240 research outputs found
Synchronization of phase oscillators due to nonlocal coupling mediated by the slow diffusion of a substance
Many systems of physical and biological interest are characterized by
assemblies of phase oscillators whose interaction is mediated by a diffusing
chemical. The coupling effect results from the fact that the local
concentration of the mediating chemical affects both its production and
absorption by each oscillator. Since the chemical diffuses through the medium
in which the oscillators are embedded, the coupling among oscillators is
non-local: it considers all the oscillators depending on their relative spatial
distances. We considered a mathematical model for this coupling, when the
diffusion time is arbitrary with respect to the characteristic oscillator
periods, yielding a system of coupled nonlinear integro-differential equations
which can be solved using Green functions for appropriate boundary conditions.
In this paper we show numerical solutions of these equations for three finite
domains: a linear one-dimensional interval, a rectangular, and a circular
region, with absorbing boundary conditions. From the numerical solutions we
investigate phase and frequency synchronization of the oscillators, with
respect to changes in the coupling parameters for the three considered
geometries
a systematic review of observational studies
Funding: Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, is supported by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (UID/04045/2020)Background: End-stage Kidney Disease patients have a high mortality and hospitalization risk. The association of these outcomes with physical activity is described in the general population and in other chronic diseases. However, few studies examining this association have been completed in end-stage Kidney Disease patients, raising the need to systematically review the evidence on the association of physical activity with mortality and hospitalization in this population. Methods: Electronic databases (EBSCO, Scopus and Web of Science) and hand search were performed until March 2020 for observational studies reporting the association of physical activity with mortality or hospitalization in adult end-stage Kidney Disease patients on renal replacement therapy (hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplant). Methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Quality in Prognosis Studies tool. The review protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42020155591). Results: Eleven studies were included: six in hemodialysis, three in kidney transplant, and two in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients. Physical activity was self-reported, except in one study that used accelerometers. All-cause mortality was addressed in all studies and cardiovascular mortality in three studies. Nine studies reported a significant reduction in all-cause mortality with increased levels of physical activity. Evidence of a dose-response relationship was found. For cardiovascular mortality, a significant reduction was observed in two of the three studies. Only one study investigated the association of physical activity with hospitalization. Conclusions: Higher physical activity was associated with reduced mortality in end-stage Kidney Disease patients. Future studies using objective physical activity measures could strengthen these findings. The association of physical activity with hospitalization should be explored in future investigations.publishersversionpublishe
Potential relevance of differential settlements in earthquake-induced liquefaction damage assessment
The assessment of vulnerability of buildings subjected to earthquake-induced liquefaction requires the definition
of an integrated damage scale accounting both for ground motion damage and ground permanent movements,
which cause rigid-body settlement and tilt of the building but also flexural demand on members due to
differential settlement of pad footings. Nevertheless, most of the existing procedures for the estimation of
differential settlements rely only in soil characteristics, thus neglecting the influence of building stiffness on the
soil-structure interaction. In the present work, based on simplified modelling of soil-structure variability and on
preliminary assumption of force distributions, representative values of members' demand due to differential
settlement are proposed. A simple approach relying on the structure-to-soil stiffness ratio and the equivalent soil
degradation extent under pad footings is adopted. The methodology is calibrated by means of a parametric linear
analysis for a set of planar frames. Relative flexural demand due to differential settlements normalised to the
seismic flexural demand are obtained. Results show that their relevance may not be very severe, thus damage
assessment of differential settlements could be likely accounted separately from flexural and rigid-body demand
A Serendipitous Galaxy Cluster Survey with XMM: Expected Catalogue Properties and Scientific Applications
This paper describes a serendipitous galaxy cluster survey that we plan to
conduct with the XMM X-ray satellite. We have modeled the expected properties
of such a survey for three different cosmological models, using an extended
Press-Schechter (Press & Schechter 1974) formalism, combined with a detailed
characterization of the expected capabilities of the EPIC camera on board XMM.
We estimate that, over the ten year design lifetime of XMM, the EPIC camera
will image a total of ~800 square degrees in fields suitable for the
serendipitous detection of clusters of galaxies. For the presently-favored
low-density model with a cosmological constant, our simulations predict that
this survey area would yield a catalogue of more than 8000 clusters, ranging
from poor to very rich systems, with around 750 detections above z=1. A
low-density open Universe yields similar numbers, though with a different
redshift distribution, while a critical-density Universe gives considerably
fewer clusters. This dependence of catalogue properties on cosmology means that
the proposed survey will place strong constraints on the values of Omega-Matter
and Omega-Lambda. The survey would also facilitate a variety of follow-up
projects, including the quantification of evolution in the cluster X-ray
luminosity-temperature relation, the study of high-redshift galaxies via
gravitational lensing, follow-up observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
and foreground analyses of cosmic microwave background maps.Comment: Accepted to ApJ. Minor changes, e.g. presentation of temperature
errors as a figure (rather than as a table). Latex (20 pages, 6 figures, uses
emulateapj.sty
The Imprint of Gravitational Waves in Models Dominated by a Dynamical Cosmic Scalar Field
An alternative to the standard cold dark matter model has been recently
proposed in which a significant fraction of the energy density of the universe
is due to a dynamical scalar field () whose effective equation-of-state
differs from that of matter, radiation or cosmological constant (). In
this paper, we determine how the Q-component modifies the primordial inflation
gravitational wave (tensor metric) contribution to the cosmic microwave
background anisotropy and, thereby, one of the key tests of inflation.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, revtex, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Impacto da disfunção renal na evolução intra-hospitalar após cirurgia de revascularização miocárdica
Perturbation evolution in cosmologies with a decaying cosmological constant
Structure formation models with a cosmological constant are successful in
explaining large-scale structure data, but are threatened by the
magnitude-redshift relation for Type Ia supernovae. This has led to discussion
of models where the cosmological `constant' decays with time, which might
anyway be better motivated in a particle physics context. The simplest such
models are based on scalar fields, and general covariance demands that a
time-evolving scalar field also supports spatial perturbations. We consider the
effect of such perturbations on the growth of adiabatic energy density
perturbations in a cold dark matter component. We study two types of model, one
based on an exponential potential for the scalar field and the other on a
pseudo-Nambu Goldstone boson. For each potential, we study two different
scenarios, one where the scalar field presently behaves as a decaying
cosmological constant and one where it behaves as dust. The initial scalar
field perturbations are fixed by the adiabatic condition, as expected from the
inflationary cosmology, though in fact we show that the choice of initial
condition is of little importance. Calculations are carried out in both the
zero-shear (conformal newtonian) and uniform-curvature gauges. We find that
both potentials allow models which can provide a successful alternative to
cosmological constant models.Comment: 14 pages RevTeX file with three figures incorporated (uses RevTeX and
epsf). Also available by e-mailing ARL, or by WWW at
http://star-www.maps.susx.ac.uk/papers/lsstru_papers.html Revised version
corrects an error in Eq10; results unchange
MCC950/CRID3 potently targets the NACHT domain of wild-type NLRP3 but not disease-associated mutants for inflammasome inhibition
The nucleotide-binding-domain (NBD)-and leucine-rich repeat (LRR)-containing (NLR) family, pyrin-domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome drives pathological inflammation in a suite of autoimmune, metabolic, malignant, and neurodegenerative diseases. Additionally, NLRP3 gain-of-function point mutations cause systemic periodic fever syndromes that are collectively known as cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS). There is significant interest in the discovery and development of diarylsulfonylurea Cytokine Release Inhibitory Drugs (CRIDs) such as MCC950/CRID3, a potent and selective inhibitor of the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway, for the treatment of CAPS and other diseases. However, drug discovery efforts have been constrained by the lack of insight into the molecular target and mechanism by which these CRIDs inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. Here, we show that the NAIP, CIITA, HET-E, and TP1 (NACHT) domain of NLRP3 is the molecular target of diarylsulfonylurea inhibitors. Interestingly, we find photoaffinity labeling (PAL) of the NACHT domain requires an intact (d)ATP-binding pocket and is substantially reduced for most CAPS-associated NLRP3 mutants. In concordance with this finding, MCC950/CRID3 failed to inhibit NLRP3-driven inflammatory pathology in two mouse models of CAPS. Moreover, it abolished circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-1 beta and IL-18 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged wild-type mice but not in Nlrp3(L351P) knock-in mice and ex vivo-stimulated mutant macrophages. These results identify wild-type NLRP3 as the molecular target of MCC950/CRID3 and show that CAPS-related NLRP3 mutants escape efficient MCC950/CRID3 inhibition. Collectively, this work suggests that MCC950/CRID3-based therapies may effectively treat inflammation driven by wild-type NLRP3 but not CAPS-associated mutants
Ammonia levels in different kinds of sampling sites in the central Iberian Peninsula
Ponencia presentada en:2nd Iberian Meeting on Aerosol Science and Technology (RICTA 2014) celebrado en Tarragona del 7 al 9 de julio de 2014.Ammonia is the Secondary Inorganic Aerosol (SIC) gaseous precursor which has been studied to a lesser extent in the Madrid Metropolitan Area up to date. A study conducted in the city of Madrid with the aim of characterizing levels of ammonia took place in 2011. These campaigns formed part of a larger study conducted in 6 Spanish cities. A time series of weekly integrated ammonia measurements available at an EMEP rural site (Campisábalos) has been used to obtain information on the ammonia rural background in the region. The results point to traffic and waste treatment plants as the main ammonia sources in Madrid. Relevant seasonal differences have not been observed in the Metropolitan Area. The explanation can be related to the fall in the rural background levels during July 2011, which might conceal urban summer emission increases observed in other cities
The Tropical Seagrass Halophila stipulacea: Reviewing What We Know From Its Native and Invasive Habitats, Alongside Identifying Knowledge Gaps
Halophila stipulacea is a small tropical seagrass, native to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. It invaded the Mediterranean Sea 150 years ago as a Lessepsian migrant, but so far has remained in insulated, small populations across this basin. Surprisingly, in 2002 it was reported in the Caribbean Sea, where within less than two decades it spread to most of the Caribbean Island nations and reaching the South American continent. Unlike its invasion of Mediterranean, in the Caribbean H. stipulacea creates large, continuous populations in many areas. Reports from the Caribbean demonstrated the invasiveness of H. stipulacea by showing that it displaces local Caribbean seagrass species. The motivation for this review comes from the necessity to unify the existing knowledge on several aspects of this species in its native and invasive habitats, identify knowledge gaps and develop a critical strategy to understand its invasive capacity and implement an effective monitoring and conservation plan to mitigate its potential spread outside its native ranges. We systematically reviewed 164 studies related to H. stipulacea to create the "Halophila stipulacea database." This allowed us to evaluate the current biological, ecological, physiological, biochemical, and molecular knowledge of H. stipulacea in its native and invasive ranges. Here we (i) discuss the possible environmental conditions and plant mechanisms involved in its invasiveness, (ii) assess the impact of H. stipulacea on native seagrasses and ecosystem functions in the invaded regions, (iii) predict the ability of this species to invade European and transoceanic coastal waters, (iv) identify knowledge gaps that should be addressed to better understand the biology and ecology of this species both in its native and non-native habitats, which would improve our ability to predict H. stipulacea's potential to expand into new areas in the future. Considering the predicted climate change scenarios and exponential human pressures on coastal areas, we stress the need for coordinated global monitoring and mapping efforts that will record changes in H. stipulacea and its associated communities over time, across its native, invasive and prospective distributional ranges. This will require the involvement of biologists, ecologists, economists, modelers, managers, and local stakeholder
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