1,874 research outputs found
The Development of New Concepts for Assessing Reproductive Toxicity Applicable to Large Scale Toxicological Programmes
Large scale toxicological testing programmes which are currently ongoing such as the new European chemical legislation REACH require the development of new integrated testing strategies rather than applying traditional testing schemes to thousands of chemicals. The current practice of requiring in vivo testing for every possible adverse effect endanger the success of these programmes due (i) to limited testing facilities and sufficient capacity of scientific/technical knowledge for reproductive toxicity; (ii) an unacceptable number of laboratory animals involved (iii) an intolerable number of chemicals classified as false positive.
A key aspect of the implementation of new testing strategies is the determination of prevalence of reproductive toxicity in the universe of industrial chemicals. Prevalences are relevant in order to be aware on the expected rate of false classification during the toxicological testing and to implement appropriate measures for their avoidance. Furthermore, a detailed understanding on the subendpoints affected by reproductive toxicants and the underlying mechanisms will lead to more science based testing strategies integrating alternative methods without compromising the protection of consumers
Optical Response of Grating-Coupler-Induced Intersubband Resonances: The Role of Wood's Anomalies
Grating-coupler-induced collective intersubband transitions in a
quasi-two-dimensional electron system are investigated both experimentally and
theoretically. Far-infrared transmission experiments are performed on samples
containing a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas quantum-confined in a parabolic
quantum well. For rectangular shaped grating couplers of different periods we
observe a strong dependence of the transmission line shape and peak height on
the period of the grating, i.e. on the wave vector transfer from the diffracted
beams to the collective intersubband resonance. It is shown that the line shape
transforms with increasing grating period from a Lorentzian into a strongly
asymmetric line shape. Theoretically, we treat the problem by using the
transfer-matrix method of local optics and apply the modal-expansion method to
calculate the influence of the grating. The optically uniaxial
quasi-two-dimensional electron gas is described in the long-wavelength limit of
the random-phase approximation by a local dielectric tensor, which includes
size quantization effects. Our theory reproduces excellently the experimental
line shapes. The deformation of the transmission line shapes we explain by the
occurrence of both types of Wood's anomalies.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures. Physical Review B , in pres
Hybridization of electron subbands in a double quantum well at quantizing magnetic field
We employ magnetocapacitance and far-infrared spectroscopy techniques to
study the spectrum of the double-layer electron system in a parabolic quantum
well with a narrow tunnel barrier in the centre. For gate-bias-controlled
asymmetric electron density distributions in this soft two-subband system we
observe both individual subband gaps and double layer gaps at integer filling
factor . The bilayer gaps are shown to be either trivial common for two
subbands or caused by hybridization of electron subbands in magnetic field. We
describe the observed hybrid gaps at and within a simple model
for the modified bilayer spectrum.Comment: REVTeX, 24 pages, 9 figures included. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Nonlinear transport of Bose-Einstein condensates through mesoscopic waveguides
We study the coherent flow of interacting Bose-condensed atoms in mesoscopic
waveguide geometries. Analytical and numerical methods, based on the mean-field
description of the condensate, are developed to study both stationary as well
as time-dependent propagation processes. We apply these methods to the
propagation of a condensate through an atomic quantum dot in a waveguide,
discuss the nonlinear transmission spectrum and show that resonant transport is
generally suppressed due to an interaction-induced bistability phenomenon.
Finally, we establish a link between the nonlinear features of the transmission
spectrum and the self-consistent quasi-bound states of the quantum dot.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figure
Magnetic-Field-Induced Hybridization of Electron Subbands in a Coupled Double Quantum Well
We employ a magnetocapacitance technique to study the spectrum of the soft
two-subband (or double-layer) electron system in a parabolic quantum well with
a narrow tunnel barrier in the centre. In this system unbalanced by gate
depletion, at temperatures T\agt 30 mK we observe two sets of quantum
oscillations: one originates from the upper electron subband in the
closer-to-the-gate part of the well and the other indicates the existence of
common gaps in the spectrum at integer fillings. For the lowest filling factors
and , both the common gap presence down to the point of one- to
two-subband transition and their non-trivial magnetic field dependences point
to magnetic-field-induced hybridization of electron subbands.Comment: Major changes, added one more figure, the latest version to be
published in JETP Let
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