960 research outputs found
The protein-protein interactions required for assembly of the Tn3 resolution synapse
The site‐specific recombinase Tn3 resolvase initiates DNA strand exchange when two res recombination sites and six resolvase dimers interact to form a synapse. The detailed architecture of this intricate recombination machine remains unclear. We have clarified which of the potential dimer‐dimer interactions are required for synapsis and recombination, using a novel complementation strategy that exploits a previously uncharacterized resolvase from Bartonella bacilliformis (“Bart”). Tn3 and Bart resolvases recognize different DNA motifs, via diverged C‐terminal domains (CTDs). They also differ substantially at N‐terminal domain (NTD) surfaces involved in dimerization and synapse assembly. We designed NTD‐CTD hybrid proteins, and hybrid res sites containing both Tn3 and Bart dimer binding sites. Using these components in in vivo assays, we demonstrate that productive synapsis requires a specific “R ” interface involving resolvase NTDs at all three dimer‐binding sites in res . Synapses containing mixtures of wild‐type Tn3 and Bart resolvase NTD dimers are recombination‐defective, but activity can be restored by replacing patches of Tn3 resolvase R interface residues with Bart residues, or vice versa . We conclude that the Tn3 /Bart family synapse is assembled exclusively by R interactions between resolvase dimers, except for the one special dimer‐dimer interaction required for catalysis
Detectability of non-differentiable generalized synchrony
Generalized synchronization of chaos is a type of cooperative behavior in
directionally-coupled oscillators that is characterized by existence of stable
and persistent functional dependence of response trajectories from the chaotic
trajectory of driving oscillator. In many practical cases this function is
non-differentiable and has a very complex shape. The generalized synchrony in
such cases seems to be undetectable, and only the cases, in which a
differentiable synchronization function exists, are considered to make sense in
practice. We show that this viewpoint is not always correct and the
non-differentiable generalized synchrony can be revealed in many practical
cases. Conditions for detection of generalized synchrony are derived
analytically, and illustrated numerically with a simple example of
non-differentiable generalized synchronization.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, submitted to PR
A conserved role for Snail as a potentiator of active transcription
The transcription factors of the Snail family are key regulators of epithelial-mesenchymal transitions, cell morphogenesis, and tumor metastasis. Since its discovery in Drosophila ~25 years ago, Snail has been extensively studied for its role as a transcriptional repressor. Here we demonstrate that Drosophila Snail can positively modulate transcriptional activation. By combining information on in vivo occupancy with expression profiling of hand-selected, staged snail mutant embryos, we identified 106 genes that are potentially directly regulated by Snail during mesoderm development. In addition to the expected Snail-repressed genes, almost 50% of Snail targets showed an unanticipated activation. The majority of "Snail-activated" genes have enhancer elements cobound by Twist and are expressed in the mesoderm at the stages of Snail occupancy. Snail can potentiate Twist-mediated enhancer activation in vitro and is essential for enhancer activity in vivo. Using a machine learning approach, we show that differentially enriched motifs are sufficient to predict Snail's regulatory response. In silico mutagenesis revealed a likely causative motif, which we demonstrate is essential for enhancer activation. Taken together, these data indicate that Snail can potentiate enhancer activation by collaborating with different activators, providing a new mechanism by which Snail regulates development
Parties, promiscuity and politicisation: business-political networks in Poland
Research on post-communist political economy has begun to focus on the interface between business and politics. It is widely agreed that informal networks rather than business associations dominate this interface, but there has been very little systematic research in this area. The literature tends to assume that a politicised economy entails business-political networks that are structured by parties. Theoretically, this article distinguishes politicisation from party politicisation and argues that the two are unlikely to be found together in a post-communist context. Empirically, elite survey data and qualitative interviews are used to explore networks of businesspeople and politicians in Poland. Substantial evidence is found against the popular idea that Polish politicians have business clienteles clearly separated from each other according to party loyalties. Instead, it is argued that these politicians and businesspeople are promiscuous. Since there seems to be little that is unusual about the Polish case, this conclusion has theoretical, methodological, substantive and policy implications for other post-communist countries
Defect configurations and dynamical behavior in a Gay-Berne nematic emulsion
To model a nematic emulsion consisting of a surfactant-coated water droplet
dispersed in a nematic host, we performed a molecular dynamics simulation of a
droplet immersed in a system of 2048 Gay-Berne ellipsoids in a nematic phase.
Strong radial anchoring at the surface of the droplet induced a Saturn ring
defect configuration, consistent with theoretical predictions for very small
droplets. A surface ring configuration was observed for lower radial anchoring
strengths, and a pair of point defects was found near the poles of the droplet
for tangential anchoring. We also simulated the falling ball experiment and
measured the drag force anisotropy, in the presence of strong radial anchoring
as well as zero anchoring strength.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figure
Effective index of refraction, optical rotation, and circular dichroism in isotropic chiral liquid crystals
This paper concerns optical properties of the isotropic phase above the
isotropic-cholesteric transition and of the blue phase BP III. We introduce an
effective index, which describes spatial dispersion effects such as optical
rotation, circular dichroism, and the modification of the average index due to
the fluctuations. We derive the wavelength dependance of these spatial
dispersion effects quite generally without relying on an expansion in powers of
the chirality and without assuming that the pitch of the cholesteric is
much shorter than the wavelength of the light , an approximation which
has been made in previous studies of this problem. The theoretical predictions
are supported by comparing them with experimental spectra of the optical
activity in the BP III phase.Comment: 15 pages and 7 figures. Submitted to PR
The anomaly line bundle of the self-dual field theory
In this work, we determine explicitly the anomaly line bundle of the abelian
self-dual field theory over the space of metrics modulo diffeomorphisms,
including its torsion part. Inspired by the work of Belov and Moore, we propose
a non-covariant action principle for a pair of Euclidean self-dual fields on a
generic oriented Riemannian manifold. The corresponding path integral allows to
study the global properties of the partition function over the space of metrics
modulo diffeomorphisms. We show that the anomaly bundle for a pair of self-dual
fields differs from the determinant bundle of the Dirac operator coupled to
chiral spinors by a flat bundle that is not trivial if the underlying manifold
has middle-degree cohomology, and whose holonomies are determined explicitly.
We briefly sketch the relevance of this result for the computation of the
global gravitational anomaly of the self-dual field theory, that will appear in
another paper.Comment: 41 pages. v2: A few typos corrected. Version accepted for publication
in CM
Relativistic Hydrodynamic Evolutions with Black Hole Excision
We present a numerical code designed to study astrophysical phenomena
involving dynamical spacetimes containing black holes in the presence of
relativistic hydrodynamic matter. We present evolutions of the collapse of a
fluid star from the onset of collapse to the settling of the resulting black
hole to a final stationary state. In order to evolve stably after the black
hole forms, we excise a region inside the hole before a singularity is
encountered. This excision region is introduced after the appearance of an
apparent horizon, but while a significant amount of matter remains outside the
hole. We test our code by evolving accurately a vacuum Schwarzschild black
hole, a relativistic Bondi accretion flow onto a black hole, Oppenheimer-Snyder
dust collapse, and the collapse of nonrotating and rotating stars. These
systems are tracked reliably for hundreds of M following excision, where M is
the mass of the black hole. We perform these tests both in axisymmetry and in
full 3+1 dimensions. We then apply our code to study the effect of the stellar
spin parameter J/M^2 on the final outcome of gravitational collapse of rapidly
rotating n = 1 polytropes. We find that a black hole forms only if J/M^2<1, in
agreement with previous simulations. When J/M^2>1, the collapsing star forms a
torus which fragments into nonaxisymmetric clumps, capable of generating
appreciable ``splash'' gravitational radiation.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, submitted to PR
The baryonic collapse efficiency of galaxy groups in the RESOLVE and ECO surveys
We examine the z = 0 group-integrated stellar and cold baryonic (stars + cold atomic gas) mass functions (group SMF and CBMF) and the baryonic collapse efficiency (group cold baryonic to dark matter halo mass ratio) using the RESOLVE and ECO survey galaxy group catalogs and a GALFORM semi-analytic model (SAM) mock catalog. The group SMF and CBMF fall off more steeply at high masses and rise with a shallower low-mass slope than the theoretical halo mass function (HMF). The transition occurs at the group-integrated cold baryonic mass Mbary cold ~ 1011 M. The SAM, however, has significantly fewer groups at the transition mass ∼1011 M and a steeper low-mass slope than the data, suggesting that feedback is too weak in low-mass halos and conversely too strong near the transition mass. Using literature prescriptions to include hot halo gas and potential unobservable galaxy gas produces a group BMF with a slope similar to the HMF even below the transition mass. Its normalization is lower by a factor of ∼2, in agreement with estimates of warm-hot gas making up the remaining difference. We compute baryonic collapse efficiency with the halo mass calculated two ways, via halo abundance matching (HAM) and via dynamics (extended all the way to three-galaxy groups using stacking). Using HAM, we find that baryonic collapse efficiencies reach a flat maximum for groups across the halo mass range of Mhalo ~ 1011.4 - 12 M, which we label “nascent groups.” Using dynamics, however, we find greater scatter in baryonic collapse efficiencies, likely indicating variation in group hot-to-cold baryon ratios. Similarly, we see higher scatter in baryonic collapse efficiencies in the SAM when using its true groups and their group halo masses as opposed to friends-of-friends groups and HAM masses
Consensus and ordering in language dynamics
We consider two social consensus models, the AB-model and the Naming Game
restricted to two conventions, which describe a population of interacting
agents that can be in either of two equivalent states (A or B) or in a third
mixed (AB) state. Proposed in the context of language competition and
emergence, the AB state was associated with bilingualism and synonymy
respectively. We show that the two models are equivalent in the mean field
approximation, though the differences at the microscopic level have non-trivial
consequences. To point them out, we investigate an extension of these dynamics
in which confidence/trust is considered, focusing on the case of an underlying
fully connected graph, and we show that the consensus-polarization phase
transition taking place in the Naming Game is not observed in the AB model. We
then consider the interface motion in regular lattices. Qualitatively, both
models show the same behavior: a diffusive interface motion in a
one-dimensional lattice, and a curvature driven dynamics with diffusing
stripe-like metastable states in a two-dimensional one. However, in comparison
to the Naming Game, the AB-model dynamics is shown to slow down the diffusion
of such configurations.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
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