438 research outputs found
QCD sum rules with finite masses
The concept of QCD sum rules is extended to bound states composed of
particles with finite mass such as scalar quarks or strange quarks. It turns
out that mass corrections become important in this context. The number of
relevant corrections is analyzed in a systematic discussion of the IR- and
UV-divergencies, leading in general to a finite number of corrections. The
results are demonstrated for a system of two massless quarks and two heavy
scalar quarks.Comment: 15 pages, including two pictures to be found in an extra file. Latex
neads epsf.st
COALESCING NEUTRON STARS AS GAMMA RAY BURSTERS ?
We investigate the dynamics and evolution of coalescing neutron stars. The
three-dimensional Newtonian equations of hydrodynamics are integrated by the
`Piecewise Parabolic Method' However, we do include the effects of the emission
of gravitational waves on the hydrodynamics. The properties of neutron star
matter are described by the equation of state of Lattimer & Swesty. In addition
to the fundamental hydrodynamic quantities, density, momentum, and energy, we
follow the time evolution of the electron density in the stellar gas. Energy
losses and changes of the electron abundance due to the emission of neutrinos
are taken into account by an elaborate ``neutrino leakage scheme'', which
employs a careful calculation of the lepton number and energy source terms of
all neutrino types. The grid is Cartesian and equidistant with a resolution of
64**3 or 128**3, which allows us to calculate the self-gravity via fast Fourier
transforms.Comment: extended abstract contribution to the proceedings of the 17th Texas
Symposium, 2 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript
Correlation functions of scattering matrix elements in microwave cavities with strong absorption
The scattering matrix was measured for microwave cavities with two antennas.
It was analyzed in the regime of overlapping resonances. The theoretical
description in terms of a statistical scattering matrix and the rescaled
Breit-Wigner approximation has been applied to this regime. The experimental
results for the auto-correlation function show that the absorption in the
cavity walls yields an exponential decay. This behavior can only be modeled
using a large number of weakly coupled channels. In comparison to the
auto-correlation functions, the cross-correlation functions of the diagonal
S-matrix elements display a more pronounced difference between regular and
chaotic systems
Mutational and biochemical analysis of the DNA-entry nuclease EndA from Streptococcus pneumoniae
EndA is a membrane-attached surface-exposed DNA-entry nuclease previously known to be required for genetic transformation of Streptococcus pneumoniae. More recent studies have shown that the enzyme also plays an important role during the establishment of invasive infections by degrading extracellular chromatin in the form of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), enabling streptococci to overcome the innate immune system in mammals. As a virulence factor, EndA has become an interesting target for future drug design. Here we present the first mutational and biochemical analysis of recombinant forms of EndA produced either in a cell-free expression system or in Escherichia coli. We identify His160 and Asn191 to be essential for catalysis and Asn182 to be required for stability of EndA. The role of His160 as the putative general base in the catalytic mechanism is supported by chemical rescue of the H160A variant of EndA with imidazole added in excess. Our study paves the way for the identification and development of protein or low-molecular-weight inhibitors for EndA in future high-throughput screening assays
A series of PDB related databases for everyday needs
The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is the world-wide repository of macromolecular structure information. We present a series of databases that run parallel to the PDB. Each database holds one entry, if possible, for each PDB entry. DSSP holds the secondary structure of the proteins. PDBREPORT holds reports on the structure quality and lists errors. HSSP holds a multiple sequence alignment for all proteins. The PDBFINDER holds easy to parse summaries of the PDB file content, augmented with essentials from the other systems. PDB_REDO holds re-refined, and often improved, copies of all structures solved by X-ray. WHY_NOT summarizes why certain files could not be produced. All these systems are updated weekly. The data sets can be used for the analysis of properties of protein structures in areas ranging from structural genomics, to cancer biology and protein design
Structural and functional characterization of the LldR from Corynebacterium glutamicum: a transcriptional repressor involved in l-lactate and sugar utilization
LldR (CGL2915) from Corynebacterium glutamicum is a transcription factor belonging to the GntR family, which is typically involved in the regulation of oxidized substrates associated with amino acid metabolism. In the present study, the crystal structure of LldR was determined at 2.05-Å resolution. The structure consists of N- and C-domains similar to those of FadR, but with distinct domain orientations. LldR and FadR dimers achieve similar structures by domain swapping, which was first observed in dimeric assembly of transcription factors. A structural feature of Zn2+ binding in the regulatory domain was also observed, as a difference from the FadR subfamily. DNA microarray and DNase I footprint analyses suggested that LldR acts as a repressor regulating cgl2917-lldD and cgl1934-fruK-ptsF operons, which are indispensable for l-lactate and fructose/sucrose utilization, respectively. Furthermore, the stoichiometries and affinities of LldR and DNAs were determined by isothermal titration calorimetry measurements. The transcriptional start site and repression of LldR on the cgl2917-lldD operon were analysed by primer extension assay. Mutation experiments showed that residues Lys4, Arg32, Arg42 and Gly63 are crucial for DNA binding. The location of the putative ligand binding cavity and the regulatory mechanism of LldR on its affinity for DNA were proposed
A Critical Analysis of the Proton Form Factor with Sudakov Suppression and Intrinsic Transverse Momentum
The behavior of the proton magnetic form factor is studied within the
modified hard scattering picture, which takes into account gluonic radiative
corrections in terms of transverse separations. We parallel the analysis given
previously by Li and make apparent a number of serious objections. The
appropriate cut-off needed to render the form-factor calculation finite is both
detailed and analyzed by considering different cut-off prescriptions. The use
of the maximum interquark separation as a common infrared cut-off in the
Sudakov suppression factor is proposed, since it avoids difficulties with the
-singularities and yields a proton form factor insensitive to the
inclusion of the soft region which therefore can be confidently attributed to
perturbative QCD. Results are presented for a variety of proton wave functions
including also their intrinsic transverse momentum. It turns out that the
perturbative contribution, although theoretically self-consistent for
larger than about ~GeV to ~GeV, is too small compared to
the data.Comment: 31 pages (RevTex) + 6 figures in PS-file; preprint BUGH Wuppertal
WU-B-94-06, preprint Ruhr-Universit\"at Bochum RUB-TPII-01/9
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