1,542 research outputs found
Fecundity compensation and tolerance to a sterilizing pathogen in <em>Daphnia</em>
Hosts are armed with several lines of defence in the battle against parasites: they may prevent the establishment of infection, reduce parasite growth once infected or persevere through mechanisms that reduce the damage caused by infection, called tolerance. Studies on tolerance in animals have focused on mortality, and sterility tolerance has not been investigated experimentally. Here, we tested for genetic variation in the multiple steps of defence when the invertebrate Daphnia magna is infected with the sterilizing bacterial pathogen Pasteuria ramosa: anti-infection resistance, anti-growth resistance and the ability to tolerate sterilization once infected. When exposed to nine doses of a genetically diverse pathogen inoculum, six host genotypes varied in their average susceptibility to infection and in their parasite loads once infected. How host fecundity changed with increasing parasite loads did not vary between genotypes, indicating that there was no genetic variation for this measure of fecundity tolerance. However, genotypes differed in their level of fecundity compensation under infection, and we discuss how, by increasing host fitness without targeting parasite densities, fecundity compensation is consistent with the functional definition of tolerance. Such infection-induced life-history shifts are not traditionally considered to be part of the immune response, but may crucially reduce harm (in terms of fitness loss) caused by disease, and are a distinct source of selection on pathogens
The effect of Mexidol on magnesium-calcium balance and endothelial dysfunction in operational stress
<p>The aim of the study: to study the effect of mexidol content of ionized calcium and magnesium in erythrocytes and the number of circulating endothelial cells in patients undergoing surgery in the maxillofacial area. Material and methods. The intracellular concentration of calcium and magnesium was measured before the operation, in one, three and five days after the surgery with the help of cytochemical method. Mexidol (100mg) was administered intravenously as a single addition to the standard premedication. Results. After surgery, the intracellular calcium and magnesium content increased. After 24 hours, the magnesium level began to decline, and the calcium content in erythrocytes continued to grow. On day 5, the magnesium concentration in erythrocytes decreased below the initial level, and calcium levels remained significantly elevated. Number of endothelial cells in the blood increased immediately after surgery and magnesium-calcium balance and limits endothelial dysfunction. Mexidol continued growing, reaching a peak on day 5 after surgery. When using mexidol decreased levels of calcium and magnesium levels help prevent falls on the 5th day after surgery, decreased the number of circulating endothelial cells. Conclusion. Mexidol prevents postoperative magnesium violation.</p
Mott insulators in strong electric fields
Recent experiments on ultracold atomic gases in an optical lattice potential
have produced a Mott insulating state of Rb atoms. This state is stable to a
small applied potential gradient (an `electric' field), but a resonant response
was observed when the potential energy drop per lattice spacing (E), was close
to the repulsive interaction energy (U) between two atoms in the same lattice
potential well. We identify all states which are resonantly coupled to the Mott
insulator for E close to U via an infinitesimal tunneling amplitude between
neighboring potential wells. The strong correlation between these states is
described by an effective Hamiltonian for the resonant subspace. This
Hamiltonian exhibits quantum phase transitions associated with an Ising density
wave order, and with the appearance of superfluidity in the directions
transverse to the electric field. We suggest that the observed resonant
response is related to these transitions, and propose experiments to directly
detect the order parameters. The generalizations to electric fields applied in
different directions, and to a variety of lattices, should allow study of
numerous other correlated quantum phases.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures; (v2) minor additions and new reference
Avoided Critical Behavior in a Uniformly Frustrated System
We study the effects of weak long-ranged antiferromagnetic interactions of
strength on a spin model with predominant short-ranged ferromagnetic
interactions. In three dimensions, this model exhibits an avoided critical
point in the sense that the critical temperature is strictly greater
than . The behavior of this system at temperatures less
than is controlled by the proximity to the avoided critical point.
We also quantize the model in a novel way to study the interplay between
charge-density wave and superconducting order.Comment: 32 page Latex file, figures available from authors by reques
Jacobi Fields on Statistical Manifolds of Negative Curvature
Two entropic dynamical models are considered. The geometric structure of the
statistical manifolds underlying these models is studied. It is found that in
both cases, the resulting metric manifolds are negatively curved. Moreover, the
geodesics on each manifold are described by hyperbolic trajectories. A detailed
analysis based on the Jacobi equation for geodesic spread is used to show that
the hyperbolicity of the manifolds leads to chaotic exponential instability. A
comparison between the two models leads to a relation among statistical
curvature, stability of geodesics and relative entropy-like quantities.
