93 research outputs found
DNA Renaturation at the Water-Phenol Interface
We study DNA adsorption and renaturation in a water-phenol two-phase system,
with or without shaking. In very dilute solutions, single-stranded DNA is
adsorbed at the interface in a salt-dependent manner. At high salt
concentrations the adsorption is irreversible. The adsorption of the
single-stranded DNA is specific to phenol and relies on stacking and hydrogen
bonding. We establish the interfacial nature of a DNA renaturation at a high
salt concentration. In the absence of shaking, this reaction involves an
efficient surface diffusion of the single-stranded DNA chains. In the presence
of a vigorous shaking, the bimolecular rate of the reaction exceeds the
Smoluchowski limit for a three-dimensional diffusion-controlled reaction. DNA
renaturation in these conditions is known as the Phenol Emulsion Reassociation
Technique or PERT. Our results establish the interfacial nature of PERT. A
comparison of this interfacial reaction with other approaches shows that PERT
is the most efficient technique and reveals similarities between PERT and the
renaturation performed by single-stranded nucleic acid binding proteins. Our
results lead to a better understanding of the partitioning of nucleic acids in
two-phase systems, and should help design improved extraction procedures for
damaged nucleic acids. We present arguments in favor of a role of phenol and
water-phenol interface in prebiotic chemistry. The most efficient renaturation
reactions (in the presence of condensing agents or with PERT) occur in
heterogeneous systems. This reveals the limitations of homogeneous approaches
to the biochemistry of nucleic acids. We propose a heterogeneous approach to
overcome the limitations of the homogeneous viewpoint
Elliptic flow of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV
We report the first measurement of charged particle elliptic flow in Pb-Pb
collisions at 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron
Collider. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region
(||<0.8) and transverse momentum range 0.2< < 5.0 GeV/. The
elliptic flow signal v, measured using the 4-particle correlation method,
averaged over transverse momentum and pseudorapidity is 0.087 0.002
(stat) 0.004 (syst) in the 40-50% centrality class. The differential
elliptic flow v reaches a maximum of 0.2 near = 3
GeV/. Compared to RHIC Au-Au collisions at 200 GeV, the elliptic flow
increases by about 30%. Some hydrodynamic model predictions which include
viscous corrections are in agreement with the observed increase.Comment: 10 pages, 4 captioned figures, published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/389
The Contribution of CALL to Advanced-Level Foreign/Second Language Instruction
This paper evaluates the contribution of instructional technology to advanced-level foreign/second language learning (AL2) over the past thirty years. It is shown that the most salient feature of AL2 practice and associated Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) research are their rarity and restricted nature. Based on an analysis of four leading CALL journals (CALICO, CALL, LL&T, ReCALL), less than 3% of all CALL publications deal with AL2. Moreover, within this body of research, the range of languages involved is very restricted. Three languages, English, German and French, account for nearly 87% of the studies. Likewise, in nearly 81% of the cases, the learning focus is on the written language. Attention to oral-aural skills accounts for only 18% of all AL2 CALL projects. Whatever the targeted language or linguistic focus, the most striking aspect of advanced-level L2 CALL studies is the lack of information given regarding the competency level of students and the linguistic level of the activities undertaken. The determination of these critical parameters is thus of necessity very much a highly interpretive process. Based on the available evidence, it is estimated that half of the learners in these AL2 studies were in fact within the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) B1 range, i.e. below what would generally be considered as advanced-level competency. So, too, half of the assigned tasks were deemed to have been below the B2 level, with 40% of these below the B1 level. This study concludes that both quantitatively and qualitatively the contribution of instructional technology to advanced-level L2 acquisition has been very limited
Practice patterns and 90-day treatment-related morbidity in early-stage cervical cancer
To evaluate the impact of the Laparoscopic Approach to Cervical Cancer (LACC) Trial on patterns of care and surgery-related morbidity in early-stage cervical cancer
COVID-19 in rheumatic diseases in Italy: first results from the Italian registry of the Italian Society for Rheumatology (CONTROL-19)
OBJECTIVES:
Italy was one of the first countries significantly affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. The Italian Society for Rheumatology promptly launched a retrospective and anonymised data collection to monitor COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), the CONTROL-19 surveillance database, which is part of the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance.
METHODS:
CONTROL-19 includes patients with RMDs and proven severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) updated until May 3rd 2020. In this analysis, only molecular diagnoses were included. The data collection covered demographic data, medical history (general and RMD-related), treatments and COVID-19 related features, treatments, and outcome. In this paper, we report the first descriptive data from the CONTROL-19 registry.
RESULTS:
The population of the first 232 patients (36% males) consisted mainly of elderly patients (mean age 62.2 years), who used corticosteroids (51.7%), and suffered from multi-morbidity (median comorbidities 2). Rheumatoid arthritis was the most frequent disease (34.1%), followed by spondyloarthritis (26.3%), connective tissue disease (21.1%) and vasculitis (11.2%). Most cases had an active disease (69.4%). Clinical presentation of COVID-19 was typical, with systemic symptoms (fever and asthenia) and respiratory symptoms. The overall outcome was severe, with high frequencies of hospitalisation (69.8%), respiratory support oxygen (55.7%), non-invasive ventilation (20.9%) or mechanical ventilation (7.5%), and 19% of deaths. Male patients typically manifested a worse prognosis. Immunomodulatory treatments were not significantly associated with an increased risk of intensive care unit admission/mechanical ventilation/death.
CONCLUSIONS:
Although the report mainly includes the most severe cases, its temporal and spatial trend supports the validity of the national surveillance system. More complete data are being acquired in order to both test the hypothesis that RMD patients may have a different outcome from that of the general population and determine the safety of immunomodulatory treatments
Higher harmonic anisotropic flow measurements of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV
We report on the first measurement of the triangular , quadrangular
, and pentagonal charged particle flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76
TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show
that the triangular flow can be described in terms of the initial spatial
anisotropy and its fluctuations, which provides strong constraints on its
origin. In the most central events, where the elliptic flow and
have similar magnitude, a double peaked structure in the two-particle azimuthal
correlations is observed, which is often interpreted as a Mach cone response to
fast partons. We show that this structure can be naturally explained from the
measured anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/387
International genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new primary biliary cirrhosis risk loci and targetable pathogenic pathways
Measurement of D+- and D0 production in deep inelastic scattering using a lifetime tag at HERA
The production of D-+/-- and D-0-mesons has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 133.6 pb(-1). The measurements cover the kinematic range 5 < Q(2) < 1000 GeV2, 0.02 < y < 0.7, 1.5 < p(T)(D) < 15 GeV and |eta(D)| < 1.6. Combinatorial background to the D-meson signals is reduced by using the ZEUS microvertex detector to reconstruct displaced secondary vertices. Production cross sections are compared with the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD, which is found to describe the data well. Measurements are extrapolated to the full kinematic phase space in order to obtain the open-charm contribution, F-2(c (c) over bar), to the proton structure function, F-2
Exclusive photoproduction of pi degrees up to large values of Mandelstam variables s, t, and u with CLAS
Exclusive photoproduction cross sections have been measured for the process
with the Dalitz decay final state
using tagged photon energies in the range of GeV.
The complete angular distribution of the final state , for the entire
photon energy range up to large values of and , has been measured for
the first time. The data obtained show that the cross section , at
mid to large angles, decreases with energy as . This is in
agreement with the perturbative QCD quark counting rule prediction of . Paradoxically, the size of angular distribution of measured cross sections
is greatly underestimated by the QCD based Generalized Parton Distribution
mechanism at highest available invariant energy GeV. At the same
time, the Regge exchange based models for photoproduction are more
consistent with experimental data.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
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