754 research outputs found
The Generalized Stochastic Microdosimetric Model: the main formulation
The present work introduces a rigorous stochastic model, named Generalized
Stochastic Microdosimetric Model (GSM2), to describe biological damage induced
by ionizing radiation. Starting from microdosimetric spectra of energy
deposition in tissue, we derive a master equation describing the time evolution
of the probability density function of lethal and potentially lethal DNA damage
induced by radiation in a cell nucleus. The resulting probability distribution
is not required to satisfy any a priori assumption. Furthermore, we generalized
the master equation to consider damage induced by a continuous dose delivery.
In addition, spatial features and damage movement inside the nucleus have been
taken into account. In doing so, we provide a general mathematical setting to
fully describe the spatiotemporal damage formation and evolution in a cell
nucleus. Finally, we provide numerical solutions of the master equation
exploiting Monte Carlo simulations to validate the accuracy of GSM2.
Development of GSM2 can lead to improved modeling of radiation damage to both
tumor and normal tissues, and thereby impact treatment regimens for better
tumor control and reduced normal tissue toxicities
A review of Pangaea dispersal and Large Igneous Provinces – In search of a causative mechanism
The breakup of Pangaea was accompanied by extensive, episodic, magmatic activity. Several Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) formed, such as the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) and the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP). Here, we review the chronology of Pangaea breakup and related large-scale magmatism. We review the Triassic formation of the Central Atlantic Ocean, the breakup between East and West Gondwana in the Middle Jurassic, the Early Cretaceous opening of the South Atlantic, the Cretaceous separation of India from Antarctica, and finally the formation of the North Atlantic in the Mesozoic-Cenozoic. We demonstrate that throughout the dispersal of Pangaea, major volcanism typically occurs distal from the locus of rift initiation and initial oceanic crust accretion. There is no location where extension propagates away from a newly formed LIP. Instead, LIPs are coincident with major lithosphere-scale shear movements, aborted rifts and splinters of continental crust rifted far out into the oceanic domain. These observations suggest that a fundamental reappraisal of the causes and consequences of Gondwana-breakup-related LIPs is in order
Numerical study of one-dimensional and interacting Bose-Einstein condensates in a random potential
We present a detailed numerical study of the effect of a disordered potential
on a confined one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate, in the framework of a
mean-field description. For repulsive interactions, we consider the
Thomas-Fermi and Gaussian limits and for attractive interactions the behavior
of soliton solutions. We find that the disorder average spatial extension of
the stationary density profile decreases with an increasing strength of the
disordered potential both for repulsive and attractive interactions among
bosons. In the Thomas Fermi limit, the suppression of transport is accompanied
by a strong localization of the bosons around the state k=0 in momentum space.
The time dependent density profiles differ considerably in the cases we have
considered. For attractive Bose-Einstein condensates, a bright soliton exists
with an overall unchanged shape, but a disorder dependent width. For weak
disorder, the soliton moves on and for a stronger disorder, it bounces back and
forth between high potential barriers.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, few typos correcte
The determinants of hotels' marketing managers' green marketing behaviour
Little is known about the factors underlying the pro-environmental behaviour of marketing managers. This paper explores the determinants of green marketing practices in the Red Sea hotel sector in Egypt. The research model assesses green marketing practices against the personal and organisational values of the marketing managers, together with a range of organisational and demographic variables expected to influence hotels' environmental behaviour. From a valid sample of 89 marketing managers responsible for 194 hotels, it was found that organisational contextual variables, and in particular targeting Western tourists, being affiliated to an international hotel chain and the marketers' own demographics, including age, academic subject studied and gender, were the best predictors of more proactive green marketing. Personal environmental values did not explain the pro-environmental behaviour of marketers, and the organisational environmental values that had explained part of their ethical behaviour had resulted from voluntarism rather than utilitarian or conformance-based values. Government policies also appeared to be ineffective determinants. The implications for green marketing practices are also discussed. © 2010 Taylor & Francis
Coupled surface plasmons and optical guided wave exploration of near-surface director profile
Copyright © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. This is the published version of an article published in New Journal of Physics Vol. 9, article 49. DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/9/3/049For a liquid crystal (LC) cell with thin silver claddings it is possible, using a high index coupling prism, to excite both surface plasmon modes and ordinary optical guided modes. In a situation where the tilt of the director varies from homogeneous to homeotropic through the cell, then for p-polarized incident radiation the p-polarized surface plasmon mode and the ordinary guided waves may couple to each other. When the plane containing the director is normal to the incident plane, there is also polarization conversion leading to strong coupling between the p-polarized surface plasmon and s-like guided modes. From theoretical analyses together with numerical modelling it is shown how this coupling between the surface plasmon mode and guided waves gives a high sensitivity to the surface director tilt profile near the walls, higher than that of the surface plasmon mode alone. Experimental confirmation of this has been realized using a hybrid aligned nematic (HAN) LC cell with the director in a plane normal to the incident plane. The results fully confirm the model predictions showing that this coupling of surface plasmons to guided waves provides a powerful tool for near-surface director studies
Expert chess memory: Revisiting the chunking hypothesis
After reviewing the relevant theory on chess expertise, this paper re-examines experimentally the finding of Chase and Simon (1973a) that the differences in ability of chess players at different skill levels to copy and to recall positions are attributable to the experts' storage of thousands of chunks (patterned clusters of pieces) in long-term memory. Despite important differences in the experimental apparatus, the data of the present experiments regarding latencies and chess relations between successively placed pieces are highly correlated with those of Chase and Simon. We conclude that the 2-second inter-chunk interval used to define chunk boundaries is robust, and that chunks have psychological reality. We discuss the possible reasons why Masters in our new study used substantially larger chunks than the Master of the 1973 study, and extend the chunking theory to take account of the evidence for large retrieval structures (templates) in long-term memory
Plasma neurofilament light, glial fibrillary acidic protein and lysosphingolipid biomarkers for pharmacodynamics and disease monitoring of GM2 and GM1 gangliosidoses patients
GM2 and GM1 gangliosidoses are genetic, neurodegenerative lysosomal sphingolipid storage disorders. The earlier the age of onset, the more severe the clinical presentation and progression, with infantile, juvenile and late-onset presentations broadly delineated into separate phenotypic subtypes. Gene and substrate reduction therapies, both of which act directly on sphingolipidosis are entering clinical trials for treatment of these disorders. Simple to use biomarkers for disease monitoring are urgently required to support and expedite these clinical trials. Here, lysosphingolipid and protein biomarkers of sphingolipidosis and neuropathology respectively, were assessed in plasma samples from 33 GM2 gangliosidosis patients, 13 GM1 gangliosidosis patients, and compared to 66 controls. LysoGM2 and lysoGM1 were detectable in 31/33 GM2 gangliosidosis and 12/13 GM1 gangliosidosis patient samples respectively, but not in any controls. Levels of the axonal damage marker Neurofilament light (NF-L) were highly elevated in both GM2 and GM1 gangliosidosis patient plasma samples, with no overlap with controls. Levels of the astrocytosis biomarker Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were also elevated in samples from both patient populations, albeit with some overlap with controls. In GM2 gangliosidosis patient plasma NF-L, Tau, GFAP and lysoGM2 were all most highly elevated in infantile onset patients, indicating a relationship to severity and phenotype. Plasma NF-L and liver lysoGM2 were also elevated in a GM2 gangliosidosis mouse model, and were lowered by treatment with a drug that slowed disease progression. These results indicate that lysosphingolipids and NF-L/GFAP have potential to monitor pharmacodynamics and pathogenic processes respectively in GM2 and GM1 gangliosidoses patients
Disorder-induced trapping versus Anderson localization in Bose-Einstein condensates expanding in disordered potentials
We theoretically investigate the localization of an expanding Bose-Einstein
condensate with repulsive atom-atom interactions in a disordered potential. We
focus on the regime where the initial inter-atomic interactions dominate over
the kinetic energy and the disorder. At equilibrium in a trapping potential and
for small disorder, the condensate shows a Thomas-Fermi shape modified by the
disorder. When the condensate is released from the trap, a strong suppression
of the expansion is obtained in contrast to the situation in a periodic
potential with similar characteristics. This effect crucially depends on both
the momentum distribution of the expanding BEC and the strength of the
disorder. For strong disorder, the suppression of the expansion results from
the fragmentation of the core of the condensate and from classical reflections
from large modulations of the disordered potential in the tails of the
condensate. We identify the corresponding disorder-induced trapping scenario
for which large atom-atom interactions and strong reflections from single
modulations of the disordered potential play central roles. For weak disorder,
the suppression of the expansion signals the onset of Anderson localization,
which is due to multiple scattering from the modulations of the disordered
potential. We compute analytically the localized density profile of the
condensate and show that the localization crucially depends on the correlation
function of the disorder. In particular, for speckle potentials the long-range
correlations induce an effective mobility edge in 1D finite systems. Numerical
calculations performed in the mean-field approximation support our analysis for
both strong and weak disorder.Comment: New Journal of Physics; focus issue "Quantum Correlations in Tailored
Matter - Common perspectives of mesoscopic systems and quantum gases"; 30
pages, 10 figure
An Adaptive Interacting Wang-Landau Algorithm for Automatic Density Exploration
While statisticians are well-accustomed to performing exploratory analysis in
the modeling stage of an analysis, the notion of conducting preliminary
general-purpose exploratory analysis in the Monte Carlo stage (or more
generally, the model-fitting stage) of an analysis is an area which we feel
deserves much further attention. Towards this aim, this paper proposes a
general-purpose algorithm for automatic density exploration. The proposed
exploration algorithm combines and expands upon components from various
adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, with the Wang-Landau algorithm at
its heart. Additionally, the algorithm is run on interacting parallel chains --
a feature which both decreases computational cost as well as stabilizes the
algorithm, improving its ability to explore the density. Performance is studied
in several applications. Through a Bayesian variable selection example, the
authors demonstrate the convergence gains obtained with interacting chains. The
ability of the algorithm's adaptive proposal to induce mode-jumping is
illustrated through a trimodal density and a Bayesian mixture modeling
application. Lastly, through a 2D Ising model, the authors demonstrate the
ability of the algorithm to overcome the high correlations encountered in
spatial models.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figures (the supplementary materials are included as
appendices
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