559 research outputs found
Photofission of heavy nuclei at energies up to 4 GeV
Total photofission cross sections for 238U, 235U, 233U, 237Np, 232Th, and
natPb have been measured simultaneously, using tagged photons in the energy
range Egamma=0.17-3.84 GeV. This was the first experiment performed using the
Photon Tagging Facility in Hall B at Jefferson Lab. Our results show that the
photofission cross section for 238U relative to that for 237Np is about 80%,
implying the presence of important processes that compete with fission. We also
observe that the relative photofission cross sections do not depend strongly on
the incident photon energy over this entire energy range. If we assume that for
237Np the photofission probability is equal to unity, we observe a significant
shadowing effect starting below 1.5 GeV.Comment: 4 pages of RevTex, 6 postscript figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Human multipotent adult progenitor cells enhance islet function and revascularisation when co-transplanted as a composite pellet in a mouse model of diabetes
AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Hypoxia in the initial days after islet transplantation leads to considerable loss of islet mass and contributes to disappointing outcomes in the clinical setting. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether co-transplantation of human non-endothelial bone marrow-derived multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs), which are non-immunogenic and can secrete angiogenic growth factors during the initial days after implantation, could improve islet engraftment and survival.METHODS: Islets (150) were co-transplanted, with or without human MAPCs (2.5 Ă 105) as separate or composite pellets, under the kidney capsule of syngeneic alloxan-induced diabetic C57BL/6 mice. Blood glucose levels were frequently monitored and IPGTTs were carried out. Grafts and serum were harvested at 2 and 5 weeks after transplantation to assess outcome.RESULTS: Human MAPCs produced high amounts of angiogenic growth factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor, in vitro and in vivo, as demonstrated by the induction of neo-angiogenesis in the chorioallantoic membrane assay. Islet-human MAPC co-transplantation as a composite pellet significantly improved the outcome of islet transplantation as measured by the initial glycaemic control, diabetes reversal rate, glucose tolerance and serum C-peptide concentration compared with the outcome following transplantation of islets alone. Histologically, a higher blood vessel area and density in addition to a higher vessel/islet ratio were detected in recipients of islet-human MAPC composites.CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The present data suggest that co-transplantation of mouse pancreatic islets with human MAPCs, which secrete high amounts of angiogenic growth factors, enhance islet graft revascularisation and subsequently improve islet graft function
Towards a field theoretic understanding of NN->NNpi
We study the production amplitude for the reaction NN->NNpi up to
next--to--leading order in chiral perturbation theory using a counting scheme
that takes into account the large scale introduced by the initial momentum. In
particular we investigate a subtlety that arises once the leading loop
contributions are convoluted with the NN wavefunctions as demanded by the
non--perturbative nature of the NN interaction. We show how to properly
identify the irreducible contribution of loop diagrams in such type of
reaction. The net effect of the inclusion of all next-to-leading order loops is
to enhance the leading rescattering amplitude by a factor of 4/3, bringing its
contribution to the cross section for pp->dpi+ close to the experimental value.Comment: 15 Pages, 5 Figure
Recoil-Ion Detection System
This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478
Evaluation of the total photoabsorption cross sections for actinides from photofission data and model calculations
We have calculated the fission probabilities for 237-Np, 233,235,238-U,
232-Th, and nat-Pb following the absorption of photons with energies from 68
MeV to 3.77 GeV using the RELDIS Monte-Carlo code. This code implements the
cascade-evaporation-fission model of intermediate-energy photonuclear
reactions. It includes multiparticle production in photoreactions on
intranuclear nucleons, pre-equilibrium emission, and the statistical decay of
excited residual nuclei via competition of evaporation, fission, and
multifragmentation processes. The calculations show that in the GeV energy
region the fission process is not solely responsible for the entire total
photoabsorption cross section, even for the actinides: ~55-70% for 232-Th,
\~70-80% for 238-U, and ~80-95% for 233-U, 235-U, and 237-Np. This is because
certain residual nuclei that are created by deep photospallation at GeV photon
energies have relatively low fission probabilities. Using the recent
experimental data on photofission cross sections for 237-Np and 233,235,238-U
from the Saskatchewan and Jefferson Laboratories and our calculated fission
probabilities, we infer the total photoabsorption cross sections for these four
nuclei. The resulting cross sections per nucleon agree in shape and in
magnitude with each other. However, disagreement in magnitude with
total-photoabsorption cross-section data from previous measurements for nuclei
from C to Pb calls into question the concept of a ``Universal Curve'' for the
photoabsorption cross section per nucleon for all nuclei.Comment: 39 pages including 11 figure
The pd <--> pi+ t reaction around the Delta resonance
The pd pi+ t process has been calculated in the energy region around the
Delta-resonance with elementary production/absorption mechanisms involving one
and two nucleons. The isobar degrees of freedom have been explicitly included
in the two-nucleon mechanism via pi-- and rho-exchange diagrams. No free
parameters have been employed in the analysis since all the parameters have
been fixed in previous studies on the simpler pp pi+ d process. The
treatment of the few-nucleon dynamics entailed a Faddeev-based calculation of
the reaction, with continuum calculations for the initial p-d state and
accurate solutions of the three-nucleon bound-state equation. The integral
cross-section was found to be quite sensitive to the NN interaction employed
while the angular dependence showed less sensitivity. Approximately a 4% effect
was found for the one-body mechanism, for the three-nucleon dynamics in the p-d
channel, and for the inclusion of a large, possibly converged, number of
three-body partial states, indicating that these different aspects are of
comparable importance in the calculation of the spin-averaged observables.Comment: 40 Pages, RevTex, plus 5 PostScript figure
Emergent global oscillations in heterogeneous excitable media: The example of pancreatic beta cells
Using the standard van der Pol-FitzHugh-Nagumo excitable medium model I
demonstrate a novel generic mechanism, diversity, that provokes the emergence
of global oscillations from individually quiescent elements in heterogeneous
excitable media. This mechanism may be operating in the mammalian pancreas,
where excitable beta cells, quiescent when isolated, are found to oscillate
when coupled despite the absence of a pacemaker region.Comment: See home page http://lec.ugr.es/~julya
Graves Hyperthyroidism After Stopping Immunosuppressive Therapy in Type 1 Diabetic Islet Cell Recipients With Pretransplant TPO Autoantibodies
OBJECTIVE â After an initially successful islet cell transplantation, a number of patients return to C-peptide negativity, and therefore immunosuppressive therapy is discontinued. Some are then found to have developed Graves disease. We examined the risk of Graves disease after immunosuppression. RESEARCHDESIGNANDMETHODS â Immunosuppressive therapy was stopped in 13 type 1 diabetic islet cell recipients who had received one course of antithymocyte globulin and maintenance doses of mycophenolate mofetil and a calcineurin inhibitor. None had a history of thyroid disease. RESULTS â In four patients, clinical Graves hyperthyroidism was observed within 21 months after discontinuation and 30â71 months after the start of immunosuppressive therapy. All four patients exhibited a pretransplant positivity for thyroid peroxidase (TPO) autoantibod-ies, while the nine others were TPO negative pre- and posttransplantation. CONCLUSIONS â Type 1 diabetic recipients of islet cell grafts with pretransplant TPO autoantibody positivity exhibit a high risk for developing Graves hyperthyroidism after immu-nosuppressive therapy is discontinued for a failing graft. Diabetes Care 32:1817â1819, 2009 I slet cell transplantation has beenshown to reproducibly achieve meta-bolic correction in nonuremic type 1 diabetic patients (1,2). However, in the years following transplantation, several of them return to C-peptide negativity and thus to a discontinuation of their immu-nosuppressive therapy (2)
Studies of High Momentum Transfer Reactions by Recoil Detection: (p,Ï), (p,2Ï), and (p,Îł)
This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478
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