The Specific Heat of a Ferromagnetic Film.

We analyze the specific heat for the $O(N)$ vector model on a $d$-dimensional film geometry of thickness $L$ using ``environmentally friendly'' renormalization. We consider periodic, Dirichlet and antiperiodic boundary conditions, deriving expressions for the specific heat and an effective specific heat exponent, \alpha\ef. In the case of $d=3$, for $N=1$, by matching to the exact exponent of the two dimensional Ising model we capture the crossover for \xi_L\ra\infty between power law behaviour in the limit {L\over\xi_L}\ra\infty and logarithmic behaviour in the limit {L\over\xi_L}\ra0 for fixed $L$, where $\xi_L$ is the correlation length in the transverse dimensions.Comment: 21 pages of Plain TeX. Postscript figures available upon request from [email protected]

Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis as a natural anti-listerial agent in the mushroom industry

peer-reviewedMushroom growth substrates from different commercial producers of mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) were screened for the presence of bacteria with potential for use as biocontrol agents for controlling Listeria monocytogenes in the mushroom production environment. Eight anti-listerial strains were isolated from different sources and all were identified using 16s rRNA gene sequencing as Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis. Whole-genome sequencing of the Lc. lactis isolates indicated that strains from different sites and substrate types were highly similar. Colony MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry found that these strains were Nisin Z producers but inhibitory activity was highly influenced by the incubation conditions and was strain dependant. The biofilm forming ability of these strains was tested using a crystal violet assay and all were found to be strong biofilm formers. Growth of Lc. lactis subsp. lactis using mixed-biofilm conditions with L. monocytogenes on stainless steel resulted in a 4-log reduction of L. monocytogenes cell numbers. Additional sampling of mushroom producers showed that these anti-listerial Lc. lactis strains are commonly present in the mushroom production environment. Lc. lactis has a generally regarded as safe (GRAS) status and therefore has potential for use as an environmentally benign solution to control L. monocytogenes in order to prevent product contamination and to enhance consumer confidence in the mushroom industry

Dimensional Crossover in the Large N Limit

We consider dimensional crossover for an $O(N)$ Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson model on a $d$-dimensional film geometry of thickness $L$ in the large $N$-limit. We calculate the full universal crossover scaling forms for the free energy and the equation of state. We compare the results obtained using ``environmentally friendly'' renormalization with those found using a direct, non-renormalization group approach. A set of effective critical exponents are calculated and scaling laws for these exponents are shown to hold exactly, thereby yielding non-trivial relations between the various thermodynamic scaling functions.Comment: 25 pages of PlainTe

The Influence of Thermal Pressure on Equilibrium Models of Hypermassive Neutron Star Merger Remnants

The merger of two neutron stars leaves behind a rapidly spinning hypermassive object whose survival is believed to depend on the maximum mass supported by the nuclear equation of state, angular momentum redistribution by (magneto-)rotational instabilities, and spindown by gravitational waves. The high temperatures (~5-40 MeV) prevailing in the merger remnant may provide thermal pressure support that could increase its maximum mass and, thus, its life on a neutrino-cooling timescale. We investigate the role of thermal pressure support in hypermassive merger remnants by computing sequences of spherically-symmetric and axisymmetric uniformly and differentially rotating equilibrium solutions to the general-relativistic stellar structure equations. Using a set of finite-temperature nuclear equations of state, we find that hot maximum-mass critically spinning configurations generally do not support larger baryonic masses than their cold counterparts. However, subcritically spinning configurations with mean density of less than a few times nuclear saturation density yield a significantly thermally enhanced mass. Even without decreasing the maximum mass, cooling and other forms of energy loss can drive the remnant to an unstable state. We infer secular instability by identifying approximate energy turning points in equilibrium sequences of constant baryonic mass parametrized by maximum density. Energy loss carries the remnant along the direction of decreasing gravitational mass and higher density until instability triggers collapse. Since configurations with more thermal pressure support are less compact and thus begin their evolution at a lower maximum density, they remain stable for longer periods after merger.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

The flower mites of Trinidad III: The genus Rhinoseius (Acari: Ascidae)

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56428/1/MP184.pd

Two new species of Marmosopus (Acari: Astigmata) from rodents of the genus Scotinomys (Cricetidae) in Central America

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57139/1/OP703.pd

Left atrial function and remodelling in aortic stenosis.

AIMS: The present study sought to determine the relationship between left atrial (LA) volume (structural changes) and LA function as assessed by strain rate imaging in patients with aortic stenosis (AS). METHODS AND RESULTS: The study consisted of a total of 64 consecutive patients with severe AS (<1 cm²) and 20 healthy control subjects. The phasic LA volumes and function (tissue Doppler-derived strain) were assessed in all patients. As compared with healthy controls, all strain-derived parameters of LA function were reduced in patients with AS. Conversely, only indexed LA passive volume (increased) (7.6 ± 3.8 vs. 10.5 ± 5.1 ml/m², P= 0.02) and LA active fraction (decreased) (43 ± 6.7 vs. 31 ± 13.3%, P< 0.001) (volume-based parameters) were significantly different between AS and controls. In AS, LA volume-derived function parameters were poorly correlated with LA strain parameters. In fact, by multivariable analysis, no LA phasic strain parameters emerged as independently associated with LA phasic volume parameters. CONCLUSIONS: In AS, changes in LA function did not parallel changes in LA size. Furthermore, the increase in LA volume does not necessarily reflect the presence of intrinsic LA dysfunctio

Multiparticle entanglement and its experimental detection

We discuss several aspects of multiparticle mixed state entanglement and its experimental detection. First we consider entanglement between two particles which is robust against disposals of other particles. To completely detect these kinds of entanglement, full knowledge of the multiparticle density matrix (or of all reduced density matrixes) is required. Then we review the relation of the separability properties of l-partite splittings of a state $\rho$ to its multipartite entanglement properties. We show that it suffices to determine the diagonal matrix elements of $\rho$ in a certain basis in order to detect multiparticle entanglement properties of $\rho$. We apply these observations to analyze two recent experiments, where multiparticle entangled states of 3 (4) particles were produced. Finally, we focus on bound entangled states (non-separable, non-distillable states) and show that they can be activated by joint actions of the parties. We also provide several examples which show the activation of bound entanglement with bound entanglement.Comment: 9 pages, no figures; submitted to The Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General, special issue in Quantum Information and Computatio

Localized Entanglement in one-dimensional Anderson model

The entanglement in one-dimensional Anderson model is studied. We show that the pairwise entanglement measured by the average concurrence has a direct relation to the localization length. The numerical study indicates that the disorder significantly reduces the average entanglement, and entanglement distribution clearly displays the entanglement localization. The maximal pairwise entanglement exhibits a maximum as the disorder strength increases,experiencing a transition from increase to decrease. The entanglement between the center of localization and other site decreases exponentially along the spatial direction. Finally,we study effects of disorder on dynamical properties of entanglement.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Study protocol: Reporting characteristics of intervention trials of animals published in the Journal of Dairy Science in 2017

Objectives The scope of this cross-sectional observational study is to evaluate prevalence of reporting the 19 objective items of the REFLECT statement checklist (Sargeant et al., 2010), with the primary outcome being prevalence of sample size calculation, in clinical trials published in the Journal of Dairy Science from January to December of 2017. We will also determine risk of bias in individual studies using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2.0 tools for individually randomized, parallel group trials; cluster randomized, parallel group trials; and individually randomized, cross-over trials (Higgins et al., 2016)