Beam-Charge Asymmetry associated with DVCS at HERMES

We report the first observation of an azimuthal asymmetry in the hard electroproduction of real photons with respect to the charge of the incoming lepton beam. The asymmetry is attributed to the interference between the Bethe-Heitler process and the deeply-virtual Compton scattering process, which gives access to the latter at the amplitude level. This process appears to be the theoretically cleanest way to access generalized parton distributions. The data have been accumulated by the HERMES experiment at DESY, scattering the HERA 27.6 GeV electron/positron beam off an unpolarized hydrogen gas target.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the European Workshop on the QCD Structure of the Nucleon (QCD - N'02), Ferrara, Italy, 3-6 Apr 2002, to be published in Nucl. Phys.

Deeply-Virtual Compton Scattering on Deuterium and Neon at HERMES

We report the first observation of azimuthal beam-spin asymmetries in hard electroproduction of real photons off nuclei. Attributed to the interference between the Bethe-Heitler process and the deeply-virtual Compton scattering process, the asymmetry gives access to the latter at the amplitude level. This process appears to be the theoretically cleanest way to access generalized parton distributions. The data presented here have been accumulated by the HERMES experiment at DESY, scattering the HERA 27.6 GeV positron beam off deuterium and neon gas targets.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures. Talk given by F. Ellinghaus at the "15th International Spin Physics Symposium", SPIN 2002, September 9-14, 2002, BNL, Upton, NY, USA. To be published in the proceeding

Compromised Bone Healing in Aged Rats Is Associated With Impaired M2 Macrophage Function

Fracture repair is initiated by a multitude of immune cells and induction of an inflammatory cascade. Alterations in the early healing response due to an aged adaptive immune system leads to impaired bone repair, delayed healing or even formation of non-union. However, immuno-senescence is not limited to the adaptive immunity, but is also described for macrophages, main effector cells from the innate immune system. Beside regulation of pro- and anti-inflammatory signaling, macrophages contribute to angiogenesis and granulation tissue maturation. Thus, it seems likely that an altered macrophage function due to aging may affect bone repair at various stages and contribute to age related deficiencies in bone regeneration. To prove this hypothesis, we analyzed the expression of macrophage markers and angiogenic factors in the early bone hematoma derived from young and aged osteotomized Spraque Dawley rats. We detected an overall reduced expression of the monocyte/pan-macrophage markers CD14 and CD68 in aged rats. Furthermore, the analysis revealed an impaired expression of anti-inflammatory M2 macrophage markers in hematoma from aged animals that was connected to a diminished revascularization of the bone callus. To verify that the age related disturbed bone regeneration was due to a compromised macrophage function, CD14+ macrophage precursors were transplanted locally into the osteotomy gap of aged rats. Transplantation rescued bone regeneration partially after 6 weeks, demonstrated by a significantly induced deposition of new bone tissue, reduced fibrosis and significantly improved callus vascularization

The target asymmetry in hard vector-meson electroproduction and parton angular momenta

The target asymmetry for electroproduction of vector mesons is investigated within the handbag approach. While the generalized parton distribution (GPD) H is taken from a previous analysis of the elctroproduction cross section, we here construct the GPD E from double distributions and constrain it by the Pauli form factors of the nucleon, positivity bounds and sum rules. Predictions for the target asymmetry are given for various vector mesons and discussed how experimental data on the asymmetry will further constrain E and what we may learn about the angular momenta the partons carry.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, late

Pion production in deeply virtual Compton scattering

Using a soft pion theorem based on chiral symmetry and a $\Delta(1232)$ resonance model we propose an estimate for the production cross section of low energy pions in the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) process. In particular, we express the $e p \to e \gamma \pi N$ processes in terms of generalized parton distributions. We provide estimates of the contamination of the $e p \to e \gamma p$ DVCS observables due to this associated pion production processes when the experimental data are not fully exclusive, for a set of kinematical conditions representative of present or planned experiments at JLab, HERMES and COMPASS.Comment: 50 pages, 22 figure

Understanding the proton's spin structure

We discuss the tremendous progress that has been towards an understanding of how the spin of the proton is distributed on its quark and gluon constituents. This is a problem that began in earnest twenty years ago with the discovery of the proton ``spin crisis'' by the European Muon Collaboration. The discoveries prompted by that original work have given us unprecedented insight into the amount of spin carried by polarized gluons and the orbital angular momentum of the quarks.Comment: Review article for J. Phys. G, 1 figure, 22 page

Experience in the Adaptive Immunity Impacts Bone Homeostasis, Remodeling, and Healing

Bone formation as well as bone healing capacity is known to be impaired in the elderly. Although bone formation is outpaced by bone resorption in aged individuals, we hereby present a novel path that considerably impacts bone formation and architecture: Bone formation is substantially reduced in aged individual owing to the experience of the adaptive immunity. Thus, immune-aging in addition to chronological aging is a potential risk factor, with an experienced immune system being recognized as more pro-inflammatory. The role of the aging immune system on bone homeostasis and on the bone healing cascade has so far not been considered. Within this study mice at different age and immunological experience were analyzed toward bone properties. Healing was assessed by introducing an osteotomy, immune cells were adoptively transferred to disclose the difference in biological vs. chronological aging. In vitro studies were employed to test the interaction of immune cell products (cytokines) on cells of the musculoskeletal system. In metaphyseal bone, immune-aging affects bone homeostasis by impacting bone formation capacity and thereby influencing mass and microstructure of bone trabeculae leading to an overall reduced mechanical competence as found in bone torsional testing. Furthermore, bone formation is also impacted during bone regeneration in terms of a diminished healing capacity observed in young animals who have an experienced human immune system. We show the impact of an experienced immune system compared to a naive immune system, demonstrating the substantial differences in the healing capacity and bone homeostasis due to the immune composition. We further showed that in vivo mechanical stimulation changed the immune system phenotype in young mice toward a more naive composition. While this rescue was found to be significant in young individuals, aged mice only showed a trend toward the reconstitution of a more naive immune phenotype. Considering the immune system's experience level in an individual, will likely allow one to differentiate (stratify) and treat (immune-modulate) patients more effectively. This work illustrates the relevance of including immune diagnostics when discussing immunomodulatory therapeutic strategies for the progressively aging population of the industrial countries

Transverse-target-spin asymmetry in exclusive ω\omega-meson electroproduction

Hard exclusive electroproduction of $\omega$ mesons is studied with the HERMES spectrometer at the DESY laboratory by scattering 27.6 GeV positron and electron beams off a transversely polarized hydrogen target. The amplitudes of five azimuthal modulations of the single-spin asymmetry of the cross section with respect to the transverse proton polarization are measured. They are determined in the entire kinematic region as well as for two bins in photon virtuality and momentum transfer to the nucleon. Also, a separation of asymmetry amplitudes into longitudinal and transverse components is done. These results are compared to a phenomenological model that includes the pion pole contribution. Within this model, the data favor a positive $\pi\omega$ transition form factor.Comment: DESY Report 15-14

Modelling generalized parton distributions to describe deeply virtual Compton scattering data

We present a new model for generalized parton distributions (GPDs), based on the aligned jet model, which successfully describes the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) data from H1, ZEUS, HERMES and CLAS. We also present an easily implementable and flexible algorithm for their construction. This new model is necessary since the most widely used models for GPDs, which are based on factorized double distributions, cannot, in their current form, describe the DVCS data when employed in a full QCD analysis. We demonstrate explicitly the reason for the shortcoming in the data description. We also highlight several non-perturbative input parameters which could be used to tune the GPDs, and the $t$-dependence, to the DVCS data using a fitting procedure.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, revtex4, shortened version accepted for publication in PRD, figures improved and references adde