A 66-year-old man with a history of asthma presented with abdominal distension of one month in duration. Computed tomography revealed jejunal wall thickening and distended loops of small bowel (Picture 1). Double-balloon enteroscopy revealed numerous polypoid, worm-like, 1-5 cm masses, while the mucosa in the duodenum and ileum had a normal appearance (Picture 2, 3). One of the masses was remov...

The worm-like chain model is a simple continuum model for the statistical mechanics of a flexible polymer subject to an external force. We offer a tutorial introduction to it using three approaches. First, we use a mesoscopic view, treating a long polymer (in two dimensions) as though it were made of many groups of correlated links or “clinks,” allowing us to calculate its average extension as ...

BACKGROUND Immunity that reduces worm fecundity and, in turn, reduces morbidity is proposed for Schistosoma haematobium, a parasite of major public health importance. Mathematical models of epidemiological trends suggest that antifecundity immunity is dependent on antibody responses to adult-worm-derived antigen. METHODS For a Malian cohort (age, 5-29 years) residing in high-transmission fish...

as a robot could be stable statically standing on three or more legs, a six legged walking robot can be highly flexible in movements and perform different missions without dealing with serious kinematic and dynamic problems. an experimental six legged walking robot with 18 degrees of freedom is studied and built in this paper. the kinematic and gait analysis formulations are demonstrated by an e...

It is well known that there are wide varieties of materials which form self-organized structure. When a sort of 3 dimensional network structure is formed, the system may possess viscoelastic properties similar to entangled polymers or gels depending on life time and strength of the structure. A typical example of low molecular weight system is wormlike micelles formed in aqueous solutions of su...

Polyethylene (PE) has recently gained attention as an advantageous support material in forward osmosis (FO) owing to its low structural parameters. A novel thin-film composite (TFC) membrane for FO was fabricated by introducing a tannic acid (TA)-Fe3+ interlayer on polydopamine (PDA)-modified PE via interfacial polymerization. The TA-Fe3+ influenced the diffusion of m-phenylenediamine, causing ...

The probability distributions for bending angles in double helical DNA obtained in all-atom molecular dynamics simulations are compared with theoretical predictions. For double helices of one helical turn and longer the computed distributions remarkably agree with the worm-like chain theory and qualitatively differ from predictions of the semi-elastic chain model. The computed data exhibit only...

We give an extended review of recent numerical and analytical studies on semiflexible chains near surfaces undertaken at Institut Charles Sadron (sometimes in collaboration) with a focus on static properties. The statistical physics of thin confined layers, strict two-dimensional (2D) layers and adsorption layers (both at equilibrium with the dilute bath and from irreversible chemisorption) are...

The number of accidents which are caused by the existence of defects in engineering structures can be reduced in two ways, 1. By diminishing the number and size of the defects, either by making the structure more carefully in the first place or by using better inspection methods in service or by some combination of the two. 2. By designing structures which are inherently safer that is to say le...