Protein transduction: A novel tool for tissue regeneration

Tissue regeneration in humans is limited and excludes vitals organs like heart and brain. Transformation experiments with oncogenes like T antigen have shown that retrodifferentiation of the respective cells is possible but hard to control. To bypass the risk of cancer formation a protein therapy approach has been developed. The transient delivery of proteins rather than genes could still induce terminallydifferentiated cells to reenter the cell cycle. This approach takes advantage of proteintransducing domains that mediate the transfer of cargo proteins into cells. The goal of this brief review is to outline the basics of protein transduction and to discuss potential applications for tissue regeneration

Double Phase Transitions in Magnetized Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensation

It is investigated theoretically that magnetized Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) with the internal (spin) degrees of freedom exhibits a rich variety of phase transitions, depending on the sign of the interaction in the spin channel. In the antiferromagnetic interaction case there exist always double BEC transitions from single component BEC to multiple component BEC. In the ferromagnetic case BEC becomes always unstable at a lower temperature, leading to a phase separation. The detailed phase diagram for the temperature vs the polarization, the spatial spin structure, the distribution of non-condensates and the excitation spectrum are examined for the harmonically trapped systems.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

A large accretion disk of extreme eccentricity in the TDE ASASSN-14li

In the canonical model for tidal disruption events (TDEs), the stellar debris circularizes quickly to form an accretion disk of size about twice the orbital pericenter of the star. Most TDEs and candidates discovered in the optical/UV have broad optical emission lines with complex and diverse profiles of puzzling origin. Liu et al. recently developed a relativistic elliptical disk model of constant eccentricity in radius for the broad optical emission lines of TDEs and well reproduced the double-peaked line profiles of the TDE candidate PTF09djl with a large and extremely eccentric accretion disk. In this paper, we show that the optical emission lines of the TDE ASASSN-14li with radically different profiles are well modelled with the relativistic elliptical disk model, too. The accretion disk of ASASSN-14li has an eccentricity 0.97 and semimajor axis of 847 times the Schwarzschild radius (r_S) of the black hole (BH). It forms as the consequence of tidal disruption of a star passing by a massive BH with orbital pericenter 25r_S. The optical emission lines of ASASSN-14li are powered by an extended X-ray source of flat radial distribution overlapping the bulk of the accretion disk and the single-peaked asymmetric line profiles are mainly due to the orbital motion of the emitting matter within the disk plane of inclination about 26\degr and of pericenter orientation closely toward the observer. Our results suggest that modelling the complex line profiles is powerful in probing the structures of accretion disks and coronal X-ray sources in TDEs.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the MNRA

Topological Excitations in Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensates

We investigate the properties of skyrmion in the ferromagnetic state of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates by means of the mean-field theory and show that the size of skyrmion is fixed to the order of the healing length. It is shown that the interaction between two skyrmions with oppositely rotating spin textures is attractive when their separation is large, following a unique power-law behavior with a power of -7/2.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Two--Electron Atoms in Short Intense Laser Pulses

We discuss a method of solving the time dependent Schrodinger equation for atoms with two active electrons in a strong laser field, which we used in a previous paper [A. Scrinzi and B. Piraux, Phys. Rev. A 56, R13 (1997)] to calculate ionization, double excitation and harmonic generation in Helium by short laser pulses. The method employs complex scaling and an expansion in an explicitly correlated basis. Convergence of the calculations is documented and error estimates are provided. The results for Helium at peak intensities up to 10^15 W/cm^2 and wave length 248 nm are accurate to at least 10 %. Similarly accurate calculations are presented for electron detachment and double excitation of the negative hydrogen ion.Comment: 14 pages, including figure

A survey of the treatment and management of patients with severe chronic spontaneous urticaria.

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is characterized by the recurrent appearance of weals, angio‐oedema or both, occurring at least twice weekly for longer than 6 weeks.1 It is often managed with antihistamines, but occasionally requires other systemic agents in recalcitrant cases. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted by means of an internet‐based survey tool (Typeform; https://www.typeform.com). Participating consultants with a specialist interest in urticaria were identified through the specialist registers of the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI), the Improving Quality in Allergy Services (IQAS) Group and the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD), and invited to take part. The survey content was based on current CSU treatment guidelines from EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO1 and the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI).2 The EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO guidelines are a joint initiative of the Dermatology Section of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (GA2LEN) (a European Union‐funded network of excellence), the European Dermatology Forum (EDF), and the World Allergy Organization (WAO). To standardize responses, all participants were presented with a case of recalcitrant CSU (failed on maximum dose of nonsedating antihistamines and montelukast), requiring alternative systemic treatment. Questions covered usage of systemic treatments, routine disease severity assessments, adherence to treatment guidelines and perceived barriers to prescribing. Responses (Table 1) were received from 19 UK consultants (26 surveys sent; completion rate 73%), 15 of whom had > 10 years’ experience in the treatment of CSU. The majority were allergy (58%) and dermatology consultants (37%). Of the 19 consultants, 56% provide a dedicated urticaria service, 37% treat both adult and paediatric patients, and the majority (79%) use systemic medications other than antihistamines and montelukast. Omalizumab and ciclosporin were the most commonly used first‐line agents (47% and 27% respectively) (Fig. 1). The majority (84%) of consultants use validated measures to assess disease severity, including the weekly Urticaria Activity Score (UAS‐7, 63%), the Physician Global Assessment (63%), the Patient Global Assessment (44%) and the Dermatology Quality of Life Index (DLQI) (38%). Guidelines are used by 89% to direct their management of CSU, with 50% using the EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO guideline,1 compared with 31% primarily using the BSACI guideline.2 The main perceived barriers to prescribing systemic medications were potential adverse effects (AEs) (32% strongly agreed), potential long‐term toxicity (26% strongly agreed), cost of treatment (42% strongly agreed), and views expressed by the patient and their family (37% agreed)

Atomic entanglement near a realistic microsphere

We study a scheme for entangling two-level atoms located close to the surface of a dielectric microsphere. The effect is based on medium-assisted spontaneous decay, rigorously taking into account dispersive and absorptive properties of the microsphere. We show that even in the weak-coupling regime, where the Markov approximation applies, entanglement up to 0.35 ebits between two atoms can be created. However, larger entanglement and violation of Bell's inequality can only be achieved in the strong-coupling regime.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, Late

A view of the narrow-line region in the infrared: active galactic nuclei with resolved fine-structure lines in the Spitzer archive

We queried the Spitzer archive for high-resolution observations with the Infrared Spectrograph of optically selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) for the purpose of identifying sources with resolved fine-structure lines that would enable studies of the narrow-line region (NLR) at mid-infrared wavelengths. By combining 298 Spitzer spectra with 6 Infrared Space Observatory spectra, we present kinematic information of the NLR for 81 z<=0.3 AGN. We used the [NeV], [OIV], [NeIII], and [SIV] lines, whose fluxes correlate well with each other, to probe gas photoionized by the AGN. We found that the widths of the lines are, on average, increasing with the ionization potential of the species that emit them. No correlation of the line width with the critical density of the corresponding transition was found. The velocity dispersion of the gas, sigma, is systematically higher than that of the stars, sigma_*, in the AGN host galaxy, and it scales with the mass of the central black hole, M_BH. Further correlations between the line widths and luminosities L, and between L and M_BH, are suggestive of a three dimensional plane connecting log(M_BH) to a linear combination of log(sigma) and log(L). Such a plane can be understood within the context of gas motions that are driven by AGN feedback mechanisms, or virialized gas motions with a power-law dependence of the NLR radius on the AGN luminosity. The M_BH estimates obtained for 35 type 2 AGN from this plane are consistent with those obtained from the M_BH-sigma_* relation.Comment: ApJ, revised to match the print versio