299 research outputs found
Atomic and Electronic Structures of Unreconstructed Polar MgO(111) Thin Film on Ag(111)
Atomic and electronic structures of a polar surface of MgO formed on Ag(111)
was investigated by using reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED),
Auger electron spectroscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), and
ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS). A rather flat unreconstructed
polar MgO(111) 11 surface could be grown by alternate adsorption of Mg
and O on Ag(111). The stability of the MgO(111) surface was discussed in
terms of interaction between Ag and Mg atoms at the interface, and charge state
of the surface atoms. EELS of this surface did not show a band gap region, and
finite density of states appeared at the Fermi level in UPS. These results
suggest that a polar MgO(111) surface was not an insulating surface but a
semiconducting or metallic surface.Comment: 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Supersymmetry and Generic BSM Models in PYTHIA 8
We describe the implementation of supersymmetric models in PYTHIA 8,
including production and decay of superparticles and allowing for violation of
flavour, CP, and R-parity. We also present a framework for importing generic
new-physics matrix elements into PYTHIA 8, in a way suitable for use with
automated tools. We emphasize that this possibility should not be viewed as the
only way to implement new-physics models in PYTHIA 8, but merely as an
additional possibility on top of the already existing ones. Finally we address
parton showers in exotic colour topologies, in particular ones involving colour
epsilon tensors and colour sextets.Comment: 20 page
Kinesin light chain-1 serine-460 phosphorylation is altered in Alzheimer's disease and regulates axonal transport and processing of the amyloid precursor protein
Damage to axonal transport is an early pathogenic event in Alzheimer's disease. The amyloid precursor protein (APP) is a key axonal transport cargo since disruption to APP transport promotes amyloidogenic processing of APP. Moreover, altered APP processing itself disrupts axonal transport. The mechanisms that regulate axonal transport of APP are therefore directly relevant to Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. APP is transported anterogradely through axons on kinesin-1 motors and one route for this transport involves calsyntenin-1, a type-1 membrane spanning protein that acts as a direct ligand for kinesin-1 light chains (KLCs). Thus, loss of calsyntenin-1 disrupts APP axonal transport and promotes amyloidogenic processing of APP. Phosphorylation of KLC1 on serine-460 has been shown to reduce anterograde axonal transport of calsyntenin-1 by inhibiting the KLC1-calsyntenin-1 interaction. Here we demonstrate that in Alzheimer's disease frontal cortex, KLC1 levels are reduced and the relative levels of KLC1 serine-460 phosphorylation are increased; these changes occur relatively early in the disease process. We also show that a KLC1 serine-460 phosphomimetic mutant inhibits axonal transport of APP in both mammalian neurons in culture and in Drosophila neurons in vivo. Finally, we demonstrate that expression of the KLC1 serine-460 phosphomimetic mutant promotes amyloidogenic processing of APP. Together, these results suggest that increased KLC1 serine-460 phosphorylation contributes to Alzheimer's disease
R-parity violating resonant stop production at the Large Hadron Collider
We have investigated the resonant production of a stop at the Large Hadron
Collider, driven by baryon number violating interactions in supersymmetry. We
work in the framework of minimal supergravity models with the lightest
neutralino being the lightest supersymmetric particle which decays within the
detector. We look at various dilepton and trilepton final states, with or
without b-tags. A detailed background simulation is performed, and all possible
decay modes of the lighter stop are taken into account. We find that higher
stop masses are sometimes easier to probe, through the decay of the stop into
the third or fourth neutralino and their subsequent cascades. We also comment
on the detectability of such signals during the 7 TeV run, where, as expected,
only relatively light stops can be probed. Our conclusion is that the resonant
process may be probed, at both 10 and 14 TeV, with the R-parity violating
coupling {\lambda}"_{312} as low as 0.05, for a stop mass of about 1 TeV. The
possibility of distinguishing between resonant stop production and
pair-production is also discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, 6 tables; Version accepted by JHE
Revealing the molecular signatures of host-pathogen interactions.
Advances in sequencing technology and genome-wide association studies are now revealing the complex interactions between hosts and pathogen through genomic variation signatures, which arise from evolutionary co-existence
Constraints on supersymmetry with light third family from LHC data
We present a re-interpretation of the recent ATLAS limits on supersymmetry in
channels with jets (with and without b-tags) and missing energy, in the context
of light third family squarks, while the first two squark families are
inaccessible at the 7 TeV run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In contrast
to interpretations in terms of the high-scale based constrained minimal
supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM), we primarily use the low-scale
parametrisation of the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM), and translate the limits
in terms of physical masses of the third family squarks. Side by side, we also
investigate the limits in terms of high-scale scalar non-universality, both
with and without low-mass sleptons. Our conclusion is that the limits based on
0-lepton channels are not altered by the mass-scale of sleptons, and can be
considered more or less model-independent.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Version published in JHE
The effect of pregnancy and stress on the onset of placentophagia in Long-Evans rats
Most virgin rats do not eat placenta when it is presented to them; virtually all parturient rats do. This study was designed to examine the role of the duration and termination of pregnancy on the induction of placentophagia. Time-bred rats determined by a pretest not to be attracted to placenta (nonplacentophages), were tested for placentophagia on one of a number of days of pregnancy. A comparable group was tested for placentophagia after surgical termination of pregnancy on Day 21. Groups of virgins were run controlling for the time interval between the pretest and the placentophagia test, and for a time interval that included a "stressful" event. The results were that (a) the incidence of placentophagia rose gradually from Day 7 to Day 15 of pregnancy, then remained stable, at about 0.4 until delivery; (b) pregnancy termination did not produce an effect on placentophagia greater than that of unterminated pregnancy; (c) a pretest-test interval containing a "stressful" event produced significantly more placentophagia than one that did not contain such an event; and (d) the maximum level of placentophagia observed during pregnancy was the same as that produced in virgins by a "stressful" event
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