151 research outputs found
L-Arginine Intake Effect on Adenine Nucleotide Metabolism in Rat Parenchymal and Reproductive Tissues
L-arginine is conditionally essetcial amino acid, required for normal cell growth, protein synthesis, ammonia detoxification, tissue growth and general performance, proposed in the treatment of men sterility and prevention of male impotence. The aim of the present paper was to estimate the activity of the enzymes of adenine nucleotide metabolism: 5′-nucleotidase (5′-NU), adenosine deaminase (ADA), AMP deaminase, and xanthine oxidase (XO), during dietary intake of L-arginine for a period of four weeks of male Wistar rats. Adenosine concentration in tissues is maintained by the relative activities of the adenosine-producing enzyme, 5′-NU and the adenosine-degrading enzyme-ADA adenosine deaminase. Dietary L-arginine intake directed adenine nucleotide metabolism in liver, kidney, and testis tissue toward the activation of adenosine production, by increased 5′-NU activity and decreased ADA activity. Stimulation of adenosine accumulation could be of importance in mediating arginine antiatherosclerotic, vasoactive, immunomodulatory, and antioxidant effects. Assuming that the XO activity reflects the rate of purine catabolism in the cell, while the activity of AMP deaminase is of importance in ATP regeneration, reduced activity of XO, together with the increased AMP-deaminase activity, may suggest that adenine nucleotides are presumably directed to the ATP regenerating process during dietary L-arginine intake
Spectroscopy, Equation Of State And Monopole Percolation In Lattice QED With Two Flavors
Non-compact lattice QED with two flavors of light dynamical quarks is
simulated on lattices, and the chiral condensate, monopole density and
susceptibility and the meson masses are measured. Data from relatively high
statistics runs at relatively small bare fermion masses of 0.005, 0.01, 0.02
and 0.03 (lattice units) are presented. Three independent methods of data
analysis indicate that the critical point occurs at and that
the monopole condensation and chiral symmetry breaking transitions are
coincident. The monopole condensation data satisfies finite size scaling
hypotheses with critical indices compatible with four dimensional percolation.
The best chiral equation of state fit produces critical exponents
(, ) which deviate significantly from mean
field expectations. Data for the ratio of the sigma to pion masses produces an
estimate of the critical index in good agreement with chiral
condensate measurements. In the strong coupling phase the ratio of the meson
masses are ,
and , while on the weak coupling side of the
transition , ,
indicating the restoration of chiral symmetry.\footnote{\,^{}}{August 1992}Comment: 21 pages, 24 figures (not included
The Landau Pole at Finite Temperature
We study the Landau pole in the lambda phi^4 field theory at non-zero and
large temperatures. We show that the position of the thermal Landau pole
Lambda_L(T) is shifted to higher energies with respect to the zero temperature
Landau pole Lambda_L(0). We find for high temperatures T > Lambda_L(0),
Lambda_L(T) simeq pi^2 T / log (T / Lambda_L(0)). Therefore, the range of
applicability in energy of the lambda phi^4 field theory increases with the
temperature.Comment: LaTex, 6 pages, 2 .ps figures. Improved version. To appear in Phys.
Rev. D, Rapid Communication
Assessment of the reliability of the serbian version of the sickness impact profile questionnaire in patients with chronic viral hepatitis
© 2015, Serbia Medical Society. All rights reserved. SUMMARY Introduction Health-related quality of life (HRQL) of chronic patients has been researched as the ultimate goal of modern treatment of chronic diseases to improve patients’ quality of life. Objective The objective was to assess the reliability of the Serbian version of the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) questionnaire on the sample of patients with chronic viral hepatitis. Methods The research covered 102 patients with chronic hepatitis (47 type B and 55 type C). The assessment of the reliability of the SIP questionnaire was performed by testing the internal consistency of the questions by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The factor analysis was used to assess whether the grouping of the questions within dimensions matches the distribution of the questions in the original English version of the questionnaire administered to U.S. patient population. Results The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the entire questionnaire is 0.925, 0.869 for the physical dimension, and 0.857 for the psychosocial dimension. After running a factor analysis of the psychosocial dimension, “emotional instability” was extracted as the key factor, confirming the results of previous research. Compared with the English version of the questionnaire, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the Serbian version does not diverge significantly, whereas the factor analysis confirms the classification of the questionnaire into two dimensions. Conclusion Our study has shown that the Serbian version of the SIP questionnaire is a reliable tool for assessing the HRQL of patients with chronic hepatitis B and C before starting treatment
Critical region of the finite temperature chiral transition
We study a Yukawa theory with spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and with a
large number N of fermions near the finite temperature phase transition.
Critical properties in such a system can be described by the mean field theory
very close to the transition point. We show that the width of the region where
non-trivial critical behavior sets in is suppressed by a certain power of 1/N.
Our Monte Carlo simulations confirm these analytical results. We discuss
implications for the chiral phase transition in QCD.Comment: 18 page
Advantages and disadvantages of non-starter lactic acid bacteria from traditional fermented foods: potential use as starters or probiotics
Research Areas: Food Science & TechnologyTraditional fermented foods are a significant source of starter and/or non-starter lactic acid bacteria (nsLAB). Moreover, these microorganisms are also known for their role as probiotics. The potential of nsLAB is huge; however, there are still challenges to be overcome with respect to characterization and application. In the present review, the most important steps that autochthonous lactic acid bacteria isolated from fermented foods need to overcome, to qualify as novel starter cultures, or as probiotics, in food technology and biotechnology, are considered. These different characterization steps include precise identification, detection of health-promoting properties, and safety evaluation. Each of these features is strain specific and needs to be accurately determined. This review highlights the advantages and disadvantages of nsLAB, isolated from traditional fermented foods, discussing safety aspects and sensory impact.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Kosterlitz-Thouless Universality in a Fermionic System
A new extension of the attractive Hubbard model is constructed to study the
critical behavior near a finite temperature superconducting phase transition in
two dimensions using the recently developed meron-cluster algorithm. Unlike
previous calculations in the attractive Hubbard model which were limited to
small lattices, the new algorithm is used to study the critical behavior on
lattices as large as . These precise results for the first time
show that a fermionic system can undergo a finite temperature phase transition
whose critical behavior is well described by the predictions of Kosterlitz and
Thouless almost three decades ago. In particular it is confirmed that the
spatial winding number susceptibility obeys the well known predictions of
finite size scaling for and up to logarithmic corrections the pair
susceptibility scales as at large volumes with for .Comment: Revtex format; 4 pages, 2 figure
Infrared Behaviour of Systems With Goldstone Bosons
We develop various complementary concepts and techniques for handling quantum
fluctuations of Goldstone bosons.We emphasise that one of the consequences of
the masslessness of Goldstone bosons is that the longitudinal fluctuations also
have a diverging susceptibility characterised by an anomalous dimension
in space-time dimensions .In these fluctuations diverge
logarithmically in the infrared region.We show the generality of this
phenomenon by providing three arguments based on i). Renormalization group
flows, ii). Ward identities, and iii). Schwinger-Dyson equations.We obtain an
explicit form for the generating functional of one-particle irreducible
vertices of the O(N) (non)--linear --models in the leading 1/N
approximation.We show that this incorporates all infrared behaviour correctly
both in linear and non-linear -- models. Our techniques provide an
alternative to chiral perturbation theory.Some consequences are discussed
briefly.Comment: 28 pages,2 Figs, a new section on some universal features of
multipion processes has been adde
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