50,162 research outputs found
Role of Schizosaccharomyces pombe RecQ homolog recombination and checkpoint genes in UV Damage tolerance
The cellular responses to DNA damage are complex and include direct DNA repair pathways that remove the damage and indirect damage responses which allow cells to survive DNA damage that has not been, or cannot be, removed. We have identified the gene mutated in the rad12.502 strain as a Schizosaccharomyces pombe recQ homolog. The same gene (designated rqh1) is also mutated in the hus2.22 mutant. We show that Rqh1 is involved in a DNA damage survival mechanism which prevents cell death when UV-induced DNA damage cannot be removed. This pathway also requires the correct functioning of the recombination machinery and the six checkpoint tad gene products plus the Cds1 kinase. Our data suggest that Rqh1 operates during S phase as part of a mechanism which prevents DNA damage causing cell lethality. This process may involve the bypass of DNA damage sites by the replication fork. Finally, in contrast with the reported literature, we do not find that rqh1 (rad12) mutant cells are defective in UV dimer endonuclease activity
A moving cold front in the intergalactic medium of A3667
We present results from a Chandra observation of the central region of the
galaxy cluster A3667, with emphasis on the prominent sharp X-ray brightness
edge spanning 0.5 Mpc near the cluster core. Our temperature map shows
large-scale nonuniformities characteristic of the ongoing merger, in agreement
with earlier ASCA results. The brightness edge turns out to be a boundary of a
large cool gas cloud moving through the hot ambient gas, very similar to the
"cold fronts" discovered by Chandra in A2142. The higher quality of the A3667
data allows the direct determination of the cloud velocity. At the leading edge
of the cloud, the gas density abruptly increases by a factor of 3.9+-0.8, while
the temperature decreases by a factor of 1.9+-0.2 (from 7.7 keV to 4.1 keV).
The ratio of the gas pressures inside and outside the front shows that the
cloud moves through the ambient gas at near-sonic velocity, M=1+-0.2 or
v=1400+-300 km/s. In front of the cloud, we observe the compression of the
ambient gas with an amplitude expected for such a velocity. A smaller surface
brightness discontinuity is observed further ahead, ~350 kpc in front of the
cloud. We suggest that it corresponds to a weak bow shock, implying that the
cloud velocity may be slightly supersonic. Given all the evidence, the cold
front appears to delineate the remnant of a cool subcluster that recently has
merged with A3667. The cold front is remarkably sharp. The upper limit on its
width, 3.5 arcsec or 5 kpc, is several times smaller than the Coulomb mean free
path. This is a direct observation of suppression of the transport processes in
the intergalactic medium, most likely by magnetic fields.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 9 pages with embedded color figures, uses
emulateapj5. Postscript with higher quality figures is available at
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~alexey/a3667-hydro.ps.g
Influence of environmental factors during seed development and after full-ripeness on pre-harvest sprouting in wheat
Results on environmental and genotypic factors influencing preharvest sprouting of wheat are summarized. Other possible areas where additional research is needed is suggested
Ratio control in a cascade model of cell differentiation
We propose a kind of reaction-diffusion equations for cell differentiation,
which exhibits the Turing instability. If the diffusivity of some variables is
set to be infinity, we get coupled competitive reaction-diffusion equations
with a global feedback term. The size ratio of each cell type is controlled by
a system parameter in the model. Finally, we extend the model to a cascade
model of cell differentiation. A hierarchical spatial structure appears as a
result of the cell differentiation. The size ratio of each cell type is also
controlled by the system parameter.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Effect of heat treatment and aging on the mechanical loss and strength of hydroxide catalysis bonds between fused silica samples
Hydroxide catalysis bonds are used in the aLIGO gravitational wave detectors and are an essential technology within the mirror suspensions which allowed for detector sensitivities to be reached that enabled the first direct detections of gravitational waves. Methods aimed at further improving hydroxide catalysis bonds for future upgrades to these detectors, in order to increase detection rates and the number of detectable sources, are explored. Also, the effect on the bonds of an aLIGO suspension construction procedure involving heat, the fibre welding process, is investigated. Here we show that thermal treatments can be beneficial to improving some of the bond properties important to the mirror suspensions in interferometric gravitational wave detectors. It was found that heat treating bonds at 150\,^\circC increases bond strength by a factor of approximately 1.5 and a combination of bond ageing and heat treatment of the optics at 150\,\circC reduces the mechanical loss of a bond from 0.10 to 0.05. It is also shown that current construction procedures do not reduce bond strength
