Simulation of organismic morphology and behavior by synthetic poly-alpha-amino acids

Simulation of organismic morphology and behavior by synthetic poly-amino acid

Potentialities of proteinoids for nutritional investigation

Simultaneous synthesis of amino acids and proteinoid production for nutritional investigatio

Good Morning Carrie! / music by Chris Smith and Elmer Bowman; words by R. C. McPherson

Cover: caricature of an African American male playing banjo and serenading an African American female who is looking out from her window; a photo inset shows singer Edgar Atchison-Ely dressed as a woman; Publisher: Windsor Music Co. (New York)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_b/1014/thumbnail.jp

Electron-phonon coupling in the conventional superconductor YNi2_2B2_2C at high phonon energies studied by time-of-flight neutron spectroscopy

We report an inelastic neutron scattering investigation of phonons with energies up to 159 meV in the conventional superconductor YNi$_2$B$_2$C. Using the SWEEP mode, a newly developed time-of-flight technique involving the continuous rotation of a single crystal specimen, allowed us to measure a four dimensional volume in (Q,E) space and, thus, determine the dispersion surface and linewidths of the $A_{1g}$ (~ 102 meV) and $A_u$ (~ 159 meV) type phonon modes for the whole Brillouin zone. Despite of having linewidths of $\Gamma = 10 meV$, $A_{1g}$ modes do not strongly contribute to the total electron-phonon coupling constant $\lambda$. However, experimental linewidths show a remarkable agreement with ab-initio calculations over the complete phonon energy range demonstrating the accuracy of such calculations in a rare comparison to a comprehensive experimental data set.Comment: accepted for publication in PR

Psychological adaptation and recovery in youth with sarcoma: a qualitative study with practical implications for clinical care and research

Objectives: This study explored factors that play a role in psychological adaptation and recovery of young people with sarcoma. / Design: Qualitative study. / Setting: National Health Service hospitals in the UK. / Methods: Using purposive sampling, participants were recruited for semistructured interviews over the telephone or face to face in order to answer questions about how cancer impacted various domains of their life. Data were analysed using a framework approach. / Results: Thirty participants, aged 15–39 years with primary sarcoma diagnosis provided in-depth accounts of their experience. Emerging themes from the interviews were grouped into two overarching themes that relate to one’s adaptation to illness: individual level and environmental level. The qualitative nature of our study sheds light on meaningful connections between various factors and their role in one’s psychological adaptation to sarcoma. We devised a visual matrix to illustrate how risk and protective factors in adaptation vary between and within individuals. / Conclusions: This study demonstrates that young people with sarcoma report an array of both positive and negative factors related to their illness experience. The route to recovery is a multifactorial process and a one-size-fits-all approach to psychosocial care proves inadequate. We propose that moving beyond the latent constructs of resilience and psychopathology towards a dynamic model of psychological adaptation and recovery in this population can result in optimisation of care. We offer some recommendations for professionals working with young people with sarcoma in clinic and research

Exchange-Striction Driven Ultrafast Nonthermal Lattice Dynamics in NiO

We use femtosecond electron diffraction to study ultrafast lattice dynamics in the highly correlated antiferromagnetic (AFM) semiconductor NiO. Using the scattering vector (Q) dependence of Bragg diffraction, we introduce Q-resolved effective temperatures describing the transient lattice. We identify a nonthermal lattice state with preferential displacement of O compared to Ni ions, which occurs within ∼0.3  ps and persists for 25 ps. We associate this with transient changes to the AFM exchange striction-induced lattice distortion, supported by the observation of a transient Q asymmetry of Friedel pairs. Our observation highlights the role of spin-lattice coupling in routes towards ultrafast control of spin order

Coherent Modulation of Quasiparticle Scattering Rates in a Photoexcited Charge-Density-Wave System

We present a complementary experimental and theoretical investigation of relaxation dynamics in the charge-density-wave (CDW) system TbTe3 after ultrafast optical excitation. Using time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we observe an unusual transient modulation of the relaxation rates of excited photocarriers. A detailed analysis of the electron self-energy based on a nonequilibrium Green's function formalism reveals that the phase space of electron-electron scattering is critically modulated by the photoinduced collective CDW excitation, providing an intuitive microscopic understanding of the observed dynamics

High-Frequency Spin Waves in YBa2Cu3O6.15

Pulsed neutron spectroscopy is used to make absolute measurements of the dynamic magnetic susceptibility of insulating YBa2Cu3O6.15. Acoustic and optical modes, derived from in- and out-of-phase oscillation of spins in adjacent CuO2 planes, dominate the spectra and are observed up to 250 meV. The optical modes appear first at 74 meV. Linear-spin-wave theory gives an excellent description of the data and yields intra- and inter-layer exchange constants of J_parallel =125 meV and J_perp = 11 meV respectively and a spin-wave intensity renormalization Z_chi = 0.4.Comment: postscript, 11 pages, 4 figures, Fig.2 fixe

Development of two patient self-reported measures on functional health Status (FOD) and Health-Related Quality of Life (QOD) in adults with oropharyngeal dysphagia using the Delphi technique

Introduction: Patient self-evaluation is an important aspect in the assessment of dysphagia and comprises both Functional Health Status (FHS) and Health-Related Quality of Life (HR-QoL). As many measures combine both FHS and HR-QoL, disease-related functioning cannot be distinguished from disease-related quality of life as experienced by the patient. Moreover, current patient self-reported measures are limited by poor and incomplete data on psychometric properties. Objective. This study aimed to establish content validity for the development of two new self-reported measures on FHS and HR-QoL in adults with oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD), in line with the psychometric taxonomy and guidelines from the COSMIN group (COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments). Methods. Using the Delphi technique, international expert consensus was achieved; participants and patients with dysphagia evaluated relevance, comprehensiveness, and comprehensibility of definitions of relevant constructs (i.e., dysphagia, FHS and HR-QoL) and potential items. Results: A total of 66 Delphi participants from 45 countries achieved consensus across two rounds. The Delphi study resulted in two prototype measures, the Functional health status measure of Oropharyngeal Dysphagia (FOD) and the health-related Quality of life measure of Oropharyngeal Dysphagia (QOD), consisting of 37 and 25 items, respectively. Minimal revisions were required based on feedback by patients. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of good content validity for both newly developed prototype measures FOD and QOD. Future studies will continue the process of refining the measures, and evaluate the remaining psychometric properties using both Classic Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) models.Otorhinolaryngolog

Ultrafast Laser-Induced Melting of Long-Range Magnetic Order in Multiferroic TbMnO3

We performed ultrafast time-resolved near-infrared pump, resonant soft X-ray diffraction probe measurements to investigate the coupling between the photoexcited electronic system and the spin cycloid magnetic order in multiferroic TbMnO3 at low temperatures. We observe melting of the long range antiferromagnetic order at low excitation fluences with a decay time constant of 22.3 +- 1.1 ps, which is much slower than the ~1 ps melting times previously observed in other systems. To explain the data we propose a simple model of the melting process where the pump laser pulse directly excites the electronic system, which then leads to an increase in the effective temperature of the spin system via a slower relaxation mechanism. Despite this apparent increase in the effective spin temperature, we do not observe changes in the wavevector q of the antiferromagnetic spin order that would typically correlate with an increase in temperature under equilibrium conditions. We suggest that this behavior results from the extremely low magnon group velocity that hinders a change in the spin-spiral wavevector on these time scales.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure