Hot Nuclear Matter in Asymmetry Chiral Sigma Model

In the frame work of SU(2) chiral sigma model, the nuclear matter properties at zero and finite temperature have been investigated. We have analyzed the nuclear matter equation of state by varying different parameters, which agrees well with the one derived from the heavy-ion collision experiment at extreme densities and reliable realistic(DBHF) model at low density region. We have then calculated the temperature dependent asymmetric nuclear matter, also investigated the critical temperature of liquid gas phase transition and compared with the experimental data. We found that the critical temperature in our model is in the range of 14-20 MeV.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Nuclear Physics

Specific characters of 16S rRNA gene and 16S-23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer sequences of Xylella fastidiosa pear leaf scorch strains

Pear leaf scorch, the only Xylella fastidiosa-induced disease reported from Taiwan, was found in area where the variety Hengshan (Pyrus pyrifolia) was grown. Strains of pear leaf scorch Xyl. fastidiosa (XF-PLS) shared similarities to strains of other host origins in the requirement of complex medium and the exhibition of rippled cell walls, however, recent serological and molecular biology studies showed difference among them. Five strains of XF-PLS were compared with 20 other strains originally isolated from almond, oleander, pecan, plum, peach, mulberry, grapes, citrus, coffee, and sycamore by sequence analyses of the 16S rRNA gene and 16S-23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer region (ITS). When sequences of 16S rRNA gene based on fragment size of 1,537-1,540 bp were compared, the similarity index among 5 XF-PLS strains was 99.3-99.8%, whereas it was 97.8-98.6% between XF-PLS strains and strains from other hosts. When sequences of 16S-23S rRNA ITS based on fragment size of 510-540 bp were compared, the similarity index among 5 XF-PLS strains was 99.0-100%, whereas it was 80.7-82% between XF-PLS strains and strains from other hosts. Multiple sequence alignments led to the identification of 5 polymorphic nucleotides in the 16S rRNA gene among the 25 Xyl. fastidiosa strains, and there were considerable variations in the nucleotide sequences of 16S-23S rRNA ITS between XF-PLS and the other 20 Xyl. fastidiosa strains. The phylogenetic trees revealed that XF-PLS strains were separated from strains of other hosts. Strains of other hosts were divided into four subgroups: strains from (1) oleander, (2) grape, almond M23 and mulberry, (3) citrus and coffee, and (4) pecan, peach, plum, sycamore and almond M12. Results indicate that XF-PLS strains were not closely related to the above-mentioned strains from other hosts and could possibly belong to a new subspecies of Xyl. fastidiosa

The low-lying excitations of polydiacetylene

The Pariser-Parr-Pople Hamiltonian is used to calculate and identify the nature of the low-lying vertical transition energies of polydiacetylene. The model is solved using the density matrix renormalisation group method for a fixed acetylenic geometry for chains of up to 102 atoms. The non-linear optical properties of polydiacetylene are considered, which are determined by the third-order susceptibility. The experimental 1Bu data of Giesa and Schultz are used as the geometric model for the calculation. For short chains, the calculated E(1Bu) agrees with the experimental value, within solvation effects (ca. 0.3 eV). The charge gap is used to characterise bound and unbound states. The nBu is above the charge gap and hence a continuum state; the 1Bu, 2Ag and mAg are not and hence are bound excitons. For large chain lengths, the nBu tends towards the charge gap as expected, strongly suggesting that the nBu is the conduction band edge. The conduction band edge for PDA is agreed in the literature to be ca. 3.0 eV. Accounting for the strong polarisation effects of the medium and polaron formation gives our calculated E(nBu) ca. 3.6 eV, with an exciton binding energy of ca. 1.0 eV. The 2Ag state is found to be above the 1Bu, which does not agree with relaxed transition experimental data. However, this could be resolved by including explicit lattice relaxation in the Pariser- Parr-Pople-Peierls model. Particle-hole separation data further suggest that the 1Bu, 2Ag and mAg are bound excitons, and that the nBu is an unbound exciton.Comment: LaTeX, 23 pages, 4 postscript tables and 8 postscript figure

Isospin influences on particle emission and critical phenomenon in nuclear dissociation

Features of particle emission and critical point behavior are investigated as functions of the isospin of disassembling sources and temperature at a moderate freeze-out density for medium-size Xe isotopes in the framework of isospin dependent lattice gas model. Multiplicities of emitted light particles, isotopic and isobaric ratios of light particles show the strong dependence on the isospin of the dissociation source, but double ratios of light isotope pairs and the critical temperature determined by the extreme values of some critical observables are insensitive to the isospin of the systems. Values of the power law parameter of cluster mass distribution, mean multiplicity of intermediate mass fragments ($IMF$), information entropy ($H$) and Campi's second moment ($S_2$) also show a minor dependence on the isospin of Xe isotopes at the critical point. In addition, the slopes of the average multiplicites of the neutrons ($N_n$), protons ($N_p$), charged particles ($N_{CP}$), and IMFs ($N_{imf}$), slopes of the largest fragment mass number ($A_{max}$), and the excitation energy per nucleon of the disassembling source ($E^*/A$) to temperature are investigated as well as variances of the distributions of $N_n$, $N_p$, $N_{CP}$, $N_{IMF}$, $A_{max}$ and $E^*/A$. It is found that they can be taken as additional judgements to the critical phenomena.Comment: 9 Pages, 8 figure

