We report the observation of non-metallic electrical conduction, resistive switching, and a negative temperature coefficient of resistance in nanostructured gold films above the electrical ...percolation and in strong-coupling regime, from room down to cryogenic temperatures (24 K). Nanostructured continuous gold films are assembled by supersonic cluster beam deposition of Au aggregates formed in the gas phase. The structure of the cluster-assembled films is characterized by an extremely high density of randomly oriented crystalline nanodomains, separated by grain boundaries and with a large number of lattice defects. Our data indicates that space charge limited conduction and Coulomb blockade are at the origin of the anomalous electrical behavior. The high density of extended defects and grain boundaries causes the localization of conduction electrons over the entire investigated temperature range.
A nonintrusive reduced order method able to solve a parametric modal analysis is proposed in this work. The main objective is being able to efficiently identify how a variation of user-defined ...parameters affects the dynamic response of the structure in terms of fundamental natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes. A parametric version of the inverse power method (IPM) is presented by using the proper generalised decomposition (PGD) rationale. The proposed approach utilises the so-called encapsulated PGD toolbox and includes a new algorithm for computing the square root of a parametric object. With only one offline computation, the proposed PGD-IPM approach provides an analytical parametric expression of the smallest (in magnitude) eigenvalue (or natural frequency) and corresponding eigenvector (mode shape), which contains all the possible solutions for every combination of the parameters within pre-defined ranges. A Lagrange multiplier deflation technique is introduced in order to compute subsequent eigenpairs, which is also valid to overcome the stiffness matrix singularity in the case of a free-free structure. The proposed approach is nonintrusive and it is therefore possible to be integrated with commercial finite element (FE) packages. Two numerical examples are shown to underline the properties of the technique. The first example includes one material and one geometric parameter. The second example shows a more realistic industrial example, where the nonintrusivity of the approach is demonstrated by employing a commercial FE package for assembling the FE matrices. Finally, a multi-objective optimisation study is performed proving that the developed method could significantly assist the decision-making during the preliminary phase of a new design process.
The three principal studies dedicated to the natural history of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) from colorectal cancer consistently showed median survival ranging between 6 and 8 months. New ...approaches combining cytoreductive surgery and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy suggest improved survival.
A retrospective multicenter study was performed to evaluate the international experience with this combined treatment and to identify the principal prognostic indicators. All patients had cytoreductive surgery and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (intraperitoneal chemohyperthermia and/or immediate postoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy). PC from appendiceal origin was excluded.
The study included 506 patients from 28 institutions operated between May 1987 and December 2002. Their median age was 51 years. The median follow-up was 53 months. The morbidity and mortality rates were 22.9% and 4%, respectively. The overall median survival was 19.2 months. Patients in whom cytoreductive surgery was complete had a median survival of 32.4 months, compared with 8.4 months for patients in whom complete cytoreductive surgery was not possible (P <.001). Positive independent prognostic indicators by multivariate analysis were complete cytoreduction, treatment by a second procedure, limited extent of PC, age less than 65 years, and use of adjuvant chemotherapy. The use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, lymph node involvement, presence of liver metastasis, and poor histologic differentiation were negative independent prognostic indicators.
The therapeutic approach combining cytoreductive surgery with perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy achieved long-term survival in a selected group of patients with PC from colorectal origin with acceptable morbidity and mortality. The complete cytoreductive surgery was the most important prognostic indicator.
We study an electrically controlled quantum spin Hall antidot embedded in a two-dimensional topological insulating bar. Helical edge states around the antidot and along the edges of the bar are ...tunnel coupled. The close connection between spin and chirality, typical of helical systems, allows to generate a spin-polarized current flowing across the bar. This current is studied as a function of the external voltages, by varying the asymmetry between the barriers. For asymmetric setups, a switching behavior of the spin current is observed as the bias is increased, both in the absence and in the presence of electron interactions. This device allows to generate and control the spin-polarized current by simple electrical means.
Autophagy is the major intracellular degradation pathway that regulates long-lived proteins and organelles turnover. This process occurs at basal levels in all cells but it is rapidly upregulated in ...response to starvation and cellular stress. Although being recently implicated in neurodegeneration, it remains still unclear whether autophagy has a detrimental or protective role. In this study, we investigated the dynamics of the autophagic process in retinal tissue that has undergone transient ischemia, an experimental model that recapitulates features of ocular pathologies, including glaucoma, anterior ischemic optic neuropathy and retinal vessels occlusion. Retinal ischemia, induced in adult rats by increasing the intraocular pressure, was characterized by a reduction in the phosphatidylethanolamine-modified form of LC3 (LC3II) and by a significant decrease in Beclin-1. The latter event was associated with a proteolytic cleavage of Beclin-1, leading to the accumulation of a 50-kDa fragment. This event was prevented by intravitreal treatment with the non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist MK801 and calpain inhibitors or by calpain knockdown. Blockade of autophagy by pharmacological inhibition or Beclin-1 silencing in RGC-5 increased cell death, suggesting a pro-survival role of the autophagic process in this neuronal cell type. Altogether, our results provide original evidence for calpain-mediated cleavage of Beclin-1 and deregulation of basal autophagy in the rat retina that has undergone ocular ischemia/reperfusion injury.
Abstract The cooling of secondary beams is important for accelerator-based nuclear physics. In the radiofrequency (RF) quadrupole cooler (RFQC), RF fields and ion-gas collisions may give a ...considerable increase or decrease of the beam transverse emittance and energy spread, depending on a delicate tuning of heating and cooling effects, dominated by the ion beam kinetic energy and the balance of collisions and confinement forces. An extra confinement may be added by a solenoid magnetic field, as in the RFQC prototype installed in the Eltrap machine. This provides a versatile test bench (distinct from a closed accelerator installation) for detailed studies of cooling dynamics and of several RFQC technical optimizations (for gas differential pumping and bias voltages). Modeling concepts and simulation results are summarized. The major RFQC parameters are reviewed, in particular for 133 Cs + collisions against He gas whose pressure p g ranges from 2 to 9 Pa in the reference case, with attention to the extraction, comparing triode/tetrode system, and to the bias voltages. Lower bias voltages request less p g , but provide less cooling of the energy spread.
The transport properties of an interacting one-dimensional quantum dot capacitively coupled to an atomic force microscope probe are investigated. The dot is described within a Luttinger-liquid ...framework which captures both Friedel and Wigner oscillations. In the linear regime, we demonstrate that both the conductance peak position and height oscillate as the tip is scanned along the dot. A pronounced beating pattern in the conductance maximum is observed connected to the oscillations of the electron density. Signatures of the effects induced by a Wigner molecule are clearly identified and their stability against the strength of Coulomb interactions is analyzed. While the oscillations of the peak position due to Wigner get enhanced at strong interactions, the peak height modulations are suppressed as interactions grow. Oscillations due to Friedel, on the other hand, are robust against interaction.
We demonstrate the possibility to induce and control peculiar spin textures in a helical Luttinger liquid, by means of a time-dependent magnetic scatterer. The presence of a perturbation that breaks ...the time-reversal symmetry opens a gap in the spectrum, inducing single-particle backscattering and a peculiar spin response. We show that in the weak backscattering regime asymmetric spin textures emerge at the left and right sides of the scatterer, whose spatial oscillations are controlled by the ratio between the magnetization frequency and the Fermi energy and by the electron interaction. This peculiar spin response marks a strong difference between helical and nonhelical liquids, which are expected to produce symmetric spin textures even in the ac regime.
The temperature-induced emergence of Wigner correlations over finite-size effects in a strongly interacting one-dimensional quantum dot is studied in the framework of the spin coherent Luttinger ...liquid. We demonstrate that, for temperatures comparable with the zero mode spin excitations, Friedel oscillations are suppressed by the thermal fluctuations of higher spin modes. On the other hand, the Wigner oscillations, sensitive to the charge mode only, are stable and become more visible. This behavior has been proved to be robust both in the thermal electron density and in the linear conductance in the presence of a scanning tunnel microscope tip. The latter probe is not directly proportional to the electron density and may confirm the above phenomena with complementary and additional information.
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