7,354 research outputs found
Displacement Profile of Charge Density Waves and Domain Walls at Critical Depinning
The influence of a strong surface potential on the critical depinning of an
elastic system driven in a random medium is considered. If the surface
potential prevents depinning completely the elastic system shows a parabolic
displacement profile. Its curvature exhibits at zero temperature
a pronounced rhombic hysteresis curve of width with the bulk depinning
threshold . The hysteresis disappears at non-zero temperatures if the
driving force is changed adiabatically. If the surface depins by the applied
force or thermal creep, is reduced with increasing velocity. The
results apply, e.g., to driven magnetic domain walls, flux-line lattices and
charge-density waves.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Macroscopic Black Holes, Microscopic Black Holes and Noncommutative Membrane
We study the stretched membrane of a black hole as consisting of a perfect
fluid. We find that the pressure of this fluid is negative and the specific
heat is negative too. A surprising result is that if we are to assume the fluid
be composed of some quanta, then the dispersion relation of the fundamental
quantum is , with at the scale of the Planck mass. There are two
possible interpretation of this dispersion relation, one is the noncommutative
spacetime on the stretched membrane, another is that the fundamental quantum is
microscopic black holes.Comment: 10 pages, harvmac; v2: refs. adde
The Hoop Conjecture in Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes
We give general sufficient conditions for the existence of trapped surfaces
due to concentration of matter in spherically symmetric initial data sets
satisfying the dominant energy condition. These results are novel in that they
apply and are meaningful for arbitrary spacelike slices, that is they do not
require any auxiliary assumptions such as maximality, time-symmetry, or special
extrinsic foliations, and most importantly they can easily be generalized to
the nonspherical case once an existence theory for a modified version of the
Jang equation is developed. Moreover, our methods also yield positivity and
monotonicity properties of the Misner-Sharp energy
Gravity: A New Holographic Perspective
A general paradigm for describing classical (and semiclassical) gravity is
presented. This approach brings to the centre-stage a holographic relationship
between the bulk and surface terms in a general class of action functionals and
provides a deeper insight into several aspects of classical gravity which have
no explanation in the conventional approach. After highlighting a series of
unresolved issues in the conventional approach to gravity, I show that (i)
principle of equivalence, (ii) general covariance and (iii)a reasonable
condition on the variation of the action functional, suggest a generic
Lagrangian for semiclassical gravity of the form with
. The expansion of in terms of the
derivatives of the metric tensor determines the structure of the theory
uniquely. The zeroth order term gives the Einstein-Hilbert action and the first
order correction is given by the Gauss-Bonnet action. Any such Lagrangian can
be decomposed into a surface and bulk terms which are related holographically.
The equations of motion can be obtained purely from a surface term in the
gravity sector. Hence the field equations are invariant under the
transformation and gravity does not
respond to the changes in the bulk vacuum energy density. The cosmological
constant arises as an integration constant in this approach. The implications
are discussed.Comment: Plenary talk at the International Conference on Einstein's Legacy in
the New Millennium, December 15 - 22, 2005, Puri, India; to appear in the
Proceedings to be published in IJMPD; 16 pages; no figure
Domain Wall Depinning in Random Media by AC Fields
The viscous motion of an interface driven by an ac external field of
frequency omega_0 in a random medium is considered here for the first time. The
velocity exhibits a smeared depinning transition showing a double hysteresis
which is absent in the adiabatic case omega_0 --> 0. Using scaling arguments
and an approximate renormalization group calculation we explain the main
characteristics of the hysteresis loop. In the low frequency limit these can be
expressed in terms of the depinning threshold and the critical exponents of the
adiabatic case.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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Minimal hepatic toxicity of Onyx-015: spatial restriction of coxsackie-adenoviral receptor in normal liver.
We administered an adenoviral vector, Onyx-015, into the hepatic artery of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer involving the liver. Thirty-five patients enrolled in this multi-institutional phase I/II trial received up to eight arterial infusions of up to 2 x 10(12) viral particles. Hepatic toxicity was the primary dose-limiting toxicity observed in preclinical models. However, nearly 200 infusions of this adenoviral vector were administered directly into the hepatic artery without significant toxicity. Therefore, we undertook this analysis to determine the impact of repeated adenoviral exposure on hepatic function. Seventeen patients were treated at our institution, providing a detailed data set on the changes in hepatic function following repeated exposure to adenovirus. No changes in hepatic function occurred with the first treatment of Onyx-015 among these patients. Transient increases in transaminase levels occurred in one patient starting with the second infusion and transient increases in bilirubin was observed in two patients starting with the fifth treatment. These changes occurred too early to be explained by viral-mediated lysis of hepatocytes. In addition, viremia was observed starting 3-5 days after the viral infusion in half of the patient, but was not associated with hepatic toxicity. To further understand the basis for the minimal hepatic toxicity of adenoviral vectors, we evaluated the replication of adenovirus in primary hepatocytes and tumor cells in culture and the expression of the coxsackie-adenoviral receptor (CAR) in normal liver and colon cancer metastatic to the liver. We found that adenovirus replicates poorly in primary hepatocytes but replicates efficiently in tumors including tumors derived from hepatocytes. In addition, we found that CAR is localized at junctions between hepatocytes and is inaccessible to hepatic blood flow. CAR is not expressed on tumor vasculature but is expressed on tumor cells. Spatial restriction of CAR to the intercellular space in normal liver and diminished replication of adenovirus in hepatocytes may explain the minimal toxicity observed following repeated hepatic artery infusions with Onyx-015
High Resolution Ionization of Ultracold Neutral Plasmas
Collective effects, such as waves and instabilities, are integral to our
understanding of most plasma phenomena. We have been able to study these in
ultracold neutral plasmas by shaping the initial density distribution through
spatial modulation of the ionizing laser intensity. We describe a relay imaging
system for the photoionization beam that allows us to create higher resolution
features and its application to extend the observation of ion acoustic waves to
shorter wavelengths. We also describe the formation of sculpted density
profiles to create fast expansion of plasma into vacuum and streaming plasmas
Commercial air transport hazard warning and avoidance system. Volume 3 - Radar performance studies Final report
Technology and system analysis of radar performance for hazard warning and avoidance syste
R-mode Instability of Slowly Rotating Non-isentropic Relativistic Stars
We investigate properties of -mode instability in slowly rotating
relativistic polytropes. Inside the star slow rotation and low frequency
formalism that was mainly developed by Kojima is employed to study axial
oscillations restored by Coriolis force. At the stellar surface, in order to
take account of gravitational radiation reaction effect, we use a near-zone
boundary condition instead of the usually imposed boundary condition for
asymptotically flat spacetime. Due to the boundary condition, complex
frequencies whose imaginary part represents secular instability are obtained
for discrete -mode oscillations in some polytropic models. It is found that
such discrete -mode solutions can be obtained only for some restricted
polytropic models. Basic properties of the solutions are similar to those
obtained by imposing the boundary condition for asymptotically flat spacetime.
Our results suggest that existence of a continuous part of spectrum cannot be
avoided even when its frequency becomes complex due to the emission of
gravitational radiation.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publlication in PR
Progress in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection in Ukraine: results from a birth cohort study
Background: Ukraine was the epicentre of the HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe, which has the most rapidly accelerating HIV epidemic world-wide today; national HIV prevalence is currently estimated at 1.6%. Our objective was to evaluate the uptake and effectiveness of interventions for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) over an eight year period within operational settings in Ukraine, within the context of an ongoing birth cohort study.Methods: The European Collaborative Study (ECS) is an ongoing birth cohort study in which HIV-infected pregnant women identified before or during pregnancy or at delivery were enrolled and their infants prospectively followed. Three centres in Ukraine started enrolling in 2000, with a further three joining in September 2006.Results: Of the 3356 women enrolled, 21% (689) reported current or past injecting drug use (IDU). Most women were diagnosed antenatally and of those, the proportion diagnosed in the first/second trimester increased from 47% in 2000/01 (83/178) to 73% (776/1060) in 2006/07 (p < 0.001); intrapartum diagnosis was associated with IDU (Adjusted odds ratio 4.38; 95% CI 3.19-6.02). The percentage of women not receiving any antiretroviral prophylaxis declined from 18% (36/205) in 2001 to 7% in 2007 (61/843) p < 0.001). Use of sdNVP alone substantially declined after 2003, with a concomitant increase in zidovudine prophylaxis. Median antenatal zidovudine prophylaxis duration increased from 24 to 72 days between 2000 and 2007. Elective caesarean section (CS) rates were relatively stable over time and 34% overall. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) rates decreased from 15.2% in 2001 (95% CI 10.2-21.4) to 7.0% in 2006 (95% CI 2.6-14.6). In adjusted analysis, MTCT risk was reduced by 43% with elective CS versus vaginal delivery and by 75% with zidovudine versus no prophylaxis.Conclusion: There have been substantial improvements in use of PMTCT interventions in Ukraine, including earlier diagnosis of HIV-infected pregnant women and increasing coverage with antiretroviral prophylaxis and the initial MTCT rate has more than halved. Future research should focus on hard-to-reach populations such as IDU and on missed opportunities for further reducing the MTCT rate
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