3,364 research outputs found
A heparin-mimicking polymer conjugate stabilizes basic fibroblast growth factor.
Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is a protein that plays a crucial role in diverse cellular functions, from wound healing to bone regeneration. However, a major obstacle to the widespread application of bFGF is its inherent instability during storage and delivery. Here, we describe the stabilization of bFGF by covalent conjugation with a heparin-mimicking polymer, a copolymer consisting of styrene sulfonate units and methyl methacrylate units bearing poly(ethylene glycol) side chains. The bFGF conjugate of this polymer retained bioactivity after synthesis and was stable to a variety of environmentally and therapeutically relevant stressors--such as heat, mild and harsh acidic conditions, storage and proteolytic degradation--unlike native bFGF. Following the application of stress, the conjugate was also significantly more active than the control conjugate system in which the styrene sulfonate units were omitted from the polymer structure. This research has important implications for the clinical use of bFGF and for the stabilization of heparin-binding growth factors in general
Negative-Parity Baryons in Quenched Anisotropic Lattice QCD
We study negative-parity baryon spectra in quenched anisotropic lattice QCD.
The negative-parity baryons are measured as the parity partner of the
ground-state baryons. In addition to the flavor octet and decuplet baryons, we
pay much attention to the flavor-singlet negative-parity baryon as a
three-quark state and compare it with the Lambda(1405) baryon. Numerical
results of the flavor octet and decuplet negative-parity baryon masses are
close to experimental values of lowest-lying negative-parity baryons, while the
flavor-singlet baryon is much heavier than Lambda(1405). This indicates that
the Lambda(1405) would be a multi-quark state such as the N-Kbar molecule
rather than the flavor-singlet 3 quark state.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figs. Talk given at 16th International Conference on
Particles and Nuclei (PANIC 02), Osaka, Japan, 30 Sep - 4 Oct 200
Equation of state in 2+1 flavor QCD with improved Wilson quarks by the fixed scale approach
We study the equation of state in 2+1 flavor QCD with nonperturbatively
improved Wilson quarks coupled with the RG-improved Iwasaki glue. We apply the
-integration method to nonperturbatively calculate the equation of state by
the fixed-scale approach. With the fixed-scale approach, we can purely vary the
temperature on a line of constant physics without changing the system size and
renormalization constants. Unlike the conventional fixed- approach, it is
easy to keep scaling violations small at low temperature in the fixed scale
approach. We study 2+1 flavor QCD at light quark mass corresponding to
, while the strange quark mass is chosen around the
physical point. Although the light quark masses are heavier than the physical
values yet, our equation of state is roughly consistent with recent results
with highly improved staggered quarks at large .Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, v2: Table I and Figure 3 are corrected,
reference updated. Main discussions and conclusions are unchanged, v3:
version to appear in PRD, v4: reference adde
Near-periodic substitution and the genetic variance induced by environmental change
We investigate a model that describes the evolution of a diploid sexual population in a changing environment. Individuals have discrete generations and are subject to selection on the phenotypic value of a quantitative trait, which is controlled by a finite number of bialleic loci. Environmental change is taken to lead to a uniformly changing optimal phenotypic value. The population continually adapts to the changing environment, by allelic substitution, at the loci controlling the trait. We investigate the detailed interrelation between the process of allelic substitution and the adaptation and variation of the population, via infinite population calculations and finite population simulations. We find a simple relation between the substitution rate and the rate of change of the optimal phenotypic value
Non-Gaussian dephasing in flux qubits due to 1/f-noise
Recent experiments by F. Yoshihara et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 167001
(2006)] and by K. Kakuyanagi et al. (cond-mat/0609564) provided information on
decoherence of the echo signal in Josephson-junction flux qubits at various
bias conditions. These results were interpreted assuming a Gaussian model for
the decoherence due to 1/f noise. Here we revisit this problem on the basis of
the exactly solvable spin-fluctuator model reproducing detailed properties of
the 1/f noise interacting with a qubit. We consider the time dependence of the
echo signal and conclude that the results based on the Gaussian assumption need
essential reconsideration.Comment: Improved fitting parameters, new figur
Strategies for the evolution of sex
We find that the hypothesis made by Jan, Stauffer and Moseley [Theory in
Biosc., 119, 166 (2000)] for the evolution of sex, namely a strategy devised to
escape extinction due to too many deleterious mutations, is sufficient but not
necessary for the successful evolution of a steady state population of sexual
individuals within a finite population. Simply allowing for a finite
probability for conversion to sex in each generation also gives rise to a
stable sexual population, in the presence of an upper limit on the number of
deleterious mutations per individual. For large values of this probability, we
find a phase transition to an intermittent, multi-stable regime. On the other
hand, in the limit of extremely slow drive, another transition takes place to a
different steady state distribution, with fewer deleterious mutations within
the asexual population.Comment: RevTeX, 11 pages, multicolumn, including 12 figure
Proton lifetime bounds from chirally symmetric lattice QCD
We present results for the matrix elements relevant for proton decay in Grand
Unified Theories (GUTs). The calculation is performed at a fixed lattice
spacing a^{-1}=1.73(3) GeV using 2+1 flavors of domain wall fermions on
lattices of size 16^3\times32 and 24^3\times64 with a fifth dimension of length
16. We use the indirect method which relies on an effective field theory
description of proton decay, where we need to estimate the low energy
constants, \alpha = -0.0112(25) GeV^3 and \beta = 0.0120(26) GeV^3. We relate
these low energy constants to the proton decay matrix elements using leading
order chiral perturbation theory. These can then be combined with experimental
bounds on the proton lifetime to bound parameters of individual GUTs.Comment: 17 pages, 9 Figure
Low-frequency noise as a source of dephasing of a qubit
With the growing efforts in isolating solid-state qubits from external
decoherence sources, the material-inherent sources of noise start to play
crucial role. One representative example is electron traps in the device
material or substrate. Electrons can tunnel or hop between a charged and an
empty trap, or between a trap and a gate electrode. A single trap typically
produces telegraph noise and can hence be modeled as a bistable fluctuator.
Since the distribution of hopping rates is exponentially broad, many traps
produce flicker-noise with spectrum close to 1/f. Here we develop a theory of
decoherence of a qubit in the environment consisting of two-state fluctuators,
which experience transitions between their states induced by interaction with
thermal bath. Due to interaction with the qubit the fluctuators produce
1/f-noise in the qubit's eigenfrequency. We calculate the results of qubit
manipulations - free induction and echo signals - in such environment. The main
problem is that in many important cases the relevant random process is both
non-Markovian and non-Gaussian. Consequently the results in general cannot be
represented by pair correlation function of the qubit eigenfrequency
fluctuations. Our calculations are based on analysis of the density matrix of
the qubit using methods developed for stochastic differential equations. The
proper generating functional is then averaged over different fluctuators using
the so-called Holtsmark procedure. The analytical results are compared with
simulations allowing checking accuracy of the averaging procedure and
evaluating mesoscopic fluctuations. The results allow understanding some
observed features of the echo decay in Josephson qubits.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, Proc. of NATO/Euresco Conf. "Fundamental
Problems of Mesoscopic Physics: Interactions and Decoherence", Granada,
Spain, Sept.200
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