875 research outputs found
The NASA/OAST telerobot testbed architecture
Through a phased development such as a laboratory-based research testbed, the NASA/OAST Telerobot Testbed provides an environment for system test and demonstration of the technology which will usefully complement, significantly enhance, or even replace manned space activities. By integrating advanced sensing, robotic manipulation and intelligent control under human-interactive supervision, the Testbed will ultimately demonstrate execution of a variety of generic tasks suggestive of space assembly, maintenance, repair, and telescience. The Testbed system features a hierarchical layered control structure compatible with the incorporation of evolving technologies as they become available. The Testbed system is physically implemented in a computing architecture which allows for ease of integration of these technologies while preserving the flexibility for test of a variety of man-machine modes. The development currently in progress on the functional and implementation architectures of the NASA/OAST Testbed and capabilities planned for the coming years are presented
New high order relations between physical observables in perturbative QCD
We exploit the fact that within massless perturbative QCD the same Green's
function determines the hadronic contribution to the decay width and the
moments of the cross section. This allows one to obtain relations
between physical observables in the two processes up to an unprecedented high
order of perturbative QCD. A precision measurement of the decay width
allows one then to predict the first few moments of the spectral density in
annihilations integrated up to with high accuracy.
The proposed tests are in reach of present experimental capabilities.Comment: 7 pages, Latex, no figure
Correlates of Sedentary Time and Physical Activity Among Preschool-Aged Children
INTRODUCTION: Few studies have examined the correlates of objectively measured amounts of sedentary time and physical activity in young children. We evaluated the demographic, biological, behavioral, social, and environmental correlates of the amount of sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) as measured by accelerometry in preschool-aged children. METHODS: We obtained baseline measurements of physical activity by using an Actical accelerometer among 337 preschool-aged children (aged 2-5) of overweight or obese mothers. For children, we defined sedentary time as less than 12 counts per 15 seconds and MVPA as 715 or more counts per 15 seconds. Body mass index of the mother and child (calculated from measured height and weight) and maternal physical activity as measured by accelerometer were included as potential correlates. Mothers self-reported all other potential correlates. We used multivariable linear regression analyses to examine correlates of the amount of sedentary time and MVPA. RESULTS: Children had an average of 6.1 hours per day of sedentary time and 14.9 minutes per day of MVPA. In multivariable analysis, boys (P <.001) had fewer minutes per day of sedentary time, whereas older children (P <.001), boys (P <.001), children in high-income households (>$60,000/y [P = .005]), and children who spent more time outdoors (P = .001) had more MVPA. CONCLUSION: Both modifiable and nonmodifiable factors were correlated with preschool children's amount of MVPA, which can be helpful when designing interventions for this age group. The lack of correlates for sedentary time indicates the need for further investigation into this behavior
Expression of monolysocardiolipin acyltransferase activity is regulated in concert with the level of cardiolipin and cardiolipin biosynthesis in the mammalian heart
BACKGROUND: Monolysocardiolipin acyltransferase (MLCL AT) catalyzes the acylation of monolysocardiolipin to cardiolipin in mammalian tissues. We previously reported that cardiac cardiolipin levels, MLCL AT and cardiolipin synthase activities were all elevated in rats made hyperthyroid by thyroxine treatment. In this study, we examined if cardiac mitochondrial MLCL AT activity was dependent upon the biosynthesis and level of cardiolipin in the heart. Rat heart mitochondrial MLCL AT activity was determined under conditions in which the levels of cardiac cardiolipin and cardiolipin synthase activity were either reduced or unaltered using four different disease models in the rat. In addition, these parameters were examined in a murine model of cardiac cell differentiation. RESULTS: In rats made hypothyroid by treatment with 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracil in the drinking water for 34 days, cardiac cardiolipin content was decreased 29% (p < 0.025) and this was associated with a 32% decrease (p < 0.025) in cardiolipin synthase and a 35% reduction (p < 0.025) in MLCL AT activities. Streptozotocin-induced diabetes or hyperinsulinemia in rats did not affect cardiac cardiolipin content nor MLCL AT and cardiolipin synthase activities. Finally, cardiolipin content, MLCL AT and cardiolipin synthase activities were unaltered during murine P19 teratocarcinoma cell differentiation into cardiac myocytes. In all models, phospholipase A(2) activities were unaltered compared with controls. CONCLUSION: We propose a general model in which the expression of MLCL AT activity is regulated in concert with the biosynthesis and level of cardiolipin in the heart
PDB2PQR: expanding and upgrading automated preparation of biomolecular structures for molecular simulations
