1,265 research outputs found
The role of p53 in atherosclerosis
Although the role of the tumour suppressor gene p53 is well known in cancer, recent studies have highlighted a fundamental role for p53 in regulating cells in the advanced atherosclerotic plaque, the major cause of heart attacks and stroke. In particular, p53 is activated in the complex environment of the plaque, in part by DNA damage within the lesion, and regulates growth arrest, cell senescence and apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). The role of endogenous p53 has been determined using p53 knockout in mice developing advanced atherosclerosis, using bone marrow transplant to separate effects on blood cells from vessel wall cells. These studies have produced apparently contradictory and surprising results. In particular, recent studies have identified a role for endogenous p53 in protection of VSMCs from apoptosis, trans-differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells into VSMCs in atherosclerosis, and altering the mode of cell death in the plaque
Prospects for Discovering Supersymmetry at the LHC
Supersymmetry is one of the best-motivated candidates for physics beyond the
Standard Model that might be discovered at the LHC. There are many reasons to
expect that it may appear at the TeV scale, in particular because it provides a
natural cold dark matter candidate. The apparent discrepancy between the
experimental measurement of g_mu - 2 and the Standard model value calculated
using low-energy e+ e- data favours relatively light sparticles accessible to
the LHC. A global likelihood analysis including this, other electroweak
precision observables and B-decay observables suggests that the LHC might be
able to discover supersymmetry with 1/fb or less of integrated luminosity. The
LHC should be able to discover supersymmetry via the classic missing-energy
signature, or in alternative phenomenological scenarios. The prospects for
discovering supersymmetry at the LHC look very good.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure
Structure of Pairs in Heavy Weakly-Bound Nuclei
We study the structure of nucleon pairs within a simple model consisting of a
square well in three dimensions and a delta-function residual interaction
between two weakly-bound particles at the Fermi surface. We include the
continuum by enclosing the entire system in a large spherical box. To a good
approximation, the continuum can be replaced by a small set of
optimally-determined resonance states, suggesting that in many nuclei far from
stability it may be possible to incorporate continuum effects within
traditional shell-model based approximations.Comment: REVTEX format, 9 pages, 2 figures, 2 table
New, efficient and robust, fiber-based quantum key distribution schemes
We present a new fiber based quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme which can
be regarded as a modification of an idea proposed by Inoue, Waks and Yamamoto
(IWY) [1]. The scheme described here uses a single phase modulator and two
differential delay elements in series at the transmitter that form an
interferometer when combined with a third differential delay element at the
receiver. The protocol is characterized by a high efficiency, reduced exposure
to an attack by an eavesdropper, and higher sensitivity to such an attack when
compared to other QKD schemes. For example, the efficiency with which
transmitted data contribute to the private key is 3/4 compared with 1/4 for
BB84 [2]. Moreover, an eavesdropper can aquire a maximum of 1/3 of the key
which leads to an error probability in the private key of 1/3. This can be
compared to 1/2 and 1/4 for these same parameters in both BB84 and IWY. The
combination of these considerations should lead to increased range and key
distribution rate over present fiber-based QKD schemes.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, 1 equatio
The influence of sediment compositions on the decline of Metapenaeus dalli in a temperate Australian estuary
Abundances of the western school prawn (Metapenaeus dalli) in the Swan-Canning Estuary have declined markedly in the last fifty years. Together with the decrease in abundance, there is strong anecdotal evidence from recreational fishers that the spatial distribution of this penaeid has changed as this species no longer being caught in the middle and upper reaches of the estuary. This is a marked shift in distribution, as work conducted in the 1980s showed that individuals of this species moved upstream from the lower reaches of estuary once salinity in these upstream areas reached 30. While, declining rainfall has resulted in these waters being more saline, our data show that these reaches are not utilised to the same extent by individuals of M. dalli. The research presented in this poster investigates the hypothesis that changes in sediment composition may be responsible for this shift in the spatial and temporal use of the estuary by this species. The implications of this research on the restocking program for M. dalli are discussed
Assessing the sediment preference of a penaeid prawn to inform release strategies
The abundance of the Western School Prawn (Metapenaeus dalli) declined markedly in the Swan-Canning Estuary after the 1960s, resulting in the initiation of a restocking program in 2012. Further to the decline in abundance, anecdotal evidence from recreational fishers indicated that there had been a spatial shift in the distribution of this prawn. To test the hypothesis that a change in sediment composition may be responsible, the density of M. dalli, recorded monthly between October 2013 and August 2014, was correlated against sediment organic matter content and grain size distribution. Densities of M. dalli were found to differ among sediment types in summer, but not winter. Controlled laboratory experiments were used to investigate whether M. dalli exhibited a preference for sediments from either the upper or lower reaches of their distribution within the estuary. Prawns exhibited a preference for nearshore and offshore sediments that contained a lower percentage contribution of larger grain sizes and/or a higher percentage contribution of finer grain sizes, i.e. sediments from the lower rather than upper reaches. These experiments also revealed that emergence and activity rates of M. dalli are strongly related to photoperiod, with individuals preferring to remain buried during daylight hours and become active during darkness. Visual observations also indicated that the prawns were able to bury more rapidly in finer than coarse sediments, thus reducing their length of exposure to predators. The implications of these findings on the current restocking program for M. dalli in the Swan-Canning Estuary are discussed
Perfect state distinguishability and computational speedups with postselected closed timelike curves
Bennett and Schumacher's postselected quantum teleportation is a model of
