317 research outputs found
Thermal photons in QGP and non-ideal effects
We investigate the thermal photon production-rates using one dimensional
boost-invariant second order relativistic hydrodynamics to find proper time
evolution of the energy density and the temperature. The effect of
bulk-viscosity and non-ideal equation of state are taken into account in a
manner consistent with recent lattice QCD estimates. It is shown that the
\textit{non-ideal} gas equation of state i.e behaviour
of the expanding plasma, which is important near the phase-transition point,
can significantly slow down the hydrodynamic expansion and thereby increase the
photon production-rates. Inclusion of the bulk viscosity may also have similar
effect on the hydrodynamic evolution. However the effect of bulk viscosity is
shown to be significantly lower than the \textit{non-ideal} gas equation of
state. We also analyze the interesting phenomenon of bulk viscosity induced
cavitation making the hydrodynamical description invalid. We include the
viscous corrections to the distribution functions while calculating the photon
spectra. It is shown that ignoring the cavitation phenomenon can lead to
erroneous estimation of the photon flux.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in JHE
On coalgebras with internal moves
In the first part of the paper we recall the coalgebraic approach to handling
the so-called invisible transitions that appear in different state-based
systems semantics. We claim that these transitions are always part of the unit
of a certain monad. Hence, coalgebras with internal moves are exactly
coalgebras over a monadic type. The rest of the paper is devoted to supporting
our claim by studying two important behavioural equivalences for state-based
systems with internal moves, namely: weak bisimulation and trace semantics.
We continue our research on weak bisimulations for coalgebras over order
enriched monads. The key notions used in this paper and proposed by us in our
previous work are the notions of an order saturation monad and a saturator. A
saturator operator can be intuitively understood as a reflexive, transitive
closure operator. There are two approaches towards defining saturators for
coalgebras with internal moves. Here, we give necessary conditions for them to
yield the same notion of weak bisimulation.
Finally, we propose a definition of trace semantics for coalgebras with
silent moves via a uniform fixed point operator. We compare strong and weak
bisimilation together with trace semantics for coalgebras with internal steps.Comment: Article: 23 pages, Appendix: 3 page
The Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Insertion/Deletion polymorphism is not associated with an increased risk of death or bronchopulmonary dysplasia in ventilated very low birth weight infants
BACKGROUND: The ACE gene contains a polymorphism consisting of either the presence (insertion, I) or absence (deletion, D) of a 287 bp alu repeat in intron 16. The D allele is associated with increased ACE activity in both tissue and plasma. The DD genotype is associated with risk of developing ARDS and mortality. The frequency of the D allele is higher in patients with pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis and berylliosis. The role of this polymorphism has not been studied in the development of BPD in the premature newborn. METHODS: ACE I/D genotype was determined in 245 (194 African-American, 47 Caucasian and 4 Hispanic) mechanically ventilated infants weighing less than 1250 grams at birth and compared to outcome (death and/or development of BPD). RESULTS: The incidence of the D allele in the study population was 0.58. Eighty-eight (35.9%) infants were homozygous DD, 107 (43.7%) were heterozygous ID and 50 (20.4%) were homozygous II. There were no significant differences between genotype groups with respect to ethnic origin, birth weight, gestation, or gender. There was no effect of the ACE I/D polymorphism on mortality or development of BPD (O(2 )on 28 days or 36 weeks PCA). Secondary outcomes (intraventricular hemorrhage and periventricular leukomalacia) similarly were not influenced by the ACE ID polymorphism. CONCLUSIONS: The ACE I/D polymorphism does not significantly influence the development of BPD in ventilated infants less than 1250 grams
Failure of erythromycin to eliminate airway colonization with ureaplasma urealyticum in very low birth weight infants
BACKGROUND: Airway colonization of mechanically ventilated very low birth weight infants (birth weight < 1500 grams) by Ureaplasma urealyticum (Uu) is associated with an increased risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). While Uu is sensitive to erythromycin in vitro, the efficacy of intravenous (IV) erythromycin to eliminate Uu from the airways has not been studied. METHODS: 17 very low birth weight infants with Uu positive tracheal aspirate (TA) cultures were randomized to either 5 (8 infants) or 10 days (9 infants) of IV erythromycin lactobionate (40 mg/kg/day in 3 divided doses). Tracheal aspirate cultures for Uu were performed on days 0, 5, 10 and 15. RESULTS: Intravenous erythromycin failed to eliminate airway colonization in a large proportion of infants regardless of whether they received 5 or 10 days of treatment. Ureaplasma urealyticum was isolated from 4/15 (27%) of TAs obtained at 5 days, 5/12 TAs (42%) obtained at 10 days and 6/11(55%) TAs obtained at 15 days (combined group data). CONCLUSIONS: Erythromycin administered IV does not eliminate Uu from the airways in a large proportion of infants. Failure of erythromycin to eliminate Uu from the airways may contribute to the lack of efficacy of this drug in reducing the incidence of BPD in very low birth weight infants
Elevated platelet-derived growth factor-BB concentrations in premature neonates who develop chronic lung disease
