1,107 research outputs found
Status of the Planet Formation Imager (PFI) concept
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SPIE via the DOI in this record.The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) project aims to image the period of planet assembly directly, resolving
structures as small as a giant planet’s Hill sphere. These images will be required in order to determine the key
mechanisms for planet formation at the time when processes of grain growth, protoplanet assembly, magnetic
fields, disk/planet dynamical interactions and complex radiative transfer all interact – making some planetary
systems habitable and others inhospitable. We will present the overall vision for the PFI concept, focusing
on the key technologies and requirements that are needed to achieve the science goals. Based on these key
requirements, we will define a cost envelope range for the design and highlight where the largest uncertainties
lie at this conceptual stage
Evidence for Efimov quantum states in an ultracold gas of cesium atoms
Systems of three interacting particles are notorious for their complex
physical behavior. A landmark theoretical result in few-body quantum physics is
Efimov's prediction of a universal set of bound trimer states appearing for
three identical bosons with a resonant two-body interaction.
Counterintuitively, these states even exist in the absence of a corresponding
two-body bound state. Since the formulation of Efimov's problem in the context
of nuclear physics 35 years ago, it has attracted great interest in many areas
of physics. However, the observation of Efimov quantum states has remained an
elusive goal. Here we report the observation of an Efimov resonance in an
ultracold gas of cesium atoms. The resonance occurs in the range of large
negative two-body scattering lengths, arising from the coupling of three free
atoms to an Efimov trimer. Experimentally, we observe its signature as a giant
three-body recombination loss when the strength of the two-body interaction is
varied. We also detect a minimum in the recombination loss for positive
scattering lengths, indicating destructive interference of decay pathways. Our
results confirm central theoretical predictions of Efimov physics and represent
a starting point with which to explore the universal properties of resonantly
interacting few-body systems. While Feshbach resonances have provided the key
to control quantum-mechanical interactions on the two-body level, Efimov
resonances connect ultracold matter to the world of few-body quantum phenomena.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure
Transposed Genes in Arabidopsis Are Often Associated with Flanking Repeats
Much of the eukaryotic genome is known to be mobile, largely due to the movement of transposons and other parasitic elements. Recent work in plants and Drosophila suggests that mobility is also a feature of many nontransposon genes and gene families. Indeed, analysis of the Arabidopsis genome suggested that as many as half of all genes had moved to unlinked positions since Arabidopsis diverged from papaya roughly 72 million years ago, and that these mobile genes tend to fall into distinct gene families. However, the mechanism by which single gene transposition occurred was not deduced. By comparing two closely related species, Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabidopsis lyrata, we sought to determine the nature of gene transposition in Arabidopsis. We found that certain categories of genes are much more likely to have transposed than others, and that many of these transposed genes are flanked by direct repeat sequence that was homologous to sequence within the orthologous target site in A. lyrata and which was predominantly genic in identity. We suggest that intrachromosomal recombination between tandemly duplicated sequences, and subsequent insertion of the circular product, is the predominant mechanism of gene transposition
Radio-frequency dressed state potentials for neutral atoms
Potentials for atoms can be created by external fields acting on properties
like magnetic moment, charge, polarizability, or by oscillating fields which
couple internal states. The most prominent realization of the latter is the
optical dipole potential formed by coupling ground and electronically excited
states of an atom with light. Here we present an experimental investigation of
the remarkable properties of potentials derived from radio-frequency (RF)
coupling between electronic ground states. The coupling is magnetic and the
vector character allows to design state dependent potential landscapes. On atom
chips this enables robust coherent atom manipulation on much smaller spatial
scales than possible with static fields alone. We find no additional heating or
collisional loss up to densities approaching atoms / cm compared
to static magnetic traps. We demonstrate the creation of Bose-Einstein
condensates in RF potentials and investigate the difference in the interference
between two independently created and two coherently split condensates in
identical traps. All together this makes RF dressing a powerful new tool for
micro manipulation of atomic and molecular systems
Observation of an Efimov spectrum in an atomic system
In 1970 V. Efimov predicted a puzzling quantum-mechanical effect that is
still of great interest today. He found that three particles subjected to a
resonant pairwise interaction can join into an infinite number of loosely bound
states even though each particle pair cannot bind. Interestingly, the
properties of these aggregates, such as the peculiar geometric scaling of their
energy spectrum, are universal, i.e. independent of the microscopic details of
their components. Despite an extensive search in many different physical
systems, including atoms, molecules and nuclei, the characteristic spectrum of
Efimov trimer states still eludes observation. Here we report on the discovery
of two bound trimer states of potassium atoms very close to the Efimov
scenario, which we reveal by studying three-particle collisions in an ultracold
gas. Our observation provides the first evidence of an Efimov spectrum and
allows a direct test of its scaling behaviour, shedding new light onto the
physics of few-body systems.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
A Dual-Beam Irradiation Facility for a Novel Hybrid Cancer Therapy
In this paper we present the main ideas and discuss both the feasibility and
the conceptual design of a novel hybrid technique and equipment for an
experimental cancer therapy based on the simultaneous and/or sequential
application of two beams, namely a beam of neutrons and a CW (continuous wave)
or intermittent sub-terahertz wave beam produced by a gyrotron for treatment of
cancerous tumors. The main simulation tools for the development of the computer
aided design (CAD) of the prospective experimental facility for clinical trials
and study of such new medical technology are briefly reviewed. Some tasks for a
further continuation of this feasibility analysis are formulated as well.Comment: 18 pages, 3 tables, 8 figures, 50 reference
Large introns in relation to alternative splicing and gene evolution: a case study of Drosophila bruno-3
Background:
Alternative splicing (AS) of maturing mRNA can generate structurally and functionally distinct transcripts from the same gene. Recent bioinformatic analyses of available genome databases inferred a positive correlation between intron length and AS. To study the interplay between intron length and AS empirically and in more detail, we analyzed the diversity of alternatively spliced transcripts (ASTs) in the Drosophila RNA-binding Bruno-3 (Bru-3) gene. This gene was known to encode thirteen exons separated by introns of diverse sizes, ranging from 71 to 41,973 nucleotides in D. melanogaster. Although Bru-3's structure is expected to be conducive to AS, only two ASTs of this gene were previously described.
