799 research outputs found
Epicyclic orbital oscillations in Newton's and Einstein's dynamics
We apply Feynman's principle, ``The same equations have the same solutions'',
to Kepler's problem and show that Newton's dynamics in a properly curved 3-D
space is identical with that described by Einstein's theory in the 3-D optical
geometry of Schwarzschild's spacetime. For this reason, rather unexpectedly,
Newton's formulae for Kepler's problem, in the case of nearly circular motion
in a static, spherically spherical gravitational potential accurately describe
strong field general relativistic effects, in particular vanishing of the
radial epicyclic frequency at the marginally stable orbit.Comment: 8 page
Reducing pup litter size alters early postnatal calcium homeostasis and programs adverse adult cardiovascular and bone health in male rats
The in utero and early postnatal environments play essential roles in offspring growth and development. Standardizing or reducing pup litter size can independently compromise long-term health likely due to altered milk quality, thus limiting translational potential. This study investigated the effect reducing litter size has on milk quality and offspring outcomes. On gestation day 18, dams underwent sham or bilateral uterine vessel ligation surgery to generate dams with normal (Control) and altered (Restricted) milk quality/composition. At birth, pups were cross-fostered onto separate dams with either an unadjusted or reduced litter size. Plasma parathyroid hormone-related protein was increased in Reduced litter pups, whereas ionic calcium and total body calcium were decreased. These data suggest Reduced litter pups have dysregulated calcium homeostasis in early postnatal life, which may impair bone mineralization decreasing adult bone bending strength. Dams suckling Reduced litter pups had increased milk long-chain monounsaturated fatty acid and omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid. Reduced litter pups suckled by Normal milk quality/composition dams had increased milk omega-6 linoleic and arachidonic acids. Reduced litter male adult offspring had elevated blood pressure. This study highlights care must be taken when interpreting data from research that alters litter size as it may mask subtle cardiometabolic health effects.Jessica F. Briffa, Rachael O’Dowd, Tania Romano, Beverly S. Muhlhausler, Karen M. Moritz and Mary E. Wlode
Elevated circulating and placental SPINT2 is associated with placental dysfunction
Biomarkers for placental dysfunction are currently lacking. We recently identified SPINT1 as a novel biomarker; SPINT2 is a functionally related placental protease inhibitor. This study aimed to characterise SPINT2 expression in placental insufficiency. Circulating SPINT2 was assessed in three prospective cohorts, collected at the following: (1) term delivery (n = 227), (2) 36 weeks (n = 364), and (3) 24–34 weeks’ (n = 294) gestation. SPINT2 was also measured in the plasma and placentas of women with established placental disease at preterm (p = 0.028; median = 2233 pg/mL vs. controls, median = 1644 pg/mL), or delivered a small-for-gestational-age infant (p = 0.002; median = 2109 pg/mL vs. controls, median = 1614 pg/mL). SPINT2 was elevated in the placentas of patients who required delivery for preterm preeclampsia (p = 0.025). Though inflammatory cytokines had no effect, hypoxia increased SPINT2 in cytotrophoblast stem cells, and its expression was elevated in the placental labyrinth of growth-restricted rats. These findings suggest elevated SPINT2 is associated with placental insufficiency
Block bond-order potential as a convergent moments-based method
The theory of a novel bond-order potential, which is based on the block
Lanczos algorithm, is presented within an orthogonal tight-binding
representation. The block scheme handles automatically the very different
character of sigma and pi bonds by introducing block elements, which produces
rapid convergence of the energies and forces within insulators, semiconductors,
metals, and molecules. The method gives the first convergent results for
vacancies in semiconductors using a moments-based method with a low number of
moments. Our use of the Lanczos basis simplifies the calculations of the band
energy and forces, which allows the application of the method to the molecular
dynamics simulations of large systems. As an illustration of this convergent
O(N) method we apply the block bond-order potential to the large scale
simulation of the deformation of a carbon nanotube.Comment: revtex, 43 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Atomic Scale Structure and Chemical Composition across Order-Disorder Interfaces
Through a combination of aberration-corrected high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and three-dimensional atom probe tomography, the true atomic-scale structure and change in chemical composition across the complex order-disorder interface in a metallic alloy has been determined. The study reveals the presence of two interfacial widths, one corresponding to an order-disorder transition, and the other to the compositional transition across the interface, raising fundamental questions regarding the definition of the interfacial width in such systems
Rate Measurement of and Constraints on Mixing
We present an observation and rate measurement of the decay D0 -> K+pi-pi0
produced in 9/fb of e+e- collisions near the Upsilon(4S) resonance. The signal
is inconsistent with an upward fluctuation of the background by 4.9 standard
deviations. We measured the rate of D0 -> K+pi-pi0 normalized to the rate of
D0bar -> K+pi-pi0 to be 0.0043 +0.0011 -0.0010 (stat) +/- 0.0007 (syst). This
decay can be produced by doubly-Cabibbo-suppressed decays or by the D0 evolving
into a D0bar through mixing, followed by a Cabibbo-favored decay to K+pi-pi0.
We also found the CP asymmetry A=(8 +25 -22)% to be consistent with zero.Comment: 10 pages postscript, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Correlated /\c-/\cbar production in e+e- annihilations at sqrt{s}~10.5 GeV
Using 13.6/fb of continuum two-jet e+e- -> ccbar events collected with the
CLEO detector, we have searched for baryon number correlations at the primary
quark level. We have measured the likelihood for a /\c+ charmed baryon to be
produced in the hemisphere opposite a /\c- relative to the likelihood for a
/\c+ charmed baryon to be produced opposite an anticharmed meson Dbar; in all
cases, the reconstructed hadrons must have momentum greater than 2.3 GeV/c. We
find that, given a /\c- (reconstructed in five different decay modes), a /\c+
is observed in the opposite hemisphere (0.72+/-0.11)% of the time (not
corrected for efficiency). By contrast, given a Dbar in one hemisphere, a /\c+
is observed in the opposite hemisphere only (0.21+/-0.02)% of the time.
Normalized to the total number of either /\c- or Dbar ``tags'', it is therefore
3.52+/-0.45+/-0.42 times more likely to find a /\c+ opposite a /\c- than a Dbar
meson. This enhancement is not observed in the JETSET 7.3 e+e- -> ccbar Monte
Carlo simulation.Comment: 19 pages, Latex, one figure separat
Study of Charmless Hadronic B Meson Decays to Pseudoscalar-Vector Final States
We report results of searches for charmless hadronic B meson decays to
pseudoscalar(pi^+-,K^+-,Pi^0 or Ks^0)-vector(Rho, K* or Omega) final states.
Using 9.7 million BBbar pairs collected with the CLEO detector, we report first
observation of B^- --> Pi^-Rho^0, B^0 --> Pi^+-Rho^-+ and B^- --> Pi^-Omega,
which are expected to be dominated by hadronic b --> u transitions. The
measured branching fractions are (10.4+3.3-3.4+-2.1)x10^-6,
(27.6+8.4-7.4+-4.2)x10^-6 and (11.3+3.3-2.9+-1.4)x10^-6, respectively.
Branching fraction upper limits are set for all the other decay modes
investigated.Comment: 10 pages postscript, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
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