Precision high voltage divider for the KATRIN experiment

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN) aims to determine the absolute mass of the electron antineutrino from a precise measurement of the tritium beta-spectrum near its endpoint at 18.6 keV with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV. KATRIN uses an electrostatic retardation spectrometer of MAC-E filter type for which it is crucial to monitor high voltages of up to 35 kV with a precision and long-term stability at the ppm level. Since devices capable of this precision are not commercially available, a new high voltage divider for direct voltages of up to 35 kV has been designed, following the new concept of the standard divider for direct voltages of up to 100 kV developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). The electrical and mechanical design of the divider, the screening procedure for the selection of the precision resistors, and the results of the investigation and calibration at PTB are reported here. During the latter, uncertainties at the low ppm level have been deduced for the new divider, thus qualifying it for the precision measurements of the KATRIN experiment.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure

A prospective study on clinical profile and incidence of acute kidney injury due to hair dye poisoning

Background: Globally suicides are mounting at an alarming rate over the last few decades thus claiming the most productive age group of the society. Developing country like India is no exception to this needless increasing toll.Methods: This study was a prospective observational study with 31 patients recruited at Osmania General Hospital between November 2011 – October 2013. Patients of alleged hair dye ingestion admitted in MICU were taken up for study after the exclusion criteria were ruled out. Informed consent was obtained from every patient or patient’s relatives. All routine laboratory investigations were done basing on standard clinical procedures and protocols and patient related clinical information were recorded on the prepared proforma from the time of hospital admission till discharge or death. The presence of AKI was defined and graded as per the RIFLE criteria.Results: The present work examines 31 cases of suicidal ingestion of hair dye, out of which males were 6 (19.35%) and females were 25 (80.64%). It was observed that the tendency to commit suicide was more in the age group 21 -30 years with males (30%) and females (70%). 19% of total patients who ingested more than 50 ml of dye had developed Acute Kidney injury requiring hemodialysis. Upon treatment about 58% of patients were discharged from hospital in good general health condition, Four patients expired due to respiratory complications with pneumonia, ARDS, sepsis and ARF.Conclusions: So in current scenario of emerging hair dye poisoning, it is imperative for a timely intervention by reducing the time of admission in hospital and also early management by clinicians is the need of an hour

El cubo de armonización HSB Living Lab

Living Labs are fast emerging instruments for advancing user-centred innovations in various areas of human activities. Due to their large diversity in terms of thematic approaches, constellations, practices, outcomes and longevity, various methodologies have been proposed to describe and link living labs in a consistent way. The theory has so far seen few applications. The strength of the present work is that it uses an existing and comprehensive methodology, entitled Living Labs Harmonization Cube (LLHC), on a concrete and relevant example – HSB Living Lab. The characterization of HSB Living Lab by LLHC is based on the authors’ personal experience in the design, management and operation of this living lab for the last three years, which is supported by examples. The results show that HSB Living Lab has not yet reached full maturity in any of the six categories included in LLHC and identifies areas for future development.Los Living Labs están emergiendo como instrumentos de innovación en actividades centradas en el usuario. Debido al variado rango de enfoques, constelaciones, prácticas, resultados y longevidad, igualmente variadas metodologías se han usado para describir los Living Labs. Pero estas metodologías pocas veces se han llevado a la práctica. La importancia del trabajo presentado en este artículo reside en que pone en práctica una metodología extensa y establecida, llamada “‘Living Labs Harmonization Cube’ (LLHC)”, con un ejemplo concreto y relevante: el HSB Living Lab. La caracterización del HSB Living Lab según la metodología LLHC se basa en la experiencia personal de los autores durante el diseño, gestión y mantenimiento de este laboratorio en los tres últimos años, y se ilustra con ejemplos. Los resultados indican que HSB Living Lab aún no ha alcanzado la madurez en ninguna de las seis categorías de la metodología LLHC y permiten identificar áreas de mejora

Nonlocal problems for quasilinear functional partial differential equations of first order

Existence and uniqueness of almost everywhere solutions of nonlocal problems to functional partial differential systems in diagonal form are investigated. The proof is based on the characteristics and fixed point methods

Liver segmental volume and attenuation ratio (LSVAR) on portal venous CT scans improves the detection of clinically significant liver fibrosis compared to liver segmental volume ratio (LSVR).

