4,953 research outputs found
A quasi-time-dependent radiative transfer model of OH104.9+2.4
We investigate the pulsation-phase dependent properties of the circumstellar
dust shell (CDS) of the OH/IR star OH104.9+2.4 based on radiative transfer
modeling (RTM) using the code DUSTY. Our previous study concerning simultaneous
modeling of the spectral energy distribution (SED) and near-infrared (NIR)
visibilities (Riechers et al. 2004) has now been extended by means of a more
detailed analysis of the pulsation-phase dependence of the model parameters of
OH104.9+2.4. In order to investigate the temporal variation in the spatial
structure of the CDS, additional NIR speckle interferometric observations in
the K' band were carried out with the 6 m telescope of the Special
Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). At a wavelength of 2.12 micron the
diffraction-limited resolution of 74 mas was attained. Several key parameters
of our previous best-fitting model had to be adjusted in order to be consistent
with the newly extended amount of observational data. It was found that a
simple rescaling of the bolometric flux F_bol is not sufficient to take the
variability of the source into account, as the change in optical depth over a
full pulsation cycle is rather high. On the other hand, the impact of a change
in effective temperature T_eff on SED and visibility is rather small. However,
observations, as well as models for other AGB stars, show the necessity of
including a variation of T_eff with pulsation phase in the radiative transfer
models. Therefore, our new best-fitting model accounts for these changes.Comment: 7 pages, including 5 postscript figures and 3 tables. Published in
Astronomy and Astrophysics. (v1: accepted version; v2: published version,
minor grammatical changes
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Periodontitis-induced systemic inflammation exacerbates atherosclerosis partly via endothelial-mesenchymal transition in mice.
Growing evidence suggests close associations between periodontitis and atherosclerosis. To further understand the pathological relationships of these associations, we developed periodontitis with ligature placement around maxillary molars or ligature placement in conjunction with Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide injection at the ligature sites (ligature/P.g. LPS) in Apolipoprotein E knock out mice and studied the atherogenesis process in these animals. The mice were fed with high fat diet for 11 weeks and sacrificed for analyzing periodontitis, systemic inflammation, and atherosclerosis. Controls did not develop periodontitis or systemic inflammation and had minimal lipid deposition in the aortas, but mice receiving ligature or ligature/P.g. LPS showed severe periodontitis, systemic inflammation, and aortic plaque formation. The aortic plaque contained abundant macrophages and cells expressing both endothelial and mesenchymal cell markers. The severity of periodontitis was slightly higher in mice receiving ligature/P.g. LPS than ligature alone, and the magnitude of systemic inflammation and aortic plaque formation were also notably greater in the mice with ligature/P.g. LPS. These observations indicate that the development of atherosclerosis is due to systemic inflammation caused by severe periodontitis. In vitro, P.g. LPS enhanced the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines from macrophages and increased the adhesion of monocytes to endothelial cells by upregulating the expression of adhesion molecules from endothelial cells. Moreover, secretory proteins, such as TNF-α, from macrophages induced endothelial-mesenchymal transitions of the endothelial cells. Taken together, systemic inflammation induced by severe periodontitis might exacerbate atherosclerosis via, in part, causing aberrant functions of vascular endothelial cells and the activation of macrophages in mice
The Effect of Music on Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Surgical Performance
Music is often played in the operating room to increase the surgeon’s concentration and to mask noise. It could have a beneficial effect on surgical performance. Ten participants with limited experience with the da Vinci robotic surgical system were recruited to perform two surgical tasks: suture tying and mesh alignment when classical, jazz, hip-hop, and Jamaican music were presented. Kinematics of the instrument tips of the surgical robot and surface electromyography of the subjects were recorded. Results revealed that a significant music effect was found for both tasks with decreased time to task completion (P = .005) and total travel distance (P = .021) as well as reduced muscle activations ( P = .016) and increased median muscle frequency (P = .034). Subjects improved their performance significantly when they listened to either hip-hop or Jamaican music. In conclusion, music with high rhythmicity has a beneficial effect on robotic surgical performance. Musical environment may benefit surgical training and make acquisition of surgical skills more efficient
The impact of environmental noise on robot-assisted laparoscopic surgical performance
Background. An operating room is a noisy environment. How noise affects performance during robotic surgery remains unknown. We investigated whether noise during training with the da Vinci surgical robot (Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA) would affect the performance of simple operative tasks by the surgeon.
Methods. Twelve medical students performed 3 inanimate operative tasks (bimanual carrying, suture tying, and mesh alignment) on the da Vinci Surgical System with or without the presence of noise. Prerecorded noise from an actual operating room was used. The kinematics of the robotic surgical instrument tips and the muscle activation patterns of the subjects were evaluated.
Results. We found noise effects for all 3 tasks with increases in the time to task completion (23%;
P = .046), the total distance traveled (8%; P = .011) of the surgical instrument tips, and the muscle activation volume (87%; P = .015) with the presence of noise. We confirmed that the mesh alignment task was the most difficult task with the greatest time to task completion and the greatest muscle activation volume, whereas the suture tying task and the bimanual carrying could be considered the intermediate and the least difficult task, respectively. The noise effects were significantly greater while performing more difficult tasks.
Conclusion. Our findings demonstrated that noise degraded robotic surgical performance; however, the impact of noise on robotic surgery will depend on the level of difficulty of the task. Subsequent research is required to identify how different types of noise, such as random or rhythmic sounds, affect the performance of operative tasks using robots such as the da Vinci
Attachment Ligands of Viable Toxoplasma gondii Induce Soluble Immunosuppressive Factors in Human Monocytes
Previous studies have demonstrated that surface antigen proteins, in particular SAG-1, of Toxoplasma gondii are important to this parasite as attachment ligands for the host cell. An in vitro assay was developed to test whether these ligands and other secretory proteins are involved in the immune response of human cells to toxoplasma. Human monocytes were infected with tachyzoites in the presence of antiparasite antibodies, and their effect on mitogen-induced lymphoproliferation was examined. The presence of antibody to either parasite-excreted proteins (MIC-1 and MIC-2) or surface proteins (SAG-1 and SAG-2) during infection neutralized the marked decrease seen in mitogen-induced lymphoproliferation in the presence of infected monocytes. Conversely, antibodies to other secreted proteins (ROP-1) and cytoplasmic molecules had no effect on parasite-induced, monocyte-mediated downregulation. Fluorescence microscope analysis detected microneme and surface antigen proteins on the monocyte cell surface during infection. These results suggest that microneme and surface antigen proteins trigger monocytes to downregulate mitogen-induced lymphoproliferation
Electronic structures of ZnCoO using photoemission and x-ray absorption spectroscopy
Electronic structures of ZnCoO have been investigated using
photoemission spectroscopy (PES) and x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The
Co 3d states are found to lie near the top of the O valence band, with a
peak around eV binding energy. The Co XAS spectrum provides
evidence that the Co ions in ZnCoO are in the divalent Co
() states under the tetrahedral symmetry. Our finding indicates that the
properly substituted Co ions for Zn sites will not produce the diluted
ferromagnetic semiconductor property.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure
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