High directivity fractal boundary microstrip patch antenna

A novel patch antenna with a fractal boundary condition is proposed. Experimental and numerical results corroborate the fact that the fractal characteristic of the perimeter produces localised modes. This property is utilised in the design of a microstrip patch antenna with a measured directivity of 12.7 dB.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The physiology of ventilation

The diffusion of gases brings the partial pressures of O2 and CO2 in blood and alveolar gas to an equilibrium at the pulmonary blood-gas barrier. Alveolar PCO2 (PACO2) dependson the balance between the amount of CO2 being added by pulmonary blood and the amount being eliminated by alveolar ventilation (V\u2d9 A). In steady-state conditions, CO2 output equals CO2 elimination, but during nonsteadystate conditions, phase issues and impaired tissue CO2 clearance make CO2 output less predictable. Lung heterogeneity creates regional differences in CO2 concentration, and sequential emptying raises the alveolar plateau and steepens the expired CO2 slope in expiratory capnograms. Lung areas that are ventilated but not perfused form part of the dead space. Alveolar dead space is potentially large in pulmonary embolism, COPD, and all forms of ARDS. When PEEP recruits collapsed lung units, resulting in improved oxygenation, alveolar dead space may decrease; however, when PEEP induces overdistention, alveolar dead space tends to increase. Measuring physiologic dead space and alveolar ejection volume at admission or examining the trend during mechanical ventilation might provide useful information on outcomes of critically ill patients with ARDS

CASSIOPEIA D4.3 - case study 3 report: hub connectivity-driven variable aircraft speeds

This document reports on how the CASSIOPEIA agent-based model has been developed, through a case study, to explore the use of dynamic cost indexing on flights arriving at a major European hub airport. A scenario that simulated many flights using dynamic cost indexing to recover delay to a residual of 10 minutes resulted in a considerable average cost saving achieved per flight

One Dimensional Magnetized TG Gas Properties in an External Magnetic Field

With Girardeau's Fermi-Bose mapping, we have constructed the eigenstates of a TG gas in an external magnetic field. When the number of bosons $N$ is commensurate with the number of potential cycles $M$, the probability of this TG gas in the ground state is bigger than the TG gas raised by Girardeau in 1960. Through the comparison of properties between this TG gas and Fermi gas, we find that the following issues are always of the same: their average value of particle's coordinate and potential energy, system's total momentum, single-particle density and the pair distribution function. But the reduced single-particle matrices and their momentum distributions between them are different.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

¿És d'interès públic mantenir una xarxa de seguiment de ratpenats als espais naturals protegits de l'Alt Empordà?

Entre els anys 2001 a 2009 s’han realitzat diverses campanyes d’estudi de ratpenats a l’Alt Empordà, sobretot en espais naturals protegits. A banda d’unes 300 nits de camp, s’han realitzat nou conferències, s’ha editat material didàctic i generat desenes de notícies. Durant aquest període, s’han citat 25 espècies de ratpenats (86% de les catalanes). A l’Albera i l’AltaGarrotxa és on s’han trobat més espècies, segurament a causa de l’elevada diversitat d’hàbitats i presència de boscos ben conservats. Entre els diferents espais naturals, s’hi ha pogut confirmar connectivitat, sobretot gràcies als corredors fluvials amb vegetació de ribera existents. En general, aquest estudi mostra l’interès dels ratpenats com a bioindicadors de la qualitat del nostre entorn i convida investigadors i gestors a continuar fent campanyes de divulgació i sensibilitzacióBetween 2001 and 2009, several field studies on bats have been carried out in the Alt Empordà region, especially in protected areas. Besides 300 nights in the field, nine conferences were held, educational material has been edited and dozens of news articles have been published. During this period, 25 species of bats (86% of Catalan species) have been cited.Most species were found in the Albera mountain range and the Alta Garrotxa region, surely because of their elevated diversity of habitats and the presence of wellconserved forests. A connection between the different natural parks has been confirmed thanks to the river corridors and their vegetation. In general, this study is interested in bats as bioindicators of environmental quality and invites researchers and managers to continue outreach and awareness campaigns

