Dual Beam FIB for Imaging, Nano-Sectioning and Sample Preparation of Spores: Initial Results.

Results from the first use of Focused Ion Beam (FIB) technology to section Bacillus spores at LLNL in a dual-beam (electron and ion) instrument is presented and discussed. With the use of a dual-beam instrument, high resolution imaging of single spores using low voltage scanning electron microscopy followed by FIB sectioning, SEM imaging of internal structure of the same spore is demonstrated to be possible. Additionally, FIB is shown to be able to precisely micro-machine spores thus potentially facilitating micro-scale experiments on single spores

Spontaneous annihilation of high-density matter in the electroweak theory

In the presence of fermionic matter the topologically distinct vacua of the standard model are metastable and can decay by tunneling through the sphaleron barrier. This process annihilates one fermion per doublet due to the anomalous non-conservation of baryon and lepton currents and is accompanied by a production of gauge and Higgs bosons. We present a numerical method to obtain local bounce solutions which minimize the Euclidean action in the space of all configurations connecting two adjacent topological sectors. These solutions determine the decay rate and the configuration of the fields after the tunneling. We also follow the real time evolution of this configuration and analyze the spectrum of the created bosons. If the matter density exceeds some critical value, the exponentially suppressed tunneling triggers off an avalanche producing an enormous amount of bosons.Comment: 38 pages, 6 Postscript figure

Exploring future agricultural development and biodiversity in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi: a spatially explicit scenario-based assessment

Competition for land is increasing as a consequence of the growing demands for food and other commodities and the need to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. Land conversion and the intensification of current agricultural systems continues to lead to a loss of biodiversity and trade-offs among ecosystem functions. Decision-makers need to understand these trade-offs in order to better balance different demands on land and resources. There is an urgent need for spatially explicit information and analyses on the effects of different trajectories of human-induced landscape change in biodiversity and ecosystem services. We assess the potential implications of a set of plausible socio-economic and climate scenarios for agricultural production and demand and model-associated land use and land cover changes between 2005 and 2050 to assess potential impacts on biodiversity in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. We show that different future socio-economic scenarios are consistent in their projections of areas of high agricultural development leading to similar spatial patterns of habitat and biodiversity loss. Yet, we also show that without protected areas, biodiversity losses are higher and that expanding protected areas to include other important biodiversity areas can help reduce biodiversity losses in all three countries. These results highlight the need for effective protection and the potential benefits of expanding the protected area network while meeting agricultural production needs

Prompt Multi-Gluon Production in High Energy Collisions from Singular Yang-Mills Solutions

We study non-perturbative parton-parton scattering in the Landau method using singular O(3) symmetric solutions to the Euclidean Yang-Mills equations. These solutions combine instanton dynamics (tunneling) and overlap (transition) between incoming and vacuum fields. We derive a high-energy solution at small Euclidean times, and assess its susequent escape and decay into gluons in Minkowski space-time. We describe the spectrum of the {\it outgoing} gluons and show that it is related through a particular rescaling to the Yang-Mills sphaleron explosion studied earlier. We assess the number of {\it incoming} gluons in the same configuration, and argue that the observed scaling is in fact more general and describes the energy dependence of the spectra and multiplicities at {\it all} energies. Applications to hadron-hadron and nucleus-nucleus collisions are discussed elsewhere

Avaliaçao da fraçao de ejeçao de ventrículo esquerdo no exercício moderado durante estimulaçao cardíaca ventricular e atrioventricular com resposta de freqüência*

O efeito da estimulaçao ventricular e atrioventricular seqüencial, por marca passo de dupla câmara com resposta de freqüência (modelo ERGOS 02, Biotronik), sobre a fraçao de ejeçao de ventrículo esquerdo foi avaliado por ventriculografia isotópica, tendo como radiofármaco hemácias com 99m Te. A fraçao de ejeçao foi determinada em 4 pacientes ao repouso, aos 5 minutos de exercício em bicicleta ergo métrica e aos 5 minutos após interrupçao do exercício, no modo VVIR e DDDR (cuja seleçao inicial foi aleatória), com intervalo de 30 minutos entre a avaliaçao de cada modo de estimulaçao. No modo VVIR a fraçao de ejeçao aumentou de 0,353 para 0,415 durante o exercício, reduzindo-se para 0,373 após sua interrupçao. No modo DDDR foi observado efeito similar, com valores de 0,355, 0,390 e 0,373, respectivamente. Para intervalos comparáveis, nao foi encontrada diferença significativa entre os dois modos de estimulaçao. Respeitadas as limitaçoes da técnica e o reduzido número de pacientes, conclui-se que, durante o exercício moderado, a fraçao de ejeçao do ventrículo esquerdo varia de modo similar, para as modalidades de estimulaçao ventricular e atrioventricular seqüencial

Ein implantierbares Telemetriesystem zur Impedanzspektroskopie

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Die kontinuierliche Überwachung des intrakorporalen Zustandes von Geweben beispielsweise zur Erkennung ischämischer Vorgänge nach gefäßchirurgischen Eingriffen oder im Rahmen der Rejektionsdiagnostik läßt sich durch bisher vorhandene Meßsysteme nur bedingt erreichen. Speziell die direkte Erfassung sensitiver Gewebeparameter über einen längeren Zeitraum ohne Belastung für den Patienten stellt in diesem Zusammenhang ein Problem dar. In der nachfolgenden Arbeit wird das Konzept eines implantierbaren Telemetriesystems vorgestellt, das die Bewertung des Gewebezustandes über die Messung der frequenzabhängigen Bioimpedanz ermöglicht. Besondere Beachtung wird der Auslegung und Umsetzung der einzelnen Systemkomponenten sowie der Vorstellung erster in vitro Messungen zur Evaluierung des Meßsystems geschenkt

Modelling historical and current irrigation water demand on the continental scale

Abstract. Water abstractions for irrigation purposes are higher than for any other pan-European water use sector and have a large influence on river runoff regimes. This modelling experiment assesses historic and current irrigation water demands for different crops in five arc minute spatial resolution for pan-Europe. Two different modelling frameworks have been applied in this study. First, soft-coupling the dynamic vegetation model LPJmL with the land use model LandSHIFT leads to overestimations of national irrigation water demands, which are rather high in the southern Mediterranean countries. This can be explained by unlimited water supply in the model structure and illegal or not gauged water abstractions in the reported data sets. The second modelling framework is WaterGAP3, which has an integrated conceptual crop specific irrigation module. Irrigation water requirements as modelled with WaterGAP3 feature a more realistic representation of pan-European water withdrawals. However, in colder humid regions, irrigation water demands are often underestimated. Additionally, a national database on crop-specific irrigated area and water withdrawal for all 42 countries within pan-Europe has been set up and integrated in both model frameworks

Evidence of gating in hundred nanometer diameter pores: an experimental and theoretical study

We report on the observation of an unexpected gating mechanism at the 100 nm scale on track-etched polycarbonate membranes. Transport measurements of methyl viologen performed by absorption spectroscopy under various pH conditions demonstrated that perfect gating was achieved for 100 nm diameter pores at pH 2, while the positively charged molecular ions moved through the membrane according to diffusion laws at pH 5. An oppositely charged molecular ion, naphthalene disulfonate, in the same membrane, showed the opposite trend: diffusion of the negative ion at pH 2 and perfect gating at pH 5. The influence of parameters such as ionic strength and membrane surface coating were also investigated. A theoretical study of the system shows that at this larger length scale the magnitude of the electric field in the vicinity of the pores is too small to account for the experimental observations, rather, it is the surface trapping of the mobile ion (Cl{sup -} or Na{sup +}) which gives rise to the gating phenomena. This surprising effect might have potential applications for high-throughput separation of large molecules and bio-organisms

Eletrograma Intramiocárdico na Avaliaçao da Estimulaçao Biventricular para Miocardiopatia Dilatada

Um paciente masculino de 64 anos de idade, com miocardiopatia dilatada, fibrilaçao atrial e bloqueio intraventricular, teve implantado um sistema de marcapasso (MP) composto de um gerador de dupla-câmara Physios CTM 01 e de dois eletrodos: um eletrodo ventricular direito endocárdico modelo PX60-BP e um eletrodo de seio coronário (fixado na veia cardíaca esquerda) modelo V336 (Biotronik, Berlim). Os eletrodos foram conectados respectivamente ao canal atrial e ventricular do MP, que foi programado em modo DDT com um atraso atrioventricular de 15 ms. A partir dos eletrogramas intracavitários

Eletrograma Intramiocárdico na Avaliaçao da Estimulaçao Biventricular para Miocardiopatia Dilatada

Um paciente masculino de 64 anos de idade, com miocardiopatia dilatada, fibrilaçao atrial e bloqueio intraventricular, teve implantado um sistema de marcapasso (MP) composto de um gerador de dupla-câmara Physios CTM 01 e de dois eletrodos: um eletrodo ventricular direito endocárdico modelo PX60-BP e um eletrodo de seio coronário (fixado na veia cardíaca esquerda) modelo V336 (Biotronik, Berlim). Os eletrodos foram conectados respectivamente ao canal atrial e ventricular do MP, que foi programado em modo DDT com um atraso atrioventricular de 15 ms. A partir dos eletrogramas intracavitários