Mercury orbiter transport study

A data base and comparative performance analyses of alternative flight mode options for delivering a range of payload masses to Mercury orbit are provided. Launch opportunities over the period 1980-2000 are considered. Extensive data trades are developed for the ballistic flight mode option utilizing one or more swingbys of Venus. Advanced transport options studied include solar electric propulsion and solar sailing. Results show the significant performance tradeoffs among such key parameters as trip time, payload mass, propulsion system mass, orbit size, launch year sensitivity and relative cost-effectiveness. Handbook-type presentation formats, particularly in the case of ballistic mode data, provide planetary program planners with an easily used source of reference information essential in the preliminary steps of mission selection and planning

secCl is a cys-loop ion channel necessary for the chloride conductance that mediates hormone-induced fluid secretion in Drosophila

Organisms use circulating diuretic hormones to control water balance (osmolarity), thereby avoiding dehydration and managing excretion of waste products. The hormones act through G-protein-coupled receptors to activate second messenger systems that in turn control the permeability of secretory epithelia to ions like chloride. In insects, the chloride channel mediating the effects of diuretic hormones was unknown. Surprisingly, we find a pentameric, cys-loop chloride channel, a type of channel normally associated with neurotransmission, mediating hormone-induced transepithelial chloride conductance. This discovery is important because: 1) it describes an unexpected role for pentameric receptors in the membrane permeability of secretory epithelial cells, and 2) it suggests that neurotransmitter-gated ion channels may have evolved from channels involved in secretion

Anyonic Realization of the Quantum Affine Lie Algebra U_q(A_N)

We give a realization of quantum affine Lie algebra $U_q(\hat A_{N-1})$ in terms of anyons defined on a two-dimensional lattice, the deformation parameter $q$ being related to the statistical parameter $\nu$ of the anyons by $q = e^{i\pi\nu}$. In the limit of the deformation parameter going to one we recover the Feingold-Frenkel fermionic construction of undeformed affine Lie algebra.Comment: 13p LaTeX Document (should be run twice

FOOTER: a web tool for finding mammalian DNA regulatory regions using phylogenetic footprinting

FOOTER is a newly developed algorithm that analyzes homologous mammalian promoter sequences in order to identify transcriptional DNA regulatory ‘signals’. FOOTER uses prior knowledge about the binding site preferences of the transcription factors (TFs) in the form of position-specific scoring matrices (PSSMs). The PSSM models are generated from known mammalian binding sites from the TRANSFAC database. In a test set of 72 confirmed binding sites (most of them not present in TRANSFAC) of 19 TFs, it exhibited 83% sensitivity and 72% specificity. FOOTER is accessible over the web at

Association Signals Unveiled by a Comprehensive Gene Set Enrichment Analysis of Dental Caries Genome-Wide Association Studies

Gene set-based analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) data has recently emerged as a useful approach to examine the joint effects of multiple risk loci in complex human diseases or phenotypes. Dental caries is a common, chronic, and complex disease leading to a decrease in quality of life worldwide. In this study, we applied the approaches of gene set enrichment analysis to a major dental caries GWAS dataset, which consists of 537 cases and 605 controls. Using four complementary gene set analysis methods, we analyzed 1331 Gene Ontology (GO) terms collected from the Molecular Signatures Database (MSigDB). Setting false discovery rate (FDR) threshold as 0.05, we identified 13 significantly associated GO terms. Additionally, 17 terms were further included as marginally associated because they were top ranked by each method, although their FDR is higher than 0.05. In total, we identified 30 promising GO terms, including 'Sphingoid metabolic process,' 'Ubiquitin protein ligase activity,' 'Regulation of cytokine secretion,' and 'Ceramide metabolic process.' These GO terms encompass broad functions that potentially interact and contribute to the oral immune response related to caries development, which have not been reported in the standard single marker based analysis. Collectively, our gene set enrichment analysis provided complementary insights into the molecular mechanisms and polygenic interactions in dental caries, revealing promising association signals that could not be detected through single marker analysis of GWAS data. © 2013 Wang et al

Investigation of Quantum Chaos in the Parametric Dependent System of Interacting oscillators

Formation of chaos in the parametric dependent system of interacting oscillators for the both classical and quantum cases has been investigated. Domain in which classical motion is chaotic is defined. It has been shown that for certain values of the parameters from this domain, form of the classical power spectrum is in a good agreement with the quantum band profile. Local density of states is calculated. The range in which application of perturbation theory is correct has been defined.Comment: 9 figures. to be published in Mod.Phys.Lett.

The ENCODE (ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements) Project

The ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project aims to identify all functional elements in the human genome sequence. The pilot phase of the Project is focused on a specified 30 megabases (∼1%) of the human genome sequence and is organized as an international consortium of computational and laboratory-based scientists working to develop and apply high-throughput approaches for detecting all sequence elements that confer biological function. The results of this pilot phase will guide future efforts to analyze the entire human genome

A Rapid Assessment of Coral Reefs Near Hopetown, Abaco Islands, Bahamas (Stony Corals and Algae)

Coral reefs at 13 sites ranging in depth from 1-16 m near Hopetown, Abaco Islands, Bahamas were surveyed utilizing the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) benthos protocol. A total of 35 species of scleractinian corals and 2 species of calcareous hydrocorals were observed. The overall coral cover averaged just over 14%. Among corals that were at least 10 cm in diameter, small colonies (\u3c 40 cm diameter) predominated in all sites except for the Fowl Cay pinnacles where 68% were larger than 60 cm in diameter. Large colonies (\u3e 40 cm diameter) were also found in the Lynyard Cay spur-and-groove formations and the Sandy Cay fore reef. Zero-4% of the colonies were affected by disease. Total (recent + old) partial-colony mortality ranged from 9-31% (both extreme values being found in outer reef crests). Turf algae were the most common algal functional group overall. Macroalgae were ubiquitous, however, with relative abundance values of about 25-47%. Macroalgal indices (a proxy for biomass) ranged from 64 in the Sandy Cay back reef to 184 in the Fowl Cay outer reef crest

Fractal fluctuations in quantum integrable scattering

We theoretically and numerically demonstrate that completely integrable scattering processes may exhibit fractal transmission fluctuations, due to typical spectral properties of integrable systems. Similar properties also occur with scattering processes in the presence of strong dynamical localization, thus explaining recent numerical observations of fractality in the latter class of systems.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, 3 eps figure