632 research outputs found
How dsDNA breathing enhances its flexibility and instability on short length scales
We study the unexpected high flexibility of short dsDNA which recently has
been reported by a number of experiments. Via the Langevin dynamics simulation
of our Breathing DNA model, first we observe the formation of bubbles within
the duplex and also forks at the ends, with the size distributions independent
of the contour length. We find that these local denaturations at a
physiological temperature, despite their rare and transient presence, can lower
the persistence length drastically for a short DNA segment in agreement with
experiment
Structural variations of Si 1-xC x and their light absorption controllability
The emergence of third-generation photovoltaics based on Si relies on tunable bandgap materials with embedded nanocrystalline Si. One of the most promising approaches is based on the mixed-phase Si1 -aEuro parts per thousand x C (x) . We have investigated the light absorption controllability of nanocrystalline Si-embedded Si1 -aEuro parts per thousand x C (x) produced by thermal annealing of the Si-rich Si1 -aEuro parts per thousand x C (x) and composition-modulated superlattice structure. In addition, stoichiometric SiC was also investigated to comparatively analyze the characteristic differences. As a result, it was found that stoichiometric changes of the matrix material and incorporation of oxygen play key roles in light absorption controllability. Based on the results of this work and literature, a design strategy of nanocrystalline Si-embedded absorber materials for third-generation photovoltaics is discussed.open3
Human Trichohyalin Gene Is Clustered with the Genes for Other Epidermal Structural Proteins and Calcium-Binding Proteins at Chromosomal Locus 1q21
Trichohyalin is a major differentiation product of hard keratinizing tissues such as the inner root sheath and medullary cells of the hair follicle and the filiform papillae of the tongue, as well as terminally differentiating epidermal cells. It consists largely of quasi-repeating peptide repeats and functions primarily as an intermediate filament-associated protein in these tissues. By mapping with human-rodent somatic cell hybrids and fluorescent in situ hybridization, we demonstrate that its gene maps to chromosomal region 1q21. Interestingly, genes encoding several other structural proteins expressed during terminal differentiation in the epidermis map to this region, as do also several members of the S-100 class of small calcium-binding proteins
Efficient terahertz generation in highly nonlinear organic crystal HMB-TMS
We report on generation of strong and broadband terahertz (THz) pulses via collinearly phase-matched optical rectification of near-infrared femtosecond pulses in the organic nonlinear optical HMB-TMS (2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyryl)-3-methylbenzo[d]thiazol-3-ium 2,4,6-trimethylbenzenesulfonate) single crystals which exhibit optimal molecular orientation and large macroscopic optical nonlinearity for efficient THz wave generation. Single-cycle THz pulses with a peak electric field strength of 0.66 MV/cm and a bandwidth from 0.1 to 5.4 THz are achieved from an HMB-TMS crystal with only a 2-mm clear aperture pumped by 1350 nm pulses at moderate fluences. The generated THz energy is about 1 µJ and the corresponding pump-to-THz energy conversion efficiency reaches 0.23%.United States. Office of Naval Research (N00014-13-1-0509)United States. Office of Naval Research. Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (N00014-15-1-2879)Samsung Global Research Outreach ProgramNational Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2016R1A2B4011050National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2014R1A5A1009799)National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2015K1A3A1A14004646)National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 2009-0093826
The Globular Cluster System of M60 (NGC 4649). I. CFHT MOS Spectroscopy and Database
We present the measurement of radial velocities for globular clusters in M60,
giant elliptical galaxy in the Virgo cluster. Target globular cluster
candidates were selected using the Washington photometry based on the deep
16\arcmin \times 16\arcmin images taken at the KPNO 4m and using the
photometry derived from the HST/WFPC2 archive images. The spectra of the target
objects were obtained using the Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) at the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). We have measured the radial velocity for
111 objects in the field of M60: 93 globular clusters (72 blue globular
clusters with and 21 red globular clusters with
), 11 foreground stars, 6 small galaxies, and the nucleus of
M60. The measured velocities of the 93 globular clusters range from
km s to km s, with a mean value of
km s, which is in good agreement with the velocity of the nucleus of M60
( km s). Combining our results with data in the
literature, we present a master catalog of radial velocities for 121 globular
clusters in M60. The velocity dispersion of the globular clusters in the master
catalog is found to be km s for the entire sample,
km s for 83 blue globular clusters, and
km s for 38 red globular clusters.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures. To appear in Ap
Isolation and characterization of differentially expressed genes in the mycelium and fruit body of Pleurotus ostreatus
The fruiting body of one of the most widely cultivated mushrooms, the oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) is highly interesting, both commercially and scientifically. In the present study, we performed comparative proteomic profiling of P. ostreatus at two unique developmental stages; mycelium and fruit body, using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Seven hundred fourteen (714) spots were detected and 29 spots (showing a high level of difference in their expressions) were identified by tandem mass spectrometry and basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) searching of an expressed sequence tag (EST) database of P. ostreatus. Among them, six proteins (putative fatty acid oxygenase, heat shock sks2, PriA homologue, Ap-1 like transcription factor YAP7, mung bean seed albumin, and C2H2 Zinc finger domain protein) and one protein (peroxisomal biogenesis factor 6) showed increased expression levels at the fruiting process and the mycelial stage, respectively. Through reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis, priA homologue and AP-1 like transcription factor yap7 showed gradually increased expression from mycelia to fruit body, whereas putative fatty acid oxygenase and heat shock protein sks2 were expressed only in the fruit body. These results provide useful information for future studies of mushroom development of P. ostreatus.Keywords: Developmental stage, mushroom fruiting, Pleurotus ostreatus, protein, two-dimensional gel electrophoresisAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(24), pp. 3790-379
Decay of Classical Chaotic Systems - the Case of the Bunimovich Stadium
The escape of an ensemble of particles from the Bunimovich stadium via a
small hole has been studied numerically. The decay probability starts out
exponentially but has an algebraic tail. The weight of the algebraic decay
tends to zero for vanishing hole size. This behaviour is explained by the slow
transport of the particles close to the marginally stable bouncing ball orbits.
It is contrasted with the decay function of the corresponding quantum system.Comment: 16 pages, RevTex, 3 figures are available upon request from
[email protected], to be published in Phys.Rev.
PECTINASE-MODIFIED RED GINSENG (GS-E3D) INHIBIT NF-ΚB TRANSLOCATION AND NITRIC OXIDE PRODUCTION IN LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE-STIMULATED RAW 264.7 CELLS
Objective: Red ginseng has been used as traditional medicines and functional foods in the world, because of its health benefits. The aim of this study was to elucidate the anti-inflammatory effect and mechanism of pectinase-modified red ginseng (GS-E3D) with a cellular model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells.Methods: To study the anti-inflammatory effect of GS-E3D, the key inflammation mediators such as nitric oxide (NO),prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), and interleukin (IL)-6 production as well as on nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) activation, were measured by using the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)and Western blotting.Results: GS-E3D potently inhibited TNF-α and IL-6 and also diminished NO over-production, which was accompanied by the down-regulation of iNOS expression. GS-E3D effectively suppressed LPS-induced NF-κB activation through inhibiting the hyper-phosphorylation and degradation of IκB-α and phosphorylation of p38, ERK1/2 and JNK in MAPK signaling pathway.Conclusion: GS-E3D has a potential to be as an anti-inflammatory agent for functional food or cosmetic materials targeting on the NF-κB p65 and MAPKs signaling pathways.Â
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