3,629 research outputs found
Obituary - Edwin Wallace King
Dr. E.W. King was a highly respected scientist and teacher whose enthusiasm for entomology and general biology has inspired students toward excellence in our discipline for more than 30 years. On December 10, 1984, Dr. King died suddenly of complications associated with cancer
Exact Fourier expansion in cylindrical coordinates for the three-dimensional Helmholtz Green function
A new method is presented for Fourier decomposition of the Helmholtz Green
Function in cylindrical coordinates, which is equivalent to obtaining the
solution of the Helmholtz equation for a general ring source. The Fourier
coefficients of the Helmholtz Green function are split into their half
advanced+half retarded and half advanced-half retarded components. Closed form
solutions are given for these components in terms of a Horn function and a
Kampe de Feriet function, respectively. The systems of partial differential
equations associated with these two-dimensional hypergeometric functions are
used to construct a fourth-order ordinary differential equation which both
components satisfy. A second fourth-order ordinary differential equation for
the general Fourier coefficent is derived from an integral representation of
the coefficient, and both differential equations are shown to be equivalent.
Series solutions for the various Fourier coefficients are also given, mostly in
terms of Legendre functions and Bessel/Hankel functions. These are derived from
the closed form hypergeometric solutions or an integral representation, or
both. Numerical calculations comparing different methods of calculating the
Fourier coefficients are presented
Optical Structure and Proper-Motion Age of the Oxygen-rich Supernova Remnant 1E 0102-7219 in the Small Magellanic Cloud
We present new optical emission-line images of the young SNR 1E 0102-7219
(E0102) in the SMC obtained with the HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).
E0102 is a member of the oxygen-rich class of SNRs showing strong oxygen, neon
, and other metal-line emissions in its optical and X-ray spectra, and an
absence of H and He. The progenitor of E0102 may have been a Wolf-Rayet star
that underwent considerable mass loss prior to exploding as a Type Ib/c or
IIL/b SN. The ejecta in this SNR are fast-moving (V > 1000 km/s) and emit as
they are compressed and heated in the reverse shock. In 2003, we obtained
optical [O III], H-alpha, and continuum images with the ACS Wide Field Camera.
The [O III] image captures the full velocity range of the ejecta, and shows
considerable high-velocity emission projected in the middle of the SNR that was
Doppler-shifted out of the narrow F502N bandpass of a previous Wide Field and
Planetary Camera 2 image from 1995. Using these two epochs separated by ~8.5
years, we measure the transverse expansion of the ejecta around the outer rim
in this SNR for the first time at visible wavelengths. From proper-motion
measurements of 12 ejecta filaments, we estimate a mean expansion velocity for
the bright ejecta of ~2000 km/s and an inferred kinematic age for the SNR of
\~2050 +/- 600 years. The age we derive from HST data is about twice that
inferred by Hughes et al.(2000) from X-ray data, though our 1-sigma error bars
overlap. Our proper-motion age is consistent with an independent optical
kinematic age derived by Eriksen et al.(2003) using spatially resolved [O III]
radial-velocity data. We derive an expansion center that lies very close to
X-ray and radio hotspots, which could indicate the presence of a compact
remnant (neutron star or black hole).Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures. Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal, to appear
in 20 April 2006 issue. Full resolution figures are posted at:
http://stevenf.asu.edu/figure
Proper Motions of the HH 47 Jet Observed with the Hubble Space Telescope
We present a proper motion study of the shock waves within the classic
stellar jet HH 47 based on Hubble Space Telescope H-alpha and [S II] images of
the region taken over two epochs. Individual knots within the jet and in the
bow shock/Mach disk working surface of HH 47A move significantly in the five
years that separate the images, and the excellent spatial resolution of HST
makes it possible to measure the proper motions with enough precision to easily
observe differential motions throughout the flow. The bright portion of the jet
emerges at 37.5 +/- 2.5 degrees from the plane of the sky with an average
velocity of 300 km/s. Dynamical ages of the shock waves in the jet range from a
few decades for knots recently ejected by the source to ~ 1300 years for the
faint extended bow shock HH 47D. The jet curves, but motions of knots in the
jet are directed radially away from the exciting source, and velocity
variability in the flow drives the shock waves that heat the jet internally.
The jet orientation angle varies with time by about 15 degrees, and currently
points to the northwestern portion of a cavity outlined by a reflection nebula,
where a quasi-stationary shock deflects the jet. The major working surface HH
47A is more complex than a simple bow shock/Mach disk, and contains numerous
clumps that move relative to one another with velocities of ~ +/- 40 km/s.