Regimen-specific rates of chemotherapy-related amenorrhea in breast cancer survivors

Young women who have not begun or completed their desired childbearing at the time of diagnosis with breast cancer often wish to understand and minimize their risk of chemotherapy-related amenorrhea (CRA). However, the incidence of CRA after regimens that do not include either an anthracycline or a cyclophosphamide is poorly studied. For patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive disease, anthracycline- and cyclophosphamide-sparing regimens (eg, carboplatin/taxane) are common (in combination with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-directed therapy). In this study, accrued in collaboration with Army of Women, menstrual data were analyzed for 151 breast cancer survivors (median age = 41 years at diagnosis, and median time between last chemotherapy and survey = 62.5 months). Last menstrual period was before the last chemotherapy dose in 51% of the 86 participants who received anthracycline/cyclophosphamide/taxane, in 42% of the 43 who received only taxane/cyclophosphamide, and in 13% of the 15 who received carboplatin/taxane. This study suggests that carboplatin/taxane causes less CRA than cyclophosphamide-based regimens

Atoms interacting with intense, high-frequency laser pulses: Effect of the magnetic-field component on atomic stabilization

Published versio

Characterization of the humoral immune response to the EBV proteome in extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma

Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL) is an aggressive malignancy that has been etiologically linked to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, with EBV gene transcripts identified in almost all cases. However, the humoral immune response to EBV in NKTCL patients has not been well characterized. We examined the antibody response to EBV in plasma samples from 51 NKTCL cases and 154 controls from Hong Kong and Taiwan who were part of the multi-center, hospital-based AsiaLymph case-control study. The EBV-directed serological response was characterized using a protein microarray that measured IgG and IgA antibodies against 202 protein sequences representing the entire EBV proteome. We analyzed 157 IgG antibodies and 127 IgA antibodies that fulfilled quality control requirements. Associations between EBV serology and NKTCL status were disproportionately observed for IgG rather than IgA antibodies. Nine anti-EBV IgG responses were significantly elevated in NKTCL cases compared with controls and had ORshighest vs. lowest tertile > 6.0 (Bonferroni-corrected P-values < 0.05). Among these nine elevated IgG responses in NKTCL patients, three IgG antibodies (all targeting EBNA3A) are novel and have not been observed for other EBV-associated tumors of B-cell or epithelial origin. IgG antibodies against EBNA1, which have consistently been elevated in other EBV-associated tumors, were not elevated in NKTCL cases. We characterize the antibody response against EBV for patients with NKTCL and identify IgG antibody responses against six distinct EBV proteins. Our findings suggest distinct serologic patterns of this NK/T-cell lymphoma compared with other EBV-associated tumors of B-cell or epithelial origin

Recollisions, bremsstrahlung, and attosecond pulses from intense laser fields

Published versio

Measurement of the Charged Multiplicities in b, c and Light Quark Events from Z0 Decays

Average charged multiplicities have been measured separately in $b$, $c$ and light quark ($u,d,s$) events from $Z^0$ decays measured in the SLD experiment. Impact parameters of charged tracks were used to select enriched samples of $b$ and light quark events, and reconstructed charmed mesons were used to select $c$ quark events. We measured the charged multiplicities: $\bar{n}_{uds} = 20.21 \pm 0.10 (\rm{stat.})\pm 0.22(\rm{syst.})$, $\bar{n}_{c} = 21.28 \pm 0.46(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.41}_{-0.36}(\rm{syst.})$ $\bar{n}_{b} = 23.14 \pm 0.10(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.38}_{-0.37}(\rm{syst.})$, from which we derived the differences between the total average charged multiplicities of $c$ or $b$ quark events and light quark events: $\Delta \bar{n}_c = 1.07 \pm 0.47(\rm{stat.})^{+0.36}_{-0.30}(\rm{syst.})$ and $\Delta \bar{n}_b = 2.93 \pm 0.14(\rm{stat.})^{+0.30}_{-0.29}(\rm{syst.})$. We compared these measurements with those at lower center-of-mass energies and with perturbative QCD predictions. These combined results are in agreement with the QCD expectations and disfavor the hypothesis of flavor-independent fragmentation.Comment: 19 pages LaTex, 4 EPS figures, to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter