245 research outputs found
Plant trans-Golgi network/early endosome pH regulation requires cation chloride cotransporter (CCC1)
Plant cells maintain a low luminal pH in the Trans-Golgi-Network/Early Endosome (TGN/EE), the organelle in which the secretory and endocytic pathways intersect. Impaired TGN/EE pH regulation translates into severe plant growth defects. The identity of the proton pump and proton/ion antiporters that regulate TGN/EE pH have been determined, but an essential component required to complete the TGN/EE membrane transport circuit remains unidentified - a pathway for cation and anion efflux. Here, we have used complementation, genetically encoded fluorescent sensors, and pharmacological treatments to demonstrate that Arabidopsis Cation Chloride Cotransporter (CCC1) is this missing component necessary for regulating TGN/EE pH and function. Loss of CCC1 function leads to alterations in TGN/EE-mediated processes including endocytic trafficking, exocytosis and response to abiotic stress, consistent with the multitude of phenotypic defects observed in ccc1 knockout plants. This discovery places CCC1 as a central component of plant cellular function.W Daniel McKay, E Heather McFarlane, Yue Qu, Apriadi Situmorang, Matthew Gilliham, Stefanie Weg
The moon as a recorder of organic evolution in the early solar system: a lunar regolith analog study
The organic record of Earth older than ∼3.8 Ga has been effectively erased. Some insight is provided to us by meteorites as well as remote and direct observations of asteroids and comets left over from the formation of the Solar System. These primitive objects provide a record of early chemical evolution and a sample of material that has been delivered to Earth's surface throughout the past 4.5 billion years. Yet an effective chronicle of organic evolution on all Solar System objects, including that on planetary surfaces, is more difficult to find. Fortunately, early Earth would not have been the only recipient of organic matter–containing objects in the early Solar System. For example, a recently proposed model suggests the possibility that volatiles, including organic material, remain archived in buried paleoregolith deposits intercalated with lava flows on the Moon. Where asteroids and comets allow the study of processes before planet formation, the lunar record could extend that chronicle to early biological evolution on the planets. In this study, we use selected free and polymeric organic materials to assess the hypothesis that organic matter can survive the effects of heating in the lunar regolith by overlying lava flows. Results indicate that the presence of lunar regolith simulant appears to promote polymerization and, therefore, preservation of organic matter. Once polymerized, the mineral-hosted newly formed organic network is relatively protected from further thermal degradation. Our findings reveal the thermal conditions under which preservation of organic matter on the Moon is viable
Eikonal contributions to ultra high energy neutrino-nucleon cross sections in low scale gravity models
We calculate low scale gravity effects on the cross section for
neutrino-nucleon scattering at center of mass energies up to the
Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) scale, in the eikonal approximation. We compare
the cases of an infinitely thin brane embedded in n=5 compactified
extra-dimensions, and of a brane with a physical tension M_{S}=1 TeV and
M_{S}=10 TeV. The extra dimensional Planck scale M_{D} is set at 10^{3} GeV and
2\times10^{3} GeV. We also compare our calculations with neutral current
standard model calculations in the same energy range, and compare the thin
brane eikonal cross section to its saddle point approximation. New physics
effects enhance the cross section by orders of magnitude on average. They are
quite sensitive to M_{S} and M_{D} choices, though much less sensitive to n.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures; 2 figures were removed and the remaining figures
and the text were modified for clarification; published versio
A complete 3D numerical study of the effects of pseudoscalar-photon mixing on quasar polarizations
We present the results of three-dimensional simulations of quasar
polarizations in the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing in the
intergalactic medium. The intergalactic magnetic field is assumed to be
uncorrelated in wave vector space but correlated in real space. Such a field
may be obtained if its origin is primordial. Furthermore we assume that the
quasars, located at cosmological distances, have negligible initial
polarization. In the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing we show, through a
direct comparison with observations, that this may explain the observed large
scale alignments in quasar polarizations within the framework of big bang
cosmology. We find that the simulation results give a reasonably good fit to
the observed data.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, significant changes, to appear in EPJ
Out-of-equilibrium electromagnetic radiation
We derive general formulas for photon and dilepton production rates from an
arbitrary non-equilibrated medium from first principles in quantum field
theory. At lowest order in the electromagnetic coupling constant, these relate
the rates to the unequal-time in-medium photon polarization tensor and
generalize the corresponding expressions for a system in thermodynamic
equilibrium. We formulate the question of electromagnetic radiation in real
time as an initial value problem and consistently describe the virtual
electromagnetic dressing of the initial state. In the limit of slowly evolving
systems, we recover known expressions for the emission rates and work out the
first correction to the static formulas in a systematic gradient expansion.
