428 research outputs found
Effect of selection on ancestry: an exactly soluble case and its phenomenological generalization
We consider a family of models describing the evolution under selection of a
population whose dynamics can be related to the propagation of noisy traveling
waves. For one particular model, that we shall call the exponential model, the
properties of the traveling wave front can be calculated exactly, as well as
the statistics of the genealogy of the population. One striking result is that,
for this particular model, the genealogical trees have the same statistics as
the trees of replicas in the Parisi mean-field theory of spin glasses. We also
find that in the exponential model, the coalescence times along these trees
grow like the logarithm of the population size. A phenomenological picture of
the propagation of wave fronts that we introduced in a previous work, as well
as our numerical data, suggest that these statistics remain valid for a larger
class of models, while the coalescence times grow like the cube of the
logarithm of the population size.Comment: 26 page
Towards a faster determination of high cycle fatigue properties taking into account the influence of a plastic pre-strain from selfheating measurements
AbstractThe high cycle fatigue (HCF) is a major element for a great design of automotive parts. A wide part of the steel sheets for the automotive industry are stamped, sometimes deeply. During this operation, the steel is plastically strained in different directions, so that a good prediction of the fatigue behaviour requires the determination of the fatigue properties of the pre-strained material. Nowadays, the evolution of HCF properties is often neglected. There are two major reasons for this lack. On the one hand, a good finite element simulation of the forming operation to predict pre-strain field is still a difficult task. On the other hand the time dedicated to traditional fatigue test campaigns (e.g. staircase method) to quantitatively identify this influence is prohibitive. To determine faster this influence, it is proposed to use self heating measurements under cyclic loadings. To illustrate this approach, different pre-strain paths are studied: shear and tension. Finally, a model taking into account the influence of pre-strain on high cycle fatigue properties is proposed and identified from self-heating measurements. The validation of the proposed approach is obtained by predicting S/N curves for pre-strain to 20% of a dual phase steel
P11-15. Induction of a mucosal immune response to HIV after systemic immunization with poly(lactic acid) nanoparticles formulated with gag antigen and polyI:C
The Schrodinger particle in an oscillating spherical cavity
We study a Schrodinger particle in an infinite spherical well with an
oscillating wall. Parametric resonances emerge when the oscillation frequency
is equal to the energy difference between two eigenstates of the static cavity.
Whereas an analytic calculation based on a two-level system approximation
reproduces the numerical results at low driving amplitudes, epsilon, we observe
a drastic change of behaviour when epsilon > 0.1, when new resonance states
appear bearing no apparent relation to the eigenstates of the static system.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, corrected typo
Quantum metastability in a class of moving potentials
In this paper we consider quantum metastability in a class of moving
potentials introduced by Berry and Klein. Potential in this class has its
height and width scaled in a specific way so that it can be transformed into a
stationary one. In deriving the non-decay probability of the system, we argue
that the appropriate technique to use is the less known method of scattering
states. This method is illustrated through two examples, namely, a moving
delta-potential and a moving barrier potential. For expanding potentials, one
finds that a small but finite non-decay probability persists at large times.
Generalization to scaling potentials of arbitrary shape is briefly indicated.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure
Evolution of malaria mortality and morbidity after the emergence of chloroquine resistance in Niakhar, Senegal
Background: Recently, it has been assumed that resistance of Plasmodium to chloroquine increased malaria mortality. The study aimed to assess the impact of chemoresistance on mortality attributable to malaria in a rural area of Senegal, since the emergence of resistance in 1992, whilst chloroquine was used as first-line treatment of malaria, until the change in national anti-malarial policy in 2003. Methods: The retrospective study took place in the demographic surveillance site (DSS) of Niakhar. Data about malaria morbidity were obtained from health records of three health care facilities, where diagnosis of malaria was based on clinical signs. Source of data concerning malaria mortality were verbal autopsies performed by trained fieldworkers and examined by physicians who identified the probable cause of death. Results: From 1992 to 2004, clinical malaria morbidity represented 39% of total morbidity in health centres. Mean malaria mortality was 2.4 parts per thousand and 10.4 parts per thousand among total population and children younger than five years, respectively, and was highest in the 1992-1995 period. It tended to decline from 1992 to 2003 (Trend test, total population p = 0.03, children 0-4 years p = 0.12 - children 1-4 years p = 0.04 - children 5-9 years p = 0.01). Conclusion: Contrary to what has been observed until 1995, mortality attributable to malaria did not continue to increase dramatically in spite of the growing resistance to chloroquine and its use as first-line treatment until 2003. Malaria morbidity and mortality followed parallel trends and rather fluctuated accordingly to rainfall
Early expansion of CD38+ICOS+ GC Tfh in draining lymph nodes during influenza vaccination immune response
T follicular helper (Tfh) cells provide critical help to B cells during the germinal center (GC) reaction to facilitate generation of protective humoral immunity. Accessing the human lymph node (LN) to study the commitment of CD4 T cells to GC Tfh cell differentiation during in vivo vaccine responses is difficult. We used ultrasound guided fine needle biopsy to monitor recall responses in axillary LNs to seasonal influenza vaccination in healthy volunteers. Specific expansion of GC cell subsets occurred exclusively within draining LNs five days postvaccination. Draining LN GC Tfh and precursor-Tfh cells express higher levels of CD38, ICOS, and Ki67, indicating they were significantly more activated, motile, and proliferating, compared to contralateral LN cells. These observations provide insight into the early expansion phase of the human Tfh lineage within LNs during a vaccine induced memory response and highlights early LN immune responses may not be reflected in the periphery
Million-year-scale alternation of warmâhumid and semi-arid periods as a mid-latitude climate mode in the Early Jurassic (late Sinemurian, Laurasian Seaway)
Clay mineral and stable isotope (C, O) data are reported from the upper Sinemurian (Lower Jurassic) of the Cardigan Bay Basin (LlanbedrâMochras Farm borehole, northwestern Wales) and the Paris Basin (Montcornet borehole, northern France) to highlight the prevailing environmental and climatic conditions. In both basins, located at similar palaeolatitudes of 30â35ââN, the clay mineral assemblages comprise chlorite, illite, illiteâsmectite mixed layers (R1 I-S), smectite, and kaolinite in various proportions. Because the influence of burial diagenesis and authigenesis is negligible in both boreholes, the clay minerals are interpreted to be derived from the erosion of the Caledonian and Variscan massifs, including their basement and pedogenic cover. In the Cardigan Bay Basin, the variations in the proportions of smectite and kaolinite are inversely related to each other through the entire upper Sinemurian. As in the succeeding Pliensbachian, the upper Sinemurian stratigraphic distribution reveals an alternation of kaolinite-rich intervals reflecting strong hydrolysing conditions and smectite-rich intervals indicating a semi-arid climate. Kaolinite is particularly abundant in the upper part of the obtusum zone and in the oxynotum zone, suggesting more intense hydrolysing conditions likely coeval with warm conditions responsible for an acceleration of the hydrological cycle. In the north of the Paris Basin, the succession is less continuous compared to the Cardigan Bay Basin site, as the oxynotum zone and the upper raricostatum zone are either absent or highly condensed. The clay assemblages are dominantly composed of illite and kaolinite without significant stratigraphic trends, but a smectite-rich interval identified in the obtusum zone is interpreted as a consequence of the emersion of the LondonâBrabant Massif following a lowering of sea level. Following a slight negative carbon isotope excursion at the obtusumâoxynotum zone transition, a long-term decrease in ÎŽ13Corg from the late oxynotumâearly raricostatum zones is recorded in the two sites and may precede or partly include the negative carbon isotope excursion of the SinemurianâPliensbachian Boundary Event, which is recognised in most basins worldwide and interpreted to signify a late pulse of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province volcanism
Quasi-stationary regime of a branching random walk in presence of an absorbing wall
A branching random walk in presence of an absorbing wall moving at a constant
velocity undergoes a phase transition as the velocity of the wall
varies. Below the critical velocity , the population has a non-zero
survival probability and when the population survives its size grows
exponentially. We investigate the histories of the population conditioned on
having a single survivor at some final time . We study the quasi-stationary
regime for when is large. To do so, one can construct a modified
stochastic process which is equivalent to the original process conditioned on
having a single survivor at final time . We then use this construction to
show that the properties of the quasi-stationary regime are universal when
. We also solve exactly a simple version of the problem, the
exponential model, for which the study of the quasi-stationary regime can be
reduced to the analysis of a single one-dimensional map.Comment: 2 figures, minor corrections, one reference adde
DIS and the effects of fluctuations: a momentum space analysis
Among the dipole models of deep inelastic scattering at small values of the
Bjorken variable , one has been recently proposed which relates the virtual
photon-proton cross section to the dipole-proton forward scattering amplitude
in momentum space. The latter is parametrized by an expression which
interpolates between its behavior at saturation and the travelling wave,
ultraviolet, amplitudes predicted by perturbative QCD from the
Balitsky-Kovchegov equation. Inspired by recent developments in coordinate
space, we use this model to parametrize the proton structure function and
confront it to HERA data on deep inelastic scattering. Both event-by-event
and the physical amplitudes are considered, the latter used to investigate the
effect of gluon number fluctuations, beyond the mean-field approximation. We
conclude that fluctuations are not present in DIS at HERA energies.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
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