9,158 research outputs found
Stereociliary Myosin-1c Receptors Are Sensitive to Calcium Chelation and Absent from Cadherin 23 Mutant Mice
The identities of some of the constituents of the hair-cell transduction apparatus have been elucidated only recently. The molecular motor myosin-1c (Myo1c) functions in adaptation of the hair-cell response to sustained mechanical stimuli and is therefore an integral part of the transduction complex. Recent data indicate that Myo1c interacts in vitro with two other molecules proposed to be important for transduction: cadherin 23 (Cdh23), a candidate for the stereociliary tip link, and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2), which is abundant in the membranes of hair-cell stereocilia. It is not known, however, whether these interactions occur in hair cells. Using an in situ binding assay on saccular hair cells, we demonstrated previously that Myo1c interacts with molecules at stereociliary tips, the site of transduction, through sequences contained within its calmodulin (CaM)-binding neck domain, which can bind up to four CaM molecules. In the current study, we identify the second CaM-binding IQ domain as a region of Myo1c that mediates CaM-sensitive binding to stereociliary tips and to PIP2 immobilized on a solid support. Binding of Myo1c to stereociliary tips of cochlear and vestibular hair cells is disrupted by treatments that break tip links. In addition, Myo1c does not bind to stereocilia from mice whose hair cells lack Cdh23 protein despite the presence of PIP2 in the stereociliary membranes. Collectively, our data suggest that Myo1c and Cdh23 interact at the tips of hair-cell stereocilia and that this interaction is modulated by CaM
Thermal design and analysis of a hydrogen-burning wind tunnel model of an airframe-integrated scramjet
An aerodynamic model of a hydrogen burning, airframe integrated scramjet engine has been designed, fabricated, and instrumented. This model is to be tested in an electric arc heated wind tunnel at an altitude of 35.39 km (116,094 ft.) but with an inlet Mach number of 6 simulating precompression on an aircraft undersurface. The scramjet model is constructed from oxygen free, high conductivity copper and is a heat sink design except for water cooling in some critical locations. The model is instrumented for pressure, surface temperature, heat transfer rate, and thrust measurements. Calculated flow properties, heat transfer rates, and surface temperature distributions along the various engine components are included for the conditions stated above. For some components, estimates of thermal strain are presented which indicate significant reductions in plastic strain by selective cooling of the model. These results show that the 100 thermal cycle life of the engine was met with minimum distortion while staying within the 2669 N (600 lbf) engine weight limitation and while cooling the engine only in critical locations
Archaeal Hel308 helicase targets replication forks in vivo and in vitro and unwinds lagging strands
Mutations in mammalian and Drosophila Hel308 and PolQ paralogues cause genome instability but their helicase functions are mysterious. By in vivo and in vitro analysis, we show that Hel308 from archaea (Hel308a) may act at stalled replication forks. Introducing hel308a into Escherichia coli dnaE strains that conditionally accumulate stalled forks caused synthetic lethality, an effect indistinguishable from E.coli RecQ. Further analysis in vivo indicated that the effect of hel308a is exerted independently of homologous recombination. The minimal biochemical properties of Hel308a protein were the same as human Hel308. We describe how helicase actions of Hel308a at fork structures lead specifically to displacement of lagging strands. The invading strand of D-loops is also targeted. Using archaeal Hel308, we propose models of action for the helicase domain of PolQ, promoting loading of the translesion polymerase domain. We speculate that removal of lagging strands at stalled forks by Hel308 promotes the formation of initiation zones, priming restart of lagging strand synthesis
Auxiliary master equation for nonequilibrium dual-fermion approach
We introduce auxiliary quantum master equation - dual fermion approach
(QME-DF) and argue that it presents a convenient way to describe steady-states
of correlated impurity systems. The combined scheme yields an expansion around
a reference much closer to the true nonequilibrium state than in the original
dual fermion formulation. In steady-state situations, the scheme is numerically
cheaper and allows to avoid long time propagation of previous considerations.
Anderson impurity is used as a test model. The QME-DF simulations are compared
with numerically exact tdDMRG results.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Quantum circuits with uniformly controlled one-qubit gates
Uniformly controlled one-qubit gates are quantum gates which can be
represented as direct sums of two-dimensional unitary operators acting on a
single qubit. We present a quantum gate array which implements any n-qubit gate
of this type using at most 2^{n-1} - 1 controlled-NOT gates, 2^{n-1} one-qubit
gates and a single diagonal n-qubit gate. The circuit is based on the so-called
quantum multiplexor, for which we provide a modified construction. We
illustrate the versatility of these gates by applying them to the decomposition
of a general n-qubit gate and a local state preparation procedure. Moreover, we
study their implementation using only nearest-neighbor gates. We give upper
bounds for the one-qubit and controlled-NOT gate counts for all the
aforementioned applications. In all four cases, the proposed circuit topologies
either improve on or achieve the previously reported upper bounds for the gate
counts. Thus, they provide the most efficient method for general gate
decompositions currently known.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures. v2 has simpler notation and sharpens some
result
Where do we go from here? An assessment of navigation performance using a compass versus a GPS unit
The Global Positioning System (GPS) looks set to replace the traditional map and
compass for navigation tasks in military and civil domains. However, we may ask
whether GPS has a real performance advantage over traditional methods. We present
an exploratory study using a waypoint plotting task to compare the standard magnetic
compass against a military GPS unit, for both expert and non-expert navigators.
Whilst performance times were generally longer in setting up the GPS unit, once
navigation was underway the GPS was more efficient than the compass. For mediumto
long-term missions, this means that GPS could offer significant performance
benefits, although the compass remains superior for shorter missions.
Notwithstanding the performance times, significantly more errors, and more serious
errors, occurred when using the compass. Overall, then, the GPS offers some clear
advantages, especially for non-expert users. Nonetheless, concerns over the
development of cognitive maps remain when using GPS technologies
The Sivashinsky equation for corrugated flames in the large-wrinkle limit
Sivashinsky's (1977) nonlinear integro-differential equation for the shape of
corrugated 1-dimensional flames is ultimately reducible to a 2N-body problem,
involving the 2N complex poles of the flame slope. Thual, Frisch & Henon (1985)
derived singular linear integral equations for the pole density in the limit of
large steady wrinkles , which they solved exactly for monocoalesced
periodic fronts of highest amplitude of wrinkling and approximately otherwise.
Here we solve those analytically for isolated crests, next for monocoalesced
then bicoalesced periodic flame patterns, whatever the (large-) amplitudes
involved. We compare the analytically predicted pole densities and flame shapes
to numerical results deduced from the pole-decomposition approach. Good
agreement is obtained, even for moderately large Ns. The results are extended
to give hints as to the dynamics of supplementary poles. Open problems are
evoked
Electromagnetic Emission and Energy Loss in the QGP
I discuss why photon production from the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) presents an
interesting problem, both experimentally and theoretically. I show how the
photon emission rate can be computed under the simplifying assumption that the
QGP fully thermalizes. The theoretical issues are very similar to those for jet
energy loss; so it should be possible to treat them in a common formalism and
relate the predictions of one phenomenon to those of the other.Comment: 8 pages, invited talk at Quark Matter 200
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