8,363 research outputs found
Cavitation induced starvation for piston-ring/liner tribological conjunction
The study investigates the mechanism of ring-liner lubrication in the vicinity of the top and bottom dead centres of an internal combustion engine. Predicting lubricant transient behaviour is critical when the inlet reversal leads to thin films and inherent metal-to-metal interaction. It was found that the cavitation, which is located at the trailing edge of the contact before reversal, briefly survives after reversal as a confined bubble at the leading edge. This depletes the film promoting starvation. Several algorithms were compared. It is concluded that the lubricant film is thinner than initially thought
Ultrafast and octave-spanning optical nonlinearities from strongly phase-mismatched cascaded interactions
Cascaded nonlinearities have attracted much interest, but ultrafast
applications have been seriously hampered by the simultaneous requirements of
being near phase-matching and having ultrafast femtosecond response times. Here
we show that in strongly phase-mismatched nonlinear frequency conversion
crystals the pump pulse can experience a large and extremely broadband
self-defocusing cascaded Kerr-like nonlinearity. The large cascaded
nonlinearity is ensured through interaction with the largest quadratic tensor
element in the crystal, and the strong phase-mismatch ensures an ultrafast
nonlinear response with an octave-spanning bandwidth. We verify this
experimentally by showing few-cycle soliton compression with noncritical
cascaded second-harmonic generation: Energetic 47 fs infrared pulses are
compressed in a just 1-mm long bulk lithium niobate crystal to 17 fs (under 4
optical cycles) with 80% efficiency, and upon further propagation an
octave-spanning supercontinuum is observed. Such ultrafast cascading is
expected to occur for a broad range of pump wavelengths spanning the near- and
mid-IR using standard nonlinear crystals.Comment: resubmitted, revised version, accepted for Phys. Rev. Let
A mode-coupling theory for the glassy dynamics of a diatomic probe molecule immersed in a simple liquid
Generalizing the mode-coupling theory for ideal liquid-glass transitions,
equations of motion are derived for the correlation functions describing the
glassy dynamics of a diatomic probe molecule immersed in a simple glass-forming
system. The molecule is described in the interaction-site representation and
the equations are solved for a dumbbell molecule consisting of two fused hard
spheres in a hard-sphere system. The results for the molecule's arrested
position in the glass state and the reorientational correlators for
angular-momentum index and near the glass transition are
compared with those obtained previously within a theory based on a
tensor-density description of the molecule in order to demonstrate that the two
approaches yield equivalent results. For strongly hindered reorientational
motion, the dipole-relaxation spectra for the -process can be mapped on
the dielectric-loss spectra of glycerol if a rescaling is performed according
to a suggestion by Dixon et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 65}, 1108 (1990)]. It is
demonstrated that the glassy dynamics is independent of the molecule's inertia
parameters.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, Phys. Rev. E, in prin
Mode-coupling theory for structural and conformational dynamics of polymer melts
A mode-coupling theory for dense polymeric systems is developed which
unifyingly incorporates the segmental cage effect relevant for structural
slowing down and polymer chain conformational degrees of freedom. An ideal
glass transition of polymer melts is predicted which becomes molecular-weight
independent for large molecules. The theory provides a microscopic
justification for the use of the Rouse theory in polymer melts, and the results
for Rouse-mode correlators and mean-squared displacements are in good agreement
with computer simulation results.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett. in pres
Urine Specimens from Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women Inhibitory to Amplification of \u3cem\u3eChlamydia trachomatis\u3c/em\u3e Nucleic Acid by PCR, Ligase Chain Reaction, and Transcription-Mediated Amplification: Identification of Urinary Substances Associated with Inhibition and Removal of Inhibitory Activity
