3,308 research outputs found
Role of Peptide Backbone Conformation on Biological Activity of Chemotactic Peptides
To investigate the role of peptide backbone conformation on the biological activity of chemotactic peptides, we synthesized a unique analog of N-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe-OH incorporating the C α,α disubstituted residue, dipropylglycine (Dpg) in place of Leu. The conformation of the stereochemically constrained Dpg analog was examined in the crystalline state by x-ray diffraction and in solution using NMR, IR, and CD methods. The secretagogue activity of the peptide on human neutrophils was determined and compared with that of a stereochemically constrained, folded type II β-turn analog incorporating 1-aminocyclohexanecarboxylic acid (Ac6c) at position 2 (f-Met- Ac6c -Phe-OMe), the parent peptide (f-Met-Leu-Phe-OH) and its methyl ester derivative (f-Met-Leu-Phe-OMe). In the solid state, the Dpg analog adopts an extended β-sheet-like structure with an intramolecular hydrogen bond between the NH and CO groups of the Dpg residue, thereby forming a fully extended (C5) conformation at position 2. The ϕ and ψ values for Met and Phe residues are significantly lower than the values expected for an ideal antiparallel beta conformation causing a twist in the extended backbone both at the N and C termini. Nuclear magnetic resonance studies suggest the presence of a significant population of the peptide molecules in an extended antiparallel β conformation and the involvement of Dpg NH in a C5 intramolecular hydrogen bond in solutions of deuterated chloroform and deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide. IR studies provide evidence for the presence of an intramolecular hydrogen bond in the molecule and the antiparallel extended conformation in chloroform solution. CD spectra in methanol, trifluoroethanol, and trimethyl phosphate indicate that the Dpg peptide shows slight conformational flexibility, whereas the folded Ac6c analog is quite rigid. The extended Dpg peptide consistently shows the highest activity in human peripheral blood neutrophils, being approximately 8 and 16 times more active than the parent peptide and the folded Ac6c analog, respectively. However, the finding that all four peptides have ED50 (the molar concentration of peptide to induce half-maximal enzyme release) values in the 10(-8)-10(-9) M range suggests that an induced fit mechanism may indeed be important in this ligand-receptor interaction. Moreover, it is also possible that alterations in the backbone conformation at the tripeptide level may not significantly alter the side chain topography and/or the accessibility of key functional groups important for interaction with the receptor
Instant Two-Body Equation in Breit Frame
A quasipotential formalism for elastic scattering from relativistic bound
states is based on applying an instant constraint to both initial and final
states in the Breit frame. This formalism is advantageous for the analysis of
electromagnetic interactions because current conservation and four momentum
conservation are realized within a three-dimensional formalism. Wave functions
are required in a frame where the total momentum is nonzero, which means that
the usual partial wave analysis is inapplicable. In this work, the
three-dimensional equation is solved numerically, taking into account the
relevant symmetries. A dynamical boost of the interaction also is needed for
the instant formalism, which in general requires that the boosted interaction
be defined as the solution of a four-dimensional equation. For the case of a
scalar separable interaction, this equation is solved and the Lorentz
invariance of the three-dimensional formulation using the boosted interaction
is verified. For more realistic interactions, a simple approximation is used to
characterize the boost of the interaction.Comment: 20 pages in revtex 3, 3 figures. Fixed reform/tex errors
Does tiny-scale atomic structure exist in the interstellar medium ?
