8,902 research outputs found
How European cardiologists perceive the role of calcium antagonists in follow-up after myocardial infarction
About one hundred European cardiologists discussed the role of calcium antagonists in the follow-up management of myocardial infarction, β-blockers are the treatment of choice. Where these are contra-indicated or otherwise unsuitable, many clinicians would use a non-dihydropyridine calcium antagonist alone or in combination with an ACE inhibitor. There is broad agreement that calcium antagonists should not be used in patients with concomitant left ventricular failure. Cholesterol estimation in post-infarction patients is essentia
The Protomedicato Tribunal and minorities in Castile at the end of the 17th century: the case of surgeon Roldán Solimán
[EN] This note aims to provide a small set of documents which report the vicissitudes of a North-African Muslim surgeon who tried to settle professionally during the late seventeenth century in the Kingdom of Castile. The four letters exchanged between the Royal Palace and the Castilian tribunal of the Protomedicato reveal that the Spanish king Charles II (1661-1700) resoluted supported the surgeon's aspirations, and the Protomedicato's concerted resistence to the royal will. These eloquent documents shed light on the history of the Castilian Protomedicato during the final years of the reign of the last Habsburg king in Spain by providing evidence about the role of this institution in the process of segregation/exclusion of ethnic minorities from the practice of health professions.[ES] El objeto de esta nota es presentar y editar una colección documental muy breve cuyo contenido nos informa sobre las vicisitudes de un cirujano musulmán norteafricano que a finales del siglo XVII busca su asentamiento profesional en la Corona de Castilla. Las cuatro cartas entre el Palacio Real y el Tribunal del Protomedicato, que se conservan en relación a este asunto, revelan tanto el decidido apoyo del Rey Carlos 11 (1665-1700) a las pretensiones del cirujano, como la fuerte resistencia ofrecida por el Protomedicato a la voluntad real. Esta expresiva documentación arroja luz en torno a la historia del Protomedicato en la Corona de Castilla durante los años finales del reinado del último Habsburgo en España, ilustrándonos sobre el papel entonces jugado por esta institución en el proceso de segregación/exclusión de las minorías étnicas, de la práctica de las ocupaciones sanitarias.Peer reviewe
Geochemische Klassifikation und Sm-Nd Isotopensystematik proterozoischer Metasedimente des Baltischen Schildes (Västervik Region, SESchweden)
Die Västervik Region liegt an einer
Haupt-Terran-Grenze im Baltischen
Schild. Im NE schließen sich die Einheiten
des Südsvecofennischen Vulkanitgürtels
mit Altern >1,85Ga an, im SW
folgen die Granitoide des Transskandinavischen
Magmatitgürtles (TMZ) mit
Altern <1,85Ga. Die Metasedimente
der Västervik Formation bilden die stratigraphisch
älteste Einheit der Västervik
Region. Ihre Stellung in Bezug
auf die svecofennischen Metasedimente
des Bothnischen Beckens ist noch unklar.
Sie können nach ihren mineralogischen
Paragenesen in vier Gruppen klassifiziert
werden: reine Quarzite, glimmerführende
Quarzite, Glimmerquarzite
und quarzitische Gneise. Vermutlich
zeitgleich mit der Intrusion der großvolumigen
Granitoidmagmen ab 1.85 Ga
wurde die Västervik Formation amphibolitfaziell
überprägt. Dies führte innerhalb
der Metasedimente zur Bildung
von Cordierit, Sillimanit und Andalusit
sowie akzessorischem Granat.
Der Beginn der Sedimentation ist begrenzt
durch das Vorkommen detritischer
Zirkone mit Altern ab 1.87Ga. Etwa
75% der gemessenen detritische Zirkone
zeigt eine Altersgruppierung von
1,8 bis 2,1 Ga, die restlichen 25% zeigen
archaische U/Pb-Alter von 2,8 bis
3,0 Ga (Claesson et al. 1993, Sultan et
al. 2005).
