118 research outputs found
Histochemical detection of GM1 ganglioside using cholera toxin-B subunit. Evaluation of critical factors optimal for in situ detection with special emphasis to acetone pre-extraction
A comparison of histochemical detection of GM1 ganglioside in cryostat sections using cholera toxin B-subunit after fixation with 4% formaldehyde and dry acetone gave tissue-dependent results. In the liver no pre-treatment showed detectable differences related to GM1 reaction products, while studies in the brain showed the superiority of acetone pre-extraction (followed by formaldehyde), which yielded sharper images compared with the diffuse, blurred staining pattern associated with formaldehyde. Therefore, the aim of our study was to define the optimal conditions for the GM1 detection using cholera toxin B-subunit
Double diffractive cross-section measurement in the forward region at LHC
The first double diffractive cross-section measurement in the very forward
region has been carried out by the TOTEM experiment at the LHC with
center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s)=7 TeV. By utilizing the very forward TOTEM
tracking detectors T1 and T2, which extend up to |eta|=6.5, a clean sample of
double diffractive pp events was extracted. From these events, we measured the
cross-section sigma_DD =(116 +- 25) mub for events where both diffractive
systems have 4.7 <|eta|_min < 6.5 .Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, submitted for publicatio
Performance of the TOTEM Detectors at the LHC
The TOTEM Experiment is designed to measure the total proton-proton
cross-section with the luminosity-independent method and to study elastic and
diffractive pp scattering at the LHC. To achieve optimum forward coverage for
charged particles emitted by the pp collisions in the interaction point IP5,
two tracking telescopes, T1 and T2, are installed on each side of the IP in the
pseudorapidity region 3.1 < = |eta | < = 6.5, and special movable beam-pipe
insertions - called Roman Pots (RP) - are placed at distances of +- 147 m and
+- 220 m from IP5. This article describes in detail the working of the TOTEM
detector to produce physics results in the first three years of operation and
data taking at the LHC.Comment: 40 pages, 31 figures, submitted to Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Elastic Scattering and Total Cross-Section in p+p reactions measured by the LHC Experiment TOTEM at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
Proton-proton elastic scattering has been measured by the TOTEM experiment at
the CERN Large Hadron Collider at TeV in special runs with the
Roman Pot detectors placed as close to the outgoing beam as seven times the
transverse beam size. The differential cross-section measurements are reported
in the |t|-range of 0.36 to 2.5 GeV^2. Extending the range of data to low t
values from 0.02 to 0.33 GeV^2,and utilizing the luminosity measurements of
CMS, the total proton-proton cross section at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is measured to be
(98.3 +- 0.2(stat) +- 2.8(syst)) mb.Comment: Proceedings of the XLI International Symposium on Multiparticle
Dynamics. Accepted for publication in Prog. Theor. Phy
Optical and infrared flares from a transient Galactic soft gamma-ray repeater
Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are a rare type of gamma-ray transient
sources that are ocasionally detected as bursts in the high-energy sky. They
are thought to be produced by magnetars, young neutron stars with very strong
magnetic fields of the order of 10^(14-15) G. Only three such objects are known
in our Galaxy, and a fourth one is associated with the supernova remnant N49 in
the Large Magellanic Cloud. In none of these cases has an optical counterpart
to either the gamma-ray flares or the quiescent source been identified. Here we
present multi-wavelength observations of a puzzling source, SWIFT
J195509+261406, for which we detected more than 40 flaring episodes in the
optical band over a time span of 3 days, plus a faint infrared flare 11 days
later, after which it returned to quiescence. We propose that SWIFT
J195509+261406 is a member of a subgroup of SGRs for which the long-term X-ray
emission is transient in nature. Furthermore, it is the first SGR for which
bursts have been detected in the optical and near-infrared bands and maybe the
link between the "persistent" SGRs and the dim isolated neutron stars.Comment: Version submitted to Nature on 31 Jan 2008. A substantially revised
version of this work has been published in Nature, vol. 455 issue 7212 pp
506-509 under the title "Flares from a Galactic magnetar suggest a missing
link to dim isolated neutron stars
Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases
The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of
aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs)
can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves
excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological
concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can
lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl
radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic
inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the
involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a
large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and
inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation
of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many
similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e.
iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The
studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic
and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and
lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and
longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is
thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As
systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have
multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent
patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of
multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the
decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference
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