1,288 research outputs found
Exact finite-size scaling with corrections in the two-dimensional Ising model with special boundary conditions
The two-dimensional Ising model with Brascamp-Kunz boundary conditions has a
partition function more amenable to analysis than its counterpart on a torus.
This fact is exploited to exactly determine the full finite-size scaling
behaviour of the Fisher zeroes of the model. Moreover, exact results are also
determined for the scaling of the specific heat at criticality, for the
specific-heat peak and for the pseudocritical points. All corrections to
scaling are found to be analytic and the shift exponent does not
coincide with the inverse of the correlation length exponent .Comment: 3 pages, LaTeX, No figures, Lattice2001(spin
Wave Pressures and Loads on a Small Scale Model of the Svåheia SSG Pilot Project
The paper reports on 2D small scale experiments
conducted to investigate wave loadings acting on a pilot project
of device for the conversion of wave energy into electricity. The
conversion concept is based on the overtopping principle and the
structure is worldwide known with the acronym SSG. The
hydraulic model tests have been carried out at the LInC
laboratory of the University of Naples Federico II using random
waves. Results indicate wave overtopping is able to cause a
sudden inversion of vertical force under wave crest, so that it is
alternatively upward and downward directed over a short time
interval. It is also shown that two calculation methods widely
employed in the Japanese design practice of vertical face
breakwaters, could be used to achieve safe estimates of the
hydrodynamic loadings
Protein phosphatase 2A promotes hepatocellular carcinogenesis in the diethylnitrosamine mouse model through inhibition of p53
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Most HCCs develop in cirrhotic livers. Alcoholic liver disease, chronic hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis C are the most common underlying liver diseases. Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-specific mechanisms that contribute to HCC are presently unknown. Transgenic expression of HCV proteins in the mouse liver induces an overexpression of the protein phosphatase 2A catalytic subunit (PP2Ac). We have previously reported that HCV-induced PP2Ac overexpression modulates histone methylation and acetylation and inhibits DNA damage repair. In this study, we analyze tumor formation and gene expression using HCV transgenic mice that overexpress PP2Ac and liver tissues from patients with HCC. We demonstrate that PP2Ac overexpression interferes with p53-induced apoptosis. Injection of the carcinogen, diethylnitrosamine, induced significantly more and larger liver tumors in HCV transgenic mice that overexpress PP2Ac compared with control mice. In human liver biopsies from patients with HCC, PP2Ac expression was significantly higher in HCC tissue compared with non-tumorous liver tissue from the same patients. Our findings demonstrate an important role of PP2Ac overexpression in liver carcinogenesis and provide insights into the molecular pathogenesis of HCV-induced HC
The dynamic exponent of the Ising model on negatively curved surfaces
We investigate the dynamic critical exponent of the two-dimensional Ising
model defined on a curved surface with constant negative curvature. By using
the short-time relaxation method, we find a quantitative alteration of the
dynamic exponent from the known value for the planar Ising model. This
phenomenon is attributed to the fact that the Ising lattices embedded on
negatively curved surfaces act as ones in infinite dimensions, thus yielding
the dynamic exponent deduced from mean field theory. We further demonstrate
that the static critical exponent for the correlation length exhibits the mean
field exponent, which agrees with the existing results obtained from canonical
Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. to appear in J. Stat. Mec
Análisis de la reestructuración productiva del sector industrial en Ensenada y Berisso
Este capítulo es un aporte al objetivo general del proyecto REDES de identificar patrones de localización industrial de las unidades productivas industriales, teniendo en cuenta la infraestructura de los ejes de circulación que influyen directamente en la reestructuración urbana, y en la localización de actividades diversas como son las comerciales, residenciales o de servicios. Se centra en la identificación de los principales componentes de la reestructuración industrial a escala nacional, el análisis de la misma en Berisso y Ensenada y una descripción particularizada del sector pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) industrial. Incluye una caracterización de Berisso y Ensenada en el marco de la Región Metropolitana de Buenos Aires - La Plata y del Gran La Plata en particular y la problemática de esta inclusión.Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios ComplejosInstituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociale
A multicenter study on the diagnostic significance of a single cerebrospinal fluid IgG band
The analysis of paired cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum samples with isolectric focusing (IEF) can yield different patterns which can be of aid in the differential diagnosis of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Rarely, a single CSF-restricted IgG band, which is not included within these patterns, can be detected in association with inflammatory disorders, multiple sclerosis (MS) above all. However, the diagnostic meaning of this abnormality is still uncertain. The main aim of our multicenter study was to establish the frequency and disease associations of single CSF IgG bands. Differences in the CSF profiles between MS and other diseases, and the follow-up patterns were also evaluated. Medical records of patients who underwent CSF analysis, which included IEF, over a 11.5-year period were retrospectively scrutinized at the participating centers, which used similar IEF techniques. One hundred and fifty-one of 9422 CSF reports (1.6%) showed single CSF-restricted IgG bands. Of the 129 patients with a definite diagnosis, 58.2% had CNS inflammatory-demyelinating diseases (the most frequent being MS: 21.7%), 6.2% tumours, 5.4% inflammatory peripheral nervous system diseases and 30.2% miscellaneous diseases. At follow-up, 3 out of the 10 patients with a repeated CSF analysis had developed an oligoclonal band pattern. Our findings indicate that single CSF IgG bands tend to associate with diseases characterized by the involvement of intrathecal humoral immune responses, and strongly support the notion that this abnormality should be regularly reported, thus alerting clinicians of possible inflammatory disorders of the CNS
VEGF dose regulates vascular stabilization through Semaphorin3A and the Neuropilin-1+ monocyte/TGF-β1 paracrine axis
VEGF is widely investigated for therapeutic angiogenesis, but while short-term delivery is desirable for safety, it is insufficient for new vessel persistence, jeopardizing efficacy. Here, we investigated whether and how VEGF dose regulates nascent vessel stabilization, to identify novel therapeutic targets. Monoclonal populations of transduced myoblasts were used to homogeneously express specific VEGF doses in SCID mouse muscles. VEGF was abrogated after 10 and 17 days by Aflibercept treatment. Vascular stabilization was fastest with low VEGF, but delayed or prevented by higher doses, without affecting pericyte coverage. Rather, VEGF dose-dependently inhibited endothelial Semaphorin3A expression, thereby impairing recruitment of Neuropilin-1-expressing monocytes (NEM), TGF-β1 production and endothelial SMAD2/3 activation. TGF-β1 further initiated a feedback loop stimulating endothelial Semaphorin3A expression, thereby amplifying the stabilizing signals. Blocking experiments showed that NEM recruitment required endogenous Semaphorin3A and that TGF-β1 was necessary to start the Semaphorin3A/NEM axis. Conversely, Semaphorin3A treatment promoted NEM recruitment and vessel stabilization despite high VEGF doses or transient adenoviral delivery. Therefore, VEGF inhibits the endothelial Semaphorin3A/NEM/TGF-β1 paracrine axis and Semaphorin3A treatment accelerates stabilization of VEGF-induced angiogenesis
Planck intermediate results. XLI. A map of lensing-induced B-modes
The secondary cosmic microwave background (CMB) -modes stem from the
post-decoupling distortion of the polarization -modes due to the
gravitational lensing effect of large-scale structures. These lensing-induced
-modes constitute both a valuable probe of the dark matter distribution and
an important contaminant for the extraction of the primary CMB -modes from
inflation. Planck provides accurate nearly all-sky measurements of both the
polarization -modes and the integrated mass distribution via the
reconstruction of the CMB lensing potential. By combining these two data
products, we have produced an all-sky template map of the lensing-induced
-modes using a real-space algorithm that minimizes the impact of sky masks.
The cross-correlation of this template with an observed (primordial and
secondary) -mode map can be used to measure the lensing -mode power
spectrum at multipoles up to . In particular, when cross-correlating with
the -mode contribution directly derived from the Planck polarization maps,
we obtain lensing-induced -mode power spectrum measurement at a significance
level of , which agrees with the theoretical expectation derived
from the Planck best-fit CDM model. This unique nearly all-sky
secondary -mode template, which includes the lensing-induced information
from intermediate to small () angular scales, is
delivered as part of the Planck 2015 public data release. It will be
particularly useful for experiments searching for primordial -modes, such as
BICEP2/Keck Array or LiteBIRD, since it will enable an estimate to be made of
the lensing-induced contribution to the measured total CMB -modes.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures; Accepted for publication in A&A; The B-mode map
is part of the PR2-2015 Cosmology Products; available as Lensing Products in
the Planck Legacy Archive http://pla.esac.esa.int/pla/#cosmology; and
described in the 'Explanatory Supplement'
https://wiki.cosmos.esa.int/planckpla2015/index.php/Specially_processed_maps#2015_Lensing-induced_B-mode_ma
Planck intermediate results. XXIX. All-sky dust modelling with Planck, IRAS, and WISE observations
We present all-sky modelling of the high resolution Planck, IRAS, and WISE
infrared (IR) observations using the physical dust model presented by Draine
and Li in 2007 (DL). We study the performance and results of this model, and
discuss implications for future dust modelling. The present work extends the DL
dust modelling carried out on nearby galaxies using Herschel and Spitzer data
to Galactic dust emission. We employ the DL dust model to generate maps of the
dust mass surface density, the optical extinction Av, and the starlight
intensity parametrized by Umin. The DL model reproduces the observed spectral
energy distribution (SED) satisfactorily over most of the sky, with small
deviations in the inner Galactic disk and in low ecliptic latitude areas. We
compare the DL optical extinction Av for the diffuse interstellar medium with
optical estimates for 2 10^5 quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) observed in the Sloan
digital sky survey. The DL Av estimates are larger than those determined
towards QSOs by a factor of about 2, which depends on Umin. The DL fitting
parameter Umin, effectively determined by the wavelength where the SED peaks,
appears to trace variations in the far-IR opacity of the dust grains per unit
Av, and not only in the starlight intensity. To circumvent the model
deficiency, we propose an empirical renormalization of the DL Av estimate,
dependent of Umin, which compensates for the systematic differences found with
QSO observations. This renormalization also brings into agreement the DL Av
estimates with those derived for molecular clouds from the near-IR colours of
stars in the 2 micron all sky survey. The DL model and the QSOs data are used
to compress the spectral information in the Planck and IRAS observations for
the diffuse ISM to a family of 20 SEDs normalized per Av, parameterized by
Umin, which may be used to test and empirically calibrate dust models.Comment: Final version that has appeared in A&
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