1,233 research outputs found
VISHNU hybrid model for viscous QCD matter at RHIC and LHC energies
In this proceeding, we briefly describe the viscous hydrodynamics + hadron
cascade hybrid model VISHNU for relativistic heavy ion collisions and report
the current status on extracting the QGP viscosity from elliptic flow data.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, the proceedings of 7th International Workshop on
Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement, Wuhan, China, Nov. 7-11, 201
Matrix-trapped viruses can prevent invasion of bacterial biofilms by colonizing cells
Bacteriophages can be trapped in the matrix of bacterial biofilms, such that the cells inside them are protected. It is not known whether these phages are still infectious and whether they pose a threat to newly arriving bacteria. Here, we address these questions using textitEscherichia coli and its lytic phage T7. Prior work has demonstrated that T7 phages are bound in the outermost curli polymer layers of the textitE. coli biofilm matrix. We show that these phages do remain viable and can kill colonizing cells that are T7-susceptible. If cells colonize a resident biofilm before phages do, we find that they can still be killed by phage exposure if it occurs soon thereafter. However, if colonizing cells are present on the biofilm long enough before phage exposure, they gain phage protection via envelopment within curli-producing clusters of the resident biofilm cells
Cronin Effect and High Transver Momentum Suppression in D+Au Collisions
Great interest has attached to recent D+Au, s^(1/2) = 200 A GeV data at RHIC,
obtained with the BRAHMS detector. Between pseudorapidity eta=0 and eta=3.2 the
appropriately defined ratio R[DAu/PP], comparing transverse momentum spectra of
D+Au to P+P exhibits a steady decrease with eta. This diminuition is examined
within a two-stage simulation, the last stage being a purely hadronic, reduced
energy cascade. The result is an adequate description of the data including the
so-called Cronin effect. Additionally there is clear evidence for suppression,
in the second stage, of relatively high transverse momentum, eta=0, leading
mesons, i.e. the Cronin effect, only near mid-rapidity, is appreciably muted by
final state interactions.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Fluctuations of the Initial Conditions and the Continuous Emission in Hydrodynamic Description of Two-Pion Interferometry
Within hydrodynamic approach, we study the Bose-Einstein correlation of
identical pions by taking into account both event-by-event fluctuating initial
conditions and continuous pion emission during the whole development of the hot
and dense matter formed in high-energy collisions. Considerable deviations
occur, compared to the usual hydro calculations with smooth initial conditions
and a sudden freeze-out on a well defined hypersurface. Comparison with data at
RHIC shows that, despite rather rough approximation we used here, this
description can give account of the dependence of and and
improves considerably the one for with respect to the usual version.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
First Results of Fast One-dimensional Hybrid Simulation of EAS Using CONEX
A hybrid simulation code is developed that is suited for fast one-dimensional
simulations of shower profiles, including fluctuations. It combines the Monte
Carlo simulation of high energy interactions with a fast numerical solution of
cascade equations for the resulting distributions of secondary particles.
Results obtained with this new code, called CONEX, are presented and compared
to CORSIKA predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the XIII
ISVHECRI, Pylos, 200
Upregulation of virulence genes promotes Vibrio cholerae biofilm hyperinfectivity
Vibrio cholerae remains a major global health threat, disproportionately impacting parts of the world without adequate infrastructure and sanitation resources. In aquatic environments, V. cholerae exists both as planktonic cells and as biofilms, which are held together by an extracellular matrix. V. cholerae biofilms have been shown to be hyperinfective, but the mechanism of hyperinfectivity is unclear. Here we show that biofilm-grown cells, irrespective of the surfaces on which they are formed, are able to markedly outcompete planktonic-grown cells in the infant mouse. Using an imaging technique designed to render intestinal tissue optically transparent and preserve the spatial integrity of infected intestines, we reveal and compare three-dimensional V. cholerae colonization patterns of planktonic-grown and biofilm-grown cells. Quantitative image analyses show that V. cholerae colonizes mainly the medial portion of the small intestine and that both the abundance and localization patterns of biofilm-grown cells differ from that of planktonic-grown cells. In vitro biofilm-grown cells activate expression of the virulence cascade, including the toxin coregulated pilus (TCP), and are able to acquire the cholera toxin-carrying CTXФ phage. Overall, virulence factor gene expression is also higher in vivo when infected with biofilm-grown cells, and modulation of their regulation is sufficient to cause the biofilm hyperinfectivity phenotype. Together, these results indicate that the altered biogeography of biofilm-grown cells and their enhanced production of virulence factors in the intestine underpin the biofilm hyperinfectivity phenotype
Stress and Strain in Flat Piling of Disks
We have created a flat piling of disks in a numerical experiment using the
Distinct Element Method (DEM) by depositing them under gravity. In the
resulting pile, we then measured increments in stress and strain that were
associated with a small decrease in gravity. We first describe the stress in
terms of the strain using isotropic elasticity theory. Then, from a
micro-mechanical view point, we calculate the relation between the stress and
strain using the mean strain assumption. We compare the predicted values of
Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio with those that were measured in the
numerical experiment.Comment: 9 pages, 1 table, 8 figures, and 2 pages for captions of figure
Genotoxic mixtures and dissimilar action: Concepts for prediction and assessment
This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. This article is distributed under the terms of the
creative commons Attribution license which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s)and the source are credited.Combinations of genotoxic agents have frequently been assessed without clear assumptions regarding their expected (additive) mixture effects, often leading to claims of synergisms that might in fact be compatible with additivity. We have shown earlier that the combined effects of chemicals, which induce micronuclei (MN) in the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay in Chinese hamster ovary-K1 cells by a similar mechanism, were additive according to the concept of concentration addition (CA). Here, we extended these studies and investigated for the first time whether valid additivity expectations can be formulated for MN-inducing chemicals that operate through a variety of mechanisms, including aneugens and clastogens (DNA cross-linkers, topoisomerase II inhibitors, minor groove binders). We expected that their effects should follow the additivity principles of independent action (IA). With two mixtures, one composed of various aneugens (colchicine, flubendazole, vinblastine sulphate, griseofulvin, paclitaxel), and another composed of aneugens and clastogens (flubendazole, doxorubicin, etoposide, melphalan and mitomycin C), we observed mixture effects that fell between the additivity predictions derived from CA and IA. We achieved better agreement between observation and prediction by grouping the chemicals into common assessment groups and using hybrid CA/IA prediction models. The combined effects of four dissimilarly acting compounds (flubendazole, paclitaxel, doxorubicin and melphalan) also fell within CA and IA. Two binary mixtures (flubendazole/paclitaxel and flubendazole/doxorubicin) showed effects in reasonable agreement with IA additivity. Our studies provide a systematic basis for the investigation of mixtures that affect endpoints of relevance to genotoxicity and show that their effects are largely additive.UK Food Standards Agenc
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