Hopping Conduction and Bacteria: Transport in Disordered Reaction-Diffusion Systems
We report some basic results regarding transport in disordered
reaction-diffusion systems with birth (A->2A), death (A->0), and binary
competition (2A->A) processes. We consider a model in which the growth process
is only allowed to take place in certain areas--"oases"--while the rest of
space--the "desert"--is hostile to growth. In the limit of low oasis density,
transport is mediated through rare "hopping" events, necessitating the
inclusion of discreteness effects in the model. By first considering transport
between two oases, we are able to derive an approximate expression for the
average time taken for a population to traverse a disordered medium.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
The comparative evaluation of ERTS-1 imagery for resource inventory in land use planning
The author has identified the following significant results. Multidiscipline team interpretation and mapping of resources for Crook County is nearly complete on 1:250,000 scale enlargements of ERTS-1 imagery. Maps of geology, landforms, soils and vegetation-land use are being interpreted to show limitations, suitabilities and geologic hazards for land use planning. Mapping of lineaments and structures from ERTS-1 imagery has shown a number of features not previously mapped in Oregon. A timber inventory of Ochoco National Forest has been made. Inventory of forest clear-cutting practices has been successfully demonstrated with ERTS-1 color composites. Soil tonal differences in fallow fields shown on ERTS-1 correspond with major soil boundaries in loess-mantled terrain. A digital classification system used for discriminating natural vegetation and geologic materials classes has been successful in separation of most major classes around Newberry Cauldera, Mt. Washington and Big Summit Prairie. Computer routines are available for correction of scanner data variations; and for matching scales and coordinates between digital and photographic imagery. Methods of Diazo film color printing of computer classifications and elevation-slope perspective plots with computer are being developed
Cluster approximations for infection dynamics on random networks
In this paper, we consider a simple stochastic epidemic model on large
regular random graphs and the stochastic process that corresponds to this
dynamics in the standard pair approximation. Using the fact that the nodes of a
pair are unlikely to share neighbors, we derive the master equation for this
process and obtain from the system size expansion the power spectrum of the
fluctuations in the quasi-stationary state. We show that whenever the pair
approximation deterministic equations give an accurate description of the
behavior of the system in the thermodynamic limit, the power spectrum of the
fluctuations measured in long simulations is well approximated by the
analytical power spectrum. If this assumption breaks down, then the cluster
approximation must be carried out beyond the level of pairs. We construct an
uncorrelated triplet approximation that captures the behavior of the system in
a region of parameter space where the pair approximation fails to give a good
quantitative or even qualitative agreement. For these parameter values, the
power spectrum of the fluctuations in finite systems can be computed
analytically from the master equation of the corresponding stochastic process.Comment: the notation has been changed; Ref. [26] and a new paragraph in
Section IV have been adde
The comparative evaluation of ERTS-1 imagery for resource inventory in land use planning
The author has identified the following significant results. Multidiscipline team interpretation and mapping of resources for Crook County is complete on 1:250,000 scale enlargements of ERTS imagery and 1:120,000 hi-flight photography. Maps of geology, soils, vegetation-land use and land resources units were interpreted to show limitations, suitabilities, and geologic hazards for land use planning. Mapping of lineaments and structures from ERTS imagery has shown a number of features not previously mapped in Oregon. A multistage timber inventory of Ochoco National Forest was made, using ERTS images as the first stage. Inventory of forest clear-cutting practices was successfully demonstrated with color composites. Soil tonal differences in fallow fields correspond with major soil boundaries in loess-mantled terrain. A digital classification system used for discriminating natural vegetation and geologic material classes was successful in separating most major classes around Newberry Caldera, Mt. Washington, and Big Summit Prairie
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