Breather arrest in a chain of damped oscillators with Hertzian contact

Breather propagation in a damped oscillatory chain with Hertzian nearest-neighbour coupling is investigated. The breather propagation exhibits an unusual two-stage pattern. The first stage is characterized by power-law decay of the breather amplitude. This stage extends over finite number of the chain sites. Drastic drop of the breather amplitude towards the end of this finite fragment is referred to as breather arrest. At the second stage, the breather exhibits very small amplitudes with hyper-exponential decay. Numeric results are rationalized by considering a simplified model of two damped linear oscillators coupled by Hertzian contact forces. Initial excitation of one of these oscillators results in a finite number of beating cycles in the system. This simplified model reliably predicts main features of the breather arrest. More general coupling potentials and effect of pre-compression on the breather propagation are also discussed

Heat Conduction in One-Dimensional chain of Hard Discs with Substrate Potential

Heat conduction of one-dimensional chain of equivalent rigid particles in the field of external on-site potential is considered. Zero diameters of the particles correspond to exactly integrable case with divergent heat conduction coefficient. By means of simple analytical model it is demonstrated that for any nonzero particle size the integrability is violated and the heat conduction coefficient converges. The result of the analytical computation is verified by means of numerical simulation in a plausible diapason of parameters and good agreement is observedComment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Universal Scaling Laws for Shear Induced Dilation in Frictional Granular Media

Compressed frictional granular matter cannot flow without dilation. Upon forced shearing to generate flow, the amount of dilation may depend on the initial preparation and a host of material variables. On the basis of both experiments and numerical simulations we show that as a result of training by repeated compression-decompression cycles the amount of dilation induced by shearing the system depends only on the shear rate and on the (pre-shearing) packing fraction. Relating the rheological response to structural properties allows us to derive a scaling law for the amount of dilation after $n$ cycles of compression-decompression. The resulting scaling law has a universal exponent that for trained systems is independent of the inter-granules force laws, friction parameters and strain rate. The amplitude of the scaling law is analytically computable, and it depends only on the shear rate and the asymptotic packing fraction.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, Published Versio

Adaptive Vaccination Strategies to Mitigate Pandemic Influenza: Mexico as a Case Study

Background We explore vaccination strategies against pandemic influenza in Mexico using an age-structured transmission model calibrated against local epidemiological data from the Spring 2009 A(H1N1) pandemic. Methods and Findings In the context of limited vaccine supplies, we evaluate age-targeted allocation strategies that either prioritize youngest children and persons over 65 years of age, as for seasonal influenza, or adaptively prioritize age groups based on the age patterns of hospitalization and death monitored in real-time during the early stages of the pandemic. Overall the adaptive vaccination strategy outperformed the seasonal influenza vaccination allocation strategy for a wide range of disease and vaccine coverage parameters. Conclusions This modeling approach could inform policies for Mexico and other countries with similar demographic features and vaccine resources issues, with regard to the mitigation of the S-OIV pandemic. We also discuss logistical issues associated with the implementation of adaptive vaccination strategies in the context of past and future influenza pandemics

Heat conduction in 1D lattices with on-site potential

The process of heat conduction in one-dimensional lattice with on-site potential is studied by means of numerical simulation. Using discrete Frenkel-Kontorova, $\phi$--4 and sinh-Gordon we demonstrate that contrary to previously expressed opinions the sole anharmonicity of the on-site potential is insufficient to ensure the normal heat conductivity in these systems. The character of the heat conduction is determined by the spectrum of nonlinear excitations peculiar for every given model and therefore depends on the concrete potential shape and temperature of the lattice. The reason is that the peculiarities of the nonlinear excitations and their interactions prescribe the energy scattering mechanism in each model. For models sin-Gordon and $\phi$--4 phonons are scattered at thermalized lattice of topological solitons; for sinh-Gordon and $\phi$--4 - models the phonons are scattered at localized high-frequency breathers (in the case of $\phi$--4 the scattering mechanism switches with the growth of the temperature).Comment: 26 pages, 18 figure

Dual destructive and protective roles of adaptive immunity in neurodegenerative disorders.

Inappropriate T cell responses in the central nervous system (CNS) affect the pathogenesis of a broad range of neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders that include, but are not limited to, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer\u27s disease and Parkinson\u27s disease. On the one hand immune responses can exacerbate neurotoxic responses; while on the other hand, they can lead to neuroprotective outcomes. The temporal and spatial mechanisms by which these immune responses occur and are regulated in the setting of active disease have gained significant recent attention. Spatially, immune responses that affect neurodegeneration may occur within or outside the CNS. Migration of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells from the periphery to the CNS and consequent immune cell interactions with resident glial cells affect neuroinflammation and neuronal survival. The destructive or protective mechanisms of these interactions are linked to the relative numerical and functional dominance of effector or regulatory T cells. Temporally, immune responses at disease onset or during progression may exhibit a differential balance of immune responses in the periphery and within the CNS. Immune responses with predominate T cell subtypes may differentially manifest migratory, regulatory and effector functions when triggered by endogenous misfolded and aggregated proteins and cell-specific stimuli. The final result is altered glial and neuronal behaviors that influence the disease course. Thus, discovery of neurodestructive and neuroprotective immune mechanisms will permit potential new therapeutic pathways that affect neuronal survival and slow disease progression