216 research outputs found
Structure optimization in an off-lattice protein model
We study an off-lattice protein toy model with two species of monomers
interacting through modified Lennard-Jones interactions. Low energy
configurations are optimized using the pruned-enriched-Rosenbluth method
(PERM), hitherto employed to native state searches only for off lattice models.
For 2 dimensions we found states with lower energy than previously proposed
putative ground states, for all chain lengths . This indicates that
PERM has the potential to produce native states also for more realistic protein
models. For , where no published ground states exist, we present some
putative lowest energy states for future comparison with other methods.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Water-like anomalies for core-softened models of fluids: One dimension
We use a one-dimensional (1d) core-softened potential to develop a physical
picture for some of the anomalies present in liquid water. The core-softened
potential mimics the effect of hydrogen bonding. The interest in the 1d system
stems from the facts that closed-form results are possible and that the
qualitative behavior in 1d is reproduced in the liquid phase for higher
dimensions. We discuss the relation between the shape of the potential and the
density anomaly, and we study the entropy anomaly resulting from the density
anomaly. We find that certain forms of the two-step square well potential lead
to the existence at T=0 of a low-density phase favored at low pressures and of
a high-density phase favored at high pressures, and to the appearance of a
point at a positive pressure, which is the analog of the T=0 ``critical
point'' in the Ising model. The existence of point leads to anomalous
behavior of the isothermal compressibility and the isobaric specific heat
.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure
Atom loss and the formation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate by Feshbach resonance
In experiments conducted recently at MIT on Na Bose-Einstein condensates [S.
Inouye et al, Nature 392, 151 (1998); J. Stenger et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82,
2422 (1999)], large loss rates were observed when a time-varying magnetic field
was used to tune a molecular Feshbach resonance state near the state of a pair
of atoms in the condensate. A collisional deactivation mechanism affecting a
temporarily formed molecular condensate [see V. A. Yurovsky, A. Ben-Reuven, P.
S. Julienne and C. J. Williams, Phys. Rev. A 60, R765 (1999)], studied here in
more detail, accounts for the results of the slow-sweep experiments. A best fit
to the MIT data yields a rate coefficient for deactivating atom-molecule
collisions of 1.6e-10 cm**3/s. In the case of the fast sweep experiment, a
study is carried out of the combined effect of two competing mechanisms, the
three-atom (atom-molecule) or four-atom (molecule-molecule) collisional
deactivation vs. a process of two-atom trap-state excitation by curve crossing
[F. H. Mies, P. S. Julienne, and E. Tiesinga, Phys. Rev. A 61, 022721 (2000)].
It is shown that both mechanisms contribute to the loss comparably and
nonadditively.Comment: LaTeX, 14 pages, 12 PostScript figures, uses REVTeX and psfig,
submitted to Physical Review
Self-consistent model of ultracold atomic collisions and Feshbach resonances in tight harmonic traps
We consider the problem of cold atomic collisions in tight traps, where the
absolute scattering length may be larger than the trap size. As long as the
size of the trap ground state is larger than a characteristic length of the van
der Waals potential, the energy eigenvalues can be computed self-consistently
from the scattering amplitude for untrapped atoms. By comparing with the exact
numerical eigenvalues of the trapping plus interatomic potentials, we verify
that our model gives accurate eigenvalues up to milliKelvin energies for single
channel s-wave scattering of Na atoms in an isotropic harmonic trap,
even when outside the Wigner threshold regime. Our model works also for
multi-channel scattering, where the scattering length can be made large due to
a magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures (PostScript), submitted to Physical Review
High prevalence of chitotriosidase deficiency in Peruvian Amerindians exposed to chitin-bearing food and enteroparasites
The human genome encodes a gene for an enzymatically active chitinase (CHIT1) located in a single copy on Chromosome 1, which is highly expressed by activated macrophages and in other cells of the innate immune response. Several dysfunctional mutations are known in CHIT1, including a 24-bp duplication in Exon 10 causing catalytic deficiency. This duplication is a common variant conserved in many human populations, except in West and South Africans. Thus it has been proposed that human migration out of Africa and the consequent reduction of exposure to chitin from environmental factors may have enabled the conservation of dysfunctional mutations in human chitinases. Our data obtained from 85 indigenous Amerindians from Peru, representative of populations characterized by high prevalence of chitin-bearing enteroparasites and intense entomophagy, reveal a very high frequency of the 24-bp duplication (47.06%), and of other single nucleotide polymorphisms which are known to partially affect enzymatic activity (G102S: 42.7% and A442G/V: 25.5%). Our finding is in line with a founder effect, but appears to confute our previous hypothesis of a protective role against parasite infection and sustains the discussion on the redundancy of chitinolytic function
Psychology and aggression
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68264/2/10.1177_002200275900300301.pd
Human infection challenge in the pandemic era and beyond, HIC-Vac annual meeting report, 2022
HIC-Vac is an international network of researchers dedicated to developing human infection challenge studies to accelerate vaccine development against pathogens of high global impact. The HIC-Vac Annual Meeting (3rd and 4th November 2022) brought together stakeholders including researchers, ethicists, volunteers, policymakers, industry partners, and funders with a strong representation from low- and middle-income countries. The network enables sharing of research findings, especially in endemic regions. Discussions included pandemic preparedness and the role of human challenge to accelerate vaccine development during outbreak, with industry speakers emphasising the great utility of human challenge in vaccine development. Public consent, engagement, and participation in human challenge studies were addressed, along with the role of embedded social science and empirical studies to uncover social, ethical, and regulatory issues around human infection challenge studies. Study volunteers shared their experiences and motivations for participating in studies. This report summarises completed and ongoing human challenge studies across a variety of pathogens and demographics, and addresses other key issues discussed at the meeting
Measurement of the cross section for isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector
The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti- algorithm with radius parameter and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photon–jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon–jet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements
A search for resonances decaying into a Higgs boson and a new particle X in the XH → qqbb final state with the ATLAS detector
A search for heavy resonances decaying into a Higgs boson (H) and a new particle (X) is reported, utilizing 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at collected during 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The particle X is assumed to decay to a pair of light quarks, and the fully hadronic final state is analysed. The search considers the regime of high XH resonance masses, where the X and H bosons are both highly Lorentz-boosted and are each reconstructed using a single jet with large radius parameter. A two-dimensional phase space of XH mass versus X mass is scanned for evidence of a signal, over a range of XH resonance mass values between 1 TeV and 4 TeV, and for X particles with masses from 50 GeV to 1000 GeV. All search results are consistent with the expectations for the background due to Standard Model processes, and 95% CL upper limits are set, as a function of XH and X masses, on the production cross-section of the resonance
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