442 research outputs found
Investigation of red blood cell mechanical properties using AFM indentation and coarse-grained particle method
© 2017 The Author(s). Background: Red blood cells (RBCs) deform significantly and repeatedly when passing through narrow capillaries and delivering dioxygen throughout the body. Deformability of RBCs is a key characteristic, largely governed by the mechanical properties of the cell membrane. This study investigated RBC mechanical properties using atomic force microscopy (AFM) with the aim to develop a coarse-grained particle method model to study for the first time RBC indentation in both 2D and 3D. This new model has the potential to be applied to further investigate the local deformability of RBCs, with accurate control over adhesion, probe geometry and position of applied force. Results: The model considers the linear stretch capacity of the cytoskeleton, bending resistance and areal incompressibility of the bilayer, and volumetric incompressibility of the internal fluid. The model's performance was validated against force-deformation experiments performed on RBCs under spherical AFM indentation. The model was then used to investigate the mechanisms which absorbed energy through the indentation stroke, and the impact of varying stiffness coefficients on the measured deformability. This study found the membrane's bending stiffness was most influential in controlling RBC physical behaviour for indentations of up to 200 nm. Conclusions: As the bilayer provides bending resistance, this infers that structural changes within the bilayer are responsible for the deformability changes experienced by deteriorating RBCs. The numerical model presented here established a foundation for future investigations into changes within the membrane that cause differences in stiffness between healthy and deteriorating RBCs, which have already been measured experimentally with AFM
NMR characterization of spin-1/2 alternating antiferromagnetic chains in the high-pressure phase of (VO)2P2O7
Local-susceptibility measurements via the NMR shifts of P and V
nuclei in the high-pressure phase of (VO)PO confirmed the
existence of a unique alternating antiferromagnetic chain with a zero-field
spin gap of 34 K. The P nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate scales with
the uniform spin susceptibility below about 15 K which shows that the
temperature dependence of both the static and dynamical spin susceptibilities
becomes identical at temperatures not far below the spin-gap energy.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; To be published in J. Phys. Condens. Matte
Thermotomaculum hydrothermale gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel heterotrophic thermophile within the phylum Acidobacteria from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent chimney in the Southern Okinawa Trough
http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/darwin/cruise/natsushima/nt08-13/
Formation of Sub-galactic Clouds under UV Background Radiation
The effects of the UV background radiation on the formation of sub-galactic
clouds are studied by means of one-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. The
radiative transfer of the ionizing photons due to the absorption by HI, HeI and
HeII, neglecting the emission, is explicitly taken into account. We find that
the complete suppression of collapse occurs for the clouds with circular
velocities typically in the range V_c \sim 15-40 km/s and the 50% reduction in
the cooled gas mass with V_c \sim 20-55 km/s. These values depend most
sensitively on the collapse epoch of the cloud, the shape of the UV spectrum,
and the evolution of the UV intensity. Compared to the optically thin case,
previously investigated by Thoul & Weinberg (1996), the absorption of the
external UV photon by the intervening medium systematically lowers the above
threshold values by \Delta V_c \sim 5 km/s. Whether the gas can contract or
keeps expanding is roughly determined by the balance between the gravitational
force and the thermal pressure gradient when it is maximally exposed to the
external UV flux. Based on our simulation results, we discuss a number of
implications on galaxy formation, cosmic star formation history, and the
observations of quasar absorption lines. In Appendix, we derive analytical
formulae for the photoionization coefficients and heating rates, which
incorporate the frequency/direction-dependent transfer of external photons.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Modifying the surface electronic properties of YBa2Cu3O7-delta with cryogenic scanning probe microscopy
We report the results of a cryogenic study of the modification of
YBa2Cu3O7-delta surface electronic properties with the probe of a scanning
tunneling microscope (STM). A negative voltage applied to the sample during STM
tunneling is found to modify locally the conductance of the native degraded
surface layer. When the degraded layer is removed by etching, the effect
disappears. An additional surface effect is identified using Scanning Kelvin
Probe Microscopy in combination with STM. We observe reversible surface
charging for both etched and unetched samples, indicating the presence of a
defect layer even on a surface never exposed to air.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Superconductor Science and
Technolog
A fresh look at the evolution and diversification of photochemical reaction centers
In this review, I reexamine the origin and diversification of photochemical reaction centers based on the known phylogenetic relations of the core subunits, and with the aid of sequence and structural alignments. I show, for example, that the protein folds at the C-terminus of the D1 and D2 subunits of Photosystem II, which are essential for the coordination of the water-oxidizing complex, were already in place in the most ancestral Type II reaction center subunit. I then evaluate the evolution of reaction centers in the context of the rise and expansion of the different groups of bacteria based on recent large-scale phylogenetic analyses. I find that the Heliobacteriaceae family of Firmicutes appears to be the earliest branching of the known groups of phototrophic bacteria; however, the origin of photochemical reaction centers and chlorophyll synthesis cannot be placed in this group. Moreover, it becomes evident that the Acidobacteria and the Proteobacteria shared a more recent common phototrophic ancestor, and this is also likely for the Chloroflexi and the Cyanobacteria. Finally, I argue that the discrepancies among the phylogenies of the reaction center proteins, chlorophyll synthesis enzymes, and the species tree of bacteria are best explained if both types of photochemical reaction centers evolved before the diversification of the known phyla of phototrophic bacteria. The primordial phototrophic ancestor must have had both Type I and Type II reaction centers
Diversity of Francisella Species in Environmental Samples from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
We determined whether Francisella spp. are present in water, sediment, and soil from an active tularemia natural focus on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, during a multiyear outbreak of pneumonic tularemia. Environmental samples were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting Francisella species 16S rRNA gene and succinate dehydrogenase A (sdhA) sequences; evidence of the agent of tularemia was sought by amplification of Francisella tularensis-specific sequences for the insertion element ISFTu2, 17-kDa protein gene tul4, and the 43-kDa outer membrane protein gene fopA. Evidence of F. tularensis subsp. tularensis, the causative agent of the human infections in this outbreak, was not detected from environmental samples despite its active transmission among ticks and animals in the sampling site. Francisella philomiragia was frequently detected from a brackish-water pond using Francisella species PCR targets, and subsequently F. philomiragia was isolated from an individual brackish-water sample. Distinct Francisella sp. sequences that are closely related to F. tularensis and Francisella novicida were detected from samples collected from the brackish-water pond. We conclude that diverse Francisella spp. are present in the environment where human cases of pneumonic tularemia occur
ADHM and the 4d quantum Hall effect
Yang-Mills instantons are solitonic particles in d=4+1 dimensional gauge
theories. We construct and analyse the quantum Hall states that arise when
these particles are restricted to the lowest Landau level. We describe the
ground state wavefunctions for both Abelian and non-Abelian quantum Hall
states. Although our model is purely bosonic, we show that the excitations of
this 4d quantum Hall state are governed by the Nekrasov partition function of a
certain five dimensional supersymmetric gauge theory with Chern-Simons term.
The partition function can also be interpreted as a variant of the Hilbert
series of the instanton moduli space, counting holomorphic sections rather than
holomorphic functions.
It is known that the Hilbert series of the instanton moduli space can be
rewritten using mirror symmetry of 3d gauge theories in terms of Coulomb branch
variables. We generalise this approach to include the effect of a five
dimensional Chern-Simons term. We demonstrate that the resulting Coulomb branch
formula coincides with the corresponding Higgs branch Molien integral which, in
turn, reproduces the standard formula for the Nekrasov partition function
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