2,053 research outputs found
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in the Arctic Ocean With the Power of Microbes
Did you know that microbes, too small for the human eye to see, far outnumber and outweigh all animals? Microbes that live in the Arctic carry out a surprising variety of roles recycling food. Despite the cold temperatures, Arctic waters are nutrient rich, which allows a type of microbe called single-celled algae to grow in huge numbers. Only cold-adapted microbes can survive though in waters that sometimes reach temperatures even below freezing! Microscopic algae use carbon dioxide (CO2) and the sunās energy to grow, helping to reduce levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. Microscopic animals called zooplankton eat smaller microbes. All microbes excrete waste and eventually die. The resulting products are not wasted, though. Other microbes called bacteria and fungi are expert recyclers and break down the dead organisms to more basic forms of chemical energy that are reused by single-celled algae and other microbes
BĪ²Arg448Lys polymorphism is associated with altered fibrin clot structure and fibrinolysis in type 2 diabetes
Both type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and BĪ²448Lys variant of fibrinogen are associated with dense fibrin clots, impaired fibrinolysis and increased cardiovascular risk. It was our objective to investigate whether BĪ²Arg448Lys adds to vascular risk by modulating fibrin network structure and/or fibrinolysis in diabetes. The primary aim was to study effects of BĪ²Arg448Lys on fibrin network characteristics in T2DM. Secondary aims investigated interactions between gender and BĪ²Arg448Lys substitution in relation to fibrin clot properties and vascular disease. Genotyping for BĪ²Arg448Lys and dynamic clot studies were carried out on 822 T2DM patients enrolled in the Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study. Turbidimetric assays of individual plasma samples analysed fibrin clot characteristics with additional experiments conducted on clots made from purified fibrinogen, further examined by confocal and electron microscopy. Plasma clot lysis time in BĪ²448Lys was longer than BĪ²448Arg variant (mean Ā± SD; 763 Ā± 322 and 719 Ā± 351 seconds [s], respectively; p<0.05). Clots made from plasma-purified fibrinogen of individuals with Arg/Arg, Arg/Lys and Lys/Lys genotypes showed differences in fibre thickness (46.75 Ā± 8.07, 38.40 Ā± 6.04 and 25 Ā± 4.99 nm, respectively; p<0.001) and clot lysis time (419 Ā± 64, 442 Ā± 87 and 517 Ā± 65 s, respectively; p=0.02), directly implicating the polymorphism in the observed changes. Women with BĪ²448Lys genotype had increased risk of cerebrovascular events and were younger compared with BĪ²448Arg variant (67.2 Ā± 4.0 and 68.2 Ā± 4.4 years, respectively; p=0.035). In conclusion, fibrinogen BĪ²448Lys variant is associated with thrombotic fibrin clots in diabetes independently of traditional risk factors. Prospective studies are warranted to fully understand the role of BĪ²Arg448Lys in predisposition to vascular ischaemia in T2DM with the potential to develop individualised antithrombotic management strategies
Causarum Investigatio and the Two Bell's Theorems of John Bell
"Bell's theorem" can refer to two different theorems that John Bell proved,
the first in 1964 and the second in 1976. His 1964 theorem is the
incompatibility of quantum phenomena with the joint assumptions of Locality and
Predetermination. His 1976 theorem is their incompatibility with the single
property of Local Causality. This is contrary to Bell's own later assertions,
that his 1964 theorem began with the assumption of Local Causality, even if not
by that name. Although the two Bell's theorems are logically equivalent, their
assumptions are not. Hence, the earlier and later theorems suggest quite
different conclusions, embraced by operationalists and realists, respectively.
