250 research outputs found
Enzyme-induced Formation of Ăź-Lactoglobulin Fibrils by AspN Endoproteinase
This paper describes a low temperature, enzymatic route to induce fibrillar structures in a protein solution. The route comprises two steps. First, ß-lactoglobulin was hydrolyzed into peptides at pH 8 and 37°C with the enzyme AspN endoproteinase, which resulted in the formation of random aggregates. After hydrolysis, the pH was lowered to 2. As a result, long fibrillar aggregates were formed which was observed using transmission electron microscopy and Thioflavin T fluorescence measurements
Past, present, and future distribution of Afromontane rodents (Muridae: Otomys) reflect climate-change predicted biome changes
Climate change constitutes a potential threat to montane biodiversity, particularly in low-altitude, tropical mountains; however, few data exist for the Afromontane
taxa. In South Africa, the temperate grassland and fynbos biomes are mostly associated with the Great Escarpment
and the high-lying central plateau. Varying contractions of the grassland and fynbos biomes are predicted under different climate scenarios by 2050. Animal taxa adapted to these biomes should suffer similar range declines and can be used to independently test the vegetation models. We constructed MaxEnt models from 271 unique locality
records for three species of montane and submontane vlei rats that are closely associated with grassland (Otomys auratus, Wroughton 1906), mesic savanna (Otomys angoniensis, Wroughton 1906), and fynbos (Otomys irroratus, Brants 1827) biomes in South Africa. Projected range shifts under the A2 emission scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed increases (O. angoniensis) and decreases (O. auratus) that closely mirrored those expected for the savanna and grassland biomes, respectively. Comparison of historical (from 90 years ago) and current occurrence data from a zone of sympatry in the tropical Soutpansberg Mountains (at 1250 m asl) showed complete replacement of the grassland-adapted rodent species (O. auratus) by the savanna-adapted species (O.
angoniensis) due to historically documented changes from a grassland-dominated to thicket-dominated landscape
420 DUAL ENERGY X-RAY ABSORPTIOMETRY ANALYSYS CONTRIBUTE TO PREDICT HIP OSTEOARTHRITIS PROGRESSION
Charge-density waves in the Hubbard chain: evidence for 4k_F instability
Charge density waves in the Hubbard chain are studied by means of
finite-temperature Quantum Monte Carlo simulations and Lanczos diagonalizations
for the ground state. We present results both for the charge susceptibilities
and for the charge structure factor at densities \rho=1/6 and 1/3; for \rho=1/2
(quarter filled) we only present results for the charge structure factor. The
data are consistent with a 4k_F instability dominating over the 2k_F one, at
least for sufficiently large values of the Coulomb repulsion, U. This can only
be reconciled with the Luttinger liquid analyses if the amplitude of the 2k_F
contribution vanishes above some U^*(\rho).Comment: RevTeX, 4 two-column pages with 7 colour figures embedded in tex
The Flare-energy Distributions Generated by Kink-unstable Ensembles of Zero-net-current Coronal Loops
It has been proposed that the million degree temperature of the corona is due
to the combined effect of barely-detectable energy releases, so called
nanoflares, that occur throughout the solar atmosphere. Alas, the nanoflare
density and brightness implied by this hypothesis means that conclusive
verification is beyond present observational abilities. Nevertheless, we
investigate the plausibility of the nanoflare hypothesis by constructing a
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model that can derive the energy of a nanoflare from
the nature of an ideal kink instability. The set of energy-releasing
instabilities is captured by an instability threshold for linear kink modes.
