16,934 research outputs found
Pulmonary giant cells and their significance for the diagnosis of asphyxiation
This study was performed to prove whether the detection of polynuclear giant cells in lungs is useful for the diagnosis of asphyxiation due to throttling or strangulation. Therefore, lung specimens of 54 individuals with different natural and unnatural causes of death were investigated. In most lungs examined numerous alveolar macrophages with 1-2 nuclei were found. Polynuclear giant cells, which were arbitrarily defined as alveolar macrophages containing 3 or more nuclei, were observed in all groups investigated except in the cases of hypoxia due to covering the head with plastic bags. Apparent differences between the other groups in particular an increased number in cases of throttling or strangulation, could not be observed. Immunohistochemical investigations confirmed the hypothesis that the observed polynuclear giant cells were derived from alveolar macrophages. The immunohistochemical analysis of the proliferation marker antigen Ki 67 revealed no positive reaction in the nuclei of polynuclear giant cells indicating that these cells had not developed shortly before death by endomitosis as an adaptative change following reduction in oxygen supply. The results provide evidence that the detection of pulmonary polynuclear giant cells cannot be used as a practical indicator for death by asphyxiation due to throttling or strangulation
Renormalized field theory and particle density profile in driven diffusive systems with open boundaries
We investigate the density profile in a driven diffusive system caused by a
plane particle source perpendicular to the driving force. Focussing on the case
of critical bulk density we use a field theoretic renormalization
group approach to calculate the density as a function of the distance
from the particle source at first order in (: spatial
dimension). For we find reasonable agreement with the exact solution
recently obtained for the asymmetric exclusion model. Logarithmic corrections
to the mean field profile are computed for with the result for .Comment: 32 pages, RevTex, 4 Postscript figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Strongly anisotropic roughness in surfaces driven by an oblique particle flux
Using field theoretic renormalization, an MBE-type growth process with an
obliquely incident influx of atoms is examined. The projection of the beam on
the substrate plane selects a "parallel" direction, with rotational invariance
restricted to the transverse directions. Depending on the behavior of an
effective anisotropic surface tension, a line of second order transitions is
identified, as well as a line of potentially first order transitions, joined by
a multicritical point. Near the second order transitions and the multicritical
point, the surface roughness is strongly anisotropic. Four different roughness
exponents are introduced and computed, describing the surface in different
directions, in real or momentum space. The results presented challenge an
earlier study of the multicritical point.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX
Surface critical behavior of driven diffusive systems with open boundaries
Using field theoretic renormalization group methods we study the critical
behavior of a driven diffusive system near a boundary perpendicular to the
driving force. The boundary acts as a particle reservoir which is necessary to
maintain the critical particle density in the bulk. The scaling behavior of
correlation and response functions is governed by a new exponent eta_1 which is
related to the anomalous scaling dimension of the chemical potential of the
boundary. The new exponent and a universal amplitude ratio for the density
profile are calculated at first order in epsilon = 5-d. Some of our results are
checked by computer simulations.Comment: 10 pages ReVTeX, 6 figures include
Effects of surfaces on resistor percolation
We study the effects of surfaces on resistor percolation at the instance of a
semi-infinite geometry. Particularly we are interested in the average
resistance between two connected ports located on the surface. Based on general
grounds as symmetries and relevance we introduce a field theoretic Hamiltonian
for semi-infinite random resistor networks. We show that the surface
contributes to the average resistance only in terms of corrections to scaling.
These corrections are governed by surface resistance exponents. We carry out
renormalization group improved perturbation calculations for the special and
the ordinary transition. We calculate the surface resistance exponents
\phi_{\mathcal S \mathnormal} and \phi_{\mathcal S \mathnormal}^\infty for
the special and the ordinary transition, respectively, to one-loop order.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figure
Correlation of eigenstates in the critical regime of quantum Hall systems
We extend the multifractal analysis of the statistics of critical wave
functions in quantum Hall systems by calculating numerically the correlations
of local amplitudes corresponding to eigenstates at two different energies. Our
results confirm multifractal scaling relations which are different from those
occurring in conventional critical phenomena. The critical exponent
corresponding to the typical amplitude, , gives an almost
complete characterization of the critical behavior of eigenstates, including
correlations. Our results support the interpretation of the local density of
states being an order parameter of the Anderson transition.Comment: 17 pages, 9 Postscript figure
On Critical Exponents and the Renormalization of the Coupling Constant in Growth Models with Surface Diffusion
It is shown by the method of renormalized field theory that in contrast to a
statement based on a mathematically ill-defined invariance transformation and
found in most of the recent publications on growth models with surface
diffusion, the coupling constant of these models renormalizes nontrivially.
This implies that the widely accepted supposedly exact scaling exponents are to
be corrected. A two-loop calculation shows that the corrections are small and
these exponents seem to be very good approximations.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 2 postscript figures, to appear in Phys.Rev.Let
Transformation of 1,1,1-trichloroethane in an anaerobic packed-bed reactor at various concentrations of 1,1,1-trichloroethane, acetate and sulfate
Biotransformation of 1,1,1-trichloroethane (CH3CCl3) was observed in an anaerobic packed-bed reactor under conditions of both sulfate reduction and methanogenesis. Acetate (1 mM) served as an electron donor. CH3CCl3 was completely converted up to the highest investigated concentration of 10 µM. 1,1-Dichloroethane and chloroethane were found to be the main transformation products. A fraction of the CH3CCl3 was completely dechlorinated via an unknown pathway. The rate of transformation and the transformation products formed depended on the concentrations of CH3CCl3, acetate and sulfate. With an increase in sulfate and CH3CCl3 concentrations and a decrease in acetate concentration, the degree of CH3CCl3 dechlorination decreased. Both packed-bed reactor studies and batch experiments with bromoethanesulfonic acid, an inhibitor of methanogenesis, demonstrated the involvement of methanogens in CH3CCl3 transformation. Batch experiments with molybdate showed that sulfate-reducing bacteria in the packed-bed reactor were also able to transform CH3CCl3. However, packed-bed reactor experiments indicated that sulfate reducers only had a minor contribution to the overall transformation in the packed-bed reactor.
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