Opposing action of the FLR-2 glycoprotein hormone and DRL-1/FLR-4 MAP kinases balance p38-mediated growth and lipid homeostasis in C. elegans

AAUnim: Pallseainsetecgonrafitremdtheavteallolhpemadeinntgalleavenldsanruertreiptiroensaenl tseidgcnoarlrsebctelyfo: re committing crucial resources to growth and reproduction; however, the pathways that perceive and respond to these inputs remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that DRL-1 and FLR-4, which share similarity with mammalian mitogen-activated protein kinases, maintain lipid homeostasis in the C. elegans intestine. DRL-1 and FLR-4 function in a protein complex at the plasma membrane to promote development, as mutations in drl-1 or flr-4 confer slow growth, small body size, and impaired lipid homeostasis. To identify factors that oppose DRL-1/FLR-4, we performed a forward genetic screen for suppressors of the drl-1 mutant phenotypes and identified mutations in flr-2 and fshr-1, which encode the orthologues of follicle stimulating hormone and its putative G protein-coupled receptor, respectively. In the absence of DRL-1/FLR-4, neuronal FLR-2 acts through intestinal FSHR-1 and protein kinase A signaling to restrict growth. Furthermore, we show that opposing signaling through DRL-1 and FLR-2 coordinates TIR-1 oligomerization, which modulates downstream p38/ PMK-1 activity, lipid homeostasis, and development. Finally, we identify a surprising noncanonical role for the developmental transcription factor PHA-4/FOXA in the intestine where it restricts growth in response to impaired DRL-1 signaling. Our work uncovers a complex multi-tissue signaling network that converges on p38 signaling to maintain homeostasis during development

Chiral primary cubic interactions from pp-wave supergravity

We explicitly construct cubic interaction light-cone Hamiltonian for the chiral primary system involving the metric fields and the self-dual four-form fields in the IIB pp-wave supergravity. The background fields representing pp-waves exhibit SO(4)*SO(4)*Z_2 invariance. It turns out that the interaction Hamiltonian is precisely the same as that for the dilaton-axion system, except for the fact that the chiral primary system fields have the opposite parity to that of the dilaton-axion fields under the Z_2 transformation that exchanges two SO(4)'s.Comment: 14 pages, A few comments are adde

Carbon Nanotubes as Nanoelectromechanical Systems

We theoretically study the interplay between electrical and mechanical properties of suspended, doubly clamped carbon nanotubes in which charging effects dominate. In this geometry, the capacitance between the nanotube and the gate(s) depends on the distance between them. This dependence modifies the usual Coulomb models and we show that it needs to be incorporated to capture the physics of the problem correctly. We find that the tube position changes in discrete steps every time an electron tunnels onto it. Edges of Coulomb diamonds acquire a (small) curvature. We also show that bistability in the tube position occurs and that tunneling of an electron onto the tube drastically modifies the quantized eigenmodes of the tube. Experimental verification of these predictions is possible in suspended tubes of sub-micron length.Comment: 8 pages, 5 eps figures included. Major changes; new material adde

Reversible magnetization of MgB2 single crystals with a two-gap nature

We present reversible magnetization measurements on MgB2 single crystals in magnetic fields up to 2.5 T applied parallel to the crystal's c-axis. This magnetization is analyzed in terms of the Hao-Clem model, and various superconducting parameters, such as the critical fields [Hc(0) and Hc2(0)], the characteristic lengths [xi(0) and lambda(0)], and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter, kappa, are derived. The temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth, lambda(T), obtained from the Hao-Clem analysis could not be explained by theories assuming a single gap. Our data are well described by using a two-gap model.Comment: 20 pages, 1 table, 4 figures, will be published in Phys. Rev.

Cubic Interactions in PP-Wave Light Cone String Field Theory

We use the supergravity modes to clarify the role of the prefactor in the light-cone superstring field theory on PP-wave background. We verify some of the proposals of the recent paper hep-th/0205089 and give further evidence for the correspondence between N=4 SYM gauge theory and string theory on PP-wave. We also consider energy-preserving processes and find that they give vanishing cubic interaction Hamiltonian matrix.Comment: 16+1 pages, no figures, LaTeX (v3: references, minor changes and a clarification about Neumann matrices added; to appear in Physical Review D

Superstring in the plane-wave background with RR flux as a conformal field theory

We study the type IIB superstring in the plane-wave background with Ramond-Ramond flux and formulate it as an exact conformal field theory in operator formalism. One of the characteristic features of the superstring in a consistent background with RR flux, such as the AdS5xS5 and its plane-wave limit, is that the left- and the right-moving degrees of freedom on the worldsheet are inherently coupled. In the plane-wave case, it is manifested in the well-known fact that the Green-Schwarz formulation of the theory reduces to that of free massive bosons and fermions in the light-cone gauge. This raises the obvious question as to how this feature is reconciled with the underlying conformal symmetry of the string theory. By adopting the semi-light-cone conformal gauge, we will show that, despite the existence of such non-linear left-right couplings, one can construct two independent sets of quantum Virasoro operators in terms of fields obeying the free-field commutation relations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the BRST cohomology analysis reproduces the physical spectrum obtained in the light-cone gauge.Comment: 37 pages, Latex, no figure; published versio

Evidence of Color Coherence Effects in W+jets Events from ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV

We report the results of a study of color coherence effects in ppbar collisions based on data collected by the D0 detector during the 1994-1995 run of the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, at a center of mass energy sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV. Initial-to-final state color interference effects are studied by examining particle distribution patterns in events with a W boson and at least one jet. The data are compared to Monte Carlo simulations with different color coherence implementations and to an analytic modified-leading-logarithm perturbative calculation based on the local parton-hadron duality hypothesis.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the p-pbar -> Wgamma + X cross section at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV and WWgamma anomalous coupling limits

The WWgamma triple gauge boson coupling parameters are studied using p-pbar -> l nu gamma + X (l = e,mu) events at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV. The data were collected with the DO detector from an integrated luminosity of 162 pb^{-1} delivered by the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The cross section times branching fraction for p-pbar -> W(gamma) + X -> l nu gamma + X with E_T^{gamma} > 8 GeV and Delta R_{l gamma} > 0.7 is 14.8 +/- 1.6 (stat) +/- 1.0 (syst) +/- 1.0 (lum) pb. The one-dimensional 95% confidence level limits on anomalous couplings are -0.88 < Delta kappa_{gamma} < 0.96 and -0.20 < lambda_{gamma} < 0.20.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. D Rapid Communication

Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV using Kinematic Characteristics of Lepton + Jets Events

We present a measurement of the top quark pair ttbar production cross section in ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV using 230 pb**{-1} of data collected by the DO detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We select events with one charged lepton (electron or muon), large missing transverse energy, and at least four jets, and extract the ttbar content of the sample based on the kinematic characteristics of the events. For a top quark mass of 175 GeV, we measure sigma(ttbar) = 6.7 {+1.4-1.3} (stat) {+1.6- 1.1} (syst) +/-0.4 (lumi) pb, in good agreement with the standard model prediction.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.Let