162 research outputs found
Chiral molecule adsorption on helical polymers
We present a lattice model for helicity induction on an optically inactive
polymer due to the adsorption of exogenous chiral amine molecules. The system
is mapped onto a one-dimensional Ising model characterized by an on-site
polymer helicity variable and an amine occupancy one. The equilibrium
properties are analyzed at the limit of strong coupling between helicity
induction and amine adsorption and that of non-interacting adsorbant molecules.
We discuss our results in view of recent experimental results
The Na+/glucose cotransporters: from genes to therapy
Glucose enters eukaryotic cells via two types of membrane-associated carrier proteins, the Na+/glucose cotransporters (SGLT) and the facilitative glucose transporters (GLUT). The SGLT family consists of six members. Among them, the SGLT1 and SGLT2 proteins, encoded by the solute carrier genes SLC5A1 and SLC5A2, respectively, are believed to be the most important ones and have been extensively explored in studies focusing on glucose fluxes under both physiological and pathological conditions. This review considers the regulation of the expression of the SGLT promoted by protein kinases and transcription factors, as well as the alterations determined by diets of different compositions and by pathologies such as diabetes. It also considers congenital defects of sugar metabolism caused by aberrant expression of the SGLT1 in glucose-galactose malabsorption and the SGLT2 in familial renal glycosuria. Finally, it covers some pharmacological compounds that are being currently studied focusing on the interest of controlling glycemia by antagonizing SGLT in renal and intestinal tissues
Coulomb Correlations and Magnetic Anisotropy in ordered CoPt and FePt alloys
We present results of the magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy (MAE)
calculations for chemically ordered CoPt and FePt alloys taking into
account the effects of strong electronic correlations and spin-orbit coupling.
The local spin density + Hubbard U approximation (LSDA+U) is shown to provide a
consistent picture of the magnetic ground state properties when intra-atomic
Coulomb correlations are included for both 3 and 5 elements. Our results
demonstrate significant and complex contribution of correlation effects to
large MAE of these material.Comment: revised version; 4 pages, 2 figure
Combinatorial activity of flavonoids with antibiotics against drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus
The use of resistance-modifying agents is a potential strategy that is used to prolong the effective life of antibiotics in the face of increasing antibiotic resistance. Since certain flavonoids are potent bacterial efflux pump inhibitors, we assessed morin, rutin, quercetin, hesperidin, and (+)-catechin for their combined activity with the antibiotics ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, erythromycin, oxacillin, and ampicillin against drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus. Four established methods were used to determine the combined efficacy of each combination: microdilution checkerboard assays, time-kill determinations, the Etest, and dual disc-diffusion methods. The cytotoxicity of the flavonoids was additionally evaluated in a mouse fibroblast cell line. Quercetin and its isomer morin decreased by 3- to 16-fold the minimal inhibitory concentration of ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, and erythromycin against some S. aureus strains. Rutin, hesperidin, and (+)-catechin did not promote any potentiation of antibiotics. Despite the potential cytotoxicity of these phytochemicals at a high concentration (fibroblast IC50 of 41.8 and 67.5mg/L, respectively), quercetin is commonly used as a supplement for several therapeutic purposes. All the methods, with exception of the time-kill assay, presented a high degree of congruence without any apparent strain specificity.This work was supported by Operational Program for
Competitiveness Factors—COMPETE, FCT/MEC (PIDDAC),
and FEDER through Projects Bioresist—PTDC/EBB-EBI/
105085/2008; Phytodisinfectants—PTDC/DTP-SAP/1078/
2012 (COMPETE: FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028765) and
the PhD grants awarded to Ana Abreu (SFRH/BD/84393/
2012) and Anabela Borges (SFRH/BD/63398/2009). The
authors are very grateful to Professor Simon Gibbons (De-
partment of Pharmaceutical and Biological Chemistry, The
School of Pharmacy, UCL School of Pharmacy, London) for
providing the bacterial strains.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Phase separation in the two-dimensional electron liquid in MOSFETs
We show that the existence of an intermediate phase between the Fermi liquid
and the Wigner crystal phases is a generic property of the two-dimensional pure
electron liqd in MOSFET's at zero temperature. The physical reason for the
existence of these phases is a partial separation of the uniform phases.
We discuss properties of these phases and a possible explanation of
experimental results on transport properties of low density electron gas in Si
MOSFET's. We also argue that in certain range of parameters the partial phase
separation corresponds to a supersolid phas e discussed in [AndreevLifshitz].Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Measurement of the branching ratio of the decay D^0 -> \pi^-\mu^+\nu relative to D^0 -> K^-\mu^+\nu
We present a new measurement of the branching ratio of the Cabibbo suppressed
decay D^0\to \pi^-\mu^+\nu relative to the Cabibbo favored decay D^0\to
K^-\mu^+\nu and an improved measurement of the ratio
|\frac{f_+^{\pi}(0)}{f_+^{K}(0)}|. Our results are 0.074 \pm 0.008 \pm 0.007
for the branching ratio and 0.85 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.01 for the form factor
ratio, respectively.Comment: 13pages, 3 figure
Abnormal subcellular distribution of GLUT4 protein in obese and insulin-treated diabetic female dogs
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