Fashion, Novelty and Optimality: An application from Physics

We apply a physical based model to describe the clothes fashion market. Every time a new outlet appears on the market, it can invade the market under certain specific conditions. Hence, the "old'' outlet can be completely dominated and disappears. Each creator competes for a finite population of agents. Fashion phenomena are shown to result from a collective phenomenon produced by local individual imitation effects. We assume that, in each step of the imitation process, agents only interact with a subset rather than with the whole set of agents. People are actually more likely to influence (and be influenced by) their close ''neighbours''. Accordingly we discuss which strategy is best fitted for new producers when people are either simply organised into anonymous reference groups or when they are organised in social groups hierarchically ordered. While counterfeits are shown to reinforce the first strategy, creating social leaders can permit to avoid them.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure

Trap-Assisted Charge Generation and Recombination in State-of-the-Art Organic Photodetectors

The performance of organic photodetectors is steadily improving, and the specific detectivity, as a key figure of merit, has reached values of 1012–1013 Jones, i.e., comparable to that of silicon diodes but still considerably lower than the intrinsic limit. As with other semiconductor devices, the electrical performance of state-of-the art organic photodiodes (OPDs) is presently determined to a high degree by the presence of chemical impurities or structural defects which create carrier trapping states within the bandgap of organic active layer. This review aims to provide a comprehensive and timely account of trap-assisted charge generation and recombination in OPDs, with emphasis on the impact of these phenomena on photodetector performance parameters such as, noise and dark current density, responsivity, response speed, and ultimately, specific detectivity.</p

Dynamic surface scaling behavior of isotropic Heisenberg ferromagnets

The effects of free surfaces on the dynamic critical behavior of isotropic Heisenberg ferromagnets are studied via phenomenological scaling theory, field-theoretic renormalization group tools, and high-precision computer simulations. An appropriate semi-infinite extension of the stochastic model J is constructed, the boundary terms of the associated dynamic field theory are identified, its renormalization in d <= 6 dimensions is clarified, and the boundary conditions it satisfies are given. Scaling laws are derived which relate the critical indices of the dynamic and static infrared singularities of surface quantities to familiar static bulk and surface exponents. Accurate computer-simulation data are presented for the dynamic surface structure factor; these are in conformity with the predicted scaling behavior and could be checked by appropriate scattering experiments.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Bulk properties of light deformed nuclei derived from a medium-modified meson-exchange interaction

Deformed Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations for finite nuclei are carried out. As residual interaction, a Brueckner G-matrix derived from a meson-exchange potential is taken. Phenomenological medium modifications of the meson masses are introduced. The binding energies, radii, and deformation parameters of the Carbon, Oxygen, Neon, and Magnesium isotope chains are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX2e, elsart, 4 eps-figures includes with graphic

Long time limit of equilibrium glassy dynamics and replica calculation

It is shown that the limit $t-t'\to\infty$ of the equilibrium dynamic self-energy can be computed from the $n\to 1$ limit of the static self-energy of a $n$-times replicated system with one step replica symmetry breaking structure. It is also shown that the Dyson equation of the replicated system leads in the $n\to 1$ limit to the bifurcation equation for the glass ergodicity breaking parameter computed from dynamics. The equivalence of the replica formalism to the long time limit of the equilibrium relaxation dynamics is proved to all orders in perturbation for a scalar theory.Comment: 25 pages, 12 Figures, RevTeX. Corrected misprints. Published versio

Critical Behavior of O(n)-symmetric Systems With Reversible Mode-coupling Terms: Stability Against Detailed-balance Violation

We investigate nonequilibrium critical properties of $O(n)$-symmetric models with reversible mode-coupling terms. Specifically, a variant of the model of Sasv\'ari, Schwabl, and Sz\'epfalusy is studied, where violation of detailed balance is incorporated by allowing the order parameter and the dynamically coupled conserved quantities to be governed by heat baths of different temperatures $T_S$ and $T_M$, respectively. Dynamic perturbation theory and the field-theoretic renormalization group are applied to one-loop order, and yield two new fixed points in addition to the equilibrium ones. The first one corresponds to $\Theta = T_S / T_M = \infty$ and leads to model A critical behavior for the order parameter and to anomalous noise correlations for the generalized angular momenta; the second one is at $\Theta = 0$ and is characterized by mean-field behavior of the conserved quantities, by a dynamic exponent $z = d / 2$ equal to that of the equilibrium SSS model, and by modified static critical exponents. However, both these new fixed points are unstable, and upon approaching the critical point detailed balance is restored, and the equilibrium static and dynamic critical properties are recovered.Comment: 18 pages, RevTeX, 1 figure included as eps-file; submitted to Phys. Rev.

Differential integrity of TALE nuclease genes following adenoviral and lentiviral vector gene transfer into human cells

The array of genome editing strategies based on targeted double-stranded DNA break formation have recently been enriched through the introduction of transcription activator-like type III effector (TALE) nucleases (TALENs). To advance the testing of TALE-based approaches, it will be crucial to deliver these custom-designed proteins not only into transformed cell types but also into more relevant, chromosomally stable, primary cells. Viral vectors are among the most effective gene transfer vehicles. Here, we investigated the capacity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1- and adenovirus-based vectors to package and deliver functional TALEN genes into various human cell types. To this end, we attempted to assemble particles of these two vector classes, each encoding a monomer of a TALEN pair targeted to a bipartite sequence within the AAVS1 'safe harbor' locus. Vector DNA analyses revealed that adenoviral vectors transferred intact TALEN genes, whereas lentiviral vectors failed to do so, as shown by their heterogeneously sized proviruses in target cells. Importantly, adenoviral vector-mediated TALEN gene delivery resulted in site-specific double-stranded DNA break formation at the intended AAVS1 target site at similarly high levels in both transformed and non-transformed cells. In conclusion, we demonstrate that adenoviral, but not lentiviral, vectors constitute a valuable TALEN gene delivery platfor