The mass accretion rate of galaxy clusters: a measurable quantity

We explore the possibility of measuring the mass accretion rate (MAR) of galaxy clusters from their mass profiles beyond the virial radius $R_{200}$. We derive the accretion rate from the mass of a spherical shell whose inner radius is $2R_{200}$, whose thickness changes with redshift, and whose infall velocity is assumed to be equal to the mean infall velocity of the spherical shells of dark matter halos extracted from $N$-body simulations. This approximation is rather crude in hierarchical clustering scenarios where both smooth accretion and aggregation of smaller dark matter halos contribute to the mass accretion of clusters.Nevertheless, in the redshift range $z=[0,2]$, our prescription returns an average MAR within $20-40 \%$ of the average rate derived from the merger trees of dark matter halos extracted from $N$-body simulations. The MAR of galaxy clusters has been the topic of numerous detailed numerical and theoretical investigations, but so far it has remained inaccessible to measurements in the real universe. Since the measurement of the mass profile of clusters beyond their virial radius can be performed with the caustic technique applied to dense redshift surveys of the cluster outer regions, our result suggests that measuring the mean MAR of a sample of galaxy clusters is actually feasible. We thus provide a new potential observational test of the cosmological and structure formation models.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables, minor text modifications to match the published version, typos correcte

Low temperature matrix-isolation and solid state vibrational spectra of 5-chlorotetrazole

The vibrational spectra of 5-chlorotetrazole (CN4HCl) isolated in an argon matrix (T ¼ 8.5 K) and in the solid state (at room temperature) were studied. The infrared spectrum of monomers of 5-chlorotetrazole isolated in an argon matrix agrees well with the spectrum predicted theoretically (DFT(B3LYP)/6-31G*) for the 2Htautomer of the compound. The bands assigned to the 1H-tautomer appear in the experimental spectrum as very low intensity features. Based on the relative intensities of the bands in the spectra of the 1H- and 2Htautomers, the relative amount of the first tautomer in this matrix can be estimated as 1%. Three matrixes were deposited with different nozzle temperatures and the enthalpy difference between the tautomers DH ¼ 8.0 kJ mol 1 was estimated using the Van’t Hoff relation. The internal energy difference between the two tautomers was predicted theoretically (DFT B3LYP/6-31G*) as 12.6 kJ mol 1. This is in reasonable agreement with experimental observations. In the crystalline phase, this compound exists in its 1H-tautomeric form. Accordingly, the IR spectrum of polycrystalline 5-chlorotetrazole is well reproduced by the spectrum predicted theoretically for the 1H- tautomer

CASE report: Acute hepatic failure secondary to metastatic LIVER\u2019S infiltration by upper tract urothelial carcinoma

INTRODUCTION: Acute liver failure (ALF) secondary to malignant infiltration of the liver from urothelial carcinoma is a very rare clinical condition and is often diagnosed only after death. Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a rare, from 5% to 10% of all urothelial tumours, but possible cause of ALF when there is extensive liver metastatic involvement. We report the case of a patient who died in the intensive care unit (ICU) of our hospital from multiple organ failure (MOF) secondary to ALF, as a result of infiltration of the liver from UTUC diagnosed after surgery. PRESENTATION OF THE CASE: A 69-year-old Caucasian man was referred to our hospital for hematuria, melena, right upper quadrant (RUQ) pain and jaundice developed over the previous two weeks. After multidisciplinary discussion, he underwent emergency exploratory laparotomy to perform cholecystectomy because of suspected acute cholecystitis considered as a septic focus within the left kidney. He developed MOF and died on the 6thpostoperative day. DISCUSSION: From the diagnosis of the renal mass and the death of the patient, a few days have passed, and the diagnosis of UTUC has been put only at histological examination.The most common sites of metastases from UTUC are lymph nodes, lungs, liver, bones and peritoneum. Moreover, liver metastases have been identified to have an independent negative impact on overall survival in a patient affected by UTUC. CONCLUSION: The authors suggest that this condition should be taken into account when dealing with patients with evidence of a renal mass and simultaneous ALF. KEYWORDS: Acute liver failure, Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC), emergency surger

The invariant manifold approach applied to nonlinear dynamics of a rotor-bearing system

The invariant manifold approach is used to explore the dynamics of a nonlinear rotor, by determining the nonlinear normal modes, constructing a reduced order model and evaluating its performance in the case of response to an initial condition. The procedure to determine the approximation of the invariant manifolds is discussed and a strategy to retain the speed dependent effects on the manifolds without solving the eigenvalue problem for each spin speed is presented. The performance of the reduced system is analysed in function of the spin speed