closed timelike curves (CTCs) that leads to results physically different from
Deutsch's model. We show that even a single qubit passing through a
postselected CTC (P-CTC) is sufficient to do any postselected quantum
measurement, and we discuss an important difference between "Deutschian" CTCs
(D-CTCs) and P-CTCs in which the future existence of a P-CTC might affect the
present outcome of an experiment. Then, based on a suggestion of Bennett and
Smith, we explicitly show how a party assisted by P-CTCs can distinguish a set
of linearly independent quantum states, and we prove that it is not possible
for such a party to distinguish a set of linearly dependent states. The power
of P-CTCs is thus weaker than that of D-CTCs because the Holevo bound still
applies to circuits using them regardless of their ability to conspire in
violating the uncertainty principle. We then discuss how different notions of a
quantum mixture that are indistinguishable in linear quantum mechanics lead to
dramatically differing conclusions in a nonlinear quantum mechanics involving
P-CTCs. Finally, we give explicit circuit constructions that can efficiently
factor integers, efficiently solve any decision problem in the intersection of
NP and coNP, and probabilistically solve any decision problem in NP. These
circuits accomplish these tasks with just one qubit traveling back in time, and
they exploit the ability of postselected closed timelike curves to create
grandfather paradoxes for invalid answers.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; Foundations of Physics (2011
Supersymmetric Benchmarks with Non-Universal Scalar Masses or Gravitino Dark Matter
We propose and examine a new set of benchmark supersymmetric scenarios, some
of which have non-universal Higgs scalar masses (NUHM) and others have
gravitino dark matter (GDM). The scalar masses in these models are either
considerably larger or smaller than the narrow range allowed for the same
gaugino mass m_{1/2} in the constrained MSSM (CMSSM) with universal scalar
masses m_0 and neutralino dark matter. The NUHM and GDM models with larger m_0
may have large branching ratios for Higgs and/or production in the cascade
decays of heavier sparticles, whose detection we discuss. The phenomenology of
the GDM models depends on the nature of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric
particle (NLSP), which has a lifetime exceeding 10^4 seconds in the proposed
benchmark scenarios. In one GDM scenario the NLSP is the lightest neutralino
\chi, and the supersymmetric collider signatures are similar to those in
previous CMSSM benchmarks, but with a distinctive spectrum. In the other GDM
scenarios based on minimal supergravity (mSUGRA), the NLSP is the lighter stau
slepton {\tilde \tau}_1, with a lifetime between ~ 10^4 and 3 X 10^6 seconds.
Every supersymmetric cascade would end in a {\tilde \tau}_1, which would have a
distinctive time-of-flight signature. Slow-moving {\tilde \tau}_1's might be
trapped in a collider detector or outside it, and the preferred detection
strategy would depend on the {\tilde \tau}_1 lifetime. We discuss the extent to
which these mSUGRA GDM scenarios could be distinguished from gauge-mediated
models.Comment: 52 pages LaTeX, 13 figure
Where and when to revegetate : a quantitative method for scheduling landscape reconstruction
Restoration of native vegetation is required in many regions of the world, but determining priority locations for revegetation is a complex problem. We consider the problem of determining spatial and temporal priorities for revegetation to maximize habitat for 62 bird species within a heavily cleared agricultural region, 11 000 km2 in area. We show how a reserve-selection framework can be applied to a complex, large-scale restoration-planning problem to account for multi-species objectives and connectivity requirements at a spatial extent and resolution relevant to management. Our approach explicitly accounts for time lags in planting and development of habitat resources, which is intended to avoid future population bottlenecks caused by delayed provision of critical resources, such as tree hollows. We coupled species-specific models of expected habitat quality and fragmentation effects with the dynamics of habitat suitability following replanting to produce species-specific maps for future times. Spatial priorities for restoration were determined by ranking locations (150-m grid cells) by their expected contribution to species habitat through time using the conservation planning tool, ‘‘Zonation.’’ We evaluated solutions by calculating expected trajectories of habitat availability for each species. We produced a spatially explicit revegetation schedule for the region that resulted in a balanced increase in habitat for all species. Priority areas for revegetation generally were clustered around existing vegetation, although not always. Areas on richer soils and with high rainfall were more highly ranked, reflecting their potential to support high-quality habitats that have been disproportionately cleared for agriculture. Accounting for delayed development of habitat resources altered the rank-order of locations in the derived revegetation plan and led to improved expected outcomes for fragmentation-sensitive species. This work demonstrates the potential for systematic restoration planning at large scales that accounts for multiple objectives, which is urgently needed by land and natural resource managers
What if Supersymmetry Breaking Unifies beyond the GUT Scale?
We study models in which soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters of the MSSM
become universal at some unification scale, , above the GUT scale,
\mgut. We assume that the scalar masses and gaugino masses have common
values, and respectively, at . We use the
renormalization-group equations of the minimal supersymmetric SU(5) GUT to
evaluate their evolutions down to \mgut, studying their dependences on the
unknown parameters of the SU(5) superpotential. After displaying some generic
examples of the evolutions of the soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters, we
discuss the effects on physical sparticle masses in some specific examples. We
note, for example, that near-degeneracy between the lightest neutralino and the
lighter stau is progressively disfavoured as increases. This has the
consequence, as we show in planes for several different values
of , that the stau coannihilation region shrinks as
increases, and we delineate the regions of the plane
where it is absent altogether. Moreover, as increases, the focus-point
region recedes to larger values of for any fixed and
. We conclude that the regions of the plane that are
commonly favoured in phenomenological analyses tend to disappear at large
.Comment: 24 pages with 11 eps figures; references added, some figures
corrected, discussion extended and figure added; version to appear in EPJ
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