elastography in primary open-angle glaucoma

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare sonoelastographic findings in the retina-choroid-sclera (RCS) complex and vitreous in glaucomatous and healthy eyes.Methods: For this cross-sectional comparative study, 20 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma and 20 healthy volunteers were recruited. Ultrasound elastography measurements were taken with a sonographic scanner of the RCS complex, anterior vitreous (AV), posterior vitreous (PV), retrobulbar fat tissue (RFT), optic disc (OD) and optic nerve (ON) in each eye.Results: The elasticity index of the RCS complex, RFT, OD, ON, AV and PV was similar in both groups (p > 0.05), although the AV/PV strain ratio in the group of patients with glaucoma was significantly higher (p = 0.04).Conclusion: Glaucoma increases the AV/PV strain ratio. In providing reproducible and consistent values, the real-time elastography (RTE) technique may be helpful in elucidating the mechanisms of glaucoma in some aspects.Advances in knowledge: This study can help to evaluate the elasticity of the RCS complex and vitreous in glaucomatous eyes with RTE

Heparin Mimetic Peptide Nanofibers Promote Angiogenesis

Cataloged from PDF version of article.New blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) is one of the most important processes required for functional tissue formation. Induction of angiogenesis is usually triggered by growth factors released by cells. Glycosaminoglycans (e.g., heparan sulphates) in the extracellular matrix aid in proper functioning of these growth factors. Therefore, exogeneous heparin or growth factors were required for promoting angiogenesis in previous regenerative medicine studies. Here we report for the first time induction of angiogenesis by a synthetic nanofibrous peptide scaffold without the addition of any exogenous growth factors or heparin. We designed and synthesized a self-assembling peptide amphiphile molecule that is functionalized with biologically active groups to mimic heparin. Like heparin, this molecule has the ability to interact with growth factors and effectively enhance their bioactivity. The nanofibers formed by these molecules were shown to form a 3D network mimicking the structural proteins in the extracellular matrix. Because of heparin mimicking capabilities of the peptide nanofibers, angiogenesis was induced without the addition of exogenous growth factors in vitro. Bioactive interactions between the nanofibers and the growth factors enabled robust vascularization in vivo as well. Heparin mimetic peptide nanofibers presented here provide new opportunities for angiogenesis and tissue regeneration by avoiding the use of heparin and exogenous growth factors. The synthetic peptide nanofiber scaffolds enriched with proper chemical functional groups shown in this study can be used to induce various desired physiological responses for tissue regeneration. © 2011 American Chemical Society

Influence of armour porosity on the hydraulic stability of cube armour layers

Armour placement and packing density directly affect construction costs and hydraulic performance of mound breakwaters. In this paper, the literature concerning the influence of armour porosity on the hydraulic stability of single- and double-layer armours is discussed. Qualitative and quantitative estimations for the influence of armour porosity and packing density on the hydraulic stability are given for the most common concrete armour units. The analysis focuses on specific 2D hydraulic stability tests of double-layer randomly-placed cube armours with different armour porosities and permeable core. The stability number showed a 1.2-power relationship with the packing density for double-layer randomly-placed cube armours considering armour unit extraction and Heterogeneous Packing. The literature review and experimental results with small-scale breakwater models protected with a variety of armour units clearly indicate that a significant increase in armour porosity above the recommended values substantially decreases armour hydraulic stability. To avoid uncontrolled model effects, packing density should be routinely measured in small-scale tests, and armour placement techniques should be monitored at prototype scale. The actual packing density obtained in small-scale models and prototypes has to be explicitly reported, because packing density significantly affects hydraulic stability during service time. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The authors are grateful for financial support from European FEDER and Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Grant BIA2012-33967) and CDTI (CUBIPOD and CLIOMAR Projects). The second author was funded through the FPU program (Formacion del Profesorado Universitario, Grant AP2010-4366) by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte. The authors also thank Debra Westall for revising the manuscript.Medina Folgado, JR.; Molines Llodra, J.; Gómez Martín, ME. (2014). Influence of armour porosity on the hydraulic stability of cube armour layers. Ocean Engineering. 88:289-297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2014.06.012S2892978

Atmospheric Pressure Mass Spectrometry of Single Viruses and Nanoparticles by Nanoelectromechanical Systems

Mass spectrometry of intact nanoparticles and viruses can serve as a potent characterization tool for material science and biophysics. Inaccessible by widespread commercial techniques, the mass of single nanoparticles and viruses (>10MDa) can be readily measured by NEMS (Nanoelectromechanical Systems) based Mass Spectrometry, where charged and isolated analyte particles are generated by Electrospray Ionization (ESI) in air and transported onto the NEMS resonator for capture and detection. However, the applicability of NEMS as a practical solution is hindered by their miniscule surface area, which results in poor limit-of-detection and low capture efficiency values. Another hindrance is the necessity to house the NEMS inside complex vacuum systems, which is required in part to focus analytes towards the miniscule detection surface of the NEMS. Here, we overcome both limitations by integrating an ion lens onto the NEMS chip. The ion lens is composed of a polymer layer, which charges up by receiving part of the ions incoming from the ESI tip and consequently starts to focus the analytes towards an open window aligned with the active area of the NEMS electrostatically. With this integrated system, we have detected the mass of gold and polystyrene nanoparticles under ambient conditions and with two orders-of-magnitude improvement in capture efficiency compared to the state-of-the-art. We then applied this technology to obtain the mass spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 and BoHV-1 virions. With the increase in analytical throughput, the simplicity of the overall setup and the operation capability under ambient conditions, the technique demonstrates that NEMS Mass Spectrometry can be deployed for mass detection of engineered nanoparticles and biological samples efficiently.Comment: 38 pages, 6 figure

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of s√=7TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal