Non-uniform Matter in Neutron Star Crusts Studied by the Variational Method with Thomas-Fermi Calculations

The equation of state (EOS) for neutron star (NS) crusts is studied in the Thomas-Fermi (TF) approximation using the EOS for uniform nuclear matter obtained by the variational method with the realistic nuclear Hamiltonian. The parameters associated with the nuclear three-body force, which are introduced to describe the saturation properties, are finely adjusted so that the TF calculations for isolated atomic nuclei reproduce the experimental data on masses and charge distributions satisfactorily. The resulting root-mean-square deviation of the masses from the experimental data for mass-measured nuclei is about 3 MeV. With use of the nuclear EOS thus determined, the nuclei in the crust of NS at zero temperature are calculated. The predicted proton numbers of the nuclei in the crust of NS are close to the gross behavior of the results by Negele and Vautherin, while they are larger than those for the EOS by Shen et al. due to the difference in the symmetry energy. The density profile of NS is calculated with the constructed EOS.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in PT

Variational Calculation for the Equation of State of Nuclear Matter at Finite Temperatures

An equation of state (EOS) for uniform nuclear matter is constructed at zero and finite temperatures with the variational method starting from the realistic nuclear Hamiltonian composed of the Argonne V18 and UIX potentials. The energy is evaluated in the two-body cluster approximation with the three-body-force contribution treated phenomenologically so as to reproduce the empirical saturation conditions. The obtained energies for symmetric nuclear matter and neutron matter at zero temperature are in fair agreement with those by Akmal, Pandharipande and Ravenhall, and the maximum mass of the neutron star is 2.2 Msolar. At finite temperatures, a variational method by Schmidt and Pandharipande is employed to evaluate the free energy, which is used to derive various thermodynamic quantities of nuclear matter necessary for supernova simulations. The result of this variational method at finite temperatures is found to be self-consistent.Comment: Revised Versio

Survivin a radiogenetic promoter for glioblastoma viral gene therapy independently from CArG motifs

BACKGROUND: Radiogenetic therapy is a novel approach in the treatment of cancer, which employs genetic modification to alter the sensitivity of tumor cells to the effect of applied radiation. AIM: To select a potent radiation inducible promoter in the context of brain tumors and to investigate if CArG radio responsive motifs or other elements in the promoter nucleotide sequences can correlate to its response to radiation. METHODS: To select initial candidates for promoter inducible elements, the levels of mRNA expression of six different promoters were assessed using Quantitative RTPCR in D54 MG cells before and after radiation exposure. Recombinant Ad/reporter genes driven by five different promoters; CMV, VEGF, FLT-1, DR5 and survivin were constructed. Glioma cell lines were infected with different multiplicity of infection of the (promoter) Ad or CMV Ad. Cells were then exposed to a range of radiation (0–12 Gy) at single fraction. Fluorescent microscopy, Luc assay and X-gal staining was used to detect the level of expression of related genes. Different glioma cell lines and normal astrocytes were infected with Ad survivin and exposed to radiation. The promoters were analyzed for presence of CArG radio-responsive motifs and CCAAT box consensus using NCBI blast bioinformatics software. RESULTS: Radiotherapy increases the expression of gene expression by 1.25–2.5 fold in different promoters other than survivin after 2 h of radiation. RNA analysis was done and has shown an increase in copy number of tenfold for survivin. Most importantly cells treated with RT and Ad Luc driven by survivin promoter showed a fivefold increase in expression after 2 Gy of radiation in comparison to non-irradiated cells. Presence or absence of CArG motifs did not correlate with promoter response to radiation. Survivin with the best response to radiation had the lowest number of CCAAT box. CONCLUSION: Survivin is a selective potent radiation inducible promoter for glioblastoma viral gene therapy and this response to radiation could be independent of CArG motifs

Investigating the demographic history of Japan using ancient oral microbiota

While microbial communities in the human body (microbiota) are now commonly associated with health and disease in industrialised populations, we know very little about how these communities co-evolved and changed with humans throughout history and deep prehistory. We can now examine these communities by sequencing ancient DNA preserved within calcified dental plaque (calculus), providing insights into the origins of disease and their links to human history. Here, we examine ancient DNA preserved within dental calculus samples and their associations with two major cultural periods in Japan: the Jomon period hunter–gatherers approximately 3000 years before present (BP) and the Edo period agriculturalists 400–150 BP. We investigate how human oral microbiomes have changed in Japan through time and explore the presence of microorganisms associated with oral diseases (e.g. periodontal disease, dental caries) in ancient Japanese populations. Finally, we explore oral microbial strain diversity and its potential links to ancient demography in ancient Japan by performing phylogenomic analysis of a widely conserved oral species—Anaerolineaceae oral taxon 439. This research represents, to our knowledge, the first study of ancient oral microbiomes from Japan and demonstrates that the analysis of ancient dental calculus can provide key information about the origin of non-infectious disease and its deep roots with human demography. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Insights into health and disease from ancient biomolecules’.Raphael Eisenhofer, Hideaki Kanzawa-Kiriyama, Ken-ichi Shinoda and Laura S. Weyric

Near-Infrared Adaptive Optics Spectroscopy of Binary Brown Dwarf HD 130948B and C

We present near-infrared spectroscopy of low-mass companions in a nearby triple system HD 130948 (Gliese 564, HR 5534). Adaptive optics on the Subaru Telescope allowed spectroscopy of the individual components of the 0".13 binary system. Based on a direct comparison with a series of template spectra, we determined the spectral types of HD 130948B and C to be L4 +- 1. If we take the young age of the primary star into account (0.3-0.8 Gyr), HD 130948B and C most likely are a binary brown dwarf system.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter