5,556 research outputs found
Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy Reveals Efficient Cytosolic Delivery of Protein Cargo by Cell-Permeant Miniature Proteins.
New methods for delivering proteins into the cytosol of mammalian cells are being reported at a rapid pace. Differentiating between these methods in a quantitative manner is difficult, however, as most assays for evaluating cytosolic protein delivery are qualitative and indirect and thus often misleading. Here we make use of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to determine with precision and accuracy the relative efficiencies with which seven different previously reported "cell-penetrating peptides" (CPPs) transport a model protein cargo-the self-labeling enzyme SNAP-tag-beyond endosomal membranes and into the cytosol. Using FCS, we discovered that the miniature protein ZF5.3 is an exceptional vehicle for delivering SNAP-tag to the cytosol. When delivered by ZF5.3, SNAP-tag can achieve a cytosolic concentration as high as 250 nM, generally at least 2-fold and as much as 6-fold higher than any other CPP evaluated. Additionally, we show that ZF5.3 can be fused to a second enzyme cargo-the engineered peroxidase APEX2-and reliably delivers the active enzyme to the cell interior. As FCS allows one to realistically assess the relative merits of protein transduction domains, we anticipate that it will greatly accelerate the identification, evaluation, and optimization of strategies to deliver large, intact proteins to intracellular locales
Slave-boson field fluctuation approach to the extended Falicov-Kimball model: charge, orbital, and excitonic susceptibilities
Based on the SO(2)-invariant slave-boson scheme, the static charge, orbital,
and excitonic susceptibilities in the extended Falicov-Kimball model are
calculated. Analyzing the phase without long-range order we find instabilities
towards charge order, orbital order, and the excitonic insulator (EI) phase.
The instability towards the EI is in agreement with the saddle-point phase
diagram. We also evaluate the dynamic excitonic susceptibility, which allows
the investigation of uncondensed excitons. We find qualitatively different
features of the exciton dispersion at the semimetal-EI and at the
semiconductor-EI transition supporting a crossover scenario between a BCS-type
electron-hole condensation and a Bose-Einstein condensation of preformed bound
electron-hole pairs.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, final versio
EUV and X-ray spectroheliograph study
The results of a program directed toward the definition of an EUV and X-ray spectroheliograph which has significant performance and operational improvements over the OSO-7 instrument are documented. The program investigated methods of implementing selected changes and incorporated the results of the study into a set of drawings which defines the new instrument. The EUV detector performance degradation observed during the OSO-7 mission was investigated and the most probable cause of the degradation identified
A limit on the detectability of the energy scale of inflation
We show that the polarization of the cosmic microwave background can be used
to detect gravity waves from inflation if the energy scale of inflation is
above 3.2 times 10^15 GeV. These gravity waves generate polarization patterns
with a curl, whereas (to first order in perturbation theory) density
perturbations do not. The limiting ``noise'' arises from the second--order
generation of curl from density perturbations, or rather residuals from its
subtraction. We calculate optimal sky coverage and detectability limits as a
function of detector sensitivity and observing time.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR
A Method for Individual Source Brightness Estimation in Single- and Multi-band Data
We present a method of reliably extracting the flux of individual sources
from sky maps in the presence of noise and a source population in which number
counts are a steeply falling function of flux. The method is an extension of a
standard Bayesian procedure in the millimeter/submillimeter literature. As in
the standard method, the prior applied to source flux measurements is derived
from an estimate of the source counts as a function of flux, dN/dS. The key
feature of the new method is that it enables reliable extraction of properties
of individual sources, which previous methods in the literature do not. We
first present the method for extracting individual source fluxes from data in a
single observing band, then we extend the method to multiple bands, including
prior information about the spectral behavior of the source population(s). The
multi-band estimation technique is particularly relevant for classifying
individual sources into populations according to their spectral behavior. We
find that proper treatment of the correlated prior information between
observing bands is key to avoiding significant biases in estimations of
multi-band fluxes and spectral behavior, biases which lead to significant
numbers of misclassified sources. We test the single- and multi-band versions
of the method using simulated observations with observing parameters similar to
that of the South Pole Telescope data used in Vieira, et al. (2010).Comment: 11 emulateapj pages, 3 figures, revised to match published versio
Probing the equation of state of the early universe with a space laser interferometer
We propose a method to probe the equation of state of the early universe and
its evolution, using the stochastic gravitational wave background from
inflation. A small deviation from purely radiation dominated universe () would be clearly imprinted on the gravitational wave spectrum
due to the nearly scale invariant nature of inflationary
generated waves.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
The origin of Dendrosenecio within the Senecioneae (Asteraceae) based on chloroplastDNA EVIDENCE
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141916/1/ajb213859.pd
Weighing the Universe with Photometric Redshift Surveys and the Impact on Dark Energy Forecasts
With a wariness of Occam's razor awakened by the discovery of cosmic
acceleration, we abandon the usual assumption of zero mean curvature and ask
how well it can be determined by planned surveys. We also explore the impact of
uncertain mean curvature on forecasts for the performance of planned dark
energy probes. We find that weak lensing and photometric baryon acoustic
oscillation data, in combination with CMB data, can determine the mean
curvature well enough that the residual uncertainty does not degrade
constraints on dark energy. We also find that determinations of curvature are
highly tolerant of photometric redshift errors.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to Ap
Interplay of the exciton and electron-hole plasma recombination on the photoluminescence dynamics in bulk GaAs
We present a systematic study of the exciton/electron-hole plasma
photoluminescence dynamics in bulk GaAs for various lattice temperatures and
excitation densities. The competition between the exciton and electron-hole
pair recombination dominates the onset of the luminescence. We show that the
metal-to-insulator transition, induced by temperature and/or excitation
density, can be directly monitored by the carrier dynamics and the
time-resolved spectral characteristics of the light emission. The dependence on
carrier density of the photoluminescence rise time is strongly modified around
a lattice temperature of 49 K, corresponding to the exciton binding energy (4.2
meV). In a similar way, the rise-time dependence on lattice temperature
undergoes a relatively abrupt change at an excitation density of 120-180x10^15
cm^-3, which is about five times greater than the calculated Mott density in
GaAs taking into account many body corrections.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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