4,922 research outputs found
Discovery of a Peculiar Dip from GX 301-2
We present temporal and spectral properties of a unique X-ray dip in GX 301-2
as seen with Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer in May 2010. The X-ray pulsation from
the source gradually declined prior to the dip, disappears for one spin cycle
during the dip and is abruptly restored in the spin cycle immediately after the
dip. Moreover, the phase-integrated spectrum of the source becomes softer
before and during the dip and it quickly hardens again following the dip. Our
findings indicate the fact that the mechanism for pulsations gradually turned
off briefly and underlying dim and softer emission likely from the accretion
column became observable in the brief absence of high level emission due to
wind accretion.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letter
Janus and Multifaced Supersymmetric Theories
We investigate the various properties Janus supersymmetric Yang-Mills
theories. A novel vacuum structure is found and BPS monopoles and dyons are
studied. Less supersymmetric Janus theories found before are derived by a
simpler method. In addition, we find the supersymmetric theories when the
coupling constant depends on two and three spatial coordinates.Comment: 20 pages, no figures, typos, equations corrected. Additional comment
Nedd4-2 haploinsufficiency causes hyperactivity and increased sensitivity to inflammatory stimuli
Nedd4-2 (NEDD4L in humans) is a ubiquitin protein ligase best known for its role in regulating ion channel internalization and turnover. Nedd4-2 deletion in mice causes perinatal lethality associated with increased epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) expression in lung and kidney. Abundant data suggest that Nedd4-2 plays a role in neuronal functions and may be linked to epilepsy and dyslexia in humans. We used a mouse model of Nedd4-2 haploinsufficiency to investigate whether an alteration in Nedd4-2 levels of expression affects general nervous system functions. We found that Nedd4-2 heterozygous mice are hyperactive, have increased basal synaptic transmission and have enhanced sensitivity to inflammatory pain. Thus, Nedd4-2 heterozygous mice provide a new genetic model to study inflammatory pain. These data also suggest that in human, SNPs affecting NEDD4L levels may be involved in the development of neuropsychological deficits and peripheral neuropathies and may help unveil the genetic basis of comorbidities
Biochemical Diversification through Foreign Gene Expression in Bdelloid Rotifers
Bdelloid rotifers are microinvertebrates with unique characteristics: they have survived tens of millions of years without sexual reproduction; they withstand extreme desiccation by undergoing anhydrobiosis; and they tolerate very high levels of ionizing radiation. Recent evidence suggests that subtelomeric regions of the bdelloid genome contain sequences originating from other organisms by horizontal gene transfer (HGT), of which some are known to be transcribed. However, the extent to which foreign gene expression plays a role in bdelloid physiology is unknown. We address this in the first large scale analysis of the transcriptome of the bdelloid Adineta ricciae: cDNA libraries from hydrated and desiccated bdelloids were subjected to massively parallel sequencing and assembled transcripts compared against the UniProtKB database by blastx to identify their putative products. Of ∼29,000 matched transcripts, ∼10% were inferred from blastx matches to be horizontally acquired, mainly from eubacteria but also from fungi, protists, and algae. After allowing for possible sources of error, the rate of HGT is at least 8%–9%, a level significantly higher than other invertebrates. We verified their foreign nature by phylogenetic analysis and by demonstrating linkage of foreign genes with metazoan genes in the bdelloid genome. Approximately 80% of horizontally acquired genes expressed in bdelloids code for enzymes, and these represent 39% of enzymes in identified pathways. Many enzymes encoded by foreign genes enhance biochemistry in bdelloids compared to other metazoans, for example, by potentiating toxin degradation or generation of antioxidants and key metabolites. They also supplement, and occasionally potentially replace, existing metazoan functions. Bdelloid rotifers therefore express horizontally acquired genes on a scale unprecedented in animals, and foreign genes make a profound contribution to their metabolism. This represents a potential mechanism for ancient asexuals to adapt rapidly to changing environments and thereby persist over long evolutionary time periods in the absence of sex
Intelligent Financial Fraud Detection Practices: An Investigation
Financial fraud is an issue with far reaching consequences in the finance
industry, government, corporate sectors, and for ordinary consumers. Increasing
dependence on new technologies such as cloud and mobile computing in recent
years has compounded the problem. Traditional methods of detection involve
extensive use of auditing, where a trained individual manually observes reports
or transactions in an attempt to discover fraudulent behaviour. This method is
not only time consuming, expensive and inaccurate, but in the age of big data
it is also impractical. Not surprisingly, financial institutions have turned to
automated processes using statistical and computational methods. This paper
presents a comprehensive investigation on financial fraud detection practices
using such data mining methods, with a particular focus on computational
