1,709 research outputs found
Neurophysical data analysis using a remote console computing system
Neurophysiological data analysis using time shared remote console computer syste
Discrimination of the Healthy and Sick Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System by a New Wavelet Analysis of Heartbeat Intervals
We demonstrate that it is possible to distinguish with a complete certainty
between healthy subjects and patients with various dysfunctions of the cardiac
nervous system by way of multiresolutional wavelet transform of RR intervals.
We repeated the study of Thurner et al on different ensemble of subjects. We
show that reconstructed series using a filter which discards wavelet
coefficients related with higher scales enables one to classify individuals for
which the method otherwise is inconclusive. We suggest a delimiting diagnostic
value of the standard deviation of the filtered, reconstructed RR interval time
series in the range of (for the above mentioned filter), below
which individuals are at risk.Comment: 5 latex pages (including 6 figures). Accepted in Fractal
A new HW Vir binary from the Palomar Transient Factory: PTF1 J072455.75+125300.3 - An eclipsing subdwarf B binary with a M-star companion
We report the discovery of an eclipsing binary -- PTF1 J072456125301--
composed of a subdwarf B (sdB) star () with a faint companion.
Subdwarf B stars are core helium-burning stars, which can be found on the
extreme horizontal branch. About half of them reside in close binary systems,
but few are known to be eclipsing, for which fundamental stellar parameters can
be derived.\newline We conducted an analysis of photometric data and spectra
from the Palomar 60'' and the 200" Hale telescope respectively. A quantitative
spectral analysis found an effective temperature of
\,K, log g = and
log(, typical for an sdB star. The
companion does not contribute to the optical light of the system, except
through a distinct reflection effect. From the light curve an orbital period of
0.09980(25)\,d and a system inclination of 83.56\pm0.30\,^{\circ} were
derived. The radial velocity curve yielded an orbital semi-amplitude of
K_1=95.8\pm 8.1\,\text{km s^{-1}}. The mass for the M-type dwarf companion
is . PTF1\,J072456125301 has similar atmospheric
parameters to those of pulsating sdB stars (V346 Hya stars). Therefore it could
be a high-priority object for asteroseismology, if pulsations were detected
such as in the enigmatic case of NY Vir.Comment: Accepted to A&A, 7pages, 4 figure
Diffusion of a granular pulse in a rotating drum
The diffusion of a pulse of small grains in an horizontal rotating drum is
studied through discrete elements methods simulations. We present a theoretical
analysis of the diffusion process in a one-dimensional confined space in order
to elucidate the effect of the confining end-plate of the drum. We then show
that the diffusion is neither subdiffusive nor superdiffusive but normal. This
is demonstrated by rescaling the concentration profiles obtained at various
stages and by studying the time evolution of the mean squared deviation.
Finally we study the self-diffusion of both large and small grains and we show
that it is normal and that the diffusion coefficient is independent of the
grain size
Sensitivity of Volume-regulated Anion Current to Cholesterol Structural Analogues
Depletion of membrane cholesterol and substitution of endogenous cholesterol with its structural analogues was used to analyze the mechanism by which cholesterol regulates volume-regulated anion current (VRAC) in endothelial cells. Depletion of membrane cholesterol enhanced the development of VRAC activated in a swelling-independent way by dialyzing the cells either with GTPγS or with low ionic strength solution. Using MβCD–sterol complexes, 50–80% of endogenous cholesterol was substituted with a specific analogue, as verified by gas-liquid chromatography. The effects of cholesterol depletion were reversed by the substitution of endogenous cholesterol with its chiral analogue, epicholesterol, or with a plant sterol, β-sitosterol, two analogues that mimic the effect of cholesterol on the physical properties of the membrane bilayer. Alternatively, when cholesterol was substituted with coprostanol that has only minimal effect on the membrane physical properties it resulted in VRAC enhancement, similar to cholesterol depletion. In summary, our data show that these channels do not discriminate between the two chiral analogues of cholesterol, as well as between the two cholesterols and β-sitosterol, but discriminate between cholesterol and coprostanol. These observations suggest that endothelial VRAC is regulated by the physical properties of the membrane
Modulation of Endothelial Inward-Rectifier K+ Current by Optical Isomers of Cholesterol
Membrane potential of aortic endothelial cells under resting conditions is dominated by inward-rectifier K+ channels belonging to the Kir 2 family. Regulation of endothelial Kir by membrane cholesterol was studied in bovine aortic endothelial cells by altering the sterol composition of the cell membrane. Our results show that enriching the cells with cholesterol decreases the Kir current density, whereas depleting the cells of cholesterol increases the density of the current. The dependence of the Kir current density on the level of cellular cholesterol fits a sigmoid curve with the highest sensitivity of the Kir current at normal physiological levels of cholesterol. To investigate the mechanism of Kir regulation by cholesterol, endogenous cholesterol was substituted by its optical isomer, epicholesterol. Substitution of ~50% of cholesterol by epicholesterol results in an early and significant increase in the Kir current density. Furthermore, substitution of cholesterol by epicholesterol has a stronger facilitative effect on the current than cholesterol depletion. Neither single channel properties nor membrane capacitance were significantly affected by the changes in the membrane sterol composition. These results suggest that 1) cholesterol modulates cellular K+ conductance by changing the number of the active channels and 2) that specific cholesterol-protein interactions are critical for the regulation of endothelial Kir
Determination of two-body potentials from n-body spectra
We show how the two-body potential may be uniquely determined from n-body
spectra where the hypercentral approximation is valid. We illustrate this by
considering an harmonic oscillator potential which has been altered by changing
the energy or normalisation constant of the ground state of the n-body system
and finding how this modifies the two-body potential. It is shown that with
increasing number of particles the spectrum must be known more precisely to
obtain the two-body potential to the same degree of accuracy.Comment: 13 pages of text (LATEX), 3 figures (not included, available from
authors), NIKHEF-93-P
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