High Heritability Is Compatible with the Broad Distribution of Set Point Viral Load in HIV Carriers.

Set point viral load in HIV patients ranges over several orders of magnitude and is a key determinant of disease progression in HIV. A number of recent studies have reported high heritability of set point viral load implying that viral genetic factors contribute substantially to the overall variation in viral load. The high heritability is surprising given the diversity of host factors associated with controlling viral infection. Here we develop an analytical model that describes the temporal changes of the distribution of set point viral load as a function of heritability. This model shows that high heritability is the most parsimonious explanation for the observed variance of set point viral load. Our results thus not only reinforce the credibility of previous estimates of heritability but also shed new light onto mechanisms of viral pathogenesis

Anti-chiral edge states in an exciton polariton strip

We present a scheme to obtain anti-chiral edge states in an exciton-polariton honeycomb lattice with strip geometry, where the modes corresponding to both edges propagate in the same direction. Under resonant pumping the effect of a polariton condensate with nonzero velocity in one linear polarization is predicted to tilt the dispersion of polaritons in the other, which results in an energy shift between two Dirac cones and the otherwise flat edge states become tilted. Our simulations show that due to the spatial separation from the bulk modes the edge modes are robust against disorder.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Tuning magnetic anisotropy of epitaxial Ag/Fe/Fe0.5Co0.5/MgO(001) films

Single crystalline Ag/Fe/Fe0.5Co0.5/MgO(001) films were grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy and investigated by Magneto-Optic Kerr Effect (MOKE). We find that even though the 4-fold magnetic anisotropies of Ag/Fe/MgO(001) and Ag/Fe0.5Co0.5/MgO(001) films are different from the corresponding bulk values, their opposite signs allow a fine tuning of the 4-fold magnetic anisotropy in Ag/Fe/Fe0.5Co0.5/MgO(001) films by varying the Fe and Fe0.5Co0.5 film thicknesses. In particular, the critical point of zero anisotropy can be achieved in a wide range of film thicknesses. Using Rotational MOKE, we determined and constructed the anisotropy phase diagram in the Fe and Fe0.5Co0.5 thickness plane from which the zero anisotropy exhibits a linear relation between the Fe and Fe0.5Co0.5 thickness

Group Divisible Codes and Their Application in the Construction of Optimal Constant-Composition Codes of Weight Three

The concept of group divisible codes, a generalization of group divisible designs with constant block size, is introduced in this paper. This new class of codes is shown to be useful in recursive constructions for constant-weight and constant-composition codes. Large classes of group divisible codes are constructed which enabled the determination of the sizes of optimal constant-composition codes of weight three (and specified distance), leaving only four cases undetermined. Previously, the sizes of constant-composition codes of weight three were known only for those of sufficiently large length.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, 4 table

Adaptive Predictive Control Using Neural Network for a Class of Pure-feedback Systems in Discrete-time

10.1109/TNN.2008.2000446IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks1991599-1614ITNN

Theory of Dispersed Fixed-Delay Interferometry for Radial Velocity Exoplanet Searches

The dispersed fixed-delay interferometer (DFDI) represents a new instrument concept for high-precision radial velocity (RV) surveys for extrasolar planets. A combination of Michelson interferometer and medium-resolution spectrograph, it has the potential for performing multi-object surveys, where most previous RV techniques have been limited to observing only one target at a time. Because of the large sample of extrasolar planets needed to better understand planetary formation, evolution, and prevalence, this new technique represents a logical next step in instrumentation for RV extrasolar planet searches, and has been proven with the single-object Exoplanet Tracker (ET) at Kitt Peak National Observatory, and the multi-object W. M. Keck/MARVELS Exoplanet Tracker at Apache Point Observatory. The development of the ET instruments has necessitated fleshing out a detailed understanding of the physical principles of the DFDI technique. Here we summarize the fundamental theoretical material needed to understand the technique and provide an overview of the physics underlying the instrument's working. We also derive some useful analytical formulae that can be used to estimate the level of various sources of error generic to the technique, such as photon shot noise when using a fiducial reference spectrum, contamination by secondary spectra (e.g., crowded sources, spectroscopic binaries, or moonlight contamination), residual interferometer comb, and reference cross-talk error. Following this, we show that the use of a traditional gas absorption fiducial reference with a DFDI can incur significant systematic errors that must be taken into account at the precision levels required to detect extrasolar planets.Comment: 58 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, 3 appendices. Accepted for publication in ApJS. Minor typographical corrections; update to acknowledgment

Dynamics of Domain Wall in a Biaxial Ferromagnet With Spin-torque

The dynamics of the domain wall (DW) in a biaxial ferromagnet interacting with a spin-polarized current are described by sine-gordon (SG) equation coupled with Gilbert damping term in this paper. Within our frame-work of this model, we obtain a threshold of the current in the motion of a single DW with the perturbation theory on kink soliton solution to the corresponding ferromagnetic system, and the threshold is shown to be dependent on the Gilbert damping term. Also, the motion properties of the DW are discussed for the zero- and nonzero-damping cases, which shows that our theory to describe the dynamics of the DW are self-consistent.Comment: 7pages, 3figure

Determination of the Sign of g factors for Conduction Electrons Using Time-resolved Kerr Rotation

The knowledge of electron g factor is essential for spin manipulation in the field of spintronics and quantum computing. While there exist technical difficulties in determining the sign of g factor in semiconductors by the established magneto-optical spectroscopic methods. We develop a time resolved Kerr rotation technique to precisely measure the sign and the amplitude of electron g factor in semiconductors