Absorption and optimal plasmonic resonances for small ellipsoidal particles in lossy media

A new simplified formula is derived for the absorption cross section of small dielectric ellipsoidal particles embedded in lossy media. The new expression leads directly to a closed form solution for the optimal conjugate match with respect to the surrounding medium, i.e. the optimal permittivity of the ellipsoidal particle that maximizes the absorption at any given frequency. This defines the optimal plasmonic resonance for the ellipsoid. The optimal conjugate match represents a metamaterial in the sense that the corresponding optimal permittivity function may have negative real part (inductive properties), and can not in general be implemented as a passive material over a given bandwidth. A necessary and sufficient condition is derived for the feasibility of tuning the Drude model to the optimal conjugate match at a single frequency, and it is found that all the prolate spheroids and some of the (not too flat) oblate spheroids can be tuned into optimal plasmonic resonance at any desired center frequency. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the analysis. Except for the general understanding of plasmonic resonances in lossy media, it is also anticipated that the new results can be useful for feasibility studies with e.g. the radiotherapeutic hyperthermia based methods to treat cancer based on electrophoretic heating in gold nanoparticle suspensions using microwave radiation

Parameter studies on optimal absorption and electrophoretic resonances in lossy media

This paper summarizes and elaborates on some new results on the optimal absorption in small spherical suspensions based on electrophoretic (plasmonic) resonances and lossy surrounding media. The main application here is to study the physical limitations for radio frequency absorption in gold nanoparticle (GNP) suspensions and its potential to achieve GNP targeted hyperthermia in cancer therapy. Numerical parameter studies are included to demonstrate the analysis approach

The morality of attitudes toward nanotechnology: about God, techno-scientific progress, and interfering with nature

Using survey data, we examine public attitudes toward and awareness of nanotechnology in Germany (N = 750). First, it is shown that a majority of the people are still not familiar with nanotechnology. In addition, diffusion of information about nanotechnology thus far mostly seems to reach men and people with a relative higher educational background. Also, pro-science and technology views are positively related with nanotech familiarity. Results further show that a majority of the people have an indifferent, ambiguous, or non-attitude toward nanotechnology. Multinomial logit analyses further reveal that nanotech familiarity is positively related with people’s attitudes. In addition, it is shown that traditional religiosity is unrelated to attitudes and that individual religiosity is weakly related to nanotechnology attitudes. However, moral covariates other than religiosity seem of major importance. In particular, our results show that more negative views on technological and scientific progress as well as more holistic views about the relation between people and the environment increase the likelihood of having a negative attitude toward nanotechnology

A parametric model for the changes in the complex valued conductivity of a lung during tidal breathing

Classical homogenization theory based on the Hashin-Shtrikman coated ellipsoids is used to model the changes in the complex valued conductivity (or admittivity) of a lung during tidal breathing. Here, the lung is modeled as a two-phase composite material where the alveolar air-filling corresponds to the inclusion phase. The theory predicts a linear relationship between the real and the imaginary parts of the change in the complex valued conductivity of a lung during tidal breathing, and where the loss cotangent of the change is approximately the same as of the effective background conductivity and hence easy to estimate. The theory is illustrated with numerical examples, as well as by using reconstructed Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) images based on clinical data from an ongoing study within the EU-funded CRADL project. The theory may be potentially useful for improving the imaging algorithms and clinical evaluations in connection with lung EIT for respiratory management and monitoring in neonatal intensive care units

How was it for you? Experiences of participatory design in the UK health service

Improving co-design methods implies that we need to understand those methods, paying attention to not only the effect of method choices on design outcomes, but also how methods affect the people involved in co-design. In this article, we explore participants' experiences from a year-long participatory health service design project to develop ‘Better Outpatient Services for Older People’. The project followed a defined method called experience-based design (EBD), which represented the state of the art in participatory service design within the UK National Health Service. A sample of participants in the project took part in semi-structured interviews reflecting on their involvement in and their feelings about the project. Our findings suggest that the EBD method that we employed was successful in establishing positive working relationships among the different groups of stakeholders (staff, patients, carers, advocates and design researchers), although conflicts remained throughout the project. Participants' experiences highlighted issues of wider relevance in such participatory design: cost versus benefit, sense of project momentum, locus of control, and assumptions about how change takes place in a complex environment. We propose tactics for dealing with these issues that inform the future development of techniques in user-centred healthcare design

Critical Enhancement of the In-medium Nucleon-Nucleon Cross Section at low Temperatures

The in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section is calculated starting from the thermodynamic T-matrix at finite temperatures. The corresponding Bethe-Salpeter-equation is solved using a separable representation of the Paris nucleon-nucleon-potential. The energy-dependent in-medium N-N cross section at a given density shows a strong temperature dependence. Especially at low temperatures and low total momenta, the in-medium cross section is strongly modified by in-medium effects. In particular, with decreasing temperature an enhancement near the Fermi energy is observed. This enhancement can be discussed as a precursor of the superfluid phase transition in nuclear matter.Comment: 10 pages with 4 figures (available on request from the authors), MPG-VT-UR 34/94 accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

A Relativistic Mean Field Model for Entrainment in General Relativistic Superfluid Neutron Stars

General relativistic superfluid neutron stars have a significantly more intricate dynamics than their ordinary fluid counterparts. Superfluidity allows different superfluid (and superconducting) species of particles to have independent fluid flows, a consequence of which is that the fluid equations of motion contain as many fluid element velocities as superfluid species. Whenever the particles of one superfluid interact with those of another, the momentum of each superfluid will be a linear combination of both superfluid velocities. This leads to the so-called entrainment effect whereby the motion of one superfluid will induce a momentum in the other superfluid. We have constructed a fully relativistic model for entrainment between superfluid neutrons and superconducting protons using a relativistic $\sigma - \omega$ mean field model for the nucleons and their interactions. In this context there are two notions of ``relativistic'': relativistic motion of the individual nucleons with respect to a local region of the star (i.e. a fluid element containing, say, an Avogadro's number of particles), and the motion of fluid elements with respect to the rest of the star. While it is the case that the fluid elements will typically maintain average speeds at a fraction of that of light, the supranuclear densities in the core of a neutron star can make the nucleons themselves have quite high average speeds within each fluid element. The formalism is applied to the problem of slowly-rotating superfluid neutron star configurations, a distinguishing characteristic being that the neutrons can rotate at a rate different from that of the protons.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Human Pentraxin 3 Binds to the Complement Regulator C4b-Binding Protein

The long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a soluble recognition molecule with multiple functions including innate immune defense against certain microbes and the clearance of apoptotic cells. PTX3 interacts with recognition molecules of the classical and lectin complement pathways and thus initiates complement activation. In addition, binding of PTX3 to the alternative complement pathway regulator factor H was shown. Here, we show that PTX3 binds to the classical and lectin pathway regulator C4b-binding protein (C4BP). A PTX3-binding site was identified within short consensus repeats 1–3 of the C4BP α-chain. PTX3 did not interfere with the cofactor activity of C4BP in the fluid phase and C4BP maintained its complement regulatory activity when bound to PTX3 on surfaces. While C4BP and factor H did not compete for PTX3 binding, the interaction of C4BP with PTX3 was inhibited by C1q and by L-ficolin. PTX3 bound to human fibroblast- and endothelial cell-derived extracellular matrices and recruited functionally active C4BP to these surfaces. Whereas PTX3 enhanced the activation of the classical/lectin pathway and caused enhanced C3 deposition on extracellular matrix, deposition of terminal pathway components and the generation of the inflammatory mediator C5a were not increased. Furthermore, PTX3 enhanced the binding of C4BP to late apoptotic cells, which resulted in an increased rate of inactivation of cell surface bound C4b and a reduction in the deposition of C5b-9. Thus, in addition to complement activators, PTX3 interacts with complement inhibitors including C4BP. This balanced interaction on extracellular matrix and on apoptotic cells may prevent excessive local complement activation that would otherwise lead to inflammation and host tissue damage

A phenomenological equation of state for isospin asymmetric nuclear matter

A phenomenological momentum-independent (MID) model is constructed to describe the equation of state (EOS) for isospin asymmetric nuclear matter, especially the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy $E_{\text{\textrm{sym}}}(\rho)$. This model can reasonably describe the general properties of the EOS for symmetric nuclear matter and the symmetry energy predicted by both the sophisticated isospin and momentum dependent MDI model and the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock approach. We find that there exists a nicely linear correlation between $K_{\mathrm{sym}}$ and $L$ as well as between $J_{0}/K_{0}$ and $K_{0}$, where $L$ and $K_{\mathrm{sym}}$ represent, respectively, the slope and curvature parameters of the symmetry energy at the normal nuclear density $\rho_{0}$ while $K_{0}$ and $J_{0}$ are, respectively, the incompressibility and the third-order derivative parameter of symmetric nuclear matter at $\rho_{0}$. These correlations together with the empirical constraints on $K_{0}$, $L$ and $E_{\text{\textrm{sym}}}(\rho_{0})$ lead to an estimation of -477 MeV $\leq K_{\mathrm{sat,2}}\leq -241$ MeV for the second-order isospin asymmetry expansion coefficient for the incompressibility of asymmetric nuclear matter at the saturation point.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, contribution to Special Topic on Large-Scale Scientific Facilities (LSSF) in Science in China Series G: Physics, Mechanics & Astronom