7,239 research outputs found
Possible indicators for low dimensional superconductivity in the quasi-1D carbide Sc3CoC4
The transition metal carbide Sc3CoC4 consists of a quasi-one-dimensional (1D)
structure with [CoC4]_{\inft} polyanionic chains embedded in a scandium
matrix. At ambient temperatures Sc3CoC4 displays metallic behavior. At lower
temperatures, however, charge density wave formation has been observed around
143K which is followed by a structural phase transition at 72K. Below T^onset_c
= 4.5K the polycrystalline sample becomes superconductive. From Hc1(0) and
Hc2(0) values we could estimate the London penetration depth ({\lambda}_L ~=
9750 Angstroem) and the Ginsburg-Landau (GL) coherence length ({\xi}_GL ~= 187
Angstroem). The resulting GL-parameter ({\kappa} ~= 52) classifies Sc3CoC4 as a
type II superconductor. Here we compare the puzzling superconducting features
of Sc3CoC4, such as the unusual temperature dependence i) of the specific heat
anomaly and ii) of the upper critical field H_c2(T) at T_c, and iii) the
magnetic hysteresis curve, with various related low dimensional
superconductors: e.g., the quasi-1D superconductor (SN)_x or the 2D
transition-metal dichalcogenides. Our results identify Sc3CoC4 as a new
candidate for a quasi-1D superconductor.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Imaging of Thermal Domains in ultrathin NbN films for Hot Electron Bolometers
We present low-temperature scanning electron microscopy (LTSEM)
investigations of superconducting microbridges made from ultrathin NbN films as
used for hot electron bolometers. LTSEM probes the thermal structure within the
microbridges under various dc current bias conditions, either via
electron-beam-induced generation of an unstable hotspot, or via the
beam-induced growth of a stable hotspot. Such measurements reveal
inhomogeneities on a micron scale, which may be due to spatial variations in
the NbN film or film-interface properties. Comparison with model calculations
for the stable hotspot regime confirm the basic features of common hot spot
models.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Phase resetting reveals network dynamics underlying a bacterial cell cycle
Genomic and proteomic methods yield networks of biological regulatory
interactions but do not provide direct insight into how those interactions are
organized into functional modules, or how information flows from one module to
another. In this work we introduce an approach that provides this complementary
information and apply it to the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, a paradigm
for cell-cycle control. Operationally, we use an inducible promoter to express
the essential transcriptional regulatory gene ctrA in a periodic, pulsed
fashion. This chemical perturbation causes the population of cells to divide
synchronously, and we use the resulting advance or delay of the division times
of single cells to construct a phase resetting curve. We find that delay is
strongly favored over advance. This finding is surprising since it does not
follow from the temporal expression profile of CtrA and, in turn, simulations
of existing network models. We propose a phenomenological model that suggests
that the cell-cycle network comprises two distinct functional modules that
oscillate autonomously and couple in a highly asymmetric fashion. These
features collectively provide a new mechanism for tight temporal control of the
cell cycle in C. crescentus. We discuss how the procedure can serve as the
basis for a general approach for probing network dynamics, which we term
chemical perturbation spectroscopy (CPS)
Classical Physics and Quantum Loops
The standard picture of the loop expansion associates a factor of h-bar with
each loop, suggesting that the tree diagrams are to be associated with
classical physics, while loop effects are quantum mechanical in nature. We
discuss examples wherein classical effects arise from loop contributions and
display the relationship between the classical terms and the long range effects
of massless particles.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure
A microfluidic processor for gene expression profiling of single human embryonic stem cells
The gene expression of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) is a critical aspect for understanding the normal and pathological development of human cells and tissues. Current bulk gene expression assays rely on RNA extracted from cell and tissue samples with various degree of cellular heterogeneity. These cell population averaging data are difficult to interpret, especially for the purpose of understanding the regulatory relationship of genes in the earliest phases of development and differentiation of individual cells. Here, we report a microfluidic approach that can extract total mRNA from individual single-cells and synthesize cDNA on the same device with high mRNA-to-cDNA efficiency. This feature makes large-scale single-cell gene expression profiling possible. Using this microfluidic device, we measured the absolute numbers of mRNA molecules of three genes (B2M, Nodal and Fzd4) in a single hESC. Our results indicate that gene expression data measured from cDNA of a cell population is not a good representation of the expression levels in individual single cells. Within the G0/G1 phase pluripotent hESC population, some individual cells did not express all of the 3 interrogated genes in detectable levels. Consequently, the relative expression levels, which are broadly used in gene expression studies, are very different between measurements from population cDNA and single-cell cDNA. The results underscore the importance of discrete single-cell analysis, and the advantages of a microfluidic approach in stem cell gene expression studies
A Strategic Conceptualization Of The IT Outsourcing Decision And The Role Of Teams
We examine how organizational, individual, and team factors affect team-based judgment of value for outsourcing information technology (IT) services. The study of team-based judgment of value is important because team designs are growing in popularity to support the customization of IT services to meet larger, organizational objectives. A strategic reconceptualization of how IT outsourcing decisions are operationalized through team-based judgments of value is fundamental for understanding how organizational objectives, work requirements, and contractual conditions are framed and executed.
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