Many-body dynamics of a Bose system with attractive interactions on a ring

We investigate the many-body dynamics of an effectively attractive one-dimensional Bose system confined in a toroidal trap. The mean-field theory predicts that a bright-soliton state will be formed when increasing the interparticle interaction over a critical point. The study of quantum many-body dynamics in this paper reveals that there is a modulation instability in a finite Bose system correspondingly. We show that Shannon entropy becomes irregular near and above the critical point due to quantum correlations. We also study the dynamical behavior of the instability by exploring the momentum distribution and the fringe visibility, which can be verified experimentally by releasing the trapComment: 6 pages,5 figure

Reduced expression of miR-22 in gastric cancer is related to clinicopathologic characteristics or patient prognosis

OBJECTIVE: Involvements of microRNA-22 (miR-22) in cancer development have attracted much attention, but its role in tumorigenesis of gastric cancer is still largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the expression patterns and clinical implications of miR-22 in gastric cancer. METHODS: Quantitative RT-PCR was performed to evaluate the expression levels of miR-22 in 98 pairs of gastric cancer and normal adjacent mucosa. RESULTS: Compared with normal adjacent mucosa, miR-22 expression was significantly downregulated in gastric cancer tissues (P < 0.001). Of 98 patients with gastric cancer, 58 (59.2%) were placed in the low miR-22 expression group and 40 (40.8%) were placed in the high miR-22 expression group. In addition, tumors with low miR-22 expression had greater extent of lymph node metastasis (P = 0.02) and distant metastasis (P = 0.01), and were at a worse stage (P = 0.01) than the tumors with high miR-22 expression. Moreover, the gastric cancer patients with low miR-22 expression had shorter overall survival than those with high miR-22 expression (P = 0.03). MiR-22, determined by multivariate analysis, was an independent prognostic factor for patients with gastric cancer. CONCLUSION: Our data offer the convincing evidence that the reduced expression of miR-22 was significantly associated with malignant development of gastric cancer and may be a novel prognostic marker of this disease. miR-22 might have potentials in the application of cancer therapy for patients with gastric cancer

Correlation and entanglement of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in a double well

We consider a novel system of two-component atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. Based on the well-known two-mode approximation, we demonstrate that there are obvious avoided level-crossings when both interspecies and intraspecies interactions of two species are increased. The quantum dynamics of the system exhibits revised oscillating behaviors compared with a single component condensate. We also examine the entanglement of two species. Our numerical calculations show the onset of entanglement can be signed as a violation of Cauchy-Schwarz inequality of second-order cross correlation function. Consequently, we use Von Neumann entropy to quantity the degree of entanglement

The propensity of the bacterial rodlin protein RdlB to form amyloid fibrils determines its function in Streptomyces coelicolor.

Streptomyces bacteria form reproductive aerial hyphae that are covered with a pattern of pairwise aligned fibrils called rodlets. The presence of the rodlet layer requires two homologous rodlin proteins, RdlA and RdlB, and the functional amyloid chaplin proteins, ChpA-H. In contrast to the redundancy shared among the eight chaplins, both RdlA and RdlB are indispensable for the establishment of this rodlet structure. By using a comprehensive biophysical approach combined with in vivo characterization we found that RdlB, but not RdlA, readily assembles into amyloid fibrils. The marked difference in amyloid propensity between these highly similar proteins could be largely attributed to a difference in amino acid sequence at just three sites. Further, an engineered RdlA protein in which these three key amino acids were replaced with the corresponding residues from RdlB could compensate for loss of RdlB and restore formation of the surface-exposed amyloid layer in bacteria. Our data reveal that RdlB is a new functional amyloid and provide a biophysical basis for the functional differences between the two rodlin proteins. This study enhances our understanding of how rodlin proteins contribute to formation of an outer fibrillar layer during spore morphogenesis in streptomycetes

Evaluation of Thermal-damages in Tube-like Structures using Ultrasonic Guided Waves

This paper aims at an experimental method for detecting thermal-damages in a tube-like structure using acoustic nonlinear parameter of ultrasonic guided waves. The material nonlinearity of aluminum pipe specimens, which have been subjected to different heat-loading cycles, is measured to characterize the micro-damages. Flexible Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) comb transducers are used to generate and receive the fundamental and second harmonic waves. The amplitude of the second harmonic wave is extracted from the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) spectrum of a received signal. The measured relative nonlinear parameter increases monotonically as a function of the propagation distance, and the relative nonlinear parameter becomes greater when the specimen is exposed to higher heat-loading cycles. These results indicate that the proposed experimental setup is applicable to assessment the micro-damages in a pipe, and the relative nonlinear parameter is a potential candidate for the prediction of micro-damages in a tube-like structure

Modelling of Bubbly Flow in Bubble Column Reactors with an Improved Breakup Kernel Accounting for Bubble Shape Variations

Bubble shapes have been assumed to be spherical in the currently available breakup models such as the one developed by Luo and Svendsen (1996). This particular breakup model has been widely accepted and implemented into CFD modelling of gas-liquid two-phase flows. However, simulation results obtained based on this model usually yield unreliable predictions about the breakage of very small bubbles. The incorporation of bubble shape variation into breakup models has rarely been documented in the study but the bubble shape plays an important role when considering the interactions with the surrounding turbulent eddies in turbulent bubbly flows, especially when the effects of bubble deformation, distortion and bubble internal pressure change are considered during the events of eddy-bubble collision. Thus, the assumption of spherical bubbles seems to be no longer appropriate in reflecting this phenomenon. This study proposes and implements an improved bubble breakup model, which accounts for the variation of bubble shapes when solving the population balance equations for CFD simulation of gas-liquid two-phase flows in bubble columns

Central Nervous System Reorganization in a Variety of Chronic Pain States: A Review

Chronic pain can develop from numerous conditions and is one of the most widespread and disabling health problems today. Unfortunately, the pathophysiology of chronic pain in most of these conditions, along with consistently effective treatments, remain elusive. However, recent advances in neuroimaging and neurophysiology are rapidly expanding our understanding of these pain syndromes. It is now clear that substantial functional and structural changes, or plasticity, in the central nervous system (CNS) are associated with many chronic pain syndromes. A group of cortical and subcortical brain regions, often referred to as the “pain matrix,” often show abnormalities on functional imaging studies in persons with chronic pain, even with different pain locations and etiologies. Changes in the motor and sensory homunculus also are seen. Some of these CNS changes return to a normal state with resolution of the pain. It is hoped that this knowledge will lead to more effective treatments or even new preventative measures. The purpose of this article is to review recent advances in the understanding of the CNS changes associated with chronic pain in a number of clinical entities encountered in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. These clinical entities include nonspecific low back pain, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, postamputation phantom pain, and chronic pain after spinal cord injury.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146873/1/pmr21116.pd

Euler-Euler LES of bubble column bubbly flows by considering sub-grid scale turbulent dispersion effect on modulating bubble transport

It has now been recognised and generally accepted that turbulent dispersion may be modelled using the time average of the fluctuating part of the interphase momentum, employing the drag the Favre averaged drag model for turbulent dispersion in Eulerian multi-phase flows. As the turbulent eddies in the surrounding of bubbles interact strongly with the bubbles in bubbly flow, the bubble trajectories and bubble oscillation take place accordingly as the consequence of continuous deformation of the bubble surfaces. When using large eddy simulation for modelling bubbly flow, the sub-grid scale (SGS) filtered velocity fluctuations of liquid phase can be interpreted as many small eddies that may act on the surface of bubbles, consequently giving rise to bubble shape variations and the dispersion of bubbles. This study employs Euler/Euler large-eddy simulation (LES) modelling to demonstrate that the turbulent dispersion force model can be used to effectively indicate the influence of turbulent eddies on bubble dynamics, in particular the bubble cluster oscillations, which leads to remarkable improvements in the prediction of bubble lateral dispersion behaviour. The use of spatial filtering to model the SGS bubble dispersion is proposed with a modification on SGS eddy viscosity to reflect turbulent dispersion due to bubble induced turbulence. The results of the time-averaged LES modelled bubble velocities and bubble volume fraction profiles are in good agreement with the experimental data while the turbulent kinetic energy spectrum obtained at different locations on the centreline of the bubble column still exhibits the conventional −5/3 scaling for shear induced turbulence and a −3 scaling for bubble induced turbulence