711 research outputs found
Biomarkers of postoperative delirium and cognitive dysfunction
Elderly surgical patients frequently experience postoperative delirium (POD) and the subsequent development of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). Clinical features include deterioration in cognition, disturbance in attention and reduced awareness of the environment and result in higher morbidity, mortality and greater utilization of social financial assistance. The aging Western societies can expect an increase in the incidence of POD and POCD. The underlying pathophysiological mechanisms have been studied on the molecular level albeit with unsatisfying small research efforts given their societal burden. Here, we review the known physiological and immunological changes and genetic risk factors, identify candidates for further studies and integrate the information into a draft network for exploration on a systems level. The pathogenesis of these postoperative cognitive impairments is multifactorial; application of integrated systems biology has the potential to reconstruct the underlying network of molecular mechanisms and help in the identification of prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers
Strengthening Deterministic Policies for POMDPs
The synthesis problem for partially observable Markov decision processes
(POMDPs) is to compute a policy that satisfies a given specification. Such
policies have to take the full execution history of a POMDP into account,
rendering the problem undecidable in general. A common approach is to use a
limited amount of memory and randomize over potential choices. Yet, this
problem is still NP-hard and often computationally intractable in practice. A
restricted problem is to use neither history nor randomization, yielding
policies that are called stationary and deterministic. Previous approaches to
compute such policies employ mixed-integer linear programming (MILP). We
provide a novel MILP encoding that supports sophisticated specifications in the
form of temporal logic constraints. It is able to handle an arbitrary number of
such specifications. Yet, randomization and memory are often mandatory to
achieve satisfactory policies. First, we extend our encoding to deliver a
restricted class of randomized policies. Second, based on the results of the
original MILP, we employ a preprocessing of the POMDP to encompass memory-based
decisions. The advantages of our approach over state-of-the-art POMDP solvers
lie (1) in the flexibility to strengthen simple deterministic policies without
losing computational tractability and (2) in the ability to enforce the
provable satisfaction of arbitrarily many specifications. The latter point
allows taking trade-offs between performance and safety aspects of typical
POMDP examples into account. We show the effectiveness of our method on a broad
range of benchmarks
Mössbauer Studies of Nickel-Iron Hydrotalcites
Hydrotalcite-like Fe-Ni-hydroxides [Ni2/3IIFe1/3III(OH)2](CO3)1/6(H2O)y , [Ni3/4IIFe1/4III(OH)2]-(CO3)1/8(H2O)y and [Ni3/4II/IIIFe1/4III(OH)2](CO3)0.14(H20)y as well as the ternary oxide NaNi2/3Fe1/3O2 have been studied by 57Fe-Mössbauer spectroscopy. All samples contain Fe3+ in a high spin state. The quadrupole interaction is smaller if a magnetic splitting is present, which may indicate a non-parallel arrangement of the principal axis of the EFG and the hyperfine field. The temperature dependence of the spectra has been understood in terms of collective cluster excitations. In this model the magnetic energy of a single domain depends on the direction of the total magnetic moment and on magnetic interaction with the neighbourhood. The spectral lineshape could be fitted assuming uniaxial relaxation
Pushing nanoparticles with light - A femtonewton resolved measurement of optical scattering forces
Optomechanical manipulation of plasmonic nanoparticles is an area of current interest, both fundamental and applied. However, no experimental method is available to determine the forward-directed scattering force that dominates for incident light of a wavelength close to the plasmon resonance. Here, we demonstrate how the scattering force acting on a single gold nanoparticle in solution can be measured. An optically trapped 80 nm particle was repetitively pushed from the side with laser light resonant to the particle plasmon frequency. A lock-in analysis of the particle movement provides a measured value for the scattering force. We obtain a resolution of less than 3 femtonewtons which is an order of magnitude smaller than any measurement of switchable forces performed on nanoparticles in solution with single beam optical tweezers to date. We compared the results of the force measurement with Mie simulations of the optical scattering force on a gold nanoparticle and found good agreement between experiment and theory within a few fN. (C) 2016 Author(s)
Anisotropic Strain Induced Soliton Movement Changes Stacking Order and Bandstructure of Graphene Multilayers
The crystal structure of solid-state matter greatly affects its electronic
properties. For example in multilayer graphene, precise knowledge of the
lateral layer arrangement is crucial, since the most stable configurations,
Bernal and rhombohedral stacking, exhibit very different electronic properties.
Nevertheless, both stacking orders can coexist within one flake, separated by a
strain soliton that can host topologically protected states. Clearly, accessing
the transport properties of the two stackings and the soliton is of high
interest. However, the stacking orders can transform into one another and
therefore, the seemingly trivial question how reliable electrical contact can
be made to either stacking order can a priori not be answered easily. Here, we
show that manufacturing metal contacts to multilayer graphene can move solitons
by several m, unidirectionally enlarging Bernal domains due to arising
mechanical strain. Furthermore, we also find that during dry transfer of
multilayer graphene onto hexagonal Boron Nitride, such a transformation can
happen. Using density functional theory modeling, we corroborate that
anisotropic deformations of the multilayer graphene lattice decrease the
rhombohedral stacking stability. Finally, we have devised systematics to avoid
soliton movement, and how to reliably realize contacts to both stacking
configurations
Ferroelectric and anomalous quantum Hall states in bare rhombohedral trilayer graphene
Nontrivial interacting phases can emerge in elementary materials. As a prime
example, continuing advances in device quality have facilitated the observation
of a variety of spontaneous quantum Hall-like states, a cascade of Stoner-like
magnets, and an unconventional superconductor in bilayer graphene. Its natural
extension, rhombohedral trilayer graphene is predicted to be even more
susceptible to interactions given its even flatter low-energy bands and larger
winding number. Theoretically, five spontaneous quantum Hall phases have been
proposed to be candidate ground states. Here, we provide transport evidence for
observing four of the five competing ordered states in interaction-maximized,
dually-gated, rhombohedral trilayer graphene. In particular, at vanishing but
finite magnetic fields, two states with Chern numbers 3 and 6 can be stabilized
at elevated and low electric fields, respectively, and both exhibit clear
magnetic hysteresis. We also reveal that the quantum Hall ferromagnets of the
zeroth Landau level are ferroelectrics with spontaneous layer polarizations
even at zero electric field, as evidenced by electric hysteresis. Our findings
exemplify the possible birth of rich interacting electron physics in a simple
elementary material
Revealing and Controlling Energy Barriers and Valleys at Grain Boundaries in Ultrathin Organic Films
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