8,611 research outputs found
Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) in the Cancer Setting
This special issue on mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) explores the importance of mTOR in cell growth control and cancer. Cancer cells often exploit mTOR as a mechanism to enhance their capacity to grow. While protein synthesis is by far the best-characterized mTOR-driven process, this special issue also describes a wider array of mTOR-driven biological processes that cancer cells benefit from, including autophagy, cell cycle control, metabolic transformation, angiogenic signaling, and anabolic processes such as nucleotide biosynthesis and ribosomal biogenesis. Other areas of mTOR signaling covered in these reviews delve into cell migration, inflammation, and regulation of transcription factors linked to cancer progression
Predicting Dust Distribution in Protoplanetary Discs
We present the results of three-dimensional numerical simulations that
include the effects of hydrodynamical forces and gas drag upon an evolving
dusty gas disk. We briefly describe a new parallel, two phase numerical code
based upon the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique in which the gas
and dust phases are represented by two distinct types of particles. We use the
code to follow the dynamical evolution of a population of grains in a gaseous
protoplanetary disk in order to understand the distribution of grains of
different sizes within the disk. Our ``grains'' range from metre to
submillimetre in size.Comment: 2 pages, LaTeX with 1 ps figure embedded, using newpasp.sty
(supplied). To appear in the proceedings of the XIXth IAP colloquium
"Extrasolar Planets: Today and Tomorrow" held in Paris, France, 2003, June 30
-- July 4, ASP Conf. Se
the Psychology of Breakup Sex: Exploring the Motivational Factors and Affective Consequences of Post-breakup Sexual Activity
Popular culture has recently publicized a seemingly new postbreakup behavior called breakup sex. While the media expresses the benefits of participating in breakup sex, there is no research to support these claimed benefits. The current research was designed to begin to better understand this postbreakup behavior. In the first study, we examined how past breakup sex experiences made the individuals feel and how people predict they would feel in the future (n = 212). Results suggested that men are more likely than women to have felt better about themselves, while women tend to state they felt better about the relationship after breakup sex. The second study (n = 585) investigated why men and women engage in breakup sex. Results revealed that most breakup sex appears to be motivated by three factors: relationship maintenance, hedonism, and ambivalence. Men tended to support hedonistic and ambivalent reasons for having breakup sex more often than women. The two studies revealed that breakup sex may be differentially motivated (and may have different psychological consequences) for men and women and may not be as beneficial as the media suggests
On the role of buoyant flexure in glacier calving
Interactions between glaciers and the ocean are key for understanding the dynamics of the cryosphere in the climate system. Here we investigate the role of hydrostatic forces in glacier calving. We develop a mathematical model to account for the elastic deformation of glaciers in response to three effects: (i) marine and lake-terminating glaciers tend to enter water with a nonzero slope, resulting in upward flexure around the grounding line; (ii) horizontal pressure imbalances at the terminus are known to cause hydrostatic in-plane stresses and downward acting torque; (iii) submerged ice protrusions at the glacier front may induce additional buoyancy forces that can cause calving. Our model provides theoretical estimates of the importance of each effect and suggests geometric and material conditions under which a given glacier will calve from hydrostatic flexure. We find good agreement with observations. This work sheds light on the intricate processes involved in glacier calving and can be hoped to improve our ability to model and predict future changes in the ice-climate system
Accretion disk reversal and the spin-up/spin-down of accreting pulsars
We numerically investigate the hydrodynamics of accretion disk reversal and
relate our findings to the observed spin-rate changes in the accreting X-ray
pulsar GX~1+4. In this system, which accretes from a slow wind, the accretion
disk contains two dynamically distinct regions. In the inner part viscous
forces are dominant and disk evolution occurs on a viscous timescale. In the
outer part dynamical mixing of material with opposite angular momentum is more
important, and the externally imposed angular momentum reversal timescale
governs the flow. In this outer region the disk is split into concentric rings
of material with opposite senses of rotation that do not mix completely but
instead remain distinct, with a clear gap between them. We thus predict that
torque reversals resulting from accretion disk reversals will be accompanied by
minima in accretion luminosity.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
SPH Simulations of Accretion Disks and Narrow Rings
We model a massless viscous disk using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)
and note that it evolves according to the Lynden-Bell \& Pringle theory (1974)
until a non-axisymmetric instability develops at the inner edge of the disk.
This instability may have the same origin as the instability of initially
axisymmetric viscous disks discussed by Lyubarskij et al. (1994). To clarify
the evolution we evolved single and double rings of particles. It is actually
inconsistent with the SPH scheme to set up a single ring as an initial
condition because SPH assumes a smoothed initial state. As would be expected
from an SPH simulation, the ring rapidly breaks up into a band. We analyse the
stability of the ring and show that the predictions are confirmed by the
simulation.Comment: 11 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript with 2 figs, accepted PASA.
Also available at http://www.maths.monash.edu.au/~maddison/me/papers.htm
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