286 research outputs found
Ground state properties of fluxlines in a disordered environment
A new numerical method to calculate exact ground states of multi-fluxline
systems with quenched disorder is presented, which is based on the minimum cost
flow algorithm from combinatorial optimization. We discuss several models that
can be studied with this method including their specific implementations,
physically relevant observables and results: 1) the N-line model with N
fluxlines (or directed polymers) in a d-dimensional environment with point
and/or columnar disorder and hard or soft core repulsion; 2) the vortex glass
model for a disordered superconductor in the strong screening limit and 3) the
Sine-Gordon model with random pase shifts in the strong coupling limit.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 3 eps-figures include
Application of a minimum cost flow algorithm to the three-dimensional gauge glass model with screening
We study the three-dimensional gauge glass model in the limit of strong
screening by using a minimum cost flow algorithm, enabling us to obtain EXACT
ground states for systems of linear size L<=48. By calculating the domain-wall
energy, we obtain the stiffness exponent theta = -0.95+/-0.03, indicating the
absence of a finite temperature phase transition, and the thermal exponent
nu=1.05+/-0.03. We discuss the sensitivity of the ground state with respect to
small perturbations of the disorder and determine the overlap length, which is
characterized by the chaos exponent zeta=3.9+/-0.2, implying strong chaos.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 2 eps-figures include
Superconductor-to-Normal Phase Transition in a Vortex Glass Model: Numerical Evidence for a New Percolation Universality Class
The three-dimensional strongly screened vortex-glass model is studied
numerically using methods from combinatorial optimization. We focus on the
effect of disorder strength on the ground state and found the existence of a
disorder-driven normal-to-superconducting phase transition. The transition
turns out to be a geometrical phase transition with percolating vortex loops in
the ground state configuration. We determine the critical exponents and provide
evidence for a new universality class of correlated percolation.Comment: 11 pages LaTeX using IOPART.cls, 11 eps-figures include
Numerical Study of Order in a Gauge Glass Model
The XY model with quenched random phase shifts is studied by a T=0 finite
size defect energy scaling method in 2d and 3d. The defect energy is defined by
a change in the boundary conditions from those compatible with the true ground
state configuration for a given realization of disorder. A numerical technique,
which is exact in principle, is used to evaluate this energy and to estimate
the stiffness exponent . This method gives in
2d and in 3d, which are considerably larger than
previous estimates, strongly suggesting that the lower critical dimension is
less than three. Some arguments in favor of these new estimates are given.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revtex. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
A screen of chemical modifications identifies position-specific modification by UNA to most potently reduce siRNA off-target effects
Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are now established as the preferred tool to inhibit gene function in mammalian cells yet trigger unintended gene silencing due to their inherent miRNA-like behavior. Such off-target effects are primarily mediated by the sequence-specific interaction between the siRNA seed regions (position 2–8 of either siRNA strand counting from the 5′-end) and complementary sequences in the 3′UTR of (off-) targets. It was previously shown that chemical modification of siRNAs can reduce off-targeting but only very few modifications have been tested leaving more to be identified. Here we developed a luciferase reporter-based assay suitable to monitor siRNA off-targeting in a high throughput manner using stable cell lines. We investigated the impact of chemically modifying single nucleotide positions within the siRNA seed on siRNA function and off-targeting using 10 different types of chemical modifications, three different target sequences and three siRNA concentrations. We found several differently modified siRNAs to exercise reduced off-targeting yet incorporation of the strongly destabilizing unlocked nucleic acid (UNA) modification into position 7 of the siRNA most potently reduced off-targeting for all tested sequences. Notably, such position-specific destabilization of siRNA–target interactions did not significantly reduce siRNA potency and is therefore well suited for future siRNA designs especially for applications in vivo where siRNA concentrations, expectedly, will be low
Efficient Reverse Transcription Using Locked Nucleic Acid Nucleotides towards the Evolution of Nuclease Resistant RNA Aptamers
Background: Modified nucleotides are increasingly being utilized in the de novo selection of aptamers for enhancing their drug-like character and abolishing the need for time consuming trial-and-error based post-selection modifications. Locked nucleic acid (LNA) is one of the most prominent and successful nucleic acid analogues because of its remarkable properties, and widely explored as building blocks in therapeutic oligonucleotides. Evolution of LNA-modified RNA aptamers requires an efficient reverse transcription method for PCR enrichment of the selected RNA aptamer candidates. Establishing this key step is a pre-requisite for performing LNA-modified RNA aptamer selection
Investigation of growth responses in saprophytic fungi to charred biomass
We present the results of a study testing the response of two saprophytic white-rot fungi species, Pleurotus pulmonarius and Coriolus versicolor, to charred biomass (charcoal) as a growth substrate. We used a combination of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, elemental abundance measurements, and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (<sup>13</sup>C and <sup>15</sup>N) to investigate fungal colonisation of control and incubated samples of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) wood, and charcoal from the same species produced at 300 °C and 400 °C. Both species of fungi colonise the surface and interior of wood and charcoals over time periods of less than 70 days; however, distinctly different growth forms are evident between the exterior and interior of the charcoal substrate, with hyphal penetration concentrated along lines of structural weakness. Although the fungi were able to degrade and metabolise the pine wood, charcoal does not form a readily available source of fungal nutrients at least for these species under the conditions used in this study
Current-voltage scaling of chiral and gauge-glass models of two-dimensional superconductors
The scaling behavior of the current-voltage characteristics of chiral and
gauge glass models of disordered superconductors, are studied numerically, in
two dimensions. For both models, the linear resistance is nonzero at finite
temperatures and the scaling analysis of the nonlinear resistivity is
consistent with a phase transition at T=0 temperature characterized by a
diverging correlation length and thermal critical
exponent . The values of , however, are found to be different
for the chiral and gauge glass models, suggesting different universality
classes, in contrast to the result obtained recently in three dimensions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures (included), to appear in Phys. Rev.
Defect-unbinding and the Bose-glass transition in layered superconductors
The low-field Bose-glass transition temperature in heavy-ion irradiated
Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8+d increases progressively with increasing density of
irradiation-induced columnar defects, but saturates for densities in excess of
1.5 x10^9 cm^-2. The maximum Bose-glass temperature corresponds to that above
which diffusion of two-dimensional pancake vortices between different vortex
lines becomes possible, and above which the ``line-like'' character of vortices
is lost. We develop a description of the Bose-glass line that is in excellent
quantitative agreement with the experimental line obtained for widely different
values of track density and material parameters.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Long Range Order at Low Temperature in Dipolar Spin Ice
Recently it has been suggested that long range magnetic dipolar interactions
are responsible for spin ice behavior in the Ising pyrochlore magnets and . We report here numerical
results on the low temperature properties of the dipolar spin ice model,
obtained via a new loop algorithm which greatly improves the dynamics at low
temperature. We recover the previously reported missing entropy in this model,
and find a first order transition to a long range ordered phase with zero total
magnetization at very low temperature. We discuss the relevance of these
results to and .Comment: New version of the manuscript. Now contains 3 POSTSCRIPT figures as
opposed to 2 figures. Manuscript contains a more detailed discussion of the
(i) nature of long-range ordered ground state, (ii) finite-size scaling
results of the 1st order transition into the ground state. Order of authors
has been changed. Resubmitted to Physical Review Letters Contact:
[email protected]
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