Experimental verification of theoretical relations between total gas absorptivities and total gas emissivities for CO

An experimental study has been carried out for the purpose of verifying theoretical predictions concerning the relations between total absorptivities and total emissivities for transparent gases. The experimental conditions have been designed in such a way as to permit a direct check of theoretical relations derived for (a) nonoverlapping dispersion lines and (b) spectral lines with sufficient pressure broadening to permit neglect of the rotational fine structure. A comparison between the emissivities derived from absorptivity measurements and emissivities calculated from the spectroscopic constants of CO shows a good agreement (within 20% for most of the temperature range). The apparatus for the measurement of total gas absorptivities is described. Results for total absorptivities of carbon monoxide measured at temperatures between 300 and 500°K are given and total emissivities have been calculated in the temperature range of 300 to 1600°K. The range of total gas pressure is 0 to 515 psia

A Prospective Analysis of Adverse Drug Reactions in a South Indian Hospital

Adverse drug reactions are a great cause of concern to the medical profession, the patients and the pharmaceutical industry. However ADR reporting and monitoring is yet to catch up in India. Hence we undertook a study to record and analyze adverse reactions among all patients admitted to the medical wards of a tertiary care. Centre patients admitted to all medical wards over one year were assessed for ADRs throughout their admission. Suspected ADRs were recorded and analyzed for i) the type of reaction ii) severity iii) Consequence on treatment that is if the drug was continued, or stopped, or needed to be treated with other drugs, iv) Physiological system involved and the v) group of the drugs associated with ADRs. Among 1250 patients admitted during the study period, 250 adverse events were observed. Majority (76.8%) were of mild type, 66% were severe requiring intensive care and 3 patients died. Antimicrobials were responsible for maximum (42.4%) ADRs followed by drugs acting on CNS (20%). When we analyzed the systems affected, CNS side effects were more common in our study. While in many other studies Cardiovascular and gastrointestinal side effects were the most common. Combination of drugs was responsible for a large percentage of ADRs. Inadvertent use of antipsychotics with sedatives led to respiratory failure in 4 patients of which 1 died. Contaminated IV fluids are suspected to be the cause of death in another fatal ADR. In conclusion there is a need for vigilant ADR monitoring to be done by all doctors to prevent morbidity and mortality from ADRs

Self-assembled Pt nanowires on Ge(001): Relaxation effects

Absorption of Pt on the Ge(001) surface results in stable self-organized Pt nanowires, extending over some hundred nanometers. Based on band structure calculations within density functional theory and the generalized gradient approximation, the structural relaxation of the Ge--Pt surface is investigated. The surface reconstruction pattern obtained agrees well with findings from scanning tunneling microscopy. In particular, strong Pt--Pt dimerization is characteristical for the nanowires. The surface electronic structure is significantly perturbed due to Ge--Pt interaction, which induces remarkable shifts of Ge states towards the Fermi energy. As a consequence, the topmost Ge layers are subject to a metal-insulator transition.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, final version accepted by Europhys. Lett., minor modifications of the tex

Quantum Coherence in an Exactly Solvable One-dimensional Model with Defects

Using the Quantum Inverse Scattering Method we construct an integrable Heisenberg-XXZ-model, or equivalently a model for spinless fermions with nearest-neighbour interaction, with defects. Each defect involves three sites with a fine tuning between nearest-neighbour and next-nearest-neighbour terms. We investigate the finite size corrections to the ground state energy and its dependence on an external flux as a function of a parameter $\nu$, characterizing the strength of the defects. For intermediate values of $\nu$, both quantities become very small, although the ground state wavefunction remains extended.Comment: accepted by Europhys. Lett., latex, 7 pages. A postscript version including the figures is available at: http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/theo2/Publications

Cutaneous eccrine glands of the foot pads of the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis, Hyracoidea, mammalia)

In order to find correlations between skin gland morphology and specific ethological features, the cutaneous glands of the foot pads of Procavia capensis were studied by histological and various histochemical methods and by electron microscopy. In the foot pads, abundant specific eccrine skin glands occur, which consist of coiled tubular secretory portions and coiled ducts. The wall of the secretory part is composed of cuboidal glandular cells and myoepithelial cells. Among the glandular cells two types occur: clear and dark cells. Clear cells have numerous mitochondria and form a basal labyrinth, indicating fluid transport. Dark cells, which stain strongly with periodic acid-Schiff, contain a highly developed perinuclear Golgi apparatus, large amounts of rough endoplasmic reticulum and many secretory granules indicating production of glycoproteins. Cytokeratin (CK) 19 was found in secretory compartments and ducts, CK14 only in duct cells. Single cells of the secretory coils and ducts may be stained with antibodies against antimicrobial peptides. Some glandular cells contain proliferating cell nuclear antigen-positive nuclei especially in the ducts indicating an increased cell proliferation. Terminal transferase (TdT)-mediated d-UTP nick-end labeling-positive nuclei can be detected predominantly in the secretory coils and rarely in the transitional portions between ducts and end pieces. We suppose that proliferating cells migrate from the ducts to the secretory coils. The secretory product of the eccrine cutaneous glands seems to improve the traction between the foot pads of these animals and the steep and smooth rock formations among which they live

A network-based rating system and its resistance to bribery

We study a rating system in which a set of individuals (e.g., the customers of a restaurant) evaluate a given service (e.g, the restaurant), with their aggregated opinion determining the probability of all individuals to use the service and thus its generated revenue. We explicitly model the influence relation by a social network, with individuals being influenced by the evaluation of their trusted peers. On top of that we allow a malicious service provider (e.g., the restaurant owner) to bribe some individuals, i.e., to invest a part of his or her expected income to modify their opinion, therefore influencing his or her final gain. We analyse the effect of bribing strategies under various constraints, and we show under what conditions the system is bribery-proof, i.e., no bribing strategy yields a strictly positive expected gain to the service provider