182 research outputs found
Twelve-month outcomes of 400 patients treated with a resorbable metal scaffold: insights from the BIOSOLVE-IV registry
Resonant structure of space-time of early universe
A new fully quantum method describing penetration of packet from internal
well outside with its tunneling through the barrier of arbitrary shape used in
problems of quantum cosmology, is presented. The method allows to determine
amplitudes of wave function, penetrability and reflection relatively the barrier (accuracy of the method: ), coefficient of penetration (i.e. probability of
the packet to penetrate from the internal well outside with its tunneling),
coefficient of oscillations (describing oscillating behavior of the packet
inside the internal well). Using the method, evolution of universe in the
closed Friedmann--Robertson--Walker model with quantization in presence of
positive cosmological constant, radiation and component of generalize Chaplygin
gas is studied. It is established (for the first time): (1) oscillating
dependence of the penetrability on localization of start of the packet; (2)
presence of resonant values of energy of radiation , at which the
coefficient of penetration increases strongly. From analysis of these results
it follows: (1) necessity to introduce initial condition into both
non-stationary, and stationary quantum models; (2) presence of some definite
values for the scale factor , where start of expansion of universe is the
most probable; (3) during expansion of universe in the initial stage its radius
is changed not continuously, but passes consequently through definite discrete
values and tends to continuous spectrum in latter time.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, 4 table
Light Front Formalism for Composite Systems and Some of Its Applications in Particle and Relativistic Nuclear Physics
Light front formalism for composite systems is presented. Derivation of
equations for bound state and scattering problems are given. Methods of
constructing of elastic form factors and scattering amplitudes of composite
particles are reviewed. Elastic form factors in the impulse approximation are
calculated. Scattering amplitudes for relativistic bound states are
constructed. Some model cases for transition amplitudes are considered. Deep
inelastic form factors (structure functions) are expressed through light front
wave functions. It is shown that taking into account of transverse motion of
partons leads to the violation of Bjorken scaling and structure functions
become square of transverse momentum dependent. Possible explanation of the
EMC-effect is given. Problem of light front relativization of wave functions of
lightest nuclei is considered. Scaling properties of deuteron, and
light front wave functions are checked in a rather wide energy range.Comment: Review paper, Submitted to Phys. Rep., 89 pages, 23 figure
Quantum phase properties of two-mode Jaynes-Cummings model for Schr\"odinger-cat states: interference and entanglement
In this paper we investigate the quantum phase properties for the coherent
superposition states (Schr\"odinger-cat states) for two-mode multiphoton
Jaynes-Cummings model in the framework of the Pegg-Barnett formalism. We also
demonstrate the behavior of the Wigner () function at the phase space
origin. We obtain many interesting results such as there is a clear
relationship between the revival-collapse phenomenon occurring in the atomic
inversion (as well as in the evolution of the function) and the behavior of
the phase distribution of both the single-mode and two-mode cases. Furthermore,
we find that the phase variances of the single-mode case can exhibit
revival-collapse phenomenon about the long-time behavior. We show that such
behavior occurs for interaction time several times smaller than that of the
single-mode Jaynes-Cummings model.Comment: 23, 8 figure
Defining phenotype, tropism, and retinal gene therapy using adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs) in new-born Brown Norway rats with a spontaneous mutation in Crb1
Mutations in the Crumbs homologue 1 (CRB1) gene cause inherited retinal dystrophies, such as early-onset retinitis pigmentosa and Leber congenital amaurosis. A Brown Norway rat strain was reported with a spontaneous insertion-deletion (indel) mutation in exon 6 of Crb1. It has been reported that these Crb1 mutant rats show vascular abnormalities associated with retinal telangiectasia and possess an early-onset retinal degenerative phenotype with outer limiting membrane breaks and focal loss of retinal lamination at 2 months of age. Here, we further characterized the morphological phenotype of new-born and adult Crb1 mutant rats in comparison with age-matched Brown Norway rats without a mutation in Crb1. A significantly decreased retinal function and visual acuity was observed in Crb1 mutant rats at 1 and 3 months of age, respectively. Moreover, in control rats, the subcellular localization of canonical CRB1 was observed at the subapical region in Muller glial cells while CRB2 was observed at the subapical region in both photoreceptors and Muller glial cells by immuno-electron microscopy. CRB1 localization was lost in the Crb1 mutant rats, whereas CRB2 was still observed. In addition, we determined the tropism of subretinal or intravitreally administered