787 research outputs found
Clusters under strong VUV pulses: A quantum-classical hybrid-description incorporating plasma effects
The quantum-classical hybrid-description of rare-gas clusters interacting
with intense light pulses which we have developed is described in detail. Much
emphasis is put on the treatment of screening electrons in the cluster which
set the time scale for the evolution of the system and form the link between
electrons strongly bound to ions and quasi-free plasma electrons in the
cluster. As an example we discuss the dynamics of an Ar147 cluster exposed to a
short VUV laser pulse of 20eV photon energy.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
Biomarker-based asthma phenotypes of corticosteroid response
BackgroundAsthma is a heterogeneous disease with different phenotypes. Inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) therapy is a mainstay of treatment for asthma, but the clinical response to ICSs is variable.ObjectiveWe hypothesized that a panel of inflammatory biomarkers (ie, fraction of exhaled nitric oxide [Feno], sputum eosinophil count, and urinary bromotyrosine [BrTyr] level) might predict steroid responsiveness.MethodsThe original study from which this analysis originates comprised 2 phases: a steroid-naive phase 1 and a 28-day trial of ICSs (phase 2) during which Feno values, sputum eosinophil counts, and urinary BrTyr levels were measured. The response to ICSs was based on clinical improvements, including a 12% or greater increase in FEV1, a 0.5-point or greater decrease in Asthma Control Questionnaire score, and 2 doubling dose or greater increase in provocative concentration of adenosine 5âČ-monophosphate causing a 20% decrease in FEV1 (PC20AMP). Healthy control subjects were also evaluated in this study for comparison of biomarkers with those seen in asthmatic patients.ResultsAsthmatic patients had higher than normal Feno values, sputum eosinophil counts, and urinary BrTyr levels during the steroid-naive phase and after ICS therapy. After 28-day trial of ICSs, Feno values decreased in 82% of asthmatic patients, sputum eosinophil counts decreased in 60%, and urinary BrTyr levels decreased in 58%. Each of the biomarkers at the steroid-naive phase had utility for predicting steroid responsiveness, but the combination of high Feno values and high urinary BrTyr levels had the best power (13.3-fold, P < .01) to predict a favorable response to ICS therapy. However, the magnitude of the decrease in biomarker levels was unrelated to the magnitude of clinical response to ICS therapy.ConclusionA noninvasive panel of biomarkers in steroid-naive asthmatic patients predicts clinical responsiveness to ICS therapy
Elective Open Suprarenal Aneurysm Repair in England from 2000 to 2010 an Observational Study of Hospital Episode Statistics
Background: Open surgery is widely used as a benchmark for the results of fenestrated endovascular repair of complex abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). However, the existing evidence stems from single-centre experiences, and may not be reproducible in wider practice. National outcomes provide valuable information regarding the safety of suprarenal aneurysm repair.
Methods: Demographic and clinical data were extracted from English Hospital Episodes Statistics for patients undergoing elective suprarenal aneurysm repair from 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2010. Thirty-day mortality and five-year survival were analysed by logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards modeling.
Results: 793 patients underwent surgery with 14% overall 30-day mortality, which did not improve over the study period. Independent predictors of 30-day mortality included age, renal disease and previous myocardial infarction. 5-year survival was independently reduced by age, renal disease, liver disease, chronic pulmonary disease, and known metastatic solid tumour. There was significant regional variation in both 30-day mortality and 5-year survival after risk-adjustment. Regional differences in outcome were eliminated in a sensitivity analysis for perioperative outcome, conducted by restricting analysis to survivors of the first 30 days after surgery.
Conclusions: Elective suprarenal aneurysm repair was associated with considerable mortality and significant regional variation across England. These data provide a benchmark to assess the efficacy of complex endovascular repair of supra-renal aneurysms, though cautious interpretation is required due to the lack of information regarding aneurysm morphology. More detailed study is required, ideally through the mandatory submission of data to a national registry of suprarenal aneurysm repair
Recommended from our members
SETD3 is an actin histidine methyltransferase that prevents primary dystocia.