The key issue is whether Locality or Local Causality is the appropriate notion
emanating from Relativistic Causality, and this rests on one's basic notion of
causation. For operationalists the appropriate notion is what is here called
the Principle of Agent-Causation, while for realists it is Reichenbach's
Principle of common cause. By breaking down the latter into even more basic
Postulates, it is possible to obtain a version of Bell's theorem in which each
camp could reject one assumption, happy that the remaining assumptions reflect
its weltanschauung. Formulating Bell's theorem in terms of causation is
fruitful not just for attempting to reconcile the two camps, but also for
better describing the ontology of different quantum interpretations and for
more deeply understanding the implications of Bell's marvellous work.Comment: 24 pages. Prepared for proceedings of the "Quantum [Un]speakables II"
conference (Vienna, 2014), to be published by Springe
Empirical Foundation of Space and Time
I will sketch a possible way of empirical/operational definition of space and time tags of physical events, without logical or operational circularities and with a minimal number of conventional elements. As it turns out, the task is not trivial; and the analysis of the problem leads to a few surprising conclusions
Three little pieces for computer and relativity
Numerical relativity has made big strides over the last decade. A number of
problems that have plagued the field for years have now been mostly solved.
This progress has transformed numerical relativity into a powerful tool to
explore fundamental problems in physics and astrophysics, and I present here
three representative examples. These "three little pieces" reflect a personal
choice and describe work that I am particularly familiar with. However, many
more examples could be made.Comment: 42 pages, 11 figures. Plenary talk at "Relativity and Gravitation:
100 Years after Einstein in Prague", June 25 - 29, 2012, Prague, Czech
Republic. To appear in the Proceedings (Edition Open Access). Collects
results appeared in journal articles [72,73, 122-124
Quasi-Normal Modes of Stars and Black Holes
Perturbations of stars and black holes have been one of the main topics of
relativistic astrophysics for the last few decades. They are of particular
importance today, because of their relevance to gravitational wave astronomy.
In this review we present the theory of quasi-normal modes of compact objects
from both the mathematical and astrophysical points of view. The discussion
includes perturbations of black holes (Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstr\"om,
Kerr and Kerr-Newman) and relativistic stars (non-rotating and
slowly-rotating). The properties of the various families of quasi-normal modes
are described, and numerical techniques for calculating quasi-normal modes
reviewed. The successes, as well as the limits, of perturbation theory are
presented, and its role in the emerging era of numerical relativity and
supercomputers is discussed.Comment: 74 pages, 7 figures, Review article for "Living Reviews in
Relativity
Associations of vitamin D pathway genes with circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin-D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin-D, and prostate cancer:a nested case-control study
Vitamin D pathway single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are potentially useful proxies for investigating whether circulating vitamin D metabolites [total 25-hydroxyvitamin-D, 25(OH)D; 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin, 1,25(OH)2D] are causally related to prostate cancer. We investigated associations of sixteen SNPs across seven genes with prostate-specific antigen-detected prostate cancer
Neural Network Parameterizations of Electromagnetic Nucleon Form Factors
The electromagnetic nucleon form-factors data are studied with artificial
feed forward neural networks. As a result the unbiased model-independent
form-factor parametrizations are evaluated together with uncertainties. The
Bayesian approach for the neural networks is adapted for chi2 error-like
function and applied to the data analysis. The sequence of the feed forward
neural networks with one hidden layer of units is considered. The given neural
network represents a particular form-factor parametrization. The so-called
evidence (the measure of how much the data favor given statistical model) is
computed with the Bayesian framework and it is used to determine the best form
factor parametrization.Comment: The revised version is divided into 4 sections. The discussion of the
prior assumptions is added. The manuscript contains 4 new figures and 2 new
tables (32 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables
X-ray spectropolarimetric measurements of the Kerr metric
It is thought that the spacetime geometry around black hole candidates is
described by the Kerr solution, but an observational confirmation is still
missing. Today, the continuum-fitting method and the analysis of the iron
K line cannot unambiguously test the Kerr paradigm because of the
degeneracy among the parameters of the system, in the sense that it is
impossible with current X-ray data to distinguish a Kerr black hole from a
non-Kerr object with different values of the model parameters. In this paper,
we study the possibility of testing the Kerr nature of black hole candidates
with X-ray spectropolarimetric measurements. Within our simplified model that
does not include the effect of returning radiation, we find that it is
impossible to test the Kerr metric and the problem is still the strong
correlation between the spin and possible deviations from the Kerr geometry.
Moreover, the correlation is very similar to that of other two techniques,
which makes the combination of different measurements not very helpful.
Nevertheless, our results cannot be taken as conclusive and, in order to arrive
at a final answer, the effect of returning radiation should be properly taken
into account.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. v2: refereed versio
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