Constraints on Chaplygin quartessence from the CLASS gravitational lens statistics and supernova data

The nature of the dark components (dark matter and dark energy) that dominate the current cosmic evolution is a completely open question at present. In reality, we do not even know if they really constitute two separated substances. In this paper we use the recent Cosmic All Sky Survey (CLASS) lensing sample to test the predictions of one of the candidates for a unified dark matter/energy scenario, the so-called generalized Chaplygin gas (Cg) which is parametrized by an equation of state $p = -A/\rho_{Cg}^{\alpha}$ where $A$ and $\alpha$ are arbitrary constants. We show that, although the model is in good agreement with this radio source gravitational lensing sample, the limits obtained from CLASS statistics are only marginally compatible with the ones obtained from other cosmological tests. We also investigate the constraints on the free parameters of the model from a joint analysis between CLASS and supernova data.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Early Improvement in Glycemic Metabolism after Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy in Obese Patients -A Prospective Study

Rezumat Ameliorarea rapidã a metabolismului glucidic dupã gastrectomia longitudinalã laparoscopicã la pacienåii cu obezitate -studiu prospectiv Introducere: Conform Organizaåiei Mondiale a Sãnãtãåii, existau în 2014 peste 600 de milioane de adulåi cu obezitate (mai mult decât dublu faåã de anul 1980) care prezintã un risc crescut de dezvoltare a sindromului metabolic, deci inclusiv pentru diabetul zaharat de tip 2. Datoritã controlului slab glicemic în urma tratamentului conservator al DZ tip 2, chirurgia metabolicã a fost capabilã sã câaetige un rol important în managementul pacientului cu DZ tip 2 aei obezitate, cu remisii sau îmbunãtãåiri semnificative raportate în literatura de specialitate. Obiectiv: studierea efectelor gastrectomiei longitudinale laparoscopice (LSG) asupra metabolismului glucidic la pacienåii cu obezitate, cu sau fãrã DZ tip 2. Metodã: 60 de pacienåi consecutivi, operaåi în spitalul Ponderas pentru obezitate prin gastrectomie longitudinalã laparoscopicã, au fost incluaei într-un studiu prospectiv, în perioada FebruarieMartie 2013. IMC-ul (indicele de masã corporalã), circumferinåã abdominalã aei parametrii glicemici au fost studiaåi pre-operator, la 10 zile aei 6 luni postoperator. Rezultate: controlul glicemic a fost semnificant îmbunãtãåit începând cu ziua 10 postoperatorie. Imbunãtãåiri semnificative statistic au fost notate la 6 luni postoperator în valorile IMCului (p<0.0001), circumferinåa abdominalã (p<0.0001), glicemie (p<0.0001), insulinemie (p<0.0001), peptid C (p<0.0001) aei HOMA. Concluzii: o îmbunãtãåire rapidã a metabolismului glucidic, atât la pacienåii cu obezitate aei DZ tip 2 cât aei la cei fãrã DZ tip 2, se regãseaete înaintea scãderii ponderale semnificative (10 zile postoperator). La 6 luni postoperator, când se asociazã aei o scãdere ponderalã semnificativã, atât pacienåii diabetici cât aei cei nediabetici prezintã o îmbunãtãåire suplimentarã a metabolismului glicemic, care poate susåine ideea ca gastrectomia longitudinalã laparoscopicã este o metodã eficientã pentru tratamentul pacienåilor cu obezitate aei sindrom metabolic. Aceste modificãri benefice pot explica atât remisia DZ tip 2 dar aei prevenåia acestuia la pacienåii cu obezitate supuaei tratamentului chirurgical metabolic. Cuvinte cheie: obezitate, metabolism glucidic, gastrectomie longitudinalã laparoscopicã, remisia aei prevenåia diabetului zaharat tip 2 Abstract Background: according to W.H.O. in 2014 more than 600 million adults were obese, (more than doubled since 1980), and face a major risk for the onset of metabolic syndrome, including T2DM. Due to the poor control of glycemic imbalance for the conservative treatment of T2DM, the metabolic surgery was able to gain an important role in modern management of T2DM, with significant reported improvements or remissions for these patients. Objective: to study the effects of laparoscopic sleeve gastrec- BMI, waist circumference and glycemic parameters were studied at the moment of entering the study, 10 days after surgery and at 6 months follow up. Results: the glycemic control was significantly improved starting with postoperative day 10. Statistically significant improvements were noticed after six months postoperatively in BMI values (p<0,0001), waist circumference (p<0,0001), glycemic levels (p<0,0001), insulin (p<0,0001), C-peptide (p<0,0001) and HOMA. Conclusions: a rapid induced improvement of glucose metabolism in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients occurs before a significant weight loss (POD 10). At 6 months, when associated with an important weight loss, both diabetic and non-diabetic patients present a furthermore improvement in glycemic metabolism, that enables us to consider that sleeve gastrectomy is an efficient method for a sustained improvement in the metabolic status of patients with obesity. These beneficial changes that can explain the remission of T2DM can also explain the prevention of T2DM after metabolic surgery

