267 research outputs found
Antenna Showers with Hadronic Initial States
We present an antenna shower formalism including contributions from
initial-state partons and corresponding backwards evolution. We give a set of
phase-space maps and antenna functions for massless partons which define a
complete shower formalism suitable for computing observables with hadronic
initial states. We focus on the initial-state components: initial-initial and
initial-final antenna configurations. The formalism includes comprehensive
possibilities for uncertainty estimates. We report on some preliminary results
obtained with an implementation in the Vincia antenna-shower framework.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Evaluation of the tolerability of the Salmonella Typhimurium live vaccine Salmoporc® for oral administration in three day old piglets
Vaccination against Salmonella is a measure to reduce salmonella disease in pigs. In this study a S. Typhimurium live vaccine (Salmoporc®, lmpfstoffwerk Dessau-Tornau, Rosslau, Germany) was applied to 3 day old conventional piglets in order to investigate safety and persistence of the vaccine strain in different tissues. The results indicate that an early vaccination against Salmonella shall be deemed to be safe
Timelike Dipole-Antenna Showers with Massive Fermions
We present a complete formalism for final-state (timelike) dipole-antenna
showers including fermion masses, but neglecting polarization and finite-width
effects. We make several comparisons of tree-level expansions of this shower
algorithm to fixed-order matrix elements for hadronic Z decays, up to and
including Z to 6 partons, to which the algorithm can be consistently matched
over all of phase space. We also compare to analytical resummations at the NLL
level. The shower algorithm has been implemented in the publicly available
VINCIA plugin to the PYTHIA 8 event generator, which enables us to compare to
experimental data at the fully hadronized level. We also include comparisons to
selected observables in b-tagged Z decays.Comment: 50 pages; v3: corrected typo in eq.(35
Computer-Assisted 3D Kinematic Analysis of All Leg Joints in Walking Insects
High-speed video can provide fine-scaled analysis of animal behavior. However, extracting behavioral data from video sequences is a time-consuming, tedious, subjective task. These issues are exacerbated where accurate behavioral descriptions require analysis of multiple points in three dimensions. We describe a new computer program written to assist a user in simultaneously extracting three-dimensional kinematics of multiple points on each of an insect's six legs. Digital video of a walking cockroach was collected in grayscale at 500 fps from two synchronized, calibrated cameras. We improved the legs' visibility by painting white dots on the joints, similar to techniques used for digitizing human motion. Compared to manual digitization of 26 points on the legs over a single, 8-second bout of walking (or 106,496 individual 3D points), our software achieved approximately 90% of the accuracy with 10% of the labor. Our experimental design reduced the complexity of the tracking problem by tethering the insect and allowing it to walk in place on a lightly oiled glass surface, but in principle, the algorithms implemented are extensible to free walking. Our software is free and open-source, written in the free language Python and including a graphical user interface for configuration and control. We encourage collaborative enhancements to make this tool both better and widely utilized
Editorial: Neuromechanics in Movement and Disease With Physiological and Pathophysiological Implications: From Fundamental Experiments to Bio-Inspired Technologies.
SCOPUS: ed.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Effective exchange interaction for terahertz spin waves in iron layers
The exchange stiffness is a central material parameter of all ferromagnetic materials. Its value controls the Curie temperature as well as the dynamic properties of spin waves to a large extent. Using ultrashort spin current pulses we excite perpendicular standing spin waves (PSSW) in ultrathin epitaxial iron layers at frequencies of up to 2.4 THz. Our analysis shows that for the PSSWs the observed exchange stiffness of iron is about 20% smaller compared to the established iron bulk value. In addition, we find an interface-related reduction of the effective exchange stiffness for layers with the thickness below 10 nm. To understand and discuss the possible mechanisms of the exchange stiffness reduction we develop an analytical one-dimensional model. In doing so we find that the interface induced reduction of the exchange stiffness is mode dependent
Coordination of opposing sex-specific and core muscle groups regulates male tail posture during Caenorhabditis elegans male mating behavior
Background
To survive and reproduce, animals must be able to modify their motor behavior in response to changes in the environment. We studied a complex behavior of Caenorhabditis elegans, male mating behavior, which provided a model for understanding motor behaviors at the genetic, molecular as well as circuit level. C. elegans male mating behavior consists of a series of six sub-steps: response to contact, backing, turning, vulva location, spicule insertion, and sperm transfer. The male tail contains most of the sensory structures required for mating, in addition to the copulatory structures, and thus to carry out the steps of mating behavior, the male must keep his tail in contact with the hermaphrodite. However, because the hermaphrodite does not play an active role in mating and continues moving, the male must modify his tail posture to maintain contact. We provide a better understanding of the molecular and neuro-muscular pathways that regulate male tail posture during mating.
