Multiscaling analysis of high resolution space-time lidar-rainfall

In this study, we report results from scaling analysis of 2.5 m spatial and 1 s temporal resolution lidar-rainfall data. The high resolution spatial and temporal data from the same observing system allows us to investigate the variability of rainfall at very small scales ranging from few meters to ~1 km in space and few seconds to ~30 min in time. The results suggest multiscaling behaviour in the lidar-rainfall with the scaling regime extending down to the resolution of the data. The results also indicate the existence of a space-time transformation of the form <i>t</i>~<i>L<sup>z</sup></i> at very small scales, where <i>t</i> is the time lag, <i>L</i> is the spatial averaging scale and <i>z</i> is the dynamic scaling exponent

Binding to medium and long chain fatty acyls is a common property of HEAT and ARM repeat modules.

Covalent post-translational modification (PTM) of proteins with acyl groups of various carbon chain-lengths regulates diverse biological processes ranging from chromatin dynamics to subcellular localization. While the YEATS domain has been found to be a prominent reader of acetylation and other short acyl modifications, whether additional acyl-lysine reader domains exist, particularly for longer carbon chains, is unclear. Here, we employed a quantitative proteomic approach using various modified peptide baits to identify reader proteins of various acyl modifications. We discovered that proteins harboring HEAT and ARM repeats bind to lysine myristoylated peptides. Recombinant HEAT and ARM repeats bind to myristoylated peptides independent of the peptide sequence or the position of the myristoyl group. Indeed, HEAT and ARM repeats bind directly to medium- and long-chain free fatty acids (MCFA and LCFA). Lipidomic experiments suggest that MCFAs and LCFAs interact with HEAT and ARM repeat proteins in mammalian cells. Finally, treatment of cells with exogenous MCFAs and inhibitors of MCFA-CoA synthases increase the transactivation activity of the ARM repeat protein β-catenin. Taken together, our results suggest an unappreciated role for fatty acids in the regulation of proteins harboring HEAT or ARM repeats

Quantum creep and quantum creep transitions in 1D sine-Gordan chains

Discrete sine-Gordon (SG) chains are studied with path-integral molecular dynamics. Chains commensurate with the substrate show the transition from collective quantum creep to pinning at bead masses slightly larger than those predicted from the continuous SG model. Within the creep regime, a field-driven transition from creep to complete depinning is identified. The effects of disorder in the external potential on the chain's dynamics depend on the potential's roughness exponent $H$, i.e., quantum and classical fluctuations affect the current self-correlation functions differently for $H = 1/2$.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Why Matrix theory works for oddly shaped membranes

We give a simple proof of why there is a Matrix theory approximation for a membrane shaped like an arbitrary Riemann surface. As corollaries, we show that noncompact membranes cannot be approximated by matrices and that the Poisson algebra on any compact phase space is U(infinity). The matrix approximation does not appear to work properly in theories such as IIB string theory or bosonic membrane theory where there is no conserved 3-form charge to which the membranes couple.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, revtex; references adde

Determination of an optimal response cut-off able to predict progression-free survival in patients with well-differentiated advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours treated with sunitinib: an alternative to the current RECIST-defined response.

BACKGROUND: Sunitinib prolongs progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (pNET). Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST)-defined partial responses (PR; classically defined as ⩾30% size decrease from baseline) are infrequent. METHODS: Individual data of pNET patients from the phase II [NCT00056693] and pivotal phase III [NCT00428597] trials of sunitinib were analysed in this investigator-initiated, post hoc study. The primary objective was to determine the optimal RECIST (v.1.0) response cut-off value to identify patients who were progression-free at 11 months (median PFS in phase III trial); and the most informative time-point (highest area under the curve (AUC) by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and logistic regression) for prediction of benefit (PFS) from sunitinib. RESULTS: Data for 237 patients (85 placebo; 152 sunitinib (n=66.50 mg \u274-weeks on/2-weeks off\u27 schedule; n=86 \u2737.5 mg continuous daily dosing (CDD)\u27)) and 788 scans were analysed. The median PFS for sunitinib and placebo were 9.3 months (95% CI 7.6-12.2) and 5.4 months (95% CI 3.5-6.01), respectively (hazard ratio (HR) 0.43 (95% CI 0.29-0.62); P CONCLUSIONS: A 10% reduction within marker lesions identifies pNET patients benefiting from sunitinib treatment with implications for maintenance of dose intensity and future trial design

Unstable solitons on noncommutative tori and D-branes

We describe a class of exact solutions of super Yang-Mills theory on even-dimensional noncommutative tori. These solutions generalize the solitons on a noncommutative plane introduced in hep-th/0009142 that are conjectured to describe unstable D2p-D0 systems. We show that the spectrum of quadratic fluctuations around our solutions correctly reproduces the string spectrum of the D2p-D0 system in the Seiberg-Witten decoupling limit. In particular the fluctuations correctly reproduce the 0-0 string winding modes. For p=1 and p=2 we match the differences between the soliton energy and the energy of an appropriate SYM BPS state with the binding energies of D2-D0 and D4-D0 systems. We also give an example of a soliton that we conjecture describes branes of intermediate dimension on a torus such as a D2-D4 system on a four-torus.Comment: 22 pages, Latex; v.2: references adde

GCIP water and energy budget synthesis (WEBS)

As part of the World Climate Research Program\u27s (WCRPs) Global Energy and Water-Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental-scale International Project (GCIP), a preliminary water and energy budget synthesis (WEBS) was developed for the period 1996–1999 from the “best available” observations and models. Besides this summary paper, a companion CD-ROM with more extensive discussion, figures, tables, and raw data is available to the interested researcher from the GEWEX project office, the GAPP project office, or the first author. An updated online version of the CD-ROM is also available at http://ecpc.ucsd.edu/gcip/webs.htm/. Observations cannot adequately characterize or “close” budgets since too many fundamental processes are missing. Models that properly represent the many complicated atmospheric and near-surface interactions are also required. This preliminary synthesis therefore included a representative global general circulation model, regional climate model, and a macroscale hydrologic model as well as a global reanalysis and a regional analysis. By the qualitative agreement among the models and available observations, it did appear that we now qualitatively understand water and energy budgets of the Mississippi River Basin. However, there is still much quantitative uncertainty. In that regard, there did appear to be a clear advantage to using a regional analysis over a global analysis or a regional simulation over a global simulation to describe the Mississippi River Basin water and energy budgets. There also appeared to be some advantage to using a macroscale hydrologic model for at least the surface water budgets

Number of apoptotic cells as a prognostic marker in invasive breast cancer

Apoptosis plays an important role in tumorigenesis. Tumour growth is determined by the rate of cell proliferation and cell death. We counted the number of apoptotic cells in haematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained tumour sections in series of 172 grade I and II invasive breast cancers with long-term follow-up. The number of apoptotic cells in ten high-power fields were converted to the number of apoptotic cells per mm2to obtain the apoptotic index (AI). The AI showed a positive correlation to the mitotic activity index (MAI) (P = 0.0001), histological grade (P< 0.0001) and worse tumour differentiation. Patients with high AI showed shorter overall survival than patients with low AI in the total group as well as in the lymph node-positive group. Tumour size, MAI, lymph node status and AI were independent prognostic indicators in multivariate analysis. The AI was shown to be of additional prognostic value to the MAI in the total patients group as well as in the lymph node-positive group. The correlation between the AI and the MAI points to linked mechanisms of apoptosis and proliferation. Since apoptotic cells can be counted with good reproducibility in H&E-stained tumour sections, the AI may be used as an additional prognostic indicator in invasive breast cancer. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig