Weak-Localization in Chaotic Versus Non-Chaotic Cavities: A Striking Difference in the Line Shape

We report experimental evidence that chaotic and non-chaotic scattering through ballistic cavities display distinct signatures in quantum transport. In the case of non-chaotic cavities, we observe a linear decrease in the average resistance with magnetic field which contrasts markedly with a Lorentzian behavior for a chaotic cavity. This difference in line-shape of the weak-localization peak is related to the differing distribution of areas enclosed by electron trajectories. In addition, periodic oscillations are observed which are probably associated with the Aharonov-Bohm effect through a periodic orbit within the cavities.Comment: 4 pages revtex + 4 figures on request; amc.hub.94.

Lung microvascular and arterial endothelial cells differ in their responses to intercellular adhesion molecule-1 ligation

Neutrophil adherence to tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-treated human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMECs) induces cytoskeletal changes in endothelial cells that require intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1)-dependent signaling events. This study determined whether similar changes occurred in rat PMECs and whether rat pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (PAECs) responded differently. Neutrophil adherence induced an increase in the formation of F-actin and in the apparent stiffness of TNF-α-treated rat PMECs. These responses, however, were absent in PAECs. To determine the mechanisms underlying these differences, ICAM-1-mediated signaling events were compared. Upregulation of ICAM-1 by TNF-α and redistribution of ICAM-1 induced by cross-linking antibodies were similar in both cell types. However, neutrophil adherence induced production of reactive oxygen species only in PMECs and not in PAECs. Moreover, phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase induced by ICAM-1 cross-linking occurred only in PMECs and not in PAECs. This increase in p38 phosphorylation in PMECs was inhibited by allopurinol, a xanthine oxidase inhibitor. These data demonstrated that whereas TNF-α upregulated ICAM-1 and ICAM-1 cross-linking induced a similar redistribution of ICAM-1 on the endothelial cell surface, ICAM-1 ligation initiated p38 activation and cytoskeletal rearrangements only in PMECs and not in PAECs. Thus, neutrophil adhesion through ICAM-1 induced signaling events leading to cytoskeletal changes only in PMECs, the site of neutrophil emigration and edema formation, and not in PAECs

Observation of beta decay of In-115 to the first excited level of Sn-115

In the context of the LENS R&D solar neutrino project, the gamma spectrum of a sample of metallic indium was measured using a single experimental setup of 4 HP-Ge detectors located underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS), Italy. A gamma line at the energy (497.48 +/- 0.21) keV was found that is not present in the background spectrum and that can be identified as a gamma quantum following the beta decay of In-115 to the first excited state of Sn-115 (9/2+ --> 3/2+). This decay channel of In-115, which is reported here for the first time, has an extremely low Q-value, Q = (2 +/- 4) keV, and has a much lower probability than the well-known ground state-ground state transition, being the branching ratio b = (1.18 +/- 0.31) 10^-6. This could be the beta decay with the lowest known Q-value. The limit on charge non-conserving beta decay of In-115 is set at 90% C.L. as tau > 4.1 10^20 y.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Estrogen metabolism and mammographic density in postmenopausal women : a cross-sectional study

Background: Prospective studies have consistently found that postmenopausal breast cancer risk increases with circulating estrogens; however, findings from studies of estrogens and mammographic density (MD), an intermediate marker of breast cancer risk, have been inconsistent. We investigated the cross-sectional associations of urinary estrogens, and their 2-, 4-, and 16-hydroxylated metabolites with MD. Methods: Postmenopausal women without breast cancer (n = 194), ages 48 to 82 years, and reporting no current menopausal hormone therapy use were enrolled at a clinic in Western NY in 2005. Urinary estrogens and estrogen metabolites were measured using mass spectrometry. Percent MD and dense area (cm2) were measured using computer-assisted analyses of digitized films. Linear regression models were used to estimate associations of log-transformed estrogen measures with MD while adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI), parity, and past hormone therapy use. Results: Urinary concentrations of most individual estrogens and metabolites were not associated with MD; however, across the interdecile range of the ratio of parent estrogens (estrone and estradiol) to their metabolites, MD increased by 6.8 percentage points (P = 0.02) and dense area increased by 10.3 cm2 (P = 0.03). Across the interdecile ranges of the ratios of 2-, 4-, and 16-hydroxylation pathways to the parent estrogens, MD declined by 6.2 (P = 0.03), 6.4 (P = 0.04), and 5.7 (P = 0.05) percentage points, respectively. All associations remained apparent in models without adjustment for BMI. Conclusion: In this study of postmenopausal women, less extensive hydroxylation of parent estrogens was associated with higher MD. Impact: Hydroxylation of estrogens may modulate postmenopausal breast cancer risk through a pathway involving MD

Circular orbits of corotating binary black holes: comparison between analytical and numerical results

We compare recent numerical results, obtained within a ``helical Killing vector'' (HKV) approach, on circular orbits of corotating binary black holes to the analytical predictions made by the effective one body (EOB) method (which has been recently extended to the case of spinning bodies). On the scale of the differences between the results obtained by different numerical methods, we find good agreement between numerical data and analytical predictions for several invariant functions describing the dynamical properties of circular orbits. This agreement is robust against the post-Newtonian accuracy used for the analytical estimates, as well as under choices of resummation method for the EOB ``effective potential'', and gets better as one uses a higher post-Newtonian accuracy. These findings open the way to a significant ``merging'' of analytical and numerical methods, i.e. to matching an EOB-based analytical description of the (early and late) inspiral, up to the beginning of the plunge, to a numerical description of the plunge and merger. We illustrate also the ``flexibility'' of the EOB approach, i.e. the possibility of determining some ``best fit'' values for the analytical parameters by comparison with numerical data.Comment: Minor revisions, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D, 19 pages, 6 figure

Interactions between cell surface protein disulphide isomerase and S-nitrosoglutathione during nitric oxide delivery

In this study, we investigated the role of protein disulphide isomerase (PDI) in rapid metabolism of S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) and S-nitrosoalbumin (albSNO) and in NO delivery from these compounds into cells. Incubation of GSNO or albSNO (1 μM) with the megakaryocyte cell line MEG-01 resulted in a cell-mediated removal of each compound which was inhibited by blocking cell surface thiols with 5,5′-dithiobis 2-nitrobenzoic acid (DTNB) (100 μM) or inhibiting PDI with bacitracin (5 mM). GSNO, but not albSNO, rapidly inhibited platelet aggregation and stimulated cyclic GMP (cGMP) accumulation (used as a measure of intracellular NO entry). cGMP accumulation in response to GSNO (1 μM) was inhibited by MEG-01 treatment with bacitracin or DTNB, suggesting a role for PDI and surface thiols in NO delivery. PDI activity was present in MEG-01 conditioned medium, and was inhibited by high concentrations of GSNO (500 μM). A number of cell surface thiol-containing proteins were labelled using the impermeable thiol specific probe 3-(N-maleimido-propionyl) biocytin (MPB). Pretreatment of cells with GSNO resulted in a loss of thiol reactivity on some but not all proteins, suggesting selective cell surface thiol modification. Immunoprecipitation experiments showed that GSNO caused a concentration-dependent loss of thiol reactivity of PDI. Our data indicate that PDI is involved in both rapid metabolism of GSNO and intracellular NO delivery and that during this process PDI is itself altered by thiol modification. In contrast, the relevance of PDI-mediated albSNO metabolism to NO signalling is uncertain

The RNA chaperone Hfq is essential for the virulence of Salmonella typhimurium

The RNA chaperone, Hfq, plays a diverse role in bacterial physiology beyond its original role as a host factor required for replication of Qβ RNA bacteriophage. In this study, we show that Hfq is involved in the expression and secretion of virulence factors in the facultative intracellular pathogen, Salmonella typhimurium. A Salmonella hfq deletion strain is highly attenuated in mice after both oral and intraperitoneal infection, and shows a severe defect in invasion of epithelial cells and a growth defect in both epithelial cells and macrophages in vitro. Surprisingly, we find that these phenotypes are largely independent of the previously reported requirement of Hfq for expression of the stationary phase sigma factor, RpoS. Our results implicate Hfq as a key regulator of multiple aspects of virulence including regulation of motility and outer membrane protein (OmpD) expression in addition to invasion and intracellular growth. These pleiotropic effects are suggested to involve a network of regulatory small non-coding RNAs, placing Hfq at the centre of post-transcriptional regulation of virulence gene expression in Salmonella. In addition, the hfq mutation appears to cause a chronic activation of the RpoE-mediated envelope stress response which is likely due to a misregulation of membrane protein expression