We report on preliminary results from the recent multi-epoch neutral hydrogen
absorption measurements toward three pulsars, B0823+26, B1133+16 and B2016+28,
using the Arecibo telescope. We do not find significant variations in optical
depth profiles over periods of 0.3 and 9--10 yr, or on spatial scales of 10--20
and 70--85 AU. The large number of non detections of the tiny scale atomic
structure suggests that the AU-sized structure is not ubiquitous in the
interstellar medium and could be quite a rare phenomenon.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Letters, 5 pages, 2 figure
A Meta-Analysis of Procedures to Change Implicit Measures
Using a novel technique known as network meta-analysis, we synthesized evidence from 492 studies (87,418 participants) to investigate the effectiveness of procedures in changing implicit measures, which we define as response biases on implicit tasks. We also evaluated these procedures’ effects on explicit and behavioral measures. We found that implicit measures can be changed, but effects are often relatively weak (|ds| \u3c .30). Most studies focused on producing short-term changes with brief, single-session manipulations. Procedures that associate sets of concepts, invoke goals or motivations, or tax mental resources changed implicit measures the most, whereas procedures that induced threat, affirmation, or specific moods/emotions changed implicit measures the least. Bias tests suggested that implicit effects could be inflated relative to their true population values. Procedures changed explicit measures less consistently and to a smaller degree than implicit measures and generally produced trivial changes in behavior. Finally, changes in implicit measures did not mediate changes in explicit measures or behavior. Our findings suggest that changes in implicit measures are possible, but those changes do not necessarily translate into changes in explicit measures or behavior
Electron-deuteron scattering in the equal-time formalism: beyond the impulse approximation
Using a three-dimensional formalism that includes relativistic kinematics,
the effects of negative-energy states, approximate boosts of the two-body
system, and current conservation, we calculate the electromagnetic form factors
of the deuteron up to Q^2 of 4 GeV^2. This is done using a dynamical boost for
two-body systems with spin. We first compute form factors in impulse
approxmation, but then also add an isoscalar meson-exchange current of pion
range that involves the gamma-pi contact operator associated with pseudovector
pi-N coupling. We also consider effects of the rho-pi-gamma meson-exchange
current. The experimentally measured quantities A, B, and t20 are calculated
over the kinematic range probed in recent Jefferson Laboratory experiments. The
rho-pi-gamma meson-exchange current provides significant strength in A at large
Q^2 and the gamma-pi contact-term exchange current shifts t20, providing good
agreement with the JLab data. Relativistic effects and the gamma-pi
meson-exchange current do not provide an explanation of the B observable, but
the rho-pi-gamma current could help to provide agreement if a nonstandard value
is used for the tensor rho-N coupling that enters this contribution.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. (v2) Added references on rho-pi-gamma current
as well as comparison to recent Novosibirsk data on T20. Implemented
\includegraphics in place of \BoxedEPSF. (v3) Modified in order to clarify
the nature of the boost we implemented for particles with spin. Other minor
changes. Version to be published in Physical Review
Magnescope: Applications in nondestructive evaluation
This paper describes recent results obtained with the Magnescope, which has been used on location in industrial environments and has successfully detected impending fatigue failure, creep damage, applied stress, and microstructural differences. It is concluded that the device provides a useful nondestructive method for evaluating the mechanical properties of materials through the measurement of their structure sensitive magnetic properties
Electromagnetic Scattering from Relativistic Bound States
The quasipotential formalism for elastic scattering from relativistic bound
states is formulated based on the instant constraint in the Breit frame. The
quasipotential electromagnetic current is derived from Mandelstam's five-point
kernel and obeys a two-body Ward identity. Breit-frame wave functions are
obtained directly by solving integral equations with nonzero total
three-momentum, thus accomplishing a dynamical boost. Calculations of
electron-deuteron elastic form factors illustrate the importance of the
dynamical boost versus kinematic boosts of the rest frame wave functions.Comment: RevTeX 3.0 manuscript, 9 pages. UU-file is a single PostScript file
of the manuscript including figures. U. MD PP #93-17
HyperPRAW : architecture-aware hypergraph restreaming partition to improve performance of parallel applications running on high performance computing systems
High Performance Computing (HPC) demand is on the rise, particularly for large distributed computing. HPC systems have, by design, very heterogeneous architectures, both in computation and in communication bandwidth, resulting in wide variations in the cost of communications between compute units. If large distributed applications are to take full advantage of HPC, the physical communication capabilities must be taken into consideration when allocating workload. Hypergraphs are good at modelling total volume of communication in parallel and distributed applications. To the best of our knowledge, there are no hypergraph partitioning algorithms to date that are architecture-aware. We propose a novel restreaming hypergraph partitioning algorithm (HyperPRAW) that takes advantage of peer to peer physical bandwidth profiling data to improve distributed applications performance in HPC systems. Our results show that not only the quality of the partitions achieved by our algorithm is comparable with state-of-the-art multilevel partitioning, but that the runtime performance in a synthetic benchmark is significantly reduced in 10 hypergraph models tested, with speedup factors of up to 14x
Electron-deuteron scattering in a current-conserving description of relativistic bound states: formalism and impulse approximation calculations
The electromagnetic interactions of a relativistic two-body bound state are
formulated in three dimensions using an equal-time (ET) formalism. This
involves a systematic reduction of four-dimensional dynamics to a
three-dimensional form by integrating out the time components of relative
momenta. A conserved electromagnetic current is developed for the ET formalism.
It is shown that consistent truncations of the electromagnetic current and the
interaction kernel may be made, order-by-order in the coupling constants,
such that appropriate Ward-Takahashi identities are satisfied. A meson-exchange
model of the interaction is used to calculate deuteron vertex functions.
Calculations of electromagnetic form factors for elastic scattering of
electrons by deuterium are performed using an impulse-approximation current.
Negative-energy components of the deuteron's vertex function and retardation
effects in the meson-exchange interaction are found to have only minor effects
on the deuteron form factors.Comment: 42 pages, RevTe
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