301 research outputs found
Attenuation of polarization echoes in NMR: A study of the emergence of dynamical irreversibility in many-body quantum systems
The reversal of the time evolution of the local polarization in an
interacting spin system involves a sign change of the effective dipolar
Hamiltonian which refocuses the 'spin diffusion' process generating a
polarization echo. Here, the attenuation of these echo amplitudes as a function
of evolution time is presented for cymantrene and ferrocene polycrystalline
samples, involving one and two five spin rings per molecule respectively. We
calculate the fraction of polarization which is not refocused because only the
secular part of the dipolar Hamiltonian is inverted. The results indicate that,
as long as the spin dynamics is restricted to a single ring, the non-inverted
part of the Hamiltonian is notable by itself to explain the whole decay of the
polarization echoes. A cross over from exponential (cymantrene) to Gaussian
(ferrocene) attenuation is experimentally observed. This is attributed to an
increase of the relative importance of the spin dynamics, as compared with
irreversible interactions, which favors dynamical irreversibility.Comment: 6 pages in Revtex, 11 Postscript figures. Final versio
Fundamental measure theory for lattice fluids with hard core interactions
We present the extension of Rosenfeld's fundamental measure theory to lattice
models by constructing a density functional for d-dimensional mixtures of
parallel hard hypercubes on a simple hypercubic lattice. The one-dimensional
case is exactly solvable and two cases must be distinguished: all the species
with the same lebgth parity (additive mixture), and arbitrary length parity
(nonadditive mixture). At the best of our knowledge, this is the first time
that the latter case is considered. Based on the one-dimensional exact
functional form, we propose the extension to higher dimensions by generalizing
the zero-dimensional cavities method to lattice models. This assures the
functional to have correct dimensional crossovers to any lower dimension,
including the exact zero-dimensional limit. Some applications of the functional
to particular systems are also shown.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, needs IOPP LaTeX styles file
Equation of State for Macromolecules of Variable Flexibility in Good Solvents: A Comparison of Techniques for Monte Carlo Simulations of Lattice Models
The osmotic equation of state for the athermal bond fluctuation model on the
simple cubic lattice is obtained from extensive Monte Carlo simulations. For
short macromolecules (chain length N=20) we study the influence of various
choices for the chain stiffness on the equation of state. Three techniques are
applied and compared in order to critically assess their efficiency and
accuracy: the repulsive wall method, the thermodynamic integration method
(which rests on the feasibility of simulations in the grand canonical
ensemble), and the recently advocated sedimentation equilibrium method, which
records the density profile in an external (e.g. gravitation-like) field and
infers, via a local density approximation, the equation of state from the
hydrostatic equilibrium condition. We confirm the conclusion that the latter
technique is far more efficient than the repulsive wall method, but we find
that the thermodynamic integration method is similarly efficient as the
sedimentation equilibrium method. For very stiff chains the onset of nematic
order enforces the formation of isotropic-nematic interface in the
sedimentation equilibrium method leading to strong rounding effects and
deviations from the true equation of state in the transition regime.Comment: 32 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.E; one paragraph added to
conclusions sectio
The biomechanical fingerprint of hip and knee osteoarthritis patients during activities of daily living
Background: Osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent disease affecting the hip and knee joint and is characterized by load-mediated pain and decreased quality of life. Dependent on involved joint, patients present antalgic movement compensations, aiming to decrease loading on the involved joint. However, the associated alterations in mechanical loading of the ipsi- and contra-lateral lower limb joints, are less documented. Here, we documented the biomechanical fingerprint of end-stage hip and knee osteoarthritis patients in terms of ipsilateral and contralateral hip and knee loading during walking and stair ambulation. Methods: Three-dimensional motion-analysis was performed in 20 hip, 18 knee osteoarthritis patients and 12 controls during level walking and stair ambulation. Joint contact forces were calculated using a standard musculoskeletal modelling workflow in Opensim. Involved and contralateral hip and knee joint loading was compared against healthy controls using independent t-tests (p < 0.05). Findings: Both hip and knee cohorts significantly decreased loading of the involved joint during gait and stair ambulation. Hip osteoarthritis patients presented no signs of ipsilateral knee nor contralateral leg overloading, during walking and stair ascending. However, knee osteoarthritis patients significantly increased loading at the ipsilateral hip, and contralateral hip and knee joints during stair ambulation compared to controls. Interpretation: The biomechanical fingerprint in knee and hip osteoarthritis patients confirmed antalgic movement strategies to unload the involved leg during gait. Only during stair ambulation in knee osteoarthritis patients, movement adaptations were confirmed that induced unbalanced intra- and inter-limb loading conditions, which are known risk factors for secondary osteoarthritis.</p
The biomechanical fingerprint of hip and knee osteoarthritis patients during activities of daily living
Background: Osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent disease affecting the hip and knee joint and is characterized by load-mediated pain and decreased quality of life. Dependent on involved joint, patients present antalgic movement compensations, aiming to decrease loading on the involved joint. However, the associated alterations in mechanical loading of the ipsi- and contra-lateral lower limb joints, are less documented. Here, we documented the biomechanical fingerprint of end-stage hip and knee osteoarthritis patients in terms of ipsilateral and contralateral hip and knee loading during walking and stair ambulation. Methods: Three-dimensional motion-analysis was performed in 20 hip, 18 knee osteoarthritis patients and 12 controls during level walking and stair ambulation. Joint contact forces were calculated using a standard musculoskeletal modelling workflow in Opensim. Involved and contralateral hip and knee joint loading was compared against healthy controls using independent t-tests (p < 0.05). Findings: Both hip and knee cohorts significantly decreased loading of the involved joint during gait and stair ambulation. Hip osteoarthritis patients presented no signs of ipsilateral knee nor contralateral leg overloading, during walking and stair ascending. However, knee osteoarthritis patients significantly increased loading at the ipsilateral hip, and contralateral hip and knee joints during stair ambulation compared to controls. Interpretation: The biomechanical fingerprint in knee and hip osteoarthritis patients confirmed antalgic movement strategies to unload the involved leg during gait. Only during stair ambulation in knee osteoarthritis patients, movement adaptations were confirmed that induced unbalanced intra- and inter-limb loading conditions, which are known risk factors for secondary osteoarthritis.</p
Population inversion of a NAHS mixture adsorbed into a cylindrical pore
A cylindrical nanopore immersed in a non-additive hard sphere binary fluid is
studied by means of integral equation theories and Monte Carlo simulations. It
is found that at low and intermediate values of the bulk total number density
the more concentrated bulk species is preferentially absorbed by the pore, as
expected. However, further increments of the bulk number density lead to an
abrupt population inversion in the confined fluid and an entropy driven
prewetting transition at the outside wall of the pore. These phenomena are a
function of the pore size, the non-additivity parameter, the bulk number
density, and particles relative number fraction. We discuss our results in
relation to the phase separation in the bulk.Comment: 7 pages, 8 Figure
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