1,257 research outputs found
Ray helicity: a geometric invariant for multi-dimensional resonant wave conversion
For a multicomponent wave field propagating into a multidimensional
conversion region, the rays are shown to be helical, in general. For a
ray-based quantity to have a fundamental physical meaning it must be invariant
under two groups of transformations: congruence transformations (which shuffle
components of the multi-component wave field) and canonical transformations
(which act on the ray phase space). It is shown that for conversion between two
waves there is a new invariant not previously discussed: the intrinsic helicity
of the ray
Different mechanics of snap-trapping in the two closely related carnivorous plants Dionaea muscipula and Aldrovanda vesiculosa
The carnivorous aquatic Waterwheel Plant (Aldrovanda vesiculosa L.) and the
closely related terrestrial Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula SOL. EX J. ELLIS)
both feature elaborate snap-traps, which shut after reception of an external
mechanical stimulus by prey animals. Traditionally, Aldrovanda is considered as
a miniature, aquatic Dionaea, an assumption which was already established by
Charles Darwin. However, videos of snapping traps from both species suggest
completely different closure mechanisms. Indeed, the well-described snapping
mechanism in Dionaea comprises abrupt curvature inversion of the two trap
lobes, while the closing movement in Aldrovanda involves deformation of the
trap midrib but not of the lobes, which do not change curvature. In this paper,
we present the first detailed mechanical models for these plants, which are
based on the theory of thin solid membranes and explain this difference by
showing that the fast snapping of Aldrovanda is due to kinematic amplification
of the bending deformation of the midrib, while that of Dionaea unambiguously
relies on the buckling instability that affects the two lobes.Comment: accepted in Physical Review
Intestinal epithelial cell-intrinsic deletion of Setd7 identifies role for developmental pathways in immunity to helminth infection
The intestine is a common site for a variety of pathogenic infections. Helminth infections continue to be major causes of disease worldwide, and are a significant burden on health care systems. Lysine methyltransferases are part of a family of novel attractive targets for drug discovery. SETD7 is a member of the Suppressor of variegation 3-9-Enhancer of zeste-Trithorax (SET) domain-containing family of lysine methyltransferases, and has been shown to methylate and alter the function of a wide variety of proteins in vitro. A few of these putative methylation targets have been shown to be important in resistance against pathogens. We therefore sought to study the role of SETD7 during parasitic infections. We find that Setd7-/- mice display increased resistance to infection with the helminth Trichuris muris but not Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri. Resistance to T. muris relies on an appropriate type 2 immune response that in turn prompts intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) to alter differentiation and proliferation kinetics. Here we show that SETD7 does not affect immune cell responses during infection. Instead, we found that IEC-specific deletion of Setd7 renders mice resistant to T. muris by controlling IEC turnover, an important aspect of anti-helminth immune responses. We further show that SETD7 controls IEC turnover by modulating developmental signaling pathways such as Hippo/YAP and Wnt/β-Catenin. We show that the Hippo pathway specifically is relevant during T. muris infection as verteporfin (a YAP inhibitor) treated mice became susceptible to T. muris. We conclude that SETD7 plays an important role in IEC biology during infection
A q-analog of the ADHMN construction and axisymmetric multi-instantons
In the preceding paper (Phys. Lett. B463 (1999) 257), the authors presented a
q-analog of the ADHMN construction and obtained a family of anti-selfdual
configurations with a parameter q for classical SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in
four-dimensional Euclidean space. The family of solutions can be seen as a
q-analog of the single BPS monopole preserving (anti-)selfduality. Further
discussion is made on the relation to axisymmetric ansatz on anti-selfdual
equation given by Witten in the late seventies. It is found that the
q-exponential functions familiar in q-analysis appear as analytic functions
categorizing the anti-selfdual configurations yielded by axisymmetric ansatz.Comment: 11pages, Latex2e, to appear in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and
General as a `Special Issue/Difference Equations
Vortices on Hyperbolic Surfaces
It is shown that abelian Higgs vortices on a hyperbolic surface can be
constructed geometrically from holomorphic maps , where is also
a hyperbolic surface. The fields depend on and on the metrics of and
. The vortex centres are the ramification points, where the derivative of
vanishes. The magnitude of the Higgs field measures the extent to which
is locally an isometry.
Witten's construction of vortices on the hyperbolic plane is rederived, and
new examples of vortices on compact surfaces and on hyperbolic surfaces of
revolution are obtained. The interpretation of these solutions as
SO(3)-invariant, self-dual SU(2) Yang--Mills fields on is also given.Comment: Revised version: new section on four-dimensional interpretation of
hyperbolic vortices added
The Routine Use of Antibiotics to Promote Animal Growth Does Little to Benefit Protein Undernutrition in the Developing World
Some persons argue that the routine addition of antibiotics to animal feed will help alleviate protein undernutrition in developing countries by increasing meat production. In contrast, we estimate that, if all routine antibiotic use in animal feed were ceased, there would be negligible effects in these countries. Poultry and pork production are unlikely to decrease by more than 2%. Average daily protein supply would decrease by no more than 0.1 g per person (or 0.2% of total protein intake). Eliminating the routine use of in-feed antibiotics will improve human and animal health, by reducing the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteri
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