308 research outputs found
Original Comments 151-160 Index to Rulemaking File Underground Storage Tank Regulations Title 23, Waters Divislon 3, Water Resources Control Board Chapter 16, Underground Storage Tank Regulations 1985~ ~ contaminating
Following are our comments to the proposed subchapter 16, Regulation
Fermions and noncommutative emergent gravity II: Curved branes in extra dimensions
We study fermions coupled to Yang-Mills matrix models from the point of view
of emergent gravity. The matrix model Dirac operator provides an appropriate
coupling for fermions to the effective gravitational metric for general branes
with nontrivial embedding, albeit with a non-standard spin connection. This
generalizes previous results for 4-dimensional matrix models. Integrating out
the fermions in a nontrivial geometrical background induces indeed the
Einstein-Hilbert action of the effective metric, as well as additional terms
which couple the Poisson tensor to the Riemann tensor, and a dilaton-like term.Comment: 34 pages; minor change
The Use of Algorithms in Interface Design
A new and effective user interface was constructed for a cellular telephone handset, basing the feature set closely on a commercial model. Once implemented, usability experiments were conducted, showing that predicted improvements in usability were confirmed with real users doing realistic tasks. The new user interface was designed by a "computer science" approach to user interface design: we conclude that using computer science algorithms are an effective and creative way to improve user interfaces
Toward Understanding Massive Star Formation
Although fundamental for astrophysics, the processes that produce massive
stars are not well understood. Large distances, high extinction, and short
timescales of critical evolutionary phases make observations of these processes
challenging. Lacking good observational guidance, theoretical models have
remained controversial. This review offers a basic description of the collapse
of a massive molecular core and a critical discussion of the three competing
concepts of massive star formation:
- monolithic collapse in isolated cores
- competitive accretion in a protocluster environment
- stellar collisions and mergers in very dense systems
We also review the observed outflows, multiplicity, and clustering properties
of massive stars, the upper initial mass function and the upper mass limit. We
conclude that high-mass star formation is not merely a scaled-up version of
low-mass star formation with higher accretion rates, but partly a mechanism of
its own, primarily owing to the role of stellar mass and radiation pressure in
controlling the dynamics.Comment: 139 pages, 18 figures, 5 tables, glossar
Restricting detergent protease action to surface of protein fibres by chemical modification
Due to their excellent properties, such as
thermostability, activity over a broad range of pH and
efficient stain removal, proteases from Bacillus sp. are
commonly used in the textile industry including industrial
processes and laundry and represent one of the most
important groups of enzymes. However, due to the action
of proteases, severe damage on natural protein fibres such
as silk and wool result after washing with detergents
containing proteases. To include the benefits of proteases in
a wool fibre friendly detergent formulation, the soluble
polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) was covalently
attached to a protease from Bacillus licheniformis. In
contrast to activation of PEG with cyanuric chloride (50%)
activation with 1,1′-carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) lead to
activity recovery above 90%. With these modified
enzymes, hydrolytic attack on wool fibres could be
successfully prevented up to 95% compared to the native
enzymes. Colour difference (ΔE) measured in the three dimensional colour space showed good stain removal
properties for the modified enzymes. Furthermore, half-life
of the modified enzymes in buffers and commercial
detergents solutions was nearly twice as high as those of
the non-modified enzymes with values of up to 63 min. Out
of the different modified proteases especially the B.
licheniformis protease with the 2.0-kDa polymer attached
both retained stain removal properties and did not
hydrolyse/damage wool fibres
The evolution of the urinary bladder as a storage organ: scent trails and selective pressure of the first land animals in a computational simulation
The function of waste control in all living organisms is one of the vital importance. Almost universally, terrestrial tetrapods have a urinary bladder with a storage function. It is well documented that many marine and aerial species do not have an organ of such a function, or have one with very depressed storage functionality. Bladder morphology indicates it has evolved from a thin-walled structure used for osmoregulatory purposes, as it is currently used in many marine animals. It is hypothesised that the storage function of the urinary bladder allows for an evolutionary selective advantage in reducing the likelihood of successful predation. Random walks simulating predator and prey movements with simplified scent trails were utilised to represent various stages of the hunt: Detection and pursuit. A final evolutionary model is proposed in order to display the advantages over inter-generational time scales and illustrates how a bladder may evolve from an osmoregulatory organ to one of the storage. Data sets were generated for each case and analysed indicating the viability of such advantages. From the highly consistent results, three distinct characteristics of having a storage function in the urinary bladder are suggested: reduced scent trail detection rate; increased prey–predator separation (upon scent trail detection); and a reduced probability of successful capture upon scent detection by the predator. Furthered by the evolutionary model indicating such characteristics are conserved and augmented over many generations, it is concluded that prey–predator interactions provide a large selective pressure in the evolution of the urinary bladder and its storage function
Alzheimer's risk variants in the clusterin gene are associated with alternative splicing
Genetic variation in CLU encoding clusterin has been associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) through replicated genome-wide studies, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Following earlier reports that tightly regulated CLU alternative transcripts have different functions, we tested CLU single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including those associated with AD for quantitative effects on individual alternative transcripts. In 190 temporal lobe samples without pathology, we found that the risk allele of the AD-associated SNP rs9331888 increases the relative abundance of transcript NM_203339 (P=4.3 × 10−12). Using an independent set of 115 AD and control samples, we replicated this result (P=0.0014) and further observed that multiple CLU transcripts are at higher levels in AD compared with controls. The AD SNP rs9331888 is located in the first exon of NM_203339 and therefore, it is a functional candidate for the observed effects. We tested this hypothesis by in vitro dual luciferase assays using SK-N-SH cells and mouse primary cortical neurons and found allelic effects on enhancer function, consistent with our results on post-mortem human brain. These results suggest a biological mechanism for the genetic association of CLU with AD risk and indicate that rs9331888 is one of the functional DNA variants underlying this association
Genetic association study of QT interval highlights role for calcium signaling pathways in myocardial repolarization.
The QT interval, an electrocardiographic measure reflecting myocardial repolarization, is a heritable trait. QT prolongation is a risk factor for ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD) and could indicate the presence of the potentially lethal mendelian long-QT syndrome (LQTS). Using a genome-wide association and replication study in up to 100,000 individuals, we identified 35 common variant loci associated with QT interval that collectively explain ∼8-10% of QT-interval variation and highlight the importance of calcium regulation in myocardial repolarization. Rare variant analysis of 6 new QT interval-associated loci in 298 unrelated probands with LQTS identified coding variants not found in controls but of uncertain causality and therefore requiring validation. Several newly identified loci encode proteins that physically interact with other recognized repolarization proteins. Our integration of common variant association, expression and orthogonal protein-protein interaction screens provides new insights into cardiac electrophysiology and identifies new candidate genes for ventricular arrhythmias, LQTS and SCD
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