Inhibition of DNA ejection from bacteriophage by Mg+2 counterions

The problem of inhibiting viral DNA ejection from bacteriophages by multivalent counterions, specifically Mg$^{+2}$ counterions, is studied. Experimentally, it is known that MgSO$_4$ salt has a strong and non-monotonic effect on the amount of DNA ejected. There exists an optimal concentration at which the minimum amount of DNA is ejected from the virus. At lower or higher concentrations, more DNA is ejected from the capsid. We propose that this phenomenon is the result of DNA overcharging by Mg$^{+2}$ multivalent counterions. As Mg$^{+2}$ concentration increases from zero, the net charge of DNA changes from negative to positive. The optimal inhibition corresponds to the Mg$^{+2}$ concentration where DNA is neutral. At lower/higher concentrations, DNA genome is charged. It prefers to be in solution to lower its electrostatic self-energy, which consequently leads to an increase in DNA ejection. By fitting our theory to available experimental data, the strength of DNA$-$DNA short range attraction energies, mediated by Mg$^{+2}$, is found to be $-$0.004 $k_BT$ per nucleotide base. This and other fitted parameters agree well with known values from other experiments and computer simulations. The parameters are also in aggreement qualitatively with values for tri- and tetra-valent counterions.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, improved manuscript. Submitted to J. Chem. Phys (2010

Extraction and Quantification of Carpaine from Carica papaya Leaves of Vietnam

Our previous research indicated that carpaine and its derivative pseudocarpaine extracted from Carica papaya leaves had anti-cancer activity. In this study, we extracted the total alkaloid from Carica papaya leaves, then extracted carpaine and quantitative analyzed carpaine in the total alkaloid. Carica papaya leaves was crushed, and then extracted with EtOH to obtain the total extract. This extract was extracted with suitable solvent to obtain total alkaloid. Continued to extract the total alkaloid by using open column chromatography and crystallizing method to purify carpaine. The research result showed that the total alkaloid in Carica papaya leaves was 0.2% comparing with dried material. Quantitative analyze of purified carpaine by HPLC determined that carpaine was the main alkaloid with the content was 63% of the total alkaloid extracted from Carica papaya leaves

A linguistic analysis of social attitudes towards the quality issues of postgraduate education in Vietnam

This paper proposes the PhD project A linguistic study on social attitudes towards the quality of postgraduate education in Vietnam. The study uses Appraisal theory as the framework to analyse interviews with different stakeholders involved in the postgraduate education sector, namely bureaucrats, management, academics and students. The study aims to find out: What the stakeholders’ perceived quality issues in relation to MA and PhD education in Vietnam are Who the stakeholders’ believe to bear the responsibility for the quality issues. Taking into account the facts that the quality of postgraduate education in Vietnam is in question and the fact that the Minister of Education and Training has recently urged an increase in the number of MA and PhD holders in education sectors, this study is significant in the sense that it will provide explanations for some of the problems concerning the quality of postgraduate education in Vietnam as well as thoughts for changes to improve the present situation

Prediction of cattle density and location at the frontier of Brazil and Paraguay using remote sensing

In this paper, we explore the potential of remote sensing to map pastures areas and by this way establish models for predicting cattle density and location. First, an object based classification (OB) was made in Landsat 5 images for three different municipalities to provide a land-cover map. Second, on the basis of Brazilian official livestock database, a statistical model to predict number of cattle in function of declared pasture area by the farmers was produced. Finally, this model was applied to the pasture areas detected by remote sensing to predict cattle density. Coefficient of determination of the model was 0.63. The results indicate that the methodology used for estimating cattle density has a potential to be applied in regions where no information about farm location and cattle density exists. (Résumé d'auteur

