Growth- and substrate-dependent transcription of formate dehydrogenase and hydrogenase coding genes in Syntrophobacter fumaroxidans and Methanospirillum hungatei

Transcription of genes coding for formate dehydrogenases (fdh genes) and hydrogenases (hyd genes) in Syntrophobacter fumaroxidans and Methanospirillum hungatei was studied following growth under different conditions. Under all conditions tested, all fdh and hyd genes were transcribed. However, transcription levels of the individual genes varied depending on the substrate and growth conditions. Our results strongly suggest that in syntrophically grown S. fumaroxidans cells, the [FeFe]-hydrogenase (encoded by Sfum_844-46), FDH1 (Sfum_2703-06) and Hox (Sfum_2713-16) may confurcate electrons from NADH and ferredoxin to protons and carbon dioxide to produce hydrogen and formate, respectively. Based on bioinformatic analysis, a membrane-integrated energy-converting [NiFe]-hydrogenase (Mhun_1741-46) of M. hungatei might be involved in the energy-dependent reduction of CO2 to formylmethanofuran. The best candidates for F420-dependent N5,N10-methyl-H4 MPT and N5,N10,-methylene-H4MPT reduction are the cytoplasmic [NiFe]-hydrogenase and FDH1. 16S rRNA ratios indicate that in one of the triplicate co-cultures of S. fumaroxidans and M. hungatei, less energy was available for S. fumaroxidans. This led to enhanced transcription of genes coding for the Rnf-complex (Sfum_2694-99) and of several fdh and hyd genes. The Rnf-complex probably reoxidized NADH with ferredoxin reduction, followed by ferredoxin oxidation by the induced formate dehydrogenases and hydrogenase

Bridgeness: A Local Index on Edge Significance in Maintaining Global Connectivity

Edges in a network can be divided into two kinds according to their different roles: some enhance the locality like the ones inside a cluster while others contribute to the global connectivity like the ones connecting two clusters. A recent study by Onnela et al uncovered the weak ties effects in mobile communication. In this article, we provide complementary results on document networks, that is, the edges connecting less similar nodes in content are more significant in maintaining the global connectivity. We propose an index named bridgeness to quantify the edge significance in maintaining connectivity, which only depends on local information of network topology. We compare the bridgeness with content similarity and some other structural indices according to an edge percolation process. Experimental results on document networks show that the bridgeness outperforms content similarity in characterizing the edge significance. Furthermore, extensive numerical results on disparate networks indicate that the bridgeness is also better than some well-known indices on edge significance, including the Jaccard coefficient, degree product and betweenness centrality.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Polypyrrole-coated fabric strain sensor with high sensitivity and good stability

Author name used in this publication: Hing Yee J. TsangAuthor name used in this publication: C. W. M. YuenVersion of RecordPublishe

Near-Optimal Distributed Approximation of Minimum-Weight Connected Dominating Set

This paper presents a near-optimal distributed approximation algorithm for the minimum-weight connected dominating set (MCDS) problem. The presented algorithm finds an $O(\log n)$ approximation in $\tilde{O}(D+\sqrt{n})$ rounds, where $D$ is the network diameter and $n$ is the number of nodes. MCDS is a classical NP-hard problem and the achieved approximation factor $O(\log n)$ is known to be optimal up to a constant factor, unless P=NP. Furthermore, the $\tilde{O}(D+\sqrt{n})$ round complexity is known to be optimal modulo logarithmic factors (for any approximation), following [Das Sarma et al.---STOC'11].Comment: An extended abstract version of this result appears in the proceedings of 41st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2014

Nucleon spin-flavor structure in SU(3) breaking chiral quark model

The SU(3) symmetric chiral quark model, which describes interactions between quarks, gluons and the Goldstone bosons, explains reasonably well many aspects of the flavor and spin structure of the proton, except for the values of $f_3/f_8$ and $\Delta_3/\Delta_8$. Introducing the SU(3)-breaking effect suggested by the mass difference between the strange and nonstrange quarks, we find that this discrepancy can be removed and better overall agreement obtained.Comment: 18 pages, Latex, 4 tables. Phys. Rev. D (in press, submitted/revised in June/Nov 1996

Parsec-scale jet properties of the gamma-ray quasar 3C 286

The quasar 3C~286 is one of two compact steep spectrum sources detected by the {\it Fermi}/LAT. Here, we investigate the radio properties of the parsec(pc)-scale jet and its (possible) association with the $\gamma$-ray emission in 3C~286. The Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) images at various frequencies reveal a one-sided core--jet structure extending to the southwest at a projected distance of $\sim$1 kpc. The component at the jet base showing an inverted spectrum is identified as the core, with a mean brightness temperature of $2.8\times 10^{9}$~K. The jet bends at about 600 pc (in projection) away from the core, from a position angle of $-135^\circ$ to $-115^\circ$. Based on the available VLBI data, we inferred the proper motion speed of the inner jet as $0.013 \pm 0.011$ mas yr$^{-1}$ ($\beta_{\rm app} = 0.6 \pm 0.5$), corresponding to a jet speed of about $0.5\,c$ at an inclination angle of $48^\circ$ between the jet and the line of sight of the observer. The brightness temperature, jet speed and Lorentz factor are much lower than those of $\gamma$-ray-emitting blazars, implying that the pc-scale jet in 3C~286 is mildly relativistic. Unlike blazars in which $\gamma$-ray emission is in general thought to originate from the beamed innermost jet, the location and mechanism of $\gamma$-ray emission in 3C~286 may be different as indicated by the current radio data. Multi-band spectrum fitting may offer a complementary diagnostic clue of the $\gamma$-ray production mechanism in this source.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accept for publication in MNRA