Real-world observable physical and chemical characteristics are increasingly being calculated from the 3D structures of biomolecules. Methods for calculating pKa values, binding constants of ligands, and changes in protein stability are readily available, but often the limiting step in computational biology is the conversion of PDB structures into formats ready for use with biomolecular simulation software. The continued sophistication and integration of biomolecular simulation methods for systems- and genome-wide studies requires a fast, robust, physically realistic and standardized protocol for preparing macromolecular structures for biophysical algorithms. As described previously, the PDB2PQR web server addresses this need for electrostatic field calculations (Dolinsky et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 32, W665–W667, 2004). Here we report the significantly expanded PDB2PQR that includes the following features: robust standalone command line support, improved pKa estimation via the PROPKA framework, ligand parameterization via PEOE_PB charge methodology, expanded set of force fields and easily incorporated user-defined parameters via XML input files, and improvement of atom addition and optimization code. These features are available through a new web interface (http://pdb2pqr.sourceforge.net/), which offers users a wide range of options for PDB file conversion, modification and parameterization
Hereditary predisposition to ovarian cancer, looking beyond BRCA1/BRCA2
AbstractObjectiveGenetic predisposition to ovarian cancer is well documented. With the advent of next generation sequencing, hereditary panel testing provides an efficient method for evaluating multiple genes simultaneously. Therefore, we sought to investigate the contribution of 19 genes identified in the literature as increasing the risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) in a BRCA1 and BRCA2 negative population of patients with a personal history of breast and/or ovarian cancer by means of a hereditary cancer panel.MethodsSubjects were referred for multi-gene panel testing between February 2012 and March 2014. Clinical data was ascertained from requisition forms. The incidence of pathogenic mutations (including likely pathogenic), and variant of unknown significance were then calculated for each gene and/or patient cohort.ResultsIn this cohort of 911 subjects, panel testing identified 67 mutations. With 7.4% of subjects harboring a mutation on this multi-gene panel, the diagnostic yield was increased, compared to testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations alone. In the ovarian cancer probands, the most frequently mutated genes were BRIP1 (n=8; 1.72%) and MSH6 (n=6; 1.29%). In the breast cancer probands, mutations were most commonly observed in CHEK2 (n=9; 2.54%), ATM (n=3; 0.85%), and TP53 (n=3; 0.85%).ConclusionsAlthough further studies are needed to clarify the exact management of patients with a mutation in each gene, this study highlights information that can be captured with panel testing and provides support for incorporation of panel testing into clinical practice
The Radiative Decay of Vector Mesons
In this paper, radiative decays , are studied
systematically in the U(3)_L\timesU(3)_R chiral theory of mesons. The
theoretical differential spectrum with respect to photon energy and branch
ratio for agree well with the experimental data.
Differential spectrums and branch ratios for are predicted. The process is relevant to precision measurment of CP-violation
parameters in the kaon systerm at a -factory. We give a complete estimate
of the branch ratio for this decay process by including scalar resonance poles, nonresonant smooth amplitude and an abnormal parity process with
pole which hasn't been considered before. We conclude that processes with
intermediate do not pose a potential background problem for CP violation experiments.Comment: Revtex file, 12 pages, 9 eps figure
Exclusive high- electroproduction: light-cone wave functions and electromagnetic form factors of mesons,
We apply the light-cone technique to electroproduction reaction long considered as a means of measuring the electromagnetic form
factor of the pion. We show that the interpretation of the long-standing puzzle
of large transverse cross section () in terms of the transition on the mesons in the light-cone proton is possible, but
requires quite a slow decrease of the F_{\rho\pi}(\q2) form factor. This
interpretation can be tested in the related reaction.
Corrections which are due to the final-state meson-baryon interactions (FSI)
are evaluated and are shown to amount to a effect at moderately large
\q2. Vanishing FSI with increasing - the color transparency phenomenon
- is shown to be very strong
Electromagnetic form factors in the J/\psi mass region: The case in favor of additional resonances
Using the results of our recent analysis of e^+e^- annihilation, we plot the
curves for the diagonal and transition form factors of light hadrons in the
time-like region up to the production threshold of an open charm quantum
number. The comparison with existing data on the decays of J/\psi into such
hadrons shows that some new resonance structures may be present in the mass
range between 2 GeVand the J/\psi mass. Searching them may help in a better
understanding of the mass spectrum in both the simple and a more sophisticated
quark models, and in revealing the details of the three-gluon mechanism of the
OZI rule breaking in K\bar K channel.Comment: Formulas are added, typo is corrected, the text is rearranged.
Replaced to match the version accepted in Phys Rev
Running mass of the rho0 meson's implication for the dilepton mass spectrum and the mu+mu-/e+e- branching ratio in the K+ --> pi+l+l- decays
We make an attempt to resolve the discrepancy of the observed e+e- mass
spectrum in the K+ --> pi+e+e- decay with that predicted by meson dominance. To
this end we investigate the properties of the rho0 propagator. We use
dispersion relations to evaluate the running mass squared m_rho^2(t) of the
rho0 resonance without adjustable parameters. To improve the convergence of the
dispersion integral, the momentum dependence of strong vertices is taken from
the flux-tube-breaking model of Kokoski and Isgur. The obtained behavior of
m_rho^2(t) at small momentum squared t makes the K+ --> pi+e+e- form factor
rise faster with increasing than in the original meson-dominance
calculation and more in agreement with the published data. As a consequence,
the meson-dominance prediction of the mu+mu-/e+e- branching ratio changes
slightly, from 0.224 to 0.236. We do not see any possibility to accommodate
into the meson-dominance approach an even steeper e+e- spectrum, indicated by
the preliminary data of the E865 collaboration at BNL AGS.Comment: 13 pages, RevTeX, epsf.sty, 4 embedded figure
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