BACKGROUND: Chronic lung disease (CLD) in the preterm newborn is associated with inflammation and fibrosis. Platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB), a potent chemotactic growth factor, may mediate the fibrotic component of CLD. The objectives of this study were to determine if tracheal aspirate (TA) concentrations of PDGF-BB increase the first 2 weeks of life in premature neonates undergoing mechanical ventilation for respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), its relationship to the development of CLD, pulmonary hemorrhage (PH) and its relationship to airway colonization with Ureaplasma urealyticum (Uu). METHODS: Infants with a birth weight less than 1500 grams who required mechanical ventilation for RDS were enrolled into this study with parental consent. Tracheal aspirates were collected daily during clinically indicated suctioning. Uu cultures were performed on TA collected in the first week of life. TA supernatants were assayed for PDGF-BB and secretory component of IgA concentrations using ELISA techniques. RESULTS: Fifty premature neonates were enrolled into the study. Twenty-eight infants were oxygen dependent at 28 days of life and 16 infants were oxygen dependent at 36 weeks postconceptual age. PDGF-BB concentrations peaked between 4 and 6 days of life. Maximum PDGF-BB concentrations were significantly higher in infants who developed CLD or died from respiratory failure. PH was associated with increased risk of CLD and was associated with higher PDGF-BB concentrations. There was no correlation between maximum PDGF-BB concentrations and Uu isolation from the airway. CONCLUSIONS: PDGF-BB concentrations increase in TAs of infants who undergo mechanical ventilation for RDS during the first 2 weeks of life and maximal concentrations are greater in those infants who subsequently develop CLD. Elevation in lung PDGF-BB may play a role in the development of CLD
Gauge invariant definition of the jet quenching parameter
In the framework of Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, the jet quenching
parameter, , has been evaluated by adding the effect of Glauber gluon
interactions to the propagation of a highly-energetic collinear parton in a
medium. The result, which holds in covariant gauges, has been expressed in
terms of the expectation value of two Wilson lines stretching along the
direction of the four-momentum of the parton. In this paper, we show how that
expression can be generalized to an arbitrary gauge by the addition of
transverse Wilson lines. The transverse Wilson lines are explicitly computed by
resumming interactions of the parton with Glauber gluons that appear only in
non-covariant gauges. As an application of our result, we discuss the
contribution to coming from transverse momenta of order in a
medium that is a weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasma.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures; journal versio
In Vivo Time- Resolved Microtomography Reveals the Mechanics of the Blowfly Flight Motor
Dipteran flies are amongst the smallest and most agile of flying animals. Their wings are driven indirectly by large power muscles, which cause cyclical deformations of the thorax that are amplified through the intricate wing hinge. Asymmetric flight manoeuvres are controlled by 13 pairs of steering muscles acting directly on the wing articulations. Collectively the steering muscles account for <3% of total flight muscle mass, raising the question of how they can modulate the vastly greater output of the power muscles during manoeuvres. Here we present the results of a synchrotron-based study performing micrometre-resolution, time-resolved microtomography on the 145 Hz wingbeat of blowflies. These data represent the first four-dimensional visualizations of an organism's internal movements on sub-millisecond and micrometre scales. This technique allows us to visualize and measure the three-dimensional movements of five of the largest steering muscles, and to place these in the context of the deforming thoracic mechanism that the muscles actuate. Our visualizations show that the steering muscles operate through a diverse range of nonlinear mechanisms, revealing several unexpected features that could not have been identified using any other technique. The tendons of some steering muscles buckle on every wingbeat to accommodate high amplitude movements of the wing hinge. Other steering muscles absorb kinetic energy from an oscillating control linkage, which rotates at low wingbeat amplitude but translates at high wingbeat amplitude. Kinetic energy is distributed differently in these two modes of oscillation, which may play a role in asymmetric power management during flight control. Structural flexibility is known to be important to the aerodynamic efficiency of insect wings, and to the function of their indirect power muscles. We show that it is integral also to the operation of the steering muscles, and so to the functional flexibility of the insect flight motor
Interleukin-4 and 13 concentrations in infants at risk to develop Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia
BACKGROUND: An exaggerated inflammatory response occurs in the first few days of life in infants who subsequently develop bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). The increase of inflammatory cytokines in many disease processes is generally balanced by a rise in anti-inflammatory cytokines. Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-13 (IL-13) have been shown to inhibit production of several inflammatory cytokines important in the development of BPD. METHODS: We sought to determine if a correlation exists between the presence or absence of IL-4 and IL-13 in tracheal aspirates (TA) during the first 3 weeks of life and the development of BPD in premature infants. Serial TAs were prospectively obtained from 36 very low birth weight infants and IL-4 and IL-13 concentrations were determined by ELISA. RESULTS: Infants who developed BPD (n = 19) were less mature (25.3 ± 0.02 wks vs. 27.8 ± 0.05 wks; p < 0.001), and had lower birth weights (739 ± 27 g vs.1052 ± 41 g; p < 0.001). IL-4 and IL-13 were detectable in only 27 of 132 and 9 of 132 samples assayed respectively. Furthermore, the levels detected for IL-4 and IL-13 were very low and did not correlate with the development of BPD. CONCLUSIONS: TA concentrations of IL-4 and IL-13 do not increase significantly during acute lung injury in premature infants
Thermodynamics and Instabilities of a Strongly Coupled Anisotropic Plasma
We extend our analysis of a IIB supergravity solution dual to a spatially
anisotropic finite-temperature N=4 super Yang-Mills plasma. The solution is
static, possesses an anisotropic horizon, and is completely regular. The full
geometry can be viewed as a renormalization group flow from an AdS geometry in
the ultraviolet to a Lifshitz-like geometry in the infrared. The anisotropy can
be equivalently understood as resulting from a position-dependent theta-term or
from a non-zero number density of dissolved D7-branes. The holographic stress
tensor is conserved and anisotropic. The presence of a conformal anomaly plays
an important role in the thermodynamics. The phase diagram exhibits homogeneous
and inhomogeneous (i.e. mixed) phases. In some regions the homogeneous phase
displays instabilities reminiscent of those of weakly coupled plasmas. We
comment on similarities with QCD at finite baryon density and with the
phenomenon of cavitation.Comment: 62 pages, 13 figures; v2: typos fixed, added reference
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