701 research outputs found
A portable instrument for measuring macular pigment with central fixation
urpose: To evaluate the reliability and validity of a portable instrument for measuring macular pigment optical density.
Methods: The instrument is small, uses light emitting diodes as light sources and the principles of heterochromatic flicker photometry of comparing foveal and extra-foveal minimum flicker matches. It uses central fixation for the extra-foveal matches, which subjects
found easier than eccentric fixation. Subjects with healthy eyes used the instrument to measure their pigment density in a number of eye clinics.
Results: The mean pigment density in 124 eyes in 124 individuals was 0.41 +/- 0.16 (mean +/- sd), there was no significant change with age but the density was less in females, those with light irides, smokers, subjects on diets low in precursor carotenoids and in those exposed to
several hours of daylight every day or who used sun beds.
Conclusions: The portable instrument gave valid and reliable data that confirmed published values for macular pigment. It was convenient to use in the clinic and has potential as a screening tool
Preparation and benchmarking of highly hydrophilic polyaniline poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid) PANI PAMPSA membranes in the separation of sterols and proteins from fruit juice
Quantum Chaos in Open versus Closed Quantum Dots: Signatures of Interacting Particles
This paper reviews recent studies of mesoscopic fluctuations in transport
through ballistic quantum dots, emphasizing differences between conduction
through open dots and tunneling through nearly isolated dots. Both the open
dots and the tunnel-contacted dots show random, repeatable conductance
fluctuations with universal statistical proper-ties that are accurately
characterized by a variety of theoretical models including random matrix
theory, semiclassical methods and nonlinear sigma model calculations. We apply
these results in open dots to extract the dephasing rate of electrons within
the dot. In the tunneling regime, electron interaction dominates transport
since the tunneling of a single electron onto a small dot may be sufficiently
energetically costly (due to the small capacitance) that conduction is
suppressed altogether. How interactions combine with quantum interference are
best seen in this regime.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, PDF 2.1 format, to appear in "Chaos, Solitons &
Fractals
Variability in oxidative degradation of charcoal: influence of production variables and environmental exposure
<p>Charcoal is a key component of the Black Carbon (BC) continuum, where BC is characterized as a recalcitrant, fire-derived, polyaromatic material. Charcoal is an important source of palaeoenvironmental data, and of great interest as a potential carbon sink, due to its high apparent environmental stability. However, at least some forms of charcoal are clearly susceptible to environmental alteration and degradation over relatively short timescales. Although these processes have importance for the role of charcoal in global biogeochemistry, they remain poorly understood.</p>
<p>Here we present results of an investigation into the susceptibility of a range of charcoal samples to oxidative degradation in acidified potassium dichromate. The study examines both freshly-produced charcoal, and charcoal exposed to environmental conditions for up to 50,000 years. We compare the proportion of carbon present in different forms between the samples, specifically with respect to the relative chemical resistance of these forms. This was undertaken in order to improve understanding of the post-depositional diagenetic changes affecting charcoal within environmental deposits.</p>
<p>A wide range in chemical compositions are apparent both within and between the sample groups. In freshly-produced charcoal, material produced at 300 °C contains carbon with more labile forms than charcoal produced at ≥400 °C, signifying a key chemical change over the 300â400 °C temperature range. Charcoal exposed to environmental depositional conditions is frequently composed of a highly carboxylated aromatic structure and contains a range of carbon fractions of varying oxidative resistance. These findings suggest that a significant number of the environmental charcoals have undergone post-depositional diagenetic alteration. Further, the data highlight the potential for the use of controlled progressive oxidative degradation as a method to characterize chemical differences between individual charcoal samples.</p>
Dephasing in Open Quantum Dots
Shape-averaged magnetoconductance (weak localization) is used for the first
time to obtain the electron phase coherence time in open
ballistic GaAs quantum dots. Values for in the range of
temperature T from 0.335 to 4 K are found to be independent of dot area, and
are not consistent with the behavior expected for
isolated dots. Surprisingly, agrees quantitatively with the
predicted dephasing time for disordered two-dimensional electron systems.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Pharmacokinetic profile and quantitation of protection against soman poisoning by the antinicotinic compound MB327 in the guinea-pig
