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Effects of blood withdrawal and reinfusion on biomarkers of erythropoiesis in humans: Implications for anti-doping strategies
To discriminate autologous blood doping procedures from normal conditions, we examined the hematological response to blood withdrawal and reinfusion. We found that biomarkers of erythropoiesis are primarily affected in the anemic period. Therefore, individual variations in [Hb] exceeding 15% between samples obtained shortly before any major competition would be indicative of autologous blood manipulation
VME Readout at and Below the Conversion Time Limit
The achievable acquisition rates of modern triggered nuclear physics experiments are heavily dependent on the readout software, in addition to the limits given by the utilized hardware. This paper presents an asynchronous readout scheme that significantly improves the livetime of an otherwise synchronous triggered Versa Module Eurocard Bus-based data acquisition system. A detailed performance analysis of this and other readout schemes, in terms of the basic data transfer operations, is described. The performance of the newly developed scheme as well as synchronous schemes on two systems has been measured. The measurements show excellent agreement with the detailed description. For the second system, which previously used a synchronous readout, the deadtime ratio is at a 20-kHz trigger request frequency reduced by 30% compared to the nearest contender, allowing 10% more events to be recorded in the same time. The interaction between the network and readout tasks for single-core processors is also investigated. A livetime ratio loss of a few percents can be observed, depending on the size of the data chunks given to the operating system kernel for network transfer. With appropriately chosen chunk size, the effect can be mitigated
Kinetics of water flow through polymer gel
The water flow through the poly(acrylamide) gel under a constant water
pressure is measured by newly designed apparatus. The time evolution of the
water flow in the gel, is calculated based on the collective diffusion model of
the polymer network coupled with the friction between the polymer network and
the water. The friction coefficient are determined from the equilibrium
velocity of water flow. The Young modulus and the Poisson's ratio of the rod
shape gels are measured by the uni-axial elongation experiments, which
determine the longitudinal modulus independently from the water flow
experiments. With the values of the longitudinal modulus and of the friction
determined by the experiments, the calculated results are compared with the
time evolution of the flow experiments. We find that the time evolution of the
water flow is well described by a single characteristic relaxation time
predicted by the collective diffusion model coupled with the water friction.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 27 references, Eqs adde
Physical Conditoins in Orion's Veil II: A Multi-Component Study of the Line of Sight Toward the Trapezium
Orion's Veil is an absorbing screen that lies along the line of sight to the
Orion H II region. It consists of two or more layers of gas that must lie
within a few parsecs of the Trapezium cluster. Our previous work considered the
Veil as a whole and found that the magnetic field dominates the energetics of
the gas in at least one component. Here we use high-resolution STIS UV spectra
that resolve the two velocity components in absorption and determine the
conditions in each. We derive a volume hydrogen density, 21 cm spin
temperature, turbulent velocity, and kinetic temperature, for each. We combine
these estimates with magnetic field measurements to find that magnetic energy
significantly dominates turbulent and thermal energies in one component, while
the other component is close to equipartition between turbulent and magnetic
energies. We observe molecular hydrogen absorption for highly excited v, J
levels that are photoexcited by the stellar continuum, and detect blueshifted S
III and P III. These ions must arise from ionized gas between the mostly
neutral portions of the Veil and the Trapezium and shields the Veil from
ionizing radiation. We find that this layer of ionized gas is also responsible
for He I absorption in the Veil, which resolves a 40-year-old debate on the
origin of He I absorption towards the Trapezium. Finally, we determine that the
ionized and mostly atomic layers of the Veil will collide in less than 85,000
years.Comment: 43 pages, 15 figures, to be published in Ap
WISER Deliverable D3.3-2: The importance of invertebrate spatial and temporal variation for ecological status classification for European lakes
European lakes are affected by many human induced disturbances. In principle, ecological
theories predict that the structure and functioning of benthic invertebrate assemblage (one of
the Biological Quality Elements following the Water Framework Directive, WFD
terminology) change in response to the level of disturbances, making this biological element
suitable for assessing the status and management of lake ecosystems. In practice, to set up
assessment systems based on invertebrates, we need to distiguish community changes that are
related to human pressures from those that are inherent natural variability. This task is
complicated by the fact that invertebrate communities inhabiting the littoral and the profundal
zones of lakes are constrained by different factors and respond unevenly to distinct human
disturbances. For example it is not clear yet how the invertebrates assemblages respond to
watershed and shoreline alterations, nor the relative importance of spatial and temporal
factors on assemblage dynamics and relative bioindicator values of taxa, the habitat
constraints on species traits and other taxonomic and methodological limitations.
