Effects of Plasmodium gallinaceum on hemolymph physiology of Aedes aegypti during parasite development

Insect disease vectors show diminished fecundity when infected with Plasmodium. This phenomenon has already been demonstrated in laboratory models such as Aedes aegypti, Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles stephensi. This study demonstrates several changes in physiological processes of A. aegypti occurring upon infection with Plasmodium gallinaceum, such as reduced ecdysteroid levels in hemolymph as well as altered expression patterns for genes involved in vitellogenesis, lipid transport and immune response. Furthermore, we could show that P. gallinaceum infected A. aegypti presented a reduction in reproductive fitness, accompanied by an activated innate immune response and increase in lipophorin expression, with the latter possibly representing a nutritional resource for Plasmodium sporozoites. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the lower bound on the exchange-correlation energy in two dimensions

We study the properties of the lower bound on the exchange-correlation energy in two dimensions. First we review the derivation of the bound and show how it can be written in a simple density-functional form. This form allows an explicit determination of the prefactor of the bound and testing its tightness. Next we focus on finite two-dimensional systems and examine how their distance from the bound depends on the system geometry. The results for the high-density limit suggest that a finite system that comes as close as possible to the ultimate bound on the exchange-correlation energy has circular geometry and a weak confining potential with a negative curvature. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

EXACT AND APPROXIMATE RELATIONS FOR THE SPIN-DEPENDENCE OF THE EXCHANGE ENERGY IN HIGH MAGNETIC FIELDS

The exchange energy of an arbitrary collinear-spin many-body system in an external magnetic field is a functional of the spin-resolved charge and current densities, E(x)[n(up arrow), n(down arrow), j(up arrow), j(down arrow)]. Within the framework of density-functional theory (DFT), we show that the dependence of this functional on the four densities can be fully reconstructed from either of two extreme limits: a fully polarized system or a completely unpolarized system. Reconstruction from the limit of an unpolarized system yields a generalization of the Oliver-Perdew spin scaling relations from spin-DFT to current-DFT. Reconstruction from the limit of a fully polarized system is used to derive the high-field form of the local-spin-density approximation to current-DFT and to magnetic-field DFT.

Dependence of Response Functions and Orbital Functionals on Occupation Numbers

Explicitly orbital-dependent approximations to the exchange-correlation energy functional of density functional theory typically not only depend on the single-particle Kohn-Sham orbitals but also on their occupation numbers in the ground-state Slater determinant. The variational calculation of the corresponding exchange-correlation potentials with the optimized effective potential (OEP) method therefore also requires a variation of the occupation numbers with respect to a variation in the effective single-particle potential, which is usually not taken into account. Here it is shown under which circumstances this procedure is justified.

Tightened Lieb-Oxford Bound for Systems of Fixed Particle Number

The Lieb-Oxford bound is a constraint upon approximate exchange-correlation functionals. We explore a nonempirical tightening of that bound in both universal and electron number-dependent form. The test functional is PBE. Regarding both atomization energies (slightly worsened) and bond lengths (slightly improved), we find the PBE functional to be remarkably insensitive to the value of the Lieb-Oxford bound. This both rationalizes the use of the original Lieb-Oxford constant in PBE and suggests that enhancement factors more sensitive to sharpened constraints await discovery.

Empirical analysis of the Lieb-Oxford bound in ions and molecules

Universal properties of the Coulomb interaction energy apply to all many-electron systems. Bounds on the exchange-correlation energy, in particular, are important for the construction of improved density functionals. Here we investigate one such universal property-the Lieb-Oxford lower bound-for ionic and molecular systems. In recent work [J Chem Phys 127, 054106 (2007)], we observed that for atoms and electron liquids this bound may be substantially tightened. Calculations for a few ions and molecules suggested the same tendency, but were not conclusive due to the small number of systems considered. Here we extend that analysis to many different families of ions and molecules, and find that for these, too, the bound can be empirically tightened by a similar margin as for atoms and electron liquids. Tightening the Lieb-Oxford bound will have consequences for the performance of various approximate exchange-correlation functionals. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals Inc.

