947 research outputs found
Purification of a lectin from Eugenia uniflora L. seeds and its potential antibacterial activity
Aims: The aim of this work was to analyse the antimicrobial properties of a purified lectin from Eugenia uniflora L. seeds.
Methods and Results: The E. uniflora lectin (EuniSL) was isolated from the seed extract and purified by ion-exchange chromatography in DEAE-Sephadex with a purification factor of 11·68. The purified lectin showed a single band on denaturing electrophoresis, with a molecular mass of 67 kDa. EuniSL agglutinated rabbit and human erythrocytes with a higher specificity for rabbit erythrocytes. The haemagglutination was not inhibited by the tested carbohydrates but glycoproteins exerted a strong inhibitory action. The lectin proved to be thermo resistant with the highest stability at pH 6·5 and divalent ions did not affect its activity. EuniSL demonstrated a remarkable nonselective antibacterial activity. EuniSL strongly inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella sp. with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 1·5 ÎŒg mlâ1, and moderately inhibited the growth of Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus sp. and Escherichia coli with a MIC of 16·5 ÎŒg mlâ1.
Conclusions: EuniSL was found to be effective against bacteria.
Significance and Impact of the Study: The strong antibacterial activity of the studied lectin indicates a high potential for clinical microbiology and therapeutic applications.VALNATURA of ALFA Programme; Conselho Nacional de
Desenvolvimento CientĂfico e TecnolĂłgico-CNPq
Psychosocial burden in adult patients with atopic dermatitis
P16
Objective: Atopic dermatitis affects patientsâ quality of life (QoL) in many ways. It is important to analyze the impact that the disease produces in order to better define the healthcare needs of adult patients with atopic dermatitis.
Patients and Methods: 14 adult patients with atopic dermatitis were interviewed. The qualitative interviews were semi-structured and supported by a simple script, which allowed a complete and flexible interview.
Results: Six affected areas of the patientâs life with atopic dermatitis were identified: economic, work-related, personal, psychosocial, clinical and relational. It is emphasized that atopic dermatitis has a great psychosocial impact on the adult patient, since it alters interpersonal relationships, generates rejection, stigmatization and social isolation, limits the patient in various areas and activities of their daily life or alters sleep, among others. The visible aspect, the itching-scratching cycle, the lack of awareness and ignorance of the disease, the lack of a definitive solution among the treatments and the side effects of some of them are of great concern.
Conclusions: The QoL of the patients with atopic dermatitis is negatively affected and a holistic multidisciplinary intervention is necessary in order to mitigate the negative impact of the disease
Nature of the spin-glass phase at experimental length scales
We present a massive equilibrium simulation of the three-dimensional Ising
spin glass at low temperatures. The Janus special-purpose computer has allowed
us to equilibrate, using parallel tempering, L=32 lattices down to T=0.64 Tc.
We demonstrate the relevance of equilibrium finite-size simulations to
understand experimental non-equilibrium spin glasses in the thermodynamical
limit by establishing a time-length dictionary. We conclude that
non-equilibrium experiments performed on a time scale of one hour can be
matched with equilibrium results on L=110 lattices. A detailed investigation of
the probability distribution functions of the spin and link overlap, as well as
of their correlation functions, shows that Replica Symmetry Breaking is the
appropriate theoretical framework for the physically relevant length scales.
Besides, we improve over existing methodologies to ensure equilibration in
parallel tempering simulations.Comment: 48 pages, 19 postscript figures, 9 tables. Version accepted for
publication in the Journal of Statistical Mechanic
Modeling of graphene-based NEMS
The possibility of designing nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) based on
relative motion or vibrations of graphene layers is analyzed. Ab initio and
empirical calculations of the potential relief of interlayer interaction energy
in bilayer graphene are performed. A new potential based on the density
functional theory calculations with the dispersion correction is developed to
reliably reproduce the potential relief of interlayer interaction energy in
bilayer graphene. Telescopic oscillations and small relative vibrations of
graphene layers are investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. It is
shown that these vibrations are characterized with small Q-factor values. The
perspectives of nanoelectromechanical systems based on relative motion or
vibrations of graphene layers are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure
Theoretical predictions for the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in the NMSSM
We analyse the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in the framework of
the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. After performing a detailed
analysis of the parameter space, taking into account all the available
constraints from LEPII, we compute the neutralino-nucleon cross section, and
compare the results with the sensitivity of detectors. We find that sizable
values for the detection cross section, within the reach of dark matter
detectors, are attainable in this framework. For example, neutralino-proton
cross sections compatible with the sensitivity of present experiments can be
obtained due to the exchange of very light Higgses with m_{h_1^0}\lsim 70
GeV. Such Higgses have a significant singlet composition, thus escaping
detection and being in agreement with accelerator data. The lightest neutralino
in these cases exhibits a large singlino-Higgsino composition, and a mass in
the range 50\lsim m_{\tilde\chi_1^0}\lsim 100 GeV.Comment: Final version to appear in JHEP. References added. LaTeX, 53 pages,
23 figure
Unbounded violation of tripartite Bell inequalities
We prove that there are tripartite quantum states (constructed from random
unitaries) that can lead to arbitrarily large violations of Bell inequalities
for dichotomic observables. As a consequence these states can withstand an
arbitrary amount of white noise before they admit a description within a local
hidden variable model. This is in sharp contrast with the bipartite case, where
all violations are bounded by Grothendieck's constant. We will discuss the
possibility of determining the Hilbert space dimension from the obtained
violation and comment on implications for communication complexity theory.
