862 research outputs found
Adsorbed 3d transition metal atoms and clusters on Au(111):Signatures derived from one electron calculations
The spectroscopic characteristics of systems with adsorbed d impurities on
noble metal surfaces should depend on the number and geometric arrangement of
the adsorbed atoms and also on their d band filling. Recent experiments using
scanning tunneling microscopy have probed the electronic structure of all 3d
transition metal impurities and also of Co dimers adsorbed on Au(111),
providing a rich variety of results. In this contribution we correlate those
experimental results with ab-initio calculations and try to establish necessary
conditions for observing a Kondo resonance when using the single impurity
Anderson model. We find that the relevant orbitals at the STM tip position,
when it is on top of an impurity, are the dThe spectroscopic characteristics of
systems with adsorbed d impurities on noble metal surfaces should depend on the
number and geometric arrangement of the adsorbed atoms and also on their d band
filling. Recent experiments using scanning tunneling microscopy have probed the
electronic structure of all 3d transition metal impurities and also of Co
dimers adsorbed on Au(111), providing a rich variety of results. In this
contribution we correlate those experimental results with ab-initio
calculations and try to establish necessary conditions for observing a Kondo
resonance when using the single impurity Anderson model. We find that the
relevant orbitals at the STM tip position, when it is on top of an impurity,
are the d orbitals with m=0 and that the energy of these levels with respect to
the Fermi energy determines the possibility of observing a spectroscopic
feature due to the impurity. orbitals with m=0 and that the energy of these
levels with respect to the Fermi energy determines the possibility of observing
a spectroscopic feature due to the impurity
Impurities, Quantum Interference and Quantum Phase Transitions in s-wave superconductors
We study the effects of quantum interference in impurity structures
consisting of two or three magnetic impurities that are located on the surface
of an s-wave superconductor. By using a self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes
formalism, we show that quantum interference leads to characteristic signatures
not only in the local density of states (LDOS), but also in the spatial form of
the superconducting order parameter. We demonstrate that the signatures of
quantum interference in the LDOS are qualitatively, and to a large extent
quantitatively unaffected by the suppression of the superconducting order
parameter near impurities, which illustrates the robustness of quantum
interference phenomena. Moreover, we show that by changing the interimpurity
distance, or the impurities' scattering strength, the s-wave superconductor can
be tuned through a series of first order quantum phase transitions in which the
spin polarization of its ground state changes. In contrast to the single
impurity case, this transition is not necessarily accompanied by a -phase
shift of the order parameter, and can in certain cases even lead to its
enhancement. Our results demonstrate that the superconductor's LDOS, its spin
state, and the spatial form of the superconducting order parameter are
determined by a subtle interplay between the relative positions of the
impurities and their scattering strength
Ab initio study of magnetism at the TiO2/LaAlO3 interface
In this paper we study the possible relation between the electronic and
magnetic structure of the TiO2/LaAlO3 interface and the unexpected magnetism
found in undoped TiO2 films grown on LaAlO. We concentrate on the role
played by structural relaxation and interfacial oxygen vacancies.
LaAlO3 has a layered structure along the (001) direction with alternating LaO
and AlO2 planes, with nominal charges of +1 and -1, respectively. As a
consequence of that, an oxygen deficient TiO2 film with anatase structure will
grow preferently on the AlO2 surface layer. We have therefore performed
ab-initio calculations for superlattices with TiO2/AlO2 interfaces with
interfacial oxygen vacancies. Our main results are that vacancies lead to a
change in the valence state of neighbour Ti atoms but not necessarily to a
magnetic solution and that the appearance of magnetism depends also on
structural details, such as second neighbor positions. These results are
obtained using both the LSDA and LSDA+U approximations.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Materials Scienc
Appearance of room temperature ferromagnetism in Cu-doped TiO films
In recent years there has been an intense search for room temperature
ferromagnetism in doped dilute semiconductors, which have many potentially
applications in spintronics and optoelectronics. We report here the unexpected
observation of significant room temperature ferromagnetism in a semiconductor
doped with nonmagnetic impurities, Cu-doped TiO thin films grown by Pulsed
Laser Deposition. The magnetic moment, calculated from the magnetization
curves, resulted surprisingly large, about 1.5 per Cu atom. A large
magnetic moment was also obtained from ab initio calculations using the
supercell method for TiO with Cu impurities, but only if an oxygen vacancy
in the nearest-neighbour shell of Cu was present. This result suggests that the
role of oxygen vacancies is crucial for the appearance of ferromagnetism. The
calculations also predict that Cu doping favours the formation of oxygen
vacancies.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Comm.
