Dilatonic Inflation and SUSY Breaking in String-inspired Supergravity

The theory of inflation will be investigated as well as supersymmetry breaking in the context of supergravity, incorporating the target-space duality and the nonperturbative gaugino condensation in the hidden sector. We found an inflationary trajectory of a dilaton field and a condensate field which breaks supersymmetry at once. The model satisfies the slow-roll condition which solves the eta-problem. When the particle rolls down along the minimized trajectory of the potential V(S,Y) at a duality invariant point of T=1, we can obtain the e-fold value \sim 57. And then the cosmological parameters obtained from our model well match the recent WMAP data combined with other experiments. This observation suggests one to consider the string-inspired supergravity as a fundamental theory of the evolution of the universe as well as the particle theory.Comment: 10 pages, 4 eps figures. Typos and references corrected. Final version to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Neutrino Mass Textures with Maximal CP Violation

We have found three types of neutrino mass textures, which give maximal CP-violation as well as maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing. These textures are described by six real mass parameters: one specified by two complex flavor neutrino masses and two constrained ones and the others specified by three complex flavor neutrino masses. In each texture, we calculate mixing angles and masses as well as Majorana CP phases.Comment: 10 pages, RevTex, no figures, references updated, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Determination of Neutrino Mass Texture for Maximal CP Violation

We show a general form of neutrino mass matrix (M), whose matrix elements are denoted by M_{ij} (i.j=e, mu, tau) as flavor neutrino masses, that induces maximal CP violation as well as maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing. The masses of M_{mu mu}, M_{tau tau} and M_{mu tau}+sigma M_{ee} (sigma =\pm 1) turn out to be completely determined by M_{e mu} and M_{e tau} for given mixing angles. The appearance of CP violation is found to originate from the interference between the mu-tau symmetric part of M and its breaking part. If |M_{e mu}|=|M_{e tau}|, giving either M_{e mu}=-sigma e^{i theta} M_{e tau} or M_{e mu}=-sigma e^{i theta}M*_{e tau} with a phase parameter theta, is further imposed, we find that |M_{mu mu}|=|M_{tau tau}|is also satisfied. These two constraints can be regarded as an extended version of the constraints in the mu-tau symmetric texture given by M_{e mu}=-sigma M_{e tau} and M_{mu mu}=M_{tau tau}. Majorana CP violation becomes active if arg(M_{mu tau})\neq arg(M_{e mu})+theta/2 for M_{e mu}=-sigma e^{i theta} M_{e tau} and if arg(M_{mu tau})\neq theta/2 for M_{e mu}=-sigma e^{i theta} M*_{e tau}.Comment: 10 pages, RevTex, typos corrected, minor clarifications added in Sec.3 and Sec.4, version to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Preparation and Observation of Fresh-frozen Sections of the Green Fluorescent Protein Transgenic Mouse Head

Hard tissue decalcification can cause variation in the constituent protein characteristics. This paper describes a method of preparating of frozen mouse head sections so as to clearly observe the nature of the constituent proteins. Frozen sections of various green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic mouse heads were prepared using the film method developed by Kawamoto and Shimizu. This method made specimen dissection without decalcification possible, wherein GFP was clearly observed in an undamaged state. Conversely, using the same method with decalcification made GFP observation in the transgenic mouse head difficult. This new method is suitable for observing GFP marked cells, enabling us to follow the transplanted GFP marked cells within frozen head sections

Overexpression of Chitinase 3-Like 1/YKL-40 in Lung-Specific IL-18-Transgenic Mice, Smokers and COPD

We analyzed the lung mRNA expression profiles of a murine model of COPD developed using a lung-specific IL-18-transgenic mouse. In this transgenic mouse, the expression of 608 genes was found to vary more than 2-fold in comparison with control WT mice, and was clustered into 4 groups. The expression of 140 genes was constitutively increased at all ages, 215 genes increased gradually with aging, 171 genes decreased gradually with aging, and 82 genes decreased temporarily at 9 weeks of age. Interestingly, the levels of mRNA for the chitinase-related genes chitinase 3-like 1 (Chi3l1), Chi3l3, and acidic mammalian chitinase (AMCase) were significantly higher in the lungs of transgenic mice than in control mice. The level of Chi3l1 protein increased significantly with aging in the lungs and sera of IL-18 transgenic, but not WT mice. Previous studies have suggested Chi3l3 and AMCase are IL-13-driven chitinase-like proteins. However, IL-13 gene deletion did not reduce the level of Chi3l1 protein in the lungs of IL-18 transgenic mice. Based on our murine model gene expression data, we analyzed the protein level of YKL-40, the human homolog of Chi3l1, in sera of smokers and COPD patients. Sixteen COPD patients had undergone high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) examination. Emphysema was assessed by using a density mask with a cutoff of −950 Hounsfield units to calculate the low-attenuation area percentage (LAA%). We observed significantly higher serum levels in samples from 28 smokers and 45 COPD patients compared to 30 non-smokers. In COPD patients, there was a significant negative correlation between serum level of YKL-40 and %FEV1. Moreover, there was a significant positive correlation between the serum levels of YKL-40 and LAA% in COPD patients. Thus our results suggest that chitinase-related genes may play an important role in establishing pulmonary inflammation and emphysematous changes in smokers and COPD patients

Bilarge Neutrino Mixing and \mu - \tau Permutation Symmetry for Two-loop Radiative Mechanism

The presence of approximate electron number conservation and \mu-\tau permutation symmetry of S_2 is shown to naturally provide bilarge neutrino mixing. First, the bimaximal neutrino mixing together with U_{e3}=0 is guaranteed to appear owing to S_2 and, then, the bilarge neutrino mixing together with |U_{e3}|<<1 arises as a result of tiny violation of S_2. The observed mass hierarchy of \Delta m^2_{\odot}<<\Delta m^2_{atm} is subject to another tiny violation of the electron number conservation. This scenario is realized in a specific model based on SU(3)_L x U(1)_N with two-loop radiative mechanism for neutrino masses. The radiative effects from heavy leptons contained in lepton triplets generate the bimaximal structure and those from charged leptons, which break S_2, generate the bilarge structure together with |U_{e3}|<<1. To suppress dangerous flavor-changing neutral current interactions due to Higgs exchanges especially for quarks, this S_2 symmetry is extended to a discrete Z_8 symmetry, which also ensures the absence of one-loop radiative mechanism.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Atmospheric electrification in dusty, reactive gases in the solar system and beyond

Detailed observations of the solar system planets reveal a wide variety of local atmospheric conditions. Astronomical observations have revealed a variety of extrasolar planets none of which resembles any of the solar system planets in full. Instead, the most massive amongst the extrasolar planets, the gas giants, appear very similar to the class of (young) Brown Dwarfs which are amongst the oldest objects in the universe. Despite of this diversity, solar system planets, extrasolar planets and Brown Dwarfs have broadly similar global temperatures between 300K and 2500K. In consequence, clouds of different chemical species form in their atmospheres. While the details of these clouds differ, the fundamental physical processes are the same. Further to this, all these objects were observed to produce radio and X-ray emission. While both kinds of radiation are well studied on Earth and to a lesser extent on the solar system planets, the occurrence of emission that potentially originate from accelerated electrons on Brown Dwarfs, extrasolar planets and protoplanetary disks is not well understood yet. This paper offers an interdisciplinary view on electrification processes and their feedback on their hosting environment in meteorology, volcanology, planetology and research on extrasolar planets and planet formation