Hyperbaric oxygen improves engraftment of ex-vivo expanded and gene transduced human CD34+ cells in a murine model of umbilical cord blood transplantation

Delayed engraftment and graft failure represent major obstacles to successful umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation. Herein, we evaluated the use of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy as an intervention to improve human UCB stem/progenitor cell engraftment in an immune deficient mouse model. Six-to eight-week old NSG mice were sublethally irradiated 24 hours prior to CD34+ UCB cell transplant. Irradiated mice were separated into a non-HBO group (where mice remained under normoxic conditions) and the HBO group (where mice received two hours of HBO therapy; 100% oxygen at 2.5 atmospheres absolute). Four hours after completing HBO therapy, both groups intravenously received CD34+ UCB cells that were transduced with a lentivirus carrying luciferase gene and expanded for in vivo imaging. Mice were imaged and then sacrificed at one of 10 times up to 4.5 months post-transplant. HBO treated mice demonstrated significantly improved bone marrow, peripheral blood , and spleen (p=0.0293) retention and subsequent engraftment. In addition, HBO significantly improved peripheral, spleen and bone marrow engraftment of human myeloid and B-cell subsets. In vivo imaging demonstrated that HBO mice had significantly higher ventral and dorsal bioluminescence values. These studies suggest that HBO treatment of NSG mice prior to UCB CD34+ cell infusion significantly improves engraftment

Correlation between magnetic and crystal structural sublattices in palladium-doped FeRh alloys: Analysis of the metamagnetic phase transition driving forces

FeRh alloys doped with the third element exhibit a change in the lattice and magnetic subsystems, which are manifested in antiferromagnetic- ferromagnetic (AFM-FM) first-order phase transition temperature, the shrinkage of the temperate hysteresis under transition, and the reduction of the saturation magnetization. All aforementioned parameters are crucial for practical applications. To control them it is quite important to determine the driving forces of the metamagnetic transition and its origins. In this manuscript ab initio calculations and experimental studies results are presented, which demonstrate the correlation between the structural and magnetic properties of the Fe50Rh50−xPdx alloys. The qualitative analysis of the metamagnetic phase transition driving forces in palladium-doped FeRh alloys was performed to determine their contribution to the evolution of magnetic and lattice subsystems. In addition, the impact of the impurities phases together with its magnetic behavior on the AFM-FM phase transition was considered.Fil: Komlev, Aleksei S.. Lomonosov Moscow State University; RusiaFil: Karpenkov, Dmitriy Y.. National University of Science and Technology; Rusia. Lomonosov Moscow State University; RusiaFil: Gimaev, Radel R.. Lomonosov Moscow State University; RusiaFil: Chirkova, Alisa. Institute for Materials Science; AlemaniaFil: Akiyama, Ayaka. Hirosaki University; JapónFil: Miyanaga, Takafumi. Hirosaki University; JapónFil: Hupalo, Marcio Ferreira. Universidade Estadual do Ponta Grossa; BrasilFil: Aguiar, D.J.M.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Carvalho, Alexandre Magnus G.. Universidade Estadual de Maringá; Brasil. Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Jiménez, María Julia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Cabeza, Gabriela Fernanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Zverev, Vladimir I.. Lomonosov Moscow State University; RusiaFil: Perov, Nikolai S.. Lomonosov Moscow State University; Rusi

Why are we not flooded by involuntary thoughts about the past and future? Testing the cognitive inhibition dependency hypothesis

© The Author(s) 2018In everyday life, involuntary thoughts about future plans and events occur as often as involuntary thoughts about the past. However, compared to involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs), such episodic involuntary future thoughts (IFTs) have become a focus of study only recently. The aim of the present investigation was to examine why we are not constantly flooded by IFTs and IAMs given that they are often triggered by incidental cues while performing undemanding activities. One possibility is that activated thoughts are suppressed by the inhibitory control mechanism, and therefore depleting inhibitory control should enhance the frequency of both IFTs and IAMs. We report an experiment with a between-subjects design, in which participants in the depleted inhibition condition performed a 60-min high-conflict Stroop task before completing a laboratory vigilance task measuring the frequency of IFTs and IAMs. Participants in the intact inhibition condition performed a version of the Stroop task that did not deplete inhibitory control. To control for physical and mental fatigue resulting from performing the 60-min Stroop tasks in experimental conditions, participants in the control condition completed only the vigilance task. Contrary to predictions, the number of IFTs and IAMs reported during the vigilance task, using the probe-caught method, did not differ across conditions. However, manipulation checks showed that participants’ inhibitory resources were reduced in the depleted inhibition condition, and participants were more tired in the experimental than in the control conditions. These initial findings suggest that neither inhibitory control nor physical and mental fatigue affect the frequency of IFTs and IAMs.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

New Constraints (and Motivations) for Abelian Gauge Bosons in the MeV-TeV Mass Range