Solution structure of Mannobioses unravelled by means of Raman optical activity

Structural analysis of carbohydrates is a complicated endeavour, due to the complexity and diversity of the samples at hand. Herein, we apply a combined computational and experimental approach, employing molecular dynamics (MD) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations together with NMR and Raman optical activity (ROA) measurements, in the structural study of three mannobiose disaccharides, consisting of two mannoses with varying glycosidic linkages. The disaccharide structures make up the scaffold of high mannose glycans and are therefore important targets for structural analysis. Based on the MD population analysis and NMR, the major conformers of each mannobiose were identified and used as input for DFT analysis. By systematically varying the solvent models used to describe water interacting with the molecules and applying overlap integral analysis to the resulting calculational ROA spectra, we found that a full quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical approach is required for an optimal calculation of the ROA parameters. Subsequent normal mode analysis of the predicted vibrational modes was attempted in order to identify possible marker bands for glycosidic linkages. However, the normal mode vibrations of the mannobioses are completely delocalised, presumably due to conformational flexibility in these compounds, rendering the identification of isolated marker bands unfeasible

Specific Jak3 Downregulation in Lymphocytes Impairs γc Cytokine Signal Transduction and Alleviates Antigen-driven Inflammation In Vivo

Jak3, one of the four members comprising the Jak family of cytosolic tyrosine kinases, has emerged as a promising target for nontoxic immunotherapies. Although a number of Jak inhibitors has already demonstrated efficacy, they suffer from secondary effects apparently associated to their pan-Jak activity. However, whether selective Jak3 inhibition would afford therapeutic efficacy remains unclear. To address this question we have investigated the immunosuppressive potential of selective Jak3 intervention in lymphocytes using RNA interference (RNAi) technology in vitro and in vivo. Using synthetic small interference RNA (siRNA) sequences we achieved successful transfections into human and mouse primary T lymphocytes. We found that Jak3 knockdown was sufficient to impair not only interleukin-2 (IL-2) and T cell receptor (TCR)-mediated cell activation in vitro, but also antigen-triggereds welling, inflammatory cell infiltration, and proinflammatory cytokine raise in vivo. Furthermore, Jak1 (which mediates gamma c cytokine signaling in conjunction with Jak3) cosilencing did not provide higher potency to the aforementioned immunosuppressant effects. Our data provides direct evidences indicating that Jak3 protein plays an important role in gamma c cytokine and antigen-mediated T cell activation and modulates Th1-mediated inflammatory disorders, all in all highlighting its potential as a target in immunosuppressive therapies

Hygienization performances of innovative sludge treatment solutions to assure safe land spreading

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Active wetting of epithelial tissues

Development, regeneration and cancer involve drastic transitions in tissue morphology. In analogy with the behavior of inert fluids, some of these transitions have been interpreted as wetting transitions. The validity and scope of this analogy are unclear, however, because the active cellular forces that drive tissue wetting have been neither measured nor theoretically accounted for. Here we show that the transition between 2D epithelial monolayers and 3D spheroidal aggregates can be understood as an active wetting transition whose physics differs fundamentally from that of passive wetting phenomena. By combining an active polar fluid model with measurements of physical forces as a function of tissue size, contractility, cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion, and substrate stiffness, we show that the wetting transition results from the competition between traction forces and contractile intercellular stresses. This competition defines a new intrinsic lengthscale that gives rise to a critical size for the wetting transition in tissues, a striking feature that has no counterpart in classical wetting. Finally, we show that active shape fluctuations are dynamically amplified during tissue dewetting. Overall, we conclude that tissue spreading constitutes a prominent example of active wetting --- a novel physical scenario that may explain morphological transitions during tissue morphogenesis and tumor progression