Dimensional Effects on the Density of States in Systems with Quasi-Relativistic Dispersion Relations and Potential Wells

Motivated by the recent discoveries of materials with quasi-relativistic dispersion relations, we determine densities of states in materials with low dimensional substructures and relativistic dispersion relations. We find that these dimensionally hybrid systems yield quasi-relativistic densities of states that are a superposition of the corresponding two- and three-dimensional densities of states.Comment: To be submitted to the Canadian Journal of Physics, 8 pages, 4 figue

Characterization of a set of abdominal neuroendocrine cells that regulate stress physiology using colocalized diuretic peptides in Drosophila

Multiple neuropeptides are known to regulate water and ion balance in Drosophila melanogaster. Several of these peptides also have other functions in physiology and behavior. Examples are corticotropin-releasing factor-like diuretic hormone (diuretic hormone 44; DH44) and leucokinin (LK), both of which induce fluid secretion by Malpighian tubules (MTs), but also regulate stress responses, feeding, circadian activity and other behaviors. Here, we investigated the functional relations between the LK and DH44 signaling systems. DH44 and LK peptides are only colocalized in a set of abdominal neurosecretory cells (ABLKs). Targeted knockdown of each of these peptides in ABLKs leads to increased resistance to desiccation, starvation and ionic stress. Food ingestion is diminished by knockdown of DH44, but not LK, and water retention is increased by LK knockdown only. Thus, the two colocalized peptides display similar systemic actions, but differ with respect to regulation of feeding and body water retention. We also demonstrated that DH44 and LK have additive effects on fluid secretion by MTs. It is likely that the colocalized peptides are coreleased from ABLKs into the circulation and act on the tubules where they target different cell types and signaling systems to regulate diuresis and stress tolerance. Additional targets seem to be specific for each of the two peptides and subserve regulation of feeding and water retention. Our data suggest that the ABLKs and hormonal actions are sufficient for many of the known DH44 and LK functions, and that the remaining neurons in the CNS play other functional roles

Curvature corrections in DGP brane cosmology

We consider a DGP inspired brane scenario where the action on the brane is augmented by a function of the Ricci scalar, ${\cal L}(R)$. The cosmological implications that such a scenario entails are examined for $R^{n}$ and shown to be consistent with a universe expanding with power-law acceleration. It is shown that two classes of solutions exist for the usual FRW metric and small Hubble radii. When the Hubble radius becomes larger, we either have a transition to a fully 5D regime or to a self-inflationary solution which produces a late accelerated expansion such that the radius becomes a function of $n$.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Brans-Dicke DGP Brane Cosmology

We consider a five dimensional DGP-brane scenario endowed with a non-minimally coupled scalar field within the context of Brans-Dicke theory. This theory predicts that the mass appearing in the gravitational potential is modified by the addition of the mass of the effective intrinsic curvature on the brane. We also derive the effective four dimensional field equations on a 3+1 dimensional brane where the fifth dimension is assumed to have an orbifold symmetry. Finally, we discuss the cosmological implications of this setup, predicting an accelerated expanding universe with a value of the Brans-Dicke parameter $\omega$ consistent with values resulting from the solar system observations.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, to appear in JCA

Integrated care and the working record

By default, many discussions and specifications of electronic health records or integrated care records often conceptualize the record as a passive information repository. This article presents data from a case study of work in a medical unit in a major metropolitan hospital. It shows how the clinicians tailored, re-presented and augmented clinical information to support their own roles in the delivery of care for individual patients. This is referred to as the working record: a set of complexly interrelated clinician-centred documents that are locally evolved, maintained and used to support delivery of care in conjunction with the more patient-centred chart that will be stored in the medical records department on the patient’s discharge. Implications are drawn for how an integrated care record could support the local tailorability and flexibility that underpin this working record and hence underpin practice

Conformal entropy for generalised gravity theories as a consequence of horizon properties

We show that microscopic entropy formula based on Virasoro algebra follows from properties of stationary Killing horizons for Lagrangians with arbitrary dependence on Riemann tensor. The properties used are consequence of regularity of invariants of Riemann tensor on the horizon. Eventual generalisation of these results to Lagrangians with derivatives of Riemann tensor, as suggested by an example treated in the paper, relies on assuming regularity of invariants involving derivatives of Riemann tensor. This assumption however leads also to new interesting restrictions on metric functions near horizon.Comment: 9 pages, appendix adde

Some photometer results obtained on the NASA 1969 Airborne Auroral Expedition

The spectral features measured by a photometer onboard the Convair 990 Galileo, during the Auroral Expedition are given in tables. The measurements given cover flights 3 to 15

Activity topology estimation for large networks of cameras

Copyright © 2006 IEEEEstimating the paths that moving objects can take through the fields of view of possibly non-overlapping cameras, also known as their activity topology, is an important step in the effective interpretation of surveillance video. Existing approaches to this problem involve tracking moving objects within cameras, and then attempting to link tracks across views. In contrast we propose an approach which begins by assuming all camera views are potentially linked, and successively eliminates camera topologies that are contradicted by observed motion. Over time, the true patterns of motion emerge as those which are not contradicted by the evidence. These patterns may then be used to initialise a finer level search using other approaches if required. This method thus represents an efficient and effective way to learn activity topology for a large network of cameras, particularly with a limited amount of data.van den Hengel, A.; Dick, A.; Hill, R

DINeR: Database for Insect Neuropeptide Research

Neuropeptides are responsible for regulating a variety of functions, including development, metabolism, water and ion homeostasis, and as neuromodulators in circuits of the central nervous system. Numerous neuropeptides have been identified and characterized. However, both discovery and functional characterization of neuropeptides across the massive Class Insecta has been sporadic. To leverage advances in post-genomic technologies for this rapidly growing field, insect neuroendocrinology requires a consolidated, comprehensive and standardised resource for managing neuropeptide information. The Database for Insect Neuropeptide Research (DINeR) is a web-based database-application used for search and retrieval of neuropeptide information of various insect species detailing their isoform sequences, physiological functionality and images of their receptor-binding sites, in an intuitive, accessible and user-friendly format. The curated data includes representatives of 50 well described neuropeptide families from over 400 different insect species. Approximately 4700 FASTA formatted, neuropeptide isoform amino acid sequences and over 200 records of physiological functionality have been recorded based on published literature. Also available are images of neuropeptide receptor locations. In addition, the data include comprehensive summaries for each neuropeptide family, including their function, location, known functionality, as well as cladograms, sequence alignments and logos covering most insect orders. Moreover, we have adopted a standardized nomenclature to address inconsistent classification of neuropeptides

Application of quasi-Monte Carlo methods to PDEs with random coefficients -- an overview and tutorial

This article provides a high-level overview of some recent works on the application of quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) methods to PDEs with random coefficients. It is based on an in-depth survey of a similar title by the same authors, with an accompanying software package which is also briefly discussed here. Embedded in this article is a step-by-step tutorial of the required analysis for the setting known as the uniform case with first order QMC rules. The aim of this article is to provide an easy entry point for QMC experts wanting to start research in this direction and for PDE analysts and practitioners wanting to tap into contemporary QMC theory and methods.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1606.0661