6,725 research outputs found
Dual Function of CD81 in Influenza Virus Uncoating and Budding
As an obligatory pathogen, influenza virus co-opts host cell machinery to harbor infection and to produce progeny viruses. In order to characterize the virus-host cell interactions, several genome-wide siRNA screens and proteomic analyses have been performed recently to identify host factors involved in influenza virus infection. CD81 has emerged as one of the top candidates in two siRNA screens and one proteomic study. The exact role played by CD81 in influenza infection, however, has not been elucidated thus far. In this work, we examined the effect of CD81 depletion on the major steps of the influenza infection. We found that CD81 primarily affected virus infection at two stages: viral uncoating during entry and virus budding. CD81 marked a specific endosomal population and about half of the fused influenza virus particles underwent fusion within the CD81-positive endosomes. Depletion of CD81 resulted in a substantial defect in viral fusion and infection. During virus assembly, CD81 was recruited to virus budding site on the plasma membrane, and in particular, to specific sub-viral locations. For spherical and slightly elongated influenza virus, CD81 was localized at both the growing tip and the budding neck of the progeny viruses. CD81 knockdown led to a budding defect and resulted in elongated budding virions with a higher propensity to remain attached to the plasma membrane. Progeny virus production was markedly reduced in CD81-knockdown cells even when the uncoating defect was compensated. In filamentous virus, CD81 was distributed at multiple sites along the viral filament. Taken together, these results demonstrate important roles of CD81 in both entry and budding stages of the influenza infection cycle
Numerical study of surface-induced reorientation and smectic layering in a nematic liquid crystal
Surface-induced profiles of both nematic and smectic order parameters in a
nematic liquid crystal, ranging from an orienting substrate to "infinity", were
evaluated numerically on base of an extended Landau theory. In order to obtain
a smooth behavior of the solutions at "infinity" a boundary energy functional
was derived by linearizing the Landau energy around its equilibrium solutions.
We find that the intrinsic wave number of the smectic structure, which plays
the role of a coupling between nematic and smectic order, strongly influences
the director reorientation. Whereas the smectic order is rapidly decaying when
moving away from the surface, the uniaxial nematic order parameter shows an
oscillatory behavior close to the substrate, accompanied by a non-zero local
biaxiality.Comment: LaTeX, 17 pages, with 4 postscript figure
Quark Potential in a Quark-Meson Plasma
We investigate quark potential by considering meson exchanges in the two
flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model at finite temperature and density. There are
two kinds of oscillations in the chiral restoration phase, one is the Friedel
oscillation due to the sharp quark Fermi surface at high density, and the other
is the Yukawa oscillation driven by the complex meson poles at high
temperature. The quark-meson plasma is strongly coupled in the temperature
region with being the critical temperature of
chiral phase transition. The maximum coupling in this region is located at the
critical point.Comment: 8 pages and 8 figure
The phase diagram and bulk thermodynamical quantities in the NJL model at finite temperature and density
We reexamine the recent instanton motivated studies of Alford, Rajagopal and
Wilczek, and Berges and Rajagopal in the framework of the standard SU(2)
Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. The chiral phase diagram is calculated in the
temperature--density plane, and the pressure is evaluated as the function of
the density. Obtaining simple approximate relations describing the -
and - phase transition lines we find that the results of the instanton
based model and that of the NJL model are identical. The diquark transition
line is also given.Comment: 11 pages LaTeX plus 7 PS figures. One figure has been added and there
are some changes in the text describing thi
Multi-threshold second-order phase transition
We present a theory of the multi-threshold second-order phase transition, and
experimentally demonstrate the multi-threshold second-order phase transition
phenomenon. With carefully selected parameters, in an external cavity diode
laser system, we observe second-order phase transition with multiple (three or
four) thresholds in the measured power-current-temperature three dimensional
phase diagram. Such controlled death and revival of second-order phase
transition sheds new insight into the nature of ubiquitous second-order phase
transition. Our theory and experiment show that the single threshold
second-order phase transition is only a special case of the more general
multi-threshold second-order phase transition, which is an even richer
phenomenon.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Chiral symmetry breaking in hot matter
This series of three lectures covers (a) a basic introduction to symmetry
breaking in general and chiral symmetry breaking in QCD, (b) an overview of the
present status of lattice data and the knowlegde that we have at finite
temperature from chiral perturbation theory. (c) Results obtained from the
Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model describing static mesonic properties are discussed as
well as the bulk thermodynamic quantities. Divergences that are observed in the
elastic quark-antiquark scattering cross-section, reminiscent of the phenomenon
of critical opalescence in light scattering, is also discussed. (d) Finally, we
deal with the realm of systems out of equilibrium, and examine the effects of a
medium dependent condensate in a system of interacting quarks.Comment: 62 LaTex pages, incorporating 23 figures. Lectures given at the
eleventh Chris-Engelbrecht Summer School in Theoretical Physics, 4-13
February, 1998, to be published by Springer Verla
Does Co-Creation of Service Recovery Create Value for Customers? The Underlying Mechanism of Motivation and the Role of Operant Resources
International audienceThis study focuses on the underlying mechanism that leads to co‐recovery behaviour and favourable co‐created value as response to a service failure. It argues that consumers’ ability to integrate their operant resources (e.g., knowledge and skills) to co‐recover from a service failure motivates them to express higher value co‐recovery in‐role behaviour and hence enjoy higher hedonic and utilitarian values. To test this claim, our study investigates the impact of consumers’ ability to co‐recover on value co‐recovery in‐role behaviour by taking into account extrinsic and intrinsic motivation as mediators. The results reveal that extrinsic motivation only partially mediates the relationship between ability to co‐recover and value co‐recovery in‐role behaviour. Furthermore, the outcomes demonstrate that value co‐recovery in‐role behaviour increases utilitarian value but decreases hedonic valu
The electromagnetic calorimeter of the AMS-02 experiment
The electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) of the AMS-02 experiment is a
3-dimensional sampling calorimeter, made of lead and scintillating fibers. The
detector allows for a high granularity, with 18 samplings in the longitudinal
direction, and 72 sampling in the lateral direction. The ECAL primary goal is
to measure the energy of cosmic rays up to few TeV, however, thanks to the fine
grained structure, it can also provide the separation of positrons from
protons, in the GeV to TeV region. A direct measurement of high energy photons
with accurate energy and direction determination can also be provided.Comment: Proceedings of SF2A conference 201
Equation of state for the 2+1 dimensional Gross-Neveu model at order 1/N
We calculate the equation of state of the Gross-Neveu model in 2+1 dimensions
at order 1/N, where N is the number of fermion species. We make use of a
general formula valid for four-fermion theories, previously applied to the
model in 1+1 dimensions. We consider both the discrete and continuous symmetry
versions of the model. We show that the pion-like excitations give the dominant
contribution at low temperatures. The range of validity for such pion dominance
is analyzed. The complete analysis from low to high temperatures also shows
that in the critical region the role of composite states is relevant, even for
quite large N, and that the free-component behaviour at high T starts at about
twice the mean field critical temperature.Comment: 19 pages, RevTeX, 10 figures.p
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