BACKGROUND The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to show that the liver segmental volume and attenuation ratio (LSVAR) improves the detection of significant liver fibrosis on portal venous CT scans by adding the liver vein to cava attenuation (LVCA) to the liver segmental volume ratio (LSVR). MATERIAL AND METHODS Patients who underwent portal venous phase abdominal CT scans and MR elastography (reference standard) within 3 months between 02/2016 and 05/2017 were included. The LSVAR was calculated on portal venous CT scans as LSVR*LVCA, while the LSVR represented the volume ratio between Couinaud segments I-III and IV-VIII, and the LVCA represented the density of the liver veins compared to the density in the vena cava. The LSVAR and LSVR were compared between patients with and without significantly elevated liver stiffness (based on a cutoff value of 3.5 kPa) using the Mann-Whitney U test and ROC curve analysis. RESULTS The LSVR and LSVAR allowed significant differentiation between patients with (n = 19) and without (n = 122) significantly elevated liver stiffness (p < 0.001). However, the LSVAR showed a higher area under the curve (AUC = 0.96) than the LSVR (AUC = 0.74). The optimal cutoff value was 0.34 for the LSVR, which detected clinically increased liver stiffness with a sensitivity of 53% and a specificity of 88%. With a cutoff value of 0.67 for the LSVAR, the sensitivity increased to 95% while maintaining a specificity of 89%. CONCLUSION The LSVAR improves the detection of significant liver fibrosis on portal venous CT scans compared to the LSVR

A stitch in time: Efficient computation of genomic DNA melting bubbles

Background: It is of biological interest to make genome-wide predictions of the locations of DNA melting bubbles using statistical mechanics models. Computationally, this poses the challenge that a generic search through all combinations of bubble starts and ends is quadratic. Results: An efficient algorithm is described, which shows that the time complexity of the task is O(NlogN) rather than quadratic. The algorithm exploits that bubble lengths may be limited, but without a prior assumption of a maximal bubble length. No approximations, such as windowing, have been introduced to reduce the time complexity. More than just finding the bubbles, the algorithm produces a stitch profile, which is a probabilistic graphical model of bubbles and helical regions. The algorithm applies a probability peak finding method based on a hierarchical analysis of the energy barriers in the Poland-Scheraga model. Conclusions: Exact and fast computation of genomic stitch profiles is thus feasible. Sequences of several megabases have been computed, only limited by computer memory. Possible applications are the genome-wide comparisons of bubbles with promotors, TSS, viral integration sites, and other melting-related regions.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

Possible pseudogap behavior of electron doped high-temperature superconductors

We have measured the low-energy quasiparticle excitation spectrum of the electron doped high-temperature superconductors (HTS) Nd(1.85)Ce(0.15)CuO(4-y) and Pr(1.85)Ce(0.15)CuO(4-y) as a function of temperature and applied magnetic field using tunneling spectroscopy. At zero magnetic field, for these optimum doped samples no excitation gap is observed in the tunneling spectra above the transition temperature Tc. In contrast, below Tc for applied magnetic fields well above the resistively determined upper critical field, a clear excitation gap at the Fermi level is found which is comparable to the superconducting energy gap below Tc. Possible interpretations of this observation are the existence of a normal state pseudogap in the electron doped HTS or the existence of a spatially non-uniform superconducting state.Comment: 4 pages, 4 ps-figures included, to be published in Phys. Rev. B, Rapid Com

VLDL Hydrolysis by Hepatic Lipase Regulates PPARδ Transcriptional Responses

PPARs (α,γ,δ) are a family of ligand-activated transcription factors that regulate energy balance, including lipid metabolism. Despite these critical functions, the integration between specific pathways of lipid metabolism and distinct PPAR responses remains obscure. Previous work has revealed that lipolytic pathways can activate PPARs. Whether hepatic lipase (HL), an enzyme that regulates VLDL and HDL catabolism, participates in PPAR responses is unknown.Using PPAR ligand binding domain transactivation assays, we found that HL interacted with triglyceride-rich VLDL (>HDL≫LDL, IDL) to activate PPARδ preferentially over PPARα or PPARγ, an effect dependent on HL catalytic activity. In cell free ligand displacement assays, VLDL hydrolysis by HL activated PPARδ in a VLDL-concentration dependent manner. Extended further, VLDL stimulation of HL-expressing HUVECs and FAO hepatoma cells increased mRNA expression of canonical PPARδ target genes, including adipocyte differentiation related protein (ADRP), angiopoietin like protein 4 and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase-4. HL/VLDL regulated ADRP through a PPRE in the promoter region of this gene. In vivo, adenoviral-mediated hepatic HL expression in C57BL/6 mice increased hepatic ADRP mRNA levels by 30%. In ob/ob mice, a model with higher triglycerides than C57BL/6 mice, HL overexpression increased ADRP expression by 70%, demonstrating the importance of triglyceride substrate for HL-mediated PPARδ activation. Global metabolite profiling identified HL/VLDL released fatty acids including oleic acid and palmitoleic acid that were capable of recapitulating PPARδ activation and ADRP gene regulation in vitro.These data define a novel pathway involving HL hydrolysis of VLDL that activates PPARδ through generation of specific monounsaturated fatty acids. These data also demonstrate how integrating cell biology with metabolomic approaches provides insight into specific lipid mediators and pathways of lipid metabolism that regulate transcription