Orbital-polarization terms: From a phenomenological to a first-principles description of orbital magnetism in density-functional theory

Phenomenological orbital-polarizition (OP) terms have been repeatedly introduced in the single-particle equations of spin-density-functional theory, in order to improve the description of orbital magnetic moments in systems containing transition metal ions. Here we show that these ad hoc corrections can be interpreted as approximations to the exchange-correlation vector potential A(xc) of current-density functional theory (CDFT). This connection provides additional information on both approaches: phenomenological OP terms are connected to first-principles theory, leading to a rationale for their empirical success and a reassessment of their limitations and the approximations made in their derivation. Conversely, the connection of OP terms with CDFT leads to a set of simple approximations to the CDFT potential A(xc), with a number of desirable features that are absent from electron-gas-based functionals. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Friedel oscillations in one-dimensional metals: From Luttinger`s theorem to the Luttinger liquid

Charge density and magnetization density profiles of one-dimensional metals are investigated by two complementary many-body methods: numerically exact (Lanczos) diagonalization, and the Bethe-Ansatz local-density approximation with and without a simple self-interaction correction. Depending on the magnetization of the system, local approximations reproduce different Fourier components of the exact Friedel oscillations. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Energy of bond defects in quantum spin chains obtained from local approximations and from exact diagonalization

We study the influence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic bond defects on the ground-state energy of antiferromagnetic spin chains. In the absence of translational invariance, the energy spectrum of the full Hamiltonian is obtained numerically, by an iterative modi. cation of the power algorithm. In parallel, approximate analytical energies are obtained from a local-bond approximation, proposed here. This approximation results in significant improvement upon the mean-field approximation, at negligible extra computational effort. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Refraction corrected transmission ultrasound computed tomography for application in breast imaging

Purpose: We present an iterative framework for CT reconstruction from transmission ultrasound data which accurately and efficiently models the strong refraction effects that occur in our target application: Imaging the female breast. Methods: Our refractive ray tracing framework has its foundation in the fast marching method (FNMM) and it allows an accurate as well as efficient modeling of curved rays. We also describe a novel regularization scheme that yields further significant reconstruction quality improvements. A final contribution is the development of a realistic anthropomorphic digital breast phantom based on the NIH Visible Female data set. Results: Our system is able to resolve very fine details even in the presence of significant noise, and it reconstructs both sound speed and attenuation data. Excellent correspondence with a traditional, but significantly more computationally expensive wave equation solver is achieved. Conclusions: Apart from the accurate modeling of curved rays, decisive factors have also been our regularization scheme and the high-quality interpolation filter we have used. An added benefit of our framework is that it accelerates well on GPUs where we have shown that clinical 3D reconstruction speeds on the order of minutes are possible.

Some restriction tests in a new class of regression models for proportions

The main purpose of this work is to study the behaviour of Skovgaard`s [Skovgaard, I.M., 2001. Likelihood asymptotics. Scandinavian journal of Statistics 28, 3-32] adjusted likelihood ratio statistic in testing simple hypothesis in a new class of regression models proposed here. The proposed class of regression models considers Dirichlet distributed observations, and the parameters that index the Dirichlet distributions are related to covariates and unknown regression coefficients. This class is useful for modelling data consisting of multivariate positive observations summing to one and generalizes the beta regression model described in Vasconcellos and Cribari-Neto [Vasconcellos, K.L.P., Cribari-Neto, F., 2005. Improved maximum likelihood estimation in a new class of beta regression models. Brazilian journal of Probability and Statistics 19,13-31]. We show that, for our model, Skovgaard`s adjusted likelihood ratio statistics have a simple compact form that can be easily implemented in standard statistical software. The adjusted statistic is approximately chi-squared distributed with a high degree of accuracy. Some numerical simulations show that the modified test is more reliable in finite samples than the usual likelihood ratio procedure. An empirical application is also presented and discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Variation of System Performance with Design and Climate for Combisystems in Sweden

In Sweden, 90% of the solar heating systems are solar domestic hot water and heating systems (SDHW&H), so called combisystems. These generally supply most of the domestic hot water needs during the summer and have enough capacity to supply some energy to the heating system during spring and autumn. This paper describes a standard Swedish combisystem and how the output from it varies with heating load, climate within Sweden, and how it can be increased with improved system design. A base case is defined using the standard combi- system, a modern Swedish single family house and the climate of Stockholm. Using the simulation program Trnsys, parametric studies have been performed on the base case and improved system designs. The solar fraction could be increased from 17.1% for the base case to 22.6% for the best system design, given the same system size, collector type and load. A short analysis of the costs of changed system design is given, showing that payback times for additional investment are from 5-8 years. Measurements on system components in the laboratory have been used to verify the simulation models used. More work is being carried out in order to find even better system designs, and further improvements in system performance are expected.

Utvärdering av Träslottets ekologiska Kolonistuga i Arbrå

Kolonistugan med lott i Arbrå är ett utställningsobjekt, som har byggts för att visa möjligheter med ekologisk odling på kolonilotten. Kolonistugan består av en växthusdel och en stugdel inredd med kök. Stugan har försetts med ett solvärmesystem, som ger tappvarmvatten och med ett luftsolvärmesystem som lagrar överskottsenergi i marken under växthuset. I denna rapport utvärderas den värmetekniska funktionen hos luftsolvärmesystemet för växthuset och systemet för tappvarmvattenberedning. Arbetet har beställts av Konsumentverket. Målet med denna under­sökning är att utvärdera funktionen hos solvärmesystemen, samt att påvisa eventuella brister i konstruktionen. Omfattande mätningar av temperaturer, solinstrålning och luftflöden har utförts under sommaren och hösten -99.Luftsolvärmesystemets syfte är att förbättra växthusets odlingsklimat och att förlänga odlingssäsongen genom att dagtid ladda ett markvärmelager. Vid solsken startar en solcellsdriven fläkt och luft sugs från växthuset. På så sätt ventileras en del av överskottsvärmen bort från växthuset. Luften värms ytterligare, då den passerar genom en luftsolfångare. Därefter sugs luften ner genom kanaler i mellanväggen och vidare genom marken, där värmen avges. Luften släpps sedan ut utomhus igen.Luftsolvärmesystemet visade sig fungera enligt den tänkta principen och har viss förlängande effekt på odlingssäsongen, men systemet är underdimensionerat för att det skall ge ett påtagligt resultat. Största problemet vad beträffar funktionen är att frostskyddet under kalla nätter inte är tillräckligt effektivt. Systemet klarar endast av att upprätthålla en temperatur på ca 5 grader över utetemperaturen. Systemet är i dagsläget inte särskilt effektivt, men har goda möjligheter att bli bättre om systemet dimensioneras omsorgsfullt och kompletteras med ytterligare installationer. Värmelagrets värmeöverförande yta kan ökas, genom att man bygger en tung värmeackumulerande mellanvägg av stenmaterial. Ett aktivt frostskydd med återcirkulation av luften genom markvärmelager och växthus nattetid är en annan lösning. Om man minskar värmeförlusterna genom att t.ex. använda tvåglasfönster får luftsolvärmesystemet också större effekt.När systemet granskades i detalj upptäcktes en rad misstag, som försämrar systemets prestanda. Bland de största misstagen kan nämnas att stora temperaturförluster uppkommer när luften passerar genom mellanväggen på väg ner till markvärmelagret. Dessa förluster gör ingen nytta för att höja temperaturen i växthuset nattetid. Luftkanalerna i markvärmelagret har också förlagts på ett dumt sätt. Detta gör att värmeöverföringen mellan luften i kanalsystemet och marken försämras.Tappvarmvattensystemet är avsett att producera varmvatten för hushållsbehov under sommaren. Varmvattnet skall räcka enbart till disk, eftersom det inte finns någon duschmöjlighet i stugan. Varmvattnet samlas in med solfångare och lagras i en ackumulatortank på 90 liter. Varmvatten bereds i genomströmning vid en varmvattentappning.Insamlingen av solenergi fungerar bra och varmvattenproduktionen är god vid solig väderlek. Systemet samlar in energi motsvarande 45 liter varmvatten med en temperatur av 45ºC under en solig dag. Systemets förmåga att lagra energi från en solig dag till en mulen dag är däremot dålig, eftersom värmeförlusterna från ackumulatortanken är stora. Orsaken är att ackumulatortanken är mycket liten (endast 90 l), relativt dåligt isolerad och har köldbryggor. Om vatten används som lagringsmedium i ackumulatortanken, måste den tappas av varje höst, för att inte frostsprängningar skall uppstå. Avtappningen har visat sig vara svår för en lekman att utföra.