Localized Activation of Bending in Proximal, Medial and Distal Regions of Sea-Urchin Sperm Flagella

Spermatozoa from the sea urchin, Colobocentrotus atratus, were partially demembranated by extraction with solutions containing Triton X-100 at a concentration which was insufficient to solubilize the membranes completely. The resulting suspension was a mixture containing some spermatozoa in which a proximal, medial, or distal portion of the flagellum was membrane-covered, while the remaining portion was naked axoneme. In reactivating solutions containing 12 µM ATP, only the naked portions of the flagellum became motile. In reactivating solutions containing 0.8 mM ADP, the membrane-covered regions became motile and beat at 6-10 beats/s, while the naked regions remained immobile, or beat very slowly at about 0.3 beat/s. Activation of membrane-covered regions in ADP solutions probably results from the membrane restricting the diffusion of ATP which is formed from ADP by the axonemal adenylate kinase. The results indicate that any region of the flagellum has the capacity for autonomous beating, and that special properties of the basal end of the flagellum are not required for bend initiation. However, the beating of different regions of the flagellum is not completely independent, for in a fair number of spermatozoa the beating of the distal, membrane-covered region in 0.8 mM ADP was intermittent, and was turned on and off in phase with the much slower bending cycle in the proximal region of naked axoneme

Runge-Lenz operator for Dirac field in Taub-NUT background

Fermions in D=4 self-dual Euclidean Taub-NUT space are investigated. Dirac-type operators involving Killing-Yano tensors of the Taub-NUT geometry are explicitly given showing that they anticommute with the standard Dirac operator and commute with the Hamiltonian as it is expected. They are connected with the hidden symmetries of the space allowing the construction of a conserved vector operator analogous to the Runge-Lenz vector of the Kepler problem. This operator is written down pointing out its algebraic properties.Comment: 10 pages, latex, no figures. Version to appear in Phys.Lett.

Isometric Embedding of BPS Branes in Flat Spaces with Two Times

We show how non-near horizon p-brane theories can be obtained from two embedding constraints in a flat higher dimensional space with 2 time directions. In particular this includes the construction of D3 branes from a flat 12-dimensional action, and M2 and M5 branes from 13 dimensions. The worldvolume actions are determined by constant forms in the higher dimension, reduced to the usual expressions by Lagrange multipliers. The formulation affords insight in the global aspects of the spacetime geometries and makes contact with recent work on two-time physics.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, Latex using epsf.sty and here.sty; v2: reference added and some small correction

D-Instantons on the boundary

The Maldacena's proposal has established an intriguing connection between string theory in AdS spaces and gauge theory. In this paper we study the effects of adding D(-1)-branes to the system of D3- or (D1-D5)-branes and we give arguments indicating that D(-1)-branes are necessary to describe four and two dimensional instantons.Comment: 19 pages, latex, no figures; minor change

First Law, Counterterms and Kerr-AdS_5 Black Holes

We apply the counterterm subtraction technique to calculate the action and other quantities for the Kerr--AdS black hole in five dimensions using two boundary metrics; the Einstein universe and rotating Einstein universe with arbitrary angular velocity. In both cases, the resulting thermodynamic quantities satisfy the first law of thermodynamics. We point out that the reason for the violation of the first law in previous calculations is that the rotating Einstein universe, used as a boundary metric, was rotating with an angular velocity that depends on the black hole rotation parameter. Using a new coordinate system with a boundary metric that has an arbitrary angular velocity, one can show that the resulting physical quantities satisfy the first law.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur

Octonionic Gravitational Instantons

We construct eight-dimensional gravitational instantons by solving appropriate self-duality equations for the spin-connection. The particular gravitational instanton we present has $Spin(7)$ holonomy and, in a sense, it is the eight-dimensional analog of the Eguchi-Hanson 4D space. It has a removable bolt singularity which is topologically S^4 and its boundary at infinity is the squashed S^7. We also lift our solutions to ten and eleven dimensions and construct fundamental string and membrane configurations that preserve 1/16 of the original supersymmetries.Comment: 17 pages, latex, no figures. References to earlier works adde

Supersymmetry and discrete transformations of the Dirac operators in Taub-NUT geometry

It is shown that the N=4 superalgebra of the Dirac theory in Taub-NUT space has different unitary representations related among themselves through unitary U(2) transformations. In particular the SU(2) transformations are generated by the spin-like operators constructed with the help of the same covariantly constant Killing-Yano tensors which generate Dirac-type operators. A parity operator is defined and some explicit transformations which connect the Dirac-type operators among themselves are given. These transformations form a discrete group which is a realization of the quaternion discrete group. The fifth Dirac operator constructed using the non-covariant Killing-Yano tensor of the Taub-NUT space is quite special. This non-standard Dirac operator is connected with the hidden symmetry and is not equivalent to the Dirac-type operators of the standard N=4 supersymmetry.Comment: 14 pages, latex, no figure

FES rehabilitation platform with real-time control and performance feedback.

Osteoporosis after spinal cord injury is associated with low-trauma fractures, and consequently with increased risk of morbidity and mortality. The loss of bone mass density (BMD) due to paraplegia can be reduced through cyclical electrically-induced muscle contractions. Here we propose an FES control system based on posture switching, that induces transient loading of the lower limbs during a set of standing postures. This aims to produce an increased, evenly distributed BMD, whilst minimising FES-induced muscle fatigue. Here we describe the design and assessment of the FES exercising platform, comprising a controllable multi-channel electrical stimulator and an instrumented standing frame. The platform supports standing and postural shifting, provides real-time human-in-the-loop FES control with on-line feedback to the user. The platforms is used to investigate the effect of regular exercise on the distribution of BMD in people with paraplegia