Structure Functions in Deep Inelastic Lepton-Nucleon Scattering

Latest results on structure functions, as available at the Lepton-Photon Symposium 1999, are presented. This report focusses on three experimental areas: new structure function measurements, in particular from HERA at low x and high Q2; results on light and heavy flavour densities; determinations of the gluon distribution and of alpha_s. As the talk was delivered at a historic moment and place, a few remarks were added recalling the exciting past and looking into the promising future of deep inelastic scattering.Comment: 27 pages, latex, 15 figures, Talk at Lepton-Photon Symposium, Stanford, August 199

Cascading Quivers from Decaying D-branes

We use an argument analogous to that of Kachru, Pearson and Verlinde to argue that cascades in L^{a,b,c} quiver gauge theories always preserve the form of the quiver, and that all gauge groups drop at each step by the number M of fractional branes. In particular, we demonstrate that an NS5-brane that sweeps out the S^3 of the base of L^{a,b,c} destroys M D3-branes.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; v2: references adde

On the pulsating strings in AdS_5 x T^{1,1}

We study the class of pulsating strings in AdS_5 x T^{1,1}. Using a generalized ansatz for pulsating string configurations we find new solutions of this class. Further we semiclassically quantize the theory and obtain the first correction to the energy. The latter, due to AdS/CFT correspondence, is supposed to give the anomalous dimensions of operators in the dual N=1 superconformal gauge field theory.Comment: 12 pages, improvements made, references adde

Dual giant gravitons in AdSm_m ×\times Yn^n (Sasaki-Einstein)

We consider BPS motion of dual giant gravitons on Ad$S_5\times Y^5$ where $Y^5$ represents a five-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein manifold. We find that the phase space for the BPS dual giant gravitons is symplectically isomorphic to the Calabi-Yau cone over $Y^5$, with the K\"{a}hler form identified with the symplectic form. The quantization of the dual giants therefore coincides with the K\"{a}hler quantization of the cone which leads to an explicit correspondence between holomorphic wavefunctions of dual giants and gauge-invariant operators of the boundary theory. We extend the discussion to dual giants in $AdS_4 \times Y^7$ where $Y^7$ is a seven-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein manifold; for special motions the phase space of the dual giants is symplectically isomorphic to the eight-dimensional Calabi-Yau cone.Comment: 14 pages. (v2) typo's corrected; factors of AdS radius reinstated for clarity; remarks about dual giant wavefunctions in T^{1,1} expanded and put in a new subsectio

Welfare parameters in dairy cows reared in tie-stall and open-stall farming systems: pilot study

ABSTRACT. Animals can experience pain or distress as a result of widely accepted management practices. In dairy cattle, housing system can affect animal welfare. The assessment of animal welfare requires the use of multiple indicators in order to analyse the heterogeneity of the aspects involved. The aim of this study was to compare the welfare of dairy cows reared in a tie-stall (TS) and open-stall (OS) system by metabolic, immunological and stress related parameters. The study involved 80 pluriparous lactating cows belonging to eight dairy farms located in the area of Mugello (Florence, Italy) reared in TS and OS systems. Ten blood samples were collected at morning time to measure alanine-aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate-aminotransferase (AST), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA), creatinine (Creat), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), total proteins (TP), calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), serum lisozyme (SL), bactericidal activity (SBA), haptoglobin (Hp), oxygen free radicals (OFR), and hair cortisol levels. At the same time a body condition score (BCS) was recorded. Statistical analysis was performed by ANOVA. The experiment was carried out in accordance with European Commission regulations (Directive 2010/63/EC and Directive 98/58/EC). The results showed that the housing system affected various parameters such as ALT, BHBA, OFR, cortisol (P≤0.01) and AST, BUN (P≤0.05). Most of these parameters showed mean values within the range of reference without revealing any signs of suffering. An interesting outcome regarded the OFR levels, which was higher in the OS system (68.2±34.51 U.Carr. vs 36.1±21.39 U.Carr.), probably as a consequence of the high productive effort. In conclusion, it is possible to state that TS did not show a comparable overall situation with serious signs of welfare impairment

Protein kinase CK2 is widely expressed in follicular, Burkitt and diffuse large B-cell lymphomas and propels malignant B-cell growth.

Serine-threonine kinase CK2 is highly expressed and pivotal for survival and proliferation in multiple myeloma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma. Here, we investigated the expression of \u3b1 catalytic and \u3b2 regulatory CK2 subunits by immunohistochemistry in 57 follicular (FL), 18 Burkitt (BL), 52 diffuse large B-cell (DLBCL) non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) and in normal reactive follicles. In silico evaluation of available Gene Expression Profile (GEP) data sets from patients and Western blot (WB) analysis in NHL cell-lines were also performed. Moreover, the novel, clinical-grade, ATP-competitive CK2-inhibitor CX-4945 (Silmitasertib) was assayed on lymphoma cells. CK2 was detected in 98.4% of cases with a trend towards a stronger CK2\u3b1 immunostain in BL compared to FL and DLBCL. No significant differences were observed between Germinal Center B (GCB) and non-GCB DLBCL types. GEP data and WB confirmed elevated CK2 mRNA and protein levels as well as active phosphorylation of specific targets in NHL cells. CX-4945 caused a dose-dependent growth-arresting effect on GCB, non-GCB DLBCL and BL cell-lines and it efficiently shut off phosphorylation of NF-\u3baB RelA and CDC37 on CK2 target sites. Thus, CK2 is highly expressed and could represent a suitable therapeutic target in BL, FL and DLBCL NHL

New parton distributions from large-x and low-Q^2 data

We report results of a new global next-to-leading order fit of parton distribution functions in which cuts on W and Q are relaxed, thereby including more data at high values of x. Effects of target mass corrections (TMCs), higher twist contributions, and nuclear corrections for deuterium data are significant in the large-x region. The leading twist parton distributions are found to be stable to TMC model variations as long as higher twist contributions are also included. The behavior of the d quark as x-->1 is particularly sensitive to the deuterium corrections, and using realistic nuclear smearing models the d-quark distribution at large x is found to be softer than in previous fits performed with more restrictive cuts.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures. Minor corrections. References added. To appear in Phys.Rev.

The curvature of F2p(x,Q2)F_2^p(x,Q^2) as a probe of the range of validity of perturbative QCD evolutions in the small-xx region

Perturbative NLO and NNLO QCD evolutions of parton distributions are studied, in particular in the (very) small-$x$ region, where they are in very good agreement with all recent precision measurements of $F_2^p(x,Q^2)$. These predictions turn out to be also rather insensitive to the specific choice of the factorization scheme ($\bar{\rm MS}$ or DIS). A characteristic feature of perturbative QCD evolutions is a {\em{positive}} curvature of $F_2^p$ which increases as $x$ decreases. This perturbatively stable prediction provides a sensitive test of the range of validity of perturbative QCD.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables; minor corrections, to appear in EPJ