Activation of pluripotency genes in human fibroblast cells by a novel mRNA based approach

Background: Several methods have been used to induce somatic cells to re-enter the pluripotent state. Viral transduction of reprogramming genes yields higher efficiency but involves random insertions of viral sequences into the human genome. Although induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be obtained with the removable PiggyBac transposon system or an episomal system, both approaches still use DNA constructs so that resulting cell lines need to be thoroughly analyzed to confirm they are free of harmful genetic modification. Thus a method to change cell fate without using DNA will be very useful in regenerative medicine. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, we synthesized mRNAs encoding OCT4, SOX2, cMYC, KLF4 and SV40 large T (LT) and electroporated them into human fibroblast cells. Upon transfection, fibroblasts expressed these factors at levels comparable to, or higher than those in human embryonic stem (ES) cells. Ectopically expressed OCT4 localized to the cell nucleus within 4 hours after mRNA introduction. Transfecting fibroblasts with a mixture of mRNAs encoding all five factors significantly increased the expression of endogenous OCT4, NANOG, DNMT3 beta, REX1 and SALL4. When such transfected fibroblasts were also exposed to several small molecules (valproic acid, BIX01294 and 5'-aza-2'-deoxycytidine) and cultured in human embryonic stem cell (ES) medium they formed small aggregates positive for alkaline phosphatase activity and OCT4 protein within 30 days. Conclusion/Significance: Our results demonstrate that mRNA transfection can be a useful approach to precisely control the protein expression level and short-term expression of reprogramming factors is sufficient to activate pluripotency genes in differentiated cells

PCA Based Robust Motion Data Recovery.

Human motion tracking is a prevalent technique in many fields. A common difficulty encountered in motion tracking is the corrupted data is caused by detachment of markers in 3D motion data or occlusion in 2D tracking data. Most methods for missing markers problem may quickly become ineffective when gaps exist in the trajectories of multiple markers for an extended duration. In this paper, we propose the principal component eigenspace based gap filling methods that leverage a training sample set for estimation. The proposed method is especially beneficial in the scenario of motion data with less predictable or repeated movement patterns, and that of even missing entire frames within an interval of a sequence. To highlight algorithm robustness, we perform algorithms on twenty test samples for comparison. The experimental results show that our methods are numerical stable and fast to work

Branching ratio and CP asymmetry of Bs→π+π−B_s \to \pi^+ \pi^- decays in the perturbative QCD approach

In this paper, we calculate the decay rate and CP asymmetry of the $B_s \to \pi^+\pi^-$ decay in perturbative QCD approach with Sudakov resummation. Since none of the quarks in final states is the same as those of the initial $B_s$ meson, this decay can occur only via annihilation diagrams in the standard model. Besides the current-current operators, the contributions from the QCD and electroweak penguin operators are also taken into account. We find that (a) the branching ratio is about $4 \times 10^{-7}$; (b) the penguin diagrams dominate the total contribution; and (c) the direct CP asymmetry is small in size: no more than $3$; but the mixing-induced CP asymmetry can be as large as ten percent testable in the near future LHC-b experiments.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures included, RevTe

Antiflow of kaons in relativistic heavy ion collisions

We compare relativistic transport model calculations to recent data on the sideward flow of neutral strange K^0_s mesons for Au+Au collisions at 6 AGeV. A soft nuclear equation of state is found to describe very well the positive proton flow data measured in the same experiment. In the absence of kaon potential, the K^0 flow pattern is similar to that of protons. The kaon flow becomes negative if a repulsive kaon potential determined from the impulse approximation is introduced. However, this potential underestimates the data which exhibits larger antiflow. An excellent agreement with the data is obtained when a relativistic scalar-vector kaon potential, that has stronger density dependence, is used. We further find that the transverse momentum dependence of directed and elliptic flow is quite sensitive to the kaon potential in dense matter.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, 4 figure

The subelliptic heat kernel on SU(2): Representations, Asymptotics and Gradient bounds

The Lie group SU(2) endowed with its canonical subriemannian structure appears as a three-dimensional model of a positively curved subelliptic space. The goal of this work is to study the subelliptic heat kernel on it and some related functional inequalities.Comment: Update: Added section + Correction of typo

The glacial–terrestrial–fluvial pathway: A multiparametrical analysis of spatiotemporal dissolved organic matter variation in three catchments of Lake Nam Co, Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is a sensitive alpine environment of global importance, being Asia's water tower, featuring vast ice masses and comprising the world's largest alpine grasslands. Intensified land-use and pronounced global climate change have put pressure on the environment of the TP. We studied the tempo-spatial variability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) to better understand the fluxes of nutrients and energy from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems in the TP. We used a multiparametrical approach, based on inorganic water chemistry, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, dissolved organic matter (DOM) characteristics (chromophoric DOM, fluorescence DOM and δ13C of DOM) in stream samples of three catchments of the Nam Co watershed and the lake itself. Satellite based plant cover estimates were used to link biogeochemical data to the structure and degradation of vegetation zones in the catchments. Catchment streams showed site-specific DOM signatures inherited from glaciers, wetlands, groundwater, and Kobresia pygmaea pastures. By comparing stream and lake samples, we found DOM processing and unification by loss of chromophoric DOM signatures and a change towards an autochthonous source of lake DOM. DOM diversity was largest in the headwaters of the catchments and heavily modified in terminal aquatic systems. Seasonality was characterized by a minor influence of freshet and by a very strong impact of the Indian summer monsoon on DOM composition, with more microbial DOM sources. The DOM of Lake Nam Co differed chemically from stream water samples, indicating the lake to be a quasi-marine environment in regards to the degree of chemical modification and sources of DOM. DOM proved to be a powerful marker to elucidate consequences of land use and climatic change on biogeochemical processes in High Asian alpine ecosystems