Small clumps or instabilities affect the Mach disk, and dense clumps may move
all the way through the working surface to cause the bumpy morphology seen at
the bow shock. A localized area between the bow shock and Mach disk varies
significantly between the two sets of images.Comment: full resolution figures available at
http://sparky.rice.edu/~hartigan/pub.html; Accepted for publication in the
Astronomical Journa
Festschrift Symposium: Honoring Professor Samuel Pillsbury
The Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review is pleased to publish this Festschrift Symposium Honoring Professor Samuel Pillsbury. The following is an edited transcript of the live symposium held at LMU Loyola Law School on Friday, March 25, 2022
Annual variation in the levels of transcripts of sex-specific genes in the mantle of the common mussel, Mytilus edulis
Mytilus species are used as sentinels for the assessment of environmental health but sex or stage in the reproduction cycle is rarely considered even though both parameters are likely to influence responses to pollution. We have validated the use of a qPCR assay for sex identification and related the levels of transcripts to the reproductive cycle. A temporal study of mantle of Mytilus edulis found transcripts of male-specific vitelline coat lysin (VCL) and female-specific vitelline envelope receptor for lysin (VERL) could identify sex over a complete year. The levels of VCL/VERL were proportional to the numbers of sperm/ova and are indicative of the stage of the reproductive cycle. Maximal levels of VCL and VERL were found in February 2009 declining to minima between July - August before increasing and re-attaining a peak in February 2010. Water temperature may influence these transitions since they coincide with minimal water temperature in February and maximal temperature in August. An identical pattern of variation was found for a cryptic female-specific transcript (H5) but a very different pattern was observed for oestrogen receptor 2 (ER2). ER2 varied in a sex-specific way with male > female for most of the cycle, with a female maxima in July and a male maxima in December. Using artificially spawned animals, the transcripts for VCL, VERL and H5 were shown to be present in gametes and thus their disappearance from mantle is indicative of spawning. VCL and VERL are present at equivalent levels in February and July-August but during gametogenesis (August to January) and spawning (March to June) VCL is present at lower relative amounts than VERL. This may indicate sex-specific control mechanisms for these processes and highlight a potential pressure point leading to reduced reproductive output if environmental factors cause asynchrony to gamete maturation or release
Ground-state fidelity of Luttinger liquids: A wave functional approach
We use a wave functional approach to calculate the fidelity of ground states
in the Luttinger liquid universality class of one-dimensional gapless quantum
many-body systems. The ground-state wave functionals are discussed using both
the Schrodinger (functional differential equation) formulation and a path
integral formulation. The fidelity between Luttinger liquids with Luttinger
parameters K and K' is found to decay exponentially with system size, and to
obey the symmetry F(K,K')=F(1/K,1/K') as a consequence of a duality in the
bosonization description of Luttinger liquids.Comment: 13 pages, IOP single-column format. Sec. 3 expanded with discussion
of short-distance cut-off. Some typos corrected. Ref. 44 in v2 is now
footnote 2 (moved by copy editor). Published versio
Structure of the first representative of Pfam family PF04016 (DUF364) reveals enolase and Rossmann-like folds that combine to form a unique active site with a possible role in heavy-metal chelation.
The crystal structure of Dhaf4260 from Desulfitobacterium hafniense DCB-2 was determined by single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) to a resolution of 2.01 Å using the semi-automated high-throughput pipeline of the Joint Center for Structural Genomics (JCSG) as part of the NIGMS Protein Structure Initiative (PSI). This protein structure is the first representative of the PF04016 (DUF364) Pfam family and reveals a novel combination of two well known domains (an enolase N-terminal-like fold followed by a Rossmann-like domain). Structural and bioinformatic analyses reveal partial similarities to Rossmann-like methyltransferases, with residues from the enolase-like fold combining to form a unique active site that is likely to be involved in the condensation or hydrolysis of molecules implicated in the synthesis of flavins, pterins or other siderophores. The genome context of Dhaf4260 and homologs additionally supports a role in heavy-metal chelation
Structure of a putative NTP pyrophosphohydrolase: YP_001813558.1 from Exiguobacterium sibiricum 255-15.
The crystal structure of a putative NTPase, YP_001813558.1 from Exiguobacterium sibiricum 255-15 (PF09934, DUF2166) was determined to 1.78 Å resolution. YP_001813558.1 and its homologs (dimeric dUTPases, MazG proteins and HisE-encoded phosphoribosyl ATP pyrophosphohydrolases) form a superfamily of all-α-helical NTP pyrophosphatases. In dimeric dUTPase-like proteins, a central four-helix bundle forms the active site. However, in YP_001813558.1, an unexpected intertwined swapping of two of the helices that compose the conserved helix bundle results in a `linked dimer' that has not previously been observed for this family. Interestingly, despite this novel mode of dimerization, the metal-binding site for divalent cations, such as magnesium, that are essential for NTPase activity is still conserved. Furthermore, the active-site residues that are involved in sugar binding of the NTPs are also conserved when compared with other α-helical NTPases, but those that recognize the nucleotide bases are not conserved, suggesting a different substrate specificity
Structure of the γ-D-glutamyl-L-diamino acid endopeptidase YkfC from Bacillus cereus in complex with L-Ala-γ-D-Glu: insights into substrate recognition by NlpC/P60 cysteine peptidases.
Dipeptidyl-peptidase VI from Bacillus sphaericus and YkfC from Bacillus subtilis have both previously been characterized as highly specific γ-D-glutamyl-L-diamino acid endopeptidases. The crystal structure of a YkfC ortholog from Bacillus cereus (BcYkfC) at 1.8 Å resolution revealed that it contains two N-terminal bacterial SH3 (SH3b) domains in addition to the C-terminal catalytic NlpC/P60 domain that is ubiquitous in the very large family of cell-wall-related cysteine peptidases. A bound reaction product (L-Ala-γ-D-Glu) enabled the identification of conserved sequence and structural signatures for recognition of L-Ala and γ-D-Glu and, therefore, provides a clear framework for understanding the substrate specificity observed in dipeptidyl-peptidase VI, YkfC and other NlpC/P60 domains in general. The first SH3b domain plays an important role in defining substrate specificity by contributing to the formation of the active site, such that only murein peptides with a free N-terminal alanine are allowed. A conserved tyrosine in the SH3b domain of the YkfC subfamily is correlated with the presence of a conserved acidic residue in the NlpC/P60 domain and both residues interact with the free amine group of the alanine. This structural feature allows the definition of a subfamily of NlpC/P60 enzymes with the same N-terminal substrate requirements, including a previously characterized cyanobacterial L-alanine-γ-D-glutamate endopeptidase that contains the two key components (an NlpC/P60 domain attached to an SH3b domain) for assembly of a YkfC-like active site
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