434 research outputs found
Maternal inheritance on reproductive traits in Brangus-Ibagé cattle.
A influência da herança citoplasmática sobre características reprodutivas foi investigada em bovinos Brangus-Ibagé (3/8 Nelore x 5/8 Aberdeen Angus). Os efeitos genéticos aditivos foram responsáveis por 12% ± 11% da variação fenotípica observada no primeiro intervalo entre partos, mas esta contribuição decresceu para zero quando todos os intervalos entre partos (IEP) foram considerados. A herdabilidade da idade para o primeiro parto (IPP, em dias) foi estimada em 0,19 ± 0,09. A linhagem mitocondrial teve um efeito negligenciável na variância fenotípica do intervalo entre partos (0,0 ± 0,02), peso do terneiro ao nascer (0,0 ± 0,01) e peso da vaca ao parto (0,0 ± 0,01). No entanto, para a idade ao primeiro parto, a linhagem mitocondrial contribuiu com 0,15 ± 0,07 da variação total. O peso da vaca ao parto teve efeito linear significante em IEP e IPP. Três mutações na região D-loop do mtDNA afetaram significantemente o IEP (T C nos sítios 16.113 e 16.119) ou o peso do terneiro ao nascer (T C no sítio 16.113). As variantes C diminuíram o intervalo entre partos (29 e 32 dias, respectivamente) e aumentaram o peso do terneiro (0,6kg). Embora os efeitos sejam pequenos, a seleção de fêmeas portadoras dessas mutações poderia melhorar o desempenho reprodutivo e o desenvolvimento deste rebanho
Ubp43 gene expression is required for normal Isg15 expression and fetal development
BACKGROUND: Isg15 covalently modifies murine endometrial proteins in response to early pregnancy. Isg15 can also be severed from targeted proteins by a specific protease called Ubp43 (Usp18). Mice lacking Ubp43 (null) form increased conjugated Isg15 in response to interferon. The Isg15 system has not been examined in chorioallantoic placenta (CP) or mesometrial (MM) components of implantation sites beyond 9.5 days post coitum (dpc). It was hypothesized that deletion of Ubp43 would cause disregulation of Isg15 in implantation sites, and that this would affect pregnancy rates. METHODS: Heterozygous (het) Ubp43 mice were mated and MM and CP implantation sites were collected on 12.5 and 17.5 days post-coitum (dpc). RESULTS: Free and conjugated Isg15 were greater on 12.5 versus 17.5 dpc in MM. Free and conjugated Isg15 were also present in CP, but did not differ due to genotype on 12.5 dpc. However, null CP had greater free and conjugated Isg15 when compared to het/wt on 17.5 dpc. Null progeny died in utero with fetal genotype ratios (wt:het:null) of 2:5:1 on 12.5 and 2:2:1 on 17.5 dpc. Implantation sites were disrupted within the junctional zone and spongiotrophoblast, contained less vasculature based on lectin B4 staining and contained greater Isg15 mRNA and VEGF protein in Ubp43 null when compared to wt placenta. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that Isg15 and its conjugates are present in implantation sites during mid to late gestation and that deletion of Ubp43 causes an increase in free and conjugated Isg15 at the feto-maternal interface. Also, under mixed genetic background, deletion of Ubp43 results in fetal death
Dense active matter model of motion patterns in confluent cell monolayers
Epithelial cell monolayers show remarkable displacement and velocity
correlations over distances of ten or more cell sizes that are reminiscent of
supercooled liquids and active nematics. We show that many observed features
can be described within the framework of dense active matter, and argue that
persistent uncoordinated cell motility coupled to the collective elastic modes
of the cell sheet is sufficient to produce swirl-like correlations. We obtain
this result using both continuum active linear elasticity and a normal modes
formalism, and validate analytical predictions with numerical simulations of
two agent-based cell models, soft elastic particles and the self-propelled
Voronoi model together with in-vitro experiments of confluent corneal
epithelial cell sheets. Simulations and normal mode analysis perfectly match
when tissue-level reorganisation occurs on times longer than the persistence
time of cell motility. Our analytical model quantitatively matches measured
velocity correlation functions over more than a decade with a single fitting
parameter.Comment: updated version accepted for publication in Nat. Com
Baryon-Baryon Interactions
After a short survey of some topics of interest in the study of baryon-baryon
scattering, the recent Nijmegen energy dependent partial wave analysis (PWA) of
the nucleon-nucleon data is reviewed. In this PWA the energy range for both pp
and np is now 0 < Tlab < 350 MeV and a chi^2_{d.o.f.}=1.08 was reached. The
implications for the pion-nucleon coupling constants are discussed. Comments
are made with respect to recent discussions around this coupling constant in
the literature. In the second part, we briefly sketch the picture of the baryon
in several, more or less QCD-based, quark-models that have been rather
prominent in the literature. Inspired by these pictures we constructed a new
soft-core model for the nucleon-nucleon interaction and present the first
results of this model in a chi^2 -fit to the new multi-energy Nijmegen PWA.
With this new model we succeeded in narrowing the gap between theory and
experiment at low energies. For the energies Tlab = 25-320 MeV we reached a
record low chi^2_{p.d.p.} = 1.16. We finish the paper with some conclusions and
an outlook describing the extension of the new model to baryon-baryon
scattering.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX and one postscript figure included. Invited talk
presented at the XIVth European Conference of Few-Body Problems in Physics,
Amsterdam, August 23-28, 199
Spin physics with antiprotons
New possibilities arising from the availability at GSI of antiproton beams,
possibly polarised, are discussed. The investigation of the nucleon structure
can be boosted by accessing in Drell-Yan processes experimental asymmetries
related to cross-sections in which the parton distribution functions (PDF) only
appear, without any contribution from fragmentation functions; such processes
are not affected by the chiral suppression of the transversity function
. Spin asymmetries in hyperon production and Single Spin Asymmetries
are discussed as well, together with further items like electric and magnetic
nucleonic form factors and open charm production. Counting rates estimations
are provided for each physical case. The sketch of a possible experimental
apparatus is proposed.Comment: Presented for the proceedings of ASI "Spin and Symmetry", Prague,
July 5-10, 2004, to be published in Czech. J. Phys. 55 (2005
Measurement of Angular Distributions and R= sigma_L/sigma_T in Diffractive Electroproduction of rho^0 Mesons
Production and decay angular distributions were extracted from measurements
of exclusive electroproduction of the rho^0(770) meson over a range in the
virtual photon negative four-momentum squared 0.5< Q^2 <4 GeV^2 and the
photon-nucleon invariant mass range 3.8< W <6.5 GeV. The experiment was
performed with the HERMES spectrometer, using a longitudinally polarized
positron beam and a ^3He gas target internal to the HERA e^{+-} storage ring.
The event sample combines rho^0 mesons produced incoherently off individual
nucleons and coherently off the nucleus as a whole. The distributions in one
production angle and two angles describing the rho^0 -> pi+ pi- decay yielded
measurements of eight elements of the spin-density matrix, including one that
had not been measured before. The results are consistent with the dominance of
helicity-conserving amplitudes and natural parity exchange. The improved
precision achieved at 47 GeV,
reveals evidence for an energy dependence in the ratio R of the longitudinal to
transverse cross sections at constant Q^2.Comment: 15 pages, 15 embedded figures, LaTeX for SVJour(epj) document class
Revision: Fig. 15 corrected, recent data added to Figs. 10,12,14,15; minor
changes to tex
Beam-Induced Nuclear Depolarisation in a Gaseous Polarised Hydrogen Target
Spin-polarised atomic hydrogen is used as a gaseous polarised proton target
in high energy and nuclear physics experiments operating with internal beams in
storage rings. When such beams are intense and bunched, this type of target can
be depolarised by a resonant interaction with the transient magnetic field
generated by the beam bunches. This effect has been studied with the HERA
positron beam in the HERMES experiment at DESY. Resonances have been observed
and a simple analytic model has been used to explain their shape and position.
Operating conditions for the experiment have been found where there is no
significant target depolarisation due to this effect.Comment: REVTEX, 6 pages, 5 figure
The Flavor Asymmetry of the Light Quark Sea from Semi-inclusive Deep-inelastic Scattering
The flavor asymmetry of the light quark sea of the nucleon is determined in
the kinematic range 0.02<x<0.3 and 1 GeV^2<Q^2<10 GeV^2, for the first time
from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering. The quantity
(dbar(x)-ubar(x))/(u(x)-d(x)) is derived from a relationship between the yields
of positive and negative pions from unpolarized hydrogen and deuterium targets.
The flavor asymmetry dbar-ubar is found to be non-zero and x dependent, showing
an excess of dbar over ubar quarks in the proton.Comment: 7 Pages, 2 figures, RevTeX format; slight revision in text, small
change in extraction of dbar-ubar and comparison with a high q2
parameterizatio
Soft-core hyperon-nucleon potentials
A new Nijmegen soft-core OBE potential model is presented for the low-energy
YN interactions. Besides the results for the fit to the scattering data, which
largely defines the model, we also present some applications to hypernuclear
systems using the G-matrix method. An important innovation with respect to the
original soft-core potential is the assignment of the cut-off masses for the
baryon-baryon-meson (BBM) vertices in accordance with broken SU(3), which
serves to connect the NN and the YN channels. As a novel feature, we allow for
medium strong breaking of the coupling constants, using the model with
a Gell-Mann--Okubo hypercharge breaking for the BBM coupling. We present six
hyperon-nucleon potentials which describe the available YN cross section data
equally well, but which exhibit some differences on a more detailed level. The
differences are constructed such that the models encompass a range of
scattering lengths in the and channels. For the
scalar-meson mixing angle we obtained values to 40 degrees, which
points to almost ideal mixing angles for the scalar states. The
G-matrix results indicate that the remarkably different spin-spin terms of the
six potentials appear specifically in the energy spectra of
hypernuclei.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figure
Observation of a Coherence Length Effect in Exclusive Rho^0 Electroproduction
Exclusive incoherent electroproduction of the rho^0(770) meson from 1H, 2H,
3He, and 14N targets has been studied by the HERMES experiment at squared
four-momentum transfer Q**2>0.4 GeV**2 and positron energy loss nu from 9 to 20
GeV. The ratio of the 14N to 1H cross sections per nucleon, known as the
nuclear transparency, was found to decrease with increasing coherence length of
quark-antiquark fluctuations of the virtual photon. The data provide clear
evidence of the interaction of the quark- antiquark fluctuations with the
nuclear medium.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 3 figure
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