670 research outputs found
Application of a Physical Antimicrobial Spray Dressing for Reducing Postoperative Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Exit Site Infection in End-stage Renal Failure Patients: A Prospective Cohort Study
Casimir interaction between two concentric cylinders: exact versus semiclassical results
The Casimir interaction between two perfectly conducting, infinite,
concentric cylinders is computed using a semiclassical approximation that takes
into account families of classical periodic orbits that reflect off both
cylinders. It is then compared with the exact result obtained by the
mode-by-mode summation technique. We analyze the validity of the semiclassical
approximation and show that it improves the results obtained through the
proximity theorem.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures include
Hypoxia modulates platelet purinergic signalling pathways.
BACKGROUND: âHypoxia resulting from ascent to high-altitude or pathological states at sea level is known to increase platelet reactivity. Previous work from our group has suggested that this may be adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-specific. Given the clinical importance of drugs targeting ADP pathways, research into the impact of hypoxia on platelet ADP pathways is highly important.
METHODS: âOptimul aggregometry was performed on plasma from 29 lowland residents ascending to 4,700 m, allowing systematic assessment of platelet reactivity in response to several platelet agonists. Aggregometry was also performed in response to ADP in the presence of inhibitors of the two main ADP receptors, P2Y1 and P2Y12 (MRS2500 and cangrelor, respectively). Phosphorylation of vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP), a key determinant of platelet aggregation, was analysed using the VASPFix assay.
RESULTS: âHypobaric hypoxia significantly reduced the ability of a fixed concentration of cangrelor to inhibit ADP-induced aggregation and increased basal VASP phosphorylation. However, in the absence of P2Y receptor inhibitors, we did not find evidence of increased platelet sensitivity to any of the agonists tested and found reduced sensitivity to thrombin receptor-activating peptide-6 amide.
CONCLUSION: âOur results provide evidence of increased P2Y1 receptor activity at high altitude and suggest down-regulation of the P2Y12 pathway through increased VASP phosphorylation. These changes in ADP pathway activity are of potential therapeutic significance to high-altitude sojourners and hypoxic sea level patients prescribed platelet inhibitors and warrant further investigation
Effective chiral lagrangian in the chiral limit from the instanton vacuum
We study the effective chiral Lagrangian in the chiral limit from the
instanton vacuum. Starting from the nonlocal effective chiral action, we derive
the effective chiral Lagrangian, using the derivative expansion to order
in the chiral limit. The low energy constants, , , and
are determined and compared with various models and the corresponding empirical
data. The results are in a good agreement with the data. We also discuss about
the upper limit of the sigma meson, based on the present results.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.
Universal Correlations of Coulomb Blockade Conductance Peaks and the Rotation Scaling in Quantum Dots
We show that the parametric correlations of the conductance peak amplitudes
of a chaotic or weakly disordered quantum dot in the Coulomb blockade regime
become universal upon an appropriate scaling of the parameter. We compute the
universal forms of this correlator for both cases of conserved and broken time
reversal symmetry. For a symmetric dot the correlator is independent of the
details in each lead such as the number of channels and their correlation. We
derive a new scaling, which we call the rotation scaling, that can be computed
directly from the dot's eigenfunction rotation rate or alternatively from the
conductance peak heights, and therefore does not require knowledge of the
spectrum of the dot. The relation of the rotation scaling to the level velocity
scaling is discussed. The exact analytic form of the conductance peak
correlator is derived at short distances. We also calculate the universal
distributions of the average level width velocity for various values of the
scaled parameter. The universality is illustrated in an Anderson model of a
disordered dot.Comment: 35 pages, RevTex, 6 Postscript figure
Altered levels of blood proteins in Alzheimer\u27s disease longitudinal study: Results from Australian Imaging Biomarkers Lifestyle Study of Ageing cohort
