Autosis: a new addition to the cell death tower of babel

Autophagy is a cellular recycling and stress response that degrades organelles and long-lived proteins and serves to protect cells from the potential damage induced by dysfunctional organelles and protein aggregates.1 Autophagy can also be used as a recycling or salvage process to provide amino acids, nucleotides and other building blocks to protect cells from some, but not all, forms of starvation

The Lazy Bureaucrat Scheduling Problem

We introduce a new class of scheduling problems in which the optimization is performed by the worker (single ``machine'') who performs the tasks. A typical worker's objective is to minimize the amount of work he does (he is ``lazy''), or more generally, to schedule as inefficiently (in some sense) as possible. The worker is subject to the constraint that he must be busy when there is work that he can do; we make this notion precise both in the preemptive and nonpreemptive settings. The resulting class of ``perverse'' scheduling problems, which we denote ``Lazy Bureaucrat Problems,'' gives rise to a rich set of new questions that explore the distinction between maximization and minimization in computing optimal schedules.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, Latex. To appear, Information and Computatio

Isobaric multiplet yrast energies and isospin non-conserving forces

The isovector and isotensor energy differences between yrast states of isobaric multiplets in the lower half of the $pf$ region are quantitatively reproduced in a shell model context. The isospin non-conserving nuclear interactions are found to be at least as important as the Coulomb potential. Their isovector and isotensor channels are dominated by J=2 and J=0 pairing terms, respectively. The results are sensitive to the radii of the states, whose evolution along the yrast band can be accurately followed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Superseeds second part of nucl-th/010404

The Role of Fission in Neutron Star Mergers and Its Impact on the r-Process Peaks

Comparing observational abundance features with nucleosynthesis predictions of stellar evolution or explosion simulations, we can scrutinize two aspects: (a) the conditions in the astrophysical production site and (b) the quality of the nuclear physics input utilized. We test the abundance features of r-process nucleosynthesis calculations for the dynamical ejecta of neutron star merger simulations based on three different nuclear mass models: The Finite Range Droplet Model, the (quenched version of the) Extended Thomas Fermi Model with Strutinsky Integral, and the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov mass model. We make use of corresponding fission barrier heights and compare the impact of four different fission fragment distribution models on the final r-process abundance distribution. In particular, we explore the abundance distribution in the second r-process peak and the rare-earth sub-peak as a function of mass models and fission fragment distributions, as well as the origin of a shift in the third r-process peak position. The latter has been noticed in a number of merger nucleosynthesis predictions. We show that the shift occurs during the r-process freeze-out when neutron captures and β-decays compete and an (n,γ)-(γ,n) equilibrium is no longer maintained. During this phase neutrons originate mainly from fission of material above A = 240. We also investigate the role of β-decay half-lives from recent theoretical advances, which lead either to a smaller amount of fissioning nuclei during freeze-out or a faster (and thus earlier) release of fission neutrons, which can (partially) prevent this shift and has an impact on the second and rare-earth peak as well.Peer reviewe

r-PROCESS CALCULATIONS WITH A MICROSCOPIC DESCRIPTION OF THE FISSION PROCESS

We computed the fission properties of nuclei in the range of 84 ≤ Z ≤ 120 and 118 ≤ N ≤ 250 using the Barcelona–Catania–Paris–Madrid (BCPM) Energy Density Functional (EDF). For the first time, a set of spontaneous and neutron-induced fission rates were obtained from a microscopic calculation of nuclear collective inertias. These fission rates were used as a nuclear input in the estimation of nucleosynthesis yields on neutron star mergers. We founded that the increased stability against the fission process predicted by the BCPM allows the formation of nuclei up to A = 286. This constitutes a first step in a systematic exploration of different sets of fission rates on r-process abundance predictionsS.A.G., G.M.P. and M.-R.W. acknowledge support from the Helmholtz Association through the Nuclear Astrophysics Virtual Institute (VH-VI417), and the BMBF-Verbundforschungsprojekt number 05P15RDFN1. M.-R.W. acknowledges support from the Villum Foundation (Project No. 13164) and the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF91). The work of L.M.R. was supported in part by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), under contracts Nos. FIS2012-34479, FPA2015- 65929, FIS2015-63770 and by the Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Program MULTIDAR

Presupernova collapse models with improved weak-interaction rates

Improved values for stellar weak interaction rates have been recently calculated based upon a large shell model diagonalization. Using these new rates (for both beta decay and electron capture), we have examined the presupernova evolution of massive stars in the range 15-40 Msun. Comparing our new models with a standard set of presupernova models by Woosley and Weaver, we find significantly larger values for the electron-to-baryon ratio Ye at the onset of collapse and iron core masses reduced by approximately 0.1 Msun. The inclusion of beta-decay accounts for roughly half of the revisions, while the other half is a consequence of the improved nuclear physics. These changes will have important consequences for nucleosynthesis and the supernova explosion mechanism.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

The influence of the schedule and the dose of gemcitabine on the anti-tumour efficacy in experimental human cancer.

The therapeutic efficacy of gemcitabine, a new nucleoside analogue, was assessed in a variety of well-established human soft tissue sarcoma and ovarian cancer xenografts grown s.c. in nude mice. Tumour lines selected had different histological subtypes, growth rates and sensitivities to conventional cytostatic agents. The three different doses and schedules designed on the basis of a mean weight loss between 5% and 15% were i.p. injections of daily 3.5 mg kg-1 x 4, every 3 days 120 mg kg-1 x 4, and weekly 240 mg kg-1 x 2, which ultimately resulted in 19%, 10% and 4% toxic deaths, respectively. The weekly schedule induced > or = 50% growth inhibition in 2/4 soft tissue sarcoma and 4/6 ovarian cancer lines, while in three ovarian cancer lines > or = 75% growth inhibition was obtained. The anti-tumour effects of gemcitabine appeared to be similar or even better than previous data with conventional drugs tested in the same tumour lines. In comparison with the every 3 days schedule, the weekly and the daily schedule were less effective in 5/7 and 3/3 tumour lines (P < 0.001), respectively. In another experiment in three human tumour lines selected for their differential sensitivity to gemcitabine, weekly injections of 240 mg kg-1 x 6 did not result in a significant increase in the percentages of growth inhibition when compared to lower doses of 120 mg kg-1 or 60 mg kg-1 in the same schedule. However, the 240 mg kg-1 weekly x 6 schedule showed superior effects in 2/3 tumour lines in comparison with the same dose given every 2 weeks x 3 (P < 0.05). The preclinical activity of gemcitabine suggests that the drug can induce responses in soft tissue sarcoma and ovarian cancer patients. Our results further indicate that clinical trials of gemcitabine in solid tumour types should be designed on the basis of a schedule rather than a dose dependence

S02-3 Physical activity policies and good practices in Europe

Background The establishment of the EU physical activity (PA) guidelines and the HEPA monitoring framework has had an impact on policy development and implementation across the region from 2015. This works presents results from the third round of monitoring in 2021 and discusses trends since 2015. Methods A questionnaire was distributed in 2021 to all EU Member States of the WHO European Region through the network of PA Focal Points, who were requested to collect data from national colleagues and complete the questionnaire. All EU Member States (27 in 2021) responded to the survey on the implementation of the 23 indicators of the HEPA monitoring framework. Results The results of the 2021 round of data collection on HEPA indicators showed an overall stabilization of the implementation of PA promotion policies. Besides important increases in several indicators, such as indicators 15 (HEPA in the training of physical education teachers), 20 (Schemes to promote physical activity at the workplace) and 21 (Schemes for community interventions to promote physical activity in older adults), many others decreased and others showed no progress. Most national physical activity policies or action plans were multi-sectoral, with good coverage of the sectors recognized as important for HEPA promotion. While some methodological aspects may have affected the results, this round also reflected policy implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic (2019–2021). COVID-19 has had a significant impact on all sectors of society but especially on health, sports, education and mobility, which are major areas for PA promotion and policy implementation. Conclusions There seems to be an overall stabilization of the implementation of PA promotion policies since 2015. Public health experts and decision makers could utilise the increase in public awareness of the health benefits of physical activity kindled by the COVID-19 crisis to implement new health-promoting policies. Policy design, development and implementation of HEPA promotion must be strengthened for post-COVID-19 social and economic recovery