1,670 research outputs found
Targeting of arenavirus RNA synthesis by a carboxamide-derivatized aromatic disulfide with virucidal activity.
Several arenaviruses can cause severe hemorrhagic fever (HF) in humans, representing a public health threat in endemic areas of Africa and South America. The present study characterizes the potent virucidal activity of the carboxamide-derivatized aromatic disulfide NSC4492, an antiretroviral zinc finger-reactive compound, against JunĂn virus (JUNV), the causative agent of Argentine HF. The compound was able to inactivate JUNV in a time and temperature-dependent manner, producing more than 99 % reduction in virus titer upon incubation with virions at 37 °C for 90 min. The ability of NSC4492-treated JUNV to go through different steps of the multiplication cycle was then evaluated. Inactivated virions were able to bind and enter into the host cell with similar efficiency as control infectious particles. In contrast, treatment with NSC4492 impaired the capacity of JUNV to drive viral RNA synthesis, as measured by quantitative RT-PCR, and blocked viral protein expression, as determined by indirect immunofluorescence. These results suggest that the disulfide NSC4492 targets on the arenavirus replication complex leading to impairment in viral RNA synthesis. Additionally, analysis of VLP produced in NSC4492-treated cells expressing JUNV matrix Z protein revealed that the compound may interact with Z resulting in an altered aggregation behavior of this protein, but without affecting its intrinsic self-budding properties. The potential perspectives of NSC4492 as an inactivating vaccinal compound for pathogenic arenaviruses are discussed.Fil: SepĂșlveda, Claudia Soledad. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Cs.exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Quimica Biologica;Fil: Garcia, Cybele. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Cs.exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Quimica Biologica;Fil: Levingston Mac Leod, Jesica Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Invest.cientif.y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Pque. Centenario. Instituto de Cs. y Tecnologia "dr. Cesar Milstein";Fil: Lopez, Nora Mabel. Consejo Nacional de Invest.cientif.y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Pque. Centenario. Instituto de Cs. y Tecnologia "dr. Cesar Milstein";Fil: Damonte, Elsa Beatriz. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Cs.exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Quimica Biologica
A photo-ionized canopy for the shock-excited Criss-Cross Nebula
Aims. We study a new broad well-defined arc of optical nebulosity close to
the cloud-shock interacting Criss-Cross Nebula, derive the basic physical
properties of the former and revise those of the latter, and compare both
objects to simulations of cloud-shock interactions from the literature.
Methods. Deep optical, partly wide-field, images were used to reveal the
intricate morphology and overall extent of the nebulosities. Optical
spectroscopy enabled us to uncover their nature. Results. The two nebulosities
obviously are physically linked, but are of different type; the Criss-Cross
Nebula is, as was shown also in an earlier paper, excited via a slow shock from
the expanding Orion-Eridanus Bubble, but the broad arc is definitely
photo-ionized. The source for ionizing photons appears to be hot gas in this
bubble. Some results of simulations of interactions of SNRs with interstellar
clouds available from the literature bear a striking resemblance to our
nebulae, which appear to represent an example - unrivalled in closeness and
clarity - for an early to medium stage in the destruction of an isolated cloud
over-run by a highly evolved SNR. Thereby the Criss-Cross Nebula is, when seen
from the SNR, the rear disrupted part of the original small cloud, whereas the
arc probably is its yet rather intact front part.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Figures degraded because of size constraints.
Accepted for publication in A&
Magnetisation switching in a ferromagnetic Heisenberg nanoparticle with uniaxial anisotropy: A Monte Carlo investigation
We investigate the thermal activated magnetisation reversal in a single
ferromagnetic nanoparticle with uniaxial anisotropy using Monte Carlo
simulations. The aim of this work is to reproduce the reversal magnetisation by
uniform rotation at very low temperature in the high energy barrier hypothesis,
that is to realize the N\'eel-Brown model. For this purpose we have considered
a simple cubic nanoparticle where each site is occupied by a classical
Heisenberg spin. The Hamiltonian is the sum of an exchange interaction term, a
single-ion anisotropy term and a Zeeman interaction term. Our numerical data of
the thermal variation of the switching field are compared to an approximated
expression and previous experimental results on Co nanoparticles
A new radiative cooling curve based on an up to date plasma emission code
This work presents a new plasma cooling curve that is calculated using the
SPEX package. We compare our cooling rates to those in previous works, and
implement the new cooling function in the grid-adaptive framework `AMRVAC'.
Contributions to the cooling rate by the individual elements are given, to
allow for the creation of cooling curves tailored to specific abundance
requirements. In some situations, it is important to be able to include
radiative losses in the hydrodynamics. The enhanced compression ratio can
trigger instabilities (such as the Vishniac thin-shell instability) that would
otherwise be absent. For gas with temperatures below 10,000 K, the cooling time
becomes very long and does not affect the gas on the timescales that are
generally of interest for hydrodynamical simulations of circumstellar plasmas.
However, above this temperature, a significant fraction of the elements is
ionised, and the cooling rate increases by a factor 1000 relative to lower
temperature plasmas.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. Typos fixed to match version on A&A
'forthcoming' website. Tables in text format online available at
http://www.phys.uu.nl/~schure/coolin
An Interstellar Conduction Front Within a Wolf-Rayet Ring Nebula Observed with the GHRS
With the High Resolution Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope we
obtained high signal-to-noise (S/N > 200 - 600 per 17 km/s resolution element)
spectra of narrow absorption lines toward the Wolf-Rayet star HD 50896. The
ring nebula S308 that surrounds this star is thought to be caused by a
pressure-driven bubble bounded by circumstellar gas (most likely from a red
supergiant or luminous blue variable progenitor) pushed aside by a strong
stellar wind. Our observation has shown for the first time that blueshifted
(approximately 70 km/s relative to the star) absorption components of C IV and
N V arise in a conduction front between the hot interior of the bubble and the
cold shell of swept-up material. These lines set limits on models of the
conduction front. Nitrogen in the shell appears to be overabundant by a factor
~10. The P Cygni profiles of N V and C IV are variable, possibly due to a
suspected binary companion to HD 50896.Comment: 32 pages, Latex, to appear in the Astrophysical Journal, April, 199
Unrepeatered field transmission of 2 Tbit/s multi-banded coherent WDM over 124 km of installed SMF
In this paper we report field transmission of a 2Tbit/s multi-banded Coherent WDM signal over BT Ireland's installed SMF, using EDFA amplification only, with mixed Ethernet (with FEC) and PRBS payloads. To the best of our knowledge, the results obtained represent the highest total capacity transmitted over installed SMF with orthogonal subcarriers. BERs below 10(-5) and no frame-loss were recorded for all 49 subcarriers. Extended BER measurements over several hours showed fluctuations that can be attributed to PMD and to dynamic effects associated with clock instabilities
The Energetics of Molecular Gas in NGC 891 from H2 and FIR Spectroscopy
We have studied the molecular hydrogen energetics of the edge-on spiral
galaxy NGC\,891, using a 34-position map in the lowest three pure rotational
H lines observed with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph. The S(0), S(1),
and S(2) lines are bright with an extinction corrected total luminosity of
L, or 0.09\% of the total-infrared luminosity
of NGC\,891. The H line ratios are nearly constant along the plane of the
galaxy -- we do not observe the previously reported strong drop-off in the
S(1)/S(0) line intensity ratio in the outer regions of the galaxy, so we find
no evidence for the very massive cold CO-free molecular clouds invoked to
explain the past observations. The H level excitation temperatures increase
monotonically indicating more than one component to the emitting gas. More than
99\% of the mass is in the lowest excitation (T 125 K) ``warm''
component. In the inner galaxy, the warm H emitting gas is 15\% of
the CO(1-0)-traced cool molecular gas, while in the outer regions the fraction
is twice as high. This large mass of warm gas is heated by a combination of the
far-UV photons from stars in photo-dissociation regions (PDRs) and the
dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy. Including the observed far-infrared
[OI] and [CII] fine-structure line emission and far-infrared continuum emission
in a self-consistent manner to constrain the PDR models, we find essentially
all of the S(0) and most (70\%) of the S(1) line arises from low excitation
PDRs, while most (80\%) of the S(2) and the remainder of the S(1) line emission
arises from low velocity microturbulent dissipation.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Figure 10
available at http://www.physics.uoc.gr/~vassilis/papers/ngc891.pd
Evaluation of salivary protein patterns among a rural population exposed and non-exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water in areas of TucumĂĄn (Argentina): a pilot study
Arsenic contamination in the environment and groundwater is a major global public health problem. Several researchers suggest that the toxicity of arsenic could be related to oral cancer development, usually resulting from potentially malignant lesions. During pathological processes, salivary proteins suffer modifications, which could lead to the discovery of new biomarkers. Objective: To analyze the protein profile in human saliva samples from a rural population exposed to high levels of arsenic in drinking water and its association with potentially malignant lesions. Methodology: This observational, analytic and cross-sectional design included 121 patients from the state of Graneros (TucumĂĄn, Argentina). Arsenic concentration in drinking water was determined and, according to the values obtained, individuals were divided into 2 groups: exposed group and non-exposed group. Saliva samples were obtained, and total protein concentration was measured by Bradford method. Finally, Laemmli SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was conducted to obtain the protein profile. Results: Total protein concentration in saliva was lower in the exposed group than in the non-exposed group. Average areas of 20 and 42 KDa bands were significantly lower in exposed group than non-exposed group. Conclusion: Chronic intake of high arsenic concentrations in drinking water produces changes in the salivary protein profile, which is associated with the presence of potentially malignant lesions
Acute effects of a session of electroconvulsive therapy on brain-derived neurotrophic factor plasma levels
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor (NGF) are neurotrophins that play critical roles in brain neuronal function. Previous studies have established the association between BDNF and NGF signaling and severe mental disorders, but changes in BDNF plasma levels and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) response are controversial. The aim of his study was to explore the acute effects of a single session of ECT on these neurotrophins signaling. Plasma levels of BDNF and NGF and their tyrosine kinase-type receptors expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were determined before and two hours after a single ECT session in 30 subjects with a severe mental disorder. Two hours after an ECT session we found a statistically significant decrease of BDNF plasma levels (p=0.007). We did not find significant acute effects on NGF plasma levels or receptors expression in PBMCs. We found a significant inverse correlation between the time of convulsion and BDNF plasma levels decrease (r=-0.041, p=0.024). We have identified a decrease in BDNF plasma levels after 2h of a single ECT session. These results indicate the interest for future research in the role of neurotrophins in the response and safety of ECT
Protostellar collapse and fragmentation using an MHD GADGET
Although the influence of magnetic fields is regarded as vital in the star
formation process, only a few magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations have been
performed on this subject within the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH)
method. This is largely due to the unsatisfactory treatment of non-vanishing
divergence of the magnetic field. Recently smoothed particle
magnetohydrodynamics (SPMHD) simulations based on Euler potentials have proven
to be successful in treating MHD collapse and fragmentation problems, however
these methods are known to have some intrinsical difficulties. We have
performed SPMHD simulations based on a traditional approach evolving the
magnetic field itself using the induction equation. To account for the
numerical divergence, we have chosen an approach that subtracts the effects of
numerical divergence from the force equation, and additionally we employ
artificial magnetic dissipation as a regularization scheme. We apply this
realization of SPMHD to a widely known setup, a variation of the 'Boss &
Bodenheimer standard isothermal test case', to study the impact of the magnetic
fields on collapse and fragmentation. In our simulations, we concentrate on
setups, where the initial magnetic field is parallel to the rotation axis. We
examine different field strengths and compare our results to other findings
reported in the literature. We are able to confirm specific results found
elsewhere, namely the delayed onset of star formation for strong fields,
accompanied by the tendency to form only single stars. We also find that the
'magnetic cushioning effect', where the magnetic field is wound up to form a
'cushion' between the binary, aids binary fragmentation in a case, where
previously only formation of a single protostar was expected.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. Final version (with revisions). Accepted to
MNRA
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