581 research outputs found
IL-4 inhibits LPS-, IL-1β- and TNFα-induced expression of tissue factor in endothelial cells and monocytes
AbstractInflammatory mediators such as endotoxin, interleukin-1β(IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factors-α (TNF-α) dose-dependently increased the expression of tissue factor on the surface of cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (ABAE), human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and human monocytes. In ABAE, endotoxin-, IL-1β- and TNFα-induced tissue factor expression was suppressed by interleukin-4 (IL-4) which also neutralized the pyrogenic effect of endotoxin in HUVEC and monocytes. IL-4 did not alter TNF-α-induced procoagulant changes in HUVEC and monocytes but strongly protected the monocyte surface against IL-1β-induced procoagulant changes
Infinite N phase transitions in continuum Wilson loop operators
We define smoothed Wilson loop operators on a four dimensional lattice and
check numerically that they have a finite and nontrivial continuum limit. The
continuum operators maintain their character as unitary matrices and undergo a
phase transition at infinite N reflected by the eigenvalue distribution closing
a gap in its spectrum when the defining smooth loop is dilated from a small
size to a large one. If this large N phase transition belongs to a solvable
universality class one might be able to calculate analytically the string
tension in terms of the perturbative Lambda-parameter. This would be achieved
by matching instanton results for small loops to the relevant large-N-universal
function which, in turn, would be matched for large loops to an effective
string theory. Similarities between our findings and known analytical results
in two dimensional space-time indicate that the phase transitions we found only
affect the eigenvalue distribution, but the traces of finite powers of the
Wilson loop operators stay smooth under scaling.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, typos and references corrected, minor
clarifications adde
Stabilization of Hydrodynamic Flows by Small Viscosity Variations
Motivated by the large effect of turbulent drag reduction by minute
concentrations of polymers we study the effects of a weakly space-dependent
viscosity on the stability of hydrodynamic flows. In a recent Letter [Phys.
Rev. Lett. {\bf 87}, 174501, (2001)] we exposed the crucial role played by a
localized region where the energy of fluctuations is produced by interactions
with the mean flow (the "critical layer"). We showed that a layer of weakly
space-dependent viscosity placed near the critical layer can have a very large
stabilizing effect on hydrodynamic fluctuations, retarding significantly the
onset of turbulence. In this paper we extend these observation in two
directions: first we show that the strong stabilization of the primary
instability is also obtained when the viscosity profile is realistic (inferred
from simulations of turbulent flows with a small concentration of polymers).
Second, we analyze the secondary instability (around the time-dependent primary
instability) and find similar strong stabilization. Since the secondary
instability develops around a time-dependent solution and is three-dimensional,
this brings us closer to the turbulent case. We reiterate that the large effect
is {\em not} due to a modified dissipation (as is assumed in some theories of
drag reduction), but due to reduced energy intake from the mean flow to the
fluctuations. We propose that similar physics act in turbulent drag reduction.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figs., REVTeX4, PRE, submitte
On the consistent solution of the gap--equation for spontaneously broken -theory
We present a self--consistent solution of the finite temperature
gap--equation for theory beyond the Hartree-Fock approximation
using a composite operator effective action. We find that in a spontaneously
broken theory not only the so--called daisy and superdaisy graphs contribute to
the resummed mass, but also resummed non--local diagrams are of the same order,
thus altering the effective mass for small values of the latter.Comment: 15 pages of revtex + 3 uuencoded postscript figures, ENSLAPP A-488/9
Superdiffusivity of the 1D lattice Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation
The continuum Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation in one dimension is lattice
discretized in such a way that the drift part is divergence free. This allows
to determine explicitly the stationary measures. We map the lattice KPZ
equation to a bosonic field theory which has a cubic anti-hermitian
nonlinearity. Thereby it is established that the stationary two-point function
spreads superdiffusively.Comment: 21 page
Strong Tunneling in Double-Island Structures
We study the electron transport through a system of two low-capacitance metal
islands connected in series between two electrodes. The work is motivated in
part by experiments on semiconducting double-dots, which show intriguing
effects arising from coherent tunneling of electrons and mixing of the
single-electron states across tunneling barriers. In this article, we show how
coherent tunneling affects metallic systems and leads to a mixing of the
macroscopic charge states across the barriers. We apply a recently formulated
RG approach to examine the linear response of the system with high tunnel
conductances (up to 8e^2/h). In addition we calculate the (second order)
cotunneling contributions to the non-linear conductance. Our main results are
that the peaks in the linear and nonlinear conductance as a function of the
gate voltage are reduced and broadened in an asymmetric way, as well as shifted
in their positions. In the limit where the two islands are coupled weakly to
the electrodes, we compare to theoretical results obtained by Golden and
Halperin and Matveev et al. In the opposite case when the two islands are
coupled more strongly to the leads than to each other, the peaks are found to
shift, in qualitative agreement with the recent prediction of Andrei et al. for
a similar double-dot system which exhibits a phase transition.Comment: 12 page
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