24,104 research outputs found
Detection of inflammation- and neoplasia-associated alterations in human large intestine using plant/invertebrate lectins, galectin-1 and neoglycoproteins
Commonly, plant and invertebrate lectins are accepted glycohistochemical tools for the analysis of normal and altered structures of glycans in histology and pathology. Mammalian lectins and neoglycoproteins are recent additions to this panel for the detection of lectin-reactive carbohydrate epitopes and glycoligand-binding sites. The binding profiles of these three types of probes were comparatively analyzed in normal, inflamed and neoplastic large intestine. In normal colonic mucosa the intracellular distribution of glycoconjugates and carbohydrate ligand-binding sites in enterocytes reveals a differential binding of lectins with different specificity and of neoglycoproteins to the Golgi apparatus, the rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum and the apical cell surface. The accessible glycoligand-binding sites and the lectin-reactive carbohydrate epitopes detected by galectin-1 show the same pattern of intracellular location excluding the apical cell surface. Lectin-reactive carbohydrate epitopes detected by plant lectins of identical monosaccharide specificity as the endogenous lectin {[}Ricinus communis agglutinin-I (RCA-I), Viscum album agglutinin (VAA)], however, clearly differ with respect to their intracellular distribution. Maturation-associated differences and heterogeneity in glycohistochemical properties of epithelial cells and non-epithelial cells (macrophages, dendritic cells, lymphocytes) are found. Dissimilarities in the fine structural Ligand recognition of lectins with nominal specificity to the same monosaccharide have been demonstrated for the galactoside-specific lectins RCA-I, VAA and galectin-1 as well as the N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc)-specific lectins Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA), soybean agglutinin (SBA) and Helix pomatia agglutinin in normal mucosa and in acute appendicitis. Acute inflammation of the intestinal mucosa found in acute phlegmonous appendicitis is associated with selective changes of glycosylation of mucin in goblet cells mainly of lower and middle crypt segments resulting in an increase of DBA- and SEA-binding sites in the goblet cell population. Appendicitis causes no detectable alteration of neoglycoprotein binding. In contrast, tumorigenesis of colonic adenoma is characterized by increases in lectin-reactive galactose (Gal; Gal-beta 1,3-GalNAc), fucose and N-acetylglucosamine moieties and by enhanced presentation of respective carbohydrate ligand-binding capacity. This work reveals that endogenous lectins and neoglycoproteins are valuable glycohistochemical tools supplementing the well-known analytic capacities of plant lectins in the fields of gastrointestinal anatomy and gastroenteropathology
Perturbative Corrections to Kahler Moduli Spaces
We propose a general formula for perturbative-in-alpha' corrections to the
Kahler potential on the quantum Kahler moduli space of Calabi-Yau n-folds, for
any n, in their asymptotic large volume regime. The knowledge of such
perturbative corrections provides an important ingredient needed to analyze the
full structure of this Kahler potential, including nonperturbative corrections
such as the Gromov-Witten invariants of the Calabi-Yau n-folds. We argue that
the perturbative corrections take a universal form, and we find that this form
is encapsulated in a specific additive characteristic class of the Calabi-Yau
n-fold which we call the log Gamma class, and which arises naturally in a
generalization of Mukai's modified Chern character map. Our proposal is
inspired heavily by the recent observation of an equality between the partition
function of certain supersymmetric, two-dimensional gauge theories on a
two-sphere, and the aforementioned Kahler potential. We further strengthen our
proposal by comparing our findings on the quantum Kahler moduli space to the
complex structure moduli space of the corresponding mirror Calabi-Yau geometry.Comment: 28 pages; v2: discussion in section 5 extended and refs. adde
Effects of the Running of the QCD Coupling on the Energy Loss in the Quark-Gluon Plasma
Finite temperature modifies the running of the QCD coupling alpha_s(k,T) with
resolution k. After calculating the thermal quark and gluon masses
selfconsistently, we determine the quark-quark and quark-gluon cross sections
in the plasma based on the running coupling. We find that the running coupling
enhances these cross sections by factors of two to four depending on the
temperature. We also compute the energy loss dE/dx of a high-energy quark in
the plasma as a function of temperature. Our study suggests that, beside
t-channel processes, inverse Compton scattering is a relevant process for a
quantitative understanding of the energy loss of an incident quark in a hot
plasma.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure
Universal temperature dependence of optical excitation life-time and band-gap in chirality assigned semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes
The temperature dependence of optical excitation life-time, Gamma, and
transition energies, E_ii, were measured for bucky-papers of single-wall carbon
nanotubes (SWCNTs) and inner tubes in double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs)
using resonant Raman scattering. The temperature dependence of Gamma and E_ii
is the same for both types of samples and is independent of tube chirality. The
data proves that electron-phonon interaction is responsible for temperature
dependence of E_ii(T). The temperature independent inhomogeneous contribution
to Gamma is much larger in the SWCNT samples, which is explained by the
different SWCNT environment in the two types of samples. Gamma of the inner
tubes for the bucky-paper DWCNT sample is as low as \sim 30 meV, which is
comparable to that found for individual SWCNTs
The Hansenula polymorpha PER8 Gene Encodes a Novel Peroxisomal Integral Membrane Protein Involved in Proliferation
We previously described the isolation of mutants of the methylotrophic yeast Hansenula polymorpha that are defective in peroxisome biogenesis. Here, we describe the characterization of one of these mutants, per8, and the cloning of the PER8 gene. In either methanol or methylamine medium, conditions that normally induce the organdies, per8 cells contain no peroxisome-like structures and peroxisomal enzymes are located in the cytosol. The sequence of PER8 predicts that its product (Per8p) is a novel polypeptide of 34 kD, and antibodies against Per8p recognize a protein of 31 kD. Analysis of the primary sequence of Per8p revealed a 39-amino-acid cysteine-rich segment with similarity to the C3HC4 family of zinc-finger motifs. Overexpression of PER8 results in a markedly enhanced increase in peroxisome numbers. We show that Per8p is an integral membrane protein of the peroxisome and that it is concentrated in the membranes of newly formed organdies. We propose that Per8p is a component of the molecular machinery that controls the proliferation of this organelle.
