1,255 research outputs found
Investigating hookworm genomes by comparative analysis of two Ancylostoma species
Background
Hookworms, infecting over one billion people, are the mostly closely related major human parasites to the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Applying genomics techniques to these species, we analyzed 3,840 and 3,149 genes from Ancylostoma caninum and A. ceylanicum.
Results
Transcripts originated from libraries representing infective L3 larva, stimulated L3, arrested L3, and adults. Most genes are represented in single stages including abundant transcripts like hsp-20 in infective L3 and vit-3 in adults. Over 80% of the genes have homologs in C. elegans, and nearly 30% of these were with observable RNA interference phenotypes. Homologies were identified to nematode-specific and clade V specific gene families. To study the evolution of hookworm genes, 574 A. caninum / A. ceylanicum orthologs were identified, all of which were found to be under purifying selection with distribution ratios of nonsynonymous to synonymous amino acid substitutions similar to that reported for C. elegans / C. briggsae orthologs. The phylogenetic distance between A. caninum and A. ceylanicum is almost identical to that for C. elegans / C. briggsae.
Conclusion
The genes discovered should substantially accelerate research toward better understanding of the parasites' basic biology as well as new therapies including vaccines and novel anthelmintics
Giant positive magnetoresistance in metallic VOx thin films
We report on giant positive magnetoresistance effect observed in VOx thin
films, epitaxially grown on SrTiO3 substrate. The MR effect depends strongly on
temperature and oxygen content and is anisotropic. At low temperatures its
magnitude reaches 70% in a magnetic field of 5 T. Strong electron-electron
interactions in the presence of strong disorder may qualitatively explain the
results. An alternative explanation, related to a possible magnetic
instability, is also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures included in the text, references update
Weak force detection with superposed coherent states
We investigate the utility of non classical states of simple harmonic
oscillators, particularly a superposition of coherent states, for sensitive
force detection. We find that like squeezed states a superposition of coherent
states allows displacement measurements at the Heisenberg limit. Entangling
many superpositions of coherent states offers a significant advantage over a
single mode superposition states with the same mean photon number.Comment: 6 pages, no figures: New section added on entangled resources.
Changes to discussions and conclusio
Loop Corrections to Cosmological Perturbations in Multi-field Inflationary Models
We investigate one-loop quantum corrections to the power spectrum of
adiabatic perturbation from entropy modes/adiabatic mode cross-interactions in
multiple DBI inflationary models. We find that due to the non-canonical kinetic
term in DBI models, the loop corrections are enhanced by slow-varying parameter
and small sound speed . Thus, in general the loop-corrections
in multi-DBI models can be large. Moreover, we find that the loop-corrections
from adiabatic/entropy cross-interaction vertices are IR finite.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures; v2, typos corrected, ref added; v3 typos
corrected, version for publishing in jca
Functional responses can unify invasion ecology.
We contend that invasion ecology requires a universal, measurable trait of species and their interactions with resources that predicts key elements of invasibility and ecological impact; here, we advocate that functional responses can help achieve this across taxonomic and trophic groups, among habitats and contexts, and can hence help unify disparate research interests in invasion ecology
Cyclotron effective masses in layered metals
Many layered metals such as quasi-two-dimensional organic molecular crystals
show properties consistent with a Fermi liquid description at low temperatures.
The effective masses extracted from the temperature dependence of the magnetic
oscillations observed in these materials are in the range, m^*_c/m_e \sim 1-7,
suggesting that these systems are strongly correlated. However, the ratio
m^*_c/m_e contains both the renormalization due to the electron-electron
interaction and the periodic potential of the lattice. We show that for any
quasi-two-dimensional band structure, the cyclotron mass is proportional to the
density of states at the Fermi energy. Due to Luttinger's theorem, this result
is also valid in the presence of interactions. We then evaluate m_c for several
model band structures for the \beta, \kappa, and \theta families of
(BEDT-TTF)_2X, where BEDT-TTF is bis-(ethylenedithia-tetrathiafulvalene) and X
is an anion. We find that for \kappa-(BEDT-TTF)_2X, the cyclotron mass of the
\beta-orbit, m^{*\beta}_c, is close to 2 m^{*\alpha}_c, where m^{*\alpha}_c is
the effective mass of the \alpha- orbit. This result is fairly insensitive to
the band structure details. For a wide range of materials we compare values of
the cyclotron mass deduced from band structure calculations to values deduced
from measurements of magnetic oscillations and the specific heat coefficient.Comment: 12 pages, 3 eps figure
Vortex Lattice Melting into Disentangled Liquid Followed by the 3D-2D Decoupling Transition in YBa_2Cu_4O_8 Single Crystals
A sharp resistance drop associated with vortex lattice melting was observed
in high quality YBa_2Cu_4O_8 single crystals. The melting line is well
described well by the anisotropic GL theory. Two thermally activated flux flow
regions, which were separated by a crossover line B_cr=1406.5(1-T/T_c)/T
(T_c=79.0 K, B_cr in T), were observed in the vortex liquid phase. Activation
energy for each region was obtained and the corresponding dissipation mechanism
was discussed. Our results suggest that the vortex lattice in YBa_2Cu_4O_8
single crystal melts into disentangled liquid, which then undergoes a 3D-2D
decoupling transition.Comment: 5 pages, 4 eps figures, RevTex (Latex2.09
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