Boltzmann Collision Kernels and Velocity Saturation in Semiconductors

For different models of the electron-phonon interaction, the asymptotic behaviour of the moments of the stationary homogeneous solution of the linear Boltzmann equation is determined in the limit of a high external field. For Hilbert-Schmidt kernels of a finite rank, a result recently proven for kernels of rank one is found generally valid; as a consequence velocity saturation is excluded for these collision models. For a class of singular collision kernels in contrast, velocity saturation is generally obtained.Comment: 12 pages in LaTex, no figure, submitted to Physica

Effect of the anisotropy of the cells on the topological properties of two- and tree-dimensional froths

URL: http://www-spht.cea.fr/articles/T00/164 Effet de l'anisotropie des cellules sur les propriétés topologiques des mousses 2D et 3DInternational audienceWe study the effect of the anisotropy of the cells on the topological properties of monodisperse 2D and 3D froths. These froths are built by Voronoï tessellation of actual assemblies of monosize disks (2D) and of many numerical packings of monosize disks (2D) and spheres (3D). We show that topological properties of these froths depend universally on the anisotropy of the cells

Therapeutic Potential of Dental Pulp Stem Cells and Leukocyte- and Platelet-Rich Fibrin for Osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative and inflammatory joint disorder with cartilage loss. Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) can undergo chondrogenic differentiation and secrete growth factors associated with tissue repair and immunomodulation. Leukocyte- and platelet-rich fibrin (L-PRF) emerges in regenerative medicine because of its growth factor content and fibrin matrix. This study evaluates the therapeutic application of DPSCs and L-PRF in OA via immunomodulation and cartilage regeneration. Chondrogenic differentiation of DPSCs, with or without L-PRF exudate (ex) and conditioned medium (CM), and of bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cells was compared. These cells showed differential chondrogenesis. L-PRF was unable to increase cartilage-associated components. Immature murine articular chondrocytes (iMACs) were cultured with L-PRF ex, L-PRF CM, or DPSC CM. L-PRF CM had pro-survival and proliferative effects on unstimulated and cytokine-stimulated iMACs. L-PRF CM stimulated the release of IL-6 and PGE2, and increased MMP-13, TIMP-1 and IL-6 mRNA levels in cytokine-stimulated iMACs. DPSC CM increased the survival and proliferation of unstimulated iMACs. In cytokine-stimulated iMACs, DPSC CM increased TIMP-1 gene expression, whereas it inhibited nitrite release in 3D culture. We showed promising effects of DPSCs in an in vitro OA model, as they undergo chondrogenesis in vitro, stimulate the survival of chondrocytes and have immunomodulatory effects

Spectral Properties of the k-Body Embedded Gaussian Ensembles of Random Matrices

We consider $m$ spinless Fermions in $l > m$ degenerate single-particle levels interacting via a $k$-body random interaction with Gaussian probability distribution and $k <= m$ in the limit $l$ to infinity (the embedded $k$-body random ensembles). We address the cases of orthogonal and unitary symmetry. We derive a novel eigenvalue expansion for the second moment of the Hilbert-space matrix elements of these ensembles. Using properties of the expansion and the supersymmetry technique, we show that for $2k > m$, the average spectrum has the shape of a semicircle, and the spectral fluctuations are of Wigner-Dyson type. Using a generalization of the binary correlation approximation, we show that for $k << m << l$, the spectral fluctuations are Poissonian. This is consistent with the case $k = 1$ which can be solved explicitly. We construct limiting ensembles which are either fully integrable or fully chaotic and show that the $k$-body random ensembles lie between these two extremes. Combining all these results we find that the spectral correlations for the embedded ensembles gradually change from Wigner-Dyson for $2k > m$ to Poissonian for $k << m << l$.Comment: 44 pages, 3 postscript figures, revised version including a new proof of one of our main claim

Spectral Properties of the k-Body Embedded Gaussian Ensembles of Random Matrices for Bosons

We consider $m$ spinless Bosons distributed over $l$ degenerate single-particle states and interacting through a $k$-body random interaction with Gaussian probability distribution (the Bosonic embedded $k$-body ensembles). We address the cases of orthogonal and unitary symmetry in the limit of infinite matrix dimension, attained either as $l \to \infty$ or as $m \to \infty$. We derive an eigenvalue expansion for the second moment of the many-body matrix elements of these ensembles. Using properties of this expansion, the supersymmetry technique, and the binary correlation method, we show that in the limit $l \to \infty$ the ensembles have nearly the same spectral properties as the corresponding Fermionic embedded ensembles. Novel features specific for Bosons arise in the dense limit defined as $m \to \infty$ with both $k$ and $l$ fixed. Here we show that the ensemble is not ergodic, and that the spectral fluctuations are not of Wigner-Dyson type. We present numerical results for the dense limit using both ensemble unfolding and spectral unfolding. These differ strongly, demonstrating the lack of ergodicity of the ensemble. Spectral unfolding shows a strong tendency towards picket-fence type spectra. Certain eigenfunctions of individual realizations of the ensemble display Fock-space localization.Comment: Minor corrections; figure 5 slightly modified (30 pages, 6 figs

Double Positive CD4CD8 αβ T Cells: A New Tumor-Reactive Population in Human Melanomas

