14,424 research outputs found
Information erasure without an energy cost
Landauer argued that the process of erasing the information stored in a
memory device incurs an energy cost in the form of a minimum amount of
mechanical work. We find, however, that this energy cost can be reduced to zero
by paying a cost in angular momentum or any other conserved quantity. Erasing
the memory of Maxwell's demon in this way implies that work can be extracted
from a single thermal reservoir at a cost of angular momentum and an increase
in total entropy. The implications of this for the second law of thermodynamics
are assessed.Comment: 8 pages with 1 figure. Final published versio
Coulomb-corrected quantum interference in above-threshold ionization: Working towards multi-trajectory electron holography
Using the recently developed Coulomb Quantum Orbit Strong-Field Approximation
(CQSFA), we perform a systematic analysis of several features encountered in
above-threshold ionization (ATI) photoelectron angle-resolved distributions
(PADs), such as side lobes, and intra- and intercycle interference patterns.
The latter include not only the well-known intra-cycle rings and the
near-threshold fan-shaped structure, but also previously overlooked patterns.
We provide a direct account of how the Coulomb potential distorts different
types of interfering trajectories and changes the corresponding phase
differences, and show that these patterns may be viewed as generalized
holographic structures formed by up to three types of trajectories. We also
derive analytical interference conditions and estimates valid in the presence
or absence of the residual potential, and assess the range of validity of
Coulomb-corrected interference conditions provided in the literature.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. Some figures have been compressed in order to
comply with the arXiv requirement
Mutations in dhfr in Plasmodium falciparum infections selected by chlorproguanil-dapsone treatment.
Treatment with the novel antifolate drug combination chlorproguanil-dapsone effectively cleared asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infections in 246 (93.5%) of 263 children in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania during the course of a 2-week follow-up. Samples from 71 recurrent infections, collected over a 9-week follow-up, showed selection for parasites with the triple mutant Ile(51)-Arg(59)-Asn(108) in dihydrofolate reductase. There was no selection for mutations in dihydropteroate synthetase, the target enzyme of dapsone. Search for complete identity in the highly polymorphic genes coding for merozoite surface proteins 1 and 2 in parasite samples collected before and after treatment indicated that the majority of recurrent parasitemias were new infections. These observations on selection in Tanzania and the lack of selection reported from a less endemic area suggest that the active metabolite of chlorproguanil, which has a short half-life in the blood, may persist in the liver, where it exerts selective pressure on growing preerythrocytic stages
A mechanistic model of connector hubs, modularity, and cognition
The human brain network is modular--comprised of communities of tightly
interconnected nodes. This network contains local hubs, which have many
connections within their own communities, and connector hubs, which have
connections diversely distributed across communities. A mechanistic
understanding of these hubs and how they support cognition has not been
demonstrated. Here, we leveraged individual differences in hub connectivity and
cognition. We show that a model of hub connectivity accurately predicts the
cognitive performance of 476 individuals in four distinct tasks. Moreover,
there is a general optimal network structure for cognitive
performance--individuals with diversely connected hubs and consequent modular
brain networks exhibit increased cognitive performance, regardless of the task.
Critically, we find evidence consistent with a mechanistic model in which
connector hubs tune the connectivity of their neighbors to be more modular
while allowing for task appropriate information integration across communities,
which increases global modularity and cognitive performance
Different Scenarios for Critical Glassy Dynamics
We study the role of different terms in the -body potential of glass
forming systems on the critical dynamics near the glass transition. Using a
simplified spin model with quenched disorder, where the different terms of the
real -body potential are mapped into multi-spin interactions, we identified
three possible scenarios. For each scenario we introduce a ``minimal'' model
representative of the critical glassy dynamics near, both above and below, the
critical transition lin e. For each ``minimal'' model we discuss the low
temperature equilibrium dynamics.Comment: Completely revised version, 8 pages, 5 figures, typeset using
EURO-LaTeX, Europhysics Letters (in press
Studies in the Helminthocladiaceae, III Liagoropsis
In the first paper in this series of studies of
the Helminthocladiaceae (Dory and Abbott,
1961 ), we have shown that, in two species of
Helminthocladia from Hawaii, the female reproductive
structures are generally similar to
those described by other workers for other species
in the genus, and that vegetative structures
such as internal cortical rhizoids may be used to
distinguish at least the Hawaiian species. In the
second paper of this series (Abbott and Dory,
1960) a new genus, Trichogloeopsis, was described
as containing three species, one new and
two transfers from the genus Liagora. They
share a major character in common, that of sterile
rhizoidal extensions of the gonimoblast, but
again the three species may be distinguished
from each other by their vegetative structures
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