369 research outputs found
Melting and Pressure-Induced Amorphization of Quartz
It has recently been shown that amorphization and melting of ice were
intimately linked. In this letter, we infer from molecular dynamics simulations
on the SiO2 system that the extension of the quartz melting line in the
metastable pressure-temperature domain is the pressure-induced amorphization
line. It seems therefore likely that melting is the physical phenomenon
responsible for pressure induced amorphization. Moreover, we show that the
structure of a "pressure glass" is similar to that of a very rapidly (1e+13 to
1e+14 kelvins per second) quenched thermal glass.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX2
Nanoscale Dynamics of Phase Flipping in Water near its Hypothesized Liquid-Liquid Critical Point
Achieving a coherent understanding of the many thermodynamic and dynamic
anomalies of water is among the most important unsolved puzzles in physics,
chemistry, and biology. One hypothesized explanation imagines the existence of
a line of first order phase transitions separating two liquid phases and
terminating at a novel "liquid-liquid" critical point in a region of low
temperature () and high pressure (). Here we analyze a common model of water, the ST2 model, and find
that the entire system flips between liquid states of high and low density.
Further, we find that in the critical region crystallites melt on a time scale
of nanoseconds. We perform a finite-size scaling analysis that accurately
locates both the liquid-liquid coexistence line and its associated
liquid-liquid critical point.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure
Configurational Entropy and Diffusivity of Supercooled Water
We calculate the configurational entropy S_conf for the SPC/E model of water
for state points covering a large region of the (T,rho) plane. We find that (i)
the (T,rho) dependence of S_conf correlates with the diffusion constant and
(ii) that the line of maxima in S_conf tracks the line of density maxima. Our
simulation data indicate that the dynamics are strongly influenced by S_conf
even above the mode-coupling temperature T_MCT(rho).Comment: Significant update of reference
Generic mechanism for generating a liquid-liquid phase transition
Recent experimental results indicate that phosphorus, a single-component
system, can have two liquid phases: a high-density liquid (HDL) and a
low-density liquid (LDL) phase. A first-order transition between two liquids of
different densities is consistent with experimental data for a variety of
materials, including single-component systems such as water, silica and carbon.
Molecular dynamics simulations of very specific models for supercooled water,
liquid carbon and supercooled silica, predict a LDL-HDL critical point, but a
coherent and general interpretation of the LDL-HDL transition is lacking. Here
we show that the presence of a LDL and a HDL can be directly related to an
interaction potential with an attractive part and two characteristic
short-range repulsive distances. This kind of interaction is common to other
single-component materials in the liquid state (in particular liquid metals),
and such potentials are often used to decribe systems that exhibit a density
anomaly. However, our results show that the LDL and HDL phases can occur in
systems with no density anomaly. Our results therefore present an experimental
challenge to uncover a liquid-liquid transition in systems like liquid metals,
regardless of the presence of the density anomaly.Comment: 5 pages, 3 ps Fig
Liquid-liquid critical point in supercooled silicon
A novel liquid-liquid phase transition has been proposed and investigated in
a wide variety of pure substances recently, including water, silica and
silicon. From computer simulations using the Stillinger-Weber classical
empirical potential, Sastry and Angell [1] demonstrated a first order
liquid-liquid transition in supercooled silicon, subsequently supported by
experimental and simulation studies. Here, we report evidence for a
liquid-liquid critical end point at negative pressures, from computer
simulations using the SW potential. Compressibilities exhibit a growing maximum
upon lowering temperature below 1500 K and isotherms exhibit density
discontinuities below 1120 K, at negative pressure. Below 1120 K, isotherms
obtained from constant volume-temperature simulations exhibit non-monotonic,
van der Waals-like behavior signaling a first order transition. We identify Tc
~ 1120 +/- 12 K, Pc -0.60 +/- 0.15 GPa as the critical temperature and pressure
for the liquid-liquid critical point. The structure of the liquid changes
dramatically upon decreasing the temperature and pressure. Diffusivities vary
over 4 orders of magnitude, and exhibit anomalous pressure dependence near the
critical point. A strong relationship between local geometry quantified by the
coordination number, and diffusivity, is seen, suggesting that atomic mobility
in both low and high density liquids can usefully be analyzed in terms of
defects in the tetrahedral network structure. We have constructed the phase
diagram of supercooled silicon. We identify the lines of compressibility,
density extrema (maxima and minima) and the spinodal which reveal the
interconnection between thermodynamic anomalies and the phase behaviour of the
system as suggested in previous works [2-9]Comment: (to be published in revised form); small corrections to previous
version; Nature Physics 201
Fracturing ranked surfaces
Discretized landscapes can be mapped onto ranked surfaces, where every
element (site or bond) has a unique rank associated with its corresponding
relative height. By sequentially allocating these elements according to their
ranks and systematically preventing the occupation of bridges, namely elements
that, if occupied, would provide global connectivity, we disclose that bridges
hide a new tricritical point at an occupation fraction , where
is the percolation threshold of random percolation. For any value of in the
interval , our results show that the set of bridges has a
fractal dimension in two dimensions. In the limit , a self-similar fracture is revealed as a singly connected line
that divides the system in two domains. We then unveil how several seemingly
unrelated physical models tumble into the same universality class and also
present results for higher dimensions
Is nebulized saline a placebo in COPD?
BACKGROUND: Many trials of nebulized therapy have used nebulized saline as a "placebo". However, nebulized isotonic saline is sometimes used to assist sputum expectoration and relieve breathlessness in COPD patients. We designed this study to establish if nebulized saline had a placebo effect or a clinical effect. METHODS: 40 patients were studied following hospital admission for exacerbated COPD (mean FEV1 30% predicted). Patients were randomised to single-blind administration of either 4 mls of nebulized isotonic saline using an efficient nebulizer (active group n = 20) or an inefficient nebulizer (placebo group n = 20). Spirometry and subjective breathlessness scores (Modified Likert Scale) were measured before nebulized treatment and 10 minutes after treatment. RESULTS: There was no significant change in FEV1 after active or placebo nebulized saline treatment. Patients reported a 4% improvement in mean breathlessness score following placebo (Wilcoxon test; p = 0.37) compared with 23% improvement following active nebulized saline (p = 0.0001). 65% of patients given active nebulized saline but only 5% of the placebo group reported that mucus expectoration was easier after the treatment. CONCLUSIONS: This study lends support to the current use of nebulized saline to relieve breathlessness (possibly by facilitating sputum clearance) in COPD patients. Lung function was not affected. Nebulized saline can therefore be used as a placebo in bronchodilator studies involving COPD patients but it cannot be used as a placebo in trials assessing symptom relief
tAnGo: a randomised phase III trial of gemcitabine in paclitaxel-containing, epirubicin/cyclophosphamide-based, adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer: a prospective pulmonary, cardiac and hepatic function evaluation
tAnGo is a large randomised trial assessing the addition of gemcitabine(G) to paclitaxel(T), following epirubicin(E) and cyclophosphamide(C) in women with invasive higher risk early breast cancer. To assess the safety and tolerability of adding G, a detailed safety substudy was undertaken. A total of 135 patients had cardiac, pulmonary and hepatic function assessed at (i) randomisation, (ii) mid-chemotherapy, (iii) immediately post-chemotherapy and (iv) 6 months post-chemotherapy. Skin toxicity was assessed during radiotherapy. No differences were detected in FEV1 or FVC levels between treatment arms or time points. Diffusion capacity (TLCO) reduced during treatment (P<0.0001), with a significantly lower drop in EC-GT patients (P=0.02). Most of the reduction occurred during EC and recovered by 6-months post treatment. There was no difference in cardiac function between treatment arms. Only 11 patients had echocardiography/MUGA results change from normal to abnormal during treatment, with only five having LVEF<50%. Transient transaminitis occurred in both treatment arms with significantly more in EC-GT patients post-chemotherapy (AST P=0.03, ALT P=0.003), although the majority was low grade. There was no correlation between transaminitis and other toxicities. Both treatment regimens reported temporary reductions in pulmonary functions and transient transaminitis levels. Despite these being greater with EC-GT, both regimens appear well tolerated
A coherent picture of water at extreme negative pressure.
International audienceLiquid water at atmospheric pressure can be supercooled to 41 C (ref. 1) and superheated to C302 C (ref. 2). Experiments involving fluid inclusions of water in quartz suggest that water is capable of sustaining pressures as low as 140 MPa before it breaks by cavitation3. Other techniques, for which cavitation occurs consistently at around 30MPa (ref. 4), produce results that cast doubt on this claim. Here we reproduce the fluid-inclusion experiment, performing repeated measurements on a single sample--a method used in meteorology5, bioprotection6 and protein crystallization7, but not yet in liquid water under large mechanical tension. The resulting cavitation statistics are characteristic of a thermally activated process, and both the free energy and the volume of the critical bubble are well described by classical nucleation theory when the surface tension is reduced by less than 10%, consistent with homogeneous cavitation. The line of density maxima of water at negative pressure is found to reach 922:8 kgm3 at around 300 K, which further constrains its contested phase diagram
Maintenance treatment with interferon for advanced ovarian cancer: results of the Northern and Yorkshire gynaecology group randomised phase III study
A randomised phase III trial was conducted to assess the role of interferon-alpha (INFα) 2a as maintenance therapy following surgery and/or chemotherapy in patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Patients were randomised following initial surgery/chemotherapy to interferon-alpha 2a as 4.5 mega-units subcutaneously 3 days per week or to no further treatment. A total of 300 patients were randomised within the study between February 1990 and July 1997. No benefit for interferon maintenance was seen in terms of either overall or clinical event-free survival. We conclude that INF-α is not effective as a maintenance therapy in the management of women with ovarian cancer. The need for novel therapeutics or strategies to prevent the almost inevitable relapse of patients despite increasingly effective surgery and chemotherapy remains
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