7,449 research outputs found
Bioaccumulation modelling and sensitivity analysis for discovering key players in contaminated food webs: the case study of PCBs in the Adriatic Sea
Modelling bioaccumulation processes at the food web level is the main step to analyse the effects of pollutants at the global
ecosystem level. A crucial question is understanding which species play a key role in the trophic transfer of contaminants to
disclose the contribution of feeding linkages and the importance of trophic dependencies in bioaccumulation dynamics. In this
work we present a computational framework to model the bioaccumulation of organic chemicals in aquatic food webs, and to
discover key species in polluted ecosystems. As a result, we reconstruct the first PCBs bioaccumulation model of the Adriatic food
web, estimated after an extensive review of published concentration data. We define a novel index aimed to identify the key species
in contaminated networks, Sensitivity Centrality, and based on sensitivity analysis. The index is computed from a dynamic ODE
model parametrised from the estimated PCBs bioaccumulation model and compared with a set of established trophic indices of
centrality. Results evidence the occurrence of PCBs biomagnification in the Adriatic food web, and highlight the dependence of
bioaccumulation on trophic dynamics and external factors like fishing activity. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the introduced
Sensitivity Centrality in identifying the set of species with the highest impact on the total contaminant flows and on the efficiency
of contaminant transport within the food web
Pressure tuning of light-induced superconductivity in K3C60
Optical excitation at terahertz frequencies has emerged as an effective means
to manipulate complex solids dynamically. In the molecular solid K3C60,
coherent excitation of intramolecular vibrations was shown to transform the
high temperature metal into a non-equilibrium state with the optical
conductivity of a superconductor. Here we tune this effect with hydrostatic
pressure, and we find it to disappear around 0.3 GPa. Reduction with pressure
underscores the similarity with the equilibrium superconducting phase of K3C60,
in which a larger electronic bandwidth is detrimental for pairing. Crucially,
our observation excludes alternative interpretations based on a high-mobility
metallic phase. The pressure dependence also suggests that transient, incipient
superconductivity occurs far above the 150 K hypothesised previously, and
rather extends all the way to room temperature.Comment: 33 pages, 17 figures, 2 table
Quasiequilibrium lattice Boltzmann models with tunable bulk viscosity for enhancing stability
Taking advantage of a closed-form generalized Maxwell distribution function [ P. Asinari and I. V. Karlin Phys. Rev. E 79 036703 (2009)] and splitting the relaxation to the equilibrium in two steps, an entropic quasiequilibrium (EQE) kinetic model is proposed for the simulation of low Mach number flows, which enjoys both the H theorem and a free-tunable parameter for controlling the bulk viscosity in such a way as to enhance numerical stability in the incompressible flow limit. Moreover, the proposed model admits a simplification based on a proper expansion in the low Mach number limit (LQE model). The lattice Boltzmann implementation of both the EQE and LQE is as simple as that of the standard lattice Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (LBGK) method, and practical details are reported. Extensive numerical testing with the lid driven cavity flow in two dimensions is presented in order to verify the enhancement of the stability region. The proposed models achieve the same accuracy as the LBGK method with much rougher meshes, leading to an effective computational speed-up of almost three times for EQE and of more than four times for the LQE. Three-dimensional extension of EQE and LQE is also discussed
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Destination Online Communication: Why Less is Sometimes More. A Study of Online Communications of English Destinations
This research investigates the relationship between Web site design and the Web site end-user experience of a vast number of English tourism destinations, both local and regional ones. Following recent research in the field, this paper evaluates destinations' online communication based on the implemented Web site features and on the effectiveness of the communication itself, borrowing its research methodology from different domains. After content and functionality analysis, a user-experience, scenario-based investigation has been carried out, which demonstrated that complex Web sites do not always serve end-users' needs properly; in other words, Web site complexity is not directly related with good user experience. This research may help destination managers to foster their online communication if they have fewer content and functionalities but are better focused and clearly user-oriented. © 2014 Taylor & Francis
Pancreatic cancer-derived S-100A8 N-terminal peptide: a diabetes cause?
BACKGROUND:
Our aim was to identify the pancreatic cancer diabetogenic peptide.
METHODS:
Pancreatic tumor samples from patients with (n=15) or without (n=7) diabetes were compared with 6 non-neoplastic pancreas samples using SDS-PAGE.
RESULTS:
A band measuring approximately 1500 Da was detected in tumors from diabetics, but not in neoplastic samples from non-diabetics or samples from non-neoplastic subjects. Sequence analysis revealed a 14 amino acid peptide (1589.88 Da), corresponding to the N-terminal of the S100A8. At 50 nmol/L and 2 mmol/L, this peptide significantly reduced glucose consumption and lactate production by cultured C(2)C(12) myoblasts. The 14 amino acid peptide caused a lack of myotubular differentiation, the presence of polynucleated cells and caspase-3 activation.
CONCLUSIONS:
The 14 amino acid peptide from S100A8 impairs the catabolism of glucose by myoblasts in vitro and may cause hyperglycemia in vivo. Its identification in biological fluids might be helpful in diagnosing pancreatic cancer in patients with recent onset diabetes mellitus
Quantum Effects in Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Cosmologies
Electrodynamics for self-interacting scalar fields in spatially flat
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker space-times is studied. The corresponding one-loop
field equation for the expectation value of the complex scalar field in the
conformal vacuum is derived. For exponentially expanding universes, the
equations for the Bogoliubov coefficients describing the coupling of the scalar
field to gravity are solved numerically. They yield a non-local correction to
the Coleman-Weinberg effective potential which does not modify the pattern of
minima found in static de Sitter space. Such a correction contains a
dissipative term which, accounting for the decay of the classical configuration
in scalar field quanta, may be relevant for the reheating stage. The physical
meaning of the non-local term in the semiclassical field equation is
investigated by evaluating this contribution for various background field
configurations.Comment: 17 pages, plain TeX + 5 uuencoded figure
Pancreatic cancer-associated diabetes mellitus: an open field for proteomic applications.
Background: Diabetes mellitus is associated with pancreatic cancer in more than 80% of the cases. Clinical, epidemiological, and experimental data indicate that pancreatic cancer causes diabetes mellitus by releasing soluble mediators which interfere with both beta-cell function and liver and muscle glucose metabolism. Methods: We analysed, by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF), a series of pancreatic cancer cell lines conditioned media, pancreatic cancer patients' peripheral and portal sera, comparing them with controls and chronic pancreatitis patients' sera. Results: MALDI-TOF analysis of pancreatic cancer cells conditioned media and patients' sera indicated a low molecular weight peptide to be the putative pancreatic cancer-associated diabetogenic factor. The sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis of tumor samples from diabetic and non-diabetic patients revealed the presence of a 1500 Da peptide only in diabetic patients. The amino acid sequence of this peptide corresponded to the N-terminal of an S-100 calcium binding protein, which was therefore suggested to be the pancreatic cancer-associated diabetogenic factor. Conclusions: We identified a tumor-derived peptide of 14 amino acids sharing a 100% homology with an S-100 calcium binding protein, which is probably the pancreatic cancer-associated diabetogenic facto
Relationship between lactation curve function and phenotypic variance in random regression Test Day models
In Random Regression models (RRM), the most updated version of Test Day (TD) models, the lactation curve is split into a fixed average curve and a random animal specific part (deviation from the average curve) (Schaeffer, 2004). The variance component of the RR coefficients determines the (co) variance function of each pair of days in milk (DIM) (Pool and Meuwissen, 2000). Very different patterns of variance functions have been reported in literature, and several authors pointed out a possible rule of the type of function chosen as RR sub-model and data structure (Kettunen et al., 2000; Meyer, 1998). Aim of this work is to investigate some possible reasons for such results, in particular the effects of the mathematical function and of the possible occurrence of different shapes of lactation curve (regular and atypical)
Begin, After, and Later: a Maximal Decidable Interval Temporal Logic
Interval temporal logics (ITLs) are logics for reasoning about temporal
statements expressed over intervals, i.e., periods of time. The most famous ITL
studied so far is Halpern and Shoham's HS, which is the logic of the thirteen
Allen's interval relations. Unfortunately, HS and most of its fragments have an
undecidable satisfiability problem. This discouraged the research in this area
until recently, when a number non-trivial decidable ITLs have been discovered.
This paper is a contribution towards the complete classification of all
different fragments of HS. We consider different combinations of the interval
relations Begins, After, Later and their inverses Abar, Bbar, and Lbar. We know
from previous works that the combination ABBbarAbar is decidable only when
finite domains are considered (and undecidable elsewhere), and that ABBbar is
decidable over the natural numbers. We extend these results by showing that
decidability of ABBar can be further extended to capture the language
ABBbarLbar, which lays in between ABBar and ABBbarAbar, and that turns out to
be maximal w.r.t decidability over strongly discrete linear orders (e.g. finite
orders, the naturals, the integers). We also prove that the proposed decision
procedure is optimal with respect to the complexity class
Fermat hypersurfaces and Subcanonical curves
We extend the classical Enriques-Petri Theorem to -subcanonical
projectively normal curves, proving that such a curve is -gonal if and
only if it is contained in a surface of minimal degree. Moreover, we show that
any Fermat hypersurface of degree is apolar to an -subcanonical
-gonal projectively normal curve, and vice versa.Comment: 18 pages; AMS-LaTe
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