Narrow Technihadron Production at the First Muon Collider

In modern technicolor models, there exist very narrow spin-zero and spin-one neutral technihadrons---$pi^0_T$, $rho^0_T$ and $omega_T$---with masses of a few 100 GeV. The large coupling of $\pi^0_T$ to $\mu^+\mu^-$, the direct coupling of $rho^0_T$ and $omega_T$ to the photon and $Z^0$, and the superb energy resolution of the First Muon Collider may make it possible to resolve these technihadrons and produce them at extraordinarily large rates.Comment: 11 pages, latex, including 2 postscript figure

FTY720 (fingolimod) modulates the severity of viral-induced encephalomyelitis and demyelination.

BackgroundFTY720 (fingolimod) is the first oral drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of patients with the relapsing-remitting form of the human demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis. Evidence suggests that the therapeutic benefit of FTY720 occurs by preventing the egress of lymphocytes from lymph nodes thereby inhibiting the infiltration of disease-causing lymphocytes into the central nervous system (CNS). We hypothesized that FTY720 treatment would affect lymphocyte migration to the CNS and influence disease severity in a mouse model of viral-induced neurologic disease.MethodsMice were infected intracranially with the neurotropic JHM strain of mouse hepatitis virus. Infected animals were treated with increasing doses (1, 3 and 10 mg/kg) of FTY720 and morbidity and mortality recorded. Infiltration of inflammatory virus-specific T cells (tetramer staining) into the CNS of FTY720-treated mice was determined using flow cytometry. The effects of FTY720 treatment on virus-specific T cell proliferation, cytokine production and cytolytic activity were also determined. The severity of neuroinflammation and demyelination in FTY720-treated mice was examined by flow cytometry and histopathologically, respectively, in the spinal cords of the mice.ResultsAdministration of FTY720 to JHMV-infected mice resulted in increased clinical disease severity and mortality. These results correlated with impaired ability to control viral replication (P < 0.05) within the CNS at days 7 and 14 post-infection, which was associated with diminished accumulation of virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (P < 0.05) into the CNS. Reduced neuroinflammation in FTY720-treated mice correlated with increased retention of T lymphocytes within draining cervical lymph nodes (P < 0.05). Treatment with FTY720 did not affect virus-specific T cell proliferation, expression of IFN-γ, TNF-α or cytolytic activity. FTY720-treated mice exhibited a reduction in the severity of demyelination associated with dampened neuroinflammation.ConclusionThese findings indicate that FTY720 mutes effective anti-viral immune responses through impacting migration and accumulation of virus-specific T cells within the CNS during acute viral-induced encephalomyelitis. FTY720 treatment reduces the severity of neuroinflammatory-mediated demyelination by restricting the access of disease-causing lymphocytes into the CNS but is not associated with viral recrudescence in this model

Vacuum Alignment in Technicolor Theories-I. The Technifermion Sector

We have carried out numerical studies of vacuum alignment in technicolor models of electroweak and flavor symmetry breaking. The goal is to understand alignment's implications for strong and weak CP nonconservation in quark interactions. In this first part, we restrict our attention to the technifermion sector of simple models. We find several interesting phenomena, including (1) the possibility that all observable phases in the technifermions' unitary vacuum-alignment matrix are integer multiples of \pi/N' where N' \le N, the number of technifermion doublets, and (2) the possibility of exceptionally light pseudoGoldstone technipions.Comment: 19 pages, Latex with one postscript figur

Estimation of Apollo lunar dust transport using optical extinction measurements

A technique to estimate mass erosion rate of surface soil during landing of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) and total mass ejected due to the rocket plume interaction is proposed and tested. The erosion rate is proportional to the product of the second moment of the lofted particle size distribution N(D), and third moment of the normalized soil size distribution S(D), divided by the integral of S(D)D^2/v(D), where D is particle diameter and v(D) is the vertical component of particle velocity. The second moment of N(D) is estimated by optical extinction analysis of the Apollo cockpit video. Because of the similarity between mass erosion rate of soil as measured by optical extinction and rainfall rate as measured by radar reflectivity, traditional NWS radar/rainfall correlation methodology can be applied to the lunar soil case where various S(D) models are assumed corresponding to specific lunar sites.Comment: Acta Geophysica 201

Surrogate measures: A proposed alternative in human factors assessment of operational measures of performance

Surrogate measures are proposed as an alternative to direct assessment of operational performance for purposes of screening agents who may have to work under unusual stresses or in exotic environments. Such measures are particularly proposed when the surrogate can be empirically validated against the operational criterion. The focus is on cognitive (or throughput) performances in humans as opposed to sensory (input) or motor (output) measures, but the methods should be applicable for development of batteries which will tap input/output functions. A menu of performance tasks is under development for implementation on a battery-operated portable microcomputer, with 21 tests currently available. The tasks are reliable and become stable in minimum amounts of time; appear sensitive to some agents; comprise constructs related to actual job tasks; and are easily administered in most environments. Implications for human factors engineering studies in environmental stress are discussed

Origin of 21+2_1^+ Excitation Energy Dependence on Valence Nucleon Numbers

It has been shown recently that a simple formula in terms of the valence nucleon numbers and the mass number can describe the essential trends of excitation energies of the first $2^+$ states in even-even nuclei. By evaluating the first order energy shift due to the zero-range residual interaction, we find that the factor which reflects the effective particle number participating in the interaction from the Fermi orbit governs the main dependence of the first $2^+$ excitation energy on the valence nucleon numbers.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure