155Gly). The three mutations localize to the HARS catalytic domain and failed to complement deletion of the yeast ortholog (HTS1). Enzyme kinetics, differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF), and analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) were employed to assess the effect of these substitutions on primary aminoacylation function and overall dimeric structure. Notably, the p.Tyr330Cys, p.Ser356Asn, and p.Val155Gly HARS substitutions all led to reduced aminoacylation, providing a direct connection between CMT2Wâ linked HARS mutations and loss of canonical ARS function. While DSF assays revealed that only one of the variants (p.Val155Gly) was less thermally stable relative to wildâ type, all three HARS mutants formed stable dimers, as measured by AUC. Our work represents the first biochemical analysis of CMTâ associated HARS mutations and underscores how loss of the primary aminoacylation function can contribute to disease pathology.Diseaseâ causing variants in multiple aminoacylâ tRNA synthetase genes have been linked to the dominant inherited peripheral neuropathy Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT) disease. Here, we employed yeast complementation, enzyme kinetics, differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF), and analytical ultra centrifugation (AUC) to investigate three histidylâ tRNA synthetase (HARS) missense mutations associated with CMT2W (p.Tyr330Cys, p.Ser356Asn, and p.Val155Gly). The mutant substitutions all led to reduced catalytic activity and poorer histidine and ATP binding, illustrating how loss of primary aminoacylation function can contribute to disease pathology.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142441/1/humu23380_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142441/2/humu23380.pd