1,235 research outputs found

    The topology of a discussion: the #occupy case

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    We analyse a large sample of the Twitter activity developed around the social movement 'Occupy Wall Street' to study the complex interactions between the human communication activity and the semantic content of a discussion. We use a network approach based on the analysis of the bipartite graph @Users-#Hashtags and of its projections: the 'semantic network', whose nodes are hashtags, and the 'users interest network', whose nodes are users In the first instance, we find out that discussion topics (#hashtags) present a high heterogeneity, with the distinct role of the communication hubs where most the 'opinion traffic' passes through. In the second case, the self-organization process of users activity leads to the emergence of two classes of communicators: the 'professionals' and the 'amateurs'. Moreover the network presents a strong community structure, based on the differentiation of the semantic topics, and a high level of structural robustness when a certain set of topics are censored and/or accounts are removed. Analysing the characteristics the @Users-#Hashtags network we can distinguish three phases of the discussion about the movement. Each phase corresponds to specific moment of the movement: from declaration of intent, organisation and development and the final phase of political reactions. Each phase is characterised by the presence of specific #hashtags in the discussion. Keywords: Twitter, Network analysisComment: 13 pages, 9 figure

    Motifs, themes and thematic maps of an integrated Saccharomyces cerevisiae interaction network

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    BACKGROUND: Large-scale studies have revealed networks of various biological interaction types, such as protein-protein interaction, genetic interaction, transcriptional regulation, sequence homology, and expression correlation. Recurring patterns of interconnection, or 'network motifs', have revealed biological insights for networks containing either one or two types of interaction. RESULTS: To study more complex relationships involving multiple biological interaction types, we assembled an integrated Saccharomyces cerevisiae network in which nodes represent genes (or their protein products) and differently colored links represent the aforementioned five biological interaction types. We examined three- and four-node interconnection patterns containing multiple interaction types and found many enriched multi-color network motifs. Furthermore, we showed that most of the motifs form 'network themes' – classes of higher-order recurring interconnection patterns that encompass multiple occurrences of network motifs. Network themes can be tied to specific biological phenomena and may represent more fundamental network design principles. Examples of network themes include a pair of protein complexes with many inter-complex genetic interactions – the 'compensatory complexes' theme. Thematic maps – networks rendered in terms of such themes – can simplify an otherwise confusing tangle of biological relationships. We show this by mapping the S. cerevisiae network in terms of two specific network themes. CONCLUSION: Significantly enriched motifs in an integrated S. cerevisiae interaction network are often signatures of network themes, higher-order network structures that correspond to biological phenomena. Representing networks in terms of network themes provides a useful simplification of complex biological relationships

    Wide-Scale Analysis of Human Functional Transcription Factor Binding Reveals a Strong Bias towards the Transcription Start Site

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    We introduce a novel method to screen the promoters of a set of genes with shared biological function, against a precompiled library of motifs, and find those motifs which are statistically over-represented in the gene set. The gene sets were obtained from the functional Gene Ontology (GO) classification; for each set and motif we optimized the sequence similarity score threshold, independently for every location window (measured with respect to the TSS), taking into account the location dependent nucleotide heterogeneity along the promoters of the target genes. We performed a high throughput analysis, searching the promoters (from 200bp downstream to 1000bp upstream the TSS), of more than 8000 human and 23,000 mouse genes, for 134 functional Gene Ontology classes and for 412 known DNA motifs. When combined with binding site and location conservation between human and mouse, the method identifies with high probability functional binding sites that regulate groups of biologically related genes. We found many location-sensitive functional binding events and showed that they clustered close to the TSS. Our method and findings were put to several experimental tests. By allowing a "flexible" threshold and combining our functional class and location specific search method with conservation between human and mouse, we are able to identify reliably functional TF binding sites. This is an essential step towards constructing regulatory networks and elucidating the design principles that govern transcriptional regulation of expression. The promoter region proximal to the TSS appears to be of central importance for regulation of transcription in human and mouse, just as it is in bacteria and yeast.Comment: 31 pages, including Supplementary Information and figure

    A repeat protein links Rubisco to form the eukaryotic carbon-concentrating organelle.

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    Biological carbon fixation is a key step in the global carbon cycle that regulates the atmosphere's composition while producing the food we eat and the fuels we burn. Approximately one-third of global carbon fixation occurs in an overlooked algal organelle called the pyrenoid. The pyrenoid contains the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco and enhances carbon fixation by supplying Rubisco with a high concentration of CO2 Since the discovery of the pyrenoid more that 130 y ago, the molecular structure and biogenesis of this ecologically fundamental organelle have remained enigmatic. Here we use the model green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to discover that a low-complexity repeat protein, Essential Pyrenoid Component 1 (EPYC1), links Rubisco to form the pyrenoid. We find that EPYC1 is of comparable abundance to Rubisco and colocalizes with Rubisco throughout the pyrenoid. We show that EPYC1 is essential for normal pyrenoid size, number, morphology, Rubisco content, and efficient carbon fixation at low CO2 We explain the central role of EPYC1 in pyrenoid biogenesis by the finding that EPYC1 binds Rubisco to form the pyrenoid matrix. We propose two models in which EPYC1's four repeats could produce the observed lattice arrangement of Rubisco in the Chlamydomonas pyrenoid. Our results suggest a surprisingly simple molecular mechanism for how Rubisco can be packaged to form the pyrenoid matrix, potentially explaining how Rubisco packaging into a pyrenoid could have evolved across a broad range of photosynthetic eukaryotes through convergent evolution. In addition, our findings represent a key step toward engineering a pyrenoid into crops to enhance their carbon fixation efficiency

    The Lantern Vol. 34, No. 2, May 1968

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    • The Man Without a System • A Medal for Malcolm • On Hearing That Tonya Will Be Married • The Black Sea • Odyssey \u2767 • Second Poem to Chris • Singularity • Period 5-A Began • Long and Aching Ride • Souvenirs • My Eschatological Epitaph • Discotheque • Some Borrowed Words • False Breakthrough • Shore Morning • The Beholder • Thursday Childless • A Most Prominent Role • It Ran Out • Shades of the Living • The Dark Night of the Mind II • One Step Beyond the Doors • A Note of Thanks to My Parents and Teachers • To a Dead Hippie • A Scrap • Love • Haiku No. 30 • Rachel • There Is No Present • Winter Woods • One Hundred Per Cent Genuine • Heaven • Silence Is Like God • I Soaked Up Silence • Opened Letter From Whistler Homer, Insaned Assailant • Sol Clutch Rides Tonight • I Have Seen Destruction • Upon That Night • That\u27s Weird • Alone • Kathy\u27s Tune • On Walking Home • The Wheel • Some Excuse, at Least • Freedom to Flap • Awareness • Okay, You Guys • You Say You Dream • Bacci Miahttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1093/thumbnail.jp

    Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at s√=8 TeV with ATLAS

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    Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations

    Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charm quark in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

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    The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 4.6 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√ = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. In events in which a W boson decays to an electron or muon, the charm quark is tagged either by its semileptonic decay to a muon or by the presence of a charmed meson. The integrated and differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay are measured. Results are compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations obtained from various parton distribution function parameterisations. The ratio of the strange-to-down sea-quark distributions is determined to be 0.96+0.26−0.30 at Q 2 = 1.9 GeV2, which supports the hypothesis of an SU(3)-symmetric composition of the light-quark sea. Additionally, the cross-section ratio σ(W + +c¯¯)/σ(W − + c) is compared to the predictions obtained using parton distribution function parameterisations with different assumptions about the s−s¯¯¯ quark asymmetry

    Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

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    The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured

    Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

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    The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30
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