Die Nd-Isotopensignaturen der Proben
zeigen eine sehr homogene Mischung
und Schüttung der Sedimente
mit subparallelem Verlauf der Nd-
Entwicklungslinien und einem sehr engen
TDM (Nd) Altersspektrum von 2,2
bis 2,4Ga. Diese Ergebnisse deuten auf
ein konstantes Mischungsverhältnis von
proterozoischen und archaischen Anteilen
hin...conferenc
Binarity of Transit Host Stars - Implications on Planetary Parameters
Straight-forward derivation of planetary parameters can only be achieved in
transiting planetary systems. However, planetary attributes such as radius and
mass strongly depend on stellar host parameters. Discovering a transit host
star to be multiple leads to a necessary revision of the derived stellar and
planetary parameters. Based on our observations of 14 transiting exoplanet
hosts, we derive parameters of the individual components of three transit host
stars (WASP-2, TrES-2, and TrES-4) which we detected to be binaries. Two of
these have not been known to be multiple before. Parameters of the
corresponding exoplanets are revised. High-resolution "Lucky Imaging" with
AstraLux at the 2.2m Calar Alto telescope provided near diffraction limited
images in i' and z' passbands. These results have been combined with existing
planetary data in order to recalibrate planetary attributes. Despite the
faintness (delta mag ~ 4) of the discovered stellar companions to TrES-2,
TrES-4, and WASP-2, light-curve deduced parameters change by up to more than
1sigma. We discuss a possible relation between binary separation and planetary
properties, which - if confirmed - could hint at the influence of binarity on
the planet formation process.Comment: 9 pages, 3 Figures. Accepted by A&
Interpreting the yield of transit surveys: Are there groups in the known transiting planets population?
Each transiting planet discovered is characterized by 7 measurable
quantities, that may or may not be linked together (planet mass, radius,
orbital period, and star mass, radius, effective temperature, and metallicity).
Correlations between planet mass and period, surface gravity and period, planet
radius and star temperature have been previously observed among the known
transiting giant planets. Two classes of planets have been previously
identified based on their Safronov number. We use the CoRoTlux code to compare
simulated events to the sample of discovered planets and test the statistical
significance of these correlations. We first generate a stellar field with
planetary companions based on radial velocity discoveries and a planetary
evolution model, then apply a detection criterion that includes both
statistical and red noise sources. We compare the yield of our simulated survey
with the ensemble of 31 well-characterized giant transiting planets, using a
multivariate logistic analysis to assess whether the simulated distribution
matches the known transiting planets. Our multivariate analysis shows that our
simulated sample and observations are consistent to 76%. The mass vs. period
correlation for giant planets first observed with radial velocity holds with
transiting planets. Our model naturally explains the correlation between planet
surface gravity and period and the one between planet radius and stellar
effective temperature. Finally, we are also able to reproduce the previously
observed apparent bimodal distribution of Safronov numbers in 10% of our
simulated cases, although our model predicts a continuous distribution. This
shows that the evidence for the existence of two groups of planets with
different intrinsic properties is not statistically significant.Comment: 17 page
Soft Interaction Between Dissolved Dendrimers: Theory and Experiment
Using small-angle neutron scattering and liquid integral equation theory, we
relate the structure factor of flexible dendrimers of 4th generation to their
average shape. The shape is measured as a radial density profile of monomers
belonging to a single dendrimer. From that, we derive an effective interaction
of Gaussian form between pairs of dendrimers and compute the structure factor
using the hypernetted chain approximation. Excellent agreement with the
corresponding experimental results is obtained, without the use of adjustable
parameters. The present analysis thus strongly supports the previous finding
that flexible dendrimers of low generation present fluctuating structures akin
to star polymers.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Macromolecules on July 24, 200
On the black hole limit of rotating discs and rings
Solutions to Einstein's field equations describing rotating fluid bodies in
equilibrium permit parametric (i.e. quasi-stationary) transitions to the
extreme Kerr solution (outside the horizon). This has been shown analytically
for discs of dust and numerically for ring solutions with various equations of
state. From the exterior point of view, this transition can be interpreted as a
(quasi) black hole limit. All gravitational multipole moments assume precisely
the values of an extremal Kerr black hole in the limit. In the present paper,
the way in which the black hole limit is approached is investigated in more
detail by means of a parametric Taylor series expansion of the exact solution
describing a rigidly rotating disc of dust. Combined with numerical
calculations for ring solutions our results indicate an interesting universal
behaviour of the multipole moments near the black hole limit.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; Dedicated to Gernot Neugebauer on the occasion
of his 70th birthda
Ferroelectric and Dipolar Glass Phases of Non-Crystalline Systems
In a recent letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 75}, 2360 (1996)] we briefly
discussed the existence and nature of ferroelectric order in positionally
disordered dipolar materials. Here we report further results and give a
complete description of our work. Simulations of randomly frozen and
dynamically disordered dipolar soft spheres are used to study ferroelectric
ordering in non-crystalline systems. We also give a physical interpretation of
the simulation results in terms of short- and long-range interactions. Cases
where the dipole moment has 1, 2, and 3 components (Ising, XY and XYZ models,
respectively) are considered. It is found that the Ising model displays
ferroelectric phases in frozen amorphous systems, while the XY and XYZ models
form dipolar glass phases at low temperatures. In the dynamically disordered
model the equations of motion are decoupled such that particle translation is
completely independent of the dipolar forces. These systems spontaneously
develop long-range ferroelectric order at nonzero temperature despite the
absence of any fined-tuned short-range spatial correlations favoring dipolar
order. Furthermore, since this is a nonequilibrium model we find that the
paraelectric to ferroelectric transition depends on the particle mass. For the
XY and XYZ models, the critical temperatures extrapolate to zero as the mass of
the particle becomes infinite, whereas, for the Ising model the critical
temperature is almost independent of mass and coincides with the ferroelectric
transition found for the randomly frozen system at the same density. Thus in
the infinite mass limit the results of the frozen amorphous systems are
recovered.Comment: 25 pages (LATEX, no macros). 11 POSTSCRIPT figures enclosed.
