The content of catecholamines in the adrenal glands and sections of the brain under hypokinesia and injection of some neurotropic agents

The dynamics of catecholamine content were studied in the adrenal glands and in various region of the brain of white rats under hypokinesia and injections of neurotropic agents. Profound changes in body catecholamine balance occured as a result of prolonged acute restriction of motor activity. Adrenalin retention increased and noradrenanalin retention decreased in the adrenal glands, hypothalamus, cerebral hemispheres, cerebellum and medulla oblongata. Observed alterations in catecholamine retention varied depending upon the type of neurotropic substance utilized. Mellipramine increased catecholamine retention in the tissues under observation while spasmolytin brought about an increase in adrenalin concentration in the adrenals and a decrease in the brain

On fiber dispersion models: exclusion of compressed fibers and spurious model comparisons

Fiber dispersion in collagenous soft tissues has an important influence on the mechanical response, and the modeling of the collagen fiber architecture and its mechanics has developed significantly over the last few years. The purpose of this paper is twofold, first to develop a method for excluding compressed fibers within a dispersion for the generalized structure tensor (GST) model, which several times in the literature has been claimed not to be possible, and second to draw attention to several erroneous and misleading statements in the literature concerning the relative values of the GST and the angular integration (AI) models. For the GST model we develop a rather simple method involving a deformation dependent dispersion parameter that allows the mechanical influence of compressed fibers within a dispersion to be excluded. The theory is illustrated by application to simple extension and simple shear in order to highlight the effect of exclusion. By means of two examples we also show that the GST and the AI models have equivalent predictive power, contrary to some claims in the literature. We conclude that from the theoretical point of view neither of these two models is superior to the other. However, as is well known and as we now emphasize, the GST model has proved to be very successful in modeling the data from experiments on a wide range of tissues, and it is easier to analyze and simpler to implement than the AI approach, and the related computational effort is much lower

Tangling clustering of inertial particles in stably stratified turbulence

We have predicted theoretically and detected in laboratory experiments a new type of particle clustering (tangling clustering of inertial particles) in a stably stratified turbulence with imposed mean vertical temperature gradient. In this stratified turbulence a spatial distribution of the mean particle number density is nonuniform due to the phenomenon of turbulent thermal diffusion, that results in formation of a gradient of the mean particle number density, \nabla N, and generation of fluctuations of the particle number density by tangling of the gradient, \nabla N, by velocity fluctuations. The mean temperature gradient, \nabla T, produces the temperature fluctuations by tangling of the gradient, \nabla T, by velocity fluctuations. These fluctuations increase the rate of formation of the particle clusters in small scales. In the laboratory stratified turbulence this tangling clustering is much more effective than a pure inertial clustering that has been observed in isothermal turbulence. In particular, in our experiments in oscillating grid isothermal turbulence in air without imposed mean temperature gradient, the inertial clustering is very weak for solid particles with the diameter 10 microns and Reynolds numbers Re =250. Our theoretical predictions are in a good agreement with the obtained experimental results.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, REVTEX4, revised versio

Precision determination of band offsets in strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells by C-V-profiling and Schroedinger-Poisson self-consistent simulation

The results of measurements and numerical simulation of charge carrier distribution and energy states in strained quantum wells In_xGa_{1-x}As/GaAs (0.06 < x < 0.29) by C-V-profiling are presented. Precise values of conduction band offsets for these pseudomorphic QWs have been obtained by means of self-consistent solution of Schroedinger and Poisson equations and following fitting to experimental data. For the conduction band offsets in strained In_xGa_{1-x}As/GaAs - QWs the expression DE_C(x) = 0.814x - 0.21x^2 has been obtained.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, RevTeX

Customer Focused Price Optimisation

Tesco want to better understand how to set online prices for their general merchandise (i.e. not groceries or clothes) in the UK. Because customers can easily compare prices from different retailers we expect they will be very sensitive to price, so it is important to get it right. There are four aspects of the problem. • Forecasting: Estimating the customer demand as a function of the price chosen (especially hard for products with no sales history or infrequent sales). • Objective function: What exactly should Tesco aim to optimise? Sales volume? Profit? Profit margin? Conversion rates? • Optimisation: How to choose prices for many related products to optimise the chosen objective function. • Evalution: How to demonstrate that the chosen prices are optimal, especially to people without a mathematical background. Aggregate sales data was provided for about 400 products over about 2 years so that quantitive approaches could be tested. For some products competitors’ prices were also provided

The effect of discrete vs. continuous-valued ratings on reputation and ranking systems

When users rate objects, a sophisticated algorithm that takes into account ability or reputation may produce a fairer or more accurate aggregation of ratings than the straightforward arithmetic average. Recently a number of authors have proposed different co-determination algorithms where estimates of user and object reputation are refined iteratively together, permitting accurate measures of both to be derived directly from the rating data. However, simulations demonstrating these methods' efficacy assumed a continuum of rating values, consistent with typical physical modelling practice, whereas in most actual rating systems only a limited range of discrete values (such as a 5-star system) is employed. We perform a comparative test of several co-determination algorithms with different scales of discrete ratings and show that this seemingly minor modification in fact has a significant impact on algorithms' performance. Paradoxically, where rating resolution is low, increased noise in users' ratings may even improve the overall performance of the system.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Spin-orbit interaction in three-dimensionally bounded semiconductor nanostructures

The structural inversion asymmetry-induced spin-orbit interaction of conduction band electrons in zinc-blende and wurtzite semiconductor structures is analysed allowing for a three-dimensional (3D) character of the external electric field and variation of the chemical composition. The interaction, taking into account all remote bands perturbatively, is presented with two contributions: a heterointerface term and a term caused by the external electric field. They have generally comparable strength and can be written in a unified manner only for 2D systems, where they can partially cancel each other. For quantum wires and dots composed of wurtzite semiconductors new terms appear, absent in zinc-blende structures, which acquire the standard Rashba form in 2D systems.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur