The Effect of Fluctuations on the QCD Critical Point in a Finite Volume

We investigate the effect of a finite volume on the critical behavior of the theory of the strong interaction (QCD) by means of a quark-meson model for two quark flavors. In particular, we analyze the effect of a finite volume on the location of the critical point in the phase diagram existing in our model. In our analysis, we take into account the effect of long-range fluctuations with the aid of renormalization group techniques. We find that these quantum and thermal fluctuations, absent in mean-field studies, play an import role for the dynamics in a finite volume. We show that the critical point is shifted towards smaller temperatures and larger values of the quark chemical potential if the volume size is decreased. This behavior persists for antiperiodic as well as periodic boundary conditions for the quark fields as used in many lattice QCD simulations.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Thermal Dilepton Radiation at Intermediate Masses at the CERN-SpS

We investigate the significance of thermal dilepton radiation in the intermediate-mass region in heavy-ion reactions at CERN-SpS energies. Within a thermal fireball model for the space-time evolution, the radiation from hot matter is found to dominate over hard 'background' processes (Drell-Yan and open charm) up to invariant masses of about 2 GeV, with a rather moderate fraction emerging from early stages with temperatures $T\simeq 175-200$ MeV associated with deconfined matter. Further including a schematic acceptance for the NA50 experiment we find good agreement with the observed enhancement in the region 1.5 GeV~$<M_{\mu\mu}<$~3 GeV. In particular, there is no need to invoke any anomalous open charm enhancement.Comment: 6 pages ReVTeX including 4 eps-figure

Threading Granules in Freiburg : 2nd International Symposium on "One Mitochondrion, Many Diseases – Biological and Molecular Perspectives", a FRIAS Junior Researcher Conference, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, March 9th/10th, 2016

Altered mitochondrial activities play an important role in many different human disorders, including cancer and neurodegeneration. At the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies (FRIAS) Junior Researcher Conference “One Mitochondrion, Many Diseases – Biological and Molecular Perspectives” (University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany), junior and experienced researches discussed common and distinct mechanisms of mitochondrial contributions to various human disorders

Aldosterone rapidly activates Src kinase in M-1 cells involving the mineralocorticoid receptor and HSP84

AbstractWe investigated the effect of aldosterone on Src kinase. In the kidney cell line, M-1 aldosterone leads to a >2-fold transient activation of Src kinase seen as early as 2 min after aldosterone administration. Maximal Src kinase activation was measured at an aldosterone concentration of 1 nM. In parallel to activation, autophosphorylation at Tyr-416 of Src kinase increased. Src kinase activation was blocked by spironolactone. Aldosterone led to increased association of Src with HSP84. Furthermore, rapamycin blocked aldosterone-induced Src activation. We conclude that Src activation by aldosterone is mediated through the mineralocorticoid receptor and HSP84

Colour Passing Revisited: Lifted Model Construction with Commutative Factors

Lifted probabilistic inference exploits symmetries in a probabilistic model to allow for tractable probabilistic inference with respect to domain sizes. To apply lifted inference, a lifted representation has to be obtained, and to do so, the so-called colour passing algorithm is the state of the art. The colour passing algorithm, however, is bound to a specific inference algorithm and we found that it ignores commutativity of factors while constructing a lifted representation. We contribute a modified version of the colour passing algorithm that uses logical variables to construct a lifted representation independent of a specific inference algorithm while at the same time exploiting commutativity of factors during an offline-step. Our proposed algorithm efficiently detects more symmetries than the state of the art and thereby drastically increases compression, yielding significantly faster online query times for probabilistic inference when the resulting model is applied