588 research outputs found
Palaeoecological study of a Weichselian wetland site in the Netherlands suggests a link with Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillation
Botanical microfossils, macroremains and oribatid mites of a Weichselian interstadial deposit in the central Netherlands point to a temporary, sub-arctic wetland in a treeless landscape. Radiocarbon dates and OSL dates show an age between ca. 54.6 and 46.6 ka cal BP. The vegetation succession, starting as a peat-forming wetland that developed into a lake, might well be linked with a Dansgaard-Oeschger climatic cycle. We suggest that during the rapid warming at the start of a D-O cycle, relatively low areas in the landscape became wetlands where peat was formed. During the more gradual temperature decline that followed, evaporation diminished; the wetlands became inundated and lake sediments were formed. During subsequent sub-arctic conditions the interstadial deposits were covered with wind-blown sand. Apart from changes in effective precipitation also the climate-related presence and absence of permafrost conditions may have played a role in the formation of the observed sedimentological sequence from sand to peat, through lacustrine sediment, with coversand on top. The Wageningen sequence may correspond with D-O event 12, 13 or 14. Some hitherto not recorded microfossils were described and illustrated
Fine structure in the off-resonance conductance of small Coulomb blockade systems
We show how a fine, multiple-peak structure can arise in the off-resonance,
zero-bias conductance of Coulomb blockade systems. In order to understand how
this effect comes about one must abandon the orthodox, mean-field understanding
of the Coulomb blockade phenomenon and consider quantum fluctuations in the
occupation of the single-particle electronic levels. We illustrate such an
effect with a spinless Anderson-like model for multi-level systems and an
equation-of-motion method for calculating Green's functions that combines two
simple decoupling schemes.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, postscript file also available at
http://www.pa.uky.edu/~palacios/papers/eom.ps One figure added. Discussion of
results extende
Higher-Order Results for the Relation between Channel Conductance and the Coulomb Blockade for Two Tunnel-Coupled Quantum Dots
We extend earlier results on the relation between the dimensionless tunneling
channel conductance and the fractional Coulomb blockade peak splitting
for two electrostatically equivalent dots connected by an arbitrary number
of tunneling channels with bandwidths much larger than the
two-dot differential charging energy . By calculating through second
order in in the limit of weak coupling (), we illuminate
the difference in behavior of the large- and
small- regimes and make more plausible extrapolation to the
strong-coupling () limit. For the special case of
and strong coupling, we eliminate an apparent ultraviolet
divergence and obtain the next leading term of an expansion in . We show
that the results we calculate are independent of such band structure details as
the fraction of occupied fermionic single-particle states in the weak-coupling
theory and the nature of the cut-off in the bosonized strong-coupling theory.
The results agree with calculations for metallic junctions in the
limit and improve the previous good
agreement with recent two-channel experiments.Comment: 27 pages, 1 RevTeX file with 4 embedded Postscript figures. Uses eps
Expression of oncoproteins and the amount of eosinophilic and lymphocytic infiltrates can be used as prognostic factors in gastric cancer. Dutch Gastric Cancer Group (DGCG).
Preoperative staging of gastric cancer is difficult. Several molecular markers associated with initiation and progression of cancer seem promising for obtaining preoperative prognostic information. To investigate whether these markers are indicative especially for the presence of lymph node metastases in patients with gastric cancer, we have examined primary tumour specimens from 105 patients with primary adenocarcinoma of the stomach entered in a surgical trial. In this trial, lymph node status was determined by strictly quality-controlled lymph node dissection and examination. The selected markers were growth regulators (p53, Rb and myc), metastasis-suppressor gene product (nm23), adhesion molecules (Ep-CAM, E-cadherin, CD44v5 and CD44v6) and urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA). Also, the amount of eosinophilic and lymphocytic infiltrates available post-operatively was analysed with respect to its prognostic value for lymph node status. Moreover, the association of these parameters with survival and disease-free period (DFP) was evaluated. Of all molecular markers investigated, only Rb expression had a significant association with the presence of lymph node metastasis in both univariate and multivariate analysis. For curative resectability, a significant association was found with Rb and E-cadherin expression, while in multivariate analysis Rb and myc were selected as the combination with additional independent prognostic value, and E-cadherin had no additional independent value. For overall survival in univariate analysis, the amount of both eosinophilic and lymphocytic infiltrates and Rb and myc expression were of significant prognostic value. Only the amount of lymphocytic infiltrate had a prognostic significance for DFP. In stepwise multivariate analysis, TNM stage (I + II) and marked lymphocytic infiltrate were associated with better overall survival and longer DFP. We conclude that, if these results are confirmed in a larger series of patients, molecular markers can provide useful prognostic information
Suppression of level hybridization due to Coulomb interactions
We investigate an ensemble of systems formed by a ring enclosing a magnetic
flux. The ring is coupled to a side stub via a tunneling junction and via
Coulomb interaction. We generalize the notion of level hybridization due to the
hopping, which is naturally defined only for one-particle problems, to the
many-particle case, and we discuss the competition between the level
hybridization and the Coulomb interaction. It is shown that strong enough
Coulomb interactions can isolate the ring from the stub, thereby increasing the
persistent current. Our model describes a strictly canonical system (the number
of carriers is the same for all ensemble members). Nevertheless for small
Coulomb interactions and a long side stub the model exhibits a persistent
current typically associated with a grand canonical ensemble of rings and only
if the Coulomb interactions are sufficiently strong does the model exhibit a
persistent current which one expects from a canonical ensemble.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, uses iop style files, version as publishe
Growing Grain for Others or How to Detect surplus Production?
Wetensch. publicati
Bistability in the Tunnelling Current through a Ring of Coupled Quantum Dots
We study bistability in the electron transport through a ring of N coupled
quantum dots with two orbitals in each dot. One orbital is localized (called b
orbital) and coupling of the b orbitals in any two dots is negligible; the
other is delocalized in the plane of the ring (called d orbital), due to
coupling of the d orbitals in the neighboring dots, as described by a
tight-binding model. The d orbitals thereby form a band with finite width. The
b and d orbitals are connected to the source and drain electrodes with a
voltage bias V, allowing the electron tunnelling. Tunnelling current is
calculated by using a nonequilibrium Green function method recently developed
to treat nanostructures with multiple energy levels. We find a bistable effect
in the tunnelling current as a function of bias V, when the size N>50; this
effect scales with the size N and becomes sizable at N~100. The temperature
effect on bistability is also discussed. In comparison, mean-field treatment
tends to overestimate the bistable effect.Comment: Published in JPSJ; minor typos correcte
Josephson Current between Triplet and Singlet Superconductors
The Josephson effect between triplet and singlet superconductors is studied.
Josephson current can flow between triplet and singlet superconductors due to
the spin-orbit coupling in the spin-triplet superconductor but it is finite
only when triplet superconductor has , where and
are the perpendicular components of orbital angular momentum and spin angular
momentum of the triplet Cooper pairs, respectively. The recently observed
temperature and orientational dependence of the critical current through a
Josephson junction between UPt and Nb is investigated by considering a
non-unitary triplet state.Comment: 4 pages, no figure
Incoherent tunnelling through two quantum dots with Coulomb interaction
The Ohmic conductance and current through two quantum dots in series is
investigated for the case of incoherent tunnelling. A generalised master
equation is employed to include the discrete nature of the energy levels.
Regions of negative differential conductance can occur in the I-V
characteristics. Transport is dominated by matching energy levels, even when
they do not occur at the charge degeneracy points.Comment: RevTeX + epsf.sty + 13 figure
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