Engineered spin-valve type magnetoresistance in Fe3_3O4_4-CoFe2_2O4_4 core-shell nanoparticles

Naturally occurring spin-valve-type magnetoresistance (SVMR), recently observed in Sr2FeMoO6 samples, suggests the possibility of decoupling the maximal resistance from the coercivity of the sample. Here we present the evidence that SVMR can be engineered in specifically designed and fabricated core-shell nanoparticle systems, realized here in terms of soft magnetic Fe3O4 as the core and hard magnetic insulator CoFe2O4 as the shell materials. We show that this provides a magnetically switchable tunnel barrier that controls the magnetoresistance of the system, instead of the magnetic properties of the magnetic grain material, Fe3O4, and thus establishing the feasibility of engineered SVMR structures.Comment: Copyright (2013) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physic

B\Bbar mixing with the bulk fields in the Randall-Sundrum model

We calculate the B\Bbar mixing in the Randall-Sundrum bulk model. In this model, all the Standard Model fields except the Higgs can reside in the bulk. Two suggestive models of "mixed" and "relaxed" scenarios are considered. We find that the enhancement of the loop function is 0.51% for the "relaxed" and 1.07% for the "mixed" scenario when the first 4th KK modes are included, for a bulk fermion mass parameter $\nu=-0.3$.Comment: REVTEX, 20 pages, 3 figure

Unraveling the Mechanisms of Cutaneous Graft-Versus-Host Disease

The skin is the most common target organ affected by graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), with severity and response to therapy representing important predictors of patient survival. Although many of the initiating events in GVHD pathogenesis have been defined, less is known about why treatment resistance occurs or why there is often a permanent failure to restore tissue homeostasis. Emerging data suggest that the unique immune microenvironment in the skin is responsible for defining location- and context-specific mechanisms of injury that are distinct from those involved in other target organs. In this review, we address recent advances in our understanding of GVHD biology in the skin and outline the new research themes that will ultimately enable design of precision therapies

B-physics constraints on baryon number violating couplings: grand unification or R-parity violation

We investigate the role that baryon number violating interactions may play in $B$ phenomenology. Present in various grand unified theories, supersymmetric theories with R-parity violation and composite models, a diquark state could be quite light. Using the data on B decays as well as $B - {\bar B}$ mixing, we find strong constraints on the couplings that such a light diquark state may have with the Standard Model quarks.Comment: 19 pages, latex, no figures, 13 tables include

Heavy quark production via leptoquarks at a neutrino factory

The proposed neutrino factory (NF) based on a muon storage ring (MSR) is an ideal place to look for heavy quark production via neutral current (NC) and charged current (CC) interactions. In this article, we address the issue of contribution coming from mediating leptoquarks (LQ) in $\nu_\mu (\bar\nu_e)-{\rm N}$ interactions leading to the production of $b(\bar b)$ at a MSR and investigate the region where LQ interactions are significant in the near-site experiments.Comment: 12 pages latex, 10 ps figures, uses axocolour.sty, Slightly revised version to appear in PR

Bound pair states beyond the condensate for Fermi systems below T_c: the pseudogap as a necessary condition

As is known, the 1/q^2 theorem of Bogoliubov asserts that the mean density of the fermion pair states with the total momentum q obeys the inequality n_q > C/q^2 (q \to 0) in the case of the Fermi system taken at nonzero temperature and in the superconducting state provided the interaction term of its Hamiltonian is locally gauge invariant. With the principle of correlation weakening it is proved in this paper that the reason for the mentioned singular behaviour of n_q is the presence of the bound states of particle pairs with nonzero total momenta. Thus, below the temperature of the superconducting phase transition there always exist the bound states of the fermion couples beyond the pair condensate. If the pseudogap observed in the normal phase of the high-T_c superconductors is stipulated by the presence of the electron bound pairs, then the derived result suggests, in a model-independent manner, that the pseudogap survives below T_c.Comment: REVTeX, 8 pages, no figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Expression of a dominant T-cell receptor can reduce toxicity and enhance tumor protection of allogeneic T-cell therapy

Due to the lack of specificity for tumor antigens, allogeneic T-cell therapy is associated with graft-versus-host disease. Enhancing the anti-tumor specificity while reducing the graft-versus-host disease risk of allogeneic T cells has remained a research focus. In this study, we demonstrate that the introduction of ‘dominant’ T-cell receptors into primary murine T cells can suppress the expression of endogenous T-cell receptors in a large proportion of the gene-modified T cells. Adoptive transfer of allogeneic T cells expressing a ‘dominant’ T-cell receptor significantly reduced the graft-versus-host toxicity in recipient mice. Using two bone marrow transplant models, enhanced anti-tumor activity was observed in the presence of reduced graft-versus-host disease. However, although transfer of T-cell receptor gene-modified allogeneic T cells resulted in the elimination of antigen-positive tumor cells and improved the survival of treated mice, it was associated with accumulation of T cells expressing endogenous T-cell receptors and the development of delayed graft-versus-host disease. The in vivo deletion of the engineered T cells, mediated by endogenous mouse mammary tumor virus MTV8 and MTV9, abolished graft-versus-host disease while retaining significant anti-tumor activity of adoptively transferred T cells. Together, this study shows that the in vitro selection of allogeneic T cells expressing high levels of a ‘dominant’ T-cell receptor can lower acute graft-versus-host disease and enhance anti-tumor activity of adoptive cell therapy, while the in vivo outgrowth of T cells expressing endogenous T-cell receptors remains a risk factor for the delayed onset of graft-versus-host disease