584 research outputs found
Simulating Reionization in Numerical Cosmology
The incorporation of radiative transfer effects into cosmological
hydrodynamical simulations is essential for understanding how the intergalactic
medium (IGM) makes the transition from a neutral medium to one that is almost
fully ionized. Here, we present an approximate numerical method designed to
study in a statistical sense how a cosmological density field is ionized by a
set of discrete point sources. A diffuse background radiation field is also
computed self-consistently in our procedure. The method requires relatively few
time steps and can be employed with simulations having high resolution. We
describe the details of the algorithm and provide a description of how the
method can be applied to the output from a pre-existing cosmological simulation
to study the systematic reionization of a particular ionic species. As a first
application, we compute the reionization of He II by quasars in the redshift
range 3 to 6.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures, Submitted to New
Inhibition of death receptor signals by cellular FLIP.
The widely expressed protein Fas is a member of the tumour necrosis factor receptor family which can trigger apoptosis. However, Fas surface expression does not necessarily render cells susceptible to Fas ligand-induced death signals, indicating that inhibitors of the apoptosis-signalling pathway must exist. Here we report the characterization of an inhibitor of apoptosis, designated FLIP (for FLICE-inhibitory protein), which is predominantly expressed in muscle and lymphoid tissues. The short form, FLIPs, contains two death effector domains and is structurally related to the viral FLIP inhibitors of apoptosis, whereas the long form, FLIP(L), contains in addition a caspase-like domain in which the active-centre cysteine residue is substituted by a tyrosine residue. FLIPs and FLIP(L) interact with the adaptor protein FADD and the protease FLICE, and potently inhibit apoptosis induced by all known human death receptors. FLIP(L) is expressed during the early stage of T-cell activation, but disappears when T cells become susceptible to Fas ligand-mediated apoptosis. High levels of FLIP(L) protein are also detectable in melanoma cell lines and malignant melanoma tumours. Thus FLIP may be implicated in tissue homeostasis as an important regulator of apoptosis
Spatial correlations in vote statistics: a diffusive field model for decision-making
We study the statistics of turnout rates and results of the French elections
since 1992. We find that the distribution of turnout rates across towns is
surprisingly stable over time. The spatial correlation of the turnout rates, or
of the fraction of winning votes, is found to decay logarithmically with the
distance between towns. Based on these empirical observations and on the
analogy with a two-dimensional random diffusion equation, we propose that
individual decisions can be rationalised in terms of an underlying "cultural"
field, that locally biases the decision of the population of a given region, on
top of an idiosyncratic, town-dependent field, with short range correlations.
Using symmetry considerations and a set of plausible assumptions, we suggest
that this cultural field obeys a random diffusion equation.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures; added sociophysics references
Can forest management based on natural disturbances maintain ecological resilience?
Given the increasingly global stresses on forests, many ecologists argue that managers must maintain ecological resilience: the capacity of ecosystems to absorb disturbances without undergoing fundamental change. In this review we ask: Can the emerging paradigm of natural-disturbance-based management (NDBM) maintain ecological resilience in managed forests? Applying resilience theory requires careful articulation of the ecosystem state under consideration, the disturbances and stresses that affect the persistence of possible alternative states, and the spatial and temporal scales of management relevance. Implementing NDBM while maintaining resilience means recognizing that (i) biodiversity is important for long-term ecosystem persistence, (ii) natural disturbances play a critical role as a generator of structural and compositional heterogeneity at multiple scales, and (iii) traditional management tends to produce forests more homogeneous than those disturbed naturally and increases the likelihood of unexpected catastrophic change by constraining variation of key environmental processes. NDBM may maintain resilience if silvicultural strategies retain the structures and processes that perpetuate desired states while reducing those that enhance resilience of undesirable states. Such strategies require an understanding of harvesting impacts on slow ecosystem processes, such as seed-bank or nutrient dynamics, which in the long term can lead to ecological surprises by altering the forest's capacity to reorganize after disturbance
Precise measurement of hadronic tau-decays with an eta meson
We have studied hadronic tau decay modes involving an eta meson using 490
fb^{-1} of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy
e+e- collider. The following branching fractions have been measured: B(tau- ->
K- eta nu)=(1.58 +- 0.05 +- 0.09)x 10^{-4}, B(tau- -> K- pi0 eta nu)=(4.6 +-
1.1 +- 0.4)x 10^{-5}, B(tau- -> pi- pi0 eta nu)=(1.35 +- 0.03 +- 0.07)x
10^{-3}, B(tau- -> pi- KS eta nu)=(4.4 +- 0.7 +- 0.2)x 10^{-5}, and B(tau- ->
K^{*-} eta nu)=(1.34 +- 0.12 +- 0.09)x 10^{-4}. These results are substantially
more precise than previous measurements. The new measurements are compared with
theoretical calculations based on the CVC hypothesis or the chiral perturbation
theory. We also set upper limits on branching fractions for tau decays into K-
KS eta nu, pi- KS pi0 eta nu, K- eta eta nu, pi- eta eta nu and non-resonant K-
pi^0 eta nu final states.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure
Measurements of exclusive B_s^0 decays at the Y(5S) resonance
Several exclusive decays are studied using a 1.86 fb-1 data sample
collected at the Y(5S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric
energy e^+ e^- collider. In the decay mode we find 10
candidates and measure the corresponding branching fraction. Combining
the B_s^0 -> D_s^{(*)-} \pi^+, B_s^0 -> D_s^{(*)-} \rho^+, B_s^0 -> J/\psi \phi
and B_s^0 -> J/\psi \eta decay modes, a significant signal is observed.
The ratio \sigma (e^+ e^- -> B_s^* \bar{B}_s^*) / \sigma (e^+ e^- -> B_s^{(*)}
\bar{B}_s^{(*)}) = (93^{+7}_{-9} \pm 1)% is obtained at the Y(5S) energy,
indicating that meson production proceeds predominantly through the
creation of pairs. The and meson masses are
measured to be M(B_s^0)=(5370 \pm 1 \pm 3)MeV/c^2 and M(B_s^*)=(5418 \pm 1 \pm
3)MeV/c^2. Upper limits on the B_s^0 -> \gamma \gamma, B_s^0 -> \phi \gamma,
B_s^0 -> K^+ K^- and B_s^0 -> D_s^{(*)+} D_s^{(*)-} branching fractions are
also reported.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, published in Phys. Rev. D76, 012002 (2007
Measurement of the near-threshold cross section using initial-state radiation
We report measurements of the exclusive cross section for , where or , in the center-of-mass energy range from the threshold to with initial-state radiation. The
analysis is based on a data sample collected with the Belle detector with an
integrated luminosity of 673 .Comment: Presented at EPS07 and LP07 conferences, published in PRD(RC
Measurement of K^+K^- production in two-photon collisions in the resonant-mass region
K^+K^- production in two-photon collisions has been studied using a large
data sample of 67 fb^{-1} accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB
asymmetric e^+e^- collider. We have measured the cross section for the process
gamma gamma -> K^+ K^- for center-of-mass energies between 1.4 and 2.4 GeV, and
found three new resonant structures in the energy region between 1.6 and 2.4
GeV. The angular differential cross sections have also been measured.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Euro. Phys. Jour.
Search for Resonant Decays at Belle
We report measurements and searches for resonant decays where is a
meson or
the X(3872) particle.Comment: accepted by Physics Letters
Search for B+ -> D*+ pi0 decay
We report on a search for the doubly Cabibbo suppressed decay B+ -> D*+ pi0,
based on a data sample of 657 million BBbar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S)
resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric energy e+ e- collider.
We find no significant signal and set an upper limit of Br(B+ -> D*+ pi0) < 3.6
x 10^-6 at the 90% confidence level. This limit can be used to constrain the
ratio between suppressed and favored B -> D* pi decay amplitudes, r < 0.051, at
the 90% confidence level.Comment: 5pages, 2figures, submitted to PRL (v1); PRL published version (v2:
minor corrections in the text
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