MexXY Multidrug Efflux System Is More Frequently Overexpressed in Ciprofloxacin Resistant French Clinical Isolates Compared to Hospital Environment Ones

Modulation of the membrane permeability through a decrease in porin-mediated antibiotic entry and/or an increase in antibiotic efflux is one of the resistance mechanisms to antibiotics evolved by Gram-negative bacteria. To assess whether the outer membrane porin OprD and Resistance-Nodulation-Division (RND) efflux pumps were similarly expressed in 33 ciprofloxacin-resistant clinical strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and in 30 non-clinical strains originating from the hospital environment (mainly waterborne Pseudomonas aeruginosa), the expression of oprD, mexB, mexF, and mexY genes was investigated. Overall, the expression of oprD was not detected by RT-qPCR in 14 (22%) strains and underexpressed in 35 (56%) more. No significant difference in oprD expression was detected between clinical and non-clinical strains. As for efflux pumps, 23 (70%) of the clinical strains overexpressed at least one of the tested RND genes. Overexpression of mexB, mexF and mexY was detected in 27, 12, and 45% of the clinical strains, respectively. In the 30 non-clinical strains, no overexpression could be found for mexB, mexF, or mexY. On the contrary, a global underexpression of the tested efflux pump genes was recorded. In both clinical and environmental strains, a positive correlation was found between the expressions of oprD and mexB. Similarly, the expressions of oprD and mexF were positively correlated. This result contrasts with the inverse correlation between both MexAB-OprM/MexEF-OprN and OprD previously described in carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa strains. The only positive correlation between phenotypic ciprofloxacin minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and the expression of efflux pump gene was witnessed with mexY (analysis on pooled results for clinical and environmental strains). However, in clinical strains, no statistically significant link could be found between the degree of reduction in ciprofloxacin MICs witnessed with Phenylalanine-Arginine β-naphthylamide (PAβN) and the expression of any of the 3 RND genes tested

Cross-Border interoperability for Cooperative, Connected and Autonomous Driving

International audienceNowadays, there is no doubt that the implantation on a massive scale of safe autonomous driving is very difficult using only the information coming from the ego-vehicles, which are subject to the limitations of their visual horizon. For autonomous driving systems to become a reality, it is essential to provide the system with two fundamental elements: connectivity and cooperative services. However, both elements are still at a very early stage of their development, both in communications technology and in the organization and generation of support information. In addition, added difficulties are presented, such as trans-national barriers to accessing services and exchanging information with other vehicles and infrastructure. This paper presents the work done within the European project AUTOCITS, where three cooperative, connected and autonomous driving pilots have been carried out in three cities belonging to the trans-European Atlantic Corridor: Madrid, Lisbon and Paris. Within these pilots, the results of cross-border interoperability are described in detail, both at the communications and at the autonomous driving level. Also, results are analyzed in order to have a set of recommendations to ensure a successful deployment of cooperative, connected and autonomous driving (CCAD) at European leve

AUTOCITS – Regulation study for interoperability in the adoption of autonomous driving in European urban nodes

International audienceThe technological advances of autonomous and connected road vehicles have been shown an accelerating pace in the recent years. On the other hand, the regulations for autonomous, or driverless, road vehicles across Europe still deserve much attention and discussion. In this paper, we introduce the AUTOCITS project which has the main goals of conducting studies on the regulations for the adoption of autonomous cars in Europe, and also to carry out C-ITS Pilots in Madrid, Paris and Lisbon. AUTOCITS aims to contribute, directly or indirectly, to European related policy and reference documents on vehicle automation, regulations, connected and automated driving, and related road infrastructure issues due to the trend towards higher levels of connectivity and automation, where information provided via C-ITS can be truly catalyst for connected and autonomous driving. The project will specially focus on the communication links performance and connectivity between automated vehicles using C-ITS applications connectivity and automation ;, in particular, applications increase surrounding environment awareness in relation to infrastructure and ensure both road and driver safety requirements issues and using the regulation framework. AUTOCITS is an innovation project (CEF Program) that aims to facilitate the deployment of autonomous vehicles in urban nodes by developing intelligent transport services based on cooperative systems (C-ITS) that will enable vehicles, users and infrastructures to communicate, exchange, and share information

Cancer stem cells and miRNA in the early diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma

Colorectal cancer represents the third cause of death for malignant tumor by incidence and mortality. Evidences suggest that tumor initiation, growth, invasion and cancer expansion are promoted by a small sub-population of tumor cells, called cancer stem cells (CSCs). On the other hand, MicroRNAs constitute a recently discovered class of small non-coding RNAs (about 22 nucletides) found in plants, animals and some viruses, that play key roles in the regulation of gene expression. An increasing number of studies have identified miRNAs as potential biomarkers for human cancer diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic targets. However, a real translation of miRNA significance into the clinical practice deserves and needs further investigation. To this end, the aim of this work is to identify the expression of some specific microRNAs of this type of cancer, both in tissues and serum of cancer patients and in cancer stem cells, in order to allow early diagnosis. Therefore, some interesting microRNAs were chosen and their level was detected through amplification with real-time PCR method. A preliminary analysis of results shows that in some patients microRNA 21, 221, 18a, 210, 34a, 10b, 16 are overexpressed, while in others they manifest a lower expression. Instead, the microRNA 31 is always overexpressed. We think that this result is related to the clinical stage of the tumor, because patients with similar clinical stage show the same expression

Brown Fat Expresses Adiponectin in Humans

The presence of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in humans is unclear. Pheochromocytomas (PHEO) are rare tumors of neuroectodermal origin which occur in 0.1-0.2% of patients with hypertension. We sought to evaluate the presence and activity of BAT surrounding adrenal PHEO in a well-studied sample of 11 patients who were diagnosed with PHEO and then underwent adrenalectomy. Areas of white fat (WAT) and BAT surrounding PHEO were obtained by Laser Capture Microdissection for analysis of uncoupling protein (UCP)-1 and adiponectin mRNA expression. Adiponectin and UCP-1 mRNA levels were significantly higher in BAT than in WAT (0.62 versus 0.15 and 362.4 versus 22.1, resp., for both). Adiponectin mRNA levels significantly correlated with urinary metanephrines (, ), vanilly mandelic acid (VMA) (, ), and serum adiponectin levels (, ). Serum adiponectin levels significantly decreased ( μg/mL versus  μg/mL, ) after adrenalectomy in PHEO subjects. This study provides the following findings: (1) BAT surrounding PHEO expresses adiponectin and UCP-1 mRNA, (2) expression of adiponectin mRNA is significantly higher in BAT than in WAT surrounding PHEO, and (3) catecholamines and serum adiponectin levels significantly correlate with BAT UCP-1 and adiponectin mRNA

PREVALÊNCIA DE PARASITOS INTESTINAIS EM AMERÍNDIOS KAYAPÓS DO ESTADO DO PARÁ, BRASIL.

Os parasitos intestinais infectam mais da metade da população mundial, com maior prevalência nas regiões mais pobres. Nas aldeias dos ameríndios o ambiente é altamente propício para a disseminação dos agentes parasitários devido a introdução de hábitos de cultura diferentes da deles, sem a infraestrutura adequada para a nova realidade que estão tentando implantar, como a falta de saneamento básico, novos hábitos alimentares, e higiene pessoal, entre outros. Com o objetivo realizar um inquérito parasitológico entre os ameríndios da etnia Kayapó estabelecidos no município de Ourilândia do Norte, estado do Pará, foi realizada investigação para conhecer a incidência de parasitoses naquela comunidade. A amostra foi formada por 28 alíquotas de fezes de unidades de pesquisa com representatividade universal da comunidade. De cada ameríndio integrante da amostra a alíquota era conservada em solução de Merthiolate-iodo-formol (MIF). Os exames laboratoriais foram realizados pelas técnicas de Hoffman, Pons e Janer; Willis e Kinyoun. Foram identificadas infecções por helmintos nematóides das espécies Ascaris lumbricoides, Enterobius vermicularis, Trichuris trichiura, Ancylostomidae, e cestódes da espécie Hymenolepis nana. Também protozoários das espécies Cryptosporidium parvum, Endolimax nana, Entamoeba coli, Entamoeba histolytica e Giardia lamblia, mas 14,4% das amostras investigadas estavam negativas. Esta pesquisa contribui para se conhecer a realidade das parasitoses intestinais nos Kayapós em Ourilândia do Norte, e orientaram a intervenção medicamentosa adequada. Também revela a necessidade da implantação de medidas governamentais e socioeducativas para melhorar as condições de vida daquela comunidade