Long Range Structure of the Nucleon

The long range structure of the nucleon is discussed starting from the old model of a quark bag with a pion cloud (``cloudy bag'') carrying on to the more recent ideas of the parton model of the nucleon. On the basis of the most recent measurements of the form factors at MAMI, JLab and MIT quantitative results for nucleon charge densities are presented within both non-relativistic and relativistic frameworks.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figure

The Decay of Unstable Noncommutative Solitons

We study the classical decay of unstable scalar solitons in noncommutative field theory in 2+1 dimensions. This can, but does not have to, be viewed as a toy model for the decay of D-branes in string theory. In the limit that the noncommutativity parameter \theta is infinite, the gradient term is absent, there are no propagating modes and the soliton does not decay at all. If \theta is large, but finite, the rotationally symmetric decay channel can be described as a highly excited nonlinear oscillator weakly coupled to a continuum of linear modes. This system is closely akin to those studied in the context of discrete breathers. We here diagonalize the linear problem and compute the decay rate to first order using a version of Fermi's Golden Rule, leaving a more rigorous treatment for future work.Comment: 36 pages, 7 figures, dedicated to Rudolf Haag. v2: uniform estimate for Weyl criterion provided, refs adde

Hadron structure at small momentum transfer

Giving three examples, the form factors of the nucleon, the polarisability of the charged pion and the interference of the $S_{11}(1535)$ with the $D_{13}(1520)$ excitation of the nucleon in the $\eta p$-decay channel, it is argued that the hadron structure at low momentum transfer is highly significant for studying QCD.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures. Contribution to the International School of Nuclear Physics, 29th Ccourse, "Quarks in Hadrons and Nuclei", Erice, Sicily, 16 - 24 September 200

Ivabradine Reduces Chemokine-Induced CD4-Positive Lymphocyte Migration

Aims. Migration of CD4-positive lymphocytes into the vessel wall is a critical step in atherogenesis. Recent data suggest that ivabradine, a selective I(f)-channel blocker, reduces atherosclerotic plaque formation in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice, hitherto nothing is known about the mechanism by which ivabradine modulates plaque formation. Therefore, the present study investigated whether ivabradine regulates chemokine-induced migration of lymphocytes. Methods and results. Stimulation of CD4-positive lymphocytes with SDF-1 leads to a 2.0 ± 0.1 fold increase in cell migration (P < .01; n = 7). Pretreatment of cells with ivabradine reduces this effect to a maximal 1.2 ± 0.1 fold induction at 0.1 µmol/L ivabradine (P < .01 compared to SDF-1-treated cells, n = 7). The effect of ivabradine on CD4-positive lymphocyte migration was mediated through an early inhibition of chemokine-induced PI-3 kinase activity as determined by PI-3 kinase activity assays. Downstream, ivabradine inhibits activation of the small GTPase Rac and phosphorylation of the Myosin Light Chain (MLC). Moreover, ivabradine treatment reduces f-actin formation as well as ICAM3 translocation to the uropod of the cell, thus interfering with two important steps in T cell migration. Conclusion. Ivabradine inhibits chemokine-induced migration of CD4-positive lymphocytes. Given the crucial importance of chemokine-induced T-cell migration in early atherogenesis, ivabradine may be a promising tool to modulate this effect

Differential stellar population models: how to reliably measure [Fe/H] and [alpha/Fe] in galaxies

We present differential stellar population models, which allow improved determinations of the ages, iron and alpha-element abundances of old stellar populations from spectral fitting. These new models are calibrated at solar abundances using the predictions from classical, semi-empirical stellar population models. We then use the predictive power of fully synthetic models to compute predictions for different [Fe/H] and [alpha/Fe]. We show that these new differential models provide remarkably accurate fits to the integrated optical spectra of the bulge globular clusters NGC6528 and NGC6553, and that the inferred [Fe/H] and [alpha/Fe] agree with values derived elsewhere from stellar photometry and spectroscopy. The analysis of a small sample of SDSS early-type galaxies further confirms that our alpha-enhanced models provide a better fit to the spectra of massive ellipticals than the solar-scaled ones. Our approach opens new opportunities for precision measurements of abundance ratios in galaxies.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS in pres