The pion quasiparticle in the low-temperature phase of QCD

We extend our previous studies [PhysRevD.90.054509, PhysRevD.92.094510] of the pion quasiparticle in the low-temperature phase of two-flavor QCD with support from chiral effective theory. This includes the analysis performed on a finite temperature ensemble of size $20\times 64^3$ at $T\approx 151$MeV and a lighter zero-temperature pion mass $m_{\pi} \approx 185$ MeV. Furthermore, we investigate the Gell-Mann--Oakes-Renner relation at finite temperature and the Dey-Eletsky-Ioffe mixing theorem at finite quark mass.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, talk presented at 35th annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 18-24 June 2017, Granada, Spai

Tuning RGD Motif and Hyaluronan Density to Study Integrin Binding

Well-controlled surfaces with immobilized substrates enable novel approaches to investigate specific aspects of biological processes related to cell adhesion or motility. A subset of integrins, cellular transmembrane glycoproteins, recognize the evolutionarily conserved tripeptide sequence RGD, and anchor cells to their surrounding proteins as well as mediate bidirectional signaling. In this study, the main question was how co-presentation of hyaluronan (HA), an essential component of the extracellular matrix (ECM), and the RGD motif affect integrin binding. We report a method to prepare self-assembled monolayers on gold surfaces, co-presenting the cell adhesive RGD motif and small HA molecules, to investigate integrin containing proteoliposome binding. This technique enables an independent adjustment of the RGD motif and HA density while maintaining a passivating background: Layer formation and subsequent interactions with αIIbβ3 integrins, which are reconstituted in liposomes, was monitored by label-free quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D). Exceeding a critical RGD motif density of 40% results in enhanced binding of proteoliposomes. Co-presentation studies with varying HA and constant RGD motif density demonstrate that marginal amounts of HA are sufficient to prevent integrin binding. These findings are of specific importance in relation to cancer cell microenvironments, which show highly enriched HA in the surrounding ECM to reduce adhesion properties

Dynamics, cation conformation and rotamers in guanidinium ionic liquids with ether groups

Ionic liquids are modern materials with a broad range of applications, including electrochemical devices, the exploitation of sustainable resources and chemical processing. Expanding the chemical space to include novel ion classes allows for the elucidation of novel structure-property relationships and fine tuning for specific applications. We prepared a set of ionic liquids based on the sparsely investigated pentamethyl guanidinium cation with a 2-ethoxy-ethyl side chain in combination with a series of frequently used anions. The resulting properties are compared to a cation with a pentyl side chain lacking ether functionalization. We measured the thermal transitions and transport properties to estimate the performance and trends of this cation class. The samples with imide-type anions form liquids at ambient temperature, and show good transport properties, comparable to imidazolium or ammonium ionic liquids. Despite the dynamics being significantly accelerated, ether functionalization of the cation favors the formation of crystalline solids. Single crystal structure analysis, ab initio calculations and variable temperature nuclear magnetic resonance measurements (VT-NMR) revealed that cation conformations for the ether- and alkyl-chain-substituted are different in both the solid and liquid states. While ether containing cations adopt compact, curled structures, those with pentyl side chains are linear. The Eyring plot revealed that the curled conformation is accompanied by a higher activation energy for rotation around the carbon-nitrogen bonds, due to the coordination of the ether chain as observed by VT-NMR

Jet quenching pattern at LHC in PYQUEN model

The first LHC data on high transverse momentum hadron and dijet spectra in PbPb collisions at center-of-mass energy 2.76 TeV per nucleon pair are analyzed in the frameworks of PYQUEN jet quenching model. The presented studies for the nuclear modification factor of high-pT hadrons and the imbalance in dijet transverse energy support the supposition that the intensive wide-angular ("out-of-cone") medium-induced partonic energy loss is seen in central PbPb collisions at the LHC.Comment: 5 pages including 4 figures as EPS-files; prepared using LaTeX package for publication in the European Physical Journal

High Energy Nuclear Collisions: Theory Overview

We review some basic concepts of Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics and discuss our understanding of some key results from the experimental program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We focus in particular on the early time dynamics of nuclear collisions, some result from lattice QCD, hard probes and photons.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures; delivered at ISNP 2009, published in Praman

