Evaluation of the cardiovascular system during various circulatory stresses Progress report, 1 Sep. 1968 - 1 May 1969

Cardiac response to chemotherapy after myocardial infraction and diagnostic methods of heart disease in man and animal

Human gut Bacteroides capture vitamin B12 via cell surface-exposed lipoproteins.

Human gut Bacteroides use surface-exposed lipoproteins to bind and metabolize complex polysaccharides. Although vitamins and other nutrients are also essential for commensal fitness, much less is known about how commensal bacteria compete with each other or the host for these critical resources. Unlike in Escherichia coli, transport loci for vitamin B12 (cobalamin) and other corrinoids in human gut Bacteroides are replete with conserved genes encoding proteins whose functions are unknown. Here we report that one of these proteins, BtuG, is a surface-exposed lipoprotein that is essential for efficient B12 transport in B. thetaiotaomicron. BtuG binds B12 with femtomolar affinity and can remove B12 from intrinsic factor, a critical B12 transport protein in humans. Our studies suggest that Bacteroides use surface-exposed lipoproteins not only for capturing polysaccharides, but also to acquire key vitamins in the gut

Scattering of Phonons by a Vortex in a Superfluid

Recent work gives a transverse force on an isolated moving vortex which is independent of the normal fluid velocity, but it is widely believed that the asymmetry of phonon scattering by a vortex leads to a transverse force dependent on the relative motion of the normal component and the vortex. We show that a widely accepted derivation of the transverse force is in error, and that a careful evaluation leads to a much smaller transverse force. We argue that a different approach is needed to get the correct expression. \pacs{67.40.Vs,67.57.Fg,47.37.+q,47.32.Cc}Comment: 4 page

Phase Transitions in Hexane Monolayers Physisorbed onto Graphite

We report the results of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of a complete monolayer of hexane physisorbed onto the basal plane of graphite. At low temperatures the system forms a herringbone solid. With increasing temperature, a solid to nematic liquid crystal transition takes place at $T_1 = 138 \pm 2$K followed by another transition at $T_2 = 176 \pm 3$K into an isotropic fluid. We characterize the different phases by calculating various order parameters, coordinate distributions, energetics, spreading pressure and correlation functions, most of which are in reasonable agreement with available experimental evidence. In addition, we perform simulations where the Lennard-Jones interaction strength, corrugation potential strength and dihedral rigidity are varied in order to better characterize the nature of the two transitions through. We find that both phase transitions are facilitated by a ``footprint reduction'' of the molecules via tilting, and to a lesser degree via creation of gauche defects in the molecules.Comment: 18 pages, eps figures embedded, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Altered Trafficking of Mutant Connexin32

We examined the cellular localization of nine different connexin32 (Cx32) mutants associated with X-linked Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease (CMTX) in communication-incompetent mammalian cells. Cx32 mRNA was made, but little or no protein was detected in one class of mutants. In another class of mutants, Cx32 protein was detectable in the cytoplasm and at the cell surface, where it appeared as plaques and punctate staining. Cx32 immunoreactivity in a third class of mutants was restricted to the cytoplasm, where it often colocalized with the Golgi apparatus. Our studies suggest that CMTX mutations have a predominant effect on the trafficking of Cx32 protein, resulting in a potentially toxic cytoplasmic accumulation of Cx32 in these cells. These results and evidence of cytoplasmic accumulation of other mutated myelin proteins suggest that diseases affecting myelinating cells may share a common pathophysiology

Longitudinal Force on a Moving Potential

We show a formal result of the longitudinal force acting on a moving potential. The potential can be velocity-dependent, which appears in various interesting physical systems, such as electrons in the presence of a magnetic flux-line, or phonons scattering off a moving vortex. By using the phase-shift analysis, we are able to show the equivalence between the adiabatic perturbation theory and the kinetic theory for the longitudinal force in the dilute gas limit.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, revised tex

The BCS-like gap in superconductor SmFeAsO_0.85F_0.15

Since the discovery of superconductivity in the cuprates two decades ago, it has been firmly established that the CuO_2 plane is consequential for high T_C superconductivity and a host of other very unusual properties. A new family of superconductors with the general composition of LaFeAsO_(1-x)F_x has recently been discovered but with the conspicuous lacking of the CuO_2 planes, thus raising the tantalizing questions of the different pairing mechanisms in these oxypnictide superconductors. Intimately related to pairing in a superconductor are the superconducting gap, its value, structure, and temperature dependence. Here we report the observation of a single gap in the superconductor SmFeAsO_0.85F_0.15 with T_C = 42 K as measured by Andreev spectroscopy. The gap value of 2Delta = 13.34+/-0.3 meV gives 2Delta/k_BT_C = 3.68, close to the BCS prediction of 3.53. The gap decreases with temperature and vanishes at T_C in a manner consistent with the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) prediction but dramatically different from that of the pseudogap behavior in the cuprate superconductors. Our results clearly indicate a nodeless gap order parameter, which is nearly isotropic in size across different sections of the Fermi surface, and are not compatible with models involving antiferromagnetic fluctuations, strong correlations, t-J model, and the like, originally designed for cuprates.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Non-uniform doping across the Fermi surface of NbS2_2 intercalates

Magnetic ordering of the first row transition metal intercalates of NbS$_2$ due to coupling between the conduction electrons and the intercalated ions has been explained in terms of Fermi surface nesting. We use angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy to investigate the Fermi surface topology and the valence band structure of the quasi-two-dimensional layer compounds Mn$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$ and Ni$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$. Charge transfer from the intercalant species to the host layer leads to non-uniform, pocket selective doping of the Fermi surface. The implication of our results on the nesting properties are discussed

Magnetic Force Exerted by the Aharonov-Bohm Line

The problem of the scattering of a charge by the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) flux line is reconsidered in terms of finite width beams. It is shown that despite the left-right symmetry in the AB scattering cross-section, the charge is scattered asymmetrically. The asymmetry (i.e. magnetic force) originates from almost forward scattering within the angular size of the incident wave. In the paraxial approximation, the real space solution to the scattering problem of a beam is found as well as the scattering S-matrix. The Boltzmann kinetics and the Landau quantization in a random AB array are considered.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX. Discussions of paraxial approximation to the Aharonov-Bohm solution (Cornu spiral) and S-matrix, are extended. References are adde

Magnus and Iordanskii Forces in Superfluids

The total transverse force acting on a quantized vortex in a superfluid is a problem that has eluded a complete understanding for more than three decades. In this letter I propose a remarkably simple argument, somewhat reminiscent of Laughlin's beautiful argument for the quantization of conductance in the quantum Hall effect, to define the superfluid velocity part of the transverse force. This term is found to be $- \rho_s {\kappa}_s \times {v}_s$. Although this result does not seem to be overly controversial, this thermodynamic argument based only on macroscopic properties of the superfluid does offer a robust derivation. A recent publication by Thouless, Ao and Niu has demonstrated that the vortex velocity part of the transverse force in a homogeneous neutral superfluid is given by the usual form $\rho_s {\kappa}_s \times {v}_V$. A combination of these two independent results and the required Galilean invariance yields that there cannot be any transverse force proportional to the normal fluid velocity, in apparent conflict with Iordanskii's theory of the transverse force due to phonon scattering by the vortex.Comment: RevTex, 1 Encapsulated Postscript figur