27,405 research outputs found
Cooperative Chiral Order in Copolymers of Chiral and Achiral Units
Polyisocyanates can be synthesized with chiral and achiral pendant groups
distributed randomly along the chains. The overall chiral order, measured by
optical activity, is strongly cooperative and depends sensitively on the
concentration of chiral pendant groups. To explain this cooperative chiral
order theoretically, we map the random copolymer onto the one-dimensional
random-field Ising model. We show that the optical activity as a function of
composition is well-described by the predictions of this theory.Comment: 13 pages, including 3 postscript figures, uses REVTeX 3.0 and
epsf.st
Transport properties of moderately disordered UCuPd
We present a detailed study on the (magneto)transport properties of as-cast
and heat treated material UCuPd. We find a pronounced sample dependence of
the resistivity of as-cast samples, and reproduce the annealing
dependence of . In our study of the Hall effect we determine a metallic
carrier density for all samples, and a temperature dependence of the Hall
constant which is inconsistent with the Skew scattering prediction. The
magnetoresistive response is very small and characteristic for spin disorder
scattering, suggesting that overall the resistivity is controlled mostly by
nonmagnetic scattering processes. We discuss possible sources for the
temperature and field dependence of the transport properties, in particular
with respect to quantum criticality and electronic localization effects.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, submitted PR
Radiative Neutrino Mass, Dark Matter and Leptogenesis
We propose an extension of the standard model, in which neutrinos are Dirac
particles and their tiny masses originate from a one-loop radiative diagram.
The new fields required by the neutrino mass-generation also accommodate the
explanation for the matter-antimatter asymmetry and dark matter in the
universe.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Revised version with improved model. Accepted by
PR
Dirac neutrinos and anomaly-free discrete gauge symmetries
Relying on Dirac neutrinos allows an infinity of anomaly-free discrete gauge
symmetries to be imposed on the Supersymmetric Standard Model, some of which
are GUT-compatible.Comment: 24 pages, minor changes, existence of flipped discrete gauge
symmetries is pointed ou
Neutrino masses, leptogenesis and dark matter in hybrid seesaw
We suggest a hybrid seesaw model where relatively ``light''right-handed
neutrinos give no contribution to the neutrino mass matrix due to a special
symmetry. This allows their Yukawa couplings to the standard model particles to
be relatively strong, so that the standard model Higgs boson can decay
dominantly to a left and a right-handed neutrino, leaving another stable
right-handed neutrino as cold dark matter. In our model neutrino masses arise
via the type-II seesaw mechanism, the Higgs triplet scalars being also
responsible for the generation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry via the
leptogenesis mechanism.Comment: 4 page
Constitutive Endocytosis and Degradation of the Pre-T Cell Receptor
The pre-T cell receptor (TCR) signals constitutively in the absence of putative ligands on thymic stroma and signal transduction correlates with translocation of the pre-TCR into glycolipid-enriched microdomains (rafts) in the plasma membrane. Here, we show that the pre-TCR is constitutively routed to lysosomes after reaching the cell surface. The cell-autonomous down-regulation of the pre-TCR requires activation of the src-like kinase p56lck, actin polymerization, and dynamin. Constitutive signaling and degradation represents a feature of the pre-TCR because the γδTCR expressed in the same cell line does not exhibit these features. This is also evident by the observation that the protein adaptor/ubiquitin ligase c-Cbl is phosphorylated and selectively translocated into rafts in pre-TCR– but not γδTCR-expressing cells. A role of c-Cbl–mediated ubiquitination in pre-TCR degradation is supported by the reduction of degradation through pharmacological inhibition of the proteasome and through a dominant-negative c-Cbl ubiquitin ligase as well as by increased pre-TCR surface expression on immature thymocytes in c-Cbl–deficient mice. The pre-TCR internalization contributes significantly to the low surface level of the receptor on developing T cells, and may in fact be a requirement for optimal pre-TCR function
Speed of Sound in the Mass Varying Neutrinos Scenario
We discuss about the speed of sound squared in the Mass Varying Neutrinos
scenario (MaVaNs). Recently, it was argued that the MaVaNs has a catastrophic
instability which is the emergence of an imaginary speed of sound at the
non-relativistic limit of neutrinos. As the result of this instability, the
neutrino-acceleron fluid cannot act as the dark energy. However, it is found
that the speed of sound squared in the neutrino-acceleron fluid could be
positive in our model. We examine the speed of sound in two cases of the scalar
potential. One is the small fractional power-law potential and another is the
logarithmic one. The power-law potential model with the right-handed neutrinos
gives a stable one.Comment: 17 pages, References added, minor modification
Baryon Destruction by Asymmetric Dark Matter
We investigate new and unusual signals that arise in theories where dark
matter is asymmetric and carries a net antibaryon number, as may occur when the
dark matter abundance is linked to the baryon abundance. Antibaryonic dark
matter can cause {\it induced nucleon decay} by annihilating visible baryons
through inelastic scattering. These processes lead to an effective nucleon
lifetime of 10^{29}-10^{32} years in terrestrial nucleon decay experiments, if
baryon number transfer between visible and dark sectors arises through new
physics at the weak scale. The possibility of induced nucleon decay motivates a
novel approach for direct detection of cosmic dark matter in nucleon decay
experiments. Monojet searches (and related signatures) at hadron colliders also
provide a complementary probe of weak-scale dark-matter--induced baryon number
violation. Finally, we discuss the effects of baryon-destroying dark matter on
stellar systems and show that it can be consistent with existing observations.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure
Estimate risk difference and number needed to treat in survival analysis
The hazard ratio (HR) is a measure of instantaneous relative risk of an increase in one unit of the covariate of interest, which is widely reported in clinical researches involving time-to-event data. However, the measure fails to capture absolute risk reduction. Other measures such as number needed to treat (NNT) and risk difference (RD) provide another perspective on the effectiveness of an intervention, and can facilitate clinical decision making. The article aims to provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to compute RD and NNT in survival analysis with R. For simplicity, only one measure (RD or NNT) needs to be illustrated, because the other measure is a reverse of the illustrated one (NNT=1/RD). An artificial dataset is composed by using the survsim package. RD and NNT are estimated with Austin method after fitting a Cox-proportional hazard regression model. The confidence intervals can be estimated using bootstrap method. Alternatively, if the standard errors (SEs) of the survival probabilities of the treated and control group are given, confidence intervals can be estimated using algebraic calculations. The pseudo-value model provides another method to estimate RD and NNT. Details of R code and its output are shown and explained in the main text
Adaptation of Arabidopsis to nitrogen limitation involves induction of anthocyanin synthesis which is controlled by the NLA gene
Plants can survive a limiting nitrogen (N) supply by developing a set of N limitation adaptive responses. However, the Arabidopsis nla (nitrogen limitation adaptation) mutant fails to produce such responses, and cannot adapt to N limitation. In this study, the nla mutant was utilized to understand further the effect of NLA on Arabidopsis adaptation to N limitation. Grown with limiting N, the nla mutant could not accumulate anthocyanins and instead produced an N limitation-induced early senescence phenotype. In contrast, when supplied with limiting N and limiting phosphorus (Pi), the nla mutants accumulated abundant anthocyanins and did not show the N limitation-induced early senescence phenotype. These results support the hypothesis that Arabidopsis has a specific pathway to control N limitation-induced anthocyanin synthesis, and the nla mutation disrupts this pathway. However, the nla mutation does not affect the Pi limitation-induced anthocyanin synthesis pathway. Therefore, Pi limitation induced the nla mutant to accumulate anthocyanins under N limitation and allowed this mutant to adapt to N limitation. Under N limitation, the nla mutant had a significantly down-regulated expression of many genes functioning in anthocyanin synthesis, and an enhanced expression of genes involved in lignin production. Correspondingly, the nla mutant grown with limiting N showed a significantly lower production of anthocyanins (particularly cyanidins) and an increase in lignin contents compared with wild-type plants. These data suggest that NLA controls Arabidopsis adaptability to N limitation by channelling the phenylpropanoid metabolic flux to the induced anthocyanin synthesis, which is important for Arabidopsis to adapt to N limitation
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