1,075 research outputs found
Semipurity of tempered Deligne cohomology
In this paper we define the formal and tempered Deligne cohomology groups,
that are obtained by applying the Deligne complex functor to the complexes of
formal differential forms and tempered currents respectively. We then prove the
existence of a duality between them, a vanishing theorem for the former and a
semipurity property for the latter. The motivation of these results comes from
the study of covariant arithmetic Chow groups. The semi-purity property of
tempered Deligne cohomology implies, in particular, that several definitions of
covariant arithmetic Chow groups agree for projective arithmetic varieties
Interference of the T cell and antigen-presenting cell costimulatory pathway using CTLA4-Ig (abatacept) prevents Staphylococcal enterotoxin B pathology
Abstract
Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is a bacterial superantigen that binds the receptors in the APC/T cell synapse and causes increased proliferation of T cells and a cytokine storm syndrome in vivo. Exposure to the toxin can be lethal and cause significant pathology in humans. The lack of effective therapies for SEB exposure remains an area of concern, particularly in scenarios of acute mass casualties. We hypothesized that blockade of the T cell costimulatory signal by the CTLA4-Ig synthetic protein (abatacept) could prevent SEB-dependent pathology. In this article, we demonstrate mice treated with a single dose of abatacept 8 h post SEB exposure had reduced pathology compared with control SEB-exposed mice. SEB-exposed mice showed significant reductions in body weight between days 4 and 9, whereas mice exposed to SEB and also treated with abatacept showed no weight loss for the duration of the study, suggesting therapeutic mitigation of SEB-induced morbidity. Histopathology and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated that SEB mediated lung damage and edema, which were absent after treatment with abatacept. Analysis of plasma and lung tissues from SEB-exposed mice treated with abatacept demonstrated significantly lower levels of IL-6 and IFN-γ (p &lt; 0.0001), which is likely to have resulted in less pathology. In addition, exposure of human and mouse PBMCs to SEB in vitro showed a significant reduction in levels of IL-2 (p &lt; 0.0001) after treatment with abatacept, indicating that T cell proliferation is the main target for intervention. Our findings demonstrate that abatacept is a robust and potentially credible drug to prevent toxic effects from SEB exposure.</jats:p
Conservation practice could benefit from routine testing and publication of management outcomes
Effective conservation requires a step change in the way practitioners can contribute to science and
can have access to research outputs. The journal Conservation Evidence was established in 2004 to
help practitioners surmount several obstacles they face when attempting to document the effects of
their conservation actions scientifically. It is easily and freely accessible online. It is free to publish in
and it enables global communication of the effects of practical trials and experiments, which are
virtually impossible to get published in most scientific journals. The driving force behind
Conservation Evidence is the need to generate and share scientific information about the effects of
interventions
Susceptibility of the Spin 1/2 Heisenberg Antiferromagnetic Chain
Highly accurate results are presented for the susceptibility, of
the Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain for all temperatures, using the
Bethe ansatz and field theory methods. After going through a rounded peak,
approaches its asympotic zero-temperature value with infinite slope.Comment: 8 pages and 3 postscript figures appended (uuencoded), Revtex, Report
#:UBCTP-94-00
A Gravitational Aharonov-Bohm Effect, and its Connection to Parametric Oscillators and Gravitational Radiation
A thought experiment is proposed to demonstrate the existence of a
gravitational, vector Aharonov-Bohm effect. A connection is made between the
gravitational, vector Aharonov-Bohm effect and the principle of local gauge
invariance for nonrelativistic quantum matter interacting with weak
gravitational fields. The compensating vector fields that are necessitated by
this local gauge principle are shown to be incorporated by the DeWitt minimal
coupling rule. The nonrelativistic Hamiltonian for weak, time-independent
fields interacting with quantum matter is then extended to time-dependent
fields, and applied to problem of the interaction of radiation with
macroscopically coherent quantum systems, including the problem of
gravitational radiation interacting with superconductors. But first we examine
the interaction of EM radiation with superconductors in a parametric oscillator
consisting of a superconducting wire placed at the center of a high Q
superconducting cavity driven by pump microwaves. We find that the threshold
for parametric oscillation for EM microwave generation is much lower for the
separated configuration than the unseparated one, which then leads to an
observable dynamical Casimir effect. We speculate that a separated parametric
oscillator for generating coherent GR microwaves could also be built.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, YA80 conference (Chapman University, 2012
Quaternion Octonion Reformulation of Quantum Chromodynamics
We have made an attempt to develop the quaternionic formulation of Yang -
Mill's field equations and octonion reformulation of quantum chromo dynamics
(QCD). Starting with the Lagrangian density, we have discussed the field
equations of SU(2) and SU(3) gauge fields for both cases of global and local
gauge symmetries. It has been shown that the three quaternion units explain the
structure of Yang- Mill's field while the seven octonion units provide the
consistent structure of SU(3)_{C} gauge symmetry of quantum chromo dynamics
Transmission of Human and Macaque Plasmodium spp. to Ex-Captive Orangutans in Kalimantan, Indonesia
We identified 4 discrete Plasmodium spp. sequences from the blood of orangutans, including 1 of P. vivax, which has implications for human residents and orangutan rehabilitation programs
Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Systems with Long Range Interactions: an Introduction
We review theoretical results obtained recently in the framework of
statistical mechanics to study systems with long range forces. This fundamental
and methodological study leads us to consider the different domains of
applications in a trans-disciplinary perspective (astrophysics, nuclear
physics, plasmas physics, metallic clusters, hydrodynamics,...) with a special
emphasis on Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: Chapter of the forthcoming "Lecture Notes in Physics" volume:
``Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Systems with Long Range Interactions'', T.
