TY - JOUR A1 - Armata, Federico A1 - Vasile, Ruggero A1 - Barcellona, Pablo A1 - Buhmann, Stefan Yoshi A1 - Rizzuto, Lucia A1 - Passante, Roberto T1 - Dynamical Casimir-Polder force between an excited atom and a conducting wall JF - Physical review : A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics N2 - We consider the dynamical atom-surface Casimir-Polder force in the nonequilibrium configuration of an atom near a perfectly conducting wall, initially prepared in an excited state with the field in its vacuum state. We evaluate the time-dependent Casimir-Polder force on the atom and find that it shows an oscillatory behavior from attractive to repulsive both in time and in space. We also investigate the asymptotic behavior in time of the dynamical force and of related local field quantities, showing that the static value of the force, as obtained by a time-independent approach, is recovered for times much longer than the time scale of the atomic self-dressing but shorter than the atomic decay time. We then discuss the evolution of global quantities such as atomic and field energies and their asymptotic behavior. We also compare our results for the dynamical force on the excited atom with analogous results recently obtained for an initially bare ground-state atom. We show that new relevant features are obtained in the case of an initially excited atom, for example, much larger values of the dynamical force with respect to the static one, allowing for an easier way to single out and observe the dynamical Casimir-Polder effect. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.042511 SN - 2469-9926 SN - 2469-9934 VL - 94 SP - 104 EP - 114 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lontsi, Agostiny Marrios A1 - Ohrnberger, Matthias A1 - Krüger, Frank A1 - Sánchez-Sesma, Francisco José T1 - Combining surface-wave phase-velocity dispersion curves and full microtremor horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio for subsurface sedimentary site characterization JF - Interpretation : a journal of subsurface characterization N2 - We compute seismic velocity profiles by a combined inversion of surface-wave phase-velocity dispersion curves together with the full spectrum of the microtremor horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) spectral ratio at two sediment-covered sites in Germany. The sediment deposits are approximately 100 m thick at the first test site and approximately 400 m thick at the second test site. We have used an extended physical model based on the diffuse wavefield assumption for the interpretation of the observed microtremor H/V spectral ratio. The extension includes the interpretation of the microtremor H/V spectral ratio observed at depth (in boreholes). This full-wavefield approach accounts for the energy contribution from the body and surface waves, and thus it allows for inverting the properties of the shallow subsurface. We have obtained the multimode phase velocity dispersion curves from an independent study, and a description of the extracted branches and their interpretation was developed. The inversion results indicate that the combined approach using seismic ambient noise and actively generated surface-wave data will improve the accuracy of the reconstructed near-surface velocity model, a key step in microzonation, geotechnical engineering, seismic statics corrections, and reservoir imaging. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1190/INT-2016-0021.1 SN - 2324-8858 SN - 2324-8866 VL - 4 SP - SQ41 EP - SQ49 PB - Society of Exploration Geophysicists CY - Tulsa ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zurnic, Irena A1 - Hütter, Sylvia A1 - Rzeha, Ute A1 - Stanke, Nicole A1 - Reh, Juliane A1 - Müllers, Erik A1 - Hamann, Martin V. A1 - Kern, Tobias A1 - Gerresheim, Gesche K. A1 - Lindel, Fabian A1 - Serrao, Erik A1 - Lesbats, Paul A1 - Engelman, Alan N. A1 - Cherepanov, Peter A1 - Lindemann, Dirk T1 - Interactions of Prototype Foamy Virus Capsids with Host Cell Polo-Like Kinases Are Important for Efficient Viral DNA Integration JF - PLoS Pathogens N2 - Unlike for other retroviruses, only a few host cell factors that aid the replication of foamy viruses (FVs) via interaction with viral structural components are known. Using a yeast-two-hybrid (Y2H) screen with prototype FV (PFV) Gag protein as bait we identified human polo-like kinase 2 (hPLK2), a member of cell cycle regulatory kinases, as a new interactor of PFV capsids. Further Y2H studies confirmed interaction of PFV Gag with several PLKs of both human and rat origin. A consensus Ser-Thr/Ser-Pro (S-T/S-P) motif in Gag, which is conserved among primate FVs and phosphorylated in PFV virions, was essential for recognition by PLKs. In the case of rat PLK2, functional kinase and polo-box domains were required for interaction with PFV Gag. Fluorescently-tagged PFV Gag, through its chromatin tethering function, selectively relocalized ectopically expressed eGFP-tagged PLK proteins to mitotic chromosomes in a Gag STP motif-dependent manner, confirming a specific and dominant nature of the Gag-PLK interaction in mammalian cells. The functional relevance of the Gag-PLK interaction was examined in the context of replication-competent FVs and single-round PFV vectors. Although STP motif mutated viruses displayed wild type (wt) particle release, RNA packaging and intra-particle reverse transcription, their replication capacity was decreased 3-fold in single-cycle infections, and up to 20-fold in spreading infections over an extended time period. Strikingly similar defects were observed when cells infected with single-round wt Gag PFV vectors were treated with a pan PLK inhibitor. Analysis of entry kinetics of the mutant viruses indicated a post-fusion defect resulting in delayed and reduced integration, which was accompanied with an enhanced preference to integrate into heterochromatin. We conclude that interaction between PFV Gag and cellular PLK proteins is important for early replication steps of PFV within host cells. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005860 SN - 1553-7366 SN - 1553-7374 VL - 12 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER -