7,148 research outputs found
Recombination and Population Mosaic of a Multifunctional Viral Gene, Adeno-Associated Virus cap
Homologous recombination is a dominant force in evolution and results in genetic mosaics. To detect evidence of recombination events and assess the biological significance of genetic mosaics, genome sequences for various viral populations of reasonably large size are now available in the GenBank. We studied a multi-functional viral gene, the adeno-associated virus (AAV) cap gene, which codes for three capsid proteins, VP1, VP2 and VP3. VP1-3 share a common C-terminal domain corresponding to VP3, which forms the viral core structure, while the VP1 unique N-terminal part contains an enzymatic domain with phospholipase A2 activity. Our recombinant detection program (RecI) revealed five novel recombination events, four of which have their cross-over points in the N-terminal, VP1 and VP2 unique region. Comparison of phylogenetic trees for different cap gene regions confirmed discordant phylogenies for the recombinant sequences. Furthermore, differences in the phylogenetic tree structures for the VP1 unique (VP1u) region and the rest of cap highlighted the mosaic nature of cap gene in the AAV population: two dominant forms of VP1u sequences were identified and these forms are linked to diverse sequences in the rest of cap gene. This observation together with the finding of frequent recombination in the VP1 and 2 unique regions suggests that this region is a recombination hot spot. Recombination events in this region preserve protein blocks of distinctive functions and contribute to convergence in VP1u and divergence of the rest of cap. Additionally the possible biological significance of two dominant VP1u forms is inferred
Magnetic-field enhanced aniferromagnetism in non-centrosymmetric heavy-fermion superconductor CePtSi
The effect of magnetic field on the static and dynamic spin correlations in
the non-centrosymmetric heavy-fermion superconductor CePtSi was
investigated by neutron scattering. The application of a magnetic field B
increases the antiferromagnetic (AFM) peak intensity. This increase depends
strongly on the field direction: for B[0 0 1] the intensity
increases by a factor of 4.6 at a field of 6.6 T, which corresponds to more
than a doubling of the AFM moment, while the moment increases by only 10 % for
B[1 0 0] at 5 T. This is in strong contrast to the inelastic
response near the antiferromagnetic ordering vector, where no marked field
variations are observed for B[0 0 1] up to 3.8 T. The results
reveal that the AFM state in CePtSi, which coexists with superconductivity,
is distinctly different from other unconventional superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Search for long-lived massive particles in extensive air showers
Air showers containing delayed sub-showers which may be produced by a long-lived massive particle have been investigated by using twelve detectors. Ten events have been selected out as the candidates. However, a definite conclusion cannot be reached at the present time
Far-Ultraviolet and Far-Infrared Bivariate Luminosity Function of Galaxies: Complex Relation between Stellar and Dust Emission
Far-ultraviolet (FUV) and far-infrared (FIR) luminosity functions (LFs) of
galaxies show a strong evolution from to , but the FIR LF
evolves much stronger than the FUV one. The FUV is dominantly radiated from
newly formed short-lived OB stars, while the FIR is emitted by dust grains
heated by the FUV radiation field. It is known that dust is always associated
with star formation activity. Thus, both FUV and FIR are tightly related to the
star formation in galaxies, but in a very complicated manner. In order to
disentangle the relation between FUV and FIR emissions, we estimate the UV-IR
bivariate LF (BLF) of galaxies with {\sl GALEX} and {\sl AKARI} All-Sky Survey
datasets. Recently we invented a new mathematical method to construct the BLF
with given marginals and prescribed correlation coefficient. This method makes
use of a tool from mathematical statistics, so called "copula". The copula
enables us to construct a bivariate distribution function from given marginal
distributions with prescribed correlation and/or dependence structure. With
this new formulation and FUV and FIR univariate LFs, we analyze various FUV and
FIR data with {\sl GALEX}, {\sl Spitzer}, and {\sl AKARI} to estimate the UV-IR
BLF. The obtained BLFs naturally explain the nonlinear complicated relation
between FUV and FIR emission from star-forming galaxies. Though the faint-end
of the BLF was not well constrained for high- samples, the estimated linear
correlation coefficient was found to be very high, and is remarkably
stable with redshifts (from 0.95 at to 0.85 at ). This implies
the evolution of the UV-IR BLF is mainly due to the different evolution of the
univariate LFs, and may not be controlled by the dependence structure.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Earth, Planets and Space, in pres
Finite temperature properties of the triangular lattice t-J model, applications to NaCoO
We present a finite temperature () study of the t-J model on the
two-dimensional triangular lattice for the negative hopping , as relevant
for the electron-doped NaCoO (NCO). To understand several aspects of
