Tuning the effects of Landau-level mixing on anisotropic transport in quantum Hall systems

Electron-electron interactions in half-filled high Landau levels in two-dimensional electron gases in a strong perpendicular magnetic field can lead to states with anisotropic longitudinal resistance. This longitudinal resitance is generally believed to arise from broken rotational invariance, which is indicated by charge density wave (CDW) order in Hartree-Fock calculations. We use the Hartree-Fock approximation to study the influence of externally tuned Landau level mixing on the formation of interaction induced states that break rotational invariance in two-dimensional electron and hole systems. We focus on the situation when there are two non-interacting states in the vicinity of the Fermi level and construct a Landau theory to study coupled charge density wave order that can occur as interactions are tuned and the filling or mixing are varied. We examine in detail a specific example where mixing is tuned externally through Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We calculate the phase diagram and find the possibility of ordering involving coupled striped or triangular charge density waves in the two levels. Our results may be relevant to recent transport experiments on quantum Hall nematics in which Landau-level mixing plays an important role.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure

Afrotheria genome; overestimation of genome size and distinct chromosome GC content revealed by flow karyotyping

AbstractAfrotheria genome size is reported to be over 50% larger than that of human, but we show that this is a gross overestimate. Although genome sequencing in Afrotheria is not complete, extensive homology with human has been revealed by chromosome painting. We provide new data on chromosome size and GC content in four Afrotherian species using flow karyotyping. Genome sizes are 4.13Gb in aardvark, 4.01Gb in African elephant, 3.69Gb in golden mole and 3.31Gb in manatee, whereas published results show a mean of 5.18Gb for Afrotheria. Genome GC content shows a negative correlation with size, indicating that this is due to differences in the amount of AT-rich sequences. Low genome GC content and small variance in chromosome GC content are characteristic of aardvark and elephant and may be associated with the high degree of conserved synteny, suggesting that these are features of the Afrotherian ancestral genome

Extravehicular activities limitations study. Volume 1: Physiological limitations to extravehicular activity in space

This report contains the results of a comprehensive literature search on physiological aspects of EVA. Specifically, the topics covered are: (1) Oxygen levels; (2) Optimum EVA work; (3) Food and Water; (4) Carbon dioxide levels; (5) Repetitive decompressions; (6) Thermal, and (7) Urine collection. The literature was assessed on each of these topics, followed by statements on conclusions and recommended future research needs

Human cytogenetics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1959–1962

Abstract: An account is given of the introduction of human cytogenetics to the Division of Medical Genetics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the first 3 years' work of the chromosome diagnostic laboratory that was established at the time. Research on human sex chromosome disorders, including novel discoveries in the Turner and Klinefelter syndromes, is described together with original observations on chromosome behavior at mitosis. It is written in celebration of the centenary of the birth of Victor McKusick, the acknowledged father of Medical Genetics, who established the Division and had the foresight to ensure that it included the investigation of human chromosomes

Human cytogenetics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1959–1962

Abstract: An account is given of the introduction of human cytogenetics to the Division of Medical Genetics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the first 3 years' work of the chromosome diagnostic laboratory that was established at the time. Research on human sex chromosome disorders, including novel discoveries in the Turner and Klinefelter syndromes, is described together with original observations on chromosome behavior at mitosis. It is written in celebration of the centenary of the birth of Victor McKusick, the acknowledged father of Medical Genetics, who established the Division and had the foresight to ensure that it included the investigation of human chromosomes

Chromhome: a rich internet application for accessing comparative chromosome homology maps.

BACKGROUND: Comparative genomics has become a significant research area in recent years, following the availability of a number of sequenced genomes. The comparison of genomes is of great importance in the analysis of functionally important genome regions. It can also be used to understand the phylogenetic relationships of species and the mechanisms leading to rearrangement of karyotypes during evolution. Many species have been studied at the cytogenetic level by cross species chromosome painting. With the large amount of such information, it has become vital to computerize the data and make them accessible worldwide. Chromhome http://www.chromhome.org is a comprehensive web application that is designed to provide cytogenetic comparisons among species and to fulfil this need. RESULTS: The Chromhome application architecture is multi-tiered with an interactive client layer, business logic and database layers. Enterprise java platform with open source framework OpenLaszlo is used to implement the Rich Internet Chromhome Application. Cross species comparative mapping raw data are collected and the processed information is stored into MySQL Chromhome database. Chromhome Release 1.0 contains 109 homology maps from 51 species. The data cover species from 14 orders and 30 families. The homology map displays all the chromosomes of the compared species as one image, making comparisons among species easier. Inferred data also provides maps of homologous regions that could serve as a guideline for researchers involved in phylogenetic or evolution based studies. CONCLUSION: Chromhome provides a useful resource for comparative genomics, holding graphical homology maps of a wide range of species. It brings together cytogenetic data of many genomes under one roof. Inferred painting can often determine the chromosomal homologous regions between two species, if each has been compared with a common third species. Inferred painting greatly reduces the need to map entire genomes and helps focus only on relevant regions of the chromosomes of the species under study. Future releases of Chromhome will accommodate more species and their respective gene and BAC maps, in addition to chromosome painting data. Chromhome application provides a single-page interface (SPI) with desktop style layout, delivering a better and richer user experience.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Marsupial chromosome DNA content and genome size assessed from flow karyotypes: invariable low autosomal GC content.

Extensive chromosome homologies revealed by cross-species chromosome painting between marsupials have suggested a high level of genome conservation during evolution. Surprisingly, it has been reported that marsupial genome sizes vary by more than 1.2 Gb between species. We have shown previously that individual chromosome sizes and GC content can be measured in flow karyotypes, and have applied this method to compare four marsupial species. Chromosome sizes and GC content were calculated for the grey short-tailed opossum (2n = 18), tammar wallaby (2n = 16), Tasmanian devil (2n = 14) and fat-tailed dunnart (2n = 14), resulting in genome sizes of 3.41, 3.31, 3.17 and 3.25 Gb, respectively. The findings under the same conditions allow a comparison between the four species, indicating that the genomes of these four species are 1-8% larger than human. We show that marsupial genomes are characterized by a low GC content invariable between autosomes and distinct from the higher GC content of the marsupial × chromosome

Symmetry reduction and shape effects in concave chiral plasmonic structures

Chiral metamaterials have shown a number of interesting properties which result from the interaction of the chiral near-field they produce with light and matter. We investigate the influence of structural imperfections on the plasmonic properties of a chiral gold “gammadion”, using electron energy loss spectroscopy to directly inform simulations of realistic, imperfect structures. Unlike structures of simple convex geometry, the lowest energy modes of the ideal concave gammadion have a quadrupole and dipole character, with the mode energies determined by the nature of electrostatic coupling between the gammadion arms. These modes are strongly affected by structural imperfections that are inherent to the material properties and lithographic patterning. Even subwavelength-scale imperfections reduce the symmetry, lift mode degeneracies convert dark modes into bright ones and significantly alter the mode energy, its near-field strength, and chirality. Such effects will be common to a number of multitipped concave structures currently being investigated for the chiral fields they support

Aligning ecology and markets in the forest carbon cycle

A forest carbon (C) offset is a quantifiable unit of C that is commonly developed at the local or regional project scale and is designed to counterbalance anthropogenic C emissions by sequestering C in trees. In cap-and-trade programs, forest offsets have market value if the sequestered C is additional (more than would have occurred in the absence of the project) and permanent (sequestered within the project boundary for a specified period of time). Local management and ecological context determine the rate of C sequestration, risk of loss, and hence the market value. An understanding of global C dynamics can inform policy but may not be able to effectively price an ecosystem service, such as C sequestration. Appropriate pricing requires the assistance of ecologists to assess C stock abundance and stability over spatial and temporal scales appropriate for the regional market. We use the risk that sequestered C will be emitted as a result of wildfire (reversal risk) to show how ecological context can influence market valuation in offset programs