Cyclosporin A inhibits PGE2 release from vascular smooth muscle cells

The influence of the fungoid undecapeptide cyclosporin A (CyA) on PGE2 release from cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells was investigated in this study. We found that CyA time and concentration dependently (ED50:500 ng/ml) inhibited PGE2 release from the cells. CyA attenuated both basal and PGE2 release evoked by angiotensin II (10(-10)-10(-6) M), arginine vasopressin (10(-10)-10(-6) M) and ionomycin (10(-9)-10(-6) M). CyA (1 microgram/ml) did not affect the conversion of exogenous arachidonic acid (1 microM) into PGE2. The inhibitory effect of CyA was neutralized by high concentrations of the calcium ionophore ionomycin (greater than 3 X 10(-6) M). Taken together our results indicate that CyA inhibits both basal and vasoconstrictor evoked PGE2 release from vascular smooth muscle by impairing the availability of free arachidonic acid rather than by inhibiting the conversion of arachidonic acid into PGE2

Vection-induced gastric dysrhythmias and motion sickness

Gastric electrical and mechanical activity during vection-induced motion sickness was investigated. The contractile events of the antrum and gastric myoelectric activity in healthy subjects exposed to vection were measured simultaneously. Symptomatic and myoelectric responses of subjects with vagotomy and gastric resections during vection stimuli were determined. And laboratory based computer systems for analysis of the myoelectric signal were developed. Gastric myoelectric activity was recorded from cutaneous electrodes, i.e., electrogastrograms (EGGs), and antral contractions were measured with intraluminal pressure transducers. Vection was induced by a rotating drum. gastric electromechanical activity was recorded during three periods: 15 min baseline, 15 min drum rotation (vection), and 15 to 30 min recovery. Preliminary results showed that catecholamine responses in nauseated versus symptom-free subjects were divergent and pretreatment with metoclopramide HC1 (Reglan) prevented vection-induced nausea and reduced tachygastrias in two previously symptomatic subjects

The Production of Garments and Textiles in Bangladesh: Trade Unions, International Managers and the Health and Safety of Workers

This paper offers a view of working practices within the garment and textile (G&T) industry in Bangladesh. The G&T industry accounts for over 84 per cent of Bangladesh exports and is therefore viewed as key to the country’s economic development. This importance is seen in the creation of Export Processing Zones (EPZs), which were created by that state to encourage foreign investment by offering a congenial climate free from cumbersome procedures. Trade unions are outlawed in these areas. Health and safety are poor within the G&T industry. However, the Rana Plaza disaster of 2013, which caused 1,132 deaths and over 2,500 injuries, placed the issue of workplace safety on the international agenda. Arguably, this prompted a change of attitude within Bangladesh and the G&T industry towards health and safety. The presence of international managers appears to have played a significant role in improving health and safety in the working environment, however these international managers do face a range of cultural barriers, which include both language and a different perception of the value of health and safety in the workplace. This paper has adopted a mixed method of both qualitative and quantitative data, collected through interviews and questionnaire surveys within the G&T industry in Bangladesh

Baryonic contributions to the dilepton spectra in relativistic heavy ion collisions

We investigate the baryonic contributions to the dilepton yield in high energy heavy ion collisions within the context of a transport model. The relative contribution of the baryonic and mesonic sources are examined. It is observed that most dominant among the baryonic channels is the decay of N*(1520) and mostly confined in the region below the rho peak. In a transport theory implementation we find the baryonic contribution to the lepton pair yield to be small.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Resonance Production on Nuclei at High Energies: Nuclear-Medium Effects and Space-Time Picture

The influence of nuclear matter on the properties of coherently produced resonances is discussed. It is shown that, in general, the mass distribution of resonance decay products has a two-component structure corresponding to decay outside and inside the nucleus. The first (narrow) component of the amplitude has a Breit-Wigner form determined by the vacuum values of mass and width of the resonance. The second (broad) component corresponds to interactions of the resonance with the nuclear medium. It can be also described by a Breit-Wigner shape with parameters depending e.g. on the nuclear density and on the cross section of the resonance-nucleon interaction. The resonance production is examined both at intermediate energies, where interactions with the nucleus can be considered as a series of successive local rescatterings, and at high energies, $E>E_{crit}$, where a change of interaction picture occurs. This change of mechanisms of the interactions with the nucleus is typical for the description within the Regge theory approach and is connected with the nonlocal nature of the reggeon interaction.Comment: 22 pages LaTeX, 1 Postscript file containing 7 figures; addition in beginning of Ch. 2; Nucl. Phys. A, to be publishe

The luminosity function of Palomar 5 and its tidal tails

We present the main sequence luminosity function of the tidally disrupted globular cluster Palomar 5 and its tidal tails. For this work we analyzed imaging data obtained with the Wide Field Camera at the INT (La Palma) and data from the Wide Field Imager at the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope at La Silla down to a limiting magnitude of approximately 24.5 mag in B. Our results indicate that preferentially fainter stars were removed from the cluster so that the LF of the cluster's main body exhibits a significant degree of flattening compared to other GCs. This is attributed to its advanced dynamical evolution. The LF of the tails is, in turn, enhanced with faint, low-mass stars, which we interpret as a consequence of mass segregation in the cluster.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the conference "Satellites and tidal streams" held at La Palma, Canary Islands, May 26 - 30, 200

Self consistent kinetic simulations of SPT and HEMP thrusters including the near-field plume region

The Particle-in-Cell (PIC) method was used to study two different ion thruster concepts - Stationary Plasma Thrusters (SPT) and High Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thrusters (HEMP-T), in particular the plasma properties in the discharge chamber due to the different magnetic field configurations. Special attention was paid to the simulation of plasma particle fluxes on the thrusters channel surfaces. In both cases, PIC proved itself as a powerful tool, delivering important insight into the basic physics of the different thruster concepts. The simulations demonstrated that the new HEMP thruster concept allows for a high thermal efficiency due to both minimal energy dissipation and high acceleration efficiency. In the HEMP thruster the plasma contact to the wall is limited only to very small areas of the magnetic field cusps, which results in much smaller ion energy flux to the thruster channel surface as compared to SPT. The erosion yields for dielectric discharge channel walls of SPT and HEMP thrusters were calculated with the binary collision code SDTrimSP. For SPT, an erosion rate on the level of 1 mm of sputtered material per hour was observed. For HEMP, thruster simulations have shown that there is no erosion inside the dielectric discharge channel.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures This work was presented at 21st International Conference on Numerical Simulation of Plasmas (ICNSP'09

Fermi level pinning induced electrostatic fields and band bending at organic heterojunctions

The energy level alignment at interfaces between organic semiconductors is of direct relevance to understand charge carrier generation and recombination in organic electronic devices. Commonly, work function changes observed upon interface formation are interpreted as interface dipoles. In this study, using ultraviolet and X ray photoelectron spectroscopy, complemented by electrostatic calculations, we find a huge work function decrease of up to 1.4 amp; 8201;eV at the C60 bottom layer zinc phthalocyanine ZnPc, top layer interface prepared on a molybdenum trioxide MoO3 substrate. However, detailed measurements of the energy level shifts and electrostatic calculations reveal that no interface dipole occurs. Instead, upon ZnPc deposition, a linear electrostatic potential gradient is generated across the C60 layer due to Fermi level pinning of ZnPc on the high work function C60 MoO3 substrate, and associated band bending within the ZnPc layer. This finding is generally of importance for understanding organic heterojunctions when Fermi level pinning is involved, as induced electrostatic fields alter the energy level alignment significantl