14,495 research outputs found
CSF lactate dehydrogenase activity in patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease exceeds that in other dementias
The diagnosis of Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease (CJD) is still made by exclusion of other dementias. We now evaluated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as a possible additional diagnostic tool. CSF LDH levels of patients with CJD ( n = 26) were compared with those in other dementias ( n = 28). LDH isoenzymes were determined in a subset ( n = 9). Total LDH and isoenzyme LDH-1 were significantly higher, whereas the fractions of LDH-2 and LDH-3 were significantly lower in CJD patients. We conclude that in addition to established CSF parameters, LDH and its isoenzymes might serve as a further help to discriminate between CJD and other dementias. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel
Numerical Modeling Of Hohlraum Radiation Conditions: Spatial And Spectral Variations Due To Sample Position, Beam Pointing, And Hohlraum Geometry
View-factor simulations are presented of the spatially varying radiation conditions inside double-ended gold Hohlraums and single-ended gold Hohlraums (\u27\u27 halfraums \u27\u27) used in inertial confinement fusion and high-energy density physics experiments [J. Lindl, Phys. Plasmas 11, 339 (2004); M. D. Rosen, Phys. Plasmas 3, 1803 (1996)]. It is shown that in many circumstances, the common assumption that the Hohlraum \u27\u27 drive \u27\u27 can be characterized by a single temperature is too simplistic. Specifically, the radiation conditions seen by an experimental package can differ significantly from the wall reemission measured through diagnostic holes or laser entrance holes (LEHs) by absolutely calibrated detectors. Furthermore, even in situations where the radiation temperature is roughly the same for diagnostics and experimental packages, or for packages at different locations, the spectral energy distributions can vary significantly, due to the differing fractions of reemitting wall, laser hot spots, and LEHs seen from different locations. We find that the spatial variation of temperature and especially the differences between what diagnostics looking in the LEH measure versus the radiation temperature on wall-mounted experimental packages are generally greater for double-ended Hohlraums than for halfraums. View-factor simulations can also be used to explore experimental variables (halfraum length and geometry, sample position, and beam pointing) that can be adjusted in order to, for example, maximize the radiation flux onto a sample, or other package. In this vein, simulations of Hohlraums and halfraums with LEH shields are also presented. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics
Optical properties of current carrying molecular wires
We consider several fundamental optical phenomena involving single molecules
in biased metal-molecule-metal junctions. The molecule is represented by its
highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals, and the analysis
involves the simultaneous consideration of three coupled fluxes: the electronic
current through the molecule, energy flow between the molecule and
electron-hole excitations in the leads and the incident and/or emitted photon
flux. Using a unified theoretical approach based on the non-equilibrium Green
function method we derive expressions for the absorption lineshape (not an
observable but a ueful reference for considering yields of other optical
processes) and for the current induced molecular emission in such junctions. We
also consider conditions under which resonance radiation can induce electronic
current in an unbiased junction. We find that current driven molecular emission
and resonant light induced electronic currents in single molecule junctions can
be of observable magnitude under appropriate realizable conditions. In
particular, light induced current should be observed in junctions involving
molecular bridges that are characterized by strong charge transfer optical
transitions. For observing current induced molecular emission we find that in
addition to the familiar need to control the damping of molecular excitations
into the metal substrate the phenomenon is also sensitive to the way in which
the potential bias si distributed on the junction.Comment: 56 pages, 8 figures; submitted to JC
Transparent conducting oxides for active hybrid metamaterial devices
We present here a study of the combined nonlinear response of plasmonic antenna—transparent conducting oxide hybrids for activation of metamaterial devices. Nanoantenna layers consisting of randomly positioned gold nanodisk dimers are fabricated using hole-mask lithography. The nanoantenna layers are covered with a 20 nm thin layer of transparent conducting oxide (TCO). We investigate the response of atomic layer deposited aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) next to indium–tin oxide (ITO) produced using sputter coating. We show that our results are in agreement with the hypothesis of fast electron-mediated cooling, facilitated by the Ohmic interface between the gold nanodisks and the TCO substrate, which appears a universal mechanism for providing a new hybrid functionality to active metamaterial device
‘Elite’ and ‘Excellence’ from the perspective of young people and their peers
info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio
Recombination dramatically speeds up evolution of finite populations
We study the role of recombination, as practiced by genetically-competent
bacteria, in speeding up Darwinian evolution. This is done by adding a new
process to a previously-studied Markov model of evolution on a smooth fitness
landscape; this new process allows alleles to be exchanged with those in the
surrounding medium. Our results, both numerical and analytic, indicate that for
a wide range of intermediate population sizes, recombination dramatically
speeds up the evolutionary advance
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