8,836 research outputs found
Polyamine uptake in the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is dependent on the parasite's membrane potential
Polyamines are present at high levels in proliferating cells, including cancerous cells and protozoan parasites and the inhibition of their synthesis has been exploited in antiproliferative strategies. Inhibition of the malaria parasite’s polyamine biosynthetic pathway causes cytostatic arrest in the trophozoite stage but does not cure in vivo infections in the murine model of malaria. This is possibly due to exogenous polyamine salvage from the host, which replenishes the intracellular polyamine pool. This implies that disruption of polyamine metabolism as an antimalarial chemotherapy strategy may require targeting both polyamine biosynthesis and transport simultaneously
Spontaneous emergence of spatial patterns ina a predator-prey model
We present studies for an individual based model of three interacting
populations whose individuals are mobile in a 2D-lattice. We focus on the
pattern formation in the spatial distributions of the populations. Also
relevant is the relationship between pattern formation and features of the
populations' time series. Our model displays travelling waves solutions,
clustering and uniform distributions, all related to the parameters values. We
also observed that the regeneration rate, the parameter associated to the
primary level of trophic chain, the plants, regulated the presence of
predators, as well as the type of spatial configuration.Comment: 17 pages and 15 figure
Transformation Properties of External Radiation Fields, Energy-Loss Rates and Scattered Spectra, and a Model for Blazar Variability
We treat transformation properties of external radiation fields in the proper
frame of a plasma moving with constant speed. The specific spectral energy
densities of external isotropic and accretion-disk radiation fields are derived
in the comoving frame of relativistic outflows, such as those thought to be
found near black-hole jet and gamma-ray burst sources. Nonthermal electrons and
positrons Compton-scatter this radiation field, and high-energy protons and
ions interact with this field through photomeson and photopair production. We
revisit the problem of the Compton-scattered spectrum associated with an
external accretion-disk radiation field, and clarify a past treatment by the
authors. Simple expressions for energy-loss rates and Thomson-scattered spectra
are given for ambient soft photon fields consisting either of a surrounding
external isotropic monochromatic radiation field, or of an azimuthally
symmetric, geometrically thin accretion-disk radiation field. A model for
blazar emission is presented that displays a characteristic spectral and
variability behavior due to the presence of a direct accretion-disk component.
The disk component and distinct flaring behavior can be bright enough to be
detected from flat spectrum radio quasars with {\it GLAST}. Spectral states of
blazars are characterized by the relative importance of the accretion-disk and
scattered radiation fields and, in the extended jet, by the accretion disk,
inner jet, and cosmic microwave background radiation fields.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, ApJ, in press; includes improvements in
response to referee report, added references, section of detectability with
GLAS
Reconstruction of metabolic networks from high-throughput metabolite profiling data: in silico analysis of red blood cell metabolism
We investigate the ability of algorithms developed for reverse engineering of
transcriptional regulatory networks to reconstruct metabolic networks from
high-throughput metabolite profiling data. For this, we generate synthetic
metabolic profiles for benchmarking purposes based on a well-established model
for red blood cell metabolism. A variety of data sets is generated, accounting
for different properties of real metabolic networks, such as experimental
noise, metabolite correlations, and temporal dynamics. These data sets are made
available online. We apply ARACNE, a mainstream transcriptional networks
reverse engineering algorithm, to these data sets and observe performance
comparable to that obtained in the transcriptional domain, for which the
algorithm was originally designed.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Presented at the DIMACS Workshop on Dialogue on
Reverse Engineering Assessment and Methods (DREAM), Sep 200
Analyzing the Multiwavelength Spectrum and Variability of BL Lacertae During the July 1997 Outburst
The multiwavelength spectrum of BL Lacertae during its July 1997 outburst is
analyzed in terms of different variations of the homogeneous leptonic jet model
for the production of high-energy radiation from blazars. We find that a
two-component gamma-ray spectrum, consisting of a synchrotron self-Compton and
an external Compton component, is required in order to yield an acceptable fit
to the broadband spectrum. Our analysis indicates that in BL Lac, unlike other
BL Lac objects, the broad emission line region plays an important role for the
high-energy emission. Several alternative blazar jet models are briefly
discussed. In the appendix, we describe the formalism in which the process of
Comptonization of reprocessed accretion disk photons is treated in the
previously developed blazar jet simulation code which we use.Comment: Now accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.
