Insemination extender supplementation with bestatin and EDTA has no effect on rabbit reproductive performance

[EN] The addition of aminopeptidase inhibitors (AMIs) to rabbit semen extenders could be a solution to decrease the hormone degradation (GnRH) by the aminopeptidases existing in the seminal plasma. Therefore, the quantity of GnRH needed to induce ovulation in doe would be comparable with the amount administered intramuscularly (i.m.). This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of two AMIs (bestatin and EDTA) on rabbit semen quality parameters, beta nerve growth factor ((beta-NGF) degradation and reproductive performance after artificial insemination. Results showed that seminal quality was not affected by the incubation with AMIs; the values of motility, acrosome integrity and sperm viability were not significantly different between the AMIs and the control groups (positive i.m. and negative intravaginally without AMIs). In addition, the aminopeptidase activity of seminal plasma was inhibited in a 55.5% by the AMIs as well as beta-NGF degradation. On the other hand, regarding the effect of AMIs on reproductive performance, our results showed that the presence of bestatin and EDTA did neither affect fertility (85.3 vs. 88.6%), nor the prolificacy rate (10.12 vs. 10.51 kits per delivery), comparing AMIs group to positive control group, respectively. We conclude that the addition of specific AMIs in the rabbit semen extender has no effect on reproductive performance. Therefore, due to the fact that AMIs inhibit part of the aminopeptidase activity that degrades the GnRH analogue and beta-NGF, they could be used to develop new extenders with less hormone concentration. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.This research was supported in part by the RTA2013-00058-00-00 from INIA, the European Social Fund and the European FEDER Funds. L. Casares-Crespo is supported by a scholarship from Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA) and the European Social Fund. P. Fernandez-Serrano is supported by funds from Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA) and Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social (Programa de Garantia Juvenil).Casares-Crespo, L.; Fernández-Serrano, P.; Vicente Antón, JS.; Moce Cervera, ET.; Castellini, C.; Stabile, A.; Viudes De Castro, MP. (2018). Insemination extender supplementation with bestatin and EDTA has no effect on rabbit reproductive performance. Theriogenology. 105:61-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.theriogenology.2017.09.009S616510

The role of matter density uncertainties in the analysis of future neutrino factory experiments

Matter density uncertainties can affect the measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters at future neutrino factory experiments, such as the measurements of the mixing parameters $\theta_{13}$ and \deltacp. We compare different matter density uncertainty models and discuss the possibility to include the matter density uncertainties in a complete statistical analysis. Furthermore, we systematically study in which measurements and where in the parameter space matter density uncertainties are most relevant. We illustrate this discussion with examples that show the effects as functions of different magnitudes of the matter density uncertainties. We find that matter density uncertainties are especially relevant for large \stheta \gtrsim 10^{-3}. Within the KamLAND-allowed range, they are most relevant for the precision measurements of \stheta and \deltacp, but less relevant for ``binary'' measurements, such as for the sign of \ldm, the sensitivity to \stheta, or the sensitivity to maximal CP violation. In addition, we demonstrate that knowing the matter density along a specific baseline better than to about 1% precision means that all measurements will become almost independent of the matter density uncertainties.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX. Final version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Dietary Fat Patterns and Outcomes in Acute Pancreatitis in Spain

Background/Objective: Evidence from basic and clinical studies suggests that unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) might be relevant mediators of the development of complications in acute pancreatitis (AP). Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze outcomes in patients with AP from regions in Spain with different patterns of dietary fat intake. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed with data from 1,655 patients with AP from a Spanish prospective cohort study and regional nutritional data from a Spanish cross-sectional study. Nutritional data considered in the study concern the total lipid consumption, detailing total saturated fatty acids, UFAs and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) consumption derived from regional data and not from the patient prospective cohort. Two multivariable analysis models were used: (1) a model with the Charlson comorbidity index, sex, alcoholic etiology, and recurrent AP; (2) a model that included these variables plus obesity. Results: In multivariable analysis, patients from regions with high UFA intake had a significantly increased frequency of local complications, persistent organ failure (POF), mortality, and moderate-to-severe disease in the model without obesity and a higher frequency of POF in the model with obesity. Patients from regions with high MUFA intake had significantly more local complications and moderate-to-severe disease; this significance remained for moderate-to-severe disease when obesity was added to the model. Conclusions: Differences in dietary fat patterns could be associated with different outcomes in AP, and dietary fat patterns may be a pre-morbid factor that determines the severity of AP. UFAs, and particulary MUFAs, may influence the pathogenesis of the severity of AP

Neutrino hierarchy from CP-blind observables with high density magnetized detectors

High density magnetized detectors are well suited to exploit the outstanding purity and intensities of novel neutrino sources like Neutrino Factories and Beta Beams. They can also provide independent measurements of leptonic mixing parameters through the observation of atmospheric muon-neutrinos. In this paper, we discuss the combination of these observables from a multi-kton iron detector and a high energy Beta Beam; in particular, we demonstrate that even with moderate detector granularities the neutrino mass hierarchy can be determined for $\theta_{13}$ values greater than 4$^\circ$.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Added a new section discussing systematic errors (sec 5.2); sec.5.1 and 4 have been extended. Version to appear in EPJ

