News
EPJ E - Make or break for cellular tissues
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- Published on 10 August 2012
Models developed to study liquids are used to investigate the mechanics of cellular tissues, which could further our understanding of embryonic development and cancer.
In a study just published in EPJE, French physicists from the Curie Institute in Paris have demonstrated that the behaviour of a thin layer of cells in contact with an unfavourable substrate is akin to that of thin fluid or elastic films. Understanding the mechanism by which a thin layer of cells splits into disjointed patches, thus breaking the layer’s structural integrity, bears great significance because the human tissue, or epithelium, covering organs can only fulfil its role if there are no holes or gaps between the cells.
EPJ Plus - A note on Pöschl-Teller black holes
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- Published on 10 August 2012
An interesting feature of black holes is the existence of quasi-normal modes, arising because the system has a peak in the wave potential (scalar, electromagnetic, or gravitational waves). The quasi-normal mode is excited when a disturbance is put in the field near but outside the black hole, (like a wave packet roughly in a circular orbit near the peak). The excitation then propagates outward and inward and decays.
EPJ B - Spurious switching points in traded stock dynamics
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- Published on 10 August 2012
A selection of biased statistical subsets could yield an inaccurate interpretation of market behaviour and financial returns.
Physicists have rebuffed the existence of power laws governing the dynamics of traded stock volatility, volume and intertrade times at times of stock price extrema. They did this by demonstrating that what appeared as “switching points” in financial markets trends was due to a bias in the interpretation of market data statistics. This study by Vladimir Filimonov and Didier Sornette from the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland has just been published in EPJB.EPJ B - Superconducting stripe could become an ultra-low-voltage sensor
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- Published on 10 August 2012
Minute-scale interactions govern electronic behaviour of superconductors with potential applications for voltage measurement techniques.
Researchers studying a superconducting stripe observed an intermittent motion of magnetic flux which carries vortices inside the regularly spaced weak conducting regions carved into the superconducting material. These vortices resulted in alternating static phases with zero voltage and dynamic phases, which are characterised by non-zero voltage peaks in the superconductor. This study, which has just been published in EPJB, was carried out by scientists from the Condensed Matter Theory Group of the University of Antwerp, Belgium, working in collaboration with Brazilian colleagues.
EPJ E - Electric charge disorder: A key to biological order?
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- Published on 10 August 2012
Strong attraction that arises between biological objects with random patches of electric charge on an otherwise neutral surface may partly explain pattern recognition in biology.
Theoretical physicist Ali Naji from the IPM in Tehran and the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues have shown how small random patches of disordered, frozen electric charges can make a difference when they are scattered on surfaces that are overall neutral. These charges induce a twisting force that is strong enough to be felt as far as nanometers or even micrometers away. These results, just published in EPJE, could help to understand phenomena that occurr on surfaces such as those of large biological molecules.
EPJ Special Topics - Mitigating disasters by hunting down Dragon Kings
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- Published on 10 August 2012
Scientists aim to forecast natural or economic disasters by identifying statistical anomalies.
Professional Dragon King hunter Didier Sornette from the Department of Management, Technology and Economics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, together with his colleague Guy Ouillon, present the many facets of Dragon Kings in a review just published in EPJST. Their work has just appeared alongside nineteen other contributions exploring the ways in which this emerging field of statistical analysis could become further established.
EPJ B - Quantum information motion control is now improved
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- Published on 10 August 2012
Model simulates closer control over the transport of information-carrying electrons.
Physicists have recently devised a new method for handling the effect of the interplay between vibrations and electrons on electronic transport. Their paper has been published in EPJB. This study, led by scientists from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, and the Centre for Computational Science and Engineering at the National University of Singapore, could have implications for quantum computers due to improvements in the transport of discrete amounts of information, known as qubits, that are encoded in electrons.
EPJ A - A new technique for simultaneous measurement of neutron-induced capture and fission reactions
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- Published on 10 August 2012
The accurate knowledge of (n,gamma) neutron-capture cross-sections for fissile isotopes is highly relevant for next-generation applications of nuclear technology. However, accurate measurements are difficult due to the gamma-ray background generated in competing (n,f) fission reactions. Scientists at the n_TOF facility at CERN have developed a new experimental setup that is capable of simultaneously measuring and identifying the capture and fission reactions.
EPJ E - Study on swirls to optimise contacts between fluids
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- Published on 10 August 2012
Model gives clues on how to optimize homogeneous feeding of cells in suspension from a liquid nutriments supply in a bioreactor.
Physicists who have studied the mixing between two incompatible fluids have found that it is possible to control the undercurrents of one circulating fluid to optimise its exposure to the other. This work, which has just been published in EPJE, was performed by Jorge Peixinho from CNRS at Le Havre University, France, and his colleagues from the Benjamin Levich Institute, City University of New York, USA.
EPJ D - Solitary waves induce waveguide that can split light beams
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- Published on 10 August 2012
A Chinese team has performed simulations to help understand the occurrence of multiple solitary optical waves that are used to reconfigure optical beams.
Researchers have designed the first theoretical model that describes the occurrence of multiple solitary optical waves, referred to as dark photovoltaic spatial solitons.
