4,005 research outputs found
Thermodynamically consistent description of the hydrodynamics of free surfaces covered by insoluble surfactants of high concentration
In this paper we propose several models that describe the dynamics of liquid
films which are covered by a high concentration layer of insoluble surfactant.
First, we briefly review the 'classical' hydrodynamic form of the coupled
evolution equations for the film height and surfactant concentration that are
well established for small concentrations. Then we re-formulate the basic model
as a gradient dynamics based on an underlying free energy functional that
accounts for wettability and capillarity. Based on this re-formulation in the
framework of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, we propose extensions of the basic
hydrodynamic model that account for (i) nonlinear equations of state, (ii)
surfactant-dependent wettability, (iii) surfactant phase transitions, and (iv)
substrate-mediated condensation. In passing, we discuss important differences
to most of the models found in the literature.Comment: 31 pages, 2 figure
Elucidating the Influence of the Activation Energy on Reaction Rates by Simulations Based on a Simple Particle Model
An application for visualizing the dynamic properties of an equimolar binary mixture of isotropic reactive particles is presented. By introducing a user selectable choice for the activation energy, the application is useful to demonstrate qualitatively that the reaction rate depends on the above choice and on temperature. The application is based on a 2D realistic dynamic model where atoms move because of their thermal energies and the trajectories are determined by solving numerically Newton’s laws according to a Molecular Dynamics (MD) scheme. Collisions are monitored as time progresses, and every time the collision energy is larger than the selected activation energy, a reactive event occurs. By examining the time evolution of the configurations, it is possible to observe that the number of reactive collisions is always smaller than the total number of collisions. However, the number of reactive events increases on raising the temperature and/or by decreasing the activation energy. The above observations, as well as more quantitative analyses of the simulation data, are useful in elucidating the connections existing among particle kinetic energy, temperature, and activation energy of the reaction. The application can be used at different levels of detail and in different instruction levels. Qualitative visual observations of the progress of the reaction are suitable at all levels of instruction. Systematic investigations on the effect of changes of temperature and activation energy, suitable for senior high school and college courses and useful to gain insight into kinetic models and Arrhenius’ law, are also reported
How Can eHealth Meet the Hearing and Communication Needs of Adults With Hearing Impairment and their Significant Others? A Group Concept Mapping Study
Objectives:
To seek the perspectives of key stakeholders regarding: (1) how eHealth could help meet the hearing and communication needs of adults with hearing impairment and their significant others; and (2) how helpful each aspect of eHealth would be to key stakeholders personally. /
Design:
Group concept mapping, a mixed-methods participatory research method, was used to seek the perspectives of key stakeholders: adults with hearing impairment (n = 39), significant others (n = 28), and hearing care professionals (n = 56). All participants completed a short online survey before completing one or more of the following activities: brainstorming, sorting, and rating. Brainstorming required participants to generate ideas in response to the focus prompt, “One way I would like to use information and communication technologies to address the hearing and communication needs of adults with hearing loss and their family and friends is to….” The sorting task required participants to sort all statements into groups that made sense to them. Finally, the rating task required participants to rate each of the statements according to “How helpful would this idea be to you?” using a 5-point Likert scale. Hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to the “sorting” data to develop a cluster map using the Concept Systems software. The “rating” data were subsequently analyzed at a cluster level and an individual-item level using descriptive statistics. Differences in cluster ratings between stakeholder groups were examined using Kruskal-Wallis tests. /
Results:
Overall, 123 statements were generated by participants in response to the focus prompt and were included in subsequent analyses. Based on the “sorting” data and hierarchical cluster analysis, a seven-cluster map was deemed to be the best representation of the data. Three key themes emerged from the data, including using eHealth to (1) Educate and Involve Others; (2) Support Aural Rehabilitation; and (3) Educate About and Demonstrate the Impacts of Hearing Impairment and Benefits of Hearing Rehabilitation. Overall median rating scores for each cluster ranged from 3.97 (educate and involve significant others) to 3.44 (empower adults with hearing impairment to manage their hearing impairment from home). /
Conclusions:
These research findings demonstrate the broad range of clinical applications of eHealth that have the capacity to support the implementation of patient- and family-centered hearing care, with self-directed educational tools and resources typically being rated as most helpful. Therefore, eHealth appears to be a viable option for enabling a more biopsychosocial approach to hearing healthcare and educating and involving significant others in the hearing rehabilitation process without adding more pressure on clinical time. More research is needed to inform the subsequent development of eHealth interventions, and it is recommended that health behavior change theory be adhered to for such interventions
Kinetic Energy Density Study of Some Representative Semilocal Kinetic Energy Functionals
There is a number of explicit kinetic energy density functionals for
non-interacting electron systems that are obtained in terms of the electron
density and its derivatives. These semilocal functionals have been widely used
in the literature. In this work we present a comparative study of the kinetic
energy density of these semilocal functionals, stressing the importance of the
local behavior to assess the quality of the functionals. We propose a quality
factor that measures the local differences between the usual orbital-based
kinetic energy density distributions and the approximated ones, allowing to
ensure if the good results obtained for the total kinetic energies with these
semilocal functionals are due to their correct local performance or to error
cancellations. We have also included contributions coming from the laplacian of
the electron density to work with an infinite set of kinetic energy densities.
For all the functionals but one we have found that their success in the
evaluation of the total kinetic energy are due to global error cancellations,
whereas the local behavior of their kinetic energy density becomes worse than
that corresponding to the Thomas-Fermi functional.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
A superfluid hydrodynamic model for the enhanced moments of inertia of molecules in liquid 4He
We present a superfluid hydrodynamic model for the increase in moment of
inertia, , of molecules rotating in liquid He. The static
inhomogeneous He density around each molecule (calculated using the Orsay-Paris
liquid He density functional) is assumed to adiabatically follow the
rotation of the molecule. We find that the values created by the
viscousless and irrotational flow are in good agreement with the observed
increases for several molecules [ OCS, (HCN), HCCCN, and HCCCH ]. For
HCN and HCCH, our model substantially overestimates . This is likely
to result from a (partial) breakdown of the adiabatic following approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 eps figure, corrected version of published paper. Erratum
has been submitted for change
Correlation of miRNA expression with intensity of neuropathic pain in man
Background
Peripheral nerve injury causes changes in expression of multiple receptors and mediators that participate in pain processing. We investigated the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) – a class of post-transcriptional regulators involved in many physiological and pathophysiological processes – and their potential role in the development or maintenance of chronic neuropathic pain following lingual nerve injury in human and rat.
Methods
We profiled miRNA expression in Sprague-Dawley rat and human lingual nerve neuromas using TaqMan® low-density array cards. Expression of miRNAs of interest was validated via specific probes and correlated with nerve injury-related behavioural change in rat (time spent drinking) and clinical pain (visual analogue scale (VAS) score). Target prediction was performed using publicly available algorithms; gene enrichment and pathway analysis were conducted with MetaCore. Networks of miRNAs and putative target genes were created with Cytoscape; interaction of miRNAs and target genomes in rat and human was displayed graphically using CircosPlot.
Results
rno-miR-138 was upregulated in lingual nerve of injured rats versus sham controls. rno-miR-138 and rno-miR-667 expression correlated with behavioural change at day 3 post-injury (with negative (rno-miR-138) and positive (rno-miR-667) correlations between expression and time spent drinking). In human, hsa-miR-29a was downregulated in lingual nerve neuromas of patients with higher pain VAS scores (painful group) versus patients with lower pain VAS scores (non-painful). A statistically significant negative correlation was observed between expression of both hsa-miR-29a and hsa-miR-500a, and pain VAS score.
