Resuscitation-promoting factors possess a lysozyme-like domain

The novel bacterial cytokine family – resuscitation-promoting factors (Rpfs) – share a conserved domain of uncharacterized function. Predicting the structure of this domain suggests that Rpfs possess a lysozyme-like domain. The model highlights the good conservation of residues involved in catalysis and substrate binding. A lysozyme-like function makes sense for this domain in the light of experimental characterization of the biological function of Rpfs

Experiments on the twisted vortex state in superfluid 3He-B

We have performed measurements and numerical simulations on a bundle of vortex lines which is expanding along a rotating column of initially vortex-free 3He-B. Expanding vortices form a propagating front: Within the front the superfluid is involved in rotation and behind the front the twisted vortex state forms, which eventually relaxes to the equilibrium vortex state. We have measured the magnitude of the twist and its relaxation rate as function of temperature above 0.3Tc. We also demonstrate that the integrity of the propagating vortex front results from axial superfluid flow, induced by the twist.Comment: prepared for proceedings of the QFS2007 symposium in Kaza

Exploring an extended role for pharmacy assistants on inpatient wards in UK hospitals: using mixed methods to develop the role of medicines assistants

Objectives: This project explored the deployment of pharmacy assistants to inpatient wards in a new role as ‘medicines assistants’ (MA). Methods: Ward-based MAs were introduced to six wards across two UK hospitals to support medicines administration. Each 30-bed ward delivered acute inpatient services with MAs supporting typical nursing medication administration rounds to 15 patients. Data were collected using activity diaries, observations, clinical audit and semistructured interviews with pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians, clinical pharmacists, nurses, ward managers and pharmacy managers. Thematic analysis, descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyse qualitative and quantitative data, respectively. Results: MAs were able to act as a point of contact between the ward and the pharmacy department and were perceived to save nursing time. A statistically significant reduction in the length of time to complete morning medication administration to 15 patients was observed (mean 74.5 vs 60.8 min per round, p<0.05). On average, 17.4 hours of medicines-related activity per ward per week was carried out by MAs rather than by nursing staff. Participants identified broader training and clarity was needed in relation to the accountability and governance of patient-facing roles. Conclusion: Pharmacy assistants deployed as MAs can contribute to saving nursing time and bridge the gap between nursing and pharmacy professionals

The action of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) and synthetic retinoid analogues (EC19 and EC23) on human pluripotent stem cells differentiation investigated using single cell infrared microspectroscopy

All trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) is widely used to direct the differentiation of cultured stem cells. When exposed to the pluripotent human embryonal carcinoma (EC) stem cell line, TERA2.cl.SP12, ATRA induces ectoderm differentiation and the formation of neuronal cell types. We have previously generated synthetic analogues of retinoic acid (EC23 and EC19) which also induce the differentiation of EC cells. Even though EC23 and EC19 have similar chemical structures, they have differing biochemical effects in terms of EC cell differentiation. EC23 induces neuronal differentiation in a manner similar to ATRA, whereas EC19 directs the cells to form epithelial-like derivatives. Previous MALDI-TOF MS analysis examined the response of TERA2.cl.SP12 cells after exposure to ATRA, EC23 and EC19 and further demonstrated the similarly in the effect of ATRA and EC23 activity whilst responses to EC19 were very different. In this study, we show that Fourier Transform Infrared Micro-Spectroscopy (FT-IRMS) coupled with appropriate scatter correction and multivariate analysis can be used as an effective tool to further investigate the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells and monitor the alternative affects different retinoid compounds have on the induction of differentiation. FT-IRMS detected differences between cell populations as early as 3 days of compound treatment. Populations of cells treated with different retinoid compounds could easily be distinguished from one another during the early stages of cell differentiation. These data demonstrate that FT-IRMS technology can be used as a sensitive screening technique to monitor the status of the stem cell phenotype and progression of differentiation along alternative pathways in response to different compounds

New features of quantum discord uncovered by q-entropies

The notion of quantum discord introduced by Ollivier and Zurek [Phys. Rev. Lett 88, 017901 (2001)] (see also Henderson and Vedral [J. Phys. A 34, 6899 (2001)]) has attracted increasing attention, in recent years, as an entropic quantifier of non-classical features pertaining to the correlations exhibited by bipartite quantum systems. Here we generalize the notion so as to encompass power-law q-entropies (that reduce to the standard Shannon entropy in the limit $q \to 1$) and study the concomitant consequences. The ensuing, new discord-like measures we advance describe aspects of non-classicality that are different from those associated with the standard quantum discord. A particular manifestation of this difference concerns a feature related to order. Let $D_1$ stand for the standard, Shannon-based discord measure and $D_q$ for the $q \ne 1$ one. If two quantum states $A$, $B$ are such that $D_1(A) > D_1(B)$, this order-relation does not remain invariant under a change from $D_1$ to $D_q$.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Vortex core contribution to textural energy in 3He-B below 0.4Tc

Vortex lines affect the spatial order-parameter distribution in superfluid 3He-B owing to superflow circulating around vortex cores and due to the interaction of the order parameter in the core and in the bulk as a result of superfluid coherence over the whole volume. The step-like change of the latter contribution at 0.6Tc (at a pressure of 29bar) signifies the transition from axisymmetric cores at higher temperatures to broken-symmetry cores at lower temperatures. We extended earlier measurements of the core contribution to temperatures below 0.2Tc, in particular searching for a possible new core transition to lower symmetries. As a measuring tool we track the energy levels of magnon condensate states in a trap formed by the order-parameter texture.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to proceedings of the QFS2010 conferenc

Theory of asymmetric non-additive binary hard-sphere mixtures

We show that the formal procedure of integrating out the degrees of freedom of the small spheres in a binary hard-sphere mixture works equally well for non-additive as it does for additive mixtures. For highly asymmetric mixtures (small size ratios) the resulting effective Hamiltonian of the one-component fluid of big spheres, which consists of an infinite number of many-body interactions, should be accurately approximated by truncating after the term describing the effective pair interaction. Using a density functional treatment developed originally for additive hard-sphere mixtures we determine the zero, one, and two-body contribution to the effective Hamiltonian. We demonstrate that even small degrees of positive or negative non-additivity have significant effect on the shape of the depletion potential. The second virial coefficient $B_2$, corresponding to the effective pair interaction between two big spheres, is found to be a sensitive measure of the effects of non-additivity. The variation of $B_2$ with the density of the small spheres shows significantly different behavior for additive, slightly positive and slightly negative non-additive mixtures. We discuss the possible repercussions of these results for the phase behavior of binary hard-sphere mixtures and suggest that measurements of $B_2$ might provide a means of determining the degree of non-additivity in real colloidal mixtures

Self-assembly mechanism in colloids: perspectives from Statistical Physics

Motivated by recent experimental findings in chemical synthesis of colloidal particles, we draw an analogy between self-assembly processes occurring in biological systems (e.g. protein folding) and a new exciting possibility in the field of material science. We consider a self-assembly process whose elementary building blocks are decorated patchy colloids of various types, that spontaneously drive the system toward a unique and predetermined targeted macroscopic structure. To this aim, we discuss a simple theoretical model -- the Kern-Frenkel model -- describing a fluid of colloidal spherical particles with a pre-defined number and distribution of solvophobic and solvophilic regions on their surface. The solvophobic and solvophilic regions are described via a short-range square-well and a hard-sphere potentials, respectively. Integral equation and perturbation theories are presented to discuss structural and thermodynamical properties, with particular emphasis on the computation of the fluid-fluid (or gas-liquid) transition in the temperature-density plane. The model allows the description of both one and two attractive caps, as a function of the fraction of covered attractive surface, thus interpolating between a square-well and a hard-sphere fluid, upon changing the coverage. By comparison with Monte Carlo simulations, we assess the pros and the cons of both integral equation and perturbation theories in the present context of patchy colloids, where the computational effort for numerical simulations is rather demanding.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, Special issue for the SigmaPhi2011 conferenc