7,883 research outputs found
Preterm infants have deficient monocyte and lymphocyte cytokine responses to Group B Streptococcus
Group B streptococcus GBS) is an important cause of early-and late-onset sepsis in the newborn. Preterm infants have markedly increased susceptibility and worse outcomes, but their immunological responses to GBS are poorly defined. We compared mononuclear cell and whole-blood cytokine responses to heat-killed GBS HKGBS) of preterm infants gestational age [GA], 26 to 33 weeks), term infants, and healthy adults. We investigated the kinetics and cell source of induced cytokines and quantified HKGBS phagocytosis. HKGBS-induced tumor necrosis factor TNF) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) secretion was significantly impaired in preterm infants compared to that in term infants and adults. These cytokines were predominantly monocytic in origin, and production was intrinsically linked to HKGBS phagocytosis. Very preterm infants GA, < 30 weeks) had fewer cytokine-producing monocytes, but nonopsonic phagocytosis ability was comparable to that for term infants and adults. Exogenous complement supplementation increased phagocytosis in all groups, as well as the proportion of preterm monocytes producing IL-6, but for very preterm infants, responses were still deficient. Similar defective preterm monocyte responses were observed in fresh whole cord blood stimulated with live GBS. Lymphocyte-associated cytokines were significantly deficient for both preterm and term infants compared to levels for adults. These findings indicate that a subset of preterm monocytes do not respond to GBS, a defect compounded by generalized weaker lymphocyte responses in newborns. Together these deficient responses may increase the susceptibility of preterm infants to GBS infection
Hamiltonian Formulation of Two Body Problem in Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics
A Hamiltonian formulation for the classical problem of electromagnetic
interaction of two charged relativistic particles is found.Comment: 22 pages, 8 Uuencoded Postscript figure
The Critical Exponent is Computable for Automatic Sequences
The critical exponent of an infinite word is defined to be the supremum of
the exponent of each of its factors. For k-automatic sequences, we show that
this critical exponent is always either a rational number or infinite, and its
value is computable. Our results also apply to variants of the critical
exponent, such as the initial critical exponent of Berthe, Holton, and Zamboni
and the Diophantine exponent of Adamczewski and Bugeaud. Our work generalizes
or recovers previous results of Krieger and others, and is applicable to other
situations; e.g., the computation of the optimal recurrence constant for a
linearly recurrent k-automatic sequence.Comment: In Proceedings WORDS 2011, arXiv:1108.341
On the Number of Unbordered Factors
We illustrate a general technique for enumerating factors of k-automatic
sequences by proving a conjecture on the number f(n) of unbordered factors of
the Thue-Morse sequence. We show that f(n) = 4 and that f(n) = n
infinitely often. We also give examples of automatic sequences having exactly 2
unbordered factors of every length
Confirmation of the planet around HD 95086 by direct imaging
VLT/NaCo angular differential imaging at L' (3.8 microns) revealed a probable
giant planet comoving with the young and early-type HD 95086 also known to
harbor an extended debris disk. The discovery was based on the proper motion
analysis of two datasets spanning 15 months. However, the second dataset
suffered from bad atmospheric conditions, which limited the significance of the
redetection at the 3 sigma level. In this Letter, we report new VLT/NaCo
observations of HD 95086 obtained on 2013 June 26-27 at L' to recover the
planet candidate. We unambiguously redetect the companion HD 95086 b with
multiple independent pipelines at a signal-to-noise ratio greater than or equal
to 5. Combined with previously reported measurements, our astrometry decisively
shows that the planet is comoving with HD 95086 and inconsistent with a
background object. With a revised mass of 5 pm 2 Jupiter masses, estimated from
its L' photometry and "hot-start" models at 17 pm 4 Myr, HD 95086 b becomes a
new benchmark for further physical and orbital characterization of young giant
planets.Comment: accepted for publication to AP
Seeing motion and apparent motion
In apparent motion experiments, participants are presented with what is in fact a succession of two brief stationary stimuli at two different locations, but they report an impression of movement. Philosophers have recently debated whether apparent motion provides evidence in favour of a particular account of the nature of temporal experience. I argue that the existing discussion in this area is premised on a mistaken view of the phenomenology of apparent motion and, as a result, the space of possible philosophical positions has not yet been fully explored. In particular, I argue that the existence of apparent motion is compatible with an account of the nature of temporal experience that involves a version of direct realism. In doing so, I also argue against two other claims often made about apparent motion, viz. that apparent motion is the psychological phenomenon that underlies motion experience in the cinema, and that apparent motion is subjectively indistinguishable from real motion
Gauge Invariant Hamiltonian Formalism for Spherically Symmetric Gravitating Shells
The dynamics of a spherically symmetric thin shell with arbitrary rest mass
and surface tension interacting with a central black hole is studied. A careful
investigation of all classical solutions reveals that the value of the radius
of the shell and of the radial velocity as an initial datum does not determine
the motion of the shell; another configuration space must, therefore, be found.
A different problem is that the shell Hamiltonians used in literature are
complicated functions of momenta (non-local) and they are gauge dependent. To
solve these problems, the existence is proved of a gauge invariant
super-Hamiltonian that is quadratic in momenta and that generates the shell
equations of motion. The true Hamiltonians are shown to follow from the
super-Hamiltonian by a reduction procedure including a choice of gauge and
solution of constraint; one important step in the proof is a lemma stating that
the true Hamiltonians are uniquely determined (up to a canonical
transformation) by the equations of motion of the shell, the value of the total
energy of the system, and the choice of time coordinate along the shell. As an
example, the Kraus-Wilczek Hamiltonian is rederived from the super-Hamiltonian.
The super-Hamiltonian coincides with that of a fictitious particle moving in a
fixed two-dimensional Kruskal spacetime under the influence of two effective
potentials. The pair consisting of a point of this spacetime and a unit
timelike vector at the point, considered as an initial datum, determines a
unique motion of the shell.Comment: Some remarks on the singularity of the vector potantial are added and
some minor corrections done. Definitive version accepted in Phys. Re
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