SU(6)⊃\supsetSU(3)xSU(2) and SU(8)⊃\supsetSU(4)xSU(2) Clebsch-Gordan coefficients

Tables of scalar factors are presented for 63x63 and 120x63 in SU(8)$\supset$SU(4)xSU(2), and for 35x35 and 56x35 in SU(6)$\supset$SU(3)xSU(2). Related tables for SU(4)$\supset$SU(3)xU(1) and SU(3)$\supset$SU(2)xU(1) are also provided so that the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients can be completely reconstructed. These are suitable to study meson-meson and baryon-meson within a spin-flavor symmetric scheme.Comment: 30 pages, mostly table

Large Nc Weinberg-Tomozawa interaction and negative parity s--wave baryon resonances

It is shown that in the 70 and 700 SU(6) irreducible spaces, the SU(6) extension of the Weinberg-Tomozawa (WT) s-wave meson-baryon interaction incorporating vector mesons ({\it hep-ph/0505233}) scales as ${\cal O}(N_c^0)$, instead of the well known ${\cal O}(N_c^{-1})$ behavior for its SU(3) counterpart. However, the WT interaction behaves as order ${\cal O}(N_c^{-1})$ within the 56 and 1134 meson-baryon spaces. Explicit expressions for the WT couplings (eigenvalues) in the irreducible SU(2$N_F$) spaces, for arbitrary $N_F$ and $N_c$, are given. This extended interaction is used as a kernel of the Bethe-Salpeter equation, to study the large $N_c$ scaling of masses and widths of the lowest--lying negative parity s-wave baryon resonances. Analytical expressions are found in the $N_c\to \infty$ limit, from which it can be deduced that resonance widths and excitation energies $(M_R-M)$ behave as order ${\cal O} (N^0_c)$, in agreement with model independent arguments, and moreover they fall in the 70-plet, as expected in constituent quark models for an orbital excitation. For the 56 and 1134 spaces, excitation energies and widths grow ${\cal O} (N_c^{1/2})$ indicating that such resonances do not survive in the large $N_c$ limit. The relation of this latter $N_c$ behavior with the existence of exotic components in these resonances is discussed. The interaction comes out repulsive in the 700.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, requires wick.sty and young.sty. Subsection added. Conclusions revised. To appear in Physical Review

Thermodynamic, Dynamic and Structural Anomalies for Shoulder-like potentials

Using molecular dynamic simulations we study a family of continuous core-softened potentials consisting of a hard core, a shoulder at closest distances and an attractive well at further distance. The repulsive shoulder and the well distances represent two length scales. We show that if the first scale, the shoulder, is repulsive or has a small well, the potential has a region in the pressure-temperature phase diagram with density, diffusion and structural anomalies. However, if the closest scale becomes a deep attractive well the regions in the pressure-temperature phase diagram where the three anomalies are present shrink and disappear. This result enables us to predict by the shape of the core-softened potential if anomalies would or would not be present

Peptidomic and glycomic profiling of commercial dairy products: identification, quantification and potential bioactivities.

Peptidomics and glycomics are recently established disciplines enabling researchers to characterize functional characteristics of foods at a molecular level. Milk-derived bioactive peptides and oligosaccharides have garnered both scientific and commercial interest because they possess unique functional properties, such as anti-hypertensive, immunomodulatory and prebiotic activities; therefore, the objective of this work was to employ peptidomic and glycomic tools to identify and measure relative and absolute quantities of peptides and oligosaccharides in widely consumed dairy products. Specifically, we identified up to 2117 unique peptides in 10 commercial dairy products, which together represent the most comprehensive peptidomic profiling of dairy milk in the literature to date. The quantity of peptides, measured by ion-exchange chromatography, varied between 60 and 130 mg/L among the same set of dairy products, which the majority originated from caseins, and the remaining from whey proteins. A recently published bioactive peptide database was used to identify 66 unique bioactive peptides in the dataset. In addition, 24 unique oligosaccharide compositions were identified in all the samples by nano LC Chip QTOF. Neutral oligosaccharides were the most abundant class in all samples (66-91.3%), followed by acidic (8.6-33.7%), and fucosylated oligosaccharides (0-4.6%). Variation of total oligosaccharide concentration ranged from a high of 65.78 to a low of 24.82 mg/L. Importantly, characterizing bioactive peptides and oligosaccharides in a wider number of dairy products may lead to innovations that go beyond the traditional vision of dairy components used for nutritional purposes but that will rather focus on improving human health

Chiral Lagrangian at finite temperature from the Polyakov-Chiral Quark Model

We analyze the consequences of the inclusion of the gluonic Polyakov loop in chiral quark models at finite temperature. Specifically, the low-energy effective chiral Lagrangian from two such quark models is computed. The tree level vacuum energy density, quark condensate, pion decay constant and Gasser-Leutwyler coefficients are found to acquire a temperature dependence. This dependence is, however, exponentially small for temperatures below the mass gap in the full unquenched calculation. The introduction of the Polyakov loop and its quantum fluctuations is essential to achieve this result and also the correct large $N_c$ counting for the thermal corrections. We find that new coefficients are introduced at ${\cal O}(p^4)$ to account for the Lorentz breaking at finite temperature. As a byproduct, we obtain the effective Lagrangian which describes the coupling of the Polyakov loop to the Goldstone bosons.Comment: 16 pages, no figure

Exotic dynamically generated baryons with C=−=-1

We follow a model based on the SU(8) symmetry for the interaction of mesons with baryons. The model treats on an equal footing the pseudo-scalars and the vector mesons, as required by heavy quark symmetry. The T-matrix calculated within an unitary scheme in coupled channels has poles which are interpreted as baryonic resonances.Comment: 5 pages. Proceedings for Chiral10 workshop, Valencia, June 21-24 201

Pollen Preference for Psychotria sp. is Not Learned in the Passion Flower Butterfly, Heliconius erato

Heliconius butterflies are known to maximize fitness by feeding on pollen from Gurania sp. and Psiguria sp. (Cucurbitales: Curcurbitaceae), and Psychotria sp. (Gentianales: Rubiaceae). This specialization involves specific physical, physiological, and behavioral adaptations including efficient search strategies in the forest to locate pollen host plants, pollen removal, and pollen external digestion. Reducing pollen host plant search time is crucial to out-compete other flower visitors and to reduce exposure to predators. One way in which this can be achieved is by using chemical cues to learn from experienced foragers in roosting aggregations. Similar strategies have been documented in bumblebees, where inexperienced individuals learn floral odors from experienced foragers. Behavioral experiments using plants preferred by Heliconius erato suggest that pollen preference in H. erato is an innate trait and consequently learning of chemical cues at roosting aggregations is unlikely