963 research outputs found
Dynamic response studies on aggregation and breakage dynamics of colloidal dispersions in stirred tanks
Aggregation and breakage of aggregates of fully destabilized polystyrene latex particles in turbulent flow was studied experimentally in both batch and continuous stirred tanks using small-angle static light scattering. It was found that the steady-state values of the root-mean-square radius of gyration are fully reversible upon changes of stirring speed as well as solid volume fraction. Steady-state values of the root-mean-square radius of gyration were decreasing with decreasing solid volume fraction as well as with increasing stirring speed. Moreover, it was found that the steady-state structure and shape of the aggregates is not influenced by the applied stirring speed
Prediction of infrared light emission from pi-conjugated polymers: a diagrammatic exciton basis valence bond theory
There is currently a great need for solid state lasers that emit in the
infrared, as this is the operating wavelength regime for applications in
telecommunications. Existing --conjugated polymers all emit in the visible
or ultraviolet, and whether or not --conjugated polymers that emit in the
infrared can be designed is an interesting challenge. On the one hand, the
excited state ordering in trans-polyacetylene, the --conjugated polymer
with relatively small optical gap, is not conducive to light emission because
of electron-electron interaction effects. On the other hand, excited state
ordering opposite to that in trans-polyacetylene is usually obtained by
chemical modification that increases the effective bond-alternation, which in
turn increases the optical gap. We develop a theory of electron correlation
effects in a model -conjugated polymer that is obtained by replacing the
hydrogen atoms of trans-polyacetylene with transverse conjugated groups, and
show that the effective on-site correlation in this system is smaller than the
bare correlation in the unsubstituted system. An optical gap in the infrared as
well as excited state ordering conducive to light emission is thereby predicted
upon similar structural modifications.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, 1 tabl
Accounting for both electron--lattice and electron--electron coupling in conjugated polymers: minimum total energy calculations on the Hubbard--Peierls hamiltonian
Minimum total energy calculations, which account for both electron--lattice
and electron--electron interactions in conjugated polymers are performed for
chains with up to eight carbon atoms. These calculations are motivated in part
by recent experimental results on the spectroscopy of polyenes and conjugated
polymers and shed light on the longstanding question of the relative importance
of electron--lattice vs. electron--electron interactions in determining the
properties of these systems.Comment: 6 pages, Plain TeX, FRL-PSD-93GR
Electron-electron interaction effects on the photophysics of metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes
Single-walled carbon nanotubes are strongly correlated systems with large
Coulomb repulsion between two electrons occupying the same orbital.
Within a molecular Hamiltonian appropriate for correlated -electron
systems, we show that optical excitations polarized parallel to the nanotube
axes in the so-called metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes are to excitons.
Our calculated absolute exciton energies in twelve different metallic
single-walled carbon nanotubes, with diameters in the range 0.8 - 1.4 nm, are
in nearly quantitative agreement with experimental results. We have also
calculated the absorption spectrum for the (21,21) single-walled carbon
nanotube in the E region. Our calculated spectrum gives an excellent fit
to the experimental absorption spectrum. In all cases our calculated exciton
binding energies are only slightly smaller than those of semiconducting
nanotubes with comparable diameters, in contradiction to results obtained
within the {\it ab initio} approach, which predicts much smaller binding
energies. We ascribe this difference to the difficulty of determining the
behavior of systems with strong on-site Coulomb interactions within theories
based on the density functional approach. As in the semiconducting nanotubes we
predict in the metallic nanotubes a two-photon exciton above the lowest
longitudinally polarized exciton that can be detected by ultrafast pump-probe
spectroscopy. We also predict a subgap absorption polarized perpendicular to
the nanotube axes below the lowest longitudinal exciton, blueshifted from the
exact midgap by electron-electron interactions
On SAT representations of XOR constraints
We study the representation of systems S of linear equations over the
two-element field (aka xor- or parity-constraints) via conjunctive normal forms
F (boolean clause-sets). First we consider the problem of finding an
"arc-consistent" representation ("AC"), meaning that unit-clause propagation
will fix all forced assignments for all possible instantiations of the
xor-variables. Our main negative result is that there is no polysize
AC-representation in general. On the positive side we show that finding such an
AC-representation is fixed-parameter tractable (fpt) in the number of
equations. Then we turn to a stronger criterion of representation, namely
propagation completeness ("PC") --- while AC only covers the variables of S,
now all the variables in F (the variables in S plus auxiliary variables) are
considered for PC. We show that the standard translation actually yields a PC
representation for one equation, but fails so for two equations (in fact
arbitrarily badly). We show that with a more intelligent translation we can
also easily compute a translation to PC for two equations. We conjecture that
computing a representation in PC is fpt in the number of equations.Comment: 39 pages; 2nd v. improved handling of acyclic systems, free-standing
proof of the transformation from AC-representations to monotone circuits,
improved wording and literature review; 3rd v. updated literature,
strengthened treatment of monotonisation, improved discussions; 4th v. update
of literature, discussions and formulations, more details and examples;
conference v. to appear LATA 201
Human white adipose tissue vasculature contains endothelial colony-forming cells with robust in vivo vasculogenic potential
Epub ahead of print.-- The final publication is available at link.springer.comBlood-derived endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) have robust vasculogenic potential that
can be exploited to bioengineer long-lasting human vascular networks in vivo. However,
circulating ECFCs are exceedingly rare in adult peripheral blood. Because the mechanism by
which ECFCs are mobilized into circulation is currently unknown, the reliability of peripheral
blood as a clinical source of ECFCs remains a concern. Thus, there is a need to find alternative
sources of autologous ECFCs. Here we aimed to determine whether ECFCs reside in the
vasculature of human white adipose tissue (WAT) and to evaluate if WAT-derived ECFCs
(watECFCs) have equal clinical potential to blood-derived ECFCs. We isolated the complete
endothelial cell (EC) population from intact biopsies of normal human subcutaneous WAT by
enzymatic digestion and selection of CD31+ cells. Subsequently, we extensively compared
WAT-derived EC phenotype and functionality to bonafide ECFCs derived from both umbilical
cord blood and adult peripheral blood. We demonstrated that human WAT is indeed a
dependable source of ECFCs with indistinguishable properties to adult peripheral blood ECFCs,
including hierarchical clonogenic ability, large expansion potential, stable endothelial phenotype,
and robust in vivo blood vessel-forming capacity. Considering the unreliability and low rate of
occurrence of ECFCs in adult blood and that biopsies of WAT can be obtained with minimal
intervention in an ambulatory setting, our results indicate WAT as a more practical alternative to
obtain large amounts of readily available autologous ECFCs for future vascular cell therapies.This work was supported by a
National Institutes of Health Grant (R00EB009096, J. M.-M).Peer reviewe
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