109 research outputs found
Spontaneous circadian rhythms in a cold-Adapted natural isolate of Aureobasidium pullulans
Indexación: Scopus.Circadian systems enable organisms to synchronize their physiology to daily and seasonal environmental changes relying on endogenous pacemakers that oscillate with a period close to 24 h even in the absence of external timing cues. The oscillations are achieved by intracellular transcriptional/translational feedback loops thoroughly characterized for many organisms, but still little is known about the presence and characteristics of circadian clocks in fungi other than Neurospora crassa. We sought to characterize the circadian system of a natural isolate of Aureobasidium pullulans, a cold-Adapted yeast bearing great biotechnological potential. A. pullulans formed daily concentric rings that were synchronized by light/dark cycles and were also formed in constant darkness with a period of 24.5 h. Moreover, these rhythms were temperature compensated, as evidenced by experiments conducted at temperatures as low as 10 °C. Finally, the expression of clock-essential genes, frequency, white collar-1, white collar-2 and vivid was confirmed. In summary, our results indicate the existence of a functional circadian clock in A. pullulans, capable of sustaining rhythms at very low temperatures and, based on the presence of conserved clock-gene homologues, suggest a molecular and functional relationship to well-described circadian systems.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14085-
Properties of dense partially random graphs
We study the properties of random graphs where for each vertex a {\it
neighbourhood} has been previously defined. The probability of an edge joining
two vertices depends on whether the vertices are neighbours or not, as happens
in Small World Graphs (SWGs). But we consider the case where the average degree
of each node is of order of the size of the graph (unlike SWGs, which are
sparse). This allows us to calculate the mean distance and clustering, that are
qualitatively similar (although not in such a dramatic scale range) to the case
of SWGs. We also obtain analytically the distribution of eigenvalues of the
corresponding adjacency matrices. This distribution is discrete for large
eigenvalues and continuous for small eigenvalues. The continuous part of the
distribution follows a semicircle law, whose width is proportional to the
"disorder" of the graph, whereas the discrete part is simply a rescaling of the
spectrum of the substrate. We apply our results to the calculation of the
mixing rate and the synchronizability threshold.Comment: 14 pages. To be published in Physical Review
Bound State and Order Parameter Mixing Effect by Nonmagnetic Impurity Scattering in Two-band Superconductors
We investigate nonmagnetic impurity effects in two-band superconductors,
focusing on the effects of interband scatterings. Within the Born
approximation, it is known that interband scatterings mix order parameters in
the two bands. In particular, only one averaged energy gap appears in the
excitation spectrum in the dirty limit. [G. Gusman: J. Phys. Chem. Solids {\bf
28} (1967) 2327.] In this paper, we take into account the interband scattering
within the -matrix approximation beyond the Born approximation in the
previous work. We show that, although the interband scattering is responsible
for the mixing effect, this effect becomes weak when the interband scattering
becomes very strong. In the strong interband scattering limit, a two-gap
structure corresponding to two order parameters recovers in the superconducting
density of states. We also show that a bound state appears around a nonmagnetic
impurity depending on the phase of interband scattering potential.Comment: 28pages, 10 figure
Moment Closure - A Brief Review
Moment closure methods appear in myriad scientific disciplines in the
modelling of complex systems. The goal is to achieve a closed form of a large,
usually even infinite, set of coupled differential (or difference) equations.
Each equation describes the evolution of one "moment", a suitable
coarse-grained quantity computable from the full state space. If the system is
too large for analytical and/or numerical methods, then one aims to reduce it
by finding a moment closure relation expressing "higher-order moments" in terms
of "lower-order moments". In this brief review, we focus on highlighting how
moment closure methods occur in different contexts. We also conjecture via a
geometric explanation why it has been difficult to rigorously justify many
moment closure approximations although they work very well in practice.Comment: short survey paper (max 20 pages) for a broad audience in
mathematics, physics, chemistry and quantitative biolog
Bioactive Compounds of Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L.)
Rambutan, a widely popular tropical fruit encompasses rich amount of bioactive compounds.
All parts of this plant (leaves, bark, root, fruits, fruit skin, pulp and seeds) finds traditional
usage, and are linked with high therapeutic values. Rambutan fruits parts like that of peel, pulp
and seeds have been scientifically investigated in-depth and is reported to encompass high
amounts of bioactive compounds (such as polyphenol, flavonoid, alkaloid, essential mineral,
dietary fiber). These compounds contribute towards antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer,
antidiabetic and anti-obesity activities. However, literature pertaining towards potential
industrial applications (food, cosmetics, pharmaceutical) of rambutan fruits are limited. In the
present chapter, it is intended to document some of the interesting research themes published
on rambutan fruits, and identify the existing gaps to open up arena for future research work.This chapter theme is based on our ongoing project—VALORTECH,
which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
program under grant agreement No 810630
Pharmacokinetics in mice and growth-inhibitory properties of the putative cancer chemopreventive agent resveratrol and the synthetic analogue trans 3,4,5,4′-tetramethoxystilbene
Adaptive Contact Networks Change Effective Disease Infectiousness and Dynamics
Human societies are organized in complex webs that are constantly reshaped by a social dynamic which is influenced by the information individuals have about others. Similarly, epidemic spreading may be affected by local information that makes individuals aware of the health status of their social contacts, allowing them to avoid contact with those infected and to remain in touch with the healthy. Here we study disease dynamics in finite populations in which infection occurs along the links of a dynamical contact network whose reshaping may be biased based on each individual's health status. We adopt some of the most widely used epidemiological models, investigating the impact of the reshaping of the contact network on the disease dynamics. We derive analytical results in the limit where network reshaping occurs much faster than disease spreading and demonstrate numerically that this limit extends to a much wider range of time scales than one might anticipate. Specifically, we show that from a population-level description, disease propagation in a quickly adapting network can be formulated equivalently as disease spreading on a well-mixed population but with a rescaled infectiousness. We find that for all models studied here – SI, SIS and SIR – the effective infectiousness of a disease depends on the population size, the number of infected in the population, and the capacity of healthy individuals to sever contacts with the infected. Importantly, we indicate how the use of available information hinders disease progression, either by reducing the average time required to eradicate a disease (in case recovery is possible), or by increasing the average time needed for a disease to spread to the entire population (in case recovery or immunity is impossible)
Polygala extraaxillaris: oxidative stress in Brachiaria decumbens mediated by volatile oils
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