Structural and molecular basis of the assembly of the TRPP2/PKD1 complex

Mutations in PKD1 and TRPP2 account for nearly all cases of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). These 2 proteins form a receptor/ion channel complex on the cell surface. Using a combination of biochemistry, crystallography, and a single-molecule method to determine the subunit composition of proteins in the plasma membrane of live cells, we find that this complex contains 3 TRPP2 and 1 PKD1. A newly identified coiled-coil domain in the C terminus of TRPP2 is critical for the formation of this complex. This coiled-coil domain forms a homotrimer, in both solution and crystal structure, and binds to a single coiled-coil domain in the C terminus of PKD1. Mutations that disrupt the TRPP2 coiled-coil domain trimer abolish the assembly of both the full-length TRPP2 trimer and the TRPP2/PKD1 complex and diminish the surface expression of both proteins. These results have significant implications for the assembly, regulation, and function of the TRPP2/PKD1 complex and the pathogenic mechanism of some ADPKD-producing mutations

Effect of the flow leading slats obliquity on the thermal performance of air-cooled condensers in a power plant

Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Mauritius, 11-13 July, 2011.Ambient winds may bring on poor fan performance and deteriorated heat rejection of the air-cooled condensers in a power plant. The disadvantageous wind impacts can be weakened thanks to the flow field leading of the wind. By introducing a radiator model to the fin-tube bundles, the airside fluid and heat flow in air-cooled condensers with a flow guiding device in a representative 2 × 600MW direct dry cooling power plant are modeled and calculated. The flow rate and heat rejection of the individual condenser cells and the aircooled condensers with flow guiding devices at different slat obliquities are obtained and compared. The results show that the flow rate and heat rejection of the air-cooled condensers both increase owing to the setup of the flow guiding device. The low flow guiding slats obliquity is superior to the high one for the thermo-flow performances. For the upwind condenser cells, the flow and heat transfer rates vary widely due to the flow field leading of the ambient winds by the flow guiding device especially at the lowered obliquity. It can be of use for the optimal design and operation of air-cooled condensers in a power plant.mp201

Non-Markovian dynamics in a spin star system: The failure of thermalization

In most cases, a small system weakly interacting with a thermal bath will finally reach the thermal state with the temperature of the bath. We show that this intuitive picture is not always true by a spin star model where non-Markov effect predominates in the whole dynamical process. The spin star system consists a central spin homogeneously interacting with an ensemble of identical noninteracting spins. We find that the correlation time of the bath is infinite, which implies that the bath has a perfect memory, and that the dynamical evolution of the central spin must be non- Markovian. A direct consequence is that the final state of the central spin is not the thermal state equilibrium with the bath, but a steady state which depends on its initial state.Comment: 8 page

Direct Measurements of the Branching Fractions for D0→K−e+νeD^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e and D0→π−e+νeD^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e and Determinations of the Form Factors f+K(0)f_{+}^{K}(0) and f+π(0)f^{\pi}_{+}(0)

The absolute branching fractions for the decays $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ are determined using $7584\pm 198 \pm 341$ singly tagged $\bar D^0$ sample from the data collected around 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC. In the system recoiling against the singly tagged $\bar D^0$ meson, $104.0\pm 10.9$ events for $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $9.0 \pm 3.6$ events for $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ decays are observed. Those yield the absolute branching fractions to be $BF(D^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e)=(3.82 \pm 0.40\pm 0.27)$ and $BF(D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e)=(0.33 \pm 0.13\pm 0.03)$. The vector form factors are determined to be $|f^K_+(0)| = 0.78 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.03$ and $|f^{\pi}_+(0)| = 0.73 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.06$. The ratio of the two form factors is measured to be $|f^{\pi}_+(0)/f^K_+(0)|= 0.93 \pm 0.19 \pm 0.07$.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Search for the Lepton Flavor Violation Processes J/ψ→J/\psi \to μτ\mu\tau and eτe\tau

The lepton flavor violation processes $J/\psi \to \mu\tau$ and $e\tau$ are searched for using a sample of 5.8$\times 10^7$ $J/\psi$ events collected with the BESII detector. Zero and one candidate events, consistent with the estimated background, are observed in $J/\psi \to \mu\tau, \tau\to e\bar\nu_e\nu_{\tau}$ and $J/\psi\to e\tau, \tau\to\mu\bar\nu_{\mu}\nu_{\tau}$ decays, respectively. Upper limits on the branching ratios are determined to be $Br(J/\psi\to\mu\tau)<2.0 \times 10^{-6}$ and $Br(J/\psi \to e\tau) < 8.3 \times10^{-6}$ at the 90% confidence level (C.L.).Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure