2,642 research outputs found
Calorons and BPS monopoles with non-trivial holonomy in the confinement phase of SU(2) gluodynamics
With the help of the cooling method applied to SU(2) lattice gauge theory at
non-zero we present numerical evidence for the existence of
superpositions of Kraan-van Baal caloron (or BPS monopole pair) solutions with
non-trivial holonomy, which might constitute an important contribution to the
semi-classical approximation of the partition function.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figures, contribution to Lattice2002(topology
Calorons, Nahm's equations on S^1 and bundles over P^1xP^1
The moduli space of solutions to Nahm's equations of rank (k,k+j) on the
circle, and hence, of SU(2) calorons of charge (k,j), is shown to be equivalent
to the moduli of holomorphic rank 2 bundles on P^1xP^1 trivialized at infinity
with c_2=k and equipped with a flag of degree j along P^1x{0}. An explicit
matrix description of these spaces is given by a monad constructio
Application of Artificial Neural Networks in Pharmacokinetics
Drug development is a long and expensive process. It is often not until potential drug candidates are administered to humans that accurate quantification of their pharmacokinetic characteristics is achieved. The goal of developing quantitative structure-pharmacokinetic relationships (QSPkRs) is to relate the molecular structure of a chemical entity with its pharmacokinetic characteristics. In this thesis artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used to construct in silico predictive QSPkRs for various pharmacokinetic parameters using different drug data sets. Drug pharmacokinetic data for all studies were taken from the literature. Information for model construction was extracted from drug molecular structure. Numerous theoretical descriptors were generated from drug structure ranging from simple constitutional and functional group counts to complex 3D quantum chemical numbers. Subsets of descriptors were selected which best modeled the target pharmacokinetic parameter(s). Using manual selective pruning, QSPkRs for physiological clearances, volumes of distribution, and fraction bound to plasma proteins were developed for a series of beta-adrenoceptor antagonists. All optimum ANN models had training and cross-validation correlations close to unity, while testing was performed with an independent set of compounds. In most cases the ANN models developed performed better than other published ANN models for the same drug data set. The ability of ANNs to develop QSPkRs with multiple target outputs was investigated for a series of cephalosporins. Multilayer perceptron ANN models were constructed for prediction of half life, volume of distribution, clearances (whole body and renal), fraction excreted in the urine, and fraction bound to plasma proteins. The optimum model was well able to differentiate compounds in a qualitative manner while quantitative predictions were mostly in agreement with observed literature values. The ability to make simultaneous predictions of important pharmacokinetic properties of a compound made this a valuable model. A radial-basis function ANN was employed to construct a quantitative structure-bioavailability relationship for a large, structurally diverse series of compounds. The optimum model contained descriptors encoding constitutional through to conformation dependent solubility characteristics. Prediction of bioavailability for the independent testing set were generally close to observed values. Furthermore, the optimum model provided a good qualitative tool for differentiating between drugs with either low or high experimental bioavailability. QSPkR models constructed with ANNs were compared with multilinear regression models. ANN models were shown to be more effective at selecting a suitable subset of descriptors to model a given pharmacokinetic parameter. They also gave more accurate predictions than multilinear regression equations. This thesis presents work which supports the use of ANNs in pharmacokinetic modeling. Successful QSPkRs were constructed using different combinations of theoretically-derived descriptors and model optimisation techniques. The results demonstrate that ANNs provide a valuable modeling tool that may be useful in drug discovery and development
Loop expansion in Yang-Mills thermodynamics
We argue that a selfconsistent spatial coarse-graining, which involves
interacting (anti)calorons of unit topological charge modulus, implies that
real-time loop expansions of thermodynamical quantities in the deconfining
phase of SU(2) and SU(3) Yang-Mills thermodynamics are, modulo 1PI
resummations, determined by a finite number of connected bubble diagrams.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, v5: discussion of much more severely constrained
nonplanar situation included in Sec.
The Parkes HI Zone of Avoidance Survey
A blind HI survey of the extragalactic sky behind the southern Milky Way has
been conducted with the multibeam receiver on the 64-m Parkes radio telescope.
The survey covers the Galactic longitude range 212 < l < 36 and Galactic
latitudes |b| < 5, and yields 883 galaxies to a recessional velocity of 12,000
km/s. The survey covers the sky within the HIPASS area to greater sensitivity,
finding lower HI-mass galaxies at all distances, and probing more completely
the large-scale structures at and beyond the distance of the Great Attractor.
