1,391 research outputs found
The Decay of the Inflaton in No-scale Supergravity
We study the decay of the inflaton in no-scale supergravity and show that
decay due to the gravitational interactions through supergravity effects is
highly suppressed relative to the case in minimal supergravity or models with a
generic Kahler potential. We also show that decay to gravitinos is suppressed.
We demonstrate that decay and sufficient reheating are possible with the
introduction of a non-trivial gauge kinetic term. This channel may be dominant
in no-scale supergravity, yet yields a re-heating temperature which is low
enough to avoid the gravitino problem while high enough for Big Bang
Nucleosynthesis and baryogenesis.Comment: Added the footnote in the conclusion section which discusses the
constrains on the explicit inflaton couplings to the matter fields via
non-renormalizable operators. To appear in JCA
Synthesis of magnesium ZIF-8 from Mg(BH₄)₂.
Porous Mg(2-methyl imidazolate)2 (Mg-ZIF-8) was synthesised from Mg(BH4)2 as a precursor under an Ar atmosphere. It possesses an uncommon tetrahedral Mg(2+)-N coordination geometry that is stabilised by the formation of a framework, and it exhibits a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area greater than 1800 m(2) g(-1)
The Earliest Optical Observations of GRB 030329
We present the earliest optical imaging observations of GRB 030329 related to
SN 2003dh. The burst was detected by the HETE-2 satellite at 2003 March 29,
11:37:14.67 UT. Our wide-field monitoring started 97 minutes before the trigger
and the burst position was continuously observed. We found no precursor or
contemporaneous flare brighter than () in 32 s (64 s) timescale
between 10:00 and 13:00 UT. Follow-up time series photometries started at
12:51:39 UT (75 s after position notice through the GCN) and continued for more
than 5 hours. The afterglow was at min after burst.
Its fading between 1.2 and 6.3 hours is well characterized by a single
power-law of the form in -band. No significant flux variation was
detected and upper limits are derived as % in
minutes to hours timescales and % in seconds to
minutes timescales. Such a featureless lightcurve is explained by the smooth
distribution of circumburst medium. Another explanation is that the optical
band was above the synchrotron cooling frequency where emergent flux is
insensitive to the ambient density contrasts. Extrapolation of the afterglow
lightcurve to the burst epoch excludes the presence of an additional flare
component at minutes as seen in GRB 990123 and GRB 021211.Comment: ApJL, in pres
Chondrosarcoma and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor
Induction of differentiation and apoptosis in cancer cells by ligands of PPARγ is a novel therapeutic approach to malignant tumors. Chondrosarcoma (malignant cartilage tumor) and OUMS-27 cells (cell line established from grade III human chondrosarcoma) express PPARγ. PPARγ ligands inhibited cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner, and induced apoptosis of OUMS-27. The higher-grade chondrosarcoma expressed a higher amount of antiapoptotic Bcl-xL in vivo. The treatment of OUMS-27 by 15d-PGJ2, the most potent endogenous ligand for PPARγ, downregulated expression of Bcl-xL and induced transient upregulation of proapoptotic Bax, which could accelerate cytochrome c release from mitochondria to the cytosol, followed by induction of caspase-dependent apoptosis. 15d-PGJ2 induced the expression of CDK inhibitor p21 protein in human chondrosarcoma cells, which appears to be involved in the mechanism of inhibition of cell proliferation. These findings suggest that targeted therapy with PPARγ ligands could be a novel strategy against chondrosarcoma
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