Coumarin glycoside from Cissus sicyoides

From the aerial parts of Cissus sicyoides, a new coumarin glycoside 5,6,7,8-tetrahydroxycoumarin-5beta-xylopyranoside was obtained together with known coumarin sabandin, two flavonoids kaempferol 3-rhamnoside and quercetin 3-rhamnoside and two steroids, sitosterol and 3beta-O-beta-D-glucopyranosylsitosterol. The structure of compounds was elucidated by spectral analyses.     

Multiple mechanisms of spiral wave breakup in a model of cardiac electrical activity

It has become widely accepted that the most dangerous cardiac arrhythmias are due to reentrant waves, i.e., electrical wave(s) that recirculate repeatedly throughout the tissue at a higher frequency than the waves produced by the heart's natural pacemaker (sinoatrial node). However, the complicated structure of cardiac tissue, as well as the complex ionic currents in the cell, have made it extremely difficult to pinpoint the detailed dynamics of these life-threatening reentrant arrhythmias. A simplified ionic model of the cardiac action potential (AP), which can be fitted to a wide variety of experimentally and numerically obtained mesoscopic characteristics of cardiac tissue such as AP shape and restitution of AP duration and conduction velocity, is used to explain many different mechanisms of spiral wave breakup which in principle can occur in cardiac tissue. Some, but not all, of these mechanisms have been observed before using other models; therefore, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate them using just one framework model and to explain the different parameter regimes or physiological properties necessary for each mechanism (such as high or low excitability, corresponding to normal or ischemic tissue, spiral tip trajectory types, and tissue structures such as rotational anisotropy and periodic boundary conditions). Each mechanism is compared with data from other ionic models or experiments to illustrate that they are not model-specific phenomena. Movies showing all the breakup mechanisms are available at http://arrhythmia.hofstra.edu/breakup and at ftp://ftp.aip.org/epaps/chaos/E-CHAOEH-12-039203/ INDEX.html. The fact that many different breakup mechanisms exist has important implications for antiarrhythmic drug design and for comparisons of fibrillation experiments using different species, electromechanical uncoupling drugs, and initiation protocols. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.     

Deconfinement transition in three-dimensional compact U(1) gauge theories coupled to matter fields

It is shown that permanent confinement in three-dimensional compact U(1) gauge theory can be destroyed by matter fields in a deconfinement transition. This follows from a nontrivial infrared fixed point caused by matter, and an anomalous scaling dimension of the gauge field. This leads to a logarithmic interaction between the defects of the gauge fields, which form a gas of magnetic monopoles. For logarithmic interactions, the original electric charges are unconfined. The confined phase, which is permanent in the absence of matter fields, is reached at a critical electric charge, where the interaction between magnetic charges is screened by a pair-unbinding in a Kosterlitz-Thouless-like phase transition.     

Robust transitivity and topological mixing for -flows

We prove that nontrivial homoclinic classes of -generic flows are topologically mixing. This implies that given , a nontrivial -robustly transitive set of a vector field , there is a -perturbation of such that the continuation of is a topologically mixing set for . In particular, robustly transitive flows become topologically mixing after -perturbations. These results generalize a theorem by Bowen on the basic sets of generic Axiom A flows. We also show that the set of flows whose nontrivial homoclinic classes are topologically mixing is not open and dense, in general.

     

Complete phase diagram of DNA unzipping: eye, Y fork, and triple point

We study the unzipping of double stranded DNA by applying a pulling force at a fraction s (0< or =s < or =1) from the anchored end. From exact analytical and numerical results, the complete phase diagram is presented. The phase diagram shows a strong ensemble dependence for various values of s. In addition, we show the existence of an eye phase and a triple point.     

Quantum electrodynamics in 2 + 1 dimensions, confinement, and the stability of U(1) spin liquids

Compact quantum electrodynamics in 2 + 1 dimensions often arises as an effective theory for a Mott insulator, with the Dirac fermions representing the low-energy spinons. An important and controversial issue in this context is whether a deconfinement transition takes place. We perform a renormalization group analysis to show that deconfinement occurs when N > Nc = 36/pi3 approximately to 1.161, where N is the number of fermion replica. For N < Nc, however, there are two stable fixed points separated by a line containing a unstable nontrivial fixed point: a fixed point corresponding to the scaling limit of the noncompact theory, and another one governing the scaling behavior of the compact theory. The string tension associated with the confining interspinon potential is shown to exhibit a universal jump as N --> Nc-. Our results imply the stability of a spin liquid at the physical value N = 2 for Mott insulators.     

Microfocus Cu K(alpha) source for femtosecond x-ray science

We demonstrate a subpicosecond 1 kHz femtosecond x-ray source with a well-accessible quasi-point size (10 microm diameter) providing Cu K(alpha) emission with a maximum flux of 6.8 x 10(10) photons/s for continuous operation of 10 h. A new geometry that essentially facilitates the adjustment and diminishes the temporal jitter between the x-ray probe and the laser pump pulse is implemented for time-resolved diffraction experiments.     

Real-space renormalization group for Langevin dynamics in absence of translational invariance

A novel exact dynamical real-space renormalization group for a Langevin equation derivable from a Euclidean Gaussian action is presented. It is demonstrated rigorously that an algebraic temporal law holds for the Green function on arbitrary structures of infinite extent. In the case of fractals it is shown on specific examples that two different fixed points are found, at variance with periodic structures. Connection with the growth dynamics of interfaces is also discussed.     

Constitutive equations for multiphase mixtures of fluids

Constitutive equations for a multiphase mixture of fluids are presented. The mixture is assumed to consist of a single non-uniform temperature and no change is allowed. The theory is based on the conservation and balance equations of multiphase mixtures proposed by Dobran, and the constitutive assumption allows for the effects of temperature gradient, density gradients, velocity gradients, velocities and accelerations. A linearized form of the constitutive equations is presented for an arbitrary number of phases, and restrictions on the constitutive assumption are investigated by the second law of thermodynamics. The theory yielded a significant number of results and they are compared with previous investigations.     

Wormholes, Classical Limit and Dynamical Vacuum in Quantum Cosmology

First a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW)universe filled with dust and a conformally invariantscalar field is quantized. For the closed model we finda discrete set of wormhole quantum states. In the case of flat spacelike sections we find states withclassical behaviour at small values of the scale factorand quantum behaviour for large values of the scalefactor. Next we study a FRW model with a conformally invariant scalar field and a nonvanishingcosmological constant dynamically introduced byregarding the vacuum as a perfect fluid with equation ofstate p = –. The ensuing Wheeler-DeWittequation turns out to be a bona fide Schrodinger equation, andwe find that there are realizable states with a definitevalue of the cosmological constant. Once again we findfinite-norm solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation with definite values of thecosmological constant that represent wormholes,suggesting that in quantum cosmological models with asimple matter content wormhole states are a commonoccurrence.