Each point on the threshold is associated with a unique energy release and so
we can predict a distribution of nanoflare energies. When the linear
instability threshold is crossed, the instability enters a nonlinear phase as
it is driven by current sheet reconnection. As the ensuing flare erupts and
declines, the field transitions to a lower energy state, which is modelled by
relaxation theory, i.e., helicity is conserved and the ratio of current to
field becomes invariant within the loop. We apply the model so that all the
loops within an ensemble achieve instability followed by energy-releasing
relaxation. The result is a nanoflare energy distribution. Furthermore, we
produce different distributions by varying the loop aspect ratio, the nature of
the path to instability taken by each loop and also the level of radial
expansion that may accompany loop relaxation. The heating rate obtained is just
sufficient for coronal heating. In addition, we also show that kink instability
cannot be associated with a critical magnetic twist value for every point along
the instability threshold
The TM6SF2 E167K genetic variant induces lipid biosynthesis and reduces apolipoprotein B secretion in human hepatic 3D spheroids
There is a high unmet need for developing treatments for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), for which there are no approved drugs today. Here, we used a human in vitro disease model to understand mechanisms linked to genetic risk variants associated with NAFLD. The model is based on 3D spheroids from primary human hepatocytes from five different donors. Across these donors, we observed highly reproducible differences in the extent of steatosis induction, demonstrating that inter-donor variability is reflected in the in vitro model. Importantly, our data indicates that the genetic variant TM6SF2 E167K, previously associated with increased risk for NAFLD, induces increased hepatocyte fat content by reducing APOB particle secretion. Finally, differences in gene expression pathways involved in cholesterol, fatty acid and glucose metabolism between wild type and TM6SF2 E167K mutation carriers (N = 125) were confirmed in the in vitro model. Our data suggest that the 3D in vitro spheroids can be used to investigate the mechanisms underlying the association of human genetic variants associated with NAFLD. This model may also be suitable to discover new treatments against NAFLD
Quantum Monte Carlo and variational approaches to the Holstein model
Based on the canonical Lang-Firsov transformation of the Hamiltonian we
develop a very efficient quantum Monte Carlo algorithm for the Holstein model
with one electron. Separation of the fermionic degrees of freedom by a
reweighting of the probability distribution leads to a dramatic reduction in
computational effort. A principal component representation of the phonon
degrees of freedom allows to sample completely uncorrelated phonon
configurations. The combination of these elements enables us to perform
efficient simulations for a wide range of temperature, phonon frequency and
electron-phonon coupling on clusters large enough to avoid finite-size effects.
The algorithm is tested in one dimension and the data are compared with
exact-diagonalization results and with existing work. Moreover, the ideas
presented here can also be applied to the many-electron case. In the
one-electron case considered here, the physics of the Holstein model can be
described by a simple variational approach.Comment: 18 pages, 11 Figures, v2: one typo correcte
Quantum cellular automata quantum computing with endohedral fullerenes
We present a scheme to perform universal quantum computation using global
addressing techniques as applied to a physical system of endohedrally doped
fullerenes. The system consists of an ABAB linear array of Group V endohedrally
doped fullerenes. Each molecule spin site consists of a nuclear spin coupled
via a Hyperfine interaction to an electron spin. The electron spin of each
molecule is in a quartet ground state . Neighboring molecular electron
spins are coupled via a magnetic dipole interaction. We find that an
all-electron construction of a quantum cellular automata is frustrated due to
the degeneracy of the electronic transitions. However, we can construct a
quantum celluar automata quantum computing architecture using these molecules
by encoding the quantum information on the nuclear spins while using the
electron spins as a local bus. We deduce the NMR and ESR pulses required to
execute the basic cellular automata operation and obtain a rough figure of
merit for the the number of gate operations per decoherence time. We find that
this figure of merit compares well with other physical quantum computer
proposals. We argue that the proposed architecture meets well the first four
DiVincenzo criteria and we outline various routes towards meeting the fifth
criteria: qubit readout.Comment: 16 pages, Latex, 5 figures, See http://planck.thphys.may.ie/QIPDDF/
submitted to Phys. Rev.
Low Temperature Lanczos Method
We present a modified finite temperature Lanczos method for the evaluation of
dynamical and static quantities of strongly correlated electron systems that
complements the finite temperature method (FTLM) introduced by Jaklic and
Prelovsek for low temperatures. Together they allow accurate calculations at
any temperature with moderate effort. As an example we calculate the static
spin correlation function and the regular part of the optical conductivity of
the one dimensional Hubbard model at half-filling and show in detail the
connection between the ground state and finite temperature method. By using
Cluster Perturbation Theory (CPT), the finite temperature spectral function is
extended to the infinite system, clearly exhibiting the effects of spin-charge
separation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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