378 research outputs found
Boltzmann entropy and chaos in a large assembly of weakly interacting systems
We introduce a high dimensional symplectic map, modeling a large system
consisting of weakly interacting chaotic subsystems, as a toy model to analyze
the interplay between single-particle chaotic dynamics and particles
interactions in thermodynamic systems. We study the growth with time of the
Boltzmann entropy, S_B, in this system as a function of the coarse graining
resolution. We show that a characteristic scale emerges, and that the behavior
of S_B vs t, at variance with the Gibbs entropy, does not depend on the coarse
graining resolution, as far as it is finer than this scale. The interaction
among particles is crucial to achieve this result, while the rate of entropy
growth depends essentially on the single-particle chaotic dynamics (for t not
too small). It is possible to interpret the basic features of the dynamics in
terms of a suitable Markov approximation.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Journal of Statistical Physic
One-dimensional asymmetrically coupled maps with defects
In this letter we study chaotic dynamical properties of an asymmetrically
coupled one-dimensional chain of maps. We discuss the existence of coherent
regions in terms of the presence of defects along the chain. We find out that
temporal chaos is instantaneously localized around one single defect and that
the tangent vector jumps from one defect to another in an apparently random
way. We quantitatively measure the localization properties by defining an
entropy-like function in the space of tangent vectors.Comment: 9 pages + 4 figures TeX dialect: Plain TeX + IOP macros (included
Fluorescence study on rat epithelial cells and liposomes exposed to aromatic nitroxides
This study was performed to evaluate the effects, if any, of aromatic nitroxides, namely, indolinic nitroxides, on membrane fluidity of rat epithelial cells using steady-state fluorescence. These nitroxides are being increasingly considered as new and versatile compounds to reduce oxidative stress in biological systems. Hence, the results obtained in this study will give more insights on the interaction of these compounds with biological structures which at present is lacking, especially in view of their possible application as antioxidant therapeutic agents. The probes DPH and Laurdan which give information on the hydrophobic and hydrophilic-hydrophobic regions of the membrane bilayer, respectively, showed that nitroxide 1 (1,2-dihydro-2-methyl-3H-indole-3-one-1-oxyl) significantly increases membrane fluidity, whereas the corresponding phenylimino nitroxide derivative 2 (1,2-dihydro-2-methyl-3H-indole-3-phenylimino-1-oxyl) leads to membrane rigidification. The aliphatic nitroxide TEMPO included in this study for comparison produced no modifications. Consequently, it appears that the structure of the heterocyclic rings (aromatic or aliphatic) and the substituents may affect membrane fluidity differently. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Fluctuation-response relation in turbulent systems
We address the problem of measuring time-properties of Response Functions
(Green functions) in Gaussian models (Orszag-McLaughin) and strongly
non-Gaussian models (shell models for turbulence). We introduce the concept of
{\it halving time statistics} to have a statistically stable tool to quantify
the time decay of Response Functions and Generalized Response Functions of high
order. We show numerically that in shell models for three dimensional
turbulence Response Functions are inertial range quantities. This is a strong
indication that the invariant measure describing the shell-velocity
fluctuations is characterized by short range interactions between neighboring
shells
A combined BET and IQAâREG study of the activation energy of non-polar zw-type [3+2] cycloaddition reactions
Numerical Observation of a Tubular Phase in Anisotropic Membranes
We provide the first numerical evidence for the existence of a tubular phase,
predicted by Radzihovsky and Toner (RT), for anisotropic tethered membranes
without self-avoidance. Incorporating anisotropy into the bending rigidity of a
simple model of a tethered membrane with free boundary conditions, we show that
the model indeed has two phase transitions corresponding to the flat-to-tubular
and tubular-to-crumpled transitions. For the tubular phase we measure the Flory
exponent and the roughness exponent . We find
and , which are in reasonable agreement with the theoretical
predictions of RT --- and .Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, REVTEX, final published versio
Effect of permethrin plus antioxidants on locomotor activity and striatum in adolescent rats
Pyrethroids are important insecticides used largely because of their high activity as an insecticide and
their low mammalian toxicity. Some studies have demonstrated that these products show neurotoxic
effects on the mammalian central nervous system.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the propensity of permethrin to induce oxidative stress
in adolescent rats and its possible attenuation by Vitamin E alone or + Coenzyme Q10. Data indicated
that adolescent rats exposed to permethrin exhibited alteration in the locomotor activity and plasma
membrane fluidity of striatum. Vitamin E +Q10 and Vitamin E alone supplementation reversed the negative
effect on central nervous system. Permethrin alteration of striatum plasma membrane fluidity was
restored by Vitamin E +Q10. Data obtained from red blood cells showed that permethrin did not induce
any modification of plasma membrane fluidity in adolescent rats, whereas antioxidants supplementation
induced pro-oxidant effect.
In summary some differences between antioxidant treatments were observed at striatum level: Coenzyme
Q10 + Vitamin E maintains plasma membrane fluidity, while Vitamin E is more effective to preserve
GSH level
The prediction of future from the past: an old problem from a modern perspective
The idea of predicting the future from the knowledge of the past is quite
natural when dealing with systems whose equations of motion are not known. Such
a long-standing issue is revisited in the light of modern ergodic theory of
dynamical systems and becomes particularly interesting from a pedagogical
perspective due to its close link with Poincar\'e's recurrence. Using such a
connection, a very general result of ergodic theory - Kac's lemma - can be used
to establish the intrinsic limitations to the possibility of predicting the
future from the past. In spite of a naive expectation, predictability results
to be hindered rather by the effective number of degrees of freedom of a system
than by the presence of chaos. If the effective number of degrees of freedom
becomes large enough, regardless the regular or chaotic nature of the system,
predictions turn out to be practically impossible. The discussion of these
issues is illustrated with the help of the numerical study of simple models.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Critical properties of the four-state Commutative Random Permutation Glassy Potts model in three and four dimensions
We investigate the critical properties of the four-state commutative random
permutation glassy Potts model in three and four dimensions by means of Monte
Carlo simulation and of a finite size scaling analysis. Thanks to the use of a
field programmable gate array we have been able to thermalize a large number of
samples of systems with large volume. This has allowed us to observe a
spin-glass ordered phase in d=4 and to study the critical properties of the
transition. In d=3, our results are consistent with the presence of a
Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, but we cannot exclude transient effects due to
a value of the lower critical dimension slightly below 3.Comment: 9 pages, 8 Postscript figure
Effect of pre-season training phase on anthropometric, hormonal and fitness parameters in young soccer players
The aims of the study were to investigate 1) the effect of 8 weeks of PSP training on anthropometrics, salivary hormones and fitness parameters in youth soccer players, 2) the correlations between fitness and hormonal parameters, and 3) the impact of the experience of the coach and his methodology of training on these parameters. Weight, height, BMI, pubertal development (PDS), salivary Cortisol (sC), salivary Testosterone (sT), salivary sDHEAS, intermittent tests (VO2max), and countermovement jump test (CMJ) modifications of 35 youth soccer players (age: 14±0 yrs; BMI: 20.8±1.8 k/m2 ) from two Italian clubs (âLupa Frascatiâ -LF-; âAlbalongaâ -AL) were analysed. A significant (p<0.05) time by club effect was observed in sC (F(1,31) = 9.7, ES = 1.13), sT (F(1,31) = 4.2, ES = 0.74), CMJ (F(1,28) = 26.5, ES = 1.94), and VO2max (F(1,28) = 8.5, ES = 1.10). Statistical differences (p<0.05) in weight (F(1,32) = 25.5, ES = 0.11), sC (F(1,31) = 32.1, ES = 1.43), sT/sC ratio (F(1,31) = 10.1, ES = 0.97), sDHEAS/sC ratio (F(1,31) = 6.3, ES = 0.70), and VO2max (F(1,28) = 64.3, ES = 1.74) were found within time factor. Between clubs, differences (p<0.05) in sC (F(1,32) = 8.5, ES = 1.17), sT (F(1,31) = 4.2, ES = 0.74), CMJ (F(1,28) = 26.5, ES = 1.50), and VO2max (F(1,28) = 8.5, ES = 1.10) were found. CMJ was inversely correlated with sDHEAS (r = -0.38) before PSP, while Î of CMJ showed significant correlations with Î of sC (r = 0.43) and ÎVO2max was inversely correlated with ÎBMI (r = -0.54) and ÎsC (r = -0.37) in all subjects. Considering each single club, ÎVO2max showed correlations with ÎBMI (r = -0.45) in AL, while ÎCMJ showed correlations with ÎPDS (r = 0.72) in LF club. Since the PSP is often limited training time to simultaneously develop physical, technical and tactical qualities, an efficient method to distribute the training load is important in youth soccer players to increase the performance and to avoid injuries
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