Structural transitions in vertically and horizontally coupled parabolic channels of Wigner crystals

Structural phase transitions in two vertically or horizontally coupled channels of strongly interacting particles are investigated. The particles are free to move in the $x$-direction but are confined by a parabolic potential in the $y$-direction. They interact with each other through a screened power-law potential ($r^{-n}e^{-r/\lambda}$). In vertically coupled systems the channels are stacked above each other in the direction perpendicular to the $(x,y)$-plane, while in horizontally coupled systems both channels are aligned in the confinement direction. Using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations we obtain the ground state configurations and the structural transitions as a function of the linear particle density and the separation between the channels. At zero temperature the vertically coupled system exhibits a rich phase diagram with continuous and discontinuous transitions. On the other hand the vertically coupled system exhibits only a very limited number of phase transitions due to its symmetry. Further we calculated the normal modes for the Wigner crystals in both cases. From MC simulations we found that in the case of vertically coupled systems the zigzag transition is only possible for low densities. A Ginzburg-Landau theory for the zigzag transition is presented, which predicts correctly the behavior of this transition from which we interpret the structural phase transition of the Wigner crystal through the reduction of the Brillouin zone.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure

Simplifying the mosaic description of DNA sequences

By using the Jensen-Shannon divergence, genomic DNA can be divided into compositionally distinct domains through a standard recursive segmentation procedure. Each domain, while significantly different from its neighbours, may however share compositional similarity with one or more distant (non--neighbouring) domains. We thus obtain a coarse--grained description of the given DNA string in terms of a smaller set of distinct domain labels. This yields a minimal domain description of a given DNA sequence, significantly reducing its organizational complexity. This procedure gives a new means of evaluating genomic complexity as one examines organisms ranging from bacteria to human. The mosaic organization of DNA sequences could have originated from the insertion of fragments of one genome (the parasite) inside another (the host), and we present numerical experiments that are suggestive of this scenario.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Modulatory Role of Sensory Innervation on Hair Follicle Stem Cell Progeny during Wound Healing of the Rat Skin

BACKGROUND: The bulge region of the hair follicle contains resident epithelial stem cells (SCs) that are activated and mobilized during hair growth and after epidermal wounding. However, little is known about the signals that modulate these processes. Clinical and experimental observations show that a reduced supply of sensory innervation is associated with delayed wound healing. Since axon terminals of sensory neurons are among the components of the bulge SC niche, we investigated whether these neurons are involved in the activation and mobilization of the hair stem cells during wound healing. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used neonatal capsaicin treatment to reduce sensory terminals in the rat skin and performed morphometric analyses using design-based stereological methods. Epithelial proliferation was analyzed by quantifying the number of bromodeoxyuridine-labeled (BrdU(+)) nuclei in the epidermis and hair follicles. After wounding, the epidermis of capsaicin-treated rats presented fewer BrdU(+) nuclei than in control rats. To assess SC progeny migration, we employed a double labeling protocol with iododeoxyuridine and chlorodeoxyuridine (IdU(+)/CldU(+)). The proportion of double-labeled cells was similar in the hair follicles of both groups at 32 h postwounding. IdU(+)/CldU(+) cell proportion increased in the epidermis of control rats and decreased in treated rats at 61 h postwounding. The epidermal volume immunostained for keratin 6 was greater in treated rats at 61 h. Confocal microscopy analysis revealed that substance P (SP) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor immunoreactivity were both present in CD34(+) and BrdU-retaining cells of the hair follicles. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that capsaicin denervation impairs SC progeny egress from the hair follicles, a circumstance associated with a greater epidermal activation. Altogether, these phenomena would explain the longer times for healing in denervated skin. Thus, sensory innervation may play a functional role in the modulation of hair SC physiology during wound healing

Semantically-based crossover in genetic programming: application to real-valued symbolic regression

We investigate the effects of semantically-based crossover operators in genetic programming, applied to real-valued symbolic regression problems. We propose two new relations derived from the semantic distance between subtrees, known as semantic equivalence and semantic similarity. These relations are used to guide variants of the crossover operator, resulting in two new crossover operators—semantics aware crossover (SAC) and semantic similarity-based crossover (SSC). SAC, was introduced and previously studied, is added here for the purpose of comparison and analysis. SSC extends SAC by more closely controlling the semantic distance between subtrees to which crossover may be applied. The new operators were tested on some real-valued symbolic regression problems and compared with standard crossover (SC), context aware crossover (CAC), Soft Brood Selection (SBS), and No Same Mate (NSM) selection. The experimental results show on the problems examined that, with computational effort measured by the number of function node evaluations, only SSC and SBS were significantly better than SC, and SSC was often better than SBS. Further experiments were also conducted to analyse the perfomance sensitivity to the parameter settings for SSC. This analysis leads to a conclusion that SSC is more constructive and has higher locality than SAC, NSM and SC; we believe these are the main reasons for the improved performance of SSC

Assessment of Functionals for First-Principle Studies of the Structural and Electronic Properties of -Bi2O3

Fully relativistic full-potential density functional calculations with an all-electron linearized augmented plane waves plus local orbitals method were carried out to perform a comparative study on the structural and electronic properties of the cubic oxide -Bi2O3 phase, which is considered as one of the most promising materials in a variety of applications including fuel cells, sensors, and catalysts. Three different density functionals were used in our calculations, LDA, the GGA scheme in the parametrization of Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof (PBE96), and the hybrid scheme of Perdew-Wang B3PW91. The examined properties include lattice parameter, band structure and density of states, and charge density profiles. For this modification the three functionals reveal the characteristics of a metal and the existence of minigaps at high symmetry points of the band structure when spin-orbit coupling is taken into account. Density of states exhibits hybridization of Bi 6s and O 2p orbitals and the calculated charge density profiles exhibit the ionic character in the chemical bonding of this compound. The B3PW91 hybrid functional provided a better agreement with the experimental result for the lattice parameter, revealing the importance of Hartree-Fock exchange in this compound

Short-term study of effects of fertilisation and cutting treatments on the vegetation dynamics of mountain heathlands in Spain

P. 181-191La influencia de la gestión y la disponibilidad de nutrientes en la dinámica de la vegetación de páramos caracterizados por Calluna vulgaris y Erica tetralix fueron estudiados en tres sitios de la montaña en el norte de España. En un total de 90 parcelas (1 m2 cada uno) recibieron diferentes combinaciones de corte y dos veces el fondo deposición atmosférica estimada de nitrógeno (56 kg yr_1 ha_1). Una de las dos especies dominantes ericáceas fueron cortados selectivamente a mano a nivel del suelo y su regeneración comparan en la presencia o ausencia de la otra. Los resultados después de 2 años mostraron efectos significativos del fertilizante en la cubierta vegetal, principalmente favoreciendo especies herbáceas perennes. No hubo efectos menos notables en el número de flores y sobre el crecimiento anual de las especies de ericáceas. Se concluye que, en el corto plazo, los nutrientes aumentaron solo, al doble de la deposición atmosférica corriente estimado para la zona, no va a alterar significativamente la composición de los brezales de montaña. Sin embargo, una vez que las gradas llegan a la fase de madurez, la capacidad de la comunidad para regenerar después disminuye una perturbación grave. Un impacto drástico, como el corte no puede dar lugar a la re-crecimiento de las mismas especies de arbustos, sino en sustitución por especies herbáceas, que también se beneficiarán de la mayoría de los nutrientesS

Multivariate Radiological-Based Models for the Prediction of Future Knee Pain: Data from the OAI

In this work, the potential of X-ray based multivariate prognostic models to predict the onset of chronic knee pain is presented. Using X-rays quantitative image assessments of joint-space-width (JSW) and paired semiquantitative central X-ray scores from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), a case-control study is presented. The pain assessments of the right knee at the baseline and the 60-month visits were used to screen for case/control subjects. Scores were analyzed at the time of pain incidence (T-0), the year prior incidence (T-1), and two years before pain incidence (T-2). Multivariate models were created by a cross validated elastic-net regularized generalized linear models feature selection tool. Univariate differences between cases and controls were reported by AUC, C-statistics, and ODDs ratios. Univariate analysis indicated that the medial osteophytes were significantly more prevalent in cases than controls: C-stat 0.62, 0.62, and 0.61, at T-0, T-1, and T-2, respectively. The multivariate JSW models significantly predicted pain: AUC = 0.695, 0.623, and 0.620, at T-0, T-1, and T-2, respectively. Semiquantitative multivariate models predicted paint with C-stat = 0.671, 0.648, and 0.645 at T-0, T-1, and T-2, respectively. Multivariate models derived from plain X-ray radiography assessments may be used to predict subjects that are at risk of developing knee pain

Radiological evaluation associated to the mining and concentration of monazite in Central Spain

Trabajo presentado a la 4th International Conference on Environmental Radioactivity: Radionuclides as Tracers of Environmental Processes, celebrada en Vilnius (Lithuania) del 29 de mayo al 2 de junio de 2017.A detailed radiological evaluation (occupational, public and environmental) has been performed associated with the mining and physical concentration of monazite, enriched in different rare earths, in a zone to be exploited commercially which is located 200 km at the south of Madrid (Spain). This evaluation is performed because the rare earth extraction mining and concentration steps are activities recognized in the positive list of NORM activities to be analysed for possible adoption of radiological controls.Peer reviewe