On the hydrodynamics and heat convection of an impinging external flow upon a cylinder with transpiration and embedded in a porous medium

This paper extends the existing studies of heat convection by an external flow impinging upon a flat porous insert to that on a circular cylinder inside a porous medium. The surface of the cylinder is subject to constant temperature and can include uniform or non-uniform transpiration. These cylindrical configurations are introduced in the analyses of stagnation point flows in porous media for the first time. The equations governing steady transport of momentum and thermal energy in porous media are reduced to simpler nonlinear differential equations and subsequently solved numerically. This reveals the dimensionless velocity and temperature fields of the stagnation-point flow, as well as the Nusselt number and shear stress on the surface of the cylinder. The results show that transpiration on the surface of the cylinder and Reynolds number of the external flow dominate the fluid dynamics and heat transfer problems. In particular, non-uniform transpiration is shown to significantly affect the thermal and hydrodynamic responses of the system in the circumferential direction. However, the permeability and porosity of the porous medium are found to have relatively smaller influences

Population-only decay map for n-qubit n-partite inseparability detection

We introduce a new positive linear map for a single qubit. This map is a decay only in populations of a single-qubit density operator. It is shown that an n-fold product of this map may be used for a detection of n-partite inseparability of an n-qubit density operator (i.e., detection of impossibility of representing a density operator in the form of a convex combination of products of density operators of individual qubits). This product map is also investigated in relation to a variant of the entanglement detection method mentioned by Laskowski and Zukowski.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, RevTex4, v2 minor grammatical changes, typos correcte

Images of “the other”: “the turks” in Greek Cypriot children’s drawings

The present study investigated how Greek-Cypriot children portray themselves, a Greek-Cypriot child and a Turkish child of the same age in terms of size, details shading and differences. Participants (boys, n = 14, girls, n = 20) aged 6 and 11 from a school in Limassol were asked to draw themselves, a Greek child and a Turkish child. Participants drew themselves significantly taller than a Greek-Cypriot child. The smallest figure drawn was the Turkish child. Furthermore, the Turkish figure drawn had darker shading, mostly a male- looking person and often included items such as a weapon. The results are discussed in line with studies on the analysis of children’s drawings as a reflection of their feelings towards “others” in ethnically divided societies

RNA aptamers generated against oligomeric Abeta40 recognize common amyloid aptatopes with low specificity but high sensitivity.

Aptamers are useful molecular recognition tools in research, diagnostics, and therapy. Despite promising results in other fields, aptamer use has remained scarce in amyloid research, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is a progressive neurodegenerative disease believed to be caused by neurotoxic amyloid beta-protein (Abeta) oligomers. Abeta oligomers therefore are an attractive target for development of diagnostic and therapeutic reagents. We used covalently-stabilized oligomers of the 40-residue form of Abeta (Abeta40) for aptamer selection. Despite gradually increasing the stringency of selection conditions, the selected aptamers did not recognize Abeta40 oligomers but reacted with fibrils of Abeta40, Abeta42, and several other amyloidogenic proteins. Aptamer reactivity with amyloid fibrils showed some degree of protein-sequence dependency. Significant fibril binding also was found for the naïve library and could not be eliminated by counter-selection using Abeta40 fibrils, suggesting that aptamer binding to amyloid fibrils was RNA-sequence-independent. Aptamer binding depended on fibrillogenesis and showed a lag phase. Interestingly, aptamers detected fibril formation with > or =15-fold higher sensitivity than thioflavin T (ThT), revealing substantial beta-sheet and fibril formation undetected by ThT. The data suggest that under physiologic conditions, aptamers for oligomeric forms of amyloidogenic proteins cannot be selected due to high, non-specific affinity of oligonucleotides for amyloid fibrils. Nevertheless, the high sensitivity, whereby aptamers detect beta-sheet formation, suggests that they can serve as superior amyloid recognition tools

LC50 and bioaccumulation of Cd in different life stages of Artemia urmiana

This study was conducted in vitro to assess lethality, LC50 and the possibility of bioaccumulation of cadmium in various life stages of Artemia urmiana. Artemia is highly used in aquaculture; hence the response of the organisms to pollutants, such as cadmium regarding the increase in environmental pollution is of high importance. This experiment was performed in Faculty of Marine science and Technology, Islamic Azad University and Atomic Energy Organization of Iran in 2009. In the first stage, smaller than 1day naupliis were exposed to 10 different concentrations from 0 to 250mg/l Cd. LC50 of Cd in 24h of A. urmiana exposure was 189.33mg/L. Next, the accumulations of Cd in 5, 10, 15 and 20mg/l Cd were examined in 1, 5, 11 and 17 days of Artemia urmiana life. The results showed that Artemia urmiana has the ability of accumulation of cadmium and the accumulation level depends upon the concentration of the cadmium in the environment as well as different living periods of Artemia. We found that increasing the concentration of cadmium in the environment increases its accumulation in Artemia. There was a significant difference in accumulation of Cd between 5mg/l Cd (0.267ppm) and 20mg/l Cd (0.364ppm) in the first day of A. urmiana life (P<0.05). In all treatments of the 11 day Artemia, bioaccumulations of Cd increased with increasing of cadmium concentration. Maximum accumulation of Cd was in 20mg/l Cd in the 11 day Artemia. Results showed that although A.urmiana is resistant to Cd, however in 250mg/l, cadmium has significant toxic effects on Artemia survival (3.33%)

Genomic growth hormone, growth hormone receptor and transforming growth factor &#946-3 gene polymorphism in breeder hens of Mazandaran native fowls

Growth hormone axis and the transforming growth factor-b subfamily are the most important groups of genes that are involved in a wide variety of physiological functions such as growth and reproduction. As no information about the allelic characterization of growth hormone (GH), growth hormone receptor (GHR) and transforming growth factor b3 (TGF-b3) loci is available in breeder hens for Mazandarannative fowls breeding station, we studied their distribution in this population. A total of 156 blood samples were collected and a specific primer sets were used to amplify a fragment of GH, GHR and TGFb3loci using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR products from GH, GHR and TGF-b3 loci were digested with SacI, HindIII and BslI restriction endonuclease, respectively. In GH and GHR loci, allele Awas the most frequent and ranged from 0.99 to 0.79 while, allele B was identified as a dominant allele at TGF-b3 locus due to the highest frequency (0.81). The frequency of BB homozygous genotype was thelowest (average = 0.03) whereas, AA genotype showed the highest frequency among all loci. The amplified fragment in GH locus was characterized by a deletion of approximately 118 bp. Deletion of 118bp fragment not only reduced the expected size of the PCR product, but also, introduced a new restriction site for SacI enzyme at GH marker site. Further association analysis is required to clarify theeffects of these marker genotypes on production traits in this breeder flock

Nonclassical correlation in a multipartite quantum system: two measures and evaluation

There is a commonly recognized paradigm in which a multipartite quantum system described by a density matrix having no product eigenbasis is considered to possess nonclassical correlation. Supporting this paradigm, we define two entropic measures of nonclassical correlation of a multipartite quantum system. One is defined as the minimum uncertainty about a joint system after we collect outcomes of particular local measurements. The other is defined by taking the maximum over all local systems about the minimum distance between a genuine set and a mimic set of eigenvalues of a reduced density matrix of a local system. The latter measure is based on an artificial game to create mimic eigenvalues of a reduced density matrix of a local system from eigenvalues of a density matrix of a global system. Numerical computation of these measures for several examples is performed.Comment: v1: 10 pages, 8 figures, IOPART, v2: introduction modified, figure 7 replaced, v3: 10 pages, 10 figures, RevTeX4, major revision with an additional measure introduced, title changed (previous title: Non-classical correlation in a multi-partite quantum system reconsidered), to appear in Phys. Rev.

Clinical application of ceramics in anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: A review and update

Study Design: Narrative review. Objectives: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a reliable procedure, commonly used for cervical degenerative disc disease. For interbody fusions, autograft was the gold standard for decades; however, limited availability and donor site morbidities have led to a constant search for new materials. Clinically, it has been shown that calcium phosphate ceramics, including hydroxyapatite (HA) and tricalcium phosphate (TCP), are effective as osteoconductive materials and bone grafts. In this review, we present the current findings regarding the use of ceramics in ACDF. Methods: A review of the relevant literature examining the clinical use of ceramics in anterior cervical discectomy and fusion procedures was conducted using PubMed, OVID and Cochrane. Result: HA, coralline HA, sandwiched HA, TCP, and biphasic calcium phosphate ceramics were used in combination with osteoinductive materials such as bone marrow aspirate and various cages composed of poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK), fiber carbon, and titanium. Stand-alone ceramic spacers have been associated with fracture and cracks. Metallic cages such as titanium endure the risk of subsidence and migration. PEEK cages in combination with ceramics were shown to be a suitable substitute for autograft. Conclusion: None of the discussed options has demonstrated clear superiority over others, although direct comparisons are often difficult due to discrepancies in data collection and study methodologies. Future randomized clinical trials are warranted before definitive conclusions can be drawn. © The Author(s) 2017