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It has recently been discovered that for certain rates of mode-exchange collisions analytic solutions can be found for a Hamiltonian describing the two-mode Bose-Einstein condensate. We proceed to study the behaviour of the system using perturbation theory if the coupling constants only approximately match these parameter constraints. We find that the model is robust to such perturbations. We study the effects of degeneracy on the perturbations and find that the induced changes differ greatly from the non-degenerate case. We also model inelastic collisions that result in particle loss or condensate decay as external perturbations and use this formalism to examine the effects of three-body recombination and background collisions.
A phagocyte-specific Irf8 gene enhancer establishes early conventional dendritic cell commitment
(2011)
Haematopoietic development is a complex process that is strictly hierarchically organized. Here, the phagocyte lineages are a very heterogeneous cell compartment with specialized functions in innate immunity and induction of adaptive immune responses. Their generation from a common precursor must be tightly controlled. Interference within lineage formation programs for example by mutation or change in expression levels of transcription factors (TF) is causative to leukaemia. However, the molecular mechanisms driving specification into distinct phagocytes remain poorly understood. In the present study I identify the transcription factor Interferon Regulatory Factor 8 (IRF8) as the specification factor of dendritic cell (DC) commitment in early phagocyte precursors. Employing an IRF8 reporter mouse, I showed the distinct Irf8 expression in haematopoietic lineage diversification and isolated a novel bone marrow resident progenitor which selectively differentiates into CD8α+ conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) in vivo. This progenitor strictly depends on Irf8 expression to properly establish its transcriptional DC program while suppressing a lineage-inappropriate neutrophile program. Moreover, I demonstrated that Irf8 expression during this cDC commitment-step depends on a newly discovered myeloid-specific cis-enhancer which is controlled by the haematopoietic transcription factors PU.1 and RUNX1. Interference with their binding leads to abrogation of Irf8 expression, subsequently to disturbed cell fate decisions, demonstrating the importance of these factors for proper phagocyte cell development. Collectively, these data delineate a transcriptional program establishing cDC fate choice with IRF8 in its center.
Nostoc punctiforme is a filamentous cyanobacterium capable of forming symbiotic associations with a wide range of plants. The strain exhibits extensive phenotypic characteristics and can differentiate three mutually exclusive cell types: nitrogen-fixing heterocysts, motile hormogonia and spore-like akinetes. Here, we provide evidence for a crucial role of an extracellular metabolite in balancing cellular differentiation. Insertional mutagenesis of a gene of the polyketide synthase gene cluster pks2 led to the accumulation of short filaments carrying mostly terminal heterocysts under diazotrophic conditions. The mutant has a strong tendency to form biofilms on solid surfaces as well as in liquid culture. The pks2-strain keeps forming hormogonia over the entire growth curve and shows an early onset of akinete formation. We could isolate two fractions of the wildtype supernatant that could restore the capability to form long filaments with intercalary heterocysts. Growth of the mutant cells in the neighbourhood of wild-type cells on plates led to a reciprocal influence and a partial reconstruction of wild-type and mutant phenotype respectively. We postulate that extracellular metabolites of Nostoc punctiforme act as life cycle governing factors (LCGFs) and that the ratio between distinct factors may guide the differentiation into different life stages.
An efficient, reliable and low-cost procedure to determine the silicon content in plant material is presented which allows to monitor the agricultural aspects like growth and yield. The presented procedure consists of a hydrochloric acid pre-treatment and a subsequent thermal oxidation. The method is compared to other processes like dissolution in hydrofluoric acid combined with ICP OES, energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (EDXRF) or aqua regia treatment.
The current study explores the role of appearance-related social pressure regarding changes in body image in adolescent girls (n = 236) and boys (n = 193) over a 1-year-period. High school students aged 11-16 completed measures of body dissatisfaction (i.e., weight and muscle concerns) and appearance-related social pressure from peers and parents. Three aspects proved to be particularly crucial: Parental encouragement to control weight and shape was a strong predictor of weight concerns in boys and girls alike; influences of friends affected gender-specific body image concerns by leading to weight concerns in girls and muscle concerns in boys; finally appearance-based exclusion was a predictor of weight concerns in boys. The findings provide longitudinal evidence for the crucial impact of appearance-related social pressure and suggest that a detailed assessment of different types of social impacts can identify concrete targets for effective prevention and therapy for weight-related problems among adolescents.
The Calvin-Benson cycle (CBC) provides the precursors for biomass synthesis necessary for plant growth. The dynamic behavior and yield of the CBC depend on the environmental conditions and regulation of the cellular state. Accurate quantitative models hold the promise of identifying the key determinants of the tightly regulated CBC function and their effects on the responses in future climates. We provide an integrative analysis of the largest compendium of existing models for photosynthetic processes. Based on the proposed ranking, our framework facilitates the discovery of best-performing models with regard to metabolomics data and of candidates for metabolic engineering.
The discovery of a plume of water vapour and ice particles emerging from warm fractures ('tiger stripes') in Saturn's small, icy moon Enceladus(1-6) raised the question of whether the plume emerges from a subsurface liquid source(6-8) or from the decomposition of ice(9-12). Previous compositional analyses of particles injected by the plume into Saturn's diffuse E ring have already indicated the presence of liquid water(8), but the mechanisms driving the plume emission are still debated(13). Here we report an analysis of the composition of freshly ejected particles close to the sources. Salt-rich ice particles are found to dominate the total mass flux of ejected solids (more than 99 per cent) but they are depleted in the population escaping into Saturn's E ring. Ice grains containing organic compounds are found to be more abundant in dense parts of the plume. Whereas previous Cassini observations were compatible with a variety of plume formation mechanisms, these data eliminate or severely constrain non-liquid models and strongly imply that a salt-water reservoir with a large evaporating surface(7,8) provides nearly all of the matter in the plume.
Modern communication systems are becoming increasingly dynamic and complex. In this article a novel mechanism for next generation charging and billing is presented that enables self-configurability for accounting systems consisting of heterogeneous components. The mechanism is required to be simple, effective, efficient, scalable and fault-tolerant. Based on simulation results it is shown that the proposed simple distributed mechanism is competitive with usual cost-based or random mechanisms under realistic assumptions and up to non-extreme workload situations as well as fulfilling the posed requirements.