Fundamental Aspects of the ISM Fractality

The ubiquitous clumpy state of the ISM raises a fundamental and open problem of physics, which is the correct statistical treatment of systems dominated by long range interactions. A simple solvable hierarchical model is presented which explains why systems dominated by gravity prefer to adopt a fractal dimension around 2 or less, like the cold ISM and large scale structures. This has direct relation with the general transparency, or blackness, of the Universe.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX2e, crckapb macro, no figure, uuencoded compressed tar file. To be published in the proceeedings of the "Dust-Morphology" conference, Johannesburg, 22-26 January, 1996, D. Block (ed.), (Kluwer Dordrecht

Potentiality in Biology

We take the potentialities that are studied in the biological sciences (e.g., totipotency) to be an important subtype of biological dispositions. The goal of this paper is twofold: first, we want to provide a detailed understanding of what biological dispositions are. We claim that two features are essential for dispositions in biology: the importance of the manifestation process and the diversity of conditions that need to be satisfied for the disposition to be manifest. Second, we demonstrate that the concept of a disposition (or potentiality) is a very useful tool for the analysis of the explanatory practice in the biological sciences. On the one hand it allows an in-depth analysis of the nature and diversity of the conditions under which biological systems display specific behaviors. On the other hand the concept of a disposition may serve a unificatory role in the philosophy of the natural sciences since it captures not only the explanatory practice of biology, but of all natural sciences. Towards the end we will briefly come back to the notion of a potentiality in biology

Random-Matrix Theory of Quantum Size Effects on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Metal Particles

The distribution function of the local density of states is computed exactly for the Wigner-Dyson ensemble of random Hamiltonians. In the absence of time-reversal symmetry, precise agreement is obtained with the "supersymmetry" theory by Efetov and Prigodin of the NMR lineshape in disordered metal particles. Upon breaking time-reversal symmetry, the variance of the Knight shift in the smallest particles is reduced by a universal factor of 2/3. ***To be published in Physical Review B.****Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX-3.0, 1 postscript figure, INLO-PUB-940819; [2017: figure included in text

Connecting to smart cities : analyzing energy times series to visualize monthly electricity peak load in residential buildings

Rapidly growing energy consumption rate is considered an alarming threat to economic stability and environmental sustainability. There is an urgent need of proposing novel solutions to mitigate the drastic impact of increased energy demand in urban cities to improve energy efficiency in smart buildings. It is commonly agreed that exploring, analyzing and visualizing energy consumption patterns in residential buildings can help to estimate their energy demands. Moreover, visualizing energy consumption patterns of residential buildings can also help to diagnose if there is any unpredictable increase in energy demand at a certain time period. However, visualizing and inferring energy consumption patterns from typical line graphs, bar charts, scatter plots is obsolete, less informative and do not provide deep and significant insight of the daily domestic demand of energy utilization. Moreover, these methods become less significant when high temporal resolution is required. In this research work, advanced data exploratory and data analytics techniques are applied on energy time series. Data exploration results are presented in the form of heatmap. Heatmap provides a significant insight of energy utilization behavior during different times of the day. Heatmap results are articulated from three analytical perspectives; descriptive analysis, diagnostic analysis and contextual analysis

Heat Treated NiP–SiC Composite Coatings: Elaboration and Tribocorrosion Behaviour in NaCl Solution

Tribocorrosion behaviour of heat-treated NiP and NiP–SiC composite coatings was investigated in a 0.6 M NaCl solution. The tribocorrosion tests were performed in a linear sliding tribometer with an electrochemical cell interface. It was analyzed the influence of SiC particles dispersion in the NiP matrix on current density developed, on coefficient of friction and on wear volume loss. The results showed that NiP–SiC composite coatings had a lower wear volume loss compared to NiP coatings. However, the incorporation of SiC particles into the metallic matrix affects the current density developed by the system during the tribocorrosion test. It was verified that not only the volume of co-deposited particles (SiC vol.%) but also the number of SiC particles per coating area unit (and consequently the SiC particles size) have made influence on the tribocorrosion behaviour of NiP–SiC composite coatings

Impact of calcium on salivary α-amylase activity, starch paste apparent viscosity and thickness perception

Thickness perception of starch-thickened products during eating has been linked to starch viscosity and salivary amylase activity. Calcium is an essential cofactor for α-amylase and there is anecdotal evidence that adding extra calcium affects amylase activity in processes like mashing of beer. The aims of this paper were to (1) investigate the role of salivary calcium on α-amylase activity and (2) to measure the effect of calcium concentration on apparent viscosity and thickness perception when interacting with salivary α-amylase in starch-based samples. α-Amylase activity in saliva samples from 28 people was assessed using a typical starch pasting cycle (up to 95 °C). The activity of the enzyme (as measured by the change in starch apparent viscosity) was maintained by the presence of calcium, probably by protecting the enzyme from heat denaturation. Enhancement of α-amylase activity by calcium at 37 °C was also observed although to a smaller extent. Sensory analysis showed a general trend of decreased thickness perception in the presence of calcium, but the result was only significant for one pair of samples, suggesting a limited impact of calcium enhanced enzyme activity on perceived thickness

One-carbon metabolism in cancer

Cells require one-carbon units for nucleotide synthesis, methylation and reductive metabolism, and these pathways support the high proliferative rate of cancer cells. As such, anti-folates, drugs that target one-carbon metabolism, have long been used in the treatment of cancer. Amino acids, such as serine are a major one-carbon source, and cancer cells are particularly susceptible to deprivation of one-carbon units by serine restriction or inhibition of de novo serine synthesis. Recent work has also begun to decipher the specific pathways and sub-cellular compartments that are important for one-carbon metabolism in cancer cells. In this review we summarise the historical understanding of one-carbon metabolism in cancer, describe the recent findings regarding the generation and usage of one-carbon units and explore possible future therapeutics that could exploit the dependency of cancer cells on one-carbon metabolism

Beyond the required LISA free-fall performance: new LISA pathfinder results down to 20 μHz

In the months since the publication of the first results, the noise performance of LISA Pathfinder has improved because of reduced Brownian noise due to the continued decrease in pressure around the test masses, from a better correction of noninertial effects, and from a better calibration of the electrostatic force actuation. In addition, the availability of numerous long noise measurement runs, during which no perturbation is purposely applied to the test masses, has allowed the measurement of noise with good statistics down to 20  μHz. The Letter presents the measured differential acceleration noise figure, which is at (1.74±0.05)  fm s^{-2}/sqrt[Hz] above 2 mHz and (6±1)×10  fm s^{-2}/sqrt[Hz] at 20  μHz, and discusses the physical sources for the measured noise. This performance provides an experimental benchmark demonstrating the ability to realize the low-frequency science potential of the LISA mission, recently selected by the European Space Agency

BLM and RMI1 alleviate RPA inhibition of topoIIIα decatenase activity

RPA is a single-stranded DNA binding protein that physically associates with the BLM complex. RPA stimulates BLM helicase activity as well as the double Holliday junction dissolution activity of the BLM-topoisomerase IIIα complex. We investigated the effect of RPA on the ssDNA decatenase activity of topoisomerase IIIα. We found that RPA and other ssDNA binding proteins inhibit decatenation by topoisomerase IIIα. Complex formation between BLM, TopoIIIα, and RMI1 ablates inhibition of decatenation by ssDNA binding proteins. Together, these data indicate that inhibition by RPA does not involve species-specific interactions between RPA and BLM-TopoIIIα-RMI1, which contrasts with RPA modulation of double Holliday junction dissolution. We propose that topoisomerase IIIα and RPA compete to bind to single-stranded regions of catenanes. Interactions with BLM and RMI1 enhance toposiomerase IIIα activity, promoting decatenation in the presence of RPA

Association between canine leishmaniosis and Ehrlichia canis co-infection: a prospective case-control study

Abstract Background In the Mediterranean basin, Leishmania infantum is a major cause of disease in dogs, which are frequently co-infected with other vector-borne pathogens (VBP). However, the associations between dogs with clinical leishmaniosis (ClinL) and VBP co-infections have not been studied. We assessed the risk of VBP infections in dogs with ClinL and healthy controls. Methods We conducted a prospective case-control study of dogs with ClinL (positive qPCR and ELISA antibody for L. infantum on peripheral blood) and clinically healthy, ideally breed-, sex- and age-matched, control dogs (negative qPCR and ELISA antibody for L. infantum on peripheral blood) from Paphos, Cyprus. We obtained demographic data and all dogs underwent PCR on EDTA-blood extracted DNA for haemoplasma species, Ehrlichia/Anaplasma spp., Babesia spp., and Hepatozoon spp., with DNA sequencing to identify infecting species. We used logistic regression analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) to evaluate the risk of VBP infections between ClinL cases and controls. Results From the 50 enrolled dogs with ClinL, DNA was detected in 24 (48%) for Hepatozoon spp., 14 (28%) for Mycoplasma haemocanis, 6 (12%) for Ehrlichia canis and 2 (4%) for Anaplasma platys. In the 92 enrolled control dogs, DNA was detected in 41 (45%) for Hepatozoon spp., 18 (20%) for M. haemocanis, 1 (1%) for E. canis and 3 (3%) for A. platys. No Babesia spp. or “Candidatus Mycoplasma haematoparvum” DNA was detected in any dog. No statistical differences were found between the ClinL and controls regarding age, sex, breed, lifestyle and use of ectoparasitic prevention. A significant association between ClinL and E. canis infection (OR = 12.4, 95% CI: 1.5–106.0, P = 0.022) was found compared to controls by multivariate logistic regression. This association was confirmed using SEM, which further identified that younger dogs were more likely to be infected with each of Hepatozoon spp. and M. haemocanis, and dogs with Hepatozoon spp. were more likely to be co-infected with M. haemocanis. Conclusions Dogs with ClinL are at a higher risk of co-infection with E. canis than clinically healthy dogs. We recommend that dogs diagnosed with ClinL should be tested for E. canis co-infection using PCR