3,294 research outputs found
Probing Top Anomalous Couplings at the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider
Chromomagnetic and chromoelectric dipole interactions of the top quark are
studied in a model independent framework. Limits are set on the scale of new
physics that might lead to such contributions using available Tevatron data.
Prospects at the LHC are reviewed.Comment: Version published in Praman
Unifying CP violations of quark and lepton sectors
A preliminary determination of the Dirac phase in the PMNS matrix is
\dell\approx -\frac{\pi}{2}. A rather accurately determined Jarlskog
invariant in the CKM matrix is close to the maximum. Since the phases in
the CKM and PMNS matrices will be accurately determined in the future, it is an
interesting problem to relate these two phases. This can be achieved in a
families-unified grand unification if the weak CP violation is introduced
spontaneously {\it \`a la} Froggatt and Nielsen at a high energy scale, where
only one meaningful Dirac CP phase appears.Comment: 10 pages with 3 figure
Phylogeny of Prokaryotes and Chloroplasts Revealed by a Simple Composition Approach on All Protein Sequences from Complete Genomes Without Sequence Alignment
The complete genomes of living organisms have provided much information on their phylogenetic relationships. Similarly, the complete genomes of chloroplasts have helped to resolve the evolution of this organelle in photosynthetic eukaryotes. In this paper we propose an alternative method of phylogenetic analysis using compositional statistics for all protein sequences from complete genomes. This new method is conceptually simpler than and computationally as fast as the one proposed by Qi et al. (2004b) and Chu et al. (2004). The same data sets used in Qi et al. (2004b) and Chu et al. (2004) are analyzed using the new method. Our distance-based phylogenic tree of the 109 prokaryotes and eukaryotes agrees with the biologists tree of life based on 16S rRNA comparison in a predominant majority of basic branching and most lower taxa. Our phylogenetic analysis also shows that the chloroplast genomes are separated to two major clades corresponding to chlorophytes s.l. and rhodophytes s.l. The interrelationships among the chloroplasts are largely in agreement with the current understanding on chloroplast evolution
Low Scale Flavor Gauge Symmetries
We study the possibility of gauging the Standard Model flavor group. Anomaly
cancellation leads to the addition of fermions whose mass is inversely
proportional to the known fermion masses. In this case all flavor violating
effects turn out to be controlled roughly by the Standard Model Yukawa,
suppressing transitions for the light generations. Due to the inverted
hierarchy the scale of new gauge flavor bosons could be as low as the
electroweak scale without violating any existing bound but accessible at the
Tevatron and the LHC. The mechanism of flavor protection potentially provides
an alternative to Minimal Flavor Violation, with flavor violating effects
suppressed by hierarchy of scales rather than couplings.Comment: 24 pages + appendices; v2) Refs. added and numerical examples
improved. Results unchanged; v3) small typos in appendix B correcte
Efficient solution-processed dendrimer OLEDs
Light-emitting dendrimers are a new distinct class of material for OLEDs. Dendrimers consist of a light-emitting core, dendrons and surface groups. Dendrimers are designed for solution coating and have a number of advantages over conjugated polymers. We report our recent results for solution processed green dendrimer OLEDs. The OLEDs were fabricated by spin-coating a blend of first generation dendrimer/host material followed by the evaporation of a hole blocking layer and a LiF/Al cathode. Power efficiencies of 50 lm/W at practical brightness levels were achieved for these structures
Exotic particles below the TeV from low scale flavour theories
A flavour gauge theory is observable only if the symmetry is broken at
relatively low energies. The intrinsic parity-violation of the fermion
representations in a flavour theory describing quark, lepton and higgsino
masses and mixings generically requires anomaly cancellation by new fermions.
Benchmark supersymmetric flavour models are built and studied to argue that: i)
the flavour symmetry breaking should be about three orders of magnitude above
the higgsino mass, enough also to efficiently suppress FCNC and CP violations
coming from higher-dimensional operators; ii) new fermions with exotic decays
into lighter particles are typically required at scales of the order of the
higgsino mass.Comment: 19 pages, references added, one comment and one footnote added,
results unchange
The optical microscopy with virtual image breaks a record: 50-nm resolution imaging is demonstrated
We demonstrate a new 'microsphere nanoscope' that uses ordinary SiO2
microspheres as superlenses to create a virtual image of the object in near
field. The magnified virtual image greatly overcomes the diffraction limit. We
are able to resolve clearly 50-nm objects under a standard white light source
in both transmission and reflection modes. The resolution achieved for white
light opens a new opportunity to image viruses, DNA and molecules in real time
Regulatory T cells in rheumatoid arthritis showed increased plasticity toward Th17 but retained suppressive function in peripheral blood
OBJECTIVE:
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) with the plasticity of producing proinflammatory cytokine IL-17 have been demonstrated under normal and pathogenic conditions. However, it remains unclear whether IL-17-producing Tregs lose their suppressive functions because of their plasticity toward Th17 in autoimmunity. The aim of this study was to investigate IL-17-producing Tregs from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and characterise their regulatory capacity and clinical significance.
METHODS:
Foxp3 and IL-17 coexpression were evaluated in CD4 T lymphocytes from RA patients. An in vitro T cell polarisation assay was performed to investigate the role of proinflammatory cytokines in IL-17-producing Treg polarisation. The suppressive function of IL-17-producing Tregs in RA was assessed by an in vitro suppression assay. The relationship between this Treg subset and clinical features in RA patients was analysed using Spearman's rank correlation test.
RESULTS:
A higher frequency of IL-17-producing Tregs was present in the peripheral blood of RA patients compared with healthy subjects. These cells from peripheral blood showed phenotypic characteristics of Th17 and Treg cells, and suppressed T cell proliferation in vitro. Tregs in RA synovial fluid lost suppressive function. The Th17 plasticity of Tregs could be induced by IL-6 and IL-23. An increased ratio of this Treg subset was associated with decreased levels of inflammatory markers, including the erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein level, in patients with RA.
CONCLUSIONS:
Increased levels of IL-17-producing Tregs were identified in RA patients. This Treg subset with Th17 plasticity in peripheral blood retained suppressive functions and was associated with milder inflammatory conditions, suggesting that this Treg population works as a negative regulator in RA, but in RA synovial site it may be pathogenic.postprin
Flexible modulation of agonist efficacy at the human A3 adenosine receptor by the imidazoquinoline allosteric enhancer LUF6000
Analysis of the Z c ( 4020 ) , Z c ( 4025 ) , Y ( 4360 ) , and Y ( 4660 ) as vector tetraquark states with QCD sum rules
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