Results
Genetic and laser ablation analysis, in conjunction with behavioral assays were used to determine neurotransmitters, receptors, neurons and muscles required for the regulation of male tail posture. We showed that proper male tail posture is maintained by the coordinated activity of opposing muscle groups that curl the tail ventrally and dorsally. Specifically, acetylcholine regulates both ventral and dorsal curling of the male tail, partially through anthelmintic levamisole-sensitive, nicotinic receptor subunits. Male-specific muscles are required for acetylcholine-driven ventral curling of the male tail but dorsal curling requires the dorsal body wall muscles shared by males and hermaphrodites. Gamma-aminobutyric acid activity is required for both dorsal and ventral acetylcholine-induced curling of the male tail and an inhibitory gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor, UNC-49, prevents over-curling of the male tail during mating, suggesting that cross-inhibition of muscle groups helps maintain proper tail posture.
Conclusion
Our results demonstrated that coordination of opposing sex-specific and core muscle groups, through the activity of multiple neurotransmitters, is required for regulation of male tail posture during mating. We have provided a simple model for regulation of male tail posture that provides a foundation for studies of how genes, molecular pathways, and neural circuits contribute to sensory regulation of this motor behavior
Regulatory feedback cycle of the insulin-degrading enzyme and the amyloid precursor protein intracellular domain: Implications for Alzheimer's disease
One of the major pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer´s disease (AD) is an accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) in brain tissue leading to formation of toxic oligomers and senile plaques. Under physiological conditions, a tightly balanced equilibrium between Aβ-production and -degradation is necessary to prevent pathological Aβ-accumulation. Here, we investigate the molecular mechanism how insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE), one of the major Aβ-degrading enzymes, is regulated and how amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing and Aβ-degradation is linked in a regulatory cycle to achieve this balance. In absence of Aβ-production caused by APP or Presenilin deficiency, IDE-mediated Aβ-degradation was decreased, accompanied by a decreased IDE activity, protein level, and expression. Similar results were obtained in cells only expressing a truncated APP, lacking the APP intracellular domain (AICD) suggesting that AICD promotes IDE expression. In return, APP overexpression mediated an increased IDE expression, comparable results were obtained with cells overexpressing C50, a truncated APP representing AICD. Beside these genetic approaches, also AICD peptide incubation and pharmacological inhibition of the γ-secretase preventing AICD production regulated IDE expression and promoter activity. By utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 APP and Presenilin knockout SH-SY5Y cells results were confirmed in a second cell line in addition to mouse embryonic fibroblasts. In vivo, IDE expression was decreased in mouse brains devoid of APP or AICD, which was in line with a significant correlation of APP expression level and IDE expression in human postmortem AD brains. Our results show a tight link between Aβ-production and Aβ-degradation forming a regulatory cycle in which AICD promotes Aβ-degradation via IDE and IDE itself limits its own production by degrading AICD
Wafer-Scale Epitaxial Modulation of Quantum Dot Density
Precise control of the properties of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) is
vital for creating novel devices for quantum photonics and advanced
opto-electronics. Suitable low QD-density for single QD devices and experiments
are challenging to control during epitaxy and are typically found only in
limited regions of the wafer. Here, we demonstrate how conventional molecular
beam epitaxy (MBE) can be used to modulate the density of optically active QDs
in one- and two- dimensional patterns, while still retaining excellent quality.
We find that material thickness gradients during layer-by-layer growth result
in surface roughness modulations across the whole wafer. Growth on such
templates strongly influences the QD nucleation probability. We obtain density
modulations between 1 and 10 QDs/ and periods ranging from several
millimeters down to at least a few hundred microns. This novel method is
universal and expected to be applicable to a wide variety of different
semiconductor material systems. We apply the method to enable growth of
ultra-low noise QDs across an entire 3-inch semiconductor wafer
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