Sharp lines in the absorption edge of EuTe and Pb0.1_{0.1}Eu0.9_{0.9}Te in high magnetic fields

The optical absorption spectra in the region of the \fd transition energies of epitaxial layers of of EuTe and \PbEuTe, grown by molecular beam epitaxy, were studied using circularly polarized light, in the Faraday configuration. Under \sigmam polarization a sharp symmetric absorption line (full width at half-maximum 0.041 eV) emerges at the low energy side of the band-edge absorption, for magnetic fields intensities greater than 6 T. The absorption line shows a huge red shift (35 meV/T) with increasing magnetic fields. The peak position of the absorption line as a function of magnetic field is dominated by the {\em d-f} exchange interaction of the excited electron and the \Euion spins in the lattice. The {\em d-f} exchange interaction energy was estimated to be $J_{df}S=0.15\pm 0.01$ eV. In \PbEuTe the same absorption line is detected, but it is broader, due to alloy disorder, indicating that the excitation is localized within a finite radius. From a comparison of the absorption spectra in EuTe and \PbEuTe the characteristic radius of the excitation is estimated to be $\sim 10$\AA.Comment: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter (2004, at press

Dysregulated expression of MIG/CXCL9, IP-10/CXCL10 and CXCL16 and their receptors in systemic sclerosis

Abstract Introduction Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterized by fibrosis and microvascular abnormalities including dysregulated angiogenesis. Chemokines, in addition to their chemoattractant properties, have the ability to modulate angiogenesis. Chemokines lacking the enzyme-linked receptor (ELR) motif, such as monokine induced by interferon-γ (IFN-γ) (MIG/CXCL9) and IFN-inducible protein 10 (IP-10/CXCL10), inhibit angiogenesis by binding CXCR3. In addition, CXCL16 promotes angiogenesis by binding its unique receptor CXCR6. In this study, we determined the expression of these chemokines and receptors in SSc skin and serum. Methods Immunohistology and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were used to determine chemokine and chemokine receptor expression in the skin and serum, respectively, of SSc and normal patients. Endothelial cells (ECs) were isolated from SSc skin biopsies and chemokine and chemokine receptor expression was determined by quantitative PCR and immunofluorescence staining. Results Antiangiogenic IP-10/CXCL10 and MIG/CXCL9 were elevated in SSc serum and highly expressed in SSc skin. However, CXCR3, the receptor for these chemokines, was decreased on ECs in SSc vs. normal skin. CXCL16 was elevated in SSc serum and increased in SSc patients with early disease, pulmonary arterial hypertension, and those that died during the 36 months of the study. In addition, its receptor CXCR6 was overexpressed on ECs in SSc skin. At the mRNA and protein levels, CXCR3 was decreased while CXCR6 was increased on SSc ECs vs. human microvascular endothelial cells (HMVECs). Conclusions These results show that while the expression of MIG/CXCL9 and IP-10/CXCL10 are elevated in SSc serum, the expression of CXCR3 is downregulated on SSc dermal ECs. In contrast, CXCL16 and CXCR6 are elevated in SSc serum and on SSc dermal ECs, respectively. In all, these findings suggest angiogenic chemokine receptor expression is likely regulated in an effort to promote angiogenesis in SSc skin.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112894/1/13075_2010_Article_3001.pd

Investigating Behaviour and Population Dynamics of Striped Marlin (Kajikia audax) from the Southwest Pacific Ocean with Satellite Tags

Behaviour and distribution of striped marlin within the southwest Pacific Ocean were investigated using electronic tagging data collected from 2005–2008. A continuous-time correlated random-walk Kalman filter was used to integrate double-tagging data exhibiting variable error structures into movement trajectories composed of regular time-steps. This state-space trajectory integration approach improved longitude and latitude error distributions by 38.5 km and 22.2 km respectively. Using these trajectories as inputs, a behavioural classification model was developed to infer when, and where, ‘transiting’ and ‘area-restricted’ (ARB) pseudo-behavioural states occurred. ARB tended to occur at shallower depths (108±49 m) than did transiting behaviours (127±57 m). A 16 day post-release period of diminished ARB activity suggests that patterns of behaviour were affected by the capture and/or tagging events, implying that tagged animals may exhibit atypical behaviour upon release. The striped marlin in this study dove deeper and spent greater time at ≥200 m depth than those in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. As marlin reached tropical latitudes (20–21°S) they consistently reversed directions, increased swimming speed and shifted to transiting behaviour. Reversals in the tropics also coincided with increases in swimming depth, including increased time ≥250 m. Our research provides enhanced understanding of the behavioural ecology of striped marlin. This has implications for the effectiveness of spatially explicit population models and we demonstrate the need to consider geographic variation when standardizing CPUE by depth, and provide data to inform natural and recreational fishing mortality parameters

A line-based approach for precise extraction of road and curb region from mobile mapping data

Planar structure detection from point clouds is important process in many applications such as maintenance of infrastructure facility including roads and curbs because most artificial structures consists of planar surfaces. The Mobile Mapping System can obtain a large amount of points with traveling at a standard speed. However, in the case that the high-end laser scanning system is equipped, the distribution density of points is uneven. In the point-based method, this situation causes the problem to the method of calculating geometric information using neighborhood points. In this paper, we propose a line-based region growing method in order to detect planar structures with precise boundary from point clouds with uneven distribution density of points. The precise boundary of a planar structure is maintained by appropriately creating line segments from the input clouds. We adapt the definition of neighborhood and the estimation of the normal vector to the line-based region growing. The evaluation by comparing our result with manually extracted points shows that more than 98% of curb points are detected. And, about 90% of the boundary points between a road and a curb are detected with less than 0.005 meters of the distance error

The magnesium-protoporphyrin IX (oxidative) cyclase system. Studies on the mechanism and specificity of the reaction sequence.

Mg-protoporphyrin IX monomethyl ester cyclase activity was assayed in isolated developing cucumber (Cucumis sativus L. var. Beit Alpha) chloroplasts [Chereskin, Wong & Castelfranco (1982) Plant Physiol. 70, 987-993]. The presence of both 6- and 7-methyl esterase activities was detected, which permitted the use of diester porphyrins in a substrate-specificity study. It was found that: (1) the 6-methyl acrylate derivative of Mg-protoporphyrin monomethyl ester was inactive as a substrate for cyclization; (2) only one of the two enantiomers of 6-beta-hydroxy-Mg-protoporphyrin dimethyl ester had detectable activity as a substrate for the cyclase; (3) the 2-vinyl-4-ethyl-6-beta-oxopropionate derivatives of Mg-protoporphyrin mono- or di-methyl ester were approx. 4 times more active as substrates for cyclization than the corresponding divinyl forms; (4) at the level of Mg-protoporphyrin there was no difference in cyclase activity between the 4-vinyl and 4-ethyl substrates; (5) reduction of the side chain of Mg-protoporphyrin in the 2-position from a vinyl to an ethyl resulted in a partial loss of cyclase activity. This work suggests that the original scheme for cyclization proposed by Granick [(1950) Harvey Lect. 44, 220-245] should now be modified by the omission of the 6-methyl acrylate derivative of Mg-protoporphyrin monomethyl ester and the introduction of stereo-specificity at the level of the hydroxylated intermediate