1,929 research outputs found
Effect of Energy Metabolism on NF-kB activity in Ovarian Cancer
NF-kB is a transcription factor involved in cancer cell growth and survival. The activation of NF-kB can be assessed by monitoring phosphorylation of RelA p65 at Ser-536, which is a surrogate of the NF-kB transcription factor activation. The objective of this study was to determine if the loss of ATP leads to NF-kB deficiency and thus, apoptotic cell death of âbadâ cells in ovarian cancer cells. The independent variables were metformin (Met), an anti-diabetic medicine, another compound MinB functionally similar to Met and a glucose transporter inhibitor BAY-876. The dependent variables were the resulting effect of Met and MinB on phosphorylated AMPK at Thr-172 (marker of ATP loss) and RelA p65 at Ser-536 (marker of NF-kB activation). In each experiment, AMPK and RelA phosphorylation were tested by treatment of ovarian cancer cell lines with Met, MinB, BAY-876, Met+BAY-876, MinB+BAY-876. Western blotting was performed to determine the phosphorylation levels of AMPK and RelA p65. For two gels, the process was repeated. In each gel, Met or MinB treatment leads to thicker bands of AMPK-p, indicating decrease in cellular ATP levels following treatments. The effect of Met, MinB, or BAY-876 on RelA p65 was limited. However, co-treatment of Met or MinB with BAY-876 caused strong inhibition of NF-kB, as reflected by reduction in RelA p65-p. These results suggested that ATP deficiency together with inhibition of glucose transport cause inactivation of NK-kB. Future research will be conducted to study the effects of these compounds or their combinations on ovarian cancer cell growth and survival against from apoptosis.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1267/thumbnail.jp
Max Neuhaus and the musical avant-garde
Max Neuhaus (1939â2009) was a pioneer in the creation of site-specific auditory works entailing social interaction, and today he is recognized as one of the first artists to extend sound as a medium into the world of contemporary art. The pieces he produced between 1966 and his recent death have been dubbed âsound art,â a term that covers a wide variety of work related to sound and aural perception, but one associated more closely with the realm of visual and performance art than with music. Yet Neuhaus, whose self-professed mission was to encourage listeners to âthink about [sounds] in new and unexpected ways,â entered the world of contemporary art only after passing through the musical avant-garde of the 1960s, where he served as a leading interpreter of works for percussion. This thesis chronicles Neuhausâs early career as a performing musician, arguing that his experiences within the musical avant-garde set the stage for his later work as a sound artist. Special attention is paid to the 1968 recording Electronics & Percussion: Five Realizations by Max Neuhaus, an LP that reveals Neuhaus as an artist exploring the boundaries separating the roles of performer, collaborator, and creator
Monte Carlo simulation and global optimization without parameters
We propose a new ensemble for Monte Carlo simulations, in which each state is
assigned a statistical weight , where is the number of states with
smaller or equal energy. This ensemble has robust ergodicity properties and
gives significant weight to the ground state, making it effective for hard
optimization problems. It can be used to find free energies at all temperatures
and picks up aspects of critical behaviour (if present) without any parameter
tuning. We test it on the travelling salesperson problem, the Edwards-Anderson
spin glass and the triangular antiferromagnet.Comment: 10 pages with 3 Postscript figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett
UrbanDiary - a tracking project
This working paper investigates aspects of time in an urban environment, specifically the cycles and routines of everyday life in the city. As part of the UrbanDiary project (urbantick.blogspot.com), we explore a preliminary study to trace citizenâs spatial habits in individual movement utilising GPS devices with the aim of capturing the beat and rhythm of the city. The data collected includes time and location, to visualise individual activity, along with a series of personal statements on how individuals âuseâ and experience the city. In this paper, the intent is to explore the context of the UrbanDiary project as well as examine the methodology and technical aspects of tracking with a focus on the comparison of different visualisation techniques. We conclude with a visualisation of the collected data, specifically where the aspect of time is developed and explored so that we might outline a new approach to visualising the city in the sense of a collective, constantly renewed space
Productivity and forage quality of a phytodiverse semi-natural grassland under various management regimes
Grassland management experiment (GrassMan) was set up in 2008 on a permanent semi-natural grassland in the Solling uplands, Germany. The main research focus is on the ecosystem functioning of the phytodiverse grassland (e.g. productivity and forage quality, water and nutrient fluxes). The aim of our study was to analyse the effects of vegetation composition and functional diversity on productivity and forage quality of the semi-natural permanent grassland. Variation in sward composition was achieved by herbicide application and resulted in three sward types: control sward type (without herbicide application), monocot-reduced and dicot-reduced. Further management factors included different nutrient input levels (without fertilizer and 180-30-100 kg/ha of N-P-K per year) and use intensity (cut once or three times a year). Functional diversity was determined by estimation of the yield shares for each species in the species composition and their specific functional characteristics. Forage quality was analysed by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). While sward type influenced the forage quality, yield variation was explained mainly by the management regime
Renormalization of strongly coupled U(1) lattice gauge theories
Recent numerical studies of the 4D pure compact U(1) lattice gauge theory, I
have participated in, are reviewed. We look for a possibility to construct an
interesting nonperturbatively renormalizable continuum theory at the phase
transition between the confinement and Coulomb phases. First I describe the
numerical evidence, obtained from calculation of bulk observables on spherical
lattices, that the theory has a non-Gaussian fixed point. Further the
gauge-ball spectrum in the confinement phase is presented and its universality
confirmed. The unexpected result is that, in addition to massive states, the
theory contains a very light, possibly massless scalar gauge ball. I also
summarize results of studies of the compact U(1) lattice theory with fermion
and scalar matter fields and point out that at strong coupling it represents a
model of dynamical fermion mass generation.Comment: Talk presented at the 31st International Symposium Ahrenshoop on the
Theory of Elementary Particles, Buckow, September 2-6, 1997. 8 page
The inverted XY universality of the superconductivity phase transition
It has been conjectured that the phase transition in the Ginzburg-Landau
theory is dual to the XY model transition. We study numerically a particular
limit of the GL theory where this duality becomes exact, clarifying some of the
problems encountered in standard GL theory simulations. This may also explain
the failure of the superconductor experiments to observe the XY model scaling.Comment: Lattice2002(higgssusy), 3 page
Properties of the non-Gaussian fixed point in 4D compact U(1) lattice gauge theory
We examine selected properties of the gauge-ball spectrum and fermionic
variables in the vicinity of the recently discussed non-Gaussian fixed point of
4D compact U(1) lattice gauge theory within the quenched approximation.
Approaching the critical point from within the confinement phase, our data
support scaling of gauge-ball states in units of the string tension
square root. The analysis of the chiral condensate within the framework of a
scaling form for the equation of state suggests non mean-field values for the
magnetic exponents and .Comment: 73K postscript fil
Universality of the gauge-ball spectrum of the four-dimensional pure U(1) gauge theory
We continue numerical studies of the spectrum of the pure U(1) lattice gauge
theory in the confinement phase, initiated in our previous work. Using the
extended Wilson action we address the question of universality of the phase
transition line in the () plane between the confinement and the
Coulomb phases. Our present results at for the gauge-ball
spectrum are fully consistent with the previous results obtained at . Again, two different correlation length exponents,
and , are obtained in different channels. We also confirm
the stability of the values of these exponents with respect to the variation of
the distance from the critical point at which they are determined. These
results further demonstrate universal critical behaviour of the model at least
up to correlation lengths of 4 lattice spacings when the phase transition is
approached in some interval at .Comment: 16 page
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