4,008 research outputs found
Remote sensing of blood oxygenation using red-eye pupil reflection
To access publisher's full text version of this article click on the hyperlink belowObjective: To develop a technique for remote sensing of systemic blood oxygenation using red-eye pupil reflection.
Approach: The ratio of the intensities of light from the bright pupil reflections at oxygen sensitive and isosbestic wavelengths is shown to be sensitive to the oxygenation of blood in the eye. A conventional retinal camera, fitted with an image-replicating imaging spectrometer, was used at standoff range to record snapshot spectral images of the face and eyes at eight different wavelengths. In our pilot study we measured optical-density ratios (ODRs) of pupil reflections at wavelengths of 780 nm and 800 nm, simultaneous with pulse oximetry, for ten healthy human subjects under conditions of normoxia and mild hypoxia (15% oxygen). The low absorption at these infrared wavelengths localises the sensing to the choroid. We propose that this can be used for as a proxy for systemic oximetry.
Main results: A significant reduction (P < 0.001) in ODR of the pupil images was observed during hypoxia and returned to baseline on resumption of normoxia. We demonstrate that measurement of the choroidal ODR can be used to detect changes in blood oxygenation that correlate positively with pulse oximetry and with a noise-equivalent oximetry precision of 0.5%.
Significance: We describe a new method to remotely and non-invasively sense the oxygen saturation of choroidal blood. The methodology provides a proxy for remote sensing of cerebral and systemic blood oxygenation. We demonstrate the technique at short range but it has potential for systemic oximetry at large standoff ranges
A multispectral microscope for in vivo oximetry of rat dorsal spinal cord vasculature
Quantification of blood oxygen saturation (SO2) in vivo is essential for understanding the pathogenesis of diseases in which hypoxia is thought to play a role, including inflammatory disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We describe a low-cost multispectral microscope and oximetry technique for calibration-free absolute oximetry of surgically exposed blood vessels in vivo. We imaged the vasculature of the dorsal spinal cord in healthy rats, and varied inspired oxygen (FiO2) in order to evaluate the sensitivity of the imaging system to changes in SO2. The venous SO2 was calculated as 67.8 ± 10.4% (average ± standard deviation), increasing to 83.1 ± 11.6% under hyperoxic conditions (100% FiO2) and returning to 67.4 ± 10.9% for a second normoxic period; the venous SO2 was 50.9 ± 15.5% and 29.2 ± 24.6% during subsequent hypoxic states (18% and 15% FiO2 respectively). We discuss the design and performance of our multispectral imaging system, and the future scope for extending this oximetry technique to quantification of hypoxia in inflamed tissue
Parabolic stable surfaces with constant mean curvature
We prove that if u is a bounded smooth function in the kernel of a
nonnegative Schrodinger operator on a parabolic Riemannian
manifold M, then u is either identically zero or it has no zeros on M, and the
linear space of such functions is 1-dimensional. We obtain consequences for
orientable, complete stable surfaces with constant mean curvature
in homogeneous spaces with four
dimensional isometry group. For instance, if M is an orientable, parabolic,
complete immersed surface with constant mean curvature H in
, then and if equality holds, then
M is either an entire graph or a vertical horocylinder.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure. Minor changes have been incorporated (exchange
finite capacity by parabolicity, and simplify the proof of Theorem 1)
The levels of Brachyspira hyodysenteriae binding to porcine colonic mucins differ between individuals, and binding is increased to mucins from infected pigs with de novo MUC5AC synthesis
Brachyspira hyodysenteriae colonizes the pig colon, resulting in mucohemorrhagic diarrhea and growth retardation. Fecal mucus is a characteristic feature of swine dysentery; therefore, we investigated how the mucin environment changes in the colon during infection with B. hyodysenteriae and how these changes affect this bacterium's interaction with mucins. We isolated and characterized mucins, the main component of mucus, from the colon of experimentally inoculated and control pigs and investigated B. hyodysenteriae binding to these mucins. Fluorescence microscopy revealed a massive mucus induction and disorganized mucus structure in the colon of pigs with swine dysentery. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) and antibody detection demonstrated that the mucus composition of pigs with swine dysentery was characterized by de novo expression of MUC5AC and increased expression of MUC2 in the colon. Mucins from the colon of inoculated and control pigs were isolated by two steps of isopycnic density gradient centrifugation. The mucin densities of control and inoculated pigs were similar, whereas the mucin quantity was 5-fold higher during infection. The level of B. hyodysenteriae binding to mucins differed between pigs, and there was increased binding to soluble mucins isolated from pigs with swine dysentery. The ability of B. hyodysenteriae to bind, measured in relation to the total mucin contents of mucus in sick versus healthy pigs, increased 7-fold during infection. Together, the results indicate that B. hyodysenteriae binds to carbohydrate structures on the mucins as these differ between individuals. Furthermore, B. hyodysenteriae infection induces changes to the mucus niche which substantially increase the amount of B. hyodysenteriae binding sites in the mucus
The spinorial geometry of supersymmetric heterotic string backgrounds
We determine the geometry of supersymmetric heterotic string backgrounds for
which all parallel spinors with respect to the connection with
torsion , the NSNS three-form field strength, are Killing. We find
that there are two classes of such backgrounds, the null and the timelike. The
Killing spinors of the null backgrounds have stability subgroups
K\ltimes\bR^8 in , for , SU(4), , and , and the Killing spinors of the timelike backgrounds have
stability subgroups , SU(3), SU(2) and . The former admit a single
null -parallel vector field while the latter admit a timelike and
two, three, five and nine spacelike -parallel vector fields,
respectively. The spacetime of the null backgrounds is a Lorentzian
two-parameter family of Riemannian manifolds with skew-symmetric torsion.
If the rotation of the null vector field vanishes, the holonomy of the
connection with torsion of is contained in . The spacetime of time-like
backgrounds is a principal bundle with fibre a Lorentzian Lie group and
base space a suitable Riemannian manifold with skew-symmetric torsion. The
principal bundle is equipped with a connection which determines the
non-horizontal part of the spacetime metric and of . The curvature of
takes values in an appropriate Lie algebra constructed from that of
. In addition has only horizontal components and contains the
Pontrjagin class of . We have computed in all cases the Killing spinor
bilinears, expressed the fluxes in terms of the geometry and determine the
field equations that are implied by the Killing spinor equations.Comment: 73pp. v2: minor change
G-Structures, Fluxes and Calibrations in M-Theory
We study the most general supersymmetric warped M-theory backgrounds with
non-trivial G-flux of the type R^{1,2} x M_8 and AdS_3 x M_8. We give a set of
necessary and sufficient conditions for preservation of supersymmetry which are
phrased in terms of G-structures and their intrinsic torsion. These equations
may be interpreted as calibration conditions for a static ``dyonic'' M-brane,
that is, an M5-brane with self-dual three-form turned on. When the electric
flux is turned off we obtain the supersymmetry conditions and non-linear PDEs
describing M5-branes wrapped on associative and special Lagrangian three-cycles
in manifolds with G_2 and SU(3) structures, respectively. As an illustration of
our formalism, we recover the 1/2-BPS dyonic M-brane, and also construct some
new examples.Comment: 40 pages; v2: one reference added, typos correcte
A scalar field condensation instability of rotating anti-de Sitter black holes
Near-extreme Reissner-Nordstrom-anti-de Sitter black holes are unstable
against the condensation of an uncharged scalar field with mass close to the
Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. It is shown that a similar instability afflicts
near-extreme large rotating AdS black holes, and near-extreme hyperbolic
Schwarzschild-AdS black holes. The resulting nonlinear hairy black hole
solutions are determined numerically. Some stability results for (possibly
charged) scalar fields in black hole backgrounds are proved. For most of the
extreme black holes we consider, these demonstrate stability if the ``effective
mass" respects the near-horizon BF bound. Small spherical
Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes are an interesting exception to this result.Comment: 34 pages; 13 figure
Aidnogenesis via Leptogenesis and Dark Sphalerons
We discuss aidnogenesis, the generation of a dark matter asymmetry via new
sphaleron processes associated to an extra non-abelian gauge symmetry common to
both the visible and the dark sectors. Such a theory can naturally produce an
abundance of asymmetric dark matter which is of the same size as the lepton and
baryon asymmetries, as suggested by the similar sizes of the observed baryonic
and dark matter energy content, and provide a definite prediction for the mass
of the dark matter particle. We discuss in detail a minimal realization in
which the Standard Model is only extended by dark matter fermions which form
"dark baryons" through an SU(3) interaction, and a (broken) horizontal symmetry
that induces the new sphalerons. The dark matter mass is predicted to be
approximately 6 GeV, close to the region favored by DAMA and CoGeNT.
Furthermore, a remnant of the horizontal symmetry should be broken at a lower
scale and can also explain the Tevatron dimuon anomaly.Comment: Minor changes, discussion of present constraints expanded. 16 pages,
2 eps figures, REVTeX
The spinorial geometry of supersymmetric backgrounds
We propose a new method to solve the Killing spinor equations of
eleven-dimensional supergravity based on a description of spinors in terms of
forms and on the Spin(1,10) gauge symmetry of the supercovariant derivative. We
give the canonical form of Killing spinors for N=2 backgrounds provided that
one of the spinors represents the orbit of Spin(1,10) with stability subgroup
SU(5). We directly solve the Killing spinor equations of N=1 and some N=2, N=3
and N=4 backgrounds. In the N=2 case, we investigate backgrounds with SU(5) and
SU(4) invariant Killing spinors and compute the associated spacetime forms. We
find that N=2 backgrounds with SU(5) invariant Killing spinors admit a timelike
Killing vector and that the space transverse to the orbits of this vector field
is a Hermitian manifold with an SU(5)-structure. Furthermore, N=2 backgrounds
with SU(4) invariant Killing spinors admit two Killing vectors, one timelike
and one spacelike. The space transverse to the orbits of the former is an
almost Hermitian manifold with an SU(4)-structure and the latter leaves the
almost complex structure invariant. We explore the canonical form of Killing
spinors for backgrounds with extended, N>2, supersymmetry. We investigate a
class of N=3 and N=4 backgrounds with SU(4) invariant spinors. We find that in
both cases the space transverse to a timelike vector field is a Hermitian
manifold equipped with an SU(4)-structure and admits two holomorphic Killing
vector fields. We also present an application to M-theory Calabi-Yau
compactifications with fluxes to one-dimension.Comment: Latex, 54 pages, v2: clarifications made and references added. v3:
minor changes. v4: minor change
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