CadC-mediated activation of the cadBA promoter in Escherichia coli

The transcriptional activator CadC in Escherichia coli, a member of the ToxR-like proteins, activates transcription of the cadBA operon encoding the lysine decarboxylase CadA and the lysine-cadaverine antiporter CadB. cadBA is induced under conditions of acidic external pH and exogenous lysine; anoxic conditions raise the expression level up to 10 times. To characterize the binding mechanism of CadC, procedures for the purification of this membrane-integrated protein and its reconstitution into proteoliposomes were established. The binding sites of CadC upstream of the cadBA promoter region were determined by in vitro DNaseI protection analysis. Two regions were protected during DNaseI digestion, one from - 144 to - 112 bp, designated Cad1, and another one from - 89 to - 59 bp, designated Cad2. Binding of purified CadC to Cad1 and Cad2 was further characterized by DNA-binding assays, indicating that CadC was able to bind to both DNA fragments. Genetic analysis with promoter-lacZ fusions confirmed that both sites, Cad1 and Cad2, are essential for activation of cadBA transcription. Moreover, these experiments revealed that binding of H-NS upstream of the CadC-binding sites is necessary for repression of cadBA expression at neutral pH and under aerobic conditions. Based on these results, a model for transcriptional regulation of the cadBA operon is proposed, according to which H-NS is involved in the formation of a repression complex under non-inducing conditions. This complex is dissolved by binding of CadC to Cad1 under inducing conditions. Upon binding of CadC to Cad2 cadBA expression is activated. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

Extraction of information about periodic orbits from scattering functions

As a contribution to the inverse scattering problem for classical chaotic systems, we show that one can select sequences of intervals of continuity, each of which yields the information about period, eigenvalue and symmetry of one unstable periodic orbit.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages (includes 5 eps-figures

Form Invariance of the Neutrino Mass Matrix

Consider the most general $3 \times 3$ Majorana neutrino mass matrix $\cal M$. Motivated by present neutrino-oscillation data, much theoretical effort is directed at reducing it to a specific texture in terms of a small number of parameters. This procedure is often {\it ad hoc}. I propose instead that for any $\cal M$ one may choose, it should satisfy the condition $U {\cal M} U^T = {\cal M}$, where $U \neq 1$ is a specific unitary matrix such that $U^N$ represents a well-defined discrete symmetry in the $\nu_{e,\mu,\tau}$ basis, $N$ being a particular integer not necessarily equal to one. I illustrate this idea with a number of examples, including the realistic case of an inverted hierarchy of neutrino masses.Comment: Version to appear in PR

Zigzag Filamentary Theory of Broken Symmetry of Neutron and Infrared Vibronic Spectra of YBa2Cu3O(6+x)

Filamentary high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC) theory differs fundamentally from continuous HTSC theories because it emphasizes self-organized, discrete dopant networks and does not make the effective medium approximation (EMA). Analysis of neutron and infrared (especially with c-axis polarization) vibrational spectra, primarily for YBa2Cu3O(6+x), within the filamentary framework, shows that the observed vibronic anomalies near 400 cm-1 (50 meV) are associated with curvilinear filamentary paths. these paths pass through cuprate chains and planes, as well as resonant tunneling centers in the BaO layers. The analysis and the data confirm earlier filamentary structural models containing ferroelastic domains of 3-4 nm in the CuO2 planes; it is these nanodomains that are responsible for the discrete glassy nature of both electronic and vibronic properties. Chemical trends in vibronic energies and oscillator strengths, both for neutron and photon scattering, that were anomalous in continuum models, are readily explained by the filamentary model.Comment: 45 pages, 17 figures, PD

The Diffractive Interactions Working Group Summary

Diffractive interactions represent a lively domain of investigations, as confirmed by the progresses reported during the conference. We summarize the diffractive interactions session and put the new experimental data (section 1), developments in modeling diffraction (section 2) and the theoretical relations with Quantum Chromodynamics (section 3) in perspective.Comment: Summary report at DIS200

Semiclassical approach to Bose-Einstein condensates in a triple well potential

We present a new approach for the analysis of Bose-Einstein condensates in a few mode approximation. This method has already been used to successfully analyze the vibrational modes in various molecular systems and offers a new perspective on the dynamics in many particle bosonic systems. We discuss a system consisting of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a triple well potential. Such systems correspond to classical Hamiltonian systems with three degrees of freedom. The semiclassical approach allows a simple visualization of the eigenstates of the quantum system referring to the underlying classical dynamics. From this classification we can read off the dynamical properties of the eigenstates such as particle exchange between the wells and entanglement without further calculations. In addition, this approach offers new insights into the validity of the mean-field description of the many particle system by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, since we make use of exactly this correspondence in our semiclassical analysis. We choose a three mode system in order to visualize it easily and, moreover, to have a sufficiently interesting structure, although the method can also be extended to higher dimensional systems.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figure