Cosmological implications of the KATRIN experiment

The upcoming Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment will put unprecedented constraints on the absolute mass of the electron neutrino, \mnue. In this paper we investigate how this information on \mnue will affect our constraints on cosmological parameters. We consider two scenarios; one where \mnue=0 (i.e., no detection by KATRIN), and one where \mnue=0.3eV. We find that the constraints on \mnue from KATRIN will affect estimates of some important cosmological parameters significantly. For example, the significance of $n_s<1$ and the inferred value of $\Omega_\Lambda$ depend on the results from the KATRIN experiment.Comment: 13 page

Jorden - Illustreret opslagsværk

Vejret, Skove, Gletsjere, &Oslash;rkener,&nbsp;Bjerge, Oceaner, Vulkaner, S&oslash;er,&nbsp;Klima, V&aring;domr&aring;der, Have, Kyster,&nbsp;Tektonik. S&aring;dan pr&aelig;senteres den&nbsp;danske overs&aelig;ttelse af James F.&nbsp;Luhrs rigt illustrerede opslagv&aelig;rket&nbsp;om Jorden, og som det fremg&aring;r af&nbsp;n&oslash;gleordsopremsningen, er dette en&nbsp;bog om jorden set i et geo-perspektiv.&nbsp;Eller mere pr&aelig;cist et tekstet billedleksikon&nbsp;om Jorden med hovedv&aelig;gten&nbsp;lagt p&aring; geologiske f&aelig;nomener

Multivariate analysis of oestrogen receptor alpha, pS2, metallothionein and CD24 expression in invasive breast cancers

Determination of oestrogen receptor alpha (ER) represents at present the most important predictive factor in breast cancers. Data of ours and of other authors suggest that promising predictive/prognostic factors may also include pS2, metallothionein (MT) and CD24. Present study aimed at determining prognostic and predictive value of immunohistochemical determination of ER, pS2, MT, and CD24 expression in sections originating from 104 patients with breast cancer. An univariate and multivariate analysis was performed. Both univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that cytoplasmic-membranous expression of CD24 (CD24c-m) represents a strong unfavourable prognostic factor in the entire group and in most of the subgroups of patients. In several subgroups of the patients also a prognostic value was demonstrated of elevated expression of pS2 and of membranous expression of CD24. Our studies demonstrated that all patients with good prognostic factors (higher ER and pS2 expressions, lower MT expression, CD24c-m negativity) survived total period of observation (103 months). The study documented that cytoplasmic-membranous expression of CD24 represented an extremely strong unfavourable prognostic factor in breast cancer. Examination of the entire panel of the studied proteins permitted to select a group of patients of an exceptionally good prognosis

Matrix metalloproteinase-9 mediated shedding of syndecan-4 in glomerular endothelial cells

Background - Diabetic nephropathy is the most common cause of end‐stage renal failure in the western world and Asia. The mechanisms are not fully elucidated, but disruption of glomerular endothelial glycocalyx and shedding of its components including syndecans has been implicated. Aims - We hypothesize that reduced glomerular filtration in diabetes is caused by disruption of endothelial glycocalyx in glomeruli, including increased shedding of syndecan‐4. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of experimental diabetic conditions by means of hyperglycemia and IL‐1β exposure on syndecan‐4 shedding in GEnC, and to investigate regulation of shedding by sheddases. Results - We found that in GEnC the expression of syndecan‐4 is higher than that of the other syndecans. In polarized GEnC, apical shedding of syndecan‐4 and syndecan‐4 gene expression was increased by 60% after IL‐1β‐stimulation, but not affected by hyperglycemic conditions. This was accompanied by a 50% increase in MMP9 gene expression in IL‐1β‐stimulated cells but not hyperglycemia. MMP9 knockdown reduced syndecan‐4 shedding by 50%. Conclusion - IL‐1β but not hyperglycemia increases the shedding of syndecan‐4 from GEnC in an MMP9‐dependent manner. This provides a potential mechanism of GEnC damage in diabetes and other inflammatory conditions

Matrix metalloproteinase-9 mediated shedding of syndecan-4 in glomerular endothelial cells

Background - Diabetic nephropathy is the most common cause of end‐stage renal failure in the western world and Asia. The mechanisms are not fully elucidated, but disruption of glomerular endothelial glycocalyx and shedding of its components including syndecans has been implicated. Aims - We hypothesize that reduced glomerular filtration in diabetes is caused by disruption of endothelial glycocalyx in glomeruli, including increased shedding of syndecan‐4. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of experimental diabetic conditions by means of hyperglycemia and IL‐1β exposure on syndecan‐4 shedding in GEnC, and to investigate regulation of shedding by sheddases. Results - We found that in GEnC the expression of syndecan‐4 is higher than that of the other syndecans. In polarized GEnC, apical shedding of syndecan‐4 and syndecan‐4 gene expression was increased by 60% after IL‐1β‐stimulation, but not affected by hyperglycemic conditions. This was accompanied by a 50% increase in MMP9 gene expression in IL‐1β‐stimulated cells but not hyperglycemia. MMP9 knockdown reduced syndecan‐4 shedding by 50%. Conclusion - IL‐1β but not hyperglycemia increases the shedding of syndecan‐4 from GEnC in an MMP9‐dependent manner. This provides a potential mechanism of GEnC damage in diabetes and other inflammatory conditions

The regularized visible fold revisited

The planar visible fold is a simple singularity in piecewise smooth systems. In this paper, we consider singularly perturbed systems that limit to this piecewise smooth bifurcation as the singular perturbation parameter $\epsilon\rightarrow 0$. Alternatively, these singularly perturbed systems can be thought of as regularizations of their piecewise counterparts. The main contribution of the paper is to demonstrate the use of consecutive blowup transformations in this setting, allowing us to obtain detailed information about a transition map near the fold under very general assumptions. We apply this information to prove, for the first time, the existence of a locally unique saddle-node bifurcation in the case where a limit cycle, in the singular limit $\epsilon\rightarrow 0$, grazes the discontinuity set. We apply this result to a mass-spring system on a moving belt described by a Stribeck-type friction law