290 research outputs found
Decoherence of localized spins interacting via RKKY interaction
We theoretically study decoherence of two localized spins interacting via the
RKKY interaction in one-, two-, and three-dimensional electron gas. We derive
the kinetic equation for the reduced density matrix of the localized spins and
show that energy relaxation caused by singlet-triplet transition is suppressed
when the RKKY interaction is ferromagnetic. We also estimate the decoherence
time of the system consisting of two quantum dots embedded in a two dimensional
electron gas.Comment: 4pages, 2figure
Long-time behavior of MHD shell models
The long time behavior of velocity-magnetic field alignment is numerically
investigated in the framework of MHD shell model. In the stationary forced
case, the correlation parameter C displays a nontrivial behavior with long
periods of high variability which alternates with periods of almost constant C.
The temporal statistics of correlation is shown to be non Poissonian, and the
pdf of constant sign periods displays clear power law tails. The possible
relevance of the model for geomagnetic dynamo problem is discussed.Comment: 6 pages with 5 figures. In press on Europhysics Letter
Asymmetric polarity reversals, bimodal field distribution, and coherence resonance in a spherically symmetric mean-field dynamo model
Using a mean-field dynamo model with a spherically symmetric helical
turbulence parameter alpha which is dynamically quenched and disturbed by
additional noise, the basic features of geomagnetic polarity reversals are
shown to be generic consequences of the dynamo action in the vicinity of
exceptional points of the spectrum. This simple paradigmatic model yields long
periods of constant polarity which are interrupted by self-accelerating field
decays leading to asymmetric polarity reversals. It shows the recently
discovered bimodal field distribution, and it gives a natural explanation of
the correlation between polarity persistence time and field strength. In
addition, we find typical features of coherence resonance in the dependence of
the persistence time on the noise.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure
The clustering of polarity reversals of the geomagnetic field
Often in nature the temporal distribution of inhomogeneous stochastic point
processes can be modeled as a realization of renewal Poisson processes with a
variable rate. Here we investigate one of the classical examples, namely the
temporal distribution of polarity reversals of the geomagnetic field. In spite
of the commonly used underlying hypothesis, we show that this process strongly
departs from a Poisson statistics, the origin of this failure stemming from the
presence of temporal clustering. We find that a Levy statistics is able to
reproduce paleomagnetic data, thus suggesting the presence of long-range
correlations in the underlying dynamo process.Comment: 4 pages, in press on PRL (31 march 2006?
Critical role of endothelial Notch1 signaling in postnatal angiogenesis
Notch receptors are important mediators of cell fate during embryogenesis, but their role in adult physiology, particularly in postnatal angiogenesis, remains unknown. Of the Notch receptors, only Notch1 and Notch4 are expressed in vascular endothelial cells. Here we show that blood flow recovery and postnatal neovascularization in response to hindlimb ischemia in haploinsufficient global or endothelial-specific Notch1(+/-) mice, but not Notch4(-/-) mice, were impaired compared with wild-type mice. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in response to ischemia was comparable between wild-type and Notch mutant mice, suggesting that Notch1 is downstream of VEGF signaling. Treatment of endothelial cells with VEGF increases presenilin proteolytic processing, gamma-secretase activity, Notch1 cleavage, and Hes-1 (hairy enhancer of split homolog-1) expression, all of which were blocked by treating endothelial cells with inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase Akt or infecting endothelial cells with a dominant-negative Akt mutant. Indeed, inhibition of gamma-secretase activity leads to decreased angiogenesis and inhibits VEGF-induced endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and survival. Overexpression of the active Notch1 intercellular domain rescued the inhibitory effects of gamma-secretase inhibitors on VEGF-induced angiogenesis. These findings indicate that the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt pathway mediates gamma-secretase and Notch1 activation by VEGF and that Notch1 is critical for VEGF-induced postnatal angiogenesis. These results suggest that Notch1 may be a novel therapeutic target for improving angiogenic response and blood flow recovery in ischemic limbs
Aperiodicity in one-way Markov cycles and repeat times of large earthquakes in faults
A common use of Markov Chains is the simulation of the seismic cycle in a
fault, i.e. as a renewal model for the repetition of its characteristic
earthquakes. This representation is consistent with Reid's elastic rebound
theory. Here it is proved that in {\it any} one-way Markov cycle, the
aperiodicity of the corresponding distribution of cycle lengths is always lower
than one. This fact concurs with observations of large earthquakes in faults
all over the world
Systematic review and stratified meta-analysis of the efficacy of RhoA and Rho kinase inhibitors in animal models of ischaemic stroke
There is currently only one clinically approved drug, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke. The RhoA pathway, including RhoA and its downstream effector Rho kinase (ROCK), has been identified as a possible therapeutic target. Our aim was to assess the impact of study design characteristics and study quality on reported measures of efficacy and to assess for the presence and impact of publication bias. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on publications describing the efficacy of RhoA and ROCK inhibitors in animal models of focal cerebral ischaemia where outcome was assessed as a change in lesion size or neurobehavioural score, or both. We identified 25 published papers which met our inclusion criteria. RhoA and ROCK inhibitors reduced lesion size by 37.3% in models of focal cerebral ischaemia (95% CI, 28.6% to 46.0%, 41 comparisons), and reduced neurobehavioural data by 40.5% (33.4% to 47.7%, 30 comparisons). Overall study quality was low (median=4, interquartile range 3-5) and measures to reduce bias were seldom reported. Publication bias was prevalent and associated with a substantial overstatement of efficacy for lesion size. RhoA and ROCK inhibitors appear to be effective in animal models of stroke. However the low quality score, publication bias and limited number of studies are areas which need attention prior to conducting clinical trials
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