506 research outputs found
On Justification, Idealization, and Discursive Purchase
Conceptions of acceptability-based moral or political justification take it that authoritative acceptability, widely conceived, constitutes, or contributes to, validity, or justification. There is no agreement as to what bar for authoritativeness such justification may employ. The paper engages the issue in relation to (i) the level of idealization that a bar for authoritativeness, Ï, imparts to a standard of acceptability-based justification, S, and (ii) the degree of discursive purchase of the discursive standing that S accords to people when it builds Ï. I argue that (i) and (ii) are interdependent: high idealization values entail low discursive purchase, while high degrees of purchase require low idealization values. I then distinguish between alethic conceptions of justification that prioritize ends that commit to high idealization values, and recognitive conceptions that favor high discursive purchase. On this basis, I argue for a moderately recognitivist constraint on idealization. To render the recognitive discursive minimum available to relevant people at the site of justification, S should set Ï low enough so that it is a genuine option for actual people to reject relevant views in ways that S recognizes as authoritative. (The Appendix applies this to a Forst-type view of reciprocity of reasons to draw out some limitations of this view.) [Draft available from author on request.
Towards a Precise Parton Luminosity Determination at the CERN LHC
A new approach to determine the LHC luminosity is investigated. Instead of
employing the proton-proton luminosity measurement, we suggest to measure
directly the parton-parton luminosity. It is shown that the electron and muon
pseudorapidity distributions, originating from the decay of W+, W- and Z0
bosons produced at 14 TeV pp collisions (LHC), constrain the x distributions of
sea and valence quarks and antiquarks in the range from about 3 x 10**-4 to
about 10**-1 at a Q**2 of about 10**4 GeV**2. Furthermore, it is demonstrated
that, once the quark and antiquark structure functions are constrained from the
W+,W- and Z0 production dynamics, other quark-antiquark related scattering
processes at the LHC like q-qbar --> W+W- can be predicted accurately. Thus,
the lepton pseudorapidity distributions provide the key to a precise parton
luminosity monitor at the LHC, with accuracies of about +-1% compared to the so
far considered goal of +-5%.Comment: plain tex, 14 pages, 5 figure
A human relevent rat model of breast cancer
Abstract only availableBecause women experience a bewildering array of chemicals, foods and lifestyles, only profound effects on preventing or promoting breast cancer are detectible in human studies. Subtle or delayed effects can be detected in animal models. Mammary tumors in ACI rats share important similarities with the majority of human breast cancers. The link between life time estrogen exposure and breast cancer risk in humans is well established. A high percentage of human breast cancers express ER, are stimulated to grow by the addition of exogenous estrogen, and respond to the antiestrogen tamoxifen. The ACI rat is the only rodent model in which estrogen-sensitive tumors are induced by estrogen. The ACI.COP-Ept2 substrain, derived from the ACI rat, develops mammary tumors similar to those of the ACI rat, but with reduced pituitary hyperplasia. We show that estrogen-induced mammary tumors in ACI.COP-Ept2 express ERα and respond to tamoxifen. Furthermore, tumors express ERÎČ, progesterone receptor and Her2/neu. The average latency was 183±6 days (n=24) and average tumor burden 1,107±415 mm3. The similarities of ACI.COP-Ept2 tumors to human breast cancers make this a valuable model for determining which of the myriad of lifestyle and diet choices reportedly protecting women from breast cancer actually reduce cancer incidence.Food for the 21st Century Undergraduate Research Program in Nutritional Science
Searching for a heavy Higgs boson via the H --> l nu jj decay mode at the CERN LHC
The discovery of a heavy Higgs boson with mass up to m_H = 1 TeV at the CERN
LHC is possible in the H--> W^+W^- --> l nu jj decay mode. The weak boson
scattering signal and backgrounds from t\bar tjj and from W+jets production are
analyzed with parton level Monte Carlo programs which are built on full tree
level amplitudes for all subprocesses. The use of double jet tagging and the
reconstruction of the W invariant mass reduce the combined backgrounds to the
same level as the Higgs signal. A central mini-jet veto, which distinguishes
the different gluon radiation patterns of the hard processes, further improves
the signal to background ratio to about 2.5:1, with a signal cross section of 1
fb. The jet energy asymmetry of the W --> jj decay will give a clear signature
of the longitudinal polarization of the W's in the final event sample.Comment: 23 pages (with 7 embedded figures), Revtex, uses epsf.sty.
Z-compressed postscript version also available at
http://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1997/madph-97-1017.ps.Z or at
ftp://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1997/madph-97-1017.ps.
In non-transformed cells Bak activates upon loss of anti-apoptotic Bcl-X-L and Mcl-1 but in the absence of active BH3-only proteins
Mitochondrial apoptosis is controlled by proteins of the B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family. Pro-apoptotic members of this family, known as BH3-only proteins, initiate activation of the effectors Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer (Bak),which is counteracted by anti-apoptotic family members. How the interactions of Bcl-2 proteins regulate cell death is still not entirely clear. Here, we show that in the absence of extrinsic apoptotic stimuli Bak activates without detectable contribution from BH3-only proteins, and cell survival depends on anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 molecules. All anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins were targeted via RNA interference alone or in combinations of two in primary human fibroblasts. Simultaneous targeting of B-cell lymphoma-extra large and myeloid cell leukemia sequence 1 led to apoptosis in several cell types. Apoptosis depended on Bak whereas Bax was dispensable. Activator BH3-only proteins were not required for apoptosis induction as apoptosis was unaltered in the absence of all BH3-only proteins known to activate Bax or Bak directly, Bcl-2-interacting mediator of cell death, BH3-interacting domain death agonist and p53-upregulated modulator of apoptosis. These findings argue for auto-activation of Bak in the absence of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins and provide evidence of profound differences in the activation of Bax and Bak
Orthogonal U(1)'s, Proton Stability and Extra Dimensions
In models with a low quantum gravity scale, one might expect that all
operators consistent with gauge symmetries are present in the low-energy
effective theory. If this is the case, some mechanism must be present to
adequately suppress operators that violate baryon number. Here we explore the
possibility that the desired suppression is a consequence of an additional,
spontaneously-broken, non-anomalous U(1) symmetry that is orthogonal to
hypercharge. We show that successful models can be constructed in which the
additional particle content necessary to cancel anomalies is minimal, and
compatible with the constraints from precision electroweak measurements and
gauge unification. If unification is sacrificed, and only the new U(1) and its
associated Higgs fields live in the bulk, it is possible that the gauge field
zero mode and first few Kaluza-Klein excitations lie within the kinematic reach
of the Tevatron. For gauge couplings not much smaller than that of hypercharge,
we show that these highly leptophobic states could evade detection at Run I,
but be discovered at Run II. Our scenario presents an alternative to the
`cartographic' solution to baryon number violation in which leptons and quarks
are separated in an extra dimension.Comment: 16 pages LaTeX, 4 figure
In non-transformed cells Bak activates upon loss of anti-apoptotic Bcl-X-L and Mcl-1 but in the absence of active BH3-only proteins
Mitochondrial apoptosis is controlled by proteins of the B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family. Pro-apoptotic members of this family, known as BH3-only proteins, initiate activation of the effectors Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer (Bak),which is counteracted by anti-apoptotic family members. How the interactions of Bcl-2 proteins regulate cell death is still not entirely clear. Here, we show that in the absence of extrinsic apoptotic stimuli Bak activates without detectable contribution from BH3-only proteins, and cell survival depends on anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 molecules. All anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins were targeted via RNA interference alone or in combinations of two in primary human fibroblasts. Simultaneous targeting of B-cell lymphoma-extra large and myeloid cell leukemia sequence 1 led to apoptosis in several cell types. Apoptosis depended on Bak whereas Bax was dispensable. Activator BH3-only proteins were not required for apoptosis induction as apoptosis was unaltered in the absence of all BH3-only proteins known to activate Bax or Bak directly, Bcl-2-interacting mediator of cell death, BH3-interacting domain death agonist and p53-upregulated modulator of apoptosis. These findings argue for auto-activation of Bak in the absence of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins and provide evidence of profound differences in the activation of Bax and Bak
Asymmetries in polarized hadron production in e^+e^- annihilation up to order 1/Q
We present the results of the tree-level calculation of inclusive two-hadron
production in electron-positron annihilation via one photon up to subleading
order in 1/Q. We consider the situation where the two hadrons belong to
different, back-to-back jets. We include polarization of the produced hadrons
and discuss azimuthal dependences of asymmetries. New asymmetries are found, in
particular there is a leading cos(2 phi) asymmetry, which is even present when
hadron polarization is absent, since it arises solely due to the intrinsic
transverse momenta of the quarks.Comment: 26 pages, Revtex, 4 Postscript figures, uses epsfig.sty. Version to
appear in Nuclear Physics B: abstract, introduction and summary slightly
modified, references added and some typos correcte
Theoretical study of incoherent phi photoproduction on a deuteron target
We study the photoproduction of phi mesons in deuteron, paying attention to
the modification of the cross section from bound protons to the free ones with
the aim of comparing with recent results at LEPS. For this purpose we take into
account Fermi motion in single scattering and rescattering of the phi to
account for phi absorption on a second nucleon as well as the rescattering of
the proton. We find that the contribution of the double scattering is much
smaller than the typical cross section of gamma p to phi p in free space, which
implies a very small screening of the phi production in deuteron. The
contribution from the proton rescattering, on the other hand, is found to be
not negligible compared to the cross section of gamma p to phi p in free space,
and leads to a moderate reduction of the phi photoproduction cross section on a
deuteron at forward angles if LEPS set up is taken into account. The Fermi
motion allows contribution of the single scattering in regions forbidden by
phase space in the free case. In particular, we find that for momentum
transferred squared close to the maximum value, the Fermi motion changes
drastically the shape of d sigma / dt, to the point that the ratio of this
cross section to the free one becomes very sensitive to the precise value of t
chosen, or the size of the bin used in an experimental analysis. Hence, this
particular region of t does not seem the most indicated to find effects of a
possible phi absorption in the deuteron. This reaction is studied theoretically
as a function of t and the effect of the experimental angular cuts at LEPS is
also discussed, providing guidelines for future experimental analyses of the
reaction.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figure
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