Jet Reconstruction in Heavy Ion Collisions

We examine the problem of jet reconstruction at heavy-ion colliders using jet-area-based background subtraction tools as provided by FastJet. We use Monte Carlo simulations with and without quenching to study the performance of several jet algorithms, including the option of filtering, under conditions corresponding to RHIC and LHC collisions. We find that most standard algorithms perform well, though the anti-kt and filtered Cambridge/Aachen algorithms have clear advantages in terms of the reconstructed transverse-momentum offset and dispersion.Comment: 31 pages, 17 figure

Jet Quenching in Heavy Ion Collisions

This review article was prepared for the Landolt-Boernstein volume on Relativisitc Heavy Ion Physics.Comment: Review articel accepted for publication in the Landolt-Boernstein Handbook of Physics, ed. R. Stock. 41 pages LaTex, 7 eps-figure

Emerging pharmacotherapy of tinnitus

Tinnitus, the perception of sound in the absence of an auditory stimulus, is perceived by about 1 in 10 adults, and for at least 1 in 100, tinnitus severely affects their quality of life. Because tinnitus is frequently associated with irritability, agitation, stress, insomnia, anxiety and depression, the social and economic burdens of tinnitus can be enormous. No curative treatments are available. However, tinnitus symptoms can be alleviated to some extent. The most widespread management therapies consist of auditory stimulation and cognitive behavioral treatment, aiming at improving habituation and coping strategies. Available clinical trials vary in methodological rigor and have been performed for a considerable number of different drugs. None of the investigated drugs have demonstrated providing replicable long-term reduction of tinnitus impact in the majority of patients in excess of placebo effects. Accordingly, there are no FDA or European Medicines Agency approved drugs for the treatment of tinnitus. However, in spite of the lack of evidence, a large variety of different compounds are prescribed off-label. Therefore, more effective pharmacotherapies for this huge and still growing market are desperately needed and even a drug that produces only a small but significant effect would have an enormous therapeutic impact. This review describes current and emerging pharmacotherapies with current difficulties and limitations. In addition, it provides an estimate of the tinnitus market. Finally, it describes recent advances in the tinnitus field which may help overcome obstacles faced in the pharmacological treatment of tinnitus. These include incomplete knowledge of tinnitus pathophysiology, lack of well-established animal models, heterogeneity of different forms of tinnitus, difficulties in tinnitus assessment and outcome measurement and variability in clinical trial methodology. © 2009 Informa UK Ltd.Fil: Langguth, Berthold. Universitat Regensburg; AlemaniaFil: Salvi, Richard. State University of New York; Estados UnidosFil: Elgoyhen, Ana Belen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; Argentin

Reconstructed Jets at RHIC

To precisely measure jets over a large background such as pile up in high luminosity p+p collisions at LHC, a new generation of jet reconstruction algorithms is developed. These algorithms are also applicable to reconstruct jets in the heavy ion environment where large event multiplicities are produced. Energy loss in the medium created in heavy ion collisions are already observed indirectly via inclusive hadron distributions and di-hadron correlations. Jets can be used to study this energy loss in detail with reduced biases. We review the latest results on jet-medium interactions as seen in A+A collisions at RHIC, focusing on the recent progress on jet reconstruction in heavy ion collisions.Comment: Proceedings for the 26th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamic

A Monte Carlo Model for 'Jet Quenching'

We have developed the Monte Carlo simulation program JEWEL 1.0 (Jet Evolution With Energy Loss), which interfaces a perturbative final state parton shower with medium effects occurring in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. This is done by comparing for each jet fragment the probability of further perturbative splitting with the density-dependent probability of scattering with the medium. A simple hadronisation mechanism is included. In the absence of medium effects, we validate JEWEL against a set of benchmark jet measurements. For elastic interactions with the medium, we characterise not only the medium-induced modification of the jet, but also the jet-induced modification of the medium. Our main physics result is the observation that collisional and radiative medium modifications lead to characteristic differences in the jet fragmentation pattern, which persist above a soft background cut. We argue that this should allow to disentangle collisional and radiative parton energy loss mechanisms by measuring the n-jet fraction or a class of jet shape observables.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, v2: version accepted by EPJ