155 research outputs found
Mutation Bias Favors Protein Folding Stability in the Evolution of Small Populations
Mutation bias in prokaryotes varies from extreme adenine and thymine (AT) in obligatory endosymbiotic or parasitic bacteria to extreme guanine and cytosine (GC), for instance in actinobacteria. GC mutation bias deeply influences the folding stability of proteins, making proteins on the average less hydrophobic and therefore less stable with respect to unfolding but also less susceptible to misfolding and aggregation. We study a model where proteins evolve subject to selection for folding stability under given mutation bias, population size, and neutrality. We find a non-neutral regime where, for any given population size, there is an optimal mutation bias that maximizes fitness. Interestingly, this optimal GC usage is small for small populations, large for intermediate populations and around 50% for large populations. This result is robust with respect to the definition of the fitness function and to the protein structures studied. Our model suggests that small populations evolving with small GC usage eventually accumulate a significant selective advantage over populations evolving without this bias. This provides a possible explanation to the observation that most species adopting obligatory intracellular lifestyles with a consequent reduction of effective population size shifted their mutation spectrum towards AT. The model also predicts that large GC usage is optimal for intermediate population size. To test these predictions we estimated the effective population sizes of bacterial species using the optimal codon usage coefficients computed by dos Reis et al. and the synonymous to non-synonymous substitution ratio computed by Daubin and Moran. We found that the population sizes estimated in these ways are significantly smaller for species with small and large GC usage compared to species with no bias, which supports our prediction
System size and energy dependence of near-side di-hadron correlations
Two-particle azimuthal () and pseudorapidity ()
correlations using a trigger particle with large transverse momentum () in
+Au, Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at =\xspace 62.4 GeV and
200~GeV from the STAR experiment at RHIC are presented. The \ns correlation is
separated into a jet-like component, narrow in both and
, and the ridge, narrow in but broad in .
Both components are studied as a function of collision centrality, and the
jet-like correlation is studied as a function of the trigger and associated
. The behavior of the jet-like component is remarkably consistent for
different collision systems, suggesting it is produced by fragmentation. The
width of the jet-like correlation is found to increase with the system size.
The ridge, previously observed in Au+Au collisions at = 200
GeV, is also found in Cu+Cu collisions and in collisions at
=\xspace 62.4 GeV, but is found to be substantially smaller at
=\xspace 62.4 GeV than at = 200 GeV for the
same average number of participants ().
Measurements of the ridge are compared to models.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Measurements of and Production in + Collisions at = 200 GeV
We report measurements of charmed-hadron (, ) production cross
sections at mid-rapidity in + collisions at a center-of-mass energy of
200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the
hadronic decays , and their charge conjugates,
covering the range of 0.62.0 GeV/ and 2.06.0 GeV/ for
and , respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross
section at mid-rapidity is = 170 45
(stat.) (sys.) b. The extracted charm-pair cross section is
compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential
cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order
Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures. Revised version submitted to Phys. Rev.
Does fixed-angle plate osteosynthesis solve the problems of a fractured proximal humerus?: A prospective series of 87 patients
Background and purpose There is considerable controversy about the treatment of complex, displaced proximal humeral fractures. Various types of head-preserving osteosynthesis have been suggested. This prospective case series was designed to evaluate the perioperative and early postoperative complications associated with fixed-angle implants and to record outcome after bone healing
Enhanced strange baryon production in Au+Au collisions compared to p+p at sqrts = 200 GeV
We report on the observed differences in production rates of strange and
multi-strange baryons in Au+Au collisions at sqrts = 200 GeV compared to pp
interactions at the same energy. The strange baryon yields in Au+Au collisions,
then scaled down by the number of participating nucleons, are enhanced relative
to those measured in pp reactions. The enhancement observed increases with the
strangeness content of the baryon, and increases for all strange baryons with
collision centrality. The enhancement is qualitatively similar to that observed
at lower collision energy sqrts =17.3 GeV. The previous observations are for
the bulk production, while at intermediate pT, 1 < pT< 4 GeV/c, the strange
baryons even exceed binary scaling from pp yields.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Printed in PR
System-Size Independence of Directed Flow Measured at the BNL Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider
We measure directed flow (ν_1) for charged particles in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at √S_(NN)=200 and 62.4 GeV, as a function of pseudorapidity (η), transverse momentum (p_t), and collision centrality, based on data from the STAR experiment. We find that the directed flow depends on the incident energy but, contrary to all available model implementations, not on the size of the colliding system at a given centrality. We extend the validity of the limiting fragmentation concept to ν_1 in different collision systems, and investigate possible explanations for the observed sign change in ν_1(p_t)
Longitudinal double-spin asymmetry for inclusive jet production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV
We report a new STAR measurement of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry
A_LL for inclusive jet production at mid-rapidity in polarized p+p collisions
at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 200 GeV. The data, which cover jet
transverse momenta 5 < p_T < 30 GeV/c, are substantially more precise than
previous measurements. They provide significant new constraints on the gluon
spin contribution to the nucleon spin through the comparison to predictions
derived from one global fit of polarized deep-inelastic scattering
measurements.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures + 1 tabl
Inclusive charged hadron elliptic flow in Au + Au collisions at = 7.7 - 39 GeV
A systematic study is presented for centrality, transverse momentum ()
and pseudorapidity () dependence of the inclusive charged hadron elliptic
flow () at midrapidity() in Au+Au collisions at
= 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27 and 39 GeV. The results obtained with
different methods, including correlations with the event plane reconstructed in
a region separated by a large pseudorapidity gap and 4-particle cumulants
(), are presented in order to investigate non-flow correlations and
fluctuations. We observe that the difference between and
is smaller at the lower collision energies. Values of , scaled by
the initial coordinate space eccentricity, , as a function
of are larger in more central collisions, suggesting stronger collective
flow develops in more central collisions, similar to the results at higher
collision energies. These results are compared to measurements at higher
energies at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider ( = 62.4 and 200
GeV) and at the Large Hadron Collider (Pb + Pb collisions at =
2.76 TeV). The values for fixed rise with increasing collision
energy within the range studied (). A comparison to
viscous hydrodynamic simulations is made to potentially help understand the
energy dependence of . We also compare the results to UrQMD
and AMPT transport model calculations, and physics implications on the
dominance of partonic versus hadronic phases in the system created at Beam
Energy Scan (BES) energies are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Version accepted by PR
Forward Neutral Pion Transverse Single Spin Asymmetries in p+p Collisions at \sqrt{s}=200 GeV
We report precision measurements of the Feynman-x dependence, and first
measurements of the transverse momentum dependence, of transverse single spin
asymmetries for the production of \pi^0 mesons from polarized proton collisions
at \sqrt{s}=200 GeV. The x_F dependence of the results is in fair agreement
with perturbative QCD model calculations that identify orbital motion of quarks
and gluons within the proton as the origin of the spin effects. Results for the
p_T dependence at fixed x_F are not consistent with pQCD-based calculations.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
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