On the rupture of DNA molecule

Using Langevin Dynamic simulations, we study effects of the shear force on the rupture of a double stranded DNA molecule. The model studied here contains two single diblock copolymers interacting with each other. The elastic constants of individual segments of the diblock copolymer are considered to be different. We showed that the magnitude of the rupture force depends on whether the force is applied at $3'-3'-$ends or $5'-5'-$ends. Distributions of extension in hydrogen bonds and covalent bonds along the chain show the striking differences. Motivated by recent experiments, we have also calculated the variation of rupture force for different chain lengths. Results obtained from simulations have been validated with the analytical calculation based on the ladder model of DNA.Comment: 7 pages and 4 figure

Statistical Mechanics of DNA Rupture: Theory and Simulations

We study the effects of the shear force on the rupture mechanism on a double stranded DNA. Motivated by recent experiments, we perform the atomistic simulations with explicit solvent to obtain the distributions of extension in hydrogen and covalent bonds below the rupture force. We obtain a significant difference between the atomistic simulations and the existing results in the iterature based on the coarse-grained models (theory and simulations). We discuss the possible reasons and improve the coarse-grained model by incorporating the consequences of semi-microscopic details of the nucleotides in its description. The distributions obtained by the modified model (simulations and theoretical) are qualitatively similar to the one obtained using atomistic simulations.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Accepted in J. Chem. Phys. (2013). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1104.305

Impact of managed clinical networks on neonatal care in England : a population-based study

Objective: To assess the impact of reorganisation of neonatal specialist care services in England after a UK Department of Health report in 2003. Design: A population-wide observational comparison of outcomes over two epochs, before and after the establishment of managed clinical neonatal networks. Setting: Epoch one: 294 maternity and neonatal units in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, 1 September 1998 to 31 August 2000, as reported by the Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Sudden Deaths in Infancy Project 27/28. Epoch two: 146 neonatal units in England contributing data to the National Neonatal Research Database at the Neonatal Data Analysis Unit, 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2010. Participants: Babies born at a gestational age of 27+0-28+6 (weeks+days): 3522 live births in epoch one; 2919 babies admitted to a neonatal unit within 28 days of birth in epoch two. Intervention: The national reorganisation of neonatal services into managed clinical networks. Main outcome measures: The proportion of babies born at hospitals providing the highest volume of neonatal specialist care (≥2000 neonatal intensive care days annually), having an acute transfer (within the first 24 hours after birth) and/or a late transfer (between 24 hours and 28 days after birth) to another hospital, assessed by change in distribution of transfer category (“none,” “acute,” “late”), and babies from multiple births separated by transfer. For acute transfers in epoch two, the level of specialist neonatal care provided at the destination hospital (British Association of Perinatal Medicine criteria). Results: After reorganisation, there were increases in the proportions of babies born at 27-28 weeks’ gestation in hospitals providing the highest volume of neonatal specialist care (18% (631/3495) v 49% (1325/2724); odds ratio 4.30, 95% confidence interval 3.83 to 4.82; P<0.001) and in acute and late postnatal transfers (7% (235) v 12% (360) and 18% (579) v 22% (640), respectively; P<0.001). There was no significant change in the proportion of babies from multiple births separated by transfer (33% (39) v 29% (38); 0.86, 0.50 to 1.46; P=0.57). In epoch two, 32% of acute transfers were to a neonatal unit providing either an equivalent (n=87) or lower (n=26) level of specialist care. Conclusions: There is evidence of some improvement in the delivery of neonatal specialist care after reorganisation. The increase in acute transfers in epoch two, in conjunction with the high proportion transferred to a neonatal unit providing an equivalent or lower level of specialist care, and the continued separation of babies from multiple births, are indicative of poor coordination between maternity and neonatal services to facilitate in utero transfer before delivery, and continuing inadequacies in capacity of intensive care cots. Historical data representing epoch one are available only in aggregate form, preventing examination of temporal trends or confounding factors. This limits the extent to which differences between epochs can be attributed to reorganisation and highlights the importance of routine, prospective data collection for evaluation of future health service reorganisations

Operational interpretations of quantum discord

Quantum discord quantifies non-classical correlations going beyond the standard classification of quantum states into entangled and unentangled ones. Although it has received considerable attention, it still lacks any precise interpretation in terms of some protocol in which quantum features are relevant. Here we give quantum discord its first operational meaning in terms of entanglement consumption in an extended quantum state merging protocol. We further relate the asymmetry of quantum discord with the performance imbalance in quantum state merging and dense coding.Comment: v4: 5 pages, 1 fig. Refs added, text improved. Main results unchanged. See arXiv:1008.4135v2 for a related work. v5: close to the published versio

Surface and interface study of pulsed-laser-deposited off-stoichiometric NiMnSb thin films on Si(100) substrate

We report a detailed study of surface and interface properties of pulsed-laser deposited NiMnSb films on Si (100) substrate as a function of film thickness. As the thickness of films is reduced below 35 nm formation of a porous layer is observed. Porosity in this layer increases with decrease in NiMnSb film thickness. These morphological changes of the ultra thin films are reflected in the interesting transport and magnetic properties of these films. On the other hand, there are no influences of compositional in-homogeneity and surface/interface roughness on the magnetic and transport properties of the films.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Dissipative dynamics of quantum discord under quantum chaotic environment

We investigate the dissipative dynamics of quantum discord in a decoherence model with two initially entangled qubits in addition to a quantum kicked top. The two qubits are uncoupled during the period of our study and one of them interacts with the quantum kicked top. We find that the long time behavior of quantum discord could be well described by the fidelity decay of the quantum kicked top; for short time behavior, however, the phase of the amplitude of the fidelity decay is necessary to provide more specific information about the system. We have made comparison between the quantum kicked top and multi-mode oscillator system in describing environment, and also compared the dynamics of the entanglement with that of quantum discord.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, and Accepted by Europhysics Letter

Studies of uncontrolled air traffic patterns, phase 1

The general aviation air traffic flow patterns at uncontrolled airports are investigated and analyzed and traffic pattern concepts are developed to minimize the midair collision hazard in uncontrolled airspace. An analytical approach to evaluate midair collision hazard probability as a function of traffic densities is established which is basically independent of path structure. Two methods of generating space-time interrelationships between terminal area aircraft are presented; one is a deterministic model to generate pseudorandom aircraft tracks, the other is a statistical model in preliminary form. Some hazard measures are presented for selected traffic densities. It is concluded that the probability of encountering a hazard should be minimized independently of any other considerations and that the number of encounters involving visible-avoidable aircraft should be maximized at the expense of encounters in other categories

Physician Executive Leadership: Assessing a Student-Led Approach to Healthcare Leadership Education in Medical School

Poster presented at: 14th Annual AMA Research Symposium in Orlando, Fl Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of Physican Leadership, an open access, student-led healthcare leadership program at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, in preparing to face five key emerging topics in medical practice: healthcare economics, health policy, care and quality and safety, law and medicine, and patient experience. The Problem: Gaps in Medical Education Healthcare in the US continues to evolve, and topics such as health policy, health finance, and patient experience are not central to the practice of medicine. However, the sheer volume of material students are required to learn in the preclinical years makes it challenging to introduce new subjects into traditional medical school curricula. As a result, these topics in healthcare leadership are often left out. Indeed, only 40-50% of medical student report appropriate training in the practice of medicine, including subjects as medical economics, healthcare systems, and managed care.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/pel/1002/thumbnail.jp