Magnetic flows on Sol-manifolds: dynamical and symplectic aspects

We consider magnetic flows on compact quotients of the 3-dimensional solvable geometry Sol determined by the usual left-invariant metric and the distinguished monopole. We show that these flows have positive Liouville entropy and therefore are never completely integrable. This should be compared with the known fact that the underlying geodesic flow is completely integrable in spite of having positive topological entropy. We also show that for a large class of twisted cotangent bundles of solvable manifolds every compact set is displaceable.Comment: Final version to appear in CMP. Two new remarks have been added as well as some numerical calculations for metric entrop

Influence of the meso-substituents of zinc porphyrins in dye-sensitized solar cell efficiency with improved performance under short periods of white light illumination

The sensitization activity of four zinc metalloporphyrin dyes: meso-tetrakis(4-pyridyl)porphyrinato Zn(II) (a), meso-triphenyl-(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrinato Zn(II) (b), meso-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrinato Zn(II) (c) and meso-tripyridyl(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrinato Zn(II) (d) is reported here, in terms of current-potential curve, open-circuit potential, fill factor, and overall solar energy conversion efficiency which have been evaluated under 100 mW/cm2 light intensity and their performances compared to the benchmark N719 (di-tetrabutylammonium cis-bis(isothiocyanato)bis(2,2′-bipyridyl-4,4′-dicarboxylato) ruthenium(II)). This work focus the structural aspects of dyes with anchoring groups using TiO2-based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs), which includes pyridyl and carboxyphenyl acid groups and argue how the combination of both anchoring groups, in the same structure, may allow relevant optimization of DSSCs performance in the near future. Also, a noticeable improvement in the photovoltaic performance of all dyes, reaching a maximum increase from 25% to 69% in the overall DSSC efficiency under short periods of white light illumination is discussed.publishe

Quantitation and localization of ENaC subunit expression in fetal, newborn, and adult mouse lung

The newborn lung is cleared of fetal liquid by active Na+ transport. The heterotrimeric (α, β, γ) epithelial Na+ channel, ENaC, mediates this process. To understand the role of individual ENaC subunits in Na+ transport during development, we quantified murine ENaC (mENaC) subunit messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels of fetal, neonatal, and adult mouse lung by Northern blot analysis and studied regional expression by in situ hybridization. αmENaC and γmENaC mRNA expression increased sharply in late fetal gestation and reached near-adult levels by Day 1 of postnatal life. βmENaC expression increased more gradually through late fetal and early postnatal life and increased progressively until adulthood. In situ hybridization studies showed similar localization patterns of αmENaC and γmENaC subunit expression in fetal and postnatal lung. γmENaC and αmENaC subunits were initially localized to fetal lung bud tubules and by late gestation both subunits were expressed in all regions (acinar and bronchiolar) of the distal lung epithelium. βmENaC was detected from 16 d gestation onward and was expressed most intensely in small airways. There was little expression of βmENaC in the alveolar region. In postnatal lung all three subunits were expressed intensely in small airways. In adult lung, αmENaC and γmENaC were expressed in a pattern consistent with an alveolar type II (ATII) cell distribution. The timing of quantitative changes in mENaC subunit expression is consistent with a role of Na+ transport in liquid clearance of the perinatal lung. Intense expression of mENaC subunits in medium and small airway epithelium and in ATII cells suggests that these regions are a primary location for liquid absorption in the perinatal and post-natal murine lung

Multiscale Bone Remodelling with Spatial P Systems

Many biological phenomena are inherently multiscale, i.e. they are characterized by interactions involving different spatial and temporal scales simultaneously. Though several approaches have been proposed to provide "multilayer" models, only Complex Automata, derived from Cellular Automata, naturally embed spatial information and realize multiscaling with well-established inter-scale integration schemas. Spatial P systems, a variant of P systems in which a more geometric concept of space has been added, have several characteristics in common with Cellular Automata. We propose such a formalism as a basis to rephrase the Complex Automata multiscaling approach and, in this perspective, provide a 2-scale Spatial P system describing bone remodelling. The proposed model not only results to be highly faithful and expressive in a multiscale scenario, but also highlights the need of a deep and formal expressiveness study involving Complex Automata, Spatial P systems and other promising multiscale approaches, such as our shape-based one already resulted to be highly faithful.Comment: In Proceedings MeCBIC 2010, arXiv:1011.005

Assessment of health risks of policies

The assessment of health risks of policies is an inevitable, although challenging prerequisite for the inclusion of health considerations in political decision making. The aim of our project was to develop a so far missing methodological guide for the assessment of the complex impact structure of policies. The guide was developed in a consensual way based on experiences gathered during the assessment of specific national policies selected by the partners of an EU project. Methodological considerations were discussed and summarized in workshops and pilot tested on the EU Health Strategy for finalization. The combined tool, which includes a textual guidance and a checklist, follows the top-down approach, that is, it guides the analysis of causal chains from the policy through related health determinants and risk factors to health outcomes. The tool discusses the most important practical issues of assessment by impact level. It emphasises the transparent identification and prioritisation of factors, the consideration of the feasibility of exposure and outcome assessmentwith special focus on quantification. The developed guide provides useful methodological instructions for the comprehensive assessment of health risks of policies that can be effectively used in the health impact assessment of policy proposals.

Single-cell analysis shows that adipose tissue of persons with both HIV and diabetes is enriched for clonal, cytotoxic, and CMV-specific CD4+ T cells

Persons with HIV are at increased risk for diabetes mellitus compared with individuals without HIV. Adipose tissue is an important regulator of glucose and lipid metabolism, and adipose tissue T cells modulate local inflammatory responses and, by extension, adipocyte function. Persons with HIV and diabetes have a high proportion of CX3CR1+ GPR56+ CD57+ (C-G-C+) CD4+ T cells in adipose tissue, a subset of which are cytomegalovirus specific, whereas individuals with diabetes but without HIV have predominantly CD69+ CD4+ T cells. Adipose tissue CD69+ and C-G-C+ CD4+ T cell subsets demonstrate higher receptor clonality compared with the same cells in blood, potentially reflecting antigen-driven expansion, but C-G-C+ CD4+ T cells have a more inflammatory and cytotoxic RNA transcriptome. Future studies will explore whether viral antigens have a role in recruitment and proliferation of pro-inflammatory C-G-C+ CD4+ T cells in adipose tissue of persons with HIV

Extreme Ultra-Violet Spectroscopy of the Lower Solar Atmosphere During Solar Flares

The extreme ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum contains a wealth of diagnostic tools for probing the lower solar atmosphere in response to an injection of energy, particularly during the impulsive phase of solar flares. These include temperature and density sensitive line ratios, Doppler shifted emission lines and nonthermal broadening, abundance measurements, differential emission measure profiles, and continuum temperatures and energetics, among others. In this paper I shall review some of the advances made in recent years using these techniques, focusing primarily on studies that have utilized data from Hinode/EIS and SDO/EVE, while also providing some historical background and a summary of future spectroscopic instrumentation.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Solar Physics as part of the Topical Issue on Solar and Stellar Flare

Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter