912 research outputs found
Spatial Evidence for Transition Radiation in a Solar Radio Burst
Microturbulence, i.e. enhanced fluctuations of plasma density, electric and
magnetic fields, is of great interest in astrophysical plasmas, but occurs on
spatial scales far too small to resolve by remote sensing, e.g., at ~ 1-100 cm
in the solar corona. This paper reports spatially resolved observations that
offer strong support for the presence in solar flares of a suspected radio
emission mechanism, resonant transition radiation, which is tightly coupled to
the level of microturbulence and provides direct diagnostics of the existence
and level of fluctuations on decimeter spatial scales. Although the level of
the microturbulence derived from the radio data is not particularly high,
/n^2 ~ 10^{-5}$, it is large enough to affect the charged particle
diffusion and give rise to effective stochastic acceleration. This finding has
exceptionally broad astrophysical implications since modern sophisticated
numerical models predict generation of much stronger turbulence in relativistic
objects, e.g., in gamma-ray burst sources.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, ApJL accepte
Monitoring phagocytic uptake of amyloid beta into glial cell lysosomes in real time
Phagocytosis by glial cells is essential to regulate brain function during health and disease. Therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have primarily focused on targeting antibodies to amyloid β (Aβ) or inhibitng enzymes that make it, and while removal of Aβ by phagocytosis is protective early in AD it remains poorly understood. Impaired phagocytic function of glial cells during later stages of AD likely contributes to worsened disease outcome, but the underlying mechanisms of how this occurs remain unknown. We have developed a human Aβ_{1-42} analogue (Aβ^{pH}) that exhibits green fluorescence upon internalization into the acidic organelles of cells but is non-fluorescent at physiological pH. This allowed us to image, for the first time, glial uptake of Aβ^{pH} in real time in live animals. We find that microglia phagocytose more AβpH than astrocytes in culture, in brain slices and in vivo. Aβ^{pH} can be used to investigate the phagocytic mechanisms responsible for removing Aβ from the extracellular space, and thus could become a useful tool to study Aβ clearance at different stages of AD
Effect of Oral Sebacic Acid on Postprandial Glycemia, Insulinemia, and Glucose Rate of Appearance in Type 2 Diabetes
Dicarboxylic acids are natural products with the potential of being an alternate dietary source of energy. We aimed to evaluate the effect of sebacic acid (a 10-carbon dicarboxylic acid; C10) ingestion on postprandial glycemia and glucose rate of appearance (Ra) in healthy and type 2 diabetic subjects. Furthermore, the effect of C10 on insulin-mediated glucose uptake and on GLUT4 expression was assessed in L6 muscle cells in vitro
Search for massive rare particles with MACRO
Massive rare particles have been searched for in the penetrating cosmic
radiation using the MACRO apparatus at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories.
Liquid scintillators, streamer tubes and nuclear track detectors have been used
to search for magnetic monopoles (MMs).
Based on no observation of such signals, stringent flux limits are
established for MMs as slow as a few 10^(-5)c. The methods based on the
scintillator and on the nuclear track subdetectors were also applied to search
for nuclearites. Preliminary results of the searches for charged Q-balls are
also presented.Comment: 20 pages, 9 EPS figures included with epsfi
Search for Nucleon Decays induced by GUT Magnetic Monopoles with the MACRO Experiment
The interaction of a Grand Unification Magnetic Monopole with a nucleon can
lead to a barion-number violating process in which the nucleon decays into a
lepton and one or more mesons (catalysis of nucleon decay). In this paper we
report an experimental study of the effects of a catalysis process in the MACRO
detector. Using a dedicated analysis we obtain new magnetic monopole (MM) flux
upper limits at the level of for
, based on the search for
catalysis events in the MACRO data. We also analyze the dependence of the MM
flux limit on the catalysis cross section.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, 10 figures and 2 Table
The Observation of Up-going Charged Particles Produced by High Energy Muons in Underground Detectors
An experimental study of the production of up-going charged particles in
inelastic interactions of down-going underground muons is reported, using data
obtained from the MACRO detector at the Gran Sasso Laboratory. In a sample of
12.2 10^6 single muons, corresponding to a detector livetime of 1.55 y, 243
events are observed having an up-going particle associated with a down-going
muon. These events are analysed to determine the range and emission angle
distributions of the up-going particle, corrected for detection and
reconstruction efficiency. Measurements of the muon neutrino flux by
underground detectors are often based on the observation of through-going and
stopping muons produced in interactions in the rock below the
detector. Up-going particles produced by an undetected down-going muon are a
potential background source in these measurements. The implications of this
background for neutrino studies using MACRO are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Accepted by Astrop. Physic
Observation of the Shadowing of Cosmic Rays by the Moon using a Deep Underground Detector
Using data collected by the MACRO experiment during the years 1989-1996, we
show evidence for the shadow of the moon in the underground cosmic ray flux
with a significance of 3.6 sigma. This detection of the shadowing effect is the
first by an underground detector. A maximum-likelihood analysis is used to
determine that the angular resolution of the apparatus is 0.9+/-0.3 degrees.
These results demonstrate MACRO's capabilities as a muon telescope by
confirming its absolute pointing ability and quantifying its angular
resolution.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures Submitted to Phys. Rev.
A combined analysis technique for the search for fast magnetic monopoles with the MACRO detector
We describe a search method for fast moving ()
magnetic monopoles using simultaneously the scintillator, streamer tube and
track-etch subdetectors of the MACRO apparatus. The first two subdetectors are
used primarily for the identification of candidates while the track-etch one is
used as the final tool for their rejection or confirmation. Using this
technique, a first sample of more than two years of data has been analyzed
without any evidence of a magnetic monopole. We set a 90% CL upper limit to the
local monopole flux of in the
velocity range and for nucleon decay
catalysis cross section smaller than .Comment: 29 pages (12 figures). Accepted by Astroparticle Physic
Measurement of the atmospheric neutrino-induced upgoing muon flux using MACRO
We present a measurement of the flux of neutrino-induced upgoing muons
(~100 GeV) using the MACRO detector. The ratio of the number of observed
to expected events integrated over all zenith angles is 0.74 +/- 0.036 (stat)
+/- 0.046(systematic) +/- 0.13 (theoretical). The observed zenith distribution
for -1.0 < cos(theta) < -0.1 does not fit well with the no oscillation
expectation, giving a maximum probability for chi^2 of 0.1%. The acceptance of
the detector has been extensively studied using downgoing muons, independent
analyses and Monte-Carlo simulations. The other systematic uncertainties cannot
be the source of the discrepancies between the data and expectations. We have
investigated whether the observed number of events and the shape of the zenith
distribution can be explained by a neutrino oscillation hypothesis. Fitting
either the flux or zenith distribution independently yields mixing parameters
of sin^2 (2theta)=1.0 and delta m^2 of a few times 10^-3 eV^2. However, the
observed zenith distribution does not fit well with any expectations giving a
maximum probability for chi^2 of 5% for the best oscillation hypothesis, and
the combined probability for the shape and number of events is 17%. We conclude
that these data favor a neutrino oscillation hypothesis, but with unexplained
structure in the zenith distribution not easily explained by either the
statistics or systematics of the experiment.Comment: 7 pages (two-column) with 4 figure
Neutrino astronomy with the MACRO detector
High energy gamma ray astronomy is now a well established field and several
sources have been discovered in the region from a few GeV up to several TeV. If
sources involving hadronic processes exist, the production of photons would be
accompanied by neutrinos too. Other possible neutrino sources could be related
to the annihilation of WIMPs at the center of galaxies with black holes.
We present the results of a search for point-like sources using 1100
upward-going muons produced by neutrino interactions in the rock below and
inside the MACRO detector in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory. These data
show no evidence for a possible neutrino point-like source or for possible
correlations between gamma ray bursts and neutrinos. They have been used to set
flux upper limits for candidate point-like sources which are in the range
10^-14-10^-15 cm-2 s-1.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figures, replacement due to a typo in tab. 6, AASLaTex,
submitted to Ap
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