10,432 research outputs found
Strongly interacting neutrinos as the highest energy cosmic rays
We show that all features of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum from
10^{17} eV to 10^{21} eV can be described with a simple power-like injection
spectrum of protons under the assumption that the neutrino-nucleon
cross-section is significantly enhanced at center of mass energies above
\approx 100 TeV. In our scenario, the cosmogenic neutrinos produced during the
propagation of protons through the cosmic microwave background initiate air
showers in the atmosphere, just as the protons. The total air shower spectrum
induced by protons and neutrinos shows excellent agreement with the
observations. A particular possibility for a large neutrino-nucleon
cross-section exists within the Standard Model through electroweak
instanton-induced processes.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, talk given at Beyond the Desert '03, Castle
Ringberg, 9-14 June, 200
Antiviral treatment alters the frequency of activating and inhibitory receptor-expressing natural killer cells in chronic Hepatitis B virus infected patients
Natural killer (NK) cells play a critical role in innate antiviral immunity, but little is known about the impact of antiviral therapy on the frequency of NK cell subsets. To this aim, we performed this longitudinal study to examine the dynamic changes of the frequency of different subsets of NK cells in CHB patients after initiation of tenofovir or adefovir therapy. We found that NK cell numbers and subset distribution differ between CHB patients and normal subjects; furthermore, the association was found between ALT level and CD158b+ NK cell in HBV patients. In tenofovir group, the frequency of NK cells increased during the treatment accompanied by downregulated expression of NKG2A and KIR2DL3. In adefovir group, NK cell numbers did not differ during the treatment, but also accompanied by downregulated expression of NKG2A and KIR2DL3. Our results demonstrate that treatment with tenofovir leads to viral load reduction, and correlated with NK cell frequencies in peripheral blood of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. In addition, treatments with both tenofovir and adefovir in chronic HBV infected patients induce a decrease of the frequency of inhibitory receptor+ NK cells, which may account for the partial restoration of the function of NK cells in peripheral blood following treatment
Molecular Motor of Double-Walled Carbon Nanotube Driven by Temperature Variation
An elegant formula for coordinates of carbon atoms in a unit cell of a
single-walled nanotube (SWNT) is presented and a new molecular motor of
double-walled carbon nanotube whose inner tube is a long (8,4) SWNT and outer
tube a short (14,8) SWNT is constructed. The interaction between inner an outer
tubes is analytically derived by summing the Lennard-Jones potentials between
atoms in inner and outer tubes. It is proved that the molecular motor in a
thermal bath exhibits a directional motion with the temperature variation of
the bath.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, revtex
Specific heats of dilute neon inside long single-walled carbon nanotube and related problems
An elegant formula for coordinates of carbon atoms in a unit cell of a
single-walled nanotube (SWNT) is presented and the potential of neon (Ne)
inside an infinitely long SWNT is analytically derived out under the condition
of the Lennard-Jones potential between Ne and carbon atoms.
Specific heats of dilute Ne inside long (20, 20) SWNT are calculated at
different temperatures. It is found that Ne exhibits 3-dimensional (3D) gas
behavior at high temperature but behaves as 2D gas at low temperature.
Especially, at ultra low temperature, Ne inside (20, 20) nanotubes behaves as
lattice gas. A coarse method to determine the characteristic temperature
for low density gas in a potential is put forward. If
, we just need to use the classical statistical
mechanics without solving the Shr\"{o}dinger equation to consider the thermal
behavior of gas in the potential. But if , we
must solve the Shr\"{o}dinger equation. For Ne in (20,20) nanotube, we obtain
K.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
Nonlinear elasticity of monolayer graphene
By combining continuum elasticity theory and tight-binding atomistic
simulations, we work out the constitutive nonlinear stress-strain relation for
graphene stretching elasticity and we calculate all the corresponding nonlinear
elastic moduli. Present results represent a robust picture on elastic behavior
of one-atom thick carbon sheets and provide the proper interpretation of recent
experiments. In particular, we discuss the physical meaning of the effective
nonlinear elastic modulus there introduced and we predict its value in good
agreement with available data. Finally, a hyperelastic softening behavior is
observed and discussed, so determining the failure properties of graphene.Comment: 4 page
Probing Quantum Hall Pseudospin Ferromagnet by Resistively Detected NMR
Resistively Detected Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (RD-NMR) has been used to
investigate a two-subband electron system in a regime where quantum Hall
pseudo-spin ferromagnetic (QHPF) states are prominently developed. It reveals
that the easy-axis QHPF state around the total filling factor can be
detected by the RD-NMR measurement. Approaching one of the Landau level (LL)
crossing points, the RD-NMR signal strength and the nuclear spin relaxation
rate enhance significantly, a signature of low energy spin
excitations. However, the RD-NMR signal at another identical LL crossing point
is surprisingly missing which presents a puzzle
miRNA-1-3p is an early embryonic male sex-determining factor in the Oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis
Regulation of male sexual differentiation by a Y chromosome-linked male determining factor (M-factor) is one of a diverse array of sex determination mechanisms found in insects. By deep sequencing of small RNAs from Bactrocera dorsalis early embryos, we identified an autosomal-derived microRNA, miR-1-3p, that has predicted target sites in the transformer gene (Bdtra) required for female sex determination. We further demonstrate by both in vitro and in vivo tests that miR-1-3p suppresses Bdtra expression. Injection of a miR-1-3p mimic in early embryos results in 87â92% phenotypic males, whereas knockdown of miR-1-3p by an inhibitor results in 67â77% phenotypic females. Finally, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of miR-1-3p results in the expression of female-specific splice variants of Bdtra and doublesex (Bddsx), and induced sex reversal of XY individuals into phenotypic females. These results indicate that miR-1-3p is required for male sex determination in early embryogenesis in B. dorsalis as an intermediate male determiner
Efficiency of a Brownian information machine
A Brownian information machine extracts work from a heat bath through a
feedback process that exploits the information acquired in a measurement. For
the paradigmatic case of a particle trapped in a harmonic potential, we
determine how power and efficiency for two variants of such a machine operating
cyclically depend on the cycle time and the precision of the positional
measurements. Controlling only the center of the trap leads to a machine that
has zero efficiency at maximum power whereas additional optimal control of the
stiffness of the trap leads to an efficiency bounded between 1/2, which holds
for maximum power, and 1 reached even for finite cycle time in the limit of
perfect measurements.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Binary Nonlinearization of Lax pairs of Kaup-Newell Soliton Hierarchy
Kaup-Newell soliton hierarchy is derived from a kind of Lax pairs different
from the original ones. Binary nonlinearization procedure corresponding to the
Bargmann symmetry constraint is carried out for those Lax pairs. The proposed
Lax pairs together with adjoint Lax pairs are constrained as a hierarchy of
commutative, finite dimensional integrable Hamiltonian systems in the Liouville
sense, which also provides us with new examples of finite dimensional
integrable Hamiltonian systems. A sort of involutive solutions to the
Kaup-Newell hierarchy are exhibited through the obtained finite dimensional
integrable systems and the general involutive system engendered by binary
nonlinearization is reduced to a specific involutive system generated by
mono-nonlinearization.Comment: 15 pages, plain+ams tex, to be published in Il Nuovo Cimento
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