1,977 research outputs found
Empires and Percolation: Stochastic Merging of Adjacent Regions
We introduce a stochastic model in which adjacent planar regions merge
stochastically at some rate , and observe analogies with the
well-studied topics of mean-field coagulation and of bond percolation. Do
infinite regions appear in finite time? We give a simple condition on
for this {\em hegemony} property to hold, and another simple condition for it
to not hold, but there is a large gap between these conditions, which includes
the case . For this case, a non-rigorous analytic
argument and simulations suggest hegemony.Comment: 13 page
Molecular regulation of GLUT-4 targeting in 3T3-L1 adipocytes
Insulin stimulates glucose transport in muscle and adipose tissue by triggering the movement of the glucose transporter GLUT-4 from an intracellular compartment to the cell surface. Fundamental to this process is the intracellular sequestration of GLUT-4 in nonstimulated cells. Two distinct targeting motifs in the amino and carboxy termini of GLUT-4 have been previously identified by expressing chimeras comprised of portions of GLUT-4 and GLUT-1, a transporter isoform that is constitutively targeted to the cell surface, in heterologous cells. These motifs-FQQ1 in the NH terminus and LL in the COOH terminus-resemble endocytic signals that have been described in other proteins. In the present study we have investigated the roles of these motifs in GLUT-4 targeting in insulin-sensitive cells. Epitope-tagged GLUT-4 constructs engineered to differentiate between endogenous and transfected GLUT-4 were stably expressed in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Targeting was assessed in cells incubated in the presence or absence of insulin by subcellular fractionation. The targeting of epitope-tagged GLUT-4 was indistinguishable from endogenous GLUT-4. Mutation of the FQQI motif (F to A) caused GLUT-4 to constitutively accumulate at the cell surface regardless of expression level. Mutation of the dileucine motif (LL to AA) caused an increase in cell surface distribution only at higher levels of expression, but the overall cell surface distribution of this mutant was less than that of the amino-terminal mutants. Both NH- and COOH-terminal mutants retained insulin-dependent movement from an intracellular to a cell surface locale, suggesting that neither of these motifs is involved in the insulin-dependent redistribution of GLUT-4. We conclude that the phenylalanine-based NH-terminal and the dileucine-based COOH-terminal motifs play important and distinct roles in GLUT-4 targeting in 3T3-L1 adipocytes
Critical Enhancement of the In-medium Nucleon-Nucleon Cross Section at low Temperatures
The in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section is calculated starting from the
thermodynamic T-matrix at finite temperatures. The corresponding
Bethe-Salpeter-equation is solved using a separable representation of the Paris
nucleon-nucleon-potential. The energy-dependent in-medium N-N cross section at
a given density shows a strong temperature dependence. Especially at low
temperatures and low total momenta, the in-medium cross section is strongly
modified by in-medium effects. In particular, with decreasing temperature an
enhancement near the Fermi energy is observed. This enhancement can be
discussed as a precursor of the superfluid phase transition in nuclear matter.Comment: 10 pages with 4 figures (available on request from the authors),
MPG-VT-UR 34/94 accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Spatially inhomogeneous condensate in asymmetric nuclear matter
We study the isospin singlet pairing in asymmetric nuclear matter with
nonzero total momentum of the condensate Cooper pairs. The quasiparticle
excitation spectrum is fourfold split compared to the usual BCS spectrum of the
symmetric, homogeneous matter. A twofold splitting of the spectrum into
separate branches is due to the finite momentum of the condensate, the isospin
asymmetry, or the finite quasiparticle lifetime. The coupling of the isospin
singlet and triplet paired states leads to further twofold splitting of each of
these branches. We solve the gap equation numerically in the isospin singlet
channel in the case where the pairing in the isospin triplet channel is
neglected and find nontrivial solutions with finite total momentum of the
pairs. The corresponding phase assumes a periodic spatial structure which
carries a isospin density wave at constant total number of particles. The phase
transition from the BCS to the inhomogeneous superconducting phase is found to
be first order and occurs when the density asymmetry is increased above 0.25.
The transition from the inhomogeneous superconducting to the unpaired normal
state is second order. The maximal values of the critical total momentum (in
units of the Fermi momentum) and the critical density asymmetry at which
condensate disappears are and . The possible
spatial forms of the ground state of the inhomogeneous superconducting phase
are briefly discussed.Comment: 13 pages, including 3 figues, uses RevTeX; minor corrections, PRC in
pres
Universality and diversity of folding mechanics for three-helix bundle proteins
In this study we evaluate, at full atomic detail, the folding processes of
two small helical proteins, the B domain of protein A and the Villin headpiece.
Folding kinetics are studied by performing a large number of ab initio Monte
Carlo folding simulations using a single transferable all-atom potential. Using
these trajectories, we examine the relaxation behavior, secondary structure
formation, and transition-state ensembles (TSEs) of the two proteins and
compare our results with experimental data and previous computational studies.
