Metabolism in Porifera XII. Further informations on the biosynthesis of 3β-hydroxymethyl-A-nor-steranes in the spongeAxinella verrucosa

Summary Direct incorporation and cold trap experiments suggest that cholest-4-en-3-one is an intermediate in the conversion of cholesterol into 3-hydroxymethyl-A-nor-cholestane in the marine spongeAxinella verrucosa. Cholest-4-en-3-one is further transformed by the sponge into cholest-4-en-3-ol, 5-cholestan-3-one and 5-cholestan-3-ol; these compounds arise from side reactions, which are not part of the major metabolic route leading to 3-hydroxymethyl-A-norsteranes.     

Polyacetylenes from the spongePetrosia ficiformis found in dark caves

Summary Several high molecular weight polyacetylenes have been isolated from the spongePetrosia ficiformis found in dark caves. These compounds are related to, but different from, the polyacetylenes isolated from the same sponge living in its usual habitat.This work is a part of the Progetto finalizzato per l'Oceanografia e i Fondi Marini, CNR, Roma.The authors thank Mr G. Scognamiglio for the HPLC work, Mr C. Di Pinto for the NMR spectra and Mr G. Villani for the collection of the sponge.     

Computational fluid dynamics for dense gas-solid fluidized beds

Many computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for describing the hydrodynamics of dense gas-solid flows in fluidized beds have been put forward in the past few decades. These models treat the solid phase as continuum or discrete particles, which leads to Eulerian-Eulerian or Eulerian-Lagrangian formulations, respectively. Different governing equations and closure relations essentially result from an insufficient understanding of the complex gas?particle and particle?particle interactions for gas?solid flows. The current status of these models is discussed briefly in this paper. All the approaches in the literature modify only the solid phase momentum balance equation introducing various forms of the solid phase stress tensor and the solid phase pressure drop in the Eulerian-Eulerian models. Taking them into consideration, a new model for predicting the fluid behavior of dense gas?solid flows in fluidized beds has been developed, which contains new terms in both the particle and gas phase momentum balance equations and requires only the use of an experimental drag force correlation. Several results are shown to verify the model’s reliability, which include the homogeneous fluidization of Geldart type A particles, the bubbling and jetting fluidization of Geldart type B particles in rectangular beds, and fluid dynamics in a complicated geometry for a bubbling?bed of a fast internally circulating fluidized?bed biomass gasifier.     

Eukaryotic initiation factor 6 is rate-limiting in translation, growth and transformation

Cell growth and proliferation require coordinated ribosomal biogenesis and translation. Eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs) control translation at the rate-limiting step of initiation. So far, only two eIFs connect extracellular stimuli to global translation rates: eIF4E acts in the eIF4F complex and regulates binding of capped messenger RNA to 40S subunits, downstream of growth factors, and eIF2 controls loading of the ternary complex on the 40S subunit and is inhibited on stress stimuli. No eIFs have been found to link extracellular stimuli to the activity of the large 60S ribosomal subunit. eIF6 binds 60S ribosomes precluding ribosome joining in vitro. However, studies in yeasts showed that eIF6 is required for ribosome biogenesis rather than translation. Here we show that mammalian eIF6 is required for efficient initiation of translation, in vivo. eIF6 null embryos are lethal at preimplantation. Heterozygous mice have 50% reduction of eIF6 levels in all tissues, and show reduced mass of hepatic and adipose tissues due to a lower number of cells and to impaired G1/S cell cycle progression. eIF6(+/-) cells retain sufficient nucleolar eIF6 and normal ribosome biogenesis. The liver of eIF6(+/-) mice displays an increase of 80S in polysomal profiles, indicating a defect in initiation of translation. Consistently, isolated hepatocytes have impaired insulin-stimulated translation. Heterozygous mouse embryonic fibroblasts recapitulate the organism phenotype and have normal ribosome biogenesis, reduced insulin-stimulated translation, and delayed G1/S phase progression. Furthermore, eIF6(+/-) cells are resistant to oncogene-induced transformation. Thus, eIF6 is the first eIF associated with the large 60S subunit that regulates translation in response to extracellular signals.     

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 is an essential regulator of heart function

Cardiovascular diseases are predicted to be the most common cause of death worldwide by 2020. Here we show that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ace2) maps to a defined quantitative trait locus (QTL) on the X chromosome in three different rat models of hypertension. In all hypertensive rat strains, ACE2 messenger RNA and protein expression were markedly reduced, suggesting that ace2 is a candidate gene for this QTL. Targeted disruption of ACE2 in mice results in a severe cardiac contractility defect, increased angiotensin II levels, and upregulation of hypoxia-induced genes in the heart. Genetic ablation of ACE on an ACE2 mutant background completely rescues the cardiac phenotype. But disruption of ACER, a Drosophila ACE2 homologue, results in a severe defect of heart morphogenesis. These genetic data for ACE2 show that it is an essential regulator of heart function in vivo.     

The new resonances Zcs(3985)and Zcs(4003)(almost)fill two tetraquark nonets of broken SU(3)f

Hadrons made by diquark-antidiquark pairs(tetraquarks)are held together by QCD forces in an overall color singlet.As stated in the original proposals and simila...     

On the borderline between Science and Philosophy: A debate on determinism in France around 1880

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a new interest in explosive chemical reactions, sudden release of energy in living beings, physical instabilities, and bifurcations in the solutions of differential equations drew the attention of some scholars. New concepts like triggering actions and guiding principles also emerged. Mathematicians, physicists, physiologists, and philosophers were attracted by this kind of phenomena since they raised a question about the actual existence of a strict determinism in science. In 1878 the mathematical physicist Joseph Boussinesq pointed out a structural analogy among physical instabilities, some essential features of living beings, and singular solutions of differential equations. These developments revived long-lasting philosophical debates on the problematic link between deterministic physical laws and free will. We find in Boussinesq an original and almost isolated attempt to merge mathematical, physical, biological, and philosophical issues into a complex intellectual framework. In the last decades, some philosophers of science rediscovered the connection between physical instabilities and determinism, both in the context of chaos theory, and in the debates on the Norton dome. I put forward a consistent historical reconstruction of the main issues and characters involved.     

一种新数值工具在车辆气动声学开发中的应用

为了优化车辆开发过程的有效性，数值气动声学分析法的实施和应用对汽车制造商来说变得越来越重要。提出了一种结合延迟分离涡流模拟和基于Lighthill方程及声学扰动方程的有限元模型混合数值工具，应用OpenFOAM和Actran软件实现了基于声学有限元法的近场声源区提取及声学压力脉动计算，并尝试应用于车顶扰流板及后视镜区域的气动噪声计算及分析。在兰博基尼Urus车型上，研究了不同车顶扰流板设计的气动声学行为，将仿真结果与斯图加特大学气动声学全尺寸风洞的实验结果进行比较，发现了令人信服的相关性。此外，探讨了扰流板上的主要噪声产生机制，研究了汽车表面压力波动水平随几何形状改变的变化情况。     

Strong dipolar effects in a quantum ferrofluid

Symmetry-breaking interactions have a crucial role in many areas of physics, ranging from classical ferrofluids to superfluid (3)He and d-wave superconductivity. For superfluid quantum gases, a variety of new physical phenomena arising from the symmetry-breaking interaction between electric or magnetic dipoles are expected. Novel quantum phases in optical lattices, such as chequerboard or supersolid phases, are predicted for dipolar bosons. Dipolar interactions can also enrich considerably the physics of quantum gases with internal degrees of freedom. Arrays of dipolar particles could be used for efficient quantum information processing. Here we report the realization of a chromium Bose-Einstein condensate with strong dipolar interactions. By using a Feshbach resonance, we reduce the usual isotropic contact interaction, such that the anisotropic magnetic dipole-dipole interaction between 52Cr atoms becomes comparable in strength. This induces a change of the aspect ratio of the atom cloud; for strong dipolar interactions, the inversion of ellipticity during expansion (the usual 'smoking gun' evidence for a Bose-Einstein condensate) can be suppressed. These effects are accounted for by taking into account the dipolar interaction in the superfluid hydrodynamic equations governing the dynamics of the gas, in the same way as classical ferrofluids can be described by including dipolar terms in the classical hydrodynamic equations. Our results are a first step in the exploration of the unique properties of quantum ferrofluids.