Moreover, we show that the violation obtained from generalized GHZ states is
always bounded so that, in contrast to many other contexts, GHZ states do in
this case not lead to extremal quantum correlations. The results are based on
tools from the theories of operator spaces and tensor norms which we exploit to
prove the existence of bounded but not completely bounded trilinear forms from
commutative C*-algebras.Comment: Substantial changes in the presentation to make the paper more
accessible for a non-specialized reade
Astrophysical Uncertainties in the Cosmic Ray Electron and Positron Spectrum From Annihilating Dark Matter
In recent years, a number of experiments have been conducted with the goal of
studying cosmic rays at GeV to TeV energies. This is a particularly interesting
regime from the perspective of indirect dark matter detection. To draw reliable
conclusions regarding dark matter from cosmic ray measurements, however, it is
important to first understand the propagation of cosmic rays through the
magnetic and radiation fields of the Milky Way. In this paper, we constrain the
characteristics of the cosmic ray propagation model through comparison with
observational inputs, including recent data from the CREAM experiment, and use
these constraints to estimate the corresponding uncertainties in the spectrum
of cosmic ray electrons and positrons from dark matter particles annihilating
in the halo of the Milky Way.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure
Accretion and ejection in black-hole X-ray transients
Aims: We summarize the current observational picture of the outbursts of
black-hole X-ray transients (BHTs), based on the evolution traced in a
hardness-luminosity diagram (HLD), and we offer a physical interpretation.
Methods: The basic ingredient in our interpretation is the Poynting-Robertson
Cosmic Battery (PRCB, Contopoulos & Kazanas 1998), which provides locally the
poloidal magnetic field needed for the ejection of the jet. In addition, we
make two assumptions, easily justifiable. The first is that the mass-accretion
rate to the black hole in a BHT outburst has a generic bell-shaped form. This
is guaranteed by the observational fact that all BHTs start their outburst and
end it at the quiescent state. The second assumption is that at low accretion
rates the accretion flow is geometrically thick, ADAF-like, while at high
accretion rates it is geometrically thin.
Results: Both, at the beginning and the end of an outburst, the PRCB
establishes a strong poloidal magnetic field in the ADAF-like part of the
accretion flow, and this explains naturally why a jet is always present in the
right part of the HLD. In the left part of the HLD, the accretion flow is in
the form of a thin disk, and such a disk cannot sustain a strong poloidal
magnetic filed. Thus, no jet is expected in this part of the HLD. The
counterclockwise traversal of the HLD is explained as follows: the poloidal
magnetic field in the ADAF forces the flow to remain ADAF and the source to
move upwards in the HLD rather than to turn left. Thus, the history of the
system determines the counterclockwise traversal of the HLD. As a result, no
BHT is expected to ever traverse the entire HLD curve in the clockwise
direction.
Conclusions: We offer a physical interpretation of accretion and ejection in
BHTs with only one parameter, the mass transfer rate.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Fermion Masses and Mixing in Intersecting Branes Scenarios
We study the structure of Yukawa couplings in intersecting D6-branes wrapping
a factorizable 6-torus compact space T^6. Models with MSSM-like spectrum are
analyzed and found to fail in predicting the quark mass spectrum because of the
way in which the family structure for the left-handed, right-handed quarks and,
eventually, the Higgses is `factorized' among the different tori. In order to
circumvent this, we present a model with three supersymmetric Higgs doublets
which satisfies the anomaly cancellation condition in a more natural way than
the previous models, where quarks were not treated universally regarding their
branes assignments, or some particular branes were singled out being invariant
under orientifold projection. In our model, the family structures for the left,
right quarks, left leptons and the Higgses arise from one of the tori and can
naturally lead to universal strength Yukawa couplings which accommodate the
quark mass hierarchy and the mixing angles.Comment: 21 pages, latex, matches the Phys. Rev. D versio
On the isoperimetric problem for the Laplacian with Robin and Wentzell boundary conditions
Doctor of PhilosophyWe consider the problem of minimising the eigenvalues of the Laplacian with Robin boundary conditions and generalised Wentzell boundary conditions with respect to the domain on which the problem is defined. For the Robin problem, when we extend the Faber-Krahn inequality of Daners [Math. Ann. 335 (2006), 767--785], which states that the ball minimises the first eigenvalue, to prove that the minimiser is unique amongst domains of class . The method of proof uses a functional of the level sets to estimate the first eigenvalue from below, together with a rearrangement of the ball's eigenfunction onto the domain and the usual isoperimetric inequality.
We then prove that the second eigenvalue attains its minimum only on the disjoint union of two equal balls, and set the proof up so it works for the Robin -Laplacian. For the higher eigenvalues, we show that it is in general impossible for a minimiser to exist independently of . When , we prove that every eigenvalue behaves like as , provided only that is bounded with boundary. This generalises a result of Lou and Zhu [Pacific J. Math. 214 (2004), 323--334] for the first eigenvalue.
For the Wentzell problem, we (re-)prove general operator properties, including for the less-studied case establish a type of equivalence property between the Wentzell and Robin minimisers for all eigenvalues. This yields a minimiser of the second Wentzell eigenvalue. We also prove a Cheeger-type inequality for the first eigenvalue in this case
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