69 research outputs found
Neutrino-Accelerated Hot Hydrogen Burning
We examine the effects of significant electron anti-neutrino fluxes on
hydrogen burning. Specifically, we find that the bottleneck weak nuclear
reactions in the traditional pp-chain and the hot CNO cycle can be accelerated
by anti-neutrino capture, increasing the energy generation rate. We also
discuss how anti-neutrino capture reactions can alter the conditions for break
out into the rp-process. We speculate on the impact of these considerations for
the evolution and dynamics of collapsing very- and super- massive compact
objects.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ; minor content chang
Gravitational Collapse in Turbulent Molecular Clouds. I. Gasdynamical Turbulence
Observed molecular clouds often appear to have very low star formation
efficiencies and lifetimes an order of magnitude longer than their free-fall
times. Their support is attributed to the random supersonic motions observed in
them. We study the support of molecular clouds against gravitational collapse
by supersonic, gas dynamical turbulence using direct numerical simulation.
Computations with two different algorithms are compared: a particle-based,
Lagrangian method (SPH), and a grid-based, Eulerian, second-order method
(ZEUS). The effects of both algorithm and resolution can be studied with this
method. We find that, under typical molecular cloud conditions, global collapse
can indeed be prevented, but density enhancements caused by strong shocks
nevertheless become gravitationally unstable and collapse into dense cores and,
presumably, stars. The occurance and efficiency of local collapse decreases as
the driving wave length decreases and the driving strength increases. It
appears that local collapse can only be prevented entirely with unrealistically
short wave length driving, but observed core formation rates can be reproduced
with more realistic driving. At high collapse rates, cores are formed on short
time scales in coherent structures with high efficiency, while at low collapse
rates they are scattered randomly throughout the region and exhibit
considerable age spread. We suggest that this naturally explains the observed
distinction between isolated and clustered star formation.Comment: Minor revisions in response to referee, thirteen figures, accepted to
Astrophys.
Monetary Policy Rules and Directions of Causality: a Test for the Euro Area
Using a VAR model in first differences with quarterly data for the euro zone, the study aims to ascertain whether decisions on monetary policy can be interpreted in terms of a “monetary policy rule” with specific reference to the so-called nominal GDP targeting rule (Hall and Mankiw, 1994; McCallum, 1988; Woodford, 2012). The results obtained indicate a causal relation proceeding from deviation between the growth rates of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and target GDP to variation in the three-month market interest rate. The same analyses do not, however, appear to confirm the existence of a significant inverse causal relation from variation in the market interest rate to deviation between the nominal and target GDP growth rates. Similar results were obtained on replacing the market interest rate with the European Central Bank refinancing interest rate. This confirmation of only one of the two directions of causality does not support an interpretation of monetary policy based on the nominal GDP targeting rule and gives rise to doubt in more general terms as to the applicability of the Taylor rule and all the conventional rules of monetary policy to the case in question. The results appear instead to be more in line with other possible approaches, such as those based on post Keynesian analyses of monetary theory and policy and more specifically the so-called solvency rule (Brancaccio and Fontana, 2013, 2015). These lines of research challenge the simplistic argument that the scope of monetary policy consists in the stabilization of inflation, real GDP, or nominal income around a “natural equilibrium” level. Rather, they suggest that central banks actually follow a more complex purpose, which is the political regulation of the financial system with particular reference to the relations between creditors and debtors and the related solvency of economic units
Resonance Lifetimes from Complex Densities
The ab-initio calculation of resonance lifetimes of metastable anions
challenges modern quantum-chemical methods. The exact lifetime of the
lowest-energy resonance is encoded into a complex "density" that can be
obtained via complex-coordinate scaling. We illustrate this with one-electron
examples and show how the lifetime can be extracted from the complex density in
much the same way as the ground-state energy of bound systems is extracted from
its ground-state density
RNAi for Treating Hepatitis B Viral Infection