The presence of endogenous amplification inhibitors in urine may produce false-negative results for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis nucleic acids by tests such as PCR, ligase chain reaction (LCR), and transcription-mediated amplification (TMA). Consecutive urine specimens from 101 pregnant women and 287 nonpregnant women submitted for urinalysis were processed for C. trachomatis detection. Aliquots were spiked with the equivalent of one C. trachomatis elementary body and were tested by three commercial assays: AMPLICOR CT/NG, Chlamydia LCX, and Chlamydia TMA. The prevalence of inhibitors resulting in complete inhibition of amplification was 4.9% for PCR, 2.6% for LCR, and 7.5% for TMA. In addition, all three assays were partially inhibited by additional urine specimens. Only PCR was more often inhibited by urine from pregnant women than by urine from nonpregnant women (9.9 versus 3.1%; P = 0.011). A complete urinalysis including dipstick and a microscopic examination was performed. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the following substances were associated with amplification inhibition: beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (odd ratio [OR], 3.3) and crystals (OR, 3.3) for PCR, nitrites for LCR (OR, 14.4), and hemoglobin (OR, 3.3), nitrites (OR, 3.3), and crystals (OR, 3.3) for TMA. Aliquots of each inhibitory urine specimen were stored at 4 and -70°C and a dilution of 1:10 (84% for PCR, 100% for LCR, and 92% for TMA). Five urine specimens (three for PCR and two for TMA) required phenol-chloroform extraction to remove inhibitors. The results indicate that the prevalence of nucleic acid amplification inhibitors in female urine is different for each technology, that this prevalence may be predicted by the presence of urinary factors, and that storage and dilution remove most of the inhibitors
Structural relaxation in a system of dumbbell molecules
The interaction-site-density-fluctuation correlators, the dipole-relaxation
functions, and the mean-squared displacements of a system of symmetric
dumbbells of fused hard spheres are calculated for two representative
elongations of the molecules within the mode-coupling theory for the evolution
of glassy dynamics. For large elongations, universal relaxation laws for states
near the glass transition are valid for parameters and time intervals similar
to the ones found for the hard-sphere system. Rotation-translation coupling
leads to an enlarged crossover interval for the mean-squared displacement of
the constituent atoms between the end of the von Schweidler regime and the
beginning of the diffusion process. For small elongations, the superposition
principle for the reorientational -process is violated for parameters
and time intervals of interest for data analysis, and there is a strong
breaking of the coupling of the -relaxation scale for the diffusion
process with that for representative density fluctuations and for dipole
reorientations.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, Phys. Rev. E in pres
Pulse generation without gain-bandwidth limitation in a laser with self-similar evolution
With existing techniques for mode-locking, the bandwidth of ultrashort pulses from a laser is determined primarily by the spectrum of the gain medium. Lasers with self-similar evolution of the pulse in the gain medium can tolerate strong spectral breathing, which is stabilized by nonlinear attraction to the parabolic self-similar pulse. Here we show that this property can be exploited in a fiber laser to eliminate the gain-bandwidth limitation to the pulse duration. Broad (̃200 nm) spectra are generated through passive nonlinear propagation in a normal-dispersion laser, and these can be dechirped to ̃20-fs duration
Integrin α2β1 Expression Regulates Matrix Metalloproteinase-1-Dependent Bronchial Epithelial Repair in Pulmonary Tuberculosis.
Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is caused by inhalation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which damages the bronchial epithelial barrier to establish local infection. Matrix metalloproteinase-1 plays a crucial role in the immunopathology of TB, causing breakdown of type I collagen and cavitation, but this collagenase is also potentially involved in bronchial epithelial repair. We hypothesized that the extracellular matrix (ECM) modulates M. tuberculosis-driven matrix metalloproteinase-1 expression by human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs), regulating respiratory epithelial cell migration and repair. Medium from monocytes stimulated with M. tuberculosis induced collagenase activity in bronchial epithelial cells, which was reduced by ~87% when cells were cultured on a type I collagen matrix. Matrix metalloproteinase-1 had a focal localization, which is consistent with cell migration, and overall secretion decreased by 32% on type I collagen. There were no associated changes in the specific tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases. Decreased matrix metalloproteinase-1 secretion was due to ligand-binding to the α2β1 integrin and was dependent on the actin cytoskeleton. In lung biopsies, samples from patients with pulmonary TB, integrin α2β1 is highly expressed on the bronchial epithelium. Areas of lung with disrupted collagen matrix showed an increase in matrix metalloproteinases-1 expression compared with areas where collagen was comparable to control lung. Type I collagen matrix increased respiratory epithelial cell migration in a wound-healing assay, and this too was matrix metalloproteinase-dependent, since it was blocked by the matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor GM6001. In summary, we report a novel mechanism by which α2β1-mediated signals from the ECM modulate matrix metalloproteinase-1 secretion by HBECs, regulating their migration and epithelial repair in TB
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