681 research outputs found
Temperature- and magnetic-field-dependent resistivity of MgB2 sintered at high temperature and high pressure condition
We report the temperature- and magnetic-field-dependent resistivity of MgB2
sintered at high temperature and high pressure condition. The superconducting
transition width for the resistivity measurement was about 0.4 K, and the
low-field magnetization showed a sharp superconducting transition with a
transition width of about 1 K. The resistivity in the normal state roughly
followed T^2 behavior with smaller residual resistivity ratio (RRR) of 3 over
broad temperature region above 100 K rather than reported T^3 behavior with
larger RRR value of ~ 20 in the samples made at lower pressures. Also, the
resistivity did not change appreciably with the applied magnetic field, which
was different from previous report. These differences were discussed with the
microscopic and structural change due to the high-pressure sintering.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by Physica
Synthesis and pinning properties of the infinite-layer superconductor Sr0.9La0.1CuO
We report the high-pressure synthesis of the electron-doped infinite-layer
superconductor Sr0.9La0.1CuO2 and its superconducting properties. A Rietveld
analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data showed that, within the resolution of
the measurement, the sample had purely an infinite-layer structure without any
discernible impurities. The superconducting volume fraction and the transition
width were greatly improved compared to those in previous reports. The
irreversibility field line and the intragranular critical current density were
much higher than those of La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 and Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4. The stronger
pinning behaviors are consistent with the strong interlayer coupling due to the
short distance between CuO2 planes.Comment: Physica C (in press) 5 pages, 4 figur
Molecular epidemiology and genetic diversity of human astrovirus in South Korea from 2002 to 2007
AbstractThe present study was conducted to survey the prevalence and genotypic distribution of human astrovirus (HAstV) circulating in South Korea. Of 160,027 patients with acute gastroenteritis, 2,057 (1.3%) were positive for HAstV antigen. We determined the genotypes of 187 HAstV strains collected from laboratories across the country. Genetic analysis revealed genotype 1 to be the most prevalent, accounting for 72.19% of the strains, followed by genotypes 8 (9.63%), 6 (6.95%), 4 (6.42%), 2 (3.21%) and 3 (1.60%). Our findings indicate that HAstV is less common but, even so, a potentially important viral agent of gastroenteritis in South Korea, with significant genetic diversity among circulating HAstV strains
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AMP-activated protein kinase-α1 as an activating kinase of TGF-β-activated kinase 1 has a key role in inflammatory signals
Although previous studies have proposed plausible mechanisms of the activation of transforming growth factor-β-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) in inflammatory signals, including Toll-like receptors (TLRs), its activating kinase still remains to be unclear. In the present study, we have provided evidences that AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-α1 has a pivotal role for activating TAK1, and thereby regulate NF-κB-dependent gene expressions in inflammatory signaling mediated by TLR4 and TNF-α stimulation. AMPK-α1 specifically interacts with TAK1 and reciprocally regulates their kinase activities. Upon the stimulation of lipopolysaccharide, AMPK-α1-knockdown (AMPK-) or TAK1-knockdown human monocytic THP-1 cells exhibit a dramatic reduction in the TAK1 or AMPK-α1 kinase activity, respectively, and subsequent suppressions of its downstream signaling cascades, which further leads to inhibitions of NF-κB and thereby productions of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6. Importantly, the microarray analysis of AMPK- cells revealed a dramatic reduction in the NF-κB-dependent genes induced by TLR4 and TNF-α stimulation, and the observation was in significant correlation with the results of quantitative real-time PCR. Moreover, AMPK- cells are highly sensitive to the TNF-α-induced apoptosis, which is accompanied with dramatic reductions in the NF-κB-dependent and anti-apoptotic genes. As a result, our data demonstrate that AMPK-α1 as an activating kinase of TAK1 has a key role in mediating inflammatory signals triggered by TLR4 and TNF-α
Neutrino Mass from R-parity Violation in Split Supersymmetry
We investigate how the observed neutrino data can be accommodated by R-parity
violation in Split Supersymmetry. The atmospheric neutrino mass and mixing are
explained by the bilinear parameters inducing the neutrino-neutralino
mixing as in the usual low-energy supersymmetry. Among various one-loop
corrections, only the quark-squark exchanging diagrams involving the order-one
trilinear couplings can generate the solar neutrino mass
and mixing if the scalar mass is not larger than GeV. This scheme
requires an unpleasant hierarchical structure of the couplings, e.g.,
, and . On the other hand, the model has a distinct collider
signature of the lightest neutralino which can decay only to the final states,
and , arising from the bilinear mixing. Thus, the
measurement of the ratio; would provide a clean probe of the small reactor and
large atmospheric neutrino mixing angles as far as the neutralino mass is
larger than 62 GeV.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, version submitted to JHE
Neutrino Oscillations and Collider Test of the R-parity Violating Minimal Supergravity Model
We study the R-parity violating minimal supergravity models accounting for
the observed neutrino masses and mixing, which can be tested in future collider
experiments. The bi-large mixing can be explained by allowing five dominant
tri-linear couplings and . The desired ratio
of the atmospheric and solar neutrino mass-squared differences can be obtained
in a very limited parameter space where the tree-level contribution is tuned to
be suppressed. In this allowed region, we quantify the correlation between the
three neutrino mixing angles and the tri-linear R-parity violating couplings.
Qualitatively, the relations , and are required by the large
atmospheric neutrino mixing angle and the small angle
, and the large solar neutrino mixing angle ,
respectively. Such a prediction on the couplings can be tested in the next
linear colliders by observing the branching ratios of the lightest
supersymmetric particle (LSP). For the stau or the neutralino LSP, the ratio
can be measured
by establishing or , respectively. The
information on the couplings can be drawn by measuring if the neutralino LSP is heavier than the top
quark.Comment: RevTex, 25 pages, 8 eps figure
Naïve CD8 + T cell derived tumor-specific cytotoxic effectors as a potential remedy for overcoming TGF-β immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment
Despite of the potential implications for cancer immunotherapy, conventional approaches using in vitro expanded CD8 + T cells have suboptimal outcomes, mostly due to loss of functionality from cellular exhaustion. We therefore investigated the phenotypic and functional differences among in vitro activated CD8 + T cells of three different sources, namely naïve (NT eff), memory (MT eff) and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL eff) from human and mice, to better understand mechanisms behind potent effector functions and potential for overcoming current limitations. In line with the greater proliferation activity and longer telomere lengths of NT eff populations, cells of naïve origin exhibited significantly less amounts of T cell exhaustion markers than those of MT eff and TIL eff, and moreover, acquired distinct expression patterns of memory-promoting transcription factors, T-bet and Eomes, induced in a rapid and sustainable manner. NT eff cells appeared to have lower expression of Foxp1 and were refractory to apoptosis upon TGF-β conditioning, implying better survival potential and resistance to tumor-induced immune suppression. Of CD8 + T cell pools activated to tumor-specific CTLs, naïve cell generated effectors possessed the most potent cytotoxic activity, validating implications for use in rational design of adoptive immunotherapy11091sciescopu
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