The accretion of dark energy onto a black hole

The stationary, spherically symmetric accretion of dark energy onto a Schwarzschild black hole is considered in terms of relativistic hydrodynamics. The approximation of an ideal fluid is used to model the dark energy. General expressions are derived for the accretion rate of an ideal fluid with an arbitrary equation of state p = p(ρ) onto a black hole. The black hole mass was found to decrease for the accretion of phantom energy. The accretion process is studied in detail for two dark energy models that admit an analytical solution: a model with a linear equation of state, p = α(ρ ? ρ₀), and a Chaplygin gas. For one of the special cases of a linear equation of state, an analytical expression is derived for the accretion rate of dark energy onto a moving and rotating black hole. The masses of all black holes are shown to approach zero in cosmological models with phantom energy in which the Big Rip scenario is realized.     

Identification of Bacteria Associated with Post-Operative Wounds of Patients with the Use of Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Approach

The bacterial infection of post-operative wounds is a common health problem. Therefore, it is important to investigate fast and accurate methods of identifying bacteria in clinical samples. The aim of the study was to analyse the use of the MALDI-TOF MS technique to identify microorganism wounds that are difficult to heal. The most common bacteria are Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus spp., and Enterococcus spp. We also demonstrate the effect of culture conditions, such as the used growth medium (solid: Brain Heart Infusion Agar, Mueller Hilton Agar, Glucose Bromocresol Purple Agar, and Vancomycin Resistance Enterococci Agar Base and liquid: Tryptic Soy Broth and BACTEC Lytic/10 Anaerobic/F), the incubation time (4, 6, and 24h), and the method of the preparation of bacterial protein extracts (the standard method based on the Bruker guideline, the Sepsityper method) to identify factors and the quality of the obtained mass spectra. By comparing the protein profiles of bacteria from patients not treated with antibiotics to those treated with antibiotics based on the presence/absence of specific signals and using the UniProt platform, it was possible to predict the probable mechanism of the action of the antibiotic used and the mechanism of drug resistance.     

Stability of isoperimetric type inequalities for some Monge–Ampère functionals

We investigate the stability of some inequalities of isoperimetric type related to Monge–Ampère functionals. In particular, firstly we prove the stability of a reverse Faber–Krahn inequality for the Monge–Ampère eigenvalue and its generalization. Then we give a stability result for the Brunn–Minkowski inequality and for a consequent Urysohn’s type inequality for the so-called \(n\) -torsional rigidity, a natural extension of the usual torsional rigidity.     

Dissipative plasmon‐solitons in multilayer graphene

Nonlinear properties of a multi‐layer stack of graphene sheets are studied. It is predicted that such a structure may support dissipative plasmon‐solitons generated and supported by an external laser radiation. Novel nonlinear equations describing spatial dynamics of the nonlinear plasmons driven by a plane wave in the Otto configuration are derived and the existence of single and multi‐hump dissipative solitons in the graphene structure is predicted.     

Self‐assembly of well‐defined amphiphilic polymeric miktoarm stars,dendrons, and dendrimers in water: The effect of architecture

Five polymeric architectures with a systematic increase in architectural complexity were synthesized by “click” reactions from a toolbox of functional linear polymers and small molecule linkers. The amphiphilic architectures ranged from a simple 3‐miktoarm star block copolymer to the more complex third generation dendrimer‐like block copolymer, consisting of polystyrene (PSTY) and polyacrylic acid (PAA). Micellization of these architectures in water at a pH of 7 under identical ionic strength gave spherical micelles ranging in size from 9 to 30 nm. Subsequent calculations of the PSTY core density, average surface area per PAA arm on the corona‐core interface, and the relative stretching of the PAA arms provided insights into the effect of architecture on the self‐assembly processes. A particular trend was observed that with increased architectural complexity the hydrodynamic diameter, radius of the core in the dry state and the aggregation number also increased with the exception of the third generation dendrimer. On the basis of these observations, we postulate that thermodynamic factors controlling self‐assembly were the entropic penalty of forming PSTY loops in the core counterbalanced by the reduction in repulsive forces through chain stretching. This results in a greater number of aggregating unimers and consequently larger micelle sizes. The junction points within the architecture also play an important role in controlling the self‐assembly process. The G3 dendrimer showed results contradictory to the aforementioned trend. We believe that the self‐assembly process of this architecture was dominated by the increased attractive forces due to stretching of the PSTY core chains to form a more compact core. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 6292–6303, 2009     

The Influence of Ultrafine-Grained State of Zr – 1 wt.% Nb and Ti – 45 wt.% Nb Alloys on their Thermophysical Properties and Energy Dissipation and Accumulation during Deformation

Russian Physics Journal - The results of a study of thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of Zr – 1 wt.% Nb and Ti – 45 wt.% Nb alloys in coarse-grained and ultrafine-grained...     

A Novel Streptavidin–luciferase Fusion Protein: Preparation,Properties and Application in Hybridization Analysis of DNA

A streptavidin–luciferase fusion protein comprising the thermostable mutant form of firefly luciferase Luciola mingrelica and minimal core streptavidin was constructed. The streptavidin–luciferase fusion was mainly produced in a tetrameric form with high luciferase and biotin‐binding activities. It was shown that fusion has the same K_m values for ATP and luciferin and the bioluminescence spectra as initial luciferase. The linear dependence of the bioluminescence signal on the content of the fusion was observed within the range of 10^?18–10^?13 mol per well. Successful application of obtained fusion in a biospecific bioluminescence assay based on biotin–streptavidin interactions was demonstrated by the example of a specific DNA hybridization analysis. A DNA hybridization analysis for Escherichia coli cells identification was developed using unique for these cells gadB fragment encoding glutamate decarboxylase. The amplified biotinylated GadB fragments were hybridized with the immobilized oligonucleotide probes; then, the biotin in the DNA duplexes was detected using the streptavidin–luciferase fusion protein. To reach the high sensitivity of the assay, we optimized the conditions of the assay. It was shown that the use of Pluronic for plate modification resulted in a significant reduction in the DNA detection limit which finally was 0.4 ng per well.     

Superdense dark matter clumps from superheavy particles

We describe some specific but reasonable conditions for the formation of superdense clumps (or minihalos) of dark matter. Such clumps can be produced by several mechanisms, most notably by spiky features in the spectrum of density perturbations. Being produced very early during the radiation-dominated epoch, these clumps evolve as isolated objects. They do not belong to hierarchical structures for a long time after production and are therefore not destroyed by tidal interactions during the formation of larger structures. If the clumps are constituted of superheavy dark matter particles, then the evolution of their central part can lead to a “gravithermal catastrophe,” increasing the central density and thus the annihilation signal. As a result, annihilations of superheavy neutralinos in dense clumps may lead to observable fluxes of annihilation products in the form of ultrahigh-energy particles.