New late-time constraints on f(R)f(R) gravity

Modification of general relativity (GR) inspired by theories like $f(R)$ gravity is among the most popular ones to explain the late-time acceleration of the Universe as an alternative to the $\Lambda$CDM model. In this work, we use the state-of-the-art BAO+BBN data and the most recent Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) sample namely PantheonPlus, including the Cepheid host distances and covariance from SH0ES samples, to robustly constrain the $f(R)$ gravity framework via two of the most popular $f(R)$ models in literature, namely, the Hu-Sawicki and Starobinsky models. Additionally, we consider how the time variation of the Newton's gravitational constant affects the supernovae distance modulus relation. We find a minor evidence for $f(R)$ gravity under the Hu-Sawicki dynamics from BAO+BBN and BAO+BBN+uncalibrated supernovae joint analysis, but the inclusion of Cepheid host distances, makes the model compatible with GR. Further, we notice tendency of this model to relax the $H_0$ tension. In general, in all the analyses carried out in this study with the late time probes, we find both the $f(R)$ models to be consistent with GR at 95\% CL.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, matches the version published in Physics of Dark Univers

Symbiotic Human Gut Bacteria with Variable Metabolic Priorities for Host Mucosal Glycans.

UnlabelledMany symbiotic gut bacteria possess the ability to degrade multiple polysaccharides, thereby providing nutritional advantages to their hosts. Like microorganisms adapted to other complex nutrient environments, gut symbionts give different metabolic priorities to substrates present in mixtures. We investigated the responses of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a common human intestinal bacterium that metabolizes more than a dozen different polysaccharides, including the O-linked glycans that are abundant in secreted mucin. Experiments in which mucin glycans were presented simultaneously with other carbohydrates show that degradation of these host carbohydrates is consistently repressed in the presence of alternative substrates, even by B. thetaiotaomicron previously acclimated to growth in pure mucin glycans. Experiments with media containing systematically varied carbohydrate cues and genetic mutants reveal that transcriptional repression of genes involved in mucin glycan metabolism is imposed by simple sugars and, in one example that was tested, is mediated through a small intergenic region in a transcript-autonomous fashion. Repression of mucin glycan-responsive gene clusters in two other human gut bacteria, Bacteroides massiliensis and Bacteroides fragilis, exhibited variable and sometimes reciprocal responses compared to those of B. thetaiotaomicron, revealing that these symbionts vary in their preference for mucin glycans and that these differences occur at the level of controlling individual gene clusters. Our results reveal that sensing and metabolic triaging of glycans are complex processes that vary among species, underscoring the idea that these phenomena are likely to be hidden drivers of microbiota community dynamics and may dictate which microorganisms preferentially commit to various niches in a constantly changing nutritional environment.ImportanceHuman intestinal microorganisms impact many aspects of health and disease, including digestion and the propensity to develop disorders such as inflammation and colon cancer. Complex carbohydrates are a major component of the intestinal habitat, and numerous species have evolved and refined strategies to compete for these coveted nutrients. Our findings reveal that individual bacteria exhibit different preferences for carbohydrates emanating from host diet and mucosal secretions and that some of these prioritization strategies are opposite to one another. Thus, we reveal new aspects of how individual bacteria, some with otherwise similar metabolic potential, partition to "preferred niches" in the complex gut ecosystem, which has important and immediate implications for understanding and predicting the behavioral dynamics of this community

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Search for anomalous production of events with three or more leptons in pp collisions at √s = 8TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three leptons is presented. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5fb-1 of proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy s=8TeV, was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2012. The data are divided into exclusive categories based on the number of leptons and their flavor, the presence or absence of an opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pair (OSSF), the invariant mass of the OSSF pair, the presence or absence of a tagged bottom-quark jet, the number of identified hadronically decaying τ leptons, and the magnitude of the missing transverse energy and of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta. The numbers of observed events are found to be consistent with the expected numbers from standard model processes, and limits are placed on new-physics scenarios that yield multilepton final states. In particular, scenarios that predict Higgs boson production in the context of supersymmetric decay chains are examined. We also place a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.3% on the branching fraction for the decay of a top quark to a charm quark and a Higgs boson (t→cH), which translates to a bound on the left- and right-handed top-charm flavor-violating Higgs Yukawa couplings, λtcH and λctH, respectively, of |λtcH|2+|λctH|2<0.21