11,347 research outputs found
Chiral molecules split light: Reflection and refraction in a chiral liquid
A light beam changes direction as it enters a liquid at an angle from another
medium, such as air. Should the liquid contain molecules that lack mirror
symmetry, then it has been predicted by Fresnel that the light beam will not
only change direction, but will actually split into two separate beams with a
small difference in the respective angles of refraction. Here we report the
observation of this phenomenon. We also demonstrate that the angle of
reflection does not equal the angle of incidence in a chiral medium. Unlike
conventional optical rotation, which depends on the path-length through the
sample, the reported reflection and refraction phenomena arise within a few
wavelengths at the interface and thereby suggest a new approach to polarimetry
that can be used in microfluidic volumes
NARRATIVE COMPREHENSION IN ADULTS WITH RIGHT HEMISPHERE BRAIN DAMAGE: THE ROLE OF COHERENCE AND THEME ORGANIZATION
Background: In 1990, Hough conducted a study investigating the role of theme organization on discourse comprehension in adults with right hemisphere brain damage (RHD). She reported that participants with RHD performed significantly worse when the theme of a narrative was delayed until the end, compared to when the theme was at the beginning. RHD participants also performed significantly worse on these tasks compared to participants with left hemisphere brain damage and normal controls. However, manipulations to delay the theme also resulted in narratives that lacked coherence and violated the rules of narrative structure. Aims: The current study examined if controlling for differences in coherence between original and delayed-theme narratives would eliminate discrepancies in comprehension in the two conditions.Methods & Procedures: Participants were 10 adults with unilateral RHD and five without brain damage. Participants listened to experimental and filler narratives. Experimental narratives consisted of original-theme narratives and delayed-theme narratives that were manipulated to delay the theme while maintaining story coherence. Filler narratives consisted of original-theme narratives and delayed-theme narratives that were not controlled for coherence. All narratives were followed by three yes/no questions pertaining to main ideas and details. Several ancillary tasks were also included to further classify participants and to analyze alternative explanations for performance. Outcomes & Results: Accuracy data revealed that as predicted, there was no significant difference in performance on experimental original-theme and delayed-theme narratives for the RHD group. There was a trend towards poorer comprehension of filler delayed-theme narratives compared to original-theme narratives. These results support the hypothesis that poor comprehension on delayed-theme narratives in Hough's study was a result of differences in coherence rather than theme organization. However, analysis of ancillary tasks revealed a significant correlation between estimated capacity for auditory working memory and performance on delayed-theme narratives. These results imply that even with coherence accounted for, delaying the theme of a narrative is more taxing on mental processing, thus decreasing comprehension in RHD participants with particularly low working memory capacity
Case Mix, Costs, and Outcomes: Differences Between Faculty and Community Services in a University Hospital
In order to gain insight into the possible consequences of prospective payment for university hospitals, we studied 2,025 admissions to the faculty and community services of a university hospital, measuring differences in case mix, costs, and outcomes. The faculty service case mix was disproportionately weighted toward the more costly diagnoses, but even after adjustment for diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), costs were 11 percent higher on the faculty service. The differential was proportionately greater for diagnostic costs than for routine or treatment costs, and the differential was particularly large (70 percent) for patients with a predicted probability of death (DTHRISK) of .25 or greater.The in-hospital mortality rate was appreciably lower on the faculty service after adjustment for case mix and patient characteristics. The mortality differential between the two services was particularly large for patients in the high death risk category. Comparison of a matched sample of 51 pairs of admissions from the high death risk category confirmed the above results with respect to costs and in-hospital mortality, but follow-up revealed that the mortality rates were equal for the two services at nine months after discharge.
Multidimensional optical fractionation with holographic verification
The trajectories of colloidal particles driven through a periodic potential
energy landscape can become kinetically locked in to directions dictated by the
landscape's symmetries. When the landscape is realized with forces exerted by a
structured light field, the path a given particle follows has been predicted to
depend exquisitely sensitively on such properties as the particle's size and
refractive index These predictions, however, have not been tested
experimentally. Here, we describe measurements of colloidal silica spheres'
transport through arrays of holographic optical traps that use holographic
video microscopy to track individual spheres' motions in three dimensions and
simultaneously to measure each sphere's radius and refractive index with
part-per-thousand resolution. These measurements confirm previously untested
predictions for the threshold of kinetically locked-in transport, and
demonstrate the ability of optical fractionation to sort colloidal spheres with
part-per-thousand resolution on multiple characteristics simultaneously.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
Behavioral Phenotyping of Juvenile Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley Rats: Implications for Preclinical Models of Autism Spectrum Disorders.
The laboratory rat is emerging as an attractive preclinical animal model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), allowing investigators to explore genetic, environmental and pharmacological manipulations in a species exhibiting complex, reciprocal social behavior. The present study was carried out to compare two commonly used strains of laboratory rats, Sprague-Dawley (SD) and Long-Evans (LE), between the ages of postnatal day (PND) 26-56 using high-throughput behavioral phenotyping tools commonly used in mouse models of ASD that we have adapted for use in rats. We detected few differences between young SD and LE strains on standard assays of exploration, sensorimotor gating, anxiety, repetitive behaviors, and learning. Both SD and LE strains also demonstrated sociability in the 3-chamber social approach test as indexed by spending more time in the social chamber with a constrained age/strain/sex matched novel partner than in an identical chamber without a partner. Pronounced differences between the two strains were, however, detected when the rats were allowed to freely interact with a novel partner in the social dyad paradigm. The SD rats in this particular testing paradigm engaged in play more frequently and for longer durations than the LE rats at both juvenile and young adult developmental time points. Results from this study that are particularly relevant for developing preclinical ASD models in rats are threefold: (i) commonly utilized strains exhibit unique patterns of social interactions, including strain-specific play behaviors, (ii) the testing environment may profoundly influence the expression of strain-specific social behavior and (iii) simple, automated measures of sociability may not capture the complexities of rat social interactions
The X-Ray Zurich Environmental Study (X-ZENS). I. Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of active galactic nuclei in galaxies in nearby groups
We describe X-ray observations with Chandra and XMM-Newton of 18 galaxy
groups (M_group ~ 1-6x10^13 Msolar, z~0.05) from the Zurich Environmental Study
(ZENS). We aim to establish the frequency and properties, unaffected by host
galaxy dilution and obscuration, of AGNs in central and satellite galaxy
members, also as a function of halo-centric distance. X-ray point-source
detections are reported for 22 of 177 observed galaxies, down to a limit of
f_(0.5-8 keV) ~ 5x10^-15 erg cm^-2 s^-1, corresponding to a limiting luminosity
of L_(0.5-8 keV)~3x10^40 erg s^-1. With the majority of the X-ray sources
attributed to AGNs of low-to-moderate levels (L/L_Edd>~10^-4), we discuss the
detection rate in the context of the occupation of AGNs to halos of this mass
scale and redshift, and compare the structural/morphological properties between
AGN-active and non-active galaxies of different rank and location within the
group halos. We see a slight tendency for AGN hosts to have either relatively
brighter/denser disks (or relatively fainter/diffuse bulges) than non-active
galaxies of similar mass. At galaxy mass scales <10^11 Msolar, central galaxies
appear to be a factor ~4 more likely to host AGNs than satellite galaxies of
similar mass. This effect, coupled with the tendency for AGNs to reside in
massive galaxies, explains the (weak) trend for AGNs to be preferentially found
in the inner regions of groups, with no detectable trend with halo-centric
distance in the frequency of AGNs within the satellite population. Finally, our
data support other analyses in finding that the rate of decline with redshift
of AGN activity in groups matches that of the global AGN population, indicating
that either AGNs occur preferentially in groups, or that the evolution rate is
independent of halo mass. These trends are of potential importance, and require
X-ray coverage of a larger sample to be solidly confirmed.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, submitted to The Astrophysical Journal, this is
a revised version that addresses the referee's comment
Anomalous Chromomagnetic Moments of Quarks and Large Transverse Energy Jets
We consider the jet cross sections for gluons coupling to quarks with an
anomalous chromomagnetic moment. We then apply this to the deviation and bounds
from QCD found in the CDF and D0 Fermilab data, respectively, to find a range
of possible values for the anomalous moments. The quadratic and quartic terms
in the anomalous moments can fit to the rise of a deviation with transverse
energy. Since previous analyses have been done on the top quark total cross
section, here we assume the same moment on all quarks except the top and find
the range TeV for the
CDF data. Assuming the anomalous moment is present only on a charm or bottom
quark which is pair produced results in a range TeV. The magnitudes here are compared with anomalous magnetic moments
that could account for and found to be in the same general range, as well
as not inconsistent with LEP and SLD bounds on .Comment: REVTeX, 11 pages, 2 postscript figure
Topological phase for entangled two-qubit states and the representation of the SO(3)group
We discuss the representation of the group by two-qubit maximally
entangled states (MES). We analyze the correspondence between and the
set of two-qubit MES which are experimentally realizable. As a result, we offer
a new interpretation of some recently proposed experiments based on MES.
Employing the tools of quantum optics we treat in terms of two-qubit MES some
classical experiments in neutron interferometry, which showed the -phase
accrued by a spin- particle precessing in a magnetic field. By so doing,
we can analyze the extent to which the recently proposed experiments - and
future ones of the same sort - would involve essentially new physical aspects
as compared with those performed in the past. We argue that the proposed
experiments do extend the possibilities for displaying the double connectedness
of , although for that to be the case it results necessary to map
elements of onto physical operations acting on two-level systems.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure
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