Instanton Distribution in Quenched and Full QCD

In order to optimize cooling as a technique to study the instanton content of the QCD vacuum, we have studied the effects of alternative algorithms, improved actions and boundary conditions on the evolution of single instantons and instanton anti-instanton pairs. Using these results, we have extracted and compared the instanton content of quenched and full QCD.Comment: 3 pages, LaTeX file + 3 figures included, uses epsfig.sty and espcrc2.sty. Talk presented at LATTICE96(topology

Efficient and precise CRISPR/Cas9-mediated MECP2 modifications in human-induced pluripotent stem cells

Patients with Rett syndrome (RTT) have severe mental and physical disabilities. The majority of RTT patients carry a heterozygous mutation in methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2), an X-linked gene encoding an epigenetic factor crucial for normal nerve cell function. No curative therapy for RTT syndrome exists, and cellular mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, we developed a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated system that targets and corrects the disease relevant regions of the MECP2 exon 4 coding sequence. We achieved homologous recombination (HR) efficiencies of 20% to 30% in human cell lines and iPSCs. Furthermore, we successfully introduced a MECP2(R270X) mutation into the MECP2 gene in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Consequently, using CRISPR/Cas9, we were able to repair such mutations with high efficiency in human mutant iPSCs. In summary, we provide a new strategy for MECP2 gene targeting that can be potentially translated into gene therapy or for iPSCs-based disease modeling of RTT syndrome

BAs and boride III-V alloys

Boron arsenide, the typically-ignored member of the III-V arsenide series BAs-AlAs-GaAs-InAs is found to resemble silicon electronically: its Gamma conduction band minimum is p-like (Gamma_15), not s-like (Gamma_1c), it has an X_1c-like indirect band gap, and its bond charge is distributed almost equally on the two atoms in the unit cell, exhibiting nearly perfect covalency. The reasons for these are tracked down to the anomalously low atomic p orbital energy in the boron and to the unusually strong s-s repulsion in BAs relative to most other III-V compounds. We find unexpected valence band offsets of BAs with respect to GaAs and AlAs. The valence band maximum (VBM) of BAs is significantly higher than that of AlAs, despite the much smaller bond length of BAs, and the VBM of GaAs is only slightly higher than in BAs. These effects result from the unusually strong mixing of the cation and anion states at the VBM. For the BAs-GaAs alloys, we find (i) a relatively small (~3.5 eV) and composition-independent band gap bowing. This means that while addition of small amounts of nitrogen to GaAs lowers the gap, addition of small amounts of boron to GaAs raises the gap (ii) boron ``semi-localized'' states in the conduction band (similar to those in GaN-GaAs alloys), and (iii) bulk mixing enthalpies which are smaller than in GaN-GaAs alloys. The unique features of boride III-V alloys offer new opportunities in band gap engineering.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables, 61 references. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B. Scheduled to appear Oct. 15 200

Instanton Contribution to the Pion Electro-Magnetic Formfactor at Q^2 > 1 GeV^2

We study the effects of instantons on the charged pion electro-magnetic formfactor at intermediate momenta. In the Single Instanton Approximation (SIA), we predict the pion formfactor in the kinematic region Q^2=2-15 GeV^2. By developing the calculation in a mixed time-momentum representation, it is possible to maximally reduce the model dependence and to calculate the formfactor directly. We find the intriguing result that the SIA calculation coincides with the vector dominance monopole form, up to surprisingly high momentum transfer Q^2~10 GeV^2. This suggests that vector dominance for the pion holds beyond low energy nuclear physics.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, minor revision

Evidence Against Instanton Dominance of Topological Charge Fluctuations in QCD

The low-lying eigenmodes of the Dirac operator associated with typical gauge field configurations in QCD encode, among other low-energy properties, the physics behind the solution to the $U_A(1)$ problem (i.e. the origin of the $\eta'$ mass), the nature of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, and the physics of string-breaking, quark-antiquark pair production, and the OZI rule. Moreover, the space-time chiral structure of these eigenmodes reflects the space-time topological structure of the underlying gauge field. We present evidence from lattice QCD on the local chiral structure of low Dirac eigenmodes leading to the conclusion that topological charge fluctuations of the QCD vacuum are not instanton-dominated. The result supports Witten's arguments that topological charge is produced by confinement-related gauge fluctuations rather than instantons.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figure