Euclidean-signature Supergravities, Dualities and Instantons

We study the Euclidean-signature supergravities that arise by compactifying D=11 supergravity or type IIB supergravity on a torus that includes the time direction. We show that the usual T-duality relation between type IIA and type IIB supergravities compactified on a spatial circle no longer holds if the reduction is performed on the time direction. Thus there are two inequivalent Euclidean-signature nine-dimensional maximal supergravities. They become equivalent upon further spatial compactification to D=8. We also show that duality symmetries of Euclidean-signature supergravities allow the harmonic functions of any single-charge or multi-charge instanton to be rescaled and shifted by constant factors. Combined with the usual diagonal dimensional reduction and oxidation procedures, this allows us to use the duality symmetries to map any single-charge or multi-charge p-brane soliton, or any intersection, into its near-horizon regime. Similar transformations can also be made on non-extremal p-branes. We also study the structures of duality multiplets of instanton and (D-3)-brane solutions.Comment: Latex, 50 pages, typos corrected and references adde

Petrographic Characteristics and Depositional Environment Evolution of Middle Miocene Sediments in the Thien Ung - Mang Cau Structure of Nam Con Son Basin

This paper introduces the petrographic characteristics and depositional environment of Middle Miocene rocks of the Thien Ung - Mang Cau structure in the central area of Nam Con Son Basin based on the results of analyzing thin sections and structural characteristics of core samples. Middle Miocene sedimentary rocks in the studied area can be divided into three groups: (1) Group of terrigenous rocks comprising greywacke sandstone, arkosic sandstone, lithic-quartz sandstone, greywacke-lithic sandstone, oligomictic siltstone, and bitumenous claystone; (2) Group of carbonate rocks comprising dolomitic limestone and bituminous limestone; (3) Mixed group comprising calcareous sandstone, calcarinate sandstone, arenaceous limestone, calcareous claystone, calcareous silty claystone, dolomitic limestone containing silt, and bitumen. The depositional environment is expressed through petrographic characteristics and structure of the sedimentary rocks in core samples. The greywacke and arkosic sandstones are of medium grain size, poor sorting and roundness, and siliceous cement characterizing the alluvial and estuarine fan environment expressed by massive structure of core samples. The mixed calcareous limestone, arenaceous dolomitic limestone, and calcareous and bituminous clayey siltstone in the core samples are of turbulent flow structure characterizing shallow bay environment with the action of bottom currents. The dolomitic limestones are of relatively homogeneous, of microgranular and fine-granular texture, precipitated in a weakly reducing, semi-closed, and relatively calm bay environment

Swinging of red blood cells under shear flow

We reveal that under moderate shear stress (of the order of 0.1 Pa) red blood cells present an oscillation of their inclination (swinging) superimposed to the long-observed steady tanktreading (TT) motion. A model based on a fluid ellipsoid surrounded by a visco-elastic membrane initially unstrained (shape memory) predicts all observed features of the motion: an increase of both swinging amplitude and period (1/2 the TT period) upon decreasing the shear stress, a shear stress-triggered transition towards a narrow shear stress-range intermittent regime of successive swinging and tumbling, and a pure tumbling motion at lower shear stress-values.Comment: 4 pages 5 figures submitted to Physical Review Letter

U-duality as General Coordinate Transformations, and Spacetime Geometry

We show that the full global symmetry groups of all the D-dimensional maximal supergravities can be described in terms of the closure of the internal general coordinate transformations of the toroidal compactifications of D=11 supergravity and of type IIB supergravity, with type IIA/IIB T-duality providing an intertwining between the two pictures. At the quantum level, the part of the U-duality group that corresponds to the surviving discretised internal general coordinate transformations in a given picture leaves the internal torus invariant, while the part that is not described by internal general coordinate transformations can have the effect of altering the size or shape of the internal torus. For example, M-theory compactified on a large torus T^n can be related by duality to a compactification on a small torus, if and only if n\ge 3. We also discuss related issues in the toroidal compactification of the self-dual string to D=4. An appendix includes the complete results for the toroidal reduction of the bosonic sector of type IIB supergravity to arbitrary dimensions D\ge3.Comment: Latex, 28 page