779 research outputs found
Perfect coupling of light to surface plasmons with ultra-narrow linewidths
We examine the coupling of electromagnetic waves incident normal to a thin
silver film that forms an oscillatory grating embedded between two otherwise
uniform, semi-infinite half spaces. Two grating structures are considered, in
one of which the mid point of the Ag film remains fixed whereas the thickness
varies sinusoidally, while in the other the mid point oscillates sinusoidally
whereas the film thicknesses remains fixed. On reducing the light wavelength
from the long wavelength limit, we encounter signatures in the transmission, T,
and reflection, R, coefficients associated with: i) the short-range surface
plasmon mode, ii) the long-range surface plasmon mode, and iii) electromagnetic
diffraction tangent to the grating. The first two features can be regarded as
generalized (plasmon) Wood's anomalies whereas the third is the first-order
conventional (electromagnetic) Wood's anomaly. The energy density at the film
surface is enhanced for wavelengths corresponding to these three anomalies,
particularly for the long range plasmon mode in thin films. When exciting the
silver film with a pair of waves incident from opposite directions, we find
that by adjusting the grating oscillation amplitude and fixing the relative
phase of the incoming waves to be even or odd, T+R can be made to vanish for
one or the other of the plasmon modes; this corresponds to perfect coupling
(impedance matching in the language of electrical engineering) between the
incoming light and these modes.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. accepted J. Chem. Phy
Effects of hydrogen on the morphology and electrical properties of GaN grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy
We study the effect of introducing hydrogen gas through the rf-plasma source during plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy of GaN(0001). The well-known smooth-to-rough transition that occurs for this surface as a function of decreasing Ga flux in the absence of H is found to persist even with H present, although the critical Ga flux for this transition increases. Under Ga-rich conditions, the presence of hydrogen is found to induce step bunching (facetting) on the surface. Conductive atomic force microscopy reveals that leakage current through dislocation cores is significantly reduced when hydrogen is present during the growth
A biophysical model of prokaryotic diversity in geothermal hot springs
Recent field investigations of photosynthetic bacteria living in geothermal
hot spring environments have revealed surprisingly complex ecosystems, with an
unexpected level of genetic diversity. One case of particular interest involves
the distribution along hot spring thermal gradients of genetically distinct
bacterial strains that differ in their preferred temperatures for reproduction
and photosynthesis. In such systems, a single variable, temperature, defines
the relevant environmental variation. In spite of this, each region along the
thermal gradient exhibits multiple strains of photosynthetic bacteria adapted
to several distinct thermal optima, rather than the expected single thermal
strain adapted to the local environmental temperature. Here we analyze
microbiology data from several ecological studies to show that the thermal
distribution field data exhibit several universal features independent of
location and specific bacterial strain. These include the distribution of
optimal temperatures of different thermal strains and the functional dependence
of the net population density on temperature. Further, we present a simple
population dynamics model of these systems that is highly constrained by
biophysical data and by physical features of the environment. This model can
explain in detail the observed diversity of different strains of the
photosynthetic bacteria. It also reproduces the observed thermal population
distributions, as well as certain features of population dynamics observed in
laboratory studies of the same organisms
Comparative proteomics of related symbiotic mussel species reveals high variability of host-symbiont interactions.
Deep-sea Bathymodiolus mussels and their chemoautotrophic symbionts are well-studied representatives of mutualistic host-microbe associations. However, how host-symbiont interactions vary on the molecular level between related host and symbiont species remains unclear. Therefore, we compared the host and symbiont metaproteomes of Pacific B. thermophilus, hosting a thiotrophic symbiont, and Atlantic B. azoricus, containing two symbionts, a thiotroph and a methanotroph. We identified common strategies of metabolic support between hosts and symbionts, such as the oxidation of sulfide by the host, which provides a thiosulfate reservoir for the thiotrophic symbionts, and a cycling mechanism that could supply the host with symbiont-derived amino acids. However, expression levels of these processes differed substantially between both symbioses. Backed up by genomic comparisons, our results furthermore revealed an exceptionally large repertoire of attachment-related proteins in the B. thermophilus symbiont. These findings imply that host-microbe interactions can be quite variable, even between closely related systems
Factors associated with severity of hepatic fibrosis in people with chronic hepatitis C infection