Significantly extended discussion w.r.t. original version. 3 Figures included
using epsf.sty, rotate.st
A variational problem on Stiefel manifolds
In their paper on discrete analogues of some classical systems such as the
rigid body and the geodesic flow on an ellipsoid, Moser and Veselov introduced
their analysis in the general context of flows on Stiefel manifolds. We
consider here a general class of continuous time, quadratic cost, optimal
control problems on Stiefel manifolds, which in the extreme dimensions again
yield these classical physical geodesic flows. We have already shown that this
optimal control setting gives a new symmetric representation of the rigid body
flow and in this paper we extend this representation to the geodesic flow on
the ellipsoid and the more general Stiefel manifold case. The metric we choose
on the Stiefel manifolds is the same as that used in the symmetric
representation of the rigid body flow and that used by Moser and Veselov. In
the extreme cases of the ellipsoid and the rigid body, the geodesic flows are
known to be integrable. We obtain the extremal flows using both variational and
optimal control approaches and elucidate the structure of the flows on general
Stiefel manifolds.Comment: 30 page
Multivalued SK-contractions with respect to b-generalized pseudodistances
A new class of multivalued non-self-mappings, called SK-contractions with respect to
b-generalized pseudodistances, is introduced and used to investigate the existence of
best proximity points by using an appropriate geometric property. Some new fixed
point results in b-metric spaces are also obtained. Examples are given to support the
usability of our main result
Lepton Acceleration in Pulsar Wind Nebulae
Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe) act as calorimeters for the relativistic pair
winds emanating from within the pulsar light cylinder. Their radiative
dissipation in various wavebands is significantly different from that of their
pulsar central engines: the broadband spectra of PWNe possess characteristics
distinct from those of pulsars, thereby demanding a site of lepton acceleration
remote from the pulsar magnetosphere. A principal candidate for this locale is
the pulsar wind termination shock, a putatively highly-oblique,
ultra-relativistic MHD discontinuity. This paper summarizes key characteristics
of relativistic shock acceleration germane to PWNe, using predominantly Monte
Carlo simulation techniques that compare well with semi-analytic solutions of
the diffusion-convection equation. The array of potential spectral indices for
the pair distribution function is explored, defining how these depend
critically on the parameters of the turbulent plasma in the shock environs.
Injection efficiencies into the acceleration process are also addressed.
Informative constraints on the frequency of particle scattering and the level
of field turbulence are identified using the multiwavelength observations of
selected PWNe. These suggest that the termination shock can be comfortably
invoked as a principal injector of energetic leptons into PWNe without
resorting to unrealistic properties for the shock layer turbulence or MHD
structure.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, invited review to appear in Proc. of the
inaugural ICREA Workshop on "The High-Energy Emission from Pulsars and their
Systems" (2010), eds. N. Rea and D. Torres, (Springer Astrophysics and Space
Science series
Very Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment for Precise Measurements of Mixing Parameters and CP Violating Effects
We analyze the prospects of a feasible, Brookhaven National Laboratory based,
very long baseline (BVLB) neutrino oscillation experiment consisting of a
conventional horn produced low energy wide band beam and a detector of 500 kT
fiducial mass with modest requirements on event recognition and resolution.
Such an experiment is intended primarily to determine CP violating effects in
the neutrino sector for 3-generation mixing. We analyze the sensitivity of such
an experiment. We conclude that this experiment will allow determination of the
CP phase and the currently unknown mixing parameter
, if , a value times
lower than the present experimental upper limit. In addition to
and , the experiment has great potential for precise measurements
of most other parameters in the neutrino mixing matrix including , , ,
and the mass ordering of neutrinos through the observation of the matter effect
in the appearance channel.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
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