213 research outputs found
Inhomogeneous behavior of anti-plane shear crack in softening material with local unloading
Polyubiquitin binding to ABIN1 is required to prevent autoimmunity
The protein ABIN1 possesses a polyubiquitin-binding domain homologous to that present in nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) essential modulator (NEMO), a component of the inhibitor of NF-kappa B (I kappa B) kinase (IKK) complex. To address the physiological significance of polyubiquitin binding, we generated knockin mice expressing the ABIN1[D485N] mutant instead of the wild-type (WT) protein. These mice developed all the hallmarks of autoimmunity, including spontaneous formation of germinal centers, isotype switching, and production of autoreactive antibodies. Autoimmunity was suppressed by crossing to MyD88(-/-) mice, demonstrating that toll-like receptor (TLR)-MyD88 signaling pathways are needed for the phenotype to develop. The B cells and myeloid cells of the ABIN1[D485N] mice showed enhanced activation of the protein kinases TAK, IKK-alpha/beta, c-Jun N-terminal kinases, and p38 alpha mitogen-activated protein kinase and produced more IL-6 and IL-12 than WT. The mutant B cells also proliferated more rapidly in response to TLR ligands. Our results indicate that the interaction of ABIN1 with polyubiquitin is required to limit the activation of TLR-MyD88 pathways and prevent autoimmunity
B -> J/psi K^* Decays in QCD Factorization
The hadronic decay B -> J K^* is analyzed within the framework of QCD
factorization. The spin amplitudes A_0, A_\parallel and A_\perp in the
transversity basis and their relative phases are studied using various
different form-factor models for B-K^* transition. The effective parameters
a_2^h for helicity h=0,+,- states receive different nonfactorizable
contributions and hence they are helicity dependent, contrary to naive
factorization where a_2^h are universal and polarization independent. QCD
factorization breaks down even at the twist-2 level for transverse hard
spectator interactions. Although a nontrivial strong phase for the A_\parallel
amplitude can be achieved by adjusting the phase of an infrared divergent
contribution, the present QCD factorization calculation cannot say anything
definite about the phase phi_\parallel. Unlike B -> J/psi K decays, the
longitudinal parameter a_2^0 for B -> J/psi K^* does not receive twist-3
corrections and is not large enough to account for the observed branching ratio
and the fraction of longitudinal polarization. Possible enhancement mechanisms
for a_2^0 are discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure, a table and a reference added, some typos
correcte
Blocking Effect of an Immuno-Suppressive Agent, Cynarin, on CD28 of T-Cell Receptor
Purpose: Cynarin, a potential immunosuppressant that blocks the interaction between the CD28 of T-cell receptor and CD80 of antigen presenting cells, was found in Echinacea purpurea by a new pharmaceutical screening method: After Flowing Through Immobilized Receptor (AFTIR; Dong et al., J Med Chem, 49:1845-1854, 2006). This Echinacea component is the first small molecule that is able to specifically block "signal 2" of T-cell activation. Methods: In this study, we used the AFTIR method to further confirm that cynarin effectively blocked the binding between CD80 of B-cells and CD28 of T-cells, and provide details of its mechanism of action. Results: The experimental results showed that cynarin blocked about 87% of the CD28-dependent "signal 2" pathway of T-cell activation under the condition of one to one ratio of T-cell and B-cell in vitro. Theoretical structure modeling showed that cynarin binds to the "G-pocket" of CD28 (Evans et al., Nat Immunol, 6:271-279, 2005), and thus interrupts the site of interaction between CD28 and CD80. Conclusions: These results confirm both that AFTIR is a promising method for screening selective active compounds from herbal medicine and that cynarin has great potential as an immuno-suppressive agent
Single-Band Model for Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors: Dynamical and Transport Properties and Relevance of Clustered States
Dynamical and transport properties of a simple single-band spin-fermion
lattice model for (III,Mn)V diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) is here
discussed using Monte Carlo simulations. This effort is a continuation of
previous work (G. Alvarez, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 277202 (2002)) where the static
properties of the model were studied. The present results support the view that
the relevant regime of J/t (standard notation) is that of intermediate
coupling, where carriers are only partially trapped near Mn spins, and locally
ordered regions (clusters) are present above the Curie temperature T_C. This
conclusion is based on the calculation of the resistivity vs. temperature, that
shows a soft metal to insulator transition near T_C, as well on the analysis of
the density-of-states and optical conductivity. In addition, in the clustered
regime a large magnetoresistance is observed in simulations. Formal analogies
between DMS and manganites are also discussed.Comment: Revtex4, 20 figures. References updated, minor changes to figures and
tex
Chiral Baryon Fields in the QCD Sum Rule
We study the structure of local baryon fields using the method of QCD sum
rule. We only consider the single baryon fields and calculate their operator
product expansions. We find that the octet baryon fields belonging to the
chiral representations [(3,3*)+(3*,3)] and [(8,1)+(1,8)] and the decuplet
baryon fields belonging to the chiral representations [(3,6)+(6,3)] lead to the
baryon masses which are consistent with the experimental data of ground baryon
masses. We also calculate their decay constants, check our normalizations for
baryon fields in PRD81:054002(2010) and find that they are well-defined.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure, 1 table, accepted by EPJ
Updated Analysis of a_1 and a_2 in Hadronic Two-body Decays of B Mesons
Using the recent experimental data of , , and various model calculations on form
factors, we re-analyze the effective coefficients a_1 and a_2 and their ratio.
QCD and electroweak penguin corrections to a_1 from and
a_2 from are estimated. In addition to the
model-dependent determination, the effective coefficient a_1 is also extracted
in a model-independent way as the decay modes are related by
factorization to the measured semileptonic distribution of at . Moreover, this enables us to extract model-independent
heavy-to-heavy form factors, for example,
and
. The determination of the magnitude of
a_2 from depends on the form factors ,
and at . By requiring that a_2 be
process insensitive (i.e., the value of a_2 extracted from and
states should be similar), as implied by the factorization
hypothesis, we find that form factors are severely constrained;
they respect the relation . Form factors and at
inferred from the measurements of the longitudinal
polarization fraction and the P-wave component in are
obtained. A stringent upper limit on a_2 is derived from the current bound on
\ov B^0\to D^0\pi^0 and it is sensitive to final-state interactions.Comment: 33 pages, 2 figures. Typos in Tables I and IX are corrected. To
appear in Phys. Rev.
The transition form factors for semi-leptonic weak decays of in QCD sum rules
Within the Standard Model, we investigate the semi-leptonic weak decays of
. The various form factors of transiting to a single charmed
meson () are studied in the framework of the QCD sum rules.
These form factors fully determine the rates of the weak semi-leptonic decays
of and provide valuable information about the non-perturbative QCD
effects. Our results indicate that the decay rate of the semi-leptonic weak
decay mode is at order of .Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, revised version to be published in Eur.Phys.J.
Mass Splitting and Production of and Measured in N Interactions
From a sample of decaying to the
final state, we have observed, in the hadroproduction experiment E791 at
Fermilab, and through
their decays to . The mass difference ) is measured to be ; for
, we find .
The rate of production from decays of the triplet is
(22\pm 2\pm 3) {%} of the total production assuming equal rate
of production from all three, as measured for and .
We do not observe a statistically significant baryon-antibaryon
production asymmetry. The and spectra of from
decays are observed to be similar to those for all 's
produced.Comment: 15 pages, uuencoded postscript 3 figures uuencoded, tar-compressed
fil
Measurement of the Charged Multiplicities in b, c and Light Quark Events from Z0 Decays
Average charged multiplicities have been measured separately in , and
light quark () events from decays measured in the SLD experiment.
Impact parameters of charged tracks were used to select enriched samples of
and light quark events, and reconstructed charmed mesons were used to select
quark events. We measured the charged multiplicities:
,
, from
which we derived the differences between the total average charged
multiplicities of or quark events and light quark events: and . We compared
these measurements with those at lower center-of-mass energies and with
perturbative QCD predictions. These combined results are in agreement with the
QCD expectations and disfavor the hypothesis of flavor-independent
fragmentation.Comment: 19 pages LaTex, 4 EPS figures, to appear in Physics Letters
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