Transient situations in traffic flow: Modelling the Mexico City Cuernavaca Highway

In this paper a recent variable anticipation cellular automata model for single-lane traffic flow is extended to analyze the situation of free and congested flow in the Highway from Mexico City to Cuernavaca. This highway presents free flow in standard days; but in the returning day of long weekends or holidays it exhibits congested flow and in rush hours jamming appears. We illustrate how our CA model for traffic flow can deal appropriately with transient situations and can be used to search new alternatives that allow to improve the traffic flow in Mexican highways.Comment: Paper accepted to be published in the Proceedings of Second Mexican Meeting on Mathematical and Experimental Physics (September 2004), El Colegio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexic

Extracellular cysteine in connexins: Role as redox sensors

Indexación: Scopus.Connexin-based channels comprise hemichannels and gap junction channels. The opening of hemichannels allow for the flux of ions and molecules from the extracellular space into the cell and vice versa. Similarly, the opening of gap junction channels permits the diffusional exchange of ions and molecules between the cytoplasm and contacting cells. The controlled opening of hemichannels has been associated with several physiological cellular processes; thereby unregulated hemichannel activity may induce loss of cellular homeostasis and cell death. Hemichannel activity can be regulated through several mechanisms, such as phosphorylation, divalent cations and changes in membrane potential. Additionally, it was recently postulated that redox molecules could modify hemichannels properties in vitro. However, the molecular mechanism by which redox molecules interact with hemichannels is poorly understood. In this work, we discuss the current knowledge on connexin redox regulation and we propose the hypothesis that extracellular cysteines could be important for sensing changes in redox potential. Future studies on this topic will offer new insight into hemichannel function, thereby expanding the understanding of the contribution of hemichannels to disease progression.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2016.00001/ful

Variations in caffeine and chlorogenic acid contents of coffees: what are we drinking?

The effect of roasting of coffee beans and the extraction of ground coffee with different volumes of hot pressurised water on the caffeine and the total caffeoylquinic acids (CQAs) content of the resultant beverages was investigated. While caffeine was stable higher roasting temperatures resulted in a loss of CQAs so that the caffeine/CQA ratio was a good marker of the degree of roasting. The caffeine and CQA content and volume was determined for 104 espresso coffees obtained from coffee shops in Scotland, Italy and Spain, limited numbers of cappuccino coffees from commercial outlets and several instant coffees. The caffeine content ranged from 48–317 mg per serving and CQAs from 6–188 mg. It is evident that the ingestion of 200 mg of caffeine per day can be readily and unwittingly exceeded by regular coffee drinkers. This is the upper limit of caffeine intake from all sources recommended by US and UK health agencies for pregnant women. In view of the variable volume of serving sizes, it is also clear that the term “one cup of coffee” is not a reproducible measurement for consumption, yet it is the prevailing unit used in epidemiology to assess coffee consumption and to link the potential effects of the beverage and its components on the outcome of diseases. More accurate measurement of the intake of coffee and its potentially bioactive components are required if epidemiological studies are to produce more reliable information

Exponential dynamical localization for the almost Mathieu operator

We prove that the exponential moments of the position operator stay bounded for the supercritical almost Mathieu operator with Diophantine frequency