962 research outputs found
Regulation of manganese superoxide dismutase in glomerular epithelial cells: Mechanisms for interleukin 1 induction
Regulation of manganese superoxide dismutase in glomerular epithelial cells: Mechanisms for interleukin 1 induction. Reactive oxygen species have been implicated as mediators of tissue injury in glomerular inflammation. The expression of the antioxidant enzyme, manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), was examined in primary cultures of rat glomerularepithelial cells (GEC) in response to inflammatory mediators. The results demonstrate that GEC respond to interleukin-1 (IL-1) and bacterial lipopolysaccharride (LPS) with an increase in MnSOD steady-state mRNA levels. The IL-1α-mediated induction of MnSOD mRNA levels was both time- and dose-dependent. Maximal levels, approximately 40-fold above controls, were observed at 12 hours with 2 ng/ml of IL-1α. MnSOD protein levels were also markedly elevated by IL-1α. The induction of MnSOD mRNA by IL-1α required de novo transcription as well as some degree of protein synthesis. To elucidate the potential intracellular signal that mediates IL-1α-dependent MnSOD expression, three classical signaling pathways were examined. We found no evidence that MnSOD induction by IL-lα is mediated by either the cyclooxygenase or lipoxygenase pathway or via activation of protein kinase C. Based on the presence of IL-lα in several forms of glomerular inflammation, the observed increase in MnSOD expression by this immunoregulatory cytokine must have an important role in the antioxidant defense of glomerular epithelial cells
Highly charged ions in Penning traps, a new tool for resolving low lying isomeric states
The use of highly charged ions increases the precision and resolving power,
in particular for short-lived species produced at on-line radio-isotope beam
facilities, achievable with Penning trap mass spectrometers. This increase in
resolving power provides a new and unique access to resolving low-lying
long-lived ( ms) nuclear isomers. Recently, the keV
(determined from -ray spectroscopy) isomeric state in Rb has
been resolved from the ground state, in a charge state of with the TITAN
Penning trap at the TRIUMF-ISAC facility. The excitation energy of the isomer
was measured to be keV above the ground state. The extracted
masses for both the ground and isomeric states, and their difference, agree
with the AME2003 and Nuclear Data Sheet values. This proof of principle
measurement demonstrates the feasibility of using Penning trap mass
spectrometers coupled to charge breeders to study nuclear isomers and opens a
new route for isomer searches.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Hadronic Parity Violation: a New View through the Looking Glass
Studies of the strangeness changing hadronic weak interaction have produced a
number of puzzles that have so far evaded a complete explanation within the
Standard Model. Their origin may lie either in dynamics peculiar to weak
interactions involving strange quarks or in more general aspects of the
interplay between strong and weak interactions. In principle, studies of the
strangeness conserving hadronic weak interaction using parity violating
hadronic and nuclear observables provide a complementary window on this
question. However, progress in this direction has been hampered by the lack of
a suitable theoretical framework for interpreting hadronic parity violation
measurements in a model-independent way. Recent work involving effective field
theory ideas has led to the formulation of such a framework while motivating
the development of a number of new hadronic parity violation experiments in
few-body systems. In this article, we review these recent developments and
discuss the prospects and opportunities for further experimental and
theoretical progress.Comment: Manuscript submitted to Annual Reviews of Nuclear and Particle
Scienc
Extinction of the N=20 neutron-shell closure for 32Mg examined by direct mass measurements
The 'island of inversion' around Mg is one of the most important
paradigm for studying the disappearance of the stabilizing 'magic' of a shell
closure. We present the first Penning-trap mass measurements of the exotic
nuclides Na and Mg, which allow a precise determination of
the empirical shell gap for Mg. The new value of 1.10(3) MeV is the
lowest observed shell gap for any nuclide with a canonical magic number.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Enhanced dielectronic recombination of lithium-like Ti19+ ions in external ExB fields
Dielectronic recombination(DR) of lithium-like Ti19+(1s2 2s) ions via 2s->2p
core excitations has been measured at the Heidelberg heavy ion storage ring
TSR. We find that not only external electric fields (0 <= Ey <= 280 V/cm) but
also crossed magnetic fields (30 mT <= Bz <= 80 mT) influence the DR via high-n
(2p_j nl)-Rydberg resonances. This result confirms our previous finding for
isoelectronic Cl14+ ions [Bartsch T et al, PRL 82, 3779 (1999)] that
experimentally established the sensitivity of DR to ExB fields. In the present
investigation the larger 2p_{1/2}-2p_{3/2} fine structure splitting of Ti19+
allowed us to study separately the influence of external fields via the two
series of Rydberg DR resonances attached to the 2s -> 2p_{1/2} and 2s ->
2p_{3/2} excitations of the Li-like core, extracting initial slopes and
saturation fields of the enhancement. We find that for Ey > 80 V/cm the field
induced enhancement is about 1.8 times stronger for the 2p_{3/2} series than
for the 2p_{1/2} series.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Journal of Physics B, see
also http://www.strz.uni-giessen.de/~k
Tensor interaction constraints from beta decay recoil spin asymmetry of trapped atoms
We have measured the angular distribution of recoiling daughter nuclei
emitted from the Gamow-Teller decay of spin-polarized Rb. The
asymmetry of this distribution vanishes to lowest order in the Standard Model
(SM) in pure Gamow-Teller decays, producing an observable very sensitive to new
interactions. We measure the non-SM contribution to the asymmetry to be
= 0.015 0.029 (stat) 0.019 (syst), consistent with the SM
prediction. We constrain higher-order SM corrections using the measured
momentum dependence of the asymmetry, and their remaining uncertainty dominates
the systematic error. Future progress in determining the weak magnetism term
theoretically or experimentally would reduce the final errors. We describe the
resulting constraints on fundamental 4-Fermi tensor interactions.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures; v2 published in Phys. Rev. C, with referee
clarifications and figures improved for black-and-whit
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