1,556 research outputs found
Staphylococcus aureus-Fibronectin Interactions with and without Fibronectin-Binding Proteins and Their Role in Adhesion and Desorption
Adhesion and residence-time-dependent desorption of two Staphylococcus aureus strains with and without fibronectin (Fn) binding proteins (FnBPs) on Fn-coated glass were compared under flow conditions. To obtain a better understanding of the role of Fn-FnBP binding, the adsorption enthalpies of Fn with staphylococcal cell surfaces were determined using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Interaction forces between staphylococci and Fn coatings were measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The strain with FnBPs adhered faster and initially stronger to an Fn coating than the strain without FnBPs, and its Fn adsorption enthalpies were higher. The initial desorption was high for both strains but decreased substantially within 2 s. These time scales of staphylococcal bond ageing were confirmed by AFM adhesion force measurement. After exposure of either Fn coating or staphylococcal cell surfaces to bovine serum albumin (BSA), the adhesion of both strains to Fn coatings was reduced, suggesting that BSA suppresses not only nonspecific but also specific Fn-FnBP interactions. Adhesion forces and adsorption enthalpies were only slightly affected by BSA adsorption. This implies that under the mild contact conditions of convective diffusion in a flow chamber, adsorbed BSA prevents specific interactions but does allow forced Fn-FnBP binding during AFM or stirring in ITC. The bond strength energies calculated from retraction force-distance curves from AFM were orders of magnitude higher than those calculated from desorption data, confirming that a penetrating Fn-coated AFM tip probes multiple adhesins in the outermost cell surface that remain hidden during mild landing of an organism on an Fn-coated substratum, like that during convective diffusional flow
Proteus: A Hierarchical Portfolio of Solvers and Transformations
In recent years, portfolio approaches to solving SAT problems and CSPs have
become increasingly common. There are also a number of different encodings for
representing CSPs as SAT instances. In this paper, we leverage advances in both
SAT and CSP solving to present a novel hierarchical portfolio-based approach to
CSP solving, which we call Proteus, that does not rely purely on CSP solvers.
Instead, it may decide that it is best to encode a CSP problem instance into
SAT, selecting an appropriate encoding and a corresponding SAT solver. Our
experimental evaluation used an instance of Proteus that involved four CSP
solvers, three SAT encodings, and six SAT solvers, evaluated on the most
challenging problem instances from the CSP solver competitions, involving
global and intensional constraints. We show that significant performance
improvements can be achieved by Proteus obtained by exploiting alternative
view-points and solvers for combinatorial problem-solving.Comment: 11th International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques
in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems. The final
publication is available at link.springer.co
Production Optimization,Molecular Characterization and Biological Activities of Exopolysaccharides from Xylaria nigripes
The optimal culture conditions of exopolysaccharides (EPS) production in submerged culture medium by Xylaria nigripes were determined using orthogonal matrix method. The optimal medium (per liter) EPS was 60.0 g L–1 maltose, 1.0 g L–1 peptone,
5 mmol L–1 KH2PO4, and initial pH 7.0 at 28 oC. In the optimal culture medium, the maximum EPS production was 11.967 g L–1 in shake flask. Two groups of EPSs (designated as Fr-I and Fr-II) were obtained from the culture filtrates by size exclusion chromatography
(SEC), and their molecular characteristics were examined by a multiangle laser-light scattering (MALLS) and refractive index (RI) detector system. The weight-average molar masses of Fr-I and Fr-II of EPS were determined to be 6.327104 and 1.478104 g mol–1, respectively. The SEC/MALLS analysis revealed that the molecular
formation of Fr-I is of nearly globular shape. Furthermore, the experiments in vitro indicated that X. nigripes EPS exhibited high antioxidative effects though its antitumour activity was limited
Has the nonlinear Meissner effect been observed?