intelligence-based techniques. Classification of the practices based on key
aspects such as detection algorithm used, fraud type investigated, and success
rate have been covered. Issues and challenges associated with the current
practices and potential future direction of research have also been identified.Comment: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Security and
Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm 2014
Three-dimensional N=4 supersymmetry in harmonic N=3 superspace
We consider the map of three-dimensional N=4 superfields to N=3 harmonic
superspace. The left and right representations of the N=4 superconformal group
are constructed on N=3 analytic superfields. These representations are
convenient for the description of N=4 superconformal couplings of the Abelian
gauge superfields with hypermultiplets. We analyze the N=4 invariance in the
non-Abelian N=3 Yang-Mills theory.Comment: Latex file, 22 pages; v2 two references adde
Constraining the Detailed Balance Condition in Horava Gravity with Cosmic Accelerating Expansion
In 2009 Ho\v{r}ava proposed a power-counting renormalizable quantum gravity
theory. Afterwards a term in the action that softly violates the detailed
balance condition has been considered with the attempt of obtaining a more
realistic theory in its IR-limit. This term is proportional to , where is a constant parameter and is the spatial
Ricci scalar. In this paper we derive constraints on this IR-modified
Ho\v{r}ava theory using the late-time cosmic accelerating expansion
observations. We obtain a lower bound of that is nontrivial and
depends on , the cosmological constant of the three dimensional
spatial action in the Ho\v{r}ava gravity. We find that to preserve the detailed
balance condition, one needs to fine-tune such that - 2.29\times
10^{-4}< (c^2 \Lambda_W)/(H^2_0 \currentDE) - 2 < 0 , where and
\currentDE are the Hubble parameter and dark energy density fraction in the
present epoch, respectively. On the other hand, if we do not insist on the
detailed balance condition, then the valid region for is much
relaxed to -0.39< (c^2 \Lambda_W)/(H^2_0 \currentDE) - 2 < 0.12. We find that
although the detailed balance condition cannot be ruled out, it is strongly
disfavored.Comment: 22 pages with 7 figures, references adde
Hamiltonian submanifolds of regular polytopes
We investigate polyhedral -manifolds as subcomplexes of the boundary
complex of a regular polytope. We call such a subcomplex {\it -Hamiltonian}
if it contains the full -skeleton of the polytope. Since the case of the
cube is well known and since the case of a simplex was also previously studied
(these are so-called {\it super-neighborly triangulations}) we focus on the
case of the cross polytope and the sporadic regular 4-polytopes. By our results
the existence of 1-Hamiltonian surfaces is now decided for all regular
polytopes.
Furthermore we investigate 2-Hamiltonian 4-manifolds in the -dimensional
cross polytope. These are the "regular cases" satisfying equality in Sparla's
inequality. In particular, we present a new example with 16 vertices which is
highly symmetric with an automorphism group of order 128. Topologically it is
homeomorphic to a connected sum of 7 copies of . By this
example all regular cases of vertices with or, equivalently, all
cases of regular -polytopes with are now decided.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure
Trends in Tissue Engineering for Blood Vessels
Over the years, cardiovascular diseases continue to increase and affect not only human health but also the economic stability worldwide. The advancement in tissue engineering is contributing a lot in dealing with this immediate need of alleviating human health. Blood vessel diseases are considered as major cardiovascular health problems. Although blood vessel transplantation is the most convenient treatment, it has been delimited due to scarcity of donors and the patient's conditions. However, tissue-engineered blood vessels are promising alternatives as mode of treatment for blood vessel defects. The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of the advancement on biofabrication technology for treatment of soft tissue defects particularly for vascular tissues. This will also provide an overview and update on the current status of tissue reconstruction especially from autologous stem cells, scaffolds, and scaffold-free cellular transplantable constructs. The discussion of this paper will be focused on the historical view of cardiovascular tissue engineering and stem cell biology. The representative studies featured in this paper are limited within the last decade in order to trace the trend and evolution of techniques for blood vessel tissue engineering
Kaluza-Klein Higher Derivative Induced Gravity
The existence and stability analysis of an inflationary solution in a
-dimensional anisotropic induced gravity is presented in this paper.
Nontrivial conditions in the field equations are shown to be compatible with a
cosmological model in which the 4-dimension external space evolves
inflationary, while, the D-dimension internal one is static. In particular,
only two additional constraints on the coupling constants are derived from the
abundant field equations and perturbation equations. In addition, a compact
formula for the non-redundant 4+D dimensional Friedmann equation is also
derived for convenience. Possible implications are also discussed in this
paper.Comment: 13 pages, typos/errors corrected, three additional appendices adde
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