714 research outputs found
Diagnosis and Location of Pinhole Defects in Tunnel Junctions using only Electrical Measurements
In the development of the first generation of sensors and memory chips based
on spin-dependent tunneling through a thin trilayer, it has become clear that
pinhole defects can have a deleterious effect on magnetoresistance. However,
current diagnostic protocols based on Andreev reflection and the temperature
dependence of junction resistance may not be suitable for production quality
control. We show that the current density in a tunnel junction in the
cross-strip geometry becomes very inhomogeneous in the presence of a single
pinhole, yielding a four-terminal resistance that depends on the location of
the pinhole in the junction. Taking advantage of this position dependence, we
propose a simple protocol of four four-terminal measurements. Solving an
inverse problem, we can diagnose the presence of a pinhole and estimate its
position and resistance.Comment: 9 pages, eplain TeX, other macro files included; some versions of TeX
epsf may have trouble with figures, in which case try the Postscript or PDF
generated automatically by the Archiv
Impulse oscillometry identifies peripheral airway dysfunction in children with adenosine deaminase deficiency.
Adenosine deaminase-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID) is characterized by impaired T-, B- and NK-cell function. Affected children, in addition to early onset of infections, manifest non-immunologic symptoms including pulmonary dysfunction likely attributable to elevated systemic adenosine levels. Lung disease assessment has primarily employed repetitive radiography and effort-dependent functional studies. Through impulse oscillometry (IOS), which is effort-independent, we prospectively obtained objective measures of lung dysfunction in 10 children with ADA-SCID. These results support the use of IOS in the identification and monitoring of lung function abnormalities in children with primary immunodeficiencies
A new perturbation treatment applied to the transport through a quantum dot
Resonant tunnelling through an Anderson impurity is investigated by employing
a new perturbation scheme at nonequilibrium. This new approach gives the
correct weak and strong coupling limit in by introducing adjustable
parameters in the self-energy and imposing self-consistency of the occupation
number of the impurity. We have found that the zero-temperature linear response
conductance agrees well with that obtained from the exact sum rule. At finite
temperature the conductance shows a nonzero minimum at the Kondo valley, as
shown in recent experiments. The effects of an applied bias voltage on the
single-particle density of states and on the differential conductances are
discussed for Kondo and non-Kondo systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRB-Rapid Comm. Email addresses
[email protected], [email protected]
Modified Perturbation Theory Applied to Kondo-Type Transport through a Quantum Dot under a Magnetic Field
Linear conductance through a quantum dot is calculated under a finite
magnetic field using the modified perturbation theory. The method is based on
the second-order perturbation theory with respect to the Coulomb repulsion, but
the self-energy is modified to reproduce the correct atomic limit and to
fulfill the Friedel sum rule exactly. Although this method is applicable only
to zero temperature in a strict sense, it is approximately extended to finite
temperatures. It is found that the conductance near electron-hole symmetry is
suppressed by the application of the magnetic field at low temperatures.
Positive magnetoconductance is observed in the case of large electron-hole
asymmetry.Comment: 4pages, 5 figure
Electron correlation resonances in the transport through a single quantum level
Correlation effects in the transport properties of a single quantum level
coupled to electron reservoirs are discussed theoretically using a
non-equilibrium Green functions approach. Our method is based on the
introduction of a second-order self-energy associated with the Coulomb
interaction that consistently eliminates the pathologies found in previous
perturbative calculations. We present results for the current-voltage
characteristic illustrating the different correlation effects that may be found
in this system, including the Kondo anomaly and Coulomb blockade. We finally
discuss the experimental conditions for the simultaneous observation of these
effects in an ultrasmall quantum dot.Comment: 4 pages (two columns), 3 figures under reques
Control of hyperuricemia in subjects with refractory gout, and induction of antibody against poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), in a phase I trial of subcutaneous PEGylated urate oxidase
PEG-modified recombinant mammalian urate oxidase (PEG-uricase) is being developed as a treatment for patients with chronic gout who are intolerant of, or refractory to, available therapy for controlling hyperuricemia. In an open-label phase I trial, single subcutaneous injections of PEG-uricase (4 to 24 mg) were administered to 13 such subjects (11 had tophaceous gout), whose plasma uric acid concentration (pUAc) was 11.3 ± 2.1 mg/dl (mean ± SD). By day seven after injection of PEG-uricase, pUAc had declined by an average of 7.9 mg/dl and had normalized in 11 subjects, whose mean pUAc decreased to 2.8 ± 2.2 mg/dl. At doses of 8, 12, and 24 mg, the mean pUAc at 21 days after injection remained no more than 6 mg/dl. In eight subjects, plasma uricase activity was still measurable at 21 days after injection (half-life 10.5 to 19.9 days). In the other five subjects, plasma uricase activity could not be detected beyond ten days after injection; this was associated with the appearance of relatively low-titer IgM and IgG antibodies against PEG-uricase. Unexpectedly, these antibodies were directed against PEG itself rather than the uricase protein. Three PEG antibody-positive subjects had injection-site reactions at 8 to 9 days after injection. Gout flares in six subjects were the only other significant adverse reactions, and PEG-uricase was otherwise well tolerated. A prolonged circulating life and the ability to normalize plasma uric acid in markedly hyperuricemic subjects suggest that PEG-uricase could be effective in depleting expanded tissue stores of uric acid in subjects with chronic or tophaceous gout. The development of anti-PEG antibodies, which may limit efficacy in some patients, is contrary to the general assumption that PEG is non-immunogenic. PEG immunogenicity deserves further investigation, because it has potential implications for other PEGylated therapeutic agents in clinical use
Mesoscopic Kondo Effect in an Aharonov-Bohm Ring
An interacting quantum dot inserted in a mesoscopic ring is investigated. A
variational ansatz is employed to describe the ground state of the system in
the presence of the Aharonov-Bohm flux. It is shown that, for even number of
electrons with the energy level spacing smaller than the Kondo temperature, the
persistent current has a value similar to that of a perfect ring with the same
radius. On the other hand, for a ring with odd number electrons, the persistent
current is found to be strongly suppressed compared to that of an ideal ring,
which implies the suppression of the Kondo-resonant transmission. Various
aspects of the Kondo-assisted persistent current are discussed.Comment: 4 pages Revtex, 4 Postscript figures, final version to appear in
Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, No.26 (Dec. 25, 2000
Theory of Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of a Magnetic Adatom on a Metallic Surface
A comprehensive theory is presented for the voltage, temperature, and spatial
dependence of the tunneling current between a scanning tunneling microscope
(STM) tip and a metallic surface with an individual magnetic adatom. Modeling
the adatom by a nondegenerate Anderson impurity, a general expression is
derived for a weak tunneling current in terms of the dressed impurity Green
function, the impurity-free surface Green function, and the tunneling matrix
elements. This generalizes Fano's analysis to the interacting case. The
differential-conductance lineshapes seen in recent STM experiments with the tip
directly over the magnetic adatom are reproduced within our model, as is the
rapid decay, \sim 10\AA, of the low-bias structure as one moves the tip away
from the adatom. With our simple model for the electronic structure of the
surface, there is no dip in the differential conductance at approximately one
lattice spacing from the magnetic adatom, but rather we see a resonant
enhancement. The formalism for tunneling into small clusters of magnetic
adatoms is developed.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev.
CD28 costimulatory signal induces protein arginine methylation in T cells
Protein phosphorylation initiates signal transduction that triggers lymphocyte activation. However, other posttranslational modifications may contribute to this process. Here, we show that CD28 engagement induced protein arginine methyltransferase activity and methylation on arginine of several proteins, including Vav1. Methylation of Vav1 and IL-2 production were reduced by inhibiting S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine hydrolase, an enzyme that regulates cellular transmethylation. Methylated Vav1 was induced in human and mouse T cells and selectively localized in the nucleus, which suggested that this form marks a nuclear function of Vav1. Our findings uncover a signaling pathway that is controlled by CD28 that is likely to be important for T cell activation
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