3,870 research outputs found
Prime-Boost Vaccination Using Chemokine-Fused gp120 DNA and HIV Envelope Peptides Activates Both Immediate and Long-Term Memory Cellular Responses in Rhesus Macaques
HIV vaccine candidates with improved immunogenicity and induction of mucosal T-cell immunity are needed. A prime-boost strategy using a novel HIV glycoprotein 120 DNA vaccine was employed to immunize rhesus macaques. The DNA vaccine encoded a chimeric gp120 protein in fusion with monocyte chemoattractant protein-3, which was hypothesized to improve the ability of antigen-presenting cells to capture viral antigen through chemokine receptor-mediated endocytosis. DNA vaccination induced virus-reactive T cells in peripheral blood, detectable by T cell proliferation, INFγ ELISPOT and sustained IL-6 production, without humoral responses. With a peptide-cocktail vaccine containing a set of conserved polypeptides of HIV-1 envelope protein, given by nasogastric administration, primed T-cell immunity was significantly boosted. Surprisingly, long-term and peptide-specific mucosal memory T-cell immunity was detected in both vaccinated macaques after one year. Therefore, data from this investigation offer proof-of-principle for potential effectiveness of the prime-boost strategy with a chemokine-fused gp120 DNA and warrant further testing in the nonhuman primate models for developing as a potential HIV vaccine candidate in humans
On factorizations in perturbative quantum gravity
Some features of Einstein gravity are most easily understood from string
theory but are not manifest at the level of the usual Lagrangian formulation.
One example is the factorization of gravity amplitudes into gauge theory
amplitudes. Based on the recently constructed `double field theory' and a
geometrical frame-like formalism developed by Siegel, we provide a framework of
perturbative Einstein gravity coupled to a 2-form and a dilaton in which, as a
consequence of T-duality, the Feynman rules factorize to all orders in
perturbation theory. We thereby establish the precise relation between the
field variables in different formulations and discuss the Lagrangian that, when
written in terms of these variables, makes a left-right factorization manifest.Comment: 18 pages, v2: reference added, to appear in JHE
Double Field Theory Formulation of Heterotic Strings
We extend the recently constructed double field theory formulation of the
low-energy theory of the closed bosonic string to the heterotic string. The
action can be written in terms of a generalized metric that is a covariant
tensor under O(D,D+n), where n denotes the number of gauge vectors, and n
additional coordinates are introduced together with a covariant constraint that
locally removes these new coordinates. For the abelian subsector, the action
takes the same structural form as for the bosonic string, but based on the
enlarged generalized metric, thereby featuring a global O(D,D+n) symmetry.
After turning on non-abelian gauge couplings, this global symmetry is broken,
but the action can still be written in a fully O(D,D+n) covariant fashion, in
analogy to similar constructions in gauged supergravities.Comment: 28 pages, v2: minor changes, version published in JHE
Thermodynamic theory of epitaxial ferroelectric thin films with dense domain structures
A Landau-Ginsburg-Devonshire-type nonlinear phenomenological theory is
presented, which enables the thermodynamic description of dense laminar
polydomain states in epitaxial ferroelectric thin films. The theory explicitly
takes into account the mechanical substrate effect on the polarizations and
lattice strains in dissimilar elastic domains (twins). Numerical calculations
are performed for PbTiO3 and BaTiO3 films grown on (001)-oriented cubic
substrates. The "misfit strain-temperature" phase diagrams are developed for
these films, showing stability ranges of various possible polydomain and
single-domain states. Three types of polarization instabilities are revealed
for polydomain epitaxial ferroelectric films, which may lead to the formation
of new polydomain states forbidden in bulk crystals. The total dielectric and
piezoelectric small-signal responses of polydomain films are calculated,
resulting from both the volume and domain-wall contributions. For BaTiO3 films,
strong dielectric anomalies are predicted at room temperature near special
values of the misfit strain.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure
Orbital quantization in the high magnetic field state of a charge-density-wave system
A superposition of the Pauli and orbital coupling of a high magnetic field to
charge carriers in a charge-density-wave (CDW) system is proposed to give rise
to transitions between subphases with quantized values of the CDW wavevector.
By contrast to the purely orbital field-induced density-wave effects which
require a strongly imperfect nesting of the Fermi surface, the new transitions
can occur even if the Fermi surface is well nested at zero field. We suggest
that such transitions are observed in the organic metal
-(BEDT-TTF)KHg(SCN) under a strongly tilted magnetic field.Comment: 14 pages including 4 figure
Unusual low-temperature thermopower in the one-dimensional Hubbard model
The low-temperature thermoelectric power of the repulsive-interaction
one-dimensional Hubbard model is calculated using an asymptotic Bethe ansatz
for holons and spinons. The competition between the entropy carried by the
holons and that carried by the backflow of the spinons gives rise to an unusual
temperature and doping dependence of the thermopower which is qualitatively
similar to that observed in the normal state of high- superconductors.Comment: 11 pages, REVTEX 3.
Spin entropy as the likely source of enhanced thermopower in $\rm\bf Na_xCo_2O_4
In an electric field, the flow of electrons in a solid produces an entropy
current in addition to the familiar charge current. This Peltier effect
underlies all thermoelectric refrigerators. The upsurge in thermoelectric
cooling applications has led to a search for more efficient Peltier materials
and to renewed theoretical interest in how electron-electron interaction may
enhance the thermopower of materials such as the transition-metal oxides
\cite{Mahan,Beni,Kotliar,Chaikin}. An important factor in this enhancement is
the electronic spin entropy, which is predicted \cite{Chaikin,Kwak,KwakChaikin}
to dominate the entropy current. Here we report evidence for such suppression
in the layered oxide , and present evidence that it is a
strong-correlation effect.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, already publishe
Differential geometry with a projection: Application to double field theory
In recent development of double field theory, as for the description of the
massless sector of closed strings, the spacetime dimension is formally doubled,
i.e. from D to D+D, and the T-duality is realized manifestly as a global O(D,D)
rotation. In this paper, we conceive a differential geometry characterized by a
O(D,D) symmetric projection, as the underlying mathematical structure of double
field theory. We introduce a differential operator compatible with the
projection, which, contracted with the projection, can be covariantized and may
replace the ordinary derivatives in the generalized Lie derivative that
generates the gauge symmetry of double field theory. We construct various gauge
covariant tensors which include a scalar and a tensor carrying two O(D,D)
vector indices.Comment: 1+22 pages, No figure; a previous result on 4-index tensor removed,
presentation improve
On the algebra of local unitary invariants of pure and mixed quantum states
We study the structure of the inverse limit of the graded algebras of local
unitary invariant polynomials using its Hilbert series. For k subsystems, we
conjecture that the inverse limit is a free algebra and the number of
algebraically independent generators with homogenous degree 2m equals the
number of conjugacy classes of index m subgroups in a free group on k-1
generators.
Similarly, we conjecture that the inverse limit in the case of k-partite
mixed state invariants is free and the number of algebraically independent
generators with homogenous degree m equals the number of conjugacy classes of
index m subgroups in a free group on k generators. The two conjectures are
shown to be equivalent.
To illustrate the equivalence, using the representation theory of the unitary
groups, we obtain all invariants in the m=2 graded parts and express them in a
simple form both in the case of mixed and pure states. The transformation
between the two forms is also derived. Analogous invariants of higher degree
are also introduced.Comment: 14 pages, no figure
Fundamental Properties of the Highly Ionized Plasmas in the Milky Way
The cooling transition temperature gas in the interstellar medium (ISM),
traced by the high ions, Si IV, C IV, N V, and O VI, helps to constrain the
flow of energy from the hot ISM with T >10^6 K to the warm ISM with T< 2x10^4
K. We investigate the properties of this gas along the lines of sight to 38
stars in the Milky Way disk using 1.5-2.7 km/s resolution spectra of Si IV, C
IV, and N V absorption from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS),
and 15 km/s resolution spectra of O VI absorption from the Far Ultraviolet
Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). The absorption by Si IV and C IV exhibits broad
and narrow components while only broad components are seen in N V and O VI. The
narrow components imply gas with T<7x10^4 K and trace two distinct types of
gas. The strong, saturated, and narrow Si IV and C IV components trace the gas
associated with the vicinities of O-type stars and their supershells. The
weaker narrow Si IV and C IV components trace gas in the general ISM that is
photoionized by the EUV radiation from cooling hot gas or has radiatively
cooled in a non-equilibrium manner from the transition temperature phase, but
rarely the warm ionized medium (WIM) probed by Al III. The broad Si IV, C IV, N
V, and O VI components trace collisionally ionized gas that is very likely
undergoing a cooling transition from the hot ISM to the warm ISM. The cooling
process possibly provides the regulation mechanism that produces N(C IV)/N(Si
IV) = 3.9 +/- 1.9. The cooling process also produces absorption lines where the
median and mean values of the line widths increase with the energy required to
create the ion.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ. Only this PDF file contains all
the figures and tables in a single fil
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