A comparative study of disc-planet interaction

We perform numerical simulations of a disc-planet system using various grid-based and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) codes. The tests are run for a simple setup where Jupiter and Neptune mass planets on a circular orbit open a gap in a protoplanetary disc during a few hundred orbital periods. We compare the surface density contours, potential vorticity and smoothed radial profiles at several times. The disc mass and gravitational torque time evolution are analyzed with high temporal resolution. There is overall consistency between the codes. The density profiles agree within about 5% for the Eulerian simulations while the SPH results predict the correct shape of the gap although have less resolution in the low density regions and weaker planetary wakes. The disc masses after 200 orbital periods agree within 10%. The spread is larger in the tidal torques acting on the planet which agree within a factor 2 at the end of the simulation. In the Neptune case the dispersion in the torques is greater than for Jupiter, possibly owing to the contribution from the not completely cleared region close to the planet.Comment: 32 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA

Sydney College of the Arts handbook

2002 handbook for Sydney College of the Arts (SCA

Stochastic Reaction-diffusion Equations Driven by Jump Processes

We establish the existence of weak martingale solutions to a class of second order parabolic stochastic partial differential equations. The equations are driven by multiplicative jump type noise, with a non-Lipschitz multiplicative functional. The drift in the equations contains a dissipative nonlinearity of polynomial growth.Comment: See journal reference for teh final published versio

Structural Relationships between Highly Conserved Elements and Genes in Vertebrate Genomes

Large numbers of sequence elements have been identified to be highly conserved among vertebrate genomes. These highly conserved elements (HCEs) are often located in or around genes that are involved in transcription regulation and early development. They have been shown to be involved in cis-regulatory activities through both in vivo and additional computational studies. We have investigated the structural relationships between such elements and genes in six vertebrate genomes human, mouse, rat, chicken, zebrafish and tetraodon and detected several thousand cases of conserved HCE-gene associations, and also cases of HCEs with no common target genes. A few examples underscore the potential significance of our findings about several individual genes. We found that the conserved association between HCE/HCEs and gene/genes are not restricted to elements by their absolute distance on the genome. Notably, long-range associations were identified and the molecular functions of the associated genes do not show any particular overrepresentation of the functional categories previously reported. HCEs in close proximity are found to be linked with different set of gene/genes. The results reflect the highly complex correlation between HCEs and their putative target genes

Estudo etnobotânico como subsídio para elaboração de plano de manejo da reserva florestal Embrapa/Epagri no município de Caçador, Santa Catarina

Orientador: Raquel Rejane Bonato NegrelleMonografia (Bacharelado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná. Setor de Ciencias Biológicas. Curso de Graduaçao em Ciencias Biológica

Therapeutic lung lavages in children and adults

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare disease, characterized by excessive intra-alveolar accumulation of surfactant lipids and proteins. Therapeutic whole lung lavages are currently the principle therapeutic option in adults. Not much is known on the kinetics of the wash out process, especially in children. METHODS: In 4 pediatric and 6 adult PAP patients 45 therapeutic half lung lavages were investigated retrospectively. Total protein, protein concentration and, in one child with a surfactant protein C mutation, aberrant pro-SP-C protein, were determined during wash out. RESULTS: The removal of protein from the lungs followed an exponential decline and averaged for adult patients 2 – 20 g and <0.5 to 6 g for pediatric patients. The average protein concentration of consecutive portions was the same in all patient groups, however was elevated in pediatric patients when expressed per body weight. The amount of an aberrant pro-SP-C protein, which was present in one patient with a SP-C mutation, constantly decreased with ongoing lavage. Measuring the optical density of the lavage fluid obtained allowed to monitor the wash out process during the lavages at the bedside and to determine the termination of the lavage procedure at normal protein concentration. CONCLUSION: Following therapeutic half lung lavages by biochemical variables may help to estimate the degree of alveolar filling with proteinaceous material and to improve the efficiency of the wash out, especially in children