256 research outputs found
Experimental observation of high field diamagnetic fluctuations in Niobium
We have performed a magnetic study of a bulk metallic sample of Nb with
critical temperature K. Magnetization versus temperature (M {\it
vs} T) data obtained for fixed magnetic fields above 1 kOe show a
superconducting transition which becomes broader as the field is increased. The
data are interpreted in terms of the diamagnetic lowest Landau level (LLL)
fluctuation theory. The scaling analysis gives values of the superconducting
transition temperature consistent with % . We search for
universal 3D LLL behavior by comparing scaling results for Nb and YBaCuO, but
obtain no evidence for universality.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.
Pre-big bang model has Planck problem
The pre-big bang's kinetic driven inflationary mechanism is not an adequate
form of inflation: the Planck length grows more rapidly than the scale factor.
In order to explain our large universe, the resulting post-big bang universe
requires the same unnatural constants (Planck problem) as those of any other
non-inflationary big bang model.Comment: figures not include
A comparative study of high-field diamagnetic fluctuations in deoxygenated YBa2Cu3O(7-x) and polycrystalline (Bi-Pb)2Sr2Ca3O(10)
We studied three single crystals of YBa2Cu3O{7-x} with Tc= 62.5, 52, and 41
K, and a textured specimen of (Bi-Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 with Tc=108 K, for H//c
axis. The reversible data were interpreted in terms of 2D lowest-Landau-level
fluctuation theory. The data were fit well by the 2D LLL expression for
magnetization obtained by Tesanovic etal., producing reasonable values of kappa
but larger values of dHc2/dT. Universality was studied by obtaining a
simultaneous scaling of Y123 data and Bi2223. An expression for the 2D x-axis
LLL scaling factor used to obtain the simultaneous scaling was extracted from
theory, and compared with the experimental values. The comparison between the
values of the x-axis produced a deviation of 40% which suggests that the
hypothesis of universality of the 2D-LLL fluctuations is not supported by the
studied samples. We finaly observe that Y123 magnetization data for
temperatures above obbey a universal scaling obtained for the diamagnetic
fluctuation magnetization from a theory considering non-local field effects.
The same scaling was not obbeyed by the corresponding magnetization calculated
from the two-dimensional lowest-Landau-level theory.Comment: 7 pages 5 figures, accept in Journ. Low Temp. Phy
A hyper-heuristic with two guidance indicators for bi-objective mixed-shift vehicle routing problem with time windows
In this paper, a Mixed-Shift Vehicle Routing Problem is proposed based on a real-life container transportation problem. In a long planning horizon of multiple shifts, transport tasks are completed satisfying the time constraints. Due to the different travel distances and time of tasks, there are two types of shifts (long shift and short shift) in this problem. The unit driver cost for long shifts is higher than that of short shifts. A mathematical model of this Mixed-Shift Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (MS-VRPTW) is established in this paper, with two objectives of minimizing the total driver payment and the total travel distance. Due to the large scale and nonlinear constraints, the exact search showed is not suitable to MS-VRPTW. An initial solution construction heuristic (EBIH) and a selective perturbation Hyper-Heuristic (GIHH) are thus developed. In GIHH, five heuristics with different extents of perturbation at the low level are adaptively selected by a high level selection scheme with the Hill Climbing acceptance criterion. Two guidance indicators are devised at the high level to adaptively adjust the selection of the low level heuristics for this bi-objective problem. The two indicators estimate the objective value improvement and the improvement direction over the Pareto Front, respectively. To evaluate the generality of the proposed algorithms, a set of benchmark instances with various features is extracted from real-life historical datasets. The experiment results show that GIHH significantly improves the quality of the final Pareto Solution Set, outperforming the state-of-the-art algorithms for similar problems. Its application on VRPTW also obtains promising results
The role of anti-aquaporin 4 antibody in the conversion of acute brainstem syndrome to neuromyelitis optica
Background: Acute brainstem syndrome (ABS) may herald multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica (NMO), or occur as an isolated syndrome. The aquaporin 4 (AQP4)-specific serum autoantibody, NMO-IgG, is a biomarker for NMO. However, the role of anti-AQP4 antibody in the conversion of ABS to NMO is unclear.
Methods: Thirty-one patients with first-event ABS were divided into two groups according to the presence of anti-AQP4 antibodies, their clinical features and outcomes were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: Fourteen of 31 patients (45.16 %) were seropositive for NMO-IgG. The 71.43 % of anti-AQP4 (+) ABS patients converted to NMO, while only 11.76 % of anti-AQP4 (-) ABS patients progressed to NMO. Anti-AQP4 (+) ABS patients demonstrated a higher IgG index (0.68 ± 0.43 vs 0.42 ± 0.13, p < 0.01) and Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (4.64 ± 0.93 vs 2.56 ± 0.81, p < 0.01) than anti-AQP4 (-) ABS patients. Area postrema clinical brainstem symptoms occurred more frequently in anti-AQP4 (+) ABS patients than those in anti-AQP4 (-) ABS patients (71.43 % vs 17.65 %, p = 0.004). In examination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the 78.57 % of anti-AQP4 (+) ABS patients had medulla-predominant involvements in the sagittal view and dorsal-predominant involvements in the axial view.
Conclusions: ABS represents an inaugural or limited form of NMO in a high proportion of anti-AQP4 (+) patients
Salivary Gland Transcriptomes and Proteomes of Phlebotomus tobbi and Phlebotomus sergenti, Vectors of Leishmaniasis
Phlebotomine female sand flies require a blood meal for egg development, and it is during the blood feeding that pathogens can be transmitted to a host. Leishmania parasites are among these pathogens and can cause disfiguring cutaneous or even possibly fatal visceral disease. The Leishmania parasites are deposited into the bite wound along with the sand fly saliva. The components of the saliva have many pharmacologic and immune functions important in blood feeding and disease establishment. In this article, the authors identify and investigate the protein components of saliva of two important vectors of leishmaniasis, Phlebotomus tobbi and P. sergenti, by sequencing the transcriptomes of the salivary glands. We then compared the predicted protein sequences of these salivary proteins to those of other bloodsucking insects to elucidate the similarity in composition, structure, and enzymatic activity. Finally, this descriptive analysis of P. tobbi and P. sergenti transcriptomes can aid future research in identifying molecules for epidemiologic assays and in investigating sand fly-host interactions
- …