Pulling the Strings

Pulling on the heart strings: a new mechanism within Starling's law of the heart?

When heart muscle is stretched, it increases the force of contraction so that cardiac output matches venous return on a nearly beat-to-beat basis, and this was elegantly described by Ernest H. Starling (1866 to 1927), who formulated “Starling’s law of the heart” on the basis of earlier work (see historical review2). The physiological basis of this essential homeostatic mechanism has remained qu...

Behind the scene, something else is pulling the strings: emphasizing parasitic manipulation in vector-borne diseases.

Merging the field of epidemiology with those of evolutionary and behavioural ecology can generate considerable fundamental knowledge, as well as help to guide public health policies. An attempt is made here to integrate these disciplines by focusing on parasitic manipulation in vector-borne diseases. Parasitic manipulation is a fascinating strategy of transmission which occurs when a parasite a...

From decay to complete breaking: pulling the strings in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory.

We study {2Q+1} strings connecting two static charges Q in (2+1)D SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. While the fundamental {2} string between two charges Q=1/2 is unbreakable, the adjoint {3} string connecting two charges Q=1 can break. When a {4} string is stretched beyond a critical length, it decays into a {2} string by gluon pair creation. When a {5} string is stretched, it first decays into a {3} st...

Pulling the trigger.

Pulling to the protease

utrition and cell death are integrated in a single mitochondrial complex, according to Nika Danial, Stanley Korsmeyer (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA), and colleagues. The complex was discovered after gel filtration of the pro-apoptotic BAD protein, and contains BAD, a phosphatase, kinase, and kinase-anchoring protein directed at BAD, and glucokinase. In cells lacking BAD, the complex falls...