3,413 research outputs found
The endoribonucleolytic N-terminal half of Escherichia coli RNase E is evolutionarily conserved in Synechocystis sp. and other bacteria but not the C-terminal half, which is sufficient for degradosome assembly
Escherichia coli RNase E, an essential single-stranded specific endoribonuclease, is required for both ribosomal RNA processing and the rapid degradation of mRNA. The availability of the complete sequences of a number of bacterial genomes prompted us to assess the evolutionarily conservation of bacterial RNase E. We show here that the sequence of the N-terminal endoribonucleolytic domain of RNase E is evolutionarily conserved in Synechocystis sp. and other bacteria. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the Synechocystis sp. homologue binds RNase E substrates and cleaves them at the same position as the E. coli enzyme. Taken together these results suggest that RNase E-mediated mechanisms of RNA decay are not confined to E. coli and its close relatives. We also show that the C-terminal half of E. coli RNase E is both sufficient and necessary for its physical interaction with the 3'-5' exoribonuclease polynucleotide phosphorylase, the RhlB helicase, and the glycolytic enzyme enolase, which are components of a "degradosome" complex. Interestingly, however, the sequence of the C-terminal half of E. coli RNase E is not highly conserved evolutionarily, suggesting diversity of RNase E interactions with other RNA decay components in different organisms. This notion is supported by our finding that the Synechocystis sp. RNase E homologue does not function as a platform for assembly of E. coli degradosome components
Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons in CuO
We present a parameter-free model which estimates the density of excitons in
CuO, related to experiments that have tried to create an excitonic
Bose-Einstein condensate. Our study demonstrates that the triplet-state
excitons move along adiabats and obey classical statistics, while the
singlet-state excitons are a possible candidate for forming a Bose-Einstein
condensate. Finally we show that the results of this study do not change
qualitatively in a two-dimensional exciton gas, which can be realized in a
quantum well.Comment: 6 pages, RevTex, 1 ps figur
Evolution and instabilities of disks harboring super massive black holes
The bar formation is still an open problem in modern astrophysics. In this
paper we present numerical simulation performed with the aim of analyzing the
growth of the bar instability inside stellar-gaseous disks, where the star
formation is triggered, and a central black hole is present. The aim of this
paper is to point out the impact of such a central massive black hole on the
growth of the bar. We use N-body-SPH simulations of the same isolated
disk-to-halo mass systems harboring black holes with different initial masses
and different energy feedback on the surrounding gas. We compare the results of
these simulations with the one of the same disk without black hole in its
center. We make the same comparison (disk with and without black hole) for a
stellar disk in a fully cosmological scenario. A stellar bar, lasting 10 Gyrs,
is present in all our simulations. The central black hole mass has in general a
mild effect on the ellipticity of the bar but it is never able to destroy it.
The black holes grow in different way according their initial mass and their
feedback efficiency, the final values of the velocity dispersions and of the
black hole masses are near to the phenomenological constraints.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for pubblication in "Astrophysics and
Space Science
The black-hole masses of Seyfert galaxies and quasars
The central black-hole masses of a sample of 30 luminous quasars are
estimated using H-beta FWHM measurements from a combination of new and
previously-published nuclear spectra. The quasar black-hole mass estimates are
combined with reverberation-mapping measurements for a sample of Seyfert
galaxies (Wandel 1999) in order to study AGN black-hole masses over a wide
range in nuclear luminosity. It is found that black-hole mass and bulge
luminosity are well correlated and follow a relation consistent with that
expected if black-hole and bulge mass are directly proportional. Contrary to
the results of Wandel (1999) no evidence is found that Seyfert galaxies follow
a different Mblack-Mbulge relation to quasars. However, the black-hole mass
distributions of the radio-loud and radio-quiet quasar sub-samples are found to
be significantly different, with the median black-hole mass of the radio-loud
quasars a factor of three larger than their radio-quiet counterparts. Finally,
utilizing the elliptical galaxy fundamental plane to provide stellar velocity
dispersion estimates, a comparison is performed between the virial H-beta
black-hole mass estimates and those of the Mblack-sigma correlations of
Gebhardt et al. (2000a) and Merritt & Ferrarese (2000). With the disc-like
geometry of the broad-line region adopted in this paper, the virial H-beta
black-hole masses indicate that the correct normalization of the black-hole vs.
