Binary-Binary Interactions and the Formation of the PSR B1620-26 Triple System in M4

The hierarchical triple system containing the millisecond pulsar PSR B1620-26 in M4 is the first triple star system ever detected in a globular cluster. Such systems should form in globular clusters as a result of dynamical interactions between binaries. We propose that the triple system containing PSR B1620-26 formed through an exchange interaction between a wide primordial binary and a {\it pre-existing\/} binary millisecond pulsar. This scenario would have the advantage of reconciling the $\sim10^9\,$yr timing age of the pulsar with the much shorter lifetime of the triple system in the core of M4.Comment: 13 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript with figures, IASSNS-AST 94/4

Structural changes in cartilage and collagen studied by high temperature Raman spectroscopy

Understanding the high temperature behavior of collagen and collagenous tissue is important for surgical procedures and biomaterials processing for the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries. One primary event for proteins is thermal denaturation that involves unfolding the polypeptide chains while maintaining the primary structure intact. Collagen in the extracellular matrix of cartilage and other connective tissue is a hierarchical material containing bundles of triple-helical fibers associated with water and proteoglycan components. Thermal analysis of dehydrated collagen indicates irreversible denaturation at high temperature between 135°C and 200°C, with another reversible event at ∼60-80°C for hydrated samples. We report high temperature Raman spectra for freeze-dried cartilage samples that show an increase in laser-excited fluorescence interpreted as conformational changes associated with denaturation above 140°C. Spectra for separated collagen and proteoglycan fractions extracted from cartilage indicate the changes are associated with collagen. The Raman data also show appearance of new features indicating peptide bond hydrolysis at high temperature implying that molecular H2O is retained within the freeze-dried tissue. This is confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis that show 5-7 wt% H2O remaining within freeze-dried cartilage that is released progressively upon heating up to 200°C. Spectra obtained after exposure to high temperature and re-hydration following recovery indicate that the capacity of the denatured collagen to re-absorb water is reduced. Our results are important for revealing the presence of bound H2O within the collagen component of connective tissue even after freeze-drying and its role in denaturation that is accompanied by or perhaps preceded by breakdown of the primary polypeptide structure

Preoperative systemic inflammation predicts postoperative infectious complications in patients undergoing curative resection for colorectal cancer

The presence of systemic inflammation before surgery, as evidenced by the glasgow prognostic score (mGPS), predicts poor long-term survival in colorectal cancer. The aim was to examine the relationship between the preoperative mGPS and the development of postoperative complications in patients undergoing potentially curative resection for colorectal cancer. Patients (n=455) who underwent potentially curative resections between 2003 and 2007 were assessed consecutively, and details were recorded in a database. The majority of patients presented for elective surgery (85%) were over the age of 65 years (70%), were male (58%), were deprived (53%), and had TNM stage I/II disease (61%), had preoperative haemoglobin (56%), white cell count (87%) and mGPS 0 (58%) in the normal range. After surgery, 86 (19%) patients developed a postoperative complication; 70 (81%) of which were infectious complications. On multivariate analysis, peritoneal soiling (P<0.01), elevated preoperative white cell count (P<0.05) and mGPS (P<0.01) were independently associated with increased risk of developing a postoperative infection. In elective patients, only the mGPS (OR=1.75, 95% CI=1.17-2.63, P=0.007) was significantly associated with increased risk of developing a postoperative infection. Preoperative elevated mGPS predicts increased postoperative infectious complications in patients undergoing potentially curative resection for colorectal cancer

A simple abstraction of arrays and maps by program translation

We present an approach for the static analysis of programs handling arrays, with a Galois connection between the semantics of the array program and semantics of purely scalar operations. The simplest way to implement it is by automatic, syntactic transformation of the array program into a scalar program followed analysis of the scalar program with any static analysis technique (abstract interpretation, acceleration, predicate abstraction,.. .). The scalars invariants thus obtained are translated back onto the original program as universally quantified array invariants. We illustrate our approach on a variety of examples, leading to the " Dutch flag " algorithm

Properties of the superconducting state in a two-band model

Eliashberg theory is used to investigate the range of thermodynamic properties possible within a two-band model for s-wave superconductivity and to identify signatures of its two-band nature. We emphasize dimensionless BCS ratios (those for the energy gaps, the specific heat jump and the negative of its slope near Tc, the thermodynamic critical field Hc(0), and the normalized slopes of the critical field and the penetration depth near Tc), which are no longer universal even in weak coupling. We also give results for temperature-dependent quantities, such as the penetration depth and the energy gap. Results are presented both for microscopic parameters appropriate to MgB2 and for variations away from these. Strong coupling corrections are identified and found to be significant. Analytic formulas are provided which show the role played by the anisotropy in coupling in some special limits. Particular emphasis is placed on small interband coupling and on the opposite limit of no diagonal coupling. The effect of impurity scattering is considered, particularly for the interband case.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, final version accepted in PR

First-principles molecular-dynamics simulations of a hydrous silica melt: Structural properties and hydrogen diffusion mechanism

We use {\it ab initio} molecular dynamics simulations to study a sample of liquid silica containing 3.84 wt.% H$_2$O.We find that, for temperatures of 3000 K and 3500 K,water is almost exclusively dissolved as hydroxyl groups, the silica network is partially broken and static and dynamical properties of the silica network change considerably upon the addition of water.Water molecules or free O-H groups occur only at the highest temperature but are not stable and disintegrate rapidly.Structural properties of this system are compared to those of pure silica and sodium tetrasilicate melts at equivalent temperatures. These comparisons confirm the picture of a partially broken tetrahedral network in the hydrous liquid and suggest that the structure of the matrix is as much changed by the addition of water than it is by the addition of the same amount (in mole %) of sodium oxide. On larger length scales, correlations are qualitatively similar but seem to be more pronounced in the hydrous silica liquid. Finally, we study the diffusion mechanisms of the hydrogen atoms in the melt. It turns out that HOSi$_2$ triclusters and SiO dangling bonds play a decisive role as intermediate states for the hydrogen diffusion.Comment: 25 pages, 18 figures. submitte

Percolative conductivity in alkaline earth silicate melts and glasses

Ion conducting $(CaO)_x(SiO_2)_{1-x}$ glasses and melts show a threshold behaviour in dc conductivity near $x=x_t=0.50$, with conductivities increasing linearly at $x>x_t$. We show that the behaviour can be traced to a rigid ($x0.50$) elastic phase transition near $x=x_t$. In the floppy phase, conductivity enhancement is traced to increased mobility or diffusion of $Ca^{2+}$ carriers as the modified network elastically softens.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. Europhysics Letters (2003), in pres