Introduction A blood-based biomarker panel to identify individuals with preclinical Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) would be an inexpensive and accessible first step for routine testing. Methods We analyzed 14 biomarkers that have previously been linked to AD in the Australian Imaging Biomarkers lifestyle longitudinal study of aging cohort. Results Levels of apolipoprotein J (apoJ) were higher in AD individuals compared with healthy controls at baseline and 18 months (P =.0003) and chemokine-309 (I-309) were increased in AD patients compared to mild cognitive impaired individuals over 36 months (P =.0008). Discussion These data suggest that apoJ may have potential in the context of use (COU) of AD diagnostics, I-309 may be specifically useful in the COU of identifying individuals at greatest risk for progressing toward AD. This work takes an initial step toward identifying blood biomarkers with potential use in the diagnosis and prognosis of AD and should be validated across other prospective cohorts. © 2017 The Author
Possible origins of macroscopic left-right asymmetry in organisms
I consider the microscopic mechanisms by which a particular left-right (L/R)
asymmetry is generated at the organism level from the microscopic handedness of
cytoskeletal molecules. In light of a fundamental symmetry principle, the
typical pattern-formation mechanisms of diffusion plus regulation cannot
implement the "right-hand rule"; at the microscopic level, the cell's
cytoskeleton of chiral filaments seems always to be involved, usually in
collective states driven by polymerization forces or molecular motors. It seems
particularly easy for handedness to emerge in a shear or rotation in the
background of an effectively two-dimensional system, such as the cell membrane
or a layer of cells, as this requires no pre-existing axis apart from the layer
normal. I detail a scenario involving actin/myosin layers in snails and in C.
elegans, and also one about the microtubule layer in plant cells. I also survey
the other examples that I am aware of, such as the emergence of handedness such
as the emergence of handedness in neurons, in eukaryote cell motility, and in
non-flagellated bacteria.Comment: 42 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to J. Stat. Phys. special issue.
Major rewrite, rearranged sections/subsections, new Fig 3 + 6, new physics in
Sec 2.4 and 3.4.1, added Sec 5 and subsections of Sec
Pharmacological assessment of ibuprofen arginate on platelet aggregation and colon cancer cell killing
This work was funded in part by grants from the Wellcome Trust (0852551Z108/Z, to J.A.M.) and British Heart Foundation (FS/16/1/31699, to NSK). SM is a recipient of a PhD award from the King of Saud University, AT is a recipient of a MRC PhD studentship
Spectral quark model and low-energy hadron phenomenology
We propose a spectral quark model which can be applied to low energy hadronic
physics. The approach is based on a generalization of the Lehmann
representation of the quark propagator. We work at the one-quark-loop level.
Electromagnetic and chiral invariance are ensured with help of the gauge
technique which provides particular solutions to the Ward-Takahashi identities.
General conditions on the quark spectral function follow from natural physical
requirements. In particular, the function is normalized, its all positive
moments must vanish, while the physical observables depend on negative moments
and the so-called log-moments. As a consequence, the model is made finite,
dispersion relations hold, chiral anomalies are preserved, and the twist
expansion is free from logarithmic scaling violations, as requested of a
low-energy model. We study a variety of processes and show that the framework
is very simple and practical. Finally, incorporating the idea of vector-meson
dominance, we present an explicit construction of the quark spectral function
which satisfies all the requirements. The corresponding momentum representation
of the resulting quark propagator exhibits only cuts on the physical axis, with
no poles present anywhere in the complex momentum space. The momentum-dependent
quark mass compares very well to recent lattice calculations. A large number of
predictions and relations can be deduced from our approach for such quantities
as the pion light-cone wave function, non-local quark condensate, pion
transition form factor, pion valence parton distribution function, etc.Comment: revtex, 24 pages, 3 figure
Mass Splitting and Production of and Measured in N Interactions
From a sample of decaying to the
final state, we have observed, in the hadroproduction experiment E791 at
Fermilab, and through
their decays to . The mass difference ) is measured to be ; for
, we find .
The rate of production from decays of the triplet is
(22\pm 2\pm 3) {%} of the total production assuming equal rate
of production from all three, as measured for and .
We do not observe a statistically significant baryon-antibaryon
production asymmetry. The and spectra of from
decays are observed to be similar to those for all 's
produced.Comment: 15 pages, uuencoded postscript 3 figures uuencoded, tar-compressed
fil
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