Exploring the shell-based taxonomy of the Sri Lankan land snail Corilla H. and A. Adams, 1855 (Pulmonata: Corillidae) using mitochondrial DNA

The land-snail genus Corilla is endemic to Sri Lanka and India’s Western Ghats. The ten extant Sri Lankan species belong to two distinct shell forms that are associated respectively with lowland and montane rainforest. We here present the first molecular phylogenetic analysis for Corilla. Our dataset includes nine nominal Sri Lankan species and is based on three mitochondrial genes (CO1, ND1 and 16S). Although the deeper nodes in the trees are not fully resolved, the results do suggest speciation in Corilla has involved repeated, ecologically-driven convergence in shell form. The mtDNA data agree with the current shell-based taxonomy for C. adamsi, C. beddomeae, C. carabinata, C. humberti and C. colletti, consistently supporting the first four as monophyletic, and supporting the last also as monophyletic in nearly all analyses. Corilla adamsi, C. beddomeae and C. colletti may each contain at least one additional, previously undescribed species. The relationship between northern and eastern C. odontophora couldn’t be reliably resolved, but our results suggest that they are distinct species and that there is further species-level or intraspecific (geographical) differentiation within eastern C. odontophora. The current, morphologically-defined species limits of the three remaining nominal species, C. gudei, C. erronea and C. fryae, are inconsistent with the mtDNA sequence data. Northern and southern C. gudei appear to be distinct species: the sister taxon of southern C. gudei is C. humberti, and most analyses showed that the sister taxon of northern C. gudei is the lowland C. carabinata. Corilla erronea and C. fryae constitute a well supported clade in which both nominal species are paraphyletic. While most intra-clade CO1 p-distances are moderate to relatively large, the phylogenetic structuring within the clade does not seem to correspond to any obvious morphological, elevational or geographical patterns. These results are difficult to interpret, and further detailed study is needed before the taxonomic status of C. erronea and C. fryae can be resolved

Bimodal age distribution at diagnosis in breast cancer persists across molecular and genomic classifications

Purpose: Female breast cancer demonstrates bimodal age frequency distribution patterns at diagnosis, interpretable as two main etiologic subtypes or groupings of tumors with shared risk factors. While RNA-based methods including PAM50 have identified well-established clinical subtypes, age distribution patterns at diagnosis as a proxy for etiologic subtype are not established for molecular and genomic tumor classifications. Methods: We evaluated smoothed age frequency distributions at diagnosis for Carolina Breast Cancer Study cases within immunohistochemistry-based and RNA-based expression categories. Akaike information criterion (AIC) values compared the fit of single density versus two-component mixture models. Two-component mixture models estimated the proportion of early-onset and late-onset categories by immunohistochemistry-based ER (n = 2860), and by RNA-based ESR1 and PAM50 subtype (n = 1965). PAM50 findings were validated using pooled publicly available data (n = 8103). Results: Breast cancers were best characterized by bimodal age distribution at diagnosis with incidence peaks near 45 and 65 years, regardless of molecular characteristics. However, proportional composition of early-onset and late-onset age distributions varied by molecular and genomic characteristics. Higher ER-protein and ESR1-RNA categories showed a greater proportion of late age-at-onset. Similarly, PAM50 subtypes showed a shifting age-at-onset distribution, with most pronounced early-onset and late-onset peaks found in Basal-like and Luminal A, respectively. Conclusions: Bimodal age distribution at diagnosis was detected in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study, similar to national cancer registry data. Our data support two fundamental age-defined etiologic breast cancer subtypes that persist across molecular and genomic characteristics. Better criteria to distinguish etiologic subtypes could improve understanding of breast cancer etiology and contribute to prevention efforts

Photoproduction of mesons off nuclei

Recent results for the photoproduction of mesons off nuclei are reviewed. These experiments have been performed for two major lines of research related to the properties of the strong interaction. The investigation of nucleon resonances requires light nuclei as targets for the extraction of the isospin composition of the electromagnetic excitations. This is done with quasi-free meson photoproduction off the bound neutron and supplemented with the measurement of coherent photoproduction reactions, serving as spin and/or isospin filters. Furthermore, photoproduction from light and heavy nuclei is a very efficient tool for the study of the interactions of mesons with nuclear matter and the in-medium properties of hadrons. Experiments are currently rapidly developing due to the combination of high quality tagged (and polarized) photon beams with state-of-the-art 4pi detectors and polarized targets