494 research outputs found
Piece rate setting methods in the New England shoe industry
Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston Universit
One-particle and collective electron spectra in hot and dense QED and their gauge dependence
The one-particle electron spectrum is found for hot and dense QED and its
properties are investigated in comparison with the collective spectrum. It is
shown that the one-particle spectrum (in any case its zero momentum limit) is
gauge invariant, but the collective spectrum, being qualitatively different, is
always gauge dependent. The exception is the case for which the
collective spectrum long wavelength limit demonstrates the gauge invariance as
well.Comment: 9 pages, latex, no figure
Inhomogeneous Magnetoelectric Effect on Defect in Multiferroic Material: Symmetry Prediction
Inhomogeneous magnetoelectric effect in magnetization distribution
heterogeneities (0-degree domain walls) appeared on crystal lattice defect of
the multiferroic material has been investigated. Magnetic symmetry based
predictions of kind of electrical polarization distribution in their volumes
were used. It was found that magnetization distribution heterogeneity with any
symmetry produces electrical polarization. Results were systemized in scope of
micromagnetic structure chirality. It was shown that all 0-degree domain walls
with time-noninvariant chirality have identical type of spatial distribution of
the magnetization and polarization.Comment: submitted to IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineerin
Can statin preventative treatment inform geroscience-guided therapeutics?
: Potential senotherapeutic effect of statins may lead to prevention and reduction of frailty
VACUTAINER(® )CPT™ and Ficoll density gradient separation perform equivalently in maintaining the quality and function of PBMC from HIV seropositive blood samples
BACKGROUND: For immune monitoring studies during HIV vaccine clinical trials, whole blood specimens from HIV seropositive (HIV(+)) patients may be collected at multiple sites and sent to a central location for peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) isolation, cryopreservation and functional evaluation. In this study we show a comparison of two PBMC preparation options, Ficoll density gradient separation (Ficoll) and Cell Preparation Tubes (CPT) using shipped whole blood specimens from 19 HIV(+ )patients (CD4 > 350, viral load < 50). The pre- and post- cryopreservation performance of samples collected by these two methods were compared by assessment of antigen-specific IFNγ expression in CD8(+ )and CD8(- )T cells, cellular viability, and cellular recovery. RESULTS: The results indicate that cryopreserved PBMC samples tested for CMV- and HIV- specific interferon-gamma (IFNγ) expression performed equivalent to the respective fresh PBMC processed under both collection conditions. Compared to fresh PBMC, the viability was significantly lower for cryopreserved PBMC derived using Ficoll, although it was never less than 90%. There were no significant differences in the IFNγ response, viability, or recovery between cryopreserved PBMC derived by Ficoll and by CPT. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that CPT is an efficient system for the collection and cryopreservation of functionally active HIV(+ )PBMC, as well as a viable alternative to Ficoll gradient separation
An inhomogeneous toy-model of the quantum gravity with explicitly evolvable observables
An inhomogeneous (1+1)-dimensional model of the quantum gravity is
considered. It is found, that this model corresponds to a string propagating
against some curved background space. The quantization scheme including the
Wheeler-DeWitt equation and the "particle on a sphere" type of the gauge
condition is suggested. In the quantization scheme considered, the "problem of
time" is solved by building of the quasi-Heisenberg operators acting in a space
of solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and the normalization of the wave
function corresponds to the Klein-Gordon type. To analyze the physical
consequences of the scheme, a (1+1)-dimensional background space is considered
for which a classical solution is found and quantized. The obtained estimations
show the way to solution of the cosmological constant problem, which consists
in compensation of the zero-point oscillations of the matter fields by the
quantum oscillations of the scale factor. Along with such a compensation, a
slow global evolution of a background corresponding to an universe expansion
exists.Comment: 18 page
Laser in the axial electric field as a tool to search for P-, T- invariance violation
We consider rotation of polarization plane of the laser light when a gas
laser is placed in a longitudinal electric field (10~kV/cm). It is shown that
residual anisotropy of the laser cavity 10^{-6} and the sensitivity to the
angle of polarization plane rotation about 10^{-11} -10^{-12} rad allows one to
measure an electron EDM with the sensitivity about 10^{-30} e cm.Comment: 12 page
An introduction to Elinor Glyn : her life and legacy
This special issue of Women: A Cultural Review re-evaluates an author who was once a household name, beloved by readers of romance, and whose films were distributed widely in Europe and the Americas. Elinor Glyn (1864–1943) was a British author of romantic fiction who went to Hollywood and became famous for her movies. She was a celebrity figure of the 1920s, and wrote constantly in Hearst's press. She wrote racy stories which were turned into films—most famously, Three Weeks (1924) and It (1927). These were viewed by the judiciary as scandalous, but by others—Hollywood and the Spanish Catholic Church—as acceptably conservative. Glyn has become a peripheral figure in histories of this period, marginalized in accounts of the youth-centred ‘flapper era’. Decades on, the idea of the ‘It Girl’ continues to have great pertinence in the post-feminist discourses of the twenty-first century. The 1910s and 1920s saw the development of intermodal networks between print, sound and screen cultures. This introduction to Glyn's life and legacy reviews the cross-disciplinary debate sparked by renewed interest in Glyn by film scholars and literary and feminist historians, and offers a range of views of Glyn's cultural and historical significance and areas for future research
Transition to Superfluid Turbulence
Turbulence in superfluids depends crucially on the dissipative damping in
vortex motion. This is observed in the B phase of superfluid 3He where the
dynamics of quantized vortices changes radically in character as a function of
temperature. An abrupt transition to turbulence is the most peculiar
consequence. As distinct from viscous hydrodynamics, this transition to
turbulence is not governed by the velocity-dependent Reynolds number, but by a
velocity-independent dimensionless parameter 1/q which depends only on the
temperature-dependent mutual friction -- the dissipation which sets in when
vortices move with respect to the normal excitations of the liquid. At large
friction and small values of 1/q < 1 the dynamics is vortex number conserving,
while at low friction and large 1/q > 1 vortices are easily destabilized and
proliferate in number. A new measuring technique was employed to identify this
hydrodynamic transition: the injection of a tight bundle of many small vortex
loops in applied vortex-free flow at relatively high velocities. These vortices
are ejected from a vortex sheet covering the AB interface when a two-phase
sample of 3He-A and 3He-B is set in rotation and the interface becomes unstable
at a critical rotation velocity, triggered by the superfluid Kelvin-Helmholtz
instability.Comment: Short review; to be published in Journal of Low Temperature Physics
(2006
Biological and technical variables affecting immunoassay recovery of cytokines from human serum and simulated vaginal fluid: A multicenter study
The increase of proinflammatory cytokines in vaginal secretions may serve as a surrogate marker of unwanted inflammatory reaction to microbicide products topically applied for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV-1. Interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 have been proposed as indicators of inflammation and increased risk of HIV-1 transmission; however, the lack of information regarding detection platforms optimal for vaginal fluids and interlaboratory variation limit their use for microbicide evaluation and other clinical applications. This study examines fluid matrix variants relevant to vaginal sampling techniques and proposes a model for interlaboratory comparisons across current cytokine detection technologies. IL-1β and IL-6 standards were measured by 12 laboratories in four countries, using 14 immunoassays and four detection platforms based on absorbance, chemiluminescence, electrochemiluminescence, and fluorescence. International reference preparations of cytokines with defined biological activity were spiked into (1) a defined medium simulating the composition of human vaginal fluid at pH 4.5 and 7.2, (2) physiologic salt solutions (phosphate-buffered saline and saline) commonly used for vaginal lavage sampling in clinical studies of cytokines, and (3) human blood serum. Assays were assessed for reproducibility, linearity, accuracy, and significantly detectable fold difference in cytokine level. Factors with significant impact on cytokine recovery were determined by Kruskal−Wallis analysis of variance with Dunn’s multiple comparison test and multiple regression models. All assays showed acceptable intra-assay reproducibility; however, most were associated with significant interlaboratory variation. The smallest reliably detectable cytokine differences (P < 0.05) derived from pooled interlaboratory data varied from 1.5- to 26-fold depending on assay, cytokine, and matrix type. IL-6 but not IL-1β determinations were lower in both saline and phosphate-buffered saline as compared to vaginal fluid matrix, with no significant effect of pH. The (electro)chemiluminescence-based assays were most discriminative and consistently detected <2-fold differences within each matrix type. The Luminex-based assays were less discriminative with lower reproducibility between laboratories. These results suggest the need for uniform vaginal sampling techniques and a better understanding of immunoassay platform differences and cross-validation before the biological significance of cytokine variations can be validated in clinical trials. This investigation provides the first standardized analytic approach for assessing differences in mucosal cytokine levels and may improve strategies for monitoring immune responses at the vaginal mucosal interface
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