Oral Apolipoprotein A-I Mimetic D-4F Lowers HDL-Inflammatory Index in High-Risk Patients: A First-in-Human Multiple-Dose, Randomized Controlled Trial.

A single dose of the apolipoprotein (apo)A-I mimetic peptide D-4F rendered high-density lipoprotein (HDL) less inflammatory, motivating the first multiple-dose study. We aimed to assess safety/tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of daily, orally administered D-4F. High-risk coronary heart disease (CHD) subjects added double-blinded placebo or D-4F to statin for 13 days, randomly assigned 1:3 to ascending cohorts of 100, 300, then 500 mg (n = 62; 46 men/16 women). D-4F was safe and well-tolerated. Mean ± SD plasma D-4F area under the curve (AUC, 0-8h) was 6.9 ± 5.7 ng/mL*h (100 mg), 22.7 ± 19.6 ng/mL*h (300 mg), and 104.0 ± 60.9 ng/mL*h (500 mg) among men, higher among women. Whereas placebo dropped HDL inflammatory index (HII) 28% 8 h postdose (range, 1.25-0.86), 300-500 mg D-4F effectively halved HII: 1.35-0.57 and 1.22-0.63, respectively (P \u3c 0.03 vs. placebo). Oral D-4F peptide dose predicted HII suppression, whereas plasma D-4F exposure was dissociated, suggesting plasma penetration is unnecessary. In conclusion, oral D-4F dosing rendered HDL less inflammatory, affirming oral D-4F as a potential therapy to improve HDL function

RacoonWW1.3: A Monte Carlo program for four-fermion production at e^+ e^- colliders

We present the Monte Carlo generator RacoonWW that computes cross sections to all processes e^+ e^- -> 4f and e^+ e^- -> 4f + gamma and calculates the complete O(alpha) electroweak radiative corrections to e^+ e^- -> W W -> 4f in the electroweak Standard Model in double-pole approximation. The calculation of the tree-level processes e^+ e^- -> 4f and e^+ e^- -> 4f + gamma is based on the full matrix elements for massless (polarized) fermions. When calculating radiative corrections to e^+ e^- -> W W -> 4f the complete virtual doubly-resonant electroweak corrections are included, i.e. the factorizable and non-factorizable virtual corrections in double-pole approximation, and the real corrections are based on the full matrix elements for e^+ e^- -> 4f + gamma. The matching of soft and collinear singularities between virtual and real corrections is done alternatively in two different ways, namely by using a subtraction method or by applying phase-space slicing. Higher-order initial-state photon radiation and naive QCD corrections are taken into account. RacoonWW also provides anomalous triple gauge-boson couplings for all processes e^+ e^- -> 4f and anomalous quartic gauge-boson couplings for all processes e^+ e^- -> 4f + gamma.Comment: 62 pages, LaTeX, elsart styl

Combined local-density and dynamical mean field theory calculations for the compressed lanthanides Ce, Pr, and Nd

This paper reports calculations for compressed Ce (4f^1), Pr (4f^2), and Nd (4f^3) using a combination of the local-density approximation (LDA) and dynamical mean field theory (DMFT), or LDA+DMFT. The 4f moment, spectra, and the total energy among other properties are examined as functions of volume and atomic number for an assumed face-centered cubic (fcc) structure.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Variational Mote Carlo Study of Flat Band Ferromagnetism -- Application to CeRh_3 B_2

A new mechanism for ferromagnetism in CeRh_3B_2 is proposed on the basis of variational Monte Carlo results. In a one-dimensional Anderson lattice where each 4f electron hybridizes with a ligand orbital between neighboring Ce sites, ferromagnetism is stabilized due to a nearly flat band which is a mixture of conduction and 4f electron states. Because of the strong spin-orbit interaction in 4f electron states, and of considerable amount of hybridization in the nearly flat band, the magnetic moments from 4f and conduction electrons tend to cancel each other. The resultant ferromagnetic moment becomes smaller as compared with the local 4f moment, and the Fermi surface in the ferromagnetic ground state is hardly affected by the presence of 4f electrons. These theoretical results are consistent with experimental observations in CeRh_3B_2 by neutron scattering and dHvA effects.Comment: to be published in J.Phys.Soc.Jp

Cascade emission in electron beam ion trap plasma of W25+^{25+} ion

Spectra of the W$^{25+}$ ion are studied using the collisional-radiative model (CRM) with an ensuing cascade emission. It is determined that the cascade emission boosts intensities only of a few lines in the $10 - 3$ nm range. The cascade emission is responsible for the disappearance of structure of lines at about 6 nm in the electron beam ion trap plasma. Emission band at 4.5 to 5.3 nm is also affected by the cascade emission. The strongest lines in the CRM spectrum correspond to $4d^{9} 4f^{4} \rightarrow 4f^{3}$ transitions, while $4f^{2} 5d \rightarrow 4f^{3}$ transitions arise after the cascade emission is taken into account.Comment: 16 pages including 4 figures and 3 table