450 research outputs found
Towards an integrated understanding of gut microbiota using insects as model systems
© 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Metazoans form symbioses with microorganisms that synthesize essential nutritional compounds and increase their efficiency to digest and absorb nutrients. Despite the growing awareness that microbes within the gut play key roles in metabolism, health and development of metazoans, symbiotic relationships within the gut are far from fully understood. Insects, which generally harbor a lower microbial diversity than vertebrates, have recently emerged as potential model systems to study these interactions. In this review, we give a brief overview of the characteristics of the gut microbiota in insects in terms of low diversity but high variability at intra- and interspecific levels and we investigate some of the ecological and methodological factors that might explain such variability. We then emphasize how studies integrating an array of techniques and disciplines have the potential to provide new understanding of the biology of this micro eco-system
Tissue-specific immune gene expression in the migratory locust, Locusta Migratoria
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The ability of hosts to respond to infection involves several complex immune recognition pathways. Broadly conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) allow individuals to target a range of invading microbes. Recently, studies on insect innate immunity have found evidence that a single pathogen can activate different immune pathways across species. In this study, expression changes in immune genes encoding peptidoglycan-recognition protein SA (PGRP-SA), gram-negative binding protein 1 (GNBP1) and prophenoloxidase (ProPO) were investigated in Locusta migratoria, following an immune challenge using injected lipopolysaccharide (LPS) solution from Escherichia coli. Since immune activation might also be tissue-specific, gene expression levels were followed across a range of tissue types. For PGRP-SA, expression increased in response to LPS within all seven of the tissue-types assayed and differed significantly between tissues. Expression of GNBP1 similarly varied across tissue types, yet showed no clear expression difference between LPS-injected and uninfected locusts. Increases in ProPO expression in response to LPS, however, could only be detected in the gut sections. This study has revealed tissue-specific immune response to add a new level of complexity to insect immune studies. In addition to variation in recognition pathways identified in previous works, tissue-specificity should be carefully considered in similar works
Spacetime structure of the global vortex
We analyse the spacetime structure of the global vortex and its maximal
analytic extension in an arbitrary number of spacetime dimensions. We find that
the vortex compactifies space on the scale of the Hubble expansion of its
worldvolume, in a manner reminiscent of that of the domain wall. We calculate
the effective volume of this compactification and remark on its relevance to
hierarchy resolution with extra dimensions. We also consider strongly
gravitating vortices and derive bounds on the existence of a global vortex
solution.Comment: 19 pages revtex, 2 figures, minor changes, references adde
Radiative corrections to the lightest KK states in the T^2/(Z_2\times Z_2') orbifold
We study radiative corrections localized in the fixed points of the orbifold
for the field theory in six dimensions with two dimensions compactified on the
orbifold in a specific realistic model for low energy
physics that solves the proton decay and neutrino mass problem. We calculate
corrections to the masses of the lightest stable KK modes, which could be the
candidates for the dark matter.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure
Material-independent crack arrest statistics: Application to indentation experiments
An extensive experimental study of indentation and crack arrest statistics is
presented for four different brittle materials (alumina, silicon carbide,
silicon nitride, glass). Evidence is given that the crack length statistics can
be described by a universal (i.e. material independent) distribution. The
latter directly derives from results obtained when modeling crack propagation
as a depinning phenomenon. Crack arrest (or effective toughness) statistics
appears to be fully characterized by two parameters, namely, an asymptotic
crack length (or macroscopic toughness) value and a power law size dependent
width. The experimental knowledge of the crack arrest statistics at one given
scale thus gives access to its knowledge at all scales
Effective description of brane terms in extra dimensions
We study how theories defined in (extra-dimensional) spaces with localized
defects can be described perturbatively by effective field theories in which
the width of the defects vanishes. These effective theories must incorporate a
``classical'' renormalization, and we propose a renormalization prescription a
la dimensional regularization for codimension 1, which can be easily used in
phenomenological applications. As a check of the validity of this setting, we
compare some general predictions of the renormalized effective theory with
those obtained in a particular ultraviolet completion based on deconstruction.Comment: 28 page
Scalar Hair of Global Defect and Black Brane World
We consider a complex scalar field in (p+3)-dimensional bulk with a negative
cosmological constant and study global vortices in two extra-dimensions. We
reexamine carefully the coupled scalar and Einstein equations, and show that
the boundary value of scalar amplitude at infinity of the extra-dimensions
should be smaller than vacuum expectation value. The brane world has a
cigar-like geometry with an exponentially decaying warp factor and a flat thick
p-brane is embedded. Since a coordinate transformation identifies the obtained
brane world as a black p-brane world bounded by a horizon, this strange
boundary condition of the scalar amplitude is understood as existence of a
short scalar hair.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figure
Finite temperature Casimir effect for massive scalar field in spacetime with extra dimensions
We compute the finite temperature Casimir energy for massive scalar field
with general curvature coupling subject to Dirichlet or Neumann boundary
conditions on the walls of a closed cylinder with arbitrary cross section,
located in a background spacetime of the form ,
where is the -dimensional Minkowski spacetime and
is an -dimensional internal manifold. The Casimir energy is
regularized using the criteria that it should vanish in the infinite mass
limit. The Casimir force acting on a piston moving freely inside the closed
cylinder is derived and it is shown that it is independent of the
regularization procedure. By letting one of the chambers of the cylinder
divided by the piston to be infinitely long, we obtain the Casimir force acting
on two parallel plates embedded in the cylinder. It is shown that if both the
plates assume Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions, the strength of the
Casimir force is reduced by the increase in mass. Under certain conditions, the
passage from massless to massive will change the nature of the force from long
range to short range. Other properties of the Casimir force such as its sign,
its behavior at low and high temperature, and its behavior at small and large
plate separations, are found to be similar to the massless case. Explicit exact
formulas and asymptotic behaviors of the Casimir force at different limits are
derived. The Casimir force when one plate assumes Dirichlet boundary condition
and one plate assumes Neumann boundary condition is also derived and shown to
be repulsive.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figure
Mediation of supersymmetry breaking in extra dimensions
We review the mechanisms of supersymmetry breaking mediation that occur in
sequestered models, where the visible and the hidden sectors are separated by
an extra dimension and communicate only via gravitational interactions. By
locality, soft breaking terms are forbidden at the classical level and reliably
computable within an effective field theory approach at the quantum level. We
present a self-contained discussion of these radiative gravitational effects
and the resulting pattern of soft masses, and give an overview of realistic
model building based on this set-up. We consider both flat and warped extra
dimensions, as well as the possibility that there be localized kinetic terms
for the gravitational fields.Comment: LaTex, 15 pages; brief review prepared for MPLA. v2: minor
correction
- …