612 research outputs found
The Problem of Inertia in Friedmann Universes
In this paper we study the origin of inertia in a curved spacetime,
particularly the spatially flat, open and closed Friedmann universes. This is
done using Sciama's law of inertial induction, which is based on Mach's
principle, and expresses the analogy between the retarded far fields of
electrodynamics and those of gravitation. After obtaining covariant expressions
for electromagnetic fields due to an accelerating point charge in Friedmann
models, we adopt Sciama's law to obtain the inertial force on an accelerating
mass by integrating over the contributions from all the matter in the
universe. The resulting inertial force has the form , where
depends on the choice of the cosmological parameters such as ,
, and and is also red-shift dependent.Comment: 10 page
Molecular signals from primordial clouds at high redshift
The possibility to detect cosmological signals from the post-recombination
Universe is one of the main aims of modern cosmology. In a previous paper we
emphasized the role that elastic resonant scattering through LiH molecules can
have in dumping primary CBR anisotropies and raising secondary signals. Here we
extend our analysis to all the evolutionary stages of a primordial cloud,
starting with the linear phase, through the turn-around and to the non linear
collapse. We have done calculations for proto-clouds in a CDM scenario and,
more generally, for a set of clouds with various masses and various turn-around
redshifts, in this case without referring to any particular structure formation
scenario. We found that the first phase of collapse, for
is the best one for simultaneous detection of
the first two LiH rotational lines. The observational frequency falls between
30 and 250 GHz and the line width is between
and . As far as we know this is the most favourable process to detect
primordial clouds before they start star formation processes.Comment: 26 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript, 7 figures included.
Accepted for publication in Ap.
Involvement of pro-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors in the pathogenesis of Dupuytren's contracture: a novel target for a possible future therapeutic strategy?
Dupuytren's contracture (DC) is a benign fibro-proliferative disease of the hand causing fibrotic nodules and fascial cords which determine debilitating contracture and deformities of fingers and hands. The present study was designed to characterize pro-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors involved in the pathogenesis, progression and recurrence of this disease, in order to find novel targets for alternative therapies and strategies in controlling DC. The expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and of growth factors was detected by immunohistochemistry in fibrotic nodules and normal palmar fascia resected respectively from patients affected by DC and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS; as negative controls). Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR analysis and immunofluorescence were performed to quantify the expression of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1, interleukin (IL)-1β and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) by primary cultures of myofibroblasts and fibroblasts isolated from Dupuytren's nodules. Histological analysis showed high cellularity and high proliferation rate in Dupuytren's tissue, together with the presence of myofibroblastic isotypes; immunohistochemical staining for macrophages was completely negative. In addition, a strong expression of TGF-β1, IL-1β and VEGF was evident in the extracellular matrix and in the cytoplasm of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts in Dupuytren's nodular tissues, as compared with control tissues. These results were confirmed by RT-PCR and by immunofluorescence in pathological and normal primary cell cultures. These preliminary observations suggest that TGF-β1, IL-1β and VEGF may be considered potential therapeutic targets in the treatment of Dupuytren's disease (DD)
CULTURAL IDENTITY AND CONSERVATION OF INDIGENOUS AND NATIVE DIVERSITY
The economic development of rural areas has rarely followed that of urban centres, with greater evidence
of this in developing countries where the outlying communities have remained considerably more remote
from the systems of cultural and economic growth. Even if this has had negative repercussions in terms of
social equilibrium within the various countries, from a strictly agronomic point of view it has often
resulted in the natural conservation of indigenous and native biodiversity. This has been affected by the
natural and daily use of local plant extracts both for nutritional purposes and for a variety of other reasons.
The exchange of genetic material between one community and another, often a sign of respect and
friendship, has helped to increase plant diversity and to enhance its role in the everyday diet of rural
populations.
Any activity aimed at conserving biodiversity cannot disregard the fact that native plant species (and even
more indigenous species) now play a vital role in the cultural identity of rural communities, and that
making such communities aware of this precious asset can also play a strategic part in the idea of
promoting biological diversity as a way of developing local economies. Such evidence clearly emerged
through the various activities conducted in the context of the project, FAO GTF/RAF/426/ITA Promoting
Origin-linked Quality Products in Four Countries in West Africa, financed by the Slow Food Foundation
for Biodiversity Onlus. This project, conducted in 4 West African countries (Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau,
Senegal and Mali), aimed to carry out a study of these 4 states and draw up an inventory of the traditional
plant and animal species, to examine the link between these and the diet of rural populations, and to assess
the risks of genetic erosion by actions to safeguard the native biodiversity
Retrieval of magnetic medical microrobots from the bloodstream
Untethered magnetic microrobots hold the potential to penetrate hard-to-reach areas of the human body and to perform therapy in a controlled way. In the past decade, impressive advancements have been made in this field but the clinical adoption of magnetoresponsive microrobots is still hampered by safety issues. A tool appointed for magnetic microrobots retrieval within body fluids could enable a real paradigm change, fostering their clinical translation.By starting from the general problem to retrieve magnetic microrobots injected into the bloodstream, the authors introduce a magnetic capture model that allows to design retrieval tools for magnetic cores of different diameters (down to 10 nm) and in different environmental conditions (fluid speed up to 7 cms-1). The model robustness is demonstrated by the design and testing of a retrieval catheter. In its optimal configuration, the catheter includes 27 magnets and fits a 12 F catheter. The model provides a good prediction of capture efficiency for 250 nm magnetic particles (experimental data: 77.6%, model prediction: 65%) and a very good prediction for 500 nm particles (experimental data: 93.6%, model prediction: 94%). The results support the proposed model-based design approach, which can be extended to retrieve other magnetoresponsive agents from body compartments
Remarkable effect of [Li(G4)]TFSI solvate ionic liquid (SIL) on the regio- And stereoselective ring opening of α-gluco carbasugar 1,2-epoxides
Carba analogues of biologically relevant natural carbohydrates are promising structures for the development of future drugs endowed with enhanced hydrolytic stability. An open synthetic challenge in this field is the optimization of new methodologies for the stereo- and regioselective opening of α-gluco carbasugar 1,2-epoxides that allow for the preparation of pseudo mono- and disaccharides of great interest. Therefore, we investigated the effect of Lewis acids and solvate ionic liquids (SILs) on the epoxide ring opening of a model substrate. Of particular interest was the complete stereo- and regioselectivity, albeit limited to simple nucleophiles, toward the desired C(1) isomer that was observed using LiClO4. The results obtained with SILs were also remarkable. In particular, Li[NTf2]/tetraglyme ([Li(G4)]TFSI) was able to function as a Lewis acid and to direct the attack of the nucleophile preferentially at the pseudo anomeric position, even with a more complex and synthetically interesting nucleophile. The regioselectivity observed for LiClO4 and [Li(G4)]TFSI was tentatively ascribed to the formation of a bidentate chelating system, which changed the conformational equilibrium and ultimately permitted a trans-diaxial attack on C(1). To the best of our knowledge, we report here the first case in which SILs were successfully employed in a ring-opening process of epoxides
Introgressive Hybridization and Hypoxia Adaptation in High-Altitude Vertebrates
In natural populations of animals, a growing body of evidence suggests that introgressive hybridization may often serve as an important source of adaptive genetic variation. Population genomic studies of high-altitude vertebrates have provided strong evidence of positive selection on introgressed allelic variants, typically involving a long-term highland species as the donor and a more recently arrived colonizing species as the recipient. In high-altitude humans and canids from the Tibetan Plateau, case studies of adaptive introgression involving the HIF transcription factor, EPAS1, have provided insights into complex histories of ancient introgression, including examples of admixture from now-extinct source populations. In Tibetan canids and Andean waterfowl, directed mutagenesis experiments involving introgressed hemoglobin variants successfully identified causative amino acid mutations and characterized their phenotypic effects, thereby providing insights into the functional properties of selectively introgressed alleles. We review case studies of adaptive introgression in high-altitude vertebrates and we highlight findings that may be of general significance for understanding mechanisms of environmental adaptation involving different sources of genetic variation
Probing Yukawian Gravitational Potential by Numerical Simulations. II. Elliptical Galaxies
Since the Newtonian gravitation is largely used to model with success the
structures of the universe, such as galaxies and clusters of galaxies, for
example, a way to probe and constrain alternative theories, in the weak field
limit, is to apply them to model the structures of the universe. We then
modified the well known Gadget-2 code to probe alternative theories of
gravitation through galactic dynamics. In particular, we modified the Gadget-2
code to probe alternatives theories whose weak field limits have a Yukawa-like
gravitational potential. As a first application of this modified Gadget-2 code
we simulate the evolution of elliptical galaxies. These simulations show that
galactic dynamics can be used to constrain the parameters associated with
alternative theories of gravitation.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures - To appear in General Relativity and Gravitatio
Stringent Constraint on Galactic Positron Production
The intense 0.511 MeV gamma-ray line emission from the Galactic Center
observed by INTEGRAL requires a large annihilation rate of nonrelativistic
positrons. If these positrons are injected at even mildly relativistic
energies, higher-energy gamma rays will also be produced. We calculate the
gamma-ray spectrum due to inflight annihilation and compare to the observed
diffuse Galactic gamma-ray data. Even in a simplified but conservative
treatment, we find that the positron injection energies must be
MeV, which strongly constrains models for Galactic positron production.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; minor revisions, accepted for publication in PR
Probing Yukawian gravitational potential by numerical simulations. I. Changing N-body codes
In the weak field limit general relativity reduces, as is well known, to the
Newtonian gravitation. Alternative theories of gravity, however, do not
necessarily reduce to Newtonian gravitation; some of them, for example, reduce
to Yukawa-like potentials instead of the Newtonian potential. Since the
Newtonian gravitation is largely used to model with success the structures of
the universe, such as for example galaxies and clusters of galaxies, a way to
probe and constrain alternative theories, in the weak field limit, is to apply
them to model the structures of the universe. In the present study, we consider
how to probe Yukawa-like potentials using N-body numerical simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. To appear in General Relativity and Gravitatio
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