Current organophosphorus nerve agent medical countermeasures do not directly address the nicotinic effects of poisoning. A series of antinicotinic bispyridinium compounds has been synthesized in our laboratory and screened in vitro. Their actions can include open-channel block at the nicotinic receptor which may contribute to their efficacy. The current lead compound from these studies, MB327 1,1âČ-(propane-1,3-diyl)bis(4-tert-butylpyridinium) as either the diiodide (I2) or dimethanesulfonate (DMS) has been examined in vivo for efficacy against nerve agent poisoning. MB327 I2 (0â113 mg kgâ1) or the oxime HI-6 DMS (0â100 mg kgâ 1), in combination with atropine and avizafone (each at 3 mg kgâ1) was administered to guinea-pigs 1 min following soman poisoning. Treatment increased the LD50 of soman in a dose-dependent manner. The increase was statistically significant (p < 0.01) at the 33.9 mg kgâ1 (MB327) or 30 mg kgâ1 (HI-6) dose with a comparable degree of protection obtained for both compounds. Following administration of 10 mg kgâ1 (i.m.), MB327 DMS reached plasma Cmax of 22 ÎŒM at 12 min with an elimination t1/2 of 22 min. In an adverse effect study, in the absence of nerve agent poisoning, a dose of 100 mg kgâ1 or higher of MB327 DMS was lethal to the guinea-pigs. A lower dose of MB327 DMS (30 mg kgâ1) caused flaccid paralysis accompanied by respiratory impairment. Respiration normalised by 30 min, although the animals remained incapacitated to 4 h. MB327 or related compounds may be of utility in treatment of nerve agent poisoning as a component of therapy with atropine, anticonvulsant and oxime, or alternatively as an infusion under medical supervision
The Physics of turbulent and dynamically unstable Herbig-Haro jets
The overall properties of the Herbig-Haro objects such as centerline
velocity, transversal profile of velocity, flow of mass and energy are
explained adopting two models for the turbulent jet. The complex shapes of the
Herbig-Haro objects, such as the arc in HH34 can be explained introducing the
combination of different kinematic effects such as velocity behavior along the
main direction of the jet and the velocity of the star in the interstellar
medium. The behavior of the intensity or brightness of the line of emission is
explored in three different cases : transversal 1D cut, longitudinal 1D cut and
2D map. An analytical explanation for the enhancement in intensity or
brightness such as usually modeled by the bow shock is given by a careful
analysis of the geometrical properties of the torus.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics &
Spac
Origins of the Ambient Solar Wind: Implications for Space Weather
The Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees,
and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This
paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal
heating and the acceleration of the ambient solar wind. We also discuss where
the community stands in its ability to forecast how variations in the solar
wind (i.e., fast and slow wind streams) impact the Earth. Although the last few
decades have seen significant progress in observations and modeling, we still
do not have a complete understanding of the relevant physical processes, nor do
we have a quantitatively precise census of which coronal structures contribute
to specific types of solar wind. Fast streams are known to be connected to the
central regions of large coronal holes. Slow streams, however, appear to come
from a wide range of sources, including streamers, pseudostreamers, coronal
loops, active regions, and coronal hole boundaries. Complicating our
understanding even more is the fact that processes such as turbulence,
stream-stream interactions, and Coulomb collisions can make it difficult to
unambiguously map a parcel measured at 1 AU back down to its coronal source. We
also review recent progress -- in theoretical modeling, observational data
analysis, and forecasting techniques that sit at the interface between data and
theory -- that gives us hope that the above problems are indeed solvable.Comment: Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Special issue
connected with a 2016 ISSI workshop on "The Scientific Foundations of Space
Weather." 44 pages, 9 figure
Measurement of the branching fraction
The branching fraction is measured in a data sample
corresponding to 0.41 of integrated luminosity collected with the LHCb
detector at the LHC. This channel is sensitive to the penguin contributions
affecting the sin2 measurement from The
time-integrated branching fraction is measured to be . This is the most precise measurement to
date
Model-independent search for CP violation in D0âKâK+ÏâÏ+ and D0âÏâÏ+Ï+Ïâ decays
A search for CP violation in the phase-space structures of D0 and View the MathML source decays to the final states KâK+ÏâÏ+ and ÏâÏ+Ï+Ïâ is presented. The search is carried out with a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fbâ1 collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. For the KâK+ÏâÏ+ final state, the four-body phase space is divided into 32 bins, each bin with approximately 1800 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 9.1%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 6.5% observed. The phase space of the ÏâÏ+Ï+Ïâ final state is partitioned into 128 bins, each bin with approximately 2500 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 41%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 5.5% observed. All results are consistent with the hypothesis of no CP violation at the current sensitivity
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