Time-Varying Dark Energy Constraints From the Latest SN Ia, BAO and SGL

Based on the latest SNe Ia data provided by Hicken et al. (2009) with using MLCS17 light curve fitter, together with the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation(BAO) and strong gravitational lenses(SGL), we investigate the constraints on the dark energy equation-of-state parameter $w$ in the flat universe, especially for the time-varying case $w(z)=w_0+w_zz/(1+z)$. The constraints from SNe data alone are found to be: (a) $(\Omega_M, w)=(0.358, -1.09)$ as the best-fit results; (b) $(w_0, w_z)=(-0.73^{+0.23}_{-0.97}, 0.84^{+1.66}_{-10.34})$ for the two parameters in the time-varying case after marginalizing the parameter $\Omega_M$; (c) the likelihood of parameter $w_z$ has a high non-Gaussian distribution; (d) an extra restriction on $\Omega_M$ is necessary to improve the constraint of the SNe Ia data on the parameters ($w_0$, $w_z$). A joint analysis of SNe Ia data and BAO is made to break the degeneracy between $w$ and $\Omega_M$, and leads to the interesting maximum likelihoods $w_0 = -0.94$ and $w_z = 0$. When marginalizing the parameter $\Omega_M$, the fitting results are found to be $(w_0, w_z)=(-0.95^{+0.45}_{-0.18}, 0.41^{+0.79}_{-0.96})$. After adding the splitting angle statistic of SGL data, a consistent constraint is obtained $(\Omega_M, w)=(0.298, -0.907)$ and the constraints on time-varying dark energy are further improved to be $(w_0, w_z) = (-0.92^{+0.14}_{-0.10}, 0.35^{+0.47}_{-0.54})$, which indicates that the phantom type models are disfavored.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, to be published in JCA

PHYMYCO-DB: A curated database for analyses of fungal diversity and evolution.

International audienceBackground: In environmental sequencing studies, fungi can be identified based on nucleic acid sequences, using either highly variable sequences as species barcodes or conserved sequences containing a high-quality phylogenetic signal. For the latter, identification relies on phylogenetic analyses and the adoption of the phylogenetic species concept. Such analysis requires that the reference sequences are well identified and deposited in public-access databases. However, many entries in the public sequence databases are problematic in terms of quality and reliability and these data require screening to ensure correct phylogenetic interpretation. Methods and Principal Findings: To facilitate phylogenetic inferences and phylogenetic assignment, we introduce a fungal sequence database. The database PHYMYCO-DB comprises fungal sequences from GenBank that have been filtered to satisfy stringent sequence quality criteria. For the first release, two widely used molecular taxonomic markers were chosen: the nuclear SSU rRNA and EF1-a gene sequences. Following the automatic extraction and filtration, a manual curation is performed to remove problematic sequences while preserving relevant sequences useful for phylogenetic studies. As a result of curation, ,20% of the automatically filtered sequences have been removed from the database. To demonstrate how PHYMYCO-DB can be employed, we test a set of environmental Chytridiomycota sequences obtained from deep sea samples. Conclusion: PHYMYCO-DB offers the tools necessary to: (i) extract high quality fungal sequences for each of the 5 fungal phyla, at all taxonomic levels, (ii) extract already performed alignments, to act as 'reference alignments', (iii) launch alignments of personal sequences along with stored data. A total of 9120 SSU rRNA and 672 EF1-a high-quality fungal sequences are now available. The PHYMYCO-DB is accessible through the URL http://phymycodb.genouest.org/

Dendritic Core-Shell Macromolecules Soluble in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

International audienceSupercritical carbon dioxide has found strong interest as a reaction medium recently.1,2 As an alternative to organic solvents, compressed carbon dioxide is toxicologically harmless, nonflammable, inexpensive, and environmentally benign.3 Its accessible critical temperature and pressure (Tc ) 31 °C, Pc ) 7.38 MPa, Fc ) 0.468 g cm-3)4 and the possibility of tuning the solvent-specific properties between the ones of liquid and gas are very attractive

Quintessence with a constant equation of state in hyperbolic universes

Quintessence models leading to a constant equation of state are studied in hyperbolic universes. General properties of the quintessence potentials V(phi) are discussed, and for some special cases also the exact analytic expressions for these potentials are derived. It is shown that the observed angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is in excellent agreement with some of the quintessence models even in cases with negative curvature. It is emphasized that due to a (w_phi, Omega_phi, Omega_c)-degeneracy a universe with negative spatial curvature cannot be excluded.Comment: 15 pages, a version with figures in color can be obtained at http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ulm-tp/tp02-13.ps.g

К проблеме социальной эффективности инноваций в профессиональном образовании

Movile Cave, Romania, is an unusual underground ecosystem that has been sealed off from the outside world for several million years and is sustained by non-phototrophic carbon fixation. Methane and sulfur-oxidising bacteria are the main primary producers, supporting a complex food web that includes bacteria, fungi and cave-adapted invertebrates. A range of methylotrophic bacteria in Movile Cave grow on one-carbon compounds including methylated amines, which are produced via decomposition of organic-rich microbial mats. The role of methylated amines as a carbon and nitrogen source for bacteria in Movile Cave was investigated using a combination of cultivation studies and DNA stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) using 13C-monomethylamine (MMA). Two newly developed primer sets targeting the gene for gamma-glutamylmethylamide synthetase (gmaS), the first enzyme of the recently-discovered indirect MMA-oxidation pathway, were applied in functional gene probing. SIP experiments revealed that the obligate methylotroph Methylotenera mobilis is one of the dominant MMA utilisers in the cave. DNA-SIP experiments also showed that a new facultative methylotroph isolated in this study, Catellibacterium sp. LW-1 is probably one of the most active MMA utilisers in Movile Cave. Methylated amines were also used as a nitrogen source by a wide range of non-methylotrophic bacteria in Movile Cave. PCR-based screening of bacterial isolates suggested that the indirect MMA-oxidation pathway involving GMA and N-methylglutamate is widespread among both methylotrophic and non-methylotrophic MMA utilisers from the cave