Current controversies in determining the main mechanisms of atrial fibrillation

Despite considerable basic research into the mechanisms of atrial fibrillation (AF), not much progress has been made in the prognosis of patients with AF. With the exception of anticoagulant therapy, current treatments for AF still do not improve major cardiovascular outcomes. This may be due partly to the diverse aetiology of AF with increasingly more factors found to contribute to the arrhythmia. In addition, a strong increase has been seen in the technological complexity of the methods used to quantify the main pathophysiological alterations underlying the initiation and progression of AF. Because of the lack of standardization of the technological approaches currently used, the perception of basic mechanisms of AF varies widely in the scientific community. Areas of debate include the role of Ca2+-handling alterations associated with AF, the contribution and noninvasive assessment of the degree of atrial fibrosis, and the best techniques to identify electrophysiological drivers of AF. In this review, we will summarize the state of the art of these controversial topics and describe the diverse approaches to investigating and the scientific opinions on leading AF mechanisms. Finally, we will highlight the need for transparency in scientific reporting and standardization of terminology, assumptions, algorithms and experimental conditions used for the development of better AF therapies. Content List - Read more articles from the symposium: Atrial fibrillation - from atrial extrasystoles to atrial cardiomyopathy. What have we learned from basic science and interventional procedures

Phase diagrams of magnetopolariton gases

The magnetic field effect on phase transitions in electrically neutral bosonic systems is much less studied than those in fermionic systems, such as superconducting or ferromagnetic phase transitions. Nevertheless, composite bosons are strongly sensitive to magnetic fields: both their internal structure and motion as whole particles may be affected. A joint effort of ten laboratories has been focused on studies of polariton lasers, where non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensates of bosonic quasiparticles, exciton-polaritons, may appear or disappear under an effect of applied magnetic fields. Polariton lasers based on pillar or planar microcavities were excited both optically and electrically. In all cases a pronounced dependence of the onset to lasing on the magnetic field has been observed. For the sake of comparison, photon lasing (lasing by an electron-hole plasma) in the presence of a magnetic field has been studied on the same samples as polariton lasing. The threshold to photon lasing is essentially governed by the excitonic Mott transition which appears to be sensitive to magnetic fields too. All the observed experimental features are qualitatively described within a uniform model based on coupled diffusion equations for electrons, holes and excitons and the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for exciton-polariton condensates. Our research sheds more light on the physics of non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensates and the results manifest high potentiality of polariton lasers for spin-based quantum logic applications.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure

Self-consistent calculations of quadrupole moments of the first 2+ states in Sn and Pb isotopes

A method of calculating static moments of excited states and transitions between excited states is formulated for non-magic nuclei within the Green function formalism. For these characteristics, it leads to a noticeable difference from the standard QRPA approach. Quadrupole moments of the first 2+ states in Sn and Pb isotopes are calculated using the self-consistent TFFS based on the Energy Density Functional by Fayans et al. with the set of parameters DF3-a fixed previously. A reasonable agreement with available experimental data is obtained.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Increasing the efficiency of former agricultural land using

Research an attempt was made to develop a system of economic measures aimed at minimizing damage from a reduction in the area of agricultural land. Lands excluded from agricultural use are divided into 2 groups. The first group includes areas overgrown with woody vegetation. Here it is planned to conduct forestry aimed at growing highly productive sustainable plantings for targeted purposes. The second group consisted of areas where undergrowth taxation indicators do not allow them to be transferred to lands covered with forest vegetation, it is planned to conduct farming taking into account effective soil fertility. It the potential soil fertility does not provide the yield of grain crops equal to the average for the region over the past 3-5 years, this site is recommended to be used to create forest plantations from fast-growing species. In particular, from Larix Sukaczewii Dyl. which at the age of 60 provides a stock of stem wood up to 740 m3/ha. Plots with soil fertility that allows to grow grain crops equal to and above the average for the region for the last 3-5 years are subjected to cleaning of woody vegetation and involvement in agricultural turnover. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Magnetic properties of the GdFeSi - GdTiSi solid solutions

The GdFe1-xTixSi, x=0-0.2 intermetallic compounds with a tetragonal crystal structure of the CeFeSi (P4/nmm)-type have been studied. It was obtained that the lattice parameter c and the Curie temperature increase quickly, whereas the lattice parameter a is almost unchanged in the system with increasing of Ti content. The GdFeSi compound is easily magnetized along the [001] axis, the field of magnetic anisotropy equals to ∼3.8 kOe at T = 90 K. The saturation magnetization does not change in the GdFe1-xTi x Si system. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.Russian Science Foundation, RSF: 18-72-10098Support by RSF (Project No. 18-72-10098) is acknowledged

Family Clustering of Viliuisk Encephalomyelitis in Traditional and New Geographic Regions

Transmission occurs through patient contact; human migration from disease-endemic villages leads to disease emergence in new communities

Consequences of local gauge symmetry in empirical tight-binding theory

A method for incorporating electromagnetic fields into empirical tight-binding theory is derived from the principle of local gauge symmetry. Gauge invariance is shown to be incompatible with empirical tight-binding theory unless a representation exists in which the coordinate operator is diagonal. The present approach takes this basis as fundamental and uses group theory to construct symmetrized linear combinations of discrete coordinate eigenkets. This produces orthogonal atomic-like "orbitals" that may be used as a tight-binding basis. The coordinate matrix in the latter basis includes intra-atomic matrix elements between different orbitals on the same atom. Lattice gauge theory is then used to define discrete electromagnetic fields and their interaction with electrons. Local gauge symmetry is shown to impose strong restrictions limiting the range of the Hamiltonian in the coordinate basis. The theory is applied to the semiconductors Ge and Si, for which it is shown that a basis of 15 orbitals per atom provides a satisfactory description of the valence bands and the lowest conduction bands. Calculations of the dielectric function demonstrate that this model yields an accurate joint density of states, but underestimates the oscillator strength by about 20% in comparison to a nonlocal empirical pseudopotential calculation.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX4; submitted to Phys. Rev.

STRUCTURAL AND MAGNETIC PHASE TRANSITIONS IN THE GdFeAl1-XSiX SYSTEM

GdFeAl1-xSix crystallizes into the phases: hexagonal of the MgZn2 (P63/mmc) type (x=0-0.8), tetragonal of the CeFeSi (P4/nmm) type (x=0.3-1) and cubic of the MgCu2 (Fd3m) type (x=0-0.7). Curie point increases for the hexagonal and cubic and decreases for the te-tragonal phases, moment Fe vanishes.Работа выполнена при поддержке проекта РНФ № 18-72-10098