We survey the phenomenological constraints on abelian gauge bosons having masses in the MeV to multi-GeV mass range (using precision electroweak measurements, neutrino-electron and neutrino-nucleon scattering, electron and muon anomalous magnetic moments, upsilon decay, beam dump experiments, atomic parity violation, low-energy neutron scattering and primordial nucleosynthesis). We compute their implications for the three parameters that in general describe the low-energy properties of such bosons: their mass and their two possible types of dimensionless couplings (direct couplings to ordinary fermions and kinetic mixing with Standard Model hypercharge). We argue that gauge bosons with very small couplings to ordinary fermions in this mass range are natural in string compactifications and are likely to be generic in theories for which the gravity scale is systematically smaller than the Planck mass - such as in extra-dimensional models - because of the necessity to suppress proton decay. Furthermore, because its couplings are weak, in the low-energy theory relevant to experiments at and below TeV scales the charge gauged by the new boson can appear to be broken, both by classical effects and by anomalies. In particular, if the new gauge charge appears to be anomalous, anomaly cancellation does not also require the introduction of new light fermions in the low-energy theory. Furthermore, the charge can appear to be conserved in the low-energy theory, despite the corresponding gauge boson having a mass. Our results reduce to those of other authors in the special cases where there is no kinetic mixing or there is no direct coupling to ordinary fermions, such as for recently proposed dark-matter scenarios.Comment: 49 pages + appendix, 21 figures. This is the final version which appears in JHE

Polarised Quark Distributions in the Nucleon from Semi-Inclusive Spin Asymmetries

We present a measurement of semi-inclusive spin asymmetries for positively and negatively charged hadrons from deep inelastic scattering of polarised muons on polarised protons and deuterons in the range $0.003$1 GeV$^2$. Compared to our previous publication on this subject, with the new data the statistical errors have been reduced by nearly a factor of two. From these asymmetries and our inclusive spin asymmetries we determine the polarised quark distributions of valence quarks and non-strange sea quarks at $Q^2$=10 GeV$^2$. The polarised $u$ valence quark distribution, $\Delta u_v(x)$, is positive and the polarisation increases with $x$. The polarised $d$ valence quark distribution, $\Delta d_v(x)$, is negative and the non-strange sea distribution, $\Delta \bar q(x)$, is consistent with zero over the measured range of $x$. We find for the first moments $\int_0^1 \Delta u_v(x) dx = 0.77 \pm 0.10 \pm 0.08$, $\int_0^1 \Delta d_v(x) dx = -0.52 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.09$ and $\int_0^1 \Delta \bar q(x) dx= 0.01 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.03$, where we assumed $\Delta \bar u(x) = \Delta \bar d(x)$. We also determine for the first time the second moments of the valence distributions $\int_0^1 x \Delta q_v(x) dx$.Comment: 17 page

Influence of Structural Disorder on the Magnetic Order in FeRhCr Alloys

Magnetic phase transitions in alloys are highly influenced by the sample preparation techniques. In the present research, electronic and magnetic properties of Fe48Cr3Rh49 alloys with varying cooling rates were studied, both experimentally and theoretically. The degree of crystalline ordering was found to depend on the cooling rate employed after annealing the alloy. Modeling of alloy structures with different degrees of crystalline ordering was carried out via strategic selection of substitution positions and distances between chromium atoms. Theoretical calculations revealed significant changes in magnetic and electronic properties of the alloy with different substitutions. A comprehensive analysis of the calculated and experimental data established correlations between structural characteristics and parameters governing the magnetic phase transition. In this study, we also developed a method for evaluating the magnetic properties of the alloys obtained under different heat treatments. The proposed approach integrates atom substitution and heat treatment parameters, offering precise control over alloy manufacturing to effectively tune their essential magnetic properties

Searches at HERA for Squarks in R-Parity Violating Supersymmetry

A search for squarks in R-parity violating supersymmetry is performed in e^+p collisions at HERA at a centre of mass energy of 300 GeV, using H1 data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^(-1). The direct production of single squarks of any generation in positron-quark fusion via a Yukawa coupling lambda' is considered, taking into account R-parity violating and conserving decays of the squarks. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is found. The results are interpreted in terms of constraints within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), the constrained MSSM and the minimal Supergravity model, and their sensitivity to the model parameters is studied in detail. For a Yukawa coupling of electromagnetic strength, squark masses below 260 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level in a large part of the parameter space. For a 100 times smaller coupling strength masses up to 182 GeV are excluded.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 3 table

Deep-Inelastic Inclusive ep Scattering at Low x and a Determination of alpha_s

A precise measurement of the inclusive deep-inelastic e^+p scattering cross section is reported in the kinematic range 1.5<= Q^2 <=150 GeV^2 and 3*10^(-5)<= x <=0.2. The data were recorded with the H1 detector at HERA in 1996 and 1997, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 20 pb^(-1). The double differential cross section, from which the proton structure function F_2(x,Q^2) and the longitudinal structure function F_L(x,Q^2) are extracted, is measured with typically 1% statistical and 3% systematic uncertainties. The measured partial derivative (dF_2(x,Q^2)/dln Q^2)_x is observed to rise continuously towards small x for fixed Q^2. The cross section data are combined with published H1 measurements at high Q^2 for a next-to-leading order DGLAP QCD analysis.The H1 data determine the gluon momentum distribution in the range 3*10^(-4)<= x <=0.1 to within an experimental accuracy of about 3% for Q^2 =20 GeV^2. A fit of the H1 measurements and the mu p data of the BCDMS collaboration allows the strong coupling constant alpha_s and the gluon distribution to be simultaneously determined. A value of alpha _s(M_Z^2)=0.1150+-0.0017 (exp) +0.0009-0.0005 (model) is obtained in NLO, with an additional theoretical uncertainty of about +-0.005, mainly due to the uncertainty of the renormalisation scale.Comment: 68 pages, 24 figures and 18 table