In this paper we consider the variational approach to cactus trees (Husimi trees) and the more common recursive approach, that are in principle equivalent for finite systems. We discuss in detail the conditions under which the two methods are equivalent also in the analysis of infinite (self-similar) cactus trees, usually investigated to the purpose of approximating ordinary lattice systems. Su...

Multiple biological structures have demonstrated fog collection abilities, such as beetle backs with bumps and spider silks with periodic spindle-knots and joints. Many Cactaceae species live in arid environments and are extremely drought-tolerant. Here we report that one of the survival systems of the cactus Opuntia microdasys lies in its efficient fog collection system. This unique system is ...

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) make up approximately 75% of the Gram-negative bacterial outer membrane (OM) surface, but because of the complexity of the molecule, there are very few model OMs that include LPS. The LPS molecule consists of lipid A, which anchors the LPS within the OM, a core polysaccharide region, and a variable O-antigen polysaccharide chain. In this work we used RcLPS (consisting ...

The ester-linked ω-hydroxy acyl chain linked to a sphingosine base referred as CER EOS is essential for the skin barrier lipid organization. While majority of lipids form dense, crystalline structure, associated with low permeability, unsaturated moiety EOS, (either linoleate or oleate chain) exists in liquid phase at skin's physiological temperature. Thus, relationship between and function not...

Asymmetric and semi-symmetric amphiphilic diblock copolymers polystyrene-block-poly (dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PDMAEMA) with the same PS block length of 62 repeat units and quite short (3 repeat units) or equivalent (47 repeat units) length of PDMAEMA have been prepared simply by varying the ratio of the bromine-terminated macroinitiator polystyrene (PS-Br) to DMAEMA using atom tra...

We study the online file allocation problem on ring networks. In this paper, we present a 7-competitive randomized algorithm against an adaptive online adversary on uniform cactus graphs. The algorithm is deterministic if the file size is 1. Moreover, we obtain lower bounds of 4.25 and 3.833 for a deterministic algorithm and a randomized algorithm against an adaptive online adversary, respectiv...

In this paper we present the first automatically constructed LASCO CME catalog, a result of the application of the Computer Aided CME Tracking software (CACTus) on the LASCO archive during the interval September 1997-January 2007. We have studied the CME characteristics and have compared them with similar results obtained by manual detection (CDAW CME catalog). On average CACTus detects less th...

Betacyanin (betanin), total phenolics, vitamin C and antioxidant capacity (by Trolox-equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assays) were investigated in two differently colored cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.) genotypes, one with purple fruit and the other with orange fruit, from the Salento area, in Apulia (South Italy). In order to qu...

The Cactus parallel simulation framework provides a modular and extensible set of components for solving relativity problems on parallel computers. In recent work, we have investigated techniques that would enable the execution of Cactus applications in wide area \computational grid" environments. In a rst study, we investigated the feasibility of distributing a single simulation across multipl...

Cactus Code is an open source framework designed primarily for scientists and engineers, in which the core or “flesh” acts as a central unit to which external modules or “thorns” can interface. Cactus is used on many different architectures and can be used to implement different codes from various disciplines. While initially developed for solving problems in numerical relativity, it has since ...