Nonabelian 2D Gauge Theories for Determinantal Calabi-Yau Varieties
The two-dimensional supersymmetric gauged linear sigma model (GLSM) with
abelian gauge groups and matter fields has provided many insights into string
theory on Calabi--Yau manifolds of a certain type: complete intersections in
toric varieties. In this paper, we consider two GLSM constructions with
nonabelian gauge groups and charged matter whose infrared CFTs correspond to
string propagation on determinantal Calabi-Yau varieties, furnishing another
broad class of Calabi-Yau geometries in addition to complete intersections. We
show that these two models -- which we refer to as the PAX and the PAXY model
-- are dual descriptions of the same low-energy physics. Using GLSM techniques,
we determine the quantum K\"ahler moduli space of these varieties and find no
disagreement with existing results in the literature.Comment: v3: 46 pages, 1 figure. Corrected phase structure of general linear
determinantal varieties. Typos correcte
Two-Sphere Partition Functions and Gromov-Witten Invariants
Many N=(2,2) two-dimensional nonlinear sigma models with Calabi-Yau target
spaces admit ultraviolet descriptions as N=(2,2) gauge theories (gauged linear
sigma models). We conjecture that the two-sphere partition function of such
ultraviolet gauge theories -- recently computed via localization by Benini et
al. and Doroud et al. -- yields the exact K\"ahler potential on the quantum
K\"ahler moduli space for Calabi-Yau threefold target spaces. In particular,
this allows one to compute the genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants for any such
Calabi-Yau threefold without the use of mirror symmetry. More generally, when
the infrared superconformal fixed point is used to compactify string theory,
this provides a direct method to compute the spacetime K\"ahler potential of
certain moduli (e.g., vector multiplet moduli in type IIA), exactly in
{\alpha}'. We compute these quantities for the quintic and for R{\o}dland's
Pfaffian Calabi-Yau threefold and find agreement with existing results in the
literature. We then apply our methods to a codimension four determinantal
Calabi-Yau threefold in P^7, recently given a nonabelian gauge theory
description by the present authors, for which no mirror Calabi-Yau is currently
known. We derive predictions for its Gromov-Witten invariants and verify that
our predictions satisfy nontrivial geometric checks.Comment: 25 pages + 2 appendices; v2 corrects a divisor in K\"ahler moduli
space and includes a new calculation that confirms a geometric prediction; v3
contains minor update of Gromov-Witten invariant extraction procedur
Conifold Transitions in M-theory on Calabi-Yau Fourfolds with Background Fluxes
We consider topology changing transitions for M-theory compactifications on
Calabi-Yau fourfolds with background G-flux. The local geometry of the
transition is generically a genus g curve of conifold singularities, which
engineers a 3d gauge theory with four supercharges, near the intersection of
Coulomb and Higgs branches. We identify a set of canonical, minimal flux quanta
which solve the local quantization condition on G for a given geometry,
including new solutions in which the flux is neither of horizontal nor vertical
type. A local analysis of the flux superpotential shows that the potential has
flat directions for a subset of these fluxes and the topologically different
phases can be dynamically connected. For special geometries and background
configurations, the local transitions extend to extremal transitions between
global fourfold compactifications with flux. By a circle decompactification the
M-theory analysis identifies consistent flux configurations in four-dimensional
F-theory compactifications and flat directions in the deformation space of
branes with bundles.Comment: 93 pages; v2: minor changes and references adde
The Alzheimer variant of Lewy body disease: A pathologically confirmed case-control study
The objective of the study was to identify clinical features that distinguish patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), who were classified as Alzheimer's disease ( AD) patients, from patients with AD. We examined a group of 27 patients from our memory clinic, originally diagnosed with AD, of whom 6 were postmortem found to have DLB. For the present study, we compared cognitive, noncognitive and neurological symptoms between the two groups. We found that there were no differences on ratings of dementia and scales for activities of daily living. Patients with DLB performed better on the MMSE and the memory subtest of the CAMCOG, but there was no difference in any other cognitive domain. Furthermore, genetic risk factors, including family history of dementia or allele frequency of the apolipoprotein epsilon 4, did not discriminate between the two groups, and there were no differences on CCT scans. Taken together, our findings suggest that Lewy body pathology may be present in patients who do not show the typical clinical features which distinguish DLB from AD. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel
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