AAV5-, AAV9- or AAV6-variant ShH10(Y445F) vectors in new-born control and Crb1 mutant rat retinas. We showed that subretinal injection of AAV5 and AAV9 at postnatal days 5 (P5) or 8 (P8) predominantly infected the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and photoreceptor cells; while intravitreal injection of ShH10(Y445F) at P5 or P8 resulted in efficient infection of mainly Muller glial cells. Using knowledge of the subcellular localization of CRB1 and the ability of ShH10(Y445F) to infect Muller glial cells, canonical hCRB1 and hCRB2 AAV-mediated gene therapy were explored in new-born Crb1 mutant rats. Enhanced retinal function after gene therapy delivery in the Crb1 rat was not observed. No timely rescue of the retinal phenotype was observed using retinal function and visual acuity, suggesting the need for earlier onset of expression of recombinant hCRB proteins in Muller glial cells to rescue the severe retinal phenotype in Crb1 mutant rats.Ophthalmic researc
The ancient evolutionary history of polyomaviruses
Author Summary: Polyomaviruses are a family of DNA-based viruses that are known to infect various terrestrial vertebrates, including humans. In this report, we describe our discovery of highly divergent polyomaviruses associated with various marine fish. Searches of public deep sequencing databases unexpectedly revealed the existence of polyomavirus-like sequences in scorpion and spider datasets. Our analysis of these new sequences suggests that polyomaviruses have slowly co-evolved with individual host animal lineages through an established mechanism known as intrahost divergence. The proposed model is similar to the mechanisms through with other DNA viruses, such as papillomaviruses, are thought to have evolved. Our analysis also suggests that distantly related polyomaviruses sometimes recombine to produce new chimeric lineages. We propose a possible taxonomic scheme that can account for these inferred ancient recombination events
Verkenning meervoudig en duurzaam ruimtegebruik van glastuinbouwlocaties in Nederland.
In dit onderzoek zijn de mogelijkheden van meervoudig en duurzaam ruimtegebruik van glastuinbouwlocaties in Nederland nader verkend. Duurzaam en meervoudig ruimtegebruik in glastuinbouwlocaties houdt in dat glastuinbouwbedrijven duurzaam produceren in harmonie met de omgeving. Het versterkt daarmee de ruimtelijke kwaliteit van het gebied. Glastuinbouw wordt steeds meer gezien als een industriële activiteit. Combinatie in het platte vlak en stapeling van glastuinbouw(onderdelen) over meerdere bedrijven of met andere functies (zoals bedrijvigheid en infrastructuur) ligt dan voor de hand. Innovatieve concepten zijn kassen op daken en kassen op water. Functiestapeling en functiegebruik in de tijd (met het oog op het toekomstig ruimtegebruik) zullen zich vooral manifesteren in stedelijke gebieden waar veel ruimteclaims liggen. Dit vraagt van de glastuinbouw inventiviteit en creativiteit om het ruimtegebruik aldaar te behouden. In 'landelijke gebieden' zal de glastuinbouw met andere functies in het platte vlak worden gecombineerd. Hierbij zal de landschappelijke inpassing van de glastuinbouw centraal staan. Ontwikkeling en realisatie van meervoudig ruimtegebruik vraagt actieve betrokkenheid van actoren en belanghebbenden. De strategische plannen van actoren en de strategische visies van stakeholders kunnen belangrijke bouwstenen zijn voor een integraal gebiedsplan
Race, the Vaginal Microbiome, and Spontaneous Preterm Birth
Previous studies have investigated the associations between the vaginal microbiome and preterm birth, with the aim of determining whether differences in community patterns meaningfully alter risk and could therefore be the target of intervention. We report on vaginal microbial analysis of a nested case-control subset of the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition (PIN) Study, including 464 White women (375 term birth and 89 spontaneous preterm birth, sPTB) and 360 Black women (276 term birth and 84 sPTB). We found that the microbiome of Black women has higher alpha-diversity, higher abundance of Lactobacillus iners, and lower abundance of Lactobacillus crispatus. However, among women who douche, there were no significant differences in microbiome by race. The sPTB-associated microbiome exhibited a lower abundance of L. crispatus, while alpha diversity and L. iners were not significantly associated with sPTB. For each order of magnitude increase in the normalized relative abundance of L. crispatus, multivariable adjusted odds of sPTB decreased by approximately 20% (odds ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval, 0.70, 0.94). When we considered the impact of douching, associations between the microbiome and sPTB were limited to women who do not douche. We also observed strong intercorrelations between a range of maternal factors, including poverty, education, marital status, age, douching, and race, with microbiome effect sizes in the range of 1.8 to 5.2% in univariate models. Therefore, race may simply be a proxy for other socially driven factors that differentiate microbiome community structures. Future work will continue to refine reliable microbial biomarkers for preterm birth across diverse cohorts
Is prenatal diet associated with the composition of the vaginal microbiome?
Background: The vaginal microbiome has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, but information on the impact of diet on microbiome composition is largely unexamined. Objective: To estimate the association between prenatal diet and vaginal microbiota composition overall and by race. Methods: We leveraged a racially diverse prenatal cohort of North Carolina women enrolled between 1995 and 2001 to conduct this analysis using cross-sectional data. Women completed food frequency questionnaires about diet in the previous 3 months and foods were categorised into subgroups: fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, whole grains, low-fat dairy, sweetened beverages and red meat. We additionally assessed dietary vitamin D, fibre and yogurt consumption. Stored vaginal swabs collected in mid-pregnancy were sequenced using 16S taxonomic profiling. Women were categorised into three groups based on predominance of species: Lactobacillus iners, Lactobacillus miscellaneous and Bacterial Vaginosis (BV)-associated bacteria. Adjusted Poisson models with robust variance estimators were run to assess the risk of being in a specific vagitype compared to the referent. Race-stratified models (Black/White) were also run. Results: In this study of 634 women, higher consumption of dairy was associated with increased likelihood of membership in the L. crispatus group compared to the L. iners group in a dose-dependent manner (risk ratio quartile 4 vs. 1: 2.01, 95% confidence interval 1.36, 2.95). Increased intake of fruit, vitamin D, fibre and yogurt was also associated with increased likelihood of membership in L. crispatus compared to L. iners, but only among black women. Statistical heterogeneity was only detected for fibre intake. There were no detected associations between any other food groups or risk of membership in the BV group. Conclusions: Higher consumption of low-fat dairy was associated with increased likelihood of membership in a beneficial vagitype, potentially driven by probiotics
Surface-wave imaging of the weakly-extended Malawi Rift from ambient-noise and teleseismic Rayleigh waves from onshore and lake-bottom seismometers
Located at the southernmost sector of the Western Branch of the East African Rift System, the Malawi Rift exemplifies an active, magma-poor, weakly extended continental rift. To investigate the controls on rifting, we image crustal and uppermost mantle structure beneath the region using ambient-noise and teleseismic Rayleigh-wave phase velocities between 9 and 100 s period. Our study includes six lake-bottom seismometers located in Lake Malawi (Nyasa), the first time seismometers have been deployed in any of the African rift lakes. Noise-levels in the lake are lower than that of shallow oceanic environments and allow successful application of compliance corrections and instrument orientation determination. Resulting phase-velocity maps reveal slow velocities primarily confined to Lake Malawi at short periods (T 25 s) a prominent low-velocity anomaly exists beneath the Rungwe Volcanic Province at the northern terminus of the rift basin. Estimates of phase-velocity sensitivity indicates these low velocities occur within the lithospheric mantle and potentially uppermost asthenosphere, suggesting that mantle processes may control the association of volcanic centers and the localization of magmatism. Beneath the main portion of the Malawi Rift, a modest reduction in velocity is also observed at periods sensitive to the crust and upper mantle, but these velocities are much higher than those observed beneath Rungwe
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