We give a Γ-convergence result for vector-valued nonlinear energies defined on periodically perforated domains. We consider integrands with n-growth where n is the space dimension, showing that there exists a critical scale for the perforations such that the Γ-limit is non-trivial. We prove that the limit extra-term is given by a formula of homogenization type, which simplifies in the case of n...

Γ-convergence techniques are used to give a characterization of the behavior of a family of heterogeneous multiple scale integral functionals. Periodicity, standard growth conditions and nonconvexity are assumed whereas a stronger uniform continuity with respect to the macroscopic variable, normally required in the existing literature, is avoided. An application to dimension reduction problems ...

We consider the problem of the optimal location of a Dirichlet region in a d-dimensional domain Ω subjected to a given force f in order to minimize a given functional. We look for the optimal region among the class of all closed connected sets of assigned total length l. Then we let l tends to infinity and we look at the Γ-limit of a suitable rescaled functional, in order to get information of ...

Fibrinogen γ’ is known to influence fibrin clot structure in purified experimental models but little is known regarding its influence on clot structure in plasma. Furthermore, the environmental and biological factors that affect its concentration are poorly described. We analysed fibrinogen γ’, total fibrinogen concentration and fibrin clot structure in 2010 apparently healthy black South Afric...

Background: Tuberculosis is a disease with high morbidity, caused mainly by Mycobaterium tuberculosis (M.tb.). DNA vaccines show a promising future due to their unique advantages over conventional methods. The early-secreted antigen target (ESAT)-6 and culture filtrate protein (CFP)-10 of M.tb. antigens have been identified as vaccine candidates against Mycobacteria and used as subunit vaccines...

background: management of multiple sclerosis (ms) is based on the usage of immunosuppressive and immune-modulating medications. cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis of ms. objective: to evaluate the effects of rapamycin on the concentrations of th1/th2/th17 serum cytokines in patients with ms. methods: six patients with relapsing remitting ms as a case group and 6 healthy indivi...

Objective(s): The effects of PPAR-γ agonist alone and in combination with carvacrol and Zataria multiflora on inhaled paraquat (PQ) induced-systemic inflammation and oxidative stress were examined. Materials and Methods: Control group exposed to normal saline aerosol, one group exposed to 54 mg/m3 PQ aerosol and four groups exposed to PQ...

background: although the imbalance of cytokines in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (hnscc) is well known, there is scarce data regarding its occurrence during dysplasia, before the malignant transformation. objective: to determine whether laryngeal dysplasia patients show a different cytokine profile than patients with cancer and healthy controls. methods: seventeen newly diagnosed, untre...