716 research outputs found
On hyperbolicity of SU(2)-equivariant, punctured disc bundles over the complex affine quadric
Given a holomorphic line bundle over the complex affine quadric , we
investigate its Stein, SU(2)-equivariant disc bundles. Up to equivariant
biholomorphism, these are all contained in a maximal one, say .
By removing the zero section to one obtains the unique Stein,
SU(2)-equivariant, punctured disc bundle over which contains entire
curves. All other such punctured disc bundles are shown to be Kobayashi
hyperbolic.Comment: 15 pages, v2: minor changes, to appear in Transformation Group
Further evidence of antibunching of two coherent beams of fermions
We describe an experiment confirming the evidence of the antibunching effect
on a beam of non interacting thermal neutrons. The comparison between the
results recorded with a high energy-resolution source of neutrons and those
recorded with a broad energy-resolution source enables us to clarify the role
played by the beam coherence in the occurrence of the antibunching effect.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
On the torque on birefringent plates induced by quantum fluctuations
We present detailed numerical calculations of the mechanical torque induced
by quantum fluctuations on two parallel birefringent plates with in plane
optical anisotropy, separated by either vacuum or a liquid (ethanol). The
torque is found to vary as , where represents the angle
between the two optical axes, and its magnitude rapidly increases with
decreasing plate separation . For a 40 m diameter disk, made out of
either quartz or calcite, kept parallel to a Barium Titanate plate at nm, the maximum torque (at ) is of the order of
Nm. We propose an experiment to observe this torque
when the Barium Titanate plate is immersed in ethanol and the other
birefringent disk is placed on top of it. In this case the retarded van der
Waals (or Casimir-Lifshitz) force between the two birefringent slabs is
repulsive. The disk would float parallel to the plate at a distance where its
net weight is counterbalanced by the retarded van der Waals repulsion, free to
rotate in response to very small driving torques.Comment: 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Direct experimental evidence of free fermion antibunching
Fermion antibunching was observed on a beam of free noninteracting neutrons.
A monochromatic beam of thermal neutrons was first split by a graphite single
crystal, then fed to two detectors, displaying a reduced coincidence rate. The
result is a fermionic complement to the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect for
photons.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Investigating Mitonuclear Genetic Interactions Through Machine Learning: A Case Study on Cold Adaptation Genes in Human Populations From Different European Climate Regions
Cold climates represent one of the major environmental challenges that anatomically modern humans faced during their dispersal out of Africa. The related adaptive traits have been achieved by modulation of thermogenesis and thermoregulation processes where nuclear (nuc) and mitochondrial (mt) genes play a major role. In human populations, mitonuclear genetic interactions are the result of both the peculiar genetic history of each human group and the different environments they have long occupied. This study aims to investigate mitonuclear genetic interactions by considering all the mitochondrial genes and 28 nuclear genes involved in brown adipose tissue metabolism, which have been previously hypothesized to be crucial for cold adaptation. For this purpose, we focused on three human populations (i.e., Finnish, British, and Central Italian people) of European ancestry from different biogeographical and climatic areas, and we used a machine learning approach to identify relevant nucDNAâmtDNA interactions that characterized each population. The obtained results are twofold: (i) at the methodological level, we demonstrated that a machine learning approach is able to detect patterns of genetic structure among human groups from different latitudes both at single genes and by considering combinations of mtDNA and nucDNA loci; (ii) at the biological level, the analysis identified population-specific nuclear genes and variants that likely play a relevant biological role in association with a mitochondrial gene (such as the âobesity geneâ FTO in Finnish people). Further studies are needed to fully elucidate the evolutionary dynamics (e.g., migration, admixture, and/or local adaptation) that shaped these nucDNAâmtDNA interactions and their functional role
Impact of different types of physical activity in green urban space on adult health and behaviors: A systematic review
