粒子天体物理

学科的协同性正在发展。天体物理的观测结果正用于解释基本粒子的属性,而同时粒子物理和实验技术既把宇宙的耀眼部分也把其不可视部分展示给我们,这一切是怎样开始的呢?     

Expanding the diversity of chemical protein modification allows post-translational mimicry

One of the most important current scientific paradoxes is the economy with which nature uses genes. In all higher animals studied, we have found many fewer genes than we would have previously expected. The functional outputs of the eventual products of genes seem to be far more complex than the more restricted blueprint. In higher organisms, the functions of many proteins are modulated by post-translational modifications (PTMs). These alterations of amino-acid side chains lead to higher structural and functional protein diversity and are, therefore, a leading contender for an explanation for this seeming incongruity. Natural protein production methods typically produce PTM mixtures within which function is difficult to dissect or control. Until now it has not been possible to access pure mimics of complex PTMs. Here we report a chemical tagging approach that enables the attachment of multiple modifications to bacterially expressed (bare) protein scaffolds: this approach allows reconstitution of functionally effective mimics of higher organism PTMs. By attaching appropriate modifications at suitable distances in the widely-used LacZ reporter enzyme scaffold, we created protein probes that included sensitive systems for detection of mammalian brain inflammation and disease. Through target synthesis of the desired modification, chemistry provides a structural precision and an ability to retool with a chosen PTM in a manner not available to other approaches. In this way, combining chemical control of PTM with readily available protein scaffolds provides a systematic platform for creating probes of protein-PTM interactions. We therefore anticipate that this ability to build model systems will allow some of this gene product complexity to be dissected, with the aim of eventually being able to completely duplicate the patterns of a particular protein's PTMs from an in vivo assay into an in vitro system.     

Eruptions arising from tidally controlled periodic openings of rifts on Enceladus

In 2005, plumes were detected near the south polar region of Enceladus, a small icy satellite of Saturn. Observations of the south pole revealed large rifts in the crust, informally called 'tiger stripes', which exhibit higher temperatures than the surrounding terrain and are probably sources of the observed eruptions. Models of the ultimate interior source for the eruptions are under consideration. Other models of an expanding plume require eruptions from discrete sources, as well as less voluminous eruptions from a more extended source, to match the observations. No physical mechanism that matches the observations has been identified to control these eruptions. Here we report a mechanism in which temporal variations in tidal stress open and close the tiger-stripe rifts, governing the timing of eruptions. During each orbit, every portion of each tiger stripe rift spends about half the time in tension, which allows the rift to open, exposing volatiles, and allowing eruptions. In a complementary process, periodic shear stress along the rifts also generates heat along their lengths, which has the capacity to enhance eruptions. Plume activity is expected to vary periodically, affecting the injection of material into Saturn's E ring and its formation, evolution and structure. Moreover, the stresses controlling eruptions imply that Enceladus' icy shell behaves as a thin elastic layer, perhaps only a few tens of kilometres thick.     

SO(10)GUT暴涨宇宙模型

当SO(10)GUT(大统一理论)模型,通过两类45维伴随表示和16维旋量表示的Higgs场破缺,计算C-W型单圈有效势,获得了SO(10)GUT的暴涨宇宙模型,得出若宇宙暴涨产生时温度为T～10~(13)GeV,就能满足密度涨落(?)～10~(-4)要求,宇宙常数为1.38×10~(52)cm~(-2),宇宙在暴涨期尺度增大～10~(800)倍。     

SO(10)大统一模型的有效势

本文讨论了一般有效势的计算方法和 SO(10)群的破缺机制,并计算了 SO(10)大统一模型单圈近似下的有效势。这一有效势的得出不但对讨论 SO(10)大统一模型理论的整体对称性是有益的,而且可用来讨论极早期宇宙的剧烈膨胀过程。     

Antigen-specific T cells in autoimmune diseases with a focus on multiple sclerosis and experimental allergic encephalomyelitis

Although the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases remains poorly understood, the current view is that autoaggresive antigen-specific T cells play a central role in the cascade of events leading to most autoimmune diseases. A major event in the development of autoimmune diseases is the activation of antigen-specific T cells-how, when and where does this activation take place? This review addresses questions concerning the occurrence of unique autoantigens triggering autoimmune diseases, the factors influencing the balance between self-tolerance and autoaggresive immunity, and the mechanisms by which dendritic cells mediate immunity and tolerance to antigen-specific T cells. Knowledge of how antigen-specific T cells are activated is now being used to develop therapeutic approaches to control autoimmune diseases. We discuss tolerance to antigen-specific T cells and tolerance induction as treatment of T-cell-mediated autoimmune diseases. Therapeutic modalities have been established which selectively target the pathogenic T cells. leaving the remainder of the immune system intact.     

现代物理学时空观提出的几个哲学问题

近几年物理学为解决宇宙起源而创立了量子宇宙学,虽然这一学说还是处于创立初期,但由这一理论而提出的时空观的问题却引起了人们的思考。通过讨论我们得出:在普朗克期,时间、空间具有新的结构、新的特征,应该用新的量去描述它们;时空的量子起伏使我们确信在普朗克期因果联系的形式和特征变得丰富多样了;统一理论只有在多维时空中建立,似乎表明四维时空只是多维时空的一种表现形式。