Dauxois, S. Ruffo, E. Arimondo, M. Wilkens Eds., Lecture Notes in Physics
Vol. 602, Springer (2002). (see http://link.springer.de/series/lnpp/
Manipulating mitochondrial dynamics in the NTS prevents diet-induced deficits in brown fat morphology and glucose uptake
Aims
Brown adipose tissue (BAT) can produce heat by metabolizing glucose and fatty acids. Activation of BAT is controlled by the central nervous system (CNS) through sympathetic innervation. Dysregulation of signalling molecules in selective CNS areas such as the nucleus of tractus solitarius (NTS) are linked with altered BAT activity, obesity and diabetes. High-fat diet (HFD)-feeding increases mitochondrial fragmentation in the NTS, triggering insulin resistance, hyperphagia and weight gain. Here we sought to determine whether changes in mitochondrial dynamics in the NTS can affect BAT glucose uptake.
Main methods
Rats received DVC stereotactic surgery for local brain administration of viruses that express mutated Drp1 genes. BAT glucose uptake was measured with PET/CT scans. Biochemical assays and immunohistochemistry determined altered levels of key signalling molecules and neural innervation of BAT.
Key findings
We show that short-term HFD-feeding decreases BAT glucose uptake. However, inhibiting mitochondrial fragmentation in NTS-astrocytes of HFD-fed rats partially restores BAT glucose uptake accompanied by lower blood glucose and insulin levels. Tyrosine Hydroxylase (TH) revealed that rats with inhibited mitochondrial fragmentation in NTS astrocytes had higher levels of catecholaminergic innervation in BAT compared to HFD-fed rats, and did not exhibit HFD-dependent infiltration of enlarged white fat droplets in the BAT. In regular chow-fed rats, increasing mitochondrial fragmentation in the NTS-astrocytes reduced BAT glucose uptake, TH immune-positive boutons and β3-adrenergic receptor levels.
Significance
Our data suggest that targeting mitochondrial dynamics in the NTS-astrocytes could be a beneficial strategy to increase glucose utilization and protect from developing obesity and diabetes
Quasifree kaon-photoproduction from nuclei in a relativistic approach
We compute the recoil polarization of the lambda-hyperon and the photon
asymmetry for the quasifree photoproduction of kaons in a relativistic
impulse-approximation approach. Our motivation for studying polarization
observables is threefold. First, polarization observables are more effective
discriminators of subtle dynamics than the unpolarized cross section. Second,
earlier nonrelativistic calculations suggest an almost complete insensitivity
of polarization observables to distortions effects. Finally, this insensitivity
entails an enormous simplification in the theoretical treatment. Indeed, by
introducing the notion of a ``bound-nucleon propagator'' we exploit Feynman's
trace techniques to develop closed-form, analytic expressions for all
photoproduction observables. Moreover, our results indicate that polarization
observables are also insensitive to relativistic effects and to the nuclear
target. Yet, they are sensitive to the model parameters, making them ideal
tools for the study of modifications to the elementary amplitude --- such as in
the production, propagation, and decay of nucleon resonances --- in the nuclear
medium.Comment: 15 pages and 6 figures - submitted to PR
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