We examine recent high-precision experimental data on the magnetic field,
, dependence of the penetration depth in
(YBCO) for several field directions in the
plane. In a new theoretical analysis that incorporates the effects of
orthorhombic symmetry, we show that the data at sufficiently high magnetic
fields and low temperatures are in quantitative agreement with the theoretical
predictions of the nonlinear Meissner effect.Comment: 4 text pages plus 3 postscript figure
Universality in D-brane Inflation
We study the six-field dynamics of D3-brane inflation for a general scalar
potential on the conifold, finding simple, universal behavior. We numerically
evolve the equations of motion for an ensemble of more than 7 \times 10^7
realizations, drawing the coefficients in the scalar potential from statistical
distributions whose detailed properties have demonstrably small effects on our
results. When prolonged inflation occurs, it has a characteristic form: the
D3-brane initially moves rapidly in the angular directions, spirals down to an
inflection point in the potential, and settles into single-field inflation. The
probability of N_{e} e-folds of inflation is a power law, P(N_{e}) \propto
N_{e}^{-3}, and we derive the same exponent from a simple analytical model. The
success of inflation is relatively insensitive to the initial conditions: we
find attractor behavior in the angular directions, and the D3-brane can begin
far above the inflection point without overshooting. In favorable regions of
the parameter space, models yielding 60 e-folds of expansion arise
approximately once in 10^3 trials. Realizations that are effectively
single-field and give rise to a primordial spectrum of fluctuations consistent
with WMAP, for which at least 120 e-folds are required, arise approximately
once in 10^5 trials. The emergence of robust predictions from a six-field
potential with hundreds of terms invites an analytic approach to multifield
inflation.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure
Revisiting Generalized Chaplygin Gas as a Unified Dark Matter and Dark Energy Model
In this paper, we revisit generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model as a unified
dark matter and dark energy model. The energy density of GCG model is given as
,
where and are two model parameters which will be constrained by
type Ia supernova as standard candles, baryon acoustic oscillation as standard
rulers and the seventh year full WMAP data points. In this paper, we will not
separate GCG into dark matter and dark energy parts any more as adopted in the
literatures. By using Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, we find the result:
and .Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
ChatGPT and higher education assessments: More opportunities than concerns?
In recent times, higher education has seen a growing concern regarding the utilisation of artificial intelligence, especially with the emergence of ChatGPT. This technology can generate written content and respond to queries at a level that is nearly indistinguishable from a human writer. This feature has drawn substantial interest from students in higher education and has led to concern that students will use ChatGPT’s capabilities to cheat on written formative and summative assessments. In this paper, we will review the usage of ChatGPT in higher education assessments and investigate why students want to cheat using artificial intelligence capabilities. It also offers a critical perspective on the challenges associated with detecting ChatGPT-generated content and its impact on academic integrity. We also consider whether artificial intelligence provides more opportunities for academics to focus on assessing higher-order thinking and strategies
Lorenz-like systems and classical dynamical equations with memory forcing: a new point of view for singling out the origin of chaos
A novel view for the emergence of chaos in Lorenz-like systems is presented.
For such purpose, the Lorenz problem is reformulated in a classical mechanical
form and it turns out to be equivalent to the problem of a damped and forced
one dimensional motion of a particle in a two-well potential, with a forcing
term depending on the ``memory'' of the particle past motion. The dynamics of
the original Lorenz system in the new particle phase space can then be
rewritten in terms of an one-dimensional first-exit-time problem. The emergence
of chaos turns out to be due to the discontinuous solutions of the
transcendental equation ruling the time for the particle to cross the
intermediate potential wall. The whole problem is tackled analytically deriving
a piecewise linearized Lorenz-like system which preserves all the essential
properties of the original model.Comment: 48 pages, 25 figure
A new constitutive model for prediction of impact rates response of polypropylene
This paper proposes a new constitutive model for predicting the impact rates response of polypropylene. Impact rates, as used here, refer to strain rates greater than 1000 1/s. The model is a physically based, three-dimensional constitutive model which incorporates the contributions of the amorphous, crystalline, pseudo-amorphous and entanglement networks to the constitutive response of polypropylene. The model mathematics is based on the well-known Glass-Rubber model originally developed for glassy polymers but the arguments have herein been extended to semi-crystalline polymers. In order to predict the impact rates behaviour of polypropylene, the model exploits the well-known framework of multiple processes yielding of polymers. This work argues that two dominant viscoelastic relaxation processes – the alpha- and beta-processes – can be associated with the yield responses of polypropylene observed at low-rate-dominant and impact-rates dominant loading regimes. Compression test data on polypropylene have been used to validate the model. The study has found that the model predicts quite well the experimentally observed nonlinear rate-dependent impact response of polypropylene
ASTRO-F - The next generation of mid-infrared surveys
We present basic observational strategies for ASTRO-F (also known as the
Imaging Infra Red Surveyor (IRIS)) to be launched in 2004 by the Japanese
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). We examine 2 survey
scenarios, a deep ~1sq.deg. survey reaching sensitivities an order of magnitude
below than the deepest surveys performed by ISO in the mid-IR, and a shallow
\~18sq.deg mid-infrared (7-25um in 6 bands) covering an area greater than the
entire area covered by all ISO mid-IR surveys. Using 2 cosmological models the
number of galaxies predicted for each survey is calculated. The first model
uses an enhancement of the pure luminosity evolution model of Pearson &
Rowan-Robinson while the new models incorporate a strongly evolving ULIG
component. For the deep survey, between 20,000-30,000 galaxies should be
detected in the shortest wavebands and ~5000 in the longest (25um) band. The
shallow survey would be expected to detect of the order of 100,000 - 150,000
sources.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted by MNRA
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