Evidence for breakdown of the DGLAP description in diffractive DIS at HERA

HERA data on diffractive DIS show deviations from twist 2 DGLAP predictions below $Q^2\sim 5$ GeV$^2$ at low pomeron $\xi$, which may reach up to 100%. These deviations are consistent with higher twists effects extracted from the saturation model. It is a first direct evidence for the higher twists in DIS. This finding affects determination of the diffractive parton densities that are used for the predictions at the LHC.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Based on the talk presented at the conference Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects (DIS2012), Bonn, 201

Evidence of strong higher twist effects in diffractive DIS at HERA at moderate Q2

We study a twist decomposition of diffractive structure functions in the diffractive deep inelastic scattering (DDIS) at HERA. At low Q2 and at large energy the data exhibit a strong excess, up to about 100%, above the twist 2 NLO DGLAP description. The excess in consistent with higher twist effects. It is found, that complementing the DGLAP fit by twist 4 and 6 components of the GBW saturation model leads to a good description of data at low Q2. We conclude that the DDIS at HERA provides the first, strong evidence of higher twist effects in DIS.Comment: 4 pages, 2 PDF figure

Inclusive diffraction in future electron-proton and electron-ion colliders

We analyse the possibilities for the study of inclusive diffraction offered by future electron--proton/nucleus colliders in the TeV regime, the Large Hadron-electron Collider as an upgrade of the HL-LHC and the Future Circular Collider in electron-hadron mode. Compared to $ep$ collisions at HERA, we find an extension of the available kinematic range in $x$ by a factor of order $20$ and of the maximum $Q^2$ by a factor of order $100$ for LHeC, while the FCC version would extend the coverage by a further order of magnitude both in $x$ and $Q^2$. This translates into a range of available momentum fraction of the diffractive exchange with respect to the hadron ($\xi$), down to $10^{-4}-10^{-5}$ for a wide range of the momentum fraction of the parton with respect to the diffractive exchange ($\beta$). Using the same framework and methodology employed in previous studies at HERA, considering only the experimental uncertainties and not those stemming from the functional form of the initial conditions or other ones of theoretical origin, and under very conservative assumptions for the luminosities and systematic errors, we find an improvement in the extraction of diffractive parton densities from fits to reduced cross sections for inclusive coherent diffraction in $ep$ by about an order of magnitude. For $eA$, we also perform the simulations for the Electron Ion Collider. We find that an extraction of the currently unmeasured nuclear diffractive parton densities is possible with similar accuracy to that in $ep$.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figure

Characterization of a new pathway that activates lumisterol <i>in vivo</i> to biologically active hydroxylumisterols

Abstract Using LC/qTOF-MS we detected lumisterol, 20-hydroxylumisterol, 22-hydroxylumisterol, 24-hydroxylumisterol, 20,22-dihydroxylumisterol, pregnalumisterol, 17-hydroxypregnalumisterol and 17,20-dihydroxypregnalumisterol in human serum and epidermis, and the porcine adrenal gland. The hydroxylumisterols inhibited proliferation of human skin cells in a cell type-dependent fashion with predominant effects on epidermal keratinocytes. They also inhibited melanoma proliferation in both monolayer and soft agar. 20-Hydroxylumisterol stimulated the expression of several genes, including those associated with keratinocyte differentiation and antioxidative responses, while inhibiting the expression of others including RORA and RORC. Molecular modeling and studies on VDRE-transcriptional activity excludes action through the genomic site of the VDR. However, their favorable interactions with the A-pocket in conjunction with VDR translocation studies suggest they may act on this non-genomic VDR site. Inhibition of RORα and RORγ transactivation activities in a Tet-on CHO cell reporter system, RORα co-activator assays and inhibition of (RORE)-LUC reporter activity in skin cells, in conjunction with molecular modeling, identified RORα and RORγ as excellent receptor candidates for the hydroxylumisterols. Thus, we have discovered a new biologically relevant, lumisterogenic pathway, the metabolites of which display biological activity. This opens a new area of endocrine research on the effects of the hydroxylumisterols on different pathways in different cells and the mechanisms involved

Melatonin: A Cutaneous Perspective on its Production, Metabolism, and Functions

Melatonin, an evolutionarily ancient derivative of serotonin with hormonal properties, is the main neuroendocrine secretory product of the pineal gland. Although melatonin is best known to regulate circadian rhythmicity and lower vertebrate skin pigmentation, the full spectrum of functional activities of this free radical-scavenging molecule, which also induces/promotes complex antioxidative and DNA repair systems, includes immunomodulatory, thermoregulatory, and antitumor properties. Because this plethora of functional melatonin properties still awaits to be fully appreciated by dermatologists, the current review synthesizes the main features that render melatonin a promising candidate for the management of several dermatoses associated with substantial oxidative damage. We also review why melatonin promises to be useful in skin cancer prevention, skin photo- and radioprotection, and as an inducer of repair mechanisms that facilitate the recovery of human skin from environmental damage. The fact that human skin and hair follicles not only express functional melatonin receptors but also engage in substantial, extrapineal melatonin synthesis further encourages one to systematically explore how the skin's melatonin system can be therapeutically targeted in future clinical dermatology and enrolled for preventive medicine strategies

Is alopecia areata an autoimmune-response against melanogenesis-related proteins, exposed by abnormal MHC class I expression in the anagen hair bulb?

The etiology of alopecia areata (AA), a putative autoimmune disease characterized by sudden hair loss, has remained obscure. It is not understood, how the characteristic inflammatory infiltrate that selectively attacks anagen hair follicles in AA is generated. We hypothesize that this reflects an unexplored form of autoimmunity, a cytotoxic T cell attack on rhythmically synthesized autoantigens normally sequestered by a lack or very low level of MHC class I (MHC I)-expression, and suggest the following mechanism of AA pathogenesis: Microtrauma, neurogenic inflammation, or microbial antigens cause a localized breakdown of MHC I-"negativity" in the proximal anagen hair bulb via proinflammatory cytokines. This exposes autoantigens derived from melanogenesis-related proteins (MRP-DP), which are only generated during anagen, and triggers two successive waves of autoimmune responses: CD8+ cytotoxic T cells initiate AA after recognizing MRP-DP abnormally presented by MHC I molecules on hair matrix melanocytes and/or keratinocytes; a secondary attack, carried by CD4+ T cells and antigen presenting cells, is then mounted against MHC class II--presented additional autoantigens exposed by damaged melanocytes and keratinocytes. The latter causes most of the follicular damage, and extrafollicular disease, and depends greatly on the immunogenetic background of affected individuals. This unifying hypothesis explains the clinical heterogeneity and all salient features of AA, and argues that only the unlikely coincidence of multiple predisposing events triggers AA. The suppression of MHC I--expression and synthesis of MRP in the hair bulb, and the "tolerization" of MRP-DP autoreactive CD8+ T cells may be promising strategies for treating AA

Diffractive longitudinal structure function at the Electron Ion Collider

Possibilities for the measurement of the longitudinal structure function in diffraction $F_\mathrm{L}^\mathrm{D}$ at the future US Electron Ion Collider are investigated. The sensitivity to $F_\mathrm{L}^\mathrm{D}$ arises from the variation of the reduced diffractive cross section with centre-of-mass energy. Simulations are performed with various sets of beam energy combinations and for different assumptions on the precision of the diffractive cross section measurements. Scenarios compatible with current EIC performance expectations lead to an unprecedented precision on $F_\mathrm{L}^\mathrm{D}$ at the 5-10 % level in the best measured regions. While scenarios with data at a larger number of centre-of-mass energies allow the extraction of $F_\mathrm{L}^\mathrm{D}$ in the widest kinematic domain and with the smallest uncertainties, even the more conservative assumptions lead to precise measurements. The ratio $R^\mathrm{D}$ of photoabsorption cross sections for longitudinally to transversely polarised photons can also be obtained with high precision using a separate extraction method.Comment: LaTeX, 23 pages, 11 figures and 1 table; v2: some comments added, results and conclusions unchanged, final versio

Dijet photoproduction of massless charm jets at next-to-leading order of QCD

We compute the charm dijet photoproduction cross section at next-to-leading order of QCD in the zero-mass variable flavour number scheme, i.e. with active charm quarks in the proton and photon. The results are compared to recent measurements from the ZEUS experiment at HERA. The predictions for various distributions agree well with the data, in particular for large momentum fractions of the the partons in the photon, where direct photon processes dominate. At low momentum fractions, the predictions are quite sensitive to the charm content in the photon. The experimental data are shown to favour parameterizations with a substantial charm quark density such as the one proposed by Cornet et al.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figure