Refracting profiles and generalized holodiagrams

The recently developed concept of refracting profiles and that of refraction holodiagrams are combined so that the classical Abramson holodiagrams can be generalized taking into account a wider class of wave fronts and refraction at an interface, whenever regions of caustics are avoided. These holodiagrams are obtained as envelopes of specific families of Cartesian Ovals with an appropriate parametrization. Classical and reflecting holodiagrams are particular cases of this class. Several of the properties of the classical holodiagrams are shared by their richer generalized versionsComment: 12 pages, 7 figure

A method to construct refracting profiles

We propose an original method for determining suitable refracting profiles between two media to solve two related problems: to produce a given wave front from a single point source after refraction at the refracting profile, and to focus a given wave front in a fixed point. These profiles are obtained as envelopes of specific families of Cartesian ovals. We study the singularities of these profiles and give a method to construct them from the data of the associated caustic.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Solving the brachistochrone and other variational problems with soap films

We show a method to solve the problem of the brachistochrone as well as other variational problems with the help of the soap films that are formed between two suitable surfaces. We also show the interesting connection between some variational problems of dynamics, statics, optics, and elasticity.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures. This article, except for a small correction, has been submitted to the American Journal of Physic

Physics of Hemterostructure Field-Effect Transistors

Contains an introduction, report on one research project and a list of publications.Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAH04-95-1-0038Texas Instruments Agreement dated 11/23/9

Physics of InAIAs/InGaAs Heterostructure Field-Effect Transistors

Contains an introduction, reports on three research projects, research conclusions and a list of publications.Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAHO4-95-1-003

Physics of InAIAs/InGaAs Heterostructure Field-Effect Transistors

Contains an introduction, a report on one research project and a list of publications and conference papers.Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAH04-95-1-0038Texas Instrument

Biomarkers of Host Response Predict Primary End-Point Radiological Pneumonia in Tanzanian Children with Clinical Pneumonia: A Prospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Diagnosing pediatric pneumonia is challenging in low-resource settings. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined primary end-point radiological pneumonia for use in epidemiological and vaccine studies. However, radiography requires expertise and is often inaccessible. We hypothesized that plasma biomarkers of inflammation and endothelial activation may be useful surrogates for end-point pneumonia, and may provide insight into its biological significance. METHODS: We studied children with WHO-defined clinical pneumonia (n = 155) within a prospective cohort of 1,005 consecutive febrile children presenting to Tanzanian outpatient clinics. Based on x-ray findings, participants were categorized as primary end-point pneumonia (n = 30), other infiltrates (n = 31), or normal chest x-ray (n = 94). Plasma levels of 7 host response biomarkers at presentation were measured by ELISA. Associations between biomarker levels and radiological findings were assessed by Kruskal-Wallis test and multivariable logistic regression. Biomarker ability to predict radiological findings was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and Classification and Regression Tree analysis. RESULTS: Compared to children with normal x-ray, children with end-point pneumonia had significantly higher C-reactive protein, procalcitonin and Chitinase 3-like-1, while those with other infiltrates had elevated procalcitonin and von Willebrand Factor and decreased soluble Tie-2 and endoglin. Clinical variables were not predictive of radiological findings. Classification and Regression Tree analysis generated multi-marker models with improved performance over single markers for discriminating between groups. A model based on C-reactive protein and Chitinase 3-like-1 discriminated between end-point pneumonia and non-end-point pneumonia with 93.3% sensitivity (95% confidence interval 76.5-98.8), 80.8% specificity (72.6-87.1), positive likelihood ratio 4.9 (3.4-7.1), negative likelihood ratio 0.083 (0.022-0.32), and misclassification rate 0.20 (standard error 0.038). CONCLUSIONS: In Tanzanian children with WHO-defined clinical pneumonia, combinations of host biomarkers distinguished between end-point pneumonia, other infiltrates, and normal chest x-ray, whereas clinical variables did not. These findings generate pathophysiological hypotheses and may have potential research and clinical utility

Conductance oscillations in strongly correlated fractional quantum Hall line junctions

We present a detailed theory of transport through line junctions formed by counterpropagating single-branch fractional-quantum-Hall edge channels having different filling factors. Intriguing transport properties are exhibited when strong Coulomb interactions between electrons from the two edges are present. Such strongly correlated line junctions can be classified according to the value of an effective line-junction filling factor n that is the inverse of an even integer. Interactions turn out to affect transport most importantly for n=1/2 and n=1/4. A particularly interesting case is n=1/4 corresponding to, e.g., a junction of edge channels having filling factor 1 and 1/5, respectively. We predict its differential tunneling conductance to oscillate as a function of voltage. This behavior directly reflects the existence of novel Majorana-fermion quasiparticle excitations in this type of line junction. Experimental accessibility of such systems in current cleaved-edge overgrown samples enables direct testing of our theoretical predictions.Comment: 2 figures, 10 pages, RevTex4, v2: added second figure for clarit

Sediment Mixing by Invertebrates as Shown by 85KR1

In the event radionuclides are accidentally introduced into an estuary, many isotopes would become adsorbed on suspended particles of clay or silt; others would be incorporated into living cellular material (Caritt and Goodgal, 1954; Rice and Willis, 1959). Oysters and other filter feeders in these estuaries are capable of filtering from suspension large quantities of the suspended solids, as well as the larger living cellular material (Haven and Morales-Alamo, 1966a). Ingested material along with the associated radionuclides would be voided as compacted fecal strings or pellets (biodeposits). Many of these fecal pellets may be alternately suspended in the water mass or deposited on the bottom during a single tidal cycle (Haven and Morales-Alamo, 1968). The present paper investigates how particles in the sand or clay size range, along with adsorbed radionuclides, may be mixed into subsurface deposits