The Impact of the Chrono-geometrical Structure of Spacetime on Causality

We discuss the usual account of causal structure that relies on the temporal precedence constraint between cause-effect pairs. In particular, we consider the subtle interplay between local and global characters of time and causality encoded in General Relativity. We find that the temporal precedence constraint must be relaxed. We argue that these results could lead to an enriched structure of the physical causality.Comment: 13 pages, accepted by the Revue des Questions Scientifique

Global dynamics and stability limits for planetary systems around HD 12661, HD 38529, HD 37124 and HD 160691

In order to distinguish between regular and chaotic planetary orbits we apply a new technique called MEGNO in a wide neighbourhood of orbital parameters determined using standard two-body Keplerian fits for HD 12661, HD 38529, HD 37124 and HD 160691 planetary systems. We show that the currently announced orbital parameters place these systems in very different situations from the point of view of dynamical stability. While HD 38529 and HD 37124 are located within large stability zones in the phase space around their determined orbits, the preliminary orbits in HD 160691 are highly unstable. The orbital parameters of the HD 12661 planets are located in a border region between stable and unstable dynamical regimes, so while its currently determined orbital parameters produce stable regular orbits, a minor change within the margin of error of just one parameter may result in a chaotic dynamical system.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, accepted ApJ, revised version following the referee's repor

Zonation related function and ubiquitination regulation in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells in dynamic vs. static culture conditions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Understanding hepatic zonation is important both for liver physiology and pathology. There is currently no effective systemic chemotherapy for human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its pathogenesis is of special interest. Genomic and proteomic data of HCC cells in different culture models, coupled to pathway-based analysis, can help identify HCC-related gene and pathway dysfunctions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified zonation-related expression profiles contributing to selective phenotypes of HCC, by integrating relevant experimental observations through gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Analysis was based on gene and protein expression data measured on a human HCC cell line (HepG2/C3A) in two culture conditions: dynamic microfluidic biochips and static Petri dishes. Metabolic activity (HCC-related cytochromes P450) and genetic information processing were dominant in the dynamic cultures, in contrast to kinase signaling and cancer-specific profiles in static cultures. That, together with analysis of the published literature, leads us to propose that biochips culture conditions induce a periportal-like hepatocyte phenotype while standard plates cultures are more representative of a perivenous-like phenotype. Both proteomic data and GSEA results further reveal distinct ubiquitin-mediated protein regulation in the two culture conditions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Pathways analysis, using gene and protein expression data from two cell culture models, confirmed specific human HCC phenotypes with regard to CYPs and kinases, and revealed a zonation-related pattern of expression. Ubiquitin-mediated regulation mechanism gives plausible explanations of our findings. Altogether, our results suggest that strategies aimed at inhibiting activated kinases and signaling pathways may lead to enhanced metabolism-mediated drug resistance of treated tumors. If that were the case, mitigating inhibition or targeting inactive forms of kinases would be an alternative.</p

Supporting Reengineering Scenarios with FETCH: an Experience Report

The exploration and analysis of large software systems is a labor-intensive activity in need of tool support. In recent years, a number of tools have been developed that provide key functionality for standard reverse engineering scenarios, such as (i) metric analysis; (ii) anti-pattern detection; (iii) dependency analysis; and (iv) visualization. However, either these tools support merely a subset of this list of scenarios, they are not made available to the research community for comparison or extension, or they impose strict restrictions on the source code. Accordingly, we observe a need for an extensible and robust open source alternative, which we present in this paper. Our main contributions are (i) a clarification of useful reverse engineering scenarios; (ii) a comparison among existing solutions; and (iii) an experience report on four recent cases illustrating the usefulness of tool support for these scenarios in an industrial setting

On fitting planetary systems in counter-revolving configurations

In Gayon & Bois (2008) and Gayon etal (2009), (i) we studied the theoretical feasibility and efficiency of retrograde mean motion resonances (i.e. two planets are both in orbital resonance and in counter-revolving configuration), (ii) we showed that retrograde resonances can generate interesting mechanisms of stability, and (iii) we obtained a dynamical fit involving a counter-revolving configuration that is consistent with the observations of the HD73526 planetary system. In the present paper, we present and analyze data reductions assuming counter-revolving configurations for eight compact multi-planetary systems detected through the radial velocity method. In each case, we select the best fit leading to a dynamically stable solution. The resulting data reductions obtained in rms and chi values for counter-revolving configurations are of the same order, and sometimes slightly better, than for prograde configurations. In the end, these fits tend to show that, over the eight studied multi-planetary systems, six of them could be regulated by a mechanism involving a counter-revolving configuration.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS letters (August 10, 2009

Conditions of Dynamical Stability for the HD 160691 Planetary System

The orbits in the HD 160691 planetary system at first appeared highly unstable, but using the MEGNO and FLI techniques of global dynamics analysis in the orbital parameter space we have found a stabilizing mechanism that could be the key to its existence. In order to be dynamically stable, the HD 160691 planetary system has to satisfy the following conditions: (1) a 2:1 mean motion resonance, combined with (2) an apsidal secular resonance in (3) a configuration $P_{c}(ap) - S - P_{b}(ap)$ where the two apsidal lines are anti-aligned, and (4) specific conditions on the respective sizes of the eccentricities (high eccentricity for the outer orbit is in particular the most probable necessary condition). More generally, in this original orbital topology, where the resonance variables $\theta_{1}$ and $\theta_{3}$ librate about $180^{\circ}$ while $\theta_{2}$ librates about $0^{\circ}$, the HD 160691 system and its mechanism have revealed aspects of the 2:1 orbital resonances that have not been observed nor analyzed before. The present topology combined with the 2:1 resonance is indeed more wide-ranging than the particular case of the HD 160691 planetary system. It is a new theoretical possibility suitable for a stable regime despite relatively small semi-major axes with respect to the important masses in interactions.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted version to ApJ (31 Jul 2003

Species-wide distribution of highly polymorphic minisatellite markers suggests past and present genetic exchanges among house mouse subspecies

Global analysis of four minisatellite loci in House Mouse reveals unexpected long-range gene flow between populations and subspecies

French Guiana Amerindian demographic history as revealed by autosomal and Y-chromosome STRs.

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