Conclusions
Our results show that following lingual nerve injury, there are highly significant correlations between abundance of specific miRNAs, altered behaviour and pain scores. This study provides the first demonstration of correlations between human miRNA levels and VAS scores for neuropathic pain and suggests a potential contribution of specific miRNAs to the development of chronic pain following lingual nerve injury. Putative targets for candidate miRNAs include genes related to interleukin and chemokine receptors and potassium channels
Narrating One Nation:The Ideology and Rhetoric of the Miliband Labour Party
Speaking at the 2012 Labour Party Conference, Ed Miliband set out his vision of ‘One Nation’. This article maps the core concepts of Labour's ideology and identifies the narratives used to argue for One Nation social security reform. It locates these narratives within Labour's traditions and demonstrates that they coalesce in the leadership persona of Miliband himself. Though an attempt to respond to a populist ‘rhetorical culture’, the article contends that this strategy has created a self‐enclosed ideology that cannot conceive of an audience beyond itself. Labour therefore needs to overcome this solipsism if it is to secure victory in 2015
Cluster-based density-functional approach to quantum transport through molecular and atomic contacts
We present a cluster-based density-functional approach to model charge
transport through molecular and atomic contacts. The electronic structure of
the contacts is determined in the framework of density functional theory, and
the parameters needed to describe transport are extracted from finite clusters.
A similar procedure, restricted to nearest-neighbor interactions in the
electrodes, has been presented by Damle et al. [Chem. Phys. 281, 171 (2002)].
Here, we show how to systematically improve the description of the electrodes
by extracting bulk parameters from sufficiently large metal clusters. In this
way we avoid problems arising from the use of nonorthogonal basis functions.
For demonstration we apply our method to electron transport through Au contacts
with various atomic-chain configurations and to a single-atom contact of Al.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure
Ribosomal frameshifting used in influenza A virus expression occurs within the sequence UCC_UUU_CGU and is in the +1 direction
Programmed ribosomal frameshifting is used in the expression of many virus genes and some cellular genes. In eukaryotic systems, the most well-characterized mechanism involves –1 tandem tRNA slippage on an X_XXY_YYZ motif. By contrast, the mechanisms involved in programmed +1 (or −2) slippage are more varied and often poorly characterized. Recently, a novel gene, PA-X, was discovered in influenza A virus and found to be expressed via a shift to the +1 reading frame. Here, we identify, by mass spectrometric analysis, both the site (UCC_UUU_CGU) and direction (+1) of the frameshifting that is involved in PA-X expression. Related sites are identified in other virus genes that have previously been proposed to be expressed via +1 frameshifting. As these viruses infect insects (chronic bee paralysis virus), plants (fijiviruses and amalgamaviruses) and vertebrates (influenza A virus), such motifs may form a new class of +1 frameshift-inducing sequences that are active in diverse eukaryotes
Suppressing Electroweak Precision Observables in 5D Warped Models
We elaborate on a recently proposed mechanism to suppress large contributions
to the electroweak precision observables in five dimensional (5D) warped
models, without the need for an extended 5D gauge sector. The main ingredient
is a modification of the AdS metric in the vicinity of the infrared (IR) brane
corresponding to a strong deviation from conformality in the IR of the 4D
holographic dual. We compute the general low energy effective theory of the 5D
warped Standard Model, emphasizing additional IR contributions to the wave
function renormalization of the light Higgs mode. We also derive expressions
for the S and T parameters as a function of a generic 5D metric and zero-mode
wave functions. We give an approximate formula for the mass of the radion that
works even for strong deviation from the AdS background. We proceed to work out
the details of an explicit model and derive bounds for the first KK masses of
the various bulk fields. The radion is the lightest new particle although its
mass is already at about 1/3 of the mass of the lightest resonances, the KK
states of the gauge bosons. We examine carefully various issues that can arise
for extreme choices of parameters such as the possible reintroduction of the
hierarchy problem, the onset of nonperturbative physics due to strong IR
curvature or the creation of new hierarchies near the Planck scale. We conclude
that a KK scale of 1 TeV is compatible with all these constraints.Comment: 44 pages, 11 figures, references adde
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