915 research outputs found
A Chandra View of The Morphological And Spectral Evolution of Supernova Remnant 1987A
We present an update on the results of our monitoring observations of the
X-ray remnant of supernova (SN) 1987A with the {\it Chandra X-Ray Observatory}.
As of 2002 December, we have performed a total of seven observations of SN
1987A. The high angular resolution images from the latest data reveal
developments of new X-ray bright spots in the northwestern and the southwestern
portions of the remnant as well as changes on the eastern side. The latest
0.5-2 keV band flux ( 6 10 ergs cm
s) is four times brighter than three years earlier. The overall X-ray
emission is primarily from the blast wave shock with 2.4 keV. As
the blast wave approaches the dense circumstellar material, the contribution
from the decelerated slow shock ( 0.22 keV) to the observed X-ray
emission is becoming significant. The increase of this slow shock contribution
over the last two years is particularly noticeable in the western half of the
remnant. These results indicate that the shock front is now reaching the main
body of the inner circumstellar ring. Based on the best-fit two-shock spectral
model, we derive approximate densities of the X-ray-emitting regions (
235 cm for the fast shock and 7500 cm for the
slow shock). We obtain an upper limit on the observed X-ray luminosity of any
embedded point source ( 1.5 10 ergs s) in the
210 keV band. The X-ray remnant continues to expand linearly at a rate of
4167 km s.Comment: 22 pages (ApJ preprint style), 7 Figures, Accepted by ApJ (scheduled
on July 20, 2004), for high-quality Fig 1 and Fig 2, please contact
[email protected]
Signal for supernova and neutrinos in water \v{C}erenkov detectors
We suggest that photons with energies between 5 and 10 MeV, generated by the
() and () reactions on O, constitute a
signal which allows a unique identification of supernova and
neutrinos in water \v{C}erenkov detectors. We calculate the yield of
such events and estimate that a few hundred of them would be detected
in Superkamiokande for a supernova at 10 kpc distance.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex 3.0, figures and text available at
http://www.krl.caltech.edu/preprints/MAP.htm
Do Hadronic Charge Exchange Reactions Measure Electroweak L = 1 Strength?
An eikonal model has been used to assess the relationship between calculated
strengths for first forbidden beta decay and calculated cross sections for
(p,n) charge exchange reactions. It is found that these are proportional for
strong transitions, suggesting that hadronic charge exchange reactions may be
useful in determining the spin-dipole matrix elements for astrophysically
interesting leptonic transitions.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Physical Review
Molecular basis for the disruption of Keap1–Nrf2 interaction via Hinge & Latch mechanism
The Keap1-Nrf2 system is central for mammalian cytoprotection against various stresses and a drug target for disease prevention and treatment. One model for the molecular mechanisms leading to Nrf2 activation is the Hinge-Latch model, where the DLGex-binding motif of Nrf2 dissociates from Keap1 as a latch, while the ETGE motif remains attached to Keap1 as a hinge. To overcome the technical difficulties in examining the binding status of the two motifs during protein-protein interaction (PPI) simultaneously, we utilized NMR spectroscopy titration experiments. Our results revealed that latch dissociation is triggered by low-molecular-weight Keap1-Nrf2 PPI inhibitors and occurs during p62-mediated Nrf2 activation, but not by electrophilic Nrf2 inducers. This study demonstrates that Keap1 utilizes a unique Hinge-Latch mechanism for Nrf2 activation upon challenge by non-electrophilic PPI-inhibiting stimuli, and provides critical insight for the pharmacological development of next-generation Nrf2 activators targeting the Keap1-Nrf2 PPI
SALL4 Expression in Gonocytes and Spermatogonial Clones of Postnatal Mouse Testes
The spermatogenic lineage is established after birth when gonocytes migrate to the basement membrane of seminiferous tubules and give rise to spermatogonial stem cells (SSC). In adults, SSCs reside within the population of undifferentiated spermatogonia (Aundiff) that expands clonally from single cells (Asingle) to form pairs (Apaired) and chains of 4, 8 and 16 Aaligned spermatogonia. Although stem cell activity is thought to reside in the population of Asingle spermatogonia, new research suggests that clone size alone does not define the stem cell pool. The mechanisms that regulate self-renewal and differentiation fate decisions are poorly understood due to limited availability of experimental tools that distinguish the products of those fate decisions. The pluripotency