Casimir Effect in Spacetime with Extra Dimensions -- From Kaluza-Klein to Randall-Sundrum Models

In this article, we derive the finite temperature Casimir force acting on a pair of parallel plates due to a massless scalar field propagating in the bulk of a higher dimensional brane model. In contrast to previous works which used approximations for the effective masses in deriving the Casimir force, the formulas of the Casimir force we derive are exact formulas. Our results disprove the speculations that existence of the warped extra dimension can change the sign of the Casimir force, be it at zero or any finite temperature.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure. Final version accepted by Phys. Lett.

Engineering a serum-resistant and thermostable vesicular stomatitis virus G glycoprotein for pseudotyping retroviral and lentiviral vectors.

Vesicular stomatitis virus G glycoprotein (VSV-G) is the most widely used envelope protein for retroviral and lentiviral vector pseudotyping; however, serum inactivation of VSV-G pseudotyped vectors is a significant challenge for in vivo gene delivery. To address this problem, we conducted directed evolution of VSV-G to increase its resistance to human serum neutralization. After six selection cycles, numerous common mutations were present. On the basis of their location within VSV-G, we analyzed whether substitutions in several surface exposed residues could endow viral vectors with higher resistance to serum. S162T, T230N and T368A mutations enhanced serum resistance, and additionally K66T, T368A and E380K substitutions increased the thermostability of VSV-G pseudotyped retroviral vectors, an advantageous byproduct of the selection strategy. Analysis of a number of combined mutants revealed that VSV-G harboring T230N+T368A or K66T+S162T+T230N+T368A mutations exhibited both higher in vitro resistance to human serum and higher thermostability, as well as enhanced resistance to rabbit and mouse serum. Finally, lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with these variants were more resistant to human serum in a murine model. These serum-resistant and thermostable VSV-G variants may aid the application of retroviral and lentiviral vectors to gene therapy

Viral dynamics of acute HIV-1 infection.

Viral dynamics were intensively investigated in eight patients with acute HIV infection to define the earliest rates of change in plasma HIV RNA before and after the start of antiretroviral therapy. We report the first estimates of the basic reproductive number (R(0)), the number of cells infected by the progeny of an infected cell during its lifetime when target cells are not depleted. The mean initial viral doubling time was 10 h, and the peak of viremia occurred 21 d after reported HIV exposure. The spontaneous rate of decline (alpha) was highly variable among individuals. The phase 1 viral decay rate (delta(I) = 0.3/day) in subjects initiating potent antiretroviral therapy during acute HIV infection was similar to estimates from treated subjects with chronic HIV infection. The doubling time in two subjects who discontinued antiretroviral therapy was almost five times slower than during acute infection. The mean basic reproductive number (R(0)) of 19.3 during the logarithmic growth phase of primary HIV infection suggested that a vaccine or postexposure prophylaxis of at least 95% efficacy would be needed to extinguish productive viral infection in the absence of drug resistance or viral latency. These measurements provide a basis for comparison of vaccine and other strategies and support the validity of the simian immunodeficiency virus macaque model of acute HIV infection

The structure of decomposition of a triconnected graph

We describe the structure of triconnected graph with the help of its decomposition by 3-cutsets. We divide all 3-cutsets of a triconnected graph into rather small groups with a simple structure, named complexes. The detailed description of all complexes is presented. Moreover, we prove that the structure of a hypertree could be introduced on the set of all complexes. This structure gives us a complete description of the relative disposition of the complexes. Keywords: connectivity, triconneted graphs.Comment: 49 pages, 8 figures. Russian version published in Zap. Nauchn. Sem. POMI v.391 (2011), http://www.pdmi.ras.ru/znsl/2011/v391/abs090.htm

Suppression of allograft rejection with FK506: I. prolonged cardiac and liver survival in rats following short-course therapy

Heterotopic heart and orthotopic liver grafts from ACI donors were transplanted to Lewis rat recipients that were treated with a 3 (or 4) day course of FK506 IM that was started on postoperative day 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. Hearts, which rejected after a median of 6 days in untreated controls, always had prolonged survival (median 91 days) when treatment was started on postoperative day 4. The results were inferior when treatment was started earlier or later than this, but even when the first dose of FK506 was on postoperative day 5, one day before rejection was imminent in controls, the median survival was 50 days. The poorest results with a median graft survival of only 36 days were obtained when injections were on days 0–3. Results were similar with liver grafts that rejected after a median time of 10 days in nontreated controls but that usually survived permanently after a 3 (or 4) day FK506 course starting on day 0, 2, 3, or 4. Therapy started on day 6 was too late. © 1990 by Williams & Wilkins

Close relation of arterial ICC-like cells to the contractile phenotype of vascular smooth muscle cell

This work aimed to establish the lineage of cells similar to the interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC), the arterial ICC-like (AIL) cells, which have recently been described in resistance arteries, and to study their location in the artery wall. Segments of guinea-pig mesenteric arteries and single AIL cells freshly isolated from them were used. Confocal imaging of immunostained cells or segments and electron microscopy of artery segments were used to test for the presence and cellular localization of selected markers, and to localize AIL cells in intact artery segments. AIL cells were negative for PGP9.5, a neural marker, and for von Willebrand factor (vWF), an endothelial cell marker. They were positive for smooth muscle α-actin and smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SM-MHC), but expressed only a small amount of smoothelin, a marker of contractile smooth muscle cells (SMC), and of myosin light chain kinase (MLCK), a critical enzyme in the regulation of smooth muscle contraction. Cell isolation in the presence of latrunculin B, an actin polymerization inhibitor, did not cause the disappearance of AIL cells from cell suspension. The fluorescence of basal lamina protein collagen IV was comparable between the AIL cells and the vascular SMCs and the fluorescence of laminin was higher in AIL cells compared to vascular SMCs. Moreover, cells with thin processes were found in the tunica media of small resistance arteries using transmis-sion electron microscopy. The results suggest that AIL cells are immature or phenotypically modulated vascular SMCs constitutively present in resistance arteries

Ab initio multiple cloning simulations of pyrrole photodissociation: TKER spectra and velocity map imaging

We report a detailed computational simulation of the photodissociation of pyrrole using the ab initio Multiple Cloning (AIMC) method implemented within MOLPRO. The efficiency of the AIMC implementation, employing train basis sets, linear approximation for matrix elements, and Ehrenfest configuration cloning, allows us to accumulate significant statistics. We calculate and analyze the total kinetic energy release (TKER) spectrum and Velocity Map Imaging (VMI) of pyrrole and compare the results directly with experimental measurements. Both the TKER spectrum and the structure of the velocity map image (VMI) are well reproduced. Previously, it has been assumed that the isotropic component of the VMI arises from long time statistical dissociation. Instead, our simulations suggest that ultrafast dynamics contributes significantly to both low and high energy portions of the TKER spectrum