Glueball plus Pion Production in Photon-Photon Collisions.

We here compute the reaction $\gamma \; \gamma \rightarrow G \; \pi^{0}$ for various glueball candidates $G$ and their assumed quantum states, using a non-relativistic gluon bound-state model for the glueball.Comment: To appear in Zeit. fur Phys. C; Plain Latex file, 16 pages; 5 figures appended as a uuencoded postscript file

Effects of rubber aggregates on the physical-mechanical, thermal and durability properties of self-compacting sand concrete

The aim of this research was to study the effect of incorporating waste rubber aggregates on the physical, mechanical, thermal and durability performance of Self-Compacting Sand Concrete SCSC mixtures. For this purpose, the separately developed Rubberized Self-Compacting Sand Concrete RSCSC were prepared with three fractions of rubber grains where the natural aggregates were replaced with powder rubber, sand rubber and gravel rubber and four addition ratios (5, 10, 15 and 20%) as volume rates. The performed fresh properties using slump-flow, spreading, t500, sieve stability and air-entrained content tests proved better results for the RSCSC in comparison with reference concretes. Hardened state characterization of the concretes exhibited decreases in the mechanical properties of the RSCSC but the thermal conductivity and the dynamic elastic modulus were improved. Assessment of the concrete’s durability was accomplished through determination of apparent porosity, capillary absorption. Therefore, RSCSC to be can used in structural elements of dense reinforcement and complex formwork. Furthermore, this allows promising solution to reduce the impact of waste tyres on the environment and fight pollution

Glueball Production in Peripheral Heavy-Ion Collisions

The method of equivalent quanta is applied both to photon-photon and, by analogy, to double pomeron exchange in heavy-ion collisions. This Weizs\"acker-Williams approach is used to calculate production cross sections for the glueball candidate $f_J(1710)$ meson via photon-photon and pomeron-pomeron fusion in peripheral heavy-ion collisions at both RHIC and LHC energies. The impact-parameter dependence for total and elastic cross sections are presented, and are compared to results for proton-proton collisions.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Ultralong-term high-density data storage with atomic defects in SiC

There is an urgent need to increase the global data storage capacity, as current approaches lag behind the exponential growth of data generation driven by the Internet, social media and cloud technologies. In addition to increasing storage density, new solutions should provide long-term data archiving that goes far beyond traditional magnetic memory, optical disks and solid-state drives. Here, we propose a concept of energy-efficient, ultralong, high-density data archiving based on optically active atomic-size defects in a radiation resistance material, silicon carbide (SiC). The information is written in these defects by focused ion beams and read using photoluminescence or cathodoluminescence. The temperature-dependent deactivation of these defects suggests a retention time minimum over a few generations under ambient conditions. With near-infrared laser excitation, grayscale encoding and multi-layer data storage, the areal density corresponds to that of Blu-ray discs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the areal density limitation of conventional optical data storage media due to the light diffraction can be overcome by focused electron-beam excitation.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Mass corrections in J/ψ→BBˉJ/\psi \to B\bar B decay and the role of distribution amplitudes

We consider mass correction effects on the polar angular distribution of a baryon--antibaryon pair created in the chain decay process $e^-e^+ \to J/\psi \to B\bar B$, generalizing a previous analysis of Carimalo. We show the relevance of the features of the baryon distribution amplitudes and estimate the electromagnetic corrections to the QCD results.Comment: 26 pages + 3 figures, REVTEX 3.0, figures appended as uuencoded, tar-compressed postscript fil

The Effects of Mechanical Stress on the Growth, Differentiation, and Paracrine Factor Production of Cardiac Stem Cells

Stem cell therapies have been clinically employed to repair the injured heart, and cardiac stem cells are thought to be one of the most potent stem cell candidates. The beating heart is characterized by dynamic mechanical stresses, which may have a significant impact on stem cell therapy. The purpose of this study is to investigate how mechanical stress affects the growth and differentiation of cardiac stem cells and their release of paracrine factors. In this study, human cardiac stem cells were seeded in a silicon chamber and mechanical stress was then induced by cyclic stretch stimulation (60 cycles/min with 120% elongation). Cells grown in non-stretched silicon chambers were used as controls. Our result revealed that mechanical stretching significantly reduced the total number of surviving cells, decreased Ki-67-positive cells, and increased TUNEL-positive cells in the stretched group 24 hrs after stretching, as compared to the control group. Interestingly, mechanical stretching significantly increased the release of the inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-1β as well as the angiogenic growth factors VEGF and bFGF from the cells in 12 hrs. Furthermore, mechanical stretching significantly reduced the percentage of c-kit-positive stem cells, but increased the expressions of cardiac troponin-I and smooth muscle actin in cells 3 days after stretching. Using a traditional stretching model, we demonstrated that mechanical stress suppressed the growth and proliferation of cardiac stem cells, enhanced their release of inflammatory cytokines and angiogenic factors, and improved their myogenic differentiation. The development of this in vitro approach may help elucidate the complex mechanisms of stem cell therapy for heart failure

Bone Biomarkers Help Grading Severity of Coronary Calcifications in Non Dialysis Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

BACKGROUND: Osteoprotegerin (OPG) and fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23) are recognized as strong risk factors of vascular calcifications in non dialysis chronic kidney disease (ND-CKD) patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between FGF23, OPG, and coronary artery calcifications (CAC) in this population and to attempt identification of the most powerful biomarker of CAC: FGF23? OPG? METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 195 ND-CKD patients (112 males/83 females, 70.8 [27.4-94.6] years) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. All underwent chest multidetector computed tomography for CAC scoring. Vascular risk markers including FGF23 and OPG were measured. Logistic regression analyses were used to study the potential relationships between CAC and these markers. The fully adjusted-univariate analysis clearly showed high OPG (≥10.71 pmol/L) as the only variable significantly associated with moderate CAC ([100-400[) (OR = 2.73 [1.03;7.26]; p = 0.04). Such association failed to persist for CAC scoring higher than 400. Indeed, severe CAC was only associated with high phosphate fractional excretion (FEPO(4)) (≥38.71%) (OR = 5.47 [1.76;17.0]; p = 0.003) and high FGF23 (≥173.30 RU/mL) (OR = 5.40 [1.91;15.3]; p = 0.002). In addition, the risk to present severe CAC when FGF23 level was high was not significantly different when OPG was normal or high. Conversely, the risk to present moderate CAC when OPG level was high was not significantly different when FGF23 was normal or high. CONCLUSIONS: Our results strongly suggest that OPG is associated to moderate CAC while FGF23 rather represents a biomarker of severe CAC in ND-CKD patients