Charged pion photoproduction with the Delta(1232) baryon beyond the resonance region

We investigate the charged pion photoproduction off the proton target with the Delta(1232) baryon in the final state, i.e. gamma p -> pi^- Delta^++(1232) and gamma p -> pi^+ Delta^0(1232), based on the effective Lagrangian method, beyond the resonance region, E_cm >~ GeV. We employ the pi- and rho-meson Regge trajectories in the t-channel, in addition to the proton- and Delta-pole, in the s- and u-channels respectively, and the contact-interaction contributions. A specific scheme for the form factor which satisfies the Ward-Takahashi identity, crossing symmetry, and on-shell condition, is taken into account. To discuss the validity of the Regge approach within the Effective Lagrangian method, we also consider a smooth interpolation between the Regge- and Feynman-propagators for the t-channel meson exchanges as a function of sqrt(s). We present the numerical results for the energy and angular dependences of the cross sections, and double-polarization observable. It turns out that the present framework shows the significance of the pi-exchange and contact interaction terms to reproduce the experimental data qualitatively well. Especially, the interpolation between the two propagators plays a crucial role to reproduce the high-energy experimental data. The pi^+ decay-angle distribution is also studied using the Delta^++ decay frame, i.e. the Gottfried-Jackson frame. The present results will be a useful guide for future high-energy photon-beam experiments.Comment: 14 pages, 24 figure

Lambda(1520) photoprodcution with Regge contribution

In this talk, we report our recent progresses on the Lambda(1520) photoproduction using the effective Lagrangian approach. In addition to the tree-level Born diagrams, we take into account the Regge-trajectories for the possible strange-meson exchanges in the t channel. We compute the angular and energy dependences of the production process, including polarization observables, such as the photon-beam asymmetry and the polarization-transfer coefficients, resulting in good qualitative agreement with current experimental data. We also compute the K^- angle distribution function in the Gottfried-Jackson frame, using the polarization-transfer coefficients in the z direction.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, Talk given at the international conference BARYONS'10, 7~11 Dec 2010, Osaka, Japa

Unpolarized fragmentation function for the pion and kaon via the nonlocal chiral-quark model

In this talk we present our recent studies for the unpolarized fragmentation functions for the pion and kaon, employing the nonlocal chiral quark model, which manifests the nonlocal interaction between the quarks and pseudoscalar mesons, in the light-cone frame. It turns out that the nonlocal interaction produces considerable differences in comparison to typical local-interaction models.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Talk given at the international conference The Fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Systems in Physics 2011 (APFB2011), Seoul, Republic of Korea, 22-26 August 201

Effects of text structures on interest and memory in expository texts

Abstract: The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of expository-text structures on interest and memory. Three methods of structuring texts used in the study were detailing, contextualizing, and questioning strategies. Students in grades 6 and 7 participated in the study. Two experiments were conducted. In the experiment 1, a within-subject design was used to investigate differences in text interests among different forms of texts. In the experiment 2, a between-subject design was used to investigate the effects of the textstructuring strategies on text comprehension and memory as well as text interest. Results of the experiment 1 showed that students selected contextualized texts as the most interesting. The reason was that students felt contextualized texts practically relevant to their real lives. In addition, texts constructed by using the strategies showed significantly higher levels of interest than the base text where no strategies were applied. However, in the experiment 2, no significant differences in text interest were found among the different forms of texts. In addition, scores on the text comprehension and memory tests were significantly higher in the base and questioning-strategy texts than in the other two forms of texts. Especially, the lowest performance was found in the contextualized texts. The results of the study provide practical implications on how to structure expository texts commonly used in school to enhance motivation and learning outcomes. Specifically, the results suggested that it would be the most desirable to construct text contents so as to create cognitive conflicts to readers, when text interest, comprehension, and memory are all considered

Nasal Hemangiopericytoma Causing Oncogenic Osteomalacia

Oncogenic osteomalacia is a rare cause that makes abnormalities of bone metabolism. Our case arose in a 47-year-old woman presenting a nasal mass associated with osteomalacia. We excised the mass carefully. After surgery, it was diagnosed as hemangiopericytoma and her symptoms related with osteomalacia were relieved and biochemical abnormalities were restored to normal range. We report and review a rare case of nasal hemangiopericytoma that caused osteomalacia

Scale-up study for ex-vivo expansion of allogeneic natural killer cells in stirred-tank bioreactor

Natural killer (NK) cells are a type of lymphocyte in the blood that are responsible for innate and adaptive immune response, and they mature in the liver and bone marrow. Being a key role in host defense system with direct and indirect killing of virus-infected cells or cancer cells, NK cell has been considered an attractive candidate for cancer therapy. Peripheral blood shows the low frequency of NK cells, so ex vivo expansion method is important to obtain sufficient NK cells for therapeutic use. Currently, we successfully developed bioreactor process for NK cell expansion on lab-scale. Stirred-tank bioreactor could be considered as optimal alternative system for large-scale NK cell expansion compared with other ones because it is automated, less labor intensive, scalable, well-controlled and cost-effective. In bioreactor process, agitation is one of important parameters for NK cell expansion because it is necessary to provide homogenous culture conditions. So we defined effects of agitation in bioreactor and figured out an optimum condition. After that scale-up studies were carried out with manufacturing-scale bioreactor based on these results. The results in terms of growth rate, viability cytotoxicity and purity, were comparable with lab-scale

a single-institution analysis of 126 Patients Treated with stereotactic radiosurgery for Brain Metastases

Background: The objective of this study was to report our institutional experience with Gamma Knife® Radiosurgery (GKRS) in the treatment of patients with brain metastases. Methods: Retrospectively collected demographic and clinical data on 126 patients with intracranial metastases were reviewed. The patients in our study underwent GKRS at Vidant Medical Center between 2009 and 2014. Kaplan–Meier curves were used to compare survival based on clinical characteristics for univariate analysis, and a Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariate analysis. results: The median age of the patient population was 62 years. Medicare patients constituted 51% of our patient cohort and Medicaid patients 15%. The most common tumor histologies were non-small cell lung cancer (50%), breast cancer (12.7%), and melanoma (11.9%). The median overall survival time for all patients was 5.8 months. Patients with breast cancer had the longest median survival time of 9.15 months, while patients with melanoma had the shortest median survival time of 2.86 months. On univariate analysis, the following factors were predictors for improved overall survival, ECOG score 0 or 1 vs. 2 or greater (17.0 vs. 1.8 months, p < 0.001), controlled extra- cranial disease vs. progressive extracranial disease (17.4 vs. 4.6 months, p = 0.0001), recursive partitioning analysis Stage I vs. II–III (18.2 vs. 6.2 months, p < 0.007), multiple GKRS treatments ( p = 0.002), prior brain metastasectomy ( p = 0.012), and prior che- motherapy ( p = 0.021). Age, ethnicity, gender, previous external beam radiation therapy, number of brain metastases, and hemorrhagic vs. non-hemorrhagic tumors were not predictors of longer median survival time. Number of metastatic brain lesions of 1–3 vs. ≥4 (p = 0.051) and insurance status of Medicare/Medicaid vs. commercial insurance approached significance (13.7 vs. 6.8 months, p = 0.08). On multivariate analysis, ECOG performance status 0–1 ( p < 0.001), multiple GKRS treatments ( p = 0.003), and control of extracranial disease ( p = 0.001) remained significant predictors of survival. conclusion: ECOG score, control of extracranial disease, and multiple GKRS treatments are predictors of longer median survival following GKRS in our patient population. GKRS is an effective treatment for brain metastases, but these factors may be considered in patient selection for GKRS