4,956 research outputs found
Effect of circular motion exercise on bone modeling and bone mass in young rats: An animal model of isometric exercise
The aims of the study are to develop a non-invasive animal model of circular motion exercise and to evaluate the effect of this type of exercise on bone turnover in young rats. The circular motion exercise simulates isometric exercise using an orbital shaker that oscillates at a frequency of 50 Hz and is capable of speeds from 0-400 rpm. A cage is fixed on top of the shaker and the animals are placed inside. When the shaker is turned on, the oscillatory movement should encourage the animals to hold on to the cage and use various muscle forces to stabilize themselves. Rats at 8 weeks of age were trained on the shaker for 6 weeks and static and dynamic histomorphometric analyses were performed for the proximal tibial metaphysis and the tibial shaft. The exercise resulted in no significant effect on animal body weight, gastrocnemius muscle weight and femoral weight. Although the bone formation rate of cancellous and cortical periosteum was increased by the exercise, trabecular bone volume was decreased. The exercise increased periosteal and marrow perimeters and the cross-sectional diameter of cortical bone from medial to lateral without a significant increase in the cortical bone area. These results suggest that circular motion exercise under force without movement or additional weight loading will cause bone-modeling drift with an increase in bone turnover to reconstruct bone shape in adaptation to the demand in strength. Since there is no additional weight loading during circular motion exercise, the net mass of bone is not increased. The bone mass lost in trabecular bone could possibly be due to a re-distribution of mineral to the cortical bone
Nanoscale strain engineering of giant pseudo-magnetic fields, valley polarization, and topological channels in graphene
The existence of nontrivial Berry phases associated with two inequivalent valleys in graphene provides interesting opportunities for investigating the valley-projected topological states. Examples of such studies include observation of anomalous quantum Hall effect in monolayer graphene, demonstration of topological zero modes in “molecular graphene” assembled by scanning tunneling microscopy, and detection of topological valley transport either in graphene superlattices or at bilayer graphene domain walls. However, all aforementioned experiments involved nonscalable approaches of either mechanically exfoliated flakes or atom-by-atom constructions. Here, we report an approach to manipulating the topological states in monolayer graphene via nanoscale strain engineering at room temperature. By placing strain-free monolayer graphene on architected nanostructures to induce global inversion symmetry breaking, we demonstrate the development of giant pseudo-magnetic fields (up to ~800 T), valley polarization, and periodic one-dimensional topological channels for protected propagation of chiral modes in strained graphene, thus paving a pathway toward scalable graphene-based valleytronics
Magnetotransport near a quantum critical point in a simple metal
We use geometric considerations to study transport properties, such as the
conductivity and Hall coefficient, near the onset of a nesting-driven spin
density wave in a simple metal. In particular, motivated by recent experiments
on vanadium-doped chromium, we study the variation of transport coefficients
with the onset of magnetism within a mean-field treatment of a model that
contains nearly nested electron and hole Fermi surfaces. We show that most
transport coefficients display a leading dependence that is linear in the
energy gap. The coefficient of the linear term, though, can be small. In
particular, we find that the Hall conductivity is essentially
unchanged, due to electron-hole compensation, as the system goes through the
quantum critical point. This conclusion extends a similar observation we made
earlier for the case of completely flat Fermi surfaces to the immediate
vicinity of the quantum critical point where nesting is present but not
perfect.Comment: 11 pages revtex, 4 figure
First-order magnetic and structural phase transitions in FeSeTe
We use bulk magnetic susceptibility, electronic specific heat, and neutron
scattering to study structural and magnetic phase transitions in FeSe%
Te. FeTe exhibits a first order phase transition near 67
K with a tetragonal to monoclinic structural transition and simultaneously
develops a collinear antiferromagnetic (AF) order responsible for the entropy
change across the transition. Systematic studies of FeSeTe system
reveal that the AF structure and lattice distortion in these materials are
