749 research outputs found
Non-Relativistic Gravitation: From Newton to Einstein and Back
We present an improvement to the Classical Effective Theory approach to the
non-relativistic or Post-Newtonian approximation of General Relativity. The
"potential metric field" is decomposed through a temporal Kaluza-Klein ansatz
into three NRG-fields: a scalar identified with the Newtonian potential, a
3-vector corresponding to the gravito-magnetic vector potential and a 3-tensor.
The derivation of the Einstein-Infeld-Hoffmann Lagrangian simplifies such that
each term corresponds to a single Feynman diagram providing a clear physical
interpretation. Spin interactions are dominated by the exchange of the
gravito-magnetic field. Leading correction diagrams corresponding to the 3PN
correction to the spin-spin interaction and the 2.5PN correction to the
spin-orbit interaction are presented.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. v2: published version. v3: Added a computation
of Einstein-Infeld-Hoffmann in higher dimensions within our improved ClEFT
which partially confirms and partially corrects a previous computation. See
notes added at end of introductio
Canonical formulation of self-gravitating spinning-object systems
Based on the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) canonical formulation of general
relativity, a canonical formulation of gravitationally interacting classical
spinning-object systems is given to linear order in spin. The constructed
position, linear momentum and spin variables fulfill standard Poisson bracket
relations. A spatially symmetric time gauge for the tetrad field is introduced.
The achieved formulation is of fully reduced form without unresolved
constraints, supplementary, gauge, or coordinate conditions. The canonical
field momentum is not related to the extrinsic curvature of spacelike
hypersurfaces in standard ADM form. A new reduction of the tetrad degrees of
freedom to the Einstein form of the metric field is suggested.Comment: 6 pages. v2: extended version; identical to the published one. v3:
corrected misprints in (24) and (39); improved notation; added note regarding
a further reference
Use of spin labels to study membrane proteins by high-frequency electron nuclear double resonance spectroscopy
The applicability of spin labels to study membrane proteins by high-frequency electron nuclear double resonance spectroscopy is demonstrated. With the use of bacteriorhodopsin embedded in a lipid membrane as an example, the spectra of protons of neighboring amino acids are recorded, electric field gradients at the membrane surface are detected, and the constant of hyperfine interaction with the chlorine nucleus at the site of ion trapping is measured. © 2007 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd
Proteomic analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
So far, only the detection of 14-3-3 proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has been accepted as diagnostic criterion for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). However, this assay cannot be used for screening because of the high rate of false-positive results, whereas patients with variant CJD are often negative for 14-3-3 proteins. The aim of this study was to compare the spot patterns of CSF by 2-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) to search for a CJD-specific spot pattern. We analyzed the CSF of 28 patients {[}11 CJD, 9 Alzheimer's disease ( AD), 8 nondemented controls (NDC)] employing 2D-PAGE which was optimized for minimal volumes of CSF (0.1 ml; 7-cm strips). All samples were run at least three times, gels were silver stained and analyzed by an analysis software and manually revised. We could consistently match 268 spots which were then compared between all groups. By the use of 5 spots, we were able to differentiate CJD from AD or NDC with a sensitivity of 100%. CJD could also be distinguished from both groups by using a heuristic clustering algorithm of 2 spots. We conclude that this proteomic approach can differentiate CJD from other diseases and may serve as a model for other neurodegenerative diseases. Copyright (C) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel
Next to leading order spin-orbit effects in the motion of inspiralling compact binaries
Using effective field theory (EFT) techniques we calculate the
next-to-leading order (NLO) spin-orbit contributions to the gravitational
potential of inspiralling compact binaries. We use the covariant spin
supplementarity condition (SSC), and explicitly prove the equivalence with
previous results by Faye et al. in arXiv:gr-qc/0605139. We also show that the
direct application of the Newton-Wigner SSC at the level of the action leads to
the correct dynamics using a canonical (Dirac) algebra. This paper then
completes the calculation of the necessary spin dynamics within the EFT
formalism that will be used in a separate paper to compute the spin
contributions to the energy flux and phase evolution to NLO.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, revtex4. v2: minor changes, refs. added. To
appear in Class. Quant. Gra
Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease: a case report
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens
The Role of Extracellular Vesicles as Modulators of the Tumor Microenvironment, Metastasis and Drug Resistance in Colorectal Cancer.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide, with high morbidity and mortality rates. A number of factors including modulation of the tumor microenvironment, high metastatic capability, and resistance to treatment have been associated with CRC disease progression. Recent studies have documented that tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a significant role in intercellular communication in CRC via transfer of cargo lipids, proteins, DNA and RNAs to the recipient tumor cells. This transfer influences a number of immune-related pathways leading to activation/differentiation/expression of immune cells and modulation of the tumor microenvironment that plays a significant role in CRC progression, metastasis, and drug resistance. Furthermore, tumor-derived EVs are secreted in large amounts in biological fluids of CRC patients and as such the expression analysis of EV cargoes have been associated with prognosis or response to therapy and may be a source of therapeutic targets. This review aims to provide a comprehensive insight into the role of EVs in the modulation of the tumor microenvironment and its effects on CRC progression, metastasis, and drug resistance. On the other hand, the potential role of CRC derived EVs as a source of biomarkers of response and therapeutic targets will be discussed in detail to understand the dynamic role of EVs in CRC diagnosis, treatment, and management
Sanguinarine Induces Apoptosis Pathway in Multiple Myeloma Cell Lines via Inhibition of the JaK2/STAT3 Signaling
Sanguinarine (SNG), a benzophenanthridine alkaloid, has displayed various anticancer abilities in several vivo and in vitro studies. However, the anticancer potential of SNG is yet to be established in multiple myeloma (MM), a mostly incurable malignancy of plasma cells. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities of SNG in a panel of MM cell lines (U266, IM9, MM1S, and RPMI-8226). SNG treatment of MM cells resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in cell viability through mitochondrial membrane potential loss and activation of caspase 3, 9, and cleavage of PARP. Pre-treatment of MM cells with a universal caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK, prevented SNG mediated loss of cell viability, apoptosis, and caspase activation, confirming that SNG-mediated apoptosis is caspase-dependent. The SNG-mediated apoptosis appears to be resulted from suppression of the constitutively active STAT3 with a concomitant increase in expression of protein tyrosine phosphatase (SHP-1). SNG treatment of MM cells leads to down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic proteins including cyclin D, Bcl-2, Bclxl, and XIAP. In addition, it also upregulates pro-apoptotic protein, Bax. SNG mediated cellular DNA damage in MM cell lines by induction of oxidative stress through the generation of reactive oxygen species and depletion of glutathione. Finally, the subtoxic concentration of SNG enhanced the cytotoxic effects of anticancer drugs bortezomib (BTZ) by suppressing the viability of MM cells via induction of caspase-mediated apoptosis. Altogether our findings demonstrate that SNG induces mitochondrial and caspase-dependent apoptosis, generates oxidative stress, and suppresses MM cell lines proliferation. In addition, co-treatment of MM cell lines with sub-toxic doses of SNG and BTZ potentiated the cytotoxic activity. These results would suggest that SNG could be developed into therapeutic agent either alone or in combination with other anticancer drugs in MM
Reverse Engineering Gene Networks with ANN: Variability in Network Inference Algorithms
Motivation :Reconstructing the topology of a gene regulatory network is one
of the key tasks in systems biology. Despite of the wide variety of proposed
methods, very little work has been dedicated to the assessment of their
stability properties. Here we present a methodical comparison of the
performance of a novel method (RegnANN) for gene network inference based on
multilayer perceptrons with three reference algorithms (ARACNE, CLR, KELLER),
focussing our analysis on the prediction variability induced by both the
network intrinsic structure and the available data.
Results: The extensive evaluation on both synthetic data and a selection of
gene modules of "Escherichia coli" indicates that all the algorithms suffer of
instability and variability issues with regards to the reconstruction of the
topology of the network. This instability makes objectively very hard the task
of establishing which method performs best. Nevertheless, RegnANN shows MCC
scores that compare very favorably with all the other inference methods tested.
Availability: The software for the RegnANN inference algorithm is distributed
under GPL3 and it is available at the corresponding author home page
(http://mpba.fbk.eu/grimaldi/regnann-supmat
Spin and quadrupole contributions to the motion of astrophysical binaries
Compact objects in general relativity approximately move along geodesics of
spacetime. It is shown that the corrections to geodesic motion due to spin
(dipole), quadrupole, and higher multipoles can be modeled by an extension of
the point mass action. The quadrupole contributions are discussed in detail for
astrophysical objects like neutron stars or black holes. Implications for
binaries are analyzed for a small mass ratio situation. There quadrupole
effects can encode information about the internal structure of the compact
object, e.g., in principle they allow a distinction between black holes and
neutron stars, and also different equations of state for the latter.
Furthermore, a connection between the relativistic oscillation modes of the
object and a dynamical quadrupole evolution is established.Comment: 43 pages. Proceedings of the 524. WE-Heraeus-Seminar "Equations of
Motion in Relativistic Gravity". v2: fixed reference. v3: corrected typos in
eqs. (1), (57), (85
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