702 research outputs found
Breast tumor kinase (Brk/PTK6) plays a role in the differentiation of primary keratinocytes
This work was supported by a project grant
from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, UKBreast Tumor Kinase (Brk/PTK6) has a relatively limited expression profile in normal tissue. Its expression is restricted to epithelial cells that are differentiating such as those in the epidermis, and Brk expression appears to be absent from proliferating cells in normal tissue. Also, there is now some evidence to suggest that Brk plays a functional role in the differentiation of the keratinocytes in the epidermis. We have, therefore, investigated the role that Brk/PTK6 plays in normal human primary keratinocytes by suppressing protein levels using RNA interference. We show that as primary human keratinocytes are induced to differentiate in vitro, Brk levels decrease. Decreasing Brk protein levels lead to an increase in the number of cells with a permeable plasma membrane, a decrease in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and a parallel increase in keratin 10 levels, but classical markers of apoptosis or terminal differentiation are not affected. We propose Brk, Keratin 10 and EGFR are co-regulated during differentiation and that manipulating Brk expression can influence the differentiation of normal primary human keratinocytes.This article is available through the Brunel University Open Access Publishing Fund
The Relation between Approximation in Distribution and Shadowing in Molecular Dynamics
Molecular dynamics refers to the computer simulation of a material at the
atomic level. An open problem in numerical analysis is to explain the apparent
reliability of molecular dynamics simulations. The difficulty is that
individual trajectories computed in molecular dynamics are accurate for only
short time intervals, whereas apparently reliable information can be extracted
from very long-time simulations. It has been conjectured that long molecular
dynamics trajectories have low-dimensional statistical features that accurately
approximate those of the original system. Another conjecture is that numerical
trajectories satisfy the shadowing property: that they are close over long time
intervals to exact trajectories but with different initial conditions. We prove
that these two views are actually equivalent to each other, after we suitably
modify the concept of shadowing. A key ingredient of our result is a general
theorem that allows us to take random elements of a metric space that are close
in distribution and embed them in the same probability space so that they are
close in a strong sense. This result is similar to the Strassen-Dudley Theorem
except that a mapping is provided between the two random elements. Our results
on shadowing are motivated by molecular dynamics but apply to the approximation
of any dynamical system when initial conditions are selected according to a
probability measure.Comment: 21 pages, final version accepted in SIAM Dyn Sy
A classification of spherically symmetric spacetimes
A complete classification of locally spherically symmetric four-dimensional
Lorentzian spacetimes is given in terms of their local conformal symmetries.
The general solution is given in terms of canonical metric types and the
associated conformal Lie algebras. The analysis is based upon the local
conformal decomposition into 2+2 reducible spacetimes and the Petrov type. A
variety of physically meaningful example spacetimes are discussed
Chaplygin Gas Cosmology - Unification of Dark Matter and Dark Energy
The models that unify dark matter and dark energy based upon the Chaplygin
gas fail owing to the suppression of structure formation by the adiabatic speed
of sound. Including string theory effects, in particular the Kalb-Ramond field,
we show how nonadiabatic perturbations allow a successful structure formation.Comment: 7 pages, presented by N. B. at IRGAC 2006, Barcelona, 11-15 July
2006, typos corrected, concluding paragraph slightly expanded, final version,
accepted in J. Phys. A, special issu
Gauging the Shadow Sector with SO(3)
We examine the phenomenology of a low-energy extension of the Standard Model,
based on the gauge group SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) x SO(3), with SO(3) operating in
the shadow sector. This model offers and oscillations as the solution of the solar and atmospheric neutrino
problems. Moreover, it provides a neutral heavy shadow lepton X that could play
the role of a cold dark matter particle.Comment: 8 page
On the dual interpretation of zero-curvature Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models
Two possible interpretations of FRW cosmologies (perfect fluid or dissipative
fluid)are considered as consecutive phases of the system. Necessary conditions
are found, for the transition from perfect fluid to dissipative regime to
occur, bringing out the conspicuous role played by a particular state of the
system (the ''critical point '').Comment: 13 pages Latex, to appear in Class.Quantum Gra
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