Abstract: The QCD sum rules on the light cone proposed by Wang for the coupling constants of the rho meson are generalized to the vector mesons omega and phi and all octet baryons, the I >-hyperon included. A comparison with other results is given.

Abstract: The immune system should constitute a strong selective pressure promoting viral genetic diversity and evolution. However, HIV shows lower sequence variability at T-cell epitopes than elsewhere in the genome, in contrast with other human RNA viruses. Here, we propose that epitope conservation is a consequence of the particular interactions established between HIV and the immune system. On one hand, epitope recognition triggers an anti-HIV response mediated by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs), but on the other hand, activation of CD4(+) helper T lymphocytes (T-H cells) promotes HIV replication. Mathematical modeling of these opposite selective forces revealed that selection at the intrapatient level can promote either T-cell epitope conservation or escape. We predict greater conservation for epitopes contributing significantly to total immune activation levels (immunodominance), and when T-H cell infection is concomitant to epitope recognition (transinfection). We suggest that HIV-driven immune activation in the lymph nodes during the chronic stage of the disease may offer a favorable scenario for epitope conservation. Our results also support the view that some pathogens draw benefits from the immune response and suggest that vaccination strategies based on conserved T-H epitopes may be counterproductive.

Abstract: Results on the deep sub-threshold production of the short-lived hadronic resonance K*(892)(0) are reported for collisions of Ar + KCl at 1.76 A GeV beam energy, studied with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at SIS18/GSI. The K*(892)(0) production probability per central collision of P-K*0 = (4.4 +/- 1.1 +/- 0.5) x 10(-4) and the K*(892)(0)/K-0 ratio of P-K*0/P-K0 = (1.9 +/- 0.5 +/- 0.3) x 10(-2) are determined at the lowest energy so far (i.e. deep below the threshold for the corresponding production in nucleon-nucleon collisions, root s(NN)-root s(thr) = -340MeV). The K*(0)/K-0 ratio is compared with results of other experiments and with the predictions of the UrQMD transport approach and of the statistical hadronization model. The experimental K*(0) yield and the K-*0/K-0 ratio are overestimated by the transport model by factors of about five and two, respectively. In a chemically equilibrated medium the ratio corresponds to a temperature of the thermalized system being systematically lower than the value determined by the yields of the stable and long-lived hadrons produced in Ar + KCl collisions. From the present measurement, we conclude that sub-threshold K* production either cannot be considered to proceed in a system being in thermal equilibrium or these short-lived resonances appear undersaturated, for example as a result of the rescattering of the decay particles in the ambient hadronic medium.

Abstract: The neutron-induced fission cross-section of Am-241 has been measured relative to the standard fission cross-section of U-235 between 0.5 and 20 MeV. The experiment was performed at the CERN nTOF facility. Fission fragments were detected by a fast ionization chamber by discriminating against the alpha-particles from the high radioactivity of the samples. The high instantaneous neutron flux and the low background of the nTOF facility enabled us to obtain uncertainties of approximate to 5%. With the present results it was possible to resolve discrepancies between previous data sets and to confirm current evaluations, thus providing important information for design studies of future reactors with improved fuel burn-up.

Abstract: Hadron therapy exploits the properties of ion beams to treat tumors by maximizing the dose released to the target and sparing healthy tissue. With hadron beams, the dose distribution shows a relatively low entrance dose which rises sharply at the end of the range, providing the characteristic Bragg peak that drops quickly thereafter. It is of critical importance in order not to damage surrounding healthy tissues and/or avoid targeting underdosage to know where the delivered dose profile ends-the location of the Bragg peak. During hadron therapy, short-lived beta(+)-emitters are produced along the beam path, their distribution being correlated with the delivered dose. Following positron annihilation, two photons are emitted, which can be detected using a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner. The low yield of emitters, their short half-life, and the wash out from the target region make the use of PET, even only a few minutes after hadron irradiation, a challenging application. In-beam PET represents a potential candidate to estimate the distribution of beta(+)-emitters during or immediately after irradiation, at the cost of truncation effects and degraded image quality due to the partial rings required of the PET scanner. Time-of-flight (ToF) information can potentially be used to compensate for truncation effects and to enhance image contrast. However, the highly demanding timing performance required in ToF-PET makes this option costly. Alternatively, the use of maximum-a-posteriori-expectation-maximization (MAP-EM), including total variation (TV) in the cost function, produces images with low noise, while preserving spatial resolution. In this paper, we compare data reconstructed with maximum-likelihood-expectation-maximization (ML-EM) and MAP-EM using TV as prior, and the impact of including ToF information, from data acquired with a complete and a partial-ring PET scanner, of simulated hadron beams interacting with a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) target. The results show that MAP-EM, in the absence of ToF information, produces lower noise images and more similar data compared to the simulated beta(+) distributions than ML-EM with ToF information in the order of 200-600 ps. The investigation is extended to the combination of MAP-EM and ToF information to study the limit of performance using both approaches.