1,216 research outputs found
Gauge field theories with covariant star-product
A noncommutative gauge theory is developed using a covariant star-product
between differential forms defined on a symplectic manifold, considered as the
space-time. It is proven that the field strength two-form is gauge covariant
and satisfies a deformed Bianchi identity. The noncommutative Yang-Mills action
is defined using a gauge covariant metric on the space-time and its gauge
invariance is proven up to the second order in the noncommutativity parameter.Comment: Dedicated to Ioan Gottlieb on the occasion of his 80th birthday
anniversary. 12 page
Wave packet evolution approach to ionization of hydrogen molecular ion by fast electrons
The multiply differential cross section of the ionization of hydrogen
molecular ion by fast electron impact is calculated by a direct approach, which
involves the reduction of the initial 6D Schr\"{o}dinger equation to a 3D
evolution problem followed by the modeling of the wave packet dynamics. This
approach avoids the use of stationary Coulomb two-centre functions of the
continuous spectrum of the ejected electron which demands cumbersome
calculations. The results obtained, after verification of the procedure in the
case atomic hydrogen, reveal interesting mechanisms in the case of small
scattering angles.Comment: 7 pages, 8 Postscript figure
Evolving perspectives on broad consent for genomics research and biobanking in Africa. Report of the Second H3Africa Ethics Consultation Meeting, 11 May 2015.
A report on the Second H3Africa Ethics Consultation Meeting, which was held in Livingstone, Zambia on 11 May 2015. The meeting demonstrated considerable evolution by African Research Ethics Committees on thinking about broad consent as a consent option for genomics research and biobanking. The meeting concluded with a call for broader engagement with policy makers across the continent in order to help these recognise the need for guidance and regulation where these do not exist and to explore harmonisation where appropriate and possible
Dissociative electron attachment to the H2O molecule. II. Nuclear dynamics on coupled electronic surfaces within the local complex potential model
We report the results of a first-principles study of dissociative electron
attachment to H2O. The cross sections are obtained from nuclear dynamics
calculations carried out in full dimensionality within the local complex
potential model by using the multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree method.
The calculations employ our previously obtained global, complex-valued,
potential-energy surfaces for the three (doublet B1, doublet A1, and doublet
B2) electronic Feshbach resonances involved in this process. These three
metastable states of H2O- undergo several degeneracies, and we incorporate both
the Renner-Teller coupling between the B1 and A1 states as well as the conical
intersection between the A1 and B2 states into our treatment. The nuclear
dynamics are inherently multidimensional and involve branching between
different final product arrangements as well as extensive excitation of the
diatomic fragment. Our results successfully mirror the qualitative features of
the major fragment channels observed, but are less successful in reproducing
the available results for some of the minor channels. We comment on the
applicability of the local complex potential model to such a complicated
resonant system.Comment: Corrected version of Phys Rev A 75, 012711 (2007
Disease-specific, neurosphere-derived cells as models for brain disorders
There is a pressing need for patient-derived cell models of brain diseases that are relevant and robust enough to produce the large quantities of cells required for molecular and functional analyses. We describe here a new cell model based on patient-derived cells from the human olfactory mucosa, the organ of smell, which regenerates throughout life from neural stem cells. Olfactory mucosa biopsies were obtained from healthy controls and patients with either schizophrenia, a neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorder, or Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disease. Biopsies were dissociated and grown as neurospheres in defined medium. Neurosphere-derived cell lines were grown in serum-containing medium as adherent monolayers and stored frozen. By comparing 42 patient and control cell lines we demonstrated significant disease-specific alterations in gene expression, protein expression and cell function, including dysregulated neurodevelopmental pathways in schizophrenia and dysregulated mitochondrial function, oxidative stress and xenobiotic metabolism in Parkinson's disease. The study has identified new candidate genes and cell pathways for future investigation. Fibroblasts from schizophrenia patients did not show these differences. Olfactory neurosphere-derived cells have many advantages over embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells as models for brain diseases. They do not require genetic reprogramming and they can be obtained from adults with complex genetic diseases. They will be useful for understanding disease aetiology, for diagnostics and for drug discovery
Noncommutative Differential Forms on the kappa-deformed Space
We construct a differential algebra of forms on the kappa-deformed space. For
a given realization of the noncommutative coordinates as formal power series in
the Weyl algebra we find an infinite family of one-forms and nilpotent exterior
derivatives. We derive explicit expressions for the exterior derivative and
one-forms in covariant and noncovariant realizations. We also introduce
higher-order forms and show that the exterior derivative satisfies the graded
Leibniz rule. The differential forms are generally not graded-commutative, but
they satisfy the graded Jacobi identity. We also consider the star-product of
classical differential forms. The star-product is well-defined if the
commutator between the noncommutative coordinates and one-forms is closed in
the space of one-forms alone. In addition, we show that in certain realizations
the exterior derivative acting on the star-product satisfies the undeformed
Leibniz rule.Comment: to appear in J. Phys. A: Math. Theo
Resonance Lifetimes from Complex Densities
The ab-initio calculation of resonance lifetimes of metastable anions
challenges modern quantum-chemical methods. The exact lifetime of the
lowest-energy resonance is encoded into a complex "density" that can be
obtained via complex-coordinate scaling. We illustrate this with one-electron
examples and show how the lifetime can be extracted from the complex density in
much the same way as the ground-state energy of bound systems is extracted from
its ground-state density
Gas-permeable ethylene bags for the small scale cultivation of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 and other viruses in embryonated chicken eggs
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Embryonated chicken eggs (ECE) are sometimes used for the primary isolation or passage of influenza viruses, other viruses, and certain bacteria. For small-scale experiments with pathogens that must be studied in biosafety level three (BSL3) facilities, inoculated ECE are sometimes manipulated and maintained in small egg incubators within a biosafety cabinet (BSC). To simplify the clean up and decontamination of an egg incubator in case of egg breakage, we explored whether ethylene breather bags could be used to encase ECE inoculated with pathogens. This concept was tested by determining embryo survival and examining virus yields in bagged ECE.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Virus yields acceptable for many applications were attained when influenza-, alpha-, flavi-, canine distemper-, and mousepox viruses were propagated in ECE sealed within ethylene breather bags.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>For many small-scale applications, ethylene breather bags can be used to encase ECE inoculated with various viruses.</p
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