Collective treatment of the giant resonances in spherical nuclei

In a collective treatment the energies of the giant resonances are given by the boundary conditions at the nuclear surface, which is subject to vibration in spherical nuclei. The general form of the coupling between these two collective motions is given by angular-momentum and parity conservation. The coupling constants are completely determined within the hydrodynamical model. In the present treatment the influence of the surface vibrations on the total photon-absorption cross section is calculated. It turns out that in most of the spherical nuclei this interaction leads to a pronounced structure in the cross section. The agreement with the experiments in medium-heavy nuclei is striking; many of the experimental characteristics are reproduced by the present calculations. In some nuclei, however, there seem to be indications of single-particle excitations which are not yet contained in this work

In search of the authentic nation: landscape and national identity in Canada and Switzerland

While the study of nationalism and national identity has flourished in the last decade, little attention has been devoted to the conditions under which natural environments acquire significance in definitions of nationhood. This article examines the identity-forming role of landscape depictions in two polyethnic nation-states: Canada and Switzerland. Two types of geographical national identity are identified. The first – what we call the ‘nationalisation of nature’– portrays zarticular landscapes as expressions of national authenticity. The second pattern – what we refer to as the ‘naturalisation of the nation’– rests upon a notion of geographical determinism that depicts specific landscapes as forces capable of determining national identity. The authors offer two reasons why the second pattern came to prevail in the cases under consideration: (1) the affinity between wild landscape and the Romantic ideal of pure, rugged nature, and (2) a divergence between the nationalist ideal of ethnic homogeneity and the polyethnic composition of the two societies under consideration

PLOS One / Association of Small Dense LDL Serum Levels and Circulating Monocyte Subsets in Stable Coronary Artery Disease

Objective Atherosclerosis is considered to be an inflammatory disease in which monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages play a key role. Circulating monocytes can be divided into three distinct subtypes, namely in classical monocytes (CM; CD14++CD16-), intermediate monocytes (IM; CD14++CD16+) and non-classical monocytes (NCM; CD14+CD16++). Low density lipoprotein particles are heterogeneous in size and density, with small, dense LDL (sdLDL) crucially implicated in atherogenesis. The aim of this study was to examine whether monocyte subsets are associated with sdLDL serum levels. Methods We included 90 patients with angiographically documented stable coronary artery disease and determined monocyte subtypes by flow cytometry. sdLDL was measured by an electrophoresis method on polyacrylamide gel. Results Patients with sdLDL levels in the highest tertile (sdLDL4mg/dL;T3) showed the highest levels of pro-inflammatory NCM (15.27% vs. 11.46% and 10.94%, respectively; p<0.01) when compared with patients in the middle (sdLDL=2-3mg/dL;T2) and lowest tertile (sdLDL=0-1mg/dL;T1). Furthermore, patients in the highest sdLDL tertile showed lower CM levels than patients in the middle and lowest tertile (79.28% vs. 83.97% and 82.75%; p<0.01 for T3 vs. T2+T1). Levels of IM were not related to sdLDL levels (5.64% vs. 4.63% vs. 6.43% for T3, T2 and T1, respectively). In contrast to monocyte subset distribution, levels of circulating pro- and anti-inflammatory markers were not associated with sdLDL levels. Conclusion The atherogenic lipoprotein fraction sdLDL is associated with an increase of NCM and a decrease of CM. This could be a new link between lipid metabolism dysregulation, innate immunity and atherosclerosis.(VLID)491480

Representative image of a polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis tube and a corresponding analysis as obtained from the Lipoprint system.

<p>a) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis tube b) MID A-C represent IDL, LDL subfractions 1 and 2 represent large LDL and LDL subfractions 3–7 represent small, dense LDL</p

Clinical characteristics of the study population.

<p>sdLDL small dense low density lipoprotein; CAD coronary artery disease; VD vessel disease; BMI body mass index; TC total cholesterol; HDL high density lipoprotein; VLDL very low density lipoprotein; LDL low density lipoprotein;</p><p>Clinical characteristics of the study population.</p

Gating strategy used for monocyte subset discrimination.

<p>Monocytes were defined as CD45 positive cells (B) exhibiting a typical forward (FSC) and sideward scatter (SSC) profile (A). To exclude possible contamination with T-cells, B-cells and Natural Killer cells, cells that stained for CD3, CD19 and CD56 were excluded, respectively (C). Remaining CD45+CD3/19/56- cells with a typical FSC/SSC profile were considered monocytes and distinguished according to their CD14 and CD16 surface expression into classical monocytes (CD14++CD16-), intermediate monocytes (CD14++CD16+) and non-classical monocytes (CD14+CD16++) (D).</p

Monocyte subset distribution according to sdLDL tertiles.

<p>Monocyte subset distribution is associated with the small dense LDL subfraction. Bar graphs indicate mean % of total monocytes and error bars represent the standard error of the mean. n = 90; * p<0.01 for the lower tertiles of sdLDL vs. the third tertile</p