1,076 research outputs found
Canonical formalism for simplicial gravity
We summarise a recently introduced general canonical formulation of discrete
systems which is fully equivalent to the covariant formalism. This framework
can handle varying phase space dimensions and is applied to simplicial gravity
in particular.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, based on a talk given at Loops '11 in Madrid, to
appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS
Bovine aortic endothelial cells are susceptible to Hantaan virus infection
AbstractHantavirus serotype Hantaan (HTN) is one of the causative agents of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS, lethality up to 10%). The natural host of HTN is Apodemus agrarius. Recent studies have shown that domestic animals like cattle are sporadically seropositive for hantaviruses. In the present study, the susceptibility of bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC) expressing αVβ3-integrin to a HTN infection was investigated. Viral nucleocapsid protein and genomic RNA segments were detected in infected BAEC by indirect immunofluorescence assay, Western blot analysis, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), respectively. The results of this study strongly support our previous observation on Puumala virus (PUU) that has been propagated efficiently in BAEC. These findings open a new window to contemplate the ecology of hantavirus infection and transmission route from animal to man
Both apoptosis and necrosis occur early after intracerebral grafting of ventral mesencephalic tissue: a role for protease activation.
Neural transplantation is an experimental treatment for Parkinson's disease. Widespread clinical application of the grafting technique is hampered by a relatively poor survival (around 10%) of implanted embryonic dopamine neurones. Earlier animal studies have indicated that a large proportion of the grafted cells die during graft tissue preparation and within the first few days after intracerebral implantation. The present study was designed to reveal the prevalence of cell death in rat intrastriatal grafts at 90 min, 1, 3, 6 and 42 days after implantation. We examined apoptotic cell death using semi-thin and paraffin sections stained with methylene blue and an antibody against activated caspase 3, respectively. We identified abundant apoptotic cell death up to 3 days after transplantation. In addition, we studied calpain activation using an antibody specific for calpain-cleaved fodrin. We report a peak in calpain activity 90 min after grafting. Surprisingly, we did not observe any significant difference in the number of dopaminergic neurones over time. The present results imply that grafted cells may be victims of either an early necrotic or a later apoptotic cell death and that there is substantial cell death as early as 90 min after implantation
Data report: IODP Site U1387: the revised splice between Sections U1387B-18X-3 and U1387C-8R-3 (>171.6 mcd)
The Expedition 339 shipboard splice of Integrated Ocean Drilling
Program (IODP) Site U1387 deeper than ~155 meters composite
depth (mcd) is based on a composite of the magnetic susceptibility and natural gamma radiation data. When generating high-resolution paleoceanographic reconstructions for the Mid-Pleistocene Transition and early Pleistocene sections of Site U1387, it
quickly became obvious that proxy data misfits existed at several
splice transitions. Thus, a revised splice was generated for Site
U1387 below Core 339-U1387B-18X based on X-ray fluorescence–
derived element records (e.g., ln[Fe/Ca]) and the stable isotope records obtained for planktonic and benthic foraminifers. Corrections were needed at most of the splice transitions below Core
339-U1387A-19X, with adjustments ranging from a few centimeters to several meters. In addition, Core 339-U1387A-33X and sections of Core 36X were integrated into the revised splice to replace Core 339-U1387C-2R and sections of Core 5R, respectively.
The replacement of Core 339-U1387C-2R with Core 339-U1387A33X is an option for the intended paleoceanographic research and
not essential for lower resolution studies. The splice tie point table, therefore, also includes an option for a splice that retains
Core 339-U1387C-2R. The extensive revision of the shipboard
splice reveals that making a splice for sediment sequences rich in
contourite layers and coring disturbances (biscuiting in the extended core barrel cores) can be tricky and that data misfits at
splice transitions are not necessarily a data problem but could indicate a splice problem.SFRH/BPD/111433/2015info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Measuring the Polarization of Boosted Hadronic Tops
We propose a new technique for measuring the polarization of hadronically
decaying boosted top quarks. In particular, we apply a subjet-based technique
to events where the decay products of the top are clustered within a single
jet. The technique requires neither b-tagging nor W-reconstruction, and does
not rely on assumptions about either the top production mechanism or the
sources of missing energy in the event. We include results for various new
physics scenarios made with different Monte Carlo generators to demonstrate the
robustness of the technique.Comment: v2: version accepted for publication in JHE
Collision Dynamics and Solvation of Water Molecules in a Liquid Methanol Film
Environmental molecular beam experiments are used to examine water
interactions with liquid methanol films at temperatures from 170 K to 190 K. We
find that water molecules with 0.32 eV incident kinetic energy are efficiently
trapped by the liquid methanol. The scattering process is characterized by an
efficient loss of energy to surface modes with a minor component of the
incident beam that is inelastically scattered. Thermal desorption of water
molecules has a well characterized Arrhenius form with an activation energy of
0.47{\pm}0.11 eV and pre-exponential factor of 4.6 {\times} 10^(15{\pm}3)
s^(-1). We also observe a temperature dependent incorporation of incident water
into the methanol layer. The implication for fundamental studies and
environmental applications is that even an alcohol as simple as methanol can
exhibit complex and temperature dependent surfactant behavior.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
W+W-, WZ and ZZ production in the POWHEG BOX
We present an implementation of the vector boson pair production processes
ZZ, W+W- and W Z within the POWHEG framework, which is a method that allows the
interfacing of NLO calculations to shower Monte Carlo programs. The
implementation is built within the POWHEG BOX package. The Z/\gamma^*
interference, as well as singly resonant contributions, are properly included.
We also considered interference terms arising from identical leptons in the
final state. As a result, all contributions leading to the desired four-lepton
system have been included in the calculation, with the sole exception of the
interference between ZZ and W+W- in the production of a pair of same-flavour,
oppositely charged fermions and a pair of neutrinos, which we show to be fully
negligible. Anomalous trilinear couplings can be also set in the program, and
we give some examples of their effect at the LHC. We have made the relevant
code available at the POWHEG BOX web site.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. Minor corrections and updated
references in revised versio
Using gamma+jets Production to Calibrate the Standard Model Z(nunu)+jets Background to New Physics Processes at the LHC
The irreducible background from Z(nunu)+jets, to beyond the Standard Model
searches at the LHC, can be calibrated using gamma+jets data. The method
utilises the fact that at high vector boson pT, the event kinematics are the
same for the two processes and the cross sections differ mainly due to the
boson-quark couplings. The method relies on a precise prediction from theory of
the Z/gamma cross section ratio at high pT, which should be insensitive to
effects from full event simulation. We study the Z/gamma ratio for final states
involving 1, 2 and 3 hadronic jets, using both the leading-order parton shower
Monte Carlo program Pythia8 and a leading-order matrix element program Gambos.
This enables us both to understand the underlying parton dynamics in both
processes, and to quantify the theoretical systematic uncertainties in the
ratio predictions. Using a typical set of experimental cuts, we estimate the
net theoretical uncertainty in the ratio to be of order 7%, when obtained from
a Monte Carlo program using multiparton matrix-elements for the hard process.
Uncertainties associated with full event simulation are found to be small. The
results indicate that an overall accuracy of the method, excluding statistical
errors, of order 10% should be possible.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures; Accepted for publication by JHE
Constraining compressed supersymmetry using leptonic signatures
We study the impact of the multi-lepton searches at the LHC on supersymmetric
models with compressed mass spectra. For such models the acceptances of the
usual search strategies are significantly reduced due to requirement of large
effective mass and missing E_T. On the other hand, lepton searches do have much
lower thresholds for missing E_T and p_T of the final state objects. Therefore,
if a model with a compressed mass spectrum allows for multi-lepton final
states, one could derive constraints using multi-lepton searches. For a class
of simplified models we study the exclusion limits using ATLAS multi-lepton
search analyses for the final states containing 2-4 electrons or muons with a
total integrated luminosity of 1-2/fb at \sqrt{s}=7 TeV. We also modify those
analyses by imposing additional cuts, so that their sensitivity to compressed
supersymmetric models increase. Using the original and modified analyses, we
show that the exclusion limits can be competitive with jet plus missing E_T
searches, providing exclusion limits up to gluino masses of 1 TeV. We also
analyse the efficiencies for several classes of events coming from different
intermediate state particles. This allows us to assess exclusion limits in
similar class of models with different cross sections and branching ratios
without requiring a Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure
Kinetic models with randomly perturbed binary collisions
We introduce a class of Kac-like kinetic equations on the real line, with
general random collisional rules, which include as particular cases models for
wealth redistribution in an agent-based market or models for granular gases
with a background heat bath. Conditions on these collisional rules which
guarantee both the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium profiles and their
main properties are found. We show that the characterization of these
stationary solutions is of independent interest, since the same profiles are
shown to be solutions of different evolution problems, both in the econophysics
context and in the kinetic theory of rarefied gases
- …