246 research outputs found
Aantekeningen bij een memo van Willem aan het faculteitsbestuur:Literatuur en filosofie ten behoeve van onderwijs over de democratische rechtsstaat
Aantekeningen bij een memo van Willem aan het faculteitsbestuur:Literatuur en filosofie ten behoeve van onderwijs over de democratische rechtsstaat
Temperature effects on dislocation core energies in silicon and germanium
Temperature effects on the energetics of the 90-degree partial dislocation in
silicon and germanium are investigated, using non-equilibrium methods to
estimate free energies, coupled with Monte Carlo simulations. Atomic
interactions are described by Tersoff and EDIP interatomic potentials. Our
results indicate that the vibrational entropy has the effect of increasing the
difference in free energy between the two possible reconstructions of the
90-degree partial, namely, the single-period and the double-period geometries.
This effect further increases the energetic stability of the double-period
reconstruction at high temperatures. The results also indicate that anharmonic
effects may play an important role in determining the structural properties of
these defects in the high-temperature regime.Comment: 8 pages in two-column physical-review format with six figure
A Flagellar A-Kinase Anchoring Protein with Two Amphipathic Helices Forms a Structural Scaffold in the Radial Spoke Complex
A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs) contain an amphipathic helix (AH) that binds the dimerization and docking (D/D) domain, RIIa, in cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA). Many AKAPs were discovered solely based on the AH–RIIa interaction in vitro. An RIIa or a similar Dpy-30 domain is also present in numerous diverged molecules that are implicated in critical processes as diverse as flagellar beating, membrane trafficking, histone methylation, and stem cell differentiation, yet these molecules remain poorly characterized. Here we demonstrate that an AKAP, RSP3, forms a dimeric structural scaffold in the flagellar radial spoke complex, anchoring through two distinct AHs, the RIIa and Dpy-30 domains, in four non-PKA spoke proteins involved in the assembly and modulation of the complex. Interestingly, one AH can bind both RIIa and Dpy-30 domains in vitro. Thus, AHs and D/D domains constitute a versatile yet potentially promiscuous system for localizing various effector mechanisms. These results greatly expand the current concept about anchoring mechanisms and AKAPs
Pulmonary-to-Systemic Arterial Shunt to Treat Children With Severe Pulmonary Hypertension
BACKGROUND: The placement of a pulmonary-to-systemic arterial shunt in children with severe pulmonary hypertension (PH) has been demonstrated, in relatively small studies, to be an effective palliation for their disease. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to expand upon these earlier findings using an international registry for children with PH who have undergone a shunt procedure. METHODS: Retrospective data were obtained from 110 children with PH who underwent a shunt procedure collected from 13 institutions in Europe and the United States. RESULTS: Seventeen children died in-hospital postprocedure (15%). Of the 93 children successfully discharged home, 18 subsequently died or underwent lung transplantation (20%); the mean follow-up was 3.1 years (range: 25 days to 17 years). The overall 1- and 5-year freedom from death or transplant rates were 77% and 58%, respectively, and 92% and 68% for those discharged home, respectively. Children discharged home had significantly improved World Health Organization functional class (P < 0.001), 6-minute walk distances (P = 0.047) and lower brain natriuretic peptide levels (P < 0.001). Postprocedure, 59% of children were weaned completely from their prostacyclin infusion (P < 0.001). Preprocedural risk factors for dying in-hospital postprocedure included intensive care unit admission (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.2; P = 0.02), mechanical ventilation (HR: 8.3; P < 0.001) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (HR: 10.7; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A pulmonary-to-systemic arterial shunt can provide a child with severe PH significant clinical improvement that is both durable and potentially free from continuous prostacyclin infusion. Five-year survival is comparable to children undergoing lung transplantation for PH. Children with severely decompensated disease requiring aggressive intensive care are not good candidates for the shunt procedure
Superconductivity close to the Mott state: From condensed-matter systems to superfluidity in optical lattices
Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in 1986 by Bednorz
and Mueller, great efforts have been devoted to finding out how and why it
works. From the d-wave symmetry of the order parameter, the importance of
antiferromagnetic fluctuations, and the presence of a mysterious pseudogap
phase close to the Mott state, one can conclude that high-Tc superconductors
are clearly distinguishable from the well-understood BCS superconductors. The
d-wave superconducting state can be understood through a Gutzwiller-type
projected BCS wave-function. In this review article, we revisit the Hubbard
model at half-filling and focus on the emergence of exotic superconductivity
with d-wave symmetry in the vicinity of the Mott state, starting from ladder
systems and then studying the dimensional crossovers to higher dimensions. This
allows to confirm that short-range antiferromagnetic fluctuations can mediate
superconductivity with d-wave symmetry. Ladders are also nice prototype systems
allowing to demonstrate the truncation of the Fermi surface and the emergence
of a Resonating Valence Bond (RVB) state with preformed pairs in the vicinity
of the Mott state. In two dimensions, a similar scenario emerges from
renormalization group arguments. We also discuss theoretical predictions for
the d-wave superconducting phase as well as the pseudogap phase, and address
the crossover to the overdoped regime. Finally, cold atomic systems with
tunable parameters also provide a complementary insight into this outstanding
problem.Comment: 98 pages and 18 figures; Final version (references added and
misprints corrected
Credentials, talent and cultural capital: a comparative study of educational elites in England and France
This article examines student accounts of credentials, talent and academic success, against a backdrop of the enduring liberal ideal of an education-based meritocracy. The article also examines Bourdieu’s account of academic qualifications as the dominant source of institutionalised cultural capital, and concludes that it does not adequately account for comparative differences in the social structure of competition and ideological shifts in class (re)production in different national contexts. This analysis is based on an empirical investigation of elite students at Oxford University and Sciences Po in Paris. We investigated how they understand the competition for a livelihood and whether they see themselves as more ‘talented’ than students from non-elite universities. This investigation revealed important similarities and differences between British and French students that have significant sociological implications for the (re)production and legitimation of educational and labour market inequalities
- …