47 research outputs found
Rotational Cooling of Polar Molecules by Stark-tuned Cavity Resonance
A general scheme for rotational cooling of diatomic heteronuclear molecules
is proposed. It uses a superconducting microwave cavity to enhance the
spontaneous decay via Purcell effect. Rotational cooling can be induced by
sequentially tuning each rotational transition to cavity resonance, starting
from the highest transition level to the lowest using an electric field.
Electrostatic multipoles can be used to provide large confinement volume with
essentially homogeneous background electric field.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Association between plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin and cardiac disease hospitalizations and deaths in older women
Background Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin ( NGAL ) or lipocalin 2 may promote atherosclerosis and plaque instability leading to increased risk of cardiac events. We investigated the relationships between plasma NGAL , cardiovascular disease biomarkers, and long-term cardiac events. Methods and Results The study population consisted of 1131 ambulant older white women (mean age 75 years) without clinical coronary heart disease ( CHD ) and measures of plasma NGAL in the Perth Longitudinal Study of Ageing Women with 14.5-year CHD and heart failure hospitalizations or death (events) captured using linked records. Over 14.5 years, 256 women had CHD events, while 118 had heart failure events. Per SD increase in log-transformed NGAL there was a 35% to 37% increase in relative hazards for CHD and heart failure events in unadjusted analyses, which remained significant after adjustment for conventional risk factors for CHD events (hazard ratio 1.29, 95% CI 1.13-1.48, P0.05). Women in the highest 2 quartiles of NGAL had higher relative hazards for CHD events compared with women in the lowest quartile hazard ratio 1.61, 95% CI 1.08-2.39, P=0.019 and hazard ratio 1.97, 95% CI 1.33-3.93, P=0.001, respectively. These associations were independent of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I, homocysteine, and estimated renal function. NGAL correctly reclassified 1 in 4 women who sustained a CHD event up in risk and 1 in 10 women without CHD events down in risk. Conclusions NGAL was associated with increased risk of long-term CHD events, independent of conventional risk factors and biomarkers. These findings provide mechanistic insight into the role of NGAL with cardiac events
Normalized embryoid cDNA library of oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis )
A normalized embryoid cDNA library (EON) was constructed based on
reassociation kinetics reaction. Results from dot blot hybridization
and sequencing of EON cDNA clones clearly indicated that the
normalization process reduced the frequency of high abundance
transcripts and increased the frequency of low abundance gene
transcripts. A total of 553 non-redundant expressed sequence tags
(ESTs) were identified, 325 of these were not observed in the standard
oil palm cDNA libraries sequenced previously. A total of 10 EON cDNA
clones were chosen for expression profiling across samples from
different stages of the tissue culture process. Two of the genes
exhibited promising expression patterns for predicting the embryogenic
potential in callus. Some of these genes were also differentially
expressed in the various tissues of oil palm. This study showed that
normalization of the existing embryoid library improved the chances of
identifying transcripts not captured in the standard libraries, some of
which could be associated with embryogenesis. This collection of ESTs
is particularly well suited for use as candidate genes for development
of an oil palm DNA chip, which can be used to obtain a more
comprehensive view of the molecular mechanism associated with oil palm
tissue culture
Phase Behavior of Type-II Superconductors with Quenched Point Pinning Disorder: A Phenomenological Proposal
A general phenomenology for phase behaviour in the mixed phase of type-II
superconductors with weak point pinning disorder is outlined. We propose that
the ``Bragg glass'' phase generically transforms via two separate thermodynamic
phase transitions into a disordered liquid on increasing the temperature. The
first transition is into a glassy phase, topologically disordered at the
largest length scales; current evidence suggests that it lacks the long-ranged
phase correlations expected of a ``vortex glass''. This phase has a significant
degree of short-ranged translational order, unlike the disordered liquid, but
no quasi-long range order, in contrast to the Bragg glass. This glassy phase,
which we call a ``multi-domain glass'', is confined to a narrow sliver at
intermediate fields, but broadens out both for much larger and much smaller
field values. The multi-domain glass may be a ``hexatic glass''; alternatively,
its glassy properties may originate in the replica symmetry breaking envisaged
in recent theories of the structural glass transition. Estimates for
translational correlation lengths in the multi-domain glass indicate that they
can be far larger than the interline spacing for weak disorder, suggesting a
plausible mechanism by which signals of a two-step transition can be obscured.
Calculations of the Bragg glass-multi-domain glass and the multi-domain
glass-disordered liquid phase boundaries are presented and compared to
experimental data. We argue that these proposals provide a unified picture of
the available experimental data on both high-T and low-T materials,
simulations and current theoretical understanding.Comment: 70 pages, 9 postscript figures, modified title and minor changes in
published versio
Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO-Virgo Run O3b
We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC-2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: A generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society
Narrowband Searches for Continuous and Long-duration Transient Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo Third Observing Run
Isolated neutron stars that are asymmetric with respect to their spin axis are possible sources of detectable continuous gravitational waves. This paper presents a fully coherent search for such signals from eighteen pulsars in data from LIGO and Virgo's third observing run (O3). For known pulsars, efficient and sensitive matched-filter searches can be carried out if one assumes the gravitational radiation is phase-locked to the electromagnetic emission. In the search presented here, we relax this assumption and allow both the frequency and the time derivative of the frequency of the gravitational waves to vary in a small range around those inferred from electromagnetic observations. We find no evidence for continuous gravitational waves, and set upper limits on the strain amplitude for each target. These limits are more constraining for seven of the targets than the spin-down limit defined by ascribing all rotational energy loss to gravitational radiation. In an additional search, we look in O3 data for long-duration (hours-months) transient gravitational waves in the aftermath of pulsar glitches for six targets with a total of nine glitches. We report two marginal outliers from this search, but find no clear evidence for such emission either. The resulting duration-dependent strain upper limits do not surpass indirect energy constraints for any of these targets. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society
Association between peri-operative angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin-2 receptor blockers and acute kidney injury in major elective non-cardiac surgery: a multicentre, prospective cohort study
The peri-operative use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers is thought to be associated with an increased risk of postoperative acute kidney injury. To reduce this risk, these agents are commonly withheld during the peri-operative period. This study aimed to investigate if withholding angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers peri-operatively reduces the risk of acute kidney injury following major non-cardiac surgery. Patients undergoing elective major surgery on the gastrointestinal tract and/or the liver were eligible for inclusion in this prospective study. The primary outcome was the development of acute kidney injury within seven days of operation. Adjusted multi-level models were used to account for centre-level effects and propensity score matching was used to reduce the effects of selection bias between treatment groups. A total of 949 patients were included from 160 centres across the UK and Republic of Ireland. From this population, 573 (60.4%) patients had their angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers withheld during the peri-operative period. One hundred and seventy-five (18.4%) patients developed acute kidney injury; there was no difference in the incidence of acute kidney injury between patients who had their angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers continued or withheld (107 (18.7%) vs. 68 (18.1%), respectively; p = 0.914). Following propensity matching, withholding angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers did not demonstrate a protective effect against the development of postoperative acute kidney injury (OR (95%CI) 0.89 (0.58–1.34); p = 0.567)
Thrombotic microangiopathy during carfilzomib use: case series in Singapore
10.1038/bcj.2016.62Blood cancer journal67e45