To obtain a detailed structural information on the folding dynamics viewed as
an ensemble process, we perform a clustering analysis procedure based on graph
theory. Moreover, rigorous pfold analysis is used to obtain representative
samples of the TSEs and a good quantitative agreement between experimental and
simulated Fi-values is obtained for protein A. Fi-values for Villin are also
obtained and left as predictions to be tested by future experiments. Our
analysis shows that two-helix hairpin is a common partially stable structural
motif that gets formed prior to entering the TSE in the studied proteins. These
results together with our earlier study of Engrailed Homeodomain and recent
experimental studies provide a comprehensive, atomic-level picture of folding
mechanics of three-helix bundle proteins.Comment: PNAS, in press, revised versio
Four-particle condensate in strongly coupled fermion systems
Four-particle correlations in fermion systems at finite temperatures are
investigated with special attention to the formation of a condensate. Instead
of the instability of the normal state with respect to the onset of pairing
described by the Gorkov equation, a new equation is obtained which describes
the onset of quartetting. Within a model calculation for symmetric nuclear
matter, we find that below a critical density, the four-particle condensation
(alpha-like quartetting) is favored over deuteron condensation (triplet
pairing). This pairing-quartetting competition is expected to be a general
feature of interacting fermion systems, such as the excition-biexciton system
in excited semiconductors. Possible experimental consequences are pointed out.Comment: LaTeX, 11 pages, 2 figures, uses psfig.sty (included), to be
published in Phys. Rev. Lett., tentatively scheduled for 13 April 1998
(Volume 80, Number 15
Early introduction of fish decreases the risk of eczema in infants
BACKGROUND: Atopic eczema in infants has increased in western societies. Environmental factors and the introduction of food may affect the risk of eczema. AIMS: To investigate the prevalence of eczema among infants in western Sweden, describe patterns of food introduction and assess risk factors for eczema at 1 year of age. METHODS: Data were obtained from a prospective, longitudinal cohort study of infants born in western Sweden in 2003; 8176 families were randomly selected and, 6 months after the infant\u27s birth, were invited to participate and received questionnaires. A second questionnaire was sent out when the infants were 12 months old. Both questionnaires were completed and medical birth register data were obtained for 4921 infants (60.2% of the selected population). RESULTS: At 1 year of age, 20.9% of the infants had previous or current eczema. Median age at onset was 4 months. In multivariable analysis, familial occurrence of eczema, especially in siblings (OR 1.87; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.50 to 2.33) or the mother (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.30 to 1.84), remained an independent risk factor. Introducing fish before 9 months of age (OR 0.76; 95% CI 0.62 to 0.94) and having a bird in the home (OR 0.35; 95% CI 0.17 to 0.75) were beneficial. CONCLUSIONS: One in five infants suffer from eczema during the first year of life. Familial eczema increased the risk, while early fish introduction and bird keeping decreased it. Breast feeding and time of milk and egg introduction did not affect the risk
In medium T-matrix for superfluid nuclear matter
We study a generalized ladder resummation in the superfluid phase of the
nuclear matter. The approach is based on a conserving generalization of the
usual T-matrix approximation including also anomalous self-energies and
propagators. The approximation here discussed is a generalization of the usual
mean-field BCS approach and of the in medium T-matrix approximation in the
normal phase. The numerical results in this work are obtained in the
quasi-particle approximation. Properties of the resulting self-energy,
superfluid gap and spectral functions are studied.Comment: 38 pages, 19 figures, Introduction rewritten, Refs. adde
Finding and counting vertex-colored subtrees
The problems studied in this article originate from the Graph Motif problem
introduced by Lacroix et al. in the context of biological networks. The problem
is to decide if a vertex-colored graph has a connected subgraph whose colors
equal a given multiset of colors . It is a graph pattern-matching problem
variant, where the structure of the occurrence of the pattern is not of
interest but the only requirement is the connectedness. Using an algebraic
framework recently introduced by Koutis et al., we obtain new FPT algorithms
for Graph Motif and variants, with improved running times. We also obtain
results on the counting versions of this problem, proving that the counting
problem is FPT if M is a set, but becomes W[1]-hard if M is a multiset with two
colors. Finally, we present an experimental evaluation of this approach on real
datasets, showing that its performance compares favorably with existing
software.Comment: Conference version in International Symposium on Mathematical
Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS), Brno : Czech Republic (2010) Journal
Version in Algorithmic
Towards a fully self-consistent spectral function of the nucleon in nuclear matter
We present a calculation of nuclear matter which goes beyond the usual
quasi-particle approximation in that it includes part of the off-shell
dependence of the self-energy in the self-consistent solution of the
single-particle spectrum. The spectral function is separated in contributions
for energies above and below the chemical potential. For holes we approximate
the spectral function for energies below the chemical potential by a
-function at the quasi-particle peak and retain the standard form for
energies above the chemical potential. For particles a similar procedure is
followed. The approximated spectral function is consistently used at all levels
of the calculation. Results for a model calculation are presented, the main
conclusion is that although several observables are affected by the inclusion
of the continuum contributions the physical consistency of the model does not
improve with the improved self-consistency of the solution method. This in
contrast to expectations based on the crucial role of self-consistency in the
proofs of conservation laws.Comment: 26 pages Revtex with 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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