factor SALL4 (sal-like protein 4) is implicated in stem cell maintenance and patterning in many organs during embryonic development, but expression becomes restricted to the gonads after birth. We analyzed the expression of SALL4 in the mouse testis during the first weeks after birth and in adult seminiferous tubules. In newborn mice, the isoform SALL4B is expressed in quiescent gonocytes at postnatal day 0 (PND0) and SALL4A is upregulated at PND7 when gonocytes have colonized the basement membrane and given rise to spermatogonia. During steady-state spermatogenesis in adult testes, SALL4 expression overlapped substantially with PLZF and LIN28 in Asingle, Apaired and Aaligned spermatogonia and therefore appears to be a marker of undifferentiated spermatogonia in mice. In contrast, co-expression of SALL4 with GFRα1 and cKIT identified distinct subpopulations of Aundiff in all clone sizes that might provide clues about SSC regulation. Collectively, these results indicate that 1) SALL4 isoforms are differentially expressed at the initiation of spermatogenesis, 2) SALL4 is expressed in undifferentiated spermatogonia in adult testes and 3) SALL4 co-staining with GFRα1 and cKIT reveals distinct subpopulations of Aundiff spermatogonia that merit further investigation. © 2013 Gassei, Orwig
Novel diffusion mechanism on the GaAs(001) surface: the role of adatom-dimer interaction
Employing first principles total energy calculations we have studied the
behavior of Ga and Al adatoms on the GaAs(001)-beta2 surface. The adsorption
site and two relevant diffusion channels are identified. The channels are
characterized by different adatom-surface dimer interaction. Both affect in a
novel way the adatom migration: in one channel the diffusing adatom jumps
across the surface dimers and leaves the dimer bonds intact, in the other one
the surface dimer bonds are broken. The two channels are taken into account to
derive effective adatom diffusion barriers. From the diffusion barriers we
conclude a strong diffusion anisotropy for both Al and Ga adatoms with the
direction of fastest diffusion parallel to the surface dimers. In agreement
with experimental observations we find higher diffusion barriers for Al than
for Ga.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79 (1997). Other related
publications can be found at http://www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm
Computational Indistinguishability between Quantum States and Its Cryptographic Application
We introduce a computational problem of distinguishing between two specific
quantum states as a new cryptographic problem to design a quantum cryptographic
scheme that is "secure" against any polynomial-time quantum adversary. Our
problem, QSCDff, is to distinguish between two types of random coset states
with a hidden permutation over the symmetric group of finite degree. This
naturally generalizes the commonly-used distinction problem between two
probability distributions in computational cryptography. As our major
contribution, we show that QSCDff has three properties of cryptographic
interest: (i) QSCDff has a trapdoor; (ii) the average-case hardness of QSCDff
coincides with its worst-case hardness; and (iii) QSCDff is computationally at
least as hard as the graph automorphism problem in the worst case. These
cryptographic properties enable us to construct a quantum public-key
cryptosystem, which is likely to withstand any chosen plaintext attack of a
polynomial-time quantum adversary. We further discuss a generalization of
QSCDff, called QSCDcyc, and introduce a multi-bit encryption scheme that relies
on similar cryptographic properties of QSCDcyc.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures. We improved presentation, and added more detail
proofs and follow-up of recent wor
Study of Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions with Atmospheric Neutrino Data in Super-Kamiokande I and II
In this paper we study non-standard neutrino interactions as an example of
physics beyond the standard model using atmospheric neutrino data collected
during the Super-Kamiokande I(1996-2001) and II(2003-2005) periods. We focus on
flavor-changing-neutral-currents (FCNC), which allow neutrino flavor
transitions via neutral current interactions, and effects which violate lepton
non-universality (NU) and give rise to different neutral-current
interaction-amplitudes for different neutrino flavors. We obtain a limit on the
FCNC coupling parameter, varepsilon_{mu tau}, |varepsilon_{mu tau}|<1.1 x
10^{-2} at 90%C.L. and various constraints on other FCNC parameters as a
function of the NU coupling, varepsilon_{e e}. We find no evidence of
non-standard neutrino interactions in the Super-Kamiokande atmospheric data.Comment: 12 Pages, 14 figures. To be submitted to Phys. Rev.
- …