Moments of Nucleon Light Cone Quark Distributions Calculated in Full Lattice QCD

Moments of the quark density, helicity, and transversity distributions are calculated in unquenched lattice QCD. Calculations of proton matrix elements of operators corresponding to these moments through the operator product expansion have been performed on $16^3 \times 32$ lattices for Wilson fermions at $\beta = 5.6$ using configurations from the SESAM collaboration and at $\beta = 5.5$ using configurations from SCRI. One-loop perturbative renormalization corrections are included. At quark masses accessible in present calculations, there is no statistically significant difference between quenched and full QCD results, indicating that the contributions of quark-antiquark excitations from the Dirac Sea are small. Close agreement between calculations with cooled configurations containing essentially only instantons and the full gluon configurations indicates that quark zero modes associated with instantons play a dominant role. Naive linear extrapolation of the full QCD calculation to the physical pion mass yields results inconsistent with experiment. Extrapolation to the chiral limit including the physics of the pion cloud can resolve this discrepancy and the requirements for a definitive chiral extrapolation are described.Comment: 53 Pages Revtex, 26 Figures, 9 Tables. Added additional reference and updated referenced data in Table I

Impact of a Tutored Theoretical-Practical Training to Develop Undergraduate Students’ Skills for the Detection of Caries Lesions: Study Protocol for a Multicenter Controlled Randomized Study

Background: Tutored laboratorial activities could be a manner of improving the competency development of students. However, its impact over conventional theoretical classes has not yet been tested. Additionally, different university contexts could influence this issue and should be explored. Objective: To assess the impact of a tutored theoretical-practical training for teaching undergraduate students to detect caries lesions as compared with theoretical teaching activities. The impact of these teaching/learning activities will be assessed in terms of efficacy, cost/benefit, retention of knowledge/acquired competences, and student acceptability. Methods: Sixteen centers (7 centers from Brazil and 9 centers from other countries throughout the world) are involved in the inclusion of subjects for this protocol. A randomized controlled study with parallel groups will be conducted. One group (control) will be exposed to a 60- to 90-minute conventional theoretical class and the other group (test) will be exposed to the same theoretical class and also a 90-minute laboratory class, including exercises and discussions based on the evaluation of a pool of images and extracted teeth. The mentioned outcomes will be evaluated immediately after the teaching activities and also in medium- and long-term analyses. To compare the long-term outcomes, students who enrolled in the university before the participating students will be interviewed for data collection and these data will be used as a control and compared with the trained group. This stage will be a nonrandomized phase of this study, nested in the main study. Appropriate statistical analysis will be performed according to the aims of this study. Variables related to the centers will also be analyzed and used to model adjustment as possible sources of variability among results. Results: This ongoing study is funded by a Brazilian national funding agency (CNPq- 400736/2014-4). We expect that the tutored theoretical-practical training will improve the undergraduate students’ performance in the detection of caries lesions and subsequent treatment decisions, mainly in terms of long-term retention of knowledge. Our hypothesis is that tutored theoretical-practical training is a more cost-effective option for teaching undergraduate students to detect caries lesions. Conclusions: If our hypothesis is confirmed, the use of laboratory training in conjunction with theoretical classes could be used as an educational strategy in Cariology to improve the development of undergraduate students’ skills in the detection of caries lesions and clinical decision-making

Optimization of negative central shear discharges in shaped cross sections

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability analyses of Negative Central Shear (NCS) equilibria have revealed a new understanding of the limiting MHD instabilities in NCS experiments. Ideal stability calculations show a synergistic effect between cross section shape and pressure profile optimization; strong shaping and broader pressure independently lead to moderately higher {Beta} limits, but broadening of the pressure profile in a strongly dee-shaped cross- section leads to a dramatic increase in the ideal {Beta} limit. Localized resistive interchange (RI) modes can be unstable in the negative shear region and are most restrictive for peaked pressure profiles. Resistive global modes can also be destabilized significantly below the ideal P limit. Experiments largely confirm the general trends, and diagnostic measurements and numerical stability calculations are found to be in good qualitative agreement. Observed disruptions in NCS discharges with L-mode edge and strongly peaked pressure, appear to be initiated by interactions between the RI, and the global ideal and resistive modes