518 research outputs found
Critical sound attenuation in a diluted Ising system
The field-theoretic description of dynamical critical effects of the
influence of disorder on acoustic anomalies near the temperature of the
second-order phase transition is considered for three-dimensional Ising-like
systems. Calculations of the sound attenuation in pure and dilute Ising-like
systems near the critical point are presented. The dynamical scaling function
for the critical attenuation coefficient is calculated. The influence of
quenched disorder on the asymptotic behaviour of the critical ultrasonic
anomalies is discussed.Comment: 12 RevTeX pages, 4 figure
Primordial Black Holes: sirens of the early Universe
Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are, typically light, black holes which can
form in the early Universe. There are a number of formation mechanisms,
including the collapse of large density perturbations, cosmic string loops and
bubble collisions. The number of PBHs formed is tightly constrained by the
consequences of their evaporation and their lensing and dynamical effects.
Therefore PBHs are a powerful probe of the physics of the early Universe, in
particular models of inflation. They are also a potential cold dark matter
candidate.Comment: 21 pages. To be published in "Quantum Aspects of Black Holes", ed. X.
Calmet (Springer, 2014
Gravity waves and the LHC: Towards high-scale inflation with low-energy SUSY
It has been argued that rather generic features of string-inspired
inflationary theories with low-energy supersymmetry (SUSY) make it difficult to
achieve inflation with a Hubble scale H > m_{3/2}, where m_{3/2} is the
gravitino mass in the SUSY-breaking vacuum state. We present a class of
string-inspired supergravity realizations of chaotic inflation where a simple,
dynamical mechanism yields hierarchically small scales of post-inflationary
supersymmetry breaking. Within these toy models we can easily achieve small
ratios between m_{3/2} and the Hubble scale of inflation. This is possible
because the expectation value of the superpotential relaxes from large to
small values during the course of inflation. However, our toy models do not
provide a reasonable fit to cosmological data if one sets the SUSY-breaking
scale to m_{3/2} < TeV. Our work is a small step towards relieving the apparent
tension between high-scale inflation and low-scale supersymmetry breaking in
string compactifications.Comment: 21+1 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX, v2: added references, v3: very minor
changes, version to appear in JHE
A Terminal Velocity on the Landscape: Particle Production near Extra Species Loci in Higher Dimensions
We investigate particle production near extra species loci (ESL) in a higher
dimensional field space and derive a speed limit in moduli space at weak
coupling. This terminal velocity is set by the characteristic ESL-separation
and the coupling of the extra degrees of freedom to the moduli, but it is
independent of the moduli's potential if the dimensionality of the field space
is considerably larger than the dimensionality of the loci, D >> d. Once the
terminal velocity is approached, particles are produced at a plethora of nearby
ESLs, preventing a further increase in speed via their backreaction. It is
possible to drive inflation at the terminal velocity, providing a
generalization of trapped inflation with attractive features: we find that more
than sixty e-folds of inflation for sub-Planckian excursions in field space are
possible if ESLs are ubiquitous, without fine tuning of initial conditions and
less tuned potentials. We construct a simple, observationally viable model with
a slightly red scalar power-spectrum and suppressed gravitational waves; we
comment on the presence of additional observational signatures originating from
IR-cascading and individual massive particles. We also show that
moduli-trapping at an ESL is suppressed for D >> d, hindering dynamical
selection of high-symmetry vacua on the landscape based on this mechanism.Comment: 46 pages, 6 figures. V3: typos corrected compared to JHEP version,
conclusions unchange
Reliability of retinal vessel calibre measurements using a retinal oximeter
Background: Summarised retinal vessel diameters are linked to systemic vascular pathology. Monochromatic images provide best contrast to measure vessel calibres. However, when obtaining images with a dual wavelength oximeter the red-free image can be extracted as the green channel information only which in turn will reduce the number of photographs taken at a given time. This will reduce patient exposure to the camera flash and could provide sufficient quality images to reliably measure vessel calibres. Methods: We obtained retinal images of one eye of 45 healthy participants. Central retinal arteriolar and central retinal venular equivalents (CRAE and CRVE, respectively) were measured using semi-automated software from two monochromatic images: one taken with a red-free filter and one extracted from the green channel of a dual wavelength oximetry image. Results: Participants were aged between 21 and 62 years, all were normotensive (SBP: 115 (12) mmHg; DBP: 72 (10) mmHg) and had normal intra-ocular pressures (12 (3) mmHg). Bland-Altman analysis revealed good agreement of CRAE and CRVE as obtained from both images (mean bias CRAE = 0.88; CRVE = 2.82). Conclusions: Summarised retinal vessel calibre measurements obtained from oximetry images are in good agreement to those obtained using red-free photographs
Adenomatous Polyposis Coli Regulates Axon Arborization and Cytoskeleton Organization via Its N-Terminus
Conditional deletion of APC leads to marked disruption of cortical development and to excessive axonal branching of cortical neurons. However, little is known about the cell biological basis of this neuronal morphological regulation. Here we show that APC deficient cortical neuronal growth cones exhibit marked disruption of both microtubule and actin cytoskeleton. Functional analysis of the different APC domains revealed that axonal branches do not result from stabilized β-catenin, and that the C-terminus of APC containing microtubule regulatory domains only partially rescues the branching phenotype. Surprisingly, the N-terminus of APC containing the oligomerization domain and the armadillo repeats completely rescues the branching and cytoskeletal abnormalities. Our data indicate that APC is required for appropriate axon morphological development and that the N-terminus of APC is important for regulation of the neuronal cytoskeleton
Cigarette smoke exposure facilitates allergic sensitization in mice
BACKGROUND: Active and passive smoking are considered as risk factors for asthma development. The mechanisms involved are currently unexplained. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine if cigarette smoke exposure could facilitate primary allergic sensitization. METHODS: BALB/c mice were exposed to aerosolized ovalbumin (OVA) combined with air or tobacco smoke (4 exposures/day) daily for three weeks. Serology, lung cytopathology, cytokine profiles in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and on mediastinal lymph node cultures as well as lung function tests were performed after the last exposure. The natural history and the immune memory of allergic sensitization were studied with in vivo recall experiments. RESULTS: Exposure to OVA induced a small increase in OVA-specific serum IgE as compared with exposure to PBS (P < 0.05), while no inflammatory reaction was observed in the airways. Exposure to cigarette smoke did not induce IgE, but was characterized by a small but significant neutrophilic inflammatory reaction. Combining OVA with cigarette smoke not only induced a significant increase in OVA-specific IgE but also a distinct eosinophil and goblet cell enriched airway inflammation albeit that airway hyperresponsiveness was not evidenced. FACS analysis showed in these mice increases in dendritic cells (DC) and CD4(+ )T-lymphocytes along with a marked increase in IL-5 measured in the supernatant of lymph node cell cultures. Immune memory experiments evidenced the transient nature of these phenomena. CONCLUSION: In this study we show that mainstream cigarette smoke temporary disrupts the normal lung homeostatic tolerance to innocuous inhaled allergens, thereby inducing primary allergic sensitization. This is characterized not only by the development of persistent IgE, but also by the emergence of an eosinophil rich pulmonary inflammatory reaction
Search for CP violation in the decay B0->D*+-D-+
We report a search for CP-violating asymmetry in B0 -> D*+- D-+ decays. The
analysis employs two methods of B0 reconstruction: full and partial. In the
full reconstruction method all daughter particles of the B0 are required to be
detected; the partial reconstruction technique requires a fully reconstructed
D- and only a slow pion from the D*+ -> D0 pi_slow+ decay. From a fit to the
distribution of the time interval corresponding to the distance between two B
meson decay points we calculate the CP-violating parameters and find the
significance of nonzero CP asymmetry to be 2.7 standard deviations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Studies of the Decay B+- -> D_CP K+-
We report studies of the decay B+- -> D_CP K+-, where D_CP denotes neutral D
mesons that decay to CP eigenstates. The analysis is based on a 29.1/fb data
sample of collected at the \Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at
the KEKB asymmetric e+ e- storage ring. Ratios of branching fractions of
Cabibbo-suppressed to Cabibbo-favored processes involving D_CP are determined
to be B(B- -> D_1 K-)/B(B- -> D_1 pi-)=0.125 +- 0.036 +- 0.010 and B(B- -> D_2
K-)/B(B- -> D_2 pi-)=0.119 +- 0.028 +- 0.006, where indices 1 and 2 represent
the CP=+1 and CP=-1 eigenstates of the D0 - anti D0 system, respectively. We
also extract the partial rate asymmetries for B+- -> D_CP K+-, finding A_1 =
0.29 +- 0.26 +- 0.05 and A_2 = -0.22 +- 0.24 +- 0.04.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter
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