2,437 research outputs found
Understanding complex magnetic order in disordered cobalt hydroxides through analysis of the local structure
In many ostensibly crystalline materials, unit-cell-based descriptions do not
always capture the complete physics of the system due to disruption in
long-range order. In the series of cobalt hydroxides studied here,
Co(OH)(Cl)(HO), magnetic Bragg diffraction reveals a
fully compensated N\'eel state, yet the materials show significant and open
magnetization loops. A detailed analysis of the local structure defines the
aperiodic arrangement of cobalt coordination polyhedra. Representation of the
structure as a combination of distinct polyhedral motifs explains the existence
of locally uncompensated moments and provides a quantitative agreement with
bulk magnetic measurements and magnetic Bragg diffraction
Thermodynamic Casimir effects involving interacting field theories with zero modes
Systems with an O(n) symmetrical Hamiltonian are considered in a
-dimensional slab geometry of macroscopic lateral extension and finite
thickness that undergo a continuous bulk phase transition in the limit
. The effective forces induced by thermal fluctuations at and above
the bulk critical temperature (thermodynamic Casimir effect) are
investigated below the upper critical dimension by means of
field-theoretic renormalization group methods for the case of periodic and
special-special boundary conditions, where the latter correspond to the
critical enhancement of the surface interactions on both boundary planes. As
shown previously [\textit{Europhys. Lett.} \textbf{75}, 241 (2006)], the zero
modes that are present in Landau theory at make conventional
RG-improved perturbation theory in dimensions ill-defined. The
revised expansion introduced there is utilized to compute the scaling functions
of the excess free energy and the Casimir force for temperatures
T\geqT_{c,\infty} as functions of , where
is the bulk correlation length. Scaling functions of the
-dependent residual free energy per area are obtained whose
limits are in conformity with previous results for the Casimir amplitudes
to and display a more reasonable
small- behavior inasmuch as they approach the critical value
monotonically as .Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
Semi-Classical Description of Antiproton Capture on Atomic Helium
A semi-classical, many-body atomic model incorporating a momentum-dependent
Heisenberg core to stabilize atomic electrons is used to study antiproton
capture on Helium. Details of the antiproton collisions leading to eventual
capture are presented, including the energy and angular momentum states of
incident antiprotons which result in capture via single or double electron
ionization, i.e. into [He or He], and the
distribution of energy and angular momentum states following the Auger cascade.
These final states are discussed in light of recently reported, anomalously
long-lived antiproton states observed in liquid He.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures may be obtained from authors, Revte
Fluctuations of elastic interfaces in fluids: Theory and simulation
We study the dynamics of elastic interfaces-membranes-immersed in thermally
excited fluids. The work contains three components: the development of a
numerical method, a purely theoretical approach, and numerical simulation. In
developing a numerical method, we first discuss the dynamical coupling between
the interface and the surrounding fluids. An argument is then presented that
generalizes the single-relaxation time lattice-Boltzmann method for the
simulation of hydrodynamic interfaces to include the elastic properties of the
boundary. The implementation of the new method is outlined and it is tested by
simulating the static behavior of spherical bubbles and the dynamics of bending
waves. By means of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem we recover analytically
the equilibrium frequency power spectrum of thermally fluctuating membranes and
the correlation function of the excitations. Also, the non-equilibrium scaling
properties of the membrane roughening are deduced, leading us to formulate a
scaling law describing the interface growth, W^2(L,T)=L^3 g[t/L^(5/2)], where
W, L and T are the width of the interface, the linear size of the system and
the temperature respectively, and g is a scaling function. Finally, the
phenomenology of thermally fluctuating membranes is simulated and the frequency
power spectrum is recovered, confirming the decay of the correlation function
of the fluctuations. As a further numerical study of fluctuating elastic
interfaces, the non-equilibrium regime is reproduced by initializing the system
as an interface immersed in thermally pre-excited fluids.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure
Distinct TLR- and NLR-Mediated Transcriptional Responses to an Intracellular Pathogen
How the innate immune system tailors specific responses to diverse microbial infections is not well understood. Cells use a limited number of host receptors and signaling pathways to both discriminate among extracellular and intracellular microbes, and also to generate responses commensurate to each threat. Here, we have addressed these questions by using DNA microarrays to monitor the macrophage transcriptional response to the intracellular bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. By utilizing combinations of host and bacterial mutants, we have defined the host transcriptional responses to vacuolar and cytosolic bacteria. These compartment-specific host responses induced significantly different sets of target genes, despite activating similar transcription factors. Vacuolar signaling was entirely MyD88-dependent, and induced the transcription of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The IRF3-dependent cytosolic response induced a distinct set of target genes, including IFNβ. Many of these cytosolic response genes were induced by secreted cytokines, so we further identified those host genes induced independent of secondary signaling. The host response to cytosolic bacteria was reconstituted by the cytosolic delivery of L. monocytogenes genomic DNA, but we observed an amplification of this response by NOD2 signaling in response to MDP. Correspondingly, the induction of IFNβ was reduced in nod2−/− macrophages during infection with either L. monocytogenes or Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Combinatorial control of IFNβ induction by recognition of both DNA and MDP may highlight a mechanism by which the innate immune system integrates the responses to multiple ligands presented in the cytosol by intracellular pathogens
Resonances in a two-dimensional electron waveguide with a single delta-function scatterer
We study the conductance properties of a straight two-dimensional electron
waveguide with an s-like scatterer modeled by a single delta-function potential
with a finite number of modes. Even such a simple system exhibits interesting
resonance phenomena. These resonances are explained in terms of quasi-bound
states both by using a direct solution of the Schroedinger equation and by
studying the Green's function of the system. Using the Green's function we
calculate the survival probability as well as the power absorption and show the
influence of the quasi-bound states on these two quantities.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Physical Review
Instability in clinical risk stratification models using deep learning
While it has been well known in the ML community that deep learning models
suffer from instability, the consequences for healthcare deployments are under
characterised. We study the stability of different model architectures trained
on electronic health records, using a set of outpatient prediction tasks as a
case study. We show that repeated training runs of the same deep learning model
on the same training data can result in significantly different outcomes at a
patient level even though global performance metrics remain stable. We propose
two stability metrics for measuring the effect of randomness of model training,
as well as mitigation strategies for improving model stability.Comment: Accepted for publication in Machine Learning for Health (ML4H) 202
Taselisib (GDC-0032), a Potent -Sparing Small Molecule Inhibitor of PI3K, Radiosensitizes Head and Neck Squamous Carcinomas Containing Activating PIK3CA Alterations
Activating PIK3CA genomic alterations are frequent in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and there is an association between phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling and radioresistance. Hence, we investigated the therapeutic efficacy of inhibiting PI3K with GDC-0032, a PI3K inhibitor with potent activity against p110α, in combination with radiation in HNSCC
The Cost of Simplifying Air Travel When Modeling Disease Spread
BACKGROUND: Air travel plays a key role in the spread of many pathogens. Modeling the long distance spread of infectious disease in these cases requires an air travel model. Highly detailed air transportation models can be over determined and computationally problematic. We compared the predictions of a simplified air transport model with those of a model of all routes and assessed the impact of differences on models of infectious disease. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using U.S. ticket data from 2007, we compared a simplified "pipe" model, in which individuals flow in and out of the air transport system based on the number of arrivals and departures from a given airport, to a fully saturated model where all routes are modeled individually. We also compared the pipe model to a "gravity" model where the probability of travel is scaled by physical distance; the gravity model did not differ significantly from the pipe model. The pipe model roughly approximated actual air travel, but tended to overestimate the number of trips between small airports and underestimate travel between major east and west coast airports. For most routes, the maximum number of false (or missed) introductions of disease is small (<1 per day) but for a few routes this rate is greatly underestimated by the pipe model. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: If our interest is in large scale regional and national effects of disease, the simplified pipe model may be adequate. If we are interested in specific effects of interventions on particular air routes or the time for the disease to reach a particular location, a more complex point-to-point model will be more accurate. For many problems a hybrid model that independently models some frequently traveled routes may be the best choice. Regardless of the model used, the effect of simplifications and sensitivity to errors in parameter estimation should be analyzed
Is the Soleus a Sentinel Muscle for Impaired Aerobic Capacity in Heart Failure?
Purpose: Skeletal muscle wasting is well documented in chronic heart failure (CHF). This article provides a more detailed understanding of the morphology behind this muscle wasting and the relation between muscle morphology, strength, and exercise capacity in CHF. We investigated the effect of CHF on lower limb lean mass, detailed muscle–tendon architecture of the individual triceps surae muscles (soleus (SOL), medial gastrocnemius, and lateral gastrocnemius) and how these parameters relate to exercise capacity and strength.
Methods: Eleven patients with CHF and 15 age-matched controls were recruited. Lower limb lean mass was assessed by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry and the architecture of skeletal muscle and tendon properties by ultrasound. Plantarflexor strength was assessed by dynamometry.
Results: Patients with CHF exhibited approximately 25% lower combined triceps surae volume and physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) compared with those of control subjects (P < 0.05), driven in large part by reductions in the SOL. Only the SOL volume and the SOL and medial gastrocnemius physiological cross-sectional area were statistically different between groups after normalizing to lean body mass and body surface area, respectively. Total lower limb lean mass did not differ between CHF and control subjects, further highlighting the SOL specificity of muscle wasting in CHF. Moreover, the volume of the SOL and plantarflexor strength correlated strongly with peak oxygen uptake (V˙O2peak) in patients with CHF.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that the SOL may be a sentinel skeletal muscle in CHF and provide a rationale for including plantarflexor muscle training in CHF care
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