1,035 research outputs found
Mechanical characterization of bio-inspired adhesive polymers with permanent, high strength adhesion
Measuring the coefficient of thermal expansion of silicon carbide thin films using digital image correlation
A modeling and simulation study of siderophore mediated antagonism in dual-species biofilms
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several bacterial species possess chelation mechanisms that allow them to scavenge iron from the environment under conditions of limitation. To this end they produce siderophores that bind the iron and make it available to the cells later on, while rendering it unavailable to other organisms. The phenomenon of siderophore mediated antagonism has been studied to some extent for suspended populations where it was found that the chelation ability provides a growth advantage over species that do not have this possibility. However, most bacteria live in biofilm communities. In particular <it>Pseudomonas fluorescens </it>and <it>Pseudomonas putida</it>, the species that have been used in most experimental studies of the phenomenon, are known to be prolific biofilm formers, but only very few experimental studies of iron chelation have been published to date for the biofilm setting. We address this question in the present study.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Based on a previously introduced model of iron chelation and an existing model of biofilm growth we formulate a model for iron chelation and competition in dual species biofilms. This leads to a highly nonlinear system of partial differential equations which is studied in computer simulation experiments.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>(i) Siderophore production can give a growth advantage also in the biofilm setting, (ii) diffusion facilitates and emphasizes this growth advantage, (iii) the magnitude of the growth advantage can also depend on the initial inoculation of the substratum, (iv) a new mass transfer boundary condition was derived that allows to a priori control the expect the expected average thickness of the biofilm in terms of the model parameters.</p
Thermodynamics of C incorporation on Si(100) from ab initio calculations
We study the thermodynamics of C incorporation on Si(100), a system where
strain and chemical effects are both important. Our analysis is based on
first-principles atomistic calculations to obtain the important lowest energy
structures, and a classical effective Hamiltonian which is employed to
represent the long-range strain effects and incorporate the thermodynamic
aspects. We determine the equilibrium phase diagram in temperature and C
chemical potential, which allows us to predict the mesoscopic structure of the
system that should be observed under experimentally relevant conditions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Human neutrophil clearance of bacterial pathogens triggers anti-microbial gamma delta T cell responses in early infection
Human blood Vc9/Vd2 T cells, monocytes and neutrophils share a responsiveness toward inflammatory chemokines and are rapidly recruited to sites of infection. Studying their interaction in vitro and relating these findings to in vivo observations in patients may therefore provide crucial insight into inflammatory events. Our present data demonstrate that Vc9/Vd2 T cells provide potent survival signals resulting in neutrophil activation and the release of the neutrophil chemoattractant CXCL8 (IL-8). In turn, Vc9/Vd2 T cells readily respond to neutrophils harboring phagocytosed bacteria, as evidenced by expression of CD69, interferon (IFN)-c and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a. This response is dependent on the ability of these bacteria to produce the microbial metabolite (E)-4-hydroxy-3-methyl-but-2-enyl pyrophosphate (HMB-PP), requires cell-cell contact of Vc9/Vd2 T cells with accessory monocytes through lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1), and results in a TNF-a dependent proliferation of Vc9/Vd2 T cells. The antibiotic fosmidomycin, which targets the HMB-PP biosynthesis pathway, not only has a direct antibacterial effect on most HMB-PP producing bacteria but also possesses rapid anti-inflammatory properties by inhibiting cd T cell responses in vitro. Patients with acute peritoneal-dialysis (PD)-associated bacterial peritonitis – characterized by an excessive influx of neutrophils and monocytes into the peritoneal cavity – show a selective activation of local Vc9/Vd2 T cells by HMB-PP producing but not by HMB-PP deficient bacterial pathogens. The cd T celldriven perpetuation of inflammatory responses during acute peritonitis is associated with elevated peritoneal levels of cd T cells and TNF-a and detrimental clinical outcomes in infections caused by HMB-PP positive microorganisms. Taken together, our findings indicate a direct link between invading pathogens, neutrophils, monocytes and microbe-responsive cd T cells in early infection and suggest novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.Martin S. Davey, Chan-Yu Lin, Gareth W. Roberts, Sinéad Heuston, Amanda C. Brown, James A. Chess, Mark A. Toleman, Cormac G.M. Gahan, Colin Hill, Tanya Parish, John D. Williams, Simon J. Davies, David W. Johnson, Nicholas Topley, Bernhard Moser and Matthias Eber
