24,306 research outputs found
Contractile properties of fibroblasts derived from primary frozen shoulder and effects of TGF beta 1 stimulation
INTRODUCTION: Primary Frozen Shoulder (PFS) is a debilitating disease of unknown aetiology. There is fibrosis and contracture of the coracohumeral ligament, tissues of the rotator interval and the glenohumeral ligaments, leading to restrictive shoulder movements requiring surgical intervention [1]. Frozen shoulder has been postulated to be dupuytren’s disease of the shoulder with an association inferred since 1936. The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that cellular mechanisms of fibroblasts derived from primary frozen shoulder exhibited similar activity in terms of contraction and response to cytokine (transforming growth factor beta1) to fibroblasts derived from dupuytren’s disease. Understanding of cellular responses is critical to developing non surgical treatment strategies
Dynamic power load simulator
Two independent models simulate dynamic and steady-state responses of electrical and electronic equipment under power load. One is resistance/capacitance/inductance network, and the other is variable resistance analog device. Resistance, inductance, and/or capacitance are selected by iterative process; time-domain response is compared with that of real equipment to select optimal values
Effect of habituation on the susceptibility of the rat to restraint ulcers
The frequency and gravity of restraint ulcers were found to significantly diminish in rats previously exposed to brief periods of immobilization. The rats' becoming habituated to restraint conditions probably explains this phenomenon
Negative 4-Probe Conductances of Mesoscopic Superconducting Wires
We analyze the longitudinal 4-probe conductance of mesoscopic normal and
superconducting wires and predict that in the superconducting case, large
negative values can arise for both the weakly disordered and localized regimes.
This contrasts sharply with the behaviour of the longitudinal 4-probe
conductance of normal wires, which in the localized limit is always
exponentially small and positive.Comment: Latex, 3 figures available on request to [email protected]
(Simon Robinson
High-Resolution Measurements of Intersystem Bands of Carbon Monoxide toward X Persei
In an echelle spectrum of X Per acquired with the Space Telescope Imaging
Spectrograph we have identified individual rotational lines of 11
triplet-singlet (intersystem) absorption bands of ^12CO. Four bands provide
first detections for interstellar clouds. From a comparison with the zeta Oph
sight line we find that X Per is obscured by a higher 12CO column density of
1.4 x 10^16 cm-2. Together with the high spectral resolution of 1.3 km s-1,
this allows (i) an improved measurement of previously published f-values for
seven bands, and (ii) an extraction of the first astrophysical oscillator
strengths for d-X (8-0), (9-0), and (10-0), as well as for e-X (12-0). The
^13CO d-X (12-0) band, previously suspected to exist toward zeta Oph, is now
readily resolved and modeled. Our derived intersystem f-values for ^12CO
include a few mild (leq 34%) disagreements with recent predictions from a
perturbation analysis calculated for the interstellar excitation temperature.
Overall, the comparison confirms the superiority of employing multiple singlet
levels in the calculations of mixing coefficients over previous single-level
predictions.Comment: 11 pages (incl. 1 figure). Accepted by ApJ Letter
General Green's function formalism for transport calculations with spd-Hamiltonians and giant magnetoresistance in Co and Ni based magnetic multilayers
A novel, general Green's function technique for elastic spin-dependent
transport calculations is presented, which (i) scales linearly with system size
and (ii) allows straightforward application to general tight-binding
Hamiltonians (spd in the present work). The method is applied to studies of
conductance and giant magnetoresistance (GMR) of magnetic multilayers in CPP
(current perpendicular to planes) geometry in the limit of large coherence
length. The magnetic materials considered are Co and Ni, with various
non-magnetic materials from the 3d, 4d, and 5d transition metal series.
Realistic tight-binding models for them have been constructed with the use of
density functional calculations. We have identified three qualitatively
different cases which depend on whether or not the bands (densities of states)
of a non-magnetic metal (i) form an almost perfect match with one of spin
sub-bands of the magnetic metal (as in Cu/Co spin valves); (ii) have almost
pure sp character at the Fermi level (e.g. Ag); (iii) have almost pure d
character at the Fermi energy (e.g. Pd, Pt). The key parameters which give rise
to a large GMR ratio turn out to be (i) a strong spin polarization of the
magnetic metal, (ii) a large energy offset between the conduction band of the
non-magnetic metal and one of spin sub-bands of the magnetic metal, and (iii)
strong interband scattering in one of spin sub-bands of a magnetic metal. The
present results show that GMR oscillates with variation of the thickness of
either non-magnetic or magnetic layers, as observed experimentally.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure
The Abundance Of Boron In Diffuse Interstellar Clouds
We present a comprehensive survey of boron abundances in diffuse interstellar clouds from observations made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) of the Hubble Space Telescope. Our sample of 56 Galactic sight lines is the result of a complete search of archival STIS data for the B II lambda 1362 resonance line, with each detection confirmed by the presence of absorption from O I lambda 1355, Cu II lambda 1358, and Ga II lambda 1414 (when available) at the same velocity. Five previous measurements of interstellar B II from Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph observations are incorporated in our analysis, yielding a combined sample that more than quadruples the number of sight lines with significant boron detections. Our survey also constitutes the first extensive analysis of interstellar gallium from STIS spectra and expands on previously published results for oxygen and copper. The observations probe both high-and low-density diffuse environments, allowing the density-dependent effects of interstellar depletion to be clearly identified in the gas-phase abundance data for each element. In the case of boron, the increase in relative depletion with line-of-sight density amounts to an abundance difference of 0.8 dex between the warm and cold phases of the diffuse interstellar medium. The abundance of boron in warm, low-density gas is found to be B/H = (2.4 +/- 0.6) x 10(-10), which represents a depletion of 60% relative to the meteoritic boron abundance. Beyond the effects of depletion, our survey reveals sight lines with enhanced boron abundances that potentially trace the recent production of B-11, resulting from spallation reactions involving either cosmic rays or neutrinos. Future observations will help to disentangle the relative contributions from the two spallation channels for B-11 synthesis.Robert A. Welch Foundation F-634Space Telescope Science Institute HST-AR-11247.01-AAssociation of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA NAS5-26555Astronom
Suppression of Giant Magnetoresistance by a superconducting contact
We predict that current perpendicular to the plane (CPP) giant
magnetoresistance (GMR) in a phase-coherent magnetic multilayer is suppressed
when one of the contacts is superconducting. This is a consequence of a
superconductivity-induced magneto-resistive (SMR) effect, whereby the
conductance of the ferromagnetically aligned state is drastically reduced by
superconductivity. To demonstrate this effect, we compute the GMR ratio of
clean (Cu/Co)_nCu and (Cu/Co)_nPb multilayers, described by an ab-initio spd
tight binding Hamiltonian. By analyzing a simpler model with two orbitals per
site, we also show that the suppression survives in the presence of elastic
scattering by impurities.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to PR
A Study of Aluminium Zinc Indium Thermal Spray Coatings for the Protection of Steel Rebars in Reinforced Concrete
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