2,340 research outputs found
A trans10-18:1 enriched fraction from beef fed a barley grain-based diet induces lipogenic gene expression and reduces viability of HepG2 cells.
Beef fat is a natural source of trans (t) fatty acids, and is typically enriched with either t10-18:1 or t11-18:1. Little is known about the bioactivity of individual t-18:1 isomers, and the present study compared the effects of t9-18:1, cis (c)9-18:1 and trans (t)-18:1 fractions isolated from beef fat enriched with either t10-18:1 (HT10) or t11-18:1 (HT11). All 18:1 isomers resulted in reduced human liver (HepG2) cell viability relative to control. Both c9-18:1 and HT11were the least toxic, t9-18:1had dose response increased toxicity, and HT10 had the greatest toxicity (P<0.05). Incorporation of t18:1 isomers was 1.8-2.5 fold greater in triacylglycerol (TG) than phospholipids (PL), whereas Δ9 desaturation products were selectively incorporated into PL. Culturing HepG2 cells with t9-18:1 and HT10 increased (P<0.05) the Δ9 desaturation index (c9-16:1/16:0) compared to other fatty acid treatments. HT10 and t9-18:1 also increased expression of lipogenic genes (FAS, SCD1, HMGCR and SREBP2) compared to control (P<0.05), whereas c9-18:1 and HT11 did not affect the expression of these genes. Our results suggest effects of HT11 and c9-18:1 were similar to BSA control, whereas HT10 and t-9 18:1 (i.e. the predominant trans fatty acid isomer found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils) were more cytotoxic and led to greater expression of lipogenic genes
ROSAT HRI Observations of the Crab Pulsar: An Improved Temperature upper limit for PSR 0531+21
ROSAT HRI observations have been used to determine an upper limit of the Crab
pulsar surface temperature from the off-pulse count rate. For a neutron star
mass of 1.4 \Mo and a radius of 10 km as well as the standard distance and
interstellar column density, the redshifted temperature upper limit is\/
K . This is the lowest temperature
upper limit obtained for the Crab pulsar so far. Slightly different values for
are computed for the various neutron star models available in the
literature, reflecting the difference in the equation of state.Comment: 5 pages, uuencoded postscript, to be published in the Proceedings of
the NATO Advanced Study Insitute on "Lives of the Neutron Stars", ed. A.
Alpar, U. Kiziloglu and J. van Paradijs ( Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1995 )
PRM6 Avaliação Do Impacto Econômico De Afastamentos Laborais Por Câncer De Mama . Análise Preliminar Singular Institucional
Allowed and forbidden transitions in artificial hydrogen and helium atoms
The strength of radiative transitions in atoms is governed by selection
rules. Spectroscopic studies of allowed transitions in hydrogen and helium
provided crucial evidence for the Bohr's model of an atom. Forbidden
transitions, which are actually allowed by higher-order processes or other
mechanisms, indicate how well the quantum numbers describe the system. We apply
these tests to the quantum states in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), which
are regarded as artificial atoms. Electrons in a QD occupy quantized states in
the same manner as electrons in real atoms. However, unlike real atoms, the
confinement potential of the QD is anisotropic, and the electrons can easily
couple with phonons of the material. Understanding the selection rules for such
QDs is an important issue for the manipulation of quantum states. Here we
investigate allowed and forbidden transitions for phonon emission in one- and
two-electron QDs (artificial hydrogen and helium atoms) by electrical
pump-and-probe experiments, and find that the total spin is an excellent
quantum number in artificial atoms. This is attractive for potential
applications to spin based information storage.Comment: slightly longer version of Nature 419, 278 (2002
Simulating Reionization: Character and Observability
In recent years there has been considerable progress in our understanding of
the nature and properties of the reionization process. In particular, the
numerical simulations of this epoch have made a qualitative leap forward,
reaching sufficiently large scales to derive the characteristic scales of the
reionization process and thus allowing for realistic observational predictions.
