839 research outputs found
Radiation dose reduction: comparative assessment of publication volume between interventional and diagnostic radiology
PURPOSE:We aimed to quantify and compare awareness regarding radiation dose reduction within the interventional radiology and diagnostic radiology communities.METHODS:Abstracts accepted to the annual meetings of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE), the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), and the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) between 2005 and 2015 were analyzed using the search terms “interventional/computed tomography” and “radiation dose/radiation dose reduction.” A PubMed query using the above-mentioned search terms for the years of 2005–2015 was performed.RESULTS:Between 2005 and 2015, a total of 14 520 abstracts (mean, 660±297 abstracts) and 80 614 abstracts (mean, 3664±1025 abstracts) were presented at interventional and diagnostic radiology meetings, respectively. Significantly fewer abstracts related to radiation dose were presented at the interventional radiology meetings compared with the diagnostic radiology meetings (162 abstracts [1% of total] vs. 2706 [3% of total]; P < 0.001). On average 15±7 interventional radiology abstracts (range, 6–27) and 246±105 diagnostic radiology abstracts (range, 112–389) pertaining to radiation dose were presented at each meeting. The PubMed query revealed an average of 124±39 publications (range, 79–187) and 1205±307 publications (range, 829–1672) related to interventional and diagnostic radiology dose reduction per year, respectively (P < 0.001).CONCLUSION:The observed increase in the number of abstracts regarding radiation dose reduction in the interventional radiology community over the past 10 years has not mirrored the increased volume seen within diagnostic radiology, suggesting that increased education and discussion about this topic may be warranted
Markov dynamic models for long-timescale protein motion
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is a well-established method for studying protein motion at the atomic scale. However, it is computationally intensive and generates massive amounts of data. One way of addressing the dual challenges of computation efficiency and data analysis is to construct simplified models of long-timescale protein motion from MD simulation data. In this direction, we propose to use Markov models with hidden states, in which the Markovian states represent potentially overlapping probabilistic distributions over protein conformations. We also propose a principled criterion for evaluating the quality of a model by its ability to predict long-timescale protein motions. Our method was tested on 2D synthetic energy landscapes and two extensively studied peptides, alanine dipeptide and the villin headpiece subdomain (HP-35 NleNle). One interesting finding is that although a widely accepted model of alanine dipeptide contains six states, a simpler model with only three states is equally good for predicting long-timescale motions. We also used the constructed Markov models to estimate important kinetic and dynamic quantities for protein folding, in particular, mean first-passage time. The results are consistent with available experimental measurements
Two-domains bulklike Fermi surface of Ag films deposited onto Si(111)-(7x7)
Thick metallic silver films have been deposited onto Si(111)-(7x7) substrates
at room temperature. Their electronic properties have been studied by using
angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). In addition to the
electronic band dispersion along the high-symmetry directions, the Fermi
surface topology of the grown films has been investigated. Using ARPES, the
spectral weight distribution at the Fermi level throughout large portions of
the reciprocal space has been determined at particular perpendicular
electron-momentum values. Systematically, the contours of the Fermi surface of
these films reflected a sixfold symmetry instead of the threefold symmetry of
Ag single crystal. This loss of symmetry has been attributed to the fact that
these films appear to be composed by two sets of domains rotated 60 from
each other. Extra, photoemission features at the Fermi level were also
detected, which have been attributed to the presence of surface states and
\textit{sp}-quantum states. The dimensionality of the Fermi surface of these
films has been analyzed studying the dependence of the Fermi surface contours
with the incident photon energy. The behavior of these contours measured at
particular points along the Ag L high-symmetry direction puts forward
the three-dimensional character of the electronic structure of the films
investigated.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Scaling of Island Growth in Pb Overlayers on Cu(001)
The growth and ordering of a Pb layer deposited on Cu(001) at 150 K has been
studied using atom beam scattering. At low coverage, ordered Pb islands with a
large square unit cell and nearly hexagonal internal structure are formed. This
is a high order commensurate phase with 30 atoms in the unit cell. From the
measurement of the island diffraction peak profiles we find a power law for the
mean island - size versus coverage with an exponent . A
scaling behavior of growth is confirmed and a simple model describing island
growth is presented. Due to the high degeneracy of the monolayer phase,
different islands do not diffract coherently. Therefore, when islands merge
they still diffract as separate islands and coalescence effects are thus
negligible. From the result for we conclude that the island density is
approximately a constant in the coverage range where the
ordered islands are observed. We thus conclude that most islands nucleate at
and then grow in an approximately self similar fashion as
increases.Comment: 23 pages, 10 Figures (available upon request). SU-PHYS-93-443-375
Evaluating signatures of glacial refugia for North Atlantic benthic marine taxa
A goal of phylogeography is to relate patterns of genetic differentiation to
potential historical geographic isolating events. Quaternary glaciations, particularly the one culminating in the Last Glacial Maximum ;21 ka (thousands of years ago), greatly affected the distributions and population sizes of temperate marine species as their ranges retreated southward to escape ice sheets. Traditional genetic models of glacial refugia and routes of
recolonization include these predictions: low genetic diversity in formerly glaciated areas, with a small number of alleles/ haplotypes dominating disproportionately large areas, and high diversity including ‘‘private’’ alleles in glacial refugia. In the Northern Hemisphere, low
diversity in the north and high diversity in the south are expected. This simple model does not account for the possibility of populations surviving in relatively small northern periglacial refugia. If these periglacial populations experienced extreme bottlenecks, they could have the low genetic diversity expected in recolonized areas with no refugia, but should have more endemic diversity (private alleles) than recently recolonized areas. This review examines
evidence of putative glacial refugia for eight benthic marine taxa in the temperate North Atlantic. All data sets were reanalyzed to allow direct comparisons between geographic patterns of genetic diversity and distribution of particular clades and haplotypes including private alleles. We contend that for marine organisms the genetic signatures of northern
periglacial and southern refugia can be distinguished from one another. There is evidence for several periglacial refugia in northern latitudes, giving credence to recent climatic reconstructions with less extensive glaciation
Multiple Scale Reorganization of Electrostatic Complexes of PolyStyrene Sulfonate and Lysozyme
We report on a SANS investigation into the potential for these structural
reorganization of complexes composed of lysozyme and small PSS chains of
opposite charge if the physicochemical conditions of the solutions are changed
after their formation. Mixtures of solutions of lysozyme and PSS with high
matter content and with an introduced charge ratio [-]/[+]intro close to the
electrostatic stoichiometry, lead to suspensions that are macroscopically
stable. They are composed at local scale of dense globular primary complexes of
radius ~ 100 {\AA}; at a higher scale they are organized fractally with a
dimension 2.1. We first show that the dilution of the solution of complexes,
all other physicochemical parameters remaining constant, induces a macroscopic
destabilization of the solutions but does not modify the structure of the
complexes at submicronic scales. This suggests that the colloidal stability of
the complexes can be explained by the interlocking of the fractal aggregates in
a network at high concentration: dilution does not break the local aggregate
structure but it does destroy the network. We show, secondly, that the addition
of salt does not change the almost frozen inner structure of the cores of the
primary complexes, although it does encourage growth of the complexes; these
coalesce into larger complexes as salt has partially screened the electrostatic
repulsions between two primary complexes. These larger primary complexes remain
aggregated with a fractal dimension of 2.1. Thirdly, we show that the addition
of PSS chains up to [-]/[+]intro ~ 20, after the formation of the primary
complex with a [-]/[+]intro close to 1, only slightly changes the inner
structure of the primary complexes. Moreover, in contrast to the synthesis
achieved in the one-step mixing procedure where the proteins are unfolded for a
range of [-]/[+]intro, the native conformation of the proteins is preserved
inside the frozen core
Atomic-Level Characterization of the Activation Mechanism of SERCA by Calcium
We have performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to elucidate, in atomic detail, the mechanism by which the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) is activated by Ca2+. Crystal structures suggest that activation of SERCA occurs when the cytoplasmic head-piece, in an open (E1) conformation stabilized by Ca2+, undergoes a large-scale open-to-closed (E1 to E2) transition that is induced by ATP binding. However, spectroscopic measurements in solution suggest that these structural states (E1 and E2) are not tightly coupled to biochemical states (defined by bound ligands); the closed E2 state predominates even in the absence of ATP, in both the presence and absence of Ca2+. How is this loose coupling consistent with the high efficiency of energy transduction in the Ca2+-ATPase? To provide insight into this question, we performed long (500 ns) all-atom MD simulations starting from the open crystal structure, including a lipid bilayer and water. In both the presence and absence of Ca2+, we observed a large-scale open-to-closed conformational transition within 400 ns, supporting the weak coupling between structural and biochemical states. However, upon closer inspection, it is clear that Ca2+ is necessary and sufficient for SERCA to reach the precise geometrical arrangement necessary for activation of ATP hydrolysis. Contrary to suggestions from crystal structures, but in agreement with solution spectroscopy, the presence of ATP is not required for this activating transition. Principal component analysis showed that Ca2+ reshapes the free energy landscape of SERCA to create a path between the open conformation and the activated closed conformation. Thus the malleability of the free energy landscape is essential for SERCA efficiency, ensuring that ATP hydrolysis is tightly coupled to Ca2+ transport. These results demonstrate the importance of real-time dynamics in the formation of catalytically competent conformations of SERCA, with broad implications for understanding enzymatic catalysis in atomic detail
Impact of modulation of the endocannabinoid system on the intestinal microcirculation in experimental sepsis
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