Effects of new physics in neutrino oscillations in matter

A new flavor changing electron neutrino interaction with matter would always dominate the nu_e oscillation probability at sufficiently high neutrino energies. Being suppressed by theta_{13}, the energy scale at which the new effect starts to be relevant may be within the reach of realistic experiments, where the peculiar dependence of the signal with energy could give rise to a clear signature in the nu_e --> nu_tau channel. The latter could be observed by means of a coarse large magnetized detector by exploiting tau --> mu decays. We discuss the possibility of identifying or constraining such effects with a high energy neutrino factory. We also comment on the model independent limits on them.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Confusing non-standard neutrino interactions with oscillations at a neutrino factory

Most neutrino mass theories contain non-standard interactions (NSI) of neutrinos which can be either non-universal (NU) or flavor-changing (FC). We study the impact of such interactions on the determination of neutrino mixing parameters at a neutrino factory using the so-called ``golden channels'' \pnu{e}\to\pnu{\mu} for the measurement of \theta_{13}. We show that a certain combination of FC interactions in neutrino source and earth matter can give exactly the same signal as oscillations arising due to \theta_{13}. This implies that information about \theta_{13} can only be obtained if bounds on NSI are available. Taking into account the existing bounds on FC interactions, this leads to a drastic loss in sensitivity in \theta_{13}, at least two orders of magnitude. A near detector at a neutrino factory offers the possibility to obtain stringent bounds on some NSI parameters. Such near site detector constitutes an essential ingredient of a neutrino factory and a necessary step towards the determination of \theta_{13} and subsequent study of leptonic CP violation.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, improved version, accepted for publication in Phs. Rev. D, references adde

Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillations at a Neutrino Factory

Within the framework of three-neutrino and four-neutrino scenarios that can describe the results of the LSND experiment, we consider the capabilities of short baseline neutrino oscillation experiments at a neutrino factory. We find that, when short baseline (L \alt 100 km) neutrino factory measurements are used together with other accelerator-based oscillation results, the complete three-neutrino parameter space can best be determined by measuring the rate of $\nu_e \to \nu_\tau$ oscillations, and measuring CP violation with either $\nu_e \to \nu_\mu$ or $\nu_\mu \to \nu_\tau$ oscillations (including the corresponding antineutrino channels). With measurements of CP violation in both $\nu_e \to \nu_\mu$ and $\nu_\mu \to \nu_\tau$ it may be possible to distinguish between the three- and four-neutrino cases.Comment: 16 pages, Revtex (single-spaced), 8 postscript figures, uses epsf.st

Oscillation enhanced search for new interaction with neutrinos

We discuss the measurement of new physics in long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. Through the neutrino oscillation, the probability to detect the new physics effects such as flavor violation is enhanced by the interference with the weak interaction. We carefully explain the situations that the interference can take place. Assuming a neutrino factory and an upgraded conventional beam, we estimate the feasibility to observe new physics numerically and point out that we can search new interactions using some channels, for example $\nu_{\mu} \to \nu_{\mu}$, in these experiments. We also discuss several models which induce the effective interactions interfering with the weak interaction, and show that some new physics effects are large enough to be observed in the oscillation enhanced way.Comment: 25 pages, 20 figure

Three-Neutrino Mixing after the First Results from K2K and KamLAND

We analyze the impact of the data on long baseline \nu_\mu disappearance from the K2K experiment and reactor \bar\nu_e disappearance from the KamLAND experiment on the determination of the leptonic three-generation mixing parameters. Performing an up-to-date global analysis of solar, atmospheric, reactor and long baseline neutrino data in the context of three-neutrino oscillations, we determine the presently allowed ranges of masses and mixing and we consistently derive the allowed magnitude of the elements of the leptonic mixing matrix. We also quantify the maximum allowed contribution of \Delta m^2_{21} oscillations to CP-odd and CP-even observables at future long baseline experiments.Comment: Some typos correcte

Extrinsic CPT Violation in Neutrino Oscillations in Matter

We investigate matter-induced (or extrinsic) CPT violation effects in neutrino oscillations in matter. Especially, we present approximate analytical formulas for the CPT-violating probability differences for three flavor neutrino oscillations in matter with an arbitrary matter density profile. Note that we assume that the CPT invariance theorem holds, which means that the CPT violation effects arise entirely because of the presence of matter. As special cases of matter density profiles, we consider constant and step-function matter density profiles, which are relevant for neutrino oscillation physics in accelerator and reactor long baseline experiments as well as neutrino factories. Finally, the implications of extrinsic CPT violation on neutrino oscillations in matter for several past, present, and future long baseline experiments are estimated.Comment: 47 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX4. Final version to be published in Phys. Rev.