9,019 research outputs found
Softness dependence of the Anomalies for the Continuous Shouldered Well potential
By molecular dynamic simulations we study a system of particles interacting
through a continuous isotropic pairwise core-softened potential consisting of a
repulsive shoulder and an attractive well. The model displays a phase diagram
with three fluid phases, a gas-liquid critical point, a liquid-liquid critical
point, and anomalies in density, diffusion and structure. The hierarchy of the
anomalies is the same as for water. We study the effect on the anomalies of
varying the softness of the potential. We find that, making the soft-core
steeper, the regions of density and diffusion anomalies contract in the T -
{\rho} plane, while the region of structural anomaly is weakly affected.
Therefore, a liquid can have anomalous structural behavior without density or
diffusion anomalies. We show that, by considering as effective distances those
corresponding to the maxima of the first two peaks of the radial distribution
function g(r) in the high-density liquid, we can generalize to continuous
two-scales potentials a criterion for the occurrence of the anomalies of
density and diffusion, originally proposed for discontinuous potentials. We
observe that the knowledge of the structural behavior within the first two
coordination shells of the liquid is not enough to establish the occurrence of
the anomalies. By introducing the density derivative of the the cumulative
order integral of the excess entropy we show that the anomalous behavior is
regulated by the structural order at distances as large as the fourth
coordination shell. By comparing the results for different softness of the
potential, we conclude that the disappearing of the density and diffusion
anomalies for the steeper potentials is due to a more structured short-range
order. All these results increase our understanding on how, knowing the
interaction potential, we can evaluate the possible presence of anomalies for a
liquid
Metallopanstimulin as a marker for head and neck cancer
BACKGROUND: Metallopanstimulin (MPS-1) is a ribosomal protein that is found in elevated amounts in the sera of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). We used a test, denoted MPS-H, which detects MPS-1 and MPS-1-like proteins, to determine the relationship between MPS-H serum levels and clinical status of patients with, or at risk for, HNSCC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 125 patients were prospectively enrolled from a university head and neck oncology clinic. Participants included only newly diagnosed HNSCC patients. Two control groups, including 25 non-smokers and 64 smokers, were studied for comparison. A total of 821 serum samples collected over a twenty-four month period were analyzed by the MPS-H radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: HNSCC, non-smokers, and smokers had average MPS-H values of 41.5 ng/mL, 10.2 ng/mL, and 12.8 ng/mL, respectively (p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: We conclude that MPS-1 and MPS-1-like proteins are elevated in patients with HNSCC, and that MPS-H appears to be a promising marker of presence of disease and response to treatment in HNSCC patients
Pancreas Transplantation from Donors after Circulatory Death:an Irrational Reluctance?
Purpose of Review Beta-cell replacement is the best therapeutic option for patients with type 1 diabetes. Because of donor scarcity, more extended criteria donors are used for transplantation. Donation after circulatory death donors (DCD) are not commonly used for pancreas transplantation, because of the supposed higher risk of complications. This review gives an overview on the pathophysiology, risk factors, and outcome in DCD transplantation and discusses different preservation methods. Recent Findings Studies on outcomes of DCD pancreata show similar results compared with those of donation after brain death (DBD), when accumulation of other risk factors is avoided. Hypothermic machine perfusion is shown to be a safe method to improve graft viability in experimental settings. Summary DCD should not be the sole reason to decline a pancreas for transplantation. Adequate donor selection and improved preservation techniques can lead to enhanced pancreas utilization and outcome
Symbolic Reachability Analysis of B through ProB and LTSmin
We present a symbolic reachability analysis approach for B that can provide a
significant speedup over traditional explicit state model checking. The
symbolic analysis is implemented by linking ProB to LTSmin, a high-performance
language independent model checker. The link is achieved via LTSmin's PINS
interface, allowing ProB to benefit from LTSmin's analysis algorithms, while
only writing a few hundred lines of glue-code, along with a bridge between ProB
and C using ZeroMQ. ProB supports model checking of several formal
specification languages such as B, Event-B, Z and TLA. Our experiments are
based on a wide variety of B-Method and Event-B models to demonstrate the
efficiency of the new link. Among the tested categories are state space
generation and deadlock detection; but action detection and invariant checking
are also feasible in principle. In many cases we observe speedups of several
orders of magnitude. We also compare the results with other approaches for
improving model checking, such as partial order reduction or symmetry
reduction. We thus provide a new scalable, symbolic analysis algorithm for the
B-Method and Event-B, along with a platform to integrate other model checking
improvements via LTSmin in the future
Simultaneous Anaerobic and Aerobic Ammonia and Methane Oxidation under Oxygen Limitation Conditions
Methane and ammonia have to be removed from wastewater treatment effluent in order to discharge it to receiving water bodies. A potential solution for this is a combination of simultaneous ammonia and methane oxidation by anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) bacteria and nitrite/nitrate-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation (N-damo) microorganisms. When applied, these microorganisms will be exposed to oxygen, but little is known about the effect of a low concentration of oxygen on a culture containing these microorganisms. In this study, a stable coculture containing anammox and N-damo microorganisms in a laboratory scale bioreactor was established under oxygen limitation. Membrane inlet mass spectrometry (MIMS) was used to directly measure the in situ simultaneous activity of N-damo, anammox, and aerobic ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms. In addition, batch tests revealed that the bioreactor also harbored aerobic methanotrophs and anaerobic methanogens. Together with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis and metagenomics, these results indicate that the combination of N-damo and anammox activity under the continuous supply of limiting oxygen concentrations is feasible and can be implemented for the removal of methane and ammonia from anaerobic digester effluents. IMPORTANCE Nitrogen in wastewater leads to eutrophication of the receiving water bodies, and methane is a potent greenhouse gas; it is therefore important that these are removed from wastewater. A potential solution for the simultaneous removal of nitrogenous compounds and methane is the application of a combination of nitrite/ nitrate-dependent methane oxidation (N-damo) and anaerobic ammonia oxidation (annamox). In order to do so, it is important to investigate the effect of oxygen on these two anaerobic processes. In this study, we investigate the effect of a continuous oxygen supply on the activity of an anaerobic methane- and ammonia-oxidizing coculture. The findings presented in this study are important for the potential application of these two microbial processes in wastewater treatment
Cumulative energetic costs of military aircraft, recreational and natural disturbance in roosting shorebirds
Knowing the consequences of disturbance for multiple species and all disturbance sources is crucial to mitigate disturbance impacts in densely populated areas. However, studies that observe the complete disturbance landscape to estimate cumulative costs of disturbance are scarce. Therefore, we quantified responses, frequencies and energetic costs of disturbance of four shorebird species on five high tide roosts in the Wadden Sea. Roosts were located either in a military air force training area or were predominantly affected by recreational disturbance. In the military training area, infrequent transport airplanes and bombing jets elicited the strongest responses, whereas regular, predictable activities of jet fighters and small civil airplanes elicited far smaller responses. Disturbance occurred more frequently at roosts near recreational than near military activities, as recreation was prohibited in the military area during operation days. On average, birds took flight due to military, recreational or natural disturbance (e.g. raptors) 0.20–1.27 times per hour. High tide disturbance increased daily energy expenditure by 0.1%–1.4%, of which 51% was due to anthropogenic disturbance in contrast to natural disturbance. Costs were low for curlews Numenius arquata, oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus and gulls Larus spp, but higher – and potentially critical – for bar-tailed godwits Limosa lapponica as they were most susceptible to aircraft and raptors. Given that bar-tailed godwits have previously been found to be least susceptible to walker disturbances, our results suggest that interspecific differences in susceptibility depend on disturbance source type. In our study area, aircraft disturbance impacts can be reduced by avoiding jet fighter activities during periods when high water levels force birds closer to military targets and by limiting bombing and transport airplane exercises
Production of neutron-rich nuclei in fragmentation reactions of 132Sn projectiles at relativistic energies
The fragmentation of neutron-rich 132Sn nuclei produced in the fission of
238U projectiles at 950 MeV/u has been investigated at the FRagment Separator
(FRS) at GSI. This work represents the first investigation of fragmentation of
medium-mass radioactive projectiles with a large neutron excess. The measured
production cross sections of the residual nuclei are relevant for the possible
use of a two-stage reaction scheme (fission+fragmentation) for the production
of extremely neutron-rich medium-mass nuclei in future rare-ion-beam
facilities. Moreover, the new data will provide a better understanding of the
"memory" effect in fragmentation reactions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Coulomb excitation of exotic nuclei at the R3B-LAND setup
Exotic Ni isotopes have been measured at the R3B-LAND setup at GSI in
Darmstadt, using Coulomb excitation in inverse kinematics at beam energies
around 500 MeV/u. As the experimental setup allows kinematically complete
measurements, the excitation energy was reconstructed using the invariant mass
method. The GDR and additional low-lying strength have been observed in 68Ni,
the latter exhausting 4.1(1.9)% of the E1 energy-weighted sum rule. Also, the
branching ratio for the non-statistical decay of the excited 68Ni nuclei was
measured and amounts to 24(4)%.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. Invited Talk given at the 11th International
Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (NN2012), San Antonio, Texas, USA,
May 27-June 1, 2012. To appear in the NN2012 Proceedings in Journal of
Physics: Conference Series (JPCS
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