Doubly Periodic Instanton Zero Modes

Fermionic zero modes associated with doubly periodic SU(2) instantons of unit charge are considered. In cases where the action density exhibits two `instanton cores' the zero mode peaks on one of four line-segments joining the two constituents. Which of the four possibilities is realised depends on the fermionic boundary conditions; doubly periodic, doubly anti-periodic or mixed.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Damage and fracture of biological and biomedical materials

In the last decade, the topic of damage and fracture of biological and biomedical materials not only became one of the central research areas in the healthcare engineering, but also drew attention of specialists in mechanics of materials and fracture. One of the motivations behind these developments is a continuing increase in the use of medical devices made of various materials that are exposed to challenging loading and environmental conditions. Many of them should have significant levels of durability to avoid recurring surgical interventions (typical examples being implants for hip and knee replacements or dental implants). A lack of understanding of their responses to specific conditions and interaction with biological environment can result in malfunctioning and failures or traumas to surrounding tissues. The typical application problems are additionally complicated by insufficient knowledge of mechanical behaviour of biomaterials at various length and time scales and under different loading conditions including their fracture and fatigue. These types of application presuppose the understanding of properties and performance of two classes of materials – natural (biomaterials) and engineering (biomedical materials), as well as their interaction at interfaces between, on the one hand, life tissues (or organs) and, on the other hand, implants and prostheses. Among engineering materials, used in such applications, are familiar metals and alloys, ceramics, polymers and composites. Their properties and performance seem to be well studied; still, biomedical applications are characterised by rather specific usability envelopes as well as, in most cases, additional constraints such as non-toxicity (biocompatibility) and/or resistance to harsh physiological environments. In some cases, a requirement, opposite to structural integrity, is needed, e.g. controlled degradation for scaffolds and stents..

On the occurrence of the tropical caprellid Paracaprella pusilla Mayer, 1890 (Crustacea: Amphipoda) in Europe

Paracaprella pusilla MAYER, 1980 is a tropical caprellid amphipod species first described from Brasil and very common along the Atlantic coast of Central America. Since its original description, P. pusilla has been found at numerous widespread locations in tropical and subtropical seas around the world, primarily associated with fouling communities in harbours. An established population of P. pusilla was recently found in Cádiz, southern Spain, which is both the northernmost collection and first record of this species in European coastal waters. Ship fouling is the most probable vector for its introduction. The species was always found associated with the native hydroid Eudendrium racemosum (CAVOLINI, 1785) and appeared to display a mutualistic relationship with this host

Correlation between Subjective Nasal Patency and Intranasal Airflow Distribution

Objectives (1) Analyze the relationship between intranasal airflow distribution and subjective nasal patency in healthy and nasal airway obstruction (NAO) cohorts using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). (2) Determine whether intranasal airflow distribution is an important objective measure of airflow sensation that should be considered in future NAO virtual surgery planning. Study Design Cross-sectional. Setting Academic tertiary medical center and academic dental clinic. Subjects and Methods Three-dimensional models of nasal anatomy were created based on computed tomography scans of 15 patients with NAO and 15 healthy subjects and used to run CFD simulations of nasal airflow and mucosal cooling. Subjective nasal patency was quantified with a visual analog scale (VAS) and the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE). Regional distribution of nasal airflow (inferior, middle, and superior) was quantified in coronal cross sections in the narrowest nasal cavity. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to quantify the correlation between subjective scores and regional airflows. Results Healthy subjects had significantly higher middle airflow than patients with NAO. Subjective nasal patency had no correlation with inferior and superior airflows but a high correlation with middle airflow (|r| = 0.64 and |r| = 0.76 for VAS and NOSE, respectively). Anterior septal deviations tended to shift airflow inferiorly, reducing middle airflow and reducing mucosal cooling in some patients with NAO. Conclusion Reduced middle airflow correlates with the sensation of nasal obstruction, possibly due to a reduction in mucosal cooling in this region. Further research is needed to elucidate the role of intranasal airflow distribution in the sensation of nasal airflow

Modeling of Electrokinetic Remediation Combining Local Chemical Equilibrium and Chemical Reaction Kinetics

A mathematical model for reactive-transport processes in porous media is presented. The modeled system includes diffusion, electromigration and electroosmosis as the most relevant transport mechanism and water electrolysis at the electrodes, aqueous species complexation, precipitation and dissolution as the chemical reactions taken place during the treatment time. The model is based on the local chemical equilibrium for most of the reversible chemical reactions occurring in the process. As a novel enhancement of previous models, the local chemical equilibrium reactive-transport model is combined with the solution of the transient equations for the kinetics of those chemical reactions that have representative rates in the same order than the transport mechanisms. The model is validated by comparison of simulation and experimental results for an acid- enhanced electrokinetic treatment of a real Pb-contaminated calcareous soil. The kinetics of the main pH buffering process, the calcite dissolution, was defined by a simplified empirical kinetic law. Results show that the evaluation of kinetic rate entails a significant improvement of the model prediction capability.This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 778045. Part of this work was supported financially by the European Commission within the project LIFE12 ENV/IT/442 SEKRET “Sediment electrokinetic remediation technology for heavy metal pollution removal”. Paz-Garcia acknowledges the financial support from the “Proyecto Puente - Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia de la Universidad de Málaga”, code: PPIT.UMA.B5.2018/17. Villen-Guzman acknowledges the financial support from the University of Malaga through a postdoctoral contract

Sequential homology

The notion of exterior space consists of a topological space together with a certain nonempty family of open subsets that is thought of as a 'system of open neighborhoods at infinity'. An exterior map is a continuous map which is 'continuous at infinity'. A strongly locally finite CW-complex X, whose skeletons are provided with the family of the complements of compact subsets, can be considered as an exterior space X. Associated with a compact metric space we also consider the open fundamental complex OFC(X); introduced by Lefschetz. In this paper we use sequences of cycles converging to infinity to introduce 'ordinary' sequential homology and cohomology theories in the category of exterior spaces. One of the interesting differences with respect to the ordinary theories of topological spaces is that the role of a point is played by the exterior space N of natural numbers with the discrete topology and the cofinite externology. For a strongly locally finite CW-complex X, we see that the singular homology of X is isomorphic to Hseq(X; 0 ), the locally finite homology is isomorphic to Hseq(X; 0 ) and the end homology is isomorphic to Hseq(X; 0 /0 cohomology one has that the compact support cohomology is isomorphic to Hseq(X; 0 ), the singular cohomology is isomorphic to Hseq(X; 0 ) and the end cohomology is isomorphic to Hseq(X; 0). With respect to the Lefschetz fundamental complex, one has that the ech homology of a compact metric space can be found as a subgroup of Hseq(OFC(X); ); the Steenrod homology is isomorphic to H+1seq (OFC(X);; 0 /0 ) and the ech cohomology of X is isomorphic to Hseq(OFC(X);; 0 /0 ). Finally, one also has a Poincaré isomorphism Hseqq(M) Hn-qseq (M), where M is a triangulable, second countable, orientable, n-manifold. We remark that in both sides of the isomorphism we are using sequential theories. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Selection of native trees for intercropping with coffee in the Atlantic Rainforest biome

A challenge in establishing agroforestry systems is ensuring that farmers are interested in the tree species, and are aware of how to adequately manage these species. This challenge was tackled in the Atlantic Rainforest biome (Brazil), where a participatory trial with agroforestry coffee systems was carried out, followed by a participatory systematisation of the farmers experiences. Our objective was to identify the main tree species used by farmers as well as their criteria for selecting or rejecting tree species. Furthermore, we aimed to present a specific inventory of trees of the Leguminosae family. In order to collect the data, we reviewed the bibliography of the participatory trial, visited and interviewed the farmers and organised workshops with them. The main farmers' criteria for selecting tree species were compatibility with coffee, amount of biomass, production and the labour needed for tree management. The farmers listed 85 tree species; we recorded 28 tree species of the Leguminosae family. Most trees were either native to the biome or exotic fruit trees. In order to design and manage complex agroforestry systems, family farmers need sufficient knowledge and autonomy, which can be reinforced when a participatory methodology is used for developing on-farm agroforestry systems. In the case presented, the farmers learned how to manage, reclaim and conserve their land. The diversification of production, especially with fruit, contributes to food security and to a low cost/benefit ratio of agroforestry systems. The investigated agroforestry systems showed potential to restore the degraded landscape of the Atlantic Rainforest biome

Analytical Expressions for Radiative Opacities of Low Z Plasmas

In this work we obtain analytical expressions for the radiative opacity of several low Z plasmas (He, Li, Be, and B) in a wide range of temperatures and densities. These formulas are obtained by fitting the proposed expression to mean opacities data calculated by using the code ABAKO/ RAPCAL. This code computes the radiative properties of plasmas, both in LTE and NLTE conditions, under the detailed-level-accounting approach. It has been successfully validated in the range of interest in previous works

Highlights at the 28th Congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), 2018

The last European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held in Madrid (Spain), last April 2018, was an undoubtful success for scientific quality and conference affluency [1]. The congress covered the entire field of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology with a significant and important participation of scientist all over the world (more than 12, 400 congresists from more than 120 countries). In fact, nowadays ECCMID has become the world congress of reference, for excellence and participation, the main meeting in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. Designed with more than 250 sessions, the key topics were antimicrobial resistance, novel diagnostic techniques, the role of microbiota, and new antimicrobials. In addition, the congress also covered different aspects of the big four in infectious diseases: bacterial, viral (HIV and hepatitis), fungal and parasitic infections. The complete program included a total number of 3, 563 abstracts, more than a hundred of symposiums and oral sessions, 20 educational workshops and 25 experts meetings. This minireview will try to summarize, from an objective point of view, the most important contributions, only focusing in three different aspects: microbiology diagnosis, resistance to antimicrobials, and new antimicrobials. ..

Physical interpretation of gauge invariant perturbations of spherically symmetric space-times

By calculating the Newman-Penrose Weyl tensor components of a perturbed spherically symmetric space-time with respect to invariantly defined classes of null tetrads, we give a physical interpretation, in terms of gravitational radiation, of odd parity gauge invariant metric perturbations. We point out how these gauge invariants may be used in setting boundary and/or initial conditions in perturbation theory.Comment: 6 pages. To appear in PR