3,553 research outputs found
Light and electron microscopical observations of the effects of high-density lipoprotein on growth of Plasmodium falciparum in vitro
Author Posting. © Cambridge University Press, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of Cambridge University Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Parasitology 128 (2004): 577-584, doi:10.1017/S0031182004005025.Human serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) is necessary and sufficient for the short-term maintenance of Plasmodium falciparum in in vitro culture. However, at high concentrations it is toxic to the parasite. A heat-labile component is apparently responsible for the stage-specific toxicity to parasites within infected erythrocytes 12–42 h after invasion, i.e. during trophozoite maturation. The effects of HDL on parasite metabolism (as determined by nucleic acid synthesis) are evident at about 30 h after invasion. Parasites treated with HDL show gross abnormalities by light and electron microscopy.Professor Hajduk was supported by NIH. Professor Day
was supported by a Research Leave Fellowship from The
Wellcome Trust. Dr Imrie and Ms Carter were supported
by Programme Grant funding awarded to Professor Day
from The Wellcome Trust. Dr Ferguson was supported by
an equipment grant from The Wellcome Trust
Distributed low voltage power supply system for front end electronics of the TRT detector in ATLAS experiment
We present a low voltage power supply system which has to deliver to the front end electronics of the ATLAS TRT detector [1] ca. 23 kW of electrical power over the distance of 55 -106 m (which adds another 24 kW). The system has to operate in magnetic field and under radiation environment of the LHC experimental cavern. The system has ~ 3000 individual channels which are all monitored and controlled (voltage and current measurement). The hardware solutions are described as well as the system control software
Triton calculations with and exchange three-nucleon forces
The Faddeev equations are solved in momentum space for the trinucleon bound
state with the new Tucson-Melbourne and exchange three-nucleon
potentials. The three-nucleon potentials are combined with a variety of
realistic two-nucleon potentials. The dependence of the triton binding energy
on the cut-off parameter in the three-nucleon potentials is studied
and found to be reduced compared to the case with pure exchange. The
exchange parts of the three-nucleon potential yield an overall repulsive
effect. When the recommended parameters are employed, the calculated triton
binding energy turns out to be very close to its experimental value.
Expectation values of various components of the three-nucleon potential are
given to illustrate their significance for binding.Comment: 17 pages Revtex 3.0, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev.
The Real-Time Evolution of Sakurai's Star (V4334 Sgr) and other (V)LTP Objects
We report on the progress of our on-going campaign to monitor the evolution
of the VLTP objects V4334 Sgr and V605 Aql, as well as the suspected (V)LTP
object CK Vul. V4334 Sgr does not show signs of increased ionization compared
to our previous observations in 2004. We obtained the first radio detection of
V605 Aql, indicating a strong increase in radio flux since 1987. We also
present the first radio detection of CK Vul and discuss the expansion of the
material ejected during the 1670 event.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures in eps format, IAU symp. 234: `Planetary Nebulae
in our Galaxy and Beyond', eds. M. J. Barlow & R. H. Mende
Three-Nucleon Force and the -Mechanism for Pion Production and Pion Absorption
The description of the three-nucleon system in terms of nucleon and
degrees of freedom is extended to allow for explicit pion production
(absorption) from single dynamic de-excitation (excitation) processes.
This mechanism yields an energy dependent effective three-body hamiltonean. The
Faddeev equations for the trinucleon bound state are solved with a force model
that has already been tested in the two-nucleon system above pion-production
threshold. The binding energy and other bound state properties are calculated.
The contribution to the effective three-nucleon force arising from the pionic
degrees of freedom is evaluated. The validity of previous coupled-channel
calculations with explicit but stable isobar components in the
wavefunction is studied.Comment: 23 pages in Revtex 3.0, 9 figures (not included, available as
postscript files upon request), CEBAF-TH-93-0
Anisotropic elasticity in confocal studies of colloidal crystals
We consider the theory of fluctuations of a colloidal solid observed in a
confocal slice. For a cubic crystal we study the evolution of the projected
elastic properties as a function of the anisotropy of the crystal using
numerical methods based on the fast Fourier transform. In certain situations of
high symmetry we find exact analytic results for the projected fluctuations.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Relativistic Hamiltonians in many-body theories
We discuss the description of a many-body nuclear system using Hamiltonians
that contain the nucleon relativistic kinetic energy and potentials with
relativistic corrections. Through the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation, the
field theoretical problem of interacting nucleons and mesons is mapped to an
equivalent one in terms of relativistic potentials, which are then expanded at
some order in 1/m_N. The formalism is applied to the Hartree problem in nuclear
matter, showing how the results of the relativistic mean field theory can be
recovered over a wide range of densities.Comment: 14 pages, uses REVTeX and epsfig, 3 postscript figures; a postscript
version of the paper is available by anonymous ftp at
ftp://carmen.to.infn.it/pub/depace/papers/951
Individual variation in levels of haptoglobin-related protein in children from Gabon
Background: Haptoglobin related protein (Hpr) is a key component of trypanosome lytic factors (TLF), a subset of highdensity lipoproteins (HDL) that form the first line of human defence against African trypanosomes. Hpr, like haptoglobin (Hp) can bind to hemoglobin (Hb) and it is the Hpr-Hb complexes which bind to these parasites allowing uptake of TLF. This unique form of innate immunity is primate-specific. To date, there have been no population studies of plasma levels of Hpr, particularly in relation to hemolysis and a high prevalence of ahaptoglobinemia as found in malaria endemic areas. Methods and Principal Findings: We developed a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure levels of plasma Hpr in Gabonese children sampled during a period of seasonal malaria transmission when acute phase responses (APR), malaria infection and associated hemolysis were prevalent. Median Hpr concentration was 0.28 mg/ml (range 0.03-1.1). This was 5-fold higher than that found in Caucasian children (0.049 mg/ml, range 0.002-0.26) with no evidence of an APR. A general linear model was used to investigate associations between Hpr levels, host polymorphisms, parasitological factors and the acute phase proteins, Hp, C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin. Levels of Hpr were associated with Hp genotype, decreased with age and were higher in females. Hpr concentration was strongly correlated with that of Hp, but not CRP
Manifestation of three-body forces in three-body Bethe-Salpeter and light-front equations
Bethe-Salpeter and light-front bound state equations for three scalar
particles interacting by scalar exchange-bosons are solved in ladder
truncation. In contrast to two-body systems, the three-body binding energies
obtained in these two approaches differ significantly from each other: the
ladder kernel in light-front dynamics underbinds by approximately a factor of
two compared to the ladder Bethe-Salpeter equation. By taking into account
three-body forces in the light-front approach, generated by two exchange-bosons
in flight, we find that most of this difference disappears; for small exchange
masses, the obtained binding energies coincide with each other.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, submitted in Few-Body System
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