17,514 research outputs found
The Apparent Fractal Conjecture
This short communication advances the hypothesis that the observed fractal
structure of large-scale distribution of galaxies is due to a geometrical
effect, which arises when observational quantities relevant for the
characterization of a cosmological fractal structure are calculated along the
past light cone. If this hypothesis proves, even partially, correct, most, if
not all, objections raised against fractals in cosmology may be solved. For
instance, under this view the standard cosmology has zero average density, as
predicted by an infinite fractal structure, with, at the same time, the
cosmological principle remaining valid. The theoretical results which suggest
this conjecture are reviewed, as well as possible ways of checking its
validity.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX. Text unchanged. Two references corrected. Contributed
paper presented at the "South Africa Relativistic Cosmology Conference in
Honour of George F. R. Ellis 60th Birthday"; University of Cape Town,
February 1-5, 199
Translocating the blood-brain barrier using electrostatics
Copyright © 2012 Ribeiro,Domingues,
Freire,Santos and Castanho. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.Mammalian cell membranes regulate homeostasis, protein activity, and cell signaling. The charge at the membrane surface has been correlated with these key events. Although mammalian cells are known to be slightly anionic, quantitative information on the membrane charge and the importance of electrostatic interactions in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics remain elusive. Recently, we reported for the first time that brain endothelial cells (EC) are more negatively charged than human umbilical cord cells, using zeta-potential measurements by dynamic light scattering. Here, we hypothesize that anionicity is a key feature of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and contributes to select which compounds cross into the brain. For the sake of comparison, we also studied the membrane surface charge of blood components—red blood cells (RBC), platelets, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).To further quantitatively correlate the negative zeta-potential values with membrane charge density, model membranes with different percentages of anionic lipids were also evaluated. From all the cells tested, brain cell membranes are the most anionic and those having their lipids mostly exposed, which explains why lipophilic cationic compounds are more prone to cross the blood-brain barrier.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia — Ministério da Educação e Ciência (FCT-MEC, Portugal) is acknowledged for funding (including fellowships SFRH/BD/42158/2007 to Marta M.B. Ribeiro, SFRH/BD/41750/2007 to Marco M. Domingues and SFRH/BD/70423/2010 to João M. Freire) and project PTDC/QUI-BIQ/119509/2010. Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (European Commission) is also acknowledged for funding (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-3-1-IAPP, Project 230654)
Matching LTB and FRW spacetimes through a null hypersurface
Matching of a LTB metric representing dust matter to a background FRW
universe across a null hypersurface is studied. In general, an unrestricted
matching is possible only if the background FRW is flat or open. There is in
general no gravitational impulsive wave present on the null hypersurface which
is shear-free and expanding. Special cases of the vanishing pressure or energy
density on the hypersurface is discussed. In the case of vanishing energy
momentum tensor of the null hypersurface, i.e. in the case of a null boundary,
it turns out that all possible definitions of the Hubble parameter on the null
hypersurface, being those of LTB or that of FRW, are equivalent, and that a
flat FRW can only be joined smoothly to a flat LTB.Comment: 9 page
The Apparent Fractal Conjecture: Scaling Features in Standard Cosmologies
This paper presents an analysis of the smoothness problem in cosmology by
focussing on the ambiguities originated in the simplifying hypotheses aimed at
observationally verifying if the large-scale distribution of galaxies is
homogeneous, and conjecturing that this distribution should follow a fractal
pattern in perturbed standard cosmologies. This is due to a geometrical effect,
appearing when certain types of average densities are calculated along the past
light cone. The paper starts reviewing the argument concerning the possibility
that the galaxy distribution follows such a scaling pattern, and the premises
behind the assumption that the spatial homogeneity of standard cosmology can be
observable. Next, it is argued that to discuss observable homogeneity one needs
to make a clear distinction between local and average relativistic densities,
and showing how the different distance definitions strongly affect them,
leading the various average densities to display asymptotically opposite
behaviours. Then the paper revisits Ribeiro's (1995: astro-ph/9910145) results,
showing that in a fully relativistic treatment some observational average
densities of the flat Friedmann model are not well defined at z ~ 0.1, implying
that at this range average densities behave in a fundamentally different manner
as compared to the linearity of the Hubble law, well valid for z < 1. This
conclusion brings into question the widespread assumption that relativistic
corrections can always be neglected at low z. It is also shown how some key
features of fractal cosmologies can be found in the Friedmann models. In view
of those findings, it is suggested that the so-called contradiction between the
cosmological principle, and the galaxy distribution forming an unlimited
fractal structure, may not exist.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX. This paper is a follow-up to
gr-qc/9909093. Accepted for publication in "General Relativity and
Gravitation
Demonstration of the Complementarity of One- and Two-Photon Interference
The visibilities of second-order (single-photon) and fourth-order
(two-photon) interference have been observed in a Young's double-slit
experiment using light generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion and
a photon-counting intensified CCD camera. Coherence and entanglement underlie
one-and two-photon interference, respectively. As the effective source size is
increased, coherence is diminished while entanglement is enhanced, so that the
visibility of single-photon interference decreases while that of two-photon
interference increases. This is the first experimental demonstration of the
complementarity between single- and two-photon interference (coherence and
entanglement) in the spatial domain.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure
Transformação estável da linhagem celular BTI-Tn-5B1-4 utilizando o gene 25KFP do baculovirus AgMNPV.
bitstream/CENARGEN/29465/1/bp188.pd
Avaliação fenológica do pinhão manso (Jatropha curcas L.) no Município de Teresina-PI.
O pinhão manso (Jatropha curcas L.), também conhecido como pinhão do paraguai, pinhão-de-cerca ou pinhão bravo é uma planta arbórea de pequeno porte, da família das Euphorbiaceae, originária do México e América Central e que apresenta potencial como uma fonte de óleo não comestível. O conhecimento da fenologia de uma planta possibilita prever a época de reprodução, deciduidade, ciclos de crescimento vegetativo e sua relação com os fatores climáticos, auxiliando operações agrícolas como poda, colheita, etc. O presente trabalho foi desenvolvido no Campo Experimental da Embrapa Meio Norte, município de Teresina-PI. Sortearam-se 21 plantas de pinhão-manso (Jatropha curcas L.) para o acompanhamento mensal da fenologia no período de janeiro a dezembro de 2007. A intensidade dos eventos fenológicos foi estimada para cada planta, seguindo-se os métodos de Fournier (Fournier, 1976) e o índice de atividade. A queda foliar ocorreu ao longo do ano, com picos no período seco e chuvoso. Os picos de emissão de flores em Jatropha curcas foi observada nos meses de julho, outubro e novembro. De acordo com o percentual de Fournier os picos de ocorrência de frutos verdes e maduros foram observados nos meses de março a setembro e março a outubro, respectivamente
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