Leading interactions in the β\beta-SrV6O15Sr V_6 O_{15} compound

The present study shows that the electronic structure of the $\beta$-$AV\_6O\_{15}$ family of compounds ($A = Sr, Ca, Na ...$) is based on weakly interacting two-leg ladders, in contrast with the zig-zag chain model one could expect from their crystal structure. Spin dimer analysis, based on extended H\"{u}ckel tight-binding calculations, was performed to determine the structure of the dominant transfer and magnetic interactions in the room temperature $\beta$-$SrV\_6O\_{15}$ phase. Two different two-legs ladders, associated with different charge/spin orders are proposed to describe these one-dimensional $\beta$-type systems. The antiferromagnetic ladders are packed in an 'IPN' geometry and coupled to each other through weak antiferromagnetic interactions. This arrangement of the dominant interactions explains the otherwise surprising similarities of the optical conductivity and Raman spectra for the one-dimensional $\beta$-type phases and the two-dimensional $\alpha$-type ones such as the well-known $\alpha^\prime$-$NaV\_2O\_5$ system

3D simulations of gas puff effects on edge density and ICRF coupling in ASDEX Upgrade

In recent experiments, a local gas puff was found to be an effective way to tailor the scrape-off layer (SOL) density and improve the ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) power coupling in tokamaks. In order to quantitatively reproduce these experiments, to understand the corresponding physics and to optimize the gas valve positions and rates, simulations were carried out with the 3D edge plasma transport code EMC3-EIRENE in ASDEX Upgrade. An inter-ELM phase of an H-mode discharge with a moderate gas puff rate (1.2 x 10(22) electrons s(-1)) is used in our simulations. We simulated cases with gas puff in the lower divertor, the outer mid-plane and the top of the machine while keeping other conditions the same. Compared with the lower divertor gas puff, the outer mid-plane gas puff can increase the local density in front of the antennas most effectively, while a toroidally uniform but significantly smaller enhancement is found for the top gas puff. Good agreement between our simulations and experiments is obtained. With further simulations, the mechanisms of SOL density tailoring via local gas puffing and the strategies of gas puff optimization are discussed in the paper

Robust optical emission polarization in MoS2 monolayers through selective valley excitation

We report polarization resolved photoluminescence from monolayer MoS2, a two-dimensional, non-centrosymmetric crystal with direct energy gaps at two different valleys in momentum space. The inherent chiral optical selectivity allows exciting one of these valleys and close to 90% polarized emission at 4K is observed with 40% polarization remaining at 300K. The high polarization degree of the emission remains unchanged in transverse magnetic fields up to 9T indicating robust, selective valley excitation.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Linoleic acid participates in the response to ischemic brain injury through oxidized metabolites that regulate neurotransmission.

Linoleic acid (LA; 18:2 n-6), the most abundant polyunsaturated fatty acid in the US diet, is a precursor to oxidized metabolites that have unknown roles in the brain. Here, we show that oxidized LA-derived metabolites accumulate in several rat brain regions during CO2-induced ischemia and that LA-derived 13-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid, but not LA, increase somatic paired-pulse facilitation in rat hippocampus by 80%, suggesting bioactivity. This study provides new evidence that LA participates in the response to ischemia-induced brain injury through oxidized metabolites that regulate neurotransmission. Targeting this pathway may be therapeutically relevant for ischemia-related conditions such as stroke

Modelling of the ICRF induced E x B convection in the scrape-off-layer of ASDEX Upgrade

In magnetic controlled fusion devices, plasma heating with radio-frequency (RF) waves in the ion cyclotron (IC) range of frequency relies on the electric field of the fast wave to heat the plasma. However, the slow wave can be generated parasitically. The electric field of the slow wave can induce large biased plasma potential (DC potential) through sheath rectification. The rapid variation of the rectified potential across the equilibrium magnetic field can cause significant convective transport (E x B drifts) in the scrape-off layer (SOL). In order to understand this phenomenon and reproduce the experiments, 3D realistic simulations are carried out with the 3D edge plasma fluid and kinetic neutral code EMC3-Eirene in ASDEX Upgrade. For this, we have added the prescribed drift terms to the EMC3 equations and verified the 3D code results against the analytical ones in cylindrical geometry. The edge plasma potential derived from the experiments is used to calculate the drift velocities, which are then treated as input fields in the code to obtain the final density distributions. Our simulation results are in good agreement with the experiments

Quadratic BSDEs driven by a continuous martingale and application to utility maximization problem

In this paper, we study a class of quadratic Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (BSDEs) which arises naturally when studying the problem of utility maximization with portfolio constraints. We first establish existence and uniqueness results for such BSDEs and then, we give an application to the utility maximization problem. Three cases of utility functions will be discussed: the exponential, power and logarithmic ones

Acquired cholesteatoma in children: Strategies and medium-term results

SummaryObjectivesTo assess paediatric cholesteatoma surgical management strategies, residual disease and recurrence rates and especially the medium-term auditory impact.Material and methodsRetrospective study of 22 cases of acquired middle ear cholesteatoma selected from a series of 77 children under the age of 16 operated for cholesteatoma between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2003 on the basis of the following criteria: first-line surgical management with postoperative follow-up greater than four years. Surgical strategies, preoperative and postoperative (at 1 year and at the final visit) audiograms and residual disease and recurrence rates were analysed.ResultsA canal wall up tympanoplasty was performed in 82% of cases as first-line procedure and a canal wall down tympanoplasty was performed in 32% of cases. Residual cholesteatoma was observed in 9% of cases and recurrent disease was observed in 18% of cases. The mean preoperative hearing loss was 26dB with an air-bone gap of 23dB with values of 26dB and 20dB respectively at the end of follow-up.ConclusionThe majority of children were operated by two-stage canal wall up tympanoplasty. Long-term hearing results remained stable and close to preoperative values. The recurrence rate (residual disease and relapse) was low (27%), as reported in the literature