4,038 research outputs found

    The Mechanism of Drug Control of Gastric Motility

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    Author Institution: From the Department of Research Surgery of the Ohio State Universit

    Quantifying flow regimes in a Greenland glacial fjord using iceberg drifters

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    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 41 (2014): 8411–8420, doi:10.1002/2014GL062256.Large, deep-keeled icebergs are ubiquitous in Greenland's outlet glacial fjords. Here we use the movement of these icebergs to quantify flow variability in Sermilik Fjord, southeast Greenland, from the ice mĂ©lange through the fjord to the shelf. In the ice mĂ©lange, a proglacial mixture of sea ice and icebergs, we find that icebergs consistently track the glacier speed, with slightly faster speeds near terminus and episodic increases due to calving events. In the fjord, icebergs accurately capture synoptic circulation driven by both along-fjord and along-shelf winds. Recirculation and in-/out-fjord variations occur throughout the fjord more frequently than previously reported, suggesting that across-fjord velocity gradients cannot be ignored. Once on the shelf, icebergs move southeastward in the East Greenland Coastal Current, providing wintertime observations of this freshwater pathway.Funding for this study was provided by National Science Foundation grants OCE-1130008 and ARC-0909274, and by the University of Oregon.2015-06-1

    Quantifying ïŹ‚ow regimes in a Greenland glacial fjord using iceberg drifters

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    Large, deep-keeled icebergs are ubiquitous in Greenland's outlet glacial fjords. Here we use the movement of these icebergs to quantify flow variability in Sermilik Fjord, southeast Greenland, from the ice mélange through the fjord to the shelf. In the ice mélange, a proglacial mixture of sea ice and icebergs, we find that icebergs consistently track the glacier speed, with slightly faster speeds near terminus and episodic increases due to calving events. In the fjord, icebergs accurately capture synoptic circulation driven by both along-fjord and along-shelf winds. Recirculation and in-/out-fjord variations occur throughout the fjord more frequently than previously reported, suggesting that across-fjord velocity gradients cannot be ignored. Once on the shelf, icebergs move southeastward in the East Greenland Coastal Current, providing wintertime observations of this freshwater pathway.Funded by The National Science Foundation. Grant Numbers: OCE-1130008, ARC-0909274 and The University of Oregon

    Three-dimensional ring current decay model

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    This work is an extension of a previous ring current decay model. In the previous work, a two-dimensional kinetic model was constructed to study the temporal variations of the equatorially mirroring ring current ions, considering charge exchange and Coulomb drag losses along drift paths in a magnetic dipole field. In this work, particles with arbitrary pitch angle are considered. By bounce averaging the kinetic equation of the phase space density, information along magnetic field lines can be inferred from the equator. The three-dimensional model is used to simulate the recovery phase of a model great magnetic storm, similar to that which occurred in early February 1986. The initial distribution of ring current ions (at the minimum Dst) is extrapolated to all local times from AMPTE/CCE spacecraft observations on the dawnside and duskside of the inner magnetosphere spanning the L value range L = 2.25 to 6.75. Observations by AMPTE/CCE of ring current distributions over subsequent orbits during the storm recovery phase are compared to model outputs. In general, the calculated ion fluxes are consistent with observations, except for H(+) fluxes at tens of keV, which are always overestimated. A newly invented visualization idea, designated as a chromogram, is used to display the spatial and energy dependence of the ring current ion differential flux. Important features of storm time ring current, such as day-night asymmetry during injection and drift hole on the dayside at low energies (less than 10 keV), are manifested in the chromogram representation. The pitch angle distribution is well fit by the function, J(sub o)(1 + Ay(sup n)), where y is sine of the equatorial pitch angle. The evolution of the index n is a combined effect of charge exchange loss and particle drift. At low energies (less than 30 keV), both drift dispersion and charge exchange are important in determining n

    A three-dimensional ring current decay model

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    This work is an extension of a previous ring current decay model. In the previous work, a two-dimensional kinetic model was constructed to study the temporal variations of the equatorially mirroring ring current ions, considering charge exchange and Coulomb drag losses along drift paths in a magnetic dipole field. In this work, particles with arbitrary pitch angle are considered. By bounce averaging the kinetic equation of the phase space density, information along magnetic field lines can be inferred from the equator. The three-dimensional model is used to simulate the recovery phase of a model great magnetic storm, similar to that which occurred in early February 1986. The initial distribution of ring current ions (at the minimum Dst) is extrapolated to all local times from AMPTE/CCE spacecraft observations on the dawn and dusk sides of the inner magnetosphere spanning the L value range L = 2.25 to 6.75. Observations by AMPTE/CCE of ring current distributions over subsequent orbits during the storm recovery phase are compared to model outputs. In general, the calculated ion fluxes are consistent with observations, except for H+ fluxes at tens of keV, which are always over-estimated. A newly-invented visualization idea, designated as a chromogram, is used to display the spatial and energy dependence of the ring current ion differential flux. Important features of storm-time ring current, such as day-night asymmetry during injection and drift hole on the dayside at low energies (less than 10 keV), are manifested in the chromogram representation. The pitch angle distribution is well fit by the function, j(sub o)(1+Ay(exp n)), where y is sine of the equatorial pitch angle. The evolution of the index n is a combined effect of charge exchange loss and particle drift. At low energies (less than 30 keV), both drift dispersion and charge exchange are important in determining n

    Conductive interpenetrating networks of polypyrrole and polycaprolactone encourage electrophysiological development of cardiac cells

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    Conductive and electroactive polymers have the potential to enhance engineered cardiac tissue function. In this study, an interpenetrating network of the electrically-conductive polymer polypyrrole (PPy) was grown within a matrix of flexible polycaprolactone (PCL) and evaluated as a platform for directing the formation of functional cardiac cell sheets. PCL films were either treated with sodium hydroxide to render them more hydrophilic and enhance cell adhesion or rendered electroactive with PPy grown via chemical polymerization yielding PPy–PCL that had a resistivity of 1.0 ± 0.4 kΩ cm, which is similar to native cardiac tissue. Both PCL and PPy–PCL films supported cardiomyocyte attachment; increasing the duration of PCL pre-treatment with NaOH resulted in higher numbers of adherent cardiomyocytes per unit area, generating cell densities which were more similar to those on PPy–PCL films (1568 ± 126 cells mm−2, 2880 ± 439 cells mm−2, 3623 ± 456 cells mm−2 for PCL with 0, 24, 48 h of NaOH pretreatment, respectively; 2434 ± 166 cells mm−2 for PPy–PCL). When cardiomyocytes were cultured on the electrically-conductive PPy–PCL, more cells were observed to have peripheral localization of the gap junction protein connexin-43 (Cx43) as compared to cells on NaOH-treated PCL (60.3 ± 4.3% vs. 46.6 ± 5.7%). Cx43 gene expression remained unchanged between materials. Importantly, the velocity of calcium wave propagation was faster and calcium transient duration was shorter for cardiomyocyte monolayers on PPy–PCL (1612 ± 143 ÎŒm/s, 910 ± 63 ms) relative to cells on PCL (1129 ± 247 ÎŒm/s, 1130 ± 20 ms). In summary, PPy–PCL has demonstrated suitability as an electrically-conductive substrate for culture of cardiomyocytes, yielding enhanced functional properties; results encourage further development of conductive substrates for use in differentiation of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and cardiac tissue engineering applications. Statement of Significance Current conductive materials for use in cardiac regeneration are limited by cytotoxicity or cost in implementation. In this manuscript, we demonstrate for the first time the application of a biocompatible, conductive polypyrrole–polycaprolactone film as a platform for culturing cardiomyocytes for cardiac regeneration. This study shows that the novel conductive film is capable of enhancing cell–cell communication through the formation of connexin-43, leading to higher velocities for calcium wave propagation and reduced calcium transient durations among cultured cardiomyocyte monolayers. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that chemical modification of polycaprolactone through alkaline-mediated hydrolysis increased overall cardiomyocyte adhesion. The results of this study provide insight into how cardiomyocytes interact with conductive substrates and will inform future research efforts to enhance the functional properties of cardiomyocytes, which is critical for their use in pharmaceutical testing and cell therapy

    Mediation of the solar wind termination shock by non-thermal ions

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    Broad regions on both sides of the solar wind termination shock are populated by high intensities of non- thermal ions and electrons. The pre- shock particles in the solar wind have been measured by the spacecraft Voyager 1 ( refs 1 - 5) and Voyager 2 ( refs 3, 6). The post- shock particles in the heliosheath have also been measured by Voyager 1 ( refs 3 - 5). It was not clear, however, what effect these particles might have on the physics of the shock transition until Voyager 2 crossed the shock on 31 August - 1 September 2007 ( refs 7 - 9). Unlike Voyager 1, Voyager 2 is making plasma measurements(7). Data from the plasma(7) and magnetic field(8) instruments on Voyager 2 indicate that non- thermal ion distributions probably have key roles in mediating dynamical processes at the termination shock and in the heliosheath. Here we report that intensities of low- energy ions measured by Voyager 2 produce non- thermal partial ion pressures in the heliosheath that are comparable to ( or exceed) both the thermal plasma pressures and the scalar magnetic field pressures. We conclude that these ions are the >0.028 MeV portion of the non- thermal ion distribution that determines the termination shock structure(8) and the acceleration of which extracts a large fraction of bulk- flow kinetic energy from the incident solar wind(7).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62516/1/nature07030.pd
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