168 research outputs found
Potential Role of Protein Kinase B in Insulin-induced Glucose Transport, Glycogen Synthesis, and Protein Synthesis
Various biological responses stimulated by insulin
have been thought to be regulated by phosphatidylinosi-tol
3-kinase, including glucose transport, glycogen syn-thesis,
and protein synthesis. However, the molecular
link between phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and these
biological responses has been poorly understood. Re-cently,
it has been shown that protein kinase B (PKB/c-Akt/
Rac) lies immediately downstream from phosphati-dylinositol
3-kinase. Here, we show that expression of a
constitutively active form of PKB induced glucose up-take,
glycogen synthesis, and protein synthesis in L6
myotubes downstream of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase
and independent of Ras and mitogen-activated protein
kinase activation. Introduction of constitutively active
PKB induced glucose uptake and protein synthesis but
not glycogen synthesis in 3T3L-1 adipocytes, which lack
expression of glycogen synthase kinase 3 different from
L6 myotubes. Furthermore, we show that deactivation
of glycogen synthase kinase 3 and activation of rapamy-cin-
sensitive serine/threonine kinase by PKB in L6 myo-tubes
might be involved in the enhancement of glycogen
synthesis and protein synthesis, respectively. These re-sults
suggest that PKB acts as a key enzyme linking
phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activation to multiple bi-ological
functions of insulin through regulation of
downstream kinases in skeletal muscle, a major target
tissue of insulin
Synthesis and structural characterization of thin multi-walled carbon nanotubes with a partially facetted cross section by a floating reactant method
ArticleCarbon. 43(11):2243-2250 (2005)journal articl
Anomalous magnetic phase in an undistorted pyrochlore oxide Cd2Os2O7 induced by geometrical frustration
We report on the muon spin rotation/relaxation study of a pyrochlore oxide,
Cd2Os2O7, which exhibits a metal-insulator (MI) transition at T_{MI}~225 K
without structural phase transition. It reveals strong spin fluctuation
(>10^8/s) below the MI transition, suggesting a predominant role of geometrical
spin frustration amongst Os^{5+} ions. Meanwhile, upon further cooling, a
static spin density wave discontinuously develops below T_{SDW}~150 K. These
observations strongly suggest the occurrence of an anomalous magnetic
transition and associated change in the local spin dynamics in undistorted
pyrochlore antiferromagnet.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
STM observation of electronic wave interference effect in finite-sized graphite with dislocation-network structures
Superperiodic patterns near a step edge were observed by STM on
several-layer-thick graphite sheets on a highly oriented pyrolitic graphite
substrate, where a dislocation network is generated at the interface between
the graphite overlayer and the substrate. Triangular- and rhombic-shaped
periodic patterns whose periodicities are around 100 nm were observed on the
upper terrace near the step edge. In contrast, only outlines of the patterns
similar to those on the upper terrace were observed on the lower terrace. On
the upper terrace, their geometrical patterns gradually disappeared and became
similar to those on the lower terrace without any changes of their periodicity
in increasing a bias voltage. By assuming a periodic scattering potential at
the interface due to dislocations, the varying corrugation amplitudes of the
patterns can be understood as changes in LDOS as a result of the beat of
perturbed and unperturbed waves, i.e. the interference in an overlayer. The
observed changes in the image depending on an overlayer height and a bias
voltage can be explained by the electronic wave interference in the ultra-thin
overlayer distorted under the influence of dislocation-network structures.Comment: 8 pages; 6 figures; Paper which a part of cond-mat/0311068 is
disscussed in detai
Heavy--light mesons in a bilocal effective theory
Heavy--light mesons are described in an effective quark theory with a
two--body vector--type interaction. The bilocal interaction is taken to be
instantaneous in the rest frame of the bound state, but formulated covariantly
through the use of a boost vector. The chiral symmetry of the light flavor is
broken spontaneously at mean field level. The framework for our discussion of
bound states is the effective bilocal meson action obtained by bosonization of
the quark theory. Mesons are described by 3--dimensional wave functions
satisfying Salpeter equations, which exhibit both Goldstone solutions in the
chiral limit and heavy--quark symmetry for . We present
numerical solutions for pseudoscalar -- and --mesons. Heavy--light meson
spectra and decay constants are seen to be sensitive to the description of
chiral symmetry breaking (dynamically generated vs.\ constant quark mass).Comment: (34 p., standard LaTeX, 7 PostScript figures appended)