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the leading causes of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Current treatment strategies of HBV infection including the use of interferon (IFN)-α and nucleotide analogues such as lamivudine and adefovir have met with only partial success. Therefore, it is necessary to develop more effective antiviral therapies that can clear HBV infection with fewer side effects. RNA interference (RNAi), by which a small interfering RNA (siRNA) induces the gene silence at a post-transcriptional level, has the potential of treating HBV infection. The successful use of chemically synthesized siRNA, endogenous expression of small hairpin RNA (shRNA) or microRNA (miRNA) to silence the target gene make this technology towards a potentially rational therapeutics for HBV infection. However, several challenges including poor siRNA stability, inefficient cellular uptake, widespread biodistribution and non-specific effects need to be overcome. In this review, we discuss several strategies for improving the anti-HBV therapeutic efficacy of siRNAs, while avoiding their off-target effects and immunostimulation. There is an in-depth discussion on the (1) mechanisms of RNAi, (2) methods for siRNA/shRNA production, (3) barriers to RNAi-based therapies, and (4) delivery strategies of siRNA for treating HBV infection
Effective suppression of Dengue fever virus in mosquito cell cultures using retroviral transduction of hammerhead ribozymes targeting the viral genome
Outbreaks of Dengue impose a heavy economic burden on developing countries in terms of vector control and human morbidity. Effective vaccines against all four serotypes of Dengue are in development, but population replacement with transgenic vectors unable to transmit the virus might ultimately prove to be an effective approach to disease suppression, or even eradication. A key element of the refractory transgenic vector approach is the development of transgenes that effectively prohibit viral transmission. In this report we test the effectiveness of several hammerhead ribozymes for suppressing DENV in lentivirus-transduced mosquito cells in an attempt to mimic the transgenic use of these effector molecules in mosquitoes. A lentivirus vector that expresses these ribozymes as a fusion RNA molecule using an Ae. aegypti tRNAval promoter and terminating with a 60A tail insures optimal expression, localization, and activity of the hammerhead ribozyme against the DENV genome. Among the 14 hammerhead ribozymes we designed to attack the DENV-2 NGC genome, several appear to be relatively effective in reducing virus production from transduced cells by as much as 2 logs. Among the sequences targeted are 10 that are conserved among all DENV serotype 2 strains. Our results confirm that hammerhead ribozymes can be effective in suppressing DENV in a transgenic approach, and provide an alternative or supplementary approach to proposed siRNA strategies for DENV suppression in transgenic mosquitoes
HERA Collider Physics
HERA, the first electron-proton collider, has been delivering luminosity
since 1992. It is the natural extension of an impressive series of fixed-target
lepton-nucleon scattering experiments. The increase of a factor ten in
center-of-mass energy over that available for fixed-target experiments has
allowed the discovery of several important results, such as the large number of
slow partons in the proton, and the sizeable diffractive cross section at large
. Recent data point to a possible deviation from Standard Model
expectations at very high , highlighting the physics potential of HERA for
new effects. The HERA program is currently in a transition period. The first
six years of data taking have primarily elucidated the structure of the proton,
allowed detailed QCD studies and had a strong impact on the understanding of
QCD dynamics. The coming years will bring the era of electroweak studies and
high measurements. This is therefore an appropriate juncture at which to
review HERA results.Comment: 351 pages, 154 figures, submitted to Reviews of Modern Physic
Photoproduction of J/psi and of high mass e+e- in ultra-peripheral Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
We present the first measurement of photoproduction of J/psi and of
two-photon production of high-mass e+e- pairs in electromagnetic (or
ultra-peripheral) nucleus-nucleus interactions, using Au+Au data at sqrt(s_NN)
= 200 GeV. The events are tagged with forward neutrons emitted following
Coulomb excitation of one or both Au^{star} nuclei. The event sample consists
of 28 events with m_{e+e-} > 2 GeV/c^2 with zero like-sign background. The
measured cross sections at midrapidity of d\sigma / dy (J/psi + Xn, y=0) = 76
+/- 33 (stat) +/- 11 (syst) micro b and d^2\sigma/dm dy (e^+e^- + Xn, y=0) = 86
+/- 23 (stat) +/- 16 (syst) micro b/(GeV/c^2) for m_{e+e-} \in [2.0,2.8]
GeV/c^2 are consistent with various theoretical predictions.Comment: 345 authors from 52 institutions, 20 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables.
Submitted to Physics Letters B. Plain text data tables for the points plotted
in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be)
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Exchange energy as functional of electronic density from Hartree-Fock theory of inhomogeneous electron gas
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