Economic impact of the Florida cultured hard clam industry

(29pp.

Cigarette Smoke, Airway Epithelial Cells and Host Defence

In COPD inflammation driven by exposure to tobacco smoke results in impaired innate immunity in the airway and ultimately to lung injury and remodeling. To understand the biological processes involved in host interactions with cigarette derived toxins submerged epithelial cell culture is widely accepted as a model for primary human airway epithelial cell culture research. Primary nasal and bronchial epithelial cells can also be cultured in models. Air liquid interface (ALI) and submerged culture models have their individual merits, and the decision to use either technique should primarily be determined by the research hypothesis. Cigarette smoke has gaseous and particulate matter, the latter constituent primarily represented in cigarette smoke extract (CSE). Although not ideal in order to facilitate our understanding of the responses of epithelial cells to cigarette smoke, CSE still has scientific merit in airway cell biology research. Using this model, it has been possible to demonstrate differences in levels of tight junction disruption after CSE exposure along with varied vulnerability to the toxic effects of CSE in cell cultures derived from COPD and control study groups. Primary nasal epithelial cells (PNECs) have been used as an alternative to bronchial epithelial cells (PBECs). However, at least in subjects with COPD, PNECs cannot consistently substitute for PBECs. Despite having a constitutional pro-inflammatory phenotype, bronchial epithelial cells retrieved from subjects with COPD have a relatively curtailed inflammatory response to CSE exposure when compared to epithelial cells from thei

Choptuik scaling in six dimensions

We perform numerical simulations of the critical gravitational collapse of a spherically symmetric scalar field in 6 dimensions. The critical solution has discrete self-similarity. We find the critical exponent \gamma and the self-similarity period \Delta.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures RevTe

Streambed organic matter controls on carbon dioxide and methane emissions from streams

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from streambeds are currently understudied. There is a paucity of research exploring organic matter (OM) controls on GHG production by microbial metabolic activity in streambeds, which is a major knowledge gap given the increased inputs of allochthonous carbon to streams, especially in agricultural catchments. This study aims to contribute to closing this knowledge gap by quantifying how contrasting OM contents in different sediments affect streambed GHG production and associated microbial metabolic activity. We demonstrate, by means of an incubation experiment, that streambed sediments have the potential to produce substantial amounts of GHG, controlled by sediment OM quantity and quality. We observed streambed CO2 production rates that can account for 35% of total stream evasion estimated in previous studies, ranging between 1.4 and 86% under optimal conditions. Methane production varied stronger than CO2 between different geologic backgrounds, suggesting OM quality controls between streambed sediments. Moreover, our results indicate that streambed sediments may produce much more CO2 than quantified to date, depending on the quantity and quality of the organic matter, which has direct implications for global estimates of C fluxes in stream ecosystems

Scaling of curvature in sub-critical gravitational collapse

We perform numerical simulations of the gravitational collapse of a spherically symmetric scalar field. For those data that just barely do not form black holes we find the maximum curvature at the position of the central observer. We find a scaling relation between this maximum curvature and distance from the critical solution. The scaling relation is analogous to that found by Choptuik for black hole mass for those data that do collapse to form black holes. We also find a periodic wiggle in the scaling exponent.Comment: Revtex, 2 figures, Discussion modified, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Long-wavelength iteration scheme and scalar-tensor gravity

Inhomogeneous and anisotropic cosmologies are modeled withing the framework of scalar-tensor gravity theories. The inhomogeneities are calculated to third-order in the so-called long-wavelength iteration scheme. We write the solutions for general scalar coupling and discuss what happens to the third-order terms when the scalar-tensor solution approaches at first-order the general relativistic one. We work out in some detail the case of Brans-Dicke coupling and determine the conditions for which the anisotropy and inhomogeneity decay as time increases. The matter is taken to be that of perfect fluid with a barotropic equation of state.Comment: 13 pages, requires REVTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Numerical evolution of Brill waves

We report a numerical evolution of axisymmetric Brill waves. The numerical algorithm has new features, including (i) a method for keeping the metric regular on the axis and (ii) the use of coordinates that bring spatial infinity to the edge of the computational grid. The dependence of the evolved metric on both the amplitude and shape of the initial data is found.Comment: added more discussion of results and several reference