Squeezed correlations of strange particle-antiparticles

Squeezed correlations of hadron-antihadron pairs are predicted to appear if their masses are modified in the hot and dense medium formed in high energy heavy ion collisions. If discovered experimentally, they would be an unequivocal evidence of in-medium mass shift found by means of hadronic probes. We discuss a method proposed to search for this novel type of correlation, illustrating it by means of D_s-mesons with in-medium shifted masses. These particles are expected to be more easily detected and identified in future upgrades at RHIC.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures with parts a) and b), SQM 2009 contribution; added acknowledgmen

On prolongations of quasigroups

We prove that any quasigroup admissing complete or quasicomplete mapping has a prolongation to a quasigroup having one element more.Comment: 12 page

Low-energy M1 and E3 excitations in the proton-rich Kr-Zr region

Low-energy intrinsic $K^\pi$=1$^+$, $0^-$, $1^-$, $2^-$, and $3^-$ states in the even-even proton-rich Sr, Kr, and Zr nuclei are investigated using the quasiparticle random phase approximation. In the Z$\simeq$N nuclei the lowest-lying 1$^+$ states are found to carry unusually large $B(M1)$ strength. It is demonstrated that, unlike in the heavier nuclei, the octupole collectivity in the light zirconium region is small and, thus, is not directly correlated with the systematics of the lowest negative parity states.Comment: 15pages, REVTEX 3.0, JIHIR(ORNL) Document no.93-17, Postscript files for 14 figures are available on request from T.Nakatsusaka at [email protected]

A comparative study of super- and highly-deformed bands in the A ~ 60 mass region

Super- and highly-deformed rotational bands in the A ~ 60 mass region are studied within cranked relativistic mean field theory and the configuration-dependent shell-correction approach based on the cranked Nilsson potential. Both approaches describe the experimental data well. Low values of the dynamic moments of inertia J^(2) compared with the kinematic moments of inertia J^(1) seen both in experiment and in calculations at high rotational frequencies indicate the high energy cost to build the states at high spin and reflect the limited angular momentum content in these configurations.Comment: 11 pages, 4 PostScript figures, Latex, uses 'epsf', submitted to Phys. Lett.

Redox signals at the ER-mitochondria interface control melanoma progression.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are emerging as important regulators of cancer growth and metastatic spread. However, how cells integrate redox signals to affect cancer progression is not fully understood. Mitochondria are cellular redox hubs, which are highly regulated by interactions with neighboring organelles. Here, we investigated how ROS at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-mitochondria interface are generated and translated to affect melanoma outcome. We show that TMX1 and TMX3 oxidoreductases, which promote ER-mitochondria communication, are upregulated in melanoma cells and patient samples. TMX knockdown altered mitochondrial organization, enhanced bioenergetics, and elevated mitochondrial- and NOX4-derived ROS. The TMX-knockdown-induced oxidative stress suppressed melanoma proliferation, migration, and xenograft tumor growth by inhibiting NFAT1. Furthermore, we identified NFAT1-positive and NFAT1-negative melanoma subgroups, wherein NFAT1 expression correlates with melanoma stage and metastatic potential. Integrative bioinformatics revealed that genes coding for mitochondrial- and redox-related proteins are under NFAT1 control and indicated that TMX1, TMX3, and NFAT1 are associated with poor disease outcome. Our study unravels a novel redox-controlled ER-mitochondria-NFAT1 signaling loop that regulates melanoma pathobiology and provides biomarkers indicative of aggressive disease

Correlation between the nanoscale electrical and morphological properties of crystallized hafnium oxide-based metal oxide semiconductor structures

The relationship between electrical and structuralcharacteristics of polycrystalline HfO2films has been investigated by conductive atomic force microscopy under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. The results demonstrate that highly conductive and breakdown (BD) sites are concentrated mainly at the grain boundaries (GBs). Higher conductivity at the GBs is found to be related to their intrinsic electrical properties, while the positions of the electrical stress-induced BD sites correlate to the local thinning of the dielectric. The results indicate that variations in the local characteristics of the high-k film caused by its crystallization may have a strong impact on the electrical characteristics of high-k dielectric stacks