2,320 research outputs found
Adenoid cystic carcinoma: emerging role of translocations and gene fusions.
Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), the second most common salivary gland malignancy, is notorious for poor prognosis, which reflects the propensity of ACC to progress to clinically advanced metastatic disease. Due to high long-term mortality and lack of effective systemic treatment, the slow-growing but aggressive ACC poses a particular challenge in head and neck oncology. Despite the advancements in cancer genomics, up until recently relatively few genetic alterations critical to the ACC development have been recognized. Although the specific chromosomal translocations resulting in MYB-NFIB fusions provide insight into the ACC pathogenesis and represent attractive diagnostic and therapeutic targets, their clinical significance is unclear, and a substantial subset of ACCs do not harbor the MYB-NFIB translocation. Strategies based on detection of newly described genetic events (such as MYB activating super-enhancer translocations and alterations affecting another member of MYB transcription factor family-MYBL1) offer new hope for improved risk assessment, therapeutic intervention and tumor surveillance. However, the impact of these approaches is still limited by an incomplete understanding of the ACC biology, and the manner by which these alterations initiate and drive ACC remains to be delineated. This manuscript summarizes the current status of gene fusions and other driver genetic alterations in ACC pathogenesis and discusses new therapeutic strategies stemming from the current research
Evidence for localization and 0.7 anomaly in hole quantum point contacts
Quantum point contacts implemented in p-type GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures are
investigated by low-temperature electrical conductance spectroscopy
measurements. Besides one-dimensional conductance quantization in units of
a pronounced extra plateau is found at about which
possesses the characteristic properties of the so-called "0.7 anomaly" known
from experiments with n-type samples. The evolution of the 0.7 plateau in high
perpendicular magnetic field reveals the existence of a quasi-localized state
and supports the explanation of the 0.7 anomaly based on self-consistent charge
localization. These observations are robust when lateral electrical fields are
applied which shift the relative position of the electron wavefunction in the
quantum point contact, testifying to the intrinsic nature of the underlying
physics.Comment: 4.2 pages, 3 figure
Origins of conductance anomalies in a p-type GaAs quantum point contact
Low temperature transport measurements on a p-GaAs quantum point contact are
presented which reveal the presence of a conductance anomaly that is markedly
different from the conventional `0.7 anomaly'. A lateral shift by asymmetric
gating of the conducting channel is utilized to identify and separate different
conductance anomalies of local and generic origins experimentally. While the
more generic 0.7 anomaly is not directly affected by changing the gate
configuration, a model is proposed which attributes the additional conductance
features to a gate-dependent coupling of the propagating states to localized
states emerging due to a nearby potential imperfection. Finite bias
conductivity measurements reveal the interplay between the two anomalies
consistently with a two-impurity Kondo model
Revealing Cosmic Rotation
Cosmological Birefringence (CB), a rotation of the polarization plane of
radiation coming to us from distant astrophysical sources, may reveal parity
violation in either the electromagnetic or gravitational sectors of the
fundamental interactions in nature. Until only recently this phenomenon could
be probed with only radio observations or observations at UV wavelengths.
Recently, there is a substantial effort to constrain such non-standard models
using observations of the rotation of the polarization plane of cosmic
microwave background (CMB) radiation. This can be done via measurements of the
-modes of the CMB or by measuring its TB and EB correlations which vanish in
the standard model. In this paper we show that correlations-based
estimator is the best for upcoming polarization experiments. The based
estimator surpasses other estimators because it has the smallest noise and of
all the estimators is least affected by systematics. Current polarimeters are
optimized for the detection of -mode polarization from either primordial
gravitational waves or by large scale structure via gravitational lensing. In
the paper we also study optimization of CMB experiments for the detection of
cosmological birefringence, in the presence of instrumental systematics, which
by themselves are capable of producing correlations; potentially mimicking
CB.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
Effect of Quantum Confinement on Electron Tunneling through a Quantum Dot
Employing the Anderson impurity model, we study tunneling properties through
an ideal quantum dot near the conductance minima. Considering the Coulomb
blockade and the quantum confinement on an equal footing, we have obtained
current contributions from various types of tunneling processes; inelastic
cotunneling, elastic cotunneling, and resonant tunneling of thermally activated
electrons. We have found that the inelastic cotunneling is suppressed in the
quantum confinement limit, and thus the conductance near its minima is
determined by the elastic cotunneling at low temperature (,
: dot-reservoir coupling constant), or by the resonant tunneling of
single electrons at high temperature ().Comment: 11 pages Revtex, 2 Postscript figures, To appear in Phys.Rev.
The fate of assimilated carbon during drought: impacts on respiration in Amazon rainforests
Interannual variations in CO2 exchange across Amazonia, as deduced from atmospheric inversions, correlate with El Niño occurrence. They are thought to result from changes in net ecosystem exchange and fire incidence that are both related to drought intensity. Alterations to net ecosystem production (NEP) are caused by changes in gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Reco). Here, we analyse observations of the components of Reco (leaves, live and dead woody tissue, and soil) to provide first estimates of changes in Reco during short-term (seasonal to interannual) moisture limitation. Although photosynthesis declines if moisture availability is limiting, leaf dark respiration is generally maintained, potentially acclimating upwards in the longer term. If leaf area is lost, then short-term canopy-scale respiratory effluxes from wood and leaves are likely to decline. Using a moderate short-term drying scenario where soil moisture limitation leads to a loss of 0.5 m2 m−2 yr−1 in leaf area index, we estimate a reduction in respiratory CO2 efflux from leaves and live woody tissue of 1.0 (±0.4) t C ha−1 yr−1. Necromass decomposition declines during drought, but mortality increases; the median mortality increase following a strong El Niño is 1.1% (n=46 tropical rainforest plots) and yields an estimated net short-term increase in necromass CO2 efflux of 0.13–0.18 t C ha−1 yr−1. Soil respiration is strongly sensitive to moisture limitation over the short term, but not to associated temperature increases. This effect is underestimated in many models but can lead to estimated reductions in CO2 efflux of 2.0 (±0.5) t C ha−1 yr−1. Thus, the majority of short-term respiratory responses to drought point to a decline in Reco, an outcome that contradicts recent regional-scale modelling of NEP. NEP varies with both GPP and Reco but robust moisture response functions are clearly needed to improve quantification of the role of Reco in influencing regional-scale CO2 emissions from Amazonia
Interplay between Coulomb Blockade and Resonant Tunneling studied by the Keldysh Green's Function Method
A theory of tunneling through a quantum dot is presented which enables us to
study combined effects of Coulomb blockade and discrete energy spectrum of the
dot. The expression of tunneling current is derived from the Keldysh Green's
function method, and is shown to automatically satisfy the conservation at DC
current of both junctions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures(mail if you need), use revtex.sty, error
corrected, changed titl
Dynamics of linear polymers in random media
We study phenomenological scaling theories of the polymer dynamics in random
media, employing the existing scaling theories of polymer chains and the
percolation statistics. We investigate both the Rouse and the Zimm model for
Brownian dynamics and estimate the diffusion constant of the center-of-mass of
the chain in such disordered media. For internal dynamics of the chain, we
estimate the dynamic exponents. We propose similar scaling theory for the
reptation dynamics of the chain in the framework of Flory theory for the
disordered medium. The modifications in the case of correlated disordered are
also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, no figure
- …