Our group has recently performed the first such large-scale radiative transfer
simulations of reionization, run on top of state-of-the-art simulations of
early structure formation. This allowed us to make the first realistic
observational predictions about the Epoch of Reionization based on detailed
radiative transfer and structure formation simulations. We discuss the basic
features of reionization derived from our simulations and some recent results
on the observational implications for the high-redshift Ly-alpha sources.Comment: 3 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of First Stars III, Santa Fe,
July 2007, AIP Conference Serie
Universal Behavior and the Two-component Character of Magnetically Underdoped Cuprate Superconductors
We present a detailed review of scaling behavior in the magnetically
underdoped cuprate superconductors (hole dopings less than 0.20) and show that
it reflects the presence of two coupled components throughout this doping
regime: a non-Landau Fermi liquid and a spin liquid whose behavior maps onto
the theoretical Monte Carlo calculations of the 2D Heisenberg model of
localized Cu spins for most of its temperature domain. We use this mapping to
extract the doping dependence of the strength, of the spin liquid
component and the effective interaction, J_eff(x) between the remnant localized
spins that compose it; we find both decrease linearly with x as the doping
level increases. We discuss the physical origin of pseudogap behavior and
conclude that it is consistent with scenarios in which the both the large
energy gaps found in the normal state and their subsequent superconductivity
are brought about by the coupling between the Fermi liquid quasiparticles and
the spin liquid excitations, and that differences in this coupling between the
1-2-3 and 2-1-4 materials can explain the measured differences in their
superconducting transition temperatures and other properties.Comment: 80 pages, 43 figure
KS(conf ): A Light-Weight Test if a ConvNet Operates Outside of Its Specifications
Computer vision systems for automatic image categorization have become
accurate and reliable enough that they can run continuously for days or even
years as components of real-world commercial applications. A major open problem
in this context, however, is quality control. Good classification performance
can only be expected if systems run under the specific conditions, in
particular data distributions, that they were trained for. Surprisingly, none
of the currently used deep network architectures has a built-in functionality
that could detect if a network operates on data from a distribution that it was
not trained for and potentially trigger a warning to the human users. In this
work, we describe KS(conf), a procedure for detecting such outside of the
specifications operation. Building on statistical insights, its main step is
the applications of a classical Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to the distribution of
predicted confidence values. We show by extensive experiments using ImageNet,
AwA2 and DAVIS data on a variety of ConvNets architectures that KS(conf)
reliably detects out-of-specs situations. It furthermore has a number of
properties that make it an excellent candidate for practical deployment: it is
easy to implement, adds almost no overhead to the system, works with all
networks, including pretrained ones, and requires no a priori knowledge about
how the data distribution could change
The Imprint of Galaxy Formation on X-ray Clusters
It is widely believed that structure in the Universe evolves hierarchically,
as primordial density fluctuations, amplified by gravity, collapse and merge to
form progressively larger systems. The structure and evolution of X-ray
clusters, however, seems at odds with this hierarchical scenario for structure
formation. Poor clusters and groups, as well as most distant clusters detected
to date, are substantially fainter than expected from the tight relations
between luminosity, temperature and redshift predicted by these models. Here we
show that these discrepancies arise because, near the centre, the entropy of
the hot, diffuse intracluster medium (ICM) is higher tha possible if the ICM
is heated at modest redshift (z \ltsim 2) but prior to cluster collapse,
indicating that the formation of galaxies precedes that of clusters and that
most clusters have been assembled very recently.Comment: 5 pages, plus 2 postscript figures (one in colour), accepted for
publication in Natur
Anabolic and catabolic responses of human articular chondrocytes to varying oxygen percentages
Oxygen is a critical parameter proposed to modulate the functions of chondrocytes ex-vivo as well as in damaged joints. This article investigates the effect of low (more physiological) oxygen percentage on the biosynthetic and catabolic activity of human articular chondrocytes (HAC) at different phases of in vitro culture
Stabilization of α-conotoxin AuIB: Influences of disulfide connectivity and backbone cyclization
alpha-Conotoxins are peptides isolated from the venom ducts of cone snails that target nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). They are valuable pharmacological tools and have potential applications for treating a range of conditions in humans, including pain. However, like all peptides, conotoxins are susceptible to degradation, and to enhance their therapeutic potential it is important to elucidate the factors contributing to instability and to develop approaches for improving stability. AuIB is a unique member of the alpha-conotoxin family because the nonnative "ribbon'' disulfide isomer exhibits enhanced activity at the nAChR in rat parasympathetic neurons compared with the native "globular'' isomer. Here we show that the ribbon isomer of AuIB is also more resistant to disulfide scrambling, despite having a nonnative connectivity and flexible structure. This resistance to disulfide scrambling does not correlate with overall stability in serum because the ribbon isomer is degraded in human serum more rapidly than the globular isomer. Cyclization via the joining of the N- and C-termini with peptide linkers of four to seven amino acids prevented degradation of the ribbon isomer in serum and stabilized the globular isomers to disulfide scrambling. The linker length used for cyclization strongly affected the relative proportions of the disulfide isomers produced by oxidative folding. Overall, the results of this study provide important insights into factors influencing the stability and oxidative folding of alpha-conotoxin AuIB and might be valuable in the design of more stable antagonists of nAChRs. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 14, 87-95
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