This systematic review aimed to investigate the type of physical activity carried out in green urban spaces by the adult population and to value its impact on the populationâs health. Additionally, another purpose was to examine if the presence of outdoor gyms in green urban spaces can promote participation in physical activity among adults. Searches of electronic databases, with no time restrictions and up to June 2020, resulted in 10 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. A quantitative assessment is reported as effect size. Many people practiced walking activity as a workout, which showed improvements in health. Walking is the most popular type of training due to its easy accessibility and it not requiring equipment or special skills. Outdoor fitness equipment has been installed in an increasing number of parks and has become very popular worldwide. Further, outdoor fitness equipment provides free access to fitness training and seems to promote physical activity in healthy adults. However, other studies about outdoor fitness equipment efficiency are needed. People living near to equipped areas are more likely to perform outdoor fitness than those who live further away. The most common training programs performed in green urban spaces included exercises with free and easy access, able to promote physical health and perception
Increased carotid intima-media thickness and stiffness in obese children
Summary (Abstract not available):Obesity in childhood increases the risk of atherosclerotic disease and death in adulthood. We studied 100 children with obesity and 47 healthy age-mathced control subjects, mean age 10 years of both groups. Biochemical parameters describing lipoprotein and glucose metabolism were measured. Quantitative B-mode ultrasound examination of common carotid arteries was performed. Carotid thickness and stiffness were significantly increased in obese children as compared to nonobese ones, independently of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Obesity should be regarded as a disease with vascular implications even in young age
Automatic lung segmentation and quantification of aeration in computed tomography of the chest using 3D transfer learning
Background: Identification of lung parenchyma on computer tomographic (CT) scans in the research setting is done semi-automatically and requires cumbersome manual correction. This is especially true in pathological conditions, hindering the clinical application of aeration compartment (AC) analysis. Deep learning based algorithms have lately been shown to be reliable and time-efficient in segmenting pathologic lungs. In this contribution, we thus propose a novel 3D transfer learning based approach to quantify lung volumes, aeration compartments and lung recruitability. Methods: Two convolutional neural networks developed for biomedical image segmentation (uNet), with different resolutions and fields of view, were implemented using Matlab. Training and evaluation was done on 180 scans of 18 pigs in experimental ARDS (u2NetPig) and on a clinical data set of 150 scans from 58 ICU patients with lung conditions varying from healthy, to COPD, to ARDS and COVID-19 (u2NetHuman). One manual segmentations (MS) was available for each scan, being a consensus by two experts. Transfer learning was then applied to train u2NetPig on the clinical data set generating u2NetTransfer. General segmentation quality was quantified using the Jaccard index (JI) and the Boundary Function score (BF). The slope between JI or BF and relative volume of non-aerated compartment (SJI and SBF, respectively) was calculated over data sets to assess robustness toward non-aerated lung regions. Additionally, the relative volume of ACs and lung volumes (LV) were compared between automatic and MS. Results: On the experimental data set, u2NetPig resulted in JI = 0.892 [0.88 : 091] (median [inter-quartile range]), BF = 0.995 [0.98 : 1.0] and slopes SJI = â0.2 {95% conf. int. â0.23 : â0.16} and SBF = â0.1 {â0.5 : â0.06}. u2NetHuman showed similar performance compared to u2NetPig in JI, BF but with reduced robustness SJI = â0.29 {â0.36 : â0.22} and SBF = â0.43 {â0.54 : â0.31}. Transfer learning improved overall JI = 0.92 [0.88 : 0.94], P < 0.001, but reduced robustness SJI = â0.46 {â0.52 : â0.40}, and affected neither BF = 0.96 [0.91 : 0.98] nor SBF = â0.48 {â0.59 : â0.36}. u2NetTransfer improved JI compared to u2NetHuman in segmenting healthy (P = 0.008), ARDS (P < 0.001) and COPD (P = 0.004) patients but not in COVID-19 patients (P = 0.298). ACs and LV determined using u2NetTransfer segmentations exhibited < 5% volume difference compared to MS. Conclusion: Compared to manual segmentations, automatic uNet based 3D lung segmentation provides acceptable quality for both clinical and scientific purposes in the quantification of lung volumes, aeration compartments, and recruitability
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