bulge mass relation is Mblack=0.0025Mbulge, while the standard assumption of
purely random broad-line velocities leads to Mblack=0.0008Mbulge. The
normalization of Mblack=0.0025Mbulge provided by the disc model is in
remarkably good agreement with that inferred for our quasar sample using the
(completely independent) Mblack-sigma correlations.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Clinical analysis of 48 hours emergency department visit post outpatient extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy for urolithiasis
A Supersymmetric D4 Model for mu-tau Symmetry
We construct a supersymmeterized version of the model presented by Grimus and
Lavoura (GL) in [1] which predicts theta_{23} maximal and theta_{13}=0 in the
lepton sector. For this purpose, we extend the flavor group, which is D4 x
Z2^{(aux)} in the original model, to D4 x Z5. An additional difference is the
absence of right-handed neutrinos. Despite these changes the model is the same
as the GL model, since theta_{23} maximal and theta_{13}=0 arise through the
same mismatch of D4 subgroups, D2 in the charged lepton and Z2 in the neutrino
sector. In our setup D4 is solely broken by gauge singlets, the flavons. We
show that their vacuum structure, which leads to the prediction of theta_{13}
and theta_{23}, is a natural result of the scalar potential. We find that the
neutrino mass matrix only allows for inverted hierarchy, if we assume a certain
form of spontaneous CP violation. The quantity |m_{ee}|, measured in
neutrinoless double beta decay, is nearly equal to the lightest neutrino mass
m3. The Majorana phases phi1 and phi2 are restricted to a certain range for m3
< 0.06 eV. We discuss the next-to-leading order corrections which give rise to
shifts in the vacuum expectation values of the flavons. These induce deviations
from maximal atmospheric mixing and vanishing theta_{13}. It turns out that
these deviations are smaller for theta_{23} than for theta_{13}.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure
Diet quality, stress and common mental health problems: A cohort study of 121,008 adults
Background & aims
Overall diet quality may partially mediate the detrimental effects of stress and neuroticism on common mental health problems: stressed and/or neurotic individuals may be more prone to unhealthy dietary habits, which in turn may contribute to depression and anxiety. Lifestyle interventions for depressed, anxious or at-risk individuals hinge on this idea, but evidence to support such pathway is missing. Here, we aim to prospectively evaluate the role of overall diet quality in common pathways to developing depression and anxiety.
Methods
At baseline, N = 121,008 individuals from the general population (age 18–93) completed an extensive food frequency questionnaire, based on which overall diet quality was estimated. Participants also reported on two established risk factors for mental health problems, i.e. past-year stress exposure (long-term difficulties, stressful life-events) and four neuroticism traits (anger-hostility, self-consciousness, impulsivity, vulnerability). Depression and anxiety were assessed at baseline and follow-up (n = 65,342, +3.6 years). Overall diet quality was modeled as a mediator in logistic regression models predicting the development of depression and anxiety from common risk factors.
Results
High stress and high neuroticism scores were - albeit weakly - associated with poorer diet quality. Poor diet quality, in turn, did not predict mental health problems. Overall diet quality did not mediate the relationship between stress/neuroticism and common mental health problems: effects of stress, neuroticism and stress-by-neuroticism interactions on mental health problems at follow-up consisted entirely of direct effects (98.6%–100%).
Conclusions
Diet quality plays no mediating role in two established pathways to common mental health problems. As overall diet quality was reduced in stressed and neurotic individuals, these groups may benefit from dietary interventions. However, such interventions are unlikely to prevent the onset or recurrence of depression and anxiety.publishedVersio
quasiharmonic equations of state for dynamically-stabilized soft-mode materials
We introduce a method for treating soft modes within the analytical framework
of the quasiharmonic equation of state. The corresponding double-well
energy-displacement relation is fitted to a functional form that is harmonic in
both the low- and high-energy limits. Using density-functional calculations and
statistical physics, we apply the quasiharmonic methodology to solid periclase.
We predict the existence of a B1--B2 phase transition at high pressures and
temperatures
Graph Invariants of Vassiliev Type and Application to 4D Quantum Gravity
We consider a special class of Kauffman's graph invariants of rigid vertex
isotopy (graph invariants of Vassiliev type). They are given by a functor from
a category of colored and oriented graphs embedded into a 3-space to a category
of representations of the quasi-triangular ribbon Hopf algebra . Coefficients in expansions of them with respect to () are
known as the Vassiliev invariants of finite type. In the present paper, we
construct two types of tangle operators of vertices. One of them corresponds to
a Casimir operator insertion at a transverse double point of Wilson loops. This
paper proposes a non-perturbative generalization of Kauffman's recent result
based on a perturbative analysis of the Chern-Simons quantum field theory. As a
result, a quantum group analog of Penrose's spin network is established taking
into account of the orientation. We also deal with the 4-dimensional canonical
quantum gravity of Ashtekar. It is verified that the graph invariants of
Vassiliev type are compatible with constraints of the quantum gravity in the
loop space representation of Rovelli and Smolin.Comment: 34 pages, AMS-LaTeX, no figures,The proof of thm.5.1 has been
improve
- …