Nucleons, Nuclear Matter and Quark Matter: A unified NJL approach

We use an effective quark model to describe both hadronic matter and deconfined quark matter. By calculating the equations of state and the corresponding neutron star properties, we show that the internal properties of the nucleon have important implications for the properties of these systems.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, Section 5 extended, references adde

New Product Development in Small Food Enterprises

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how small businesses may deploy a formalised Stage-Gate approach to new product development (NPD). The original Stage-Gate framework was modified to better suit a small business B2B environment in the seafood industry, and was subsequently applied to a small vertically-integrated crab catching, processing and marketing business.Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a case study methodology. The method used at each stage of the Stage-Gate framework, as well as the time and location details, the people and skills involved, and the evaluative criteria applied for NPD are outlined and discussed; and subsequently synthesized in a modified framework.Findings – The modified Stage-Gate approach was shown to be an effective NPD method, allowing for 92 initial product concepts to be narrowed down to three commercially viable and acceptable products, over a period of less than 11 months. Cost and time were minimised by the four-day ideation process. Furthermore, repeated evaluation of the sensory and market acceptability resulted in strengthened confidence in market attractiveness, while ensuring that appearance, portion size and packaging were based on expert market opinion. Moreover, this approach was successfully completed at less than 25% of the cost of the previous unsuccessful NPD undertaken by the firm.Originality/value – This study advances our understanding of how small businesses may use a formal NPD process to increase the success rate of new products, through development of a modified Stage-Gate approach

Progress in Understanding the Nuclear Equation of State at the Quark Level

At the present time there is a lively debate within the nuclear community concerning the relevance of quark degrees of freedom in understanding nuclear structure. We outline the key issues and review the impressive progress made recently within the framework of the quark-meson coupling model. In particular, we explain in quite general terms how the modification of the internal structure of hadrons in-medium leads naturally to three- and four-body forces, or equivalently, to density dependent effective interactions.Comment: Invited presentation at XXX Symposium on Nuclear Physics, Hacienda Cocoyoc, Jan. 3-6, 200

Neutron stars and strange stars in the chiral SU(3) quark mean field model

We investigate the equations of state for pure neutron matter and strange hadronic matter in $\beta$-equilibrium, including $\Lambda$, $\Sigma$ and $\Xi$ hyperons. The masses and radii of pure neutron stars and strange hadronic stars are obtained. For a pure neutron star, the maximum mass is about $1.8 M_{\mathrm{sun}}$, while for a strange hadronic star, the maximum mass is around $1.45 M_{\mathrm{sun}}$. The typical radii of pure neutron stars and strange hadronic stars are about 11.0-12.3 km and 10.7-11.7 km, respectively.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure

Neutron Star Properties from an NJL Model Modified to Simulate Confinement

The NJL model has recently been extended with a method to simulate confinement. This leads in mean field approximation to a natural mechanism for the saturation of nuclear matter. We use the model to investigate the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter and then use it to compute the properties of neutron stars.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to be published in the proceedings for QCD Down Under Workshop, Adelaide, March 10-19, 200

Polysaccharide utilization loci and nutritional specialization in a dominant group of butyrate-producing human colonic Firmicutes

Acknowledgements The Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health (University of Aberdeen) receives financial support from the Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Sciences and Analytical Services (RESAS). POS is a PhD student supported by the Scottish Government (RESAS) and the Science Foundation Ireland, through a centre award to the APC Microbiome Institute, Cork, Ireland. Data Summary The high-quality draft genomes generated in this work were deposited at the European Nucleotide Archive under the following accession numbers: 1. Eubacterium rectale T1-815; CVRQ01000001–CVRQ0100 0090: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/PRJEB9320 2. Roseburia faecis M72/1; CVRR01000001–CVRR010001 01: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/PRJEB9321 3. Roseburia inulinivorans L1-83; CVRS01000001–CVRS0 100 0151: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/PRJEB9322Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Infrared emission spectrum and potentials of 0u+0_u^+ and 0g+0_g^+ states of Xe2_2 excimers produced by electron impact

We present an investigation of the Xe$_{2}$ excimer emission spectrum observed in the near infrared range about 7800 cm$^{-1}$ in pure Xe gas and in an Ar (90%) --Xe (10%) mixture and obtained by exciting the gas with energetic electrons. The Franck--Condon simulation of the spectrum shape suggests that emission stems from a bound--free molecular transition never studied before. The states involved are assigned as the bound $(3)0_{u}^{+}$ state with $6p [1/2]_{0}$ atomic limit and the dissociative $(1)0_{g}^{+}$ state with $6s [3/2]_{1}$ limit. Comparison with the spectrum simulated by using theoretical potentials shows that the dissociative one does not reproduce correctly the spectrum features.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Adhesion of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes to endothelium: a phenotypic and functional analysis.

Efficacy of cancer immunotherapy with cultured tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) depends upon infused TILs migrating into tumour-bearing tissue, in which they mediate an anti-tumour response. For TILs to enter a tumour, they must first bind to tumour endothelium, and this process depends on TILs expressing and regulating the function of relevant cell-surface receptors. We analysed the cell-surface phenotype and endothelial binding of TILs cultured from human melanoma and compared them with peripheral blood T cells and with allostimulated T cells cultured under similar conditions. Compared with peripheral blood T cells, TILs expressed high levels of five integrins, two other adhesion molecules, including the skin homing molecule CLA, and several activation markers and showed markedly enhanced integrin-mediated adhesion to a dermal microvascular endothelial cell line in vitro. Compared with the allostimulated T cells, TILs expressed higher levels of the cutaneous lymphocyte antigen (CLA), the adhesion molecule CD31 and the activation markers CD30 and CD69, but lower levels of several other adhesion and activation molecules. These phenotypic and functional properties of TILs should have complex effects on their migration in vivo. Expression of CLA, the skin homing receptor, may increase migration to melanoma (a skin cancer), whereas integrin activation may cause non-specific binding of TILs to other endothelium. Manipulation of the culture conditions in which TILs are expanded might result in a phenotype that is more conducive to selective tumour homing in vivo

Should we modulate the neonatal microbiome and what should be the goal?

Peer reviewe

Effect of isovector-scalar meson on neutron star matter in strong magnetic fields

We study the effects of isovector-scalar meson $\delta$ on the equation of state (EOS) of neutron star matter in strong magnetic fields. The EOS of neutron-star matter and nucleon effective masses are calculated in the framework of Lagrangian field theory, which is solved within the mean-field approximation. From the numerical results one can find that the $\delta$-field leads to a remarkable splitting of proton and neutron effective masses. The strength of $\delta$-field decreases with the increasing of the magnetic field and is little at ultrastrong field. The proton effective mass is highly influenced by magnetic fields, while the effect of magnetic fields on the neutron effective mass is negligible. The EOS turns out to be stiffer at $B < 10^{15}$G but becomes softer at stronger magnetic field after including the $\delta$-field. The AMM terms can affect the system merely at ultrastrong magnetic field($B > 10^{19}$G). In the range of $10^{15}$ G -- $10^{18}$ G the properties of neutron-star matter are found to be similar with those without magnetic fields.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figure