Fifty-one percent of the HI detections have an optical/NIR counterpart in the
literature. A further 27% have new counterparts found in existing, or newly
obtained, optical/NIR images. The counterpart rate drops in regions of high
foreground stellar crowding and extinction, and for low-HI mass objects. Only
8% of all counterparts have a previous optical redshift measurement. A notable
new galaxy is HIZOA J1353-58, a possible companion to the Circinus galaxy.
Merging this catalog with the similarly-conducted northern extension (Donley et
al. 2005), large-scale structures are delineated, including those within the
Puppis and Great Attractor regions, and the Local Void. Several
newly-identified structures are revealed here for the first time. Three new
galaxy concentrations (NW1, NW2 and NW3) are key in confirming the diagonal
crossing of the Great Attractor Wall between the Norma cluster and the CIZA
J1324.7-5736 cluster. Further contributors to the general mass overdensity in
that area are two new clusters (CW1 and CW2) in the nearer Centaurus Wall, one
of which forms part of the striking 180 deg (100/h Mpc) long filament that
dominates the southern sky at velocities of ~3000 km/s, and the suggestion of a
further Wall at the Great Attractor distance at slightly higher longitudes.Comment: Published in Astronomical Journal 9 February 2016 (accepted 26
September 2015); 42 pages, 7 tables, 18 figures, main figures data tables
only available in the on-line version of journa
HI Bright Galaxies in the Southern Zone of Avoidance
A blind survey for HI bright galaxies in the southern Zone of Avoidance, (212
deg < l < 36 deg; |b| < 5 deg), has been made with the 21 cm multibeam receiver
on the Parkes 64 m radiotelescope. The survey, sensitive to normal spiral
galaxies to a distance of about 40 Mpc and more nearby dwarfs, detected 110
galaxies. Of these, 67 have no counterparts in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic
Database. In general, the uncataloged galaxies lie behind thicker obscuration
than do the cataloged objects. All of the newly-discovered galaxies have HI
flux integrals more than an order of magnitude lower than the Circinus galaxy.
The survey recovers the Puppis cluster and foreground group (Kraan-Korteweg &
Huchtmeier 1992), and the Local Void remains empty. The HI mass function
derived for the sample is satisfactorily fit by a Schechter function with
parameters alpha = 1.51 +- 0.12, Phi* = 0.006 +- 0.003, and log M* = 9.7 +-
0.10.Comment: To appear in The Astronomical Journa
Oxidation of cellulose in pressurized carbon dioxide
This work presents first results upon oxidation of type II cellulose by nitrogen dioxide dissolved in carbon dioxide at high pressure. This reaction leads to oxidized cellulose, a natural-based bioresorbable fabric used for biomedical applications. The oxidation reaction takes place in a heterogeneous fluid–solid system. Kinetics of oxidation is presented here and effects of operating conditions such as pressure, temperature and initial moisture content of cellulose are investigated. Results are presented in terms of degree of oxidation of cellulose and quality of the final oxidized cellulose, which has been characterized using liquid-state and solid-state 13C NMR. The experimental results show the existence of possible secondary reactions which may lead to oxidized cellulose with insufficient mechanical strength. An attempt is made to evidence and understand the role of CO2 as a solvent in this system. Indeed, although supercritical CO2 appears to be a suitable candidate as a solvent for oxidation reactions, some inhibiting effect on nitrogen dioxide activity are observed in this case
New HI-detected Galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance
We present the first results of a blind HI survey for galaxies in the
southern Zone of Avoidance with a multibeam receiver on the Parkes telescope.
This survey is eventually expected to catalog several thousand galaxies within
Galactic latitude |b|<5 degrees, mostly unrecognised before due to Galactic
extinction and confusion. We present here results of the first three detections
to have been imaged with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The
galaxies all lie near Galactic longitude 325 degrees and were selected because
of their large angular sizes, up to 1.3 degrees. Linear sizes range from 53 to
108 kpc. The first galaxy is a massive 5.7x10^11 solar mass disk galaxy with a
faint optical counterpart, SGC 1511.1--5249. The second is probably an
interacting group of galaxies straddling the Galactic equator. No optical
identification is possible. The third object appears to be an interacting pair
of low column density galaxies, possibly belonging to an extended Circinus or
Centaurus A galaxy group. No optical counterpart has been seen despite the
predicted extinction (A(B) = 2.7 - 4.4 mag) not being excessive. We discuss the
implications of the results, in particular the low HI column densities (~10^19
atoms/sq.cm) found for two of the three galaxies.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures (Fig.1 in three parts, Fig.5 in two parts). To
appear in Astronomical Journal (Dec 1998). See
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/multibea
- …