3,265 research outputs found
Measurement of decays to baryon pairs
A sample of 3.95M decays registered in the BES detector are used
to study final states containing pairs of octet and decuplet baryons. We report
branching fractions for , ,
, ,
, ,
, and . These results
are compared to expectations based on the SU(3)-flavor symmetry, factorization,
and perturbative QCD.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, 4 table
First Measurement of the Branching Fraction of the Decay psi(2S) --> tau tau
The branching fraction of the psi(2S) decay into tau pair has been measured
for the first time using the BES detector at the Beijing Electron-Positron
Collider. The result is ,
where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. This value,
along with those for the branching fractions into e+e- and mu+mu of this
resonance, satisfy well the relation predicted by the sequential lepton
hypothesis. Combining all these values with the leptonic width of the resonance
the total width of the psi(2S) is determined to be keV.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Measurements of the Cross Section for e+e- -> hadrons at Center-of-Mass Energies from 2 to 5 GeV
We report values of for 85 center-of-mass energies between
2 and 5 GeV measured with the upgraded Beijing Spectrometer at the Beijing
Electron-Positron Collider.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Single-molecule experiments in biological physics: methods and applications
I review single-molecule experiments (SME) in biological physics. Recent
technological developments have provided the tools to design and build
scientific instruments of high enough sensitivity and precision to manipulate
and visualize individual molecules and measure microscopic forces. Using SME it
is possible to: manipulate molecules one at a time and measure distributions
describing molecular properties; characterize the kinetics of biomolecular
reactions and; detect molecular intermediates. SME provide the additional
information about thermodynamics and kinetics of biomolecular processes. This
complements information obtained in traditional bulk assays. In SME it is also
possible to measure small energies and detect large Brownian deviations in
biomolecular reactions, thereby offering new methods and systems to scrutinize
the basic foundations of statistical mechanics. This review is written at a
very introductory level emphasizing the importance of SME to scientists
interested in knowing the common playground of ideas and the interdisciplinary
topics accessible by these techniques. The review discusses SME from an
experimental perspective, first exposing the most common experimental
methodologies and later presenting various molecular systems where such
techniques have been applied. I briefly discuss experimental techniques such as
atomic-force microscopy (AFM), laser optical tweezers (LOT), magnetic tweezers
(MT), biomembrane force probe (BFP) and single-molecule fluorescence (SMF). I
then present several applications of SME to the study of nucleic acids (DNA,
RNA and DNA condensation), proteins (protein-protein interactions, protein
folding and molecular motors). Finally, I discuss applications of SME to the
study of the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of small systems and the
experimental verification of fluctuation theorems. I conclude with a discussion
of open questions and future perspectives.Comment: Latex, 60 pages, 12 figures, Topical Review for J. Phys. C (Cond.
Matt
Fluorescence imaging through dynamic scattering media with speckle-encoded ultrasound-modulated light correlation
Fluorescence imaging is indispensable to biomedical research, and yet it remains challenging to image through dynamic scattering samples. Techniques that combine ultrasound and light as exemplified by ultrasound-assisted wavefront shaping have enabled fluorescence imaging through scattering media. However, the translation of these techniques into in vivo applications has been hindered by the lack of high-speed solutions to counter the fast speckle decorrelation of dynamic tissue. Here, we report an ultrasound-enabled optical imaging method that instead leverages the dynamic nature to perform imaging. The method utilizes the correlation between the dynamic speckle-encoded fluorescence and ultrasound-modulated light signal that originate from the same location within a sample. We image fluorescent targets with an improved resolution of ≤75 µm (versus a resolution of 1.3 mm with direct optical imaging) within a scattering medium with 17 ms decorrelation time. This new imaging modality paves the way for fluorescence imaging in highly scattering tissue in vivo
Cellular changes in boric acid-treated DU-145 prostate cancer cells
Epidemiological, animal, and cell culture studies have identified boron as a chemopreventative agent in prostate cancer. The present objective was to identify boron-induced changes in the DU-145 human prostate cancer cell line. We show that prolonged exposure to pharmacologically-relevant levels of boric acid, the naturally occurring form of boron circulating in human plasma, induces the following morphological changes in cells: increases in granularity and intracellular vesicle content, enhanced cell spreading and decreased cell volume. Documented increases in β-galactosidase activity suggest that boric acid induces conversion to a senescent-like cellular phenotype. Boric acid also causes a dose-dependent reduction in cyclins A–E, as well as MAPK proteins, suggesting their contribution to proliferative inhibition. Furthermore, treated cells display reduced adhesion, migration and invasion potential, along with F-actin changes indicative of reduced metastatic potential. Finally, the observation of media acidosis in treated cells correlated with an accumulation of lysosome-associated membrane protein type 2 (LAMP-2)-negative acidic compartments. The challenge of future studies will be to identify the underlying mechanism responsible for the observed cellular responses to this natural blood constituent
A Measurement of the Mass and Full-Width of the Meson
In a sample of 7.8 million decays collected in the Beijing
Spectrometer, the process J/ is observed for five
different decay channels: , ,
(with ), (with ) and . From these signals, we determine the mass of
to be MeV. Combining this result with a
previously reported result from a similar study using
detected in the same spectrometer gives MeV.
For the combined samples, we obtain MeV.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures and 1 tabl
DNA Methylation Dynamics in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells over Time
Epigenetic reprogramming is a critical event in the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Here, we determined the DNA methylation profiles of 22 human iPSC lines derived from five different cell types (human endometrium, placental artery endothelium, amnion, fetal lung fibroblast, and menstrual blood cell) and five human embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines, and we followed the aberrant methylation sites in iPSCs for up to 42 weeks. The iPSCs exhibited distinct epigenetic differences from ESCs, which were caused by aberrant methylation at early passages. Multiple appearances and then disappearances of random aberrant methylation were detected throughout iPSC reprogramming. Continuous passaging of the iPSCs diminished the differences between iPSCs and ESCs, implying that iPSCs lose the characteristics inherited from the parent cells and adapt to very closely resemble ESCs over time. Human iPSCs were gradually reprogrammed through the “convergence” of aberrant hyper-methylation events that continuously appeared in a de novo manner. This iPS reprogramming consisted of stochastic de novo methylation and selection/fixation of methylation in an environment suitable for ESCs. Taken together, random methylation and convergence are driving forces for long-term reprogramming of iPSCs to ESCs
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