Results:
Cloning of RT-PCR products of the entire ORF from four species representing three diverged Drosophila lineages provided an evolutionary perspective, high sensitivity, and long-range contiguity of splice choices currently unattainable by high-throughput methods. Consequently, we identified three new exons, a new exon fragment and thirty-three previously unknown ASTs of Bru-3. All exon-skipping events in the gene were mapped to the exons surrounded by introns of at least 800 nucleotides, whereas exons split by introns of less than 250 nucleotides were always spliced contiguously in mRNA. Cases of exon loss and creation during Bru-3 evolution in Drosophila were also localized within large introns. Notably, we identified a true de novo exon gain: exon 8 was created along the lineage of the obscura group from intronic sequence between cryptic splice sites conserved among all Drosophila species surveyed. Exon 8 was included in mature mRNA by the species representing all the major branches of the obscura group. To our knowledge, the origin of exon 8 is the first documented case of exonization of intronic sequence outside vertebrates.
Conclusion:
We found that large introns can promote AS via exon-skipping and exon turnover during evolution likely due to frequent errors in their removal from maturing mRNA. Large introns could be a reservoir of genetic diversity, because they have a greater number of mutable sites than short introns. Taken together, gene structure can constrain and/or promote gene evolution
Potassium channel gene mutations rarely cause atrial fibrillation
BACKGROUND: Mutations in several potassium channel subunits have been associated with rare forms of atrial fibrillation. In order to explore the role of potassium channels in inherited typical forms of the arrhythmia, we have screened a cohort of patients from a referral clinic for mutations in the channel subunit genes implicated in the arrhythmia. We sought to determine if mutations in KCNJ2 and KCNE1-5 are a common cause of atrial fibrillation. METHODS: Serial patients with lone atrial fibrillation or atrial fibrillation with hypertension were enrolled between June 1, 2001 and January 6, 2005. Each patient underwent a standardized interview and physical examination. An electrocardiogram, echocardiogram and blood sample for genetic analysis were also obtained. Patients with a family history of AF were screened for mutations in KCNJ2 and KCNE1-5 using automated sequencing. RESULTS: 96 patients with familial atrial fibrillation were enrolled. Eighty-three patients had lone atrial fibrillation and 13 had atrial fibrillation and hypertension. Patients had a mean age of 56 years at enrollment and 46 years at onset of atrial fibrillation. Eighty-one percent of patients had paroxysmal atrial fibrillation at enrollment. Unlike patients with an activating mutation in KCNQ1, the patients had a normal QT(c )interval with a mean of 412 ± 42 ms. Echocardiography revealed a normal mean ejection fraction of 62.0 ± 7.2 % and mean left atrial dimension of 39.9 ± 7.0 mm. A number of common polymorphisms in KCNJ2 and KCNE1-5 were identified, but no mutations were detected. CONCLUSION: Mutations in KCNJ2 and KCNE1-5 rarely cause typical atrial fibrillation in a referral clinic population
Sequencing of Pooled DNA Samples (Pool-Seq) Uncovers Complex Dynamics of Transposable Element Insertions in Drosophila melanogaster
Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that parasitize genomes by semi-autonomously increasing their own copy number within the host genome. While TEs are important for genome evolution, appropriate methods for performing unbiased genome-wide surveys of TE variation in natural populations have been lacking. Here, we describe a novel and cost-effective approach for estimating population frequencies of TE insertions using paired-end Illumina reads from a pooled population sample. Importantly, the method treats insertions present in and absent from the reference genome identically, allowing unbiased TE population frequency estimates. We apply this method to data from a natural Drosophila melanogaster population from Portugal. Consistent with previous reports, we show that low recombining genomic regions harbor more TE insertions and maintain insertions at higher frequencies than do high recombining regions. We conservatively estimate that there are almost twice as many “novel” TE insertion sites as sites known from the reference sequence in our population sample (6,824 novel versus 3,639 reference sites, with on average a 31-fold coverage per insertion site). Different families of transposable elements show large differences in their insertion densities and population frequencies. Our analyses suggest that the history of TE activity significantly contributes to this pattern, with recently active families segregating at lower frequencies than those active in the more distant past. Finally, using our high-resolution TE abundance measurements, we identified 13 candidate positively selected TE insertions based on their high population frequencies and on low Tajima's D values in their neighborhoods
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