Description: This paper generalizes a certain geometric locus problem due to A. Dafina.

Description: This paper discusses long- and short-time analysis of heartbeat sequences and the correlation with mortality risk in congestive heart failure patients. Abstract: We analyze RR heartbeat sequences with a dynamic model that satisfactorily reproduces both the long- and the short-time statistical properties of heart beating. These properties are expressed quantitatively by means of two significant parameters, the scaling δ concerning the asymptotic effects of long-range correlation, and the quantity 1 - π establishing the amount of uncorrelated fluctuations. We find a correlation between the position in the phase space (δ,π) of patients with congestive heart failure and their mortality risk.

Description: This article discusses a joint approach to detect complexity. Abstract: The adoption of the Kolmogorov-Sinai (KS) entropy is becoming a popular research tool among physicists, especially when applied to a dynamical system fitting the conditions of validity of the Pesin theorem. The study of time series that are a manifestation of system dynamics whose rules are either unknown or too complex for a mathematical treatment, is still a challenge since the KS entropy is not computable, in general, in that case. Here the authors present a plan of action based on the joint action of two procedures, both related to the KS entropy, but compatible with computer implementation through fast and efficient programs. The former procedure, called Compression Algorithm Sensitive To Regularity (CASToRe), establishes the amount of order by the numerical evaluation of algorithmic compressibility. The latter, called Complex Analysis of Sequences via Scaling AND Randomness Assessment (CASSANDRA), establishes the complexity degree through the numerical evaluation of the strength of an anomalous effect. This is the departure, of the diffusion process generated by the observed fluctuations, from ordinary Brownian motion. The CASSANDRA algorithm shares with CASToRe a connection with the Kolmogorov complexity. This makes both algorithms especially suitable to study ...

Description: This article discusses symplastic continuity between companion cells and the translocation stream. Substantial symplastic continuity appears to exist between companion cells (CCs) and sieve elements of the phloem, which suggests that small solutes within the CC are subject to indiscriminate long-distance transport via the translocation stream. To test this hypothesis, the distributions of exotic and endogenous solutes synthesized in the CCs of minor veins were studied. Octopine, a charged molecule derived from arginine and pyruvate, was efficiently transported through the phloem but was also transferred in substantial amounts to the apoplast, and presumably other non-phloem compartments. The disaccharide galactinol also accumulated in non-phloem compartments, but long-distance transport was limited. Conversely, sucrose, raffinose, and especially stachyose demonstrated reduced accumulation and efficient transport out of the leaf. The authors conclude that small metabolites in the cytosol of CCs do enter the translocation stream indiscriminately but are also subject to distributive forces, such as nonselective and carrier-mediated membrane transport and symplastic dispersal, that may effectively clear a compound from the phloem or retain it for long-distance transport. A model is proposed in which the transport or oligosaccharides is an adaptive strategy to improve photoassimilate retention, and consequently translocation efficiency, the phloem.

Description: This article discusses nanotubes in microwave fields. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) exhibit diverse and unique properties. Recently, a surprising feature has been the ignition of nanotubes in the presence of an ordinary camera flash. Here, the authors report that SWNTs, produced via the HiPco process, display strong microwave absorption (1.01 x 10⁻⁵ eV microwave field) with subsequent dramatic light emission, intense heat release, outgassing, and nanotube reconstruction.