454 research outputs found
Anisotropic Magnetic Couplings and Structure-Driven Canted to Collinear Transitions in Spin-orbit Coupled Sr2IrO4
We put forward a scheme to study the anisotropic magnetic couplings in
Sr2IrO4 by mapping fully relativistic constrained noncollinear density
functional theory including an on-site Hubbard U correction onto a general spin
model Hamiltonian. This procedure allows for the simultaneous account and
direct control of the lattice, spin and orbital interactions within a fully ab
initio scheme. We compute the isotropic, single site anisotropy and
Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) coupling parameters, and clarify that the origin of
the canted magnetic state in Sr2IrO4 arises from the interplay between
structural distortions and the competition between isotropic exchange and DM
interactions. A complete magnetic phase diagram with respect to the tetragonal
distortion and the rotation of IrO6 octahedra is constructed, revealing the
presence of two types of canted to collinear magnetic transitions: a spin-flop
transition with increasing tetragonal distortion and a complete quenching of
the basal weak ferromagnetic moment below a critical octahedral rotation
Maximally localized Wannier functions in LaMnO3 within PBE+U, hybrid functionals, and partially self-consistent GW: an efficient route to construct ab-initio tight-binding parameters for e_g perovskites
Using the newly developed VASP2WANNIER90 interface we have constructed
maximally localized Wannier functions (MLWFs) for the e_g states of the
prototypical Jahn-Teller magnetic perovskite LaMnO3 at different levels of
approximation for the exchange-correlation kernel. These include conventional
density functional theory (DFT) with and without additional on-site Hubbard U
term, hybrid-DFT, and partially self-consistent GW. By suitably mapping the
MLWFs onto an effective e_g tight-binding (TB) Hamiltonian we have computed a
complete set of TB parameters which should serve as guidance for more elaborate
treatments of correlation effects in effective Hamiltonian-based approaches.
The method-dependent changes of the calculated TB parameters and their
interplay with the electron-electron (el-el) interaction term are discussed and
interpreted. We discuss two alternative model parameterizations: one in which
the effects of the el-el interaction are implicitly incorporated in the
otherwise "noninteracting" TB parameters, and a second where we include an
explicit mean-field el-el interaction term in the TB Hamiltonian. Both models
yield a set of tabulated TB parameters which provide the band dispersion in
excellent agreement with the underlying ab initio and MLWF bands.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figure
Genome-Wide Identification of Expression Quantitative Trait Loci (eQTLs) in Human Heart.
In recent years genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered numerous chromosomal loci associated with various electrocardiographic traits and cardiac arrhythmia predisposition. A considerable fraction of these loci lie within inter-genic regions. The underlying trait-associated variants likely reside in regulatory regions and exert their effect by modulating gene expression. Hence, the key to unraveling the molecular mechanisms underlying these cardiac traits is to interrogate variants for association with differential transcript abundance by expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis. In this study we conducted an eQTL analysis of human heart. For a total of 129 left ventricular samples that were collected from non-diseased human donor hearts, genome-wide transcript abundance and genotyping was determined using microarrays. Each of the 18,402 transcripts and 897,683 SNP genotypes that remained after pre-processing and stringent quality control were tested for eQTL effects. We identified 771 eQTLs, regulating 429 unique transcripts. Overlaying these eQTLs with cardiac GWAS loci identified novel candidates for studies aimed at elucidating the functional and transcriptional impact of these loci. Thus, this work provides for the first time a comprehensive eQTL map of human heart: a powerful and unique resource that enables systems genetics approaches for the study of cardiac traits
An introduction to network psychometrics:Relating ising network models to item response theory models
In recent years, network models have been proposed as an alternative representation of psychometric constructs such as depression. In such models, the covariance between observables (e.g., symptoms like depressed mood, feelings of worthlessness, and guilt) is explained in terms of a pattern of causal interactions between these observables, which contrasts with classical interpretations in which the observables are conceptualized as the effects of a reflective latent variable. However, few investigations have been directed at the question how these different models relate to each other. To shed light on this issue, the current paper explores the relation between one of the most important network models—the Ising model from physics—and one of the most important latent variable models—the Item Response Theory (IRT) model from psychometrics. The Ising model describes the interaction between states of particles that are connected in a network, whereas the IRT model describes the probability distribution associated with item responses in a psychometric test as a function of a latent variable. Despite the divergent backgrounds of the models, we show a broad equivalence between them and also illustrate several opportunities that arise from this connection
Nutrition interventions for healthy ageing across the lifespan:a conference report
Thanks to advances in modern medicine over the past century, the world's population has experienced a marked increase in longevity. However, disparities exist that lead to groups with both shorter lifespan and significantly diminished health, especially in the aged. Unequal access to proper nutrition, healthcare services, and information to make informed health and nutrition decisions all contribute to these concerns. This in turn has hastened the ageing process in some and adversely affected others' ability to age healthfully. Many in developing as well as developed societies are plagued with the dichotomy of simultaneous calorie excess and nutrient inadequacy. This has resulted in mental and physical deterioration, increased non-communicable disease rates, lost productivity and quality of life, and increased medical costs. While adequate nutrition is fundamental to good health, it remains unclear what impact various dietary interventions may have on improving healthspan and quality of life with age. With a rapidly ageing global population, there is an urgent need for innovative approaches to health promotion as individual's age. Successful research, education, and interventions should include the development of both qualitative and quantitative biomarkers and other tools which can measure improvements in physiological integrity throughout life. Data-driven health policy shifts should be aimed at reducing the socio-economic inequalities that lead to premature ageing. A framework for progress has been proposed and published by the World Health Organization in its Global Strategy and Action Plan on Ageing and Health. This symposium focused on the impact of nutrition on this framework, stressing the need to better understand an individual's balance of intrinsic capacity and functional abilities at various life stages, and the impact this balance has on their mental and physical health in the environments they inhabit
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