Chiral Symmetry Breaking in the Dual Ginzburg-Landau Theory

Confinement and chiral symmetry breaking are the most fundamental phenomena in Quark Nuclear Physics, where hadrons and nuclei are described in terms of quarks and gluons. The dual Ginzburg-Landau (DGL) theory, which contains monopole fields as the most essential degrees of freedom and their condensation in the vacuum, is modeled to describe quark confinement in strong connection with QCD. We then demonstrate that the DGL theory is able to describe the spontaneous break down of the chiral symmetry.Comment: Talk presented by H. Toki at the Joint Japan-Australia Workshop on ``Quarks, Hadrons and Nuclei'', 15 - 24 Nov. 1995, in Adelaide, Australia, 7 pages, Plain Latex, 4 postscript figures (included in a separate .uu file

Dual Higgs Mechanism for Quarks in Hadrons

We study nonperturbative features of QCD using the dual Ginzburg-Landau (DGL) theory, where the color confinement is realized through the dual Higgs mechanism brought by QCD-monopole condensation. The linear confinement potential appears in the QCD-monopole condensed vacuum. We study the infrared screening effect to the confinement potential by the light-quark pair creation, and derive a compact formula for the screened quark potential. We study the dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking (D$\chi$SB) in the DGL theory by solving the Schwinger-Dyson equation. QCD-monopole condensation plays an essential role to D$\chi$SB. The QCD phase transition at finite temperature is studied using the effective potential formalism in the DGL theory. We find the reduction of QCD-monopole condensation and the string tension at high temperatures. The surface tension is calculated using the effective potential at the critical temperature. The DGL theory predicts a large mass reduction of glueballs near the critical temperature. We apply the DGL theory to the quark-gluon-plasma (QGP) physics in the ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We propose a new scenario of the QGP formation via the annihilation of color-electric flux tubes based on the attractive force between them.Comment: Talk presented by H. Suganuma at the YITP Workshop on 'From Hadronic Matter to Quark Matter: Evolving View of Hadronic Matter', Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 1994, YITP Kyoto, Japan, 20 pages, uses PHYZZX (to be published in Prog. Theor. Phys. Suppl.)

Short-term intake of a Japanese-style healthy lunch menu contributes to prevention and/or improvement in metabolic syndrome among middle-aged men: a non-randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome is now widely appreciated as a cluster of metabolic abnormalities such as visceral obesity, hypertension, hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia. To date, incidence of metabolic syndrome is continuously increasing worldwide. In addition, low vegetable consumption has recently become a serious issue in Japan. Furthermore, Japan is facing a shortfall in places offering food that can help prevent metabolic syndrome in the first place. Our study is designed to influence these developments. We conducted a non-randomized controlled trial by offering a Japanese-style healthy lunch menu to middle-aged men in a workplace cafeteria. This menu was designed to prevent and reduce metabolic syndrome. METHODS: This intervention study took the form of a non-randomized controlled trial. Participants chose the control or intervention group. The control group consumed their habitual lunches without restriction and only nutrient contents were assessed. The intervention group received a Japanese-style healthy lunch at a workplace cafeteria for 3 months. The participants worked in offices at a city hall and mostly had low levels of physical activity. Data of 35 males (control group: 7 males, intervention group: 28 males, mean age: 47.2 ± 7.9 years) were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: We obtained an effective outcome by demonstrating that ongoing intake of a Japanese-style healthy lunch decreased blood pressure and serum lipids and increased plasma ghrelin levels. The results grew more pronounced as intake of Japanese-style healthy lunches increased in frequency. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents new empirical data as a result of an original intervention program undertaken in Japan. A Japanese-style healthy lunch menu containing many vegetables consumed can help prevent and/or improve metabolic syndrome

Multiple Proline-rich Regions of GAP-associated Phosphoprotein p62 Bind with Different Affinities to the Src Homology 3 Domains of Fyn and Src

Several proteins of Jurkat cells were identified on SDS-PAGE gels by Coomassie Blue staining that bound specifically to affinity matrices made of five different Src homology 3 (SH3) domains fused to glutathione S-transferase (GST). Purification of the major specific band of approximately 70kDa with affinity beads of the SH3 domain of Fyn tyrosine kinase resulted in an identification of a GAP-associated p62-related protein as a ligand to the Fyn and Src SH3 domains. Indeed, from a lysate of a Rous sarcoma virus-transformed rat fibroblast line, Src co-precipitated with the 70kDa and also bound to a puta-tive SH3 binding sequence of p62. Bacterially expressed GST fusion proteins containing sequences encompassing each of the proline-rich putative SH3 binding sites of p62 bound to a subset of SH3 domains with different affinities. Phos-pholipase Cgannma 2-SH3 also revealed strong binding to the bacterially expressed p62 fusion proteins in vitro but did not show primary binding to the cellular 70kDa. The multiple SH3 binding sequences with different affinities to various SH3 mole-cules together with their phosphorylation on tyrosine residue(s) suggest a role of p62 as a foothold on which signal transduction proteins, including Src-family kinases, link together

Partial Catalytic Domains of New Protein-tyrosine Kinases Cloned from cDNA Amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction

A feature common to all members of the protein-tyrosine kinase (PTK) family is a highly conserved catalytic domain which is characteristic of this group. Degenerate oligonucleotide primers corresponding to two of the most highly conserved regions of the PTK catalytic domain were designed to amplify cDNA sequences of restricted subfamilies of PTKs from rat brain mRNA in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A third degenerate oligonucleotide primer corresponding to a highly conserved, PTK subfamily-specific sequence located between the two sequences mentioned above was also used to amplify cDNA sequences of PTKs of novel subfamilies from rat brain mRNA. pBluescript PCR libraries were constructed from the PCR-amplified cDNA. The PCR libraries were then screened by DNA sequencing for PTK-related sequences. Several sequences were identified that, on the basis of sequence comparison with known PTKs in GenBank, may encode new PTKs