Microfluidic systems enable precise control over tiny volumes of fluid in a compact and low-cost form, thus providing the ideal platform on which to develop point-of-care diagnostic solutions. Centrifugal microfluidic systems, also referred to as lab-on-a-disc or lab-on-a-CD systems, provide a particularly attractive solution for the implementation of microfluidic point-of-care diagnostic solut...

Context. Stellar companions of accreting neutron stars in ultra compact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) are hydrogen-deficient. Their helium or C/O accretion discs are strongly X-ray irradiated. Both the chemical composition and irradiation determine the disc stability with respect to thermal and viscous perturbations. At shorter periods, UCXBs are persistent, whereas longer-period systems are mostly tr...

Quality is subjective. Quality can be objectified by the industry standards process represented by such consumer items as compact disc (“CD”) and digital versatile disc (“DVD”). What is lacking is a means for not only associating the creation of valued intangible assets and extensions of recognition but establishing responsibility for copies that may be digitized or pass through a digital domai...

In this article, we have investigated the possibility to distinguish between different galactic models through the microlensing parallax studies. We show that a systematic search for parallax effects can be done using the currently running alert systems and complementary photometric telescopes, to distinguish between different lens distance distributions. We have considered two galactic dark co...

High time resolution spectroscopic observations of the ultra-compact helium dwarf nova ‘SN 2003aw’ in its quiescent state at V ∼ 20.5 reveal its orbital period at 2027.8±0.5 seconds or 33.80 minutes. Together with the photometric “superhump” period of 2041.5±0.5 seconds, this implies a mass ratio q≈ 0.036. We compare both the average and time-resolved spectra of ‘SN 2003aw’ and SDSS J124058.03−...

Basic trade-offs between the rate of combined DC-free runlength-limited (DCRLL) modulation codes and the amount of suppression of low-frequency components are presented. The main results are obtained by means of a numerical study of dependencies between statistical properties of ideal, ‘maxentropic’ DCRLL sequences. The numerical results are mathematically founded by proving the observed behavi...

Background: Chronic hypoxia and oxidative stress during gestation lead to pulmonary hypertension of the neonate (PHN), a condition characterized by abnormal pulmonary arterial reactivity and remodeling. Melatonin has strong antioxidant properties and improves pulmonary vascular function. Here, we aimed to study the effects of melatonin on the function and structure of pulmonary arteries from PH...

A compact hyperbolic surface of genus g is said to be extremal if it admits an extremal disc, a disc of the largest radius determined only by g. We discuss how many extremal discs are embedded in non-orientable extremal surfaces of genus 6. This is the final genus in our interest because it is already known for g = 3, 4, 5, or g > 6. We show that non-orientable extremal surfaces of genus 6 admi...

Runlength-limited (RLL) codes have found widespread usage in optical and magnetic recording products. Specifically, the RLL codes EFM and its successor, EFMPlus, are used in the Compact Disc (CD) and the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), respectively. EFMPlus offers a 6% increase in storage capacity with respect to EFM. The work reports on the feasibility and limits of EFM-like codes that offer an ...

Aims. " Compact ellipticals " are so rare that a search for M32 analogs is needed to ensure the very existence of this class. Methods. We report here the discovery of A496cE, a M32 twin in the cluster Abell 496, located in the halo of the central cD. Results. Based on CFHT and HST imaging we show that the light profile of A496cE requires a two component fit: a Sérsic bulge and an exponential di...