1,408 research outputs found
Reversing a granular flow on a vibratory conveyor
Experimental results are presented on the transport properties of granular
materials on a vibratory conveyor. For circular oscillations of the shaking
trough a non-monotonous dependence of the transport velocity on the normalized
acceleration is observed. Two maxima are separated by a regime, where the
granular flow is much slower and, in a certain driving range, even reverses its
direction. A similar behavior is found for a single solid body with a low
coefficient of restitution, whereas an individual glass bead of 1 mm diameter
is propagated in the same direction for all accelerations.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Applied Physics Letter
Riemann solvers and undercompressive shocks of convex FPU chains
We consider FPU-type atomic chains with general convex potentials. The naive
continuum limit in the hyperbolic space-time scaling is the p-system of mass
and momentum conservation. We systematically compare Riemann solutions to the
p-system with numerical solutions to discrete Riemann problems in FPU chains,
and argue that the latter can be described by modified p-system Riemann
solvers. We allow the flux to have a turning point, and observe a third type of
elementary wave (conservative shocks) in the atomistic simulations. These waves
are heteroclinic travelling waves and correspond to non-classical,
undercompressive shocks of the p-system. We analyse such shocks for fluxes with
one or more turning points.
Depending on the convexity properties of the flux we propose FPU-Riemann
solvers. Our numerical simulations confirm that Lax-shocks are replaced by so
called dispersive shocks. For convex-concave flux we provide numerical evidence
that convex FPU chains follow the p-system in generating conservative shocks
that are supersonic. For concave-convex flux, however, the conservative shocks
of the p-system are subsonic and do not appear in FPU-Riemann solutions
On the Quantum Invariant for the Brieskorn Homology Spheres
We study an exact asymptotic behavior of the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev
invariant for the Brieskorn homology spheres by use of
properties of the modular form following a method proposed by Lawrence and
Zagier. Key observation is that the invariant coincides with a limiting value
of the Eichler integral of the modular form with weight 3/2. We show that the
Casson invariant is related to the number of the Eichler integrals which do not
vanish in a limit . Correspondingly there is a
one-to-one correspondence between the non-vanishing Eichler integrals and the
irreducible representation of the fundamental group, and the Chern-Simons
invariant is given from the Eichler integral in this limit. It is also shown
that the Ohtsuki invariant follows from a nearly modular property of the
Eichler integral, and we give an explicit form in terms of the L-function.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figure
Quantum Invariants, Modular Forms, and Lattice Points II
We study the SU(2) Witten--Reshetikhin--Turaev invariant for the Seifert
fibered homology spheres with M-exceptional fibers. We show that the WRT
invariant can be written in terms of (differential of) the Eichler integrals of
modular forms with weight 1/2 and 3/2. By use of nearly modular property of the
Eichler integrals we shall obtain asymptotic expansions of the WRT invariant in
the large-N limit. We further reveal that the number of the gauge equivalent
classes of flat connections, which dominate the asymptotics of the WRT
invariant in N ->\infinity, is related to the number of integral lattice points
inside the M-dimensional tetrahedron
Skin microbiota analysis in patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy-weight controls reveals microbial indicators of healthy weight and associations with the antimicrobial peptide psoriasin
Anorexia nervosa (AN), a psychiatric condition defined by low body weight for age and height, is associated with numerous dermatological conditions. Yet, clinical observations report that patients with AN do not suffer from infectious skin diseases like those associated with primary malnutrition. Cell-mediated immunity appears to be amplified in AN; however, this proinflammatory state does not sufficiently explain the lower incidence of infections. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are important components of the innate immune system protecting from pathogens and shaping the microbiota. In Drosophila melanogaster starvation precedes increased AMP gene expression. Here, we analyzed skin microbiota in patients with AN and age-matched, healthy-weight controls and investigated the influence of weight gain on microbial community structure. We then correlated features of the skin microbial community with psoriasin and RNase 7, two highly abundant AMPs in human skin, to clarify whether an association between AMPs and skin microbiota exists and whether such a relationship might contribute to the resistance to cutaneous infections observed in AN. We find significant statistical correlations between Shannon diversity and the highly abundant skin AMP psoriasin and bacterial load, respectively. Moreover, we reveal psoriasin significantly associates with Abiotrophia, an indicator for the healthy-weight control group. Additionally, we observe a significant correlation between an individual’s body mass index and Lactobacillus, a microbial indicator of health. Future investigation may help clarify physiological mechanisms that link nutritional intake with skin physiology
An Exact Black Hole Entropy Bound
We show that a Rademacher expansion can be used to establish an exact bound
for the entropy of black holes within a conformal field theory framework. This
convergent expansion includes all subleading corrections to the
Bekenstein-Hawking term.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, v2 minor re-wording, additional reference, to appear
in Phyical Review D (title changed in journal
Spherical Casimir energies and Dedekind sums
Casimir energies on space-times having general lens spaces as their spatial
sections are shown to be given in terms of generalised Dedekind sums related to
Zagier's. These are evaluated explicitly in certain cases as functions of the
order of the lens space. An easily implemented recursion approach is used.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, v2:typos corrected, inessential equation in
Discussion altered. v3:typos corrected, 1 reference and comments added.
v4:typos corrected. Ancillary results added in an appendi
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Outcomes following autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant for patients with relapsed Wilms' tumor: a CIBMTR retrospective analysis.
Despite the marked improvement in the overall survival (OS) for patients diagnosed with Wilms' tumor (WT), the outcomes for those who experience relapse have remained disappointing. We describe the outcomes of 253 patients with relapsed WT who received high-dose chemotherapy (HDT) followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) between 1990 and 2013, and were reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplantation Research. The 5-year estimates for event-free survival (EFS) and OS were 36% (95% confidence interval (CI); 29-43%) and 45% (95 CI; 38-51%), respectively. Relapse of primary disease was the cause of death in 81% of the population. EFS, OS, relapse and transplant-related mortality showed no significant differences when broken down by disease status at transplant, time from diagnosis to transplant, year of transplant or conditioning regimen. Our data suggest that HDT followed by autologous HCT for relapsed WT is well tolerated and outcomes are similar to those reported in the literature. As attempts to conduct a randomized trial comparing maintenance chemotherapy with consolidation versus HDT followed by stem cell transplant have failed, one should balance the potential benefits with the yet unknown long-term risks. As disease recurrence continues to be the most common cause of death, future research should focus on the development of consolidation therapies for those patients achieving complete response to therapy
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