1,276 research outputs found
Isoscalar-isovector mass splittings in excited mesons
Mass splittings between the isovector and isoscalar members of meson nonets
arise in part from hadronic loop diagrams which violate the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka
rule.
Using a model for these loop processes which works qualitatively well in the
established nonets, I tabulate predictions for the splittings and associated
isoscalar mixing angles in the remaining nonets below about 2.5 GeV, and
explain some of their systematic features.
The results for excited vector mesons compare favorably with experiment.Comment: 8 RevTeX pages, including 1 LaTeX figure.
CMU-HEP93-23/DOE-ER-40682-4
Trypsin inhibition by macrocyclic and open-chain variants of the squash inhibitor MCoTI-II
MCoTl-I and MCoTl-II from the seeds of Momordica cochinchinensis are inhibitors of trypsin-like proteases and the only known members of the large family of squash inhibitors that are cyclic and contain an additional loop connecting the amino- and the carboxy-terminus. To investigate the contribution of macrocycle formation to biological activity, we synthesized a set of open-chain variants of MCoTl-II that lack the cyclization loop and contain various natural and non-natural amino acid substitutions in the reactive-site loop. Upon replacement of P1 lysine residue \#10 within the open-chain variant of MCoTl-II by the non-natural isosteric nucleo amino acid AlaG{[}beta-(guanin-9-yl)-L-alanine], a conformationally restricted arginine mimetic, residual inhibitory activity was detected, albeit reduced by four orders of magnitude. While the cyclic inhibitors MCoTl-I and MCoTl-II were found to be very potent trypsin inhibitors, with picomolar inhibition constants, the open-chain variants displayed an approximately 10-fold lower affinity. These data suggest that the formation of a circular backbone in the MCoTI squash inhibitors results in enhanced affinity and therefore is a determinant of biological activity
Role of prostacyclin in pulmonary hypertension
Date of Acceptance: 11/12/2014 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY-4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Prostacyclin is a powerful cardioprotective hormone released by the endothelium of all blood vessels. Prostacyclin exists in equilibrium with other vasoactive hormones and a disturbance in the balance of these factors leads to cardiovascular disease including pulmonary arterial hypertension. Since itâs discovery in the 1980s concerted efforts have been made to make the best therapeutic utility of prostacyclin, particularly in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. This has centred on working out the detailed pharmacology of prostacyclin and then synthesising new molecules based on its structure that are more stable or more easily tolerated. In addition, newer molecules have been developed that are not analogues of prostacyclin but that target the receptors that prostacyclin activates. Prostacyclin and related drugs have without doubt revolutionised the treatment and management of pulmonary arterial hypertension but are seriously limited by side effects within the systemic circulation. With the dawn of nanomedicine and targeted drug or stem cell delivery systems it will, in the very near future, be possible to make new formulations of prostacyclin that can evade the systemic circulation allowing for safe delivery to the pulmonary vessels. In this way, the full therapeutic potential of prostacyclin can be realised opening the possibility that pulmonary arterial hypertension will become, if not curable, a chronic manageable disease that is no longer fatal. This review discusses these and other issues relating to prostacyclin and its use in pulmonary arterial hypertensionPeer reviewedFinal Published versio
Y(2175): Distinguish Hybrid State from Higher Quarkonium
The possibility of Y(2175) as a meson is studied. We
study the decay of from both the model and the
flux tube model, and the results are similar in the two models. We show that
the decay patterns of strangeonium hybrid and
are very different. The experimental search of the decay modes ,
, , is suggested to distinguish the two
pictures. Measuring the partial width ratios is crucial to
discriminate the from the assignment.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Nonresonant Semileptonic Heavy Quark Decay
In both the large N_c limit and the valence quark model, semileptonic decays
are dominated by resonant final states. Using Bjorken's sum rule in an
"unquenched" version of the quark model, I demonstrate that in the heavy quark
limit nonresonant final states should also be produced at a significant rate.
By calculating the individual strengths of a large number of exclusive two-body
nonresonant channels, I show that the total rate for such processes is highly
fragmented. I also describe some very substantial duality-violating suppression
factors which reduce the inclusive nonresonant rate to a few percent of the
total semileptonic rate for the finite quark masses of B decay, and comment on
the importance of nonresonant decays as testing grounds for very basic ideas on
the structure, strength, and significance of the quark-antiquark sea and on
quark-hadron duality in QCD.Comment: 51 pages, 2 Postscript figure
Characterizing groundwater flow and heat transport in fractured rock using Fiber-Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing
International audienceWe show how fully distributed space-time measurements with Fiber-Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (FO-DTS) can be used to investigate groundwater flow and heat transport in fractured media. Heat injection experiments are combined with temperature measurements along fiber-optic cables installed in boreholes. Thermal dilution tests are shown to enable detection of cross-flowing fractures and quantification of the cross flow rate. A cross borehole thermal tracer test is then analyzed to identify fracture zones that are in hydraulic connection between boreholes and to estimate spatially distributed temperature breakthrough in each fracture zone. This provides a significant improvement compared to classical tracer tests, for which concentration data are usually integrated over the whole abstraction borehole. However, despite providing some complementary results, we find that the main contributive fracture for heat transport is different to that for a solute tracer
Out of equilibrium quantum field dynamics of an initial thermal state after a change in the external field
The effects of the initial temperature in the out of equilibrium quantum
field dynamics in the presence of an homogeneous external field are
investigated. We consider an initial thermal state of temperature T for a
constant external field J. A subsequent sign flip of the external field, J to
-J, gives rise to an out of equilibrium nonperturbative quantum field dynamics.
The dynamics is studied here for the symmetry broken lambda(Phi^2)^2 scalar N
component field theory in the large N limit. We find a dynamical effective
potential for the expectation value that helps to understand the dynamics. The
dynamics presents two regimes defined by the presence or absence of a temporal
trapping close to the metastable equilibrium position of the potential. The two
regimes are separated by a critical value of the external field that depends on
the initial temperature. The temporal trapping is shorter for larger initial
temperatures or larger external fields. Parametric resonances and spinodal
instabilities amplify the quantum fluctuations in the field components
transverse to the external field. When there is a temporal trapping this is the
main mechanism that allows the system to escape from the metastable state for
large N. Subsequently backreaction stops the growth of the quantum fluctuations
and the system enters a quasiperiodic regime.Comment: LaTeX, 19 pages, 12 .eps figures, improved version to appear in Phys
Rev
Using pi_2(1670) -> b_1(1235) pi to Constrain Hadronic Models
We show that current analyses of experimental data indicate that the strong
decay mode pi_2 -> b_1 pi is anomalously small. Non-relativistic quark models
with spin-1 quark pair creation, such as ^3P_0, ^3S_1 and ^3D_1 models, as well
as instanton and lowest order one-boson (in this case pi) emission models, can
accommodate the analyses of experimental data, because of a quark-spin
selection rule. Models and effects that violate this selection rule, such as
higher order one-boson emission models, as well as mixing with other Fock
states, may be constrained by the small pi_2 -> b_1 pi decay. This can provide
a viability check on newly proposed decay mechanisms. We show that for mesons
made up of a heavy quark and anti-quark, the selection rule is exact to all
orders of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) perturbation theory.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, 3 encapsulated Postscript figures, small change
Scaling of the 3P0 strength in heavy meson strong decays
The phenomenological 3P0 decay model has been extensively applied to
calculate meson strong decays. The strength \gamma\ of the decay interaction is
regarded as a free flavor independent constant and is fitted to the data. We
calculate through the 3P0 model the total strong decay widths of the mesons
which belong to charmed, charmed-strange, hidden charm and hidden bottom
sectors. The wave function of the mesons involved in the strong decays are
given by a constituent quark model that describes well the meson phenomenology
from the light to the heavy quark sector. A global fit of the experimental data
shows that, contrarily to the usual wisdom, the \gamma\ depends on the reduced
mass of the quark-antiquark pair in the decaying meson. With this
scale-dependent strength \gamma, we are able to predict the decay width of
orbitally excited B mesons not included in the fit.Comment: 7 pages, 5 tables, 2 figure
Managing in conflict: How actors distribute conflict in an industrial network
IMP researchers have examined conflict as a threat to established business relationships and commercial exchanges, drawing on theories and concepts developed in organization studies. We examine cases of conflict in relationships from the oil and gas industry's service sector, focusing on conflicts of interest and resources, and conflict as experienced by actors. Through a comparative case study design, we propose an explanation of how actors manage conflict and manage in conflict given that they tend to value and maintain relationships beyond episodes of exchange. We consider conflicts in relationships from a network perspective, showing that actors experienced these while adapting to changes in their business setting, modifying their roles in that network. By identifying conflict with the organizing forms of relationship and network, we show how actors formulate conflict through pursuing and combining a number of strategies, distributing the conflict across an enlarged network
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