BACKGROUND: Double positive (DP) CD4CD8 Talphabeta cells have been reported in normal individuals as well as in different pathological conditions including inflammatory diseases, viral infections and cancer, but their function remains to be elucidated. We recently reported the increased frequency of DP Talphabeta cells in human breast pleural effusions. This manuscript addresses the question of the existence and above all the role of this non-conventional DP sub-population among tumor associated lymphocytes in melanomas. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We analyzed the intratumoral cell infiltrate in solid metastasis (n = 6) and tumor invaded lymph nodes (n = 26) samples from melanomas patients by multiparametric cytometry. Here we documented for the first time significant increased frequency of DP T cells in about 60% of melanoma tumors compared to blood samples. Interestingly, a high proportion of these cells produced TNF-alpha in response to autologous melanoma cell lines. Besides, they are characterized by a unique cytokine profile corresponding to higher secretion of IL-13, IL-4 and IL-5 than simple positive T cells. In deep analysis, we derived a representative tumor-reactive DP T cell clone from a melanoma patient's invaded lymph node. This clone was restricted by HLA-A*2402 and recognized both autologous and allogeneic tumor cells of various origins as well as normal cells, suggesting that the target antigen was a ubiquitous self antigen. However, this DP T cell clone failed to kill HLA-A*2402 EBV-transformed B cells, probably due to the constitutive expression of immunoproteasome by these cells. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In conclusion, we can postulate that, according to their broad tumor reactivity and to their original cytokine profile, the tumor associated DP T cells could participate in immune responses to tumors in vivo. Therefore, the presence of these cells and their role will be crucial to address in cancer patients, especially in the context of immunotherapies

Naturally occurring C-terminal splice variants of nuclear receptors

Alternative mRNA splicing in the region encoding the C-terminus of nuclear receptors results in receptor variants lacking the entire ligand-binding domain (LBD), or a part of it, and instead contain a sequence of splice variant-specific C-terminal amino acids. A total of thirteen such splice variants have been shown to occur in vertebrates, and at least nine occur in humans. None of these receptor variants appear to be able to bind endogenous ligands and to induce transcription on promoters containing the response element for the respective canonical receptor variant. Interestingly, ten of these C-terminal splice variants have been shown to display dominant-negative activity on the transactivational properties of their canonical equivalent. Research on most of these splice variants has been limited, and the dominant-negative effect of these receptor variants has only been demonstrated in reporter assays in vitro, using transiently transfected receptors and reporter constructs. Therefore, the in vivo function and relevance of most C-terminal splice variants remains unclear. By reviewing the literature on the human glucocorticoid receptor β-isoform (hGRβ), we show that the dominant-negative effect of hGRβ is well established using more physiologically relevant readouts. The hGR β-isoform may alter gene transcription independent from the canonical receptor and increased hGRβ levels correlate with glucocorticoid resistance and the occurrence of several immune-related diseases. Thus, available data suggests that C-terminal splice variants of nuclear receptors act as dominant-negative inhibitors of receptor-mediated signaling in vivo, and that aberrant expression of these isoforms may be involved in the pathogenesis of a variety of diseases

Spectral Statistics of the Two-Body Random Ensemble Revisited

Using longer spectra we re-analyze spectral properties of the two-body random ensemble studied thirty years ago. At the center of the spectra the old results are largely confirmed, and we show that the non-ergodicity is essentially due to the variance of the lowest moments of the spectra. The longer spectra allow to test and reach the limits of validity of French's correction for the number variance. At the edge of the spectra we discuss the problems of unfolding in more detail. With a Gaussian unfolding of each spectrum the nearest neighbour spacing distribution between ground state and first exited state is shown to be stable. Using such an unfolding the distribution tends toward a semi-Poisson distribution for longer spectra. For comparison with the nuclear table ensemble we could use such unfolding obtaining similar results as in the early papers, but an ensemble with realistic splitting gives reasonable results if we just normalize the spacings in accordance with the procedure used for the data.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Analyticity and Integrabiity in the Chiral Potts Model

We study the perturbation theory for the general non-integrable chiral Potts model depending on two chiral angles and a strength parameter and show how the analyticity of the ground state energy and correlation functions dramatically increases when the angles and the strength parameter satisfy the integrability condition. We further specialize to the superintegrable case and verify that a sum rule is obeyed.Comment: 31 pages in harvmac including 9 tables, several misprints eliminate

Field induced stationary state for an accelerated tracer in a bath

Our interest goes to the behavior of a tracer particle, accelerated by a constant and uniform external field, when the energy injected by the field is redistributed through collision to a bath of unaccelerated particles. A non equilibrium steady state is thereby reached. Solutions of a generalized Boltzmann-Lorentz equation are analyzed analytically, in a versatile framework that embeds the majority of tracer-bath interactions discussed in the literature. These results --mostly derived for a one dimensional system-- are successfully confronted to those of three independent numerical simulation methods: a direct iterative solution, Gillespie algorithm, and the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo technique. We work out the diffusion properties as well as the velocity tails: large v, and either large -v, or v in the vicinity of its lower cutoff whenever the velocity distribution is bounded from below. Particular emphasis is put on the cold bath limit, with scatterers at rest, which plays a special role in our model.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures v3:minor corrections in sec.III and added reference