Cellular and humoral immune responses and protection against schistosomes induced by a radiation-attenuated vaccine in chimpanzees
The radiation-attenuated Schistosoma mansoni vaccine is highly effective in rodents and primates but has never been tested in humans, primarily for safety reasons. To strengthen its status as a paradigm for a human recombinant antigen vaccine, we have undertaken a small-scale vaccination and challenge experiment in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Immunological, clinical, and parasitological parameters were measured in three animals after multiple vaccinations, together with three controls, during the acute and chronic stages of challenge infection up to chemotherapeutic cure. Vaccination induced a strong in vitro proliferative response and early gamma interferon production, but type 2 cytokines were dominant by the time of challenge. The controls showed little response to challenge infection before the acute stage of the disease, initiated by egg deposition. In contrast, the responses of vaccinated animals were muted throughout the challenge period. Vaccination also induced parasite-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG, which reached high levels at the time of challenge, while in control animals levels did not rise markedly before egg deposition. The protective effects of vaccination were manifested as an amelioration of acute disease and overall morbidity, revealed by differences in gamma-glutamyl transferase level, leukocytosis, eosinophilia, and hematocrit. Moreover, vaccinated chimpanzees had a 46% lower level of circulating cathodic antigen and a 38% reduction in fecal egg output, compared to controls, during the chronic phase of infection
Supersymmetric Higgs production in gluon fusion at next-to-leading order
The next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the production and decay
rate of a Higgs boson are computed within the framework of the Minimal
Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The calculation is based on an effective
theory for light and intermediate mass Higgs bosons. We provide a Fortran
routine for the numerical evaluation of the coefficient function. For most of
the MSSM parameter space, the relative size of the NLO corrections is typically
of the order of 5% smaller than the Standard Model value. We exemplify the
numerical results for two scenarios: the benchmark point SPS1a, and a parameter
region where the gluon-Higgs coupling at leading order is very small due to a
cancellation of the squark and quark contributions.Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, 31 embedded PostScript-files; v2: typos corrected,
reformatted in JHEP style; accepted for publication in JHE
Gauge dependence of the on-shell renormalized mixing matrices
It was recently pointed out that the on-shell renormalization of the
Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix in the method by Denner and Sack causes
a gauge parameter dependence of the amplitudes. We analyze the gauge dependence
of the on-shell renormalization of the mixing matrices both for fermions and
scalars in general cases, at the one-loop level. We then show that this gauge
dependence can be avoided by fixing the counterterms for the mixing matrices in
terms of the off-diagonal wave function corrections for fermions and scalars
after a rearrangement, in a similar manner to the pinch technique for gauge
bosons. We finally present explicit calculation of the gauge dependence for two
cases: CKM matrix in the Standard Model, and left-right mixing of scalar quarks
in the minimal supersymmetric standard model.Comment: 16 pages, minor correction
On an exponential attractor for a class of PDEs with degenerate diffusion and chemotaxis
In this article we deal with a class of strongly coupled parabolic systems
that encompasses two different effects: degenerate diffusion and chemotaxis.
Such classes of equations arise in the mesoscale level modeling of biomass
spreading mechanisms via chemotaxis. We show the existence of an exponential
attractor and, hence, of a finite-dimensional global attractor under certain
'balance conditions' on the order of the degeneracy and the growth of the
chemotactic function
Matching functions for heavy particles
We introduce matching functions as a means of summing heavy-quark logarithms
to any order. Our analysis is based on Witten's approach, where heavy quarks
are decoupled one at a time in a mass-independent renormalization scheme. The
outcome is a generalization of the matching conditions of Bernreuther and
Wetzel: we show how to derive closed formulas for summed logarithms to any
order, and present explicit expressions for leading order and next-to-leading
order contributions. The decoupling of heavy quarks in theories lacking
asymptotic freedom is also considered.Comment: Revised version to be published in Physical Review D; added section
with application to decoupling of heavy particles in non-asymptotically free
theorie
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