Mango Dermatitis After Urushiol Sensitization

Prior exposure to poison ivy and poison oak, which are plants in the Anacardiacea family and contain high levels of urushiol, appear to be a risk factor for delayed hypersensitivity reactions to mango fruits. Cross-sensitization between these plants and mangos is believed to be secondary to an overlap in the urushiol antigen and 5-resorcinol, found predominately in mango peels. This unique combination of sensitization and reaction constitutes a type IV hypersensitivity response, mediated and driven by T cells reacting to similar antigens. We present a case of an otherwise healthy man, with a remote history of poison ivy exposure, who presented with a delayed but significant reaction to mango fruit. Obtaining the patient’s history of prior plant exposures and reactions was key to isolating the likely underlying causation of his presentation

Анализ экспериментальных данных по фотообразованию ?+-мезонов для энергии фотонов 230 МэВ

На основе измеренных ранее на электронном синхротроне "Сириус" значений асимметрии фотообразования ?+-мезонов на протоне, а также данных других лабораторий, был проведен феноменологический анализ для =230 МэВ. В результате были получены 5 независимых величин А1, А2, А3, ?, ?, необходимых для вычисления мультипольных амплитуд

Electrical and optical characterization of semiconducting Ru2Si3 films and single crystals

Recently, Ru2Si3 has been predicted to be a direct semiconductor with a band gap of approximate to0.8 eV. Since the corresponding wavelength of this potential light emitter coincides with the absolute absorption minimum of glass fibers of 1.5 mum, considerable attention has been attracted. Measurements of the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of silicide films on insulating substrates were carried out in van der Pauw geometry. The results were explained by assuming carrier hopping over grain boundaries. The optical absorption coefficient was measured on thin films grown on various substrates, on self-sustaining films, where the substrate was partly removed and on a single crystal by photothermal deflection spectroscopy. A direct band gap at 0.84 eV was found. The absorption coefficient is very low up to approximate to1.5 eV, likely due to a low density of states, and then strongly increases at higher energies. The experimental results qualitatively confirm the predictions of the band structure calculations. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics

Defects in amorphous phase-change materials

Understanding the physical origin of threshold switching and resistance drift phenomena is necessary for making a breakthrough in the performance of low-cost nanoscale technologies related to nonvolatile phase-change memories. Even though both phenomena of threshold switching and resistance drift are often attributed to localized states in the band gap, the distribution of defect states in amorphous phase-change materials (PCMs) has not received so far, the level of attention that it merits. This work presents an experimental study of defects in amorphous PCMs using modulated photocurrent experiments and photothermal deflection spectroscopy. This study of electrically switching alloys involving germanium (Ge), antimony (Sb) and tellurium (Te) such as amorphous germanium telluride (a-GeTe), a-Ge15Te85 and a-Ge2Sb2Te5 demonstrates that those compositions showing a high electrical threshold field also show a high defect density. This result supports a mechanism of recombination and field-induced generation driving threshold switching in amorphous chalcogenides. Furthermore, this work provides strong experimental evidence for complex trap kinetics during resistance drift. This work reports annihilation of deep states and an increase in shallow defect density accompanied by band gap widening in aged a-GeTe thin film

Algorithmic Interpretations of Fractal Dimension

We study algorithmic problems on subsets of Euclidean space of low fractal dimension. These spaces are the subject of intensive study in various branches of mathematics, including geometry, topology, and measure theory. There are several well-studied notions of fractal dimension for sets and measures in Euclidean space. We consider a definition of fractal dimension for finite metric spaces which agrees with standard notions used to empirically estimate the fractal dimension of various sets. We define the fractal dimension of some metric space to be the infimum delta>0, such that for any eps>0, for any ball B of radius r >= 2eps, and for any eps-net N, we have |B cap N|=O((r/eps)^delta). Using this definition we obtain faster algorithms for a plethora of classical problems on sets of low fractal dimension in Euclidean space. Our results apply to exact and fixed-parameter algorithms, approximation schemes, and spanner constructions. Interestingly, the dependence of the performance of these algorithms on the fractal dimension nearly matches the currently best-known dependence on the standard Euclidean dimension. Thus, when the fractal dimension is strictly smaller than the ambient dimension, our results yield improved solutions in all of these settings. We remark that our definition of fractal definition is equivalent up to constant factors to the well-studied notion of doubling dimension. However, in the problems that we consider, the dimension appears in the exponent of the running time, and doubling dimension is not precise enough for capturing the best possible such exponent for subsets of Euclidean space. Thus our work is orthogonal to previous results on spaces of low doubling dimension; while algorithms on spaces of low doubling dimension seek to extend results from the case of low dimensional Euclidean spaces to more general metric spaces, our goal is to obtain faster algorithms for special pointsets in Euclidean space

Changes in markers of muscle damage after half-ironman triathlon

Triathlon is a unique endurance sport that comprises a sequential swim, swim-to cycle transition, cycle, cycle-to-run transition, and run. The aim of present was to analyze the effect of half-ironman triathlon over biochemistry parameters related of muscle damage. Six well-trained male amateurs’ triathletes who completed the 2004 half-ironman triathlon participated in the study. Blood samples from six athletes were collected before and immediately after the triathlon competition. Creatinine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were measured. Pre and post race values were compared by paired t-tests. Significant changes after triathlon completion were found for CK (P= 0.001) and LDH (P= 0.018). This study indicates pronounced muscle enzyme release after half-ironman triathlon possibility due a sarcomere disruption and membrane rupture