this system, we study the -dependent chemical potential, specific heat,
magnetic susceptibility, and the dynamic Hall-coefficient across the entire
doping range. We show systematically, how this simplest model for strongly
correlated electrons describes a crossover as function of doping () from a
Pauli-like weakly spin-correlated metal close to the band-limit (density )
to the Curie-Weiss metallic phase () with pronounced
anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) correlations at low temperatures and Curie-Weiss type
behavior in the high-temperature regime. Upon further reduction of the doping,
a new energy scale, dominated by spin-interactions () emerges (apparent both
in specific heat and susceptibility) and we identify an effective interaction
, valid across the entire doping range. This is distinct from
Anderson's formula, as we choose here , hence the opposite sign of the
usual Nagaoka-ferromagnetic situation. This expression includes the subtle
effect of weak kinetic AFM - as encountered in the infinitely correlated
situation (). By explicit computation of the Kubo-formulae, we
address the question of practical relevance of the high-frequency expression
for the Hall coefficient . We hope to clarify some open questions
concerning the applicability of the t-J model to real experimental situations
through this study
Evidence for competition between the superconducting and the pseudogap state in (BiPb)_2(SrLa)_2CuO_{6+\delta} from muon-spin rotation experiments
The in-plane magnetic penetration depth \lambda_{ab} in optimally doped
(BiPb)_2(SrLa)_2CuO_{6+\delta} (OP Bi2201) was studied by means of muon-spin
rotation. The measurements of \lambda_{ab}^{-2}(T) are inconsistent with a
simple model of a d-wave order parameter and a uniform quasiparticle weight
around the Fermi surface. The data are well described assuming the angular gap
symmetry obtained in ARPES experiments [Phys. Rev. Lett {\bf 98}, 267004
(2007)], where it was shown that the superconducting gap in OP Bi2201 exists
only in segments of the Fermi surface near the nodes. We find that the
remaining parts of the Fermi surface, which are strongly affected by the
pseudogap state, do not contribute significantly to the superconducting
condensate. Our data provide evidence that high temperature superconductivity
and pseudogap behavior in cuprates are competing phenomena.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Excited Delirium
Excited (or agitated) delirium is characterized by agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death, often in the pre-hospital care setting. It is typically associated with the use of drugs that alter dopamine processing, hyperthermia, and, most notably, sometimes with death of the affected person in the custody of law enforcement. Subjects typically die from cardiopulmonary arrest, although the cause is debated. Unfortunately an adequate treatment plan has yet to be established, in part due to the fact that most patients die before hospital arrival. While there is still much to be discovered about the pathophysiology and treatment, it is hoped that this extensive review will provide both police and medical personnel with the information necessary to recognize and respond appropriately to excited delirium
High temperature expansion in supersymmetric matrix quantum mechanics
We formulate the high temperature expansion in supersymmetric matrix quantum
mechanics with 4, 8 and 16 supercharges. The models can be obtained by
dimensionally reducing N=1 U(N) super Yang-Mills theory in D=4,6,10 to 1
dimension, respectively. While the non-zero frequency modes become weakly
coupled at high temperature, the zero modes remain strongly coupled. We find,
however, that the integration over the zero modes that remains after
integrating out all the non-zero modes perturbatively, reduces to the
evaluation of connected Green's functions in the bosonic IKKT model. We perform
Monte Carlo simulation to compute these Green's functions, which are then used
to obtain the coefficients of the high temperature expansion for various
quantities up to the next-leading order. Our results nicely reproduce the
asymptotic behaviors of the recent simulation results at finite temperature. In
particular, the fermionic matrices, which decouple at the leading order, give
rise to substantial effects at the next-leading order, reflecting finite
temperature behaviors qualitatively different from the corresponding models
without fermions.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, (v2) some typos correcte
Phase Coexistence Near a Morphotropic Phase Boundary in Sm-doped BiFeO3 Films
We have investigated heteroepitaxial films of Sm-doped BiFeO3 with a
Sm-concentration near a morphotropic phase boundary. Our high-resolution
synchrotron X-ray diffraction, carried out in a temperature range of 25C to
700C, reveals substantial phase coexistence as one changes temperature to
crossover from a low-temperature PbZrO3-like phase to a high-temperature
orthorhombic phase. We also examine changes due to strain for films greater or
less than the critical thickness for misfit dislocation formation.
Particularly, we note that thicker films exhibit a substantial volume collapse
associated with the structural transition that is suppressed in strained thin
films
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