Role of final state interaction and of three-body force on the longitudinal response function of 4He

We present an ab-initio calculation of the longitudinal electron scattering response function off 4He with two- and three-nucleon forces and compare to experimental data. The full four-body continuum dynamics is considered via the Lorentz integral transform method. The importance of the final state interaction is shown at various energies and momentum transfers q. The three-nucleon force reduces the quasi-elastic peak by 10% for q between 300 and 500 MeV/c. Its effect increases significantly at lower q, up to about 40% at q=100 MeV/c. At very low q, however, data are missing.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, corrected typos, shorter versio

Photonuclear sum rules and the tetrahedral configuration of 4^4He

Three well known photonuclear sum rules (SR), i.e. the Thomas-Reiche-Kuhn, the bremsstrahlungs and the polarizability SR are calculated for 4He with the realistic nucleon-nucleon potential Argonne V18 and the three-nucleon force Urbana IX. The relation between these sum rules and the corresponding energy weighted integrals of the cross section is discussed. Two additional equivalences for the bremsstrahlungs SR are given, which connect it to the proton-neutron and neutron-neutron distances. Using them, together with our result for the bremsstrahlungs SR, we find a deviation from the tetrahedral symmetry of the spatial configuration of 4He. The possibility to access this deviation experimentally is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 1 tabl

X-ray Tail in NGC 7619

We present new observational results of NGC 7619, an elliptical galaxy with a prominent X-ray tail and a dominant member of the Pegasus group. With Chandra and XMM-Newton observations, we confirm the presence of a long X-ray tail in the SW direction; moreover, we identify for the first time a sharp discontinuity of the X-ray surface brightness in the opposite (NE) side of the galaxy. The density, temperature and pressure jump at the NE discontinuity suggest a Mach number ~1, corresponding to a galaxy velocity of ~500 km s-1, relative to the surrounding hot gas. Spectral analysis of these data shows that the Iron abundance of the hot gaseous medium is much higher (1-2 solar) near the center of NGC 7619 and in the tail extending from the core than in the surrounding regions (< 1/2 solar), indicating that the gas in the tail is originated from the galaxy. The possible origin of the head-tail structure is either on-going ram-pressure stripping or sloshing. The morphology of the structure is more in line with a ram pressure stripping phenomenon, while the position of NGC 7619 at the center of the Pegasus I group, and its dominance, would prefer sloshing.Comment: ApJ accepted to appear in the 2008 December 1 issue; Added discussion on sloshin

Mechanisms of HIV-1 Nucleocapsid Protein Inhibition by Lysyl-Peptidyl-Anthraquinone Conjugates

The Nucleocapsid protein NCp7 (NC) is a nucleic acid chaperone responsible for essential steps of the HIV-1 life cycle and an attractive candidate for drug development. NC destabilizes nucleic acid structures and promotes the formation of annealed substrates for HIV-1 reverse transcription elongation. Short helical nucleic acid segments bordered by bulges and loops, such as the Trans-Activation Response element (TAR) of HIV-1 and its complementary sequence (cTAR), are nucleation elements for helix destabilization by NC and also preferred recognition sites for threading intercalators. Inspired by these observations, we have recently demonstrated that 2,6-disubstituted peptidylanthraquinone-conjugates inhibit the chaperone activities of recombinant NC in vitro, and that inhibition correlates with the stabilization of TAR and cTAR stem-loop structures. We describe here enhanced NC inhibitory activity by novel conjugates that exhibit longer peptidyl chains ending with a conserved Nterminal lysine. Their efficient inhibition of TAR/cTAR annealing mediated by NC originates from the combination of at least three different mechanisms, namely, their stabilizing effects on nucleic acids dynamics by threading intercalation, their ability to target TAR RNA substrate leading to a direct competition with the protein for the same binding sites on TAR, and, finally, their effective binding to the NC protein. Our results suggest that these molecules may represent the stepping-stone for the future development of NC-inhibitors capable of targeting the protein itself and its recognition site in RNA

Total Photoabsorption Cross Sections of A=6 Nuclei with Complete Final State Interaction

The total photoabsorption cross sections of 6He and 6Li are calculated microscopically with full inclusion of the six-nucleon final state interaction using semirealistic nucleon-nucleon potentials. The Lorentz Integral Transform (LIT) method and the effective interaction approach for the hyperspherical formalism are employed. While 6Li has a single broad giant resonance peak, there are two well separated peaks for 6He corresponding to the breakup of the neutron halo and the alpha core, respectively. The comparison with the few available experimental data is discussed.Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, 3 ps figure

Two-body Photodisintegration of 4^{4}He with Full Final State Interaction

The cross sections of the processes $^4$He($\gamma,p$)$^3$H and $^4$He($\gamma,n$)$^3$He are calculated taking into account the full final state interaction via the Lorentz integral transform (LIT) method. This is the first consistent microscopic calculation beyond the three--body breakup threshold. The results are obtained with a semirealistic central NN potential including also the Coulomb force. The cross sections show a pronounced dipole peak at 27 MeV which lies within the rather broad experimental band. At higher energies, where experimental uncertainties are considerably smaller, one finds a good agreement between theory and experiment. The calculated sum of three-- and four--body photodisintegration cross sections is also listed and is in fair agreement with the data.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Biomarkers of aging

Aging is a complex process that negatively impacts the development of the different systems and its ability to function. Moreover, the Aging rate in humans is not the same, principally due to genetic heterogeneity and environmental factors. The aging rate is measured as the decline of functional capacity and stress resistance. Therefore, several attempts have been made to analyse the individual age, ( so-called biological age) compared to chronological age. The biomarkers of aging are age-related body function or composition, these markers aim to assess the biological age and predict the onset of age-related diseases and/or residual lifetime. Such biomarkers should help in one hand to characterise the biological age and on the other hand to identify individuals at high risk of developing age-associated diseases or disabilities. Unfortunately, most of the markers under discussion are related to age-related diseases rather than to age, so none of these markers discussed in literature is a true biomarker of aging. Hence, we discuss some disease-related biomarkers useful for a better understanding of aging and the development of new strategies to counteract it, essential for improving the quality of life of the elderly population

State Dependent Effective Interaction for the Hyperspherical Formalism

The method of effective interaction, traditionally used in the framework of an harmonic oscillator basis, is applied to the hyperspherical formalism of few-body nuclei (A=3-6). The separation of the hyperradial part leads to a state dependent effective potential. Undesirable features of the harmonic oscillator approach associated with the introduction of a spurious confining potential are avoided. It is shown that with the present method one obtains an enormous improvement of the convergence of the hyperspherical harmonics series in calculating ground state properties, excitation energies and transitions to continuum states.Comment: LaTeX, 16 pages, 8 ps figure

Is there a Pronounced Giant Dipole Resonance in ^4He?

A four-nucleon calculation of the total ^4He photodisintegration cross section is performed. The full final-state interaction is taken into account for the first time. This is achieved via the method of the Lorentz integral transform. Semi-realistic NN interactions are employed. Different from the known partial two-body ^4He(\gamma,n)^3He and ^4He(\gamma,p)^3H cross sections our total cross section exhibits a pronounced giant resonance. Thus, in contrast to older $(\gamma,np)$ data, we predict quite a strong contribution of the $(\gamma,np)$ channel at the giant resonance peak energy.Comment: 10 pages, Latex (REVTEX), 4 Postscript figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let