17,209 research outputs found
Effects of antibodies against dynein and tubulin on the stiffness of flagellar axonemes
Antidynein antibodies, previously shown to inhibit flagellar oscillation and active sliding of axonemal microtubules, increase the bending resistance of axonemes measured under relaxing conditions, but not the bending resistance of axonemes measured under rigor conditions. These observations suggest that antidynein antibodies can stabilize rigor cross-bridges between outer-doublet microtubules, by interfering with ATP-induced cross-bridge detachment. Stabilization of a small number of cross-bridge appears to be sufficient to cause substantial inhibition of the frequency of flagellar oscillation. Antitubulin antibodies, previously shown to inhibit flagellar oscillation without inhibiting active sliding of axonemal microtubules, do not increase the static bending resistance of axonemes. However, we observed a viscoelastic effect, corresponding to a large increase in the immediate bending resistance. This immediate bending resistance increase may be sufficient to explain inhibition of flagellar oscillation; but several alternative explanations cannot yet be excluded
Quantum dynamics of non-relativistic particles and isometric embeddings
It is considered, in the framework of constrained systems, the quantum
dynamics of non-relativistic particles moving on a d-dimensional Riemannian
manifold M isometrically embedded in . This generalizes recent
investigations where M has been assumed to be a hypersurface of . We
show, contrary to recent claims, that constrained systems theory does not
contribute to the elimination of the ambiguities present in the canonical and
path integral formulations of the problem. These discrepancies with recent
works are discussed.Comment: Revtex, 14 page
Operation of solar cell arrays in dilute streaming plasmas
Operation of solar cell arrays in dilute streaming plasma
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Evolutionary conservation in genes underlying human psychiatric disorders
Many psychiatric diseases observed in humans have tenuous or absent analogs in other species. Most notable among these are schizophrenia and autism. One hypothesis has posited that these diseases have arisen as a consequence of human brain evolution, for example, that the same processes that led to advances in cognition, language, and executive function also resulted in novel diseases in humans when dysfunctional. Here, the molecular evolution of the protein-coding regions of genes associated with these and other psychiatric disorders are compared among species. Genes associated with psychiatric disorders are drawn from the literature and orthologous sequences are collected from eleven primate species (human, chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, orangutan, gibbon, macaque, baboon, marmoset, squirrel monkey, and galago) and 34 non-primate mammalian species. Evolutionary parameters, including dN/dS, are calculated for each gene and compared between disease classes and among species, focusing on humans and primates compared to other mammals, and on large-brained taxa (cetaceans, rhinoceros, walrus, bear, and elephant) compared to their small-brained sister species. Evidence of differential selection in humans to the exclusion of non-human primates was absent, however elevated dN/dS was detected in catarrhines as a whole, as well as in cetaceans, possibly as part of a more general trend. Although this may suggest that protein changes associated with schizophrenia and autism are not a cost of the higher brain function found in humans, it may also point to insufficiencies in the study of these diseases including incomplete or inaccurate gene association lists and/or a greater role of regulatory changes or copy number variation. Through this work a better understanding of the molecular evolution of the human brain, the pathophysiology of disease, and the genetic basis of human psychiatric disease is gained
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Genetic substructure in cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) on the island of Mauritius
Background: Nonhuman primates are commonly used in biomedical research as animal models of human disease and behavior. Compared to common rodent models, nonhuman primates are genetically, physiologically, behaviorally and neurologically more similar to humans owing to more recent shared ancestry and therefore provide the advantage of greater translational validity in preclinical studies. The cynomolgus macaque (Macaca fascicularis) is one of the most commonly used nonhuman primates in academic and industry settings, yet population genetic research has revealed significant substructure throughout the species distribution that may confound studies. Cynomolgus monkeys introduced to Mauritius specifically have previously been thought to maintain the least genetic heterogeneity of all cynomolgus monkeys, although recent work, including work from our lab, suggests macaques from Mauritius too may harbor cryptic substructure. Results: To evaluate putative substructure in Mauritian cynomolgus macaques, we designed a panel of 96 single nucleotide polymorphisms based on preliminary findings from previous work to screen 246 of cynomolgus monkeys from two primary suppliers. Results from this study support substructure in Mauritian macaques and suggest a minimum of two populations and maybe three on Mauritius, with moderate admixture. Conclusion: These findings inform the natural history of these monkeys suggesting either a previously unrecognized physical or ecological barrier to gene flow on Mauritius and/or the breakdown of historic substructure resulting from the history of macaque introduction to the island. These findings are relevant to ongoing research using these models in part because of increased appreciation of segregating common variation with functional effects and may be used to better inform animal selection in preclinical research. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-748) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users
Ferromagnetic Properties of ZrZn
The low Curie temperature (T_C approx 28K) and small ordered moment (M_0
approx 0.17 mu_B f.u.^-1) of ZrZn2 make it one of the few examples of a weak
itinerant ferromagnet. We report results of susceptibility, magnetization,
resistivity and specific heat measurements made on high-quality single crystals
of ZrZn2. From magnetization scaling in the vicinity of T_C
(0.001<|T-T_C|/T_C<0.08), we obtain the critical exponents beta=0.52+/-0.05 and
delta=3.20+/-0.08, and T_C=27.50+/-0.05K. Low-temperature magnetization
measurements show that the easy axis is [111]. Resistivity measurements reveal
an anomaly at T_C and a non-Fermi liquid temperature dependence
rho(T)=rho_0+AT^n, where n=1.67+/-0.02, for 1<T<14K. The specific heat
measurements show a mean-field-like anomaly at T_C. We compare our results to
various theoretical models.Comment: submitted to PR
Critical enhancement of thermopower in a chemically tuned polar semimetal MoTe
Ferroelectrics with spontaneous electric polarization play an essential role
in today's device engineering, such as capacitors and memories. Their physical
properties are further enriched by suppressing the long-range polar order, as
is exemplified by quantum paraelectrics with giant piezoelectric and dielectric
responses at low temperatures. Likewise in metals, a polar lattice distortion
has been theoretically predicted to give rise to various unusual physical
properties. So far, however, a "ferroelectric"-like transition in metals has
seldom been controlled and hence its possible impacts on transport phenomena
remain unexplored. Here we report the discovery of anomalous enhancement of
thermopower near the critical region between the polar and nonpolar metallic
phases in 1T'-MoNbTe with a chemically tunable polar
transition. It is unveiled from the first-principles calculations and
magnetotransport measurements that charge transport with strongly
energy-dependent scattering rate critically evolves towards the boundary to the
nonpolar phase, resulting in large cryogenic thermopower. Such a significant
influence of the structural instability on transport phenomena might arise from
the fluctuating or heterogeneous polar metallic states, which would pave a
novel route to improving thermoelectric efficiency.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure
Stationary Rotating Strings as Relativistic Particle Mechanics
Stationary rotating strings can be viewed as geodesic motions in appropriate
metrics on a two-dimensional space. We obtain all solutions describing
stationary rotating strings in flat spacetime as an application. These rotating
strings have infinite length with various wiggly shapes. Averaged value of the
string energy, the angular momentum and the linear momentum along the string
are discussed.Comment: 20pages, 7 figure
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