598 research outputs found
Control of erythroid differentiation: asynchronous expression of the anion transporter and the peripheral components of the membrane skeleton in AEV- and S13-transformed cells
Chicken erythroblasts transformed with avian erythroblastosis virus or S13 virus provide suitable model systems with which to analyze the maturation of immature erythroblasts into erythrocytes. The transformed cells are blocked in differentiation at around the colony-forming unit- erythroid stage of development but can be induced to differentiate in vitro. Analysis of the expression and assembly of components of the membrane skeleton indicates that these cells simultaneously synthesize alpha-spectrin, beta-spectrin, ankyrin, and protein 4.1 at levels that are comparable to those of mature erythroblasts. However, they do not express any detectable amounts of anion transporter. The peripheral membrane skeleton components assemble transiently and are subsequently rapidly catabolized, resulting in 20-40-fold lower steady-state levels than are found in maturing erythrocytes. Upon spontaneous or chemically induced terminal differentiation of these cells expression of the anion transporter is initiated with a concommitant increase in the steady- state levels of the peripheral membrane-skeletal components. These results suggest that during erythropoiesis, expression of the peripheral components of the membrane skeleton is initiated earlier than that of the anion transporter. Furthermore, they point a key role for the anion transporter in conferring long-term stability to the assembled erythroid membrane skeleton during terminal differentiation
Five Intermediate-Period Planets from the N2K Sample
We report the detection of five Jovian mass planets orbiting high metallicity
stars. Four of these stars were first observed as part of the N2K program and
exhibited low RMS velocity scatter after three consecutive observations.
However, follow-up observations over the last three years now reveal the
presence of longer period planets with orbital periods ranging from 21 days to
a few years. HD 11506 is a G0V star with a planet of \msini = 4.74 \mjup in a
3.85 year orbit. HD 17156 is a G0V star with a 3.12 \mjup planet in a 21.2 day
orbit. The eccentricity of this orbit is 0.67, one of the highest known for a
planet with a relatively short period. The orbital period for this planet
places it in a region of parameter space where relatively few planets have been
detected. HD 125612 is a G3V star with a planet of \msini = 3.5 \mjup in a 1.4
year orbit. HD 170469 is a G5IV star with a planet of \msini = 0.67 \mjup in a
3.13 year orbit. HD 231701 is an F8V star with planet of 1.08 \mjup in a 142
day orbit. All of these stars have supersolar metallicity. Three of the five
stars were observed photometrically but showed no evidence of brightness
variability. A transit search conducted for HD 17156 was negative but covered
only 25% of the search space and so is not conclusive.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted ApJ Resubmitted here with some
additional data, modified Keplerian orbit
Open Charm Production in an Equilibrating Parton Plasma
Open charm production during the equilibration of a gluon dominated parton
plasma is calculated, with both the time-dependent temperature and parton
densities given by a set of rate equations. Including pre-thermal production,
the total enhancement of open charm production over the initial gluon fusion
depends sensitively on the initial parton density and the effective
temperature. The dependence of the pre-thermal charm production on the
space-momentum correlation in the initial parton phase-space distribution is
also discussed.Comment: 23 pages REVTEX, 7 uuencoded postscript figures include
The N2K Consortium. II. A Transiting Hot Saturn Around HD 149026 With a Large Dense Core
Doppler measurements from Subaru and Keck have revealed radial velocity
variations in the V=8.15, G0IV star HD 149026 consistent with a Saturn-Mass
planet in a 2.8766 day orbit. Photometric observations at Fairborn Observatory
have detected three complete transit events with depths of 0.003 mag at the
predicted times of conjunction. HD 149026 is now the second brightest star with
a transiting extrasolar planet. The mass of the star, based on interpolation of
stellar evolutionary models, is 1.3 +/- 0.1 solar masses; together with the
Doppler amplitude, K=43.3 m s^-1, we derive a planet mass Msin(i)=0.36 Mjup,
and orbital radius of 0.042 AU. HD 149026 is chromospherically inactive and
metal-rich with spectroscopically derived [Fe/H]=+0.36, Teff=6147 K, log g=4.26
and vsin(i)=6.0 km s^-1. Based on Teff and the stellar luminosity of 2.72 Lsun,
we derive a stellar radius of 1.45 Rsun. Modeling of the three photometric
transits provides an orbital inclination of 85.3 +/- 1.0 degrees and (including
the uncertainty in the stellar radius) a planet radius of 0.725 +/- 0.05 Rjup.
Models for this planet mass and radius suggest the presence of a ~67 Mearth
core composed of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. This substantial
planet core would be difficult to construct by gravitational instability.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, accepted by the Astrophysical Journa
Dynamics of Gravitational Waves in 3D: Formulations, Methods, and Tests
The dynamics of gravitational waves is investigated in full 3+1 dimensional
numerical relativity, emphasizing the difficulties that one might encounter in
numerical evolutions, particularly those arising from non-linearities and gauge
degrees of freedom. Using gravitational waves with amplitudes low enough that
one has a good understanding of the physics involved, but large enough to
enable non-linear effects to emerge, we study the coupling between numerical
errors, coordinate effects, and the nonlinearities of the theory. We discuss
the various strategies used in identifying specific features of the evolution.
We show the importance of the flexibility of being able to use different
numerical schemes, different slicing conditions, different formulations of the
Einstein equations (standard ADM vs. first order hyperbolic), and different
sets of equations (linearized vs. full Einstein equations). A non-linear scalar
field equation is presented which captures some properties of the full Einstein
equations, and has been useful in our understanding of the coupling between
finite differencing errors and non-linearites. We present a set of monitoring
devices which have been crucial in our studying of the waves, including Riemann
invariants, pseudo-energy momentum tensor, hamiltonian constraint violation,
and fourier spectrum analysis.Comment: 34 pages, 14 figure
Sorting of chromosomes by magnetic separation
Chromosomes were isolated from Chinese hamster x human hybrid cell lines containing four and nine human chromosomes. Human genomic DNA was biotinylated by nick translation and used to label the human chromosomes by in situ hybridization in suspension. Streptavidin was covalently coupled to the surface of magnetic beads and these were incubated with the hybridized chromosomes. The human chromosomes were bound to the magnetic beads through the strong biotin-streptavidin complex and then rapidly separated from nonlabeled Chinese hamster chromosomes by a simple permanent magnet. The hybridization was visualized by additional binding of avidin-FITC (fluorescein) to the unoccupied biotinylated human DNA bound to the human chromosomes. After magnetic separation, up to 98% of the individual chromosomes attached to magnetic beads were classified as human chromosomes by fluorescence microscopy
A Rydberg Quantum Simulator
Following Feynman and as elaborated on by Lloyd, a universal quantum
simulator (QS) is a controlled quantum device which reproduces the dynamics of
any other many particle quantum system with short range interactions. This
dynamics can refer to both coherent Hamiltonian and dissipative open system
evolution. We investigate how laser excited Rydberg atoms in large spacing
optical or magnetic lattices can provide an efficient implementation of a
universal QS for spin models involving (high order) n-body interactions. This
includes the simulation of Hamiltonians of exotic spin models involving
n-particle constraints such as the Kitaev toric code, color code, and lattice
gauge theories with spin liquid phases. In addition, it provides the
ingredients for dissipative preparation of entangled states based on
engineering n-particle reservoir couplings. The key basic building blocks of
our architecture are efficient and high-fidelity n-qubit entangling gates via
auxiliary Rydberg atoms, including a possible dissipative time step via optical
pumping. This allows to mimic the time evolution of the system by a sequence of
fast, parallel and high-fidelity n-particle coherent and dissipative Rydberg
gates.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
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