2,470 research outputs found
Olig2 regulates Sox10 expression in oligodendrocyte precursors through an evolutionary conserved distal enhancer
The HMG-domain transcription factor Sox10 is expressed throughout oligodendrocyte development and is an important component of the transcriptional regulatory network in these myelin-forming CNS glia. Of the known Sox10 regulatory regions, only the evolutionary conserved U2 enhancer in the distal 5âČ-flank of the Sox10 gene exhibits oligodendroglial activity. We found that U2 was active in oligodendrocyte precursors, but not in mature oligodendrocytes. U2 activity also did not mediate the initial Sox10 induction after specification arguing that Sox10 expression during oligodendroglial development depends on the activity of multiple regulatory regions. The oligodendroglial bHLH transcription factor Olig2, but not the closely related Olig1 efficiently activated the U2 enhancer. Olig2 bound U2 directly at several sites including a highly conserved one in the U2 core. Inactivation of this site abolished the oligodendroglial activity of U2 in vivo. In contrast to Olig2, the homeodomain transcription factor Nkx6.2 repressed U2 activity. Repression may involve recruitment of Nkx6.2 to U2 and inactivation of Olig2 and other activators by proteinâprotein interactions. Considering the selective expression of Nkx6.2 at the time of specification and in differentiated oligodendrocytes, Nkx6.2 may be involved in limiting U2 activity to the precursor stage during oligodendrocyte development
The scaling of postcranial muscles in cats (Felidae) I: forelimb, cervical, and thoracic muscles
The body masses of cats (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae) span a ~300âfold range from the smallest to largest species. Despite this range, felid musculoskeletal anatomy remains remarkably conservative, including the maintenance of a crouched limb posture at unusually large sizes. The forelimbs in felids are important for body support and other aspects of locomotion, as well as climbing and prey capture, with the assistance of the vertebral (and hindlimb) muscles. Here, we examine the scaling of the anterior postcranial musculature across felids to assess scaling patterns between different species spanning the range of felid body sizes. The muscle architecture (lengths and masses of the muscleâtendon unit components) for the forelimb, cervical and thoracic muscles was quantified to analyse how the muscles scale with body mass. Our results demonstrate that physiological crossâsectional areas of the forelimb muscles scale positively with increasing body mass (i.e. becoming relatively larger). Many significantly allometric variables pertain to shoulder support, whereas the rest of the limb muscles become relatively weaker in larger felid species. However, when phylogenetic relationships were corrected for, most of these significant relationships disappeared, leaving no significantly allometric muscle metrics. The majority of cervical and thoracic muscle metrics are not significantly allometric, despite there being many allometric skeletal elements in these regions. When forelimb muscle data were considered in isolation or in combination with those of the vertebral muscles in principal components analyses and MANOVAs, there was no significant discrimination among species by either size or locomotory mode. Our results support the inference that larger felid species have relatively weaker anterior postcranial musculature compared with smaller species, due to an absence of significant positive allometry of forelimb or vertebral muscle architecture. This difference in strength is consistent with behavioural changes in larger felids, such as a reduction of maximal speed and other aspects of locomotor abilities
The new Felsenkeller 5 MV underground accelerator
The field of nuclear astrophysics is devoted to the study of the creation of
the chemical elements. By nature, it is deeply intertwined with the physics of
the Sun. The nuclear reactions of the proton-proton cycle of hydrogen burning,
including the 3He({\alpha},{\gamma})7Be reaction, provide the necessary nuclear
energy to prevent the gravitational collapse of the Sun and give rise to the by
now well-studied pp, 7Be, and 8B solar neutrinos. The not yet measured flux of
13N, 15O, and 17F neutrinos from the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle is affected
in rate by the 14N(p,{\gamma})15O reaction and in emission profile by the
12C(p,{\gamma})13N reaction. The nucleosynthetic output of the subsequent phase
in stellar evolution, helium burning, is controlled by the
12C({\alpha},{\gamma})16O reaction.
In order to properly interpret the existing and upcoming solar neutrino data,
precise nuclear physics information is needed. For nuclear reactions between
light, stable nuclei, the best available technique are experiments with small
ion accelerators in underground, low-background settings. The pioneering work
in this regard has been done by the LUNA collaboration at Gran Sasso/Italy,
using a 0.4 MV accelerator.
The present contribution reports on a higher-energy, 5.0 MV, underground
accelerator in the Felsenkeller underground site in Dresden/Germany. Results
from {\gamma}-ray, neutron, and muon background measurements in the
Felsenkeller underground site in Dresden, Germany, show that the background
conditions are satisfactory for nuclear astrophysics purposes. The accelerator
is in the commissioning phase and will provide intense, up to 50{\mu}A, beams
of 1H+, 4He+ , and 12C+ ions, enabling research on astrophysically relevant
nuclear reactions with unprecedented sensitivity.Comment: Submitted to the Proceedings of the 5th International Solar Neutrino
Conference, Dresden/Germany, 11-14 June 2018, to appear on World Scientific
-- updated version (Figure 2 and relevant discussion updated, co-author A.
Domula added
The Chandra ACIS Survey of M33 (ChASeM33): The final source catalog
This study presents the final source catalog of the Chandra ACIS Survey of
M33 (ChASeM33). With a total exposure time of 1.4 Ms, ChASeM33 covers ~70% of
the D25 isophote (R\approx4kpc) of M33 and provides the deepest, most complete,
and detailed look at a spiral galaxy in X-rays. The source catalog includes 662
sources, reaches a limiting unabsorbed luminosity of ~2.4x10^(34) erg/s in the
0.35-8.0keV energy band, and contains source positions, source net counts,
fluxes and significances in several energy bands, and information on source
variability. The analysis challenges posed by ChASeM33 and the techniques
adopted to address these challenges are discussed. To constrain the nature of
the detected X-ray source, hardness ratios were constructed and spectra were
fit for 254 sources, followup MMT spectra of 116 sources were acquired, and
cross-correlations with previous X-ray catalogs and other multi-wavelength data
were generated. Based on this effort, 183 of the 662 ChASeM33 sources could be
identified. Finally, the luminosity function for the detected point sources as
well as the one for the X-ray binaries in M33 is presented. The luminosity
functions in the soft band (0.5-2.0 keV) and the hard band (2.0-8.0 keV) have a
limiting luminosity at the 90% completeness limit of 4.0x10^(34) erg/s and
1.6x10^(35) erg/s (for D=817kpc), respectively, which is significantly lower
than what was reported by previous X-ray binary population studies in galaxies
more distant than M33. The resulting distribution is consistent with a dominant
population of high mass X-ray binaries as would be expected for M33.Comment: 186 pages, 11 figures, 10 tables. Accepted for publication in the
ApJS. For a high resolution version of the paper, see
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/vlp_m33_public
Negative and positive selection of antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes affected by the α3 domain of MHC I molecules
THE α1 and α2 domains of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules function in the binding and presentation of foreign peptides to the T-cell antigen receptor and control both negative and positive selection of the T-cell repertoire. Although the α3 domain of class I is not involved in peptide binding, it does interact with the T-cell accessory molecule, CDS. CDS is important in the selection of T cells as anti-CDS antibody injected into perinatal mice interfers with this process. We previously used a hybrid class I molecule with the α1/α2 domains from L^d and the α3 domain from Q7^b and showed that this molecule binds an L^d-restricted peptide but does not interact with CD8-dependent cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Expression of this molecule in transgenic mice fails to negatively select a subpopulation of anti-L^d cytotoxic T lymphocytes. In addition, positive selection of virus-specific L^d-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes does not occur. We conclude that besides the α1/α2 domains of class I, the α3 domain plays an important part in both positive and negative selection of antigen-specific cells
The hyperon-nucleon interaction: conventional versus effective field theory approach
Hyperon-nucleon interactions are presented that are derived either in the
conventional meson-exchange picture or within leading order chiral effective
field theory. The chiral potential consists of one-pseudoscalar-meson exchanges
and non-derivative four-baryon contact terms. With regard to meson-exchange
hyperon-nucleon models we focus on the new potential of the Juelich group,
whose most salient feature is that the contributions in the scalar--isoscalar
(\sigma) and vector--isovector (\rho) exchange channels are constrained by a
microscopic model of correlated \pi\pi and KKbar exchange.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Lecture Notes in Physic
Alpha scattering and capture reactions in the A = 7 system at low energies
Differential cross sections for He- scattering were measured in
the energy range up to 3 MeV. These data together with other available
experimental results for He and H scattering were
analyzed in the framework of the optical model using double-folded potentials.
The optical potentials obtained were used to calculate the astrophysical
S-factors of the capture reactions HeBe and
HLi, and the branching ratios for the transitions into
the two final Be and Li bound states, respectively. For
HeBe excellent agreement between calculated and
experimental data is obtained. For HLi a value
has been found which is a factor of about 1.5 larger than the adopted value.
For both capture reactions a similar branching ratio of has been obtained.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.C, 34 pages, figures available from one of the
authors, LaTeX with RevTeX, IK-TUW-Preprint 930540
HETDEX pilot survey for emission-line galaxies - I. Survey design, performance, and catalog
We present a catalog of emission-line galaxies selected solely by their
emission-line fluxes using a wide-field integral field spectrograph. This work
is partially motivated as a pilot survey for the upcoming Hobby-Eberly
Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). We describe the observations,
reductions, detections, redshift classifications, line fluxes, and counterpart
information for 397 emission-line galaxies detected over 169 sq.arcmin with a
3500-5800 Ang. bandpass under 5 Ang. full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) spectral
resolution. The survey's best sensitivity for unresolved objects under
photometric conditions is between 4-20 E-17 erg/s/sq.cm depending on the
wavelength, and Ly-alpha luminosities between 3-6 E42 erg/s are detectable.
This survey method complements narrowband and color-selection techniques in the
search for high redshift galaxies with its different selection properties and
large volume probed. The four survey fields within the COSMOS, GOODS-N, MUNICS,
and XMM-LSS areas are rich with existing, complementary data. We find 104
galaxies via their high redshift Ly-alpha emission at 1.9<z<3.8, and the
majority of the remainder objects are low redshift [OII]3727 emitters at
z<0.56. The classification between low and high redshift objects depends on
rest frame equivalent width, as well as other indicators, where available.
Based on matches to X-ray catalogs, the active galactic nuclei (AGN) fraction
amongst the Ly-alpha emitters (LAEs) is 6%. We also analyze the survey's
completeness and contamination properties through simulations. We find five
high-z, highly-significant, resolved objects with full-width-half-maximum sizes
>44 sq.arcsec which appear to be extended Ly-alpha nebulae. We also find three
high-z objects with rest frame Ly-alpha equivalent widths above the level
believed to be achievable with normal star formation, EW(rest)>240 Ang.Comment: 45 pages, 36 figures, 5 tables, submitted to ApJ
Orbital overlap effects in electron transfer reactions across a metal nanowire/electrolyte solution interface
In this paper, we report on calculations of the orbital overlap between Fe(III) and Cr(III) aquacomplexes and different electrode surfaces: Cu(111), Ag (111), Au(111), Pt(111), and corresponding monatomic wires. The electronic structure of the monocrystalline surfaces and nanowires are described in terms of the electronic spillover and density of electronic states at the Fermi level obtained from periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The transmission coefficients (Îș) characterizing the first stage of outer-sphere electron transfer for the reduction of aquacomplexes are calculated on the basis of LandauâZener theory as a function of electrodeâreactant separation; the electronic transmission coefficients for the [Cr(H2O)6]3+/2+ redox couple were found to be smaller than those for [Fe(H2O)6]3+/2+. Two different intervals can be clearly distinguished for Cu, Au and Pt: âa catalytic regionâ, where Îș(wire) > Îș(Me slab) and âan inhibition regionâ, where Îș(wire) < Îș(Me slab). A similar behavior exhibits the coupling constant estimated for a hydrogen atom adsorbed at the Au(111) surface and the Au monatomic wire. These effects originate from some specific features of electronic density profile for metal nanowires: at short distances the electronic density of nanowires is higher compared with the (111) metal surfaces, while at larger separations it decreases more sharply.Fil: Nazmutdinov, Renat R.. Kazan National Research Technological University; RusiaFil: Berezin, Alexander S.. Kazan National Research Technological University; RusiaFil: Soldano, GermĂĄn. Universitat Ulm; Alemania. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; ArgentinaFil: Schmickler, Wolfgang. Universitat Ulm; Alemani
Searching for a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves with LIGO
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has performed
the fourth science run, S4, with significantly improved interferometer
sensitivities with respect to previous runs. Using data acquired during this
science run, we place a limit on the amplitude of a stochastic background of
gravitational waves. For a frequency independent spectrum, the new limit is
. This is currently the most sensitive
result in the frequency range 51-150 Hz, with a factor of 13 improvement over
the previous LIGO result. We discuss complementarity of the new result with
other constraints on a stochastic background of gravitational waves, and we
investigate implications of the new result for different models of this
background.Comment: 37 pages, 16 figure
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