5,904 research outputs found
Polyethylenimine-Modified Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Plasmid DNA Gene Delivery
An efficient molecular delivery technique based on the transporting high-molecular-weight PEI 600K-modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (PEI 600K-MWCNTs) into cell membranes is reported. The PEI 600K-MWCNTs exhibit low cytotoxicity and its associated plasmid DNA (pDNA) is delivered to cells efficiently, and the green fluorescent protein (GFP) levels up to 18 times higher than that of naked DNA were observed
ent-Kaurane diterpenoids from the plant Wedelia trilobata
Four new ent-kaurane diterpenoids, namely, 3α-tigloyloxypterokaurene L(3) (1), ent-17-hydroxy-kaura-9(11),15-dien-19-oic acid (2), and wedelobatins A (3) and B (4), together with 11 known ent-kaurane diterpenoids (5-15), were isolated from the ethanol extract of Wedelia trilobata. All the structures of 1–15 were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic studies. [Image: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.1007/s13659-013-0029-4 and is accessible for authorized users
Sexual Dimorphism, Female Reproductive Characteristics and Egg Incubation in an Oviparous Forest Skink (Sphenomorphus incognitus) from South China
We studied sexual dimorphism and female reproduction in an oviparous forest skink (Sphenomorphus incognitus) from South China. We incubated eggs under five thermal regimes (22, 25, 28, 25 ± 3 and 27 ± 5 °C) to examine the effects of constant versus fluctuating temperatures on incubation length and hatchling morphology. In our sample the largest male and female were 110 mm and 108 mm snout-vent length (SVL), respectively. Adult males and females did not differ in mean SVL; adult males were larger in head size (both length and width), longer in fore- and hind-limb lengths and shorter in abdomen length than females of the same SVL. Accordingly, we conclude that S. incognitus is a sexually monomorphic species in terms of SVL but shows sexual dimorphism in head size, abdomen length and appendage length. Females laid a single clutch of 3−10 eggs per breeding season from early May to mid-August, with larger females generally laying more (but not always larger) eggs per clutch than did smaller ones. Embryonic stages at laying ranged from Dufaure and Hubert’s (1961) stage 31 to 32, with a mean stage of 31.3. The positive relationship between clutch mass and female SVL was not significant. The offspring size-number trade-off does not exist in S. incognitus, as revealed by the fact that egg mass was independent of relative fecundity. Incubation length decreased as temperature increased, and stable temperatures resulted in delayed hatching. Hatchlings incubated under the five thermal regimes did not differ from each other in any examined trait, suggesting that S. incognitus is among oviparous reptilian species where incubation temperature has no role in modifying hatchling morphology as long as eggs are not exposed to extreme temperatures for prolonged periods of time
Multi-parameter Tests of General Relativity Using Bayesian Parameter Estimation with Principal Component Analysis for LISA
In the near future, space-borne gravitational wave (GW) detector LISA can
open the window of low-frequency band of GW and provide new tools to test
gravity theories. In this work, we consider multi-parameter tests of GW
generation and propagation where the deformation coefficients are varied
simultaneously in parameter estimation and the principal component analysis
(PCA) method are used to transform posterior samples into new bases for
extracting the most informative components. The dominant components can be
better mesured and constrained and are more sensitive to potential departures
from general relativity (GR). We extend previous works by employing Bayesian
parameter estimation and performing both null tests and tests with injections
of subtle GR-violated signals. We also apply multi-parameter tests with PCA in
the phenomenological test of GW propagation. This work complements previous
works and further demonstrates the enhancement provided by the PCA method.
Considering a supermassive black hole binary system as the GW source, we find
that bounds of the most dominant PCA parameter can be one order of
magnitude tighter than the bounds of original deformation parameter of leading
frequency order. The departures less than in original parameters can
yield significant departures in first 5 dominant PCA parameters.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure
Next-to-leading order QCD predictions for the hadronic +jet production
We calculate the next-to-leading order(NLO) QCD corrections to the
production in association with a jet at hadron colliders. We study the impacts
of the complete NLO QCD radiative corrections to the integrated cross sections,
the scale dependence of the cross sections, and the differential cross sections
(, ) of the final -,
Higgs-boson and jet. We find that the corrections significantly modify the
physical observables, and reduce the scale uncertainty of the LO cross section.
Our results show that by applying the inclusive scheme with and taking , , the
K-factor is 1.15 for the process at the Tevatron,
while the K-factors for the processes and
at the LHC are 1.12 and 1.08 respectively. We conclude that to understand the
hadronic associated production, it is necessary to study the NLO QCD
corrections to production process which is part of the inclusive
production.Comment: 26 pages, 27 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.
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