393 research outputs found
Berry effect in acoustical polarization transport in phononic crystals
We derive the semiclassical equations of motion of a transverse acoustical
wave packet propagating in a phononic crystal subject to slowly varying
perturbations. The formalism gives rise to Berry effect terms in the equations
of motion, manifested as the Rytov polarization rotation law and the
polarization-dependent Hall effect. We show that the formalism is also
applicable to the case of non-periodic inhomogeneous media, yielding explicit
expressions for the Berry effect terms.Comment: To appear in JETP Let
A Note on Einstein Sasaki Metrics in D \ge 7
In this paper, we obtain new non-singular Einstein-Sasaki spaces in
dimensions D\ge 7. The local construction involves taking a circle bundle over
a (D-1)-dimensional Einstein-Kahler metric that is itself constructed as a
complex line bundle over a product of Einstein-Kahler spaces. In general the
resulting Einstein-Sasaki spaces are singular, but if parameters in the local
solutions satisfy appropriate rationality conditions, the metrics extend
smoothly onto complete and non-singular compact manifolds.Comment: Latex, 13 page
Cohomogeneity One Manifolds of Spin(7) and G(2) Holonomy
In this paper, we look for metrics of cohomogeneity one in D=8 and D=7
dimensions with Spin(7) and G_2 holonomy respectively. In D=8, we first
consider the case of principal orbits that are S^7, viewed as an S^3 bundle
over S^4 with triaxial squashing of the S^3 fibres. This gives a more general
system of first-order equations for Spin(7) holonomy than has been solved
previously. Using numerical methods, we establish the existence of new
non-singular asymptotically locally conical (ALC) Spin(7) metrics on line
bundles over \CP^3, with a non-trivial parameter that characterises the
homogeneous squashing of CP^3. We then consider the case where the principal
orbits are the Aloff-Wallach spaces N(k,\ell)=SU(3)/U(1), where the integers k
and \ell characterise the embedding of U(1). We find new ALC and AC metrics of
Spin(7) holonomy, as solutions of the first-order equations that we obtained
previously in hep-th/0102185. These include certain explicit ALC metrics for
all N(k,\ell), and numerical and perturbative results for ALC families with AC
limits. We then study D=7 metrics of holonomy, and find new explicit
examples, which, however, are singular, where the principal orbits are the flag
manifold SU(3)/(U(1)\times U(1)). We also obtain numerical results for new
non-singular metrics with principal orbits that are S^3\times S^3. Additional
topics include a detailed and explicit discussion of the Einstein metrics on
N(k,\ell), and an explicit parameterisation of SU(3).Comment: Latex, 60 pages, references added, formulae corrected and additional
discussion on the asymptotic flow of N(k,l) cases adde
Computing CMB Anisotropy in Compact Hyperbolic Spaces
The measurements of CMB anisotropy have opened up a window for probing the
global topology of the universe on length scales comparable to and beyond the
Hubble radius. For compact topologies, the two main effects on the CMB are: (1)
the breaking of statistical isotropy in characteristic patterns determined by
the photon geodesic structure of the manifold and (2) an infrared cutoff in the
power spectrum of perturbations imposed by the finite spatial extent. We
present a completely general scheme using the regularized method of images for
calculating CMB anisotropy in models with nontrivial topology, and apply it to
the computationally challenging compact hyperbolic topologies. This new
technique eliminates the need for the difficult task of spatial eigenmode
decomposition on these spaces. We estimate a Bayesian probability for a
selection of models by confronting the theoretical pixel-pixel temperature
correlation function with the COBE-DMR data. Our results demonstrate that
strong constraints on compactness arise: if the universe is small compared to
the `horizon' size, correlations appear in the maps that are irreconcilable
with the observations. If the universe is of comparable size, the likelihood
function is very dependent upon orientation of the manifold wrt the sky. While
most orientations may be strongly ruled out, it sometimes happens that for a
specific orientation the predicted correlation patterns are preferred over the
conventional infinite models.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX (IOP style included), 3 color figures (GIF) in
separate files. Minor revision to match the version accepted in Class.
Quantum Grav.: Proc. of Topology and Cosmology, Cleveland, 1997. The paper
can be also downloaded from
http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~pogosyan/cwru_proc.ps.g
Elevated alanine aminotransferase in blood donors: role of different factors and multiple viral infections.
Many different aetiological agents stimulate alanine aminotransferase (ALT) production. Viral markers and other aetiologies were investigated in 2166 individuals, randomly selected from 10 000 consecutive blood donors. Elevation of ALT was found in 10.8% of subjects. Grouping donors according to ALT level and correlating with, respectively, hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb), cytomegalovirus antibody alone, or associated with HBcAb, showed similar findings (high ALT 11.1%, normal 11.6%; high 85.4%, normal 81.4%; high 10.2%, normal 11.0%, respectively). Hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody was found to be significantly associated with elevated ALT levels (high 1.7%, normal 0.26%). Other causes of ALT elevation were alcohol abuse (17%), obesity (25%) and dyslipidaemia (38%), but in 11% there was no obvious aetiology. Although HCV is a rare cause of elevated ALT in blood donors, it seems to be the only virus, among those tested, to account for liver damage. This may be due to the non-protective role of HCV antibody, the low specificity of ALT, or the pathogenic role of uninvestigated viruses
Dendritic cells loaded with killed breast cancer cells induce differentiation of tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes
BACKGROUND: Early clinical trials, mostly in the setting of melanoma, have shown that dendritic cells (DCs) expressing tumor antigens induce some immune responses and some clinical responses. A major difficulty is the extension to other tumors, such as breast carcinoma, for which few defined tumor-associated antigens are available. We have demonstrated, using both prostate carcinoma and melanoma as model systems, that DCs loaded with killed allogeneic tumor cell lines can induce CD8(+ )T cells to differentiate into cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) specific for shared tumor antigens. METHODS: The present study was designed to determine whether DCs would capture killed breast cancer cells and present their antigens to autologous CD4(+ )and CD8(+ )T cells. RESULTS: We show that killed breast cancer cells are captured by immature DCs that, after induced maturation, can efficiently present MHC class I and class II peptides to CD8(+ )and CD4(+ )T lymphocytes. The elicited CTLs are able to kill the target cells without a need for pretreatment with interferon gamma. CTLs can be obtained by culturing the DCs loaded with killed breast cancer cells with unseparated peripheral blood lymphocytes, indicating that the DCs can overcome any potential inhibitory effects of breast cancer cells. CONCLUSION: Loading DCs with killed breast cancer cells may be considered a novel approach to breast cancer immunotherapy and to identification of shared breast cancer antigens
Constrained Dynamics of an Anomalous Relativistic Spinning Particle in Electromagnetic Background
In this paper we have considered the dynamics of an anomalous ()
charged relativistic spinning particle in the presence of an external
electromagnetic field. The constraint analysis is done and the complete set of
Dirac brackets are provided that generate the canonical Lorentz algebra and
dynamics through Hamiltonian equations of motion. The spin-induced effective
curvature of spacetime and its possible connection with Analogue Gravity models
are commented upon.Comment: 10 pages Latex, minor corrections and changes in ref., slightly
enlarged version, to appear in EPJ
Electromagnetic Form Factors of the Nucleon in an Improved Quark Model
Nucleon electromagnetic form factors are studied in the cloudy bag model
(CBM) with center-of-mass and recoil corrections. This is the first
presentation of a full set of nucleon form factors using the CBM. The center of
mass motion is eliminated via several different momentum projection techniques
and the results are compared. It is found that the shapes of these form factors
are significantly improved with respect to the experimental data if the Lorentz
contraction of the internal structure of the baryon is also appropriately taken
into account.Comment: revtex, 28 pages, 8 ps figs include
A new cell primo-culture method for freshwater benthic diatom communities
A new cell primo-culture method was developed for the benthic diatom community isolated from biofilm sampled in rivers. The approach comprised three steps: (1) scraping biofilm from river pebbles, (2) diatom isolation
from biofilm, and (3) diatom community culture. With a view to designing a method able to stimulate the growth of diatoms, to limit the development of other microorganisms, and to maintain in culture a community similar to the original natural one, different factors were tested in step 3:
cell culture medium (Chu No 10 vs Freshwater “WC” medium modified), cell culture vessel, and time of culture. The results showed that using Chu No 10 medium in an Erlenmeyer flask for cell culture was the optimal method,
producing enough biomass for ecotoxicological tests as well as minimising development of other microorganisms. After 96 h of culture, communities differed from the original communities sampled in the two rivers studied.
Species tolerant of eutrophic or saprobic conditions were favoured during culture. This method of diatom community culture affords the opportunity to assess, in vitro, the effects of different chemicals or effluents (water samples andindustrial effluents) on diatom communities, as well as on diatom cells, from a wide range of perspectives
Neutron charge form factor at large
The neutron charge form factor is determined from an analysis of
the deuteron quadrupole form factor data. Recent calculations, based
on a variety of different model interactions and currents, indicate that the
contributions associated with the uncertain two-body operators of shorter range
are relatively small for , even at large momentum transfer . Hence,
can be extracted from at large without undue
systematic uncertainties from theory.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
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