Nuclear Responses to Electro-Weak Probes and In-Medium Chiral Perturbation Theory

We discuss two topics concerning the application of chiral perturbation theory to nuclear physics: (1) the latest developments in the study of possible kaon condensation in dense baryonic systems; (2) nuclear responses to electro-weak probes.Comment: 9 pages, invited talk at WEIN'95, Osaka, Japa

Model Independent Electromagnetic corrections in hadronic τ\tau decays

The long distance correction to the total decay width of the $\tau^{\pm}\to K^{0}\pi^{\pm}\nu$ decay is calculated in a model independent approach where a discrimination of photons in the Bremmstrahlung process is assumed. This correction is completely free of UV and IR singularities and moreover, it satisfies electromagnetic gauge invariance. The result of this work can be applied on the tau decays: $\tau^{\pm}\to \pi^{\pm}\pi^{0}\nu, K^{\pm}\pi^{0}\nu$

Interaction of silver nanoparticles with HIV-1

The interaction of nanoparticles with biomolecules and microorganisms is an expanding field of research. Within this field, an area that has been largely unexplored is the interaction of metal nanoparticles with viruses. In this work, we demonstrate that silver nanoparticles undergo a size-dependent interaction with HIV-1, with nanoparticles exclusively in the range of 1–10 nm attached to the virus. The regular spatial arrangement of the attached nanoparticles, the center-to-center distance between nanoparticles, and the fact that the exposed sulfur-bearing residues of the glycoprotein knobs would be attractive sites for nanoparticle interaction suggest that silver nanoparticles interact with the HIV-1 virus via preferential binding to the gp120 glycoprotein knobs. Due to this interaction, silver nanoparticles inhibit the virus from binding to host cells, as demonstrated in vitro