826 research outputs found
Comparison of the effect of locking vs standard screws on the mechanical properties of bone-plate constructs in a comminuted diaphyseal fracture model
The purpose of this study was to compare the mechanical properties of bone-plate constructs with locking compression plates (LCP) used either with standard screws or with locking screws on an experimental model of comminuted fracture
Dynamics, correlations and phases of the micromaser
The micromaser possesses a variety of dynamical phase transitions
parametrized by the flux of atoms and the time-of-flight of the atom within the
cavity. We discuss how these phases may be revealed to an observer outside the
cavity using the long-time correlation length in the atomic beam. Some of the
phase transitions are not reflected in the average excitation level of the
outgoing atom, which is the commonly used observable. The correlation length is
directly related to the leading eigenvalue of the time evolution operator,
which we study in order to elucidate the phase structure. We find that as a
function of the time-of-flight the transition from the thermal to the maser
phase is characterized by a sharp peak in the correlation length. For longer
times-of-flight there is a transition to a phase where the correlation length
grows exponentially with the flux. We present a detailed numerical and
analytical treatment of the different phases and discuss the physics behind
them.Comment: 60 pages, 18 figure files, Latex + \special{} for the figures, (some
redundant figures are eliminated and others are changed
Experimental and numerical investigation into the influence of loading conditions in biomechanical testing of locking plate fracture fixation devices
Non-equilibrium states of a photon cavity pumped by an atomic beam
We consider a beam of two-level randomly excited atoms that pass one-by-one
through a one-mode cavity. We show that in the case of an ideal cavity, i.e. no
leaking of photons from the cavity, the pumping by the beam leads to an
unlimited increase in the photon number in the cavity. We derive an expression
for the mean photon number for all times. Taking into account leaking of the
cavity, we prove that the mean photon number in the cavity stabilizes in time.
The limiting state of the cavity in this case exists and it is independent of
the initial state. We calculate the characteristic functional of this
non-quasi-free non-equilibrium state. We also calculate the energy flux in both
the ideal and open cavity and the entropy production for the ideal cavity.Comment: Corrected energy production calculations and made some changes to
ease the readin
Effects of Dicer and Argonaute down-regulation on mRNA levels in human HEK293 cells
RNA interference and the microRNA (miRNA) pathway can induce sequence-specific mRNA degradation and/or translational repression. The human genome encodes hundreds of miRNAs that can post-transcriptionally repress thousands of genes. Using reporter constructs, we observed that degradation of mRNAs bearing sites imperfectly complementary to the endogenous let-7 miRNA is considerably stronger in human HEK293 than HeLa cells. The degradation did not result from the Ago2-mediated endonucleolytic cleavage but it was Dicer- and Ago2-dependent. We used this feature of HEK293 to address the size of a pool of transcripts regulated by RNA silencing in a single cell type. We generated HEK293 cell lines depleted of Dicer or individual Ago proteins. The cell lines were used for microarray analyses to obtain a comprehensive picture of RNA silencing. The 3'-untranslated region sequences of a few hundred transcripts that were commonly up-regulated upon Ago2 and Dicer knock-downs showed a significant enrichment of putative miRNA-binding sites. The up-regulation upon Ago2 and Dicer knock-downs was moderate and we found no evidence, at the mRNA level, for activation of silenced genes. Taken together, our data suggest that, independent of the effect on translation, miRNAs affect levels of a few hundred mRNAs in HEK293 cells
Stable transduction with lentiviral vectors and amplification of immature hematopoietic progenitors from cord blood of preterm human fetuses
Umbilical cord blood (CB) from the early gestational human fetus is recognized as a rich source of hematopoietic stem cells. To examine the value of fetal CB for gene therapy of inborn immunohematopoietic disorders, we tested the feasibility of genetic modification of CD34(+) cells from CB at weeks 24 to 34 of pregnancy, using lentiviral vector-mediated transfer of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene. The transduction rate of CD34(+) cells was 42 +/- 9%, resulting in GFP expression in 23 +/- 4% of colonies derived from colony-forming units (CFUs) and 11 +/- 1% from primitive long-term culture-initiating cells (LTC-ICs). Cell cycle analysis demonstrated transduction and GFP expression in cells in the G(0) phase, which contains immature hematopoietic progenitors. Transduced fetal CD34(+) cells could be expanded 1000-fold in long-term cultures supplemented with megakaryocyte growth and development factor along with Flt-3 ligand. At week 10, expression of GFP was observed in 40.5 +/- 11.7% of CFU-derived colonies. While prestimulation of CD34(+) cells with cytokines prior to transduction increased the efficiency of GFP transfer 2- to 3-fold, long-term maintenance of GFP-expressing CFUs occurred only in the absence of prestimulation. The GFP gene was found integrated into the genomic DNA of 35% of LTC-IC-derived colonies initiated at week 10, but GFP expression was not detectable, suggesting downregulation of transgene activity during the extended culture period. These results indicate that human fetal CB progenitors are amenable to genetic modification by lentiviral vectors and may serve as a target for gene therapy of hematopoietic disorders by prenatal autologous transplantation
An algebraic approach to the Tavis-Cummings problem
An algebraic method is introduced for an analytical solution of the
eigenvalue problem of the Tavis-Cummings (TC) Hamiltonian, based on
polynomially deformed su(2), i.e. su_n(2), algebras. In this method the
eigenvalue problem is solved in terms of a specific perturbation theory,
developed here up to third order. Generalization to the N-atom case of the Rabi
frequency and dressed states is also provided. A remarkable enhancement of
spontaneous emission of N atoms in a resonator is found to result from
collective effects.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Enhancing Acceleration Radiation from Ground-State Atoms via Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics
When ground state atoms are accelerated through a high Q microwave cavity,
radiation is produced with an intensity which can exceed the intensity of Unruh
acceleration radiation in free space by many orders of magnitude. The cavity
field at steady state is described by a thermal density matrix under most
conditions. However, under some conditions gain is possible, and when the atoms
are injected in a regular fashion, the radiation can be produced in a squeezed
state
Detection statistics in the micromaser
We present a general method for the derivation of various statistical
quantities describing the detection of a beam of atoms emerging from a
micromaser. The user of non-normalized conditioned density operators and a
linear master equation for the dynamics between detection events is discussed
as are the counting statistics, sequence statistics, and waiting time
statistics. In particular, we derive expressions for the mean number of
successive detections of atoms in one of any two orthogonal states of the
two-level atom. We also derive expressions for the mean waiting times between
detections. We show that the mean waiting times between de- tections of atoms
in like states are equivalent to the mean waiting times calculated from the
uncorrelated steady state detection rates, though like atoms are indeed
correlated. The mean waiting times between detections of atoms in unlike states
exhibit correlations. We evaluate the expressions for various detector
efficiencies using numerical integration, reporting re- sults for the standard
micromaser arrangement in which the cavity is pumped by excited atoms and the
excitation levels of the emerging atoms are measured. In addition, the atomic
inversion and the Fano-Mandel function for the detection of de-excited atoms is
calculated for compari- son to the recent experimental results of Weidinger et
al. [1], which reports the first observation of trapping states.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figure
Treatment of Noninfectious Retinal Vasculitis Using Subcutaneous Repository Corticotropin Injection
Purpose: To show whether subcutaneous repository corticotropin injection (RCI, Acthar® Gel, a repository corticotropin injection, can be an effective potential therapeutic agent for noninfectious retinal vasculitis.
Methods: Patients with active retinal vasculitis were followed with serial ultra-widefield fluorescein angiograms and treated with 80 units of subcutaneous repository corticotropin injection twice weekly.
Results: Primary outcome of ≥50% improvement in response level (RL) for retinal vasculitis and percent improvement in retinal vasculitis severity scoring (RVSS) by more than one quartile (≥25%) at week 12 was met in 15 and 16 of the 30 total eyes, respectively, including 1 eye with severe retinal vasculitis in each group. Complete resolution of retinal vasculitis was seen in seven eyes with a mean time of 17.1 weeks. Intraocular pressure elevation requiring therapy and cataract progression were noted in two and three eyes, respectively. One patient stopped medication due to side effects (injection site reaction).
Conclusion: Repository corticotropin injection was well-tolerated overall. Repository corticotropin injection may be an effective therapeutic agent in the treatment of noninfectious retinal vasculitis
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