Resonances in Fock Space: Optimization of a SASER device

We model the Fock space for the electronic resonant tunneling through a double barrier including the coherent effects of the electron-phonon interaction. The geometry is optimized to achieve the maximal optical phonon emission required by a SASER (ultrasound emitter) device.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Proceedings of the VI Latin American Workshop on Nonlinear Phenomena, special issue of Physica

Придністровський конфлікт: чинники існування напруги

Стаття присвячена аналізу та систематизації чинників, що обумовлюють збереження статус-кво у процесі придністровського врегулювання на глобальному, регіональному та локальному рівні.The article is devoted to the analysis and systematization of factors leading to the preservation of the status-quo in the Transnistrian settlement process on global, regional and local level

Assessing reproductive and endocrine parameters in male largescale suckers (\u3ci\u3eCatostomus macrocheilus\u3c/i\u3e) along a contaminant gradient in the lower Columbia River, USA

Persistent organochlorine pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p′-DDE), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are stable, bioaccumulative, and widely found in the environment, wildlife, and the human population. To explore the hypothesis that reproduction in male fish is associated with environmental exposures in the lower Columbia River (LCR), reproductive and endocrine parameters were studied inmale resident, non-anadromous largescale sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus) (LSS) inthe samehabitats as anadromous salmonids having conservation status. Testes, thyroid tissue and plasma collected in 2010 from Longview (LV), Columbia City (CC), and Skamania (SK; reference)were studied. Sperm morphologies and thyrocyte heights were measured by light microscopy, sperm motilities by computer-assisted sperm motion analysis, sperm adenosine triphosphate (ATP) with luciferase, and plasma vitellogenin (VTG), thyroxine (T4), and triiodothyronine (T3) by immunoassay. Sperm apoptosis, viability, mitochondrial membrane potential, nuclear DNA fragmentation, and reproductive stage were measured by flow cytometry. Sperm quality parameters (except counts) and VTG were significantly different among sites, with correlations between VTG and 7 spermparameters. Thyrocyte heights, T4, T3, gonadosomatic index and Fulton\u27s condition factor differed among sites, but not significantly. Sperm quality was significantly lower and VTG higherwhere liver contaminants and water estrogen equivalents were highest (LV site). Total PCBs (specifically PCB-138, -146, -151, -170, -174, -177, -180, -183, -187, -194, and -206) and total PBDEs (specifically BDE-47, -100, -153, and -154) were negatively correlated with sperm motility. PCB-206 and BDE-154 were positively correlated with DNA fragmentation, and pentachloroanisole and VTG were positively correlated with sperm apoptosis and negatively correlated with ATP. BDE-99 was positively correlated with sperm counts and motility; T4 was negatively correlated with counts and positively correlated with motility, thus indicating possible androgenic mechanisms and thyroid endocrine disruption. Male LSS proved to be an informativemodel for studying reproductive and endocrine biomarkers in the LCR

Urinary active transforming growth factor ß in feline chronic kidney disease

The cytokine transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) has been widely implicated in the development and progression of renal fibrosis in chronic kidney disease (CKD) in humans and in experimental models. The aims of this study were to assess the association between urinary active TGF-β1 and (a) development of CKD in a cross-sectional study, (b) deterioration of renal function over 1 year in a longitudinal study, and (c) renal histopathological parameters in cats. A human active TGF-β1 ELISA was validated for use in feline urine. Cross-sectional analysis revealed no significant difference in urinary active TGF-β1:creatinine ratio (aTGF-β1:UCr) between groups with differing renal function. Longitudinally, non-azotaemic cats that developed CKD demonstrated a significant (P = 0.028) increase in aTGF-β1:UCr approximately 6 months before the development of azotaemia, which remained elevated (P = 0.046) at diagnosis (approximately 12 months prior, 8.4 pg/mg; approximately 6 months prior, 22.2 pg/mg; at CKD diagnosis, 24.6 pg/mg). In the histopathology study, aTGF-β1:UCr was significantly higher in cats with moderate (P = 0.02) and diffuse (P = 0.005) renal fibrosis than in cats without fibrosis. Cats with moderate renal inflammation had significantly higher urinary active aTGF-β1 concentrations than cats with mild (P = 0.035) or no inflammatory change (P = 0.004). The parameter aTGF-β1:UCr was independently associated with Log urine protein:creatinine ratio in a multivariable analysis of clinicopathological parameters and interstitial fibrosis score in a multivariable analysis of histopathological features. These results suggest that urinary aTGF-β1 reflects the severity of renal pathology. Increases in urinary aTGF-β1 followed longitudinally in individual cats may indicate the development of CKD

Microscopic mechanisms of dephasing due to electron-electron interactions

We develop a non-perturbative numerical method to study tunneling of a single electron through an Aharonov-Bohm ring where several strongly interacting electrons are bound. Inelastic processes and spin-flip scattering are taken into account. The method is applied to study microscopic mechanisms of dephasing in a non-trivial model. We show that electron-electron interactions described by the Hubbard Hamiltonian lead to strong dephasing: the transmission probability at flux $\Phi=\pi$ is high even at small interaction strength. In addition to inelastic scattering, we identify two energy conserving mechanisms of dephasing: symmetry-changing and spin-flip scattering. The many-electron state on the ring determines which of these mechanisms will be at play: transmitted current can occur either in elastic or inelastic channels, with or without changing the spin of the scattering electron.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Recent experimental results in sub- and near-barrier heavy ion fusion reactions

Recent advances obtained in the field of near and sub-barrier heavy-ion fusion reactions are reviewed. Emphasis is given to the results obtained in the last decade, and focus will be mainly on the experimental work performed concerning the influence of transfer channels on fusion cross sections and the hindrance phenomenon far below the barrier. Indeed, early data of sub-barrier fusion taught us that cross sections may strongly depend on the low-energy collective modes of the colliding nuclei, and, possibly, on couplings to transfer channels. The coupled-channels (CC) model has been quite successful in the interpretation of the experimental evidences. Fusion barrier distributions often yield the fingerprint of the relevant coupled channels. Recent results obtained by using radioactive beams are reported. At deep sub-barrier energies, the slope of the excitation function in a semi-logarithmic plot keeps increasing in many cases and standard CC calculations over-predict the cross sections. This was named a hindrance phenomenon, and its physical origin is still a matter of debate. Recent theoretical developments suggest that this effect, at least partially, may be a consequence of the Pauli exclusion principle. The hindrance may have far-reaching consequences in astrophysics where fusion of light systems determines stellar evolution during the carbon and oxygen burning stages, and yields important information for exotic reactions that take place in the inner crust of accreting neutron stars.Comment: 40 pages, 63 figures, review paper accepted for EPJ

Green function techniques in the treatment of quantum transport at the molecular scale

The theoretical investigation of charge (and spin) transport at nanometer length scales requires the use of advanced and powerful techniques able to deal with the dynamical properties of the relevant physical systems, to explicitly include out-of-equilibrium situations typical for electrical/heat transport as well as to take into account interaction effects in a systematic way. Equilibrium Green function techniques and their extension to non-equilibrium situations via the Keldysh formalism build one of the pillars of current state-of-the-art approaches to quantum transport which have been implemented in both model Hamiltonian formulations and first-principle methodologies. We offer a tutorial overview of the applications of Green functions to deal with some fundamental aspects of charge transport at the nanoscale, mainly focusing on applications to model Hamiltonian formulations.Comment: Tutorial review, LaTeX, 129 pages, 41 figures, 300 references, submitted to Springer series "Lecture Notes in Physics

Update on the correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with nearby extragalactic matter

Data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory through 31 August 2007 showed evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min energy threshold, \nobreak{$6\times 10^{19}$eV}. The anisotropy was measured by the fraction of arrival directions that are less than $3.1^\circ$ from the position of an active galactic nucleus within 75 Mpc (using the V\'eron-Cetty and V\'eron $12^{\rm th}$ catalog). An updated measurement of this fraction is reported here using the arrival directions of cosmic rays recorded above the same energy threshold through 31 December 2009. The number of arrival directions has increased from 27 to 69, allowing a more precise measurement. The correlating fraction is $(38^{+7}_{-6})$, compared with $21$ expected for isotropic cosmic rays. This is down from the early estimate of $(69^{+11}_{-13})$. The enlarged set of arrival directions is examined also in relation to other populations of nearby extragalactic objects: galaxies in the 2 Microns All Sky Survey and active galactic nuclei detected in hard X-rays by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. A celestial region around the position of the radiogalaxy Cen A has the largest excess of arrival directions relative to isotropic expectations. The 2-point autocorrelation function is shown for the enlarged set of arrival directions and compared to the isotropic expectation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics on 31 August 201