1,344 research outputs found
Observation of a disordered bosonic insulator from weak to strong interactions
We employ ultracold atoms with controllable disorder and interaction to study
the paradigmatic problem of disordered bosons in the full disorder-interaction
plane. Combining measurements of coherence, transport and excitation spectra,
we get evidence of an insulating regime extending from weak to strong
interaction and surrounding a superfluid-like regime, in general agreement with
the theory. For strong interaction, we reveal the presence of a
strongly-correlated Bose glass coexisting with a Mott insulator
Physicochemical properties of mixed micellar aggregates containing CCK peptides and Gd complexes designed as tumor specific contrast agents in MRI
New amphiphilic molecules containing a bioactive peptide or a claw moiety have been prepared
in order to obtain mixed micelles as target-specific contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging. The
first molecule, C18H37CONH(AdOO)2-G-CCK8 (C18CCK8), contains a C18 hydrophobic moiety bound to
the C-terminal cholecystokinin octapeptide amide (CCK 26-33 or CCK8). The second amphiphilic
compound, C18H37CONHLys(DTPAGlu)CONH2 (C18DTPAGlu) or its gadolinium complex, (C18DTPAGlu-
(Gd)), contains the same C18 hydrophobic moiety bound, through a lysine residue, to the DTPAGlu chelating
agent. The mixed aggregates as well as the pure C18DTPAGlu aggregate, in the presence and absence
of Gd, have been fully characterized by surface tension measurements, FT-PGSE-NMR, fluorescence
quenching, and small-angle neutron scattering measurements. The structural characterization of the mixed
aggregates C18DTPAGlu(Gd)-C18CCK8 indicates a spherical arrangement of the micelles with an external
shell of 21 Ă… and an inner core of 20 Ă…. Both the DTPAGlu(Gd) complexes and the CCK8 peptides
point toward the external surface. The measured values for relaxivity in saline medium at 20 MHz proton
Larmor frequency and 25 °C are 18.7 mM-1 s-1. These values show a large enhancement in comparison
with the isolated DTPAGlu(Gd) complex
Detection of Zak phases and topological invariants in a chiral quantum walk of twisted photons
Topological insulators are fascinating states of matter exhibiting protected
edge states and robust quantized features in their bulk. Here, we propose and
validate experimentally a method to detect topological properties in the bulk
of one-dimensional chiral systems. We first introduce the mean chiral
displacement, and we show that it rapidly approaches a multiple of the Zak
phase in the long time limit. Then we measure the Zak phase in a photonic
quantum walk, by direct observation of the mean chiral displacement in its
bulk. Next, we measure the Zak phase in an alternative, inequivalent timeframe,
and combine the two windings to characterize the full phase diagram of this
Floquet system. Finally, we prove the robustness of the measure by introducing
dynamical disorder in the system. This detection method is extremely general,
as it can be applied to all one-dimensional platforms simulating static or
Floquet chiral systems.Comment: 10 pages, 7 color figures (incl. appendices) Close to the published
versio
Theory of the synchronous motion of an array of floating flap gates oscillating wave surge converter
We consider a finite array of floating flap gates oscillating wave surge converter (OWSC) in water of constant depth. The diffraction and radiation potentials are solved in terms of elliptical coordinates and Mathieu functions. Generated power and capture width ratio of a single gate excited by incoming waves are given in terms of the radiated wave amplitude in the far field. Similar to the case of axially symmetric absorbers, the maximum power extracted is shown to be directly proportional to the incident wave characteristics: energy flux, angle of incidence and wavelength. Accordingly, the capture width ratio is directly proportional to the wavelength, thus giving a design estimate of the maximum efficiency of the system. We then compare the array and the single gate in terms of energy production. For regular waves, we show that excitation of the out-of-phase natural modes of the array increases the power output, while in the case of random seas we show that the array and the single gate achieve the same efficiency
Epidemiology of intensive care unit-acquired sepsis in Italy: results of the SPIN-UTI network
BACKGROUND:
Sepsis is the major cause of mortality from any infectious disease worldwide. Sepsis may be the result of a healthcare associated infection (HAI): the most frequent adverse events during care delivery especially in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). The main aim of the present study was to describe the epidemiology of ICU-acquired sepsis and related outcomes among patients enrolled in the framework of the Italian Nosocomial Infections Surveillance in ICUs - SPIN-UTI project.
STUDY DESIGN:
Prospective multicenter study.
METHODS:
The SPIN-UTI network adopted the European protocols for patient-based HAI surveillance.
RESULTS:
During the five editions of the SPIN-UTI project, from 2008 to 2017, 47.0% of HAIs has led to sepsis in 832 patients. Overall, 57.0% episodes were classified as sepsis, 20.5% as severe sepsis and 22.5% as septic shock. The most common isolated microorganisms from sepsis episodes were Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The case fatality rate increased with the severity of sepsis and the mean length of ICU-stay was significantly higher in patients with ICU-acquired sepsis than in patients without.
CONCLUSION:
Our study provides evidence that ICU-acquired sepsis occurs frequently in Italian ICU patients and is associated with a high case fatality rate and increased length of stay. However, in order to explain these findings further analyses are needed in this population of ICU patient
The optimal design of a flap gate array in front of a straight vertical wall: Resonance of the natural modes and enhancement of the exciting torque
We consider a wave energy converter made of an array of Q neighbouring floating flap gates with finite thickness in front of a straight vertical wall in constant depth. Solutions of the radiation and scattering problems are achieved by application of Green's theorem and Green's function yielding a system of hypersingular integral equations for the velocity potential expanded in terms of Legendre polynomials. We investigate how the distance between the array and the vertical wall affects the performance of the array under the action of monochromatic and random waves. We show that large values of the exciting torque on the gates can be obtained by tuning the wall distance with the resonance of the natural modes of the array; this in turn yields large power extraction for a wide range of frequencies
Weakly nonlinear theory for oscillating wave surge converters in a channel
We present a weakly nonlinear theory on the natural modes' resonance of an array of oscillating wave surge converters (OWSCs) in a channel. We first derive the evolution equation of the Stuart-Landau type for the gate oscillations in uniform and modulated incident waves and then evaluate the nonlinear effects on the energy conversion performance of the array. We show that the gates are unstable to side-band perturbations so that a Benjamin-Feir instability similar to the case of Stokes' waves is possible. The non-autonomous dynamical system presents period doubling bifurcations and strange attractors. We also analyse the competition of two natural modes excited by one incident wave. For weak damping and power take-off coefficient, the dynamical effects on the generated power of the OWSCs are investigated. We show that the occurrence of subharmonic resonance significantly increases energy production
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