The current lack of knowledge of basic features of invertebrate temporal and spatial variations
is limiting the fulfillment of the EU-wide intercalibration of lake ecological quality
assessment systems in Europe, and thus compromising the basis for setting the environmental
objectives as required by the WFD. The aim of this deliverable is to provide a contribution
towards the understanding of basic sources of spatial and temporal variation of lake
invertebrate assemblages. The report is structured around selected case studies, manly
involving the analysis of existing datasets collated within WISER. The case studies come
from different European lake types in the Northern, Central, Alpine and Mediterranean
regions. All chapters have an obvious applied objective and our aim is to provide to those
dealing with WFD implementation at various levels useful information to consider when
designing monitoring programs and / or invertebrate-based classification systems
Injection mode-locked guide star laser concept and design verification experiments
Injection mode-locking combined with stretched Q-switching of a ring resonator are proposed and demonstrated as a promising approach for advanced, guide star lasers. The concept uses two Nd:YAG lasers, producing a macro-micro pulse-burst output, optimized for efficient sum-frequency generation. We demonstrate wavelength, bandwidth and timing control required to maximize the atmospheric Na fluorescence.Thomas P. Rutten, Peter J. Veitch, Céline d'Orgeville, and Jesper Munc
Large Scale Flows from Orion-South
Multiple optical outflows are known to exist in the vicinity of the active
star formation region called Orion-South (Orion-S). We have mapped the velocity
of low ionization features in the brightest part of the Orion Nebula, including
Orion-S, and imaged the entire nebula with the Hubble Space Telescope. These
new data, combined with recent high resolution radio maps of outflows from the
Orion-S region, allow us to trace the origin of the optical outflows. It is
confirmed that HH 625 arises from the blueshifted lobe of the CO outflow from
136-359 in Orion-S while it is likely that HH 507 arises from the blueshifted
lobe of the SiO outflow from the nearby source 135-356. It is likely that
redshifted lobes are deflected within the photon dominated region behind the
optical nebula. This leads to a possible identification of a new large shock to
the southwest from Orion-S as being driven by the redshifted CO outflow arising
from 137-408. The distant object HH 400 is seen to have two even further
components and these all are probably linked to either HH 203, HH 204, or HH
528. Distant shocks on the west side of the nebula may be related to HH 269.
The sources of multiple bright blueshifted Herbig-Haro objects (HH 202, HH 203,
HH 204, HH 269, HH 528) remain unidentified, in spite of earlier claimed
identifications. Some of this lack of identification may arise from the fact
that deflection in radial velocity can also produce a change in direction in
the plane of the sky. The best way to resolve this open question is through
improved tangential velocities of low ionization features arising where the
outflows first break out into the ionized nebula.Comment: Astronomical Journal, in press. Some figures are shown at reduced
resolution. A full-resolution version is available at
http://ifront.org/wiki/Orion_South_Outflows_Pape
Pre-treatment microbial Prevotella-to-Bacteroides ratio, determines body fat loss success during a 6-month randomized controlled diet intervention
Abstract
On the basis of the abundance of specific bacterial genera, the human gut microbiota can be divided into two relatively stable groups that might have a role in personalized nutrition. We studied these simplified enterotypes as prognostic markers for successful body fat loss on two different diets. A total of 62 participants with increased waist circumference were randomly assigned to receive an ad libitum New Nordic Diet (NND) high in fiber/whole grain or an Average Danish Diet for 26 weeks. Participants were grouped into two discrete enterotypes by their relative abundance of Prevotella spp. divided by Bacteroides spp. (P/B ratio) obtained by quantitative PCR analysis. Modifications of dietary effects of pre-treatment P/B group were examined by linear mixed models. Among individuals with high P/B the NND resulted in a 3.15 kg (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.55; 4.76, P<0.001) larger body fat loss compared with ADD, whereas no differences was observed among individuals with low P/B (0.88 kg (95% CI: −0.61; 2.37, P=0.25)). Consequently, a 2.27 kg (95% CI: 0.09; 4.45, P=0.041) difference in responsiveness to the diets were found between the two groups. In summary, subjects with high P/B ratio appeared more susceptible to lose body fat on diets high in fiber and whole grain than subjects with a low P/B ratio.</jats:p
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