A Growth Model for Multicellular Tumor Spheroids

Most organisms grow according to simple laws, which in principle can be derived from energy conservation and scaling arguments, critically dependent on the relation between the metabolic rate B of energy flow and the organism mass m. Although this relation is generally recognized to be of the form B(m) = mp, the specific value of the exponent p is the object of an ongoing debate, with many mechanisms being postulated to support different predictions. We propose that multicellular tumor spheroids provide an ideal experimental model system for testing these allometric growth theories, especially under controlled conditions of malnourishment and applied mechanical stress

Historical droughts in Mediterranean regions during the last 500 years: a data/model approach

International audienceWe present here a new method for comparing the output of General Circulation Models (GCMs) with proxy-based reconstructions, using time series of reconstructed and simulated climate parameters. The method uses k-means clustering to allow comparison between different periods that have similar spatial patterns, and a fuzzy logic-based distance measure in order to take reconstruction errors into account. The method has been used to test two coupled ocean-atmosphere GCMs over the Mediterranean region for the last 500 years, using an index of drought stress, the Palmer Drought Severity Index. The results showed that, whilst no model was able to exactly simulate the reconstructed changes, all simulations were an improvement over using the mean climate. Further, a good match was found after 1650 with a model run that took into account changes in volcanic forcing, solar irradiance, and greenhouse gases. A more detailed investigation of the output of this model showed the existence of a set of atmospheric circulation patterns linked to the patterns of drought stress: 1) a blocking pattern over northern Europe linked to dry conditions in the south prior to the Little Ice Age (LIA) and during the 20th century; 2) a NAO-positive like pattern with increased westerlies during the LIA; 3) a NAO-negative like period shown in the model prior to the LIA, but that occurs most frequently in the data during this period. The results of the comparison emphasise the importance of the inclusion of the various forcings in the models and help to understand the atmospheric changes connected to reconstructed climate changes

Neutrino charge radius and electromagnetic dipole moments via scalar and vector leptoquarks

The one-loop contribution of scalar and vector leptoquarks (LQs) to the electromagnetic properties (NEPs) of massive Dirac neutrinos is presented via an effective Lagrangian approach, with emphasis on the effective neutrino charge radius (NCR), which has never been calculated and is obtained by the background field formalism in a Yang-Mills-like scenario for gauge LQs. Analytical results for nonzero neutrino mass are presented in terms of both Feynman-parameter integrals and Passarino-Veltman scalar functions, which can be useful to obtain the NEPs of heavy neutrinos, out of which approximate expressions are obtained for light neutrinos. For the numerical analysis we concentrate on the only renormalizable scalar and vector LQ representations that do not need extra symmetries to forbid tree-level proton decay. Constraints on the parameter space consistent with current experimental data are then discussed and it is found that the LQ representations $\widetilde{R}_2$ and $U_1$ could yield the largest contributions to the NEPs provided that they have couplings to both left- and right-handed neutrinos of the order of $O(1)$. For a LQ mass of $1.5$ TeV, the magnetic dipole moment (MDM) of the tau neutrino can be of the order of $10^{-9}$ $\mu_B$, whereas its neutrino electric dipole moment (EDM) can reach values as high as $10^{-20}$-$10^{-19}$ ecm. On the other hand, the NCR can reach values up to $10^{-35}$ cm$^2$ regardless of the neutrino flavor and even in the absence of right-handed neutrinos. In the latter scenario, the EDM vanishes and the contribution to neutrino MDM would be negligible, of the order of $10^{-14}$ $\mu_B$ for the tau neutrino, whereas those for the muon and electron neutrinos would be about two and seven orders of magnitude smaller, respectively. Our estimates could be severely suppressed due to a possible suppression of the LQ coupling constants.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure

A novel approach to the analysis of human growth

OBJECTIVES: Several formulations have been proposed in order to model human growth from birth to maturity. They are usually based on “ad hoc” heuristic assumptions. In the present contribution we adopt, as an alternative, a completely general (interdisciplinary) approach, based on the formalism of the Phenomenological Universalities (PUN). METHODS: The main PUN class investigated to date, i.e. UN, can only account for the overall growth pattern. For a realistic description it is necessary to add to it one or more “spurts”, as expected on biological grounds, due to the stimulation of growth and sex hormones. RESULTS: A new PUN class (UN + FM) is generated and shown to be able to provide excellent agreement with standard auxological datasets. The accuracy of the fitting and reliability of the model suggest applications both at the diagnostic and therapeutic level. CONCLUSIONS: The developed formalism can be suitably related to the biological description of bone plate growth under selective hormonal stimulation on the bone epiphysis; i.e., the additional increase of stature is the “macroscopic” response to a well defined biological signal