2,529 research outputs found
The Beginner's Guide to Wind Tunnels with TunnelSim and TunnelSys
The Beginner's Guide to Wind Tunnels is a Web-based, on-line textbook that explains and demonstrates the history, physics, and mathematics involved with wind tunnels and wind tunnel testing. The Web site contains several interactive computer programs to demonstrate scientific principles. TunnelSim is an interactive, educational computer program that demonstrates basic wind tunnel design and operation. TunnelSim is a Java (Sun Microsystems Inc.) applet that solves the continuity and Bernoulli equations to determine the velocity and pressure throughout a tunnel design. TunnelSys is a group of Java applications that mimic wind tunnel testing techniques. Using TunnelSys, a team of students designs, tests, and post-processes the data for a virtual, low speed, and aircraft wing
Insulin resistance disrupts epithelial repair and niche-progenitor Fgf signaling during chronic liver injury
Insulin provides important information to tissues about feeding behavior and energy status.
Defective insulin signaling is associated with ageing, tissue dysfunction, and impaired
wound healing. In the liver, insulin resistance leads to chronic damage and fibrosis, but it is
unclear how tissue-repair mechanisms integrate insulin signals to coordinate an appropriate
injury response or how they are affected by insulin resistance. In this study, we demonstrate
that insulin resistance impairs local cellular crosstalk between the fibrotic stroma and bipotent adult liver progenitor cells (LPCs), whose paracrine interactions promote epithelial
repair and tissue remodeling. Using insulin-resistant mice deficient for insulin receptor substrate 2 (Irs2), we highlight dramatic impairment of proregenerative fibroblast growth factor
7 (Fgf7) signaling between stromal niche cells and LPCs during chronic injury. We provide a
detailed account of the role played by IRS2 in promoting Fgf7 ligand and receptor (Fgfr2-
IIIb) expression by the two cell compartments, and we describe an insulin/IRS2-dependent
feed-forward loop capable of sustaining hepatic re-epithelialization by driving FGFR2-IIIb
expression. Finally, we shed light on the regulation of IRS2 and FGF7 within the fibrotic
stroma and showâusing a human coculture systemâthat IRS2 silencing shifts the equilibrium away from paracrine epithelial repair in favor of fibrogenesis. Hence, we offer a compelling insight into the contribution of insulin resistance to the pathogenesis of chronic liver
disease and propose IRS2 as a positive regulator of communication between cell types and
the transition between phases of stromal to epithelial repair
Role of AMP-activated protein kinase in adipose tissue metabolism and inflammation
AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) is a key regulator of cellular and whole-body energy balance. AMPK phosphorylates and regulates many proteins concerned with nutrient metabolism, largely acting to suppress anabolic ATP-consuming pathways while stimulating catabolic ATP-generating pathways. This has led to considerable interest in AMPK as a therapeutic target for the metabolic dysfunction observed in obesity and insulin resistance. The role of AMPK in skeletal muscle and the liver has been extensively studied, such that AMPK has been demonstrated to inhibit synthesis of fatty acids, cholesterol and isoprenoids, hepatic gluconeogenesis and translation while increasing fatty acid oxidation, muscle glucose transport, mitochondrial biogenesis and caloric intake. The role of AMPK in the other principal metabolic and insulin-sensitive tissue, adipose, remains poorly characterized in comparison, yet increasing evidence supports an important role for AMPK in adipose tissue function. Obesity is characterized by hypertrophy of adipocytes and the development of a chronic sub-clinical pro-inflammatory environment in adipose tissue, leading to increased infiltration of immune cells. This combination of dysfunctional hypertrophic adipocytes and a pro-inflammatory environment contributes to insulin resistance and the development of Type 2 diabetes. Exciting recent studies indicate that AMPK may not only influence metabolism in adipocytes, but also act to suppress this pro-inflammatory environment, such that targeting AMPK in adipose tissue may be desirable to normalize adipose dysfunction and inflammation. In the present review, we discuss the role of AMPK in adipose tissue, focussing on the regulation of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, adipogenesis and pro-inflammatory pathways in physiological and pathophysiological conditions
A Study of B0 -> J/psi K(*)0 pi+ pi- Decays with the Collider Detector at Fermilab
We report a study of the decays B0 -> J/psi K(*)0 pi+ pi-, which involve the
creation of a u u-bar or d d-bar quark pair in addition to a b-bar -> c-bar(c
s-bar) decay. The data sample consists of 110 1/pb of p p-bar collisions at
sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV collected by the CDF detector at the Fermilab Tevatron
collider during 1992-1995. We measure the branching ratios to be BR(B0 -> J/psi
K*0 pi+ pi-) = (8.0 +- 2.2 +- 1.5) * 10^{-4} and BR(B0 -> J/psi K0 pi+ pi-) =
(1.1 +- 0.4 +- 0.2) * 10^{-3}. Contributions to these decays are seen from
psi(2S) K(*)0, J/psi K0 rho0, J/psi K*+ pi-, and J/psi K1(1270)
First Report of 13 Species of Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Mainland Portugal and Azores by Morphological and Molecular Characterization
The genus Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) contains important vectors of animal and human diseases, including bluetongue, African horse sickness and filariosis. A major outbreak of bluetongue occurred in mainland Portugal in 2004, forty eight years after the last recorded case. A national Entomological Surveillance Plan was initiated in mainland Portugal, Azores and the Madeira archipelagos in 2005 in order to better understand the disease and facilitate policy decisions. During the survey, the most prevalent Culicoides species in mainland Portugal was C. imicola (75.3%) and species belonging to the Obsoletus group (6.5%). The latter were the most prevalent in Azores archipelago, accounting for 96.7% of the total species identified. The Obsoletus group was further characterized by multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction to species level showing that only two species of this group were present: C. obsoletus sensu strictu (69.6%) and C. scoticus (30.4%). Nine species of Culicoides were detected for the first time in mainland Portugal: C. alazanicus, C. bahrainensis, C. deltus, C. lupicaris, C. picturatus, C. santonicus, C. semimaculatus, C. simulator and C. subfagineus. In the Azores, C. newsteadi and C. circumscriptus were identified for the first time from some islands, and bluetongue vectors belonging to the Obsoletus group (C. obsoletus and C. scoticus) were found to be widespread
The Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph for the James Webb Space Telescope -- IV. Aperture Masking Interferometry
The James Webb Space Telescope's Near Infrared Imager and Slitless
Spectrograph (JWST-NIRISS) flies a 7-hole non-redundant mask (NRM), the first
such interferometer in space, operating at 3-5 \micron~wavelengths, and a
bright limit of magnitudes in W2. We describe the NIRISS Aperture
Masking Interferometry (AMI) mode to help potential observers understand its
underlying principles, present some sample science cases, explain its
operational observing strategies, indicate how AMI proposals can be developed
with data simulations, and how AMI data can be analyzed. We also present key
results from commissioning AMI. Since the allied Kernel Phase Imaging (KPI)
technique benefits from AMI operational strategies, we also cover NIRISS KPI
methods and analysis techniques, including a new user-friendly KPI pipeline.
The NIRISS KPI bright limit is W2 magnitudes. AMI (and KPI) achieve
an inner working angle of mas that is well inside the mas
NIRCam inner working angle for its circular occulter coronagraphs at comparable
wavelengths.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figure
Overview of recent TJ-II stellarator results
The main results obtained in the TJ-II stellarator in the last two years are reported. The most important topics investigated have been modelling and validation of impurity transport, validation of gyrokinetic simulations, turbulence characterisation, effect of magnetic configuration on transport, fuelling with pellet injection, fast particles and liquid metal plasma facing components. As regards impurity transport research, a number of working lines exploring several recently discovered effects have been developed: the effect of tangential drifts on stellarator neoclassical transport, the impurity flux driven by electric fields tangent to magnetic surfaces and attempts of experimental validation with Doppler reflectometry of the variation of the radial electric field on the flux surface. Concerning gyrokinetic simulations, two validation activities have been performed, the comparison with measurements of zonal flow relaxation in pellet-induced fast transients and the comparison with experimental poloidal variation of fluctuations amplitude. The impact of radial electric fields on turbulence spreading in the edge and scrape-off layer has been also experimentally characterized using a 2D Langmuir probe array. Another remarkable piece of work has been the investigation of the radial propagation of small temperature perturbations using transfer entropy. Research on the physics and modelling of plasma core fuelling with pellet and tracer-encapsulated solid-pellet injection has produced also relevant results. Neutral beam injection driven AlfvĂ©nic activity and its possible control by electron cyclotron current drive has been examined as well in TJ-II. Finally, recent results on alternative plasma facing components based on liquid metals are also presentedThis work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014â2018 under Grant Agreement No. 633053. It has been partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, InovaciĂłn y Universidades of Spain under projects ENE2013-48109-P, ENE2015-70142-P and FIS2017-88892-P. It has also received funds from the Spanish Government via mobility grant PRX17/00425. The authors thankfully acknowledge the computer resources at MareNostrum and the technical support provided by the Barcelona S.C. It has been supported as well by The Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), Project P-507F
Search for Single-Top-Quark Production in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV
We search for standard model single-top-quark production in the W-gluon
fusion and W* channels using 106 pb^-1 of data from p-pbar collisions at
sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We set an
upper limit at 95% C.L. on the combined W-gluon fusion and W* single-top cross
section of 14 pb, roughly six times larger than the standard model prediction.
Separate 95% C.L. upper limits in the W-gluon fusion and W* channels are also
determined and are found to be 13 and 18 pb, respectively.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Search for a vector-like quark TâČ â tH via the diphoton decay mode of the Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions at = 13 TeV
A search for the electroweak production of a vector-like quark TâČ, decaying to a top quark and a Higgs boson is presented. The search is based on a sample of proton-proton collision events recorded at the LHC at = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fbâ1. This is the first TâČ search that exploits the Higgs boson decay to a pair of photons. For narrow isospin singlet TâČ states with masses up to 1.1 TeV, the excellent diphoton invariant mass resolution of 1â2% results in an increased sensitivity compared to previous searches based on the same production mechanism. The electroweak production of a TâČ quark with mass up to 960 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level, assuming a coupling strength ÎșT = 0.25 and a relative decay width Î/MTâČ < 5%
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