255 research outputs found
Sedimentation of binary mixtures of like- and oppositely charged colloids: the primitive model or effective pair potentials?
We study sedimentation equilibrium of low-salt suspensions of binary mixtures
of charged colloids, both by Monte Carlo simulations of an effective
colloids-only system and by Poisson-Boltzmann theory of a colloid-ion mixture.
We show that the theoretically predicted lifting and layering effect, which
involves the entropy of the screening ions and a spontaneous macroscopic
electric field [J. Zwanikken and R. van Roij, Europhys. Lett. {\bf 71}, 480
(2005)], can also be understood on the basis of an effective colloid-only
system with pairwise screened-Coulomb interactions. We consider, by theory and
by simulation, both repelling like-charged colloids and attracting oppositely
charged colloids, and we find a re-entrant lifting and layering phenomenon when
the charge ratio of the colloids varies from large positive through zero to
large negative values
STRUCTURE OF METHYLPHEOPHORBIDE-RCI
he methanolic extract of the cyanobacterium (blue-green alga) Spirulina geitleri has been treated with methanolic acid to convert all chlorophyllous pigments to their methylpheophorbides. Fractionation of the latter from methylpheophorbide a by thin layer chromatography and high pressure liquid chromatography yielded methylpheophorbide-RCI. Its structure has been determined as 132S-hydroxy-20-chloro-methylpheophorbide a by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance, absorption and circular dichroism spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and by partial synthesis from chlorophyll a. The pigment is isolated from Spirulina geitleri irrespective of the use or omission of chlorinated substances during the isolation procedure
Local orientational order in the Stockmayer liquid
Phase behaviour of the Stockmayer fluid is studied with a method similar to
the Monte-Carlo annealing scheme. We introduce a novel order parameter which is
sensitive to the local co-orientation of the dipoles of particles in the fluid.
We exhibit a phase diagram based on the behaviour of the order parameter in the
density region 0.1 \leq {\rho}\ast \leq 0.32. Specifically, we observe and
analyse a second order locally disordered fluid \rightarrow locally oriented
fluid phase transition.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Extended sedimentation profiles in charged colloids: the gravitational length, entropy, and electrostatics
We have measured equilibrium sedimentation profiles in a colloidal model
system with confocal microscopy. By tuning the interactions, we have determined
the gravitational length in the limit of hard-sphere-like interactions, and
using the same particles, tested a recent theory [R.van Roij, J. Phys. Cond.
Mat. 15, S3569, (2003)], which predicts a significantly extended sedimentation
profile in the case of charged colloids with long-ranged repulsions, due to a
spontaneously formed macroscopic electric field. For the hard-sphere-like
system we find that the gravitational length matches that expected. By tuning
the buoyancy of the colloidal particles we have shown that a mean field
hydrostatic equilibrium description even appears to hold in the case that the
colloid volume fraction changes significantly on the length scale of the
particle size. The extended sedimentation profiles of the colloids with
long-ranged repulsions are well-described by theory. Surprisingly, the theory
even seems to hold at concentrations where interactions between the colloids,
which are not modeled explicitly, play a considerable role
Unified mathematical Model of the Kinetics of Nanoparticle Phase Condensation in Magnetic Fields
In this paper, we aim to present a unified mathematical modeling and description of the kinetics of magnetic nanoparticles phase condensation (conducting to the appearance of bulk elongated aggregates) under homogeneous permanent or alternating magnetic field. For such case, the aggregate growth rate usually takes the form dV/dt = G(V)∆(t), with V and t being the aggregate's volume and time, respectively, ∆(t)—the supersaturation of the nanoparticle suspension, and with the function G(V) depending on the precise configuration of the applied field. The Liouville equation for the aggregate size distribution function is solved by the method of characteristics. The solution is obtained in parametric form for an arbitrary function G(V), providing a general framework for any type of the applied magnetic field. In the particular case of low-frequency rotating magnetic field (G(V)~V2/3), an explicit expression of the distribution function is obtained, while the dimensionless average aggregate volume 〈V〉 is found by the method of moments allowing a complete decoupling of the system of equations for the statistical moments 〈Vn〉 of the distribution function. Numerical examples are provided for the cases of permanent and low- or medium-frequency rotating fields. It is shown that in all cases, the average volume 〈V〉 only slightly depends on the relative width of the initial size distribution. Nevertheless, at any times, t > 0, the size distribution shows a significant spreading around the average value 〈V〉, which increases progressively with time and achieves a final plateau at long times. This model can be helpful for several biomedical or environmental applications of magnetic nanoparticles in which the nanoparticle suspension undergoes a field-induced phase condensation. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.PK acknowledges the French “Agence Nationale de la Recherche,” Project Future Investments UCA JEDI, No. ANR‐15‐IDEX‐01 (projects ImmunoMag and MagFilter) and the private company Axlepios Biomedicals for financial support. JQC acknowledges the financial support of UCA JEDI and Axlepios Biomedicals through the PhD fellowship. AZ thanks the Russian Science Foundation, project 20‐12‐00031, for the financial support
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Effect of Inhaled Xenon on Cerebral White Matter Damage in Comatose Survivors of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Randomized Clinical Trial
IMPORTANCE: Evidence from preclinical models indicates that xenon gas can prevent the development of cerebral damage after acute global hypoxic-ischemic brain injury but, thus far, these putative neuroprotective properties have not been reported in human studies. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of inhaled xenon on ischemic white matter damage assessed with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A randomized single-blind phase 2 clinical drug trial conducted between August 2009 and March 2015 at 2 multipurpose intensive care units in Finland. One hundred ten comatose patients (aged 24-76 years) who had experienced out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were randomized. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomly assigned to receive either inhaled xenon combined with hypothermia (33°C) for 24 hours (n = 55 in the xenon group) or hypothermia treatment alone (n = 55 in the control group). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary end point was cerebral white matter damage as evaluated by fractional anisotropy from diffusion tensor MRI scheduled to be performed between 36 and 52 hours after cardiac arrest. Secondary end points included neurological outcome assessed using the modified Rankin Scale (score 0 [no symptoms] through 6 [death]) and mortality at 6 months. RESULTS: Among the 110 randomized patients (mean age, 61.5 years; 80 men [72.7%]), all completed the study. There were MRI data from 97 patients (88.2%) a median of 53 hours (interquartile range [IQR], 47-64 hours) after cardiac arrest. The mean global fractional anisotropy values were 0.433 (SD, 0.028) in the xenon group and 0.419 (SD, 0.033) in the control group. The age-, sex-, and site-adjusted mean global fractional anisotropy value was 3.8% higher (95% CI, 1.1%-6.4%) in the xenon group (adjusted mean difference, 0.016 [95% CI, 0.005-0.027], P = .006). At 6 months, 75 patients (68.2%) were alive. Secondary end points at 6 months did not reveal statistically significant differences between the groups. In ordinal analysis of the modified Rankin Scale, the median (IQR) value was 1 (1-6) in the xenon group and 1 (0-6) in the control group (median difference, 0 [95% CI, 0-0]; P = .68). The 6-month mortality rate was 27.3% (15/55) in the xenon group and 34.5% (19/55) in the control group (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.49 [95% CI, 0.23-1.01]; P = .053). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Among comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, inhaled xenon combined with hypothermia compared with hypothermia alone resulted in less white matter damage as measured by fractional anisotropy of diffusion tensor MRI. However, there was no statistically significant difference in neurological outcomes or mortality at 6 months. These preliminary findings require further evaluation in an adequately powered clinical trial designed to assess clinical outcomes associated with inhaled xenon among survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00879892
Rotational averaging-out gravitational sedimentation of colloidal dispersions and phenomena
We report on the differences between colloidal systems left to evolve in the
earth's gravitational field and the same systems for which a slow continuous
rotation averaged out the effects of particle sedimentation on a distance scale
small compared to the particle size. Several systems of micron-sized colloidal
particles were studied: a hard sphere fluid, colloids interacting via
long-range electrostatic repulsions above the freezing volume fraction, an
oppositely charged colloidal system close to either gelation and/or
crystallization, colloids with a competing short-range depletion attraction and
a long-range electrostatic repulsion, colloidal dipolar chains, and colloidal
gold platelets under conditions where they formed stacks. Important differences
in the structure formation were observed between the experiments where the
particles were allowed to sediment and those where sedimentation was averaged
out. For instance, in the case of colloids interacting via long-range
electrostatic repulsions, an unusual sequence of
dilute-Fluid/dilute-Crystal/dense-Fluid/dense-Crystal phases was observed
throughout the suspension under the effect of gravity, related to the volume
fraction dependence of the colloidal interactions, whereas the system stayed
homogeneously crystallized with rotation. For the oppositely charged colloids,
a gel-like structure was found to collapse under the influence of gravity with
a few crystalline layers grown on top of the sediment, whereas when the
colloidal sedimentation was averaged out, the gel completely transformed into
crystallites that were oriented randomly throughout the sample. Rotational
averaging out gravitational sedimentation is an effective and cheap way to
estimate the importance of gravity for colloidal self-assembly processes.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure
Yukawa potentials in systems with partial periodic boundary conditions I : Ewald sums for quasi-two dimensional systems
Yukawa potentials are often used as effective potentials for systems as
colloids, plasmas, etc. When the Debye screening length is large, the Yukawa
potential tends to the non-screened Coulomb potential ; in this small screening
limit, or Coulomb limit, the potential is long ranged. As it is well known in
computer simulation, a simple truncation of the long ranged potential and the
minimum image convention are insufficient to obtain accurate numerical data on
systems. The Ewald method for bulk systems, i.e. with periodic boundary
conditions in all three directions of the space, has already been derived for
Yukawa potential [cf. Y., Rosenfeld, {\it Mol. Phys.}, \bm{88}, 1357, (1996)
and G., Salin and J.-M., Caillol, {\it J. Chem. Phys.}, \bm{113}, 10459,
(2000)], but for systems with partial periodic boundary conditions, the Ewald
sums have only recently been obtained [M., Mazars, {\it J. Chem. Phys.}, {\bf
126}, 056101 (2007)]. In this paper, we provide a closed derivation of the
Ewald sums for Yukawa potentials in systems with periodic boundary conditions
in only two directions and for any value of the Debye length. A special
attention is paid to the Coulomb limit and its relation with the
electroneutrality of systems.Comment: 40 pages, 5 figures and 4 table
Three-body interactions in colloidal systems
We present the first direct measurement of three-body interactions in a
colloidal system comprised of three charged colloidal particles. Two of the
particles have been confined by means of a scanned laser tweezers to a
line-shaped optical trap where they diffused due to thermal fluctuations. Upon
the approach of a third particle, attractive three-body interactions have been
observed. The results are in qualitative agreement with additionally performed
nonlinear Poissson-Boltzmann calculations, which also allow us to investigate
the microionic density distributions in the neighborhood of the interacting
colloidal particles
Maximal care considerations when treating patients with end-stage heart failure: ethical and procedural quandaries in management of the very sick
Deciding who should receive maximal technological treatment options and who should not represents an ethical, moral, psychological and medico-legal challenge for health care providers. Especially in patients with chronic heart failure, the ethical and medico-legal issues associated with providing maximal possible care or withholding the same are coming to the forefront. Procedures, such as cardiac transplantation, have strict criteria for adequate candidacy. These criteria for subsequent listing are based on clinical outcome data but also reflect the reality of organ shortage. Lack of compliance and non-adherence to lifestyle changes represent relative contraindications to heart transplant candidacy. Mechanical circulatory support therapy using ventricular assist devices is becoming a more prominent therapeutic option for patients with end-stage heart failure who are not candidates for transplantation, which also requires strict criteria to enable beneficial outcome for the patient. Physicians need to critically reflect that in many cases, the patient’s best interest might not always mean pursuing maximal technological options available. This article reflects on the multitude of critical issues that health care providers have to face while caring for patients with end-stage heart failure
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