Casimir interaction at liquid nitrogen temperature: Comparison between experiment and theory

We have measured the normalized gradient of the Casimir force between Au-coated surfaces of the sphere and the plate and equivalent Casimir pressure between two parallel Au plates at T=77K. These measurements have been performed by means of dynamic force microscope adapted for operating at low temperatures in the frequency shift technique. It was shown that the measurement results at T=77K are in a very good agreement with those at T=300K and with computations at T=77K using both theoretical approaches to the thermal Casimir force proposed in the literature. No thermal effect in the Casimir pressure was observed in the limit of experimental errors with the increase of temperature from T=77K to T=300K. Taking this into account, we have discussed the possible role of patch potentials in the comparison between measured and calculated Casimir pressures.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Plasma ACTH, α-MSH and cortisol variations in the dog during the oestrous cycle in different photoperiods

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) is a complex system regulated by multiple factors.Sexual dimorphism of this axis has been described in different species under physiological conditions and it hasbeen proposed that sexual hormones could have an effect on it. There are only a few reports about sex-linkedvariations in HPA axis hormones in the dog. Thus, studying the impact of sexual hormones on the HPA axis wouldbroaden the knowledge about its function in this species. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determinewhether there are variations in HPA plasma hormones (ACTH, alfa-melanocyte-stimulating hormone [α-MSH]and cortisol) according to the sex and photoperiod (positive or negative photoperiod were considered when theduration of the light hours of the day was more than 12 or less than 12, respectively) under basal conditions (likeanoestrus) and throughout the oestrous cycle in the female dog. The population under study consisted of 11 intactfemale and 14 intact male dogs. Under basal conditions neither ACTH nor α-MSH concentrations showed differencesbetween sexes and different photoperiods. Cortisol showed greater values in the negative photoperiod thanin the positive, both in females and males (P = 0.03 and P = 0.015, respectively). Throughout the oestrous cycle,all the studied hormones showed variations (P < 0.0001). The greatest concentrations of ACTH were observed atproestrus, while α-MSH and cortisol showed their greatest concentrations at oestrus. The three hormones decreasedin diestrus. ACTH and cortisol concentrations were higher in the negative photoperiod (P = 0.04 and P < 0.0001,respectively), while α-MSH concentrations were higher in the positive photoperiod (P = 0.012). In the group offemales oestradiol and progesterone correlated with ACTH (r = 0.75, P < 0.0001; r = 0.34, P < 0.01, respectively),α-MSH (r = 0.49, P < 0.0001; r = 0.52, P < 0.0001, respectively) and cortisol (r = 0.33, P < 0.01; r = 0.5, P < 0.0001,respectively). These results show that in females, HPA axis hormones vary during the oestrous cycle in relation tooestradiol and progesterone fluctuations. The ACTH, α-MSH and cortisol concentrations also showed differencesbetween photoperiods in females, but only cortisol did so in males. These findings suggest that sexual hormonescould have an effect on the HPA axis. Further research needs to be done to fully understand this interaction andthe mechanisms involved.Fil: Gallelli, María Florencia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Monachesi, N.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Miceli, Diego Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Cabrera Battler, M. F.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Gomez, N. V.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Meikle, A.. Universidad de Montevideo; UruguayFil: Castillo, V, A.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; Argentin

¿Qué tecnologías están siendo aplicadas en La Guajira (Colombia) para la recolección y distribución de agua?

Within this article we take a brief look at the water situation in Guajira (Colombia). We talk about the available water resource and its rationing for the support of the community. We also present a small historical review to know the origin of the inconveniences related to water in the territory. The technologies used to obtain drinking water are then discussed. First, we describe the drinking water wells that are not an applied technology, but they are one of the main sources of supply, and are still being installed throughout the region. Secondly we will see the water desalination system, its application in this territory and its different methods and techniques developed, and as the latest technology is the Warka wáter, an ambitious project but little applied due to the climatic and geographical conditions of the territory.Dentro de este artículo damos un breve vistazo a la situación del agua en la Guajira (Colombia). Se habla del recurso hídrico disponible y su racionamiento para el sostenimiento de la comunidad. También se presenta una pequeña reseña histórica para conocer el origen de los inconvenientes relacionados con el agua en el territorio. Luego se habla de las tecnologías usadas para la obtención de agua potable. Primero se describen los pozos de agua potable que no son una tecnología aplicada, pero son una de las principales fuentes de abastecimiento, y aun en la actualidad están siendo instalados por toda la región. En segundo lugar veremos el sistema de desalinización de agua, su aplicación en este territorio y sus diferentes métodos y técnicas desarrolladas, y como última tecnología está el Warka wáter un proyecto ambicioso pero poco aplicado por las condiciones climáticas y geográficas del territorio

Fast Non-Rigid Radiance Fields from Monocularized Data

3D reconstruction and novel view synthesis of dynamic scenes from collectionsof single views recently gained increased attention. Existing work showsimpressive results for synthetic setups and forward-facing real-world data, butis severely limited in the training speed and angular range for generatingnovel views. This paper addresses these limitations and proposes a new methodfor full 360{\deg} novel view synthesis of non-rigidly deforming scenes. At thecore of our method are: 1) An efficient deformation module that decouples theprocessing of spatial and temporal information for acceleration at training andinference time; and 2) A static module representing the canonical scene as afast hash-encoded neural radiance field. We evaluate the proposed approach onthe established synthetic D-NeRF benchmark, that enables efficientreconstruction from a single monocular view per time-frame randomly sampledfrom a full hemisphere. We refer to this form of inputs as monocularized data.To prove its practicality for real-world scenarios, we recorded twelvechallenging sequences with human actors by sampling single frames from asynchronized multi-view rig. In both cases, our method is trained significantlyfaster than previous methods (minutes instead of days) while achieving highervisual accuracy for generated novel views. Our source code and data isavailable at our project pagehttps://graphics.tu-bs.de/publications/kappel2022fast.<br

A nonstationary generalization of the Kerr congruence

Making use of the Kerr theorem for shear-free null congruences and of Newman's representation for a virtual charge ``moving'' in complex space-time, we obtain an axisymmetric time-dependent generalization of the Kerr congruence, with a singular ring uniformly contracting to a point and expanding then to infinity. Electromagnetic and complex eikonal field distributions are naturally associated with the obtained congruence, with electric charge being necesssarily unit (``elementary''). We conjecture that the corresponding solution to the Einstein-Maxwell equations could describe the process of continious transition of the naked ringlike singularitiy into a rotating black hole and vice versa, under a particular current radius of the singular ring.Comment: 6 pages, twocolum