Submitted to Phisical Review E. Contact: [email protected]
Regulation and Function of FTO mRNA Expression in Human Skeletal Muscle and Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue
OBJECTIVE-Common variants in FTO (the fat mass- and obesity-associated gene) associate with obesity and type 2 diabetes. The regulation and biological function of FTO mRNA expression in target tissue is unknown. We investigated the genetic and nongenetic regulation of FTO mRNA in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue and their influence on in vivo glucose and fat metabolism. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS-The FTO rs9939609 polymorphism was genotyped in two twin cohorts: 1) 298 elderly twins aged 62-83 years with glucose tolerance ranging from normal to type 2 diabetes and 2) 196 young (25-32 years) and elderly (58-66 years) nondiabetic twins examined by a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp including indirect calorimetry. FTO mRNA expression was determined in subcutaneous adipose tissue (n = 226) and skeletal muscle biopsies (n = 158). RESULTS-Heritability of FTO expression in both tissues was low, and FTO expression was not influenced by FTO rs9939609 genotype. FTO mRNA expression in skeletal muscle was regulated by age and sex, whereas age and BMI were predictors of adipose tissue FTO mRNA expression. FTO mRNA expression in adipose tissue was associated with an atherogenic lipid profile. In skeletal muscle, FTO mRNA expression was negatively associated to fat and positively to glucose oxidation rates as well as positively correlated with expression of genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation including PGC1 alpha. CONCLUSIONS-The heritability of FTO expression in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle is low and not influenced by obesity-associated FTO genotype. The age-dependent decline in FTO expression is associated with peripheral defects of glucose and fat metabolism. Diabetes 58:2402-2408, 200
Independent confirmation and refined parameters of the hot Jupiter XO-5b
We present HATNet observations of XO-5b, confirming its planetary nature
based on evidence beyond that described in the announcement of Burke et al.
(2008), namely, the lack of significant correlation between spectral bisector
variations and orbital phase. In addition, using extensive spectroscopic
measurements spanning multiple seasons, we investigate the relatively large
scatter in the spectral line bisectors. We also examine possible blended
stellar configurations (hierarchical triples, chance alignments) that can mimic
the planet signals, and we are able to show that none are consistent with the
sum of all the data. The analysis of the S activity index shows no significant
stellar activity. Our results for the planet parameters are consistent with
values in Burke et al. (2008), and we refine both the stellar and planetary
parameters using our data. XO-5b orbits a slightly evolved, late G type star
with mass M_s = 0.88 +/- 0.03, radius R_s = 1.08 +/- 0.04, and metallicity
close to solar. The planetary mass and radius are M_p = 1.059 +/- 0.028 M_Jup
and R_p = 1.109 +/- 0.050 R_Jup, respectively, corresponding to a mean density
of 0.96 -0.11 +0.14 g/cm^3. The ephemeris for the orbit is P = 4.187757 +/-
0.000011, E= 2454552.67168 +/- 0.00029 (BJD) with transit duration of 0.1307
+/- 0.0013 d. By measuring four individual transit centers, we found no signs
for transit timing variations. The planet XO-5b is notable for its anomalously
high Safronov number, and has a high surface gravity when compared to other
transiting exoplanets with similar period.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 8 pages in emulateapj styl
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