UNITUE-THEP-17/9
Magnetic properties of the distorted diamond chain at T=0
We explore, at T=0, the magnetic properties of the antiferromagnetic
distorted diamond chain described by the Hamiltonian {\cal H}
= \sum_{j=1}^{N/3}{J_1 ({\bi S}_{3j-1} \cdot {\bi S}_{3j}
+ {\bi S}_{3j} \cdot {\bi S}_{3j+1})
+ J_2 {\bi S}_{3j+1} \cdot {\bi S}_{3j+2}
+ J_3 ({\bi S}_{3j-2} \cdot {\bi S}_{3j}
+ {\bi S}_{3j} \cdot {\bi S}_{3j+2})}
\allowbreak - H \sum_{l=1}^{N} S_l^z with , which well
models with , and azurite . We employ the physical
consideration, the degenerate perturbation theory, the level spectroscopy
analysis of the numerical diagonalization data obtained by the Lanczos method
and also the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method. We investigate
the mechanisms of the magnetization plateaux at and , and
also show the precise phase diagrams on the plane
concerning with these magnetization plateaux, where
and is the saturation magnetization. We also calculate the magnetization
curves and the magnetization phase diagrams by means of the DMRG method.Comment: 21 pages, 29 figure
1D Frustrated Ferromagnetic Model with Added Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction
The one-dimensional (1D) isotropic frustrated ferromagnetic spin-1/2 model is
considered. Classical and quantum effects of adding a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya
(DM) interaction on the ground state of the system is studied using the
analytical cluster method and numerical Lanczos technique. Cluster method
results, show that the classical ground state magnetic phase diagram consists
of only one single phase: "chiral". The quantum corrections are determined by
means of the Lanczos method and a rich quantum phase diagram including the
gapless Luttinger liquid, the gapped chiral and dimer orders is obtained.
Moreover, next nearest neighbors will be entangled by increasing DM interaction
and for open chains, end-spins are entangled which shows the long distance
entanglement (LDE) feature that can be controlled by DM interaction.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
The phase diagram of the extended anisotropic ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain
By using Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) technique we study the
phase diagram of 1D extended anisotropic Heisenberg model with ferromagnetic
nearest-neighbor and antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interactions. We
analyze the static correlation functions for the spin operators both in- and
out-of-plane and classify the zero-temperature phases by the range of their
correlations. On clusters of sites with open boundary
conditions we isolate the boundary effects and make finite-size scaling of our
results. Apart from the ferromagnetic phase, we identify two gapless spin-fluid
phases and two ones with massive excitations. Based on our phase diagram and on
estimates for the coupling constants known from literature, we classify the
ground states of several edge-sharing materials.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure
Exact degenerate ground states for the F-AF spin chain with bond alternation
We investigate the - spin chain consisting of spins with magnitude
. The nearest-neighbor and the next-nearest-neighbor exchange
interactions are ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic, respectively, and induce
strong frustration. Both these interactions involve the bond alternation. We
find exact solutions for all the degenerate ground states on the phase boundary
of the ferromagnetic phase. The degeneracy remains irrespective of two
parameters representing the bond alternation. The exact solutions are of closed
forms for no bond alternation and of recursion formulae in general. The exact
solutions are applicable to the chain as a special case.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Heterochronic faecal transplantation boosts gut germinal centres in aged mice
Ageing is a complex multifactorial process associated with a plethora of disorders, which contribute significantly to morbidity worldwide. One of the organs significantly affected by age is the gut. Age-dependent changes of the gut-associated microbiome have been linked to increased frailty and systemic inflammation. This change in microbial composition with age occurs in parallel with a decline in function of the gut immune system, however it is not clear if there is a causal link between the two. Here we report that the defective germinal centre reaction in Peyer’s patches of aged mice can be rescued by faecal transfers from younger adults into aged mice and by immunisations with cholera toxin, without affecting germinal centre reactions in peripheral lymph nodes. This demonstrates that the poor germinal centre reaction in aged animals is not irreversible, and that it is possible to improve this response in older individuals by providing appropriate stimuli
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