The isolation of plasmids containing DNA complementary to messenger RNA for variant surface glycoproteins of Trypanosoma brucei.
We have isolated poly(A)+ RNA from four antigenic variants (117, 118, 121, 221) of one clone of Trypanosoma brucei. Translation of these poly(A)+ RNAs in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate gave rise to proteins that could be precipitated with antisera against homologous variant surface glycoprotein, the protein responsible for antigenic variation in trypanosomes. From the electrophoretic mobility of these in vitro products in sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) gels we infer that variant surface glycoproteins (VSGs) are made as pre-proteins, which require trimming to yield mature VSGs. The total translation products from the four poly(A)+ RNAs produced a complex set of bands on SDS gels, which only differed in the region where the variant pre-glycoproteins migrated. The only detectable variation in the messenger RNA populations of these variants is, therefore, in the messenger RNA for variant pre-glycoproteins. We have made duplex DNA copies of these poly(A)+ RNAs, linked the complementary DNA to plasmid pBR322 by GC tailing and cloned this recombinant DNA in Escherichia coli. Colony hybridization with complementary DNA made on poly(A)+ RNA showed that 7--10% of the colonies contained DNA that hybridized only with the homologous probe. Plasmid DNA was isolated from ten such colonies (two or three of each variant complementary DNA), bound to diazobenzyloxymethyl-cellulose (DBM) paper and used to select complementary messenger RNA from total poly(A)+ RNA by hybridization. In eight cases the RNA recovered from the filter gave variant pre-glycoprotein as the predominant product of in vitro translation. Poly(A)+ RNA from each of the variants only hydridized to the homologous complementary DNA in filter hybridizations. Each trypanosome variant, therefore, contains no detectable messenger RNAs for the three heterologous variant-specific glycoproteins tested. We conclude from this lack of cross-hybridization that antigenic diversity in trypanosomes, unlike antibody diversity in mammals, does not involve the linkage of a repertoire of genes for the variable N-terminal half to a single gene for the C-termina
Prolactin
During an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) glucose and insulin levels were measured in 26 patients with prolactin-producing pituitary tumours without growth hormone excess. Basal glucose and insulin levels did not differ from the values of an age-matched control group. After glucose load the hyperprolactinaemic patients showed a decrease in glucose tolerance and a hyperinsulinaemia. Bromocriptine (CB 154), which suppressed PRL, improved glucose tolerance and decreased insulin towards normal in a second OGTT. — Human PRL or CB 154 had no significant influence on insulin release due to glucose in the perfused rat pancreas. — These findings suggest a diabetogenic effect of PRL. CB 154 might be a useful drug in improving glucose utilization in hormone-active pituitary tumours
Theory of the Fano Resonance in the STM Tunneling Density of States due to a Single Kondo Impurity
The conduction electron density of states nearby single magnetic impurities,
as measured recently by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), is calculated,
taking into account tunneling into conduction electron states only. The Kondo
effect induces a narrow Fano resonance in the conduction electron density of
states, while scattering off the d-level generates a weakly energy dependent
Friedel oscillation. The line shape varies with the distance between STM tip
and impurity, in qualitative agreement with experiments, but is very sensitive
to details of the band structure. For a Co impurity the experimentally observed
width and shift of the Kondo resonance are in accordance with those obtained
from a combination of band structure and strongly correlated calculations.Comment: 4 pages, ReVTeX + 4 figures (Encapsulated Postscript), submitted to
PR
The draft genome of the C\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e panicoid grass species \u3ci\u3eDichanthelium oligosanthes\u3c/i\u3e
Background: Comparisons between C3 and C4 grasses often utilize C3 species from the subfamilies Ehrhartoideae or Pooideae and C4 species from the subfamily Panicoideae, two clades that diverged over 50 million years ago. The divergence of the C3 panicoid grass Dichanthelium oligosanthes from the independent C4 lineages represented by Setaria viridis and Sorghum bicolor occurred approximately 15 million years ago, which is significantly more recent than members of the Bambusoideae, Ehrhartoideae, and Pooideae subfamilies. D. oligosanthes is ideally placed within the panicoid clade for comparative studies of C3 and C4 grasses.
Results: We report the assembly of the nuclear and chloroplast genomes of D. oligosanthes, from high-throughput short read sequencing data and a comparative transcriptomics analysis of the developing leaf of D. oligosanthes, S. viridis, and S. bicolor. Physiological and anatomical characterizations verified that D. oligosanthes utilizes the C3 pathway for carbon fixation and lacks Kranz anatomy. Expression profiles of transcription factors along developing leaves of D. oligosanthes and S. viridis were compared with previously published data from S. bicolor, Zea mays, and Oryza sativa to identify a small suite of transcription factors that likely acquired functions specifically related to C4 photosynthesis.
Conclusions: The phylogenetic location of D. oligosanthes makes it an ideal C3 plant for comparative analysis of C4 evolution in the panicoid grasses. This genome will not only provide a better C3 species for comparisons with C4 panicoid grasses, but also highlights the power of using high-throughput sequencing to address questions in evolutionary biology
Blocking inos and endoplasmic reticulum stress synergistically improves insulin resistance in mice
Recent data show that iNOS has an essential role in ER stress in obesity. However, whether iNOS is sufficient to account for obesity-induced ER stress and Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) has not yet been investigated. In the present study, we used iNOS knockout mice to investigate whether high-fat diet (HFD) can still induce residual ER stress-associated insulin resistance. Methods: For this purpose, we used the intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (GTT), euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp, western blotting and qPCR in liver, muscle, and adipose tissue of iNOS KO and control mice on HFD. Results: The results of the present study demonstrated that, in HFD fed mice, iNOS-induced alteration in insulin signaling is an essential mechanism of insulin resistance in muscle, suggesting that iNOS may represent an important target that could be blocked in order to improve insulin sensitivity in this tissue. However, in liver and adipose tissue, the insulin resistance induced by HFD was only partially dependent on iNOS, and, even in the presence of genetic or pharmacological blockade of iNOS, a clear ER stress associated with altered insulin signaling remained evident in these tissues. When this ER stress was blocked pharmacologically, insulin signaling was improved, and a complete recovery of glucose tolerance was achieved. Conclusions: Taken together, these results reinforce the tissue-specific regulation of insulin signaling in obesity, with iNOS being sufficient to account for insulin resistance in muscle, but in liver and adipose tissue ER stress and insulin resistance can be induced by both iNOS-dependent and iNOS-independent mechanisms62206218FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORCNPQ – CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO2012/15009-0; 2016/07122-2sem informaçãosem informaçã
Effect of Substitutional Impurities on the Electronic States and Conductivity of Crystals with Half-filled Band
Low temperature quantum corrections to the density of states (DOS) and the
conductivity are examined for a two-dimensional(2D) square crystal with
substitutional impurities. By summing the leading logarithmic corrections to
the DOS its energy dependence near half-filling is obtained. It is shown that
substitutional impurities do not suppress the van Hove singularity at the
middle of the band, however they change its energy dependence strongly. Weak
disorder due to substitutional impurities in the three-dimensional simple cubic
lattice results in a shallow dip in the center of the band. The calculation of
quantum corrections to the conductivity of a 2D lattice shows that the
well-known logarithmic localization correction exists for all band fillings.
Furthermore the magnitude of the correction increases as half-filling is
approached. The evaluation of the obtained analytical results shows evidence
for delocalized states in the center of the band of a 2D lattice with
substitutional impurities
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