130 research outputs found
Neutron-proton pairing in the N=Z radioactive fp-shell nuclei 56Ni and 52Fe probed by pair transfer
The isovector and isoscalar components of neutron-proton pairing are investigated in the N=Z unstable nuclei of the fp-shell through the two-nucleon transfer reaction (p,3He) in inverse kinematics. The combination of particle and gamma-ray detection with radioactive beams of 56Ni and 52Fe, produced by fragmentation at the GANIL/LISE facility, made it possible to carry out this study for the first time in a closed and an open-shell nucleus in the fp-shell. The transfer cross-sections for ground-state to ground-state (J=0+, T=1) and to the first (J=1+, T=0) state were extracted for both cases together with the transfer cross-section ratios Ï(0+, T=1)/Ï(1+, T=0). They are compared with second-order distorted-wave born approximation (DWBA) calculations. The enhancement of the ground-state to ground-state pair transfer cross-section close to mid-shell, in 52Fe, points towards a superfluid phase in the isovector channel. For the âdeuteron-likeâ transfer, very low cross-sections to the first (J=1+, T=0) state were observed both for 56Ni(p,3He) and 52Fe(p,3He) and are related to a strong hindrance of this channel due to spin-orbit effect. No evidence for an isoscalar deuteron-like condensate is observed.The authors are very grateful to GANIL staff, particularly Vincent Morel for assistance with the set-up. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union under Seventh Framework Programme FP7 Infrastructures project ENSAR, grant agreement No. 262010. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 (LBNL). A.O. Macchiavelli thanks the UniversitĂ© Paris-Sud for support as an invited professor
Selection of oligonucleotides for whole-genome microarrays with semi-automatic update
Summary: Oligonucleotide microarray probes are designed to match specific transcripts present in databases that are regularly updated. As a consequence probes should be checked every new database release. We thus developed an informatics tool allowing the semi-automatic update of probe collections of long oligonucleotides and applied it to the mouse RefSeq database
Search for new resonant states in 10C and 11C and their impact on the cosmological lithium problem
The observed primordial 7Li abundance in metal-poor halo stars is found to be
lower than its Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) calculated value by a factor of
approximately three. Some recent works suggested the possibility that this
discrepancy originates from missing resonant reactions which would destroy the
7Be, parent of 7Li. The most promising candidate resonances which were found
include a possibly missed 1- or 2- narrow state around 15 MeV in the compound
nucleus 10C formed by 7Be+3He and a state close to 7.8 MeV in the compound
nucleus 11C formed by 7Be+4He. In this work, we studied the high excitation
energy region of 10C and the low excitation energy region in 11C via the
reactions 10B(3He,t)10C and 11B(3He,t)11C, respectively, at the incident energy
of 35 MeV. Our results for 10C do not support 7Be+3He as a possible solution
for the 7Li problem. Concerning 11C results, the data show no new resonances in
the excitation energy region of interest and this excludes 7Be+4He reaction
channel as an explanation for the 7Li deficit.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C (Rapid Communication
Search for resonant states in 10C and 11C and their impact on the primordial 7Li abundance
The cosmological 7Li problem arises from the significant discrepancy of about a factor 3 between the predicted primordial 7Li abundance and the observed one. The main process for the production of 7Li during Big-Bang nucleosynthesis is the decay of 7Be. Many key nuclear reactions involved in the production and destruction of 7Be were investigated in attempt to explain the 7Li deficit but none of them led to successful conclusions. However, some authors suggested recently the possibility that the destruction of 7Be by 3He and 4He may reconcile the predictions and observations if missing resonant states in the compound nuclei 10C and 11C exist. Hence, a search of these missing resonant states in 10C and 11C was investigated at the Orsay Tandem-Alto facility through 10B(3He,t)10C and 11B(3He,t)11C charge-exchange reactions respectively. After a short overview of the cosmological 7Li problem from a nuclear physics point of view, a description of the Orsay experiment will be given as well as the obtained results and their impact on the 7Li problem
Study of the 26Al(n,p)26Mg and 26Al(n,α)23Na reactions using the 27Al(p,p')27Al inelastic scattering reaction
26Al was the first cosmic radioactivity ever detected in the galaxy as well as one of the first extinct radioactivity observed in refractory phases of meteorites. Its nucleosynthesis in massive stars is still uncertain mainly due to the lack of nuclear information concerning the 26Al(n,p)26Mg and 26 Al(n,α)23Na reactions. We report on a single and coincidence measurement of the 27Al(p,p')27Al(p)26Mg and 27Al(p,p')27Al(α)23Na reactions performed at the Orsay TANDEM facility aiming at the spectroscopy study of 27Al above the neutron threshold. Fourteen states are observed for the first time within 350 keV above the 26Al+n threshold
