Low-temperature specific heat for ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic orders in CaRu1-xMnxO3

Low-temperature specific heat of CaRu1-xMnxO3 was measured to clarify the role of d electrons in ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic orders observed above x=0.2. Specific heat divided by temperature C_p/T is found to roughly follow a T^2 function, and relatively large magnitudes of electronic specific heat coefficient gamma were obtained in wide x range. In particular, gamma is unchanged from the value at x=0 (84 mJ/K^2 mol) in the paramagnetic state for x<=0.1, but linearly reduced with increasing x above x= 0.2. These features of gamma strongly suggest that itinerant d electrons are tightly coupled with the evolution of magnetic orders in small and intermediate Mn concentrations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to be published in J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. (SCES 2011, Cambridge, UK

Characterization of the chemical composition of banana peels from southern Brazil across the seasons using nuclear magnetic resonance and chemometrics

Banana peels are a source of important bioactive compounds, such as phenolics, carotenoids, biogenic amines, among others. For industrial usage of that by-product, a certain homogeneity of its chemical composition is claimed, a trait affected by the effect of (a)bioatic ecological factors. In this sense, this study aimed to investigate the banana peels chemical composition, to get insights on eventual metabolic changes caused by the seasons, in southern Brazil. For this purpose, a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-based metabolic profiling strategy was adopted, followed by chemometrics analysis, using the specmine package for the R environment. The obtained results show that the different seasons can, in fact, influence the metabolic composition, namely the levels of metabolites extracted from the bananas peels. The analytical approach herein adopted, i.e., NMR-based metabolomics coupled to chemometrics analysis, seems to enable identifying the chemical heterogeneity of banana peels over the harvest seasons, allowing obtaining standardized extracts for further technological purposes of usage.CAPES -Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior(407323/2013-9)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Gain in a quantum wire laser of high uniformity

A multi-quantum wire laser operating in the 1-D ground state has been achieved in a very high uniformity structure that shows free exciton emission with unprecedented narrow width and low lasing threshold. Under optical pumping the spontaneous emission evolves from a sharp free exciton peak to a red-shifted broad band. The lasing photon energy occurs about 5 meV below the free exciton. The observed shift excludes free excitons in lasing and our results show that Coulomb interactions in the 1-D electron-hole system shift the spontaneous emission and play significant roles in laser gain.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, prepared by RevTe

Bound states of L-shaped or T-shaped quantum wires in inhomogeneous magnetic fields

The bound state energies of L-shaped or T-shaped quantum wires in inhomogeous magnetic fields are found to depend strongly on the asymmetric parameter $\alpha =W_{2}/W_{1}$, i.e. the ratio of the arm widths. Two effects of magnetic field on bound state energies of the electron are obtained. One is the depletion effect which purges the electron out of the OQD system. The other is to create an effective potential due to quantized Landau levels of the magnetic field. The bound state energies of the electron in L-shaped or T-shaped quantum wires are found to depend quadratically (linearly) on the magnetic field in the weak (strong) field region and are independent of the direction of the magnetic field. A simple model is proposed to explain the behavior of the magnetic dependence of the bound state energy both in weak and strong magnetic field regions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Excitons in T-shaped quantum wires

We calculate energies, oscillator strengths for radiative recombination, and two-particle wave functions for the ground state exciton and around 100 excited states in a T-shaped quantum wire. We include the single-particle potential and the Coulomb interaction between the electron and hole on an equal footing, and perform exact diagonalisation of the two-particle problem within a finite basis set. We calculate spectra for all of the experimentally studied cases of T-shaped wires including symmetric and asymmetric GaAs/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As and In$_{y}$Ga$_{1-y}$As/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As structures. We study in detail the shape of the wave functions to gain insight into the nature of the various states for selected symmetric and asymmetric wires in which laser emission has been experimentally observed. We also calculate the binding energy of the ground state exciton and the confinement energy of the 1D quantum-wire-exciton state with respect to the 2D quantum-well exciton for a wide range of structures, varying the well width and the Al molar fraction $x$. We find that the largest binding energy of any wire constructed to date is 16.5 meV. We also notice that in asymmetric structures, the confinement energy is enhanced with respect to the symmetric forms with comparable parameters but the binding energy of the exciton is then lower than in the symmetric structures. For GaAs/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As wires we obtain an upper limit for the binding energy of around 25 meV in a 10 {\AA} wide GaAs/AlAs structure which suggests that other materials must be explored in order to achieve room temperature applications. There are some indications that In$_{y}$Ga$_{1-y}$As/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As might be a good candidate.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, uses RevTeX and psfig, submitted to Physical Review

Suzaku X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of Cassiopeia A

Suzaku X-ray observations of a young supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A, were carried out. K-shell transition lines from highly ionized ions of various elements were detected, including Chromium (Cr-Kalpha at 5.61 keV). The X-ray continuum spectra were modeled in the 3.4--40 keV band, summed over the entire remnant, and were fitted with a simplest combination of the thermal bremsstrahlung and the non-thermal cut-off power-law models. The spectral fits with this assumption indicate that the continuum emission is likely to be dominated by the non-thermal emission with a cut-off energy at > 1 keV. The thermal-to-nonthermal fraction of the continuum flux in the 4-10 keV band is best estimated as ~0.1. Non-thermal-dominated continuum images in the 4--14 keV band were made. The peak of the non-thermal X-rays appears at the western part. The peak position of the TeV gamma-rays measured with HEGRA and MAGIC is also shifted at the western part with the 1-sigma confidence. Since the location of the X-ray continuum emission was known to be presumably identified with the reverse shock region, the possible keV-TeV correlations give a hint that the accelerated multi-TeV hadrons in Cassiopeia A are dominated by heavy elements in the reverse shock region.Comment: Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan 61, pp.1217-1228 (2009

Power exhaust concepts and divertor designs for Japanese and European DEMO fusion reactors

Concepts of the power exhaust and divertor design have been developed, with a high priority in the pre-conceptual design phase of the Japan-Europe broader approach DEMO design activity (BA DDA). Common critical issues are the large power exhaust and its fraction in the main plasma and divertor by the radiative cooling (P radtot/P heat 0.8). Different exhaust concepts in the main plasma and divertor have been developed for Japanese (JA) and European (EU) DEMOs. JA proposed a conventional closed divertor geometry to challenge large P sep/R p handling of 30-35 MW m-1 in order to maintain the radiation fraction in the main plasma at the ITER-level (f radmain = P radmain/P heat ∼ 0.4) and higher plasma performance. EU challenged both increasing f radmain to ∼0.65 and handling the ITER-level P sep/R p in the open divertor geometry. Power exhaust simulations have been performed by SONIC (JA) and SOLPS5.1 (EU) with corresponding P sep = 250-300 MW and 150-200 MW, respectively. Both results showed that large divertor radiation fraction (P raddiv/P sep 0.8) was required to reduce both peak q target (10 MW m-2) and T e,idiv. In addition, the JA divertor performance with EU-reference P sep of 150 MW showed benefit of the closed geometry to reduce the peak q target and T e,idiv near the separatrix, and to produce the partial detachment. Integrated designs of the water cooled divertor target, cassette and coolant pipe routing have been developed in both EU and JA, based on the tungsten (W) monoblock concept with Cu-alloy pipe. For year-long operation, DEMO-specific risks such as radiation embrittlement of Cu-interlayers and Cu-alloy cooling pipe were recognized, and both foresee higher water temperature (130 °C-200 °C) compared to that for ITER. At the same time, several improved technologies of high heat flux components have been developed in EU, and different heat sink design, i.e. Cu-alloy cooling pipes for targets and RAFM steel ones for the baffle, dome and cassette, was proposed in JA. The two approaches provide important case-studies of the DEMO divertor, and will significantly contribute to both DEMO designs

Down-Regulation of GEP100 Causes Increase in E-Cadherin Levels and Inhibits Pancreatic Cancer Cell Invasion

AIMS: Invasion and metastasis are major reasons for pancreatic cancer death and identifying signaling molecules that are specifically used in tumor invasion is of great significance. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the role of GEP100 in pancreatic cancer cell invasion and metastasis and the corresponding molecular mechanism. METHODS: Stable cell lines with GEP100 knocked-down were established by transfecting GEP100 shRNA vector into PaTu8988 cells and selected by puromycin. qRT-PCR and Western blot were performed to detect gene expression. Matrigel-invasion assay was used to detect cancer cell invasion in vitro. Liver metastasis in vivo was determined by splenic injection of indicated cell lines followed by spleen resection. Immunofluorescence study was used to detect the intracellular localization of E-cadherin. RESULTS: We found that the expression level of GEP100 protein was closely related to the invasive ability of a panel of 6 different human pancreatic cancer cell lines. Down-regulation of GEP100 in PaTu8988 cells significantly decreased invasive activity by Matrigel invasion assay, without affecting migration, invasion and viability. The inhibited invasive activity was rescued by over-expression of GEP100 cDNA. In vivo study showed that liver metastasis was significantly decreased in the PaTu8988 cells with GEP100 stably knocked-down. In addition, an epithelial-like morphological change, mimicking a mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET) was induced by GEP100 down-regulation. The expression of E-cadherin protein was increased 2-3 folds accompanied by its redistribution to the cell-cell contacts, while no obvious changes were observed for E-cadherin mRNA. Unexpectedly, the mRNA of Slug was increased by GEP100 knock-down. CONCLUSION: These findings provided important evidence that GEP100 plays a significant role in pancreatic cancer invasion through regulating the expression of E-cadherin and the process of MET, indicating the possibility of it becoming a potential therapeutic target against pancreatic cancer