3,901 research outputs found
A proteomic investigation of Fusobacterium nucleatum alkaline-induced biofilms
Background: The Gram negative anaerobe Fusobacterium nucleatum has been implicated in the aetiology of periodontal diseases. Although frequently isolated from healthy dental plaque, its numbers and proportion increase in plaque associated with disease. One of the significant physico-chemical changes in the diseased gingival sulcus is increased environmental pH. When grown under controlled conditions in our laboratory, F. nucleatum subspecies polymorphum formed mono-culture biofilms when cultured at pH 8.2. Biofilm formation is a survival strategy for bacteria, often associated with altered physiology and increased virulence. A proteomic approach was used to understand the phenotypic changes in F. nucleatum cells associated with alkaline induced biofilms. The proteomic based identification of significantly altered proteins was verified where possible using additional methods including quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), enzyme assay, acidic end-product analysis, intracellular polyglucose assay and Western blotting. Results: Of 421 proteins detected on two-dimensional electrophoresis gels, spot densities of 54 proteins varied significantly (p < 0.05) in F. nucleatum cultured at pH 8.2 compared to growth at pH 7.4. Proteins that were differentially produced in biofilm cells were associated with the functional classes; metabolic enzymes, transport, stress response and hypothetical proteins. Our results suggest that biofilm cells were more metabolically efficient than planktonic cells as changes to amino acid and glucose metabolism generated additional energy needed for survival in a sub-optimal environment. The intracellular concentration of stress response proteins including heat shock protein GroEL and recombinational protein RecA increased markedly in the alkaline environment. A significant finding was the increased abundance of an adhesin, Fusobacterial outer membrane protein A (FomA). This surface protein is known for its capacity to bind to a vast number of bacterial species and human epithelial cells and its increased abundance was associated with biofilm formation. Conclusion: This investigation identified a number of proteins that were significantly altered by F. nucleatum in response to alkaline conditions similar to those reported in diseased periodontal pockets. The results provide insight into the adaptive mechanisms used by F. nucleatum biofilms in response to pH increase in the host environment.Jactty Chew, Peter S Zilm, Janet M Fuss and Neville J Gull
Impact of edge-removal on the centrality betweenness of the best spreaders
The control of epidemic spreading is essential to avoid potential fatal
consequences and also, to lessen unforeseen socio-economic impact. The need for
effective control is exemplified during the severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS) in 2003, which has inflicted near to a thousand deaths as well as
bankruptcies of airlines and related businesses. In this article, we examine
the efficacy of control strategies on the propagation of infectious diseases
based on removing connections within real world airline network with the
associated economic and social costs taken into account through defining
appropriate quantitative measures. We uncover the surprising results that
removing less busy connections can be far more effective in hindering the
spread of the disease than removing the more popular connections. Since
disconnecting the less popular routes tend to incur less socio-economic cost,
our finding suggests the possibility of trading minimal reduction in
connectivity of an important hub with efficiencies in epidemic control. In
particular, we demonstrate the performance of various local epidemic control
strategies, and show how our approach can predict their cost effectiveness
through the spreading control characteristics.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
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A Galerkin boundary element method for high frequency scattering by convex polygons
In this paper we consider the problem of time-harmonic acoustic scattering in two dimensions by convex polygons. Standard boundary or finite element methods for acoustic scattering problems have a computational cost that grows at least linearly as a function of the frequency of the incident wave. Here we present a novel Galerkin boundary element method, which uses an approximation space consisting of the products of plane waves with piecewise polynomials supported on a graded mesh, with smaller elements closer to the corners of the polygon. We prove that the best approximation from the approximation space requires a number of degrees of freedom to achieve a prescribed level of accuracy that grows only logarithmically as a function of the frequency. Numerical results demonstrate the same logarithmic dependence on the frequency for the Galerkin method solution. Our boundary element method is a discretization of a well-known second kind combined-layer-potential integral equation. We provide a proof that this equation and its adjoint are well-posed and equivalent to the boundary value problem in a Sobolev space setting for general Lipschitz domains
Stability of the Zagreb Carnegie-Mellon-Berkeley model
In ref. [1] we have used the Zagreb realization of Carnegie-Melon-Berkeley
coupled-channel, unitary model as a tool for extracting pole positions from the
world collection of partial wave data, with the aim of eliminating model
dependence in pole-search procedures. In order that the method is sensible, we
in this paper discuss the stability of the method with respect to the strong
variation of different model ingredients. We show that the Zagreb CMB procedure
is very stable with strong variation of the model assumptions, and that it can
reliably predict the pole positions of the fitted partial wave amplitudes.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, 19 table
A multi-scale modeling of junctionless field-effect transistors
In this work, we simulate a realistic junctionless (JL) field-effect transistor using a multi-scale approach. Our approach features a combination of the first-principles atomistic calculation, semi-classical semiconductor device simulation, compact model generation, and circuit simulation. The transfer characteristics of JL transistors are simulated by a recently developed quantum mechanical/electromagnetics method, and good agreement is obtained compared to experiment. A compact model for JL transistors is then generated for subsequent circuit simulation. We demonstrate a multi-scale modeling framework for quantum mechanical effects in nano-scale devices for next generation electronic design automation. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.published_or_final_versio
Extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation in the management of 2009 influenza A (H1N1) refractory respiratory failure.
Rapidly progressive acute respiratory failure attributed to 2009 H1N1 influenza A infection has been reported worldwide-3. Refractory hypoxaemia despite conventional mechanical ventilation and lung protective strategies has resulted in the use a combination of rescue therapies, such as conservative fluid management, prone positioning, inhaled nitric oxide, high frequency oscillatory ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)4. ECMO allows for pulmonary or cardiopulmonary support as an adjunct to respiratory and cardiac failure, minimising ventilator-associated lung injury (VALI). This permits treatment of the underlying disease process, while concurrently allowing for recovery of the acute lung injury. This case documents a previously healthy twenty-two year old Asian male patient with confirmed pandemic (H 1N1) 2009 influenza A who was successfully managed with ECMO in the setting of severe refractory hypoxaemia and progressive hypercapnia
Unusual features in the nonlinear microwave surface impedance of Y-Ba-Cu-O thin films
Striking features have been found in the nonlinear microwave (8 GHz) surface
impedance of high-quality YBaCuO thin films with comparable
low power characteristics [ and ]. The surface resistance is found to increase,
decrease, or remain independent of the microwave field (up to 60 mT)
at different temperatures and for different samples. However, the surface
reactance always follows the same functional form. Mechanisms which may
be responsible for the observed variations in and are briefly
discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Radiative corrections to all charge assignments of heavy quark baryon semileptonic decays
In semileptonic decays of spin-1/2 baryons containing heavy quarks up to six
charge assignments for the baryons and lepton are possible. We show that the
radiative corrections to four of these possibilities can be directly obtained
from the final results of the two possibilities previously studied. There is no
need to recalculate integrals over virtual or real photon momentum or any
traces.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, RevTex. Extended discussion. Final version to
appear in Physical Review
Balancing Minimum Spanning and Shortest Path Trees
This paper give a simple linear-time algorithm that, given a weighted
digraph, finds a spanning tree that simultaneously approximates a shortest-path
tree and a minimum spanning tree. The algorithm provides a continuous
trade-off: given the two trees and epsilon > 0, the algorithm returns a
spanning tree in which the distance between any vertex and the root of the
shortest-path tree is at most 1+epsilon times the shortest-path distance, and
yet the total weight of the tree is at most 1+2/epsilon times the weight of a
minimum spanning tree. This is the best tradeoff possible. The paper also
describes a fast parallel implementation.Comment: conference version: ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (1993
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