Search results for "Helium"
showing 10 items of 1689 documents
Amphotericin B severely affects expression and activity of the endothelial constitutive nitric oxide synthase involving altered mRNA stability
2000
The therapeutic use of the antifungal drug amphotericin B (AmB) is limited due to severe side effects like glomerular vasoconstriction and risk of renal failure during AmB administration. As nitric oxide (NO) has substantial functions in renal autoregulation, we have determined the effects of AmB on endothelial constitutive NO synthase (ecNOS) expression and activity in human and rat endothelial cell cultures. AmB used at concentrations of 0.6 to 1.25 μg ml−1 led to increases in ecNOS mRNA and protein expression as well as NO production. This was the result of an increased ecNOS mRNA half-life. In contrast, incubation of cells with higher albeit subtoxic concentrations of AmB (2.5–5.0 μg ml…
AVE3085, an enhancer of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, restores endothelial function and reduces blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats
2011
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in endothelial function, and impaired NO production is involved in hypertension. Therefore, compounds that regulate endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) may be of therapeutic benefit. A novel, low molecular weight compound AVE3085 is a recently developed compound with the ability to enhance eNOS transcription. The present study investigated the effects of AVE3085 in endothelial dysfunction associated with hypertension. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) were treated with AVE 3085 (10 mg·kg·day−1, orally) for 4 weeks. Isometric force measurement was performed on rings of isolated aortae in organ baths. Prote…
Cavitation in 3He-4he Liquid Mixtures
2002
Phase transitions under equilibrium conditions are experimentally well determined and take place in the coexistence regime. However, phase transitions do not always occur under equilibrium conditions. As the new phase forms, the free energy of the system is lowered, but the original phase can be held in a metastable state close to the equilibrium transition point. Although they are internally stable, in each case there exists another configuration that has a lower thermodynamical potential. The metastable state is separated from the stable state by a thermodynamic barrier. Due to statistical fluctuations in density or concentration, this barrier can be overcome as the result of the formatio…
Sodium channels enable fast electrical signaling and regulate phagocytosis in the retinal pigment epithelium
2019
Background Voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels have traditionally been considered a trademark of excitable cells. However, recent studies have shown the presence of Nav channels in several non-excitable cells, such as astrocytes and macrophages, demonstrating that the roles of these channels are more diverse than was previously thought. Despite the earlier discoveries, the presence of Nav channel-mediated currents in the cells of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) has been dismissed as a cell culture artifact. We challenge this notion by investigating the presence and possible role of Nav channels in RPE both ex vivo and in vitro. Results Our work demonstrates that several subtypes of Nav cha…
Electron drift and longitudinal diffusion in high pressure xenon-helium gas mixtures
2019
We report new measurements of the drift velocity and longitudinal diffusion coefficients of electrons in pure xenon gas and in xenon-helium gas mixtures at 1-9 bar and electric field strengths of 50-300 V/cm. In pure xenon we find excellent agreement with world data at all $E/P$, for both drift velocity and diffusion coefficients. However, a larger value of the longitudinal diffusion coefficient than theoretical predictions is found at low $E/P$ in pure xenon, below the range of reduced fields usually probed by TPC experiments. A similar effect is observed in xenon-helium gas mixtures at somewhat larger $E/P$. Drift velocities in xenon-helium mixtures are found to be theoretically well pred…
PROMINENCE PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS THROUGH EXTREME-ULTRAVIOLET ABSORPTION
2013
In this paper we introduce a new diagnostic technique that uses prominence EUV and UV absorption to determine the prominence plasma electron temperature and column emission measure, as well as He/H relative abundance; if a realistic assumption on the geometry of the absorbing plasma can be made, this technique can also yield the absorbing plasma electron density. This technique capitalizes on the absorption properties of Hydrogen and Helium at different wavelength ranges and temperature regimes. Several cases where this technique can be successfully applied are described. This technique works best when prominence plasmas are hotter than 15,000 K and thus it is ideally suited for rapidly hea…
A new limit of the 129 Xenon Electric Dipole Moment
2019
We report on the first preliminary result of our 129Xe EDM measurement performed by the MIXed collaboration. The aim of this report is to demonstrate the feasibility of a new method to set limits on nuclear EDMs by investigating the EDM of the diamagnetic 129Xe atoms. In our setup, hyperpolarized 3He serves as a comagnetometer needed to suppress magnetic field fluctuations. The free induction decay of the two polarized spin species is directly measured by low noise DC SQUIDs, and the weighted phase difference extracted from these measurements is used to determine a preliminary upper limit on the 129Xe EDM.
Sound conversion phenomena at the free surface of liquid helium. II. Experimental determination of acoustic coefficients and surface absorption coeff…
1983
The acoustic coefficients of reflection, transmission, and transformation of first-, second-, and gas sound waves incident normally on the free surface of liquid helium have been determined. The experimental results are compared with the theory developed in Part I of this paper. It is shown that equilibrium theories of boundary conditions disagree with the experiments. Nonequilibrium theories, however, which take into account that mass and energy transport processes occur at the liquid-vapor interface of helium II, lead to a very good description of the experimental data below 2 K. Within experimental accuracy the measurements fully confirm several kinetic models of evaporation and energy t…
Theoretical studies of the propagation of sound in narrow channels filled with helium II. I. The dispersion relations of fourth sound and of the fift…
1971
The wave propagation in helium II bounded by two plane-parallel plates forming a narrow channel is considered. The theory is based on the complete linearized set of the Khalatnikov equations. These equations are exactly averaged over the width of the channel taking into account the boundary conditions and symmetry relations. It is shown that in narrow channels three solutions of these equations exist; (a) fourth sound, (b) the so-called fifth-wave mode, and (c) another wave mode, which is very strongly damped. The dispersion relations of these wave modes are calculated with regard to all kinetic coefficients and to the coefficient of thermal expansion. The phase velocities and absorption co…
X-ray bursts and burst oscillations from the slowly spinning X-ray pulsar IGR J17480−2446 (Terzan 5)
2011
The newly discovered 11-Hz accreting pulsar, IGR J17480−2446, located in the globular cluster Terzan 5, has shown several bursts with a recurrence time as short as a few minutes. The source shows the shortest recurrence time ever observed from a neutron star. Here we present a study of the morphological, spectral and temporal properties of 107 bursts observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. The recurrence time and the fluence of the bursts clearly anticorrelate with the increase in the persistent X-ray flux. The ratio between the energy generated by the accretion of mass and that liberated during bursts indicates that helium is ignited in a hydrogen-rich layer. Therefore, we conclude th…