CD4+ T-cell responses to Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen EBNA1 in Chinese populations are highly focused on novel C-terminal domain-derived epitopes

Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen EBNA1, the one viral protein uniformly expressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), represents a prime target for T-cell-based immunotherapy. However, little is known about the EBNA1 epitopes, particularly CD4 epitopes, presented by HLA alleles in Chinese people, the group at highest risk for NPC. We analyzed the CD4$^+$ T-cell responses to EBNA1 in 78 healthy Chinese donors and found marked focusing on a small number of epitopes in the EBNA1 C-terminal region, including a DP5- restricted epitope that was recognized by almost half of the donors tested and elicited responses able to recognize EBNA1-expressing, DP5-positive target cells

Variational method and duality in the 2D square Potts model

The ferromagnetic q-state Potts model on a square lattice is analyzed, for q>4, through an elaborate version of the operatorial variational method. In the variational approach proposed in the paper, the duality relations are exactly satisfied, involving at a more fundamental level, a duality relationship between variational parameters. Besides some exact predictions, the approach is very effective in the numerical estimates over the whole range of temperature and can be systematically improved.Comment: 20 pages, 5 EPS figure

On the entanglement entropy for a XY spin chain

The entanglement entropy for the ground state of a XY spin chain is related to the corner transfer matrices of the triangular Ising model and expressed in closed form.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Improving metaheuristic performance by evolving a variable fitness function.

In this paper we study a complex real world workforce scheduling problem. We apply constructive search and variable neighbourhood search (VNS) metaheuristics and enhance these methods by using a variable fitness function. The variable fitness function (VFF) uses an evolutionary approach to evolve weights for each of the (multiple) objectives. The variable fitness function can potentially enhance any search based optimisation heuristic where multiple objectives can be defined through evolutionary changes in the search direction. We show that the VFF significantly improves performance of constructive and VNS approaches on training problems, and ¿learn¿ problem features which enhance the performance on unseen test problem instances

Isotopic Scaling of Heavy Projectile Residues from the collisions of 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr with 124Sn, 112Sn and 64Ni, 58Ni

The scaling of the yields of heavy projectile residues from the reactions of 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr projectiles with 124Sn,112Sn and 64Ni, 58Nitargets is studied. Isotopically resolved yield distributions of projectile fragments in the range Z=10-36 from these reaction pairs were measured with the MARS recoil separator in the angular range 2.7-5.3 degrees. The velocities of the residues, monotonically decreasing with Z down to Z~26-28, are employed to characterize the excitation energy. The yield ratios R21(N,Z) for each pair of systems are found to exhibit isotopic scaling (isoscaling), namely, an exponential dependence on the fragment atomic number Z and neutron number N. The isoscaling is found to occur in the residue Z range corresponding to the maximum observed excitation energies. The corresponding isoscaling parameters are alpha=0.43 and beta=-0.50 for the Kr+Sn system and alpha=0.27 and beta=-0.34 for the Kr+Ni system. For the Kr+Sn system, for which the experimental angular acceptance range lies inside the grazing angle, isoscaling was found to occur for Z<26 and N<34. For heavier fragments from Kr+Sn, the parameters vary monotonically, alpha decreasing with Z and beta increasing with N. This variation is found to be related to the evolution towards isospin equilibration and, as such, it can serve as a tracer of the N/Z equilibration process. The present heavy-residue data extend the observation of isotopic scaling from the intermediate mass fragment region to the heavy-residue region. Such high-resolution mass spectrometric data can provide important information on the role of isospin in peripheral and mid-peripheral collisions, complementary to that accessible from modern large-acceptance multidetector devices.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Electronic Structures of Quantum Dots and the Ultimate Resolution of Integers

The orbital angular momentum L as an integer can be ultimately factorized as a product of prime numbers. We show here a close relation between the resolution of L and the classification of quantum states of an N-electron 2-dimensional system. In this scheme, the states are in essence classified into different types according to the m(k)-accessibility, namely the ability to get access to symmetric geometric configurations. The m(k)-accessibility is an universal concept underlying all kinds of 2-dimensional systems with a center. Numerical calculations have been performed to reveal the electronic structures of the states of the dots with 9 and 19 electrons,respectively. This paper supports the Laughlin wave finction and the composite fermion model from the aspect of symmetry.Comment: Two figure

A comparative study of model ingredients: fragmentation in heavy-ion collisions using quantum molecular dynamics model

We aim to understand the role of NN cross-sections, equation of state as well as different model ingredients such as width of Gaussian, clusterisation range and different clusterisation algorithms in multifragmentation using quantum molecular dynamics model. We notice that all model ingredients have sizable effect on the fragment pattern.Comment: 12 Pages, 4 Figure

Thermal excitation of heavy nuclei with 5-15 GeV/c antiproton, proton and pion beams

Excitation-energy distributions have been derived from measurements of 5.0-14.6 GeV/c antiproton, proton and pion reactions with $^{197}$Au target nuclei, using the ISiS 4$\pi$ detector array. The maximum probability for producing high excitation-energy events is found for the antiproton beam relative to other hadrons, $^3$He and $\bar{p}$ beams from LEAR. For protons and pions, the excitation-energy distributions are nearly independent of hadron type and beam momentum above about 8 GeV/c. The excitation energy enhancement for $\bar{p}$ beams and the saturation effect are qualitatively consistent with intranuclear cascade code predictions. For all systems studied, maximum cluster sizes are observed for residues with E*/A $\sim$ 6 MeV.Comment: 14 pages including 5 figures and 1 table. Accepted in Physics Letter B. also available at http://nuchem.iucf.indiana.edu

Correlations in intermediate-energy two-proton removal reactions

We report final-state-exclusive measurements of the light charged fragments in coincidence with 26Ne residual nuclei following the direct two-proton removal from a neutron-rich 28Mg secondary beam. A Dalitz-plot analysis and comparisons with simulations show that a majority of the triple- coincidence events with two protons display phase-space correlations consistent with the (two-body) kinematics of a spatially-correlated pair-removal mechanism. The fraction of such correlated events, 56(12) %, is consistent with the fraction of the calculated cross section, 64 %, arising from spin S = 0 two-proton configurations in the entrance-channel (shell-model) 28Mg ground state wave function. This result promises access to an additional and more specific probe of the spin and spatial correlations of valence nucleon pairs in exotic nuclei produced as fast secondary beams.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter