772 research outputs found
Theory of a two-level artificial molecule in laterally coupled quantum Hall droplets
We present a theory of laterally coupled quantum Hall droplets with electron
numbers (N1,N2) at filling factor . We show that the edge states of each
droplet are tunnel coupled and form a two-level artificial molecule. By
populating the edge states with one electron each a two electron molecule is
formed. We predict the singlet-triplet transitions of the effective
two-electron molecule as a function of the magnetic field, the number of
electrons, and confining potential using the configuration interaction method
(CI) coupled with the unrestricted Hartree-Fock (URHF) basis. In addition to
the singlet-triplet transitions of a 2 electron molecule involving edge states,
triplet transitions involving transfer of electrons to the center of individual
dots exist for .Comment: 5 pages, 10 figure
Scaling in the correlation energies of two-dimensional artificial atoms
We find an unexpected scaling in the correlation energy of artificial atoms,
i.e., harmonically confined two-dimensional quantum dots. The scaling relation
is found through extensive numerical examinations including Hartree-Fock,
variational quantum Monte Carlo, density-functional, and full
configuration-interaction calculations. We show that the correlation energy,
i.e., the true ground-state total energy subtracted by the Hartree-Fock total
energy, follows a simple function of the Coulomb energy, confimenent strength
and, the number of electrons. We find an analytic expression for this function,
as well as for the correlation energy per particle and for the ratio between
the correlation and total energies. Our tests for independent diffusion Monte
Carlo and coupled-cluster results for quantum dots -- including open-shell data
-- confirm the generality of the obtained scaling. As the scaling is also well
applicable to 100 electrons, our results give interesting prospects
for the development of correlation functionals within density-functional
theory.Comment: Accepted to Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte
Bardoxolone methyl prevents the development and progression of cardiac and renal pathophysiologies in mice fed a high-fat diet
Obesity caused by the consumption of a high-fat (HF) diet is a major risk factor for the development of associated complications, such as heart and kidney failure. A semi-synthetic triterpenoid, bardoxolone methyl (BM) was administrated to mice fed a HF diet for 21 weeks to determine if it would prevent the development of obesity-associated cardiac and renal pathophysiologies. Twelve week old male C57BL/6J mice were fed a lab chow (LC), HF (40% fat), or a HF diet supplemented with 10 mg/kg/day BM in drinking water. After 21 weeks, the left ventricles of hearts and cortex of kidneys of mice were collected for analysis. Histological analysis revealed that BM prevented HF diet-induced development of structural changes in the heart and kidneys. BM prevented HF diet-induced decreases in myocyte number in cardiac tissue, although this treatment also elevated cardiac endothelin signalling molecules. In the kidneys, BM administration prevented HF diet-induced renal corpuscle hypertrophy and attenuated endothelin signalling. Furthermore, in both the hearts and kidneys of mice fed a HF diet, BM administration prevented HF diet-induced increases in fat accumulation, macrophage infiltration and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) gene expression. These findings suggest that BM prevents HF diet-induced developments of cardiac and renal pathophysiologies in mice fed a chronic HF diet by preventing inflammation. Moreover, these results suggest that BM has the potential as a therapeutic for preventing obesity-induced cardiac and renal pathophysiologies
A Phase I Trial of Aminolevulinic Acid-Photodynamic Therapy for Treatment of Oral Leukoplakia
Background Photodynamic therapy with aminolevulinic acid (ALA PDT) for oral leukoplakia has shown promising effects in regression of oral leukoplakia. Although ALA has been extensively studied and is an ideal photosensitizer, the optimal light dose for treatment of oral leukoplakia has not been determined. We conducted a phase I study to determine MTD and DLT of PDT in patients treated with ALA for leukoplakia. Methods Patients with histologically confirmed oral leukoplakia received a single treatment of ALA PDT in cohorts with escalating doses of light (585 nm). Clinical, histologic, and biologic markers were assessed. Results Analysis of 11 participants is reported. No significant toxicity from ALA PDT was observed in patients who received ALA with a light dose of up to 4 J/cm2. One participant experienced transient grade 3 transaminase elevation due to ALA. One participant had a partial clinical response 3 months after treatment. Biologic mucosal risk markers showed no significant associations. Determination of MTD could not be accomplished within a feasible timeframe for completion of the study. Conclusions ALA PDT could be safely administered with a light dose up to 4 J/cm2 and demonstrated activity. Larger studies are needed to fully elucidate the MTD and efficacy of ALA-PDT
Bardoxolone methyl: a potential therapeutic for the prevention of anti-psychotic drug-induced obesity?
Abstract of a presentation
Algebraic approach to quantum field theory on a class of noncommutative curved spacetimes
In this article we study the quantization of a free real scalar field on a
class of noncommutative manifolds, obtained via formal deformation quantization
using triangular Drinfel'd twists. We construct deformed quadratic action
functionals and compute the corresponding equation of motion operators. The
Green's operators and the fundamental solution of the deformed equation of
motion are obtained in terms of formal power series. It is shown that, using
the deformed fundamental solution, we can define deformed *-algebras of field
observables, which in general depend on the spacetime deformation parameter.
This dependence is absent in the special case of Killing deformations, which
include in particular the Moyal-Weyl deformation of the Minkowski spacetime.Comment: LaTeX 14 pages, no figures, svjour3.cls style; v2: clarifications and
references added, compatible with published versio
Cosmological perturbations and short distance physics from Noncommutative Geometry
We investigate the possible effects on the evolution of perturbations in the
inflationary epoch due to short distance physics. We introduce a suitable non
local action for the inflaton field, suggested by Noncommutative Geometry, and
obtained by adopting a generalized star product on a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker
background. In particular, we study how the presence of a length scale where
spacetime becomes noncommutative affects the gaussianity and isotropy
properties of fluctuations, and the corresponding effects on the Cosmic
Microwave Background spectrum.Comment: Published version, 16 page
Analytical results for random walks in the presence of disorder and traps
In this paper, we study the dynamics of a random walker diffusing on a
disordered one-dimensional lattice with random trappings. The distribution of
escape probabilities is computed exactly for any strength of the disorder.
These probabilities do not display any multifractal properties contrary to
previous numerical claims. The explanation for this apparent multifractal
behavior is given, and our conclusion are supported by numerical calculations.
These exact results are exploited to compute the large time asymptotics of the
survival probability (or the density) which is found to decay as . An exact lower bound for the density is found to
decay in a similar way.Comment: 21 pages including 3 PS figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Effects of growth rate, size, and light availability on tree survival across life stages: a demographic analysis accounting for missing values and small sample sizes.
The data set supporting the results of this article is available in the Dryad repository, http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6f4qs. Moustakas, A. and Evans, M. R. (2015) Effects of
growth rate, size, and light availability on tree survival across life stages: a demographic analysis accounting for missing values.Plant survival is a key factor in forest dynamics and survival probabilities often vary across life stages. Studies specifically aimed at assessing tree survival are unusual and so data initially designed for other purposes often need to be used; such data are more likely to contain errors than data collected for this specific purpose
Numerical atomic orbitals for linear scaling
The performance of basis sets made of numerical atomic orbitals is explored
in density-functional calculations of solids and molecules. With the aim of
optimizing basis quality while maintaining strict localization of the orbitals,
as needed for linear-scaling calculations, several schemes have been tried. The
best performance is obtained for the basis sets generated according to a new
scheme presented here, a flexibilization of previous proposals. The basis sets
are tested versus converged plane-wave calculations on a significant variety of
systems, including covalent, ionic and metallic. Satisfactory convergence
(deviations significantly smaller than the accuracy of the underlying theory)
is obtained for reasonably small basis sizes, with a clear improvement over
previous schemes. The transferability of the obtained basis sets is tested in
several cases and it is found to be satisfactory as well.Comment: 9 pages with 2 encapsulated postscript figures, submitted to Phys.
Rev.
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