272 research outputs found
Host responses are induced in feathers of chickens infected with Marek's disease virus
AbstractControl measures are ineffective in curtailing Marek's disease virus (MDV) infection and replication in the feather follicle epithelium (FFE). Therefore, vaccinated birds which subsequently become infected with MDV, shed the virulent virus although they remain protected against disease. The present study investigated host responses generated against MDV infection in the feather. We observed that in parallel with an increase in viral genome load and viral replication in the feather, there was a gradual but progressive increase in infiltration of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells into the feather pulp of MDV-infected chickens, starting on day 4 and peaking by day 10 post-infection. Concomitant with infiltration of T cells, the expression of interleukin (IL)-18, IL-6, interferon (IFN)-Îł and major histocompatibility complex class I genes was significantly enhanced in the feather pulp of MDV-infected chickens. The finding that host responses are generated in the feather may be exploited for developing strategies to control MDV infection in the FFE, thus preventing horizontal virus transmission
25th-order high-temperature expansion results for three-dimensional Ising-like systems on the simple cubic lattice
25th-order high-temperature series are computed for a general
nearest-neighbor three-dimensional Ising model with arbitrary potential on the
simple cubic lattice. In particular, we consider three improved potentials
characterized by suppressed leading scaling corrections. Critical exponents are
extracted from high-temperature series specialized to improved potentials,
obtaining , , ,
, , . Moreover, biased
analyses of the 25th-order series of the standard Ising model provide the
estimate for the exponent associated with the leading scaling
corrections. By the same technique, we study the small-magnetization expansion
of the Helmholtz free energy. The results are then applied to the construction
of parametric representations of the critical equation of state, using a
systematic approach based on a global stationarity condition. Accurate
estimates of several universal amplitude ratios are also presented.Comment: 40 pages, 15 figure
Asymptotic Expansions for Stationary Distributions of Perturbed Semi-Markov Processes
New algorithms for computing of asymptotic expansions for stationary
distributions of nonlinearly perturbed semi-Markov processes are presented. The
algorithms are based on special techniques of sequential phase space reduction,
which can be applied to processes with asymptotically coupled and uncoupled
finite phase spaces.Comment: 83 page
Critical exponents and equation of state of the three-dimensional Heisenberg universality class
We improve the theoretical estimates of the critical exponents for the
three-dimensional Heisenberg universality class. We find gamma=1.3960(9),
nu=0.7112(5), eta=0.0375(5), alpha=-0.1336(15), beta=0.3689(3), and
delta=4.783(3). We consider an improved lattice phi^4 Hamiltonian with
suppressed leading scaling corrections. Our results are obtained by combining
Monte Carlo simulations based on finite-size scaling methods and
high-temperature expansions. The critical exponents are computed from
high-temperature expansions specialized to the phi^4 improved model. By the
same technique we determine the coefficients of the small-magnetization
expansion of the equation of state. This expansion is extended analytically by
means of approximate parametric representations, obtaining the equation of
state in the whole critical region. We also determine a number of universal
amplitude ratios.Comment: 40 pages, final version. In publication in Phys. Rev.
Phylogeny and systematics of the genus Calonectria
Species of Calonectria are important plant pathogens, several of
which have a worldwide distribution. Contemporary taxonomic studies on these
fungi have chiefly relied on DNA sequence comparisons of the ÎČ-tubulin
gene region. Despite many new species being described, there has been no
phylogenetic synthesis for the group since the last monographic study almost a
decade ago. In the present study, the identity of a large collection of
Calonectria isolates from various geographic regions was determined
using morphological and DNA sequence comparisons. This resulted in the
discovery of seven new species; Ca. densa, Ca. eucalypti,
Ca. humicola, Ca. orientalis, Ca. pini, Ca.
pseudoscoparia and Ca. sulawesiensis, bringing the total number
of currently accepted Calonectria species to 68. A multigene
phylogeny was subsequently constructed for all available Calonectria
spp., employing seven gene regions, namely actin, ÎČ-tubulin, calmodulin,
histone H3, the internal transcribed spacer regions 1 and 2 and the 5.8S gene
of the ribosomal RNA, 28S large subunit RNA gene and translation elongation
1-alpha. Based on these data 13 phylogenetic groups could be distinguished
within the genus Calonectria that correlated with morphological
features. Dichotomous and synoptic keys to all Calonectria spp.
currently recognised are also provided
Species concepts in Calonectria (Cylindrocladium)
Species of Calonectria and their Cylindrocladium
anamorphs are important plant pathogens worldwide. At present 52
Cylindrocladium spp. and 37 Calonectria spp. are recognised
based on sexual compatibility, morphology and phylogenetic inference. The
polyphasic approach of integrating Biological, Morphological and Phylogenetic
Species Concepts has revolutionised the taxonomy of fungi. This review aims to
present an overview of published research on the genera Calonectria
and Cylindrocladium as they pertain to their taxonomic history. The
nomenclature as well as future research necessary for this group of fungi are
also briefly discussed
On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection
A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)
Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET
The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR
Measurement of the cross section for isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at âs=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector
The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in protonâproton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fbâ1. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti- algorithm with radius parameter and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photonâjet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photonâjet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements
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