Coupled Feedback Loops Involving PAGE4, EMT and Notch Signaling Can Give Rise to Non-Genetic Heterogeneity in Prostate Cancer Cells

Non-genetic heterogeneity is emerging as a crucial factor underlying therapy resistance in multiple cancers. However, the design principles of regulatory networks underlying non-genetic heterogeneity in cancer remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate the coupled dynamics of feedback loops involving (a) oscillations in androgen receptor (AR) signaling mediated through an intrinsically disordered protein PAGE4, (b) multistability in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), and (c) Notch–Delta–Jagged signaling mediated cell-cell communication, each of which can generate non-genetic heterogeneity through multistability and/or oscillations. Our results show how different coupling strengths between AR and EMT signaling can lead to monostability, bistability, or oscillations in the levels of AR, as well as propagation of oscillations to EMT dynamics. These results reveal the emergent dynamics of coupled oscillatory and multi-stable systems and unravel mechanisms by which non-genetic heterogeneity in AR levels can be generated, which can act as a barrier to most existing therapies for prostate cancer patients.     

Analytical formula describing the non-saturating linear magnetoresistance in inhomogeneous conductors

The effective-medium theory (EMT) has proved successful in modeling the non-saturating linear magnetoresistance induced by inhomogeneity. However, calculating magnetoresistance using the EMT usually involves solving coupled integral equations which have no analytical solutions, and therefore, it is still difficult to directly compare the predictions of EMT with experimental data. Here we demonstrate that the linear magnetoresistance predicted by the EMT can be either exactly formulated or well approximated by a simple analytical equation $\Delta\rho/\rho_0=\sqrt{k^2B^2+a^2}-a$ in a number of known situations. The relations between the EMT parameters and the phenomenological parameters $k$ and $a$ are evaluated. Our results provide a convenient and effective method for extracting the EMT parameters from experimental data.     

Preparation of Mitochondria- and Epigenetics-Targeting Nanoparticles for Suppression of Cancer Metastasis

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of carcinoma cells is a promising target for cancer therapy since it is closely related to tumor metastasis and therapeutic resistance. The process of EMT is strongly associated with epigenetic alterations in cancer cells. In addition, recent accumulating evidence suggests that EMT also has a significant influence on inducing cancer stem cells (CSCs). In this study, novel polymer core–lipid shell nanoparticles (PLNPs) are prepared to suppress cancer EMT by the combined effects of the antioxidant activity of core-encapsulated Mn imidazolium porphyrin (MnImP) and the epigenetic control by histone acetyltransferase-encoding plasmid DNA (pHAT) hybridized onto the shell surface. PLNPs show the ability to control the expression of EMT-related markers, resulting in the suppression of EMT in lung epithelial cancer cells (paraquat-treated A549 cells). Furthermore, PLNPs suppress the levels of intracellular mitochondrial ROS and the transformation to CSCs. The results of this study may provide a novel therapeutic strategy against tumor metastasis and treatment resistance.     

The effective-mass nature of deep-level point-defect states in semiconductors

The basic premise of Effective-Mass Theory (EMT) is that bound-state wavefunctions are constructible from Bloch functions in a small region or regions of k space. In contrast, deep-level wavefunctions are believed to involve Bloch functions from the entire Brillouin zone and several bands. In this paper we analyse the wavefunction of the deep vacancy level in Si obtained recently by self-consistent Green's-function calculations. We find that this wavefunction has a strong EMT character in that it is composed primarily of Bloch functions from the nearest bands and the corresponding coefficients, i.e. the envelope functions, are peaked about the band extrema. As a further check, we have used a spherical average of the self-consistent vacancy potential in the acceptor EMT equations. The resulting energy level is at E_v+0.9 eV, as compared with the Green's-function-theoretic value of E_v+0.8 eV. The resulting wavefunction, on the other hand, does not have the correct form. A check of the correction terms left out by the standard EMT equations reveals that their contributions to the energy level are large and tend to cancel one another.     

