553 research outputs found
Separation of variables in quasi-potential systems of bi-cofactor form
We perform variable separation in the quasi-potential systems of equations of
the form {}, where
and are Killing tensors, by embedding these systems into a
bi-Hamiltonian chain and by calculating the corresponding Darboux-Nijenhuis
coordinates on the symplectic leaves of one of the Hamiltonian structures of
the system. We also present examples of the corresponding separation
coordinates in two and three dimensions.Comment: LaTex, 30 pages, to appear in J. Phys. A: Math. Ge
Fatalities due to intestinal obstruction following the ingestion of foreign bodies
Two fatalities due to an occlusive ileus following the ingestion of foreign bodies in patients with psychiatric disorders are described. A severely mentally handicapped young man developed a temperature and died 1 h after admission to a surgical ward. At autopsy, not, vert, similar 2000 cm3 of foreign material, including broken glass and porcelain, branches, buttons, parts of clothing and other material were found in the gastrointestinal tract, leading to a complete obstruction of the distal intestine and colon with resulting faecal vomiting. The other case was even more unusual as a hair fetishist had swallowed a thick strand of his own hair, 50 cm long, also resulting in mechanical obstruction of the distal intestine
Low temperature maximizes growth of Crocus vernus (L.) Hill via changes in carbon partitioning and corm development
In Crocus vernus, a spring bulbous species, prolonged growth at low temperatures results in the development of larger perennial organs and delayed foliar senescence. Because corm growth is known to stop before the first visual sign of leaf senescence, it is clear that factors other than leaf duration alone determine final corm size. The aim of this study was to determine whether reduced growth at higher temperatures was due to decreased carbon import to the corm or to changes in the partitioning of this carbon once it had reached the corm. Plants were grown under two temperature regimes and the amount of carbon fixed, transported, and converted into a storable form in the corm, as well as the partitioning into soluble carbohydrates, starch, and the cell wall, were monitored during the growth cycle. The reduced growth at higher temperature could not be explained by a restriction in carbon supply or by a reduced ability to convert the carbon into starch. However, under the higher temperature regime, the plant allocated more carbon to cell wall material, and the amount of glucose within the corm declined earlier in the season. Hexose to sucrose ratios might control the duration of corm growth in C. vernus by influencing the timing of the cell division, elongation, and maturation phases. It is suggested that it is this shift in carbon partitioning, not limited carbon supply or leaf duration, which is responsible for the smaller final biomass of the corm at higher temperatures
Projective dynamics and first integrals
We present the theory of tensors with Young tableau symmetry as an efficient
computational tool in dealing with the polynomial first integrals of a natural
system in classical mechanics. We relate a special kind of such first
integrals, already studied by Lundmark, to Beltrami's theorem about
projectively flat Riemannian manifolds. We set the ground for a new and simple
theory of the integrable systems having only quadratic first integrals. This
theory begins with two centered quadrics related by central projection, each
quadric being a model of a space of constant curvature. Finally, we present an
extension of these models to the case of degenerate quadratic forms.Comment: 39 pages, 2 figure
The Degasperis-Procesi equation with self-consistent sources
The Degasperis-Procesi equation with self-consistent sources(DPESCS) is
derived. The Lax representation and the conservation laws for DPESCS are
constructed. The peakon solution of DPESCS is obtained.Comment: 15 page
Pre-Big Bang, fundamental Physics and noncyclic cosmologies
Contribution à la conférence ICFP 2012, International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics, Kolymbari, Crete 10-16 juin 2012International audienceDetailed analyses of WMAP and Planck data can have significant implications for noncyclic pre-Big Bang approaches incorporating a new fundamental scale beyond the Planck scale and, potentially, new ultimate constituents of matter with unconventional basic properties as compared to standard particles. Cosmic-ray experiments at the highest energies can also yield relevant information. Hopefully, future studies will be able to deal with alternatives: i) to standard physics for the structure of the physical vacuum, the nature of space-time, the validity of quantum field theory and conventional symmetries, the interpretation of string-like theories...; ii) to standard cosmology concerning the origin and evolution of our Universe, unconventional solutions to the cosmological constant problem, the validity of inflationary scenarios, the need for dark matter and dark energy... Lorentz-like symmetries for the properties of matter can then be naturally stable space-time configurations resulting from more general primordial scenarios that incorporate physics beyond the Planck scale and describe the formation and evolution of the physical vacuum. A possible answer to the question of the origin of half-integer spins can be provided by a primordial spinorial space-time with two complex coordinates instead of the conventional four real ones, leading to a really new cosmology. We discuss basic questions and phenomenological topics concerning noncyclic pre-Big Bang cosmologies and potentially related physics. (Contribution to the International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics, ICFP 2012, Kolymbari, Crete, June 10-16 2012
A class of Poisson-Nijenhuis structures on a tangent bundle
Equipping the tangent bundle TQ of a manifold with a symplectic form coming
from a regular Lagrangian L, we explore how to obtain a Poisson-Nijenhuis
structure from a given type (1,1) tensor field J on Q. It is argued that the
complete lift of J is not the natural candidate for a Nijenhuis tensor on TQ,
but plays a crucial role in the construction of a different tensor R, which
appears to be the pullback under the Legendre transform of the lift of J to
