12,491 research outputs found
Muscular diacylglycerol metabolism and insulin resistance
Failure of insulin to elicit an increase in glucose uptake and metabolism in target tissues such as skeletal muscle is a major characteristic of non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes mellitus. A strong correlation between intramyocellular triacylglycerol concentrations and the severity of insulin resistance has been found and led to the assumption that lipid oversupply to skeletal muscle contributes to reduced insulin action. However, the molecular mechanism that links intramyocellular lipid content with the generation of muscle insulin resistance is still unclear. It appears unlikely that the neutral lipid metabolite triacylglycerol directly impairs insulin action. Hence it is believed that intermediates in fatty acid metabolism, such as fatty acyl-CoA, ceramides or diacylglycerol (DAG) link fat deposition in the muscle to compromised insulin signaling. DAG is identified as a potential mediator of lipid-induced insulin resistance, as increased DAG levels are associated with protein kinase C activation and a reduction in both insulin-stimulated IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation and PI3 kinase activity. As DAG is an intermediate in the synthesis of triacylglycerol from fatty acids and glycerol, its level can be lowered by either improving the oxidation of cellular fatty acids or by accelerating the incorporation of fatty acids into triacylglycerol. This review discusses the evidence that implicates DAG being central in the development of muscular insulin resistance. Furthermore, we will discuss if and how modulation of skeletal muscle DAG levels could function as a possible therapeutic target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus
Quantum mechanical counterpart of nonlinear optics
Raman-type laser excitation of a trapped atom allows one to realize the
quantum mechanical counterpart of phenomena of nonlinear optics, such as
Kerr-type nonlinearities, parametric amplification, and multi-mode mixing.
Additionally, huge nonlinearities emerge from the interference of the atomic
wave function with the laser waves. They lead to a partitioning of the phase
space accompanied by a significantly different action of the time evolution in
neighboring phase-space zones. For example, a nonlinearly modified coherent
"displacement" of the motional quantum state may induce strong amplitude
squeezing and quantum interferences.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. A 55 (June
Quantum-state synthesis of multi-mode bosonic fields: Preparation of arbitrary states of 2-D vibrational motion of trapped ions
We present a universal algorithm for an efficient deterministic preparation
of an arbitrary two--mode bosonic state. In particular, we discuss in detail
preparation of entangled states of a two-dimensional vibrational motion of a
trapped ion via a sequence of laser stimulated Raman transitions. Our formalism
can be generalized for multi-mode bosonic fields. We examine stability of our
algorithm with respect to a technical noise.Comment: 8 pages, revtex, including 2 ps-figures, section about physical
implementation added, references updated, submitted to Phys. Rev. A, computer
program available at http://www.savba.sk/sav/inst/fyzi/qo
Faddeev approach to the octet and decuplet baryons
A relativistic Faddeev model for the baryon octet is extended to treat the
baryon decuplet. We find that after determining the model parameters in the
mesonic sector the masses of both nucleon and delta deviate by less than 5\%
from the experimental data and show only a very weak dependence on the
constituent quark mass.Comment: 9 page
The Supercooling of a Nematic Liquid Crystal
We investigate the supercooling of a nematic liquid crystal using fluctuating
non-linear hydrodynamic equations. The Martin-Siggia-Rose formalism is used to
calculate renormalized transport coefficients to one-loop order. Similar
theories for isotropic liquids have shown substantial increases of the
viscosities as the liquid is supercooled or compressed due to feedback from the
density fluctuations which are freezing. We find similar results here for the
longitudinal and various shear viscosities of the nematic. However, the two
viscosities associated with the nematic director motion do not grow in any
dramatic way; i.e.\ there is no apparent freezing of the director modes within
this hydrodynamic formalism. Instead a glassy state of the nematic may arise
from a ``random anisotropy" coupling of the director to the frozen density.Comment: Late
Determination of entangled quantum states of a trapped atom
We propose a method for measuring entangled vibronic quantum states of a
trapped atom. It is based on the nonlinear dynamics of the system that appears
by resonantly driving a weak electronic transition. The proposed technique
allows the direct sampling of a Wigner-function matrix, displaying all knowable
information on the quantum correlations of the motional and electronic degrees
of freedom of the atom. It opens novel possibilities for testing fundamental
predictions of the quantum theory concerning interaction phenomena.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. A 56 (Aug
An experimental investigation of the influence of inter-turbine spacing on the loads and performance of a co-planar tidal turbine fence
Multi-rotor tidal turbine systems offer engineering benefits through shared infrastructure and improved opportunities for maintenance. Additionally, the ability to specify accurately the inter-turbine spacing in co-planar arrays allows rotors to be designed and deployed to benefit from the constructive interference effects available from neighbouring rotors. In this work we consider the effect of inter-turbine spacing and control of this spacing for a fence of turbines in low overall levels of global blockage (4.5%). We conduct experiments in a towing tank using two tidal turbine models that were previously designed to benefit from constructive interference effects at high local blockage, i.e. close inter-turbine spacing. The turbines were towed in a side-by-side configuration by suspending them from above. By making use of the tank’s side wall to act as a symmetry plane we were able to emulate a fence of four laterally arrayed turbines. As indicated by theory, decreasing inter-turbine spacing is shown to have a positive effect on fence performance. By reducing the inter-turbine spacing from one diameter to a quarter of a diameter, we observe an overall 1.4% performance increase, which is driven by a 2.8% increase in the inboard turbine’s power coefficient. This research is a first attempt to quantify constructive interference effects for a four turbine fence; the methods and results will be used to instruct further studies to aid the development of such multi-rotor tidal turbine systems
KamLAND, terrestrial heat sources and neutrino oscillations
We comment on the first indication of geo-neutrino events from KamLAND and on
the prospects for understanding Earth energetics. Practically all models of
terrestrial heat production are consistent with data within the presently
limited statistics, the fully radiogenic model being closer to the observed
value ( geo-events). In a few years KamLAND should collect
sufficient data for a clear evidence of geo-neutrinos, however discrimination
among models requires a detector with the class and size of KamLAND far away
from nuclear reactors. We also remark that the event ratio from Thorium and
Uranium decay chains is well fixed , a constraint that
can be useful for determining neutrino oscillation parameters. We show that a
full spectral analysis, including this constraint, further reduces the
oscillation parameter space compared to an analysis with an energy threshold
.Comment: 12 pages, RevTeX file, 3 ps figures included in the correct order,
corrected some typos and added references. Accepted for publication on Phys.
Lett.
- …