Yeast Mitochondrial Biogenesis: A Role for the PUF RNA-Binding Protein Puf3p in mRNA Localization
The asymmetric localization of mRNA plays an important role in coordinating posttranscriptional events in eukaryotic cells. We investigated the peripheral mitochondrial localization of nuclear-encoded mRNAs (MLR) in various conditions in which the mRNA binding protein context and the translation efficiency were altered. We identified Puf3p, a Pumilio family RNA-binding protein, as the first trans-acting factor controlling the MLR phenomenon. This allowed the characterization of two classes of genes whose mRNAs are translated to the vicinity of mitochondria. Class I mRNAs (256 genes) have a Puf3p binding motif in their 3'UTR region and many of them have their MLR properties deeply affected by PUF3 deletion. Conversely, mutations in the Puf3p binding motif alter the mitochondrial localization of BCS1 mRNA. Class II mRNAs (224 genes) have no Puf3p binding site and their asymmetric localization is not affected by the absence of PUF3. In agreement with a co-translational import process, we observed that the presence of puromycin loosens the interactions between most of the MLR-mRNAs and mitochondria. Unexpectedly, cycloheximide, supposed to solidify translational complexes, turned out to destabilize a class of mRNA-mitochondria interactions. Classes I and II mRNAs, which are therefore transported to the mitochondria through different pathways, correlated with different functional modules. Indeed, Class I genes code principally for the assembly factors of respiratory chain complexes and the mitochondrial translation machinery (ribosomes and translation regulators). Class II genes encode proteins of the respiratory chain or proteins involved in metabolic pathways. Thus, MLR, which is intimately linked to translation control, and the activity of mRNA-binding proteins like Puf3p, may provide the conditions for a fine spatiotemporal control of mitochondrial protein import and mitochondrial protein complex assembly. This work therefore provides new openings for the global study of mitochondria biogenesis
Neutron-proton pairing in the N=Z radioactive fp-shell nuclei 56Ni and 52Fe probed by pair transfer
The isovector and isoscalar components of neutron-proton pairing are
investigated in the N=Z unstable nuclei of the \textit{fp}-shell through the
two-nucleon transfer reaction (p,He) in inverse kinematics. The combination
of particle and gamma-ray detection with radioactive beams of Ni and
Fe, produced by fragmentation at the GANIL/LISE facility, made it
possible to carry out this study for the first time in a closed and an
open-shell nucleus in the \textit{fp}-shell. The transfer cross-sections for
ground-state to ground-state (J=0,T=1) and to the first (J=1,T=0) state
were extracted for both cases together with the transfer cross-section ratios
(0,T=1) /(1,T=0). They are compared with second-order
distorted-wave born approximation (DWBA) calculations. The enhancement of the
ground-state to ground-state pair transfer cross-section close to mid-shell, in
Fe, points towards a superfluid phase in the isovector channel. For the
"deuteron-like" transfer, very low cross-sections to the first (J=1,T=0)
state were observed both for \Ni\phe\, and \Fe\phe\, and are related to a
strong hindrance of this channel due to spin-orbit effect. No evidence for an
isoscalar deuteron-like condensate is observed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Phenotype Sequencing: Identifying the Genes That Cause a Phenotype Directly from Pooled Sequencing of Independent Mutants
Random mutagenesis and phenotype screening provide a powerful method for dissecting microbial functions, but their results can be laborious to analyze experimentally. Each mutant strain may contain 50â100 random mutations, necessitating extensive functional experiments to determine which one causes the selected phenotype. To solve this problem, we propose a âPhenotype Sequencingâ approach in which genes causing the phenotype can be identified directly from sequencing of multiple independent mutants. We developed a new computational analysis method showing that 1. causal genes can be identified with high probability from even a modest number of mutant genomes; 2. costs can be cut many-fold compared with a conventional genome sequencing approach via an optimized strategy of library-pooling (multiple strains per library) and tag-pooling (multiple tagged libraries per sequencing lane). We have performed extensive validation experiments on a set of E. coli mutants with increased isobutanol biofuel tolerance. We generated a range of sequencing experiments varying from 3 to 32 mutant strains, with pooling on 1 to 3 sequencing lanes. Our statistical analysis of these data (4099 mutations from 32 mutant genomes) successfully identified 3 genes (acrB, marC, acrA) that have been independently validated as causing this experimental phenotype. It must be emphasized that our approach reduces mutant sequencing costs enormously. Whereas a conventional genome sequencing experiment would have cost 1200. In fact, our smallest experiments reliably identified acrB and marC at a cost of only 340
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