904 research outputs found
Molecular Mechanisms Responsible for the Antiinflammatory and Protective Effect of HDL on the Endothelium
In addition to their role in reverse cholesterol transport, high-density lipoproteins (HDL) exert several beneficial effects, including the prevention and correction of endothelial dysfunction. HDL promote endothelium proliferation and diminish endothelial apoptosis; they play a key role in vasorelaxation by increasing the release of nitric oxide and prostacyclin through the induction of the expression and the activity of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and the coupling of cyclooxygenase 2 and prostacyclin synthase. In addition, HDL affect coagulation, fibrynolisis, platelet adhesion, adhesion molecules, and protease expression, and they exert antioxidant activity. These effects are achieved at the gene expression level and are dependent on the activation of several intracellular signaling pathways, including PI3K/Akt, ERK1/2, PKC, and p38MAPK. The complexity of the signaling pathways modulated by HDL reflects the different effects of the components of this class of lipoproteins such as apolipoproteins or lipids on endothelial cell gene expression and the subsequent modulation of endothelial function observed. The in vivo relevance of these findings to endothelial recovery during physiological or pathological conditions remains to be addressed; nevertheless, the results of clinical studies with synthetic HDL, ApoA-I mimetics, and drugs that are becoming available that selectively affect HDL plasma levels and biological functions support the importance of the correction of endothelial function by HDL
Influence of second-order corrections to the energy-dependence of neutrino flavor conversion formulae
We discuss the {\em intermediate} wave-packet formalism for analytically
quantifying the energy dependence of the two-flavor conversion formula that is
usually considered for analyzing neutrino oscillations and adjusting the
focusing horn, target position and/or detector location of some flavor
conversion experiments. Following a sequence of analytical approximations where
we consider the second-order corrections in a power series expansion of the
energy, we point out a {\em residual} time-dependent phase which, in addition
to some well known wave-packet effects, can subtly modify the oscillation
parameters and limits. In the present precision era of neutrino oscillation
experiments where higher precision measurements are required, we quantify some
small corrections in neutrino flavor conversion formulae which lead to a
modified energy-dependence for oscillations.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
Inclusive versus Exclusive EM Processes in Relativistic Nuclear Systems
Connections are explored between exclusive and inclusive electron scattering
within the framework of the relativistic plane-wave impulse approximation,
beginning with an analysis of the model-independent kinematical constraints to
be found in the missing energy--missing momentum plane. From the interplay
between these constraints and the spectral function basic features of the
exclusive and inclusive nuclear responses are seen to arise. In particular, the
responses of the relativistic Fermi gas and of a specific hybrid model with
confined nucleons in the initial state are compared in this work. As expected,
the exclusive responses are significantly different in the two models, whereas
the inclusive ones are rather similar. By extending previous work on the
relativistic Fermi gas, a reduced response is introduced for the hybrid model
such that it fulfills the Coulomb and the higher-power energy-weighted sum
rules. While incorporating specific classes of off-shellness for the struck
nucleons, it is found that the reducing factor required is largely
model-independent and, as such, yields a reduced response that is useful for
extracting the Coulomb sum rule from experimental data. Finally, guided by the
difference between the energy-weighted sum rules of the two models, a version
of the relativistic Fermi gas is devised which has the 0, 1 and 2 moments of the charge response which agree rather well
with those of the hybrid model: this version thus incorporates {\em a priori}
the binding and confinement effects of the stuck nucleons while retaining the
simplicity of the original Fermi gas.Comment: LaTex file with 15 .ps figure
Neutrino Oscillations in the Early Universe: A Real Time Formulation
Neutrino oscillations in the early Universe prior to the epoch of primordial
nucleosynthesis is studied by implementing real time non-equilibrium field
theory methods. We focus on two flavors of Dirac neutrinos, however, the
formulation is general. We obtain the equations of motion for neutrino
wavepackets of either chirality and helicity in the plasma allowing for CP
asymmetry. Contributions non-local in space-time to the self-energy dominate
over the asymmetry for if the lepton and neutrino
asymmetries are of the same order as the baryon asymmetry. We find a new
contribution which cannot be interpreted as the usual effective potential. The
mixing angles and dispersion relations in the medium depend on \emph{helicity}.
We find that resonant transitions are possible in the temperature range . Near a resonance in the mixing angle, the
oscillation time scale in the medium as compared to the vacuum is
\emph{slowed-down} substantially for small vacuum mixing angle. The time scale
of oscillations \emph{speeds-up} for off resonance high energy neutrinos for
which the mixing angle becomes vanishingly small. The equations of motion
reduce to the familiar oscillation formulae for negative helicity
ultrarelativistic neutrinos, but include consistently both the \emph{mixing
angle and the oscillation frequencies in the medium}. These equations of motion
also allow to study the dynamics of right handed as well as positive helicity
neutrinos.Comment: 31 pages 2 figures. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.
