261 research outputs found
Red Optical Planet Survey : A radial velocity search for low mass M dwarf planets
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedWe present radial velocity results from our Red Optical Planet Survey (ROPS), aimed at detecting low-mass planets orbiting mid-late M dwarfs. The similar to 10 ms(-1) precision achieved over 2 consecutive nights with the MIKE spectrograph at Magellan Clay is also found on week long timescales with UVES at VLT. Since we find that UVES is expected to attain photon limited precision of order 2 ms-1 using our novel deconvolution technique, we are limited only by the
Effects of exposure of rat erythrocytes to a hypogeomagnetic field
The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Background:Hypomagnetic fields can disrupts the normal functioning of living organisms by a mechanism thought to involve oxidative stress. In erythrocytes, oxidative stress can inter alia lead to changes to hemoglobin content and to hemolysis. Objective:To study the effects of hypomagnetism on the state of rat erythrocytes in vitro. Methods:Rat erythrocytes were exposed to an attenuated magnetic field (AMF) or Earth’s magnetic field (EMF), in the presence of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as inducer of oxidative stress. Determinations: total hemoglobin (and its three forms – oxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin, and hemichrome) released from erythrocytes, spectral data (500–700 nm); oxygen radical concentrations, electron paramagnetic resonance. Results:AMF and EMF exposed erythrocytes were compared. After 4 h incubation at high TBHP concentrations (>700 μM), AMF exposed erythrocytes released significantly more (p<0.05) hemoglobin (Hb), mostly as methemoglobin (metHb). Conversely, after 24 h incubation at low TBHP concentrations (⩽350 μM), EMF exposed erythrocytes released significantly more (p<0.001) hemoglobin, with metHb as a significant proportion of the total Hb. Erythrocytes exposed to AMF generated more radicals than those exposed to the EMF. Conclusion:Under particular conditions of oxidative stress, hypomagnetic fields can disrupt the functional state of erythrocytes and promote cell death; an additive effect is implicated
Long distance regularization in chiral perturbation theory with decuplet
We investigate the use of long distance regularization in SU(3) baryon chiral
perturbation theory with decuplet fields. The one-loop decuplet contributions
to the octet baryon masses, axial couplings, S-wave nonleptonic hyperon decays
and magnetic moments are evaluated in a chirally consistent fashion by
employing a cutoff to implement long distance regularization. The convergence
of the chiral expansions of these quantities is improved compared to the
dimensionally regularized version which indicates that the propagation of
Goldstone bosons over distances smaller than a typical hadronic size, which is
beyond the regime of chiral perturbation theory but included by dimensional
regularization, is removed by use of a cutoff.Comment: 31 page
Contributions from SUSY-FCNC couplings to the interpretation of the HyperCP events for the decay \Sigma^+ \to p \mu^+ \mu^-
The observation of three events for the decay
with a dimuon invariant mass of MeV by the HyperCP collaboration
imply that a new particle X may be needed to explain the observed dimuon
invariant mass distribution. We show that there are regions in the SUSY-FCNC
parameter space where the in the NMSSM can be used to explain the
HyperCP events without contradicting all the existing constraints from the
measurements of the kaon decays, and the constraints from the
mixing are automatically satisfied once the constraints from kaon decays are
satisfied.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure
Slater-Pauling Behavior of the Half-Ferromagnetic Full-Heusler Alloys
Using the full-potential screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method we study the
full-Heusler alloys based on Co, Fe, Rh and Ru. We show that many of these
compounds show a half-metallic behavior, however in contrast to the
half-Heusler alloys the energy gap in the minority band is extremely small.
These full-Heusler compounds show a Slater-Pauling behavior and the total
spin-magnetic moment per unit cell (M_t) scales with the total number of
valence electrons (Z_t) following the rule: M_t=Z_t-24. We explain why the
spin-down band contains exactly 12 electrons using arguments based on the group
theory and show that this rule holds also for compounds with less than 24
valence electrons. Finally we discuss the deviations from this rule and the
differences compared to the half-Heusler alloys.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, revised figure 3, new text adde
Inhibiting efferocytosis reverses macrophage-mediated immunosuppression in the leukemia microenvironment
Background: Previous studies show that the spleen and bone marrow can serve as leukemia microenvironments in which macrophages play a significant role in immune evasion and chemoresistance. We hypothesized that the macrophage driven tolerogenic process of efferocytosis is a major contributor to the immunosuppressive leukemia microenvironment and that this was driven by aberrant phosphatidylserine expression from cell turnover and cell membrane dysregulation. Methods: Since MerTK is the prototypic efferocytosis receptor, we assessed whether the MerTK inhibitor MRX2843, which is currently in clinical trials, would reverse immune evasion and enhance immune-mediated clearance of leukemia cells. Results: We found that inhibition of MerTK decreased leukemia-associated macrophage expression of M2 markers PD-L1, PD-L2, Tim-3, CD163 and Arginase-1 compared to vehicle-treated controls. Additionally, MerTK inhibition led to M1 macrophage repolarization including elevated CD86 and HLA-DR expression, and increased production of T cell activating cytokines, including IFN-β, IL-18, and IL-1β through activation of NF-κB. Collectively, this macrophage repolarization had downstream effects on T cells within the leukemia microenvironment, including decreased PD-1+Tim-3+ and LAG3+ checkpoint expression, and increased CD69+CD107a+ expression. Discussion: These results demonstrate that MerTK inhibition using MRX2843 altered the leukemia microenvironment from tumor-permissive toward immune responsiveness to leukemia and culminated in improved immune-mediated clearance of AML
Soil biochemistry and microbial activity in vineyards under conventional and organic management at Northeast Brazil.
The São Francisco Submedium Valley is located at the Brazilian semiarid region and is an important center for irrigated fruit growing. This region is responsible for 97% of the national exportation of table grapes, including seedless grapes. Based on the fact that orgThe São Francisco Submedium Valley is located at the Brazilian semiarid region and is an important center for irrigated fruit growing. This region is responsible for 97% of the national exportation of table grapes, including seedless grapes. Based on the fact that organic fertilization can improve soil quality, we compared the effects of conventional and organic soil management on microbial activity and mycorrhization of seedless grape crops. We measured glomerospores number, most probable number (MPN) of propagules, richness of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species, AMF root colonization, EE-BRSP production, carbon microbial biomass (C-MB), microbial respiration, fluorescein diacetate hydrolytic activity (FDA) and metabolic coefficient (qCO2). The organic management led to an increase in all variables with the exception of EE-BRSP and qCO2. Mycorrhizal colonization increased from 4.7% in conventional crops to 15.9% in organic crops. Spore number ranged from 4.1 to 12.4 per 50 g-1 soil in both management systems. The most probable number of AMF propagules increased from 79 cm-3 soil in the conventional system to 110 cm-3 soil in the organic system. Microbial carbon, CO2 emission, and FDA activity were increased by 100 to 200% in the organic crop. Thirteen species of AMF were identified, the majority in the organic cultivation system. Acaulospora excavata, Entrophospora infrequens, Glomus sp.3 and Scutellospora sp. were found only in the organically managed crop. S. gregaria was found only in the conventional crop. Organically managed vineyards increased mycorrhization and general soil microbial activity
Origin and Properties of the Gap in the Half-Ferromagnetic Heusler Alloys
We study the origin of the gap and the role of chemical composition in the
half-ferromagnetic Heusler alloys using the full-potential screened KKR method.
In the paramagnetic phase the C1_b compounds, like NiMnSb, present a gap.
Systems with 18 valence electrons, Z_t, per unit cell, like CoTiSb, are
semiconductors, but when Z_t > 18 antibonding states are also populated, thus
the paramagnetic phase becomes unstable and the half-ferromagnetic one is
stabilized. The minority occupied bands accommodate a total of nine electrons
and the total magnetic moment per unit cell in mu_B is just the difference
between Z_t and . While the substitution of the transition metal
atoms may preserve the half-ferromagnetic character, substituting the atom
results in a practically rigid shift of the bands and the loss of
half-metallicity. Finally we show that expanding or contracting the lattice
parameter by 2% preserves the minority-spin gap.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures New figures, revised tex
Quark contributions to baryon magnetic moments in full, quenched, and partially quenched QCD
The chiral nonanalytic behavior of quark-flavor contributions to the magnetic moments of octet baryons is determined in full, quenched and partially quenched QCD, using an intuitive and efficient diagrammatic formulation of quenched and partially quenched chiral perturbation theory. The technique provides a separation of quark-sector magnetic-moment contributions into direct sea-quark loop, valence-quark, indirect sea-quark loop and quenched valence contributions, the latter being the conventional view of the quenched approximation. Both meson and baryon mass violations of SU(3)-flavor symmetry are accounted for. Following a comprehensive examination of the individual quark-sector contributions to octet baryon magnetic moments, numerous opportunities to observe and test the underlying structure of baryons and the nature of chiral nonanalytic behavior in QCD and its quenched variants are discussed. In particular, the valence u-quark contribution to the proton magnetic moment provides the optimal opportunity to directly view nonanalytic behavior associated with the meson cloud of full QCD and the quenched meson cloud of quenched QCD. The u quark in Σ+ provides the best opportunity to display the artifacts of the quenched approximation.Derek B. Leinwebe
Deep exclusive electroproduction off the proton at CLAS
The exclusive electroproduction of above the resonance region was
studied using the Large Acceptance Spectrometer () at
Jefferson Laboratory by scattering a 6 GeV continuous electron beam off a
hydrogen target. The large acceptance and good resolution of ,
together with the high luminosity, allowed us to measure the cross section for
the process in 140 (, , ) bins:
, 1.6 GeV GeV and 0.1 GeV
GeV. For most bins, the statistical accuracy is on the order of a few
percent. Differential cross sections are compared to two theoretical models,
based either on hadronic (Regge phenomenology) or on partonic (handbag diagram)
degrees of freedom. Both can describe the gross features of the data reasonably
well, but differ strongly in their ingredients. If the handbag approach can be
validated in this kinematical region, our data contain the interesting
potential to experimentally access transversity Generalized Parton
Distributions.Comment: 18pages, 21figures,2table
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