Finally, we discuss the possible application of recently developed techniques
in non-equilibrium quantum field theory to the problem of electromagnetic
radiation. We argue, in particular, that the two-particle-irreducible (2PI)
effective action formalism provides a powerful resummation scheme for the
description of multiple scattering effects, such as the
Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal suppression recently discussed in the context of
equilibrium QCD.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figures, uses JHEP3.cl
Solution of coupled vertex and propagator Dyson-Schwinger equations in the scalar Munczek-Nemirovsky model
In a scalar model, we exactly solve the vertex and
propagator Dyson-Schwinger equations under the assumption of a spatially
constant (Munczek-Nemirovsky) propagator for the field. Various
truncation schemes are also considered.Comment: 7 pages,4 figures, minor changes, reference added for published
versio
Performance and Simulation of the RICE detector
The RICE experiment (Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment) at the South Pole,
co-deployed with the AMANDA experiment, seeks to detect ultra-high energy (UHE)
electron neutrinos interacting in cold polar ice. Such interactions produce
electromagnetic showers, which emit radio-frequency Cherenkov radiation. We
describe the experimental apparatus and the procedures used to measure the
neutrino flux.Comment: preprint, to be submitted to Astropart. Phy
Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP
We measure cosmological parameters using the three-dimensional power spectrum
P(k) from over 200,000 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in
combination with WMAP and other data. Our results are consistent with a
``vanilla'' flat adiabatic Lambda-CDM model without tilt (n=1), running tilt,
tensor modes or massive neutrinos. Adding SDSS information more than halves the
WMAP-only error bars on some parameters, tightening 1 sigma constraints on the
Hubble parameter from h~0.74+0.18-0.07 to h~0.70+0.04-0.03, on the matter
density from Omega_m~0.25+/-0.10 to Omega_m~0.30+/-0.04 (1 sigma) and on
neutrino masses from <11 eV to <0.6 eV (95%). SDSS helps even more when
dropping prior assumptions about curvature, neutrinos, tensor modes and the
equation of state. Our results are in substantial agreement with the joint
analysis of WMAP and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is an impressive
consistency check with independent redshift survey data and analysis
techniques. In this paper, we place particular emphasis on clarifying the
physical origin of the constraints, i.e., what we do and do not know when using
different data sets and prior assumptions. For instance, dropping the
assumption that space is perfectly flat, the WMAP-only constraint on the
measured age of the Universe tightens from t0~16.3+2.3-1.8 Gyr to
t0~14.1+1.0-0.9 Gyr by adding SDSS and SN Ia data. Including tensors, running
tilt, neutrino mass and equation of state in the list of free parameters, many
constraints are still quite weak, but future cosmological measurements from
SDSS and other sources should allow these to be substantially tightened.Comment: Minor revisions to match accepted PRD version. SDSS data and ppt
figures available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdsspars.htm
Search for composite and exotic fermions at LEP 2
A search for unstable heavy fermions with the DELPHI detector at LEP is
reported. Sequential and non-canonical leptons, as well as excited leptons and
quarks, are considered. The data analysed correspond to an integrated
luminosity of about 48 pb^{-1} at an e^+e^- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV
and about 20 pb^{-1} equally shared between the centre-of-mass energies of 172
GeV and 161 GeV. The search for pair-produced new leptons establishes 95%
confidence level mass limits in the region between 70 GeV/c^2 and 90 GeV/c^2,
depending on the channel. The search for singly produced excited leptons and
quarks establishes upper limits on the ratio of the coupling of the excited
fermio
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