15,342 research outputs found
Determination of organic acids evolution during apple cider fermentation using an improved HPLC analysis method
An efficient method for analyzing ten organic acids in food, namely citric, pyruvic, malic, lactic, succinic, formic, acetic, adipic, propionic and butyric acids, using HPLC was developed. Boric acid was added into the mobile phase to separate lactic and succinic acids, and a post-column buffer solution [5 mmol/L p-toluensulfonic acid (p-TSA) + 20 mmol/L bis (2-hydroxyethyl) iminotris (hydroxymethyl) methane (bis¿tris) + 100 ¿mol/L sodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic (EDTA-2Na)] was used to improve the sensitivity of detection. The average spiked recoveries for the ten organic acids ranged from 82.9 to 127.9% with relative standard deviations of 1.44¿4.71%. The linear ranges of determination were from 15 to 1,000 mg/L with correlation coefficients of 0.9995¿0.9999. The metabolism of organic acids in cider, and the effect of nutrients including diammonium phosphate (DAP), thiamine, biotin, niacinamide and pantothenic acid on their metabolism, were studied using this method of analysis. We found that before cider brewing, additions of 200 mg/L DAP and 0.3 mg/L thiamine to apple juice concentrate results in a high quality cider
Reciprocatory magnetic reconnection in a coronal bright point
Coronal bright points (CBPs) are small-scale and long-duration brightenings
in the lower solar corona. They are often explained in terms of magnetic
reconnection. We aim to study the sub-structures of a CBP and clarify the
relationship among the brightenings of different patches inside the CBP. The
event was observed by the X-ray Telescope (XRT) aboard the Hinode spacecraft on
2009 August 2223. The CBP showed repetitive brightenings (or CBP flashes).
During each of the two successive CBP flashes, i.e., weak and strong flashes
which are separated by 2 hr, the XRT images revealed that the CBP was
composed of two chambers, i.e., patches A and B. During the weak flash, patch A
brightened first, and patch B brightened 2 min later. During the
transition, the right leg of a large-scale coronal loop drifted from the right
side of the CBP to the left side. During the strong flash, patch B brightened
first, and patch A brightened 2 min later. During the transition, the
right leg of the large-scale coronal loop drifted from the left side of the CBP
to the right side. In each flash, the rapid change of the connectivity of the
large-scale coronal loop is strongly suggestive of the interchange
reconnection. For the first time we found reciprocatory reconnection in the
CBP, i.e., reconnected loops in the outflow region of the first reconnection
process serve as the inflow of the second reconnection process.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Parametric survey of longitudinal prominence oscillation simulations
It is found that both microflare-sized impulsive heating at one leg of the
loop and a suddenly imposed velocity perturbation can propel the prominence to
oscillate along the magnetic dip. An extensive parameter survey results in a
scaling law, showing that the period of the oscillation, which weakly depends
on the length and height of the prominence, and the amplitude of the
perturbations, scales with , where represents the
curvature radius of the dip, and is the gravitational acceleration of
the Sun. This is consistent with the linear theory of a pendulum, which implies
that the field-aligned component of gravity is the main restoring force for the
prominence longitudinal oscillations, as confirmed by the force analysis.
However, the gas pressure gradient becomes non-negligible for short
prominences. The oscillation damps with time in the presence of non-adiabatic
processes. Compared to heat conduction, the radiative cooling is the dominant
factor leading to the damping. A scaling law for the damping timescale is
derived, i.e., , showing
strong dependence on the prominence length , the geometry of the magnetic
dip (characterized by the depth and the width ), and the velocity
perturbation amplitude . The larger the amplitude, the faster the
oscillation damps. It is also found that mass drainage significantly reduces
the damping timescale when the perturbation is too strong.Comment: 17 PAGES, 8FIGURE
The X-ray variation of M81* resolved by Chandra and NuSTAR
Despite advances in our understanding of low luminosity active galactic
nuclei (LLAGNs), the fundamental details about the mechanisms of radiation and
flare/outburst in hot accretion flow are still largely missing. We have
systematically analyzed the archival Chandra and NuSTAR X-ray data of the
nearby LLAGN M81*, whose . Through a
detailed study of X-ray light curve and spectral properties, we find that the
X-ray continuum emission of the power-law shape more likely originates from
inverse Compton scattering within the hot accretion flow. In contrast to Sgr
A*, flares are rare in M81*. Low-amplitude variation can only be observed in
soft X-ray band (amplitude usually ). Several simple models are
tested, including sinusoidal-like and quasi-periodical. Based on a comparison
of the dramatic differences of flare properties among Sgr A*, M31* and M81*, we
find that, when the differences in both the accretion rate and the black hole
mass are considered, the flares in LLAGNs can be understood universally in a
magneto-hydrodynamical model.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, and 4 tables. Accepted to MNRA
First identification of PODXL nonsense mutations in autosomal dominant focal segmental glomerulosclerosis
Recently, a novel heterozygous missense mutation c.T1421G (p. L474R) in the PODXL gene encoding podocalyxin, was identified in an autosomal dominant focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (AD-FSGS) pedigree. However, this PODXL mutation appeared not to impair podocalyxin function and it is necessary to identify new PODXL mutations and determine their causative role for FSGS. In this study, we report the identification of a heterozygous nonsense PODXL mutations (Arg326X) in a Chinese pedigree featured by proteinuria and renal insufficiency with AD inheritance by whole exome sequencing (WES). Total mRNA and PODXL protein abundance were decreased in available peripheral blood cell samples of two affected patients undergoing hemodialysis, compared to those in healthy controls and hemodialysis controls without PODXL mutation. We identified another novel PODXL heterozygous nonsense mutation (c.C1133G; p.Ser378X) in a British-Indian pedigree of AD-FSGS by WES. In vitro study showed that, human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293T cells transfected with the pEGFP-PODXL-Arg326X or pEGFP-PODXL-Ser378X plasmid expressed significantly lower mRNA and PODXL protein compared to cells transfected with the wild-type plasmid. Blocking nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) significantly restored the amount of mutant mRNA and PODXL proteins, which indicated that the pathogenic effect of PODXL nonsense mutations is likely due to NMD, resulting in podocalyxin deficiency. Functional consequences caused by the PODXL nonsense mutations were inferred by siRNA knockdown in cultured podocytes and podocalyxin downregulation by siRNA resulted in decreased RhoA and ezrin activities, cell migration and stress fiber formation. Our results provided new data implicating heterozygous PODXL nonsense mutations in the development of FSGS
Anomalous open orbits in Hofstadter spectrum of Chern insulator
The nontrivial band topology can influence the Hofstadter spectrum. We
investigate the Hofstadter spectrum for various models of Chern insulators
under a rational flux , here and
being an integer. We find two major features. First, the number of splitting
subbands is with Chern number . Second, the anomalous open-orbit
subbands with Chern numbers and emerge, which are beyond the
parameter window of the Diophantine equation studied by
Thouless-Kohmoto-Nightingale-den Nijs [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{49}, 405
(1982)]. These two findings are explained by semiclassical dynamics. We propose
that the number of splitting subbands can be utilized to determine Chern number
in cold atom systems, and the open-orbit subbands can provide routes to study
exotic features beyond the Landau level physics
Dissecting X-ray-emitting Gas around the Center of our Galaxy
Most supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are accreting at very low levels and
are difficult to distinguish from the galaxy centers where they reside. Our own
Galaxy's SMBH provides a uniquely instructive exception, and we present a
close-up view of its quiescent X-ray emission based on 3 mega-second of Chandra
observations. Although the X-ray emission is elongated and aligns well with a
surrounding disk of massive stars, we can rule out a concentration of low-mass
coronally active stars as the origin of the emission based on the lack of
predicted Fe Kalpha emission. The extremely weak H-like Fe Kalpha line further
suggests the presence of an outflow from the accretion flow onto the SMBH.
These results provide important constraints for models of the prevalent
radiatively inefficient accretion state.Comment: 18 pages, 5 PDF figures, pdflatex format; Final version, published in
Scienc
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