Sp1 acetylation is associated with loss of DNA binding at promoters associated with cell cycle arrest and cell death in a colon cell line

Butyrate, a known histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) and product of fibre fermentation, is postulated to mediate the protective effect of dietary fibre against colon cancer. The transcription factor Sp1 is a target of acetylation and is known to be associated with class I HDACs, including HDAC1. Sp1 is a ubiquitous transcription factor and Sp1-regulated genes include those involved in cell cycle regulation, apoptosis and lipogenesis: all major pathways in cancer development. The only known acetylated residue of Sp1 is lysine703 which resides in the DNA binding domain. Here we show that acetylated Sp1 loses p21- and bak-promoter -binding function in vitro. Furthermore treatment with a panel of HDAC inhibitors showed clustering of activities for a subset of inhibitors, causing G2 cell cycle arrest, Sp1 acetylation, p21 and Bak over-expression, all with very similar EC50 concentrations. These HDACi activities were not distributed according to the molecular class of compound. In order to mimic loss of binding, an siRNA strategy was used to reduce Sp1 expression. This resulted in altered expression of multiple elements of the p53/p21 pathway. Taken together our data suggest a mechanistic model for the chemopreventive actions of butyrate in colon epithelial cells, and provide new insight into the differential activities some classes of HDAC inhibitors

Position-Based Multi-Agent Dynamics for Real-Time Crowd Simulation (MiG paper)

Exploiting the efficiency and stability of Position-Based Dynamics (PBD), we introduce a novel crowd simulation method that runs at interactive rates for hundreds of thousands of agents. Our method enables the detailed modeling of per-agent behavior in a Lagrangian formulation. We model short-range and long-range collision avoidance to simulate both sparse and dense crowds. On the particles representing agents, we formulate a set of positional constraints that can be readily integrated into a standard PBD solver. We augment the tentative particle motions with planning velocities to determine the preferred velocities of agents, and project the positions onto the constraint manifold to eliminate colliding configurations. The local short-range interaction is represented with collision and frictional contact between agents, as in the discrete simulation of granular materials. We incorporate a cohesion model for modeling collective behaviors and propose a new constraint for dealing with potential future collisions. Our new method is suitable for use in interactive games.Comment: 9 page

Constraints and Soliton Solutions for the KdV Hierarchy and AKNS Hierarchy

It is well-known that the finite-gap solutions of the KdV equation can be generated by its recursion operator.We generalize the result to a special form of Lax pair, from which a method to constrain the integrable system to a lower-dimensional or fewer variable integrable system is proposed. A direct result is that the $n$-soliton solutions of the KdV hierarchy can be completely depicted by a series of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which may be gotten by a simple but unfamiliar Lax pair. Furthermore the AKNS hierarchy is constrained to a series of univariate integrable hierarchies. The key is a special form of Lax pair for the AKNS hierarchy. It is proved that under the constraints all equations of the AKNS hierarchy are linearizable.Comment: 12 pages, 0 figur

Central adiposity and the propensity for rehearsal in children.

Background: There is increasing evidence that continuous activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis and the central sympathetic nervous system contributes to the pathogenesis of central adiposity via increased psychological stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between central adiposity and the propensity for Chinese children to rehearse emotionally upsetting events, a dimension of psychological stress. Additionally, gender differences in this relationship were explored. Methods: Waist circumference, which is a marker of central adiposity and associated risks of developing cardiovascular disease, was measured and the propensity for rehearsal was assessed twice over two consecutive years in Hong Kong Chinese children (n = 194, aged 7–9 years), using a psychometric tool. Results: Children with waist circumference indicative of a risk of cardiovascular disease displayed higher rehearsal scores than children categorized as “not at risk”, as did boys compared with girls. Our results suggest that central adiposity and the propensity for rehearsal of emotionally upsetting events may be linked in Chinese children. Conclusion: Future prospective studies examining the direction of causality between central adiposity and rehearsal can potentially have valuable clinical implications

Gravitational Corrections to the Energy-Levels of a Hydrogen Atom

The first order perturbations of the energy levels of a hydrogen atom in central internal gravitational field are investigated. The internal gravitational field is produced by the mass of the atomic nucleus. The energy shifts are calculated for the relativistic 1S, 2S, 2P, 3S, 3P, 3D, 4S and 4P levels with Schwarzschild metric. The calculated results show that the gravitational corrections are sensitive to the total angular momentum quantum number.Comment: 7 page

A perturbative approach to non-Markovian stochastic Schr\"odinger equations

In this paper we present a perturbative procedure that allows one to numerically solve diffusive non-Markovian Stochastic Schr\"odinger equations, for a wide range of memory functions. To illustrate this procedure numerical results are presented for a classically driven two level atom immersed in a environment with a simple memory function. It is observed that as the order of the perturbation is increased the numerical results for the ensembled average state $\rho_{\rm red}(t)$ approach the exact reduced state found via Imamo\=glu's enlarged system method [Phys. Rev. A. 50, 3650 (1994)].Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Observations of temporal group delays in slow-light multiple coupled photonic crystal cavities

We demonstrate temporal group delays in coherently-coupled high-Q multi-cavity photonic crystals, in an all-optical analogue to electromagnetically induced transparency. We report deterministic control of the group delay up to 4× the single cavity lifetime in our CMOS-fabricated room-temperature chip. Supported by three-dimensional numerical simulations and theoretical analyses, our multi-pump beam approach enables control of the multi-cavity resonances and inter-cavity phase, in both single and double transparency peaks. The standing-wave wavelength-scale photon localization allows direct scalability for chip-scale optical pulse trapping and coupled-cavity QED

Exact solution of the relativistic magnetohydrodynamic equations in the background of a plane gravitational wave with combined polarization

We obtain an exact solution of the self-consistent relativistic magnetohydrodynamic equations for an anisotropic magnetoactive plasma in the background of a plane gravitational wave metric (PGW) with an arbitrary polarization. It is shown that, in the linear approximation in the gravitational wave amplitude, only the $\mathbf{e_+}$ polarization of the PGW interacts with a magnetoactive plasma.Comment: 5 pages, 8 reference