683 research outputs found
Late Quaternary history of low- and mid-elevation vegetation in the white mountains of New Hampshire
Systematic review and stratified meta-analysis of the efficacy of carnosine in animal models of ischemic stroke
Carnosine is a naturally occurring pleotropic dipeptide which influences multiple deleterious mechanisms that are
activated during stroke. Numerous published studies have reported that carnosine has robust efficacy in ischemic
stroke models. To further evaluate these data, we have conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published
studies. We included publications describing in vivo models of ischemic stroke where the neuroprotective efficacy of
carnosine was being evaluated through the reporting of infarct volume and/or neurological score as outcomes. Overall
efficacy was evaluated using weighted mean difference random effects meta-analysis. We also evaluated for study quality
and publication bias. We identified eight publications that met our inclusion criteria describing a total of 29 comparisons
and 454 animals. Overall methodological quality of studies was moderate (median ¼ 4/9). Carnosine reduced infarct
volume by 29.4% (95% confidence interval (CI), 24.0% to 34.9%; 29 comparisons). A clear dose-response effect was
observed, and efficacy was reduced when carnosine was administered more than 6 h after ischemia. Our findings suggest
that carnosine administered before or after the onset of ischemia exhibits robust efficacy in experimental ischemic
stroke. However, the methodological quality of some of the studies was low and testing occurred only in healthy young
male animals
Motion-Induced Radiation from a Dynamically Deforming Mirror
A path integral formulation is developed to study the spectrum of radiation
from a perfectly reflecting (conducting) surface. It allows us to study
arbitrary deformations in space and time. The spectrum is calculated to second
order in the height function. For a harmonic traveling wave on the surface, we
find many different regimes in which the radiation is restricted to certain
directions. It is shown that high frequency photons are emitted in a beam with
relatively low angular dispersion whose direction can be controlled by the
mechanical deformations of the plate.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figues included, final version as appeared in PR
Hypoxia mimetic agents for ischemic stroke
Every year stroke claims more than 6 million lives worldwide. The majority of them are ischemic stroke. Small molecule-based therapeutics for ischemic stroke has attracted a lot of attention, but none has been shown to be clinically useful so far. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) plays a crucial role in the transcriptional adaptation of cells to hypoxia. Small molecule-based hypoxia-mimetic agents either stabilize HIF-1α via HIF-prolyl hydroxylases (PHDs) inhibition or through other mechanisms. In both the cases, these agents have been shown to confer ischemic neuroprotection in vitro and in vivo. The agents which act via PHD inhibition are mainly classified into iron chelators, iron competitors, and 2 oxoglutarate (2OG) analogs. This review discusses HIF structure and key players in the HIF-1 degradation pathway as well as the genes, proteins and chemical molecules that are connected to HIF-1 and how they affect cell survival following ischemic injury. Furthermore, this review gives a summary of studies that used PHD inhibitors and other HIF-1α stabilizers as hypoxia-mimetic agents for the treatment of ischemic injury
Pediatric sleep-related breathing disorders: advances in imaging and computational modeling
We understand now that sleep of sufficient length and quality is required for good health. This is particularly true for infants and children, who have the added physiologic task of growth and development, as compared to their adult counterparts. Sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBDs) are common in childhood and if unrecognized and not treated can result in significant morbidity. For example, children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can exhibit behavioral, mood, and learning difficulties. If left untreated, alterations in the function of the autonomic nervous system and a chronic inflammatory state result, contributing to the risk of heart disease, stroke, glucose intolerance, and hypertension in adulthood
Spin dynamics of a trapped spin-1 Bose Gas above the Bose-Einstein transition temperature
We study collective spin oscillations in a spin-1 Bose gas above the
Bose-Einstein transition temperature. Starting from the Heisenberg equation of
motion, we derive a kinetic equation describing the dynamics of a thermal gas
with the spin-1 degree of freedom. Applying the moment method to the kinetic
equation, we study spin-wave collective modes with dipole symmetry. The dipole
modes in the spin-1 system are found to be classified into the three type of
modes. The frequency and damping rate are obtained as functions of the peak
density. The damping rate is characterized by three relaxation times associated
with collisions.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figur
Ground state of a polydisperse electrorheological solid: Beyond the dipole approximation
The ground state of an electrorheological (ER) fluid has been studied based
on our recently proposed dipole-induced dipole (DID) model. We obtained an
analytic expression of the interaction between chains of particles which are of
the same or different dielectric constants. The effects of dielectric constants
on the structure formation in monodisperse and polydisperse electrorheological
fluids are studied in a wide range of dielectric contrasts between the
particles and the base fluid. Our results showed that the established
body-centered tetragonal ground state in monodisperse ER fluids may become
unstable due to a polydispersity in the particle dielectric constants. While
our results agree with that of the fully multipole theory, the DID model is
much simpler, which offers a basis for computer simulations in polydisperse ER
fluids.Comment: Accepted for publications by Phys. Rev.
The dynamics of quantum phases in a spinor condensate
We discuss the quantum phases and their diffusion dynamics in a spinor-1
atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. For ferromagnetic interactions, we obtain the
exact ground state distribution of the phases associated with the total atom
number (), the total magnetization (), and the alignment (or
hypercharge) () of the system. The mean field ground state is stable against
fluctuations of atom numbers in each of the spin components, and the phases
associated with the order parameter for each spin components diffuse while
dynamically recover the two broken continuous symmetries [U(1) and SO(2)] when
and are conserved as in current experiments. We discuss the
implications to the quantum dynamics due to an external (homogeneous) magnetic
field. We also comment on the case of a spinor-1 condensate with
anti-ferromagnetic interactions.Comment: 5 figures, an extended version of cond-mat/030117
The Scale of Cosmic Isotropy
The most fundamental premise to the standard model of the universe, the
Cosmological Principle (CP), states that the large-scale properties of the
universe are the same in all directions and at all comoving positions.
Demonstrating this theoretical hypothesis has proven to be a formidable
challenge. The cross-over scale R_{iso} above which the galaxy distribution
becomes statistically isotropic is vaguely defined and poorly (if not at all)
quantified. Here we report on a formalism that allows us to provide an
unambiguous operational definition and an estimate of R_{iso}. We apply the
method to galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7,
finding that R_{iso}\sim 150h^{-1} Mpc. Besides providing a consistency test of
the Copernican principle, this result is in agreement with predictions based on
numerical simulations of the spatial distribution of galaxies in cold dark
matter dominated cosmological models.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, accepted by JCAP. The text matches the published
versio
Coherent dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in high-finesse optical cavities
We study the mutual interaction of a Bose-Einstein condensed gas with a
single mode of a high-finesse optical cavity. We show how the cavity
transmission reflects condensate properties and calculate the self-consistent
intra-cavity light field and condensate evolution. Solving the coupled
condensate-cavity equations we find that while falling through the cavity, the
condensate is adiabatically transfered into the ground state of the periodic
optical potential. This allows time dependent non-destructive measurements on
Bose-Einstein condensates with intriguing prospects for subsequent controlled
manipulation.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures; revised version: added reference
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