the term degradation is used to specify the status of the environment. it is often associated with ‘improper use’. ‘use’ also implies environmental aspects other than physical ones and implies that the more intensive the use, the more susceptible the environment is to degradation, particularly if proper care for the environment is lacking. the question is, and has always been, how to map someth...

background: adolescents admitted to hospital are either surrounded by children or adults. however, age-appropriate facilities are often not provided to meet the needs of adolescents, which should be incorporated in the wards. this study compares the satisfaction level about physical environment of the wards among adolescents who have been admitted to pediatric and adult wards. materials and met...

There are a number of physical effects expected to be associated with black holes. Black holes are now a standard paradigm for explaining a large number of astrophysical phenomena such as quasars, gamma-ray bursts and X-ray binaries. Such astrophysical black holes are expected to be very simple, described to a good approximation by the Kerr stationary vacuum solution. Much smaller black holes m...

An important mechanism in the generation of biological structures is the production of defined spatial patterns within initially near-uniform cells and tissues. This process can be modelled on the basis of conventional molecular kinetics if there is a short-range activating effect in conjunction with depletion or inhibition extending over a wider range ('lateral inhibition'). Such pattern-gener...

The classical limit of quantum q-oscillators suggests an interpretation of the deformation as a way to introduce non linearity. Guided by this idea, we considered q-fields, the partition fumction, and compute a consequence on specific heat and second order correlation function of the q-oscillator which may serve for experimental checks for the non linearity.

Recent advances in the theory of complex symmetric operators are presented and related to current studies in non-hermitian quantum mechanics. The main themes of the survey are: the structure of complex symmetric operators, C-selfadjoint extensions of C-symmetric unbounded operators, resolvent estimates, reality of spectrum, bases of C-orthonormal vectors, and conjugatelinear symmetric operators...

We present an E ective Internal Field Model for the antiferroelectric (AF) to eld induced ferroelectric (FF) transition of smectic CA. This model attributes the fast dynamics and high threshold elds of this transition to the large magnitudes of its in-plane polarization. We conclude that propagating ngers observed in the vicinity of the AF $ FF threshold eld can only be observed in holding elds...

The cellular environment impacts a myriad of cellular functions by providing signals that can modulate cell phenotype and function. Physical cues such as topography, roughness, gradients, and elasticity are of particular importance. Thus, synthetic substrates can be potentially useful tools for exploring the influence of the aforementioned physical properties on cellular function. Many micro- a...

The growth of microtubules through the so-called dynamical instability is analyzed within a simple theoretical model in which the polymers are nucleated by a flat surface. For an isolated microtubule the model predicts the existence of a transition between bounded and unbounded growth. It is also shown that this transition alters the assembly of dense structures, e.g., by drastically limiting t...

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