A hybrid-aligned cell of the smectic A liquid material 8CB gives two stable director configurations, one of which is periodic and gives strong diffraction of light. This photonic lattice director profile arises from "frustration" caused by conflicting constraints imposed by the boundary conditions and the constant amplitude smectic density wave. A model is proposed which accords well with the e...

We have investigated the threshold current density required for depinning a domain wall from constrictions in NiFe nanowires, which give rise to pinning potentials of fixed amplitude but variable profile. We observed it to vary linearly with the angle of the triangular constriction. These results are reproduced using micromagnetic simulations including the adiabatic and nonadiabatic spin-torque...

We investigate effect of a step-doping profile on the spin injection from a ferromagnetic metal contact into a semiconductor quantum well (QW) in spin FETs using a Monte Carlo model. The considered scheme uses a heavily doped layer at the metal/semiconductor interface to vary the Schottky barrier shape and enhance the tunneling current. It is found that spin flux (spin current density) is enhan...

Cellular metabolism is increasingly recognized as a controller of immune cell fate and function. MicroRNA-33 (miR-33) regulates cellular lipid metabolism and represses genes involved in cholesterol efflux, HDL biogenesis, and fatty acid oxidation. Here, we determined that miR-33-mediated disruption of the balance of aerobic glycolysis and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation instructs macrop...

Inflammation culminating in fibrosis contributes to progressive kidney disease. Cross-talk between the tubular epithelium and interstitial cells regulates inflammation by a coordinated release of cytokines and chemokines. Here we studied the role of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and the heavy subunit of ferritin (FtH) in macrophage polarization and renal inflammation. Deficiency in HO-1 was associate...

— We review some open problems in the physics of afterglows, namely their polarization properties and the existence of dark/faint bursts. Polarization studies yield precious insights in the physical structure and dynamical evolution of GRB jets, revealing their magnetization properties and their energy profile. Polari-metric observations of GRB 020813 already allowed to exclude a homogeneous je...

We report our recent experimental results on a new polarization-independent, liquid crystal (LC) spatial light modulator (SLM). Based on a periodic nematic director profile, the modulator acts as a switchable diffraction grating with only 0and ±1st-orders at efficiencies of ≥ 99%, manifests contrast ratios ∼600:1 (for laser light), switching times of ∼ 2ms, and threshold voltages of < 1V/μm. Re...

CD5L (CD5 molecule-like) is a secreted glycoprotein that controls key mechanisms in inflammatory responses, with involvement in processes such as infection, atherosclerosis, and cancer. In macrophages, CD5L promotes an anti-inflammatory cytokine profile in response to TLR activation. In the present study, we questioned whether CD5L is able to influence human macrophage plasticity, and drive its...

Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate the construction of two-dimensional~2D-! like defect modes in a recently proposed 3D photonic crystal structure. These modes, which are confined in all three dimensions by a complete photonic band gap, bear a striking similarity to those in 2D photonic crystals in terms of polarization, field profile, and projected band structures. It is expected that...

An analytical technique referred to as the propagator matrix method (PMM) is presented to study the problem of electromagnetic (EM) waves interacting with the nonuniform magnetized plasma. In this method, the state vector is proposed to describe the characteristics of eigen waves in anisotropic medium, and state vectors at two different locations are related with each other by the propagator ma...