15,478 research outputs found
Notch receptor expression in human brain arteriovenous malformations
The roles of the Notch pathway proteins in normal adult vascular physiology and the pathogenesis of brain arteriovenous malformations are not well-understood. Notch 1 and 4 have been detected in human and mutant mice vascular malformations respectively. Although mutations in the human Notch 3 gene caused a genetic form of vascular stroke and dementia, its role in arteriovenous malformations development has been unknown. In this study, we performed immunohistochemistry screening on tissue microarrays containing eight surgically resected human brain arteriovenous malformations and 10 control surgical epilepsy samples. The tissue microarrays were evaluated for Notch 1-4 expression. We have found that compared to normal brain vascular tissue Notch-3 was dramatically increased in brain arteriovenous malformations. Similarly, Notch 4 labelling was also increased in vascular malformations and was confirmed by western blot analysis. Notch 2 was not detectable in any of the human vessels analysed. Using both immunohistochemistry on microarrays and western blot analysis, we have found that Notch-1 expression was detectable in control vessels, and discovered a significant decrease of Notch 1 expression in vascular malformations. We have demonstrated that Notch 3 and 4, and not Notch 1, were highly increased in human arteriovenous malformations. Our findings suggested that Notch 4, and more importantly, Notch 3, may play a role in the development and pathobiology of human arteriovenous malformations
Charge order at the frontier between the molecular and solid states in Ba3NaRu2O9
We show that the valence electrons of Ba3NaRu2O9, which has a quasi-molecular
structure, completely crystallize below 210 K. Using an extended Hubbard model,
we show that the charge ordering instability results from long-range Coulomb
interactions. However, orbital ordering, metal-metal bonding and formation of a
partial spin gap enforce the magnitude of the charge separation. The striped
charge order and frustrated hcp lattice of Ru2O9 dimers lead to competition
with a quasi-degenerate charge-melted phase under photo-excitation at low
temperature. Our results establish a broad class of simple metal oxides as
models for emergent phenomena at the border between the molecular and solid
states.Comment: Minor changes, with supporting information. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Let
Limits on Non-Standard Top Quark Couplings from Electroweak Measurements
We calculate the typical size of loop corrections to electroweak observables
arising from non-standard and vertices. We use an
effective Lagrangian formalism based on the electroweak gauge group
. Limits on the non-standard model
top quark couplings from electroweak observables are presented and compared
with previously obtained limits.Comment: 9 pages, uses epsf.st
One- and two-proton transfer reactions with vibrational Nuclei
We extend a semiclassical model of transfer reactions to the case in which
one of the collision partners is a vibrational nucleus. The model is applied to
one- and two-proton stripping reactions in the 37Cl + 98Mo system, for which a
rapid transition from normal to anomalous slope in the two proton transfer
reaction at energies around the Coulomb barrier is experimentally observed.
This behavior is satisfactorily reproduced by the present extension of the
model.Comment: LaTeX, 10 pages, 1 figure (PostScript
Monomer-dimer model in two-dimensional rectangular lattices with fixed dimer density
The classical monomer-dimer model in two-dimensional lattices has been shown
to belong to the \emph{``#P-complete''} class, which indicates the problem is
computationally ``intractable''. We use exact computational method to
investigate the number of ways to arrange dimers on
two-dimensional rectangular lattice strips with fixed dimer density . For
any dimer density , we find a logarithmic correction term in the
finite-size correction of the free energy per lattice site. The coefficient of
the logarithmic correction term is exactly -1/2. This logarithmic correction
term is explained by the newly developed asymptotic theory of Pemantle and
Wilson. The sequence of the free energy of lattice strips with cylinder
boundary condition converges so fast that very accurate free energy
for large lattices can be obtained. For example, for a half-filled lattice,
, while and . For , is accurate at least to 10 decimal
digits. The function reaches the maximum value at , with 11 correct digits. This is also
the \md constant for two-dimensional rectangular lattices. The asymptotic
expressions of free energy near close packing are investigated for finite and
infinite lattice widths. For lattices with finite width, dependence on the
parity of the lattice width is found. For infinite lattices, the data support
the functional form obtained previously through series expansions.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, 5 table
Structural analysis reveals a pyruvate-binding activator site in the Agrobacterium tumefaciens ADP–glucose pyrophosphorylase
The pathways for biosynthesis of glycogen inbacteria and starch in plants are evolutionarily andbiochemically related. They are regulated primarily by ADP?glucose pyrophosphorylase, which evolved to satisfy metabolic requirements of a particular organism. Despite the importance of these two pathways, little is known about the mechanism that controls pyrophosphorylase activity or the location of its allosteric sites. Here, we report pyruvate-bound crystal structures of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase from the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, identifying a previously elusive activator site for the enzyme. We found that the tetrameric enzyme binds two molecules of pyruvate in a planar conformation. Each binding site is located in a crevice between the C-terminal domains of two subunits where they stack via a distinct β-helix region. Pyruvate interacts with the side chain of Lys-43 and with the peptide backbone of Ser-328 and Gly-329 from both subunits. These structural insights led to the design of two variants with altered regulator properties. In one variant (K43A), the allosteric effect was absent, whereas in the other (G329D), the introduced Asp mimicked the presence of pyruvate. The latter generated an enzyme that was pre-activated and insensitive to further activation by pyruvate. Our study furnishes a deeper understanding of how glycogen biosynthesis is regulated in bacteria and the mechanism by which transgenic plants increased their starch production. These insights will facilitate rational approaches to enzyme engineering for starch production in crops of agricultural interest and will promote further study of allosteric signal transmission and molecular evolution in this important enzyme family.Fil: Hill, B. L.. Dpt Of Chem And Biochemistry. Loyola University Chicago; Estados UnidosFil: Mascarenhas, R.. Dpt Of Chem And Biochemistry. Loyola University Chicago; Estados UnidosFil: Patel, H. P.. Dpt Of Chem And Biochemistry. Loyola University Chicago; Estados UnidosFil: Asención Diez, Matías Damián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Wu, R.. Dpt Of Chem And Biochemistry. Loyola University Chicago; Estados UnidosFil: Iglesias, Alberto Alvaro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Liu, D.. Dpt Of Chem And Biochemistry. Loyola University Chicago; Estados UnidosFil: Ballicora, M. A.. Dpt Of Chem And Biochemistry. Loyola University Chicago; Estados Unido
An optimal gap theorem
By solving the Cauchy problem for the Hodge-Laplace heat equation for
-closed, positive -forms, we prove an optimal gap theorem for
K\"ahler manifolds with nonnegative bisectional curvature which asserts that
the manifold is flat if the average of the scalar curvature over balls of
radius centered at any fixed point is a function of .
Furthermore via a relative monotonicity estimate we obtain a stronger
statement, namely a `positive mass' type result, asserting that if is
not flat, then for any
Frictional Coulomb drag in strong magnetic fields
A treatment of frictional Coulomb drag between two 2-dimensional electron
layers in a strong perpendicular magnetic field, within the independent
electron picture, is presented. Assuming fully resolved Landau levels, the
linear response theory expression for the transresistivity is
evaluated using diagrammatic techniques. The transresistivity is given by an
integral over energy and momentum transfer weighted by the product of the
screened interlayer interaction and the phase-space for scattering events. We
demonstrate, by a numerical analysis of the transresistivity, that for
well-resolved Landau levels the interplay between these two factors leads to
characteristic features in both the magnetic field- and the temperature
dependence of . Numerical results are compared with recent
experiments.Comment: RevTeX, 34 pages, 8 figures included in tex
Coulomb drag in compressible quantum Hall states
We consider the Coulomb drag between two layers of two-dimensional electronic
gases subject to a strong magnetic field. We first focus on the case in which
the electronic density is such that the Landau level filling fraction in
each layer is at, or close to, . Discussing the coupling between the
layers in purely electronic terms, we show that the unique dependence of the
longitudinal conductivity on wave-vector, observed in surface acoustic waves
experiments, leads to a very slow decay of density fluctuations. Consequently,
it has a crucial effect on the Coulomb drag, as manifested in the
transresistivity . We find that the transresistivity is very large
compared to its typical values at zero magnetic field, and that its temperature
dependence is unique -- . For filling factors at or
close to and the transresistivity has the same -dependence, and
is larger than at . We calculate for the case and
propose that it might shed light on the spin polarization of electrons at
. We compare our results to recent calculations of at
where a composite fermion approach was used and a
-dependence was obtained. We conclude that what appears in the
composite fermion language to be drag induced by Chern-Simons interaction is,
physically, electronic Coulomb drag.Comment: 11 pages, REVTeX with two Postscript figure
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