538 research outputs found
Domain Structure of the Staphylococcus aureus Collagen Adhesin
Sequence analysis of surface proteins from Gram-positive bacteria indicates a composite organization consisting of unique and repeated segments. Thus, these proteins may contain discrete domains that could fold independently. In this paper, we have used a panel of biophysical methods, including gel permeation chromatography, analytical ultracentrifugation, circular dichroism, and fluorescence spectroscopy, to analyze the structural organization of the Staphylococcus aureus collagen adhesin, CNA. Our results indicate that the structure, function, and folding of the ligand-binding domain (A) are not affected by the presence or absence of the other major domain (B). In addition, little or no interaction is observed between the nearly identical repeat units within the B domain. We propose that CNA is indeed a mosaic protein in which the different domains previously indicated by sequence analysis operate independently
Equilibrium solutions of the shallow water equations
A statistical method for calculating equilibrium solutions of the shallow
water equations, a model of essentially 2-d fluid flow with a free surface, is
described. The model contains a competing acoustic turbulent {\it direct}
energy cascade, and a 2-d turbulent {\it inverse} energy cascade. It is shown,
nonetheless that, just as in the corresponding theory of the inviscid Euler
equation, the infinite number of conserved quantities constrain the flow
sufficiently to produce nontrivial large-scale vortex structures which are
solutions to a set of explicitly derived coupled nonlinear partial differential
equations.Comment: 4 pages, no figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter
Inverse monoids and immersions of 2-complexes
It is well known that under mild conditions on a connected topological space
, connected covers of may be classified via conjugacy
classes of subgroups of the fundamental group of . In this paper,
we extend these results to the study of immersions into 2-dimensional
CW-complexes. An immersion between
CW-complexes is a cellular map such that each point has a
neighborhood that is mapped homeomorphically onto by . In order
to classify immersions into a 2-dimensional CW-complex , we need to
replace the fundamental group of by an appropriate inverse monoid.
We show how conjugacy classes of the closed inverse submonoids of this inverse
monoid may be used to classify connected immersions into the complex
Local Spin-Gauge Symmetry of the Bose-Einstein Condensates in Atomic Gases
The Bose-Einstein condensates of alkali atomic gases are spinor fields with
local ``spin-gauge" symmetry. This symmetry is manifested by a superfluid
velocity (or gauge field) generated by the Berry phase of the
spin field. In ``static" traps, splits the degeneracy of the
harmonic energy levels, breaks the inversion symmetry of the vortex nucleation
frequency , and can lead to {\em vortex ground states}. The
inversion symmetry of , however, is not broken in ``dynamic"
traps. Rotations of the atom cloud can be generated by adiabatic effects
without physically rotating the entire trap.Comment: Typos in the previous version corrected, thanks to the careful
reading of Daniel L. Cox. 13 pages + 2 Figures in uuencode + gzip for
Complex Patterns in Reaction-Diffusion Systems: A Tale of Two Front Instabilities
Two front instabilities in a reaction-diffusion system are shown to lead to
the formation of complex patterns. The first is an instability to transverse
modulations that drives the formation of labyrinthine patterns. The second is a
Nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch (NIB) bifurcation that renders a stationary planar
front unstable and gives rise to a pair of counterpropagating fronts. Near the
NIB bifurcation the relation of the front velocity to curvature is highly
nonlinear and transitions between counterpropagating fronts become feasible.
Nonuniformly curved fronts may undergo local front transitions that nucleate
spiral-vortex pairs. These nucleation events provide the ingredient needed to
initiate spot splitting and spiral turbulence. Similar spatio-temporal
processes have been observed recently in the ferrocyanide-iodate-sulfite
reaction.Comment: Text: 14 pages compressed Postscript (90kb) Figures: 9 pages
compressed Postscript (368kb
Rap1 binding and a lipid-dependent helix in talin F1 domain promote integrin activation in tandem.
Rap1 GTPases bind effectors, such as RIAM, to enable talin1 to induce integrin activation. In addition, Rap1 binds directly to the talin1 F0 domain (F0); however, this interaction makes a limited contribution to integrin activation in CHO cells or platelets. Here, we show that talin1 F1 domain (F1) contains a previously undetected Rap1-binding site of similar affinity to that in F0. A structure-guided point mutant (R118E) in F1, which blocks Rap1 binding, abolishes the capacity of Rap1 to potentiate talin1-induced integrin activation. The capacity of F1 to mediate Rap1-dependent integrin activation depends on a unique loop in F1 that has a propensity to form a helix upon binding to membrane lipids. Basic membrane-facing residues of this helix are critical, as charge-reversal mutations led to dramatic suppression of talin1-dependent activation. Thus, a novel Rap1-binding site and a transient lipid-dependent helix in F1 work in tandem to enable a direct Rap1-talin1 interaction to cause integrin activation
Evaporative cooling of trapped fermionic atoms
We propose an efficient mechanism for the evaporative cooling of trapped
fermions directly into quantum degeneracy. Our idea is based on an electric
field induced elastic interaction between trapped atoms in spin symmetric
states. We discuss some novel general features of fermionic evaporative cooling
and present numerical studies demonstrating the feasibility for the cooling of
alkali metal fermionic species Li, K, and Rb. We also
discuss the sympathetic cooling of fermionic hyperfine spin mixtures, including
the effects of anisotropic interactions.Comment: to be publishe
Observation of critical phenomena and self-similarity in the gravitational collapse of radiation fluid
We observe critical phenomena in spherical collapse of radiation fluid. A
sequence of spacetimes is numerically computed, containing
models () that adiabatically disperse and models () that
form a black hole. Near the critical point (), evolutions develop a
self-similar region within which collapse is balanced by a strong,
inward-moving rarefaction wave that holds constant as a function of a
self-similar coordinate . The self-similar solution is known and we show
near-critical evolutions asymptotically approaching it. A critical exponent
is found for supercritical () models.Comment: 10 pages (LaTeX) (to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett.), TAR-039-UN
The Dynamics of a Meandering River
We present a statistical model of a meandering river on an alluvial plane
which is motivated by the physical non-linear dynamics of the river channel
migration and by describing heterogeneity of the terrain by noise. We study the
dynamics analytically and numerically. The motion of the river channel is
unstable and we show that by inclusion of the formation of ox-bow lakes, the
system may be stabilised. We then calculate the steady state and show that it
is in agreement with simulations and measurements of field data.Comment: Revtex, 12 pages, 2 postscript figure
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