115 research outputs found
Anomalous interactions in confined charge-stabilized colloid
Charge-stabilized colloidal spheres dispersed in weak 1:1 electrolytes are
supposed to repel each other. Consequently, experimental evidence for anomalous
long-ranged like-charged attractions induced by geometric confinement inspired
a burst of activity. This has largely subsided because of nagging doubts
regarding the experiments' reliability and interpretation. We describe a new
class of thermodynamically self-consistent colloidal interaction measurements
that confirm the appearance of pairwise attractions among colloidal spheres
confined by one or two bounding walls. In addition to supporting previous
claims for this as-yet unexplained effect, these measurements also cast new
light on its mechanism.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX4. Conference proceedings for CODEF-04,
Colloidal Dispersions in External Fields, March 29 - April 1, 200
Selection by a panel of clinicians and family representatives of important early morbidities associated with paediatric cardiac surgery suitable for routine monitoring using the nominal group technique and a robust voting process
OBJECTIVE: With survival following paediatric cardiac surgery improving, the attention of quality assurance and improvement initiatives is shifting to long-term outcomes and early surgical morbidities. We wanted to involve family representatives and a range of clinicians in selecting the morbidities to be measured in a major UK study.
SETTING: Paediatric cardiac surgery services in the UK.
PARTICIPANTS: We convened a panel comprising family representatives, paediatricians from referring centres, and surgeons and other clinicians from surgical centres.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Using the nominal group technique augmented by a robust voting process to identify group preferences, suggestions for candidate morbidities were elicited, discussed, ranked and then shortlisted. The shortlist was passed to a clinical group that provided a view on the feasibility of monitoring each shortlisted morbidity in routine practice. The panel then met again to select a prioritised list of morbidities for further study, with the list finalised by the clinical group and chief investigators.
RESULTS: At the first panel meeting, 66 initial suggestions were made, with this reduced to a shortlist of 24 after two rounds of discussion, consolidation and voting. At the second meeting, this shortlist was reduced to 10 candidate morbidities. Two were dropped on grounds of feasibility and replaced by another the panel considered important. The final list of nine morbidities included indicators of organ damage, acute events and feeding problems. Family representatives and clinicians from outside tertiary centres brought some issues to greater prominence than if the panel had consisted solely of tertiary clinicians or study investigators.
CONCLUSION: The inclusion of patient and family perspectives in identifying metrics for use in monitoring a specialised clinical service is challenging but feasible and can broaden notions of quality and how to measure it
Boltzmann entropy and chaos in a large assembly of weakly interacting systems
We introduce a high dimensional symplectic map, modeling a large system
consisting of weakly interacting chaotic subsystems, as a toy model to analyze
the interplay between single-particle chaotic dynamics and particles
interactions in thermodynamic systems. We study the growth with time of the
Boltzmann entropy, S_B, in this system as a function of the coarse graining
resolution. We show that a characteristic scale emerges, and that the behavior
of S_B vs t, at variance with the Gibbs entropy, does not depend on the coarse
graining resolution, as far as it is finer than this scale. The interaction
among particles is crucial to achieve this result, while the rate of entropy
growth depends essentially on the single-particle chaotic dynamics (for t not
too small). It is possible to interpret the basic features of the dynamics in
terms of a suitable Markov approximation.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Journal of Statistical Physic
Microcanonical temperature for a classical field: application to Bose-Einstein condensation
We show that the projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation (PGPE) can be mapped
exactly onto Hamilton's equations of motion for classical position and momentum
variables. Making use of this mapping, we adapt techniques developed in
statistical mechanics to calculate the temperature and chemical potential of a
classical Bose field in the microcanonical ensemble. We apply the method to
simulations of the PGPE, which can be used to represent the highly occupied
modes of Bose condensed gases at finite temperature. The method is rigorous,
valid beyond the realms of perturbation theory, and agrees with an earlier
method of temperature measurement for the same system. Using this method we
show that the critical temperature for condensation in a homogeneous Bose gas
on a lattice with a UV cutoff increases with the interaction strength. We
discuss how to determine the temperature shift for the Bose gas in the
continuum limit using this type of calculation, and obtain a result in
agreement with more sophisticated Monte Carlo simulations. We also consider the
behaviour of the specific heat.Comment: v1: 9 pages, 5 figures, revtex 4. v2: additional text in response to
referee's comments, now 11 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Fluctuations in Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics: Models, Mathematical Theory, Physical Mechanisms
The fluctuations in nonequilibrium systems are under intense theoretical and
experimental investigation. Topical ``fluctuation relations'' describe
symmetries of the statistical properties of certain observables, in a variety
of models and phenomena. They have been derived in deterministic and, later, in
stochastic frameworks. Other results first obtained for stochastic processes,
and later considered in deterministic dynamics, describe the temporal evolution
of fluctuations. The field has grown beyond expectation: research works and
different perspectives are proposed at an ever faster pace. Indeed,
understanding fluctuations is important for the emerging theory of
nonequilibrium phenomena, as well as for applications, such as those of
nanotechnological and biophysical interest. However, the links among the
different approaches and the limitations of these approaches are not fully
understood. We focus on these issues, providing: a) analysis of the theoretical
models; b) discussion of the rigorous mathematical results; c) identification
of the physical mechanisms underlying the validity of the theoretical
predictions, for a wide range of phenomena.Comment: 44 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Nonlinearity (2007
Steady state fluctuation relation and time-reversibility for non-smooth chaotic maps
Steady state fluctuation relations for dynamical systems are commonly derived
under the assumption of some form of time-reversibility and of chaos. There
are, however, cases in which they are observed to hold even if the usual notion
of time reversal invariance is violated, e.g. for local fluctuations of
Navier-Stokes systems. Here we construct and study analytically a simple
non-smooth map in which the standard steady state fluctuation relation is
valid, although the model violates the Anosov property of chaotic dynamical
systems. Particularly, the time reversal operation is performed by a
discontinuous involution, and the invariant measure is also discontinuous along
the unstable manifolds. This further indicates that the validity of fluctuation
relations for dynamical systems does not rely on particularly elaborate
conditions, usually violated by systems of interest in physics. Indeed, even an
irreversible map is proved to verify the steady state fluctuation relation.Comment: 23 pages,8 figure
Space- and time-resolved investigation on diffusion kinetics of human skin following macromolecule delivery by microneedle arrays
Microscale medical devices are being developed for targeted skin delivery of vaccines and the extraction of biomarkers, with the potential to revolutionise healthcare in both developing and developed countries. The effective clinical development of these devices is dependent on understanding the macro-molecular diffusion properties of skin. We hypothesised that diffusion varied according to specific skin layers. Using three different molecular weights of rhodamine dextran (RD) (MW of 70, 500 and 2000 kDa) relevant to the vaccine and therapeutic scales, we deposited molecules to a range of depths (0–300 µm) in ex vivo human skin using the Nanopatch device. We observed significant dissipation of RD as diffusion with 70 and 500 kDa within the 30 min timeframe, which varied with MW and skin layer. Using multiphoton microscopy, image analysis and a Fick’s law analysis with 2D cartesian and axisymmetric cylindrical coordinates, we reported experimental trends of epidermal and dermal diffusivity values ranging from 1–8 µm2 s-1 to 1–20 µm2 s-1 respectively, with a significant decrease in the dermal-epidermal junction of 0.7–3 µm2 s-1. In breaching the stratum corneum (SC) and dermal-epidermal junction barriers, we have demonstrated practical application, delivery and targeting of macromolecules to both epidermal and dermal antigen presenting cells, providing a sound knowledge base for future development of skin-targeting clinical technologies in humans
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