孔缝箱体屏蔽效能电磁拓扑分析模型

基于Robinson等效电路法,提出了一种电磁拓扑模型,用于任意平面波入射条件下的孔缝箱体屏蔽效能分析。该模型将孔缝及其所在平面等效为连接自由空间(等效为特性阻抗为Z0的传输线)和剩余箱体(等效为特性阻抗为Zg的短路矩形波导)的二端口网络,并通过等效电路模型计算了该二端口网络的散射矩阵,进而推导出描述孔缝耦合的广义BLT(Baum-Liu-Tesche)方程。设计了4组实验模型用于电磁拓扑理论(EMT)算法、Robinson算法和CST软件的对比分析,仿真结果证明:EMT算法较Robinson算法具有更高的准确率,尤其是在高频域;EMT算法继承了Robinson算法简洁高效的特性,且能直观反映箱体参数、孔逢参数对屏蔽系数的影响,较CST软件实用性更强。     

Nonlocal effects in the optical response of composite materials with metallic nanoparticles

A phenomenological model for the optical response of composite materials with metallic nanoparticles is presented. This model applies the conventional effective medium theories (EMT) but takes into account the spatial dispersion effects in the dielectric response of the metallic nanoparticles. This leads to an EMT that depends on the size of the particles. Numerical results from a model computation shows that this effect due to the nonlocal optical response of the nanoparticles can increase the resonant absorption frequency of the composite significantly for particles of very small sizes; and can lead to resonant absorption even in the Bruggeman symmetric EMT—a feature which is believed to be absent in the conventional treatment where local response for the metal particles has been assumed.     

Concentration dependence of giant magnetoresistance in magnetic granular composites

We combine effective medium theory (EMT) with the two-channel conducting model to study the magnetic granular concentration dependence of a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in magnetic granular composites. The composite is composed of small magnetic granules (such as Co) embedded in an immiscible nonmagnetic metallic matrix (such as Ag). We present a model for the composite in which the magnetic metallic granules are spherical in shape and have a distribution in sizes, and in which there are different contributions of superparamagnetic and ferromagnetic granules to conductance. The calculated result about the concentration dependence of GMR is in agreement with the experimental data.     

基模磁激元诱导的多带完美吸收

本文提出一种方向不敏感多带吸收的新结构,即结合光学声子色散材料及无色散介电材料,将其作为单一尺寸金属/介质/金属微光栅的介质分离层。在红外大气窗口波段激发了基模磁激元谐振因此导致多频带吸收。基于有限元方法求解了混合结构的吸收率及电磁场分布,并研究了入射角及结构参数的变化对多峰值吸收的影响。考虑到磁激元的本质是由金属光栅下表面与金属基底上表面诱导出反向电流震荡引起,多层介质膜起到介电隔离层的作用。对多层介质膜进行等效介质理论近似,并通过等效LC电路预测和分析了基模磁激元谐振频点。本文所提出的多带吸收机理在红外探测、辐射制冷领等域具有应用前景。     

Effective thermal conduction in composite materials

The problem of determining the bounds and/or estimating the effective thermal conductivity (λ _eff) of a composite (multiphase) system given the volume fractions and the conductivities of the components has been investigated. A comparison between the measured data and the results predicted by theoretical models has been made for seven heterogeneous samples. The tested models include those of the effective medium theory (EMT), Hashin and Shtrikman (HS) bounds, and Wiener bounds. These models can be used to characterize macroscopic homogeneous and isotropic multiphase composite materials either by determining the bounds for the effective thermal conductivity and/or by estimating the overall conductivity of the random mixture. It turns out that the most suitable one of these models to estimate λ _eff is the EMT model. This model is a mathematical model based on the homogeneity condition which satisfies the existence of a statistically homogeneous medium that encloses inclusions of different phases. Numerical values of thermal conductivity for the samples that satisfy the homogeneity condition imposed by the effective medium theory are in best agreement with the experimentally measured ones.     

亚波长结构对10.6 μm的抗反射表面的研制

运用等效媒质理论对亚波长结构的抗反射表面进行了分析,设计出了一种抗反射表面结构,并利用二元光学制作工艺技术,对这种表面进行了实验制备。测试结果表明,这种表面结构就像单层抗反射膜一样,具有很好的增透效果,表面结构的等效折射率相当于镀层材料折射率,而刻蚀深度则相当于镀层的四分之一波长的厚度。     

Chern-Simons soliton and a critical study of the energy momentum tensor in noncommutative field theory

We have shown unambiguously the existence of solitons in the non-commutative (NC) extension of Chern-Simons-Higgs model. The analysis is done at the classical level (since solitons are essentially classical objects) and in the first non-trivial order in θ, the only spatial noncommutativity parameter. At the same time, we have exposed an inadequacy in the conventional definitions of the energy momentum tensor (EMT) in the present context but this pathology appears to be generic to NC field theories. This is reflected in the fact that the BPS soliton equations (obtained from the EMT) are not compatible with the full variational equations of motion, requiring further imposition a restriction on the form of the Higgs field, contrary to the commutative spacetime case. Both in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of the problem, we concentrate on the canonical and symmetric forms of the energy-momentum tensor. In the Hamiltonian scheme, constraint analysis and the induced Dirac brackets are derived. In fact the EMT behaves properly as the spacetime translation generators and their actions on the fields are discussed in detail. The effects of noncommutativity on the soliton solutions have been analyzed carefully and we have come up with some interesting results. Comparing the relative strengths of the noncommutative effects, we have shown that there is a universal character in the noncommutative correction to the magnetic field—it depends only on θ. On the other hand, in the cases of all other observables of physical interest, such as the potential profile, soliton mass or the electric field, the parameters θ as well as τ (the latter comprising solely of commutative Chern-Simons-Higgs model parameters) appear with similar weightage.     

颗粒样品形变对声波传播影响的实验探究

为了更好地理解颗粒间接触结构的变化对通过颗粒介质中的声波的影响,本文利用单轴压缩实验,通过一系列增加的轴向压力使样品塑性应变不断增大,这在颗粒尺度上对应于颗粒间接触结构的改变.我们测量了此过程中通过颗粒样品的声波变化,结果表明颗粒体系内接触结构的变化对声波波形中的非相干波部分和频率有明显的影响,并且在样品接触结构变化的初始阶段声速是偏离有效介质理论的预测的.     

Characteristics of a generalized fin-line for millimeter wave integrated circuits

Generalized fin-lines are analyzed which consist of slots located on more than one interface between dielectric layers inserted in parallel with the E-plane of a waveguide. The analysis is based on a simplified formulation technique based on the spectral domain immittance matrix followed by a Galerkin's method. It allows as many slots as one desires at each interface, and the locations and the widths of these slots are arbitrary. The numerical process to carry out the present analysis is rather efficient. Some numerical data, including propagation constants of the propagating modes as well as characteristic impedances are presented for several structures considered useful for millimeter-wave circuit applications.This work was in part supported by US Army Research Grant DAAG 29-78-G-0145. The major part of this work was presented at 1980 Int. URSI EMT Symposium, Munich.     

Effect of porosity on the thermal conductivity of copper processed by powder metallurgy

Powder metallurgy is a preferred method of processing copper–carbon composites due to the non-wetting nature of these materials. Porosities are inherently introduced in these material systems, and adversely affect the thermal conductivity of the composite material, among other factors including interfaces and reinforcement distribution. In this work, we focus on the matrix material of pure copper and systematically analyzed the effect of volume fraction of porosities on the thermal conductivity. Spherical and dendritic copper powder materials were processed and it was found that the surface chemistry and morphology of particles affected the thermal conductivity apart from the porosity values. In order to study the effect of porosities alone, dentritic powder was used in the study. The thermal conductivity vs. porosity behavior showed three distinct domains. In all the domains the thermal conductivity decreases as volume fraction of porosities increases; however, in domain II, the decrease was much steeper than the other two. We are able to explain the variation based on the presence of interconnected and open pores in domain III to closed pores in domain I, and the transition occurring in domain II. None of the existing models capture the overall behavior. However, if we specifically account for the variation of number of grain boundaries with sintering, then the modified EMT model can match the experimental data.     

反射型导模共振滤波器设计

导模共振滤波器由于其高峰值反射率,低旁带反射,窄带以及带宽可控等优良特性引起了人们极大的关注,采用亚波长光栅的导模共振效应可以实现传统基于高低折射率介质的多层膜滤波器所无法实现的特殊功能,在弱调制模式下,其共振带宽可以被压缩到零点几纳米,但是由于介质表面和空气层的菲涅耳反射,使得偏离或者远离共振区时的反射率偏高,根据等效介质理论,亚波长光栅在远离共振区可以被看为均匀的薄膜,本文通过对导模共振光栅进行单层、双层以及三层抗反射设计,有效的降低了导模共振光栅的旁带反射率,从而在可见光波段获得了性能优良的共振滤波 关键词： 导模共振 平面波导 傅里叶模式理论 窄带滤波     

二氧化硅亚波长纳米微结构的增透特性

对亚波长纳米微结构-非紧密堆积多晶胶体晶体光学薄膜的增透特性进行了研究。采用浸渍-提拉法在玻璃表面组装了亚波长纳米微结构,并利用等效介质理论分析其光学性质,理论和实验符合。研究表明实验制备的纳米微结构具有优异的增透性质,通过控制组装条件可以控制膜层厚度实现高增透效率从可见光到近红外的有效调谐,且微结构在玻璃基底上的等效折射率接近1.22,透射率最大能提高约7%,达到99.8%的增透效果。     

Single-Scan in Vivo Lactate Editing with Complete Lipid and Water Suppression by Selective Multiple-Quantum-Coherence Transfer (Sel-MQC) with Application to Tumors

A novel single-scan selective homonuclear multiple-quantum coherence-transfer technique, Sel-MQC, is presented that achieves lactate editing with complete lipid and water suppression. The method is suitable for studying tissues with high fat content and those subject to substantial motion. Frequency-selective excitation is employed to selectively prepare lactate into its multiple-quantum states; lipid and water are left in the single-quantum modes and eliminated by the multiple-quantum selection gradients. The efficiency of lipid suppression is monitored by a 2D Sel-MQC experiment which separates lipid and lactate along the multiple-quantum-evolution dimension. The spatial distribution of lactate can be imaged by the spectroscopic imaging version of Sel-MQC. Sel-MQC sequences were demonstrated both in phantoms and in vivo, using subcutaneously implanted murine EMT6 tumors.     

敏感半导体陶瓷的显微物理模型(Ⅰ)

结合改进的有效介质理论(EMT)和敏感半导体陶瓷的特征,提出了一个简单的、定量的物理模型——显微物理模型,用来描述敏感半导体陶瓷的显微结构特性与性质的关系。在本文中,我们把这个显微物理模型应用于描述非线性ZnO陶瓷的电性质,并发现由该模型得到的结果与实验结果和由导电理论(半导体理论和量子理论)得到的结果是一致的。 关键词：     

Induced defects in a-Si:H/a-SiNx:H multilayers by use of EMT and PAT

The induced defects and their distribution in a-Si:H/a-SiN_x:H multilayers are determined using an electromagnetic technique (EMT) and positron annihilation technique (PAT). It is found that the distributions of the induced defects in the interface regions on both sides of the a-Si:H sublayer are asymmetric and related to the growth direction of the film; a large number of induced defects are found only in the interface region away from the substrate.