846 research outputs found
The low energy limit of the non-commutative Wess-Zumino model
The non-commutative Wess-Zumino model is used as a prototype for studying the
low energy behaviour of a renormalizable non-commutative field theory. We start
by deriving the potential mediating the fermion-fermion and boson-boson
interactions in the non-relativistic regime. The quantum counterparts of these
potentials are afflicted by irdering ambiguities but we show that there exists
an ordering prescription which makes them hermitean. For space/space
noncommutativity it turns out that Majorana fermions may be pictured as rods
oriented perpendicularly to the direction of motion showing a lack of
localituy, while bosons remain insensitive to the effects of noncommutativity.
For time/space noncommutativity bosopns and fermions can be regarded as rods
oriented along the direction of motion. For both cases of noncommutativity the
scattering state described scattered waves, with at least one wave having
negative time delay signalizing the underlying nonlocality. The superfield
formulation of the model is used to compute the corresponding effective action
in the one- and two-loop approximations. In the case of time/space
noncommutativity, unitarity is violated in the relativistic regime. However,
this does not preclude the existence of the unitary low energy limit.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, minor correction
LAITOR - Literature Assistant for Identification of Terms co-Occurrences and Relationships
BACKGROUND: Biological knowledge is represented in scientific literature that often describes the function of genes/proteins (bioentities) in terms of their interactions (biointeractions). Such bioentities are often related to biological concepts of interest that are specific of a determined research field. Therefore, the study of the current literature about a selected topic deposited in public databases, facilitates the generation of novel hypotheses associating a set of bioentities to a common context. RESULTS: We created a text mining system (LAITOR: Literature Assistant for Identification of Terms co-Occurrences and Relationships) that analyses co-occurrences of bioentities, biointeractions, and other biological terms in MEDLINE abstracts. The method accounts for the position of the co-occurring terms within sentences or abstracts. The system detected abstracts mentioning protein-protein interactions in a standard test (BioCreative II IAS test data) with a precision of 0.82-0.89 and a recall of 0.48-0.70. We illustrate the application of LAITOR to the detection of plant response genes in a dataset of 1000 abstracts relevant to the topic. CONCLUSIONS: Text mining tools combining the extraction of interacting bioentities and biological concepts with network displays can be helpful in developing reasonable hypotheses in different scientific backgrounds
Chiral phase boundary of QCD at finite temperature
We analyze the approach to chiral symmetry breaking in QCD at finite
temperature, using the functional renormalization group. We compute the running
gauge coupling in QCD for all temperatures and scales within a simple truncated
renormalization flow. At finite temperature, the coupling is governed by a
fixed point of the 3-dimensional theory for scales smaller than the
corresponding temperature. Chiral symmetry breaking is approached if the
running coupling drives the quark sector to criticality. We quantitatively
determine the phase boundary in the plane of temperature and number of flavors
and find good agreement with lattice results. As a generic and testable
prediction, we observe that our underlying IR fixed-point scenario leaves its
imprint in the shape of the phase boundary near the critical flavor number:
here, the scaling of the critical temperature is determined by the
zero-temperature IR critical exponent of the running coupling.Comment: 39 pages, 8 figure
Modulation Of The Catalytic Activity Of Porphyrins By Lipid- And Surfactant-containing Nanostructures
The structural factors modulating porphyrin activity encompass pyrrole and equatorial ligands, as well as the central metal and the number and structure of their axial ligands. Of equal importance is the microenvironment provided by apoproteins, solvents and membranes. Porphyrins are often used to construct supramolecular structures with different applications. The modulation of activity of the porphyrins has been frequently achieved by mimicking nature, i.e., by the provision of different microenvironments for these molecules. The association of porphyrins to surfactant- and lipid-containing nanostructures has changed the activity of these compounds to mimic different enzymes such as SOD, cytochrome P450, peroxidases and others. In determined conditions, the reactive forms of the porphyrins are high-valence states of oxo-metal-π cations and oxo-metal produced by the reaction with peroxides and peracids. 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Genetically modified lactococcus lactis for delivery of human interleukin-10 to dendritic cells
Interleukin-10 (IL-10) plays an indispensable role in mucosal tolerance by programming dendritic cells (DCs) to induce suppressor Th-cells. We have tested the modulating effect of L. lactis secreting human IL-10 (L.lacti s IL-10) on DC function in vitro. Monocyte-derived DC incubated with L.lacti s IL-10 induced effector Th-cells that markedly suppressed the proliferation of allogenic Th-cells as compared to L. lactis. This suppressive effect was only seen when DC showed increased CD83 and CD86 expression. Furthermore, enhanced production of IL-10 was measured in both L.lacti s IL-10 -derived DC and Th-cells compared to L. lactis-derived DC and Th-cells. Neutralizing IL-10 during DC-Th-cell interaction and coculturing L.lacti s IL-10 -derived suppressor Th-cells with allogenic Th-cells in a transwell system prevented the induction of suppressor Th-cells. Only 130pg/mL of bacterial-derived IL-10 and 40 times more exogenously added recombinant human IL-10 were needed during DC priming for the generation of suppressor Th-cells. The spatially restricted delivery of IL-10 by food-grade bacteria is a promising strategy to induce suppressor Th-cells in vivo and to treat inflammatory diseases
Cholesteryl hemiesters alter lysosome structure and function and induce proinflammatory cytokine production in macrophages
Rationale: Cholesteryl hemiesters are oxidation products of polyunsaturated fatty acid esters of cholesterol. Their oxo-ester precursors have been identified as important components of the "core aldehydes" of human atheromata and in oxidized lipoproteins (Ox-LDL). We had previously shown, for the first time, that a single compound of this family, cholesteryl hemisuccinate (ChS), is sufficient to cause irreversible lysosomal lipid accumulation (lipidosis), and is toxic to macrophages. These features, coupled to others such as inflammation, are typically seen in atherosclerosis.
Objective: To obtain insights into the mechanism of cholesteryl hemiester-induced pathological changes in lysosome function and induction of inflammation in vitro and assess their impact in vivo.
Methods and results: We have examined the effects of ChS on macrophages (murine cell lines and primary cultures) in detail. Specifically, lysosomal morphology, pH, and proteolytic capacity were examined. Exposure of macrophages to sub-toxic ChS concentrations caused enlargement of the lysosomes, changes in their luminal pH, and accumulation of cargo in them. In primary mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM), ChS-exposure increased the secretion of IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha and IL-6. In zebrafish larvae (wild-type All and PU.1:EGFP), fed with a ChS-enriched diet we observed lipid accumulation, myeloid cell-infiltration in their vasculature and decrease in larval survival. Under the same conditions the effects of ChS were more profound than the effects of free cholesterol (FC).
Conclusions: Our data strongly suggest that cholesteryl hemiesters are pro-atherogenic lipids able to mimic features of Ox-LDL both in vitro and in vivo.NOVA4Health - UID/Multi/04462/2013, a program financially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)/Ministério da Educação e Ciência, through national funds and co-funded by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.
FCT fellowship references: SFRH/BPD/26843/2006, SFRH/BD/62126/2009, SFRH/BD/90258/2012, SFRH/BD/84685/2012, SFRH/BPD/102229/2014, SFRH/BD/52293/2013info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Lattice gluodynamics computation of Landau-gauge Green's functions in the deep infrared
We present recent results for the Landau-gauge gluon and ghost propagators in
SU(3) lattice gluodynamics obtained on a sequence of lattices with linear
extension ranging from L=64 to L=96 at , thus reaching "deep
infrared" momenta down to 75 MeV. Our gauge-fixing procedure essentially uses a
simulated annealing technique which allows us to reach gauge-functional values
closer to the global maxima than standard approaches do. Our results are
consistent with the so-called decoupling solutions found for Dyson-Schwinger
and functional renormalization group equations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. References added, minor changes to match
published versio
Strong-coupling study of the Gribov ambiguity in lattice Landau gauge
We study the strong-coupling limit beta=0 of lattice SU(2) Landau gauge
Yang-Mills theory. In this limit the lattice spacing is infinite, and thus all
momenta in physical units are infinitesimally small. Hence, the infrared
behavior can be assessed at sufficiently large lattice momenta. Our results
show that at the lattice volumes used here, the Gribov ambiguity has an
enormous effect on the ghost propagator in all dimensions. This underlines the
severity of the Gribov problem and calls for refined studies also at finite
beta. In turn, the gluon propagator only mildly depends on the Gribov
ambiguity.Comment: 14 pages, 22 figures; minor changes, matches version to appear in
Eur. Phys. J.
Chiral and deconfinement transition from correlation functions: SU(2) vs. SU(3)
We study a gauge invariant order parameter for deconfinement and the chiral
condensate in SU(2) and SU(3) Yang-Mills theory in the vicinity of the
deconfinement phase transition using the Landau gauge quark and gluon
propagators. We determine the gluon propagator from lattice calculations and
the quark propagator from its Dyson-Schwinger equation, using the gluon
propagator as input. The critical temperature and a deconfinement order
parameter are extracted from the gluon propagator and from the dependency of
the quark propagator on the temporal boundary conditions. The chiral transition
is determined using the quark condensate as order parameter. We investigate
whether and how a difference in the chiral and deconfinement transition between
SU(2) and SU(3) is manifest.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. For clarification one paragraph and two
references added in the introduction and two sentences at the end of the
first and last paragraph of the summary. Appeared in EPJ
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