co-tangent manifold of Q. We show how this tangent bundle view brings new
insights and is capable also of producing all important results which are known
from previous studies on the cotangent bundle, in the case that Q is equipped
with a Riemannian metric. The present approach further paves the way for future
generalizations.Comment: 22 page
Exploring the Foundation of Genomics: A Northern Blot Reference set for the Comparative Analysis of Transcript Profiling Technologies
In this paper we aim to create a reference data collection of Northern blot results
and demonstrate how such a collection can enable a quantitative comparison of
modern expression profiling techniques, a central component of functional genomics
studies. Historically, Northern blots were the de facto standard for determining RNA
transcript levels. However, driven by the demand for analysis of large sets of genes in
parallel, high-throughput methods, such as microarrays, dominate modern profiling
efforts. To facilitate assessment of these methods, in comparison to Northern blots,
we created a database of published Northern results obtained with a standardized
commercial multiple tissue blot (dbMTN). In order to demonstrate the utility of the
dbMTN collection for technology comparison, we also generated expression profiles
for genes across a set of human tissues, using multiple profiling techniques. No method
produced profiles that were strongly correlated with the Northern blot data. The
highest correlations to the Northern blot data were determined with microarrays
for the subset of genes observed to be specifically expressed in a single tissue in
the Northern analyses. The database and expression profiling data are available
via the project website (http://www.cisreg.ca). We believe that emphasis on multitechnique
validation of expression profiles is justified, as the correlation results
between platforms are not encouraging on the whole. Supplementary material for this
article can be found at: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1531-6912/suppma
Control of actin polymerization via the coincidence of phosphoinositides and high membrane curvature
The conditional use of actin during clathrin-mediated endocytosis in mammalian cells suggests that the cell controls whether and how actin is used. Using a combination of biochemical reconstitution and mammalian cell culture, we elucidate a mechanism by which the coincidence of PI(4,5)P2 and PI(3)P in a curved vesicle triggers actin polymerization. At clathrin-coated pits, PI(3)P is produced by the INPP4A hydrolysis of PI(3,4)P2, and this is necessary for actin-driven endocytosis. Both Cdc42⋅guanosine triphosphate and SNX9 activate N-WASP–WIP- and Arp2/3-mediated actin nucleation. Membrane curvature, PI(4,5)P2, and PI(3)P signals are needed for SNX9 assembly via its PX–BAR domain, whereas signaling through Cdc42 is activated by PI(4,5)P2 alone. INPP4A activity is stimulated by high membrane curvature and synergizes with SNX9 BAR domain binding in a process we call curvature cascade amplification. We show that the SNX9-driven actin comets that arise on human disease–associated oculocerebrorenal syndrome of Lowe (OCRL) deficiencies are reduced by inhibiting PI(3)P production, suggesting PI(3)P kinase inhibitors as a therapeutic strategy in Lowe syndrome.J.L. Gallop is supported by a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship (grant WT095829AIA). F. Daste, A. Walrant, J.R. Gadsby, and J. Mason are supported by an H2020 European Research Council Starting Grant (281971) awarded to J.L. Gallop. Gurdon Institute funding is provided by the Wellcome Trust (grant 092096) and Cancer Research UK (grant C6946/A14492). The Swedish Medical Research Council and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research supported the work of M.R. Holst and R. Lundmark. S.F. Lee is funded by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (grant UF120277). M. Mettlen is funded by grant MH73125 to Sandra L. Schmid (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center)
Quantitative cross-species extrapolation between humans and fish: The case of the anti-depressant fluoxetine
This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Fish are an important model for the pharmacological and toxicological characterization of human pharmaceuticals in drug discovery, drug safety assessment and environmental toxicology. However, do fish respond to pharmaceuticals as humans do? To address this question, we provide a novel quantitative cross-species extrapolation approach (qCSE) based on the hypothesis that similar plasma concentrations of pharmaceuticals cause comparable target-mediated effects in both humans and fish at similar level of biological organization (Read-Across Hypothesis). To validate this hypothesis, the behavioural effects of the anti-depressant drug fluoxetine on the fish model fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) were used as test case. Fish were exposed for 28 days to a range of measured water concentrations of fluoxetine (0.1, 1.0, 8.0, 16, 32, 64 μg/L) to produce plasma concentrations below, equal and above the range of Human Therapeutic Plasma Concentrations (HTPCs). Fluoxetine and its metabolite, norfluoxetine, were quantified in the plasma of individual fish and linked to behavioural anxiety-related endpoints. The minimum drug plasma concentrations that elicited anxiolytic responses in fish were above the upper value of the HTPC range, whereas no effects were observed at plasma concentrations below the HTPCs. In vivo metabolism of fluoxetine in humans and fish was similar, and displayed bi-phasic concentration-dependent kinetics driven by the auto-inhibitory dynamics and saturation of the enzymes that convert fluoxetine into norfluoxetine. The sensitivity of fish to fluoxetine was not so dissimilar from that of patients affected by general anxiety disorders. These results represent the first direct evidence of measured internal dose response effect of a pharmaceutical in fish, hence validating the Read-Across hypothesis applied to fluoxetine. Overall, this study demonstrates that the qCSE approach, anchored to internal drug concentrations, is a powerful tool to guide the assessment of the sensitivity of fish to pharmaceuticals, and strengthens the translational power of the cross-species extrapolation
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