For more than 50Â years, the methylation of mammalian actin at histidine 73 has been known to occur1. Despite the pervasiveness of His73 methylation, which we find is conserved in several model animals and plants, its function remains unclear and the enzyme that generates this modification is unknown. Here we identify SET domain protein 3 (SETD3) as the physiological actin His73 methyltransferase. Structural studies reveal that an extensive network of interactions clamps the actin peptide onto the surface of SETD3 to orient His73 correctly within the catalytic pocket and to facilitate methyl transfer. His73 methylation reduces the nucleotide-exchange rate on actin monomers and modestly accelerates the assembly of actin filaments. Mice that lack SETD3 show complete loss of actin His73 methylation in several tissues, and quantitative proteomics analysis shows that actin His73 methylation is the only detectable physiological substrate of SETD3. SETD3-deficient female mice have severely decreased litter sizes owing to primary maternal dystocia that is refractory to ecbolic induction agents. Furthermore, depletion of SETD3 impairs signal-induced contraction in primary human uterine smooth muscle cells. Together, our results identify a mammalian histidine methyltransferase and uncover a pivotal role for SETD3 and actin His73 methylation in the regulation of smooth muscle contractility. Our data also support the broader hypothesis that protein histidine methylation acts as a common regulatory mechanism
Heats of formation of perchloric acid, HClO, and perchloric anhydride, ClO. Probing the limits of W1 and W2 theory
The heats of formation of HClO and ClO have been determined to
chemical accuracy for the first time by means of W1 and W2 theory. These
molecules exhibit particularly severe degrees of inner polarization, and as
such obtaining a basis-set limit SCF component to the total atomization energy
becomes a challenge. (Adding high-exponent functions to a standard
basis set has an effect on the order of 100 kcal/mol for ClO.) Wilson's
aug-cc-pV(n+d)Z basis sets represent a dramatic improvement over the standard
aug-cc-pVnZ basis sets, while the aug-cc-pVnZ+2d1f sequence converges still
more rapidly. Jensen's polarization consistent basis sets still require
additional high-exponent functions: for smooth convergence we suggest the
\{aug-pc1+3d,aug-pc2+2d,aug-pc3+d,aug-pc4\} sequence. The role of the tight
functions is shown to be an improved description of the Cl (3d) Rydberg
orbital, enhancing its ability to receive back-bonding from the oxygen lone
pairs. In problematic cases like this (or indeed in general), a single
SCF/aug-cc-pV6Z+2d1f calculation may be preferable over empirically motivated
extrapolations. Our best estimate heats of formation are HClO(g)1 kcal/mol and ClO(g)2 kcal/mol, the largest source of
uncertainty being our inability to account for post-CCSD(T) correlation
effects. While G2 and G3 theory have fairly large errors, G3X theory reproduces
both values to within 2 kcal/mol.Comment: J. Mol. Struct. (THEOCHEM), in press (WATOC'05 special issue
Statistical coverage for supersymmetric parameter estimation: a case study with direct detection of dark matter
Models of weak-scale supersymmetry offer viable dark matter (DM) candidates.
Their parameter spaces are however rather large and complex, such that pinning
down the actual parameter values from experimental data can depend strongly on
the employed statistical framework and scanning algorithm. In frequentist
parameter estimation, a central requirement for properly constructed confidence
intervals is that they cover true parameter values, preferably at exactly the
stated confidence level when experiments are repeated infinitely many times.
Since most widely-used scanning techniques are optimised for Bayesian
statistics, one needs to assess their abilities in providing correct confidence
intervals in terms of the statistical coverage. Here we investigate this for
the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) when only
constrained by data from direct searches for dark matter. We construct
confidence intervals from one-dimensional profile likelihoods and study the
coverage by generating several pseudo-experiments for a few benchmark sets of
pseudo-true parameters. We use nested sampling to scan the parameter space and
evaluate the coverage for the benchmarks when either flat or logarithmic priors
are imposed on gaugino and scalar mass parameters. The sampling algorithm has
been used in the configuration usually adopted for exploration of the Bayesian
posterior. We observe both under- and over-coverage, which in some cases vary
quite dramatically when benchmarks or priors are modified. We show how most of
the variation can be explained as the impact of explicit priors as well as
sampling effects, where the latter are indirectly imposed by physicality
conditions. For comparison, we also evaluate the coverage for Bayesian credible
intervals, and observe significant under-coverage in those cases.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures; v2 includes major updates in response to
referee's comments; extra scans and tables added, discussion expanded, typos
corrected; matches published versio
Time-resolved optical shadowgraphy of solid hydrogen jets as a testbed to benchmark particle-in-cell simulations
Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are a superior tool to model
kinetics-dominated plasmas in relativistic and ultrarelativistic laser-solid
interactions (dimensionless vectorpotential ). The transition from
relativistic to subrelativistic laser intensities (), where
correlated and collisional plasma physics become relevant, is reaching the
limits of available modeling capabilities. This calls for theoretical and
experimental benchmarks and the establishment of standardized testbeds. In this
work, we develop such a suitable testbed to experimentally benchmark PIC
simulations using a laser-irradiated micron-sized cryogenic hydrogen-jet
target. Time-resolved optical shadowgraphy of the expanding plasma density,
complemented by hydrodynamics and ray-tracing simulations, is used to determine
the bulk-electron temperature evolution after laser irradiation. As a showcase,
a study of isochoric heating of solid hydrogen induced by laser pulses with a
dimensionless vectorpotential of is presented. The comparison
of the bulk-electron temperature of the experiment with systematic scans of PIC
simulations demostrates that, due to an interplay of vacuum heating and
resonance heating of electrons, the initial surface-density gradient of the
target is decisive to reach quantitative agreement at \SI{1}{\ps} after the
interaction. The showcase demostrates the readiness of the testbed for
controlled parameter scans at all laser intensities of
Electronic Coherence Dephasing in Excitonic Molecular Complexes: Role of Markov and Secular Approximations
We compare four different types of equations of motion for reduced density
matrix of a system of molecular excitons interacting with thermodynamic bath.
All four equations are of second order in the linear system-bath interaction
Hamiltonian, with different approximations applied in their derivation. In
particular we compare time-nonlocal equations obtained from so-called
Nakajima-Zwanzig identity and the time-local equations resulting from the
partial ordering prescription of the cummulant expansion. In each of these
equations we alternatively apply secular approximation to decouple population
and coherence dynamics from each other. We focus on the dynamics of intraband
electronic coherences of the excitonic system which can be traced by coherent
two-dimensional spectroscopy. We discuss the applicability of the four
relaxation theories to simulations of population and coherence dynamics, and
identify features of the two-dimensional coherent spectrum that allow us to
distinguish time-nonlocal effects.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
- âŠ