The effects of nonextensive statistics on fluctuations investigated in event-by-event analysis of data
We investigate the effect of nonextensive statistics as applied to the
chemical fluctuations in high-energy nuclear collisions discussed recently
using the event-by-event analysis of data. It turns out that very minuite
nonextensitivity changes drastically the expected experimental output for the
fluctuation measure. This results is in agreement with similar studies of
nonextensity performed recently for the transverse momentum fluctuations in the
same reactions.Comment: Revised version, to be published in J. Phys. G (2000
Meson-exchange currents and quasielastic predictions for charged-current neutrino-12C scattering in the superscaling approach
We evaluate and discuss the impact of meson-exchange currents (MECs) on
charged-current quasielastic neutrino cross sections. We consider the nuclear
transverse response arising from two-particle two-hole states excited by the
action of electromagnetic, purely isovector meson-exchange currents in a fully
relativistic framework based on the work by the Torino Collaboration [A. D.
Pace, M. Nardi, W. M. Alberico, T. W. Donnelly, and A. Molinari, Nucl. Phys.
A726, 303 (2003)]. An accurate parametrization of this MEC response as a
function of the momentum and energy transfers involved is presented. Results of
neutrino-nucleus cross sections using this MEC parametrization together with a
recent scaling approach for the one-particle one-hole contributions (named
SuSAv2) are compared with experimental data (MiniBooNE, MINERvA, NOMAD and T2K
Collaborations).Comment: 16 pages, 19 figure
Distorted wave impulse approximation analysis for spin observables in nucleon quasi-elastic scattering and enhancement of the spin-longitudinal response
We present a formalism of distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA) for
analyzing spin observables in nucleon inelastic and charge exchange reactions
leading to the continuum. It utilizes response functions calculated by the
continuum random phase approximation (RPA), which include the effective mass,
the spreading widths and the \Delta degrees of freedom. The Fermi motion is
treated by the optimal factorization, and the non-locality of the
nucleon-nucleon t-matrix by an averaged reaction plane approximation. By using
the formalism we calculated the spin-longitudinal and the spin-transverse cross
sections, ID_q and ID_p, of 12C, 40Ca (\vec{p},\vec{n}) at 494 and 346 MeV. The
calculation reasonably reproduced the observed ID_q, which is consistent with
the predicted enhancement of the spin-longitudinal response function R_L.
However, the observed ID_p is much larger than the calculated one, which was
consistent with neither the predicted quenching nor the spin-transverse
response function R_T obtained by the (e,e') scattering. The Landau-Migdal
parameter g'_N\Delta for the N\Delta transition interaction and the effective
mass at the nuclear center m^*(r=0) are treated as adjustable parameters. The
present analysis indicates that the smaller g'_{N\Delta}(\approx 0.3) and
m^*(0) \approx 0.7 m are preferable. We also investigate the validity of the
plane wave impulse approximation (PWIA) with the effective nucleon number
approximation for the absorption, by means of which R_L and R_T have
conventionally been extracted.Comment: RevTex 3, 29 pages, 2 tables, 8 figure
Quasielastic K-nucleus scattering
Quasielastic K^+ - nucleus scattering data at q=290, 390 and 480 MeV/c are
analyzed in a finite nucleus continuum random phase approximation framework,
using a density-dependent particle-hole interaction. The reaction mechanism is
consistently treated according to Glauber theory, keeping up to two-step
inelastic processes. A good description of the data is achieved, also providing
a useful constraint on the strength of the effective particle-hole interaction
in the scalar-isoscalar channel at intermediate momentum transfers. We find no
evidence for the increase in the effective number of nucleons participating in
the reaction which has been reported in the literature.Comment: 21 pages, uses REVTeX and epsfig, 9 postscript figures; replaced
version corrects a few minor errors in the tex
Nuclear model effects in Charged Current neutrino--nucleus quasielastic scattering
The quasielastic scattering of muon neutrinos on oxygen 16 is studied for
neutrino energies between 200 MeV and 1 GeV using a relativistic shell model.
Final state interactions are included within the distorted wave impulse
approximation, by means of a relativistic optical potential, with and without
imaginary part, and of a relativistic mean field potential. For comparison with
experimental data the inclusive charged--current quasielastic cross section for
-- scattering in the kinematical conditions of the LSND
experiment at Los Alamos is also presented and briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, two-column format. Accepted as brief report in
Phys. Rev.
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