different from those of FeAs-based pnictides. These results call into question
the conclusions of present density functional calculations, where
FeSeTe and FeAs-based pnictides are expected to have similar Fermi
surfaces and therefore the same spin-density-wave AF order.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Nanoscale strain engineering of graphene and graphene-based devices
Structural distortions in nano-materials can induce dramatic changes in their electronic properties. This situation is well manifested in graphene, a two-dimensional honeycomb structure of carbon atoms with only one atomic layer thickness. In particular, strained graphene can result in both charging effects and pseudo-magnetic fields, so that controlled strain on a perfect graphene lattice can be tailored to yield desirable electronic properties. Here, we describe the theoretical foundation for strain-engineering of the electronic properties of graphene, and then provide experimental evidence for strain-induced pseudo-magnetic fields and charging effects in monolayer graphene. We further demonstrate the feasibility of nano-scale strain engineering for graphene-based devices by means of theoretical simulations and nano-fabrication technology
Temperature-dependent soft x-ray photoemission and absorption studies of charge disproportionation in LaSrFeO
We have measured the temperature dependence of the photoemission and x-ray
absorption spectra of LaSrFeO (LSFO) epitaxial thin films with
, where charge disproportionation () resulting in long-range spin and charge ordering is known to occur
below K. With decreasing temperature we observed gradual changes
of the spectra with spectral weight transfer over a wide energy range of eV. Above the intensity at the Fermi level () was relatively
high compared to that below but still much lower than that in
conventional metals. We also found a similar temperature dependence for
, and to a lesser extent for . These observations suggest that a
local charge disproportionation occurs not only in the sample below
but also over a wider temperature and composition range in LSFO. This
implies that the tendency toward charge disproportionation may be the origin of
the unusually wide insulating region of the LSFO phase diagram.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure
Andreev Reflection and Spin Injection into and wave Superconductors
We study the effect of spin injection into and wave superconductors,
with an emphasis on the interplay between boundary and bulk spin transport
properties. The quantities of interest include the amount of non-equilibrium
magnetization (), as well as the induced spin-dependent current () and
boundary voltage (). In general, the Andreev reflection makes each of the
three quantities depend on a different combination of the boundary and bulk
contributions. The situation simplifies either for half-metallic ferromagnets
or in the strong barrier limit, where both and depend solely on the
bulk spin transport/relaxation properties. The implications of our results for
the on-going spin injection experiments in high cuprates are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX, 1 figure included; typos correcte
Ablation of Tak l in osteoclast progenitor leads to defects in skeletal growth and bone remodeling in mice
Tak1 is a MAPKKK that can be activated by growth factors and cytokines such as RANKL and BMPs and its downstream pathways include NF-κB and JNK/p38 MAPKs. Tak1 is essential for mouse embryonic development and plays critical roles in tissue homeostasis. Previous studies have shown that Tak1 is a positive regulator of osteoclast maturation, yet its roles in bone growth and remodeling have not been assessed, as mature osteoclast-specific Tak1 deletion with Cstk-Cre resulted in runtedness and postnatal lethality. Here we generated osteoclast progenitor (monocyte)-specific Tak1 knockout mice and found that these mice show normal body weight, limb size and fertility, and osteopetrosis with severity similar to that of RANK or RANKL deficient mice. Mechanistically, Tak1 deficiency altered the signaling of NF-κB, p38MAPK, and Smad1/5/8 and the expression of PU.1, MITF, c-Fos, and NFATc1, suggesting that Tak1 regulates osteoclast differentiation at multiple stages via multiple signaling pathways. Moreover, the Tak1 mutant mice showed defects in skull, articular cartilage, and mesenchymal stromal cells. Ex vivo Tak1−/− monocytes also showed enhanced ability in promoting osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells. These findings indicate that Tak1 functions in osteoclastogenesis in a cell-autonomous manner and in osteoblastogenesis and chondrogenesis in non-cell-autonomous manners
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