Doping change and distortion effect on double-exchange ferromagnetism

Doping change and distortion effect on the double-exchange ferromagnetism are studied within a simplified double-exchange model. The presence of distortion is modelled by introducing the Falicov-Kimball interaction between itinerant electrons and classical variables. By employing the dynamical mean-field theory the charge and spin susceptibility are exactly calculated. It is found that there is a competition between the double-exchange induced ferromagnetism and disorder-order transition. At low temperature various long-range order phases such as charge ordered and segregated phases coexist with ferromagnetism depending on doping and distortion. A rich phase diagram is obtained.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Metal-insulator transition in the quarter- filled frustrated checkerboard lattice

We study the electronic structure and correlations in the geometrically frustrated two dimensional checkerboard lattice. In the large U limit considered here we start from an extended Hubbard model of spinless fermions at half-filling. We investigate the model within two distinct Green's function approaches: In the first approach a single-site representation decoupling scheme is used that includes the effect of nearest neighbor charge fluctuations. In the second approach a cluster representation leading to a 'multiorbital' model is investigated which includes intra-cluster correlations exactly and those between clusters on a mean field basis. It is demonstrated that with increasing nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction V both approaches lead to a metal-insulator transition with an associated 'Mott-Hubbard' like gap caused by V. Within the single site approach we also explore the possibility of charge order. Furthermore we investigate the evolution of the quasiparticle bands as funtion of V

Initial correlations in nonequilibrium Falicov-Kimball model

The Keldysh boundary problem in a nonequilibrium Falicov-Kimball model in infinite dimensions is studied within the truncated and self-consistent perturbation theories, and the dynamical mean-field theory. Within the model the system is started in equilibrium, and later a uniform electric field is turned on. The Kadanoff-Baym-Wagner equations for the nonequilibrium Green functions are derived, and numerically solved. The contributions of initial correlations are studied by monitoring the system evolution. It is found that the initial correlations are essential for establishing full electron correlations of the system and independent on the starting time of preparing the system in equilibrium. By examining the contributions of the initial correlations to the electric current and the double occupation, we find that the contributions are small in relation to the total value of those physical quantities when the interaction is weak, and significantly increase when the interaction is strong. The neglect of initial correlations may cause artifacts in the nonequilibrium properties of the system, especially in the strong interaction case

Biomechanical assessment of myocardial infarction using optical coherence elastography

Myocardial infarction (MI) leads to cardiomyocyte loss, impaired cardiac function, and heart failure. Molecular genetic analyses of myocardium in mouse models of ischemic heart disease have provided great insight into the mechanisms of heart regeneration, which is promising for novel therapies after MI. Although biomechanical factors are considered an important aspect in cardiomyocyte proliferation, there are limited methods for mechanical assessment of the heart in the mouse MI model. This prevents further understanding the role of tissue biomechanics in cardiac regeneration. Here we report optical coherence elastography (OCE) of the mouse heart after MI. Surgical ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery was performed to induce an infarction in the heart. Two OCE methods with assessment of the direction-dependent elastic wave propagation and the spatially resolved displacement damping provide complementary analyses of the left ventricle. In comparison with sham, the infarcted heart features a fibrotic scar region with reduced elastic wave velocity, decreased natural frequency, and less mechanical anisotropy at the tissue level at the sixth week post-MI, suggesting lower and more isotropic stiffness. Our results indicate that OCE can be utilized for nondestructive biomechanical characterization of MI in the mouse model, which could serve as a useful tool in the study of heart repair

On the performance of NOMA in SWIPT systems with power-splitting relaying

This paper presents a decode-and-forward (DF) relaying protocol, namely power-splitting relaying (PSR), employed at relay nodes in NOMA technique. The PSR is considered for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) systems. The relaying node is both energy harvesting from the received radio frequency (RF) signal and information forwarding to the destination. The outage performance and ergodic rate of the PSR are analyzed to realize the impacts of energy harvesting time, energy harvesting efficiency, power splitting ratio, source data rate, and the distance between the source and relay nodes. The simulation results show that NOMA schemes have the lower outage probability compared to the that of the conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) schemes at the destination node. Numerical results are provided to verify the findings

Class based Influence Functions for Error Detection

Influence functions (IFs) are a powerful tool for detecting anomalous examples in large scale datasets. However, they are unstable when applied to deep networks. In this paper, we provide an explanation for the instability of IFs and develop a solution to this problem. We show that IFs are unreliable when the two data points belong to two different classes. Our solution leverages class information to improve the stability of IFs. Extensive experiments show that our modification significantly improves the performance and stability of IFs while incurring no additional computational cost.Comment: Thang Nguyen-Duc, Hoang Thanh-Tung, and Quan Hung Tran are co-first authors of this paper. 12 pages, 12 figures. Accepted to ACL 202

Monitoring for Plasmodium falciparum drug resistance to artemisinin and artesunate in Binh Phuoc Province, Vietnam: 1998-2009

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Artemisinin derivatives have been used for malaria treatment in Vietnam since 1989. Reported malaria cases have decreased from 1,672,000 with 4,650 deaths in 1991, to 91,635 with 43 deaths in 2006. Current national guidelines recommend artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), although artesunate is still available as monotherapy through the private sector. Recent reports suggest that effectiveness of ACT and artesunate monotherapy has declined in western Cambodia. This study examined <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>resistance patterns over 10 years in southwest Vietnam in infected patients treated with artemisinin compounds.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was conducted in two communes in Phuoc Long district, Binh Phuoc province, 100 km west of the Cambodian border. This was chosen as a likely site for emerging artemisinin resistance because of the high prevalence of <it>P. falciparum </it>malaria, and the length of time that artemisinin had been in use. In <it>vivo </it>and <it>in vitro </it>monitoring of <it>P. falciparum </it>susceptibility to anti-malarial drugs was conducted in 1998, 2001, 2004/5, and 2008/9. Patients with confirmed <it>P. falciparum </it>malaria received therapy with 5 or 7 days of artemisinin (1998 and 2001 respectively) or 7 days of artesunate</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the four surveys, 270 patients were recruited and treated. The mean parasite clearance times differed between 1998, 2001 and 2004/5 (1.8, 2.3 and 2.1 days, P < 0.01) but not between 1998 and 2008/2009. The mean parasite clearance times were correlated with parasite density at day 0 (r = 0.4; P < 0.001). Treatment failure rates after PCR adjustment were 13.8%, 2.9%, 1.2%, and 0% respectively. Susceptibility of <it>P. falciparum </it>to artemisinin in <it>in vitro </it>tests was stable during the period, except for a rise in EC90 and EC99 in 2001.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study showed stable levels of <it>P. falciparum </it>sensitivity to artemisinin compounds in the two sites over a ten-year period. The introduction of ACT in this area in 2003 may have protected against the development of artemisinin resistance. Adherence to the latest WHO and Vietnamese guidelines, which recommend ACT as first-line therapy in all malarious areas, and continued monitoring along the Vietnam-Cambodia border will be essential to prevent the spread of artemisinin resistance in Vietnam.</p

Live Poultry Exposures, Hong Kong and Hanoi, 2006

Since 1997, the largest epidemic of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) ever recorded has caused 172 human and several billion bird deaths. Recently administered questionnaires determined that live poultry exposures have declined by ≈63% in Hong Kong since 2004 and that, in Vietnam, domestic backyard exposures to poultry are likely more important than retail exposures

Compact approximation stencils based on integrated flat radial basis functions

This paper presents improved ways of constructing compact integrated radial basis function (CIRBF) stencils, based on extended precision, definite integrals, higher-order IRBFs and minimum number of derivative equations, to enhance their performance over large values of the RBF width. The proposed approaches are numerically verified through second-order linear differential equations in one and two variables. Significant improvements in the matrix condition number, solution accuracy and convergence rate with grid refinement over the usual approaches are achieved