Anomalies on orbifolds with gauge symmetry breaking

We embed two 4D chiral multiplets of opposite representations in the 5D N=2 $SU(N+K)$ gauge theory compactified on an orbifold $S^1/(Z_2\times Z'_2)$. There are two types of orbifold boundary conditions in the extra dimension to obtain the 4D N=1 $SU(N)\times SU(K)\times U(1)$ gauge theory from the bulk: in Type I, one has the bulk gauge group at $y=0$ and the unbroken gauge group at $y=\pi R/2$ while in Type II, one has the unbroken gauge group at both fixed points. In both types of orbifold boundary conditions, we consider the zero mode(s) as coming from a bulk $(K+N)$-plet and brane fields at the fixed point(s) with the unbroken gauge group. We check the consistency of this embedding of fields by the localized anomalies and the localized FI terms. We show that the localized anomalies in Type I are cancelled exactly by the introduction of a bulk Chern-Simons term. On the other hand, in some class of Type II, the Chern-Simons term is not enough to cancel all localized anomalies even if they are globally vanishing. We also find that for the consistent embedding of brane fields, there appear only the localized log FI terms at the fixed point(s) with a U(1) factor.Comment: LaTeX file of 19 pages with no figure, published versio

On the warp drive space-time

In this paper the problem of the quantum stability of the two-dimensional warp drive spacetime moving with an apparent faster than light velocity is considered. We regard as a maximum extension beyond the event horizon of that spacetime its embedding in a three-dimensional Minkowskian space with the topology of the corresponding Misner space. It is obtained that the interior of the spaceship bubble becomes then a multiply connected nonchronal region with closed timelike curves and that the most natural vacuum allows quantum fluctuations which do not induce any divergent behaviour of the re-normalized stress-energy tensor, even on the event (Cauchy) chronology horizon. In such a case, the horizon encloses closed timelike curves only at scales close to the Planck length, so that the warp drive satisfies the Ford's negative energy-time inequality. Also found is a connection between the superluminal two-dimensional warp drive space and two-dimensional gravitational kinks. This connection allows us to generalize the considered Alcubierre metric to a standard, nonstatic metric which is only describable on two different coordinate patchesComment: 7 pages, minor comment on chronology protection added, RevTex, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Gauge-Fermion Unification and Flavour Symmetry

After we study the 6-dimensional ${\cal N} = (1, 1)$ supersymmetry breaking and $R$ symmetry breaking on $M^4\times T^2/Z_n$, we construct two ${\cal N} = (1, 1)$ supersymmetric $E_6$ models on $M^4\times T^2/Z_3$ where $E_6$ is broken down to $SO(10)\times U(1)_X$ by orbifold projection. In Model I, three families of the Standard Model fermions arise from the zero modes of bulk vector multiplet, and the $R$ symmetry $U(1)_F^{I} \times SU(2)_{{\bf 4}_-}$ can be considered as flavour symmetry. This may explain why there are three families of fermions in the nature. In Model II, the first two families come from the zero modes of bulk vector multiplet, and the flavour symmetry is similar. In these models, the anomalies can be cancelled, and we have very good fits to the SM fermion masses and mixings. We also comment on the ${\cal N}=(1, 1)$ supersymmetric $E_6$ models on $M^4\times T^2/Z_4$ and $M^4\times T^2/Z_6$, SU(9) models on $M^4\times T^2/Z_3$, and SU(8) models on $T^2$ orbifolds.Comment: Latex, 33 pages, minor change

Nitrate stable isotopes and major ions in snow and ice samples from four Svalbard sites

Increasing reactive nitrogen (N-r) deposition in the Arctic may adversely impact N-limited ecosystems. To investigate atmospheric transport of N-r to Svalbard, Norwegian Arctic, snow and firn samples were collected from glaciers and analysed to define spatial and temporal variations (1 10 years) in major ion concentrations and the stable isotope composition (delta N-15 and delta O-18) of nitrate (NO3-) across the archipelago. The delta N-15(NO3-) and delta O-18(NO3-) averaged -4 parts per thousand and 67 parts per thousand in seasonal snow (2010-11) and -9 parts per thousand and 74 parts per thousand in firn accumulated over the decade 2001-2011. East-west zonal gradients were observed across the archipelago for some major ions (non-sea salt sulphate and magnesium) and also for delta N-15(NO3-) and delta O-18(NO3-) in snow, which suggests a different origin for air masses arriving in different sectors of Svalbard. We propose that snowfall associated with long-distance air mass transport over the Arctic Ocean inherits relatively low delta N-15(NO3-) due to in-transport N isotope fractionation. In contrast, faster air mass transport from the north-west Atlantic or northern Europe results in snowfall with higher delta N-15(NO3-) because in-transport fractionation of N is then time-limited