1,036 research outputs found
New Mechanism of Spiral Wave Initiation in a Reaction-Diffusion-Mechanics System
Spiral wave initiation in the heart muscle is a mechanism for the onset of dangerous cardiac arrhythmias. A standard protocol for spiral wave initiation is the application of a stimulus in the refractory tail of a propagating excitation wave, a region that we call the “classical vulnerable zone.” Previous studies of vulnerability to spiral wave initiation did not take the influence of deformation into account, which has been shown to have a substantial effect on the excitation process of cardiomyocytes via the mechano-electrical feedback phenomenon. In this work we study the effect of deformation on the vulnerability of excitable media in a discrete reaction-diffusion-mechanics (dRDM) model. The dRDM model combines FitzHugh-Nagumo type equations for cardiac excitation with a discrete mechanical description of a finite-elastic isotropic material (Seth material) to model cardiac excitation-contraction coupling and stretch activated depolarizing current. We show that deformation alters the “classical,” and forms a new vulnerable zone at longer coupling intervals. This mechanically caused vulnerable zone results in a new mechanism of spiral wave initiation, where unidirectional conduction block and rotation directions of the consequently initiated spiral waves are opposite compared to the mechanism of spiral wave initiation due to the “classical vulnerable zone.” We show that this new mechanism of spiral wave initiation can naturally occur in situations that involve wave fronts with curvature, and discuss its relation to supernormal excitability of cardiac tissue. The concept of mechanically induced vulnerability may lead to a better understanding about the onset of dangerous heart arrhythmias via mechano-electrical feedback
Systemic infections after acute stroke
After an acute stroke, systemic infection can complicate the recovery process and lead to a worse clinical outcome, including a higher risk of mortality. Post-stroke infection (PSI) is responsible for the majority of the mortality occurring between 1 week and 1 month after stroke, peaking towards the end of the second week. The effects of PSI on longer-term outcome and other aspects of recovery, such as cognition, mood and quality of life, are largely unknown. The cerebrovascular event itself may result in a systemic immunosuppressed state, hence lowering the threshold for subsequent systemic bacterial infections. Although there have been advances in the basic understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of PSI, clinical studies have not provided any clear guidelines on the best methods of managing or preventing PSI. This article provides a review of the current knowledge of the phenomenon of PSI and the possible future developments in the understanding and treatment of PSI
Kinetic description of charmonium production in high-energy nuclear collisions
We study the evolution of charmonia as they collide with the constituents of
the fireball produced in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The latter
evolves in a manner controlled by the equation of state as given by lattice
QCD, and is constructed in such a way that the observed hadronic spectra are
correctly reproduced. A kinetic description of charmonium interactions with
both quark-gluon and hadronic degrees of freedom allows to study in detail the
evolution in different regimes, controlled by collision energy, kinematics and
geometry. The data collected at the CERN-SPS accelerator are well described and
new estimates for J/psi production at BNL-RHIC are presented.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, 13 .eps figure
Relativistic quantum plasma dispersion functions
Relativistic quantum plasma dispersion functions are defined and the
longitudinal and transverse response functions for an electron (plus positron)
gas are written in terms of them. The dispersion is separated into
Landau-damping, pair-creation and dissipationless regimes. Explicit forms are
given for the RQPDFs in the cases of a completely degenerate distribution and a
nondegenerate thermal (J\"uttner) distribution. Particular emphasis is placed
on the relation between dissipation and dispersion, with the dissipation
treated in terms of the imaginary parts of RQPDFs. Comparing the dissipation
calculated in this way with the existing treatments leads to the identification
of errors in the literature, which we correct. We also comment on a controversy
as to whether the dispersion curves in a superdense plasma pass through the
region where pair creation is allowed.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur
Calculations of Resonance Coupling Constants in the Scalar Sector of the ENJL Model
We derive the scalar resonance coupling constants of resonance chiral theory
from the Extended Nambu Jona-Lasinio model by using heat-kernel expansion.Comment: 7 page
Kaon Energies in Dense Matter
We discuss the role of kaon-nucleon and nucleon-nucleon correlations in kaon
condensation in dense matter. Correlations raise the threshold density for kaon
condensation, possibly to densities higher than those encountered in stable
neutron stars.Comment: RevTeX, 11 pages, 2 PostScript figures; manuscript also available, in
PostScript form, at http://www.nordita.dk/locinfo/preprints.htm
Comparison of Temperature-Dependent Hadronic Current Correlation Functions Calculated in Lattice Simulations of QCD and with a Chiral Lagrangian Model
The Euclidean-time hadronic current correlation functions, and
, of pseudoscalar and vector currents have recently been
calculated in lattice simulations of QCD and have been used to obtain the
corresponding spectral functions. We have used the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL)
model to calculate such spectral functions, as well as the Euclidean-time
correlators, and have made a comparison to the lattice results for the
correlators. We find evidence for the type of temperature dependence of the NJL
coupling parameters that we have used in previous studies of the mesonic
confinement-deconfinement transition. We also see that the spectral functions
obtained when using the maximum-entropy-method (MEM) and the lattice data
differ from the spectral functions that we calculate in our chiral model.
However, our results for the Euclidean-time correlators are in general
agreement with the lattice results, with better agreement when our
temperature-dependent coupling parameters are used than when
temperature-independent parameters are used for the NJL model. We also discuss
some additional evidence for the utility of temperature-dependent coupling
parameters for the NJL model. For example, if the constituent quark mass at T=0
is in the chiral limit, the transition temperature is for the NJL model with a standard momentum cutoff parameter. (If a
Gaussian momentum cutoff is used, we find in the chiral limit,
with at T=0.) The introduction of a weak temperature dependence
for the coupling constant will move the value of into the range 150-170
MeV, which is more in accord with what is found in lattice simulations of QCD
with dynamical quarks
Quark mass dependence of the nucleon axial-vector coupling constant
We study the quark mass expansion of the axial-vector coupling constant g_A
of the nucleon. The aim is to explore the feasibility of chiral effective field
theory methods for extrapolation of lattice QCD results - so far determined at
relatively large quark masses corresponding to pion masses larger than 0.6 GeV
- down to the physical value of the pion mass. We compare two versions of
non-relativistic chiral effective field theory: One scheme restricted to pion
and nucleon degrees of freedom only, and an alternative approach which
incorporates explicit Delta(1230) resonance degrees of freedom. It turns out
that, in order to approach the physical value of g_A in a leading-one-loop
calculation, the inclusion of the explicit Delta(1230) degrees of freedom is
crucial. With information on important higher order couplings constrained from
analyses of inelastic pion production processes, a chiral extrapolation
function for g_A is obtained, which works well from the chiral limit across the
physical point into the region of present lattice data. The resulting
enhancement of our extrapolation function near the physical pion mass is found
to arise from an interplay between long- and short- distance physics.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, 7 figure
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