Finally, the Jacobi vector field intensity and the entropy-like quantity are
suggested as possible indicators of chaoticity in the ED models due to their
similarity to the conventional chaos indicators based on the Riemannian
geometric approach and the Zurek-Paz criterion of linear entropy growth,
respectively.Comment: 22 page
Dual Vortex Theory of Strongly Interacting Electrons: Non-Fermi Liquid to the (Hard) Core
As discovered in the quantum Hall effect, a very effective way for
strongly-repulsive electrons to minimize their potential energy is to aquire
non-zero relative angular momentum. We pursue this mechanism for interacting
two-dimensional electrons in zero magnetic field, by employing a representation
of the electrons as composite bosons interacting with a Chern-Simons gauge
field. This enables us to construct a dual description in which the fundamental
constituents are vortices in the auxiliary boson fields. The resulting
formalism embraces a cornucopia of possible phases. Remarkably,
superconductivity is a generic feature, while the Fermi liquid is not --
prompting us to conjecture that such a state may not be possible when the
interactions are sufficiently strong. Many aspects of our earlier discussions
of the nodal liquid and spin-charge separation find surprising incarnations in
this new framework.Comment: Modified dicussion of the hard-core model, correcting several
mistake
Interstitials, Vacancies and Dislocations in Flux-Line Lattices: A Theory of Vortex Crystals, Supersolids and Liquids
We study a three dimensional Abrikosov vortex lattice in the presence of an
equilibrium concentration of vacancy, interstitial and dislocation loops.
Vacancies and interstitials renormalize the long-wavelength bulk and tilt
elastic moduli. Dislocation loops lead to the vanishing of the long-wavelength
shear modulus. The coupling to vacancies and interstitials - which are always
present in the liquid state - allows dislocations to relax stresses by climbing
out of their glide plane. Surprisingly, this mechanism does not yield any
further independent renormalization of the tilt and compressional moduli at
long wavelengths. The long wavelength properties of the resulting state are
formally identical to that of the ``flux-line hexatic'' that is a candidate
``normal'' hexatically ordered vortex liquid state.Comment: 21 RevTeX pgs, 7 eps figures uuencoded; corrected typos, published
versio
25th-order high-temperature expansion results for three-dimensional Ising-like systems on the simple cubic lattice
25th-order high-temperature series are computed for a general
nearest-neighbor three-dimensional Ising model with arbitrary potential on the
simple cubic lattice. In particular, we consider three improved potentials
characterized by suppressed leading scaling corrections. Critical exponents are
extracted from high-temperature series specialized to improved potentials,
obtaining , , ,
, , . Moreover, biased
analyses of the 25th-order series of the standard Ising model provide the
estimate for the exponent associated with the leading scaling
corrections. By the same technique, we study the small-magnetization expansion
of the Helmholtz free energy. The results are then applied to the construction
of parametric representations of the critical equation of state, using a
systematic approach based on a global stationarity condition. Accurate
estimates of several universal amplitude ratios are also presented.Comment: 40 pages, 15 figure
Effectiveness of CFD simulation for the performance prediction of phase change building boards in the thermal environment control of indoor spaces
This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2013 ElsevierThis paper reports on a validation study of CFD models used to predict the effect of PCM clay boards on the control of indoor environments, in ventilated and non-ventilated situations. Unlike multi-zonal models, CFD is important in situations where localised properties are essential such as in buildings with complex and large geometries. The employed phase change model considers temperature/enthalpy hysteresis and varying enthalpy-temperature characteristics to more accurately simulate the phase change behaviour of the PCM boards compared to the standard default modelling approach in the commercial CFD codes. Successful validation was obtained with a mean error of 1.0 K relative to experimental data, and the results show that in addition to providing satisfactory quantitative results, CFD also provides qualitative results which are useful in the effective design of indoor thermal environment control systems utilising PCM. These results include: i) temperature and air flow distribution within the space resulting from the use of PCM boards and different night ventilation rates; ii) the fraction of PCM experiencing phase change and is effective in the control of the indoor thermal environment, enabling optimisation of the location of the boards; and iii) the energy impact of PCM boards and adequate ventilation configurations for effective night charging.This work was funded through sponsorship from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Grant No: EP/H004181/1
Fate of Zero-Temperature Ising Ferromagnets
We investigate the relaxation of homogeneous Ising ferromagnets on finite
lattices with zero-temperature spin-flip dynamics. On the square lattice, a
frozen two-stripe state is apparently reached approximately 1/4 of the time,
while the ground state is reached otherwise. The asymptotic relaxation is
characterized by two distinct time scales, with the longer stemming from the
influence of a long-lived diagonal stripe ``defect''. In greater than two
dimensions, the probability to reach the ground state rapidly vanishes as the
size increases and the system typically ends up wandering forever within an
iso-energy set of stochastically ``blinking'' metastable states.Comment: 4 pages in column format, 6 figure
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