A model for enhanced and selective transport through biological membranes with alternating pores

We investigate the outflux of ions through the channels in a cell membrane. The channels undergo an open/close cycle according to a periodic schedule. Our study is based both on theoretical considerations relying on homogenization theory, and on Monte Carlo numerical simulations. We examine the onset of a limiting boundary behavior characterized by a constant ratio between the outflux and the local density, in the thermodynamics limit. The focus here is on the issue of selectivity, that is on the different behavior of the ion currents through the channel in the cases of the selected and non-selected species.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1307.418

Compact and explicit physical model for lateral metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor with nanoelectromechanical system based resonant gate

We propose a simple analytical model of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor with a lateral resonant gate based on the coupled electromechanical equations, which are self-consistently solved in time. All charge densities according to the mechanical oscillations are evaluated. The only input parameters are the physical characteristics of the device. No extra mathematical parameters are used to fit the experimental results. Theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental data in static and dynamic operation. Our model is comprehensive and may be suitable for any electromechanical device based on the field-effect transduction

Enzyme replacement therapy with agalsidase beta improves cardiac involvement in Fabry's disease.

Fabry's disease is an X-linked lysosomal storage disease caused by a deficiency of alpha-galactosidase that results in an accumulation of neutral glycosphingolipids throughout the body, including the cardiovascular system. Fabry cardiomyopathy, characterized by progressive severe concentric left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, is very frequent and is the most important cause of death in affected patients. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) allows a specific treatment for this disease, however, there are very few data on the effectiveness of therapy on cardiac involvement. Nine patients with Fabry cardiac disease were studied on basal condition and after 6 and 12 months of treatment with algasidase beta (Fabrazyme). A complete clinical, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic evaluation was performed in all patients. Interpretable Doppler recordings of transmitral flow and pulmonary flow velocity curves were also acquired. At baseline, the patients with Fabry's disease had increased LV septum and posterior wall thickness, normal LV fractional shortening, LV ejection fraction, normal Doppler parameters of mitral inflow but a duration of pulmonary vein flow velocity wave exceeding that of the mitral wave at atrial systole. ERT did not affect heart rate and arterial pressure. LV internal diameters did not change, there was a slight but not significant decrease in the LV posterior wall thickening and a progressive decrease in the interventricular septum thickening (p < 0.025) and in LV mass (p < 0.001) The difference in duration between pulmonary vein flow velocity wave and mitral wave at atrial systole significantly decreased (p < 0.001). These results suggest that ERT in patients with Fabry cardiomyopathy is able to reduce the LV mass and ameliorate the LV stiffness

Sympathovagal balance and 1-h postload plasma glucose in normoglucose tolerant hypertensive patients.

AIMS: Normoglucose tolerant (NGT) subjects with a 1-h postload plasma glucose (PLPG) value ≥155 mg/dL have an increased risk of type-2 diabetes and subclinical organ damage. Heart rate variability (HRV) reflects cardiac autonomic balance, frequently impaired in course of diabetes. At this time, no data support the association between 1-h PLPG and HRV; thus, we investigated the possible association between 1-h PLPG and HRV. METHODS: We enrolled 92 never-treated hypertensive subjects (56 women, 36 men), aged 55 ± 9.8 years. During OGTT, the patients underwent electrocardiographic recordings to evaluate HRV in the time domain (SDNN). Insulin sensitivity was assessed by Matsuda index. RESULTS: Among participants, 56 were NGT, 20 had impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and 16 had type-2 diabetes. According to the 1-h PLPG cutoff point of 155 mg/dL, we divided NGT subjects into: NGT &lt; 155 (n = 38) and NGT ≥ 155 (n = 18). Glucose tolerance status was associated with a significant (P &lt; 0.0001) increase in PLPG and insulin and the reduction in Matsuda index. In all groups, the SDNN values significantly (P &lt; 0.0001) decreased during the first hour of OGTT. A complete recovery in NGT groups was observed at the end of the second hour; in IGT and type-2 diabetes, SDNN remained significantly lower with respect to baseline values. At multiple regression analysis, Matsuda index resulted in the only determinant of SDNN modification, explaining the 12.3 % of its variability. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that during OGTT, sympathovagal balance is acutely affected by both glucose and insulin modifications. Particularly, NGT ≥ 155 subjects behave in the same way of IGT and type-2 diabetes patients

Eternal solutions to a singular diffusion equation with critical gradient absorption

The existence of nonnegative radially symmetric eternal solutions of exponential self-similar type $u(t,x)=e^{-p\beta t/(2-p)} f_\beta(|x|e^{-\beta t};\beta)$ is investigated for the singular diffusion equation with critical gradient absorption \begin{equation*} \partial_{t} u-\Delta_{p} u+|\nabla u|^{p/2}=0 \quad \;\;\hbox{in}\;\; (0,\infty)\times\real^N \end{equation*} where $2N/(N+1) < p < 2$. Such solutions are shown to exist only if the parameter $\beta$ ranges in a bounded interval $(0,\beta_*]$ which is in sharp contrast with well-known singular diffusion equations such as $\partial_{t}\phi-\Delta_{p} \phi=0$ when $p=2N/(N+1)$ or the porous medium equation $\partial_{t}\phi-\Delta\phi^m=0$ when $m=(N-2)/N$. Moreover, the profile $f(r;\beta)$ decays to zero as $r\to\infty$ in a faster way for $\beta=\beta_*$ than for $\beta\in (0,\beta_*)$ but the algebraic leading order is the same in both cases. In fact, for large $r$, $f(r;\beta_*)$ decays as $r^{-p/(2-p)}$ while $f(r;\beta)$ behaves as $(\log r)^{2/(2-p)} r^{-p/(2-p)}$ when $\beta\in (0,\beta_*)$

Well-posedness for a modified bidomain model describing bioelectric activity in damaged heart tissues

We prove the existence and the uniqueness of a solution for a modified bidomain model, describing the electrical behaviour of the cardiac tissue in pathological situations. The main idea is to reduce the problem to an abstract parabolic setting, which requires to introduce several auxiliary differential systems and a non-standard bilinear form. The main difficulties are due to the degeneracy of the bidomain system and to its non-standard coupling with the diffusion equation

Asymptotic analysis for non-local problems in composites with different imperfect contact conditions

We consider a composite material made up of a hosting medium containing an \eps-periodic array of perfect thermal conductors. Comparing with the previous contributions in the literature, in the present paper, the inclusions are completely disconnected and form two families with dissimilar physical behaviour. More specifically, the imperfect contact between the hosting medium and the inclusions obeys two different laws, according to the two different types of inclusions. The contact conditions involve the small parameter \eps and two positive constants \contuno,\contdue. We investigate the homogenization limit \eps\to 0 and the limits for \contuno,\contdue going to $0$ or $+\infty$, taken in any order, with the aim to find out the cases in which the two limits commute

Large time behavior for a quasilinear diffusion equation with critical gradient absorption

International audienceWe study the large time behavior of non-negative solutions to thenonlinear diffusion equation with critical gradient absorption\partial_t u-\Delta_{p}u+|\nabla u|^{q_*}=0 \quad \hbox{in} \(0,\infty)\times\mathbb{R}^N\ ,for $p\in(2,\infty)$ and $q_*:=p-N/(N+1)$. We show that theasymptotic profile of compactly supported solutions is given by asource-type self-similar solution of the $p$-Laplacian equation with suitable logarithmic time and space scales. In the process, we also get optimal decay rates for compactly supported solutions and optimal expansion rates for their supports that strongly improve previous results