1,633 research outputs found
Circular No. 48, 1903. Oregon Short Line Railroad.
Circular concerning the annual meeting of the National Educational Association
Cell Therapies for Spinal Cord Injury: Trends and Challenges of Current Clinical Trials
Cell therapies have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of spinal cord injury. Basic research has progressed significantly in recent years, with a plethora of cell types now reaching early-phase human clinical trials, offering new strategies to repair the spinal cord. However, despite initial enthusiasm for preclinical and early-phase clinical trials, there has been a notable hiatus in the translation of cell therapies to routine clinical practice. Here, we review cell therapies that have reached clinical trials for spinal cord injury, providing a snapshot of all registered human trials and a summary of all published studies. Of registered trials, the majority have used autologous cells and approximately a third have been government funded, a third industry sponsored, and a third funded by university or healthcare systems. A total of 37 cell therapy trials have been published, primarily using stem cells, although a smaller number have used Schwann cells or olfactory ensheathing cells. Significant challenges remain for cell therapy trials in this area, including achieving stringent regulatory standards, ensuring appropriately powered efficacy trials, and establishing sustainable long-term funding. However, cell therapies hold great promise for human spinal cord repair and future trials must continue to capitalize on the exciting developments emerging from preclinical studies
Photometric and spectroscopic gamma-ray observations of solar transient phenomena using long duration balloons
A program currently in progress to conduct extended duration spectroscopic and photometric observation of solar X-ray phenomena from balloons is described. High photometric sensitivity to weak hard X-ray bursts is attained using a 600 sq cm array of phoswich scintillators. High spectral resolution for stronger bursts is available from an array of planar germanium detectors. These instruments are carried in a novel balloon gondola dssigned for the 15 to 20 day float durations available through using conventional zero pressure balloons in the radiation controlled (RACOON) mode
First light for avian embryos: eggshell thickness and pigmentation mediate variation in development and UV exposure in wild bird eggs
Article first published online: 29 JUL 20141. The avian embryo's development is influenced by both the amount and the wavelength of the light that passes through the eggshell. Commercial poultry breeders use light of specific wavelengths to accelerate embryonic growth, yet the effects of the variably patterned eggshells of wild bird species on light transmission and embryonic development remain largely unexplored. 2. Here, we provide the first comparative phylogenetic analysis of light transmission, through a diverse range of bird eggshells (74 British breeding species), in relation to the eggshell's thickness, permeability, pigment concentration and surface reflectance spectrum (colour). 3. The percentage of light transmitted through the eggshell was measured in the spectral range 250–700 nm. Our quantitative analyses confirm anecdotal reports that eggshells filter the light of the externally coloured shell. Specifically, we detected a positive relationship between surface eggshell reflectance (‘brightness’) and the percentage of light transmitted through the eggshell, and this relationship was strongest at wavelengths in the human-visible blue-green region of the spectra (c. 435 nm). 4. We show that less light passes through thicker eggshells with greater total pigment concentrations. By contrast, permeability (measured as water vapour conductance) did not covary significantly with light transmission. Eggs of closed-nesting species let more light pass through, compared with open nesters. 5. We postulate that greater light transmission is required to assist embryonic development under low light exposure. Importantly, this result provides an ecological explanation for the repeated evolution of immaculate, white- or pale-coloured eggshells in species nesting in enclosed spaces. 6. Finally, we detected correlative support for the solar radiation hypothesis, in that eggshells of bird species with a longer incubation period let significantly less of the potentially harmful, ultraviolet (UV) light pass through the eggshell. In summary, we demonstrate suites of avian eggshell properties, including eggshell structure and pigmentation, which are consistent with an evolutionary pressure to both enhance and protect embryonic development.Golo Maurer, Steven J. Portugal, Mark E. Hauber, Ivan Mikšík, Douglas G. D. Russell and Phillip Casse
Influence of extended dynamics on phase transitions in a driven lattice gas
Monte Carlo simulations and dynamical mean-field approximations are performed
to study the phase transition in a driven lattice gas with nearest-neighbor
exclusion on a square lattice. A slight extension of the microscopic dynamics
with allowing the next-nearest-neighbor hops results in dramatic changes.
Instead of the phase separation into high- and low-density regions in the
stationary state the system exhibits a continuous transition belonging to the
Ising universality class for any driving. The relevant features of phase
diagram are reproduced by an improved mean-field analysis.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Structural Ordering and Symmetry Breaking in Cd_2Re_2O_7
Single crystal X-ray diffraction measurements have been carried out on
Cd_2Re_2O_7 near and below the phase transition it exhibits at Tc' ~195 K.
Cd_2Re_2O_7 was recently discovered as the first, and to date only,
superconductor with the cubic pyrochlore structure. Superlattice Bragg peaks
show an apparently continuous structural transition at Tc', however the order
parameter displays anomalously slow growth to ~Tc'/10, and resolution limited
critical-like scattering is seen above Tc'. High resolution measurements show
the high temperature cubic Bragg peaks to split on entering the low temperature
phase, indicating a (likely tetragonal) lowering of symmetry below Tc'.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Models of competitive learning: complex dynamics, intermittent conversions and oscillatory coarsening
We present two models of competitive learning, which are respectively
interfacial and cooperative learning. This learning is outcome-related, so that
spatially and temporally local environments influence the conversion of a given
site between one of two different types. We focus here on the behavior of the
models at coexistence, which yields new critical behavior and the existence of
a phase involving a novel type of coarsening which is oscillatory in nature.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Three-phase point in a binary hard-core lattice model?
Using Monte Carlo simulation, Van Duijneveldt and Lekkerkerker [Phys. Rev.
Lett. 71, 4264 (1993)] found gas-liquid-solid behaviour in a simple
two-dimensional lattice model with two types of hard particles. The same model
is studied here by means of numerical transfer matrix calculations, focusing on
the finite size scaling of the gaps between the largest few eigenvalues. No
evidence for a gas-liquid transition is found. We discuss the relation of the
model with a solvable RSOS model of which the states obey the same exclusion
rules. Finally, a detailed analysis of the relation with the dilute three-state
Potts model strongly supports the tricritical point rather than a three-phase
point.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX2e, 13 EPS figure
Density functional theory for nearest-neighbor exclusion lattice gasses in two and three dimensions
To speak about fundamental measure theory obliges to mention dimensional
crossover. This feature, inherent to the systems themselves, was incorporated
in the theory almost from the beginning. Although at first it was thought to be
a consistency check for the theory, it rapidly became its fundamental pillar,
thus becoming the only density functional theory which possesses such a
property. It is straightforward that dimensional crossover connects, for
instance, the parallel hard cube system (three-dimensional) with that of
squares (two-dimensional) and rods (one-dimensional). We show here that there
are many more connections which can be established in this way. Through them we
deduce from the functional for parallel hard (hyper)cubes in the simple
(hyper)cubic lattice the corresponding functionals for the nearest-neighbor
exclusion lattice gases in the square, triangular, simple cubic, face-centered
cubic, and body-centered cubic lattices. As an application, the bulk phase
diagram for all these systems is obtained.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures; needs revtex
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