The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.OBJECTIVE: To determine factors associated with hepatic fibrosis development in people with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. METHODS: As a requirement for access to interferon therapy through the S100 scheme in Australia, individual pretreatment demographic and clinical information was collected on 2986 patients from 61 hospital-based liver clinics from 1 October 1994 through 31 December 1996. Patients with both a hepatic fibrosis score and an estimated duration of HCV infection (910) were divided into 540 with no or minimal hepatic fibrosis (stage 0–1) and 370 with moderate to severe hepatic fibrosis (stage 2–3). Seven factors were examined: age at HCV infection, sex, ethnicity, source of infection, duration of infection, alcohol intake, and mean ALT level. A further analysis was performed for all 1135 patients with a hepatic fibrosis score disregarding age at and duration of HCV infection. RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, four factors were significantly associated with moderate to severe hepatic fibrosis: age at infection (OR, 2.33 for age 31–40 years, 5.27 for age > 40 years, and 0.20 for age 30 years, compared with 3 times, compared with 1.5–2 times the upper limit of normal). In the analysis disregarding age at HCV infection and duration of HCV infection, older age was strongly associated with moderate to severe hepatic fibrosis (OR, 2.32 for age 36–40 years, 2.46 for age 41–50 years, 7.87 for age 51–60 years, and 7.15 for age > 60 years, compared with 16–30 years). There was no association in either analysis with sex or source of HCV infection. CONCLUSION: These factors may assist in targeting patients for both liver biopsy-based investigation and therapeutic intervention.Mark Danta, Gregory J Dore, Lisa Hennessy, Yueming Li, Chris R Vickers, Hugh Harley, Meng Ngu, William Reed, Paul V Desmond, William Sievert, Geoff C Farrell, John M Kaldor and Robert G Bate
Magnetoresistance and magnetic breakdown in the quasi-two-dimensional conductors (BEDT-TTF)MHg(SCN)[M=K,Rb,Tl]
The magnetic field dependence of the resistance of
(BEDT-TTF)MHg(SCN)[M=K,Rb,Tl] in the density-wave phase is explained in
terms of a simple model involving magnetic breakdown and a reconstructed Fermi
surface. The theory is compared to measurements in pulsed magnetic fields up to
51 T. The value implied for the scattering time is consistent with independent
determinations. The energy gap associated with the density-wave phase is
deduced from the magnetic breakdown field. Our results have important
implications for the phase diagram.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX + epsf, 3 figures. To appear in Physical Review B,
Rapid Communications, September 15, 199
Editorial: The Responses of Marine Microorganisms, Communities and Ecofunctions to Environmental Gradients
© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 10 (2019): 115, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00115.This Research Topic was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China grant 2016YFA0601303,
China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association grant DY135-E2-1-04, China SOA grant GASI-03-01-02-05, NSFC grants 41676122, 91328209, and 91428308, and CNOOC grant CNOOC-KJ125FZDXM00TJ001-2014
Three-dimensional effects on extended states in disordered models of polymers
We study electronic transport properties of disordered polymers in the
presence of both uncorrelated and short-range correlated impurities. In our
procedure, the actual physical potential acting upon the electrons is replaced
by a set of nonlocal separable potentials, leading to a Schr\"odinger equation
that is exactly solvable in the momentum representation. We then show that the
reflection coefficient of a pair of impurities placed at neighboring sites
(dimer defect) vanishes for a particular resonant energy. When there is a
finite number of such defects randomly distributed over the whole lattice, we
find that the transmission coefficient is almost unity for states close to the
resonant energy, and that those states present a very large localization
length. Multifractal analysis techniques applied to very long systems
demonstrate that these states are truly extended in the thermodynamic limit.
These results reinforce the possibility to verify experimentally theoretical
predictions about absence of localization in quasi-one-dimensional disordered
systems.Comment: 16 pages, REVTeX 3.0, 5 figures on request from FDA
([email protected]). Submitted to Phys. Rev. B. MA/UC3M/09/9
Targeted natural killer cell–based adoptive immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with NSCLC after radiochemotherapy: a randomized phase II clinical trial
Purpose: Non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a fatal disease with poor prognosis. A membrane-bound form of Hsp70 (mHsp70) which is selectively expressed on high-risk tumors serves as a target for mHsp70-targeting natural killer (NK) cells. Patients with advanced mHsp70-positive NSCLC may therefore benefit from a therapeutic intervention involving mHsp70-targeting NK cells. The randomized phase II clinical trial (EudraCT2008-002130-30) explores tolerability and efficacy of ex vivo–activated NK cells in patients with NSCLC after radiochemotherapy (RCT).
Patients and Methods: Patients with unresectable, mHsp70-positive NSCLC (stage IIIa/b) received 4 cycles of autologous NK cells activated ex vivo with TKD/IL2 [interventional arm (INT)] after RCT (60–70 Gy, platinum-based chemotherapy) or RCT alone [control arm (CTRL)]. The primary objective was progression-free survival (PFS), and secondary objectives were the assessment of quality of life (QoL, QLQ-LC13), toxicity, and immunobiological responses.
Results: The NK-cell therapy after RCT was well tolerated, and no differences in QoL parameters between the two study arms were detected. Estimated 1-year probabilities for PFS were 67% [95% confidence interval (CI), 19%–90%] for the INT arm and 33% (95% CI, 5%–68%) for the CTRL arm (P = 0.36, 1-sided log-rank test). Clinical responses in the INT group were associated with an increase in the prevalence of activated NK cells in their peripheral blood
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